Hell On Earth Box Set | Books 1-6

by Wright, Iain Rob

  “Ha! No way, lass. My buddy Ted died for me back at Kielder. Now it’s my turn to die for someone else. I’ll be on these walls till they fall flat. My legs are too short for running anyway.”

  Maddy laughed. There wasn’t an ounce of fear on Frank’s heavily bearded face. He was a warrior. “Then it looks like we’re going to be holding the fort together.”

  “Just so long as you leave the big bugger to me.”

  Maddy looked at the terrifying monster striding through the blackened crater. She shuddered. “He’s all yours.”

  Tosco moved up beside Maddy and rattled off several rounds from his rifle. “I’ve got one more magazine,” he said, “then nothing.”

  “We can always heckle them,” said Maddy, firing off the remainder of her clip. It was all she had left, so she tucked her handgun into her waistband and searched for another weapon. There were none to be found. All along the walls, men and women stood unable to do anything but watch or turn and flee. Portsmouth was almost out of ammunition. The howitzers had fallen silent too. The docks were full of frightened people running for the boats.

  Maddy looked down over the wall and saw a throng of demons directly below. They were still clambering over corpses, climbing over each other like rats, but they were gradually making it higher. Without the constant barrage of gunfire, they were amassing faster than they were being pushed back. It was like looking down into an ocean of teeth and claws.

  Frank continued running back and forth along the platform, shouting for everyone to fire whatever they had left. “We’ll fight ’em with our bare ’ands if we ’ave to. Who do they think they’re dealing with?”

  Dr Kamiyo started leading Scarlett towards the ladders. He noticed Maddy watching and shook his head sadly. “There’s nothing more I can do here. I’m going to get Scarlett back to the boat.”

  Maddy smiled weakly. “People are going to need you, Doctor, so go. You have time.”

  Scarlett had stopped crying, but her eyes were swollen and red. All the same, she managed to give Maddy a polite nod that was really a simple goodbye. They would never see each other again.

  “Demons on the walls,” Frank shouted. “Demons on the sodding walls.”

  Maddy turned just in time to see a primate bounding awkwardly along the narrow wooden walkway. Tosco grabbed her out of the way and let rip with his rifle. Bloody divots opened up on the primate’s clammy chest and it went toppling back over the wall.

  Tosco tossed his rifle and groaned. “That’s me empty. You okay?”

  Maddy nodded. “Fine. I have my knight in shining armour with me, don’t I?”

  “Always.”

  Frank staggered backwards along the ramparts. “Ah, bloody ’ell!”

  Two more primates had leapt onto the walls, knocking a pair of soldiers off the platform and onto the hard concrete fifteen feet below. Dr Kamiyo and Scarlett were forced backwards, their route to the ladders cut off.

  “They’re trapped,” said Maddy. “We need to help them.”

  Scarlett screamed as Dr Kamiyo stood in front of her with only a knife to defend himself with. The young doctor was brave, but he was outmatched.

  Frank tried to get the demon’s attention by shouting obscenities. It didn’t work; they had their eyes on vulnerable meat.

  “Get back,” Dr Kamiyo yelled, his voice wavering. “Please!”

  Maddy picked up Tosco’s rifle, knowing it was empty. She turned it around and used the stock to strike one of the demons between the shoulder blades. The demon spun to face her, furious. Its fangs dripped bloody saliva. Maddy then swung for its head, but a swipe of its lethal claws sent the useless rifle cartwheeling over the wall and into the writhing mass of demons below. More and more were nearing the top of the wall, climbing on top of each other like acrobats. Maddy’s spine stiffened at the sight of them.

  Dr Kamiyo grunted, swinging his knife at the primate and drawing blood from its arm. With a bloodcurdling screech, the demon leapt on Dr Kamiyo, knocking him down and pinning him against the wooden walkway. Maddy was forced back by the other demon, unable to help.

  Scarlett screamed for help, screamed for Sorrow.

  There was a whoosh of wind, and something dark shot up into the sky. Maddy could only make out a shadow, a bat-like shape streaking through the spotlights that criss-crossed overhead. For a moment she thought it was a new kind of demon – an abominable creature they had yet to see – but then the beast came crashing down onto the ramparts and she realised it was Sorrow.

  He survived. How the hell did he survive?

  Sorrow flared his wings and knocked the primate off of Dr Kamiyo just as it was about to tear into his throat. The force sent the doctor rolling towards the edge of the platform, but Sorrow snatched his ankle and yanked him back just in time.

  Scarlett saw her friend was alive and lost her mind. “Sorrow! Sorrow, you’re alive!”

  The demon took a step towards the girl, but the other primate leapt onto his back and caused him to stop. Sorrow merely reached back and yanked the demon away. Then, without mercy, he tore the arms off the demon like wings from a butterfly. The way he tossed the armless torso over the wall was chilling. Sorrow was furious.

  Thank God he’s on our side.

  The space between them now free, Scarlett threw herself at Sorrow. The demon embraced her, cocooning them both with his leathery black wings. “Ward, I feared the worst.”

  “I thought you were dead, Sorrow.”

  “Merely injured. Your allies hit me with crushing fire. It caused me great anger.”

  Maddy winced. “I can’t believe you survived that.”

  “How did you?” asked Scarlett, still hugging him, still sobbing with joy.

  Sorrow pulled his wings back in and stood straight. “I was forged in flame. No fire may burn me.”

  Tosco raised an eyebrow. “Good to know.”

  Kamiyo got to his feet and rubbed at his arm. “Thanks for the save, Sorrow.”

  “I am happy you live, Doctor, but you will die soon. Crimolok is here.”

  As if to prove his point, a part of the wall thirty metres away crumbled as Crimolok strode right through it. Men and woman fell, shattering against the concrete twenty feet below.

  People stopped fighting and ran for their lives.

  Frank started shouting, but this time, instead of telling people to stand and fight, he yelled at them to get to the boats. Hundreds of people stayed to fight on the battlements while thousands fled. Maddy felt their fear. This was sheer terror.

  Further north, the demons were massacring people. Their screaming was the only thing she could hear. All gunfire had ceased.

  “We only have a few minutes,” said Tosco. His eyes were wide and unblinking. “They’re going to overwhelm the docks before everyone can get away.”

  “The bastards,” said Frank, seething.

  There was a sudden burst of gunfire as a large group of soldiers sprinted across the courtyard. Instead of running away, they were running towards battle. Maddy saw Colonel Wanstead among them, and when he saw her questioning stare, he stopped to explain himself. “Reserves. I wanted to keep something back in case the demons breached the wall. The children and the elderly are already safe, but there are still thousands trying to make it onto the boats. We need to buy them time.”

  “Good work, Colonel,” said Tosco, nodding appreciatively.

  “Yeah,” said Frank. “Bostin’.”

  Maddy didn’t quite understand the reason in keeping reserves, but slowly she realised that these men would have just emptied their weapons into an endless sea of demons. Now they could deal with the demons that had made it past the walls. Smart move.

  Someone handed Tosco a rifle. Then someone else appeared and handed one to Maddy. It was Sarah. “You’re still alive then?” she said.

  Maddy nodded. “For now. Where have you been?”

  “Got dragged into a fight nearby. I saw these fine gentlemen handing out guns and decided to tag along.”


  Wanstead pointed to the broken section of the wall. “Attack those demons before they overwhelm the docks.”

  Everyone roared like berserkers as thousands of bullets whizzed through the air and struck demon flesh. Even at this range, the assault was devastating. The demons fell in their hundreds, once again creating a barricade of their own corpses. Their progress through the broken-down wall slowed to a trickle. It brought time for people to break cover and race for the quayside. With any luck, they would find boats there waiting for them.

  Crimolok stomped at another section of the wall, creating new gaps for the demons to flow through. The giant being seemed in no rush to end the battle. It looked like Crimolok was enjoying it.

  Maddy savoured the feeling of a rifle bucking in her hands as she fired round after round. Sarah knelt beside her, once again showing inhuman accuracy and speed. It was as though the woman had been born with a high-powered weapon in her arms.

  Wanstead waved at the armed men. “Fall back to the warehouses. We can take cover inside and try to keep them at bay for as long as possible.”

  “We go inside,” said Tosco, “we’ll never make it out again.”

  “I understand the consequences, Commander. It’s my duty to stay behind, but the rest of you should fight only as long as you want to. Get yourself back to the boats before it’s too late.”

  “Maybe Sorrow can fly us out of here,” said Frank, half-serious.

  Sorrow flapped his wings.

  Everyone fought their way back towards the warehouses. Most of them had been cleared and organised, used for accommodation or supplies. The first warehouse they reached was full of bedrolls and assorted human belongings. Fortunately, it was empty of people.

  Wanstead gave orders. “Set up at the windows. Don’t pick your shots, there are too many. Hit whatever you can as quickly as you can. Let them climb over their own dead to get at us.”

  Maddy pulled aside a makeshift curtain that someone had put up over a broken window, then set her rifle against the sill. The demons came in their hundreds now. Soon, it would be thousands.

  They’re like locusts. Biblical.

  I hate them.

  The warehouse was like the inside of a deafening drum as two hundred soldiers fired their rifles at once. Their combined assault pushed the demons back, injuring most but killing many. The beasts clambered and bumped into each other, their clumsiness slowing them down.

  Sarah fired out of the window beside Maddy. “These things never get any less ugly, do they?”

  Maddy chuckled. “Are you still trying to keep me alive?”

  “A soldier without a mission is just a maniac with a gun.”

  “Good point. I’m glad you have my back, Sarah.”

  Sarah rattled off a full magazine. “Saw you and Tosco eating each other’s faces earlier. How long’s that been going on?”

  “It’s not going on. Maybe if we don’t all die in the next ten minutes, something might get to go on, but right now…”

  Frank yelled in the background. “Make ’em eat shit!”

  Sarah nodded. “Yeah, bigger issues. I get it.”

  The two women fired round after round for so long that it was hard to breathe amongst the gun smoke, but it was a losing battle. The demons advanced relentlessly – a tide that couldn’t be held back. Every now and then a primate would make it into open ground and start sprinting. It shifted everyone’s fire enough that the larger mass of demons would gain a few yards every time.

  “Everyone, spread your fire,” shouted Tosco. “I’ll deal with any demons that make it into the open.”

  Maddy was out of ammo, so she headed over to the rucksack that one of Wanstead’s men had put down. It was full of ammo, and she grabbed what she needed. Reloading her rifle, she turned to go back to the windows, but a radio hissed and caught her attention. The handset was clipped to the side of the rucksack. She grabbed it.

  “Commander Tosco,” said a familiar voice, “are you still alive?”

  Maddy grabbed the radio. “Klein, is that you?”

  “Ja, fräulein. It is good to hear your voice. Is James still with you?”

  “Yes, he’s alive.”

  “Then please inform him I have young Alice and her mother aboard my submarine. They are safe.”

  “I’ll tell him right now.” Maddy turned and headed for the windows. Tosco was busy and hadn’t heard the conversation over the din of rifle fire, but she was glad to be able to give him some good news. If nothing else, he would die knowing that Alice was safe. “James! James, that was—”

  Maddy was struck from behind. She hit the ground and smacked her head on the concrete floor. She didn’t see the demon at first, but she smelled it. Rotten flesh and spilled blood. She tried to get up, but her vision swirled.

  “Shit!” someone shouted. “They’re coming in round the back.”

  The deafening gunfire got louder as people turned their rifles inwards, gunfire echoing off the vaulted ceiling. Maddy saw stars, and when a burnt man collapsed onto the ground beside her, she realised someone had just saved her life. Sarah appeared and grabbed her. “On your feet, soldier.”

  “I’m not a soldier,” said Maddy, looking around for her rifle. “A real soldier never loses their weapon for one thing, right?”

  Sarah located the rifle and shoved it into Maddy’s arms. “You’re a soldier whether you like it or not. Get your head in the game, bitch.”

  Maddy nodded, struck by the other woman’s ferocity. “Sure thing.”

  “We’re surrounded,” someone shouted.

  “We’re trapped in here,” said someone else.

  “No,” Frank roared. “The sorry bastards are trapped in here with us! Let ’em ’ave it.”

  Tosco looked around desperately. “Everyone, head for the side door over there. We can fight our way out of this.”

  Maddy lifted her rifle and fought for her life. A dozen demons had made it inside the warehouse from a side entrance. She picked her shots and hit headshot after headshot. Maybe she was a soldier. Sarah edged her towards the other side of the warehouse, firing her rifle and using her elbows to keep Maddy moving. Eventually, they joined up with the others. So far, no one had been hurt.

  But that quickly changed.

  With their focus no longer on the demons coming in through the broken-down wall, the primates at the front of the pack were finally able to make it to the warehouse. The first of them crashed through a half-broken window and landed on a woman, twisting her head right around and snapping her neck. The demon started eating her, but Wanstead put a stop to it, shooting the monster in the top of the skull at point-blank range. The colonel then turned to his men and bellowed, “Full retreat. Get to the boats. Stop for nothing.”

  “Yow heard the man,” Frank shouted. “Move your arses.”

  More demons exploded through the windows and burst in through the side entrance. Shadows surrounded the building, blocking out the glow of the spotlights. Everyone fought for the door at the back of the warehouse as men began to fall, pulled down by burnt men and primates. Within seconds, two dozen men were dead or screaming.

  Sarah shoved Maddy. “Move it.”

  Maddy let off another three shots, but then she was out. The rucksack of ammo was lost in the sea of demons. Others ran out of ammunition too, forced to used their rifles as clubs.

  More men fell.

  “Damn it!” Sarah backed up against Maddy and fired the last of her ammunition. Then she threw her rifle at a primate before whipping out a handgun and shooting it in the chest. “Maddy, you need to go. We can’t hold them any more.”

  “I’m not leaving without you.”

  “I’m not your fucking girlfriend. Go!”

  Maddy looked around for answers that didn’t involve abandoning people to die. Frank, Wanstead, and a small group of men were surrounded nearby, cut off from escape. Despite that, they continued to fight. Frank continued to shout and bellow. How could she run while they remained behind?
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  “I can’t leave.”

  A hand wrapped around her elbow and wrenched it behind her back. “Yes, you can!”

  Tosco dragged Maddy backwards towards the door while Sarah shoved her from the front. All around them, people died. Maddy looked desperately towards Frank and Colonel Wanstead, but both men were now lost in a sea of demons.

  We can’t abandon them.

  Maddy threw her head back and struck Tosco’s face. He grunted and released her, and with both arms free, Maddy shoved Sarah out of the way. She had no idea what she was doing, but she knew she wanted to stay and fight. She wanted to fight like Amanda and Tony and Diane and all the others who had died trying to protect other people.

  She caught another glimpse of Frank amidst the demons. He was unarmed, throwing his fists and kicking out with his legs. His awkward movements were hard to predict, and it bought him a little space while the demons struggled to get at him.

  Tosco and Sarah shouted after Maddy to stop, but she ignored them and rushed to help. Dying for others was better than living for yourself.

  She had no regrets. This was the ending she wanted. Maybe it was the one she deserved.

  But when the ceiling came down on top of her, all thoughts of helping others went away.

  18

  Maddy couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. She was buried alive. She coughed and dust filled her mouth, choked her throat. She began to panic, unable to see or hear anything. She focused on a pinprick of light that slowly got larger. First she saw stars, then the moon. Was she outside?

  A face appeared above hers. It was Tosco. He bled from his forehead and was covered in chalky-white dust. “Maddy, you need to get up.”

  She reached out and grabbed his hand, holding on to him like a life jacket. The warehouse had collapsed around them, the roof now on the floor in pieces. The walls had shattered. Breeze blocks lay exposed. Steel lintels leant at precarious angles. Men and women lay in the rubble, some dead or unconscious, others moaning and dazed. The demons were in the same state, trapped and clawing to dig themselves out of their concrete graves.