by Mike Kraus
Reaching into his pocket, he picks up a dented piece of lead, the remnant of the bullet that impacted on the APC, falling to the road in the shape of a pancake. The man sneers, wishing that he had used the armor-piercing rounds that he brought with him, but he pushes the negative thought from his mind. “The Lord works in mysterious ways,” he thinks, settling on that as the reason why he has not yet stopped the intruders.
The man walks to the south along the crossroads several hundred feet, looking at the ground as he goes. Finding nothing, he circles to the west and walks back to his vehicle, searching for any signs that a vehicle passed through the area. Finding nothing, he grows impatient and hurries to the north, quickly scanning back and forth along the ground for any signs of the intruders.
“What’s this?”
The man bends down and looks at the road. A small patch of rubber was lying on the road, just a few dozen feet after a large pile of cars in the road. Stepping back, the man envisions what happened. In a hurry to escape his vengeance, the intruders went off-road, forced to take their military vehicle into the grass before steering it back onto the highway. In their haste, they lost traction and their tire slipped on the roadway, leaving the small patch of rubber in its wake.
The man hurries into the grass at the side of the road and crouches down, peeling back the blades. Hidden under the taller, more springy grass lay patches of bruised and broken blades, along with patches of dirt thrown up by the armored vehicle’s knobby tires. The man has seen enough and he hurries back to his vehicle, starts the engine and races to the north along the highway.
“There’s only one place they might be headed that has enough supplies to outfit them for wherever they’re traveling.” The man has a long drive ahead of him, but he is still in familiar country. Using a compass, he cuts through large swathes of land, leaving highways far behind and joining up with new ones as he works to shave off as much time as possible.
The man glances to the west, seeing a black cloud rolling across the horizon. “Another test? Already? Have I not endured enough?”
No answer comes to the man.
Hours later, in the afternoon, the man arrives at the city where he is certain he will find the intruders. For the first time since setting off from the village though, he is not concerned solely with the intruders. Black clouds float overhead, with lightning chaining amongst them, setting off great thunderclaps that distract him from the road. Worse yet, the man sees another horde of demons, seemingly endless as they pour from the city, walking on an inexorable march to the east.
The man feels fear grip his heart but he fights against it, forcing it down as he drives through the army of creatures, swerving around them to try to find the intruders. Several times along the way to the city he stopped, examining fresh evidence of the intruders’ vehicle, confident that he was on the trail. Here in the city, though, surrounded by the demon cohorts of the intruders, the man isn’t sure how he can track them down. The demons snap and claw at him as he passes by, but he resists firing upon them. His vehicle is loud enough; there is no sense in drawing more attention to himself before he has located his prey.
Rachel Walsh | Marcus Warden | David Landry
3:14 PM, April 13, 2038
After opening the thick steel door that looked more like the door to a bank vault than an old transportation tunnel, Rachel, Marcus, David, Sam and the strange woman descended down the steep slope. They traveled several floors downward before the tunnel leveled off. Though it had been refitted with carpeting and recessed lighting along the ceiling, it was still obvious that it had been no more than a service tunnel, used for transporting heavy machinery, supplies and whatever the laboratory workers needed from the outside world.
The tunnel was markedly colder than the laboratory complex had been, and the slow dripping of water indicated that some type of water reserve or piping had broken during the building collapse. The air was stale but breathable, though it was hard to see very well thanks to the low power of the light sources employed by the group. Rachel and David kept their flashlights off, using the EL lights in order to conserve the flashlights’ limited battery life. The strange woman was still glowing blue, and she sat atop Bertha which was balanced on the dolly, acting as an odd sort of lighthouse and sentinel as they slowly walked down the tunnel.
Multiple access tunnels like this one existed, scattered around at strategic points, that had made it easy for each department to get items in and out of the building as quickly as possible. Some of the service tunnels weren’t on any official records, and David considered himself lucky that this one was still listed, especially after its main use had been changed. Unfortunately, the age of the tunnel combined with the fact that its latest use was for clandestine activities meant that certain aspects of it weren’t as described in the building blueprints. The group learned this fact the hard way as they stood at an intersection in the tunnel, with five separate branches leading off in different directions from the way they came.
“David…” Rachel stared at him, her tone a mix of worry and frustration. “Where are we supposed to go?”
David frantically searched through the blueprints on his handheld computer, trying to find any information that might explain what they were seeing. Frustrated, he threw the device to Rachel to look through, and after a few moments she handed it back, confirming that there was no more data to be found about the area.
Marcus took a flashlight and turned it on, lighting up each of the five branches in succession. All five continued on at an even angle for as far as Marcus could see, and they were virtually identical in décor and appearance. The only major differences between the branches were some painted letters and numbers a few feet inside on each wall: C01, C02, C03, C04 and C05. With no other hints left to go on, Marcus went to David and pointed at the handheld computer.
“Can you bring up an overview of the tunnel we’re in right now?”
David obliged, and the blue and white image was quickly back on the screen. Marcus took the computer and held it in front of him, looking at the angles on the blueprint compared to that of the tunnel they were in.
“None of the branches looks like the turn you see here in the blueprint, so either they completely changed the tunnel layout or the blueprints were altered. Or both. I guess this means there’s only one way to find out where these things go.”
Marcus pulled his backpack tight on his shoulders and double-checked his pistol. He looked at Rachel and David who had already started to argue with him, knowing exactly what he meant. Cutting them off harshly, he glared at them, nearly shouting.
“Shut the hell up, both of you! We don’t have time to sit around or play guessing games, and there aren’t enough guns for more than one of us to figure out where we should go. The way I see it, we can delay for a day, maybe two at most, to figure out where to go. If I’m lucky, I’ll find the right passage in the first twenty minutes, and if not, it might be a good twenty-four hours or more.
“Based on those blueprints from David and the depth that we’re at, these tunnels could go on for miles before they hit the surface. One way or another, we need to get this thing up to the surface, and this is the only viable way out!”
Marcus kicked the dolly in frustration, then slowly sat down on the floor, staring at the glowing woman still perched on top of Bertha. Looking back at David and Rachel, he spoke more calmly, nearly pleading with them.
“Unless you two have a better idea, I can’t think of any safe way for us to try and figure out how to get out of here. I’m open to any suggestions, though; I really don’t want to head off by myself.”
Rachel closed her eyes and lowered her head. Marcus’s idea was maddening, to be sure, but there was only one other way around it. With David not knowing how to use a gun, either she or Marcus had to stay with him and Bertha to defend against any creatures. That left either her or Marcus to discern where they needed to go, and since Rachel had more experience with the laboratory complex, she knew
that she’d have to venture out on her own. Getting Marcus to let her go willingly wouldn’t work, though; he was too stubborn and overprotective for that.
“Fine. Here, I think I have a couple extra mags for you.” Rachel made a show of fishing around in her backpack, waiting for Marcus to walk over. Taking out a few packets of food and bottles of water, Rachel laid her rifle down on the ground next to her backpack as Marcus approached. He dropped his backpack on the ground and knelt down next to her, intent on helping her find the extra ammunition. She pointed down into the bag and stood up, circling around behind him as he dug through the bag, looking for the pistol magazines. “I saw one down in there; can you see it?”
“I don’t see—” Marcus stood up to question Rachel about the magazines and instantly felt her arm around his neck. With her elbow directly in front of his chin, she squeezed her arm together like a vice, applying pressure to his carotid arteries in the form of a rear naked choke. The flow of blood to Marcus’s head was immediately restricted, and he tried to struggle, but fell unconscious in just a few seconds, suffering from a lack of oxygen in his brain. Rachel held on for a bit longer before gently releasing Marcus, letting him tumble gently to the ground. Distracted by looking at his computer, David didn’t notice Rachel’s attack until he heard Marcus’s body hit the floor.
Not wasting an instant, Rachel snatched Marcus’s pistol and magazines, along with the food and water she had set aside, and stuffed them into Marcus’s backpack on the ground. David stared down at her in shock, his eyes wide and his mouth open as he struggled to comprehend what had just taken place. “What the hell are you doing, Rachel?”
Rachel glanced up at him as she finished quickly stuffing the supplies into Marcus’s backpack and threw it on her back.
“He’ll be awake in less than a minute with a headache at worst. Keep him restrained and don’t let him try to go after me. He’s not going to abandon you once he realizes what happened, so just keep a tight grip on him for the first few minutes.”
David raised his hands, gesticulating wildly at Rachel and Marcus, his mouth opening and closing like a fish, unable to form any type of rational response to Rachel’s actions. Rachel called to Sam and they both ran down the rightmost corridor, traveling as fast as Rachel’s legs could carry her. Without her rifle she was more vulnerable, but she was also more nimble, carrying less weight and able to move faster than she otherwise could. Counting on David to keep Marcus from following after her, she struggled to move fast, sprinting down the dark corridor with only her EL light to guide the way. Sam’s panting was a comfort to hear behind her, and she was glad that she would have him nearby.
Marcus will protect them. I’m not letting him take on this task, especially when he’s done so much already. Rachel used her guilt to her advantage, pouring it into her running to propel her down the corridor and to where she hoped the exit would be. With so many different tunnels under the city, taking the wrong path could lead to wandering in circles for days at a time, a situation Rachel hoped she didn’t find herself in. One out of five. I guess those aren’t terrible odds, assuming one of the muties doesn’t catch me down here.
Leonard McComb | Nancy Sims
5:38 PM, April 13, 2038
Leonard and Nancy’s wait for the creatures to finish filtering through their part of the city didn’t last long. As the sounds of the creatures’ footsteps started to wane, they left their alcove, crawling out to look at the last few creatures wandering through the city. The creatures at the tail end of the horde were frailer looking and they walked slower too, their bodies bruised and nearly broken. On more than one occasion, Nancy swore she could see small figures in the distance, obscured by the darkness, but she dismissed the sight, not wanting to think about children being turned into the hideous beasts.
“Should we go now?” Nancy whispered to Leonard, who was crouching with the rifle across his legs. He shook his head slowly.
“Not yet, but almost. Maybe another ten minutes or so. You should probably stretch your legs out, in case we have to run from any of these things.”
Nancy eased herself up, turned over and sat back down, rubbing her aching calves. “They don’t look like they could do much to us even if they did notice us.”
“It’s not them that I’m worried about. If they start making a lot of noise, they might attract the attention of our little shadow, and that would be very bad indeed.”
Scarcely fifteen minutes later, the last of the creatures that Leonard and Nancy could see passed by. Leonard cautioned that they should wait a few more minutes, which took place in agonizing slowness. Finally, after the area had been clear for a full ten minutes and no more creatures appeared by the flare of the lightning flashes, Leonard started to make his move with Nancy following behind.
Half sliding, half climbing down the opposite side of the collapsed building, Leonard felt blood rush back into his legs. In the back of his mind he hoped that a blood clot hadn’t formed, though if it had, there wasn’t anything he could do about it. At street level Leonard scanned the area, with the only sign of creatures being down the road to the east, well out of earshot.
Leonard motioned at Nancy to follow him, not wanting to risk speaking in case there were any other creatures nearby that they couldn’t see. He ran down the street to the south, heading for the stores he and Nancy had spotted earlier. After passing several office buildings, more consumer-oriented buildings appeared. A high-end men’s clothing store was on the right, then a lingerie shop on the left, followed by a toy shop and a sporting goods store.
“In here!” Leonard ran to the front of the sporting goods store, pushing gently on the door. It opened easily and he ducked inside, holding the door open for Nancy as she followed him in. “Look for anything usable, and hurry!”
Nancy ran to the back of the store, pausing in between the frequent flashes of lightning to wait for their illumination. Clothing left over from the winter months was spread out on clearance racks and she grabbed as much as she could, ignoring individual sizes in favor of the largest coats, gloves, jackets and hats that she could carry. Up front, Leonard pulled two hiking backpacks from a wall display and opened them, pulling out the thick newspaper that had been wadded inside to give them a fuller appearance.
Stacks of batteries and flashlights lined the checkout display and Leonard threw them into the first backpack, along with knives, first aid kits, multi-tools and anything else that looked useful. The second backpack held more clothing and survival gear that he found up front, divided roughly equally between men’s and women’s fits. Nancy ran up behind him, depositing the load of clothing on the floor and kneeling down to look in the backpacks, checking to see what they had retrieved.
“What do you think? Is there enough here?”
“I’m afraid that no amount of wares you steal from here will be enough to save the two of you from the vengeance of the Lord, oh consorters of demons!”
A bright light accompanied the voice from outside the sporting goods store, blinding Leonard and Nancy. Leonard dove to the floor behind the checkout counter, pulling Nancy along with him as they sought refuge from the voice they had come to know well during their forced stay in Iowa.
“It’s him!”
Nancy’s statement of the obvious was accompanied by a powerful gunshot, louder than Leonard had heard before. The wood and glass of the display case split open as Samuel fired his .50 caliber rifle from behind his vehicle, which he had parked out in front of the store. Blocking the only visible exit, he was in a perfect position to fire upon Nancy and Leonard, and the spotlight mounted on the vehicle lit up the entire shop, making a discrete exit impossible.
Leonard suspected that the only reason Samuel hadn’t hit them directly was because he didn’t know exactly where they were behind the counter. It would only be a matter of time before he found out, either by chance or by coming in to finish them off. In his haste, Leonard had dropped his rifle and it sat on the ground, half behind the cover of th
e checkout counter and half exposed, though he dared not reach for it for fear of giving away his position.
“What do you want from us, you asshole?” Leonard bellowed from behind the counter, wincing as another round came through, sending a shock wave through his head from the concussive force of the rifle round’s escaping gases. The second shot was closer to Leonard and Nancy than the first, though still several feet away.
“To bring you to justice, my child! To bring down the cleansing justice and retribution of the Lord upon your shoulders! That is what I am here for!”
Glass from the shattered front windows of the storefront crunched under Samuel’s boot steps as he slowly entered, armed with a smaller—but no less deadly—rifle. His finger hovering over the trigger, he walked closer to the checkout counter, preparing to dispatch the intruders. Nancy closed her eyes and squeezed Leonard’s hand as he eyed his rifle, preparing to make a desperate attempt to retrieve it.
“And now, my children, prepare yourselves! Your end is at hand!”
Rachel Walsh
5:30 PM, April 13, 2038