by Doug Burbey
If it wasn't for the fact that I bet you're carrying a lot of baggage, and daddy issues, lady, I might just buy you a drink.
Declan thought, as some rather non-parental thoughts crossed his mind while he watched her walk away. He pulled his eyes off the temptation and then took a moment to consider how to proceed with his hunt. With the unfortunate lack of screaming, and panicked, civilians running around shouting “demon!” he was going to have to do this the hard way.
Where would I be hiding out if I was demon lost in the big scary city?
The thought of strolling into one of the numerous Irish pubs in the area, having a few drinks, and just waiting for the lucky break of a screaming and panicked mob running past was appealing. Or, he could try to tap into his reserves and enhance his senses. Maybe then he would catch a break and feel, or smell, his prey. But that would require him to dose on Reset again. Although each time he did, it seemed to take longer to push the rage back.
I definitely do not need to be building up a tolerance. That would be no bueno amigo. Although if I get this shit done quick enough, I might be able to figure out which bar that cute brunette with daddy issues went into. It has been a while.
"Shit. I'm not a monk, though Cordy is probably more in my league." He snorted at that thought. "Please, Cordy is further out of my league than that woman was." Declan looked up and down the crossroads for the metro station. It was a heavy traffic day area with lots of people coming and going, lots of vehicle traffic, and the general chaotic movement of city life.
This was not exactly where I would be hanging out if I was a stray demon from the war that had enough smarts to remain relatively hidden away for the last three years. This little bastard’s not going to be making itself a regular around here.
Declan brought up the incident map on his phone and then placed markers on locations that the ICER reports had shown bodies being found. There were six markers in an approximate seven block radius that all took place within the last 60 days, mostly near the Potomac River and canal area.
Well come on, old man, you may as well start with the freshest and work out from there.
After leaving the fourth site, and three hours of walking, Declan began to think he was on a wild goose chase. A conversation with a group of homeless along the Potomac, near the canal bridge, directed him towards something that might pan out. They had confirmed at least some of Cordelia's intelligence. Two of them described a dark reddish porcupine-like creature, around two or three-foot-tall, with six or eight legs, that made a clattering noise when it ran. They claimed it also had a fanged mouth where it's stomach should be. Lately it had been coming out at night and snatching people who were wandering around alone too close to the woods.
Skitter demon. Nasty bastards in a swarm but alone it should be easy enough to take care of.
Declan noted that although they had given the creature's description to the local police, they were apparently discarded as ramblings and not properly recorded. If they had been taken seriously, the police should have dispatched the local Tactical Team, or at least the ICERs should have been called immediately to verify. Even though your average person no longer expected to ever deal with demons again, responsible law enforcement personnel should have taken these reports seriously. Strays still did pop up every now and then. It was borderline irresponsible that multiple killings, and witness statements of demons in the area, was not responded to sooner.
Why am I the first one to respond here? I really need to ask Cordelia what's wrong with the data intelligence sharing between agencies. This level of incompetent groundwork is bad, even for government bureaucrats. All this damn government propaganda of “There is no more demon threat” that is being pushed nonstop is starting to make people actually believe that bullshit. It makes them stupid. The fools just want to believe it more than accept that the world has changed forever.
Ten minutes later Declan moved slowly through the underbrush of the wooded area along the Potomac canal. Dusk approached and the woods were already starting to darken. He needed to find some trace of where the skitter was hiding so that he could set up an ambush to take care of it when it emerged.
"Now this is what I was looking for." Declan spotted an irregular series of tracks. "Now, unless deer started walking with clawed feet spaced two feet apart from each other. I think I got you, ya little bastard."
He drew his pistol from the holster underneath his coat with one hand and his heavy combat knife with the other. As he began to follow the trail of broken limbs and muddy claw prints in the ground, he let his senses sharpen.
Just a little now, just a little. I don't need much.
The woods began to brighten and amplified sounds began to trickle in as his body responded to its base instinct for survival. He stood for a moment, absorbing his surroundings, when he heard human voices coming from in front of him in the direction the skitter trail was leading him. He began to move as quietly as possible towards the voices.
Crap, that's all I need. Some kind of homeless encampment setting up in a skitter hunting ground.
As he moved deeper into the woods, and the sunlight faded further, he began to see a glow through the trees in front of him. Then he felt it. The unmistakable pulsing vibration and almost audible humming of the portal.
"Son of a bitch."
Cordy's intelligence is worth a grand total of jack fucking shit. Stray demons can't open portals.
Declan had moved far enough into the woods, closer to the portal, that he could now make out discernible voices.
"But why are there so many?" An agitated human voice was shouting.
"Volget do as need. You keeps open!" The unmistakable growling bark of a demon struggling with a human language responded.
Shit. That's either a ring three or damn smart ring two down there.
Declan dropped to one knee trying to assess the situation and instinctively reached into his coat to grab his rifle.
Dammit, left all my gear my truck. This way just supposed to be a stray hunt.
A second human voice, barely able to contain his fear, answered the demon "You are just supposed to be bringing one or two skitters. This is way too many!"
" Volget bring, Volget want. You keeps door. Volget go, you keep open. Volget return with more. You keep door for Volget return are raid. Soon back. Skitters guard. Door close, skitters kill all." The demon grumbled back. Declan could hear the clattering of skitters starting to move around the glow in the woods in front of him.
Fuck, there must be at least a dozen, or more, of those things in here now.
Declan backed out of the woods the way he came. He caught glimpses of movement between himself and the glow of the portal between the trees.
I don't have enough firepower with me to take out over dozen skitters and a soldier demon. I should have just followed that brunette to whatever bar she was heading to.
Turning he moved quietly, as fast as he could, to get to the main road by the canal bridge. Declan pulled out his phone and called up a newly added number. "Kayter… Yeah, it's Kenner… Yes, right now… My intel was total crap. I need backup and more damn firepower. Right now… First, stop at the Springfield Metro station where you'll find my truck parked and grab my green bag out of it… Yes, out of my truck. Then bring the bag to me at the canal bridge in Georgetown… With the damn keypad on the door!... I'll text you the code when you get there… Yes, the green bag. Not, the black one… Because I don't want you to blow up is why… Just stay out of it and bring me the green bag… No, I don't need anything from the black bag!... Yeah, I'm staying here to do containment if needed… Yes, fast."
He paced back and forth counting time in his head. How long did he have? How many more would come through? How many people would die because he didn't come loaded to take on a sub-horde element?
The motion of a dark silent bike heading towards him let him blow out a breath in relief and he headed up to where she could park. Declan waited for Kayter to set her motorcycle and
remove her helmet before he approached. He noted that in addition to her standard skintight body armor, she also wore a long black trench coat. Apparently, a commercial knockoff of the hunter's coat. He glanced back repeatedly at the edges of the small woods. "Damn, you made good time."
Kayter unstrapped Declan's green duffle bag from the back of her motorcycle and handed it to him with a shrug. "You made it sound urgent and you don't strike me as a nervous nelly."
He glanced at her, then back at the coat. "Okay. I have got ask. What is with the coat?"
"Huh? Oh, just for riding the bike. It distracts people from the silent engine. All they remember is the coat flapping behind me." She stripped it off and put it in one of her saddlebags. "Restricts my movements too much to fight in."
"Thank god. I was worried you were about to try and wear that knock off coat in the fight." Declan stated as he strapped on his own body armor and extracted his Vulture carbine from the bag. Then he pulled all of the remaining magazines from the side pocket, inserted them into his body armor pouches, and set the bag back onto Kayter's motorcycle.
Kayter looked at him, arching a brow. "Do I look like an old man that I need to wear old man clothes in a fight?" She turned and dug in Declan's bag and started to rummage around. "Well, look here. You got some toys!" She turned holding a hand grenade in each hand with a wide grin on her face. "You've been holding out on me."
Declan grimaced, "I don't think we'll need those. But we can't just leave them here in a bag for someone else to steal. Better to have them, just in case we need one anyway. You keep a hold of one and I'll take the other one."
Kayter smiled like she had just been given a pony for Christmas, as she handed the last grenade to Declan who immediately secured it in a grenade pouch on his tactical vest. He then pulled off an empty grenade pouch from his vest and handed it to Kayter. "Okay, make sure this pouch is secured on your harness, snap the clips, make sure they are locked closed. Keep the grenade in there with the flap closed and snapped. Do not, do not…" Declan eyed the now smirking young lady as she rolled her grenade back and forth between her hands. "open that pouch and pull out the grenade unless I specifically tell you to."
"But what if you are dead and you can't tell me?" She said and batted her eyes at him, sarcasm dripping off every word.
"Well at that point I give a rat's ass what you do with it." Declan said as he inserted the ammunition magazine into his carbine and chambered the first round. He paused and looked back at her. "You've used them before, haven't you?" Noting that she had it properly secured it already.
Kayter snorted. "Yes. Squad tactics no. Almost every weapon dad could get his hands on? Hell, yes." She tilted her head a speculative look on her face. "So, what the hell do you have in that black bag in your truck? A flamethrower?"
Declan attached a flashlight to the front of his weapon's barrel. "No, no flamethrowers. You're never getting a flamethrower."
"What do you mean I never get a flamethrower?" Kayter asked, sounding amused as she withdrew her pistol from its holster chambering the first round. She checked to make sure the safety was set and slipped it back into her holster, then withdrew her jian sword. She circled it in front of herself slowly, stretching out her wrists. "If I wanted one, I'm pretty sure I could either buy it or find a vid telling me how to make my own in excruciating detail."
"Because it's bulky, ineffective, hits everything but what you needed hit, and is generally just a stupid idea." Declan responded casually. Taking a cue from Kayter, he started rolling and stretching out his shoulders and arms.
Shit, I hate getting old.
"You suck, Colonel. You're too old school you know. You're completely discounting the aesthetic, and chaos value, of pretty, pretty flamethrowers." The teasing in her voice made him smirk.
Reaching out his hand towards her, "While I'm thinking about it, give me back that grenade too."
"What? No way! You gave it to me all fair and square. I'm keeping. They're too hard to get a hold of for me to give it up. Mine." Her smile made him feel even older. "Just fill me in on what we are doing here."
"Fine, just hold onto it. Inside those woods, along the river, maybe 200 to 250 meters in, there's a mage holding a portal open and we need to shut it down and remove all threats."
"Why the hell didn't you just kill him, closing the portal, before you called me then?"
"Because the mage had a mess of friends in there with him. I suspect there’s a high functioning ring two demon with at least a dozen skitters. Last I saw of the demon it had traversed back over to his realm, apparently to bring more back with him, but the skitters are already in the woods. I didn't have enough ammo to take care of all that of my own. So, any questions before we go on there and take care of business?" He had already started heading in, noting she followed him making much less noise than he did.
Damn ninja crap. I'm too old for this shit.
"Yeah, what's a skitter and how do I kill it?" Kayter asked, without any sarcasm.
"Oh, no reason why you should know what those are. Well to put it simply, if you have got arachnophobia you are fucked. It’s similar to the demon you chopped up at MIT: Six legs, height is around two feet at the shoulder, prickly spines like a porcupine, can jump about ten feet from a standstill, and will try to land on you stabbing you with its legs because its mouth is underneath its body where a stomach should be. So, consider them highly unpleasant."
Fortunately, Kayter did not seem to be overly concerned with giant demon spiders and immediately got to the point. "Ah, yeah I call them crawlies. So, bullets and sword kill them fine, unless this is a version with armor?"
"No armor. They go down easy enough. You can cut off their legs, stab them through the body, or fill them full of holes with bullets. Usually two or three shots will take one down. It all works. Not the toughest demon to run across but the problem is they tend to have a lot of friends with them and they are damn fast. These little bastards like hiding in the trees so be sure you're looking up, down, all around, all the time. If you see just one, then you probably didn't see the other two."
"Got it, Colonel. Sweep the woods, head towards a portal, kill lots of big crawlies. What about the demon and mage?"
"I'll take care that. You just make sure that once we clear the woods and get to the portal you cover my back while I engage the demon. If I can concentrate on that, knowing you are keeping anything else off me, then I should be able to do it pretty readily."
"Wilco. The mage?"
"I'll make that decision and take care of that when the time comes. There are some things you don't need on you. That'll be on me."
Kayter looked at Declan's face for a moment then shrugged. "Your call, but, Colonel, I've been doing this a while. I've killed more than one mage. Some people don't realize when they are playing with nuclear weapons, they aren't the only ones that will get killed."
He glanced back at her and gave a short sharp nod, even as he grieved that innocence seemed to be something no one had anymore.
They headed through the woods until he all but tripped over a skitter that darted out of the trees at them.
"Okay go!" No point in subtlety now. Declan raised his rifle and shot two more of the skitters, knocking them back into the trees. Kayter had moved like the star pupil in a classroom full of assassins. Declan had relied on her to clear out the first few skitters they encountered with nothing but her sword as they moved into the woods trying not to draw attention. But after she had taken out the first three individually and they approached closer to the portal, the skitters had located them and were moving forward in a large group towards them now.
"Coming on your left, Colonel!" Kayter shouted as she made quick work of a skitter that jumped at her. She slid her body sideways drawing the blade in front of her cutting off two of its legs before she spun and thrust downwards through the top of its body killing it.
"On it." Declan dropped to one knee and began to his sweep his weapon from the right to the left, ca
refully aiming his shots putting one or two rounds into each shape as it moved through the trees. Seeing that Kayter had no targets directly in front of her he yelled, "Stay with me, stay directly to my right side." He paused for a minute and looked for new targets. Not finding any, he stood up into a crouch and began to move forward. "Let's go. Head for the glow. I counted five targets down. How many you have Kayter?"
"Six."
"Okay, I'm guessing by the portal there should be two or three more. Let's pick up the pace and head straight for it. Remember, you see the demon, you back up. Watch my back and let me take it out. Keep your eyes open as there should be a few more the skitters at least." Declan began to push forward quickly then felt himself getting yanked backward. "Damn it."
"What is it?"
"Nothing, just got my coat hung up in the underbrush. Give me a second." Declan reached down to pull his coat out of the brambles that had grabbed its bottom edge and immediately felt the stabbing pain of a skitter claw, slicing across his hand. "Shit!" Declan pulled his arm back while trying to swing his weapon barrel towards the skitter, he lost his balance and fell onto his back, bringing the skitter with them. He felt its other claws stabbing at his coat trying to puncture through to get a grip on its human prey. Declan shot at its body, grazing it, but that did not slow the skitter. He struggled to get his weapon underneath where he could feel the demon's teeth slashing apart his tactical vest and body armor covering his chest.
I'm going to get killed by a mutant fucking demon spider!