by Michael Todd
First Lieutenant Andrews yelled into his microphone, “That’s not all. The first portal opened here, and the second was way down the mountain. One after the other, too. The intervening time wasn’t long enough to take the hiking trails down.”
The staff sergeant in the plane piped up, “What, like he fell?”
First Lieutenant Andrews grinned. “That would be the quickest way down.”
“A big ass demon tumbling head over foot down the mountain would be funny as hell to watch.”
“Fall makes sense. I don’t really see these things having the stamina or desire to go on a climb like this. Patience doesn’t seem to be their strong suit.”
Lieutenant Troughtman waved a hand to get their attention. “Are those footprints I see walking down to the left?”
Everyone shifted their focus, trying to see what he was talking about. Andrews clicked his headset as a call came in. “Give me a second.” He spoke quickly, but none of the others could hear his conversation.
The sergeant narrowed his eyes. “So there were two? One went tumbling down the mountain, and the other took a walk…barefoot through the snow? What kind of shit is this? You would think there would be no survivors. I don’t know demon anatomy that well, though.”
Lieutenant Andrews clicked on his mic. “Uh-oh, boys, I’ve got an alert. We have two dead bodies.”
Lieutenant Troughtman searched the tree line. “Where? On the mountain?”
The pilot turned the chopper and started following the path that led down the mountain. “In the direction of those footsteps.”
The chopper swooped down the mountain, following the path. It didn’t take long before they saw the flashing lights of emergency rescue vehicles. Another chopper was hovering over the group of vehicles as two bodies were being airlifted up.
The sergeant’s face went white. “How likely is it this is all connected?”
Lieutenant Troughtman shot the sergeant a look. “Well, two portals, two dead bodies, and no demons. I would have to say if it isn’t connected, it’s the biggest coincidence I’ve ever seen. Looks like these hikers picked the wrong day to go for the summit.”
Lieutenant Andrews clicked his mic back on. “Come on, let’s head back to base. We don’t want to get in their way. There’s something seriously strange going on here, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the avalanche.”
The sergeant looked out his window at the mass of fallen ice below. “How much you want to bet that avalanche was just a side effect of demon activity? We need to report this ASAP. Things are getting worse as the minutes pass.”
Brock sat back in one of the empty rooms, holding court. He put his feet up on the old desk. “A monkey tried to kill me.” Turner chuckled as he said it. Brock’s entire team was there, listening to him relate their adventures to Katie.
“All the animals were infected?” Katie asked. She sounded skeptical.
Brock nodded his head. “Sure as hell, they were. Every now and then we’d come up on some big-ass demon and have to blow his nuts off, but usually, it was the animals.”
Katie shook her head. “I’ve only seen that once. It was an animal near the old base. I think it was a coyote. Had to put her out of her misery. I know they don’t have as much control of animals. They must have been desperate out there.”
Brock nodded thoughtfully. Suddenly he started laughing and sat forward. “So one time, we all went out, and Turner and I were in the front.”
Turner groaned and rolled his eyes. “Do you always have to tell this story? Doesn’t it get old?”
Brock pointed at him. “No, dude, it will never get old. Anyway, we were humping along. Turner had my flank. We were bullshitting, and he turns to check his six. I nearly shit myself. On his back was this huge, hairy tarantula. I’m talking big as my head. So I stopped the team and told Turner to stay really still, but I don’t tell him why. I’ve got my M16 on him, sort of pointed sideways at the spider. I didn’t want to shoot him, but this motherfucker had red eyes and fangs.”
The tattooed soldier giggled uncontrollably. “I told him to let loose. Fuck it. Maybe he takes out Turner, but at least he gets the spider.
Brock chuckled. “So he’s standing really still, no idea what is going on. And this thing puts two hairy legs on his shoulder, climbs up and looks him right in the face. You could hear his scream for miles.”
Turner slapped his hands on the desk. “It was the biggest spider on Earth. No lie.”
“Our commander called in and asked if we had encountered any civilians because they had heard a little girl screaming from miles away.”
Turner shook his head. “Thing came close enough to kiss me.”
Brock looked wistfully into the distance. “I killed it, but it was beautiful.”
The soldiers laughed. Katie wiped tears from the corners of her eyes and held up her hand. “Okay, no more. No more.”
The loudspeaker over their heads crackled and shrieked, grabbing their attention. “All hands, R&D arriving on the tarmac.”
Katie sniffed once and got herself together. “That’s our cue. Gotta go meet the brains of this operation.”
The team headed out of the building. Once outside, they saw workers reinforcing the walls yet again. Metal armor was bolted over metal armor. Brock frowned. “How many layers do we need?”
Katie shrugged. “That’s the thing—we don’t know. They want to make sure the walls will hold in any demons that get out of the portal. That way, they can be killed easier and don’t go rampaging through the base. It’s just precautionary, but we have a feeling there are beasts in hell we haven’t seen yet. Who knows what they’re like?”
Brock huffed. “Great.”
As Katie and Brock walked out to the runway, the military prop plane came to a stop. The crew hurried around, readying the staircase and the door. When the doors opened, a tall red-headed scientist came tripping out, followed by a young female assistant. He looked like he was surprised to be back on the ground, while she was trying to keep up with him. Her hands were full of bags and a box of strange-looking equipment. She struggled under the weight of it all and barely made it to the ground without taking a tumble.
Katie put her hand out to Dr. Thorough. “I’m Katie. So good to meet my R&D team.”
Thorough shook his head and looked around wildly. “Yes, yes. Who is unloading? Because they need to be very careful with these instruments.”
Alice juggled her load and reached out to shake Katie’s hand. “Sorry. I’m Alice, the doctor’s assistant. Don’t worry about him. He doesn’t watch television.”
Just then, the doctor snapped his fingers and pointed at Katie with excited eyes. “Oh, yes. Specimen 182!”
Katie’s eyes instantly narrowed. They glowed red, and the doctor took a step backward. He pushed up his glasses and looked her over. “Did I say something wrong?”
Alice sighed and rolled her eyes. Brock clenched his teeth and stepped into the doctor’s personal space, staring him blankly in the eyes. The doctor leaned back a bit and looked him up and down nervously. Brock cleared his throat. “Katie is not a specimen.”
Dr. Thorough stepped back, looking from Katie to Brock and back. He shook his head, realizing how rude he had just been. “Oh, I’m so sorry! They never provided a name for you in the reports, only the…uh…182 designation. It’s done that way on purpose.”
He reached out, and Katie eyed him for a moment before shaking his hand. “Try ‘Katie’ on for size before I’m tempted to leave you behind in hell.”
Dr. Thorough grimaced at her grip and pulled his hand back, shaking it out. “No need to be ugly. I’m not the one making the rules.”
Alice slapped her hand to her forehead. “Sometimes he numbers me too. He really is harmless. I guess he can be a bit clueless as well.”
The doctor looked from Alice to Katie. He seemed to understand something then. He cleared his throat and stood up straight. “Shall I try that again? My name is Doctor Cleary Thor
ough, Research and Development and a ready participant in your mission. I have brought the best instruments that I could bring. I’ve also brought my assistant, Alice here, who is almost as knowledgeable as I am.”
“Sometimes more,” Alice whispered, making Katie smile. Katie took a bag from Alice to lighten her load.
The whole group loosened up except Brock. He made it his mission to stare the doctor down. Dr. Thorough tried to ignore him, but he was pretty good at making his point.
Katie chuckled and patted Brock on the chest. “Down, boy. He’s harmless.”
“Rude,” Brock grumbled, but stepped back.
Turner put his hand on Brock’s shoulder and whispered to him. “I think Katie can protect herself against a nerdy fire-headed scientist like that guy. She’s faced demons bigger than him before. He doesn’t seem too interested in dragging her back for experimentation at the moment.”
Brock glanced over his shoulder. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Those freaks at R&D have been dying to run tests on Katie. They all know they’ll never get close enough to even take a vial of her blood, much less chain her down for research. She’s half angel and half demon, the strongest weapon we have against the demon race. They would pull some crazy cloning shit on her in a heartbeat if they could.”
Turner squeezed his shoulder. “Yeah, but can you imagine it? Not a single one of them would have their balls left. They would be hooking up probes and shit to her and then walking around with stitches, emasculated. You know Pandora would be wearing that shit around her neck like a tribal warrior.”
Pandora snickered inside Katie’s head, hearing the whole conversation even if Katie was focused elsewhere. Damn, I like that idea.
Katie put a smile on the outside, confused on the inside. Huh? What idea?
Wearing my enemies’ balls on a rope around my neck. I could eventually make a suit out of it. People would think it’s all cool until they realized my jacket was made of foreskin.
That’s freaking disgusting, Pandora. Get your head back in the game.
Pandora mumbled to herself. I’ll get someone’s head back in the game.
Katie looked at the doctor. “They will carefully unload your gear. You don’t have to worry. They’re professionals. Why don’t we go into one of the meeting rooms and we can talk about the mission?”
The doctor looked at her for a moment and then nodded. He clutched his bag to his chest and followed her across the landing strip to the main building. He stared around at the old building as they descended into the underground section, leaving the construction noise behind.
Alice glanced into one of the empty rooms. “Dang. This place is old.”
Katie chuckled. “It’s seen its day, that’s for sure, but we’re preparing the main hanger for the mission. Trust me, it will hold up under scrutiny.”
She showed them to the meeting area, and everyone took a seat. Katie leaned back in one of the creaky chairs. “Do you think you brought everything necessary to successfully take the readings you’ll need?”
The doctor muttered to himself and examined the equipment Alice had been carrying. “Everything that we have invented so far. We’ll have to assemble some of it, but my question is, what can we bring? What sort of secondary team will I have? Can we transfer larger equipment?”
Katie glanced at Alice and back to the doctor before leaning forward. “I want you to fully understand what we’re doing here. We’re walking into hell. There are no reinforcements on the other side, no one who’s cleared the area beforehand. We walk into whatever is waiting over there. You want my opinion? You bring whatever you can carry and no more. Understand that we might have to move fast and work under combat type scenarios.”
The doctor pulled out a notebook and began writing feverishly in it. “All right, anything we can carry. Got it. That rules out quite a bit of the equipment, but I suppose in the future, we may be able to go back with more time. Has anyone taken any temperature readings in there?”
Katie chortled. “Not that I know of. I can promise you, it’s fucking hot. The unprotected human body alone won’t be able to survive for more than a few minutes. I’ve been told, though, that’s one of the problems that you’ve been working on.”
The doctor nodded, still writing. “Mm-hmm, yes. Thermal gear has been taken care of. We don’t want internal combustion. It doesn’t bode well for the study.”
Alice swallowed hard, trying not to show her nerves. “And how will we be entering into this brave new world?”
Katie smiled. “Come on. I’ll show you.”
They trekked back to the hangar bay. As they walked through the doors, Katie put up her arms in a grand gesture. “This beauty is our transfer chamber, or at least it will be by the time we’re ready to go.”
Alice was too busy staring at the men without shirts to even hear what she was saying.
The doctor turned in circles, a shocked look on his face. “Where’s the machine? Where is the big circle? Isn’t there a big gate or something that we will switch on and walk through? You know, like the movies.”
Pandora began cackling loudly. He’s looking for the fucking Stargate.
Katie hid her smirk and reached out to touch the doctor’s shoulder. He jumped slightly and pushed his glasses up.
Katie cleared her throat. “This isn’t a sci-fi story, doctor. We don’t do it like that. I’m afraid you might have to adjust your expectations accordingly.”
Katie left the doctor and Alice to the staff on the base and headed back to her room. She walked in and sneered at the place. A bunk with a military issued bluish-gray scratchy blanket barely fit between a tall locker and a tiny bathroom. Everything was clean, but it wasn’t exactly luxurious.
Pandora grumbled. Great. We’re risking our asses, and we’re given a room that looks like a cell at Leavenworth.
Katie ran her finger across the desk. I’m pretty sure they don’t have private bathrooms there. It’s just for a little while, and it’ll make the comforts of home feel all the better when we get back.
We could go back now and enjoy those comforts tonight.
You could quit your bitching.
Katie walked to the bed and sat down on the edge of it, listening to the springs creak and whine.
Pandora appreciated the sound. Oh, what beautiful music I could make with you.
Katie ignored her. She leaned her back against the wall and put her hands behind her. It wasn’t home, but it would do until they got everything finished and back on track.
Pandora sniffed around. Seriously, the general and I are going to go to war. Where are my fucking donuts? How does he expect me to go rolling up into hell on an empty stomach? I saw the chow. It’s not as bad as prison food, but I can promise you, I am not eating it.
Katie shrugged. I kind of like it. It’s like we’re really part of the military. I always wondered what it would be like. I bet the guys are loving their individual quarters after sleeping on a cot for the last who knows how long. That’s what’s wrong with you. I spoil you rotten.
And I should be. And so should you, for that matter.
No, I’m talking about sacrifice. Sacrificing creature comforts is the least you could do.
Nope. You’ve got it all wrong. If you’re going to put your pretty little ass on the line, you should be rewarded with a nice mattress and maybe an area rug or something.
The light next to her door flashed, and an intercom went off over the bed. “Katie, please report to Hangar Bay One. Your team is arriving.”
Pandora whistled. Big-Dick Calvin has arrived. Bet the plane gives a huge sigh of relief, not having to lug that around anymore.
Katie giggled but groaned as she pulled herself to her feet. She tried to look at herself in the mirror on the wall, but it was too foggy to see anything. She grabbed her ID and put it around her neck before heading out and down the hall. As she exited the building, she could see her private jet coming to a stop in front of the hanger.
Pandora sniffe
d the air. Can we just go chill inside for like five minutes? I can’t get the smell of gray paint and mold out of my nose.
You said it smelled like a sunken ghost ship inside.
You’re right. It’s all bad. New York City, here we come!
No. We have work to do here.
The doors to the jet opened, and Calvin stepped out. He spotted Katie instantly. She hurried over as he walked down the steps, his arms wide. “I can’t wait to go straight to hell. Don’t pass Go, and don’t collect two hundred dollars.”
Katie hugged him tightly. “Well, we do get to collect a fee, but that’s neither here nor there.”
Calvin walked Katie back to the luggage storage compartment. “Don’t tell them, but I would do this for free.”
Katie smirked and leaned in. “They probably can hear you.”
Calvin popped the door open and waved his hand. “Ta-da. Joshua has provided us with a shit-ton of new toys and ammo so our pretty little asses, or big asses for Pandora, can come back in one piece.”
Swoon. I’m swooning. Tell him I’m swooning.
17
The general tapped his pen on his desk. He was staring at the large television screen in his office, willing the newscaster to break into a grin and tell his audience it was all some sort of prank. He knew it wasn’t. The news program was replaying scenes from the six incursions that had recently occurred. The death tolls seemed to rise by the second as they began piecing bodies back together and clearing out the debris. The general shook his head in frustration. “It’s a goddamned shame.”
The buzzer on his speaker phone went off, and his secretary came over the com. “General, you have a call from a Lieutenant Andrews on line one. They’re one of the teams in Europe. They have some news for you, sir.”
The general clicked off the television and picked up the phone. “This is General Brushwood.”