The Last Rite

by Chad Morgan

  The truck’s engine still roared, its wheels spinning free. She looked to the cab, but it was void of movement. Someone rigged it to go on its own. She turned to the front of the bank, and standing in the missing doorway was Charlie Lightfoot, his gaudy bow in one hand.

  “Oh, Lucy! I’m home!” he called out in a horrible Ricky Ricardo impersonation. “And you’ve got a lot of explaining to do!”

  She got to her feet. So did the remaining monsters, recovering from the initial shock. Charlie Lightfoot had found them and formed a plan to breach the bank. Impressive despite the lack of subtlety, but he hadn’t thought far enough ahead. He was outnumbered. Maybe he had hoped to do more damage with the truck.

  If Lightfoot knew how overmatched he was, he didn’t show it. He notched an arrow, pulled it back, and aimed at her partner, who she noticed was still holding the scroll case. He shouted, “Is that the scroll? That’s so strange, I was just looking for that!”

  “You shouldn’t have come here,” her partner shouted back, “and you really shouldn’t have come here alone.”

  From where the truck had rammed the wall, crawling out from the other building were what looked to the business suit woman like giant cockroaches. Instead of chitin-made exoskeletons, though, it looked like human arms and legs had been pulled and stretched into the shape of an insect’s leg, bone splintered and pulled out through the flesh. Her partner watched them in satisfaction as they started to swarm through the hole in the wall. She looked back to Lightfoot, who seemed unconcerned by this new horror. He let loose an arrow, and one of the roach things was pinned to the wall, it's skin hissing and bubbling where the arrow pierced it, the thing squealing in pain.

  “Well, you’re right about one thing,” he said. “I really shouldn’t come alone. Good thing I didn’t.”

  He put his fingers into his mouth and let out a sharp whistle. A small battalion of creatures rushed into the bank from behind Charlie Lightfoot.

  Daniel wondered if Lisa might have been right about tempting their fate. No sooner had he said the rest of their trek to the camping store would be uneventful, there was a large crash and the roar of a diesel engine. The whole building shook, as did the ground, and the back door was blown open by the buckling frame. The three of them staggered to keep on their feet.

  “What the fuck was that?” Daniel yelled.

  “Daniel?” Lisa called, her voice wavering.

  Daniel could see into the dim diner and the hole that lead into the bank. Was that what he thought it was? He pointed at it and asked, “Is that a fucking semi-truck?”

  “Daniel?” Lisa asked again, her voice raising. Even the wolf started to growl.

  Daniel looked at them, then back to the diner. Things were moving, rising from the floor but not standing up. They clicked as they moved and Daniel saw the silhouettes of multi-jointed legs. There was a hiss of one, then another, until it was deafening, and with the hiss came the stench of death and decay.

  “Aw, shit,” he sighed.

  Daniel ran for the door and shoved it closed, but the inside latch wouldn’t catch, the door wouldn’t fit into the frame. The impact from the truck pushed the frame, which forced the door to pop open in the first place. The creatures rammed against the door. Daniel braced against it, holding the door closed, but the monsters massed against it.

  “Lisa!” he screamed. “Help me!”

  Lisa ran up beside him and leant her shoulder to brace the door. The door bounced open an inch with every monster that hit it, only to fall closed again. Daniel’s feet were sliding against the smooth concrete and he kept stepping back towards the door to hold it closed, but the door was inching open with every abomination that added its weight to the other side. Daniel looked for something – anything – to barricade the door. The wolf stood her ground and barked at the things in the diner.

  “We need to get out of here!” Lisa yelled.

  “I know!” Daniel replied.

  “If we let go, they’ll kill us!” Lisa continued to yell.

  “I know!” Daniel repeated, now a bit annoyed as well as panicked.

  An arm reached through the gap of the door and grabbed Daniel’s shirt. He let the door slack open for the briefest of moments, then shoved hard against the door. It pinched the abomination’s limb, and the thing scraped off the top layer of skin, pulling its arm free.

  “What are we going to fucking do?” Lisa asked.

  Daniel looked up at her wide-eyed with panic. He couldn’t see a way out. They were screwed.

  25

  The bank was a battlefield. The armies needed no uniforms, with the avatars the colors of the earth and flora and fauna, and the abominations the color of decay and angry infections. The avatars stood tall and symmetric, while the misshapen abominations moved on oddly-bent legs and uneven limbs. The only warriors that looked alike were the three humans, all of them wearing dark business suits, but the humans weren’t confused by the similar attire.

  Charlie stood at the entrance and watched the chaos. He had a good head count on how many of those dog-things were in the bank and made sure he had sufficient numbers on his side. But the truck he used to breach the front of the bank had veered to the left and ran into the diner, which unfortunately was full of some bug-like abominations. Now they were crawling over the semi-truck and into the bank. They were small, relatively speaking, but there were a lot of them.

  Crap.

  Through the mess of supernatural creatures, Charlie could see the man in the business suit go to the vault. Charlie couldn’t let the guy lock himself in, or he’d never get the scroll. Charlie cursed and headed through the foray when a small fist hit him from behind, one strong punch at his right kidney. His right leg buckled, but he willed his leg to straighten. It wobbled, but it held him up. He cocked his own fist and turned around, ready to break the nose of whoever hit him, when he saw a shapely blond woman. His hand relaxed. She had piercing blue eyes and a face that might have been beautiful if she didn’t look like she smelled something bad.

  “Oh, damn, hey,” he said, and in a moment too late he realized she was wearing a business suit like the other guy.

  The woman in the business suit brought her knee up into his crotch. The edges of Charlie’s world faded, and stars popped in and out of existence. His already weak leg collapsed, and his other leg wasn’t far behind. He fell to one knee. Charlie looked up to the woman, who hit him hard with a right hook to his chin. It was a good hit, he had to admit, but he’d been hit by better. As she swung another punch, Charlie blocked it, then threw his weight into her chest. It knocked the wind out of her and shoved her to the ground. He got up and towered over her, aiming his bow at her.

  “Stop it!” he shouted. Maybe it was his swelling balls, but she didn’t look as hot as she did a moment ago.

  The business suit woman sneered at him. “Are you going to kill me now?”

  Charlie pulled the arrow back further. The bow creaked, wanting to let the arrow fly, but he couldn’t let it go. Monsters? Sure, he killed dozens of those things, but a human in cold blood? “I should. Trying to end the world? What the hell were you thinking? Why?”

  Her confidence faded, and her anger turned inward. “I don’t know.”

  Charlie’s brain spun. Could she not have known all this would happen? Or was this a ploy, an attempt to save her ass or get an advantage on him? “Oh, come on! You’re asked to bring on the apocalypse and you never asked why?”

  He watched her eyes grow wide. “The what? What are you talking about?”

  Charlie waved his hand at the monsters and avatars killing themselves. “What do you think all this is? The world’s worst dog show?”

  One of the dog monsters leaped at Charlie, but one of the giant avatars brought its long arm straight down on its head. The dog’s head popped like stepping on a grape, the black blood and brains squishing out onto the floor. Charlie fought back a gag as the stench of rotted meat hit his nose.

  “I was . . . I was just follow
ing orders,” she stammered.

  Charlie turned back to the woman. Did she look remorseful? If she was a he, would Charlie be so willing to forgive? Then he remembered his cousin was dead because of this woman. Aiming the bow at her, his hands shook as his muscles received conflicting orders – fire, don’t fire. She closed her eyes, accepting the arrow intended for her head, but that made Charlie even more conflicted.

  He turned away from the woman, letting the arrow fly into an approaching dog monster. He heard the hole in the abomination hissing, but Charlie didn’t bother to look. He hit a few of those roach-thing, but his focus was on the blond man and the scroll. The business suit man slipped the scroll in a safety deposit box and locked it. Charlie saw the glimmer of the gray metal key as the business suit man slipped it into his pocket. Was that why the woman played dumb? To delay Charlie so her partner could secure the scroll? He really wanted to believe she was ignorant of how bad all this could get.

  “I’m going to need that key,” he said to the business suit man. Inside the vault, the sounds of the monsters battling echoed.

  “You already have the key,” he growled, his voice a deep baritone.

  “Not that key. I mean that key,” Charlie said, pointing to the business suit man’s pocket. “The other key. The one that’s actually a key . . . you know what I mean.”

  The business suit man sneered at him. “Are you that articulate in the courtroom?”

  Charlie notched an arrow and aimed it at the business suit man. “Just give me the damn scroll.”

  The man in the business suit stood his ground. If he was worried about the arrow aimed at him, Charlie couldn’t see it. “You’re at a distinct disadvantage, Mr. Lightfoot.”

  Charlie cocked his head to his side. “You have monsters, I have monsters. You’re unarmed, I have a five hundred-year-old bow. I think the Harry Potter shit gives me an edge.”

  “On the contrary, Mr. Lightfoot. While you have a weapon, you lack the conviction to use it,” the business suit man said. He reached behind his back and pulled out a large knife. It reminded Charlie of the kind Rambo had in the eighties, a military-style survival knife. “I don’t have that problem.”

  This was the second chance for Charlie to kill a person. This time his life was being threatened, the risks were higher, but could he take a life even in self-defense? The large man walked towards Charlie, the knife in his hand, the metal catching the light, almost daring Charlie to shoot him. All he had to do was let go, and the arrow would go through his head and this would be over, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Charlie relaxed his bow, and the arrow hung loosely from his fingertips. The business suit man smiled, stalking a prey he clearly felt was surrendering to his fate, but as he got within arm’s reach, Charlie swung his bow like a club. He caught the overconfident mother fucker by surprise, and Charlie’s bow caught him in the neck. The business suit man went down, clutching his neck with his free hand. Charlie swung the bow again, smacking it hard across the back of the business suit man’s head. He went down on the ground, and Charlie stepped over him.

  “No, I’m not a murderer,” Charlie said, “but that doesn’t keep me from kicking your ass.”

  Charlie pushed the man over with his foot. The first thing Charlie grabbed was the business suit man’s knife, which he tucked in his belt under his own business jacket. Then Charlie reached into his pocket and pulled out the key to the safety deposit box. He walked over to the boxes, looking to the one that matched the number on the key, and tried to ignore the continued fighting outside the vault. Charlie hoped his guys were winning, otherwise, his achievement of getting the scroll would be meaningless. He noticed the abominations avoided the vault. They didn’t bother the woman either. He wasn’t sure how that worked, but the abominations apparently knew who their masters were and kept a safe distance.

  Charlie unlocked the safety deposit box and pulled out the scroll case, then opened the case and pulled the scroll out just a bit to verify it was there. A smile grew on his face as he said, “Holy shit, I did it. I actually did it.”

  And then Charlie flew through the air, the breath squeezed from his lungs. The business suit man had tackled him, and the two of them hit the ground hard. The bow and the scroll case were both knocked from his hands, sliding across the vault’s floor. The business suit man had him around the waist and was scrambling to get a better hold, but Charlie was scrambling to get out from his arms. Charlie pulled a leg free and kicked the business suit man at his forehead. The business suit man let go and Charlie got to his feet and turned to see the business suit man rush him, crawling off the floor like a sprinter in the starting position, but the blows to the head must have affected him. The business suit man was slow and his gate uneven. Charlie wasn’t a soldier, but he did wrestle as a young man and he knew how to use the man’s size against him. Jumping aside like a bull fighter, Charlie grabbed at the business suit man, running him against another wall of safety deposit boxes, then got him in a head lock and kicked his knees out from under him. Using all his weight on the business suit man’s neck, Charlie forced him down and had him pinned against the wall.

  “It’s over,” Charlie said. “We have the girl, and we have the scroll.”

  The business suit man fought against the hold, but Charlie held him bent over in an odd position that gave Charlie all the leverage. The business suit man breathed hard, his face turning red from frustration and effort and being bent in half, but he growled, “This is far from over.”

  The business suit man’s arm flung behind Charlie. He thought the business suit man was trying to apply a counter move, but Charlie had forgotten about the knife until he felt it slide from his belt. Alarms rang in Charlie’s head, and he shoved himself off the business suit man, putting as much distance between himself and the knife edge. He expected the business suit man to come charging at him, but instead the business suit man got to his feet. While only a couple of inches taller than Charlie, he felt like the business suit man towered over him. Charlie watched him clutch the knife, then jumped when the business suit man shoved it into his own hand. Through gritted teeth, the business suit man began to chant.

  “I offer my blood to guide your way. Ancient ones, come to me . . . “

  “Oh, that can’t be good,” Charlie muttered before the diner next to them exploded.

  Moments before the blast from inside the diner, Daniel and Lisa were losing their battle with the roach-things and the broken door. They couldn’t run. The moment they let go of the door, they would be overrun by the monsters. They couldn’t stay holding the door closed forever. Their strength was fading, and even if it didn’t give, another monster would stumble upon them eventually. The wolf, the only one of their party that could run away, stood its ground and barked at the abominations pushing against the door and clawing for them between the gap.

  “Is there anything to brace this door with?” Daniel called out.

  “There’s nothing!” Lisa shouted back.

  Daniel looked up at her. “I’m sorry, Lisa.”

  She looked back at Daniel, her eyes wet as tears pooled. “You’ll think of something, right?”

  This was his fault. He thought the alley was a safer route. He caused Lisa to lose her sanctuary. He owed it to her to find a way out, but it was a stalemate. If there was an exit, he couldn’t see it. As a kid, he never understood chess masters predicting their wins. He understood the game but couldn’t understand how they could announce things like “checkmate in three moves.” In his young mind, there was always an option, always a way to turn things around if you could only see the opportunity. Now, bracing the door closed, he understood. There were only so many moves to play, and they all led to his and Lisa’s death. Checkmate in three.

  Then the diner exploded. The back door flew off, shielding Daniel and Lisa from the blast but throwing them back into the alleyway. Flames engulfed the roach monsters. They screamed in a perverse mixture of pain and delight. Brick flew outward in pieces, takin
g down half the wall, exposing both the interior of the diner and some of the neighboring bank. Once Daniel collected his senses and realized he wasn’t dead, he looked to Lisa. She was shaken like he was, but otherwise unharmed. Only the wolf seemed to have taken the explosion in stride. She stood where she had been, her hackles raised and growling in the direction of the diner. Daniel had no idea how the wolf managed to avoid the force of the explosion, but in the chaos, he could have missed anything.

  “What did you do?” Lisa moaned from behind him.

  Daniel shoved to door off them. It landed with a crunch on top of parts of roach-things, which now littered the alley around the back door of the diner. “What happened? Are you okay?”

  Lisa clutched at Daniel’s shirt. “What the hell did you do?”

  “I didn’t do anything!” he protested.

  Daniel was trying to help Lisa to her feet, but she grabbed his shirt with both hands and tried to shake Daniel. She had neither the strength nor the leverage, so it was as effective as a bird trying to push a mountain, shaking herself instead of Daniel as she yelled, “You fucking psycho! What did you do?”

  “Calm the fuck down!” he ordered. “I didn’t . . .”

  The wolf growled and snapped its jaws at the diner, and Daniel and Lisa stopped shouting. Daniel ignored the wolf, never for a moment thinking she was growling at them. He looked to the smoldering crater in the middle of what used to be the diner. One large claw clasped the rim of the crater as something huge was pulling itself up from it. Daniel watched it emerge like some kind of dark angel pulling itself up to its regal height. Daniel seen this creature once before, but from a distance and at night from the barricaded lobby of the medical clinic. Now he could see it much more clearly, but Daniel’s brain was too overwhelmed to form a clear picture in his mind of what he was looking at. The one feature that stood out to Daniel, though, was its eyes. They were burnt and blistered, not just on the eye lids but on the corneas themselves.