INCURSION: Knightmare (Knight's Bane Trilogy Book 1)

by Bryan Donihue

  With the doors now open, the team could see stairs descending into a dark cellar. These were no ordinary stairs; they were stone stairs cut into the bedrock beneath the doors. These stairs were worn and extended down into the earth about fifteen feet before they curved around a corner and led out of sight.

  "Stairs," God called out to his teammates. "They go down and around a corner. Visible light. Clear." He stood with his rifle poised at his shoulder, waiting for the others to get in position.

  The rest of the team scrambled back to their feet, each of them nursing bumps and bruises from the fall. They shouldered their weapons, and Six led the fire team into the cellar. About fifteen feet down, the worn stone stairs became broken stone stairs and curved around the corner. At the corner, the leader leaned around the angle, letting his rifle barrel lead the way. The stone walls became rough-hewn stone. The stairs eventually ended at a well worn dirt floor, and the walls of the stairwell opened up to reveal a dark cavern.

  Strung across the ceiling of the cavern was a series of wires, with a bare bulb hanging down about every twenty feet. The rough cavern walls ended about five feet to the left of the stairs, and the wall across was just over twenty feet away. To Six's right, the cavern stretched about thirty feet before curving out of sight to the left. The floor was relatively even and free of obstacles or debris; however, thin stalactites tightly clung to the ceiling approximately ten feet overhead. The floor was packed hard from what could only be years of use, and bare bedrock rose up through the hard earth, creating small pockets of stone flooring.

  As the team maneuvered through the cave, they spread out behind Six. They rounded the corner and the corridor opened up into another cavern. Across from the team, Six noticed a smaller passage leading off into darkness. To the left the cavern was deep, and had a large stone formation that blocked his view of the end of the cavern.

  Six, Boomer, and the rest of the team heard melodic plops and drips of water at the other end of the dimly lit cavern. They froze when a growl interrupted their footsteps. With a raised fist, Six signaled the team to halt. The growling appeared to be coming from the other side of the rock formation. As Six stepped to his left, Ghost and Heavy stepped to the right and aimed around the large block of bedrock. The others stepped out from the passage and took their positions.

  Around the formation roared three revenants, their jaws open in eager anticipation. The creatures had almost reached the agents when the team opened fire. Six fired at the creature on the far left, in between the rock formation and the wall of the cavern. Boomer joined in; she pulled the trigger on her shotgun and worked the pump as fast as she could. A combination of high-powered rifle rounds and shotgun slugs nearly tore the creature in two. The revenant was still vainly trying to crawl toward them when the team leader aimed and shot the creature between the eyes.

  Ghost and God opened up on the revenant on the other side of the rock formation. As the sniper calmly and methodically walked his rounds up from chest to head, the esoteric hunter peppered the creature with rounds to its chest and abdomen. When God finally put his fourth round into the head of the creature, Ghost ran his rifle empty and switched to a full magazine. The lifeless creature fell at the feet of the two shooters.

  The former HRT operator looked at the hunter and said, "Next time, try aiming."

  Ghost sheepishly returned God's grin.

  The remaining revenant leapt for the heavy gunner. Two bursts of machine gun fire drove the creature back and left it dazed. Deputy Folsom aimed his rifle at the creature and squeezed the trigger twice. The first shot took the creature in the chest; the second shot hit the creature between its eyes. In the back of his mind, he thought he recognized the contorted features of Mrs. Marshall, his high school English teacher. He could not help but to take in the crazed eyes and mouthful of sharp teeth for later... he knew he'd see them again in his nightmares. He thought he saw the body stir one more time, and he resolutely walked over and shot a point-blank round through the Mrs. Marshall's forehead.

  The cavern echoed with the sound of automatic gunfire.

  "Well, they certainly know we're coming now," Six said as the echoes subsided. "Everyone be prepared."

  As they moved into the center of the cavern, they noticed a pool of water at the far. As they got closer to the pool, they could see that it was very shallow and crystal clear.

  After studying the pool for a few moments, Six concluded that the pool of water must be coming from underneath the wall.

  He looked at Doc curiously. "Do you think you could summon up enough prayer to make that puddle Holy Water?"

  She pondered the small pond briefly and then shrugged. "I can try."

  She walked forward, and the others moved to create a defensive perimeter around her. She bent down and slowly began a chant in Latin. Closing her eyes, Doc prayed, asking the Spirit of Christ to bless the water and to make it Holy.

  "That should do it," she responded a short time later.

  Six nodded and smiled. "Let's move on," he said.

  The agent led the team toward the smaller passage Six spotted earlier. A short led them into another cavern. Approximately the same size as the previous cavern, the walls were rougher. They had almost a hand-carved look, and there were two other exits from this cavern. As the team entered, Six noticed a large misshapen hole in the cavern floor. Large enough to fit a compact car into, the hole was pitch black just below the surface of the hole, and all of them felt waves of malevolence coming from it.

  God positioned himself over the small three-foot passage that led into the base of the cavern wall opposite from where they had entered. Heavy trained his machine gun on the passage at the other end of the cavern. Six, Doc, and Ghost walked closer to the dark hole in the floor. When Six shined his flashlight across the surface, he could not see any deeper than the edge as the light seemed to be absorbed at the very surface of the darkness. Ghost took a chemlight from his vest pocket and broke it to mix the chemicals. He tossed it into the middle of the darkness, and the inky black seemed to swallow the fluorescent tube whole. The darkness rippled where the chemstick had entered the surface.

  Six looked at Doc and asked, "Is it me, or did that darkness actually...ripple?" The team leader was at a loss. "What the hell is that stuff?"

  The priest calmly looked at her boss. "To paraphrase your answer to Deputy Folsom earlier, I believe you have answered your own question." After a pause, she continued, "It is Evil." The team heard the capital "E" in Doc's voice. "I believe this is a hellgate, and it is something that we do not have the ability or desire to deal with now."

  Just then, the sniper behind them let out a yelp. They turned to look and saw him backing away from the hole he was guarding. A low growl could be heard coming from the hole.

  Moments later, a large, bloated head and upper torso pulled itself out of the hole and clawed its way toward God. Trailing torn and bloody entrails behind as it crawled, the torso reached its desiccated hand for the team's sniper. God shook head to clear it and aimed his rifle down at the creature's head. A single shot rang out, and the bloated head exploded, showering the area around the creature with gore. The agent wiped the tread of his boots on the rock to remove bits of brain matter from his shoes. He looked at the priest and raised an eyebrow.

  Doc simply shrugged and said, "Zombie."

  God shuddered. "Shall we toss a grenade in there to make sure nothing else is coming?"

  Six shook his head. "We're in a cavern. It could collapse the whole thing. We'll let Boomer prep some explosives and set a timer for our exit. Alright, let's get moving."

  At the far end of the cavern, the wide passageway sloped down and around to the right. There was a small pool of water on the left. Six looked at the water, and then at Doc, and cocked his eyebrows.

  She leaned over the pool for a few seconds to study the water.

  "It must be connected to the other," Doc announced. "This is already Holy."

  Six nodded and led the team ar
ound the corner of the passageway. After a short passageway, they stepped out into a larger cavern. The wall across from them was almost thirty feet away, and the cavern stretched half again that from sidewall to sidewall. At the far end there was another pool of water, and this one looked deeper and murkier. It also ran through the passage that was the only other exit to the cavern. The team spread out and approached the shore of the pond. As the team leader looked through the narrow passageway across from him, Six noticed that the water continued through the passage and that he could see another cavern at the end of the passage.

  In what had become her routine, Doc stepped up and began to pray in Latin over the pond of water. The team spread out around her, making sure she stayed safe during the ritual. Six noticed that her garments began to glow blue, and he suddenly realized that they hadn't checked the water beforehand.

  The water exploded outward, and two creatures leapt out from the water. The vampires were smoldering and smoking, with parts of their flesh melting away as the pool of Holy Water began to take its toll. A screaming vampire landed on each side of the priest.

  As Six shouted a warning, one of the creatures struck Boomer, knocking her twenty feet away and into the cavern wall. The other creature struck Heavy and sent his bulk flying.

  Both creatures turned to look at Doc and hissed, "Priessssssssst!"

  She grabbed her crucifix and thrust it toward the vampire on her left. The ornate cross flared to life, its pure light driving the shadows from the cavern and pinning the vampire to the cavern floor. She shouted in Latin at the vampires, and both of them screamed in agony and pure hatred.

  Six, God, and Ghost opened fire on the vampire on Doc's right. Through the melting, acid-burned features, the creature snarled as the men poured a stream of silver and wood bullets into its flesh. The creature's torso nearly split in two, and the barely-connected lower half landed in the Holy Water pool. New agony hit the vampire, until rounds from Six and God found its misshapen skull to end it's agony.

  The other vampire was pinned in place with the power of Doc's faith while the Holy Water melted and desiccated its flesh.

  Deputy Folsom stepped up and took aim at the creature. His first two shots hit the chest dead center, tearing through the vampire and knocking it flat. His final shot was a carefully aimed shot through the skull. Black blood and gore exploded out and fell into the Holy Water, sizzling and melting into nothingness.

  Boomer and Heavy climbed to their feet.

  The big man winced and held his right arm tight to his chest. "I think my shoulder is dislocated. I can't lift it at all."

  The priest stepped up to the Heavy and said, "Take off your armor. I need to feel your shoulder."

  The giant man stripped his armor off while the rest of the team took up positions around the two, with Six, God, and Ghost watching the cavern through the next passage, and Boomer and Folsom watching the area behind them.

  The team leader tried his radio. "Spooky, Six. Do you copy?"

  When there was no response from Spooky, he tried again, "Spooky, come in. This is Six. Do you copy?"

  Again, no response.

  "Must be this cavern mucking up the signal," Six muttered out loud.

  Doc looked at Heavy and said, "Brace yourself. This is going to suck."

  She gave a yank and a twist, sliding the shoulder back into its natural socket with an audible "pop."

  The heavy gunner let out a string of curses.

  "Sorry, Doc. I try not to curse around you, Heavy said after the pain had subsided. "Arm feels right. I should be good to go."

  "Don't worry about it," replied Doc. "We'll x-ray your shoulder when we get back to town."

  Six looked at his gunner and said, "You and I need to talk. You taught me a few new choice invectives that I've never heard before. All set?"

  Heavy flexed and moved his arm. "I'm a bit stiff, but I should be good." He picked up and cradled his machine gun to prove the point.

  Everyone took the time to change their magazines and prep for the next passage.

  "Alright, boys and girls, it looks like we have to get wet. God, you are up for point; Ghost will follow. You guys go through first and provide cover while we come through."

  The sniper looked at the water in front of him. He tentatively stepped into the cold water and waded forward. As he got about six feet from the water's edge, the water level stopped rising, and the water leveled out to about thigh-deep. The monster hunter walked in after him, keeping his rifle up and out of the water. As they walked through the passage, the cavern on the other side seemed smaller.

  God keyed his mic. "This cavern's about twenty-five by thirty. Has one other exit. Standby while we look around the corner."

  The two men approached the bend and slowly moved around it. The passage narrowed and doubled back and opened into a small six-by-ten cavern. Looking around the small cavern, the men concluded that there were no other exits and that the cavern was obviously empty.

  God keyed his mic again. "Dead end boss. Nothing back here but a small cavern. We're at the end."

  "Copy that," Six responded. "Come on back through. We'll bug out."

  He leaned over to his demolitions specialist. "Boomer, make a small charge on a timer that we can toss into the zombie hole. Key word: small."

  Boomer pouted her lips and said, "Sure. I finally get to blow something up and you make me be reasonable." She grumbled as she assembled the charge.

  The two agents waded back across to the vampire cavern. The team slowly walked back the way they had come. When they reached the zombie hole, Boomer set the timer for two minutes and tossed a small charge into the hole.

  "Do you want me to toss a charge into the evil pit, boss?" The explosives expert looked pleadingly at her boss.

  "How about we not pick a fight with a hellspawn right now," Doc interjected. "We have a bad enough time with vampires."

  After a brief pause to really comprehend what the priest had said, Six nodded. "Good call. Negative on the bomb into the pit, Boomer. Alright, let's keep moving back up top."

  The team cautiously wound their way back to the surface. Carefully maneuvering through the passages, each team member was alert and looking for trouble. They double checked every nook and hidden corner carefully to make sure they were not leaving any creatures alive down there—neither living nor unliving.

  As they reached the first cavern, they all heard a frantic radio call from a rather panicked young agent.

  "...Calling Six. Come in, Six. Repeat. Spooky calling Six. Come in, Six."

  "Spooky, this is Six," the DHS leader broke in. "We're back. There is an underground cave system here, and we lost communication. We're all fine. We're coming back up now."

  "Copy that, Six." The team could hear the relief in their electronics specialist's voice. "Everything is still clear up here."

  Heavy was the last man to leave the cave system. As he mounted the last couple of stairs, he heard a rather loud muffled roar. The rumble came through his combat boots.

  "Did you all feel that?" he asked as he looked at the others. "Just how much C4 did you use, Boomer?"

  "I swear. I only used a small amount," Boomer promised. "Unless something else in there exploded, we should not have been able to hear it."

  A waft of dust rose from the cavern stairs.

  The heavy gunner pointed to it and said, "We might want to talk about how much is 'a little'." He chuckled as he climbed the stairs.

  Six closed the doors and keyed his mic again. "Spooky, do we have any chain and locks in the War Wagon?"

  There was a slight pause before Spooky responded. "Have a little chain. I also have a small welding torch. Would that work?"

  Ten minutes later, the team met by the back hatch of the MRAP. Heavy returned from the house carrying a small torch in his hand. "That door is chained shut, boss. I also welded the doors to each other and tack welded the outside seams. It would take a lot of work to get back down that hole."

  "G
reat, Heavy. Sit down and rest your arm." Six looked at everyone else, including Spooky. "Ok, we need to tear this house apart. If it looks like a pertinent record, grab it. Spooky, you're on electronics. Don't worry about figuring out what's on them tonight. Just take the whole device, computer, etc. Check the garage. Check every nook and cranny thoroughly. I want every record. We need to find out what's going on in town.

  "We will not be coming back to this location. We will be burning the house down, and then DHS is seizing the land and everything on it. So grab every scrap, every note, and every bit of information. Pile it in the truck, and we'll sort it tomorrow."

  Just over one hour later, the team had gathered every electronic device and bit of information in the house. From the deceased familiars' cell phones to the pharmacist's computer and tablet, everything that contained a microchip was stored carefully in the back of the truck. All of the doctor's paper files were sorted in stacks on the ground outside. By the time the team had collected all of the information, the contents filled the back of the MRAP. There was only room inside for the driver and one passenger.

  Spooky climbed up into the driver's seat, and Doc rode shotgun in the passenger's seat. The sniper climbed through the turret hatch on top and sat in what was becoming his usual perch. Boomer spread accelerant around the house to ensure a hot and fierce burning. After she set a small detonator, she climbed up on the truck. The rest of the team climbed onto the running boards outside of the MRAP for the short trip down the winding driveway. Spooky drove to the bottom of the hill and parked across the driveway to completely block access to the property.

  Boomer's face lit up when she pressed the detonator. The sparkle in her eyes was soon reflected from the hillside as flames lapped at the interior of the house on the hill. Within thirty seconds, the entire structure was ablaze and Six could hear sirens coming from town. When the fire engines arrived, the DHS agent waved his badge and informed the trucks that they were only allowed to go up the drive to make sure that a wildfire did not result from the intense flames that had set the house ablaze. They were not, under any circumstance, allowed to extinguish the house fire.