When he had finally retreated a dozen steps, the driver slung the gun back over his shoulder and both of the snowmobiles spun one hundred and eighty degrees, showering him with a spray of snow.
“What have I done?” he asked aloud, tears rolling from his eyes.
Adam looked up the steep stone of the island until he could see Richard, still standing there, watching him. There was a flash of light to Richard’s right and Adam felt a splash of warmth hit his face. A great boom! echoed all around him.
He wiped the crimson spatters from his face, pulling his hands away to reveal not only blood, but a couple snow white feathers. On the ground before him lay the exposed breast of an enormous ivory bird, wings folded under its back, its beak askew. Blood poured from a crater in its chest beneath its left wing. As Adam watched, a spectral outline grew around the fallen bird’s corpse, forming the shape of a human’s body superimposed over the bird’s, like a double exposure. He caught a glimpse of long dark hair and even darker eyes, clothed in the skins of some hairy animal.
“Run!” Phoenix shouted.
Adam spun to face him. The younger boy was already upon him and tugging at his arm. When he looked back to the ground, the image of the woman was gone, leaving only the shredded, feathered lump. Slowly, the pieces fit into place as Phoenix urged him backwards away from the dead falcon. The bang had been gunfire directed at him, and the bird…had the bird taken the bullet for him? And the spectre lingering around it, had that been some sort of human soul inside of it?
Phoenix turned him and they ran toward the far shore. The reports of rifle fire crashed everywhere around them like thunder. The storm enveloped them, making it so they could neither see the shore ahead nor the island behind.
Adam doubled over to catch his breath, slowing to a walk.
“What…What happened back there?” he gasped.
“The Goshute,” Phoenix said. “The Indians who lived here hundreds of years ago. They gave their lives to the storm. Their souls now live in the blizzard.”
Adam was speechless as a dozen more falcons emerged from the snow and landed all around them, standing atop the deep snow before completely vanishing into it.
The sound of repeated cracking joined them on the breeze, rhythmic, haunting, like a lone woodsmen chopping down a tree from a great distance.
“Come on, Adam,” Phoenix said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “The time has come.”
His mind swirling with thoughts of Indians and birds, metered by the monotonous chopping, Adam followed Phoenix back toward the cave. They had only made it ten yards before the sounds of screaming pierced the gray of the falling night.
They both turned and looked back toward the island, invisible through the blizzard.
Chapter 7
I
Salt Lake City
WAR SURVEYED THE LOBBY OF THE HOTEL, DISIMPASSIONED TO THE carnage. The walls and ceiling were covered with blood. He could still hear the screams of the dying lingering in his ears, reveling in their exquisite agony. The Swarm filled the room, fighting for the privilege of gnawing the remaining flesh from the bones scattered throughout. Sharp teeth clattered against the hard calcification while the sounds of slurping were everywhere. They lapped at the walls, slathering their tongues over floors and sucking the juices from the carpets. War let them have their feast, for they would need every ounce of their strength for the final leg of their journey and the penultimate battle.
The humans didn’t stand a chance, but he knew better than to underestimate them. His minions would be prepared to lay siege to the last remaining sanctum, and mankind would be no more.
Outside, the sun set on that ungrateful species for the last time. When it rose again, it would do so on a land no longer plagued by the scourge of man. But there was something more this time. He could feel it.
Resentment.
He could feel his master’s growing discontent like so many ulcers eating through him from the inside out. Death was the chosen son of the Lord, the one who had been gifted with power to do that for which God no longer had the stomach. His lot was to clean up the mess the Maker had made, to eliminate a race that would have annihilated the entire planet if given enough time. But God had double-crossed him, hadn’t He? The Lord was playing both sides at once, favoring his useless creations to his own children.
Death’s will was solidifying. Somewhere in that great black tower, Death was creating the next dominant race, not in God’s image, but in his own. They would claim this world rather than spend another eternity waiting to be birthed into physical bodies. This time they would use the power they had been bequeathed for their own purposes.
The heavens shook with rage, but it was too late to stop them now. His army would swarm over and decimate the last of mankind with a savagery that would hail the end of the Lord’s reign on earth. Theirs would be a race that worshipped them, feeding their power until they were gods themselves.
There was still the task at hand, however. The time was nigh to rally his troops, to work them into a bloodthirsty frenzy.
All of the creatures around him froze, the lobby falling silent, save the dripping of blood from the ceiling. Every black and yellow eye rose from the reeking remains to focus upon him.
The flames in War’s eyes flared above his head like horns and the building shook around them. Tables rattled and chairs toppled to the floor. Glass shivered in its frame before shattering and tinkling to the floor. A rain of blood and plaster shivered from the ceiling. A riotous hiss arose from the Swarm, trilling dewlaps flapping like wings. They snapped and nipped, slicing each other with claws from reptilian feet and hands, their furor rising to a state of unrestrained excitement.
War’s eyes burned white hot and they sped past him, funneling through the shattered front doors, nails clacking on the boards they had torn away, before falling silent as they dashed into the snow. As they had done before, they squeezed through the fence and scrabbled atop the masses to peel their own skin in the barbed wire. Those stuck and wriggling in the coiled metal snare only served as leverage for hundreds of others to climb over.
Thunder waited out front, fiery eyes locked on the western horizon, beyond warehouses buried with snow and the useless stretches of runways and hangars. The sky was now as black as it had ever been, only the storm clouds serving to lighten it by degrees of shadow. War leapt astride the stallion, tossing aside the drape of flesh over the animal’s skeleton and wedging his toes between the exposed ribs.
He bellowed a sound like the start of an avalanche, summoning a stabbing display of lightning from the sky. Thunder bucked and sprayed fire from its nostrils. Slamming its front hooves to the ground, the beast launched forward, clearing the gate in a single leap and hitting the ground at a gallop.
The ground trembled.
The heavens shook.
The end of man was at hand.
II
Mormon Tears
UNDER THE SHROUD OF BLANKETS, RAY FOCUSED ON HIS BREATHING. HE WAS going to die. There was no doubt in his mind. Holding the bone dagger against his chest, adjusting and readjusting his grip, he focused on his breathing, trying to occupy his mind with anything other than his current situation, but it was impossible. The snowmobile vibrated under him, the runners rising and falling like a ship on rough seas as they blew through the drifts formed by the frozen waves. The engine buzzed and thrummed as the driver had to constantly reach back to grab him to make sure that he was still there.
“Are you still with me, Tina?” he whispered, but only the chill answered, stabbing him through the blankets with needles of ice. She said he’d know when the time was right, when he was supposed to use the dagger in his sweaty grasp, but he’d never even been in a fistfight. Did she really think there was a part of him that would be able to kill a man?
The snowmobile slowed and his heartbeat accelerated. There was not only the sound of the engine beneath him, but another off to the right. Fear seized him, tightening his chest to the point tha
t he couldn’t breathe, causing his entire body to shake.
“Please don’t let me die,” he whispered as the snowmobile coasted to a halt.
The driver killed the engine and the shuddering beneath him ceased, replaced by the howl of the wind and the patter of snowflakes.
“Come on,” the driver said, nudging Ray as he climbed of the seat. “You’re safe now. No one’s going to hurt you here.”
But for how long? As soon as his face was revealed…
He stood before they could assist him, knowing that the illusion would only last so long. Were they to feel his body beneath, he was as good as dead. He stomped his feet to sink deeper into the snow.
“Hey, Richard!” the man called.
“We’ve got what we came for,” another voice, presumably that of the other driver, said. “Let’s just head back. They’ll catch up.”
“Relax. It won’t be long now. Just keep thinking about that nice hot mug of coffee that’ll be waiting for us when we get back.”
“I’m imagining an electric blanket and a bowl of soup. Chicken noodle. Man, oh man would that hit the spot right now.”
“I’d settle for a—”
“Excellent job!” Richard said, sliding down the slick rocks to where they waited. He tromped through the snow until he stood in front of Ray, watching frozen breath seep out from the small gap that revealed only Ray’s chin. “We’ve come a long way to make sure you were safe. Did they hurt you, Jake? You know we did everything we could to protect your mother, and we’ll do the same for you. Once we get you back home, I’ll personally make sure that nothing ever happens to you. We can be a team, Jake. I’ll take care of you like my own son. What do you say?”
Ray gripped the hilt of the knife in both hands, pointing the tip toward the sound of the voice.
“How about it, Jake?” Richard reached out and lifted the lip of the blanket that hung down over the boy’s face.
Ray saw Richard’s face register surprise and thrust the blade forward, meeting with resistance, but only momentarily.
Richard howled in pain and shoved him in the chest, the blankets tangling around his legs and depositing him on his back in the snow. Cold air blew through the hole he had torn in the blanket, cooling the warmth that poured down the blade and onto his hands.
“Jesus Christ!” one of the men shouted. “He stabbed him!”
Richard fell to his knees in the snow, both hands pressed over the bleeding wound in the lower left quadrant of his abdomen. It felt like there was still something inside, digging deeper and deeper into the fathomless laceration. He reached his left hand through the rip in his jacket to try to hold the lips of the cut closed, staring down at the massive amount of blood dripping between the fanned fingers of his right.
With a roar, he leapt on Ray, who had the presence of mind to slash at him, but only succeeding in opening Richard’s right palm. The pain served to enrage Richard even more.
“Hold him down!” Richard yelled at the shocked men, unable to raise their rifles, as they had been caught so off-guard.
Both men dropped their shotguns into the snow and grabbed Ray by either wrist, pinning him in place. Ray fought against them, but with Richard’s weight atop his chest he could barely breathe, let along fend off the two larger men.
“You thought you could fool me! Me?” Richard was so angry that he shouted through bared teeth, freckling Ray with droplets of blood. He slammed his right hand down over Ray’s mouth, the pressure straining the roots of his teeth, popping his lips like blood-filled juice vesicles. “I gave you a chance and this is how you repay me?”
The other men could only hold on and watch, terrified by the look in Richard’s eyes.
“Give me the knife!” Richard bellowed. “I said give me the goddamned knife!”
One of the men pried it out of Ray’s grasp, dislocating his index finger in the process. He quickly tossed it to Richard and wiped all of the blood on his pants.
“I’m going to give you a message,” Richard growled, pressing even harder on Ray’s mouth. “You go back. You walk back across the lake and you tell your friends. Tell them that they’re all going to die!”
Ray closed his eyes when Richard brought the knife to his face. The sharp tip pressed into the flimsy skin above his right eyeball. He screamed at the top of his lungs, experiencing a pain like he’d never thought possible as Richard forced the knife deep into the socket. Nerves severed and connective tissue tore, but that was nothing compared to the agony of Richard jerking the knife away, taking with it his eyeball and the entirety of his upper lid.
Blood poured from the gaping hole, washing over his cheek and into the snow.
His cries intensified when Richard slammed the knife into his other side, this time spearing the orb with a sickly pop and twisting it like a corkscrew to rip everything near it out as well.
The men released his wrists and staggered away, but Ray was unable to see their fear or the look of revulsion on their faces. He didn’t even hear them start the snowmobiles over his screams.
“Get up!” Richard yelled, grabbing Ray with his bloody right hand by the newly fashioned holes in his skull. The bones felt as though they were going to break and the fingertips against his nerve endings sent fiery bolts of pain throughout his body. Richard jerked upward and Ray had to force his arms and legs to push him up to his haunches.
Richard let his face go and Ray collapsed forward into the snow, the cold slush packing into the sockets, keeping him from passing out. He brought his trembling fingers to his eyes to try to pry the clots of snow out, but Richard kicked him squarely in the back.
“I said get up!” Richard yanked on Ray’s hair, the first handful ripping out, but a second handful granted the leverage to pull Ray to his knees.
Arcs of snow fell on them both as the snowmobiles raced off in the other direction, the engines whining from being taxed to their limits.
Richard didn’t seem to notice. His only thoughts were of Ray, who he finally urged to his feet. He gave the younger man a shove in the back to get him moving.
“You tell them!” he screamed, his voice cracking. “You tell them I’m going to kill them all!”
Ray staggered into the storm, hands pressed to his eyes in a futile attempt to slow the blood that rushed from the sockets. The pain banished all conscious thought, leaving him at the mercy of his instincts. All he could do was walk, stumbling and falling, but pushing himself back up again.
“I love you, Ray,” the wind whispered, summoning tears that would never flow again.
Blood spattering the snow, he headed in the direction of the voice.
III
JILL HUDDLED WITH THE OTHERS IN THE CAVE, JUST OUTSIDE THE REACH OF the wind and the snow, the hunks of coal in front of her turning gray and breaking apart and turning to ash. None of them spoke. They all simply stared straight ahead, into the storm, waiting to see who would return…or if anyone would return. Spears stood erect from the ground in front of her, alternately flashing with visions of monsters impaled upon them, blood spiraling down the wooden poles. Perhaps it was her growing terror, but she couldn’t seem to make the visions stop. It was as though she stood at the edge of reality, watching her dawning insanity breaking through. Or maybe it was just that the closer they came to facing their ultimate nightmare, the more her mind allowed the images to slip through. Either way it was all so real that she had to scream.
Everyone turned to look at her, but none of them wanted to know. They didn’t need to be able to see her visions to know what was coming, nor were they willing to risk learning the answers to ask what she saw. At his point, it was almost better not knowing the details. They knew that Richard and his men would be coming with their guns blazing and they knew that the army of the Swarm would descend upon them soon enough. They knew they were going to die, but there was some small measure of comfort in not knowing how.
Mare wrapped his arms around Jill from behind, drawing her to him. Her screams faded, bu
t none of the others could look at her for fear of seeing how she looked back at them.
“It’s all right,” he whispered into her ear, but she hardly heard his words.
Ahead, she could see the snow and sand barricade beyond the broken and bloodied poles and the black creatures folded over them, impaled several bodies deep. The beach was littered with them, as those who’d managed to tear themselves free had crawled off into the snow to die. Sections of the wall were caved in, the bodies skewered on the other side permanently draped over the barricade with white ooze pouring out of their mouths. That same white film floated on the warm water where the kelp was now growing wild, with broad leaves poking out of the water amidst the wreckage of tubing. She tried not to look at the tattered clothes and butchered bodies lying where they had fallen for fear of recognizing who they were and losing what precious little control she maintained over her mind. Instead, she looked out across the lake. So much of the ice had broken away that she could see stretches of black water and chunks of ice moving in it like small bergs. The flames had died on the island as she had known they would, only she knew that many of her newfound friends had as well.
A silhouette materialized from the snow, a lone figure that appeared to be walking on the exposed portion of the lake, but the vision faded and the person crossed the ice toward them. They all held their breath. Three had left and only one was returning. Details finally came into focus as the figure reached the shoreline.
“Phoenix!” Missy shouted, dashing off into the snow. She met him after he’d slid down their side of the barrier, wrapping her arms around him and immediately kissing him.
“Oh, God,” Evelyn gasped. “Adam…”
“Where’s Ray?” Darren asked, even though when they’d parted, he had known he might never see his friend again.
Missy kissed Phoenix with everything she had, holding him with her fingers clenched in his jacket, refusing to let go. Her tears trailed down over their lips, his skin so cold it hurt to touch, but she couldn’t tear herself away for fear she may never get the opportunity again. Finally, he withdrew and looked her in the eyes.
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