“Unto myself, I am. Until I found your world, I was the only thing in existence. Now I know there is so much more.” Augie slid his gaze to me. “Become my vessel when the Herald is ready and I will open this door.”
I was taken aback. “You want me to be your vessel? To be your host?”
“Your person will die in there. I can open it easily and save his precious life. Just agree to be mine.”
I grimaced. “Fuck off. You’re not using me as your vessel.”
“You might not want to be my vessel, but we are having a friendly chat, so technically I’m in your head. Why not give me your body too? We’re already halfway there.”
“If you’re going to take up real estate in my mind, make yourself useful and open this goddamn vault.”
The Augie mimic shuffled to the vault and slid his hands over it like a lover. When he turned around, he had morphed into my dead wife.
“Sorry, baby,” she said. “You’re on your own.”
With an itchy trigger finger, my Beretta pumped six rounds into her. She peered at her wounds, gave a sad face—
And vanished.
A banging sound came from down the hall. I raised the Beretta. And pulled the hammer back.
A vent popped from the wall and clanged on the floor.
Augie crawled out and floundered to the ground.
Climbing to his feet and breathing heavily, he dusted himself off. “Man, I thought I’d be trapped with that thing forever.” He gawked at us with suspicious eyes. “What’s up? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I studied him carefully, making sure he wasn’t another phantasm. “You weren’t alone in the vault, were you?”
“Hell no. That douchebag thought he could get one over on me. It looked like Maya.”
Augie had been trying to sleep with Maya since he first met her. The beast probably took her form knowing he’d give in. He’d drop his pants the minute Maya came on to him. He wouldn’t think twice about how she got into that locked vault. Quite frankly, he wouldn't even care.
It was a pretty cunning move on the monster’s part, actually.
Augie just had sex with the beast. I was ninety percent sure he gave in, therefore allowing himself to be a shell for the beast’s evil brood.
“The beast gets into us through our mind,” I said. “Once you accept it, it lays an egg in your soul. And becomes a lizard-like beast that vacates your chest.” I whipped out the butterfly knife. “We need to get it out of you right now.”
He raised his hands in surrender “Hey now, put the blade down,” he said, backing up. “I didn’t let the beast in. I didn’t accept shit, dude.”
“You had sex with it, didn’t you?”
Maya looked at me weird. “Um, why would he have sex with it?”
Augie chuckled. “Believe me, I was tempted. But then I grabbed this.” He held up Tesla’s pocket watch. “I am amazed at the self-control this man had with the opposite sex. All I could think about was finding a way out. It was a personal challenge. After doing some calculations in my head, I correctly surmised there had to be a vent in the wall. I climbed five stacked A-bombs to get there, but I did it.”
I scowled. “How far did your pants drop before you accidentally touched the watch?”
He shook his finger at me. “You don’t give me enough credit. I have the willpower of an Olympian God.”
“Next time, tell your Olympian God-like willpower to put his belt back on properly. You missed a loop,” I said, closing the butterfly knife. “And it’s inside out.”
“Dude, honest. It was, like, ten seconds. Max. I caught on real quick.” He took off his belt and looped it back through properly.
Assuming his time calculation was off and Augie exaggerated to make himself look better, it was probably at least a minute. I wasn’t sure how long the beast needed to implant its spawn. But Augie wasn’t hollering in pain, which meant the beast probably didn’t have enough time to breach the doorway to his soul.
I stuffed the knife in my pocket. “The second you start crying in agony and grabbing your stomach, I’m gutting you like a fish to get the egg out.”
“I can live with that,” he said, buckling his belt. “Note to self: don’t get stomach cramps.”
Maya watched the nuke timer tick down. “It’s less than two hours,” she said. “And the hatch is locked. How do we get out of here and reach the veil in time?”
Augie raised his hand like a student at elementary school. “Funny you should ask,” he said, sauntering to the truck. “While you two were gallivanting all over the Island like a bunch of tourists, yours truly was making cool shit.” He reached in the truck and popped the hood. “I stripped parts from the junk in the other room. They had tools, half-made bombs, and a stripped-down motorbike in there too. All of which came in handy.”
He hoisted open the hood. The engine was altered. Silver containers and numerous wires and homemade parts surrounded the engine.
Augie cast a smile of satisfaction. “I made it nuclear.”
I leaned in and checked it out. It was clunky and looked like a middle-schooler’s science experiment. But if he was channeling Nikola Tesla’s brilliance through the pocket watch, I didn’t have to ask my next question. But I did.
With a raised eyebrow, I asked, “Does it work?”
“Puhlease,” he said, hopping behind the wheel. “I finished right before Munsher’s goons showed up.” He turned the key. The engine sputtered and conked out. He turned it a second time. Black exhaust shot from the tailpipe. “Oh, come on, man. Tesla, you dorky misfit genius you. Don’t let a good guy down.” He turned the key a third time. It fired up like a dream. “Yeah, baby. Augie the Magnificent does it again, folks.”
After a few sputters, the engine leveled out. It sounded remarkably quiet for a vehicle older than I was.
Maya clapped. “Awesome.”
“Not bad, kid,” I said.
Augie shut it off and jumped out. “Not bad? I’m a miracle worker, bro. If I was any less awesome, I’d be you.”
I actually snickered at that one. “I’ll let you have that.”
Maya said, “But the jeep is underground. It’s not like we can drive it through the ceiling hatch. How do we get it out?”
My eye caught the wall’s control panel. I stuck my blade under the metal covering and popped it open. I pushed several buttons, but they all did nothing.
I pressed a few more, just in case. “Maybe the miracle worker wants to get his skinny ass over here and figure this out before we die in here—”
Just as I released the last button, the wall shook.
The bunker latch struggled as it opened to the outside world, creaking slowly as it lowered to the ground. The whole wall was a hatch for vehicle entry.
It clunked and crashed to the ground with a—
THUD!
Creating a dust cloud rushing into the bunker.
“Never mind on needing your help, Mr. Wizard,” I said, sliding my gaze to Augie. “Apparently, if I was any less awesome, I’d be you.”
Augie leaned out of the truck. “You think you’re so funny.”
I slammed the hood. “I know I am.” Maya hopped in the passenger seat. I went to the driver’s side. “Move over.” Augie slid to the middle.
Maya asked, “Where do we go now?”
“Now,” I said, revving the engine. “We find Zac and get the hell out of here.”
Chapter 24
The Birth of Abednego
After Augie channeled Nikola Tesla’s intelligence and made a nuclear-powered truck that actually worked, we drove down the trail back to camp. After we found Zac, if he was still alive, we could get out of dodge before the nuke went off.
As I sped around a curve and came to the straightaway, a woman stumbled into the road, collapsing to her hands and knees.
It was Jada. Bloody and tattered.
I slowed to a stop. Maya jumped out. I slowly got my ass out, figuring it was some kind of trap, wa
iting for people with guns to jump from the woods at any moment.
Maya helped Jada to her feet. “Jada, what happened?”
“One of Mr. Redmann’s beasts found me spying on Redmann.”
I scanned her up and down. Her outfit wasn’t torn, yet there was blood. “How did you escape? You can’t teleport on the Island.”
“I’m stronger than I look,” she said. “But I was no match for the monster. It broke my arm.”
I seized her arm and squeezed. She grunted in pain. “It’s broken.”
“That’s what I said.” She wasn’t bluffing about the arm. I just questioned how it really got broke.
I stared at the blood. “Where’d the blood come from?”
“It’s mine. The creature broke my nose. Blood poured everywhere. But I’m healing. Slowly.”
I pressed my Beretta against her skull. “Let me repeat myself because you may not have heard me. How did you escape?”
“I ran. When it caught up to me, I pushed it off a cliff.” She stared into me with defiant eyes. “I am Forever after all. I can hold my own in a fight. But the beast isn’t dead, I don’t think.”
Maya pushed the gun away. “Stop pointing that at her. Can’t you see she’s hurt?” Maya examined her arm. “You’re not healing…”
“Healing takes longer in this place,” she said. “Give it a minute.” The arm cracked and reset itself. Her bone shifted and snapped. In moments, she was healed.
Maybe she wasn’t acting after all. I tucked the Beretta in the holster under my jacket.
Jada turned to Maya. “It’s not safe here.”
“We noticed,” Maya said. They hugged. It turned my stomach to see her hug a Forever Person, especially one I didn’t trust. Which was all of them.
Maya’s naivete was too much for me to handle. She was a ‘Grade A’ dumbshit. Sooner or later, she was gonna learn the hard way. I just hoped the lesson wouldn’t kill me.
Jada noticed what a mess Maya was. Bruises were developing from where Munsher punched her. Her lip was bloody. Dry blood was splattered against the lower half of her face.
She touched Maya’s cheek. “You got into trouble, didn’t you?” she asked. “I thought I told you to keep your head down.”
“Munsher did this to me,” she said. “We barely escaped.”
Maya didn’t mention the catacombs or the beast. She really didn’t remember.
What if The Presence didn’t just invade our thoughts? What if it didn’t just move through consciousness, but devoured it? Like a worm consuming the soil it passes through. The beast literally ate a hole in her soul. She didn’t have memories of the beast below because those memories were devoured.
I hoped that wasn’t the case and that her memories would return. It didn’t matter how painful it was for her down there, it’s always better to remember than have a black hole of nothing. Your mind naturally fills the hole with the worst possible imaginings. Not knowing is the worst. It’s enough to drive a person insane. And it has.
I stepped in between Maya and Jada. “What do you know about Redmann’s agenda?”
“Not much,” Jada said. She was lying. The micro-expressions on her face told the real story.
Her lower lip quivered. And her face was expressive a moment too late to be authentic. Her eyes watered, but not out of concern for Maya or pain from the arm. They were watering out of anxiety. Fear.
Of being discovered.
I grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “What’s Redmann’s goal with The Presence? Where’s Zac?”
Maya pushed me but stumbled back. “Ivy, stop. Don’t hurt her.”
I grabbed Jada’s throat and tightened my grip. “Where is Zac?”
Maya turned to Jada. “We’re looking for our friend, Zac. Please tell him what you know or he’s going to kill you.”
“I-I’ll t-tell you,” she said as my hand crushed her airway. “B-but I don’t know much.”
I loosened my grip. “Start talking,” I said, pulling out the butterfly knife as a subtle threat. Maya threw daggers from her eyes.
“Mr. Redmann is working with the entity,” she said. “I don’t understand what he’s trying to do, but he’s communicating with it. Something big is happening today. With the birth of the blood moon eclipse.”
Witchcraft.
Magic users often use atmospheric conditions to cast unique and powerful spells that might not otherwise be available the rest of the year. It’s not mystical, it’s because the elements of the earth’s atmosphere change in a way that allows certain tides within the aether to be easily manipulated.
Witches, warlocks, and magicians will make you think it’s some big mysterious secret, but it’s not. It’s just physics. Forces of nature. Like gravity. Thunderstorms. And Lady Gaga.
I despise witches. I had one on my team and I hated her guts most of the time. So hearing that Redmann was using the blood moon set me off.
If Redmann was some kind of black magic warlock, I’d put a bullet in him faster than he could say Abracadabra.
“We came here for Zac,” I said. “Skinny computer nerd with short brown hair and glasses. Ring any bells?”
“There’s a new boy in the basement,” she said. “He helps Mr. Redmann run the computers. I don’t know his name. But he fits your description.”
I dug the tip of my blade into her hip. “Good. You’re going to take us to him.”
“Redmann has a protector,” she said.
“If it shows up, I’ll handle it,” I said.
Something stirred in the woods. Leaves ruffled as the wind blew.
“Oh, no,” Jada said. “It found me.”
That’s when something trampled out of the woods. Seven feet tall with purple translucent skin and white veins. It was slender with long claws, but not the same behemoth that attacked me in the tunnels. It wasn’t Shadrach. This one had a much different way about it.
It charged Maya, throwing her to the ground.
I moved behind it, kicking the back of its legs and knocking it off its feet. It rolled and landed on all fours like a cat. With eyes like white pearls and fangs like a giant bat, it roared and lunged at me with six-inch talons.
I dodged and sunk my blade into the base of its skull, slicing down to its spine.
It howled and tossed me through the air, ramming me into a tree. I crashed hard, but when I got to my feet, the Glock was gone. It fell in the bushes when I hit. So I pulled out the Beretta. And I still had the blade.
Sidestepping on the path, the beast hissed. Strands of blonde hair fell from the sides of its skull. Something dangled from around its neck I hadn’t noticed. A necklace. The same one I gave Karen Bell twenty years ago.
I lowered the Beretta. “Karen?”
She howled like a wounded dog, backing away from me, trying to cover her face. She attempted to speak, but it sounded like a Metallica song played in reverse. The words were garbled. Distorted. But I still felt the hurt and pain in every one.
Karen darted into the woods. Somewhere in that monstrous form, Karen Bell was alive and well.
Maya got to her feet. “What the hell was that thing?”
“Abednego,” I said. “Karen is the third.”
As the biblical story goes, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were three men thrown in a furnace by the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar. Because they believed in a different god.
But a fourth figure appeared in the furnace with them. An angel. And the fire never touched them.
That’s what Karen meant when she said she was the third. She was meant to be Redmann’s Abednego. That son of a bitch turned her into a goddamn monster and acted like it was a holy mission from God.
Insane people and monsters were bad enough. But having to deal with religious zealots who played God and made monsters were even worse. It was high on my shit list.
Which meant I still hadn’t seen the second beast, Meshach. That made my trigger finger twitch.
I glared at Jada. “We need guns.”
/>
“Mr. Redmann doesn’t believe in guns,” she said. “He says they’re not for evolved folk like us. Weapons are for the unenlightened.”
I had to hand it to Redmann. He certainly had that cult shit down pat.
I slid my gaze to Maya. “Still want to stay here in Crazyland?”
Maya took Jada’s hand gently. “Help us find Zac. Please. He’s our friend.”
Jada nodded. “Drive to the main bunker,” she said. “We can sneak in through the back.”
We finally got a stroke of luck. It was about time we found out what the hell Buddy Redmann was up to.
Chapter 25
Back Doors
When we got close enough to the main bunker, I pulled the truck into the woods about a block from the base. Jada led us through the camp so we looked less suspicious, the blood and dirt on us notwithstanding.
The place was alive and buzzing. People were hanging up clothes to be dried by the sun, cooking over campfires, and planting food gardens. It looked like a hippie commune from the seventies.
We headed to the back of the bunker and Jada tore away brush to reveal a hidden metal door.
She pushed open the door. “I’ve never gone this way before, but I believe it goes to a tunnel rarely used.”
We entered a darkened tunnel, following Jada to a stairwell leading up. When we reached the top, we were in the kitchen.
With his back toward us, Gary was at the counter making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. As he reached for the jelly, I knocked his legs out from under him, pounding him to the floor.
I rammed my Beretta into his face. “Remember me, Gary?”
Maya kicked his ribs. “And me, asshole?”
I glared hard. “Maya, that’s enough.”
Augie raised his finger. “I don’t even know the guy, but do I get a shot too?”
Maya and I shouted, “No!”
The only reason Gary would come back here is because he was playing both sides of the fence. Maybe he was Munsher’s double agent, relaying info to him on Redmann’s agenda. Or he was Redmann’s double agent. Or he was covering his own ass. Either way, he was a double-crossing backstabbing son of a bitch.
Faith of a Monster Killer: Killing Forever Book 3 Page 14