by Jake Bible
“It’s who they were,” Coins said and shrugged. “I guess. They liked guns. A lot.”
He smiled down at the Thompson sub-machine gun he held in his grip.
“Clichéd, but damn if it doesn’t feel right,” Coins said and looked around. “You go with what works.”
“Guns.” Tom snorted. “A human affectation.”
“You’ll want it when we’re racing through the mountains with a ton of possessed on our asses,” Elisa said as she smacked an AK-47 against Tom’s chest.
He snarled.
She didn’t blink. “Bite me, Samurai Jack. No time to be a weapons snob.”
“Samurai Jack?” Tom asked. “What does that mean?”
Elisa picked up a duffel bag of ammunition and gear and slung it across her back. The weight made her hunch her shoulders, but she didn’t complain.
“We’ll have to take the tunnels,” Elisa said and glanced at Hannah. The older woman blanched. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“It won’t be nice down there,” Hannah said. “Birch and Parsons. They . . .”
“I know.” Elisa nodded. “But we don’t have a choice.”
“Let’s go,” Morty said, impatience making him twitchy. He pointed the .50 cal at the group and everyone flinched. Coins pushed the barrel down and to the side. “Sorry.”
“This way,” Elisa said, and led them through the cathedral and into the library. She pointed to the bookshelf that was still wide open.
Hannah, Highlander, and Tom, with a sleeping Desiree in his arms, followed. Geffe, Coins, and Morty took up the rear as the group descended the stairs down into the dark, dank tunnels. They had barely made it ten steps from the bottom of the stairs when the overpowering smell of copper hit them.
“So much blood,” Hannah said as they continued through the labyrinthine maze.
Then they reached the exit tunnel and Hannah froze. She gagged and turned her head before throwing up against the wall. Elisa had to fight her own gorge and pressed the back of her hand against her mouth while she averted her eyes from the bodies on the ground.
Highlander wasn’t squeamish at all and crouched by Birchstein’s body.
“He put up a fight,” Highlander said. “See the lacerations on his arms? He held them off for a while.”
“It was ineffective,” Tom said, coolly.
“Yes. True,” Highlander agreed. “But he tried. Trying counts. It counts. His trying counts.”
Tom started to respond, but received a nudge in the back by Morty and the .50 cal. He whipped his head around and saw the look on Morty’s face. The comment died behind his stone lips.
“Hold up,” Coins said. “There’s a problem.”
“What?” Elisa asked. She pointed at the door at the far end of the tunnel. “This is the way out.”
“Not arguing with that,” Coins said. “But see that shimmer halfway between us and the door? That’s where the new barrier ends. It doesn’t extend to the door.”
“So? It didn’t extend outside the door before,” Elisa said. “Not much difference.”
“Except that if we open that door and there’s a ton of possessed waiting for us, we’re screwed,” Coins said. “We can’t just shut the door and let the barrier protect us.”
“I’ll go,” Morty said. “I’ll see what’s out there. If it’s blocked, then we look for a different way out.”
“This is the most direct route to the truck,” Elisa said. “There’s another way, but it will take us to the far side of the grounds and we’ll have to circle back. We’ll lose time and the possessed will probably catch us along the way.”
“Damned if we do, damned if we don’t,” Highlander muttered.
“Let’s see what’s here first,” Morty said. “Stay back.”
He started walking then stopped, turned, and handed the .50 cal to Coins who nearly fell over from the bulk of the rifle.
“I’m better with my fists,” Morty said as he began walking again.
When he reached the door, he paused and listened. Then he frowned.
“What do you hear?” Tom called.
Morty held up a hand and continued listening.
“Humming,” Morty said. “I hear humming.”
He prepared himself then yanked open the door. Then he laughed.
“What is it?” Elisa asked and ran to join him, ignoring any danger that might have been waiting on the other side of the door.
She laughed too when she reached Morty.
“Come on,” she said. “It’s safe.”
“Not for the possessed,” Morty said with a hearty chuckle.
Outside the tunnel, standing on a pile of bodies four feet high and three times as wide, was Scythia. She was casually humming while she licked the blood from her talons.
“Hey,” she said, looking up at everyone. “What’s up?”
“Will ya look at that,” Geffe said as he reached the door with everyone else. “Never underestimate the little Gs.”
“You got that right,” Scythia said. She studied the group. “What’s with the guns? We going somewhere?”
13
“YOU’LL TAKE THESE and position yourselves here and here,” Olivia said as she handed rifles to several of the wards. “You keep your eyes on those doors and Roan outside. If the new barrier falls, you open fire on anything that tries to come inside.”
“Why?” a woman asked. “If the others are gonna drain that girl of her blood, and that’s gonna drive off the demons, then why are we still fighting?”
“Because they may not get to the quarry before the barrier falls,” Olivia said.
“I have the kids blocking all the windows,” Antoine said as he joined Olivia in the gallery. “They’re using pews and other furniture, so it won’t hold long, but it’ll buy us time if the barrier goes down.”
Several of the wards sniffled and whimpered.
“I wonder if it’s even worth fighting,” Antoine said quietly. “I mean, do we really stand a chance?”
“Don’t say that,” Olivia replied. “Humanity made us; we must do what we can to protect the humans who are left. This goes beyond the magic that created us. This is about the magic that created all life.”
“Wow, that’s deep,” Antoine said. “Kind of a stretch, don’t you think?”
“Perhaps, but the Stonecutters had a reason for carving us and imbuing us with their magic,” Olivia said. “I have a hard time believing it was only to protect buildings and those within them. Why else would we come awake specifically when the Gates of Hell opened? We must stop the demons at all costs.”
“The Stonecutters should have been more specific on that one,” Antoine said.
“What the Stonecutters intended does not matter,” Xue said as he turned from his position directly in front of the doors. “That is in the past. We look to the future now. We have made a plan and been given a duty. We will honor that duty until the plan is complete. End of discussion.”
“I’m only saying that maybe we are biting off more than we can chew,” Antoine responded and walked away into the nave.
“He has little faith,” Xue said as Olivia moved to his side.
“Then we will need to make up the difference,” Olivia said.
Her eyes drifted across Roan’s back and out to the possessed as they pressed and shoved against the barrier that held them back. Several of the vessels were smoking and sizzling from the protective magic, but they didn’t show a sign that they cared or felt any pain. They simply kept pressing and pressing until they fell to the ground and others took their place.
“This is not my first siege,” Xue said. “But I expect it will be my last.”
“Not your first?” Olivia asked. “Do you remember the last siege you were in?”
“I do,” Xue said. “In China, demons are called yaoguai. There was a rift in the spirit world during the century I was carved. I stood with hundreds of my fellow grotesques and fought them off as they tried to take over the royal palace. I lost many friends over that year, but, in the end, we drove the yaoguai back into the rift and our Stonecutters sealed it shut.”
“Over the year?” Olivia asked. “You were under siege for a year?”
“Yes,” Xue said. “It was a long year.”
Olivia laughed, then tried to stifle it when she saw the look Xue gave her. It refused to stay stifled and she burst out laughing even harder.
“I do not see the humor,” Xue said, but the corners of his mouth twitched.
Olivia continued to laugh softly as she and Xue watched the possessed press and push, die and fall. The laughter dried up as the pile of dead grew and the faces of the corpses could be seen easily even from up inside the cathedral.
“We will not have a year. What do we do if we lose?” Olivia asked.
“We die with the humans,” Xue said. “Our story ends.”
“Yes, I suppose it does,” Olivia said, her eyes on the sea of possessed that stretched all the way back to the tree line.
14
THE TRUCK WAS a heavy-duty diesel box truck, the type used on a thousand construction sites across the country to haul or pick up needed supplies. Or it had been. Construction stopped being a priority when the Gates opened. Destruction became the new industry.
“Both the main and auxiliary tanks are full of fuel,” Elisa said as she opened the driver’s side door and climbed up into the cab. It was a good four feet off the ground. “I checked the tires last week, so we won’t have to worry about a blow-out.”
The group stood in an old barn, piles of moldering hay pushed into the corners, bird droppings littering the concrete floor, rusted-out equipment stacked in one of the stalls, a pile of human bones stacked in the other.
“This was too easy,” Tom said, still holding Desiree.
“It’s why I picked this spot,” Elisa said. “I scouted the area for weeks to make sure this barn was off the possessed’s radar.”
“Still too easy,” Tom said.
“Holy shit,” Highlander cried from the back of the truck. “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!”
“Yes, we get it, Highlander,” Hannah said, her voice weary as she sat on a half-broken barrel by the barn doors. “Holy shit.”
“You’ve been working hard on this,” Morty said as he stepped next to Highlander and took a look inside the cargo area of the box truck. “You’ve been working just as hard keeping this a secret.”
“Street instinct,” Elisa stated as she started the truck up. The engine hitched and coughed black smoke a few times, but the engine caught and smoothed out after a few seconds. “You have to give me credit for covering our asses. The cathedral was great and all, but I knew it wouldn’t last forever.”
“Nothing ever does,” Geffe said then moved next to Morty. “Uh, give a fella a boost? Can’t see what it looks like from down here.”
Morty lifted Geffe up and the grotesque let out a long, impressed whistle.
Inside the cargo area were several benches, each bolted to the floor and set up against the walls. In the far back, toward the front of the truck, was a bed, along with two storage lockers and a small table. Four chairs hung on racks bolted into the wall above the bed.
“Set her on the bed,” Elisa said, joining the group that stared in at the accouterments the truck provided. “There are straps on each side Hannah and Highlander can hang onto while we drive so they don’t get thrown off on the corners. I don’t plan on slowing down much, because once we leave this place, we’re going to become one helluva target.”
“What are these?” Coins asked, having hopped up into the truck. He pointed at several latches spaced along the sides of the walls. About two feet below each were a set of hinges. “Are those windows?”
“You guessed it,” Elisa said. “Those guns aren’t much use if all you can do is hold them inside a locked truck.”
“Where were you planning on this thing going?” Morty asked.
“I don’t know,” Elisa said. “Honestly. No clue at all. I wanted it here and ready when the time came.”
“The fuel?” Highlander asked. “What is the fuel? Can’t be old diesel from the gas stations. Nope, can’t be that. Too old. Gone bad. Way bad.”
“Biodiesel,” Elisa said. “The engine was easy to convert since it was already designed for petroleum diesel. A couple of quick part changes and some replacement hoses, and fuel wasn’t a problem anymore.”
“Will it smell like french-fries?” Highlander asked, almost twitching with excitement. “My neighbor had a car that farted french-fry smell. I loved it.”
“It’s gonna smell like rancid oil,” Elisa said. “But it’ll combust and that’s all that matters.”
They heard the sound of explosions far off in the distance.
“They’re testing the new barrier,” Geffe said. “Time to load up and move out.”
“How far is it?” Coins asked. “The quarry? How far are we going?”
“Twenty miles, about,” Elisa said. She did not sound happy about it. “It’d be shorter if I use the highway, but back roads are safer. I expect most of the possessed in this whole area are converging on the cathedral anyway, so hopefully we won’t run into too much trouble.”
“We will,” Tom said.
“Could you maybe not speak unless it contributes to the discussion?” Hannah asked. She moved from her barrel and to the end of the truck. It took a couple of tries, and she refused help, but she managed to get inside and turned back to the group. “Hand her here.”
“Let me get in,” Highlander said. He almost jumped all the way up without using a handhold. He put his arms out like Hannah. “Okay.”
Tom grunted and leapt up into the truck, tucking himself into a crouch when he landed so he didn’t slam his head on the ceiling. Hannah and Highlander barely had time to get out of his way. He moved swiftly, but gently, and set Desiree down on the bed. She whispered something to him and he nodded then took a seat on one of the benches closest to where she lay.
“What did she say?” Hannah asked as she walked to the bed to sit right on it next to Desiree.
“She made me promise not to interfere when the time came for her to die,” Tom stated. His voice was flat, empty of all emotion and feeling. “I made the promise.”
“Oh,” Hannah said. “That must have been hard to do.”
“I am built of stone,” Tom said. “Everything in my life is hard.”
“Was that a joke?” Coins asked, joining them. Tom glared at him. “I suppose not.”
Elisa stepped up onto the deck of the truck and grabbed the rear door’s strap—ready to pull it down and closed.
“Get comfortable and hang on,” she said. “I’ve never ridden back here, or taken this out for a drive, so I have no idea how rough the trip will be.”
“I will ride up front with you,” Morty said.
“No way,” Elisa replied. “You’re in the back. You’d take up the whole cab and I wouldn’t have room to move the shifter. Geffe and Scythia can ride up with me. He can stand on the bench seat and be my extra set of eyes.”
“I got great eyes,” Geffe said.
“Once we get going out on the main road, I’ll smack the back of the cab so you know it’s time to open the windows,” Elisa said. “Keep your guns ready. There may not be a lot of possessed coming at us, but even some is too much. We need to take them out before we get to the quarry or they’ll let all of the demons know where we’re going and then we’ll have a real problem.”
“Yes, because our problems so far have been pure fiction,” Coins said.
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br /> “We are grotesques come to life, partner,” Geffe said. “Our lives are nothing but pure fiction.”
“Good point,” Coins replied and smiled.
“Be ready,” Elisa said and jumped from the deck, pulling the rolling door down with her.
The cargo area was plunged into darkness.
“Anyone have a light?” Coins asked.
There was a flicker and then the distinct glow and smell of a cigar.
“I found where you’ve been keeping the cigars you stole from me,” Morty said as he puffed the cigar into a bright red cherry.
“Do you mind, Morty?” Hannah asked, coughing. “This space is too closed up for that stink.”
“No offense, Hannah, and I do mean that, but kiss my stone butt,” Morty said as he pulled the cigar from his lips and blew on the end. “We’re kind of in an end-of-the-world situation, so I’m going to enjoy one last smoke before kissing my own stone butt.”
“Why would you kiss your own butt?” Coins asked.
“To say goodbye,” Morty replied.
The truck lurched and began to move backward. After a minute, it slowed, stopped, and changed directions, moving forward over a very rough dirt road. Everyone hung on the best they could.
It was a bumpy few minutes before the ride smoothed out and Elisa smacked the wall between the cab and the cargo area.
“Time to see the world at thirty-five miles per hour,” Coins said as he stepped up onto a bench and unlatched one of the windows. It opened inward and down, which was awkward since he had to lean back almost to the point of losing his balance in order not to get hit, but he managed it and then stood there for a few moments, staring out at the dark landscape speeding by. “Well, that was anticlimactic. I can’t see a thing.”
Morty pushed past Coins and laughed. “Same here. There could be a hundred possessed standing on the side of the road with their thumbs out and we wouldn’t see them.”