Gates

by Edmund A. M. Batara

  I let Jen rest and joined Henry in checking the contents of the room. After a while, all we could get were a few matches, an additional flashlight, and some batteries. I decanted some cooking oil to a small container, but that was it. We couldn’t lug around sacks of flour and other such ingredients.

  “There might be some food and water downstairs,” I said. “I think I saw a ref.”

  “Stay here and double check what we can scavenge, including in your room. I’ll go downstairs,” Henry replied.

  So, before went to sleep, we assessed our haul. For our pains, we’d got matches, a box of pastries—which hopefully were still edible—sugar packets, a small bag of coffee, the cooking oil, the flashlight, batteries, and refilled water bottles. And four OJ packs from the ref.

  As I tried to sleep, I looked at Jen and envied her ability to go to sleep that fast. Or maybe she was just dead tired from carrying two bags. For some reason, the flashes we saw disturbed me greatly. I knew something was happening, though I didn’t know what it was. With that worry on my mind, I fell into a disturbed slumber. Thankfully, no nightmares came.

  ***

  We woke up to a dead town. The silence was eerie. As I carefully looked out the window, I saw the fires had gone out, leaving numerous black plumes of smoke lazily reaching out to the clouded sky.

  I kept observing for a few more minutes, wary about stragglers from the monster horde which devastated the town. The rusting street sign on the corner indicated we were on S. Rogers Street. A lot of help that was, since I doubted if I had been in this part of town before. I strongly suspected the devastation had been caused by Pazuzu's minions as I observed creatures coming from the subdivision joining that parade of horrors on the highway. That meant the Mesopotamian devil was expanding his domain in this region.

  Idly, I wondered who was winning the battle for control of the area? From the battle we had observed, I didn’t think the rest of the rulers of the underworld realm of Kur would be willing to let Pazuzu claim the territory without a challenge.

  A soft knock sounded. I went and opened it. Jen was still asleep. It was but six in the morning.

  “Morning, Eric. No sightings?” asked Henry. The guy guessed what I was doing.

  “None. The town looks as it is—dead.”

  “Yep. Been up since five. No sign of the beasts. But that doesn’t mean they won't be back.”

  I nodded. I painfully understood what he was saying. My memory of Ms. Adley came to the fore.

  “What now?” I asked.

  “I'll do some recon and hopefully, get the items we need. I have been in town a few times, but your help is needed in getting me oriented. Can you draw me a map? Emphasize the hardware stores, pharmacies, gun stores, and supermarkets, please. I’ll fill it out with what I know.”

  I sat down on the floor and drew a rough sketch of what I could remember. In the meantime, Jen woke up. I said good morning, and got a mumbled reply. Then she went out of the room. When she was gone, Henry looked at me.

  “Eric, I need you and Jen to hold the fort here. Stay low. I’ll do the recon. I can move faster and quieter. But I need both your empty packs. I’ll fill them with what we need.”

  “Okay.” That was all I said. Everything the man had suggested so far made sense in our survival gauntlet. His abilities were way beyond me, and he was clearly better suited to moving around in this apocalypse.

  “We’ll use the storage area for whatever we can get. After that, I’ll build a cache in the woods. Easier to recover if we need to bug out in a hurry. While I’m gone, please arrange the items there so we can have the maximum possible storage area.”

  “No problem. Will do,” I answered. “How about your breakfast?”

  “I already had mine. Stay frosty and low,” he advised as he took the crude map from me. I helped him empty our backpacks. With that, he was gone. I briefed Jen when she came back to the room. We took turns standing watch throughout the day.

  Henry came back thrice in the daylight hours, each time with bulging backpacks—food, water, medicines, a crowbar, gunpowder, matches, a lot of miscellaneous items. Even bags of nails at one point. On his second run, he brought back an M4 rifle, similar to the one Cooper carried, with an undamaged ammunition vest, complete with six full magazines. He gave them to me.

  “It works, I checked. No bent or rusty parts. Some poor soldier must have panicked and chucked it off. I can’t say I blame him,” remarked Henry. “It may not work against those beasts, but as I mentioned, humans could also prove to be as deadly and cruel.”

  “How about you?” I asked.

  “I’ll find another. Got an M9 pistol with two mags. That will suffice for now. I still haven’t found that Geiger counter though.”

  Then he left again.

  “How far did you go?” inquired Jen when Henry returned the third time.

  “I kept to the side streets, venturing to the main roads only when I was absolutely sure the surroundings were clear. But I wanted to get to the center of town. I caught a glimpse of it, and with the tents and equipment there, that must have been the command post at one time. But approaching it entailed being exposed to a level higher than I am comfortable with,” replied Henry. Then he held up a handheld plastic device.

  “On the bright side, I finally found what the manufacturer called a Nuclear Radiation Detector Personal Dosimeter, runs on AA batteries, and made of flimsy plastic—hidden behind a lot of similar items. Unfortunately, the heavy-duty metal ones were all corroded. But we can make do with this. I’d hate to escape being mangled to death by those beasts and then die of radioactive fallout,” he laughed.

  “Don’t tell me you still intend to go out?” I exclaimed when I saw him moving to the door.

  “Making hay while the sun shines, Eric. I don’t want to experience what we went through before—a period of calmness and then a deluge of the bastards. When we get what we want or need, then we can make our plans. This time, I want to see if I can get to the command post. We need information.”

  When he left, I just shook my head in resignation. He did have a point. No telling if Pazuzu’s minions would come back. If they did, those creatures already had a transference point anyway. Then a little voice piped up in my mind—what’s better than one transference point? Two transference points!

  With that in mind, I went back to the second-story room and took over Jen’s watch. It was starting to get dark, and the dimming sky revealed that the strange phenomenon I had observed last night was still there, flashes of light all over the place. It could have been my imagination, but the number of flickering dots in the sky seemed to have increased. Suddenly, brightly shining drops started falling from the sky. Some fell on the other side of town. And you can guess what my immediate reaction was.

  I whispered to Jen to come to the window. Her colorful and coarse reaction was less vulgar than my profane, indecent, and rude expressions at the sight; that I have to admit. Worries about Henry started to arise. The man was still out there. If some new hell was coming, then we’d better get out of town for a while and find a safe place to hide while we determined what kind of clusterfuck was going to happen. Whether we liked it or not, structures, destroyed or otherwise, would attract attention.

  We waited for another hour. Meanwhile, darkness had already descended — no sign of Henry. Then a familiar beam of green light erupted several streets away from us, its sickly hue roaring up to the heavens in its attempt to tear a bigger opening in the dimensional fabric.

  “Aw, fuck!” I whispered to Jen. “It’s another one of those things! If I remember correctly, it’s right in the middle of the town park.”

  “Isn’t that where Henry wanted to go?” Jen asked.

  “The command post? I guess so. It’s right in the center of town, with a cleared area around it.”

  Fear suddenly gutted me. Not for myself and Jen, but for Henry. Who knew what had happened to him? The man had brought us this far and, in all honesty, I didn’t think we co
uld have survived on our own without his assistance and guidance. I turned to Jen.

  “I’ll look for him.”

  “Are you crazy? If there’s a beam, then there’ll be creatures out there! What chance have you got?” she vehemently protested. Jen did grab my collar, in case you’re wondering.

  “We didn’t see any creatures on the street. And I won’t go to the park. Just close enough to see if Henry might be trapped somewhere close by. I’ll keep to the back of the houses.”

  “You do know you sound stupid, don’t you? That doesn’t even make sense!”

  “I know. But we do have to know what’s going on and at least try to look for Henry,” I calmly answered. No sense getting in a shouting match with Jen. All it would do is attract lethal attention.

  “No, I won’t allow it!” said Jen as she started to cry. I hate to see her like that. She was stronger than me, and the sight of Jen crying always burned my heart. In any other situation, I would gladly go with whatever she said. But this time, it was a question of conscience and concern.

  “Jen, I have to make at least an effort to find the man,” I answered, gently removing her hands from my collar. “We owe that much to him. Tell you what, give me an hour and then I’ll come back if I don’t find him.”

  Jen suddenly released her hands and sat down on the bed, wiping her eyes.

  “Please, please try to be careful,” she softly said. I kissed her on the forehead and picked up my spear.

  ***

  You know what’s funny?

  By the time I got to the fourth house, amidst the darkness and fear, I began asking myself what the hell I was doing out here. I was armed with a laughably primitive spear. A chilling silence ruled the place. I even tried controlling my breathing as it sounded too noisy. Well, my heart was thumping like mad, but I doubted if that counted.

  My guide was the bizarre beam arcing into the sky. But the movement of the verdant ray was strange. It was as if it was also struggling against another barrier. It faded at times and then after a few seconds, went back to its original sickly luminescence. At least it gave out additional light. When I reached the partially destroyed sixth house, I decided to turn left and try to observe the main road. Crouching, I went in. As I neared the broken entrance of the structure, everything went dark. I looked up and saw the ray was gone. The beam’s dim illumination now gone, I couldn’t see anything. I stopped and tried to listen for any sound, but it was still quiet.

  I poked my head out the door, straining my eyes, trying to see down the street. What I saw was a vision of shiny black matter which looked like chitin. Some creature was right in front of me. I immediately stabbed at it with my spear, though from my angle, I doubted if my thrust had any considerable force behind it.

  The weapon broke, but the attempt threw the creature off-balance and it fell on its back. I stood up, took a few steps out on the sidewalk and got ready to run back, only to see two more of the black creatures stepping out of the shadows. I ran the other way, toward the park. Toward the beam. But not before giving the downed creature a hard kick in the head.

  I ran as fast as I could. Abject fear was an excellent incentive. But as I continued my panic-stricken rush down the street, the steps of the temple they had created became visible as well as a host of creatures on its other side. Fortunately, they had not seen me yet. My pursuers were also silent in their relentless chase, a fact making the chase more terrifying.

  Nearing the temple, barely twenty or so feet away, a sudden flash erupted among the gathered horde. I didn’t stop but instead started clambering up the ziggurat. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw three giant flaming figures unexpectedly appeared among the creatures, illuminating their surroundings with a reddish-yellow light. The remarkable sight gave impetus to my flagging leg muscles. Climbing the stone stairs was exhausting, even with the unwelcome help of fear-created adrenaline.

  Close to the flat topmost point of the temple, I got a good view of the town square. It was packed with the Mesopotamian bastards. Like the spiders and the pack on the highway, the new flaming arrivals appeared disoriented. Then a group of clawed humanoids suddenly attacked the trio. It was like lighting a dynamite fuse. Confused and gory bedlam ensued as the fighting started.

  I looked down on my pursuers and for some reason, they didn’t follow me up the stone structure. I continued going up, not minding the epic struggle going on below me, though my eyes and ears caught glimpses of fiery explosions from time to time. Burning bodies and fragments of creatures flew through the air. All through the struggle, a bizarre cacophony of sounds arose. Mix animal cackles, growls, hisses, and titters, and you’ll have an idea how it sounded.

  Finally, I stood on top of the ziggurat. It was a small space—square in shape with a circular indentation on the stone floor. I found myself standing within the circle. Looking down, I found a cowled figure floating above the battling throng. It was staring at me. Just my luck to have a sub-boss in the crowd.

  “Blasphemer!” it shouted, pointing at me. Apparently, I could understand him. At the same time, the beam regained its strength and a verdant ray suddenly flew straight up, catching me within the full force of its eruption. People say that pain doesn’t really register immediately. I now believe that’s true. I was more shocked by the fact that the beam lifted me several feet off the ground.

  Then the excruciating, otherworldly pain hit.

  4

  Muspellheimr

  Skin being slowly peeled from your flesh? Your head and spine forcibly pulled out from your body? Your very soul being torn from your innermost being? All at the same time?

  That was it. Words were miserably inadequate to convey what it felt like. It was pain in the worst, indescribable manner. And pain is such a small word.

  Think of the best orgasm you had. Multiply the pleasure by ten. Convert the pleasure to pain. Then you'll start to have an idea of the hellish agony. My heart threatened to burst from the massive, combined sensory input I was receiving.

  But then again, descriptions really don't catch the actual experience of feeling a gentle breeze on an ideal Sunday morning or the beauty of a magnificent sunrise. Or being mystically torn apart. Words merely bring back memories of a similar experience.

  I passed out.

  Only to wake up being painfully bounced around on the shoulder of somebody running quite fast. My nerve endings felt very sensitive and muscles hurt like they'd been massaged by an overzealous worker with a sledgehammer.

  Extremely tired and weak, I again lost consciousness. My last sight was of dark corridors, a lot of turns, and rapid movement from my rescuer. At the same time, I did notice the veins of my arms were glowing bright green.

  A strange vision attended my unconscious state. Against a black background, moving horizontal streams of verdant light moved before me, too many to count. They twisted like ribbons along their respective paths and when one ended, another sprang into being. As I said, it was a weird display. Aesthetically pretty though; it looked like a GIF.

  The coldness of water woke me up. I was back in our hiding place and lying on the bed. Jen was wiping me with a cold towel, a small basin on her lap. Henry was crouched on the window, looking outside. I looked at Jen. She had been crying the whole time. Her hair was a mess, and she didn’t bother to wipe off the tears streaming down her face.

  “You were right. That was stupid,” I managed to mumble through a parched throat. “Water, please.”

  At my ragged voice, Jen lit up and hugged me. Kisses followed. Pain ran through me again. Even Jen’s embrace was an agonizing experience. My body was still very sensitive to external stimuli.

  “Oh. Sorry, Eric! I didn’t know you were in such pain!” I guess my anguished moans and facial expression betrayed me.

  I again asked for water in a raspy voice. My throat was starting to feel like sandpaper.

  “Wait,” said Henry.

  Wait? I’m so thirsty I am willing to risk diarrhea from a mud puddle!

>   Henry placed a wet towel on my lips.

  “Let him adjust first to water. It could be extreme dehydration. I guess it could be a side-effect. He can have more water later.”

  Those first few drops to wet my mouth and moistened my throat were pure heaven. Henry observed me for a while.

  “It’s not severe. Just minor dehydration. A few more treatments like that and he can have half a glass. I’ll get some energy drinks. Rehydration salts would be ideal, but surprisingly, I wasn’t able to find any.”