The Sisters spoke as one in a sepulchral voice. "A sacrifice of blood and sorrow is raised. A gift to the shadow and eerie; an offering to the lord of vehemence."
The Sisters turned their hooded faces upward and an inky blackness seeped out, streaming out of each of them. The darkness joined above the center of the symbol. It rippled and waved in the air, so opaque, it looked like a hole in space.
Then it coalesced and writhed until forming a face of drooping, burned flesh with the blackness of the grave for eyes. And when it spoke, the room became so cold, all within were able to see their breath.
"The reeking meat is taken from violence and fear. The offering is accepted. Bear heed though mortals, what you desire is beyond the control of even this majesty. Their very nature prohibits control. But, they can be … influenced."
"What need you?" the Sister's asked as a group.
"A word," the entity replied. "For so great a number, it can only be one word."
Shira looked at Dipak, uncertainty showing in her eyes. Dipak ignored her and stared down at what was on the floor. Finally, he looked up at the entity, and spoke his chosen word.
The entity rippled like a pond after a rock was thrown in. The ripples spread. When they reached the borders of the being, they continued to emanate outward like waves of heat.
The Sisters of Smoke lifted their hands. At the gesture, the entity ripped apart into motes and disappeared. The Sisters turned to look at father and daughter.
Dipak pushed hair back from his face. It was the same gesture his son often used. He stepped forward to the center of the symbol and knelt down. His hand reached out and touched the body lying on the ground, and then he whispered with a hint of sadness.
"One last time. You help me one last time, Sita."
They came from alleyways and abandoned buildings covered with dirt from the street and the filth of corners long forgotten. They shuffled at first, stopping and peering up into the darkening sky with their sickly red and gold eyes. Their bald, gray heads cocked like animals listening to a strange sound.
They stumbled into each other, paused and stared with unblinking gazes, then wordlessly shuffled side-by-side in the same direction. The individuals became couples, and the couples became crowds.
Before long, they were a horde of Rain addicts.
Their very passing felled trees and broke buildings. Their strength was immeasurable, their force unstoppable.
People of the Caliber and Warren alike ran and hid, holding tight to their loved ones with shivering arms in the face of an army unlike any seen in history, praying they would pass them by.
A siren song floated over the horde, music only their mutated ears could hear. One word repeated over and over, promise and benediction, command, and gift.
The word led them without fail through streets and over water, until they crested a hill to stand silhouetted against the setting sun. The creatures paused, then, as a group, sprang forward, screaming and yelling toward the walled home at the bottom of the valley.
In their minds came again the false promise, repeated louder and more urgently. It pushed them to clamber forward like rabid dogs, until they broke against the walls of the compound Mei and Magda called home.
"Incoming! Incoming! Holy shit, sound the alarm!"
The team of Marines standing guard on top the walls hit a switch, and an air horn immediately wailed through the compound. They watched with horror as the army of creatures charged toward them.
They thumbed M16 machine guns to fully automatic and opened fire from atop the wall. Their guns juddered and shook and sprayed round after round into the attackers. Limbs were torn clean off some of the creatures and several fell back. But there were too many and their strength was enormous.
The creatures rent steel and concrete with their bare hands and ripped great chunks off the wall with their teeth. The wall shook and began to crumble. The Marines continued to fire their guns. The attack was too fast, and they couldn't fall back in time. It was hopeless for them, but if they could stop even a few of the creatures from reaching the house, they would.
With an almost human scream the wall collapsed in a cloud of dust. The creatures howled a crescendo of madness to the twilight sky as the single repeated word, heard only by them, screamed and peaked, urging them to the house that stood before them.
"MOTHER! MOTHER! MOTHER!"
The word kept repeating, and the army of the damned descended on the home.
Chapter 21
Barricades on the house slammed shut over its doors and windows. Jebediah and Riley barked orders at men who took up firing positions. Velcro ripped as body armor got strapped to chests and thighs.
Ara moved Mei and Magda toward the back of the house. All three rushed into a secured room and locked it down. They'd stay there until the danger passed.
"Weapons front," yelled Jebediah. Lt. Riley and his men took up positions around the staircase and dropped their guns into firing position.
"Ray, Lee. Stand ready," Jebediah ordered.
The two Scrounge bounty hunters didn't pick up any weapons. Instead, they both sat on the ground behind the gunmen. Ray took a yoga pose, his head down, legs crossed and palms up. Lee went down on one knee like a man praying and closed his eyes. Both quieted their minds and prepared to use their gifts.
Jebediah looked over to Riley.
"There's still the invocato line. Maybe it stops them," he hoped.
"Maybe," Riley agreed. "And Sgt. Rob's physical defenses should surprise them."
"Let's hope it's enough," he replied.
The first wave of creatures struck the mystical invocato line from the Sisters of Smoke. An eruption of flame rose from the ground, hot like magma and forceful as a hurricane. It melted those caught within like candles and blasted others into the air.
The surviving creatures, still many in number, snarled and spat, stalking back and forth while staring at the now smoking ground as if uncertain what to do. A semblance of human intelligence swirled in their eyes.
Those closest to the invisible line plunged their hands into the ground as if searching for something in the dirt. They brought their hands up. Gripped in their unnatural gray palms was a red, shimmering line with pulses of energy running throughout.
The row of creatures holding the line screamed in pain. It burned their fingers down to the bone, but they refused to release it. Those behind stepped forward and dropped their claws straight down in a single motion. They struck the mystical line, and it exploded in a brilliant flash of red, destroying those who held it. The horde went to where the invocato line used to stand, then stepped over with an almost human cry of triumph.
Their joy was cut short by the whir of a machine charging up, accompanied by the sound of metal doors kicking open. Sergeant Rob's physical defenses were deploying.
An array of 20 mm auto-cannons swiveled out from the sides and top of the house. Computer-driven red targeting dots swam across the crowd, and the almost eight-foot-long cannon muzzles swept left and right, moving back and forth as if unable to decide what to kill first.
Then they stopped moving. The horde and the cannons stared at each other for a moment.
The gun's laser sights gave an audible beep, and flame erupted from the muzzles.
Casings tumbled and sprayed like rain as ammo belts within the walls fed rounds the length of icicles into the cannons. The ammunition crashed into the crowd and punched gaping holes through skin as tough as armor.
The horde scattered and scores died. They dodged and leaped, crisscrossing over each other in frantic motions. The guns fired wildly, their targeting sensors struggling to keep up with the enhanced speed of the creatures. Again and again, members of the horde crashed to the ground with smoking holes in their flesh.
One creature grabbed an injured member of the horde and hurled its body at the guns. Its great strength rocketed the creature forward until it reached the cannon. It latched on and tore at the smoking weapon. Others followed
suit and soon bodies, live and dead, streaked at the guns. Some were blown apart. Others survived long enough to grab the weapons and tear at them. They crashed into the guns again and again, until the weapons were knocked to the ground, broken and sputtering.
Finally, the last of the cannons were smoking and damaged beyond function. The silence was deafening. The houses automatic defenses had been depleted.
The doors to the house burst open and soldiers ran out. Their guns immediately gained targets and death poured forth. Many of the creatures died and their bodies littered the landscape. But many still remained. Too many.
Sergeant Rob went down, firing his weapon again and again. They crawled over him to slash and tear at his body. He disappeared from view, brought down by the sheer weight of numbers.
Riley saw his friend go down and tried to reach him. The lieutenant gunned down a snarling addict that barred his path, then swung about to fire at another approaching him. The creature grabbed the muzzle of the machine gun just as its rounds exploded outwards, and it tumbled back from the onslaught.
But another creature came up behind Riley and struck at his back. The gray hand's blow sundered his body armor. Riley flew forward and dropped to his knees. The creature raised its hands a final time. Lt. John Riley died staring up at the top of the valley.
Ray and Lee stormed forward, separating to give each other room to operate.
Ray raised his arms and two huge fists made of earth and rock rose from the ground. The fists pounded down on the roaring crowd, in time with the movement of his hands, and addicts were battered left and right. Some attacked the stone fists. They leapt on top and pounded away at the rocky mass. The fists dropped down and crushed the attackers.
Others charged toward Ray as if understanding he was the source of the stone hands. Ray threw a hand up and a curved wall of stone rose in front of him and hurled some of the addicts into the air. But others rushed to surround him.
Ray threw his arms left and right. Each time the earth reacted to drive stone into his attackers. But the bounty hunter had pushed his gift beyond its limits, and the strength of the monsters was too great. The big man fell and a rumble of an earthquake shook the ground. The creatures jumped on top of him, and his body was lost from view.
The chaos of the battle raged around Lee. His hands burned and glowed with blue flame. He pressed a hand against an addict and lit it like a candle. It screamed and burned to a crisp. He swept another hand across and left a trail of crackling blue in the air. Several addicts charged forward. The eldritch flame clung to them and ripped through their bodies. They fell to the ground in pieces.
The addicts circled Lee, spitting, and growling like maddened animals. His fists flared higher and he spoke to them in his southern drawl.
"Go on home, fellas. Ain't nothin' here for you." But then he caught himself. In the distance, he saw Ray fall beneath the claws of the ungodly creatures. He screamed in anguish and charged forward to try and reach his friend. An addict tried to bar his way. Lee shoved a hand in its face and its head exploded. Another tried to spear him with its claws. He swept his hand across and touched its arm. The severed limb dropped to ground with a sizzle.
He glared around him at the wall of attackers. He spun left and right, felling them over and over again. But he was a lion surrounded by jackals, and they all rushed him at once. Through a haze he saw the creatures begin to tear at Ray in the distance and he screamed. Light and heat exploded from his body like a nova. It reduced the creatures around him to ash. He stood for a moment, unsteady on his feet. One of his pupils had blown and blood poured out of his nose. He looked around at the remaining addicts, then toppled over. He wasn't breathing.
Two dozen from the original horde remained. They charged the front door into the waiting guns of Jebediah.
What felt like an earthquake struck the safe room. Mei and Magda cried out in fear, and Ara grabbed them both to keep them steady. They couldn't have known the quake came from Ray's tragic last stand against the addicts.
Then it passed. The earthquake had shifted the room enough to slant one of the walls, but the front door remained firm in its place. Dust floated through the room, and the trio coughed.
Ara waved a hand in front of her to clear the dust. Something was wrong. The sounds of gunfire still rattled outside but was fading down, while the growls of the attacking creatures grew louder. Another quake hit the room, and this time Ara couldn't help but cry out. The two others looked to her for reassurance, but her eyes betrayed her growing concern.
The sound of movement rumbled behind her. She spun with her gun drawn. Powder rose from the floor near the back of the room along with the sound of shifting rubble. She waved Mei and Magda away and approached the rubble with caution. When she drew close, she saw the quake had broken a large hole in the floor. She shined down a light.
In the distance, she saw what appeared to be an old underground tunnel. This part of the valley had once been home to an old mining operation, although what they actually excavated was never clear.
The sound of shotgun fire came from inside the house. The creatures had made it inside. Ara cursed and thought. Then, with a firm set of her eyes, she decided what to do. She unclipped a handheld radio from her belt and gave it to Mei.
"I don't know what's down there, but it could be a way out for us," she said.
"But Jebediah and the others?" Mei asked.
Ara shook her head.
"I might be wrong, but I think they're in trouble," she said. "We need to look after ourselves. I'm going to go first. Once I think it's safe I'll call you. But stay here until I call you. There are legends of people who used to mine these tunnels. I need to make sure it's okay. Keep the door closed and wait to hear from me."
Mei nodded and held Magda's hand tight. Ara took a last look at them, then jumped down into the hole.
Mei looked back to the locked door and waited.
Jebediah watched the last stand of his friends with almost clinical detachment. Later, when his blood cooled and the sound of thundering guns went silent, he'd dwell on their deaths. He'd consider the unthinkable reality of all the mystical and military defenses of the compound failing.
But now was not that time. Now was the time for defending Mei and Magda. It was the time for them to stay alive long enough for others to survive.
Four soldiers stood at his side, all that remained of Lt. Riley's Marines. This was a foe they could not defeat, but as brothers in arms they would stand to the last.
His grip tightened against his Mossberg 500 tactical shotgun. Its tight pattern of scatter shot was capable of tremendous stopping power with relatively small recoil. It only had an eight-shot capacity, but he'd count it a victory if he was still alive when it needed a reload. He cycled the action and the sound of a fresh round pumped into the chamber.
The soldiers at his side dropped into battle stance. Jebediah bent his knees and jammed the butt of the weapon against his shoulder. And, for a moment as long as life, they heard nothing.
"Come on then. There are none of us getting any younger," Jebediah whispered.
As if in response, the steel reinforced front door was struck and bubbled inward. It was struck again and barely held. From behind the door came a low keen. It sounded like nails against a chalkboard. There was a pause, then, in the same voice lost children use to scream, a word was yelled through the door.
"MOTHER!"
The door fell open and the Rain addicts stood framed in the threshold. They raised their clawed hands and their jagged mouths opened to howl defiance.
"Fire fire fire!" Jebediah yelled.
The room erupted in gunfire.
The creature in front leapt directly at Jebediah. He triggered his shotgun, and it blasted the monsters head wide-open. The corpse was thrown back against its fellows. Then a wave of armor piercing rounds flew into the crowd. The addicts screamed and their bodies jiggled and bled from the impact.
The creatures in the back row scatter
ed like cockroaches in sudden light. Several of them jumped to the ceiling and dug their hands and feet into the plaster. They clung like insects and stared down with malevolence at the armed men. Then they darted toward the soldiers, scrabbling on all four's almost faster than the eye could follow.
Jebediah fired from his hip, but the shot missed, shredding the ceiling a moment too late. One of the creatures flung itself slavering and spitting down on him. He yelled back and squeezed the trigger. The hurried shot struck the creature's shoulder and blew its arm from the socket. The addict fell onto the bounty hunter and knocked him from his feet. Jebediah twisted on the ground while raising the shotgun. He slammed the butt of the shotgun down and shattered the addict's eye.
In return, the creature blindly lashed out scored a strike on Jedediah. He was hit with such force, the impact shattered Jedediah's body armor and he was thrown against the far wall.
Jebediah's fingers scrambled to find his shotgun's trigger. His shattered body armor wouldn't stop the creature's next blow from gutting him.
He levered his gun up. The addict was crouched over him, blood gushing from its empty shoulder and its remaining hand raised up to strike.
"Christ just die, already," he prayed, then pulled the trigger. The creature's taloned hand fell and struck the shotgun at the same moment it blasted. The shot took the creature full in the chest. It dropped. Jedediah flung the shattered shotgun away with a wince. He rose from the floor with a groan and drew his pistols.
All around him was chaos. Gun smoke filled the air. It was joined by smoke from a flame started by weapons fire. The fire blossomed and began to spread, filling the house with searing heat and even more smoke.
All around him, guardsmen lay dead or dying. The unnatural strength and savagery of the creatures had been too much.
One of the Marines was wrapped up in an addict's arms like some obscene hug. One of the soldier's arms hung flopping and broken, and he cried in pain when the creature squeezed and crushed him like a constrictor. With a yell, the soldier brought his uninjured arm up, placed his handgun against the side of the creature's head and screamed into its monstrous face. His gun triggered once, then again.
Jebediah's Crime: A Heroic Supernatural Thriller (The Hinge Series Book 1) Page 18