Terrestrial Undead

Chapter 30

The thought of being related to the man who orchestrated everything in Terrestria sickened Orla to the stomach. Or maybe it was the rocking of their little boat as they headed back to base. Either way, her deathly pallor was tinged with green by the time they arrived in Sect 4.
Not even the hell that was seasickness could prepare the pair for what they would find when they arrived back at the sewers. The road that covered them had disappeared completely, revealing something like a vast network of crumbled ant tunnels.
"Shit," Tesla gasped, "they found us."
As they watched several armoured carriages rattle away from behind the abyss that had been their section of the sewers, there was no doubt in either Orla's nor Tesla's minds about who they contained or where they were going.
"How are we going to bust them out again? We don't have any of the anal-whatsit left."
"We'd better see if we can scrounge anything from the base come nightfall. In the meantime, let's see if we can find somewhere to spend the night."
The streets were alive with excitement sparked by the mass arrest. As the pair tried to blend in with the crowds, snippets of conversation about the event were to be caught at every turn.
"All of them have been caught!"
"Thank goodness for His Majesty and the Order!"
"Good riddance!"
Silver eyeballs clinked on every hip, sending the jovial atmosphere sinking into every public house and tavern, but to Orla and Tesla, the heady joy was like noxious gas. It was strange to think that so many random citizens were so happy that their friends and family were suffering.
At length, they found a quieter place with rooms to let, and waited for dusk to set in.

Two guards were on the night shift at the vampire base, in case any stragglers returned. Pointing their crossbows at them, Orla and Tesla took out their respective targets with a rubber bolt to the temple, and hurried down into the tunnels. They needn't have bothered; they had been cleaned out. There was, however, somebody waiting for them.
"Miu! Thank goodness!"
Orla scooped Miu into her arms and rocked her gently while Tesla paced the remnants of her home.
"They've taken everything. They know everything we know now... all our plans will have to be abandoned," she said, plopping herself down, dejected. "How are we going to come back from this?"
Orla sat beside her friend. It was true— they had no help any more, and no resources. Without the rest of the vampires and no leads to follow, there was little they could do to rescue their friends.
As she sat and thought, a breeze rustled some tattered, burned papers opposite, catching Miu's eye. She hopped off Orla's lap and pounced on the ragged pages, sending one scooting over to the pair. It was a page from Poe's collection. Idly, Orla began to read what she could off the charred paper.
"It followed in my footsteps with a pertinacity which it would be difficult to make the reader comprehend..."
Tesla looked up from her hands.
"Is that about a black cat? I never finished that story."
Their own black cat seemed to take this as a summons, because she padded over and asked for more dried fish. The pair salvaged what they could of the book and moved to take Miu back to the tavern when they heard a second, huskier meow, to which Miu replied. A larger, fluffier cat revealed itself, glowing under the moon.
"Is this a friend of yours?"
Miu replied to Tesla with a slow blink and a rumble as Orla slowly approached the new arrival.
"What's your name?"
"Na-ng."
"Nang? Okay. You want to come with us?"
Nang seemed to want to go wherever Miu did, so the four of them headed out of the sewers. Orla grunted as she lifted Miu.
"Miu is turning into a pudding. I didn't think I was feeding her that much fish..."
The group made it back to their room unmolested. As Tesla and Orla set their respective cats down, they immediately claimed a bed for themselves, falling alseep intertwined. Orla frowned.
"That was my bed, but okay, I guess."
Tesla laughed, almost drowned out by the combined feline rumble.
"I guess we'll have to share, like them."
Orla tried to hide her face as it burned, and sat down on the second bed next to Tesla, who was greatly amused by the pair of cats that had merged to make a black and white fur ball.
"Look at them snuggle! How did that story about the black cat end, anyway?"
"The man murders his wife, and the cat alerts the police to her corpse so the man gets hung. I wish these guys could bring about justice for us so easily," Orla muttered.
Tesla sighed. "We better get some sleep."
Orla and Tesla lay side by side while the cats canoodled, the former's head swimming with the kind of fragmented thoughts that flit in and out of a persons brain as they fall asleep.
"It followed in my footsteps with a pertinacity—who slayeth the dragon— I tell you that she now stands without the door!— it's time to see the King."