The other three men nodded silently. The one she assumed was gingerbread—due to the gingerbread man on his t-shirt—was a huge white guy with curly ginger hair.
Mina shook all of their hands. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”
“You need to be careful out here,” Vamps warned her. “There’s some heavy shit going down.”
“I know. I’m a journalist. David and I are trying to get out of the city. You should come with us.”
Vamps looked down at David, who was finally beginning to stir, and then back at her. “Nah, I’m sound, darlin’. These are my streets, d’you get me? Me and the boys are staying put, and any of them fucked-up, Freddy Krueger bitches wansta come take us on, they welcome. This is our manor and ain’t nothing gonna bowl up and make a mess of it. You take care, darlin’. Next time, just hand over your phone, innit? And ‘ere, take this.” He pulled a thin black stick out of his belt and tossed it Mina’s way.
She caught the object and saw that it was a metal police baton. The weight of it in her hands felt deadly, and she immediately felt safer. She couldn’t help it, she hugged Vamps as he was about to leave. “You’re a hero,” she told him.
Vamps eased her away, looking awkward. “Easy now. I ain’t no hero. Don’t you go writin’ ‘bout me in your paper. I ain’t news friendly.”
Mina nodded. “I promise. Take care.”
“You too.”
Then the group of young men disappeared, merging into the side streets as if they were a part of the city itself. The spirit of London had just saved her.
David managed to sit up and rub at his head. He saw the racist thug lying dead on the pavement, and then he looked up at Mina. “What the hell happened?”
Mina helped her colleague up and told him, “You wouldn’t believe me. There are angels in this city as well as demons.”
“Did you hear something?” David asked Mina about an hour later. Since setting off again, they hadn’t encountered another soul. Mina had secretly been hoping to run into Vamps and his gang again, but they were long gone. David listened to her story about the young man’s heroics, and was upset that she hadn’t kept the lad around for an interview. He’d been grumpy ever since waking up, and it was hardly surprising, considering the angry red lump on the side of his head where the thug had punched him. He’d also grazed his forehead on the pavement when he fell. Mina, herself, had a fat lip.
“I said did you hear that?”
Mina clutched the police baton Vamps had given her and raised it by her side. “I don’t know what it was, but maybe it’s a bad idea, us being out in the open like this.”
“Perhaps you’re right.”
The noise came again, and this time Mina spotted movement. It came from the top floor of a double decker bus. Someone was staring out of the window.
“Oh god,” said Mina. “There’s a kid up there.”
David looked up at where she was pointing and gasped. “My word.”
“I’ll go get him.” Mina hurried, but then slowed down. The last thing the poor kid needed was someone sprinting towards him with a weapon. She reached the bus and climbed the steps carefully. The seats on the lower deck were all empty and the driver’s compartment door hung wide open.
“Hello? You don’t have to be afraid. My name is Mina.”
The sound of scurrying feet came from above her head, but no voice in reply. She worried what she had seen only looked like a child, but might have been something else—another racist bully, or a demon. She hated having to have the police baton at the ready, but she lifted it now and was more than prepared to use it as she headed up the stairwell behind the driver’s compartment. When she reached the top deck of the bus, she saw more empty seats. Litter and abandoned possessions littered the floor, including a fat wallet with cash poking out of it.
A thatch of brown hair rose above the back of a seat, and a young boy peered at her.
“Hey there, little guy. Are you hurt?”
No reply. The staring eyes scrutinised her.
“My name is Mina. What’s your name?”
“Don’t come any closer.”
“It’s okay.” She took another step, despite the boy’s warning, and this prompted him to leap out at her and wave a claw hammer in her face. “I said step back.”
Upon closer inspection, the boy wasn’t so young—a teenager in fact, and probably as tall as she was. She took a step back. “I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to see if you’re okay.”
When the boy spoke again, she noticed his American accent. “I’m fine,” he snapped. “Just leave us be.”
Mina frowned. “Us?”
A girl popped up from behind another of the seats. Unlike her older brother, she had golden blonde hair. “Kyle? Is she another monster?”
“No, Alice. She’s just a normal lady, but she’s going now.”
“I don’t want her to go.”
“We have to stay here, where it’s safe.”
“It’s safer if you come with us,” said Mina.
The boy pulled a face. “Out there? Everybody’s dead.”
“I want to go home,” Alice moaned.
Kyle placed an arm around her. “I know you do, Ally, but home is far away. We have to keep ourselves safe. I’ll look after you, I promise.”
There was the sound of footfalls coming up the stairs, making them all fret, but it was only David. He rounded the last few steps and entered the upper deck. “Crikey,” he said when he saw them all standing there. “Two children? How did you both survive?”
“We hid,” said Kyle, puffing out his chest. “We were on a school field trip—my entire grade plus a few from the grades below. We were all headed to the zoo, but we got attacked by a bunch of monsters. All our friends and teachers are dead. Only reason we got away is cus I had to take care of my sister. I got her and ran. One of our teachers was with us for a while, but he left us.”
Mina gasped. “He left you?”
“Yeah, more of those monsters came at us from down an avenue and Mr Campbell ran into an alleyway. We didn’t have a chance to follow him, so we hid inside a store—that’s where I got this hammer—but then the store caught on fire and we had to run again. Alice spotted this bus, and that’s where we’ve been for hours.”
“We need to get you out of the city,” said Mina. “David and I will protect you. We won’t run away on you like your teacher did. Will we, David?”
“What? Oh, no, of course not. You’re safe with us, lad. We’re journalists.”
Alice looked at her brother like a hungry kitten. “Please, Kyle. I don’t want to stay on this bus anymore. The monsters are all gone. We watched them leave.”
“I think it’s safe for now,” Mina assured them. “The monsters seemed to have gone someplace else.”
Kyle huffed. “Yeah, but where? They didn’t just vanish.”
“Which is why you need to come with us,” she said. “It’s getting dark, and the monsters could be back any minute. You’d be all alone out here if they do.”
Alice whimpered.
Kyle’s expression lost some of its confidence, and the hammer he held so confidently lowered to his side. “Okay, we’ll come with you folks, but only if you promise to get us back home to America. No offence, but London sucks balls.”
Mina laughed. “It’s certainly seen better days. Good to meet you, Kyle and Alice. This is my colleague, David, and I’ve already told you that my name is Mina.”
“Pleased to meet you,” said Alice, offering out her little hand and shaking Mina’s.
“Are we ready?” David asked impatiently
Kyle raised his hammer and nodded. “I want to get my sister home.”
They had headed east through Mayfair, planning on using the first working car they came across, but they were yet to find an area where the traffic hadn’t snarled up into an impassable wall at every intersection.
Hyde Park was ahead, Marble Arch sat just a little way off in the distance. For now it
was as good a place as any to head, so that’s where they went.
“They say that’s where you used to hang people,” said Kyle, a macabre grin on his face.
David returned the boy’s smile. “That’s right, lad. They called it Tyburn in those days, and the elm trees here were used to execute condemned men. The most famous of them all, the Tyburn Tree, used to be at the site where Marble Arch now sits. Executions were entertainment.”
Alice looked horrified. “They used to enjoy watching people die?”
“They don’t anymore. Great Britain doesn’t execute people in this day and age. America would be wise to follow our lead. It’s uncivilised.”
“America is the greatest country in the world,” said Kyle.
“For now, yes,” David conceded. “But the British Empire once ruled the world, and look at it now. All great empires are destined to eventual mediocrity and extinction. No dynasty lasts forever. Before the British Empire, there was the Ottoman Empire, and before that, the Holy Roman Empire. Before that-”
“We get the point,” said Mina. “I think what David is trying to tell you, Kyle, is that you should never think yourself better than anybody else. We’re all just people, and we should stick together. Especially now.”
Kyle chewed at the inside of his cheek and seemed to consider the lesson being taught to him, which Mina thought was pretty level headed for a teenage boy.
“I like England,” said Alice. “Even with the monsters. I like all the big statues and the palaces. America should have a King instead of a president. Presidents are rubbish.”
“My mum says they’re all crooks,” Kyle added.
Mina smiled. “Are you sure you can’t remember your mother’s telephone number, Kyle? It would be good to call her.”
“It’s stored on my phone, but the teachers made us leave our phones in the hotel.”
“Unfortunate,” said David. “Where are you children from again?”
“Nebraska, originally, but our mom moved us to Maine. It’s where Stephen King lives.”
“Yes, I’m aware. What about your father?”
“He lives on a boat.” Kyle said it contemptuously. “Don’t see him much.”
“He’s a United States Coast Guard,” Alice added. “He rescues people.”
“Wow,” said Mina. “I wish my daddy did something cool like that. My daddy runs a chip shop.”
Alice frowned. “What’s a chip shop?”
“It’s where they sell English French fries,” Kyle told her knowingly.
Mina smiled. “That’s right.”
“Can we have some?” Alice asked.
“Sure we c-”
David put a hand up to halt the conversation. “Oh, yes! Oh, bloody well thank the stars. We’re saved.”
Mina put her arms around each of the children and squeezed them tight as they all saw what lay ahead of them.
“Soldiers,” cried David. “It’s the British bloody Army.”
Hyde Park was covered in a vast collection of military jeeps and trucks. Soldiers milled about like ants, and were setting up sandbag walls, or mounting scary-looking machine guns on tripods. Mina noticed other survivors wandering into the park from every direction, spilling out of side streets or stumbling out of nearby buildings. From out in the open, it was clear that London was burning, but this large area of grass and water had been spared. People were being rescued. This was salvation.
A squad of soldiers spotted Mina’s group and immediately approached. The lead soldier’s name patch read: MARTIN. “Identify yourselves,” he barked.
David spoke on their behalf. “My name is David Davids, journalist for the Slough Echo. This is my photographer, Mina Magar. These children were unfortunate enough to be on a school trip from America. We picked them up on our travels.”
“I’m Corporal Martin, good to meet you.” The soldier looked at the two children and seemed sympathetic. “Your parents are back in America?”
They both nodded.
“Sorry to hear that. We’ll try to contact them for you.” He focused on Alice and said, “You’re lucky you had your big brother watching out for you.”
Kyle wrapped his arm around his little sister and stood proudly.
“Have you got everything under control?” Mina asked the soldier, nodding to the large military force spread out over the park.
Martin shook his head. “Not even close. The Army deployed in three sections of the city, but we all took a hammering. Orders came through to fall back either here or at Greenwich Park. We’re concentrating on getting civilians out of the city. You’re lucky you found us.”
“We need to get to Slough,” said David.
“No can do. We’re choppering people out to Cambridge. They’re setting up a refugee camp there, but it’s not safe to go north or east.”
“Why not?” Mina asked.
“Because London isn’t the only place hit. Birmingham and Manchester are both under attack too, and so are Southampton, Swindon, Plymouth, and a shit-tonne of other places. The enemy are coming at us from all sides.”
“Do we know what they are?”
“Not a clue. Some of the men have been calling them demons; said those glowing gates lead straight to Hell.”
Mina caught David glancing at her, but she asked another question, “Where have all the demons in London gone?”
Martin shrugged. “We made a dent in their numbers when we caught them out in the open at Regent’s Park. Choppers made a real mess of ‘em at first, but then they took rifles off our dead squaddies and aimed them up at the sky. The RAF pulled out and left us to look after ourselves. Typical Crabs.”
Alice tilted her head. “Crabs?”
Martin smiled at her kindly. “Yeah, sweetheart, the RAF pilots. Ask ‘em to lend a hand and they crawl off sideways. That’s why we call ‘em Crabs.”
Alice frowned and remained confused.
“Where are the demons now?” Mina asked.
“North of the city. The enemy army in Birmingham is heading south—they took a battering as well—so we think they might plan to merge their forces. More of those creatures are pouring through the gates every minute, so we’re doing our best to secure each one.”
“So we’re getting a handle on it?” asked David hopefully.
“Huh, hardly. We gave ‘em a good seein’ to, admittedly, but they outnumber our forces fifty-to-one. Eventually, we’ll run out of weapons and men—most of our veterans are overseas and we’ve had to call in the reserves. This ain’t like bombing a bunch of Afghans. These are our own cities, full of civilians. The only way we can fight back is by putting boots on the ground—but that’s not something we can do indefinitely. People need to join the fight.”
David frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean you civvies will have to start diggin’ in instead of running and hiding. The only way we’ll win this war is by matching the enemy’s numbers. Everyone needs to get involved in this one, but the TV and radio are warning them all to stay in their homes. Not my call, but if you ask me, that will be our downfall. The Armed Forces can’t win this war on its own.”
“We’re reporters,” said Mina. “We can tell people to fight back.”
David scoffed. “Against an army of demons, Mina? Really?”
Corporal Martin shot David a glance. “Either that or we all die, pal. Simple choice when you think about it. Come on into the camp. There’ll be a chopper heading out in an hour or so.”
“To Cambridge though,” said Mina. “If you want us to tell people to fight, we need to get to our offices in Slough.”
“No can do. The CO has already been begging the Press to rally the public, but they’re getting their orders straight from the PM—wherever that cowardly bugger is hiding. The Government is trying to keep everyone out of harm’s way—I understand where they are coming from— but they don’t understand that they’re dooming us all.”
“We’re from an independent paper,” said David. “We do
n’t have politicians pulling our strings. We can report the truth.”
“At a piddling paper in Slough. Ha!”
Mina tried to get the soldier to see sense. “It’s a start, isn’t it? We have a website. Who knows who might read it? We say the right things and word will spread. What other chance is there?”
Martin rubbed at his chin and thought about it. “Okay,” he eventually said. “I can’t redirect a chopper for you, but I can spare a couple men and a jeep to get you out of the city. Slough isn’t too far to take the risk, I suppose. If you can get some civvies to fight, I can hardly say no.”
Mina and David looked at each other and smiled. They were finally getting the hell out of this city.
~Guy Granger~
Norfolk, Virginia
Sound carried well across the dawn waves, which was why the Hatchet’s crew heard Norfolk Naval Station long before they saw it. The report of gunfire and explosions was an omen none of them appreciated, and when they came within visual distance, they encountered the largest collection of military and Coast Guard vessels any of them had ever witnessed. Frigates and cutters floated alongside monolithic destroyers and sleek gunships. Guy even spotted an aircraft carrier he was certain was the USS New Hampshire, not even due to be finished for another eight months. Completing the fleet were several dozen littoral combat ships and patrol boats—quick and agile craft with small crews. It was a veritable invasion force, but the battlefield had come to them.
All the ships in dock were playing host to enemy forces—those same burned creatures that had attacked New York. They were also under attack by a second army of animalistic creatures with deadly talons. Guy watched a massive group of them tear right through the crew of a Hazard Perry class frigate, like termites through a table leg.
Unlike the attack on New York, this latest enemy had a clear leader. The giant beast towered above the docks and looked like a man, but it had the twisted spines of broken wings on its back. A loincloth covered its waist, but it was otherwise naked. Long golden hair fell across its muscular shoulders.
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