Hunters: A Trilogy

by Paul A. Rice

  Masses of them had exploded into nothing more than heaps of distorted meat, their steaming corpses resembling the rotting remnants of a burst haggis. The rest had gone, screaming with fear and pain, hurtling into a piece of time that lay far, far away. Many arrived with the same results as those who had failed at the very first hurdle, bursting skulls and popping eyeballs their only reward. The remainder, heads resonating with their Dark Master’s command, ‘Kill them – kill them all!’ had blindly struck out toward their enemies. Noise, rage, and blackness were their only companions as they rushed toward the Hunters.

  They had very little chance of success and were killed in swathes, mown down before his very eyes. Even so, their sheer number had very nearly succeeded, they had been so close and then the green light had appeared again. Those fucking pricks! Hunters from long ago! Where had they been, why had it not seen them, why?

  The howl that crossed its fetid lips would have sent even the bravest of Hunters running for the safety of their mother’s skirts… So great had the presence become within the frail body of its willing partner that the rotting power had begun to work its way outwards. As the beast opened its mouth to emit the horrifying wail, it failed to notice the two teeth that wiggled free from the bleeding gums of its host – one fell to the floor, whilst the other hung like a pendulum, swinging on a thin strand of flesh above its chin.

  The Dark One knew that his own rage-induced ineptitude had been the cause behind his men’s undoing. His fault entirely, but that knowledge made no difference whatsoever. Not one jot. When one gets to be as powerful as the Dragon, as well-travelled and so totally used to getting one’s own way, well…then there is absolutely no chance whatsoever of accepting any portion of blame, for anything, not ever.

  It snarled: ‘No, it was their fault, pathetic bags of meat!’ With a vicious kick, the skinny leg sent a great clump of distorted human remains tumbling down the hillside. This had changed things and now he would have to act sooner than planned. With a set of more lucid thoughts, provided by the mind of its crumbling host, permeating through the black heat of its fury, the Demon turned back to the cave. There was work to do.

  The final little game was still to be toyed with, everyone in the dimension was going to know about this particular game, the whole fucking universe would know! And then, well…then they would fight amongst themselves once more. And the Demon loved it when they fought, the puny battles opened up so many opportunities, so much fun to be had, yes! And then after that, after the fire, then it would be time to leave, its work here done, time to move on and find somewhere else worthy of its attention.

  The Dark One giggled as the door slid open. It entered the cave, allowing itself one final, sneering sentiment. ‘But first we have some flowers to plant, and after they have bloomed, then we shall depart for pastures new. Yes, after the fun, then we shall go!’ With those words reverberating around the cave, the Demon turned back to its work.

  11

  Missing Pieces

  Sometimes you’re better off not knowing the whole truth.

  Sometimes it’s better to simply live in the dim reality of your own perception.

  It’s much safer there.

  It took two days to clean up after their battle. The last remaining pieces of death and destruction had been removed, the courtyard swept clean, all the wire, pieces of wood, and sheets of metal had been taken away by Jack and the others. Ken and the men had worked at full tilt to try and get the old place back into some semblance of its former serenity. Many of the bullet holes would have to remain, it was far too big a job to replace all of the panels they had peppered and would have to be done at some later date.

  Right now, they had work to do, much more pressing things than spending hours on some carpentry. At the end of that second day, tired and hungry after having worked non-stop since before dawn, the six occupants of the farm gathered on the porch, where Jane and Tori had prepared a buffet fit for a King.

  Just as she was finishing her meal, Tori stopped and lifted her head, cocking it to one side as if listening. As they saw her movements, the others froze where they were. Ken looked at Red, and seeing the obvious question in his eyes, nodded once and looked toward the barn in confirmation of the big man’s unspoken question. Red rose to his feet and started toward the armoury.

  Tori stopped him. ‘No, wait, it’s not them,’ she said. ‘No…they’re all dead. It’s George, he wants to talk to us – Junior, get the Communicator, please. It’s in the sitting room.’

  Her son ran into the house and returned seconds later with the device clasped in his hands. Passing it to Ken, the boy took a seat along with the others whilst they gathered around and waited for the Communicator to bring them its news. It was then that George told them of what he knew – all of it.

  The old man appeared in the usual manner, and he was smiling. After congratulating them on a job well done, asking each and every one of them if they were well, enquiring about Michael’s neck wound, and pausing whilst the young man assured him that he was fine; George looked down at them, and said that he had news, good news…

  ‘The Dark One is almost without support,’ he said. ‘As far as we can see, and believe you me, we can see a lot more these days, a lot more, he has less than a dozen men remaining. His latest foray has cost the lives of almost his entire force, two hundred and eighty two men killed, to be precise.’

  The figures stunned them. Ken sat and looked at the others – the thought of having so much blood on their hands may have been a heavy burden to bear, had it not been for Red. He flushed those thoughts straight down the toilet.

  ‘They came a-looking for us, they came here,’ the big man said, ‘we didn’t ask for this! And anyway, they’ve taken Maggie! To hell with them, the mutha…’ He banged the table with his cabbage-sized fist.

  The blow caused all the plates and glasses to jump in to the air, whereupon they promptly bounced back down with a loud crash. The Hunters laughed, he was right, the numbers were terribly high, but like Red had pointed out, it was they who had been attacked.

  George stepped in and eased their consciences a touch more. ‘Don’t forget,’ he said, wearily. ‘It was the Demon himself who is responsible for all of this – this whole episode is a result of his selfish desire to rule the stars, his need to run around playing havoc. All of our yesterdays and all our tomorrows have been, and will be, altered by this entity, all of them!’ George looked as though he was about to do some table banging of his own.

  Taking a moment to calm himself, he then explained to them about the latest pieces of news he had discovered, the main one being of how the Demon had discovered their whereabouts. It seemed, even though Tori had killed the man, and the piece of Darkness within, that Jeremiah’s influence had caused a tiny piece of evil to flower inside his son, a fleck of inherited Darkness.

  George looked at Red, and said, ‘Do not worry, my child, this is normal and is something that almost every living thing has within itself.’ Seeing the confused look, not only upon Red’s face, but also spread amongst the others as well, George then said, ‘As I have told you many times before, we are all from the same beginnings, the tiny atoms within all of us, the endless chains of them that make up our worlds and every single thing surrounding us, are all from the same place. Everything started at the same time, one utterly-silent Big Bang and we had become! The Darkness is nothing more than a part of that same, endless chain. It lies within everything that we are.’

  He paused, looked at them seriously, and then continued, saying: ‘Jeremiah allowed the blackness to grow inside of his soul, and when a man allows that to happen then the atoms of evil no longer have any need to lie hidden. Like all things, if they are nourished they will grow!’ He explained as to how, due to his mistreatment by Jeremiah, Red still had a few of the half-grown weeds of evil in his own soul.

  They were weakened and not of any real use. But, the one thing they were good for was looking into the Hunters’ dimension. Like some
obscene telescope, the Dark One had gradually become aware that the tiny glimpses it had managed to sneak might be very useful later on. Over the years, it had become more adept at manipulating the glimpses, and slowly but surely it had built up enough information, knowledge, to be used against them, the Hunters, its arch enemies.

  Red looked baffled. With a terrible expression on his large face, he said, ‘Am I to blame, is Maggie going missing my fault, it’s me, isn’t it?’ He looked about ready to cry. Tori and Junior went to stand behind him. Both of them placed their hands on his shoulders and stood together looking up in defiance at the silver screen.

  George looked down at them and smiled sadly, saying: ‘No, no, not in the slightest! Yes, he has used you, but if I were to blame you for that, then it would be the same as if I were to blame you for…’ he paused, and then said, ‘…for having a shock of such wonderfully red hair!’

  Red relaxed a bit. George said, ‘No, what I mean is…’ he paused again whilst he formed his next words, then said, ‘…the way in which your father maltreated you has helped some of the Demon to take a foothold within you; a little toe-grip is all. He has no influence over your life, the present company that you keep has seen off any such intentions! No, the Dark One uses you like a looking glass, although perhaps a crystal ball would be the better explanation. Through you he has managed to see some of who we are, and most importantly, where we are!’ He finished with: ‘But, in no way, ever, are you responsible for this, in no way whatsoever, of that I give you my most solemn word!’

  Red grinned and then relaxed some more. Tori leaned forward and kissed his left cheek, Junior his right. Waiting until they had sat back down, George looked up and then continued with all he knew.

  The Demon had indeed captured Maggie, George and the Council had heard her cries of anger and pain. She was in the cave with the man, of that they were almost certain, but where, and why, remained a mystery. The cloak of darkness still covered her from their watching eyes. George shook his head in frustration, said there was nothing more they were able to do about it, and they would all simply have to live in the hope that she was going to survive. By the expression on his face, George didn’t seem to hold much hope in that direction.

  He told them to wash the thoughts from their heads. She was alive at this moment and they would stay focused on that for the time being. The device within the bowels of the cave was in fact a nuclear one, nothing large, a simple device constructed in secret under the disguise of fusion research. However, the location in which the powerful bomb had been placed – deep down at the bottom of a long shaft – would ensure that its detonation would be catastrophic.

  Ken didn’t get it. ‘Why is it so bad?’ he asked. ‘He’s in the middle of nowhere, the top of some mountain where he’s dug a deep hole and slotted the bomb. Yeah, okay, nukes are nukes, I agree, but other than blowing some mountain to pieces and scattering bloody radiation all over the place, what does he have to gain? The man’s a lunatic! So, apart from Maggie, why are we bothering?’ He raised his shoulders in a gesture of bafflement.

  George nodded in agreement, saying: ‘Very true, and may I just say that is almost exactly what we ourselves thought…at first.’

  Ken blinked, whispering: ‘What do you mean, ‘at first’?’

  George’s reply, delivered some more news, very bad news. ‘Unfortunately, there were some things we were not aware of!’ he said, cocking his head in a sign of apology. Then he explained that unbeknownst to them, and to most of the inhabitants of the planet, there had been several long years of wrangling done between the various superpowers, and other strategically-placed countries, over an enormous gas-field that had been found deep underground.

  He said, ‘It is the biggest reservoir of natural gas this planet has ever unearthed. There is enough fuel within its huge underground lakes to power half the world for at least a hundred of their years, and perhaps, with some clever plumbing, even longer…’ He blinked, before saying: ‘It extends far-and-wide and breaches several international borders – many countries stand to make an awful lot of money from the extraction of such a valuable resource.’

  As they sat in silence, still not really following him, not seeing where this was leading, George then told them why it was of such a vital concern to them, why the location of the Demon and his little device, was of critical importance.

  His tale took them through the twisted secrets of the Hyenas.

  There had been several near-global conflicts over the gas field; all the countries involved vying for their slice of the pie. Invasions and wars had already been waged by those trying to outmanoeuvre their opponents, wasteful wars costing millions of lives, their fruitless endeavours already sputtering out like wet candles. No advancements were made by any side and threats of catastrophic retaliation made to any country who tried to obtain the gas without involving the others.

  George looked at them and said, ‘The planet is on the brink of a global war, if this gas-field problem is not resolved, then our prediction will be for one of the superpowers to take matters into their own, grasping hands. The result will see the end of civilisation in that dimension. Without doubt it will be the end for that parallel!’ He breathed out deeply, his frustration and anger, his sadness, seeped from the screen and filtered down to them. They began to see.

  George finished with: ‘It has been the best-kept secret for many a long year, only the Hyenas know of this terrible Pandora’s Box, one which they are about to have opened on their behalf – opened without their knowledge and without them lifting a finger. When the Dark One initiates his device, it will carry its fire into the womb of the giant gas-field, the resultant explosion will kill millions, but its fire-storm will be nothing compared to the inferno that will rain down from the hand of man himself. Unless we stop the Demon, they are doomed. We must stop him!’

  The gathered Hunters didn’t have any problems catching George’s drift this time – none whatsoever. He told them that an agreement had been made, and whilst they waited for a solution to the sharing problem, those in power had decided to press ahead with the development of fusion, because by the time the gas ran out they were going to need something else up their sleeves to power the world. But, in the meantime they had agreed upon the various sites to be used.

  When the Demon’s host had become involved, the programme had jumped ahead, in fact it had begun to appear as though they may never need the gas-field at all. With the thoughts of having the ultimate energy-producing technology within their grasp, they had agreed to any, and all, of the man’s requests, which had, in due course, led him unto his current destination. But, little did they know of the ulterior motives that lay within the festering black heart of their man. His was a totally different quest to theirs, and he allowed their greed to blind them from the hidden truths of his real mission. All he wanted, the Demon within, was to rain almighty chaos down upon all of their unsuspecting heads – death and destruction, murder and mayhem.

  George’s final words left them with one other thought.

  ‘Should we fail, then there will be more than just a catastrophe in the confines of that parallel,’ he said. ‘Everything is linked, all things are related. The fabric of time and space that separates the past from the future is but a thin one. Should this terrible event be allowed to occur, then…well, if I am to be brutally honest, no-one really knows what will happen. We have been studying this for some time now and there are many theories, but they are only that, just theories, and they have an annoying way of being wrong!’ He straightened in his seat and rubbed the back of his neck.

  George looked tired and Ken wondered how much longer the old man, the keeper of secrets and holder of so much knowledge, would be able to continue. Ken nearly laughed as he caught sight of a mental image of George wearing tartan slippers, pipe in mouth, clipping away at some pink carnations on some far-off planet. He grinned to himself and looked up at the screen. George was smiling down at him, and looking into his faded blue e
yes, Ken had a sudden realisation – the image was probably one representing exactly what George would rather be doing, much rather. George nodded gently and Ken knew the gesture was only meant for him. He winked at George, who, seeing Ken’s cheeky eye movement, quickly covered his mouth, let out a small cough and looked away in a hurry.

  Jane asked a question, one that had been at the forefront of all of their minds. ‘So, what now, George?’ she said. ‘Are we going up there, like we’d planned to do, before they attacked us?’

  The others murmured their consent to that question.

  George composed himself, saying it was indeed what they should be doing. ‘As far as we can see, the Demon has hurled himself into an unstoppable rage,’ he said. ‘At this very moment he is attempting to finalise his plans and accelerate the achievement of his goal. However, we do have a little time as his utterly fruitless attempts at killing you all have considerably depleted his manpower. He is very nearly on his own, and although the Darkness is almost too powerful to comprehend, as usual his energies remain shackled by the physical form of the man whom has become his earthly host.’

  He stopped and looked at them seriously for a moment.

  Then he said, ‘This man remains amongst only a few things that we do not fully understand. We still have no idea as to who he is; even the paper-trail of his life is nothing more than a cleverly-laid fabrication – a lie. We do not know who he is or why he is doing these deeds, and it perturbs us!’ After taking a few seconds to gather himself, he continued, saying: ‘He is the only one we know of that has ever accepted the forces of the Dark One so willingly. He opened his heart to this terrible thing, he opened his mind and he embraced it!’ George shook his head and they saw the horror within him.