“We can’t. She’s in danger.”
A burnt man leapt in front of Maddy and backhanded her across the face. She fell to the ground, clutching her cheek. Another bolt of lightning shot from the gate and hit the boy. A few seconds later he threw his arms around the woman who had bit him and hugged her. “Mummy.”
Rick glanced at Daniel. “Who the hell are they?”
“Carmilla and Edward Stokes.”
“Who?”
“Carmilla was a doctor who lived near White Chapel. Her twelve year old son wanted to be a surgeon. Carmilla wanted to teach him.”
“White Chapel? You mean he… they were Jack the Ripper?”
Daniel nodded. “Yes. Carmilla used to hire prostitutes, explaining that she wanted to make her son a man. She would sedate them with tainted sherry, and then little Edward would get to work.”
A demon dragged Maddy and threw her down in her place in line. A man and a woman took hold of her and cradled her as she moaned. Keith and Diane.
Rick felt his stomach trying to escape through his throat. The sight of Maddy’s tears made him feel worthless. “We have to go help them.”
“We try now,” said Daniel, “we die now.”
“You don’t know that.”
Daniel sighed. “Rick, of all the things you’ve learned about me, surely the one thing you’ve realised is that I know more than you do. I’m telling you, we go out there and we won’t get to walk away.”
Rick grabbed a branch and clutched it tightly, thorns digging into his palm. He used the pain to help him concentrate. “There’re enough people down there to overthrow the demons. We have to fight. The longer we wait, the more people who will get possessed.”
“If we do this, I won’t be able to help you anymore.”
Rick stared at Daniel, trying to work out what he was saying. “Why?”
“Just decide if you really want to do this.”
“I’m sure. Maddy, Diane, and my brother are down there. I won’t sit by and watch them get possessed.”
Daniel nodded. He looked sad. “Okay then.”
The Fallen Angel burst through the hedges and leapt down into the ditch at the side of the motorway. The demons saw him and attacked at once. Daniel waved an arm like he was swatting a fly, and a force unseen hit the incoming demons like a wave of hot air. Their flesh turned to ash. Skin flew from their bones. Withered skeletons collapsed to the ground.
Rick broke from the hedges and clambered into the ditch to help. He was unarmed, so he moved away from battle and towards the captives. When Keith and the others saw him, they looked gobsmacked. “Rick,” said his brother. “You came to rescue us?”
Rick looked at Maddy as he spoke. “Of course I did. Now get up and help.”
The captives were restrained with rope, not chains, so they were able to shove their binds off easily. Some ran immediately, but most were too shocked to make a decision. The gate towered over them all.
“Get up and fight,” Rick bellowed at them. “Fight now or die as cowards. You are not animals. Do not let these monsters treat you like you are.”
Perhaps it was Rick’s anger that caused the captives to rise, but rise they did—two thirds of them. None held weapons, but each threw themselves at the enemy like barbarians, beating with fists and clawing with fingernails. Many fell quickly, but most caught the burnt men by surprise.
Rick grabbed a demon and tossed it into the central reservation. He stamped its skull against the safety barrier until there was nothing left. Meanwhile, Daniel cut a swath through the enemy camp, waving his arm and searing demon flesh from bone. The invisible heat waves turned the grass brown at the edges of the road and cracked the windscreen of an overturned Jeep. No demon could get within two metres of the Fallen Angel. He was a force of nature.
But he was growing weaker by the second.
Rick went to help, but heat blazed around Daniel. It was impossible to get close. More demons fell within the Fallen Angel’s cocoon of heat, like lambs in a nuclear blast. Daniel’s expression was grim. Sweat swamped his face. His arms trembled. He slumped to his knees and the heat disappeared.
The demons recovered.
Rick moved in front of the gate and cried out. “Everyone, fight!”
There were now only a fraction of the demons remaining, Daniel having dismantled half himself. The captives were so inspired by the sudden victory that they fell upon the demons three to one. They ripped the burnt men limb from limb.
Adrenaline surged through Rick, and he spun around to fight the first demon that came near. He found a little boy standing before him. The little boy now possessed by Edward Stokes.
With a snarl, the black-eyed child lunged. Rick was off balance and stumbled to the ground when Edward struck him. He found himself on his back with the young boy tearing at his face like a wolverine. He tried to defend himself, but could not protect his face and fight at the same time.
“I’ll slice you into pieces, you whore,” Edward screamed. He opened a wound on Rick’s forehead and dug into it with his fingernails. Rick bellowed in agony.
“Get off him, you little brat!” Maddy grabbed Edward’s hair and yanked him backwards. The little boy kicked and screamed.
Rick scrambled to his feet, but didn’t know what to do. Edward might be a demon, but he was inhabiting the body of an innocent child. Was there a way to save him? An exorcism?
Maddy struggled to hold onto the thrashing monster. “Rick, help!”
“What do I do?”
“Just do… something.”
Rick was rooted to the spot. As much as he knew the boy before him was a demon now, he could not get past the fact it had once been a little boy. “I-I can’t.”
The fearful look on Maddy’s face hurt Rick, and left him unprepared when someone shoved him aside. “For fuck sake, Rick,” said Keith. “Can’t you do anything?”
Keith moved in front of Edward as the boy slipped free of Maddy’s grasp. He clutched a tyre iron, and he brought it down on the demon’s skull before it had chance to evade. One blow was enough. Edward fell to the floor dead—his tiny skull shattered.
Rick’s jaw dropped as he looked at his brother, but Keith seemed only angry about what he had been forced to do. Between them, Maddy stood with a face full of conflict. It was something that needed to be done, but to do so with so little hesitation...
Maybe Keith understood what living demanded now more than they did.
“My boy! What have you done?” Rick spotted Carmilla racing towards Keith, hysterical eyes like bubbling oil slicks.
Rick snatched the tyre iron away from his brother and pushed him aside. He brought the heavy length of metal down with perfect timing and split the woman’s skull in two. He held up the tyre iron and allowed his brother to take it back. “We need to help, Daniel.”
Keith grinned, and with in an exuberant tone said, “With what? The battle is won.”
Rick looked around. He saw no demon left alive, only a road covered in blood and bone. Of the captives, perhaps eighty still lived. They had truly won, but would they have done so without a Fallen Angel fighting for their cause?
Daniel was slumped up against an overturned jeep. Its tyres had blistered and melted like chocolate overspilling a pan. Rick hurried over to him. “Daniel, we did it. We rescued all these people.”
Daniel smiled. “Not bad for a disgraced angel, huh?”
“You’re good, Daniel. One mistake you made thousands of years ago doesn’t make you who you are. You’re good.”
“Thank you.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
He laughed, but it reduced to a spluttering cough. “I think I’m beyond the point of being okay, Rick. This body was not meant for such feats. It is already dead. Help me up.”
Rick nodded. “If you’re sure.”
“Yes. Let me bask in victory. It might be my last chance.”
Rick strained to lift the angel to his feet. “You’re a halo-half-full kind of angel
, aren’t you?”
The survivors had now given way to shock and relief, clinging together for comfort. They hugged and kissed one another, family, friends, and strangers.
But they were not yet safe. Before them towered a portal to a place beyond nightmares. The gate shimmered and spat angrily.
“How do we destroy it?” Rick asked Daniel, who was limping gingerly and clutching himself.
“Ha, you don’t want to know.”
“But there is a way?” said Keith, hurrying over and looking ready for more fighting.
Daniel nodded. “Yes.”
“Then tell us.”
“How about a little thanks, first? Me and your brother just sprung you from a death camp.”
Keith snorted. “We would have been fine. I was figuring things out.”
“What happened to you?” Rick asked his brother.
“We waited at the car lot,” said Maddy, joining them along with Diane.
Diane said, “They came out of nowhere and took us. We thought we were dead, but they just grabbed us.”
“They carried us down the road and put us with everyone else,” said Maddy. “All these people. They were using them. Possessing their bodies. Rick, if you hadn’t come...”
“It was Daniel,” admitted Rick. “I couldn’t have done anything without him.”
Diane moved over to Daniel and hugged him. “Thank you.”
The Fallen Angel winced in pain, but seemed touched by the gesture. He patted the girl on the back. “Don’t mention it, love.”
“How do we close the gate?” Keith demanded. “More demons might come through at any moment.”
Daniel nodded. “You’re right. But to close the gate will take something I’m not sure you will want to give.”
Keith got in Daniel’s face, like the Fallen Angel hadn’t just dispatched fifty demons. “Just tell us.”
“Keith!” Maddy chided. “Calm down.”
Rick felt the hairs on the back of his neck twitch. Things had grown tense, but it wasn’t from the argument in front of him.
Sweep.
Daniel’s shoulders sagged as he endured Keith getting in his face. “To close the gate. To close it—”
“Yes?” said Keith impatiently.
“—you have to—” Daniel stopped mid-sentence. His eyes narrowed.
Keith clenched his fists. “Tell us, for crying out loud.”
Daniel stood in silence, his eyes boring into Keith. Keith grew angry and grabbed him, but yelped when the angel slumped forwards into his arms.
Blood exploded from Daniel’s mouth.
Rick ran to him. But it was too late. The possessed human body had been torn open, its back flayed and split apart. Spine and nerves peeked out between pink muscle.
Keith leapt aside and let Daniel fall to the ground.
Sweep.
Rick glanced around, but saw nothing. Something had torn Daniel apart, yet there was nothing there.
Sweep.
Rick dove to the ground beside Daniel. Blood spilled from the angel’s mouth, yet he somehow managed to summon words. “Does being human always hurt this much?”
Rick stroked his friend’s face. “It never stops hurting.”
Daniel closed his eyes, and for a moment it looked like he was gone, but then his consciousness returned, and he seized Rick by the arm, pulled him close. “You can’t do this without my help.”
“Then live.”
“I cannot.”
“Then we’re doomed.”
“No.”
Rick began to sweat from his shoulder blades and suddenly wished he was unclothed. He tried to pull back his arm, to stand up and get some air, but Daniel held onto him tightly. Where the angel’s fingers touched his flesh, skin burned. Rick cried out—his entire arm on fire. The heat travelled upwards, into his shoulder and to his head.
“Daniel, please, stop!”
“In a moment.”
“You’re killing me.”
“No, I am giving you life.”
The pain reached a zenith, and Rick thought his head might explode, but then Daniel lost consciousness and released his grip. The pain disappeared. Rick couldn’t breathe, and for a moment, he thought he might asphyxiate. Then his breath returned to him, and he gasped until his lungs hurt.
Sweep.
“What the fuck happened to Daniel?” Keith demanded, dodging around anxiously with his tyre iron.
Rick looked at his friend and sighed. “He’s gone. Wherever he is, I hope God finally forgives him.”
Sweep.
“The Caretaker is here, isn’t he?” said Maddy.
Rick stood up defiantly. “Yes, and this time we can’t run.”
“What do we do?” asked Diane.
“We make the most of the chance Daniel gave us. We fight. We stay together, and we fight.”
Rick looked around at the eighty-odd survivors and knew most of them might die in the next five minutes, but at least now they had a chance of living. Only one thing stood in their way.
Sweep.
Sweep.
“Where is he?” Diane whimpered. “I can’t see him.”
Keith growled. “How do we fight something we can’t see?”
Sweep.
Rick instinctively moved to shield Maddy. The Caretaker was amongst them, had killed Daniel—their only hope. A great beast hunted.
Someone in the crowd screamed.
An older man fell to the floor, his spine broken in two and poking out of his back.
The survivors panicked.
Rick searched for The Caretaker, glimpsed the creature for a split second but then lost him again. A faceless skull flitting through the crowd.
Keith clutched his tyre iron. “I’m going to cave his skull in. Where are you? Show yourself!”
Diane backed up against the central barrier and yelped when she bumped into it.
Rick held a hand up to her. “Just stay calm.”
Another person in the crowd screamed and fell down dead.
“What’s happening?” someone shouted.
The crowd broke apart.
“Stay together,” Rick shouted. “Our only chance is to stay together.”
“What do you expect them to do?” asked Keith. “They’re dying.”
“None of us can make it alone.”
More people screamed and died, backs broken, skulls crushed.
Rick raised his fist. “It’s me you want. I looked upon you and saw your wretched form. Show yourself.”
Another scream, another grizzly death.
Panic reigned. People fled.
“Stay together,” Rick bellowed again. In anger, he flung out his fist. The overturned jeep at the side of the road leapt off the ground and tumbled over the central barrier. Several people tumbled to the ground too, as if pushed.
Rick gasped, looked at his shaking hand. Keith and the others stared at him. The survivors were stunned to silence, even as more of them fell. The Caretaker preyed on them from the edges of vision.
Rick felt faint. His mind filled with thoughts and understanding not his own. What had Daniel done to him? What had he been given?
He’d been given knowledge.
Rick knew how to goad the Caretaker.
He held up his hand and bit into his palm. The pain wracked his entire body, but he clenched his jaw and bore into it until the deed was done. Blood spurted down his wrist, spattered the road with a pitter pat.
Keith covered his mouth with revulsion. “Rick, what the hell are you doing?”
Rick ignored his brother and raised his bleeding hand. “Blood. It sets your teeth on edge, doesn’t it? It stains the ground and soils the earth. It is unclean.”
Something shimmered within the crowd.
Rick clenched his fist, pumping more blood from the wound. “I defile the ground, and you cower in the shadows, a frightened slave. A worthless slave.”
The air turned black and colour drained from the world. Then, with a flash, a
figure appeared before Rick. The Caretaker snarled without a mouth. Its skinned skull was a map of purple throbbing veins, and when it reached out to Rick, the air itself retreated.
Rick stepped back, away from the foul creature’s grasp. He brought up his own hand and surprised himself once more with the power he wielded. A gust of flame emanated from his bleeding palm and blanketed The Caretaker. The grotesque mockery of an old man staggered backwards, flailing its arms and legs. Only deterred for a moment, it lashed out and sent Rick flying off his feet. He landed on the bonnet of a BMW saloon and bounced off onto the road. Pain stunned him, yet he was able to rise. Thoughts swirled through his head like fireflies. He threw up both arms in front of him and sent another arc of flames across the sizzling tarmac.
The Caretaker was gone.
Maddy shouted. “Rick! Behind you.”
Rick twirled, but couldn’t dodge The Caretaker’s razor sharp talon. It entered his guts and travelled sideways through his torso, gutting him like a fish. Blood and shit covered the ground.
The Caretaker let out a keening sound and shook. Its hand went to its face in a mock expression of horror.
More knowledge coming to him, like secrets unlocked from cabinets, Rick reached into his guts and flung his blood and guts at his enemy. The Caretaker squealed. Blood covered its featureless face, and it clawed at itself madly. Talons cleaved flesh. Torrents of black pus burst from a dozen wounds.
Rick climbed to his feet, guts still falling out onto the floor. He leapt forward and grabbed The Caretaker’s bleeding skull. Numb spikes of ice shot up his wrists. He reached inside himself and tried to find the parts of Daniel that now existed inside of him. “I have the power of God inside me, you ugly fuck. Go back to Hell!”
Possessing strength he had never dreamed of, Rick crushed the Caretaker’s skull beneath his fingertips as if it were an over-ripe watermelon. Black pus and mould erupted as if the foulest boil in existence had just been squeezed. The old man’s body shook, trembled, and became nothing. The Caretaker collapsed inwards and turned to dust. A sudden wind blew and took his remains.
Maddy rushed forward and caught Rick as he fell. “Rick, are you okay?”
“D-Daniel. He… He is still with me.”
Maddy lowered him to the ground and nodded. “He did something to you.”
Legion: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel (Hell on Earth Book 2) Page 23