Hernandez seemed to mull it over for a long, long time, struggling to find words and scratching at his head. Guy wished the man was more decisive, quicker to reply, for it showed his lack of confidence by thinking so hard in front of his men. Eventually, he found something to say, and it was less rational than Guy had hoped for, but it was sufficient. “I consider you a traitor to your country, Captain Granger, but I will not command my men to fire on fellow Americans. I disagree about the war being lost. It has only just begun. Your country requires your ship and your crew, but I can see that you have brainwashed them to abandon their beliefs—and even stand by while you deny the existence of the United States. I will not risk lives, but when America is victorious, men like you will be strung up for cowardice. If you have any honour at all, you will step down now, Captain Granger, but I don’t expect that you will.”
Guy sneered. “The last thing anybody aboard my ship is guilty of is cowardice. I wish you a safe journey, Commander Hernandez. Do try to keep your men alive. We won’t be there to rescue you next time.”
Hernandez turned away and disappeared from sight.
Guy kept his crew lined up along the railings, ready for a fight, but was relieved when the Augusta moved away. Bloated corpses fell into the sea as its crew jettisoned them into the water.
“We should do the same,” said Frank. “God knows what diseases these things might carry. Even if they don’t, I don’t fancy having to look at them.”
Guy gave the order for everyone to kick and shove the demon corpses overboard. Their slimy carcasses left behind slick trails of blood and seawater. Many of the sailors gagged.
“Yikes,” cried Frank. “This one looks like my aunt.”
The men all laughed and gagged a little less.
Guy took a moment to study his enemy close up. The shrivelled up penis dangling between its flabby grey thighs gave no ambiguity as to its sex. Had it been a man once? Its dead eyes were strangely human.
“We got a live one over here!” Someone shouted.
Guy glanced across the deck to see that one of the demons was back on its feet, stalking after one of the civilians. It was badly injured—one arm hanging attached by a thread. Guy had no weapon, but he hurried to help. Frank and Tosco did the same. The creature was missing an eye, but the remaining one bore into them with hatred. In a slurping voice, it spoke to them. “We will drag your souls into Hell and violate your bodies.”
Guy sighed. “Will somebody please kill this thing?”
Frank lifted a handgun from by his side. He pulled the trigger three times, and the demon reeled back, spilling over the port side railing and disappearing into the ocean.
“They’re here to exterminate us, aren’t they?” muttered Tosco.
“Yes,” said Guy. “They are.”
Frank tucked the gun into his waistband and spat over the side of the ship. “They’re welcome to try, but I’m not going down without a fi-”
Frank’s head shuddered and his left eye disappeared in a flash of red. He slumped against the railing, exposing the wide-open crater at the back of his skull. A loud crack skipped across the ocean.
“Sniper!” Somebody shouted.
Tosco lunged at Guy and shoved him to the ground just as another shot was fired. The lieutenant took the bullet high up on his body and flipped backwards like an acrobat. Guy was forced to watch, stunned.
Skip was the one to give the order. The old sailor kept his calm and yelled out instruction. “Take cover and return fire. Don’t make it easy for ‘em.”
The Hatchet’s crew crouched down at the railings and fired at the Augusta, but the larger Navy vessel was at least a mile away and too far to hit with an assault rifle. The enemy sniper fired a series of follow up shots, but by then, everyone had taken cover and remained there safely.
Guy looked over at Frank and felt a rage bubbling in his chest. His oldest friend shot dead by a faceless sniper on the orders of a jumped up lieutenant. Hernandez would pay for this.
Tosco lay on the deck nearby moaning. Guy crawled over to him and checked for a bullet wound, finding it on his left shoulder—a leaking hole in his trapezius muscle. “You’re going to be okay, Lieutenant. It’s just-“
Tosco managed to lift himself slightly. “A flesh wound? Yeah, I know… Jeez, hurts like a mother though. How’s Frank?”
Guy shook his head and fought back tears.
Tosco cursed, from anger now, instead of pain. “That idiot must have thought we were firing at him when Frank shot that demon.”
Guy snarled. “Hernandez was waiting for an excuse. He didn’t want to order his men to fire on us without cause.”
“He’s stopped firing now,” said Tosco through gritted teeth. “They’re still heading away from us.”
A nearby radio squawked. It lay on the deck, and the voice of Hernandez came through it loud and clear. “Men and women aboard the USCG Hatchet. Your senior officers are dead. Please put me in contact with whoever has inherited command. I wish you no harm, only that you follow the Augusta back to the coast where it will be added to the Navy’s relief effort. You are no longer bound to fulfill whatever promises you made to Captain Granger. You are free.” A brief pause. “Come in, come in, Hatchet. Whoever is most senior, please respond.”
Guy crawled over to the radio and answered it with venom in his voice. “Hernandez, this is the senior ranking member of the USCG Hatchet, Captain Guy Granger. You just killed a man worth ten of you, and I’m going to make you pay for it. You see, when this war is over, they will string men like you up. I will be the one to do it. As soon as I find my kids, I’m coming for you.”
There was the mutter of a reply as if someone was about to speak but had changed their mind. The line went dead.
Everyone aboard the Hatchet remained in cover until the Augusta was a mere dot on the horizon. Guy shouted for the ship’s medical officer, Gonzalez, and got Tosco some help. The lieutenant was in good spirits as a group of enlisted men carried him off to the sickbay. Guy remained on deck, staring out across the vast ocean and feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. Frank’s body lay beneath a blanket at his feet.
The old captain, Skip, came up beside Guy and stared right at him. “Your second in command is quite a hero,” he whispered. “Led the men against the demons and took a sniper bullet for you.”
Guy nodded. “If more men had his backbone, we would already have driven those monsters back to Hell.”
Skip nodded, but exhaled as if something worried him.
“What’s on your mind, Skip?”
“I worry for you.”
“That was always Frank’s job.”
“Then it’s a job vacant for me to fill. He was a good man, the Chief Petty? Your friend?”
“The very best of both, friend and man. I don’t know how I would have fared these last few days without him questioning my every move. He was always my conscience, making me consider my actions.”
“Well, if I can attempt to fill his boots, I have some advice for you, Captain. Keep Lieutenant Tosco onside. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but these are his men more than they’re yours.”
The insult was grave, almost unforgivable, but the old captain was right. “I know what you’re saying,” he admitted, “but he gave me his word he would help me find Kyle and Alice. After that, I’ll just have to be ready for whatever happens. Don’t worry about me, Skip.”
“I always worry about good men. We’re back to the old days now, Captain Granger, and in the old days, there was only one way for a captain to lose his ship.”
Guy looked down at Frank’s body beneath the sheet and thought about his friend’s earlier advice. Be firm. He turned to Skip and smiled. “You’re wrong, you know? These aren’t the old days, Skip. They’re the new days. And if Lieutenant Tosco tries to take my ship, I’ll kill him.”
~Mina Magar~
Slough, Berkshire
When Mina awoke, the day was in full swing and approaching late afterno
on. She felt refreshed for a few moments, but then the grogginess hit her and she craved coffee. She got up off the floor, knees and elbows clicking, and went out into the office. It was as frantic now as it had been when she sneaked off to take a nap. David was in the centre of the room directing things, having apparently taken control away from Big Jimmy.
Andras stood at the kettle, and Mina went and joined him. “You seem to spend a lot of time here. I’d love a coffee,” she said.
“Coming right up. It’s the only thing I’m good at apparently.”
“They won’t let you help, huh?”
“Nope.” He made her the coffee and handed it over. “It’s not that they won’t let me help, it’s more that I don’t really have any way to help. I don’t have a network of contacts to call.”
“You can help me,” said Mina. “I’m used to being treated like a spare part around here. Nobody ever wants help from a photographer.”
“So what are you working on?”
“Updating the website with information people can use. We need to get people fighting back. It’s our only chance.”
Andras smiled at her. “I’m all yours.”
Mina had a thought. “Where’s Alice?”
“Asleep in Carol’s office. Carol’s taking a nap too. David’s in charge at the moment, I think.”
“I’d imagine he is. Go over to my computer, Andras. I’ll join you in five minutes. I want to check in with David and see where we’re at.”
“Sure thing.”
Mina interrupted David in the midst of giving orders to the paper’s sports editor. The bump on the side of his head had turned a sickly green colour. “Ah, Mina,” he said when he saw her. “Back in the land of the living?”
She ignored that he had gone off for a nap too. “I needed sleep.”
“The news never sleeps.”
“What’s the latest?” she asked.
“Much the same as before. The demons—that’s what we’re officially calling them now—have formed up into three main armies within the U.K. Most of the smaller groups merged together, and the largest army is now currently south of Luton. It’s being led by the same giant we encountered in Hyde Park. As such, we’ve started referring to him as Hyde. The second largest army is based outside Carlisle, on the Scottish border. It, too, is being led by one of the giant beings. We call this one-”
“Let me guess, Carlisle?”
“No, we call it Hex, for the gate it came out of was in Hexham. The third giant has been moving around Wales and is currently outside of Cardiff. We call him Aberdare. His army is the largest by far, and it’s yet to meet any real resistance.”
Mina filed the names away. “Hyde, Hex, and Aberdare, okay. So the giants are definitely leading these armies?”
“Undoubtedly. We’ve been gathering reports from all over the country—local police stations, other newspaper offices, et cetera. People are blogging on the Internet like crazy, can you believe it? The world is at war, and people are sharing it all over the web like the latest Game of Thrones episode.”
“People are probably trying to keep themselves occupied. So what have we learned?”
“After the initial attacks, the demons converged to the three main locations I mentioned, each headed by one of the giants. There are outcroppings of smaller groups around, but they seem to be exercising guerrilla tactics—attacking randomly to cause disarray. What’s left of the British Army upper Brass believes that the three main armies are intended to destroy us. Similar armies are gathering abroad too, from what we can gather.”
“Are we fighting back?”
“Just trying to rally at this point. The Army made a dent in the enemy foot soldiers, but nothing has scratched the giants. People are calling them angels. If that’s the truth, then there may not be a way to take them down unless drastic action is taken.”
“Like what?”
“Nukes. The Government is already discussing a scorched earth policy. If it comes down to the survival of the human race, I don’t see what choice they’ll have. Hope they give us fair warning first. Would hate to look out the window and spot a bomb falling out the sky.”
Mina’s opinions on nuclear weapons had never changed since learning about them during her college days. The grainy video footage of Hiroshima had convinced her that atomic weapons were barbaric and invited calamity. Now she wasn’t so sure.
“Do we have any chance, David?”
“We’re still alive, aren’t we?” He surprised her by putting a hand on her shoulder. “You and I made it through Hell together. Oxford Street was the enemy’s opening gambit. They won’t get a jump on us like that again. The worst has happened, but now we dust ourselves off and fight back. You and I, Mina, will do our part.”
Her tiredness wore off. “I’ll do whatever I can to make those monsters pay.”
David smiled. “Then get people ready. The hits on the website have started to rise. Other websites are linking to us and we’re making waves.”
“Really? That’s great. I’ll get right on it.”
“What are you waiting for then?”
“Right.” She hurried to her cubicle with renewed energy. Her work was important; people were reading her words and looking at the pictures she’d taken. People might have a chance of staying alive because of her.
Andras was waiting at her desk and pulled up a chair for her. “Ready for your command, mistress.”
Mina blushed and giggled. “Thank you, Andras. We need to update the website with anything we learn about the demons. What did we find out while I was asleep?”
“David told you about the three armies?”
Mina nodded.
“Okay, did you know there are three different types of demons?”
She leaned forward. “No, tell me.”
“Okay, well, um, there seems to be three different types of demons. There’s the extra crispy kind—the burn victims. They are the most common and strong as bulls. They can also talk and use weapons, but they die as easily as us.”
“Okay, what are the other two types?”
“There are the corpses—like zombies, except they aren’t braindead. They can also talk, but don’t die as easily as the burn victims. You can damage them, and they keep on coming. Damage them badly enough, though, and they’ll die. The third kind are less like human beings. They’re the ones that are hunched over like apes and have those nasty claws. They’re as agile as spider monkeys and can disembowel with a swipe, but they die easiest of all. The biggest problem with all three is their numbers. They just keep on coming through those gates. Mankind keeps dying, but the demons keep getting stronger.”
“So, to stand a chance, we need to find a way to close the gates. Has anybody tried yet?”
“Nobody has even got close. The gates are the enemy’s strong points, and the Army isn’t in any shape to stage an attack on them.”
“Then that’s what we focus on: Closing the gates.”
Andras raised an eyebrow. “No big thing then?”
“We aim high, or we lose.”
“I understand the stakes, Mina. We all have to do whatever is necessary to survive.”
Mina scrolled through the website and saw updates she hadn’t put there, as well as some of her photos. The picture she had taken of the stray Labrador had over a thousand views. “I assume David added these extra bits?”
Andras shrugged. “He told everyone to add whatever they could verify. I know Corporal Martin added a few things about how to kill the different demons. David added something about iron being helpful.”
“Iron?”
“Yeah, he got an email from some girl in Crapstone.”
Mina accessed the website emails and located an email from someone called Diane Potter. The subject-heading read: The demons can’t pass iron barriers!!!
She opened the email and read a hastily typed message from what seemed to be a teenage girl. There was a group of survivors in Crapstone where one of the gates had opened. The
y had taken refuge at a retired pop star’s house surrounded by big iron gates. Apparently, the demons couldn’t pass the iron bars or even touch them.
David had already posted about it on the website, and Mina found comments piling up. People cited their own stories of survival, thanks to the tip. A group of survivors in Stockport had fled to a local church after reading the website and were now safe behind its old iron doors. Another group was hiding out at a scrapyard, constructing barriers of their own from the iron junk collected there. People were surviving because of the website.
“It’s working,” said Mina. “Iron works against the demons and word is spreading. This is how we win, Andras. We find out the enemy’s weaknesses, and we spread the word.”
Andras seemed troubled when she looked at him, but he changed his expression to a smile. “I guess humanity has a chance after all—especially with a woman like you looking out for it.”
A brief flutter of butterfly wings in her belly made Mina blush. “I…”
Andras blushed too and turned away embarrassed. “Not really a good time to flirt, is it? Sorry.”
“No, no, don’t be sorry. Tell you the truth, it’s been a long time since a guy flirted with me. If it takes the end of the world, then so be it.”
Andras patted her on the knee and gave it a furtive squeeze. He nodded to her coffee cup. “Time for a refill. Allow me.”
Mina grabbed his hand. “Your job fetching the coffee is over. I’ll make this one.”
Andras smiled. “Milk, three sugars.”
“Wow, you like it sweet.”
“What’s life without the senses?”
On her way to get the drinks, Mina swung by to say hello to Corporal Martin. The soldier looked ready to drop, wobbling on his feet and rubbing at his eyes every couple of seconds. “You look ready to fall into a coma, Martin. You should get some sleep.”
He smiled at her. “I keep meaning to call it a day, but something else pops up that I need to deal with and another hour passes by.”
“Are you still in contact with the Army?”
Hell on Earth- the Complete Series Box Set Page 21