Most of these people had never seen even the slightest hint of the presence of the Unseelie Court in the world. Suddenly a horde of monsters had burst through to invade their little town, turning it into something from their worst nightmares.
After the supplies had been gathered and the wounded tended to, Usher stood in front of the scared and exhausted townsfolk. He didn’t feel in much better shape himself if he was honest but he sucked it up and put on a brave face.
“Right folks, I know you’re all tired and scared, but I need you to listen in for a minute.”
There was a general rumble of scared voices becoming attentive, hoping to hear that the helicopters were on the way and that there was a rational explanation for what was happening in their town. Usher took a deep breath and prepared to shatter their hopes.
“Ok. It will have become fairly apparent to you all that what’s happening in your town today isn’t exactly normal or explainable in conventional terms. Now my colleague Ariel here is a scientist and could explain it to you in terms of parapsychology and alien biology, but that’s not gonna help you much right now.”
An elderly man in a red baseball cap and faded dungarees stood up and pointed out the window.
“Sir, what I saw coming out that forest were devils. I’m a God fearing man. Is this judgement day?”
Usher shook his head.
“Not for us.”
The waitress Gina put a hand on the man’s shoulder to comfort him and he sat back down. Usher could instantly see that the townspeople felt comforted by her presence.
“So what do you need us to do Major Usher? Can you protect us and get us out of here?”
Usher nodded.
God I hope so, for all our sakes.
“Yes, Gina isn’t it? We’ll get you safe if you stick with us. But you might have to fight for your own life too. This is serious, serious as it gets.”
Gina nodded and picked up one of the revolvers that had been laid out on the table.
“My daddy was a soldier. Took me to the range a few times. Point me in the right direction Major, I’ll squeeze the trigger.”
Usher could not disguise the hint of a smile that appeared. He liked this woman, she had some backbone. Usher wondered why she was waiting tables.
“Keep that fighting spirit up Gina, we can use that. The rest of you, those that can safely handle a firearm, come and see Corporal Jeter here and he will issue you with one. The weapons have already been cleared and NSP’s carried out for you.”
The young lame lad Billy limped forward. “Mister? Major? How come they ain’t sent anyone else in for us? How come it’s just your men? You ain’t here for us are you?”
Smarter than he looks.
“No Billy we were sent in here to recover something very dangerous from that man that came into town today. We were under instructions that it took priority over any rescue attempt of survivors. But that’s not how we roll. We need to complete our mission but you people are important to us. If we don’t protect people like yourselves, there’s not much point in anything we do. So we’re not going anywhere without you.”
Sherriff Dagget picked up his battered Stetson and placed it on his sweating head.
“We appreciate that soldier. We all do. We may not understand what’s going on around here, but we’re smart enough to see that if this thing spreads, our whole world is fucked.”
Usher nodded. “That’s about the size of it Sherriff. That’s why we have to stop this man, this Cornelius Fortune, before he gets what he wants.”
Usher heard Santiago call out from the far side of the room.
“Major. We got movement on my side. About fifty yards out.”
Usher moved over to the window and looked out into the mist.
“I don’t see it. Wait…there?”
Santiago nodded.
“It’s not looking over at us. It’s like it’s listening or something. Just the one?”
“Only seen that one so far. Weirdest thing I seen in a good while, boss.”
Usher peered out at the thing half shrouded in mist. Santiago was right it didn’t seem to have eyes of any sort but the lethal looking head was stretched out on its long neck and seemed to be listening for any sound.
The strange distorting effect of the mist made sizing the creature difficult but Usher estimated in was between eight and nine feet tall. The limbs were long and spindly but it moved with a grace that hinted at terrible strength. Leathery wings were folded along its back and it crawled with the speed and lethality of a giant insect. Twisted antler-like projections grew from its head like arthritic hands.
There was something utterly alien about it and Usher did not like it one bit.
“Keep your eyes sharp out there Santiago. Let me know if any more appear.”
Santiago’s dark eyes narrowed he regarded the foul creature crawling about out in the main street. “Yes boss. How we doing for ammunition? I’d rather deal with those things from a distance. They look strong.”
Usher glanced over at the desk where the group’s collective ammunition was being loaded into the motley collection of available firearms.
“Nothing that’s going to fit our carbines. So basically we have a few hunting rifles and three Remington shotguns. As far as ammo goes, we don’t want to miss. Not once.”
Santiago nodded grimly and patted his boss on the arm.
Usher walked across to Jeter, who it seemed was the only one in town with a working timepiece.
“Well my ever efficient friend, I hate to ask, but how are we doing for time?”
Jeter’s icicle eyes flicked up. There was not a hint of emotion on his chiselled face.
“They didn’t give us much of a window to get this done in the first place. And we lost a lot of time fighting off those Carrion. We have just over an hour until they drop the bomb.”
Usher felt his insides liquefy.
“Jeter, we have absolutely no means of communicating with the outside world?”
The operator shook his head. “Unless our budding thaumaturgist Ariel has thus far learned to astrally project himself, then no. I’ve tried the phones here and our comms equipment, nothing works.”
Usher glanced across at Ariel, who promptly shook his head. “I’m very much at the wizard’s apprentice stage, and a long way from Gandalf, Thom.”
Usher smiled. “I know you would if you could, old pal.”
Jeter moved in conspiratorially to Usher.
“Sir. I know we are accustomed to working within risky operational parameters, and our ability to improvise is what often makes us the team of choice for this type of mission…”
“Yes, we’re the lucky, lucky few Jeter. You can say it, what’s on your mind?”
The German sighed.
“Way too small an operational window, no backup or plan B, no clear method or route of extraction or egress. This thing was a cluster fuck from the word go.”
Usher laughed quietly to hear the German swear as he so rarely did.
However the same thought had been niggling at Usher’s mind since they were first briefed on the mission. He had been too busy trying to keep everyone alive to devote much time to it.
“You’re saying it’s almost like someone wanted us to fail. Like this mission was badly organized from the start intentionally and we were never intended to make it out.”
Jeter’s blue eyes sparkled with intelligence. “Would you have left so little room for manoeuvre had you planned it yourself?”
Usher sighed. “No. No I would not have. But we were here as guests of our Canadian cousins.”
Jeter glanced over at Cavell, the leader of the other Empire team, who was nervously peering out the window and wiping sweat from his brow.
“Cavell had ultimate operational command.”
“Sir, you think perhaps he is taking the Ghostcoin? Bought off by the Unseelie? It’s like he jinxed us from the start.”
Usher looked at the nervous man, stripped of his dignity
and command, barely keeping his panic under control.
“Could I believe a self-serving liability like that could sacrifice his own team? Unfortunately yes, Jeter. But he’s in the same mess as the rest of us. Do I believe someone like that would willingly put himself in that same predicament the rest of us are currently in? No. He’d survive at all costs, like a cockroach. Don’t you think so?”
Jeter glanced over that the red haired team leader, whose eyes were dancing wildly as he stared out into the street.
“Yes sir. I guess I do.”
“Keep an eye on him though. We didn’t stay alive this long by being trusting fools.”
“Affirmative sir.”
Usher stood in front of Sherriff Daggett’s desk and took in a sense of the room. He could feel the fear, smell the sweat and see the confusion and panic in the eyes of the surviving townsfolk. Daggett and his men had done good to get as many stragglers as they could into the only defensible building in town. Usher didn’t like to think about whether there were still people walled up in their homes or shops, waiting for a rescue with no idea what had invaded their town. He knew that there probably was, but he did not have the manpower or the time to do a house to house search. This was the kind of heart-breaking harsh truth people like Usher had to deal with every day.
He knew with horrible cold pragmatism that his priority was to rescue as many of the townsfolk he already had under his care, rather than risk everyone on the chance that more could be hidden somewhere out in the town. It sickened him to think of some poor family, children, pets, shuttered up in their homes with nothing but a last desperate hope that someone would come to their rescue. He felt the bile rise in his stomach and pushed those thoughts from his mind.
Not helpful, Thom. Work with what you do have, and what good you can do, not those who are already lost. Play the hand you’re dealt as best you can. Yeah, keep telling yourself that.
Usher stood tall and tried to ignore the pain and deep fatigue in his body.
“Ok everyone, listen up. We are now on a highly limited timeframe and our priority is to get you all to safety as soon as possible. But if we don’t get to the Debruler mansion and help defend it as fast as we can, the problem that is currently afflicting your good town is going to become a global problem.”
A bedraggled woman cradling her two young children spoke through tears.
“I don’t care what that rich weirdo is doing. I don’t understand any of this. I just want to go somewhere safe.”
Usher looked at the primal fear in her eyes and those of her children.
“I know your priority is your little ones. We’d all walk over hot coals for our children. I need you to believe me when I tell you that we are running out of time here, and that these four walls are no real safety at all from what is lurking outside in the streets. If you want to protect your family, we need to fight our way out of here and get as far from this town as we can, as soon as we can.”
Billy limped forward, an animal cunning in his droopy eye.
“What aren’t you telling us, Government man? Why wouldn’t you tell us to stay here until help arrives? Help ain’t coming at all is it? This is a clean-up job. And you and all your boys are getting cleaned up too.”
Usher looked over to Isaac, who just lit a cigarette and shrugged, his face a mask of sweat and concealed pain. “I’d rather get told Thom, if it was me in that situation. Which incidentally, it is.”
Usher sighed. Don’t want them to panic. They have too much to process as it is.
“The young lad Billy is right. We’re in exactly the same trouble as all of you. Our masters see us as totally expendable, just as they see you that way. There is no cavalry coming other than us. We’re all in the shit together. In approximately an hour a bomb will be dropped that will likely annihilate every one of those monsters out there, and that red mist. Unfortunately it will also terminate every living thing too, and that means us. So we need you all to get primal. Think of your children, your homes, and find that deep primitive part of yourself that centuries ago used to prepare to fight hungry bears in the deep winter. Because something much hungrier than that is coming, and soon.”
Ariel called over from the window at the other side of the room.
“Maybe sooner than we hoped Thom. I count four more Nosferatu out here on the street. They’re getting drawn closer to something, I can’t tell what yet. Our fear, our heartbeats, I don’t know. So I don’t know what to adjust. Not yet.”
Usher moved across and peered carefully out of the window.
To his dismay he saw a bloodied and injured woman staggering in terror between the group of curious vampires. They cocked their heads and prodded her with their disgusting talons like curious kittens seeing a helpless mouse for the first time. The woman did not have the strength to run and Usher noticed that she was holding the majority of her intestines in with one shaking hand. She stumbled and froze, wide eyed, knowing that if she moved too fast her innards would tumble to the pavement. Ariel drew his pistol.
“Thom, we have to help her.”
Usher had seen countless battlefield injuries over the years, and caused almost as many. He knew dead when he saw it. He reached out and pressed down on the slide of Ariel’s weapon.
“I’m sorry old pal, but there’s no helping her. All we’ll do is give away our position. It’s an old sniper trick.”
“What do you mean Thom, she’s still walking, she’s terrified, and we can’t leave her out there.”
Usher looked out at the woman. Mid thirties, mousy brown hair, jeans and a sweater, like a mother on her way to pick the kids up from school. Which she probably was.
He hated himself more than he hated any Unseelie in that moment.
“Ariel. Don’t think me a monster. This is the kind of decision leaders have to make. I can’t draw those creatures in here to try and save a woman who is certainly dead within the hour. I’m so sorry.”
Ariel looked at Usher with an expression is dismay and disgust, but the thing Usher saw in his eyes that hurt him the most was disillusionment. Usher knew Ariel was a truly good young man, but he didn’t know war and the scars it brought.
Not like Usher did.
“It’s an order Ariel. We’ve endangered the mission enough already even coming in here.”
Ariel looked out of the window at the stricken woman, tottering between two vampires, her face ashen grey and her eyes wide with terror.
“Then what the fuck are we for, Thom? If not to save people from these monsters that keep coming through to try and kill us all? What the fuck are we for?”
Usher stared out at the woman, barely realizing his hand had already drawn his pistol.
For a moment in his mind’s eye the woman had changed, her face becoming that of his own wife. The woman whose face had been stolen by an Unseelie shape changer to rob a bank in Paris. Another innocent torn to pieces by these fairy tale monsters that crawl through and rend lives.
He knew she was bait, knew it was a trap. He could sense the animal cunning in these blind predators, making this woman suffer to draw out the rest of them.
An old sniper trick.
One of the Nosferatu dragged a razor sharp claw down her back as she stood there terrified. The woman screamed in pain her howl one of pure anguish.
Again Usher was reminded of the night seven years before, when his own wife cried out in the same way.
He couldn’t let this woman suffer, but he couldn’t draw the Nosferatu in to the rest of them. His only option was to quietly go outside and draw them away from her.
Usher took a deep breath and looked at the front door to the Sherriff’s office. He got ready to turn the handle.
Well this is your greatest in a long line of great ideas today.
Ariel looked at him and shook his head.
“Thom no, I didn’t mean get yourself killed. I’m sorry I just can’t stand seeing what those monsters are doing. You’re right. I hate it but I know you’re right.�
�
Thom smiled at his old friend and nodded, then looked out at the poor tortured woman through the glass and reached out for the handle.
Suddenly the woman took a step back, something flashed metallic in her temple, and she collapsed to the ground like a puppet with the strings cut. Usher stared for a moment, not comprehending until he saw the throwing knife protruding from her skull. Her leg twitched once and then she was still, a strangely serene look upon her face.
Usher looked to his left and saw Isaac there at the open window, leaning on his makeshift crutch with another throwing knife already held between his fingers. His face was grim and set. When he saw the stricken woman lay still he sighed deeply and looked sidelong at Usher. Usher could instantly see the conflict in his eyes. Isaac slipped the throwing knife back in its sheathe.
“No heroic sacrifices Thom. You said that to me. Goes both ways old pal.”
Usher looked out again and saw the Nosferatu drawing furiously back from the woman, turning around on their spindly limbs and hissing out into the mist. Their blind faces straining into the dark to try and pinpoint Usher and the townsfolk.
Usher turned slowly to the gathered survivors and raised his hands to keep them quiet. He whispered across the room.
“Everyone keep as still and quiet as you can. We don’t want to fight if we don’t have to.”
Usher’s gaze slid sidelong at Major Cavell, who was slowly backing away from the window, his face grey.
“The main thing is not to panic and bring the whole horde down on our heads. Right Major?”
Cavell turned to Usher, his eyes wet and blinking. Then he understood the threat perfectly. He seemed to calm down and assume a more military stance.
“Yes...I mean no of course not. I’ll take a rifle and take up high position on the second floor. Good obs from there. I’ll take Jackson and Collins with me. With your permission of course Major Usher.”
Usher wasn’t sure where the right position for Cavell was, either under his watchful eye or as far away from the main group as possible but still operationally effective. He trusted Cavell’s two men however so decided on the latter and trusted Cavell to find the soldier in him somewhere and redeem himself.
The Last Line Series One Page 51