Rick shook his head. “If I start drinking now, I won’t stop.”
Daniel took the beer back and broke the tab. “I hear you, pal. There was a time I let myself get carried away with things that were bad for me. Learned a little self-control since. It’s never too late for a man to start changing.”
“Not sure if I believe that. With Keith around, I’ve realised that I’m no different than when I was a kid.”
Daniel took a swig of beer before placing the bottle down on the counter. “You’ve changed since I met you. The guy I met wanted to bury his head in the sand and go sit in the corner and drink himself asleep while everyone else did what needed to be done. The man you are now marched into this kitchen and spoke up for what he believes in, then sat down and refused a beer. You’re not a little kid anymore, Rick. Your father’s long gone, and your brother’s a tit. That pop career you lament so badly can finally be put behind you. The world has changed, and so have you. You have a new cross to bear now, and it’s called: keeping everyone around you alive. Even if you don’t see it, people gravitate towards you. That will be important in the days to come. God needs leaders.”
Rick smirked. “That religious stuff never quite left you, did it, Daniel?”
“None of us ever loses the Lord, we just sometimes forget that he’s there. Believe me, though, Rick, he never forgets about us.”
Rick got up from his stool. “We should see the others off.”
They went into the entrance hallway and found that the front door was open. Noise came from outside. Keith was busy backing Rick’s Mustang up the driveway and away from the gate. Maddy, Steven, and Diane stood by, watching, so Rick and Daniel went and joined them.
“When we leave here, Rick,” Maddy told him. “I want to drive your car.”
“Be my guest. I was always too scared to put my foot down anyway.”
Keith parked the Mustang and got out. Then he went and got into his Range Rover, which he reversed out of the way of the gate as well. It felt like taking the safety chain off a front door during a dark and stormy night.
Keith got out of his car once it was parked and marched back towards the house. “I need the padlock key, Rick.”
Rick sighed. “Sure I can’t talk you out of this?”
“I’ve made up my mind. The only chance we have is to leave now.”
“I was talking to Steven and Diane.”
“Sorry, Rick,” said Steven. “I can’t stick around while there’s a chance to find help.”
“Me too,” said Diane. “The Internet said the coast is safe, so that’s where we need to go. There’s a gate too close to here. If more demons come through, we’ll end up trapped again.”
Rick pictured the gate in Crapstone and wondered if anything was coming through right now. Were there a limited number of demons, or would they continue to pour through forever? Did the Army have any idea of how to close them? Was it even possible?
“Okay,” he said with an air of finality. “I’ll open the gate for you all.”
He walked down the pebble driveway while Keith and the others got in the Range Rover. When he reached the gate he peered through the bars. The coast certainly did seem clear, but the road was too quiet. The cottages down the road were quiet, and trees obscured the farmland further along. There might not be a person alive for ten square miles, or there could be a thousand people dotted around, hiding in houses or in the woods. There was no way of telling what the world was like beyond the driveway.
Rick pulled the padlock around so that he could insert the key, and then unlocked it. Holding his breath, he took one last look through the bars, expecting demons to spring forth from the trees, but none did. The rev of the Range Rover’s engine jarred him, and he swung the gate open without further hesitation. It felt like stepping in front of a speeding train.
But nothing came.
Keith’s Range Rover crept forwards and almost shunted Rick out of the way. Tradition took him, and he lifted his hand to wave his former housemates goodbye, but Keith kept his eyes pointing forwards. The tinted rear windows kept Steven and Diane from view.
The Range Rover passed through the gate, turned into the road, and sped away.
They were gone.
Maddy and Daniel came up beside Rick. Daniel spoke. “You think we can get that gate closed again, pal?”
Rick took a hold of the gate and began to close it, but stopped when there was an almighty crash.
Maddy’s eyes went wide as she looked at Rick. “Jesus! What the hell was that?”
Rick held the padlock in one hand and the key in the other. He thought about putting the two together and going back inside, but he already knew he couldn’t. “Keith’s crashed the car. The demons never left. It was a trap.”
As if to confirm his suspicions, a group of corpses burst from the tree line on the other side of the road and sprinted towards the gate. One of them threw itself at the gate before Rick had chance to fully close it. It struck the iron bars and shunted Rick backwards. His ankle twisted in the gravel and he fell down onto his rump.
Daniel leapt forward and kicked the gate closed, but the demon was half inside and became trapped between the bars. Its skin began to smoke and burn until it squealed in agony and withdrew. Maddy ran up and helped Daniel keep the gate closed until Rick could get back to his feet and insert the key in the lock. His hands were shaking so much that it took him several attempts to get the gate secure, but once he had, the three of them leapt back towards the house.
The dead men and women threw themselves against the gate, even as the iron burned their flesh. They were angrier than before, snarling and hammering at the bars, like angry gorillas.
“They’re pissed off,” said Daniel. “They had a chance to kill us, and they failed. Maybe they have a boss they’re going to have to answer to.”
“The son-of-a-bitch with the black hair,” said Rick.
Maddy looked around. “Then where is he?”
Rick remembered the sound of his brother’s Range Rover crashing. “He’s wherever Keith and the others are. We have to go rescue them.”
Daniel looked at him like he was mad. “Are you serious?”
Rick nodded firmly. “You said your God needs leaders. Well, I’m leading. We grab whatever weapons we can and we go out there. I’m done hiding.”
Maddy tried to stop him as he marched into the house and into the living room. “Rick, we can’t go out there. They’ll tear us to pieces.”
“Why? Because they’re monsters?”
“Well, yeah.”
“So we should just lay down and die? They aren’t monsters—we’ve seen them die. If all we do is cower away, waiting for someone to rescue us, then we’re all screwed. They’ll pick us off one by one. We need to fight back. In the pub, we fought back and won.”
“Sarah died,” said Maddy. “So did lots of other people.”
Rick nodded. “But so did lots of demons. I’m going to get my brother. He’s a complete and utter shit, but he saved my life. I don’t want to owe him anything.”
“Your mind is made up?” said Daniel, standing next to the couch.
“Yes.”
“Then I suggest we put all that booze in your kitchen to good use.”
“You want to get pissed?” Maddy asked.
Daniel grinned. “Oh, I’m already pissed, darlin’, but I wasn’t thinking about having a drink. Let me show you some of the things I learned after I left the church.”
***
Within ten minutes, the kitchen counter had been transformed into an armoury. A row of spirits—whiskey, tequila, and vodka—sat with dishcloths stuffed into their neck. Keith had taken the iron poker with him, but Maddy had found an old field hockey stick. Daniel had fastened a long chef’s knife to the end of a broom handle, producing a makeshift spear. Rick, himself, clutched the long stem of an antique brass lamp he kept in the conservatory.
They all now wore whatever they could fashion as armour. It was hot, but Mad
dy had put back on her thick paramedic overalls and wrapped a scarf around her neck. The only skin showing was her hands and face. Rick wore a long leather jacket from his pop-star days—the type of thing that looked stupid on anybody who wasn’t famous. It was a thick second hide that would hopefully protect him from the claws and teeth of his enemies.
Now that it was time to go, Rick’s resolve threatened to leave him. His stomach churned like a blender, and the urge to lurch forward and vomit was hard to resist. When he looked at Maddy and Daniel, reminding himself that they would be with him, he felt a little stronger. It wasn’t as if any of them had a choice. The demons were back at the gate, which meant they were once again trapped. Their only choice was to fight their way free, or stay and eventually starve. If they could help Keith, Steven, and Diane, all the better.
“Let’s do this,” he told the others, who had both taken on the colour of whipped ice cream. They headed out the front door and headed down the driveway. It was now the tail end of dusk, and the security floodlight had come on, bathing the demons in a silvery skin of light. More like angels than monsters, but then Rick heard them growl and knew there was nothing pure or holy about them.
“Let them have it!”
Maddy and Daniel lit two of the Molotov cocktails and let fly. Both flaming bottles smashed against the fence and ignited in a cloud of fire. The demons screeched like tortured children, flailing around like puppets with twisted strings. Flames crackled in the evening breeze, and the smell of burning flesh added to the scents of summer.
Rick followed the next part of the plan and ran to unlock the gate. Once he’d popped the padlock, he yanked the gate open wide enough that the driveway was clear. Maddy hopped into the Mustang and gunned the engine while Rick jumped clear just in time to avoid getting run over.
The heavy American beast struck the group of burning demons and sent them scattering across the road. They seemed to roll and bounce endlessly before coming to rest. There was no ambiguity about their condition. Every one of them was dead, burnt, and battered.
Maddy reached across and shoved open the passenger side door. Daniel was cooped in the back. “Rick, get in.”
Rick threw himself into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut behind him. Maddy took off, the car beeping at them to buckle up, which they had to do to shut it up.
“Is this a bad time to say I need a piss?” said Daniel.
“Why didn’t you go before you left?” Maddy growled.
“I should have done. Sorry.”
“You can go after we kill the rest of the demons,” she said.
Then they all broke out laughing, not because they thought it was funny, but because their nerves were so fried. They had just survived a battle unscathed, and the adrenaline in their veins was like a hit of cocaine. It gave them giddy hope that they might just be okay. So they laughed.
It didn’t take but a few moments to get around the bend and find Keith’s Range Rover. The vehicle was on its side, windows shattered and axles bent.
“He’s still alive,” said Daniel. “I’ll be damned.”
Rick couldn’t believe what he saw. He’d felt obligated to come to his brother’s aid, but had possessed slim hope that there would be anything left to rescue.
Keith was holding his own. He popped up out of the Range Rover’s side window, which was now facing the sky, and swung his iron poker at any demon that got too close. They tried, in vain, to drag him out of the wreckage, but he picked his swings and made sure every one counted. Several of the demons lay dead in the road, their skulls caved in.
Steven was dead. He lay on the tarmac, face down after having apparently launched through the windscreen. Keith’s older vehicle must have lacked the nagging seatbelt alarm that Rick’s Mustang possessed.
Diane was nowhere to be seen.
Maddy repeated the manoeuvre she had performed at the gate and ploughed the big American export right into the group of demons. Some of them got up, but most stayed down.
Demons still surrounded Keith’s Range Rover.
Maddy pulled on the handbrake, and Rick leapt out of the car. Maddy and Daniel were right behind him, running at the enemies with all the fierceness of barbarians. They swung their weapons with everything they had. Daniel stabbed a demon in the guts with his spear, before pulling it free and using it to pluck out the eyes of another. Maddy swung her hockey stick like a baseball bat and caved in several skulls. Rick bludgeoned demon after demon with his antique lamp.
But the demons kept on coming, attacking like a pack of hyenas. The dead men and women were joined by hunched-over creatures with long, twisted claws. Rick caught one in mid-air, smashing it in the side of its face before it had chance to return to earth. Maddy hit another so hard with her hockey stick that its lower jaw detached and rolled across the road. Atop the Range Rover, Keith fought with renewed energy. He saw his rescuers and dragged himself out of the broken window, fending off demons with one hand, while he climbed with the other.
Rick fought his way over to the Range Rover and helped his brother down. “Sorry about your motor,” he said.
Keith shrugged. “Least I can say I owned one. A dream fulfilled for a while is better than a dream out of reach.”
Rick frowned. “Sounds like something I’d say.”
“Look out!” Keith shoved his brother out of the way as a demon slashed the air with its talons. Keith jabbed out with his poker and impaled it right through the mouth, then lifted his leg to kick it away. The next demon that attacked fell afoul of Rick’s lamp and hit the floor with a broken spine.
“We make quite a team,” said Keith.
Rick nodded. “If only we’d found out sooner.”
Keith stared at his brother and let out a laboured sigh. “Let’s leave the past where it belongs, huh?”
“You mean like you being an arsehole most of my life, culminating in you breaking a bottle over my head and locking me in my garage?”
“Yeah, stuff like that.”
Rick patted his big brother on the back. “It’s forgotten. Now, come on.”
Maddy and Daniel were back to back in the middle of the road, demons coming at them from all sides. Rick was about to wade in and help them, when Keith grabbed his arm and stopped him. “Diane,” he said. “She’s still inside the Range Rover.”
“What?”
“She was in the front with me. Her head hit the dashboard. We have to get her out.”
Rick turned back to the Range Rover and leapt up on top of it. As he looked down inside the broken windows, he could see the pale shape of Diane. Unconscious.
Keith climbed up beside Rick to help. The whole time they were up there, Maddy and Daniel continued to fight for their lives.
“Hold on to me while I lift her out,” Rick told his brother.
Keith nodded.
Rick lowered onto his stomach and reached an arm inside the window while Keith kept a tight hold on his belt. Diane murmured when his hand brushed her face, and it was a relief to know that she was still alive, but she didn’t wake up. A shadow cast across her face, and as Rick’s eyes adjusted, he saw it was blood from a wound hidden beneath her blonde hair. He fondled between the shadows and shafts of light and located her wrist. When he pulled, Diane slumped back in her chair and her eyes fluttered open. She moaned. Ignoring her pain, Rick heaved her upwards; a dead weight, but just about manageable—the girl couldn’t have weighed over eight stone. There was still life in her legs, and once he pulled her up into a standing position, she kept herself there.
“Diane,” he urged. “Diane, wake up. You have to—Jesus!”
Rick was jerked backwards by his belt. He twisted around and saw his brother stumbling across the top of the car. From the road, the black haired demon snarled, a massive gash in his torso pouring with brown sludge. Keith slipped off the edge of the car and disappeared out of sight.
Rick turned back to Diane. “Diane, wake up!”
Her eyes fluttered and eventually stay
ed open. Her gaze fell upon Rick, and she panicked.
“Diane, it’s okay. It’s me, Rick.”
She stopped struggling and took a hard look at him. “Rick? I… I thought we left you.”
“You did. It was a trap, but you’re okay. Come on.”
Diane reached up with both arms and allowed Rick to drag her up onto the side of the car. She was unarmed and disorientated, so he told her to hop down and run to the bushes at the edge of the road. Rick, himself, dropped down and went to join the battle. He retrieved his brass lamp and smashed in the brain of a nearby demon. Keith was right ahead, being beaten half to death by the black haired, dead demon.
Rick shouted. “Leave him alone!”
The demon raised his fist to strike Keith again, but held it in the air and looked at Rick with a sickening grimace. “Wait your turn, worm.”
“That’s an ironic thing to say for a maggot-riddled corpse.”
The demon wasted no more time with trash talk. It dropped Keith to the pavement and stalked after Rick. Rick clutched the lamp, but felt as if he were holding an inflatable mallet. The creature coming towards him was massive, and the gaping wound in its torso had not been enough to stop it.
Rick leapt forward and took a swing, but the demon was too quick. It backhanded Rick across the cheek hard enough to send him down to the ground and see stars. The loose stones on the road bit into his palms as he tried to right himself. Keith staggered back to his feet and leapt at the demon’s back, but he too was swatted away with a cruel backhand. He ended up on the floor right next to Rick, and the two brothers crawled backwards together. The demon stalked after them with the plodding ferocity of a rhino. His gnarled hands were thick, and perfect for breaking bones.
In the background, demons surrounded Maddy, while Diane cowered in the bushes at the side of the road. Daniel was nowhere to be seen.
“Why are you here?” asked Rick.
The demon stopped his approach and seemed to answer after careful thought. “Because the alternative is remaining there.”
Rick shook his head. “Where?”
“Hell. Do you know what it is like to finally be free from there? To return home to the place that allows us the pleasure of life?”
The Gates: An Apocalyptic Novel Page 23