The Swarm attacked from the sky like meteorites, staking themselves atop those who had leapt ahead of them, while even more raced inland from the beach. Fragments of wood and splinters tagged Mare and Jill from either side, the piles of writhing bodies all around them more than waist deep even on top of the snow turning to bloody slush. They had to turn sideways to navigate the maze of bodies, stepping over the corpses while trying to stay out of reach of the living, whose nails rent their clothing, tearing the skin. Mare screamed in pain but pressed on, knowing the only alternative was death. Even were he willing, there was no way he was going to let anything happen to Jill. If that meant his skin would be flayed from his bones, then so be it. All they had to do was make it to the cave and down the tunnel. From there they could barricade themselves in there until…until what? Forever?
He dared to look away from the slashing arms and teeth to the cave in time to see Evelyn disappear into the darkness with Jake. Phoenix was leading his sister through the melee ahead and off to his right, allowing himself to be carved like a Thanksgiving turkey to protect Missy. In that moment, he completely changed his opinion of the albino kid.
Phoenix shoved Missy into the cave and turned back to face him. Mare couldn’t believe the sheer amount of blood covering him. There were gashes all over his face and arms, across his chest and down his legs. Not the white sludge that coursed through those creatures, but his own crimson life soaking his tattered clothes. Mare didn’t want to know if he looked a fraction as bad.
They stepped around Phoenix, who just stood there looking past them, oblivious to their presence. Mare helped Jill through the stone doorway, grateful to be out of the snow and wind, and into the darkness, walking backwards to carry as much of Ray’s weight as he could. The tunnel seemed interminable, but finally wan light stretched over his back and highlighted Jill’s face. Even with her hood pulled down over her eyebrows and the tears frozen on her cheeks, she was just about the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life.
“Help me set him down,” he said as they stepped out of the corridor and into the cavern. Leaning Ray’s back against the wall, they lowered him to his rear end, trying to prop his head upright.
Mare headed back toward the tunnel to the outside.
“Where are you going?” Jill asked.
“I’ve got to go back out there.”
“You need to stay here…with me.” She looked up at him with those stunning eyes shimmering.
“I’ll be back before you miss me,” he said, flashing his trademarked cocky grin, though he was so terrified he felt like he might hurl.
“But you’re cut all over,” she said, placing her hands on his cheeks and pulling them away bloody.
“When I get back you can do whatever you want to me.” He froze. “I mean…you can take care of whatever… Aw, screw it.” He leaned in and kissed her.
“Please,” she whispered, unable to meet his eyes as she pulled away. “Don’t go.”
God, how he wanted to stay with her, but his destiny was outside in the storm. He could feel it twisting around inside of him like a tapeworm.
“I…I gotta go,” was all he could think to say. Tearing away from her and hearing her start to cry physically pained him.
“Mare!” she called after him, halting him no more than a couple of steps back into the darkness. “Just promise me you’ll come back…”
“Count on it,” he said, though as he ran back down the corridor, his blood draining in rivulets down his skin, he prayed he was right.
Exiting the cave, he came upon Phoenix from behind and sidled up to him.
“Thanks for taking care of my sister,” he said, following Phoenix’s line of vision in the direction of the shore to where a crowd had swarmed into a cluster of striking arms and snapping jaws just their side of the barrier and off to the left. Shreds of clothing and flesh flew from their midst, enticing even more to throw themselves into the fray.
“God have mercy,” Phoenix whispered.
Flames rose from the shoreline, burning through the blowing snow.
The shadow of a man stood between them and the rising blaze, which grew taller and taller until, like a comet, it soared over the sand barrier.
A fiery horseman atop his monstrous burning steed.
“Jesus Christ,” Mare gasped. “What the hell is that?”
“War,” Phoenix said, his whole body shaking. “The time has come to make our stand.”
VII
ADAM FINALLY HAD TO TURN AWAY FROM THE SCAVENGERS TEARING EACH other apart over what little remained of Darren and April. Watching them meet their fate in each other’s arms was like the most beautiful sunset. He couldn’t steal his eyes away even though it positively hurt to watch. There was such nobility in their sacrifice that he couldn’t imagine anything more touching. Halfway between the shore and the cave, he had seen those who would make it to momentary safety vanish through the dark corridor and those who would not fall before his very eyes. There was nothing he could have done to change anything. It had all transpired too quickly.
He could still see Lindsay’s blond hair out on the lake beside a starburst of her blood. A crimson trail led away into the storm from where Richard had been dragged off into the night. The Swarm was only now dissipating down the beach, leaving in their wake piles of bones amidst the carnage of man and beast alike.
So many of his friends had already fallen…
A dawning sense of awareness blossomed within him. He could feel Evelyn’s fear as she stood in the shadows with Jake against her chest, the child’s cries in her ear and her eyes affixed to the mouth of the tunnel, waiting for…him. Jill knelt over Ray, alternately checking for his pulse and feeling his shallow breathing on her cheek. Missy stood in the center of the tunnel, wishing for nothing more than to run down the corridor and drag Phoenix back with her, kicking and screaming if she must. Instead, she knew what she needed to do and walked over behind the wheeled contraption. Soon enough she would have to charge into the darkness behind it.
Adam saw all of these images in a single flash before they were stolen away and replaced by a feeling of terror that raised every goosebump on his flesh. He turned and looked to the cave, seeing the same expressions on Phoenix’s and Mare’s faces that he felt upon his own. They sensed it too…the calm before the wrath of the storm, the gentle inhalation of a bomb before exploding.
The snow no longer gusted sideways, but rather fell straight down. The creatures crowding the beach stood still in anticipation, studying them before looking back over their shoulders at the frozen lake. The flock of falcons circled nervously overhead, blending in and out of the snow. For the first time in what felt like forever, the lapping of distant waves reached the shore. It was as though the entire universe held its breath in anticipation of what all knew was to come.
Silence washed over even those dying on the pikes, their blood merely pouring out as they watched the eastern horizon with glazed eyes.
A muted aura of light stained the snowflakes before separating by degrees. Flames drew contrast against the night, celestial tendrils of fire that issued no smoke, only the savage heat from the heart of hell and the stench of brimstone. A shadow took form in the core of the blaze, moving toward them across the ice in strong, steady strides. A large, elongated equine head materialized atop a broad body with thick, bony legs. As it drew closer, its skeletal contours became clear. It appeared to be the source of the fire, rising from white hot orbs and burning hooves.
The rider astride it was enormous, easily a full head taller than anyone Adam had ever seen, an imposing, wide-shouldered mountain of a man. He wore skin-tight armor that looked like armadillo hide, fitting together in sections to accommodate fluid motion. A smooth shield covered his face, marred only by two ragged slashes for eyes. Spikes stood from his skull and shoulders like an ancient gladiator. And even as the fire consumed him, he appeared impervious to it, feeding on the flames. He was the color of blood, as though he had been bathing
in a lake of it.
Adam’s mind raced back into his memories of the caves in Ali Sadr. Lakes of blood. That thought triggered the memory of something else…of lying on his back in the bed of a convoy truck in the Iranian desert and looking back through the dust raised by the tires to the mountain he had only narrowly escaped. Four figures had emerged atop a rock cliff…four silhouettes to match the four he had lost in the depths of that earthen tomb.
“Keller?” Adam whispered.
As if his voice alone had shattered the calm around him, the wind arose with a furious wail, battering him with snowflakes. The rider jerked on reigns of bony spikes and spurred the massive steed to rise to its heels, kicking flaming front hooves at the air before slamming them down, already charging toward the beach.
Adam whirled and sprinted toward the cave, where Mare and Phoenix were waiting in its open mouth.
“Run!” he shouted, waving his arms frantically.
Mare snapped out of his stupor and turned to race back into the tunnel, but Phoenix placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and he stopped. Phoenix whispered something Adam couldn’t hear, to which Mare responded with a nod.
“What are you doing?” Adam shouted, preparing to throw both boys over his shoulder if he had to. “It’s right behind—!”
Phoenix cut him off by taking him by the arm and slowing him.
“No more running,” Phoenix said, his pink eyes unflinching. “Now we must face our judgment. Stand or fall, we shall do so right here and now.”
The ground shuddered beneath their feet from the thunderous advance of the red rider. Angrily roiling clouds split with lightning, stabbing the ground all around them, striking the poles and shaking to rip free. The smell of cooking flesh from the dead and dying staked to the ground filled the air with deep black smoke that choked back even the storm, covering the entire area like a fog.
Adam looked deeply into Phoenix’s eyes and for the first time since they’d rescued him from that basement in Pennsylvania saw the tremor of fear. The younger boy took him by the
hand and gave him what should have been a reassuring squeeze, but to Adam it felt more like a parting gesture. When Phoenix finally released his hand, Adam turned away from the blood-drenched boy to face the shore.
The stallion slowed as it reached the mess of death and the spears standing from the carnage. The giant man surveyed his fallen army as the electricity continued to strobe the sky, striking the ground all around him until the black creatures began to openly burn. Behind him, the Swarm closed rank, choking off any possible access to the lake. They watched through glowing eyes, dewlaps flared and trilling, claws clattering anxiously.
Adam couldn’t breathe, the oxygen deficit slowing his thoughts to the point that he could only focus on the man in crimson, who trotted his steed sideways to block off the lone remaining path away from the cave. The red rider raised his left arm and held high a large spherical object, which he threw toward Adam. It bounced along the snow until it came to rest at his feet. Adam feared taking his eyes from the man for even a moment, but risked a glance at the object.
Twin burned sockets stared up at him from the charcoaled skin, the mandible newly ripped off, hanging broken and askew by a single attachment. The teeth were the only part of it of any color, stark white against gray gums. Despite the fact that the lips and ears were burned to nubs and there was no hair remaining, Adam could tell exactly whose head it was.
“Norman,” he gasped, raising his stare to meet the horseman’s. Their eyes locked, the snow blowing between them, and Adam began to hyperventilate. Not from fear, but from an unadulterated rage that radiated outward from his chest and into his fingertips in searing hot waves. Lips writhing over his bared teeth, he lunged to his right and grabbed the nearest sharpened pole, bracing his foot on the cooked corpse and jerking it out with a slurp.
His shoulders heaving, Adam grasped the pike and held it across his chest.
War’s eyes narrowed behind the slits in his mask, the flames rising even higher, and Adam could tell even without seeing the monster’s mouth that it was smiling.
Mare walked tentatively up to Adam’s side and pulled another pole from one of the dead bodies and tried to look formidable, even though he felt like he was about to wet himself.
War’s head snapped back until he was looking up into the flashing clouds and he bellowed a war cry that shook the heavens and earth alike, the sound like two airplanes slamming into each other in midair, of the roar of fission at ground zero.
It was the sound of impending death.
The sky came to life with movement, the world around them turning white. Wings pounded Adam and Mare in the face as hundreds of falcons descended as one, battering them until they had to raise their arms to shield their faces, watching the golden beaks and talons through the gaps between their forearms. When the assault passed, they were still facing the horseman, feathers floating to the earth with the snow.
But War was no longer looking at them, but past them into the mouth of the cave.
When Adam turned, he was unprepared for what he saw. All of those great white birds were attacking Phoenix, pecking with golden beaks now red with blood and slashing with talons dripping with it. Spatters of crimson flew in all directions, patterning the snow in an abstract design of pain. He saw Phoenix’s eyes through the flapping wings. They were cool and calm, barely even blinking as his face was sliced over and over.
The flock of falcons arose into a churning chaos of wings and bodies, sloppy beaks screaming as they swirled overhead, creating a rain of blood.
Phoenix attempted a smile, but even that was too much pain. He felt as though his entire life force had bled out of him. He dropped to his knees in the snow, a fresh layer of blood covering every available inch of skin, darkening his jacket from the multitude of wounds beneath his tattered clothing. His eyes rolled upward and he fell forward into the accumulation, unconscious long before he could attempt to raise his arms to break his fall.
“Phoenix!” Adam shouted, running to his side and thrusting his hand under the boy’s zipped jacket to feel his carotid pulse. It was weak and thready, but present nonetheless.
He again stood and faced War, the sky overhead alive with enormous birds circling over the beach. They let out a shrill cry that split the night and were answered by a fevered hissing.
Adam lowered the spear and pointed it at War.
Lightning pounded the trembling ground.
And from the black soul of bedlam, the nightmare siege commenced.
VIII
ADAM CHARGED THROUGH THE SMOKE TOWARD THE GLOW OF THE FLAMES, aligning the tip of the pole with the point where he imagined War. He was only going to get one good shot at this, and Lord only knew what would happen if he missed.
Screams echoed in his ears as ivory shapes knifed from the sky, swirling the snowflakes and smoke around him. He expected to feel avian talons gashing his skin, but they sped past and around him, barely clipping him with their long wing feathers. The flames grew brighter as he ran until they towered over him, the dark shapes of the mighty steed and its master forming within the ethereal core of the blaze. The horse bucked and shrieked, but it wasn’t until Adam was within striking distance that he saw why.
The entire flock of falcons had descended upon War, slashing at him with claws and beaks still wet with the boy’s blood. Where the talons struck, the armor split, issuing fingers of steam as though their avian weapons were coated with acid. Sections fell away, revealing black skin the consistency of charcoal. They attacked over and over, dropping onto him, slashing and nipping, before rising back into the whirlwind of feathers and bodies above him. He swung at them with fists from which sharp spines stood from the knuckles, but it seemed that for every beast he pounded and dropped to the ground, two more fell upon him. His mask was slashed diagonally in half from above his left eye across his nose. Swatches of ebony flesh were exposed on his chest and abdomen, the shield over his neck cast aside onto the piles of
feathered bodies on the ground. Chunks of armor fell from his arms and legs, and where their bloody claws raked his skin, it parted like scorched sausage to weep pustules.
Yet still he battled against them, Thunder bucking beneath him and rising to its full height to strike at the flock with fiery hooves. They clawed at the beast’s burning eyes until the flames were doused, leaving only sightless black holes in its skull. It shook its head in rage, flailing so violently that War leapt from its back into the snow. Where his feet struck, fissures opened in the beach, racing away from him in all directions, sand and snow pouring down into the widening cracks. Reptilian corpses fell into the maws on cascading sand, the long wooden spikes now leaning at angles to each other.
Thunder stomped the ground and bolted blindly toward the cave, racing away from the birds that still dove at it from all angles. Mare froze as the stark white skull aligned with him, its spiked mane standing above its head. Raising the pike, he pointed it at the stampeding stallion, his feet rooted to the ground.
The spear trembled in his grasp, or maybe it was the earth rising and falling under those massive fiery hooves, but he managed to keep it directed ahead, watching as the beast shook its head violently, snorting fire in all directions. Mare bellowed in terror as Thunder bore down upon him.
Crack!
The pole shattered the steed’s frontal bone just above its left eye before it collided with Mare, its massive chest throwing him into the snow.
Mare’s breath escaped in a scream, his fractured ribs prodding him internally. A rear hoof stomped on his ankle, pain racing up his leg and into his hip. He managed to roll over onto his stomach, choking for air, each failed attempt at inhalation bringing with it a brand new level of agony, and watched the flaming hooves race away from him.
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