xp_logs | London Calling: Sarah

Sarah goes underground for the hunt.

St.Paul's station was all but abandoned. It held the same eerily empty sense as the rest of London, one of the oldest and largest cities in the world, now a ghost town under a strange spell. Like the rest of her colleagues, Sarah had followed an inexplicable pull all the way to the feet of one of the great cathedrals of the world. There, it wasn't the towering dome of Sir Christopher Wren that drew her eyes, but instead a tiny, blank door off to the side of the street, near the entrance to the tube station.

One kick smashed the lock clear, and the metal grate pulled and locked in front of her took less time, her emerging skills with the lockpick enough to spring it clear, and pull it to the side. Darkness welled up from the circular concrete hole, and the rusted steel steps leading down. Unlike the underground of New York, the tunnels of London were groaningly old; hundreds of years more so than what she was used to.

Each step echoed, and spilled her into the empty station, her own breath loud in the dank and disused underground chamber. St.Paul's had been endlessly remodeled over the last hundred years, and since the new Translink had been completed, the oldest part of the station had finally been sealed off. Used only to transfer rolling stock since the 30s, now it was as empty as death, with a tomb-like quality.

She slowed several steps in, all the hairs on the back of her neck standing straight. There was growling, just past where she was standing, somewhere in the darkness. A deep rumbling, it blended itself so well with the normal sounds of the underground that she wouldn't have heard it had the click of claws against the floor not alerted her to something different in her surroundings. Pulling a bone carefully from her shoulder, she watched the space in front of her for signs of movement, giving her eyes more time to adjust.

Something told her she'd need it.

There was a snuffling noise, the sound of a nose testing the air and picking out scents. Improbably in the deep tunnel, a creature came into view. To Sarah's surprise it was a wolf, huge and grey, silvered muzzle swinging slowly back and forth to take in the scents in the confined space. The grey fur was patched with deep, runneled lines of scar tissue, the old wolf the survivor of many hard battles and harder winters. There was something almost imperial about the creature, a savage intelligence and cunning in the deep yellow eyes which settled on her.

Behind her in the tunnel, a single, deep and resonant note rang out, with a curious echoing hollow quality. The wolf froze and lifted up its great muzzle, testing carefully before turning back at the mutant. With three great loping bounds, it closed, teeth flashing in the gloom.

Sarah hesitated for a moment, still considering how in the fuck a giant wolf got into the London Underground. It left her with no other choice but to roll out of the way, or become intimately acquainted with teeth and claws. It looked like the wolf had seen better days, but Sarah was willing to bet the damn things still hurt like a bitch. Scrambling to a crouching position, Sarah clenched a bone tightly in both hands, waiting for the wolf's next pass, hoping for an opening.

The creature circled for a moment, and then paused as the note rang out again. Instead of making another dash at Sarah, it instead sniffed the air and turned, loping down the tunnel at speed, away from the note and towards the occupied stations further down the tube line. Sarah could hear the sounds of the heavy pads change suddenly, to a horny click against the cement, and that was joined by the scuffle of what sounded like dogs, and the hard, sharp steely impacts of horse hooves, even though the tunnel was empty.

For an abandoned station, this was getting awfully loud. Sarah leaned her head back against the wall, breathing out a sigh of relief before pushing herself back up to follow behind the wolf. She needed to hurry-- needed to protect the people down the line who had no idea what was down here, and coming straight for them.

Getting down the tube, ahead of her was no longer a grey wolf. Instead, a massive boar, coarse bristled and scarred with a hundred spears, thundered down the tracks. Sarah could hear snarls around her, and the yips of dogs. They suddenly formed out of the darkness around, nipping at the boar. It slowed, tossing it's mighty head left and right, goring two of the dogs savagely. Their mutilated bodies simply oozed back into the darkness.

The boar stopped and snorted, turning two beady eyes, murderous with hate, back at Sarah. It settled itself and gathered to charge her.

Okay. Now Sarah knew she was going crazy, standing and staring at a boar, that had been a wolf in the London Underground. And the dogs? Where the fuck had they come from? And where were they now? Apparently the boar wasn't going to just disappear like they did, only shapeshift. Sarah steeled herself against the oncoming boar, and again jumped out of the way at the last minute. There was no way she was getting close to its head with horns like that. As it passed, she threw a bone knife at it, but the weapon merely bounced off the creature's hide.

The great goring motions barely missed laying her open, and the rank scent of the beast was heavy in the tunnel. It stopped clumsily, turning its great bulk for another charge. Once again, out of the darkness, came the hounds. They attacked, teeth tearing at the hide of the giant beast. With a deep squeal, it shook them off, and began to run, as the sounds of the horn seemed even closer. It bolted straight down the tunnel, at the end of which Sarah could see light. It was one of the modern stations, and she could hear the noises of people waiting on the platform, with the monstrous apparition headed directly for them.

Sarah stared down the tunnel behind her, trying to figure out where the other sounds seemed to be coming from. The people down the tunnels were in front of her, she could tell, but horses? They seemed to be just like the dogs--nothing more than her imagination. Pulling another sharp bone from her hip, Sarah chased the boar down the tunnel, breathing hard as she willed herself to move faster.

The clipping of the hooves changed again, into a shuffling, muted sound, and a roar not heard outside of the London Zoo scattered the people on the platform. A great bear, brown fur silvered and massive claws scraping against the tile scrambled up from the tube tunnel. A dog reached it, and was crushed under a giant paw. But the beast reeled back, as two arrows lodged deep into its breast. The sound of the horses, and the call of the horn was very close; a hunt perhaps?

Arrows? Who the fuck was chasing after this thing with goddamn arrows? Besides, who invited them to her party? Sarah very nearly rolled her eyes, and watched as it swatted another dog away with a massive paw. As it hit the wall, the dog disappeared just like all the others. She took advantage of its misplaced attention, and sent a sharp bone flying towards its neck. Maybe if she could keep its attention, she could keep it from going further down the tunnel and putting more people into danger. "Come on, big girl. Let's fight."

The bear roared a challenge, stretching its massive arms wide as if to welcome her to a deadly embrace. The first paw barely missed, crushing stone at the walls beside it. The creature was grizzled and scarred, and obviously the survivor of numerous winters. Where the boar and the wolf could have once been found in London, the nightmarish bear made no sense, looking more like a denizen of the deep woods in Northern Scandinavia.

This, of course, never occurred to Sarah, lashing out with a bone club at the great beast's head. Besides, did it really matter what it was? Native or not, it was there and hers for the taking.

The muzzle dipped at the terrific impact of the club, and the bear reeled back. A blind swipe caught Sarah under the ribs, scoring three deep wounds along her side as they ripped themselves free. An arrow thumped heavily into her shoulder from behind, and into the bear's throat, and it howled with bloody spittled rage. Almost drunkenly, it turned and began a shuffling run away, as the hounds yowled around it, and Sarah's shoulder burned with an unnatural fire. The arrow misted away, insubstantially, but the pain went deep into her body, the very core of her fighting an inexplicable will to give in; to submit. To lay down whatever will she had, the spirit inside, and just accept fate.

The feeling nearly knocked Sarah over, and her first couple of steps forward were barely a stagger before she finally managed to finally get moving again. Working against the internal push to give up was an almost primal drive to keep the chase. What ever you do, don't let it get away. It's drawn your blood, it's your kill. Ignoring the burning pain on her right side which radiated from her shoulder and side, Sarah pushed herself to hurry down the tunnel after her prey.

The tunnel led down through the darkness, echoing a hundred times over the sounds of the hunt around her. Finally reaching the next station, here, the darkness had pooled. It was a palpable fugue of shadow, and no longer sounding of the footfalls of an escaping creature. Now, the growl of the hounds was met by another growl, this one deep and resonating.

Standing facing the tunnel, now stopped, was a huge black mastiff, eyes red and teeth yellow against the gloom. It lowered its head in challenge. There would be no more running. The dog, like man, had chosen this spot to fight, and if needed, to die.

Sarah stopped just short of the opening of the tunnel, giving herself just enough time to slow her breathing to near-silence. There was a sharp rip as what was left of her shirt was snagged once again by a jagged bone, and she pulled it from its place in her side. The bone club remained gripped tightly in her other hand. And with a growl of her own, she closed the distance between them, with a hard swing of the club.

It connected, and as the dog twisted mid-air from the impact, it no longer hit her head-on, but still the sheer weight of the dog sent Sarah flying backwards and onto the ground. Barking and snarling, the dog came right back at her, giving her no time to react. It was on top of her at once, head swooping down to bite. It hit mostly bone at her shoulder, but but the creature's massive jaws spanned longer than her bone armor covered and it still managed to sink teeth deep into the flesh.

She struggled, kicking up with her feet, but the dog was too big to be moved just by force. Without more firm a grip on her shoulder, it couldn't fling her around like a rag doll, but the bite effectively put her right arm out of commission. The bone club was in the wrong arm for another attack, but she still had the jagged bone clenched tightly in her other arm. As the dog reared back for another bite, Sarah used her feet for leverage this time, pushing the bone in just under the dog's ribcage. Its howl echoed in the station and down the tunnels as it moved back out of instinct, giving Sarah a moment to collect herself. When it came at her for another attack Sarah had switched the bone club into her left hand, and the swing connected firmly with the creature's jaw. She threw all her weight at it, knocking the already-off balance Mastiff back into the wall behind it. Struggling to her feet, Sarah brought the bone club down onto the dog's throat, the cartilage crunching sickeningly under the force. The dog below her wheezed heavily, and disappeared into the darkness.

There was a moment of complete silence in the station before the lights flickered dimly on, and the rattle of a train came traveling down the tunnels towards her. As it halted to a stop, Sarah watched the doors open and after a moment, close. She watched the train speed away, and found the nearest exit out.

She'd had enough of the Underground for tonight.