Released

by Megan Duncan

  Carter fired another arrow at the second demon. It hit with a heavy thud into its shoulder. They were about twenty feet from us now, stepping back and forth. Then I realized that the demon hounds had done something we had never seen them do before, they stood and watched us. Their black fur glistened in the moonlight displaying the ripples of muscle under their large bodies.

  “They aren’t attacking. Why aren’t they attacking?” I asked as the breeze carried their rotting stench into my nostrils. I gagged, but didn’t dare try to cover my nose because I needed both my hands free.

  Savannah screamed from inside Judy’s arms and she pointed toward the dune behind us. We al turned quickly and saw, at the top of the dune was the demon from the basement of city hal.

  It looked like a massive bear atop the dune. It stood up onto its hind legs and howled into the night. Its growl was unlike any animal I had ever heard. We puled in closer to each other as the demon glared down at us.

  “Dear God,” Judy said, her voice shaking in fear. I could feel everyone beginning to panic as it walked slowly toward us.

  “It folowed us!” Taya yeled in panic.

  The demon turned its head toward the second hound and suddenly it bolted into a sprint toward us to attack. Carter and I jumped into action as it came barreling toward us with its teeth barred. Carter fired another arrow at it as it opened its mouth in a loud snarl. I watched the arrow fly into the back of its mouth and I puled the trigger of my shotgun hitting it right in the head sending its body faling into the sand at our feet.

  I glanced at the dead hound for a moment, just long enough to ensure it was dead. I heard a gun fire and quickly turned to see Max fighting the first hound. He already unloaded his clip and was holding his knife at the ready. Taya was shaking, barely holding onto her knife as her body trembled in fear. I shoved her aside with my shoulder as I ran to Max’s side and cocked my shotgun. I blasted the demon and only slowed it, but Max lunged quickly. Slicing the demons throat as blood sprayed onto us.

  Dark blood gushed in streaks across my jeans and I swalowed the urge to vomit at the foul stench coupled with the scent of blood. I glanced over at Judy and Norah who were holding Savannah tightly between them. Their eyes were ful of fear as they stood like deer caught in headlights.

  As the second demon hound fel the large demon from city hal leaped for us like a lion. We al ran, but Savannah was frozen in fear. Judy remained tugging at her arm, but couldn’t get her to move fast enough, finding it difficult to get traction in the sand.

  Carter grabbed his last arrow, knocked it and I watched him take a deep breath as he tried to steady his shot as the demon fel onto Savannah. Max ran for it, slicing off an ear, but it fiercely swatted him with his paw like he was a fly, sending him soaring in the air to land like a rock ten feet away.

  Carter took his shot and the arrow sliced right through the demon’s eye. It roared in pain as blood streaked down its face and dripped off its muzzle. Judy screamed as she tried to drag Savannah’s body away. The little girl’s form looked like a bloody rag dol as Judy puled her across the sand. Taya quickly ran to help, tears streaming down her face and I knew this was our only chance.

  I fumbled trying to reload my shotgun and only managed to load one shot before the demon started for Carter and me. He puled out his knife as I fired the shotgun into the demon’s face. Blood splattered everywhere as the shots hit it, but it only shook its head violently before continuing its advance. I went to pul my knife, but realized Taya had taken it earlier.

  Suddenly Max came flying at the demon, he slammed his knife into the demon’s back and held on as it swung and bucked trying to get him off. I was relieved to see he was ok, but the sight of Max’s body flinging around like that made me sick to my stomach. Carter looked to me and then at the demon, slicing at its face and trying to dodge its swings.

  “Load your gun!” Carter shouted.

  I bolted into action and dove for the rounds I had dropped on the ground. I quickly loaded them and realized I couldn’t get a shot. If I fired I would hit Max who was stil being violently tossed like a cowboy riding a bucking bul.

  Max saw my struggling and quickly released as the demon bucked, sending him flying again across the dark landscape.

  “Move!” I shouted at Carter. He jumped out of the way but not before the demon thrashed at him, hitting his legs and sending him tumbling face down into the sand. I puled the trigger and the spray of bulets flew into the demons face.

  It howled so loudly I wanted to cover my ears and then it looked right at me. Our eyes locked and I had never been so terrified in my life, as its eyes bore into me.

  Into my soul. I could feel my body freezing in fear, but I couldn’t turn my eyes from it. A sense of overwhelming dread crept through my body like thousands of tiny spiders crawling under my skin. My mind filed with images of horrifying sights that I had never witnessed before and my body trembled as the demon dug at the ground like it was readying itself to charge at me. My breathing grew quick and ragged as my body trembled in fear.

  I squeezed my eyes shut as he came for me, tensing my body for the pain I knew was coming, but it never did. I opened my eyes to see that Judy had thrown herself in front of me.

  The demon had latched onto her and was shaking her around like a dog would a chew toy. She had to have been in tremendous pain, but she was screaming out in pure rage as the demon clamped down on her midsection. She repeatedly stabbed at it with a knife until it bit down even harder, severing her in half.

  The sight of Judy’s body faling to the ground in pieces made me drop to my knees. Complete defeat washed through me and I lost al hope. Al I could manage was to repeat in my head over and over that we were al going to die.

  Suddenly, Norah was at my side trying to load my shotgun as I sat frozen in shock, watching the demon devour Judy into two quick bites.

  “Abby!” Norah screamed at me and hit me hard in the face and I felt blood trickle from my nose. My face burned, but it broke me from whatever trance the demon had placed on me.

  Just as she handed me the shotgun the demon slashed at her with its claws, her blood splattering al over my face. I saw the whites of her eyes expand as she looked at me in agonizing fear and pain. She gurgled and blood began to pour from her mouth as her body fel onto me. I screamed out in rage as the weight of Norah’s body colapsed on me.

  I quickly caught her and dropped her to the ground, trying to avoid the demon as it swung at me. I desperately tried to get back on my feet as I struggled to get away, but the demon was gaining on me. I scrambled through the sand trying to gain my footing as the demon took its time as if it were enjoying itself immensely.

  I saw something move from the corner of my eye and saw Carter running at ful speed toward the demon. Then I saw Max coming from the other direction, both of them screaming a battle cry as they carried their knives above them. They each lunged for the demons neck, slicing as deeply as they could. As their blades tore through the soft flesh of its neck I felt arms grab me.

  Taya dragged me farther away as I watched the demon stagger. It whipped around and slammed Carter to the ground. It quickly smashed its large claw onto Carter. He struggled and grunted as it pressed down on his chest with its giant paw.

  Max lifted his knife again and sent it screaming down the demons neck. The demon staggered again and looked up at Max, its body shuddering. It tried to bite at Max while keeping Carter contained under its foot. Fear for Max and Carter coursed through me as I saw them struggling in their fight.

  I quickly wiggled out of Taya’s grip on me and pried the gun out of Norah lifeless hand. “Get Carter!” I shouted to Taya as I ran for the demon. She folowed close at my heels and quickly grabbed Carter’s arms trying to pul him out from under the demon’s foot. The demon’s eyes were on me and he ignored Taya as she struggled futilely to free Carter.

  I ran to Max’s side as I loaded my last two shots and cocked the shotgun. Max saw me and dove to the side to avoid being bitte
n. Just as the demon turned his head I fired at the open wound in its neck, quickly firing again, before the demon turned for me. It tried to move, but faltered. Blood was gushing from its neck into dark pools on the white sand. As the demon began to slip and struggle for footing in its puddles of blood Max took another final swing, completely severing the demons head.

  It fel to the ground and roled to my feet, leaving its black eyes looking up at me. “Abby, Abby are you ok?” Max ran to me, squeezing me close to him. We both began to weep as we shuddered in each other’s arms.

  “I’m ok I think. Are you hurt?” I asked and he shook his head.

  Not wanting to feel the demons eyes on me I ran to where Carter lay on the ground. “Oh my God, is he ok?” I asked Taya as I ran to my brother’s side.

  “I’m ok Abby.” I hugged him as tightly as I could without hurting him and he let out a slight grunt, but didn’t tel me to let go.

  “Is it dead?” Taya asked, her voice wavering.

  “Yeah, it’s dead,” Max said with satisfaction.

  “What should we do now?” I asked as I helped Carter get up.

  “Wel, we definitely can’t stay here can we?” Carter said, anger building in his tone.

  I saw Taya staring at the bodies that lay strewn about our tiny campfire. I grabbed her shoulder and tried to turn her head away. “Don’t look at them Taya. Don’t remember them like this.”

  “Why not? You want me to just forget them then?”

  “That’s not what I meant,” I stammered. The anger in her voice surprised me.

  “Of course that’s what you meant! You only care about yourself, it’s your fault they’re dead. You just stood there like an idiot!” Taya got in my face then as she continued to blame me.

  “Hey! Calm down!” Max shouted as he pushed Taya away from me.

  “Stay out of this; you just want to protect your little girlfriend!” Taya countered shoving Max back.

  “Huh, what?” Carter said clearly stil trying to gain his senses.

  “Listen to what you’re saying Taya, do you realy believe Abby is to blame for al of this?” Max asked. I stood there, starting to wonder if she was right. I was starting to question myself, what was I doing just standing there? It realy was my fault that Judy and Norah were dead.

  “She just stood there Max, you saw her! Why did you do it? Why Abby?” Taya was sobbing almost uncontrolably, as tears and snot ran down her face. Everyone looked to me; they too wanted to know what had come over me.

  “I… I don’t know. When it looked me in the eyes, I couldn’t move. It was like I could feel it inside me. Inside my head, under my skin. I just couldn’t move Taya.

  I didn’t mean to… I didn’t want this to happen.” I pictured in my mind what I must have looked like to them, just watching the demon attacking everyone, just watching it kiling Norah and I started to feel sick to my stomach.

  “It’s ok.” Max whispered to me as he put his arm around me to steady me on my feet. Taya’s blood boiled at the sight of Max comforting me and she slapped me hard in the face before storming off. I stood there in shock and pain as my face burned from the strike. She had hit me right were Norah had, right before she died.

  I wiped the blood from my nose and watched Taya in the distance as she started to pack up what she could, being careful to stay far away from the demon bodies.

  “She didn’t mean that. She’s just upset,” Carter said trying to comfort me. “I need you to stay focused Abby. I need you to tel me what happened to you.”

  “Not now Carter.” I protested shoving his hand away from me.

  “Fine, but we need to know. If they are able to control people like that then we need to know how to stop it. I guess that adds some weight to the idea that John was possessed by it.”

  That made me start to panic. “You think I’m possessed?”

  “No, I just think it saw you as a threat and was able to make contact with you somehow and immobilized you while it focused on…other targets.” He paused trying to find the right words. “I need my tough girl back. Can you do that for me?”

  “You sound like Dad,” I said.

  “Yeah, wel, it always seemed to work for him, when he said it.”

  I thought about it for a moment and nodded my head at him. As much as I wanted to crawl into a bal and cry the rest of the night I buried my emotions, and sucked it up like I always had to. I always had to be Daddy’s tough little girl.

  I watched Carter walk over to Taya and was grateful that he was playing diplomat. I wanted so badly for everything to be over, for us to just get to the military base and then everything would be better.

  “You don’t always have to be tough, ya know?” Max said softly to me.

  “Yes I do. If I let myself feel everything, I don’t know if I could handle it.”

  “You don’t need to handle it Abs, I’m here. Carter and Taya are here too, although Taya not so much right now, but that wil pass. What I’m trying to say is it’s ok to freak out. I can see you holding it al back. I know you are trying to be strong for everyone. We are stil going to love you even if you flip out and throw a tantrum like Taya, just like you’l stil love her even though she’s a teenage emotional rolercoaster.” He smiled at me and tried to clean up my face with a strip of his shirt he had torn off.

  “She has good reason to though.” I winced as he put pressure on my nose.

  He shrugged. “Maybe so. Everyone has reason to freak out right now, the world has turned into the devil’s playground, but she didn’t need to take it out on you.

  Now, take a deep breath and then I need you to help me get things packed up.”

  “Ok Dr. Phil,” I said using humor to lighten the mood like Max always did.

  “There’s my girl!” a wide grin spreading on his face. His optimism drove me nuts, but I couldn’t survive without it. I watched him as he made his way toward our things and noticed that he was limping slightly. I realized he must have been in pain from the fight with the demons and I wanted so badly for him to never feel pain again. I silently prayed, not caring that God had apparently forsaken us, that we would al make it to the base and that someday we would be able to live the lives that we had always wanted to.

  “I love you Max.” I caled out to him.

  “I love you too.” He shouted back at me. I took a deep breath and walked to what was left of our camp.

  Chapter 14

  We spent the next hour or two packing up anything we had left that was stil usable. Max and Carter stacked the demons bodies in a large pile and used what was left of the tiny bit of gasoline we had to set them on fire. Strangely enough they lit easily and burned like dry wood. The fire grew large and we al felt uncomfortable being near such a large beacon of light, not to mention the stench.

  We had wanted to bury Savannah and Norah but we didn’t have any tools, nor did we have the time to do it by hand. We puled them as far away from the demons as we could and had a smal funeral, each of us saying our own prayers silently. I could feel Taya’s eyes on me the whole time.

  It was difficult to just leave them lying there, and the thought of animals or other demons getting to them was difficult to bear. Carter suggested that we set them ablaze as wel, and after Taya’s protests he convinced her that in many cultures it was a very respectful way to honor the dead.

  As the orange glow of the flames danced across our tear stained faces we turned our back on our lost friends and made our way back toward the highway.

  It felt like an eternity of walking before the slightest rays of sunlight blossomed on the horizon. None of us said much on the long walk, except when one of us needed a break. We didn’t stray from the road and wouldn’t even alow ourselves much privacy to go to the bathroom. The farther down the road we got, the slower we became. Our bodies were weakening from the lack of sleep and food.

  I’l never forget the moment we saw the military base in the distance. A sudden wash of relief spiled over me and I felt like I could breathe ag
ain. We cheered and hugged each other and our steps felt lighter as we quickened our advance to the base.

  “I’m going to take the longest shower ever,” Taya said sounding much more like herself then she had earlier that night.

  “Me too, but not before I stuff my face with whatever they have to eat.” Max added.

  I smiled over at Carter and I could visibly tel how relieved he looked, even with his face battered up. We had made it.

  “How are we going to get in when we get there?” I asked as I wondered if they had some kind of perimeter set up.

  “Duh! Right through the front gate,” Taya said sounding like walking into a military base during a demon apocalypse was completely normal.

  “Taya’s right. We probably should head for the front gate, I’m sure they have some kind of surveilance set up. When they see us approaching they wil probably send someone to meet us.”

  “I can’t wait.” Not holding back my relief I sped up my walking as much as my feet would alow. Max slowed down to keep pace with me and I mouthed the words I love you to him and he smiled.

  The closer and closer we got the more relieved I felt. As we neared the front of the base we walked quickly down the freeway ramp and onto First Street. The visitor parking area was loaded with cars of every kind and we looked at each other with tearful grins from ear to ear.

  “So many people have come,” I said. “Do you think we should wait here for them to send someone to get us?”

  “Heck no!” Carter said, a laugh almost escaping him.

  “What if they have like, shooters guarding the entrance?” Taya said starting to sound paranoid as she looked up at a tal watch tower.

  “I’m sure they do, but they aren’t going to shoot humans,” Max said reassuring her. “We’ve made it this far, don’t get hesitant now.” I wanted to say something to comfort her as wel, but she was stil angry at me. I could tel she was trying to work past it and wasn’t glaring at me as much, but it was obvious she was stil hurt. Whether she was right or wrong didn’t matter, so I didn’t want to press my luck.