Devil Girl: Box Set (The Somnopolis Saga: Parts 1,2,3,4, & 5)

by Randy Henson

  As I passed through the doorway I noticed that the air on the other side was stale. I also noticed there was a lot less moisture in this side of the tunnel, and the walls and ceiling were brick instead of concrete.

  “Keep your eyes peeled, men,” Lundy said.

  As we walked deeper into the tunnel I noticed we were receiving more and more light.

  “There’s something up ahead,” Hale announced. “It looks like natural light.”

  “Use caution,” Lundy said.

  The soldiers in front of me began slowing their pace. I looked over at Dr. Nichols but his gaze was straight ahead. I veered to my right and walked alongside the tunnel’s wall in order to get a view around the soldiers. There was definitely some kind of light source up ahead.

  “It’s a ladder,” Hale announced. “Looks like it leads up to the surface. A manhole, maybe.”

  The soldiers all stopped. They clustered together as they all looked up.

  I pushed my way through them to have a look.

  Sure enough, there was a metal ladder bolted to the tunnel’s wall and it led up into a hole in the ceiling. Natural light spilled out the hole and I squinted as I craned my neck to look up.

  “Rogers, you’re on point,” Lundy said.

  “Me?”

  “You have the shotgun,” Lundy pointed out.

  The soldier with the shotgun, Rogers, frowned. He then shrugged, turned, and stepped up to the ladder. He held the shotgun out to his side with his left hand as he used his right hand to grab the ladder’s rung that was just above his head. He stepped onto the lowest rung with his left foot and began to climb.

  Lundy cleared his throat and said, “Okay, Peterson, you’re next, then Morgan. Hale, you stay with me. We’ll follow the kids and watch their six.”

  “Hey, I don’t want you looking up my dress,” Molly said.

  “No one is going to be looking up your dress,” Lundy assured her.

  “You said you were going to follow us so you could look at our sex,” Molly said.

  Orin and Jack giggled.

  Lundy frowned and said, “That is definitely not what I said. I said ‘six’.”

  Haled smiled down at Molly and said, “He means ‘six-o-clock’. Twelve-o-clock is in front of you, six-o-clock is behind you.”

  “I don’t want anybody looking at my behind either,” Molly said.

  “Christ, what’s been going on in this mall?” Lundy said.

  “She’s right. I’ll follow her. You boys follow me,” I said.

  Molly smiled at me, nodded, and then hopped onto the ladder.

  I looked at the others and said, “Catch me if I fall.”

  Then I followed Molly up into the hole and into the light.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Joe cocked his head and asked, “Was that gunfire?”

  “Sounded like it,” Matthew said.

  “Bradley?”

  Matthew shook his head.

  Then there was another series of muffled pops.

  “Yeah, that was gunfire,” Matthew said as he turned and bolted for the escalator.

  Joe stayed on his heels as they raced up the escalator and across the thoroughfare toward the stairs. Matthew pushed open the stairwell’s door and rushed up the steps taking them two at a time, Joe right behind him.

  Matthew and Joe pushed through the access door to the galleria’s roof and found four of their men lined up along the roof’s ledge. They were firing down into the parking lot with automatic rifles.

  Matthew and Joe raced over to the ledge.

  “What are you shooting at?” Joe asked.

  One of the men turned and said, “Gophers.”

  “Gophers?” Matthew said.

  The man handed Matthew a pair of binoculars. He then turned, pointed and said, “Look. They’re coming out of that manhole.”

  Matthew brought the binoculars up to his face and looked.

  “What is it?” Joe asked.

  Matthew dropped the binoculars and screamed, “Cease fire, damn it! Cease fire!”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  It’s starting, Moira thought as she exited Macy’s to the sound of gunfire coming from the mall’s roof.

  She scurried across the linoleum walkway and over to a stairwell door.

  Please let them be alright, she prayed as she labored up the stairs.

  As if an answer to her prayer, the gunfire stopped when she was halfway up the stairs.

  Please let them be alright.

  When she reached the top of the stairs she paused with her hand on the exit door’s handle, struggling to catch her breath. She them opened the door to find her grandson and Joseph and four others looking over the roof’s ledge. Matthew was waving his arms around and screaming at the others.

  “What’s happened? What was all that shooting?” Moira asked as she approached the others.

  “It was these idiots, grams. They’re a bunch of trigger happy morons. They think they can take it upon themselves to…”

  “Who were they firing at?” Moira asked.

  “Prisoners. It looks like they escaped their cages and found some way out of the basement. They had your girl with them, and that other girl.”

  “Bernice?!”

  “Yes, Bernice, and the young one, the blonde one with pigtails. They must have found the prisoners and released them. I knew we shouldn’t let them wander around free. Those soldiers had valuable intel and now they’ve…”

  Joseph shook his head and said, “The prisoners are scientists, not soldiers.”

  Matthew frowned and said, “Not those prisoners. The new ones. The ones we just brought back with us.”

  “What new ones? You didn’t say anything about bringing back prisoners. I’m the head of security. Why is this the first I’m hearing about…”

  “Shhh,” Moira said as she clenched her small, bony fists. “Prisoners aren’t what matters now. Getting those girls back is all that matters. Stay focused.”

  Joe bowed his head at Moira’s admonishment.

  “I’ll get them back, grams,” Matthew said as he turned and headed for the door.

  “Take Joseph with you,” Moira said.

  Joe hustled across the roof toward Matthew as Matthew turned and said, “Joe should stay here and make sure no one starts shooting again.”

  Moira shook her head and said, “No, I’ll do that. You two just bring those girls back. They’re in danger without our protection.”

  Matthew nodded and then he and Joe rushed through the door.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “What the hell?” Bradley mumbled as he circled the merry-go-round.

  Nobody.

  He snatched the walkie-talkie off his belt and pressed it to his face.

  “Boss, where are you? Over.”

  “We’re on our way down.”

  “Was that gunfire I heard?” Bradley asked.

  Pause.

  “Boss?”

  Pause.

  “Boss, are you there?”

  Pause.

  “Boss, is everything…”

  “Over here!” a voice yelled.

  Bradley turned to see Matthew and Joe racing down the escalator.

  “Was that gunfire?”

  “Yes, it was gunfire. The prisoners escaped,” Matthew said.

  “What the hell? How?”

  Matthew hopped off the escalator and said, “It doesn’t matter how. I need you to get upstairs and make sure there is no more shooting. Those idiots on the roof think they’re militia minute man or some shit. I’m counting on you to keep them in line.”

  Bradley looked at Joe and then back at Matthew as he said, “Can’t he do that? Shouldn’t I help you get the prisoners back?”

  “Don’t argue with me. My grandmother wants Joe with me. You just get upstairs and make sure there is no more shooting. You have my permission to beat the crap out of the next idiot who pulls a trigger. Understand?”

  Bradley nodded and then hopped onto the escalator as M
atthew and Joe raced to the galleria’s front entrance.

  CHAPTER TEN

  As I reached the top of the ladder I could feel the warmth of sunlight on my face. Once Molly’s legs disappeared, I pulled myself up the last couple of rungs and poked my head out of the hole. Two soldiers were standing next to Molly, each one with a hand under her arms. They let her go and reached down to help me out.

  Once the soldiers lifted me out of the hole, I looked around to find that we were standing in the middle of a street. The mall’s parking lot was on one side of the street and a cinema house was on the other side.

  “Is that firecrackers?” Molly asked.

  “What?” I asked as I stepped over to her.

  Molly pointed and said, “That flashing on the roof.”

  Then I noticed something sparking off the asphalt about ten feet to our left.

  “Get down!” someone yelled.

  Then I understood.

  I scooped Molly up around her waist and ran as hard as I could for cover.

  I raced across the street with Molly in my arms, into the cinema’s parking lot, ducking behind a large white SUV.

  “You’re hurting me,” Molly said.

  “Sorry,” I said as I let her go. “Stay down.”

  “That wasn’t firecrackers, was it?”

  “No, it wasn’t firecrackers.”

  “They were shooting at us?”

  “It seemed that way.”

  “Why would they shoot at us?” Molly asked.

  “I don’t think they wanted us to leave, that would be my guess.”

  “Oh,” Molly said. “That is one of the rules.”

  I peeked my head around the front of the SUV to see Dr. Nichols ducking and running toward us, the asphalt sparking at his heels.

  “Over here, Doctor!” I yelled as I waved my hand up over the SUV’s hood.

  Dr. Nichols staggered and fell as he rounded the SUV and collapsed next to Molly and me.

  “That was insane!” Dr. Nichols said.

  “Are you hurt?” I asked.

  “No, but not from a lack of effort on someone’s part. They were shooting at us.”

  “You get used to it,” I said.

  “I kind of doubt that. You still think that those people are your friends?” Dr. Nichols said.

  “I never said they were. I said they had answers, that they might be able to help me. Plus, I doubt that was Moira shooting at us. I doubt she told anyone to shoot at us,” I said.

  “Moira doesn’t like guns,” Molly said.

  “Neither do I,” Dr. Nichols said.

  I peeked around the front of the SUV again to find the street empty. The soldiers were gone and no one was coming out of the manhole.

  “Who was behind you?” I asked as I turned to look at Dr. Nichols.

  “Young fellow. Not a soldier.”

  “My brother?”

  “No, the other one.”

  “Orin.”

  “Did he make it out?” I asked.

  Dr. Nichols shrugged and said, “I don’t know. Rogers and Morgan pulled me out of the manhole and started screaming about gunfire so I duck and ran.”

  “Where’d they go?” I asked.

  Dr. Nichols crawled over to me and peeked around the front of the SUV.

  “I don’t know. Maybe they went back down the hole,” he said.

  “That doesn’t make sense,” I said.

  “Then I don’t know. I was too busy dodging bullets to notice.”

  “Maybe they ran into the other parking lot,” I said.

  “Towards the gunfire? That doesn’t make sense either,” he said.

  “Do you guys hear that?” Molly asked.

  “Hear what?” Dr. Nichols asked.

  “No more pops.”

  She was right. I couldn’t her any gunfire.

  I popped my head above the SUV’s hood and sneaked a look. No lights were flashing from the mall’s roof. No one was coming out of the manhole either.

  “Get down. They’re probably just reloading,” Dr. Nichols said.

  “I don’t think so. Not all at the same time.”

  Dr. Nichols turned on his haunches and said, “We should try to make it inside that cinema.”

  “I’m not going anywhere without my brother,” I said.

  “We can’t just stay here. It isn’t safe,” he said.

  “Then you take Molly and the two of you go. I’m going after Jack.”

  Molly grabbed my hand and said, “I’m staying with you.”

  Then the SUV began to move.

  Then it began to levitate.

  Then the three of us sprinted for the theater.

  Continued…