The Glooming (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 1)

by John Triptych

  “You delusional idiots. Okay, how many guards up in the ground level before I can get to the transportation area?”

  “A reinforced platoon of fully-armed IDF soldiers,” Ariel said, breathing heavily. “You’re never going to make it out of here alive, Ron. You have to surrender now.”

  “We’ll see about that. Come on.”

  As Patrick Gyle regained consciousness, he was instantly aware that he couldn’t move his arms or legs. When he tilted his head, he soon noticed that his four limbs were bolted down with two-inch industrial steel clamps, as he laid spread eagle on a metal slab that served as an examining table. Across the room, he noticed glass partitions that divided it into sections as people wearing white lab smocks and surgical masks were apparently observing him while staring at their computer consoles. As Gyle looked down at his own body, it was clear they had stripped him of his clothing as if he was a corpse lying in a morgue. But what really surprised him was looking at his skin, for it seemed like he was in a brand new body. It felt like he was wearing some sort of pale, leathery armor with strange bumps and ridges and it had grown to at least an inch in thickness. He tried to lift his arms, but the clamps held him tight no matter how hard he tried.

  The Israeli doctors and scientists who were studying him expressed both shock and awe at his condition. When they tried to draw blood for a sample, all of their syringe needles had failed to penetrate Gyle’s thick outer skin, in fact every single needle had broken upon impact. Thicker, industrial syringes were quickly ordered, but they were still awaiting delivery due to the crunch in the country’s supply chain because of the complete call up of all military reserves. When the subject’s original skin had fully sloughed off, they kept the remains in an autopsy lab for examination, but it had rapidly decomposed, and within minutes had turned to fine ash. One of the scientists remarked that the subject was now a eunuch since his genitals had molted away and there were no visible reproductive organs apparent when they made a second examination of him. When they attempted to check for injuries after the extraction team had reported that the subject had taken several rounds to his body, they could no longer find any entry wounds, as the thickening new skin had apparently closed over them. When the subject briefly opened his eyes while they were examining him for injuries, they were shocked to notice his new eyes were crimson in color and had no pupils. Since they needed to wait for more specialized test instruments, all they could do now was to just observe the subject as he fought against his restraints.

  There were about six of them, half were medical doctors and the rest were veterinarians. As they kept talking about how incredible the subject was, the fire alarm had sounded and they just stood around in confusion. They had never been trained in an event of a fire in the facility and therefore didn’t know what to do. A few minutes passed, and the outer door leading to the corridor opened and in came Ariel while Boland was limping right behind him. The CIA administrator held one of the old man’s arms behind Ariel’s back in a painful grip. Just minutes before, the two men found a supply room and Boland put on a lab smock so he could disguise himself as they both limped past the unmanned security corridor, then into the lower level just as he tripped the fire alarm so as to distract the guards.

  “Sir, what’s going on?” one of the doctors said as she held a coffee cup in her hand.

  “Shut up. All of you stand over there!” Boland shouted as he had produced a scalpel and placed it at Ariel’s throat with his other hand.

  “Boland, what are you doing?” Ariel gasped as the other man pushed him forward towards the consoles. “You can’t free that man, he’s dangerous!”

  “He’s my operative and he’s an American,” Boland shouted as he made his way to the consoles while keeping Ariel in front of him. “You can’t keep him prisoner like this.”

  Some of the scientists began to overcome their initial surprise. Two of them held their hands forward in a gesture of peace while another man, who had a silvery beard and wore thick glasses, reached for a landline phone.

  “None of you move!” Boland said as he pressed the scalpel against Ariel’s jugular. A single drop of blood was visible on the old man’s throat. “If you reach for that phone, I’ll kill him!”

  The others stopped moving and stood still as Ariel shrieked from the pain on his arm and at the scratch on his neck. Boland glanced over at Gyle past the glass partitions. He just couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His operative looked like an unholy offspring of a crocodile and a human being. He could see the hairless, pale armored skin, and the unearthly face that made eye contact with him and stared back with blood red eyes. Quickly overcoming his initial shock, Boland glanced back at the lab scientists before he began scanning the consoles to see if there were any controls that he could use to loosen the restraints.

  As he noticed Boland was now too distracted, the man with the beard moved quickly and closed the distance to the two men as he made a grab for the scalpel that was on Ariel’s throat. Boland sensed it, but he was too late as the doctor used both hands to pull his wrist back and away from the old man’s throat. Realizing he only had a few seconds before the others gathered up their courage and overwhelmed him, Boland used his other arm to push Ariel forward and into the doctor as he pulled back his other arm and let go of the scalpel. Both Ariel and the doctor fell forward as Boland turned around and started to push every single key on the consoles, hoping one of them would free Gyle. The others quickly ran over to him and started grabbing his arms.

  Gyle had noticed the commotion as the group had swarmed on top of Boland and began to wrestle him to the ground. Another door across the other side had opened, and four armed security guards had burst in with pistols drawn. That was when he realized that one of the restraining bolts in the clamp on his right arm had loosened somehow. Whether it was because of Boland’s frantic and random button pushing on the controls, or it was because of his constant resistance against the restraints he just wasn’t sure, but now there was a chance to be free as he pulled at the now loosened clamp with all his strength. A few seconds later, he heard the sound of grinding metal as the restraint finally gave way and he was able to slip it off his right arm. Gyle could now hear panicked shouts across the room as someone realized he was partially free. He quickly grabbed onto the other arm restraint and he pulled at it with both arms until it too gave way. That was when he saw three of the guards had ran out from the partitioned area and stood right next to him as they aimed their Jericho 941 pistols at his body.

  “Stop what you are doing!” one of the guards shouted in heavily-accented English. “If you do not stop, we will shoot!”

  Gyle ignored the warning as he used both hands to free his left leg by ripping out the steel clamp that held it. Just as he got the first leg free, one of the guards started to fire at him, a split second later all three guards had opened fire. But all Gyle could feel was some slight pressure on his skin as the 9mm rounds seemed to bounce harmlessly off of him.

  One of the guards had emptied his magazine and was frantically reloading as Gyle finally got all of the restraints off of him, then he leapt up into the ceiling. The three guards stopped shooting and just looked up in astonishment. They saw Gyle had dug his claws into the ceiling panels and was just hanging on right above them like some giant, pale lizard. Gyle had been amazed at his newfound strength and lightning fast speed, but his mind was clouded with rage at what they had done to him as he leapt down and smashed on top of one of the guards. The impact had crushed the poor man’s skull and ribcage and he lay in a convulsing bloody heap. Gyle grabbed a second guard who just stood there screaming in terror and threw him at the glass partition with just one arm. The hapless guard went through the glass walls like a brick made of flesh and bone as a few of the lab testers screamed and made a run for the exits.

  The third guard had dropped his gun, fell on his knees and begged for mercy while crying for his mother. Gyle just walked past him and through the broken partition as he stared down at
Boland and Ariel, who were both lying on the floor as they gawked back at his fearsome image.

  Boland sat up and their eyes met. “I’m sorry, Patrick. Sorry for betraying you to these Israelis. They made a bargain to take us safely out of the Middle East, but they screwed us.”

  Ariel rapidly shook his head. “No, no! Your superior Boland begged us to get him out of there, he was the one who betrayed you … it was he who gave your locations to us!”

  Boland glanced back at the old man with pure hatred in his eyes. “You lying bastard.”

  Ariel frantically shook his head as he couldn’t take his eyes off of Patrick. “No, no, it’s true, Boland wanted a lot of money to bring you and the eternal man to us—”

  But Ariel’s words were cut off in mid-sentence as Gyle had grabbed him by the throat and pulled him up to his eye level. The old man’s legs were now dangling off the ground as he gasped for air. Ariel tried to loosen Gyle’s grip, but it was like trying to stop an industrial vise with just his hands.

  Gyle’s voice had turned guttural, it sounded like a growl of a monstrous dog. “Atrahasis, where is he?”

  Ariel kept gasping, he couldn’t catch his breath. “The l-level down below … aargh … last corridor to … th-the right….”

  Gyle let go and the old man crumpled to the ground. He looked at Boland for a brief minute and said nothing. Boland looked down at the messy floor and didn’t say anything either. Then Gyle turned and walked out of the exit and into the corridor.

  Although the guards had disabled the elevators, Gyle nevertheless opened the lift doors and just leapt down to the lower level of the installation. He could see that this level wasn’t quite completed yet. The builders had evidently left one wing exposed to solid rock as they had not yet finished digging out the earth at this depth. Following Ariel’s directions, Gyle walked down the concrete-lined corridor to his right. A few people had seen him and they immediately got out of the way while a few just fell to the ground and screamed in terror. He ignored them and kept on going until he got to the door in the final corridor and opened it.

  Gyle saw that it was a smaller room than where they had kept him. In the middle was a hospital bed surrounded by medical machinery. As he walked over, Gyle could see intravenous tubes all around the floor as he stopped at the foot of the bed. Lying on the hospital bed was Atrahasis, his gaunt figure dressed only in a hospital gown, his flowing white hair and beard had been shaved off; his arms were held down by restraints on the side of the bed frame. Intravenous needles had been stuck into his forearm and his blood flowed freely from it and into several machines that had tubes running from the floor and lay embedded into the nearby wall. Gyle quickly tore off the needles from his arm and ripped out the restraints as the old man stirred to life.

  Atrahasis’s voice was a faint whisper. “Thank you, my friend.”

  Gyle easily picked up the old man using his now massive arms. “There’ll be many soldiers in the upper areas. I’ll shield you as much as I can if they decide to fire at us. I can’t guarantee full protection if we do it that way unless I hide you first—I could go around and kill everyone before bringing you out.”

  “There is no need for more killing,” Atrahasis said. “Did you recall that there are rock tunnels in this place?”

  “Yes, I passed by one such corridor just awhile ago on my way here.”

  “Then let us go there for I can guide you to a portal that will bring us to Irkalla, the underworld. They will not be able to follow.”

  “Very well,” Gyle said as he carried the old man out of the room.

  Rabbi Elijah Ba’al stood by and stared at the carnage in the examining room. Medical orderlies had finally carried the body of the dead guard out on a stretcher. There was broken glass and machinery all around. Ariel Weizman limped over to him as he kept rubbing his sore throat with one hand and led with his cane in the other.

  “So they got away then?” Rabbi Ba’al said.

  Ariel’s voice was hoarse and it was painful to speak. “Unfortunately, yes. We do not know how they got out since they never made it to the upper levels. My men swept the area multiple times and there isn’t a single sign of them.”

  “They are unique creatures,” Rabbi Ba’al said. “I was not surprised we were unable to keep them for long.”

  Ariel shook his head slowly. “That’s it then, we failed. The Holy Land of Israel will be lost. Our people will be scattered again.”

  “Perhaps not,” Rabbi Ba’al said. “We have extracted enough blood and life force from the eternal man to animate at least forty golems, according to my estimation. We might as well proceed to stage three of the project.”

  Ariel looked down on the floor. More blood would be spilled now, but what mattered was the country’s survival. Everything else was secondary. “So you want to deliver the Palestinian prisoners to the staging area now?”

  Rabbi Ba’al nodded. “Yes, there is no time to waste.”

  29. The Larva

  The Otherworld

  The moment she stepped through the portal, Tara Weiss kept her mind focused. She realized that the little Chihuahua had somehow transformed itself into a large coyote as it stood there waiting as the portal closed behind her. She was now standing in some strange desert that resembled the scrublands of the place where she had just come from, but the sand was bluish in color and it glowed faintly. Looking up at the sky, she noticed that there were no stars shining in the darkness at all, but she could see other planets in the distance and they seemed so close that she could make out their surface details. Their incandescent bodies illuminated the twilit world all around her. It felt like the entire sky was crowded with other worlds that she could fly off to, if only she had wings.

  As she finally turned her attention to the coyote, Tara smiled at it as she zipped up her jacket. “You were a little dog in my world, but you look like a big coyote in this one, Bibsy.”

  The coyote looked at her grimly. “I hate that name.”

  Tara laughed. “But that’s the name your owner gave you, right?”

  “She sure did.”

  Tara shrugged. “Okay then, what would you like me to call you?”

  “Coyote the Trickster would be fine.”

  Tara gave it the thumbs up. “Alrighty then, Mr. Coyote Trickster. What do we do now?”

  Coyote looked around. “You said you wanted to save the world, right?”

  Tara shrugged. “I did. But how do I do that?”

  “Well, we are in the Spirit World so anything is possible.”

  Tara stared up into the heavenly sky. “So this Spirit World that we’re in, is it like, you know … Heaven?”

  “Sort of.”

  “What do you mean ‘sort of’?”

  “Many ancient peoples had different stories that interpreted the other worlds. The Yaqui for instance, believed that there were five separate worlds: the desert world, the mystical world, the flower world, the dream world, and the night world. Others believed in an afterlife which wasn’t any different than the world that they came from, while still others believed that one world held eternal suffering and the more deserving ones go to a place of eternal bliss. All these worlds have many meanings and it is only limited by your own power.”

  “Wait,” Tara said. “Are you saying that this world changes depending on how you feel about it or how you sense it?”

  “That’s one way of putting it.”

  “So everyone’s beliefs in the afterlife are all here? In this world that we’re in right now?”

  “More or less.”

  Tara thought about it for a minute. “So this place, it can be Heaven or Hell and I can go to either one and it all depends on like, my imagination or something?”

  “To a certain degree, yes.”

  “Wow,” Tara said. “So this means I can travel back and forth, all I have to do is will myself to do it, right?”

  “You’re starting to get the picture,” Coyote said. “You must know where you are go
ing in order to create the path ahead of you.”

  “Okay, I think I’m getting it now,” Tara said. “So if I concentrate on a place to go to, then the path will open itself up before me? What if I don’t think about anything and just keep walking ahead?”

  “As to your first question the answer is yes. As to the second one, anything can happen because you may end up in someone else’s path.”

  Tara nodded. “Okay, I get it. So the first thing I need to concentrate on is to how help America because the whole country is going down the tubes.”

  “Ah, well there are many causes to that,” Coyote said.

  “Well, I need your guidance then,” Tara said. “Where’s the biggest problem that the country is having right now?”

  Coyote rolled its eyes. “Hmm, where do I start? Firstly, the thunderbirds are angry so they are destroying anything up in the skies.”

  “That’s bad, what else?”

  “Then you’ve got the Lords of the Night coming up from the south. They are very, very nasty gods, so I think it’s best you get some additional allies first before trying to defeat them.”

  “Good point, I’ll have to take a rain check on them. Next.”

  “Then you have the Hidden One who will soon be reborn in the great city to the east.”

  Tara furrowed her brow. “Wait a minute, he sounds familiar. I had a vision about meeting a boy younger than me, and I had this giant gross worm in my hand, so when you said the Hidden One, I totally remembered that dream.”

  “Ah, that is indeed him. If he is allowed to grow into the dark god, then he will do great destruction to the country you are from.”

  “Okay then, we need to stop him first,” Tara said. “How do I go about doing that though?”

  “The key was in your dream, think harder,” Coyote said.

  Tara closed her eyes and concentrated. “Okay, before I had the worm in my hand, I met that boy and he was in a giant forest … okay, I think I’ll have to find him first. So all I need to do now is to get to the forest.”