by Jon Jacks
‘It’s okay; it’s nowhere near as bad as it was!’ He quickly studied the controls, checked that the key was still in the ignition. He could reach the pedals comfortably.
‘It’s an automatic, not a gear stick – I mean stick shift,’ Jial reassuringly pointed out to Chrissy as they both leapt into the passenger seats. ‘Easier to drive! Just drive it like one of your video games, Si!’
Si started up the engine, kicked the jeep into life. It jerked forward, jumped over rubble and wreckage scattered across the ground. Si spun the wheel, bringing the jeep out from behind an overturned truck, its cargo of bodies strewn across the ground.
Clinging on to the jeep’s sides as Si accelerated away, Chrissy glanced back at the wavering defensive line of angels.
‘They’re breaking through!’ she yelled out in warning and terror. ‘The beasts are breaking through!’
*
Chapter 33
The jeep crunched, skittered, skewed sideways and roared over the debris littered road. As it picked up speed, Si quickly acquainted himself with the controls.
Behind them, the beasts elatedly howled as they effortlessly sprinted into a frenzied chase.
‘They’re not breaking through, Chrissy,’ Jial observed forlornly, almost tearfully, as she peered over the back of the jeep at the pursuing horde. ‘They’re just ignoring the angels. And that’s bad, very bad indeed.’
Now that Jial had pointed it out, Chrissy immediately realised that she was right. The beasts weren’t ducking past the swinging blows of the angelic warriors as she had assumed. They were simply walking unhurt through what should have been fiercely curving strikes of sword or lance. It was as if the angels existed only as beings of nothing more than the brightest light – glorious, frightening even, yet ultimately insubstantial and harmless.
‘No lights!’ Si screamed worriedly, drawing both Chrissy and Jial’s attention back to where they were heading. ‘We need some light here!’
They’d passed out of the orb of illumination provided by the smashed convoy’s shattered searchlights, the crazily angled main beams of the upturned vehicles. Ahead of them lay mainly darkness, lit only every now and again by a dim street lamp. Si was frantically searching the controls, looking for the switch for the jeep’s lights. The jeep lurched, bucked and bounced violently as it first struck the kerb and then other objects hidden by the darkness.
At last, the jeep’s own beams blazed into life, throwing out twin cones of light for a good few yards ahead of them. With his attention firmly back on the now brightly illuminated road, Si regained a passably good control of the jeep. He gunned the engine into a much needed extra burst of speed.
The beasts moved ridiculously swiftly. They weren’t being left behind anywhere near as quickly as Chrissy had hoped. With blood-freezing growls and yelps, the pursuing monsters were still giving chase, loping after the frenziedly swerving jeep as if it were hardly moving.
‘I’ll try give them the slip!’ Si cried, glancing back over his shoulder at the pursuing horde. ‘Hold on!’
He abruptly spun the wheel hard, screeching the jeep into a tight curve, and aiming it down a narrow, badly lit side alley.
‘Si, it’s one way!’ Chrissy yelled, seeing the warning sign only as the jeep plunged between the enclosing alley walls.
‘One way?’ Si yelled back in disbelief. ‘Chrissy, we’ve got monsters from hell chasing us and – arrrgghhhh, no!’
They all jumped at the horn’s blare. They were all almost blinded by the bright, full beams.
Another vehicle was heading directly towards them down the narrow alley.
*
‘Hang on again!’
Si threw the jeep into an urgent swerve once more, an even more urgent correction.
The oncoming driver must have instinctively made a similar manoeuvre. Like the jeep, it leapt and jumped as it struck the kerb. It screeched painfully as it scraped along the wall, clanged nosily as wing mirrors and handles collided, broke off, and spun away into the darkness.
The two vehicles roared past each other with little to spare, frantically fishtailing and bucking and rocking worryingly as their respective drivers nervously jerked them off the kerb and back onto the road.
Despite apprehensively clinging to her seat as tightly as she could, Chrissy stared back at the now rapidly receding car. She watched in horror as its rear lights blazed a brighter red, the driver hitting his brakes, presumably fearing he was about to tear into a crowd of people.
The car ploughed into the onrushing beasts, the thuds of violently stricken bodies loud enough to be heard over screeching tyres. At least two of the beasts were sent uncontrollably bowling over the top of the car. Their immense bodies and long limbs loosely flopped in the air, as if every bone had been shattered beyond repair.
Yet both beasts landed catlike upon feet and hands, springing instantly back into a run, both uninjured and undeterred. Only those left behind them gave up pursuing the jeep, and then only because this new, more easily apprehended prey had landed in their lap. These beasts leapt hungrily upon the car, pounding on its roof and doors. They shattered windows and tore off whole sheets off metal in their eagerness to drag out the terrified, fearfully shrieking people inside.
Chrissy couldn’t look anymore.
‘Jial; is there nothing you can do?’ she asked hopefully.
Jial gloomily shook her head.
‘No, sorry; even the angels can’t save those poor people now. We have to–’
There was a thunderous boom, the shrieking of protesting metal. The jeep bucked violently, briefly almost coming to a complete halt. What appeared to be a massive, dark boulder had dropped from out of nowhere onto the vehicle’s hood.
Si fought the wheel, the jeep uncontrollably weaving for a moment. He wondered what Chrissy was doing as, out of the corner of an eye, he saw her swiftly reach for and unclasp a shotgun strapped just beneath the jeep’s dashboard.
The dark mass on the hood instantaneously uncoiled. Stretching out into a beast, it triumphantly snarled as it sprang towards Si. The jeep frantically reared and chaotically swerved as a second beast landed in the back seat alongside Jial.
‘Chrissy, behind you!’ Jial screamed in warning.
Chrissy didn’t hear. There was an ear-splitting crack as, standing up in her seat, she aimed the shotgun at the beast bounding towards Si.
The beast’s chest exploded, a volcano of flesh, fur and blood. The force of the gun’s blast sent the creature flying off into the semi-darkness.
The shotgun’s recoil brutally flung Chrissy back out of her seat. She crashed heavily into the beast in the rear seat, sending him wheeling uncontrollably out of the back of the vehicle.
‘Si! They’re coming across the roof tops!’ Chrissy bellowed urgently.
Looking up from her sprawled position in the back seat, Chrissy could see more and more beasts using the surrounding high buildings as runways to cut off the jeep’s retreat.
Another beast leapt from the roof top, aiming to land on the hood once more.
Si jerked the wheel, swerved enough to cause the beast to miss, to land just slightly to one side of the jeep. The creature howled in dismay and agony as, in the harsh, angular light of a beam, he was caught by a wheel arch and sent crashing into a nearby wall.
A forth beast landed just short of the jeep, emerging from an athletic, force-absorbing roll to spring immediately to his feet. It reached out for the spare tyre fixed to the vehicle’s rear. Its talons effortlessly bit into thick metal and rubber, easily grabbing purchase; then the tyre broke free, and the surprised beast fell bowling across the ground.
‘Turn right, so they can’t cut us off!’ Jial yelled as, behind her, more beasts dropped through the darkness.
Landing as lithely as if weightless, the beasts instantly leapt up into a sprinting chase.
The brighter lights of a more major road lay far ahead, crossing the end of the alley. Si glanced up to his side, saw
immense shadowy figures rushing across the tops of the buildings. They would reach the road before he did.
Just up ahead, to his right, he saw the opening to what he could only hope was another, narrow alley. Wrenching the steering wheel hard, he swung the nosily protesting jeep into a sliding turn. Then, gunning the engine yet again, he sent the jeep plunging into this new alleyway.
‘If we continue straight on,’ he warned, ‘we’re going to end up in Bonniville.’
Looking far up ahead, Si realised that keeping to the alley, rather than making another turn, would eventually lead them to one of only four roads taking them out of town,
‘Bonniville it is then,’ Chrissy sighed with a resigned grimace.
She gained a small measure of comfort from the heavy gun resting in her hands as she anxiously stared back at the swiftly pursuing beasts.
‘Because if we don’t keep straight on, these monsters are going to catch us. You can bet on it.’
*
Chapter 34
‘They won’t give up,’ Jial said gloomily.
Slightly turning around in her seat, she looked back towards the beasts still resolutely giving chase. Despite the extra speed the jeep had at last managed to pick up on its straight, clear run, they beasts didn’t appear to be tiring.
‘Not until it’s obvious to them that you’ve definitely outrun them.’
Staring out of the rear of the jeep with Jial, Chrissy wondered when that would ever be. The creatures weren’t experiencing any trouble in maintaining the incredible speed necessary to keep up with the jeep. Yes, bit by bit they were dropping behind, but only gradually, only slowly.
Si resisted the temptation to turn off down any of the roads crossing their own. He realised that the beasts would take to the roof tops once more, threatening to cut them off at the next junction.
Si dragged as much acceleration as he could out of the now sorely battered jeep. Even when they at last reached the end of the long alley, coming out onto a wider, curving road on the edge of town, he tore straight across the intersections. He used only the briefest glance either side to make sure no other vehicles were going to crash into them.
Si tweaked the steering wheel. The jeep threw up a light smattering of dust as Si pointed it down the long road heading out towards Bonniville.
And the beasts tirelessly continued to follow.
*
‘I think you should stop now.’
Chrissy peered at Jial incredulously.
‘Stop? Jial, they’re still after us!’
It was still dark, in fact darker than ever out in the unlit desert. The pursuing beasts could no longer be seen, but they could still be heard. Howling excitedly, threateningly, somewhere on the road way behind them.
The beasts had, at last, dropped a considerable distance behind them. Yet they seemed inexhaustible, determined. Chrissy had fearfully begun to believe that the creatures would keep on chasing them until their jeep ran out of fuel.
‘You need to stop for a moment,’ Jial insisted. ‘Or, just like last time, in the van, you’re going to be forced to come to a halt.’
Si shook his head in angry disagreement.
‘I’ve checked – we’ve got more than enough gas to get us to Bonniville. It’s what; no more than twelve miles from us?’
‘It’s more, more miles than you think,’ Jial answered ominously. ‘But unless you stop now and remove the engine disablers, the jeep’s going to come to a grinding halt.’
‘You mean like that thing Mom stripped from the van? There’s one in the jeep as well?’
‘Two – there’s two. That’s why you’re mum’s stripping it out didn’t prevent the van from coming to a halt. There’s a second one hidden away that even she’s not allowed to know about.’
‘Jial – what’s going on here?’ Chrissy demanded angrily. ‘How come you know about these things? Why have all our cars got things in them to stop them working?’
‘And what was that you said earlier about this jeep?’ Si joined in, his tone no less accusatory. ‘It’s a gear stick? That’s English, isn’t it – I mean British English?’
‘So what’re you saying, Si? The British are coming?’ Jial spat back irritably. ‘That’s you’re biggest worry, is it? That I speak British English rather than American English? Just stop the jeep, please,’ she finally pleaded. ‘You have to, otherwise they really will catch us!’
With an irate flip of his foot, Si stepped down hard on the brake pedal. The jeep slew to an almost immediate halt. As Si leapt out of the jeep, Jial followed him with a flutter of her wings.
‘Okay, okay, but let’s be quick!’ Si insisted irritably. ‘And you’re going to have to show me where these things, whatever they are, are hidden.’
He flipped open the jeep’s hood, automatically switching on a light that illuminated the engine.
Chrissy quickly slipped back into the front seat, from where she began to urgently search for more ammunition for her gun.
‘Is that one?’ Si asked Jial hopefully, pointing out a device next to the cylinders. It looked remarkably similar to the one he’d seen his mom remove from their van. ‘Should I remove it?’
Jial nodded. ‘It should pull out easily enough,’ she said.
Si effortlessly ripped out the disabler and contemptuously flung it aside.
‘That’s the other one.’ Jial leant over the engine to point deeper into its works. ‘It’s made to look like some kind of pump. But it will cut out the engine as soon as you reach too far out of town.’
Realising he didn’t have time to demand any more explanations, Si simply reached for the device. With an angry jerk of his arm, he pulled the disabler clear of the engine.
Letting the hood slam back into place, he tossed the disabler into the darkness. He rushed back to and slid once more into his seat.
His eyes widened in both amazement and admiration as he saw Chrissy smoothly, perhaps even expertly, reloading her gun.
‘Surprising what you can pick up from the movies,’ she said blithely. ‘Especially when your life depends on it.’
There was an urgent yet gentle fluttering of wings as Jial flew into her own, rear seat. There was also a loud series of howls; howls that were louder, much louder than they’d been before Si had had to stop the jeep.
‘Better get going.’
Si and Chrissy said it together, almost at once.
Si started up the engine. He gunned the jeep back into motion with a slew of rapidly revolving tyres fighting for grip.
With an edgy glance back into the darkness, Chrissy patted the gun in her lap.
She could only hope that she’d learned enough from the movies to save them all when the beasts eventually caught up.
*
Chapter 35
A smattering of lights lay ahead of them. The lights took on an extra brightness, and a few more became visible, as they drew nearer.
‘Bonniville should be bigger than this, surely?’ Chrissy breathed with a mix of both hope and disbelief.
Dim cones of light cast from high, overhead street lamps began to illuminate the garishly white, perfectly rectangular sides of mobile homes.
‘Uh uh,’ Si said, peering intently towards the nearing lights. ‘It’s another mobile home park. All these trips I’ve had out of town, and I can’t ever recall seeing one of these parks lying between the two towns.’
‘It looks like everyone’s asleep.’ Stirring anxiously in the back of the jeep, Jial fleetingly looked over her shoulder, back towards where you could still hear the excited whoops and fearsome growls of the shadowing beasts. ‘We’ve brought down hell upon them. And no one seems to have warned them what’s happening in town!’
Leaning across from her seat, Chrissy frantically pumped the jeep’s horn. As the horn blared out nosily across the mainly empty desert, a few more lights flickered on amongst the mobile homes.
‘Should we stop, help–’
‘No, we can’t help them,�
�� Jial interrupted. She stared up into the darkness, biting her lip apprehensively. ‘I can’t understand why no one’s coming to help.’
‘Angels?’ Si asked. ‘You’re expecting the angels?’
‘Gunships: helicopter gunships. That’s what I was really hoping for,’ Jial replied bluntly.
‘If Hermon’s asked for help, they could be flying in from any of the other surrounding towns,’ Si said.
‘Hmn, possibly, possibly,’ Jial agreed, though with a tone suggesting she was unpersuaded.
Partly dressed, blearily-eyed people were already stepping outside of their homes as the jeep roared past. They peered worriedly at the jeep as Chrissy continued to frenziedly sound the horn.
‘The beasts, the beasts are coming!’ she roared out to them as loudly as she could, even though she knew they wouldn’t be able to hear her. ‘Get yourself a gun. At least get yourself a gun!’ she wept bitterly as they stared curiously after the swiftly passing jeep.
The jeep hurtled into the darkness lying ahead of them. The lights of the mobile home park rapidly dropped behind them, becoming little more than a smattering of dim lights once more.
The howls of the trailing beasts abruptly transformed into much louder, elated whoops and aggressive growls. A street lamp shook then toppled, blinking out as it crashed to the ground.
There were a few gun shots, but far more shrieks of terror, and cries for help. The sound, too, of what could be the thin metal walls of the homes being ripped and torn.
Gradually, the lights from the park faded and dimmed behind the fleeing jeep. So too did the howling of the beasts as if, at long last, they had given up the chase.
The beasts had been handed far easier prey to devour, after all.
Chrissy breathed a sigh of relief. Yet she couldn’t help feeling guilty, too, for thinking that way.
*
‘I’d expected them to have been given warning: be more prepared for an attack.’
Recognising Chrissy’s misery and sense of responsibility for what had happened, Jial spoke calmly and assuredly.
‘The first thing we need to do when we reach Bonniville is to find a police station: let them know what’s going on in Hermon. Just in case they also haven’t received any warnings.’