“No one?”
“No one. I’m new here; came to start again. Some fresh start, huh?”
Mina gave him a lopsided grin. “I guess I don’t have anyone to call either. Not sure if that’s a blessing right now.”
Andras put his hand on her arm and squeezed. She liked it. “Better to have loved and lost, they say, but what do they know? The only people I have to worry about are in this room. Thank you for helping me, Mina. I’m so glad I’m not alone right now.”
“Don’t mention it.” She yawned. “Hey, will you find David for me and tell him I’ve gone to take a nap?”
“He already went and did the same. I saw him sleeping on a sofa in the waiting room.”
Mina rolled her eyes. “Nice of him to tell me. Well, you’ll find me somewhere nice and quiet for the next few hours, if such a place still exists.”
“I’ll wake you if anything happens.”
“Thanks, Andras.” She headed off toward one of the unused offices, of which there were several. Web-based news had led to less and less boots-on-the-ground reporters, and by the time Mina had got the job at the Echo, Carol said she was lucky to find work at all.
There was no soft furniture in the empty office she chose, but that was okay. She nestled down in the corner and closed her eyes as if the worn carpet were a silk sheet. Before she fell to dreams, she hoped against hope that somebody out there would find a way to fight back. She also hoped that her father would call back, but perhaps that was too much to ask.
~Rick Bastion~
Devonshire, England
Rick awoke with a headache, but it was nothing new. For a few, blurry seconds he lay on the couch in his living room and didn’t remember that anything was wrong. He was just waking up with a hangover like he had a thousand times before. Then it came flooding back.
He turned and saw Maddy asleep on the floor next to him, and he saw Diane and Steven sprawled out on the other, larger sofa. His new companions, he reminded himself—his partners from last night’s battle against the minions of Hell. The thought made him wish he could go right back to sleep. But he couldn’t.
He swung his legs down onto the carpet and rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his palms. His head throbbed, his mouth was dry, but before he went into the kitchen to get a glass of water, he wanted to check on something first. Before going to bed last night, he had overridden the alarm to keep it from beeping, but he had left the monitor switched on. When he went over to it now, he saw the creatures still lined up outside his front gate. There were more of them now, standing shoulder to shoulder and filling the entire video screen. And there, right in the middle of them, was a corpse with long, black hair.
Rick narrowed his eyes as he recognised the demon that had killed Sarah. It glared directly into the camera as if it knew Rick was watching it.
Rick felt his fists clench.
“He’s been there all morning,” came his brother’s voice. Keith stood behind him with a mug of tea in each hand. He handed one over, which Rick took gladly. “How’s your head?” he asked. “You were blind drunk by the time you fell asleep.”
Rick took a sip of tea and shrugged. “I can handle a hangover. I had an expert father to show me how. You were drinking pretty heavily yourself up until we made it back here.”
“Difference is: I stopped. Well, at least I did this time.”
Rick turned to his brother and saw there was something different about him this morning. His shoulders were lower, his chin raised less proudly. “What is it, Keith? Has something happened?”
He sipped his tea, sighed, then said, “I used your laptop this morning. I had an email from Marcy, sent about an hour after I left to come visit you. She told me she was taking Max to stay with her mother in Gloucester for a few days.” He seemed to be holding back tears as he spoke. “Gloucester is hit pretty bad apparently. BBC news is trying to sugar coat it, but when you search the smaller news sites, you get the real truth. There’s a newspaper in Slough which has posted a list of the gates that have opened. Gloucester is on the list.”
Rick squinted, his head still banging, but now he was confused as well. “I don’t understand. Why did Marcy go to her mother’s?”
“Because I cheated on her with my secretary.”
“Oh God, Keith, seriously? That’s so fucking clichéd.”
Keith’s face screwed up in anger, but he seemed to force it away and stared down into his mug of tea as if trying to channel his rage into the liquid instead of his brother. “I’ve been drinking heavily and… I don’t know. I wasn’t in my right mind. My secretary ended up causing me all kinds of bother. She called Marcy in the middle of the night and told her I was leaving her and was going to get a divorce. Crazy bitch. All the shit I give you, huh, Rick? Makes me a hypocrite.”
This was Rick’s chance. The opportunity to finally tell his big brother what a self-centred prick he was. It had been a long time coming, and he savoured the moment.
But he couldn’t do it. “I guess there’s a bit of dad in both of us. Impulse control has never been a strength of the men in our family.”
Keith chuckled, a tear forming in his eye. “You know, I never thought about other women before, but lately I’ve just started feeling so… unfulfilled. You lived your dream, Rick, even if it was fleeting. What did I ever do?”
Rick placed his tea down on a side table and folded his arms. “Are you kidding me? You’ve always got whatever you’ve wanted. You’re a rich accountant with a beautiful wife and a genius son.”
Keith shook his head. “No, Rick. I’m a rich accountant who used to have a beautiful wife and genius son. Now they’re dead, and it’s all because of me. If I hadn’t cheated, we’d all be together at home now. I sent Marcy and Max to their deaths.”
Rick put his arm around his older brother and let him sob into his shoulder. “You don’t know they’re hurt, Keith. Look at us: We were attacked and made it through okay.”
Keith eased away, wiped his eyes with the crook of his elbow. “Wake up, little brother. We’re not okay. It’s a stay of execution, that’s all. Those things have us surrounded.”
“The iron gates are keeping us safe.”
“You don’t really believe that lunatic, Daniel, do you? All that talk about seals and demons. I don’t understand what’s out there, but it’s going to get us eventually.”
“For fuck’s sake, Keith. Last night, you held everyone together. You were a rock. You’ve had bad news about your family, I get it, but you need to keep your head straight. Marcy and Max might still be alive, and you owe it to them to make it out of this so you can make things right again.”
“Why can’t I just give up like you? Last night, you did nothing but drink. You would’ve died if I hadn’t saved you back at the pub.”
Rick groaned as he saw the old Keith return. The moment of vulnerability was over. “I’m a sad alcoholic with a failed pop career. You’re not me, Keith. You have every reason to go on living. If Marcy and Max are still okay, we’ll find them, okay? Maybe not in the next forty-eight hours, but eventually. Until then, we just have to keep our wits about us—me included. I’ll try to knock the drink on the head. You’re right: It’s no good.”
Keith sighed. “You’re right. If there’s a chance, I have to try. Thanks, Rick. You do have your uses.”
“You’re welcome.”
“This place is massive,” said Daniel, trotting up behind them. “Took me a half hour to find the lavvy. You might want to give it twenty minutes by the way.” He leaned forward and studied the video screen. “Those sods still out there?”
Keith nodded. “Haven’t moved an inch. That one in the middle with the long black hair is the one who attacked us at the pub last night. Drove an ambulance right through the door.”
Daniel whistled. “Quite the Die Hard villain.”
“Makes you wonder, why he doesn’t try something similar now?” pondered Rick. “They may be monsters, but they’re not stupid. If the iron in the gat
e is keeping them out, then why aren’t they trying to knock the fence down?”
Keith said, “They wouldn’t be able to ram it like they did with the pub’s door. I parked our cars up against the gate, remember?”
“You think that’s the reason they haven’t tried to force the gate?” Rick asked, looking at Daniel to see what he thought.
“Maybe,” he said. “Or maybe they’re waiting for something.”
Keith frowned. “Like what?”
Daniel shrugged. “Reinforcements?”
“My husband’s dead,” said Maddy as she stood beside Rick in the master bedroom. They were both staring out of the window at the demons outside. Rick counted over a hundred of them huddled in the road. A crowd of rotting corpses waiting to devour them.
He glanced at her. “How do you know?”
“I left my mobile in the ambulance, but I used Diane’s phone to call him. A stranger picked up, told me that my husband died last night in Milton Combe. The demons from the gate in Crapstone have spread out to nearby towns. My husband was on his way home from the hospital when the village was attacked. He tried to help the injured, but he should have run.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. You’re not wearing a ring.”
“I have to take it off when I’m working. It’s at home. I keep thinking about it, wondering if I’ll ever see it again. My husband is dead, and I keep thinking about a silly old ring.”
Rick looked at the young women and saw the anguish behind her confident strength. “It’s not silly,” he said. “Your ring is a symbol of your love for your husband, and his love for you. I think that we hold on to symbols because it makes our feelings easier to tie down and make sense of. I suppose that’s why my garage is full of unsold albums—I don’t value the CDs, I value the time in my life they represent. Your ring is important. I hope, one day, you manage to go get it.”
Maddy closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she seemed a little distant. “Those things outside aren’t going to go away, are they?”
“Daniel thinks they might be waiting for something.”
“Like what?”
“I have no idea. Is Diane still checking the Internet?”
“Yeah, things are bad, Rick. The whole world has been hit. There’s even talk of giant angels stomping around the earth killing everyone.”
Rick pulled a face. “Angels?”
“Yeah, bad angels—like Lucifer kind of angels. Looks like Daniel’s theory about Heaven and Hell might be right.”
“Keith doesn’t believe him. Not sure I trust him either.”
Maddy kept her stare on the demons outside. “I see no reason not to trust him. We’re all as screwed as each other. How much food do you have, Rick? I see a lot of beer, but not a lot of stuff to eat.”
“I’m a bachelor. I order in.”
“I assumed as much, which means we’re all going to be dealing with hunger pangs by tonight and feeling pretty rotten within a couple of days. How long will those things keep us penned up in here?”
Rick hadn’t even considered it, but Maddy was right, they couldn’t stay there indefinitely. “We’re going to need to find supplies, aren’t we?”
“Or starve to death. It’s not a problem right now, but it will be soon. I don’t see things going well for us here, Rick. That’s why I’m thinking about leaving.”
“What? You can’t go out there. They’ll tear you apart.”
“I listened to what you said last night about the step ladder. The demons are all at the front of your house. If I can make it over the back into the woods, I’m sure I can get away. I can find help and bring it back.”
“You might get over the gate from the inside, but what if you get attacked and need to get back?”
“I’ll figure something out.”
“It’s a bad idea. What if help comes while you’re gone and you’ve taken the risk for nothing?”
“There’s no help coming, Rick. Just take a look on the Internet, and you’ll see enough to understand that we’re on our own. The Army tried to fight back in London and got torn apart in Hyde Park. Somebody hacked into the CCTV footage and leaked it onto YouTube for all to see. It’s devastating. I can accept that we’re all going to die, Rick, but I’m not prepared to do it by starving to death. And I don’t want to die without my wedding ring.”
Rick studied the demons outside the gate and weighed up Maddy’s chances. She might be able to slip away unnoticed—maybe they all could—but was getting out really for the best? Yet, how long would they have if they stayed?
The black haired demon glared up at them and grinned. The malicious intent in his crooked expression gave Rick little doubt that he was not standing there aimlessly. The monster had a plan.
“I think we should all leave,” said Rick after having considered things. “Some places are still okay, right? Diane found a couple of areas we could go?”
Maddy nodded. “A few places, yes.”
“Then we find the nearest safe place and head there right away. Somewhere better than this—some place where we can survive.”
Maddy’s face lit up. “Yes, we should all get out of here together. I’d appreciate the company.”
Rick nodded and confirmed it to himself, as if he couldn’t quite believe it. “Okay, let’s leave.”
They headed downstairs together and went into the kitchen where Diane was still busy on the laptop. Steven was in the living room, piling up anything they could use as weapons. Knives mostly.
Rick went over to the fridge and reached for a beer, but stopped himself and grabbed a can of coke instead. He pulled the tab and sat down next to Diane at the computer. It was the first coke he’d had in a long time that didn’t include whisky. “Hey,” he said. “Where’s the nearest place that’s safe?”
“Torquay. All the South Coast up to Southampton is safe. Plymouth is okay too, but it’s so nearby the gate from Crapstone that the demons might reach there soon. I’ve been reading this website for a newspaper called the Slough Echo. They’re trying to list all the information people have found out. I told them about the iron gates and how the demons can’t come in—maybe they can pass it on to the army or something. Anyway, this newspaper has listed all the safe towns that they know about. Torquay isn’t anywhere near a gate.”
Rick looked at Maddy. “If we can get a car, we can be at Torquay in a couple hours. I’ve always loved the English Riviera.”
“I want to go home first and get my ring.”
He sighed. “I know you do, but the village isn’t safe. Better to stay alive and get it later.”
Maddy looked to argue, but ended up nodding. “I suppose you’re right. If we’re all leaving together, then we should head for the coast like Diane said. If there’s any sort of evacuation effort it would be better to be near the ports.”
Rick nodded. “Then that’s where we head.”
“Head where?” said Keith, entering the kitchen with Steven by his side.
“We’re heading to Torquay,” Rick told him. “It’s safe.”
“Nowhere is safe, Rick. We’d be stupid to leave.”
“Yeah,” said Steven, who had finally taken off his tie and opened his collar. “That gate is the only thing keeping us alive.”
“Yes, the gate is keeping us safe,” said Maddy, “but we can’t just hide in here forever. We need to go somewhere with supplies and food. The longer we stay here, the worse it will get outside. There’s a chance to reach safety that might not be there later.”
“We’d never make it out,” said Keith. “The demons would rip us apart before we even reached the road. You’ve seen that one with the black hair, Rick. He’s just waiting for an opportunity to finish what he started.”
Rick shuddered at the thought of confronting the monster again, but he was resolute in his decision. “We go over the back fence like I said last night. The stepladder.”
“Oh, wonderful, the stepladder. And what makes you think there aren’t a hundred demo
ns waiting for us around the back?”
“Because I’ve looked, Keith. They’re all outside the front gate. We can check things out first, of course, but I’m certain we can sneak away. Torquay is an hour away by car, and it’s safe.”
Steven shook his head. “It’s safe here, Rick. Your house is huge and protected by the gate. We shouldn’t leave.”
“Don’t you get it?” cried Maddy. “We’ll starve to death in here. No help is coming, so we have to help ourselves. If we put off now what we won’t be able to do later, then we’re screwed. We need to leave while there’s a chance we can.”
“No,” said Keith. “I won’t allow it.”
Rick stood up from his stool and faced his brother. “You won’t allow it? Who’s asking?”
“I saved your arse last night, Rick. You do as I say.”
“Are you kidding me? I thought you’d actually found a little humility after being caught fucking your secretary, but you’re the same old control freak. You’re not the boss of anyone here.”
Keith shoved Rick hard into the kitchen island. “Watch what you say to me, Rick. I’ve been wiping your arse your entire life, but I’d just as soon give you a good hiding.”
Rick was in shock. His brother had never struck him before, not even as a kid. “What the hell is your problem?”
“You’re my problem, Rick. You’re running away and trying to isolate yourself, just like you always do. I won’t allow you to get everyone killed. I’ve already lost too much. No one is leaving. It’s a suicide mission.”
“It’s not your decision,” Maddy muttered.
Keith put his hands up and let some of the aggression leave his face. “Look, I hear what you’re saying about the food situation, but we have running water and enough food to get through for a little while longer. Maybe we should wait a day or two before making any rash decisions. We’re all in fight or flight mode—and that’s understandable—but it isn’t conducive to good reasoning. Running for the hills might sound good, but is it wise? I don’t think so, and I’m not leaving.”
Hell on Earth Trilogy: The Complete Apocalyptic Saga Page 18