She sneered. “Shut up, Augie. I swear to God, I will hurt you, dude.”
I ran my finger up her shin. “Does this tingle or is it numb? Can you feel this?”
She ground her teeth. “It feels like death.”
I pressed the soft part under her ankle. “Does this hurt?”
“Ow, shit, man! Stop doing that.”
I lightly pressed on the ankle itself. She didn’t make a peep.
“You’re lucky. It’s only sprained,” I said, pulling out a vial of Forever Blood.
Her eyes got wide. “You brought Forever Blood? Sweet, man. Pump me up.”
“You’ll only need a little to heal,” I said. “We should save the blood for precaution. We don’t know what else this place has in store for us.”
Out of nowhere, Augie groaned in pain, crashing to his knees.
“My stomach,” he said. “Something is wrong. My intestines are on fire…”
“You idiot,” I said. “It was the oatmeal.”
His face was cherry red as he looked up at me. “But it was so good.”
I had no idea what was wrong with the oatmeal, but we were about to get an idea.
“It’s like the morning after Blake’s party all over again.” He wretched and dry heaved. “Oh, god. I’m gonna die.”
He ripped off his shirt and rolled to his spine. His stomach bulged like a scene from Alien. It looked like a giant fat worm squirmed inside his gut. Maya shimmied away from him.
I stepped back. “What the hell?”
Augie freaked out. “What is that, man? Oh, god. Get it out, Ivy. Get it out.”
“It’s in your system.”
His eyes were full of terror. “What the frick is in my system, dude?!”
“Let’s find out,” I said, injecting the whole vial of Forever Blood into Augie’s ass.
“It hurts so bad. I’m gonna die.”
He fell back and opened his mouth. Brown, black, and green ectoplasm shot from his throat and floated in the air. An amorphous liquid that looks more like solid smoke than liquid, ectoplasm is ethereal energy from other dimensions bleeding over into our world. Often excreted by ghosts and other other-dimensional beings.
But what the hell was it doing coming out of the kid?
Augie bent over and threw up, heaving muddy-green slop to the floor. He vomited several more chunks of brown globules the size of golf balls. He wiped the brown goo from his mouth.
I glared at him. “Are you done now?”
“I think so—” He bellowed over and threw up several more globules. Brown vomit gook sprayed across my jeans.
I crouched on one knee, took out my blade, and poked one of the round globs.
“Those are odd,” I said. “They’re not your organs…”
Augie spat several times to get the remaining mucous out. “What are those things?”
Inside one of the brown globs, something squirmed.
“It’s alive,” I said. Using the blade, I split the globule in half.
Before I cut all the way through, a tiny squid-like creature slithered out. A brown-pinkish thing with no eyes, it was covered in tendrils and flailed about.
I stabbed it. On the tip of my blade, I lifted it for Augie and Maya to see. Its limbs wriggled violently until, after ten seconds, it stopped moving.
Augie’s face was filled with terror. He looked at me with bloodshot eyes. “That thing was inside me?! Oh, shit, man. Am I gonna die?”
“Not anymore,” I said.
Maya rubbed her ankle. “Please tell me you have more Forever Blood.”
“A single vial, but two cartridges,” I said. I replaced the syringe with a new cartridge of Forever blood. “But you get just a drop.”
I found a vein in her leg and injected a tiny dose. It was almost a waste of healing agent. Normally, I’d tell her to walk it off and suck it up. But I couldn’t allow her to slow me down in an unknown, lethal place such as this.
I slid the syringe back into my jacket pocket.
Maya wiggled her ankle. “It already feels better,” she said, looking around the bunker. “What is this place?”
This pit in the ground wasn’t a pit at all. It was a bunker. It seemed even bigger than the bunkers where Redmann’s people lived, with hallways leading in several directions.
Scanning the area, I noticed Augie was missing. I helped Maya to her feet and explored the bunker. We came onto a hallway leading to a massive room, a giant cave, with a front computer console and glass observation chamber around the room. A large vault was parked at the end.
Augie whistled in amazement. “What is this place? It looks like Dr. Evil’s lair of all-star villains.”
Something was hidden under a tarp in the corner. I ripped off the tarp to reveal a large dormant missile.
I huffed. “It’s ground zero.”
Maya gasped. “Is that what I think it is?”
“A nuclear warhead,” I said.
Augie ambled over to the vault. It was cracked open, enough for him to waltz right in.
“Holy shit,” he said. I moved in behind him. Maya followed. The vault was half the size of a football field.
And filled with dozens of nukes.
Augie shook his head. “Who stores their atom bombs like this? I always keep mine diversified.”
“Both of you. Walk out slowly,” I said. “Don’t even breathe hard.” We crept from the vault as quietly as we came in.
Augie felt his chest. “I think I’m having heart palpitations,” he said. “Why is there a vault full of nukes, man?”
“Get on the computer,” I said, nodding toward the control area. “See if you can find or channel any information.”
He dusted off the seat and sat at the controls. “This is a relic, dude.” He flipped a random switch. A green light came on. “No way this thing still works.”
“It can,” I said. “If the station is powered by nuclear energy.”
Maya shook her head. “World War II was ancient, man,” she said. “They just got the first A-bomb made, right? Did they have the technology to run an underground base like this?”
“Apparently so,” I said. I peered at the bomb in the corner. “But that bomb isn’t standard issue for the time. It’s too sleek. The sooner Augie can find out what’s on this computer, the sooner we’ll figure out what the hell this place was built for.”
Augie’s fingers raced over the controls. He shook his head. “This thing needs to be in a museum.”
“Shut up and use your power,” I said. “Channel the energy from the machine. Someone used it once upon a time. That means you know how to use it too.”
“Man, my power is for cool shit,” he said, punching a button. “Like channeling samurai swords and demon blades. Not this retro computer crap—” His head jerked upward as he shouted in German. “Ihr Narren! Der Teufel wird uns alle töten!”
Maya jumped back. Augie’s hands gripped the controls. He was channeling the computer users from the past.
Maya’s eyes grew wide. “What’s he saying?”
“He said ‘The devil will kill us all.’” I pried Augie’s hands off the console.
He looked at me with a blank face. And turned back to the computer. And back to me. “Please tell me I didn’t just raise a horde of undead Nazis.”
“You’re losing yourself again in the channel. Like you did at the Residency,” I said. “See yourself as an observer. Like it’s a dream.”
“The emotions were so intense. I felt like I was there,” he said, cracking his knuckles. “Let’s try this again.” He went back to the computer, flipping dials and moving buttons like he owned it.
The computer looked archaic by today’s standards, but I was surprised there was even a setup like this at all, considering that computers were still the size of a room when we landed on the moon. This seemed quite advanced for the time.
The monitor turned on. Static gave way to a fuzzy image. A video came on screen of a scientist in a white lab coat s
peaking to the camera. In English.
“The force below is of superior intelligence,” he said, “but it lacks the mobility of physical form and a brain to express its mind and will. So it must speak through us.”
The camera moved to a man tied to a chair. He shouted in German. But it was mixed with several other languages as well as English. One of those languages was Babylonian. It was a garbled mix of gibberish.
The scientist continued, “The interdimensional being, which we call The Presence, has been trapped in this pocket universe for its entire existence. Its aura creates a veil between our worlds, where it weaves in and out of reality, never being able to truly live in ours. By controlling a human host, it has helped us in developing weaponry and technology beyond our understanding, and in exchange we feed him…” he paused, adjusted his glasses, and returned to camera. “Well, we feed him us.”
Augie hyperventilated. “This doesn’t sound good.”
I grumbled. “Shut up and keep it playing.”
The scientist continued. “Eventually, the human host breaks down. The brain’s frontal lobe deteriorates after a time when possessed by The Presence. As you can see here, he loses the ability to speak. There’s only one way to deal with the loss.” He pulled out a Luger pistol and shot the man in the head. He slumped over, dead.
There was a German voice in the background speaking before the video turned off.
Augie frowned. “What the hell was that all about?”
Maya had a worried look on her face. “What’s with the German? And the bombs?”
The scientist in the film had a German Luger. Augie channeled the voice of a German who was using these controls. And someone spoke German in the background before the video cut out.
“The Americans and Germans were working together,” I said. “They knew about this place and worked together to raise this evil thing. These bunkers weren’t meant to keep the Germans out. They were built to protect this place from anyone trying to get in. To protect the beast, whatever it is.”
Augie tapped his chin. “Wasn’t Hitler always into that weird shit? Trying to find the Holy Grail or use UFO technology or find other dimensions? It looks like they finally found something.”
“Germans on American soil? Goddammit,” I said. “Whatever this creature is, it still exists. I’ve felt it. It laid dormant for decades. And Redmann is continuing the work. Trying to bring it to our dimension.”
Maya’s voice quivered. “But why? What the heck is this thing?”
“I don’t know,” I said, glaring at the nuke in the corner. “But we’re going to blow it the fuck up.”
Chapter 12
Child’s Play
After watching an old video recording of Americans and Germans working together during World War II to communicate with an interdimensional monster, I was about at my wit’s end. And I wanted to kill something.
“You heard me right,” I said. “We’re gonna blow up this whole goddamn Island and destroy every monster in this godforsaken hellhole.”
Augie jumped from the seat. “You want to set off a nuke? You’re crazy. We’ll destroy Chicago.”
“The veil between worlds only shifts at twilight,” I said. “Outside of those fifteen minutes, Chicago will be protected when the nuke goes off.”
Maya fidgeted with her hands. “But won’t the radiation leak out to Chicago during twilight?”
“Scientists said the veil is created by the creature’s aura,” I said. “We kill the creature, no aura. The veil will disappear. There will be no way to get between worlds. Ever. Not even during twilight, because the beast will be dead.”
Augie’s face tightened. “How do you know the nuke will even kill the creature?”
“Educated guess,” I said, approaching the nuke in the corner. “The scientist said the beast is below. He could have meant that figuratively or literally. The lower I went into the basement and tunnels, the more I felt this creature bleeding over into our dimension. Bleeding through the darkness.”
Maya shivered. “That’s creepy as shit, man.”
“This entire Island looks to be about ten miles wide,” I said. “That must be the size of the beast. Or at least the size of it that leaks in our dimension. Nothing a nuke can’t destroy.”
Maya threw up her hands. “This is crazy,” she said, stomping away.
I growled. “Where are you going?”
“To find Del Toro,” she said. “Maybe he can still be saved.”
“They threw him in a dark pit, Maya,” I said. “They fed him to the beast.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. He might be out there right now needing help.”
She took a right down one of the halls. Ceiling lights flickered on as she walked. The bunker was a massive area that probably housed hundreds of soldiers and scientists.
I followed Maya, knowing she was going deeper into the lair. Finally, she came upon a green military jeep. And a dead-end.
I stopped walking. “Where do you think you’re heading?”
Maya cornered around the truck until we were headed back the way we came. “I don’t know,” she said, throwing her hands up. “I’m lost.”
She spun around and passed me, this time heading toward the hatch she fell through. She climbed up the ladder along the wall.
“Maya, get your ass down here,” he said. “That’s an order.”
“I’m not going to stay here with a bunch of bombs watching creepy Nazi videos from World War II,” she said. “When I find Del Toro, I’ll send you a snail mail.”
Before I could reach her, she was already on the surface. I climbed up and out as she made her way through the woods to the trail.
“Don’t try to stop me, boss,” she said. “I’m going to find him.”
“We don’t know what we’re dealing with yet.”
“I don’t care. I can do this—”
Twenty yards behind her, I followed as she ran up the trail. “What are you going to do if he’s injured? Carry him? You’re a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet. You couldn’t carry a bag of dog food much less a two-hundred pound man.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’ll figure it out, I guess.”
“This isn’t a game, Maya.”
Before I caught up to her, a darkened figure appeared on the trail, stumbling toward her as if he was drunk.
It was Del Toro.
“Yo, Del Toro,” Maya said. “What’s up?” She strolled up to him.
“Maya,” I said, approaching them both. “Back away. There’s something wrong with him.”
She got in his face, but he didn’t seem to notice. He was shirtless and covered in soot, like a coal miner.
“Hey, man. You hear me?” she said. “I’m here to rescue you. You’re saved now.”
Maya snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. He gave no response.
“Maya, get away from him,” I said.
“Hey, Del Toro,” she said. “Wilcox sent me. You remember Uncle Joe, don’t you?” She grabbed his arm.
His gaze dropped to her hand and moved to her eyes. His mouth opened, giving a hollow ticking from the back of his throat.
Maya sneered. “Hey, man, are you all right?”
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
His ribs snapped. Del Toro’s chest opened like a Venus Fly Trap. Black demon claws reached from inside his body cavity and took hold of Maya’s skull. A dark, reptilian body crept out. With rows of teeth like a shark, its jaw unhinged, pulling Maya’s face inside.
I grabbed her arm and wrenched her back, pushing Del Toro and the beast away.
Maya backed away and tripped, falling on her ass. “Oh, shit, man. What is that thing?”
The beast continued to writhe from Del Toro’s rib cage. His organs were missing. The inside of his torso was now the home of a three foot tall, blood-covered, black beast. It hopped to the ground. Del Toro stood in place, wobbling back and forth as if awaiting new commands.
Maya whipped out the butterfly knife.
The beast charged her. It leaped in the air and landed on Maya. She stabbed the beast’s skull, over and over, but it didn’t even feel it.
I grabbed the creature’s arm and flung it to the ground, driving my heel into its throat.
“You’re one ugly son of a bitch.” To save ammunition, I flipped the Beretta around and pistol-whipped the thing until its skull was mush.
Its blood was slimy and brown and resembled crude oil more than blood.
I helped Maya off the ground. Her hands were shaking.
She grabbed them to hold them still. Or to hide her fear. “Wh-what is that thing?”
“Some kind of hybrid,” I said, kneeling down to it. “Using Del Toro’s body as a cocoon. Or like a tortoise uses a shell. But this shell is made of human flesh.”
I pried through the bits of broken skull fragments. Its brain was black. It looked like a demon, but these weren’t demon brains, because this thing didn’t come from Hell. It came from wherever its master came from—
The beast called The Presence.
The creature mentioned in the bunker video was the same ethereal creature that slithered against me in the basement. The same creature that tried to kill me in the tunnel. Somehow, they were all tied together.
Maya tried to get her hands to stop shaking. “Shit, man.” She paced on the trail. “I stabbed it a million times, but it wouldn’t stop. It just kept coming—”
“We need to get answers,” I said, “from the frat boys in the brown robes. The guys who threw Del Toro into the pit.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” she said. She started down the trail.
“Maya, you’re not thinking rationally,” I said. “You can’t confront them with a butterfly knife and demand answers. They will kill you.”
“They can’t kill me, I’m friends with Jada. And she’s tight with Redmann. Which means I’m protected.”
Her irrational art of jumping to conclusions was impressive. And quite frightening.
“What’re you trying to prove?”
“Nothing,” she said. “I just want answers.”
She was trying to prove herself. Prove how tough she was after her failure at the lake with Marcus. I could feel her rage and disappointment—
Faith of a Monster Killer: Killing Forever Book 3 Page 7