Blizzard of Souls

by Michael McBride

  All was lost.

  Missy screamed as War threw Adam to his back in the accumulation, allowing the emotional fire to consume her. Images of all of her friends flashed before her eyes. Phoenix and Mare broken and beaten. The starburst of blood in the snow where April and Darren had fallen. Lindsay buckling backwards as the steel shot tore her apart. Ray in the cavern with the scabs on his eyes where his orbits had been carved out. Adam lying in his own blood with the monster standing above him. When War’s head caught fire, she could bear no more. She sprinted out into the storm, still screaming in anguish. Leaping over Adam, she launched herself at the horseman, trying to knock him down, but it was like hitting a brick wall.

  He didn’t see her until she was upon him and was unable to get his arms between them to fend her off. She smacked into his chest with a wet slap of blood-drenched clothing, reaching for the burnt tissue exposed by the broken mask with curled fingers. Clawing at his face and eye, she slashed at anything her nails could reach. War’s head snapped back on his shoulders and he screamed so loud that it sounded like the sky would crumble down. The fire burned her hands, and yet she still flailed at him until he was able to push her far enough away from his body to punch her squarely in the chest. She flew in reverse, tripping over Adam and collapsing to the ground.

  Missy rolled over onto all fours, sucking at the frigid air to replenish the lungful that had been knocked out of her. Whatever rush of anger had incited her was now gone, leaving a cold, scared little girl to stare back up at War through tear-blurred eyes. She had given everything she had and yet he still stood, her actions only serving to intensify his hatred. They had lost. They had taken their stand and lost. There was nothing left to do now but die.

  Exhausted, she couldn’t force her body to move. War took a great stride toward where she knelt beside the bloody impression in the snow where Adam had been only a moment prior. Black spires of smoke wafted from his armor and the disintegrating seams. Adam stepped between them, raising the sharpened pole. War paused and clawed at his chest, the smoke growing thicker and darker. Jagged asymmetrical cracks spread through his chest plate, opening to reveal his charred skin beneath. The smoke gave rise to flames, diffusing across the armor, now cracking like an eggshell. Chunks fell away as though links of chain mail, exposing more and more of the burned man underneath. The skin bubbled with the heat of the blaze, popping to reveal amber pus.

  War rocked back and screamed, drawing the ire of the lightning, which seared the ground all along the shoreline, striking one black creature after another, their skin rupturing from within and exploding outward with cooked meat and boiling fluids that drove their brethren wild. When War lowered his head again, his massive trunk heaving, the fire took root in the charred remains that had once been Peter Keller. He carved into his own flesh with his claws, but it only served to worsen his plight, opening his fiery core to oxygen and fanning the flames. He dropped to his knees in the melting snow and cursed the heavens with a roar.

  Adam seized the opportunity and ran at War, driving the spear through his exposed throat, the momentum bending War’s spine backwards at an obscene angle. The lance hit the sand and stuck there, pinning War’s head to the ground, his legs beneath him. The flames rose until they stood as tall as War once had, fluids leaking out of his self-inflicted lacerations and sizzling in the pyre that consumed him.

  “Come on!” Adam shouted, whirling away from War’s body, which continued to thrash, his hands tugging at the staff, but unable to get a firm grip with his useless claws. Phoenix’s transferred blood had begun the process of decomposition held at bay for so long, War’s fingers stiffening and breaking at the joints.

  “I can’t…can’t…” Missy choked, unable to replenish her air, but Adam scooped her up beneath her arms and limped toward the cave.

  Evelyn appeared from the tunnel now that Jill was back in the cavern. As soon as she saw Adam running in her direction, she sprinted to meet him.

  “Get her into the cavern!” Adam yelled, passing Missy to her. Evelyn ducked under the younger woman’s arm to brace her and started back into the darkened corridor.

  “What about you?” Evelyn called.

  “I’ll be right behind you!”

  Adam knelt and grabbed Phoenix around the torso. He lifted the boy from the ground and started down the tunnel backwards. Phoenix’s body was limp, so light that it felt as though there was nothing left of him.

  “Stay with me,” he said, nudging Phoenix’s head with his own. The boy’s exhalations were so faint that Adam could barely feel them tickling his ear with Phoenix’s head lolled onto his shoulder.

  Adam looked back to the beach as he shuffled into the shadows, and wished to God he hadn’t.

  The Swarm descended upon War’s dying form, shredding it with practiced ease. Yellow- and black-marbled eyes rose from their feast and latched onto him.

  “Jesus,” Adam whispered, backing away as fast as he could, despite the stabbing pain in his gut and the burden of Phoenix’s weight, as black, lizard-like creatures leapt from what little remained of the horseman, hitting the ground running.

  IV

  A SOLITARY CREATURE HUNG BACK FROM ITS SCALED KIN, STAYING ON THE shore as they swarmed en mass onto their former master. It felt the call, same as the others, the combined scent of fresh blood and the promise of death setting its mouth to salivating and tugging at it as though by some invisible cord, but there was another imperative that overrode the first, something that superseded the animalistic feeding compulsion. There was no logic to it. It was now a creature of instinct, though controlled by a more powerful desire than the rest. It wanted to feed, wanted to feel its claws parting pliant flesh, to bury its face in an open maw of blood and organs, to feel the heat draining down its throat and into its starving belly, but more than that, it craved something it couldn’t see or hear or taste. Something so powerful that it reverberated inside its bones.

  Its crimson dewlap expanded at the sounds of feeding, of gnashing teeth and tearing skin, of fluids spattering the ground, but it resisted the urge and raised its eyes up the steep face of the mountain to the top where so many had plunged to their death. The scar across its eye left a shadow in its vision, but it had long since adapted, even to the constant pain of its split brow and the hole in its cheek that never seemed to heal. It was different and it knew it, though there were no memories to explain why. It simply hungered for something more, something it had come to envision as a blinding light that drew it closer, something that was now so close it felt an overpowering sense of urgency.

  It lowered its stare again and weaved through the tall spikes, trampling the fallen minions. Their skin was now loose and sloughing from the rotting flesh beneath, making the footing treacherous enough to curl its claws for traction, tearing them open and filling its path with the white sludge that seeped out. When it reached the stone abruption, it continued upward, sharp claws finding purchase in even the smallest cracks. A third of the way up, it looked back down. The rest of the Swarm had dismembered their master, tasting their first breaths of freedom with the mouthfuls of his blood, leaving only the black remnants of his skeleton arched backwards like a rainbow of death. Lips and claws gleaming, they dashed toward the cave after their prey.

  The first pulled up just shy, grappling with its own neck. It opened its shark-like mouth as wide as the hinges would allow and tried to cough, but no air would pass. Its eyes bulged outward and its back arched convulsively. Spreading its claws, it tore out its throat, flames rising from the gash and setting its dewlap ablaze. Three more pounced on it before it could open itself further, savaging it.

  Others fell face-first into the snow, floundering before managing to vent the fires inside them through holes in chests and necks of their own design. Those that had gorged themselves were the first to fall, the others either tearing into them or leaping over the carnage, following the scent of fresh human blood. They littered the ground, burning from the inside out at the behest of b
lood never meant to be consumed. It ate through their scales from within, the master’s flesh giving rise to fire burning from their gastric tracts to the outside world.

  More and more dropped as it watched, feeling the hunger that would have to wait until the more urgent need was sated.

  It scurried up the mountain until it reached the crest and crawled over. One final glance confirmed what its senses already knew. The majority of the others were either already dead or dying, victims of their own undeniable bloodlust.

  Their frenetic hissing became high-pitched screams, echoing out of the cave.

  It scurried forward on all fours, raising its flattened head every few feet to taste the air on its tongue, separating the myriad tastes, dissecting them one by one until it isolated the one it sought. It was pungent, yet sweet, but still too faint. And if it could taste the object of its desires, then it could be reached. It was only a matter of finding its way through a hundred feet of rock to get it.

  Crawling off to the right, the sensation intensified, forming a film on its eager tongue. Its head snapped first one way, then the other, before tilting again to face the sky. It was close now, so close that the taste was driving it mad, working it into an almost mindless whirlwind of hunger. It dug into the snow, clearing it away from the smooth stone beneath, scraping away the layer of ice with its nails.

  It caught the scent again, stronger still, savoring it as it trailed down its throat on the massive amounts of saliva secreted into its mouth. Losing conscious control over its appendages, it became a victim of its own instincts, scales peeling away from bloody digits, claws ripping off where they snagged. The smell was all around it, blasting into its face like steam from a vent, stimulating it to hiss its throat raw.

  And there it was on the ground in front of him…a wide fissure in the rock where once a pine had sent roots deep into the mountain in search of fresh water. That same tree that had fueled the survivors’ fire would prove to be their demise. It looked down into the gap a heartbeat before flattening its head and shoving it within. The stale scents of dust and aged guano rose into its face on the most gentle of currents, but there was air movement nonetheless. And if there was moving air, there had to be a point where it entered. A point where the creature could exit the crevice.

  It squeezed its body as thin as its malleable bones would allow and wriggled downward, shimmying in muscular contractions like a snake, the waves passing through its body propelling it into the heart of the mountain. Toward the source of the scent that spurred it on. Toward the blood it could already taste.

  Toward the object of the obsession that had followed it even through death and rebirth.

  That blood would belong to it again.

  It always had.

  V

  “HURRY!” ADAM SHOUTED. THEIR FOOTSTEPS STILL ECHOED BACK AT HIM from the tunnel leading into the mountain, while already the sounds of hissing and the scraping of talons on stone were growing louder and louder. He didn’t know if they were going to make it in time, expecting any second to be overcome by slashing claws, for Phoenix to be ripped out of his grasp. His back hit the rock wall and he knew he’d found the bend in the passage. Halfway there, but not nearly close enough.

  The hissing escalated until it sounded like screams, a noise that caused him to shiver all the way to his soul. A dim light shone around the gentle curve, a subtle aura at first, but before Adam could discern its origin, the answer revealed itself. Dozens of eyes rounded the bend into view, lighting the wall in reflection, shimmering from their smooth scales, highlighting every flexing muscle, snapping jaws and slicing claws leaving tracers against the darkness.

  They were gaining too fast. Far too fast.

  The creature in the lead fell flat, its momentum causing it to slide along the ground, but the others merely scrambled over it, gaining ground with each furious stride.

  “They’re right behind us!” Adam screamed, his voice cracking with his rising fear.

  The eyes grew closer, shaking like so many flashlights, until the dim glow of the fire in the cavern appeared over Adam’s shoulder, casting his shadow onto the ground at their feet. A hand grabbed his jacket from behind, yanking him through the opening into the cavern.

  Evelyn was already racing back to the handle of the nail-faced blockade by the time he looked up. Missy was in place to her right, and together they grunted with the strain, pushing the cart forward. It started rolling, slowly at first, but gaining speed as they shoved it forward. Adam watched the doorway until the gap closed and the spikes disappeared into the tunnel. The whole works jerked and both girls slammed forward over the wooden handle when it met with the expected resistance.

  Screams filled the air, lancing through the contraption that had impaled them.

  Adam slid out from beneath Phoenix, resting the boy’s head gently on the ground, and ran to Evelyn’s side to help maintain their leverage. It felt like trying to hold a door against the charge of a rhino. It jerked back and forth, the barrier threatening to snap off and leave them exposed, but even with all of the cracking and shuddering, it held. The assault from the opposite side tapered, as did the horrific cries from the other side, until finally the handle stilled in their grasp, the wheels no longer trying to roll in reverse. Light flickered through the cracks between the slats from the burning bodies beyond.

  Silence descended upon them, marred only by the distant crackling of the coals in the fire and the occasional dripping of melted snow through the earthen roof.

  “Did we…did we get them all?” Evelyn whispered.

  “There were so many of them out there,” Adam said. “I can’t imagine we could have…”

  “I can’t hear anything out there.”

  “They could be baiting us, waiting for us to let down our defenses.”

  They scrutinized the uncomfortable silence, peeling apart the subtle textures to hear even the faintest noise. Every drop of condensation sounded like the thump of a bass drum, their ragged breathing like an untamable wind.

  Still they waited.

  “What are we supposed to do now?” Jill whispered from his left where she was pulling Phoenix up against the wall with the others.

  “I…I don’t know, “ Adam said, looking to his left at the others. Phoenix was starting to stir, the rise and fall of his chest growing more clearly defined. Mare leaned against the wall beside Ray, staring down at his fractured ankle, biting his lip to keep from moaning, while Ray slipped between states of consciousness, alternately pawing at the crust of blood and scabs on his eyes and letting his head fall slack. Jake crouched beyond, his eyes opened so far it appeared as though he had no lids, tears glimmering on his cheeks.

  The morbid realization struck Adam that there were now only eight of them. Eight out of thirteen. That was a little more than half. Five of them had lost their lives so that eight could live. That level of sacrifice was more than he could bear, finally releasing the tears he had held off for so long. Were their lives really worth so much that one had been willing to give his or her life in exchange for merely another single soul?

  Adam’s hands fell from the handle. He walked to the stash of rocks, pulling the first off the top of the pile and bracing it behind one of the wheels. With the next he braced the other tire. Evelyn and Missy backed away, expecting the cart to come rocketing back toward them as soon as they let go, but when it didn’t, they began helping Adam move the stones behind the cart until every last rock was in place and it would have taken an army to shove the blockade back into the cavern.

  The lifting and bending had angered the wound in Adam’s gut, the fresh seepage running down beneath his waistband and onto his thigh. The sheer pain finally broke through and he fell to his knees, his adrenaline reserves spent. He crawled over to where Phoenix sat beside Mare, his eyes now open, but nary a sound crossing his lips. The boy’s face was still hidden beneath a dried mask of blood, through which Adam could hardly see the lacerations.

  “Are you all right?” Adam
asked, pressing his fingers to the side of the boy’s neck to feel his pulse.

  “I will be,” Phoenix said, forcing a smile.

  Adam didn’t see Phoenix move his arm, but felt the boy’s palm press up against the wound in his abdomen. It was as though someone had run an electric current into the seething maw, a tingling sensation rippling through his body all the way to his fingertips. When Phoenix removed his hand, the pain was gone. Adam brought his own hand away from Phoenix’s carotid, the pulse growing stronger with each beat of his heart, and traced his fingertips over his belly. The wound had closed, leaving only the faint impression of a scar. His whole body felt somehow rejuvenated.

  “How did you…?” Adam started, his words trailing off. He licked his fingers and smeared away a stretch of blood from Phoenix’s forehead. The cuts were gone, leaving only a smooth stretch of unmarred skin.

  Phoenix shrugged in response, the inner light returning in his pink eyes.

  “I once met someone who could do the same thing,” Adam said.

  “I know,” Phoenix said, his smile dimming. “You’ll see him again.”

  “He’s dead.”

  “True…but now he’s so much more.”

  Phoenix looked into his lap, flexing his fingers before rolling away without another word. His shoulders slumped and his head drooped as he took Mare’s ankle between his hands. Mare shrieked, but quickly relaxed as Phoenix moved the bones back into place as though they were made of rubber.

  “Thank you,” Mare said, bending his toes back and forth. He didn’t know what else to say.

  Phoenix was already to Ray, his hands trembling as he planted them on Ray’s temples.

  “I’m sorry,” Phoenix whispered, “but I can only take away your pain. I can’t replace your eyes.”