“Your doing, I suppose?”
“Augie’s fault actually. Never leave it to him to make things easy. But we’re using it. We’re gonna blow this evil prick to Hell.”
“And Chicago along with it?”
“Not if the veil is closed,” I said, rubbing my chin. “If it’s open? Then Chicago may get a little dusty.”
“I wish you would’ve told me,” he said. “I would have bought a ticket to the Bahamas.”
“It couldn’t be avoided,” I said, pacing around the dream-induced room. It was a safe place. A haven. That’s why my mind brought me here. “If the beast gets through to our world, it will mean the end.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“We need to seal the veil for good. You need to—” Pain surged through my chest. The walls of the room collapsed into rubble. Blackness surrounded me as rays of light filled my view. I jerked awake. As I opened my eyes, someone was dragging me away from the catwalk.
“What’s happening?” I asked as my abductor let go, dropping me to the ground.
Augie stood over me. “You’ve been out for almost twenty minutes,” he said, firing an M16. “And you look like shit.” I recognized the weapon from the west side. It was a mercenary’s gun.
I took in the scene and assessed my surroundings. Several soldiers down the way had AKs and M16s. They were Munsher’s posse. And they were mowing down Redmann’s crew left and right.
Dozens of Primitives were attacking. It was chaos. Scientists and Redmann’s people were screaming and running around like mice on fire. People’s chests burst open as Primitives lunged out and scurried everywhere, latching onto people and eating their heads.
I take one little cat nap and the world goes to shit.
I peeked at my watch. The numbers read correctly. This wasn’t a dream. We only had thirty-seven minutes before the bomb went off. I tried to regain my senses as I got to my feet. I was running on pure adrenaline now.
“Redmann,” I muttered. His name escaping my lips left a bad aftertaste.
“We gotta go,” Augie said, filling a Primitive with lead. He finished it off by removing its head with the demon blade. He tossed me a Glock. I checked it. It was fully loaded.
We made it to the back tunnel. When we reached the steel door at the end, it opened. Zac was on the other side.
“Come on,” he said, a flashlight in hand. I stumbled to the outdoors. It was the same back entrance we came in with Jada. But the sky was dark.
The super blood moon eclipse was in full effect, blocking every last bit of light.
The villagers on the lawns were crying and yelling at nothing particular. At first, they looked like brainwashed crazies overly excited at the super blood moon eclipse. But then I realized they were having conversations with themselves. Yelling and crying at people who weren’t there. People we couldn’t see.
Hallucinations.
The Presence was burrowing through their minds. Laying its damn eggs. The dark of the blood moon must have made him stronger, able to move on the surface where he couldn’t before. He didn’t have to wait to be fed in the pit. He was free to roam in a target-rich environment.
We hightailed it around the bunker toward the truck. A man stumbled toward me. A zombie, moaning and blindly walking. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head. His chest opened.
I pumped six rounds into the Primitive’s head before it slithered out. The host stood there, emotionless, as the beast slumped out of him.
Augie pumped several rounds into the thing as it hit the ground, just for good measure.
He dropped the M16. “I’m empty.” When we got to the truck, Maya wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
I grumbled. “Where the hell are Zac and Maya?”
Augie shrugged. “They were here a second ago.”
I peered through the chaos. People convulsed as Primitive embryos hatched from their bodies.
My ears perked when I heard a scream. Someone yelling my name.
It was Maya.
It came from behind the bunker. I raced in the general direction, keeping an ear out for her voice. She screamed again. Shadrach was carrying her through the madness, back to the bunker.
Dammit. I thought that big violet skull-face son of a bitch was dead. The big ogre was walking again too, now with a bad limp. The beast was definitely worse for wear, but still a threat. And heading back to the lab. Redmann needed fresh meat as a host for The Presence. She was the unlikely chosen.
I rounded the corner and nearly ran into one of Munsher’s mercenaries. He stood upright, lifeless, wobbling back and forth. He was about to hatch. He had an AK-47 strapped around his shoulder. I slid it off just in time. His chest cracked open like a walnut and a Primitive scurried out.
At point-blank range, I pulled the trigger, pulverizing its head into black paste. Turning to Maya’s captor, I fired into Shadrach’s spine, careful not to hit her. Almost immediately, tiny mouths and eyeballs sprouted where the bullet holes lay. Shadrach didn’t slow down one bit.
“Dammit.” I fired again.
CLICK.
The gun was empty. I tossed it and followed the beast. A shot rang out among the background noise of gunfire. A bullet clipped my side, spinning me to the ground.
I grazed my fingers over my ribs and touched the fragments of bone. It shattered the bottom of my rib cage.
Thoughts flashed in my mind of the death omen that was still hanging over me.
But if I was going to die, I didn’t want to be in some screwed-up pocket universe where the people worshiped a monster God.
I got to my feet. Munsher drilled the butt of his M16 into my nose, sending me crashing back down.
“Stay down,” he said, lifting the barrel of the Glock to my face. “It’s time for payback.”
“You fed me to the Primitives and threw my partner in the pit,” I said, coughing blood into my hand. “I think we’re even.”
“Not even close,” he said. As he pulled the trigger, I grabbed the barrel and shoved it downward. Three bullets shaved off his big toe. He swore up and down as he crashed hard to the ground.
I ripped the gun from his hands and wailed it against the side of his head. Aiming at his face, I pulled the trigger.
CLICK.
The clip was empty. Today just wasn’t my day.
Climbing to my feet, I held my ribs to keep them from falling apart. Munsher stumbled on one foot, hobbling around like a jackass.
“You’re such a moron,” I said. “Redmann is trying to destroy the world and you’re out for vengeance because I killed a handful of your goons?”
“I don’t give a shit about the mercs you killed. You embarrassed me in front of my men. You disrespected me. That’s something I won’t put up with.”
“This is an ego thing? You really are an asshole, Munsher.”
“I’m an asshole. So what?” he said, pulling out a twelve-inch hunting blade. “Deal with it.”
He swung at me. I dodged.
“You ruined everything,” he said. “Fucked up all my plans.” He swung down, slicing my forearm. He jumped on me and we tumbled down a hill. When we hit bottom, he landed on top of me.
He spiked the knife down toward my neck. I grabbed his wrist, the blade an inch from my throat.
“And now,” he said, putting all his weight into the knife, the tip pressing into my Adam’s apple. “You’re blowing us all to hell with a nuke.”
“What can I say, Munsher? I’m the bigger asshole.” Twisting the blade away from me, I drove my knee into his balls. When he toppled over, the blade was in his ribs. “Deal with it.”
I got to my feet, pried the blade from his ribs, and left him to die.
When I got to the rear entrance of the bunker, I no longer heard Maya’s screams. I raced through the tunnel, into the kitchen, and made it to the basement. Covering all this distance in my current condition made it feel like miles. Adrenaline and willpower were my only fuel. It made me ornery. Well, more orne
ry than usual anyway.
When I hit the catwalk and reached the electronics keypad, it took me a second or three to recall the code. My brain had been knocked around the block or two since I first saw it, and I never filed it in my longer-term memory.
After the fourth try, it unlocked and opened.
When I made it to the lab, Maya was in the containment room behind the glass. Redmann was at the computer console. A white wrapping was around his throat from where I sliced it. Jada still hadn’t healed him all the way. Just enough for him to still be a maniacal prickface.
He turned to me as I entered. “Welcome back, Mr. Ivy. You’re too late. Our Lord is coming.”
I turned to the gothic-looking machine table that previously held Gary. His dead body was on the floor, drained of energy. Part of him was petrified. Other parts were white chalky flakes on the ground. His life force was completely drained.
Jada was strapped to the table.
In a broken voice, she said, “Help me.”
I flashed my knife. Shadrach stepped between me and Redmann.
I knew that in my piss-poor condition I couldn’t stand up to the beast. Hell, at this point, a stiff breeze would knock me out for the count.
“Take me,” I said. “Instead of Maya.”
Redmann’s eyes widened. “You would sacrifice yourself for her?”
“My constitution is stronger. I’m durable. I’ll perform better as a host.”
“Such noble sentimentality,” he said, the corners of his lips curling up, almost mockingly. “I need to make sure you don’t kill yourself before our Lord has taken you. You seem to be the type who would slash his own throat before complying. Drop the knife.” I tossed the blade. He nodded at his beastly bodyguard. Shadrach grabbed my arm.
Redmann scurried down the hall toward the iron door of the containment room as Shadrach and I followed.
He reached for the door. “My advice?” He peered at me as he swung open the iron door. “Don’t try to fight it. It only makes it more painful.”
Shadrach shoved me into the room. Maya ran toward me and threw her arms around me. She squeezed hard. In my shape, it damn near killed me.
Tears filled her eyes. “You came—”
“I did. Now you have to go.”
“I can’t leave you. I won’t…”
“I made a deal. Me for you. Now go. Get.” I turned her toward the door and pushed her away. “And don’t look back.”
“I-I can’t—”
“Go, goddammit. Don’t make me cross.”
She stumbled forward, bawling. Wiping her eyes, her lip quivered. Of course, the damn girl did what I distinctly told her not to. She looked back.
“I changed my mind,” Redmann said. “I’ll let The Presence have the both of you. One of you as a host. The other as food. I’ll let the Lord decide which.” He slammed the door closed.
I growled. “Redmann, damn you.” I can’t say it was unexpected. He was only loyal to the dark entity, not his word. Everything and everyone else was expendable. But as much as I saw it coming, damn it all… it still hurt.
Redmann returned to the control room and pushed a few buttons on the computer console. Strapped to the table of dark science, Jada screamed. Green and yellow liquids flowed through the tubes. Sparks flew from the machine as it drained her Forever life force.
I turned my gaze to the ceiling as the portal opened with flickering light. Large black tentacles dropped from the other universe into ours. Dark blue limbs and purple tendrils flowed from the shimmering light above us.
I had no gun, no blade, and no hope of surviving.
Chapter 29
Sacrifice
Sickly blue, purple, and black tentacles and alien limbs squirmed from the other dimension through the ceiling portal. The limbs slithered blindly around the room, searching for us. I had no weapon on me. And no idea how to escape the containment room.
I pulled Maya behind me as I backed toward the wall.
Her voice trembled. “What do we do, boss?”
“No friggin clue.”
“But you always know what to do.”
“I’m open for suggestions.”
Tendrils writhed around each other, black veins pulsating under its translucent skin. As clusters of them scraped over each other, dark slime dripped to the floor beside us. Purple-black ooze dribbled onto my boot.
Maya’s face contorted. “I have terrible feelings running through me right now.”
“We’re about to get turned into creatures from another world. Or a pile of gelatinous goo. Or eaten. I’d say your feelings are accurate.”
“That’s not what I mean,” she said in a whisper as if the monstrous limbs could hear her. “I mean I sense something coming from the creature. Feelings of hurt. And loss…”
“It’s trying to communicate with you again. To implant you with another egg.”
“I don’t think so. This is different.” She squinted at the tentacles as if studying their intent. “I think it’s in terrible pain.”
A twenty-foot black tentacle swept slowly through the room, like someone trying to feel their way through the dark. I pushed Maya’s head down and ducked as it circled over us, missing my head by only inches.
Maya let out a long breath. “I can’t explain it, but when I look at it, I feel sorry for it.”
“This is not the time to feel remorse for a world-devouring beast from Hell.” I pushed us both into the corner tighter, burying her with my body, placing myself between her and the grabby-ass tentacle limbs.
She started to cry and push against me. “It’s in anguish…”
Maya was overemotional as it was. Always too angry. Too sappy. Too much of everything that I hated. Her frontal lobe was as developed as a dead mouse tit. Not even Mother Theresa would feel sorry for the evil shitbag that planted its eggs inside her, unless—
—she shared a bond with it.
Maya was somehow connected to the creature. She was most likely the first person to have been infected by it who survived. To have its eggs implanted and then removed and destroyed.
All the other victims had always become monsters. Primitives. But Maya lived through that asshole’s embryo being inside her. There was a bond. Like a mother shares a bond with her child, even if the child dies. Or how a soldier who can still feel the arm she lost in the war.
There’s an aching feeling of emptiness. A connection to something ephemeral. A fleeting life of love… and loss.
Somehow, it created an emotional link with Maya. As a universal law, entanglement is a bitch.
The entity was about to eat us and transform us into monsters. The last thing I needed was for her to pity the damn thing.
Maya reached out to it. Her eyes were pure white. “It’s in so much pain. It’s suffering…”
“Knock it off.” I shook her. Violently. “Snap out of it. We need to kill this thing, not sing it a lullaby.”
A tentacle flew toward us. I threw Maya to the floor. It wrapped around my waist and snapped me backward.
Maya snapped out of her trance. Her eyes returned to normal. “Ivy!”
“Still feel sorry for it?”
It wrenched me into the air.
Smaller dark tendrils slowly slithered through the air toward me. I needed to escape before they secured their hold over me. Without a gun or a blade, there would be no escape.
I had to move fast.
I opened my jaw to the tentacle around me… and sank my teeth in.
My canines dug into its slimy flesh. Thick blood gushed into my mouth. I ripped a chunk of flesh out and spit it to the floor. Not missing a beat, I bit again. My mouth filled with cartilage, sinew, and blood. It tasted like motor oil, but sweet and bitter at the same time. Honestly, not the worst thing I’ve tasted.
I dropped the meat chunk to the floor.
I opened up and dove back in. I was a rabid dog with an insatiable appetite. Spitting mouthfuls as I dove back for third and fourth helpings. Black bloo
d splattered against my face. That shit dripped into my eye and stung like a bitch. As I chomped away, I lucked out. There was no bone inside the arm.
Only muscle tissue. It reminded me of seafood gone bad. Black and warm. After being thrown up by the dog.
I kept gnawing until the limb ripped away. I dropped fast and hard, crashing to my side. The piece of tentacle was still wrapped around my waist.
The severed tentacle flailed, spraying dark blood everywhere. I was almost sad to be finished. I was getting used to the taste.
Pushing the severed limb off me, I powered my way to the glass between me and Redmann. His eyes were wide. I spit at his face. Meat, blood, and skin splattered the glass between us. Dark blood and fleshy chunks slid down the glass.
Redmann flinched. “Animal.”
I grinned.
He wiped his face as if the blood had reached him through the glass. “It won’t help you,” he said. His voice was muffled, but much clearer from this side of the glass. “Meshach is still coming.”
Last time, the tentacles lowered the Meshach beast down when he came for the cop. I knew what I had to do. I grabbed the severed tentacle and went to Maya’s corner.
“Sit down,” I told her. I dripped blood from the severed tentacle in a circle around us. I sat cross-legged in the corner with Maya beside me and pulled out a gem around my neck. I spoke the chant that gave energy to the spell.
It would make us invisible to the beast.
After thirty seconds of chanting, the beast, Meshach, lowered from the ceiling. With legs the size of tree trunks and arms that hardly resembled limbs, it had clusters of eyes on its head. It was a monstrosity.
I pulled Maya close. “Be quiet.”
Meshach lumbered around the room. Searching. But with the protection spell, it couldn’t see us. It shuffled toward our corner, sniffing the air, making wheezing sounds like a wounded warthog.
I put my arm around Maya, pulling her into me. The behemoth hovered directly above us, snorting the air, trying to get a whiff of our scent. If it took another step forward, it would land on top of us.
The creature’s face, if you want to call it a face, sniffed the air around us. It bent down, moving close to Maya’s head. With Meshach crouching only an inch from her face, the beast snorted. Its bitter breath washed over Maya’s face.
Faith of a Monster Killer: Killing Forever Book 3 Page 17