by Tim Marquitz
Despite knowing there was a Heaven, and having met God personally, there was no peace to be found in the moment. Her head severed from her body, Karra’s spirit was inert inside her dead cells, a useless organ destined to rot like all the rest. It wouldn’t be going to Hell or anywhere else thanks to the bastards who’d murdered her in cold blood and a God and Devil who’d left their stations behind. There was nothing but the emptiness of a cold grave waiting for the woman who made my life worth living. It was a bitter realization that I deserved this. I’d condemned hundreds of people to the same fate, and now there I was doing it to the one person who meant more to me than anyone ever had.
There was only Abigail now.
Before I could break down again, I used my magic to lower Karra’s head into the hole, keeping her turned toward me as she descended. Her wide eyes watched us part until the darkness swallowed her and there was nothing but the soft rustle of her reaching bottom.
“I love you,” I whispered, choking on the words as I sealed the hole behind her. She’d be safe there like she hadn’t been with me.
My breath spilled from my lungs and I collapsed, going fetal on the ice. Its freezing touch gnawed at me as I gave in to the emotions that clawed at my eyes and raked my heart.
I don’t know how long I lay there, but it was dark when I became aware again, a layer of frost having settled over everything. Sharp cracks sounded as I peeled my face loose of the frozen ground and rolled to a seated position, glittering shards of ice falling away like stars. The rest of my frigid bonds shattered when I climbed unsteady to my feet. My mouth was dry, and it felt as though I’d been asleep for years, my eyes crusted nearly shut. I wiped at my face and staggered about, trying to kick start the blood in my veins, but it was slow going. A telepathic message slammed into my skull while I stamped my feet to rid them of the tingling numbness that had overtaken my limbs.
“Frank!” Michael Li’s voice was a sledgehammer that rattled my equilibrium. “DRAC is under assault!”
Adrenaline accomplished in an instant what all my moving about hadn’t. My blood boiled, infusing me with warmth and empowering my magic. I shrugged aside the cobwebs of despair and teleported across the world without hesitation.
Seven
I appeared inside the main meeting hall of DRAC headquarters, needing the extra room to be certain I nailed the landing, feeling suddenly grateful that I’d been on the invite list and the place’s wards hadn’t fired off a nuke to keep me out. The hall was a riot of noise, people rushing back and forth with seemingly no organization, their arms full of boxes and folders and anything else they could get their hands on.
Right then, a thunderous boom rumbled overhead, followed by a second. The ground shook and the room swayed. Dust trickled down from the roof, the lights flickering, going out for a second, and then returning with a grating hum. The workers scrambled but their menial efforts went on without delay. I took my clue from them and bolted from the room and down the hallway toward Abe’s old office.
The inner sanctum there was built the strongest, designed to protect DRAC’s council long enough for them to escape should the rest of DRAC fall. Its walls hadn’t been ever been tested but it stood to reason Rahim and the others would be there with Abby. I fought my way through the push of people crowding the halls, doing my best not to interfere with the tasks they were about, but not daring to slow no matter who got in my way. Abe’s office appeared ahead, and I bulled through the open door, pulse racing.
Rachelle stood by the desk cradling Abigail in her thin arms, my baby clasped tight to her chest protectively. Chatterbox was snuggled in the out box. Huffed breaths threatening to rupture my lungs, I ran up to Rachelle, stopping myself from ripping Abby away from her in my excitement. She gave me a tired smile and handed the baby over without complaint. I sighed at seeing my little girl’s cherubic face, her eyes closed and chest rising and falling with comfortable ease.
“Saaafe,” CB said with a warming smile of blackened teeth. I patted him on the head.
“She’s clearly your child,” the mystic told me, brushing an errant strand of hair from Abby’s forehead.
I let out a relieved chuckle and nodded. That’d be my girl, sleeping through the end of the world as long as her belly was full. “What’s going on?”
“The Army has laid siege to us,” Rahim answered from behind me.
I spun around looking to see if the wizard was yanking my chain but there was nothing resembling a smile on his face. In fact, it was quite the opposite. His scowl was ominous.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I wish I were.” He pointed to the TV we’d watched Shaw give her declaration on earlier but rather than displaying a news broadcast, the image on the screen looked as though it were a war documentary. Tanks and armored personnel carriers filled the view, men in camouflaged outfits flitting back and forth between the vehicles, M-16s slung across their backs within easy reach. Flashes of light interrupted the feed, the tanks firing, and DRAC rattled a moment later, the ground shaking. The disconnect between what I was seeing and the muffled impacts was disorienting, but there was no doubting what Rahim had said was true. DRAC truly was under attack by the military.
“Shaw.” I spit her name out as if it were poison.
Rahim nodded. “She’s wasted no time making good on her threat, it seems.”
“But it’s not like DRAC is—” The words grew thick in my mouth. It didn’t matter that the people of DRAC were the good guys, battling the enemies of humanity at the risk of their own lives. Shaw had lumped them in with me and she was taking the opportunity to wipe out everyone who dared stand against her. “How’d she mobilize the military so quickly?”
Another blast shook the compound, a second one rattling the roof a moment later followed by a third right after. The shells were falling faster now, the air thickening with dust from the explosions. I covered Abby’s head to keep her safe should anything collapse.
“It seems she had this contingency in motion already,” Rahim said through clenched teeth. “Likely ever since her escape from the prison dimension, I would wager.”
“Damn that bitch!” I spat. “Isn’t this place designed to hold off wizards and demons? How the hell are these guys doing so much damage?”
Michael Li stormed into the room then, an entourage of people shuffling behind. The mentalist gave me a curt nod my but said nothing, his fingers at his temple while he communicated with others somewhere inside the complex. He motioned for the workers to collect Abe and Rahim’s things, and then stood quietly in the corner, out of the way. A dribble of crimson trailed from his nose, and his eyes looked about ready to pop free of his skull.
“Abraham never expected DRAC to come under mundane assault, let alone one so expansive. While the compound can withstand the magical equivalent of a nuclear bomb, at least once, it wasn’t designed to hold out against a prolonged attack.”
“So, we’re screwed?”
“Aptly put,” Rachelle said as she came over to join us, her eyes locked on what was happening outside on the monitor. More blasts exploded overhead. They sounded closer, more zoned in.
“Have we found a safe fallback location yet,” Rahim asked Michael.
The mentalist barely spared him a glance, shaking his head before returning to whatever conversations he was having in his head. His lip peeled back in a sneer, frustration coloring his face.
The meaning of their short conversation slapped me across the face. “She’s hit the other compounds too?” I asked.
Rahim swallowed hard, listening to the explosions, taking a moment to answer. “It looks that way. We’ve lost contact with several of the smaller, more remote locales as soon as the assault began here, and several more have failed to respond to Michael or conventional means. Those still in contact appear to be in dire straits.”
“Then we go to my place.” I waved my hand in front of Rachelle to get her attention. “You’ve got the keys to Hell, sweetheart. Give me
a few minutes to make sure all the back doors are secure, and then get your folks out of every DRAC holding and down south fast.” I glanced over at Mike. “Keep a channel open for me, yeah?” He barely nodded as I scooped up Chatterbox and tucked him in alongside Abby.
Rahim looked ready to question the move, but I didn’t give him the chance. I opened a gate just large enough for the three of us to fit through and stepped into Hell, sealing the way behind me. I hated taking the baby along but if there was safety to be found, it’d be in the fortified caverns of Lucifer’s old home not at the compound we’d left behind. DRAC was about to have its prostate checked by the United States military in a very uncomfortable way.
Oorah! `Merica. Fuck yeah.
Had I known all this was gonna happen, I’d have just stabbed Shaw in her smiling face while we were still stuck in the prison. The bitch could sure hold a grudge, but she had no idea the hornet’s nest she was stirring up by dragging DRAC into the battle between us. She’d crossed a very serious line by doing so. Shaw would live just long enough to regret it.
A couple of dread fiends met me in Hell as soon as I crossed over. Less riled up this time, they kept their cool and didn’t freak out. It probably helped that there were thousands of them lingering in the nearby caverns. I could smell them stinking up the place. The piles of dead fiends scattered all over the place wasn’t helping that any.
“We’ve got hundreds of guests coming, boys, and I need you to make rooms for them all,” I told the closest of the fiends, handing CB over to him. “The deeper inside the caverns the better, and drop the old boy off in my chambers. Clean this place up while you’re at it. Then when you’re done, get out of nose range and hang some air fresheners up. You bastards are rank.”
I shook my head as they scattered. Chatterbox hummed Intense Mutilation’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” as the fiends stirred the foul air into a fartnado. Even Abby would have been offended, and that’s saying something. Fortunately she was still asleep. Her little, scrunched face was tucked against my chest, and I could feel her hot breath wafting off me. I sighed at how tiny she was, how helpless. It was just her and me now. That couldn’t be good for anyone.
Rather than dwell on that thought, I let my senses out for a walk. The fiends would have warned me had something been wrong but I was feeling extra paranoid. While I couldn’t sniff out every corner of Hell, now that the caverns were locked down and the fiends had swept the place, I could go behind them and take a peek without too much effort. No one of any power would be able to hide from me here, and I took solace in my scan coming back without hitting anything out of place. That was the first thing to go right all day.
I sent a message back to DRAC via Michael, and it wasn’t more than a few minutes after that when one of Rachelle’s portals rent the air and people started spilling through, arms full of whatever they’d been able to scavenge. A second and third and fourth portal opened right after with more of DRAC’s employees stumbling into Hell, more opening after that. Wafts of dust and the deep rumble of mortar impacts followed them in, making it clear just how close we were cutting the exodus. Shaw had gone all out just like she said she would. Had to admire her conviction even if it meant I’d have to put a bullet in her eye-hole. Her bullshit was keeping me from getting my thoughts together and figuring out how to track down the Holy, Holier, and Holiest of buttslugs. The shit was maddening, but I needed to make sure Abigail and the DRAC folks were safe first.
“Pardon the mess, everyone. Doing a bit of redecorating and ran out of wet floor and bloody massacre ahead signs.”
Fortunately, the DRAC folks were used to me and the strange shit that happened in conjunction with my world. They didn’t look pleased to find a bunch of stinky dread fiend corpses greeting them as they came to Hell, but it’s not like they didn’t expect it.
“This everybody?” I asked Rachelle as she stepped through the dimensions, leading more of her people through the passageway.
She shook her head, her hair wild and her face strained. “There are several locations I still need to check with. They will—”
“They will wait. They must.” Rahim slipped through the portal at her back and put a massive hand on her shoulder. “These first, and then we’ll follow up on the others,” he told her, his voice full of sympathy.
While Rachelle was powerful, she was opening and maintaining a dozen portals through space and that was more than I’d ever seen her pull off at once. It had to be taking a toll on her. She growled—literally growled—at the wizard but didn’t shake his hand off. Despite her anger, she knew she was hitting the wall. It might bother her to wait a few minutes, and a few people might lose their lives, but if she fell apart, a whole lot more of DRAC’s people would die. She acknowledged his unspoken point with a curt nod, but she wasn’t gonna be happy about it no matter what the reasoning.
Nothing for me to do but watch, I slumped against the wall and sank down onto my ass. It was the first time since Karra had been killed that I hadn’t been on the run. It was starting to hit me, and I wished I’d built a Starbucks franchise in Hell. I’d passed up on the opportunity because they’d seemed too evil, and I was afraid they might take over. Still, I could use some frothy, overpriced coffee right about now. Oh, the irony.
My need for caffeine stifled, my brain shifted gears and settled on more pleasant thoughts. No, not really. It kept circling back to what had happened at city hall. How had Shaw known I would be there? She could have recognized Karra up on the pole before things got rolling, or she could have seen me when I returned to the house, realizing what had happened. There’d been a bunch of camera crews there. Wasn’t like I’d been stealthy. She could have seen that and started mobilizing, knowing it was only a matter of time until something came of it. People didn’t normally just assault me and leave it at that. Or Shaw could be involved with the holy rollers somehow, all of this a set up from the start. There were too many likelihoods for me to assume just one.
Rahim came over and popped a squat in front of me. “You all right?”
I shook my head. “Not remotely.” He nodded, sympathy playing across his face. It broke my heart to see it now that I’d managed to gain a little perspective. DRAC was in the doghouse because of me. So many casualties… “I’m sorry,” I said, gesturing to the room and all the people milling about lost.
“Don’t be,” he told me. “Despite all my frustration at how things have come about, I can’t honestly say I’d have done anything differently than you did, Frank.”
The confession caught me off guard.
“Shaw would have lashed out at us eventually, this situation simply providing her with too much to gain. She’s been consolidating her power for a long time, waiting for her moment to strike. That she waited this long is impressive, and I should have been better prepared to deal with her after we returned to Earth. This is my failure as much as it is yours.”
“Since you put it that way…” I groaned. He was right, though. We all knew Shaw would come back with guns blazing yet none of us had done anything, all of us content to be free of God’s reject dimension. Me, I was just happy to be back in my own body and have Azrael out of my head. The crispy little vampire flesh-suit seriously cramped my style. I got to my feet, careful not to wake Abby. “It’s not too late to take her out.” Images of me punching a hole in Shaw’s throat flared up.
Rahim chuckled, though there was no humor to it. “It probably is, Frank. She has the United States military behind her now. The days of strolling over to her office for a chat are long gone. Everything we do now comes with the tag of terrorist attached to it. We’re fair game now, each and every one of us.” He looked to Abigail, his eyes conveying his meaning. I hugged her tighter to me.
“I can do it on my own, take the fight to her without putting anyone else at risk.”
“And then what?” he asked. “Confirm our hostile intentions against the government? Because that’s exactly how it would be perceived no matter which of us went a
fter her. For all Shaw’s supernatural origins, she’s an asset of the government. She’s their asset, and if you go after her you’ll only validate the stories she’s spun to turn her forces against us.” Rahim ran a hand along his bald pate, looking tired. “We’ve lost the war of public opinion already. Anything we do now will only make the situation worse.”
I sighed. Rahim hadn’t issued an order—largely because he knew my anti-authoritarian mindset would be pushed to challenge it on basic principal—but he’d most definitely implied I should redirect my burning desire for revenge toward something more positive; like needlework, or maybe origami. I’m sure he didn’t care what I did as long as I wasn’t out in the world giving the news channels more carnage to cover.
“We’ll stay here and get organized, and then determine what course of action to take,” he continued, slipping his boss hat back on “We’ll need food and supplies.”
I shook my head. “No worries there. Hell is self-sufficient. Just tell the fiends what you need and they’ll get it for you. Folks can stay here as long as necessary.” I paused. “Speaking of which… Any word from Katon or Scarlett?”
“No, but I can only imagine they’ve seen the news by now.”
“Yeah, that’s what worries me.”
He nodded. “And me as well.”
Had Katon known something was wrong, he would have been in contact with Michael Li without hesitation. He was either so far out of touch that he was oblivious or something had happened and he wasn’t able to reach out. Neither was a good situation for him to be in.
I glanced over at Michael as he helped support Rachelle. She was wearing the miles today but she wouldn’t give in. Rahim’s gaze followed mine to where the mystic was prying open another portal on top of the others, desperate to save all of her people no matter what it cost her personally.
He groaned and marched off to corral her before she hurt herself. That left just Abby and me in my little corner of shame. I ran a hand over her head, playing with the willowy curls that threatened to grow out just like her mother’s. For all my certainty that Hell could play host to a bunch of grownups, I was just as certain it wasn’t designed to cater to babies.