“The iron gates are keeping us safe.”
“You don’t really believe that lunatic, Daniel, do you? All that talk about seals and demons. I don’t understand what’s out there, but it’s going to get us eventually.”
“For fuck’s sake, Keith. Last night, you held everyone together. You were a rock. You’ve had bad news about your family, I get it, but you need to keep your head straight. Marcy and Max might still be alive, and you owe it to them to make it out of this so you can make things right again.”
“Why can’t I just give up like you? Last night, you did nothing but drink. You would’ve died if I hadn’t saved you back at the pub.”
Rick groaned as he saw the old Keith return. The moment of vulnerability was over. “I’m a sad alcoholic with a failed pop career. You’re not me, Keith. You have every reason to go on living. If Marcy and Max are still okay, we’ll find them, okay? Maybe not in the next forty-eight hours, but eventually. Until then, we just have to keep our wits about us—me included. I’ll try to knock the drink on the head. You’re right: It’s no good.”
Keith sighed. “You’re right. If there’s a chance, I have to try. Thanks, Rick. You do have your uses.”
“You’re welcome.”
“This place is massive,” said Daniel, trotting up behind them. “Took me a half hour to find the lavvy. You might want to give it twenty minutes by the way.” He leaned forward and studied the video screen. “Those sods still out there?”
Keith nodded. “Haven’t moved an inch. That one in the middle with the long black hair is the one who attacked us at the pub last night. Drove an ambulance right through the door.”
Daniel whistled. “Quite the Die Hard villain.”
“Makes you wonder, why he doesn’t try something similar now?” pondered Rick. “They may be monsters, but they’re not stupid. If the iron in the gate is keeping them out, then why aren’t they trying to knock the fence down?”
Keith said, “They wouldn’t be able to ram it like they did with the pub’s door. I parked our cars up against the gate, remember?”
“You think that’s the reason they haven’t tried to force the gate?” Rick asked, looking at Daniel to see what he thought.
“Maybe,” he said. “Or maybe they’re waiting for something.”
Keith frowned. “Like what?”
Daniel shrugged. “Reinforcements?”
***
“My husband’s dead,” said Maddy as she stood beside Rick in the master bedroom. They were both staring out of the window at the demons outside. Rick counted over a hundred of them huddled in the road. A crowd of rotting corpses waiting to devour them.
He glanced at her. “How do you know?”
“I left my mobile in the ambulance, but I used Diane’s phone to call him. A stranger picked up, told me that my husband died last night in Milton Combe. The demons from the gate in Crapstone have spread out to nearby towns. My husband was on his way home from the hospital when the village was attacked. He tried to help the injured, but he should have run.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. You’re not wearing a ring.”
“I have to take it off when I’m working. It’s at home. I keep thinking about it, wondering if I’ll ever see it again. My husband is dead, and I keep thinking about a silly old ring.”
Rick looked at the young women and saw the anguish behind her confident strength. “It’s not silly,” he said. “Your ring is a symbol of your love for your husband, and his love for you. I think that we hold on to symbols because it makes our feelings easier to tie down and make sense of. I suppose that’s why my garage is full of unsold albums—I don’t value the CDs, I value the time in my life they represent. Your ring is important. I hope, one day, you manage to go get it.”
Maddy closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she seemed a little distant. “Those things outside aren’t going to go away, are they?”
“Daniel thinks they might be waiting for something.”
“Like what?”
“I have no idea. Is Diane still checking the Internet?”
“Yeah, things are bad, Rick. The whole world has been hit. There’s even talk of giant angels stomping around the earth killing everyone.”
Rick pulled a face. “Angels?”
“Yeah, bad angels—like Lucifer kind of angels. Looks like Daniel’s theory about Heaven and Hell might be right.”
“Keith doesn’t believe him. Not sure I trust him either.”
Maddy kept her stare on the demons outside. “I see no reason not to trust him. We’re all as screwed as each other. How much food do you have, Rick? I see a lot of beer, but not a lot of stuff to eat.”
“I’m a bachelor. I order in.”
“I assumed as much, which means we’re all going to be dealing with hunger pangs by tonight and feeling pretty rotten within a couple of days. How long will those things keep us penned up in here?”
Rick hadn’t even considered it, but Maddy was right, they couldn’t stay there indefinitely. “We’re going to need to find supplies, aren’t we?”
“Or starve to death. It’s not a problem right now, but it will be soon. I don’t see things going well for us here, Rick. That’s why I’m thinking about leaving.”
“What? You can’t go out there. They’ll tear you apart.”
“I listened to what you said last night about the step ladder. The demons are all at the front of your house. If I can make it over the back into the woods, I’m sure I can get away. I can find help and bring it back.”
“You might get over the gate from the inside, but what if you get attacked and need to get back?”
“I’ll figure something out.”
“It’s a bad idea. What if help comes while you’re gone and you’ve taken the risk for nothing?”
“There’s no help coming, Rick. Just take a look on the Internet, and you’ll see enough to understand that we’re on our own. The Army tried to fight back in London and got torn apart in Hyde Park. Somebody hacked into the CCTV footage and leaked it onto YouTube for all to see. It’s devastating. I can accept that we’re all going to die, Rick, but I’m not prepared to do it by starving to death. And I don’t want to die without my wedding ring.”
Rick studied the demons outside the gate and weighed up Maddy’s chances. She might be able to slip away unnoticed—maybe they all could—but was getting out really for the best? Yet, how long would they have if they stayed?
The black haired demon glared up at them and grinned. The malicious intent in his crooked expression gave Rick little doubt that he was not standing there aimlessly. The monster had a plan.
“I think we should all leave,” said Rick after having considered things. “Some places are still okay, right? Diane found a couple of areas we could go?”
Maddy nodded. “A few places, yes.”
“Then we find the nearest safe place and head there right away. Somewhere better than this—some place where we can survive.”
Maddy’s face lit up. “Yes, we should all get out of here together. I’d appreciate the company.”
Rick nodded and confirmed it to himself, as if he couldn’t quite believe it. “Okay, let’s leave.”
They headed downstairs together and went into the kitchen where Diane was still busy on the laptop. Steven was in the living room, piling up anything they could use as weapons. Knives mostly.
Rick went over to the fridge and reached for a beer, but stopped himself and grabbed a can of coke instead. He pulled the tab and sat down next to Diane at the computer. It was the first coke he’d had in a long time that didn’t include whisky. “Hey,” he said. “Where’s the nearest place that’s safe?”
“Torquay. All the South Coast up to Southampton is safe. Plymouth is okay too, but it’s so nearby the gate from Crapstone that the demons might reach there soon. I’ve been reading this website for a newspaper called the Slough Echo. They’re trying to list all the information people have found out. I told them about the iron gates and how
the demons can’t come in—maybe they can pass it on to the army or something. Anyway, this newspaper has listed all the safe towns that they know about. Torquay isn’t anywhere near a gate.”
Rick looked at Maddy. “If we can get a car, we can be at Torquay in a couple hours. I’ve always loved the English Riviera.”
“I want to go home first and get my ring.”
He sighed. “I know you do, but the village isn’t safe. Better to stay alive and get it later.”
Maddy looked to argue, but ended up nodding. “I suppose you’re right. If we’re all leaving together, then we should head for the coast like Diane said. If there’s any sort of evacuation effort it would be better to be near the ports.”
Rick nodded. “Then that’s where we head.”
“Head where?” said Keith, entering the kitchen with Steven by his side.
“We’re heading to Torquay,” Rick told him. “It’s safe.”
“Nowhere is safe, Rick. We’d be stupid to leave.”
“Yeah,” said Steven, who had finally taken off his tie and opened his collar. “That gate is the only thing keeping us alive.”
“Yes, the gate is keeping us safe,” said Maddy, “but we can’t just hide in here forever. We need to go somewhere with supplies and food. The longer we stay here, the worse it will get outside. There’s a chance to reach safety that might not be there later.”
“We’d never make it out,” said Keith. “The demons would rip us apart before we even reached the road. You’ve seen that one with the black hair, Rick. He’s just waiting for an opportunity to finish what he started.”
Rick shuddered at the thought of confronting the monster again, but he was resolute in his decision. “We go over the back fence like I said last night. The stepladder.”
“Oh, wonderful, the stepladder. And what makes you think there aren’t a hundred demons waiting for us around the back?”
“Because I’ve looked, Keith. They’re all outside the front gate. We can check things out first, of course, but I’m certain we can sneak away. Torquay is an hour away by car, and it’s safe.”
Steven shook his head. “It’s safe here, Rick. Your house is huge and protected by the gate. We shouldn’t leave.”
“Don’t you get it?” cried Maddy. “We’ll starve to death in here. No help is coming, so we have to help ourselves. If we put off now what we won’t be able to do later, then we’re screwed. We need to leave while there’s a chance we can.”
“No,” said Keith. “I won’t allow it.”
Rick stood up from his stool and faced his brother. “You won’t allow it? Who’s asking?”
“I saved your arse last night, Rick. You do as I say.”
“Are you kidding me? I thought you’d actually found a little humility after being caught fucking your secretary, but you’re the same old control freak. You’re not the boss of anyone here.”
Keith shoved Rick hard into the kitchen island. “Watch what you say to me, Rick. I’ve been wiping your arse your entire life, but I’d just as soon give you a good hiding.”
Rick was in shock. His brother had never struck him before, not even as a kid. “What the hell is your problem?”
“You’re my problem, Rick. You’re running away and trying to isolate yourself, just like you always do. I won’t allow you to get everyone killed. I’ve already lost too much. No one is leaving. It’s a suicide mission.”
“It’s not your decision,” Maddy muttered.
Keith put his hands up and let some of the aggression leave his face. “Look, I hear what you’re saying about the food situation, but we have running water and enough food to get through for a little while longer. Maybe we should wait a day or two before making any rash decisions. We’re all in fight or flight mode—and that’s understandable—but it isn’t conducive to good reasoning. Running for the hills might sound good, but is it wise? I don’t think so, and I’m not leaving.”
“I’m staying put too,” said Steven.
Diane flipped her hair behind her ears and said, “I’m not leaving unless everybody else is. We’re fine here, and we have Internet. We should learn as much as we can before we try to escape.”
Rick and Maddy looked at one another in desperation. Maddy seemed to have lost her fight and broke eye contact with him. “I’ll stay one more day,” she muttered, “but after that I’m going home. You people can stay here if you like, but you’ll regret it, I promise you.”
“I won’t regret it,” said Rick, “because I’m leaving today.”
“You are not,” said Keith in a voice cold as ice.
Rick huffed. “Keith, take a hike, okay? This is my house, and I’ll bloody well leave if I like. In fact, you can have the place; it’s yours. Just stop being a twat.”
Keith went red in the face. “Rick, you’re—”
“What the hell are you people fighting about?” asked Daniel, wandering into the kitchen. “I could hear you from all the way upstairs.”
“What were you doing upstairs?” asked Rick.
“Sleeping, until you sods woke me up. What’s the problem here?”
“Rick wants to leave,” said Keith.
Daniel shrugged. “So let him.”
“If he goes outside he’ll die.”
“His place, his rules. If he wants to leave, who can stop him?”
Keith clenched his fists. “I can. And I will.”
Rick felt his own face growing red now. He realised, in that moment, that one of the main driving forces of him wanting to leave was to get away from his brother. What was Keith’s problem? Whether he was arguing out of genuine concern or just plain stubbornness, it pissed Rick off royally. He had made up his mind and wasn’t backing down. The more and more the argument went on, the more claustrophobic he felt, and the more he was certain he wanted to leave.
“Look, Keith. I can’t stay in here knowing that those things are right outside the gate. I’d rather take my chances on the road.”
Keith shook his head and was actually trembling. “Please, Rick. Don’t do something you’ll regret.”
“You’re not the boss of me.” Rick went to push past his brother, and to his relief, Keith stood aside.
“I understand, Rick.”
Keith grabbed one of the empty beer bottles off the counter and swung it at Rick’s head. Rick tried to duck, but ended up on the floor bleeding as Keith stood over him with a look of pity on his face. “The problem with you, little brother, is that you never help yourself. No backbone, just like dad always said.”
Before the others in the kitchen had chance to stop him, Keith lifted his foot and kicked Rick in the face, sending him right back to sleep.
~TONY CROSS~
7 miles north of the Euphrates, Syria
“There’ll be no one left to save by the time we get there,” said Tony as he and Aymun led their men across the desert at a sprint. The gate was less than half a mile away, but they could all see the civilian militia was taking heavy losses. The clawed creatures poured out of the gate and cut through men, woman, and children too young to wield a rifle. Blood stained the ground as if gallons of red paint had been spilled onto the dirt.
“If we save only one man or woman then we have done our duty,” said Aymun.
The Syrian and British soldiers were all now armed with L85s, AK47s, grenades, and a PKM machine gun that Harris, the strongest of them, lugged over his shoulder. The civilians in front of the gate wielded a mixture of reclaimed assault rifles and pistols, but they were not trained proficiently enough to form a firing line. As they missed shots, or were forced to reload, they were set upon by the demons. In the last five minutes alone, dozens of them had died.
Aymun and his two men reached firing distance first, as they were less unencumbered than the British soldiers clad in full battle armour and carrying the heavier L85s. Aymun dropped to one knee and let off a barrage from his AK47. He hit several of the creatures, even at two hundred metres. His men then overtook him and fire
d from their knees ten metres ahead. Tony’s men caught up and set themselves down a further ten metres before firing. Aymun got up and ran past them all and once again took a knee and fired from the front. They continued this series of firing overlaps until they were only fifty metres away from the battlefield. The civilians saw their arrival and cheered, even as they continued to be slaughtered. It was the first time Tony had ever seen civilians in this region show gratitude to see British soldiers.
The demons outnumbered the militia five to one, but now their flanks were under attack by Aymun and Tony’s men. Tony unclipped a grenade from his vest and lobbed it into the air. His men followed suit. Unlike the ones they had tossed at Aymun’s convoy, these grenades fell perfectly amongst the enemy and exploded with venom. Mangled demon parts littered the ground along with great clods of displaced earth. The resulting mess was enough to ignite hope. Tony saw the confidence creep onto his men’s faces as they advanced further, unloading round upon round into the enemy.
Demons fell in their dozens.
Now that the enemy were split wide open, the militia gained a foothold. They formed up in a group behind their battered vehicles and fired all at once, cutting down another two dozen of their foe in seconds. The battle was turning.
Tony and his men released another volley of grenades, opening up more craters in the enemy’s ranks. Any human army would have turned tail after such sudden and devastating losses, but the clawed creatures continued their attack, more than willing to die.
Harris set down the PKM on its bipod and opened her up as soon as it was steady. Its roaring teeth ripped the creatures apart like razor wire, dissecting limbs, torsos, and heads with the precision of a surgeon’s buzz saw.
“Send their wee dirty arses to Hell,” Corporal Rose yelled triumphantly as more demons fell.
But their advantage waned when Harris’s PKM jammed. The decades-old machine gun had been stashed in a cave for God knew how long, and they suffered the consequences. The second thing to go wrong was when one of Aymun’s men threw a soviet F1 grenade at the enemy, but didn’t bother to cook it first. One of the creatures was proactive enough to scoop it up in its claw and launch it right back again. It exploded mid-air over the original thrower, and Aymun’s man hit the ground, clutching his burst eyeballs and trying to pull out the shrapnel. Aymun had no choice but to leave the man where he lay.
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