Count to Ten

by Mark Ayre

  “What if the ritual begins?” Mercury said.

  “We’re screwed, I think. Time is very much of the essence.”

  “Fair enough. Shall we?”

  At Amira’s nod, they split; she heading to the far right of the tree line, Mercury the far left. Being apart was frightening, but their chances of success were higher if Heidi had to kill them individually.

  At the same time, they reached the furthest trees and paused, peering at the followers. Quincy had with him two men and a woman. Otherwise, everyone appeared to be in place, in one of four circles. Outside of the two tents, there were forty-nine infected. Thankfully, they didn’t have to kill them all.

  Mercury’s moral compass began to spin. Were these not mostly lonely men and women, tricked by someone far more powerful, who promised them companionship?

  Now was not the time. Like a dog with rabies, putting the infected down was kinder.

  This didn’t silence the voice. Quieten would have to do.

  Deep breath. Mercury stepped beyond the tree, preparing to run, preparing to die.

  A hand fell on her shoulder. Slender fingers squeezed and she heard the crack a second before she began to scream.

  Amira was running. At Mercury’s scream, she faltered, turned. Shoving Mercury to the ground, Heidi pointed at Amira and shouted to Quincy.

  “Get her.”

  Quincy barked orders. Those three surrounding him ran for Amira, who bolted towards the outermost circle. Quincy didn’t move. He yelled again, this time towards the innermost circle.

  The chanting began.

  Despite the flaring pain in her shoulder, Mercury began running from her position on the ground, stumbling as she got to her feet. As fast as she could, she made for Quincy. On her way past, she would kill him. Seconds later, she would be in a position to kill one of those in the circle.

  One wasn’t enough. As the ritual couldn’t begin without all forty-nine chanters in place, it was a start.

  Like a battering ram, Heidi hit Mercury’s back.

  Propelled forward, she flew towards Quincy who turned and lifted an elbow, rattling her skull as she connected.

  Across the circle, Mercury heard a cry of fury. With her blade inches from its target, Amira had been yanked to the ground by her hair

  Climbing to her knees, Mercury fought dizziness. Heidi stood beside her.

  Looking at the circle, she said, “As attempts to save the world go, that was pathetic.”

  The chanting raised in pitch. Wind began to whip around Kayla in the centre circle.

  Mercury rose, ducked the outstretched arm of Quincy, rolled as he lurched after her and popped up behind one of the chanters. Without hesitation, she drove the blade deep into his skull.

  And watched it disintegrate.

  Unharmed, the man continued to chant. With each word spoken, the wind grew stronger.

  Heidi was beside her again.

  “Oh no,” she said. “I guess you just lost.”

  Fifty-Two

  Before her destruction, Gina had gone running three or four times a week. Occasionally, Edie had accompanied her. Twice a week, the teen had gymnastics.

  Ten years had passed since Will last exercised. He was not fat, but embarrassingly out of shape compared to his wife and daughter. On a straight road, they’d have pulled from sight in thirty seconds. The woods improved his odds.

  The trees grew close. There was no opportunity to sprint. Will dodged this way and that, hoping his reflexes were sharp enough to save him running headlong into any trunks. Praying he wouldn’t catch a fallen branch and trip. Up ahead, he had already lost sight of Edie. He could hear her, but if he lost any more time, she’d slip away.

  When she was little, they had played hide and seek in the trees. The game made Gina nervous. Frequently, she would wake from a nightmare in which Edie had been kidnapped. Will had to take her hand and promise all would be well. The woods were small. If there were anyone nearby other than Edie, they would know. Besides, they always knew where Edie was. Being young, she was unable to stop giggling as she crouched behind a bush.

  The woods were small, but the trees seemed to stretch on forever. Will realised Gina was bending, making a curve towards the edge of the trees, but keeping within them. Whether this was a conscious decision, or born of her madness, he had no idea.

  Either way, they could not continue forever. Either they would exit the trees, or Edie would catch Gina, and Will would catch Edie.

  He remembered finding Edie years before. He would run after her, grab her tiny toddler body and flip her upside down, pretending to gobble her up. Laughing, Gina would roll her eyes and collect Edie from monster daddy. Will would beam at his girls as mother kissed daughter. He loved seeing them together.

  Today, he was terrified Edie would catch her mother.

  Gina said she’d never kill Edie or Will, but was losing touch with reality. Edie wanted to save her mother, but Will knew her priority was Xyla. What if it came to a baby tug of war? Gina was terrified of letting down her God. If Edie threatened to jeopardise her standing with the demon, what would Gina do?

  Fear granting him stamina he had never previously shown, Will burst through the trees, towards the sound of his daughter’s pounding feet and heavy breathing.

  He was gaining on her. Much as he wanted to save Xyla and bring Gina home, Edie was his priority.

  His daughter screamed.

  Putting on a second burst of speed, jumped between two trees, brought his foot down and—

  Realised what had happened to Edie. The ground sloped away suddenly. It was not a steep incline, but the landing comprised loose dirt, stones and twigs. Will’s foot disappeared from beneath him. He was falling, tumbling, rolling.

  There wasn’t far to go. After fifteen seconds, the ground levelled out. He came down with a thump and crashed into a bush. A thorn tore his shirt and lined his skin. Come morning, there would be more than a handful of bruises, but he would be fine. At least physically.

  “Edie?”

  Rising, dragging himself from the bush and losing some of his trouser leg in the process, Will looked for his daughter.

  Spied her a few metres away.

  Like him, she had slipped as she raced onto the slope and tumbled to the ground. Unlike him, a bush hadn’t broken her fall.

  A tree had ended her forward momentum. It was her head that had made contact.

  She lay still. Will could see no blood.

  Bloated with panic, he lumbered towards her, slid to his knees beside her, reached out and rested his hand gently on her head.

  “Will?”

  The voice was soft, cracking, breaking. It came from a metre behind. Focused on his daughter, on making sure she was okay, Will at first didn’t look at Gina. Nor at Xyla, though the baby’s scream demanded attention.

  When he had the best handle he could on the situation, he turned, tear-stained eyes falling on his wife.

  In one arm, she clutched the wriggling baby, trying desperately to keep Xyla from escaping.

  She also had a gun.

  Fifty-Three

  Amira was inches from putting a pause on Heidi’s ritual when someone yanked her hair, tugging her to the ground.

  The fat, misshapen face of her assaulter glowed with triumph. This was the villain’s equivalent of defusing the bomb with a second to go.

  Around the circle, Mercury burst free of Heidi dodged Quincy and shoved her blade into a chanter’s back.

  The ugly, triumphant face lost none of its glow. Mercury’s blade disintegrated. The chanter kept chanting. The wind whipped to a hurricane.

  They were too late.

  Mr Triumphant began to laugh. Behind him, Quincy’s other two guards appeared. They looked as happy as their ugly friend. They believed they had won. Amira was sure they were right. Even so, they wouldn’t live to see their master rise.

  Expecting lethargy to weigh her down, shock prevented her pursuers from action as she jumped to her feet. Before they
knew what was happening, Amira had slit Mr Triumphant’s throat and spun and shoved him towards his male comrade.

  The female was tall and gangly. She reminded Amira of an English teacher from her school days dubbed Pogo by a cruel student body.

  Often Amira’s insolence had pushed Pogo to breaking point. Professional pride had prevented the teacher from physically assaulting her student.

  Not restrained by the student-teacher relationship, this Pogo sprung to action as her two male friends disappeared in a cloud of disintegrating blood. Jumping from the ground she spun, landing a kick on the side of Amira’s head.

  The move’s agility caught Amira off guard. She twisted like a top and collapsed between two of the chanters on the outermost circle, her knife flying from her grasp.

  It was like passing through a bubble into a parallel world. Here the whip of the wind and the chanting voices competed for the gong of loudest noise in the universe. As she pulled herself up and out of the bubble, her head rang with the sound.

  Pogo came again, kicking and punching and driving Amira to the side and back. Towards where Heidi might be killing Mercury. Without a weapon, Amira’s best chance was to land a punch on the nose, where she could most easily draw blood from her assailant.

  Behind Pogo, the bodies of those she had already killed seemed to have melded into a single mush. The grass turned black as they continued to bleed into the ground. Amira guessed it would never grow again.

  Pogo kept swinging. Punch kick, punch kick. A couple of times, she landed her blows. They hurt, but Amira refused to let it show. For the opportune moment, she waited. When it came, she didn’t hesitate.

  With lightning-fast reflexes, when Pogo once more swung a foot at her head, Amira whipped up her hands and caught the white trainer. Holding tight, with a sharp twist, Amira drew a cry of pain from Pogo, who flipped and crashed onto her back. Standing over the non-teacher, Amira brought down her foot in a stamp towards Pogo’s face, prepared to lose it to destroy her.

  Pogo was fast. Slipping her head to one side, she watched Amira’s foot harmlessly to the ground. Sitting up, Pogo grabbed Amira’s other foot and yanked.

  Crashing to the dirt, Amira’s head bent back. It might have hurt, but she was distracted.

  Quincy had Mercury held tight but didn’t seem ready to go for the kill. That wasn’t what caught Amira’s attention.

  Halfway between the two friends was Heidi. Not confident in Pogo’s ability to defeat this thorn in the demon’s side, she was coming to finish the job.

  As Pogo began to rise, Amira twisted her head to the side. Her demon-killing blade had flown between the third and fourth circle. Despite the winds, it lay still on the grass.

  It might be too late to stop the ritual. Would this magic blade destroy the demon master as well as it did her servers?

  There was only one way to find out.

  As Heidi drew nearer, Amira bounded to her feet. Without looking for Mercury’s fate, she dived back into the bubble, grabbed the blade, and made for where Kayla was beginning to rise into the air.

  Fifty-Four

  One of the two tents at the far edge of the marquee was empty. In the other, a dejected Trey sat opposite a standing follower. Much like the recently deceased man who had yanked Amira’s hair, stopping her from preventing the ritual, the stander wore a look of triumph across his pale features.

  “It’s over. The king of the Gods will rise.”

  Uswal had been a doctor. He had dedicated untold hours to achieve the required grades at school and to excel during university and his medical training. The result was a fully qualified doctor and a lonely man. When Heidi showed an interested, he had put up little resistance. He had been one of her first recruits.

  “Queen of the Gods,” Trey corrected. He was still. His hands like two useless blocks by his side. He intended to escape the tent and attack Heidi. It mattered not that he was too late to stop the demon Queen, nor that he was short the weapon that could kill a demon subject. He would try. If he had to kill Uswal to get his chance, he would. He just had to work out how.

  The infected have little call for a doctor. If cut, their chances of survival were slim. Stitching would melt, and they never fell ill. Only broken bones required Uswal’s attention. Soon, Heidi would not need his medical skills. That didn’t matter. He didn’t despair at his years of wasted training. He was merely glad to serve.

  He didn’t care if Trey lived or died. His instructions were to prevent the disabled man leaving the tent by any means. If needed, he would strike the killer blow and feel no remorse. Heidi had not trusted him with a weapon. If Trey attacked, his options were to throttle, break his neck, or pummel him to death. Any option was okay with Uswal.

  Trey stood.

  Uswal said, “sit down.”

  Trey was examining the room. There were various pieces of equipment across the small tent. The only item which looked remotely dangerous was a scalpel. This was closer to Uswal than Trey. It was his key to escape.

  Seeing him spying the sharp edge, Uswal said, “Don’t even think about it. Sit.”

  Trey raised his hands in fake apology. Pretending to sit, he stiffened his knees, then sprung, twisting left and taking a step towards the scalpel. He was five steps away.

  In two, Uswal had reached the blade. Holding it triumphantly he spun to gut the insolent Trey.

  Who was already diving through the now exposed flap. In hot pursuit of the demon wearinig his mother’s body.

  Fifty-Five

  For Xyla, Will’s heart pounded with Fear. He prayed she would be okay. But he had to focus on his daughter.

  “This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Gina was moaning. “You were supposed to stay home and look after Edie. How could you bring her here? How could you use her like that?”

  If his daughter had not been unmoving on the ground, injured, possibly worse, he might have throttled his wife. He loved her with all his heart. For those words, he might well have killed her.

  Because of Edie, he ignored her. Slipping his phone from his pocket, he prepared to dial an ambulance. Edie was afraid of hospitals. As though she sensed her father’s intentions, she stirred.

  “Daddy?”

  These days, her use of the word daddy was a rarity. Somehow it intensified his feelings of love and fear. When she lifted her arms, he pulled her into a hug with the care of a large man handling a tiny, injured bird.

  Gina was still babbling. “I thought it would just be the women. They were supposed to come, and we would kill them. I know you don’t understand, but I promise it’s right. Once they were gone, I was to go to Chalfont Common, where the master of all Gods will rise. After that, I would have come to you and Edie. At last, you would have joined me willingly. You would.”

  Edie was groggy but coming around fast. As she came to her senses, she clutched tighter to Will and stared at her mother with swelling horror.

  There was a lump on the back of her head. While it didn’t feel serious, if she had been unconscious, there was a risk of concussion.

  “We need to get you to hospital, honey.”

  “Xyla,” she whispered.

  At the name, Gina twisted to move the baby from Will and Edie. Xyla continued to howl. Gina clutched the gun as tight as the baby. Will liked to think it was a bluff, unloaded. Such delusions were for children.

  To Edie, he said, “Do you feel sleepy? Be honest, it’s important.”

  “Head hurts,” she said. “But I’m fine.”

  “How many fingers am I holding up?”

  “Three. Dad, Xyla.”

  Three was correct. Will helped prop Edie against a tree. She was obviously in pain, but her eyes were bright. He needed to get her to hospital, but if he could keep her awake, he had time to deal with Gina.

  Rising, he turned to his wife, hunched over her prisoner. Her hand was white over the gun’s handle. She couldn’t look him in the eye.

  “Hand over the baby.”

  Shaking her head, cry
ing, she said, “You couldn’t stop, could you? Everything would have been fine if you’d just let me work. I messed up with Paul. I messed up at the warehouse. Can’t mess up again. Can’t let them down.”

  “Gina, it breaks my heart to lose you,” he said, his voice catching, tears coming. “I don’t want Edie to be without a mum, but right now you are bottom of my priority list. Give me Xyla, then leave. Go to your master. Go to Chalfont Common. Just don’t hurt the baby.”

  Arms rising, he took a step forward.

  She lifted the gun and pointed it at his chest.

  “Mum, no.”

  Edie was trying to get to her feet. Will held a hand to her. “Sit down, Edie. Let me handle this.”

  Gina was in a state. She was clutching Xyla too hard. Before long, she was going to break those brittle bones.

  “You said you’d never kill Edie or me,” Will reminded her. “If you shoot me, even if you don’t aim to kill, there’s every chance you’ll break that promise.”

  “I don’t know what happened with Liz,” Gina said. “Mercury and Amira never came. That’s another screw-up. If I give up this baby, I can’t show my face to Heidi. I have to do something right.”

  “If you show any signs of trying to hurt that baby,” Will said, “I will try and stop you. If you want to kill her, you will first have to shoot me in front of our daughter. Is that what you want? I know they’ve infected your blood. Even with how far you’ve fallen, could you do it?”

  Gina was still shaking her head. Not disagreeing with Will. Madness was claiming her. Any remaining traces of his wife were fast disappearing. If he was going to act, he had to act now.

  “Can’t,” she was whispering, as much to herself as to him. “Can’t screw up again.”

  “I’m going to take Xyla,” Will said, keeping his voice calm. “I’m going to lift her out of your arms. Please, Gina, you might never do the right thing again. Do the right thing now.”