The Unbroken Sands

Part 1 – The Forgotten Temple of Job

         Surrounded by all these crazies, Job couldn't even focus on his thoughts of survival.  There were an ant hill's worth of zombie-like humanoids pouring into the gothic style cathedral which stood, looming over the valley, and Job would be damned if he was not going to figure out the cause of this frenetic gathering. 
         
         The plagued did not venture this far into Job's territory any longer, at least not since Job had obtained his lightning.  This wasn't actually Job's territory, he just thought of it as his due to how the lasers and explosions would spider web through the night sky like a connect-the-dots using the stars.  Of course, there were no other intelligent beings in this wasteland to call these cacti and marble spires their own. 

         Job quite liked the solitude this land granted.  During the lightness, the landscape appeared as a sea of waveless gold with giant towers (commonly referred to as the claws) of red and black spiraling out of the otherwise unbroken ground.  That is if you don't count the cacti which tend to grow right at that spot where the sand and the marble vie for supremacy.

         During the fall of light, the desert was an even more staggering view, full of glowing balls covering the horizon.  Red, blue, orange, green, violet, even white; the lights filled the air.

         Job knew the lights he was now seeing were simply all the little cacti.  To anyone who was not aware of their glow-in-the-dark capabilities, this would be as beautiful as the Sky Lights; located far in the north, across Pandemia, and over her mountains.  Job long dreamed of seeing the Sky Lights for his sister had always longed for them and dreamed of reaching that starry panorama.  When she was initially claimed by the plagued, he resented the thought of actually visiting that spot beyond Pandemia's mountains, but ever since then he has grown very fond of the Cactus Luminescence. 

         Along the way he was woe to discover such developments contribute to moving on.  Which is exactly what the idea of The Cactus Luminescence and the Sky Lights have helped Job accomplish, that is if you would call his existence an accomplishment.

         Now, he lived alone; without his sister and lacking any other companion.  Now, he also knew there was something brewing in that over-sized hunk of unholy architecture.  The last time he could remember this many of the plagued congregating in one spot, well, now that he had given it a second thought, he couldn't recall this many since the initial explosions. 

         Which is why, as he gazed through his scope, he was not intent upon any single corrupted being, but at the support beams holding up the abode of an extinct god.  The building was very old he noticed, but in its' time must have been a marvelous sight to behold.  Pillars, thicker that those at the Parthenon, stood about 8 strides apart and were formed into a perfect square.  Filling the inner space were taller pillars reaching through the roof which sat upon the shorter pillars.  Finally, a third inner-most set of pillars extended further yet – and as Job was shocked to see, appeared to be gold.  The wannabe fortress stood upon the roof of that golden structure with a stairway running all the way from the ground to the massive iron doors no less than 50 strides above the sand. 

         It was at that point which Job knew he would have to go inside those doors if he was really curious enough to see what the plagued were after. 

         Which was only going to be possible with some big fucking weapons.
         
Part 2 – Into the Fray

         Job found himself sprinting back to his current hideout with only the ghostly lights of the cacti leading him along.  Running into the earth's spiraling claws hurt quite bad, he had learned that long ago, but he did not want to miss the party.

         Jumping over giant fireflys and hoping not to get clotheslined by solid rock, Job reflected on how he had once found this area a beautiful oasis.  Away from civilization and the constant bustling of the bordertowns he had grown up in with his sister, he could live out his existence in peace.  On this night's falling he only thought of how he wouldn't mind a nice game of dice followed by a bar brawl.  Instead, he would have to settle for target practice.

         Right as he was imagining whether or not his sniper would take a plagued one's arm off (which he was now upset he had forgotten to try) his foot violently crashed into the doorway.  Even such pain evoked no outward response from Job.  It would take something far worse and more marvelous to get noise out of Job – the man had not spoken since that day so long ago when he had been forced to kill his own brethren out of mercy.  Who would allow anyone to turn into one of those?  Would even death not be more blissful than such a fate?  Even so, Job had been kept awake many nights since then wondering whether or not there may have been a way he could have saved her.

         This was no time to be thinking of such travesties and Job knew it.  He soothed his mind to resolve both the pains in his foot and in his soul and quickly thought about which weapons he was to wield for this shoot out.  His mind easily settled on the two choices he always chose for massing a grove of dead bodies quickly - which is exactly what was on his mind at this point.
         
         He ripped the belt off the shelf and quickly holstered the massive hand gun which could have been mistaken for a rifle to anyone standing at any distance further away than Job was now positioned from it.  He also slipped the 5 feet of folded steel, which he cut himself on just that morning, over his back and through the straps crisscrossing his shoulders.  With only his hand cannon and crescent sword Job looked undermatched to face a hoard of what might as well be the undead, but that was only if you had not seen the fluidity with which his blade swam through flesh and bone or the furious whirlwind of bullets he could pinpoint in the blink of an eye.  With these two tools of destruction Job was sure he would solve the mystery of the floating fortress.

Part 3 – Out the Back Door

         To her left sat one of the largest men Sadie had ever seen.  Her repulsion did not end with his size, nor the way he ceaselessly piled food into his mouth using nothing but his hands, but what really disgusted her was the man's disfigured face.  Whatever skin had not yet turned black or pink appeared to contain sores the size of one's cheeks and as colorful as a tropical fish.

         Sadie let her gaze slide from left to right.  On the table were pitchers of ale, but nothing else besides the game pieces.  The common room was just that, common.  It was furnished with four long tables for any guests, one bar to serve behind, and another bar to strip on top of.  On the wall opposite the entrace was a fireplace and the grand staircase stood peering out at the room, above the fiery chamber.  The warmth of the fire, coupled with the strong ale, was beginning to put Sadie to sleep, but she was aware of this tactic and would be sure to keep at least one eye open.
         As her gaze shifted to the right she noticed with her eyes the man which her instincts had noticed earlier.  She had dismissed him the at first sight because she didn't like to think of herself as paranoid, but if it was simple paranoia then her sense would not have been triggered.

         Sadie's sense, once triggered, was never wrong.  Oh, her senses were oftentimes caught off-guard, but her sense had not once been flawed that she could recall.  She was still not certain what her sense was, but as she got older it seemed to be gaining relevance in her life and this was both a curiosity and very disconcerting. 

         The man to her right suddenly interupted her daydream by slamming his fist down on the table hard enough to spill his beer all over her pieces.

         “Go woman!  I do not have the time to sit here and wait for your decisions, I don't even do that for my wife.  What makes you think you are more important than my wife?”

         “Careful with your answer, Charlie over there doesn't much like people talkin' bout his woman (though Sadie could tell that the man meant women)”, the fat slob to her left chimed.

         “Oh, me?  I never claimed to be more important than your wife, only better at Blades, and because of this I must take time to contemplate my move.  You wouldn't have me simply move without thought would you?  I thought you had claimed you wanted a challenge, that normal people were no obstacle for you any longer?  Though, I suppose I probably could simply move anywhere, your impatience tells me that you no longer care about the games' strategy but only about going home and getting inside this wife of yours.  Though I doubt if it is your wife who you will be inside of when you go home missing all your gold.  You'll need a quick street fly because this may be the last time your wife stands for your gambling.”

         The man whom fatty had called Charlie sat motionless for a moment, not saying a word or portraying a thought.  Then, without warning he stood up from the game and left the room without a comment, or even a smirk.