Monique regained her footing next to Alexi. “How can we trust it?”
Alexi shook her head. She had no idea. Savanna did, and she knew what she was doing. She also knew the price she would personally have to pay. Alexi silently vowed that she would kill her friend before she let her suffer an eternity of torment in Hell.
The things voice intruded on her thoughts, Our bargain then?
“Agreed.” Savanna’s shoulders slumped from exhaustion.
Go to where you’ve imprisoned the Troll. I will follow and direct you from there.
The demon vanished as if it had never been. The wind and smell disappeared with it. Without his enormous presence, the gym felt cavernous once more. Savanna collapsed in the center of her circle, her body falling on top of Connors. Alexi caught movement out of the corner of her eye as agents prepared to move in and take Savanna. Monique waved them off.
No one spoke. Savanna was crumpled on top of Connor, her body shook from the sobs that only now had sound. She screamed at the ceiling.
***
Like everything else, the Arcanum was prepared for an excursion. Monique had authorized them to take one standard issue armored black SUV with them. They were allowed to take whatever they could carry on their person or fit in the vehicle. Alexi hoped the agents each had enough food to last a few days. She certainly didn’t. Unless they were willing to donate and she didn’t think that likely.
While they were loading up the truck she had overheard Monique informing Osei that they wouldn’t be let back in. She couldn’t risk infection. To his credit, he told her that if they didn’t stop this they would be dead anyways.
Now, while driving north up Aurora ave, Alexi beamed with respect for the two men and two women who volunteered knowing if it went horribly wrong they were on their own.
Savanna sat in the third bench all the way in the back squished between the two female agents. A French woman named Mercedes with the lean build of a gymnast and an American who went by the handle Jet. Where Mercedes was compact, Jet looked more like an MMA fighter. Osei drove, Alexi rode shotgun and Sing road the middle with the extra gear.
She’d wanted him to stay behind. His arm was still hurt and practically useless. He wouldn’t hear any of it. Connor had been his partner and friend. He was going to make sure the deed was done and his friend didn’t die in vain.
The five of them were awfully quiet as they drove, in all likelihood, to their deaths.
She gazed out the window at the city. The sky burned with the setting sun. Blocked by the occasional column of smoke from one of a hundred fires that plagued the city. According to the news, she had seen during their brief stay, the Army had given up on the city. Now it was about containment. It wasn’t possible for them to have evacuated all seven hundred thousand people from Seattle proper. Let alone the surrounding areas.
She closed her eyes for a minute and pictured John’s face, his olive skin, brown eyes, the way his nose cut sharply away. Of course, he had volunteered. Osei wouldn’t have it though. As good as John may be, these were trained operators, possibly the best in the world. She needed the best. Secretly she was happy Osei turned him down. Alexi couldn’t look out for him on this. She was confident they could stop the plague of zombies, but it was what came next that she would need to do. She needed the very best with her to succeed if she had a hope in hell of saving Savanna. She chuckled at her ironic thoughts.
“How much further to the bridge,” Mercedes asked from the rear.
“We're coming up on it now. Check your weapons and equipment, we might have to go on foot,” Osei said in his thick voice.
A chorus of wracking slides answered him. They were all ready.Alexi smiled at the sound of weapons being checked. One by one the SUV’s occupants said, “Check,” it felt strangely familiar to her. It gave her an almost warm feeling in her heart.
Osei let off the gas. The SUV slowed down as gravity pulled the three thousand pound vehicle to a stop. Alexi squinted sharpening her vision to see as far ahead as possible. It was difficult in the orange light of sunset but she could make out a barricade in front of the bridge. There were no cars on the bridge itself and only a few in front. There were people on the bridge. Hundreds, packed in tight and unable to leave because of the waist high police blockade.
“Floor it,” she told him.
“There could be—” Alexi slid over and stomped on his foot. The SUV surged forward as the V8 engine roared from the sudden influx of fuel. Osei opened his mouth to challenge her then abruptly clamped it shut. The headlights illuminated the bridge and its occupants.
“Oh, shi—”
Three thousand pounds of metal and armor crashed through the semi-hardened barricade. As soon as they passed the barricade Osei swerved to the left. The armored truck screeched as he rubbed the bridge railing. There were fewer zombies on the left for some reason. Alexi put her foot on the dash as the SUV impacted the first throng at forty miles an hour. The passengers surged against their restraints in a violent jerk then slammed back into their seats.
Osei wrestled with the wheel as the truck bounced over several bodies.
“There goes the resale value,” Sing joked from the back.
Mercedes screamed something in French. Alexi didn’t need to speak it to know what she meant.
“Faster!” Alexi yelled.
The engine roared as Osei put the pedal to the floor. Body after body bounced off the hood. One crashed into the windshield before falling off to the side. It left a bloody smear along the windshield obscuring their vision.
The SUV blasted through another clump of bodies. The grill shattered and a piece flew over the hood to crack the armored windshield. The vehicle barreled on over the remaining zombies.
“Left here,” Jet yelled suddenly. Osei spun the wheel to the left while he slammed on the brakes. The SUV slid sideways on its blood-slickened tires to slam into another group of zombies. Bones cracked and bodies flew from the impact. Osei stomped on the gas and angled the truck down the narrow side street.
The lane was mostly empty, no vehicles or zombies to deal with.
“There, I can see him,” Savanna pointed.
Osei slowed to a stop twenty meters from the Troll, he didn’t shut the engine off. His hands gripped the wheel like a vice.
“Alexi, are you sure you want to do this?” Sing asked.
“It’s too late for that now,” she replied as she disembarked the vehicle. The rest of the team rolled out behind her. They held their weapons nervously waiting to shoot anything that moved.
“I thought this was just a statue?” Jet asked as they dismounted the vehicle. She and Mercedes covered the rear with their rifles, expertly shouldered and pointed the way they came. As one they both flipped on their LED lights. They were bright enough to allow them to see for almost a hundred feet.
“Nope. A real honest to god troll. I swear the longer I’m in this job the weirder the world gets. The Arcanum trapped it here thirty years ago,” Sing said. With his arm in a sling he couldn’t carry a rifle, instead, he held a boxy machine pistol.
Alexi drew her sword. Not that she thought it would do her much good against anything but zombies.
Savanna climbed out of the SUV last. She walked toward the troll and Alexi quickly fell in line next to her. She let her hand brush the witches in a show of support.
“He’s not getting you,” Alexi said in a whisper.
“He’s literally The Lord of Hell. I let him loose on Earth and there isn’t anything or anyone,” she looked at Alexi in the eyes, “that can stop him from doing whatever he wants. I made the bargain, Alexi. There is no getting out of it.” Savanna smiled sadly and put her hand on Alexi’s shoulder.
“A deal is a deal, Alexi. Let him. Let him take me. It’s my soul versus the entire planet the math hasn’t changed.”
Alexi shook her head. They’d beaten demons before, they could do it again.
“We can banish him or beat him physically until he’s forced to retreat,” A
lexi said. She sensed her own desperation and couldn’t keep it from her voice.
“I don’t have the power to banish him, and I’m not sacrificing someone else to do it. Alexi,” she looked up, silent tears rolled down her cheeks, “Connor—gave his life for this to work. I can’t jeopardize it, I won’t. We stop the zombie, I go to hell.” She opened her mouth like she wanted to say more. A burning light appeared near the troll interrupting her.
Alatum had arrived.
Alexi squeezed Savanna’s arm, “I’m not giving up,” she whispered. Savanna shrugged from her grip and walked toward the demon. The Arcanum flanked her with weapons out and ready to defend her. Alexi followed behind. She hated this thing and it showed.
Free him.
“What? That wasn’t the deal,” Savanna said between clenched teeth.
I agreed to lead you to your prize. I cannot find one human among millions unless they call to me. Jötnar can. Free him.
“Fine,” Savanna growled.
“Savanna,” Sing interrupted, “it took three company mages, and several agents to trap him. He eats children. If you free him…” the agent let the implication hang in the air.
“There won't be any children left if we don’t. Do you have a better idea?” she waited, “didn’t think so.”
Savanna pulled her dagger from her boot. Her chanting filled the air as she slid the blade across her arm. Energy swelled around her. The back of Alexi’s head buzzed as magic burst forth from the witches hands.
Savanna allowed her blood run free as she collected the eldritch power about her fingers. The angry buzz in Alexi’s head grew in strength. Her eyes hurt from the pressure and she resisted the urge to push against it.
Savanna clapped her hands together. The energy coalesced and spread out to cover the trapped troll. The giant rock rumbled sending tremors that sent Savanna and the agents scrambling to stay on their feet.
Alexi’s fingers tightened around the hilt of her sword.
Rocks collapsed and cracked. A hand as large as a horse slammed the ground. The rest of the facade collapsed in a cloud of debris. The beast inhaled through massive misshapen nostrils. Yellow teeth and tusks jutted from his mouth. Swamp colored eyes, the size of semi truck wheel focused on Savanna. It gurgles and launched forward.
It was massive and fast. Too fast for its size.
Alexi’s nerves fired and magically powered muscles launched her through the air. The sword slashed across the things face sending it recoiling in horror. The beast moved one hand to protect its face. The other swiped out at them. Alexi pushed Savanna down. The clawed hand tore into her. She tumbled through the air to slam into the steel girders that made up the underside of the Aurora street bridge.
That’s enough Jötnar, be still.
The demons words burned in their minds. The troll whimpered and cowered before the demon lord.
“Alexi?” Savanna called.
Everything hurt. She’d never been hit that hard before. It wasn’t the strength it was the mass. She felt like one big bruise. From one blow. She laid on the ground a moment waiting for everything to heal. She tested her legs and when they worked without pain she clambered to her feet and retrieved her sword.
“I’m okay,” she replied to Savanna. Alexi crawled over discarded concrete from the trolls prison to get back to the group.
“Son of a bitch you’re tough,” Osei whispered at Alexi.
***
“It's in there?” Alexi asked incredulously.
“No fucking way are we going in there,” Jet said.
The troll took them almost due East from its former prison. However the demon king had done it, the troll knew exactly where to go. He was fast, leaping over cars and swinging under bridges with ease. It took all of Osei’s driving skills to keep up with the thing. Once it came to a stop, there was a slow realization of utterly screwed they were.
“If that’s full of zombies, we’re done,” Osei whispered.
Alexi didn’t disagree. She could smell the stench of the collected dead, they weren’t all getting in and out alive. She had known that when they left, this didn’t change anything.
“This is the place?” Savanna asked the troll. It snorted, blowing foul smelling air around it.
“I’m going to take that as a yes,” Alexi said. She moved forward past the troll and away from the agents. When they started to follow she held her hand out for them to stay back. Once she was a few hundred feet from them she climbed up on an abandoned truck. She couldn’t see anything of course. The stadium walls were much taller than the buildings near it. The two sides faced north and south, were huge, they towered over the end of the stadium.
The darkness wouldn’t help them much. The agents could use night vision and Alexi’s eyes took in the gloom as if it were noonday. To much open ground existed between them and the stadium, it could be a kill zone if they were caught out in the open. Once in—she could only imagine the horror show inside. Narrow halls, no cover, and plenty of places to be cornered.
With the rest of them behind her, she could focus her senses. Fine tune them without the distraction of the city or people. She breathed out letting her tension, worry, and stress leave her body with the air. With her eyes closed and her breath exhaled she focused on the stadium. She cocked her head to listen better. She blocked out the smell as well. The whole city stunk of the dead. She was sure this was the place, but there wasn’t time to be wrong.
Nothing. She tried again, squeezing her eyes shut as if that would allow her to hear better.
The ruffle of flags in the wind came to her. The creak of wood and aluminum from the scaffolding on the west side as it swayed, followed. A piece of glass fell somewhere shattering into small pieces. She pushed herself to focus harder.
There. The sounds of a crowd shuffling their feet across the ground. Low moans of the dead, the chatter of teeth. She focused past the large noises and tried to count the number of individual sounds. There were too many. She shook her head and her senses snapped back to her proximity. She knew for sure now. She had no doubt. She leaped off the truck as silent as a field mouse and made her way back to the group.
“What have you got?” Osei asked.
“Hundreds, if not more,” Alexi whispered to the huddled group. They had taken shelter behind an abandoned delivery truck, keeping the vehicle between them and the stadium. The troll still hadn’t moved since their arrival, holding still like the statue he had been.
“Can we leave that thing here?” Mercedes asked.
Savanna shrugged., “There’s not much I can do about it. When this is all over the Arcanum will have to fix it.”
Osei sighed as he looked around. Alexi felt it too. She wanted to find a way here these brave people didn’t die. She wanted a plan whereby they could get in, kill the infection and get out. Reality wasn’t going to cooperate, and the awful truth sunk into all of them as they huddled together.
“I didn’t have any plans for tomorrow anyways,” Jet whispered.
“Mercedes smiled, “Dying on foreign soil is a Legion tradition.”
“If I’m going to go, I might as well go saving the world, right?” Sing said.
Alexi smiled. Her face flushed with pride. She let the silence linger for a moment before speaking.
“Thank you, all of you,” she said. “Osei, Savanna is the package, if she doesn’t make it, this is all for not.”
“Understood,” the big man said.
Alexi took point, wrapping around the delivery truck to scan the parking lot. It was vast, and other than the troll, empty. The group fell in behind her with Savanna in the middle. Alexi pointed up to the scaffolding that covered half of the main building. If there was a way in, then it would be through there. Alexi slithered from car to abandoned car, using the shadows and her natural stealth to stay almost invisible. The Arcanum donned their night vision goggles and stayed close behind her.
The scaffolding was made from aluminum with wooden planks acting as the floor
ing. It creaked as the wind shifted. It had been securely moored to the wall, but three weeks of neglect left it feeling unsteady. She reached out and gently shook it. The discarded tools and empty paint buckets suggested they had abandoned their work in the middle of the work day.
“Is there a problem?” Osei asked. While she examined the structure the agent had caught up. His voice was calm, but Alexi picked up on the tension behind it. She shook her head negative.
“Should be good,” she pointed to the top, “About halfway up there’s an entrance. I’ll go first, come behind me. We’ll rally inside. Understood?” A chorus of “Roger,” followed. Alexi figured if it was going to break she would rather it broke on her. She could regenerate after all.
The metal creaked under her weight as she climbed up. Even with her stealth, she couldn’t keep the wood from creaking the frame from slapping against its moors. She stopped on the second level, placed her hand on a support bar, and shook it gently. The scaffolding held. She nodded to herself. She stuck her arm out over the side and gave the group below a thumbs up.
From there she was able to leap up to the next level and pull herself up. She stayed low and under the sill of the window. Sword drawn, she put one leg through then ducked inside. It was a hallway of some kind, with little light. She felt more than saw the hand lash out of the dark at her. She instinctively rolled to the side for space. One old man, with his left arm a mangled mess shuffled toward her. His one good arm out in front of him. Alexi sprang forward slicing her blade cleanly through his head. She slid under the body and caught it as it fell. Silently, she lowered it to the ground.
“Shit,” Osei muttered as he climbed in. “I know you’re fast but…”
“I was taking it easy on you in training,” she said with a wink. With confidence the team had made it up, she proceeded down the hall toward the stadium. She didn’t put her sword away.
TWENTY-THREE
The Queen of the zombies shifted on her throne of flesh. Her own skin was long since deteriorated to nothing more than leathery flaps hanging off near fossilized bone. The remnants of the people who worshiped her shifted back and forth in an endless march for her amusement. They were all to mindless to act on their own other than to feed, of course. No, they moved for her pleasure. It was a unique sort of power she held over the dead. It was all she had left and she relished in it.
Blood Sacrifice (Faith of the Fallen Book 2) Page 22