by Matt Rogers
There were two rooms branching off from the hallway. Link hadn’t checked them, opting instead to move deep into the bowels of the house. Jake moved into the room on the left and cast his flashlight over its contents, from left to right.
The only sound came from his heartbeat echoing in his ears, like a deep bass drum.
Doom-doom, doom-doom.
Cardboard boxes. A bed frame leaning against the wall.
Doom-doom, doom-doom.
A patch of dark liquid on the floor. And next to that, the beam briefly passed something that moved.
There was a low growl.
“Link!” Jake screamed.
He barely had time to register the slayer before it pounced across the room and slammed into him, shouldering him out into the hallway. He lost his grip on the pistol and it clattered to the floor.
The slayer scuttled out of the doorway. Jake took in its bald head, bulging eyes and bare torso. It was wearing nothing more than a pair of dusty old pants. It stood over him, snarling. Jake felt his memory rewind back to the alleyway, where a similar scenario had occurred. This time was different, though. He wouldn’t let it get the better of him.
He scrambled to his feet, and the slayer charged. Jake ducked instinctively. A clawed hand passed centimetres over his scalp. Then suddenly he was level with the slayer, standing side by side. It whipped around. He punched it hard in the face, feeling his fist make contact with its cheekbone. As it fell back, stunned, he reached for a knife.
A fatal mistake. It noticed him fumbling at the holster on his belt. Still growling, the slayer swung its right arm back, claws outstretched. Jake realised he was about to be disembowelled. There was nothing he could do about it.
The slayer lunged forward, and suddenly there was a blur of movement and Link was there, wrapping a powerful arm around its neck and wrenching it back away from Jake. He had come from behind. He threw the slayer brutally into the ground. Jake dashed back away from the fight.
Link came down on top of the slayer. He used the opportunity to drive a knee down into its chest. It would have shattered a man’s ribcage, but the slayer threw Link away and clambered to its feet.
Jake noticed a combat knife had suddenly appeared in Link’s hand. He hadn’t even seen him draw it. In one fluid movement, Link threw himself across the tight confines of the hallway and drove the knife deep into the slayer’s chest.
There was a moment of silence amidst the chaos. The slayer looked down and saw the hilt protruding from its left pectoral. It had a strange expression on its face. It knew it was mortally wounded.
Link wrapped two hands around the slayer’s throat and thrust it up against the wall.
“Where’s Archfiend?!” he yelled into its face. “Huh?! Where’s your leader?!”
Jake was taken aback by the outburst. He had never seen Link this enraged. It was completely out of character.
“Link…” he said.
The slayer lunged at Link with outstretched hands, in its last, desperate throes. Link stepped back, out of reach. He pulled the sole remaining pistol from his belt and shot it once in the head. It slumped to the floor.
Link stood panting in the hallway, his face red with anger.
“Let’s go,” he said. He stepped outside.
Jake followed, confused, but thought it best not to ask questions. As he walked out, he closed the front door behind him. The slayer’s corpse lay motionless in the middle of the hallway.
Link had returned to normal by the time they reached the Audi. The rage previously plastered across his face had dissolved, yet he remained expressionless. Jake was suddenly wary. He had never seen anyone in the gang act so impulsively before.
“Are you hurt?” Link said, detached.
“No, I don’t think so,” Jake said. “This adrenaline won’t wear off for a while, but I think I’m fine.”
His hands were shaking uncontrollably.
“I barely got there in time,” Link said. “Next time, try and stick right behind me.”
“I don’t know what happened. I followed you into the hallway, and then you were gone. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, your brain was probably in overdrive. Adrenaline does that to you, man. You should count yourself lucky you’re still alive.”
As they got into the car, Link took a moment to exhale and run a hand through his short hair. Then his phone began to buzz. Link glanced at the contact details, and answered on speakerphone.
“Wolfe,” he said. “What is it?”
“Did you find anything?” Wolfe’s voice sounded rushed, like he was stressed.
“A stray slayer. It ambushed us, but we dealt with it. The rest of the house is empty.”
“Is the kid okay?”
“I’m fine,” Jake said.
“That’s good, that’s really good,” Wolfe said, seemingly to himself. “Okay, now stay exactly where you are, guys. We’re all coming to you.”
“What?” Link said. “Why?”
“Sam picked up a ping on the radar. One of the motion trackers you put down in the Dandenong Ranges. He just went to check it out and he’s found a huge amount of activity in a warehouse. We need the whole team for this, Link.”
There was a pause, and what Wolfe said next sent a bolt of terror down Jake’s spine.
“We think we know where Archfiend is.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“This is big,” Link said.
They were sitting in the Audi, now parked several streets away from the abandoned house. Link had driven to a new location, warranting someone had heard the commotion.
Ten minutes had elapsed since they had killed the slayer, and Jake was beginning to realise just how close he had come to death. The energy high had dissipated into pulse-quickening fear. If it wasn’t for Link, he wouldn’t be sitting here right now. He was determined not to make a mistake like that again.
“Why didn’t Wolfe elaborate?” Jake asked. “Why didn’t he tell us what Sam found?”
“I don’t think he wants us jumping to conclusions. I don’t think they’re sure what it is Sam saw.”
They sat back and observed their surroundings for a while, waiting patiently for the rest of the team to show up. Eventually, Jake found the courage to ask the question that had been bothering him.
“What the hell happened back there, Link?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. Your outburst. You know slayers can’t talk. You know they can’t understand us, but you still shoved it into the wall and screamed in its face. Why?”
There was a pause. Jake looked over to see Link staring into space, his gaze transfixed on the steering wheel. He got a shock as he saw a single tear roll down the man’s cheek.
“I was angry,” Link said, his voice trembling. “I’m always angry, whenever I come across one. I can’t help myself. I just need to know where Archfiend is.”
“So does the rest of the team…”
Link shook his head. “Not like me.”
“Why do you need to find him so bad?”
“Because I need answers.”
Jake cocked his head. “Answers to what?”
Link turned. For the first time since he had joined the gang, Jake saw real emotion in the man’s eyes. A deep sorrow was nagging away at him.
“I’ll tell you,” he said. “You’re a good kid, Jake. Can I trust you?”
“You can trust me,” Jake re-iterated.
Link nodded.
“Seventeen years ago, I was barely an adult, living at home with my father. Mum got a divorce when I was ten. I haven’t heard from her since. I had a close relationship with my dad. Despite the fact that he spent most of his life at work, we maintained a strong bond. He was an aeronautics engineer. He worked for a big Japanese engineering company, which meant sometimes he had to leave for days at a time. It was good pay, so we lived comfortably in a house on the outskirts of Tokyo.
“Despite what you might think, English wasn’t my fi
rst language. I was born and raised in Japan, but in case you haven’t realised yet, I’m pretty smart. I was fluent in English by age twelve.”
“Jesus,” Jake said. “I don’t think I was fluent in English by age twelve.”
Link smiled briefly, then the warm expression vanished. “So seventeen years ago, in the middle of the night, I was downstairs in the living room watching television. Dad had just come back from a three-week sales trip, but from the moment he returned, he seemed distant. Usually, after a long trip, he would take me out to dinner. That didn’t happen. As soon as he walked in the door he hurried straight up to his office and slammed the door. He didn’t say one word to me.”
“I know how that feels,” Jake said.
Link paused. “Family problems?”
“That’s partly why I’m here.”
Link nodded before continuing. “Shortly after, Archfiend burst through the front door. It was the single most terrifying experience of my life. I’ll always remember the cold smile on his face when he saw me. Before I could move, he pounced on me and pinned me to the ground.
“‘Where’s your father?’ he hissed in my face.
“No matter how scared I was, I wasn’t going to give my dad up. Any amount of time that would stall this monster was time that my father could spend escaping. That proved to be useless, though. He decided to come barrelling down the stairs with a twelve gauge shotgun. He missed the first shot. That was enough. Archfiend tore his head off in one swipe.”
“Oh my god,” Jake muttered.
“I was paralysed in shock. Archfiend stormed straight back out of the house, his work obviously done. And I followed him.
“I left my entire life behind that night, and I don’t regret it. For weeks on end I tracked Archfiend across the country. He led me all the way to Australia. I managed to bribe my way into a last-minute ticket on the commercial plane he had stashed himself underneath. And I didn’t stop there.
“Here in Melbourne, I watched him enter a house much like the one we just hit, and I ran inside, knowing next to nothing about slayers, expecting to confront him. I came face to face with a dozen slayers, and that’s when I knew my luck had run out.”
“How did you get away?” Jake asked.
“Archfiend tied me up. He spared me, at least for a brief period of time. Half an hour later, Wolfe’s team rushed in and shot the place to pieces. By sheer coincidence, they had been staking the hideout for weeks beforehand. They saw me run in and decided to act. It was their first hunt ever. Archfiend got away, but they saved my life, just as Wolfe saved yours. And just like you, they realised my potential and took me in. I wasn’t the best fighter, but they taught me to be. Above all though, I could track. They couldn’t believe I had chased Archfiend halfway around the globe.”
Jake couldn’t hide his surprise. “And that’s why you need to find Archfiend. You need to know why he killed your father.”
“Bingo,” Link said. “Dad did … something. Something bad enough to make Archfiend want to kill him. And I need to know exactly what that was.”
“None of the others know this happened?”
Link shook his head. “I don’t want to tell them. All they care about is their operation. Those guys, they only work in numbers, and statistics. How many slayers we need to kill. How efficient our methods are. They’ll call me stupid. They'll tell me to forget about it.” He trailed off. “All I want is answers.”
“I hope you get them, Link. Honestly, I do.”
“I’m going to find Archfiend, and then I’m going to find out exactly why he did what he did on that night. Either that, or I’m going to die trying.”
Link’s voice was filled with raw anger. Jake could sense the man’s bitter frustration.
“You haven’t come across Archfiend once in the past seventeen years?” he said. No-one had ever clarified that.
“Oh, we’ve found him alright,” Link said. “It’s the killing part that we struggle with. We’ve ambushed him more than ten times. He gets away every single time. It’s a miracle that he hasn’t killed any of us yet.”
“Do you think we’ll find him tonight?”
“Let’s hope so. On that note, buddy, here comes the cavalry.”
A black Mercedes van pulled up behind them. It flashed its headlights twice.
“I hope we can keep this private, Jake,” Link said.
Jake nodded. “No problems. Your secret’s safe with me.”
They exited the Audi and walked towards the van. Jake approached with caution. The rear doors swung open from the inside, revealing Wolfe, Felix, Sam and Thorn crouching within, checking their weapons. All four men were clad in black combat gear. Looking past them, Jake saw Crank’s blond hair sticking up from the driver’s seat.
“I hear you’ve had a run-in with a slayer,” Wolfe said.
“It was crazy,” Jake said.
“It’s about to get a whole lot crazier,” Felix said. “Get in.”
Jake clambered up into the van.
*
The van roared over the asphalt.
“So here’s where we are,” Wolfe said as Jake geared up. “It’s an abandoned warehouse, on the edge of the Dandenong Ranges. And it’s huge – almost the same size as an airline hangar. The building’s surrounded on all sides by big open fields. It’s been deserted for years. Sam was scouting it out. He came across what looked like more than twenty slayers inside.”
“I didn’t get a very good look,” Sam piped up, “but there’s a lot of them in there –”
“How many?” Jake interrupted, suddenly clammy.
“Like I said, brother, I don’t know,” Sam said, refusing to make eye contact. “A lot.”
“We’re going to hit the place fast,” Felix said. He ran a hand over his bald scalp. “Snowdogs on full auto. Hopefully, we take them all by surprise and clear the whole lot out.”
“What about me?” Jake said. He felt like he had been thrown in the deep end, a deep end full of man-eating predators. “What do I do?”
“I’m giving you the option to sit this one out,” Wolfe said.
Jake took a deep breath before responding. “Don’t worry, I’m in.”
“You sure?”
“This is what I trained for.”
“If you’re going to go through with this, you need to commit.”
“Meaning?”
“You can’t say you’re in and then back out when we enter the warehouse.”
“That won’t happen. I’m not going to say I’m not scared. Because I feel like I’m about to pass out. But I can’t sit out. What if I do and something goes wrong? I can’t stay back and watch you guys get butchered.”
“Good man. We need you.” There was a glint of pride in Wolfe’s eyes.
“Who’s providing covering fire?” Thorn said.
“I’ll do it,” Link said. “I know that’s usually your job, Felix, but you need all the muscle you can get in there.”
“There’s a possibility Archfiend could be here,” Wolfe said. “He’s usually around when there’s a big cluster of slayers like this. We all need to be on full alert. If he catches wind of our presence, he’ll get out of there faster than we can blink. The warehouse borders the forest, and if he makes it to the trees we’ll never find him. I want to try and bring him down.”
“If he’s there…” Jake said.
“If he’s there,” Wolfe repeated. “It’s not likely, but it’s possible.”
It was a daunting concept; a slayer so powerful that the entire team were scared of a confrontation. But despite Jake’s anxiety, he felt somewhat safe. There was a steely calm in the air. These men would go to hell and back to protect him. He was sure of it.
“Felix, Crank,” Wolfe said. “You two are with me. We enter first and lay down inter-locking fields of fire. Jake, Sam, Thorn; you’re backup. Come in as soon as we’ve established a perimeter.”
The van coasted to a stop. Wolfe threw the doors open and Jake leapt out into the
biting cold wind. The tranquility quickly vanished, replaced by tension.
They were standing atop the crest of a sloping valley that descended down into an open grass plain, ending in a row of pine trees that Jake recognised as the border of the Dandenong Ranges. The warehouse Wolfe had spoken of was situated near the forest edge, a full five hundred metres away. It was a gargantuan heap of rusting, corrugated iron, shrouded in darkness, surrounded by undergrowth. No light came from the windows lining the upper walls. There was no visible movement from inside. It was almost midnight, but the full moon provided a pale grey wash over the whole valley. The treetops of the forest were rustling in the wind.
Jake gulped involuntarily. Suddenly Wolfe was there, clapping a hand onto his shoulder as he stared out across the landscape below. The gesture brought a little reassurance to his shaking limbs.
“You know you don’t have to do this.”
“Yeah, I know,” Jake said.
“Stick behind us, and you’ll be fine,” Wolfe said. “I would let you provide covering fire instead of Link, but frankly you’re not a good enough shot.”
Jake smiled.
“When we get in there,” Wolfe continued, “if it’s anything more than what we expected, I’ll give you the signal and you get out as fast as you can.”
“Doesn’t that make you nervous? Not knowing what you’re up against.”
“We’re trained for it,” was all Wolfe said, and he turned away.
They were ready. Link had set up shop atop the slope, assembling a fearsome-looking sniper rifle on a tripod. There was no silencer on the barrel. ‘Covering fire’ appeared to be nothing but a last resort, for precaution’s sake.
The peace and quiet that Jake was savouring came to a crashing stop as Wolfe said, “Everyone ready?”
Crank, Thorn, Felix and Sam nodded in unison, guns up and ready to go.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jake sloshed through the mud along with the rest of the team.