by Michael Todd
Once Terrance’s cries died out, Elias put up his hand.
“Enough,” he said, and the demons backed off.
“Impressive,” one of the other leaders agreed.
“We all know that our goal is to kill off the human race and take its place ourselves, since we’re a smarter, stronger breed,” Elias said. “Today we start that war. We will take any extra bodies we need from the nearby house and infiltrate the Vegas Strip, grabbing a few tourists here and there to change as soon as possible. Once that is complete and our army is at full strength we will disperse into the rest of the country, blending in and working as spies for our Master until the day arrives that we’re called forth in victory. Any bodies that completely transform, like my friends here, will be the muscle for this venture. The weak will not be tolerated, and the strong will rise, promised a place beside the Almighty when He rises. While Terrance was put to idle work, we took the strong humans and pulled them to safety. The only task left is to rid this commune of the weakest links, something these six fine demons can accomplish in a matter of minutes.”
Elias looked at the building to the right, where a guard stood at the door. He raised his arms and smiled, nodding to indicate the humans should be released.
The guard threw open the door and shoved the humans out, pushing the elderly toward the front. The demons growled and snarled, digging their claws into the dirt as they awaited their release. The people huddled together, terrified and unsure of what was going on, not knowing where to run.
Many of them were older, but some were injured, children, or handicapped. The whole thing was a page out of a horror novel. The demons got into a charging pose rather like sprinters on the mark, glancing back and forth between Elias and the humans. Finally Elias smiled and raised his gun into the air.
“Demons,” Elias yelled, “prepare—”
Elias paused when he heard a whirling sound in the distance. He looked at the leaders and then at the sky, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. It sounded like a helicopter. No, more like a fleet of helicopters. Elias stepped off the fountain’s edge and walked up the hill, moving around a particularly messy place where he wasn’t sure how many had been killed.
He counted three heads.
He was still unsure of what he was hearing. He had covered all his bases; dotted every fucking “i” and crossed every “t.”
There was no way the hunters had found him.
This had to be a fluke. A state cop who saw the fire, or anything other than what he was worried it would be.
Everyone in the commune stopped and stared over the hill whose top Elias stood on. The wind blew wildly around him, and sand and dust swirled like a tornado at his feet. Slowly he dropped his hands to his sides and his gun fell to the ground.
From below the horizon of the hill, three large helicopters roared up and hovered in front of him. Rock music blared loudly through the speakers, and the red-ringed eyes of the demon hunters burned through the glass windshields.
Elias turned around and looked at the demons, who were waiting for his orders.
As Elias opened his mouth Garrett, Damian, and Korbin pressed the red buttons on the sticks in their hands, releasing a spray of bullets from the choppers.
Elias’s body bounced back and forth as his demon screamed in agony, his eyes glowing bright red before dimming back to their original blue.
He fell to the ground and his head bounced off the sand, the life completely gone from his eyes. The team stopped shooting and moved forward, assessing the scene in front of them. Katie leaned forward with a disgusted look on her face.
“Holy shit!” She pointed. “Look at all those bodies.”
“We’re not too late,” Armani told her, grabbing her arm and pulling. “Look at me. There are still people down there. Women and children, all food for those six demons.”
“But so many dead,” Katie argued, shaking her head. She felt the fear, the sadness, and the heartache from the crowd below.
“Pull it together, Katie” he whispered, putting up a finger. “Save any person you can, one at a time…just like you were meant to do.”
For once Armani sounded like he was channeling Damian.
Katie stared out the window at the huddled group of people and the demons snarling and growling, frozen in place.
She looked closer at the demons, barely recognizing any human features. Where wide human smiles once bloomed were gnarled bloody teeth, and their hands and bodies were covered in the blood of the innocent. Their eyes glowed bright red, and they gave off no sense of shame, remorse, or empathy. There was nothing but a bloodlust fueled by nothing other than nature.
She could feel the pure evil and hate pulsing through all six of their bodies, and it made her sick to her stomach to look at them.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Pandora whispered.
“Hell yes,” Katie said out loud.
“What?” Armani asked, looking at her curiously.
“I’ll save those people, Armani, but first I have some fucking scum to get rid of,” she told him, pulling a gun from her hip.
She turned to her side, pulled open the helicopter door, and jumped.
Armani reached for her, but she was already too far below to hear him yell. It was at least three stories to the ground, but it felt like she was gliding through the air, more powerful than she had felt so far.
She landed on her feet, her knees absorbing the shock, right in the center of the demons. They all turned toward her, their growls and snarls ceasing as they smelled Pandora’s scent on the Damned in front of them.
While not hard at times to confuse demons, this was a total mindfuck to them.
Katie slowly straightened, throwing her ponytail back over her head and pointing the gun forward. The helicopters were trying to land behind her, but mostly just blowing sand into the air.
She smiled, looking at each of the trembling demons in front of her in turn. Revenge was going to be hers. There would be no going back.
Let’s kick some ass, Pandora said.
Katie smiled. You got it.
She pulled the other gun from her holster and pointed both forward, pulling the triggers and, sending two bullets whizzing through the air. One struck a larger demon right between the eyes and the other struck the demon to his left in the chest.
The second demon flew backward and landed on its ass, then writhed and growled on the ground.
She wasn’t playing games anymore.
19
Everyone stay calm,” Korbin yelled, running through the group of humans. They had quickly moved back when Katie opened fire on the demons. “I need to get you all to safety. I want you to turn around and head straight for the back of the buildings. Hold hands, help each other…just move as fast as you can,” he called to them, pointing them in the direction he needed them to go.
A scream rang out in the back of the group and Korbin turned, pulling up his gun.
He moved forward as people sprinted past. One of the demons had attacked, toppling a human to the ground.
The woman was old and half-alive. The beast had ripped her stomach open.
Korbin pulled the trigger, blowing a hole in the side of the demon’s head as he ran towards the two. He kicked the demon’s body away from the old woman and knelt beside her, holding her hand tightly in his.
She looked up at him with sadness and a smile, nodding her head as her eyes turned to the sky. Korbin swallowed hard and gripped her hand as she took her last long breath.
He lowered his head, grinding his teeth, anger surging through his body as he looked around to see who and what was near him.
He dropped his rifle on its quick-sling and put his arms beneath the woman, then picked her up and cradled her lifeless body.
Many of the people stopped moving and watched as he walked toward them. Calvin stepped forward and took the woman from Korbin, nodding in understanding. “The job of safety is yours now.”
Korbin pu
lled his AR up from his quick-sling and aimed it toward a Damned who was too far gone to save. He blasted it with bullets and watched sadly as its body hit the ground. He didn’t like to take lives even when they couldn’t be saved, but he knew if he didn’t they would take an innocent or even one of his own team.
The fuckers had to be stopped, no matter what.
CALVIN PUSHED THE PEOPLE BACK, still holding the body of the woman Korbin had handed him.
There had been a look on Korbin’s like he had never seen before.
There was more tragedy at that one scene than Calvin had witnessed in his entire career. That might not have been true with Korbin—who had led soldiers in war before—he knew it was taking a toll on everyone.
He had to focus, though. He had to get these people away from the compound and out to the highway where the California sector of their organization was meeting them with safe transport.
“Everyone stays close together,” he called, moving to the head of the group. “Follow me. If anyone needs help, call out. I’ll get you to safety.”
Calvin pushed the group as fast as he could, but most were the commune’s elderly and children and all of them were terrified.
They pushed through the gates of the commune and out onto the road leading to the highway. As they reached a turn in the road, Calvin stopped and stared at a man with no red ring in his eye. He wore a white lab coat over an expensive suit, and had his hands in his pockets.
“We need these people,” he shouted. “You cannot be allowed to take them.”
“You don’t need these people,” Calvin shouted right back. “You were going to slaughter them where they stood.”
“He is coming,” the man said, pulling a gun from his pocket. “He will Damn you all, and the ones who fight will burn for eternity.”
“But you’re human,” Calvin said in disbelief. “Put the gun down, and I can get you to safety as well.”
“There is no such thing as safety.” He laughed maniacally as he pointed the gun at the group.
“Put the gun down,” Calvin roared, still cradling the body but pointing his weapon. “I don’t want to do this, but I will if I have to.”
“You are cowards running from the destiny inside you,” he said. “And now you will all die.”
The man’s gun was pointed at a child. In a second Calvin pulled the trigger and watched as the body was blown back, the skull fragments splattering behind him as the body hit the ground.
Calvin hung his head. He’d had to kill his own kind, a man who had been Damned by nothing more than his own fear.
He turned his head at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder. An older gentleman nodded at him and took the body he was clinging to from his arms.
“Get us to safety,” he told Calvin. “I’ll take her. You are our hope.”
Calvin stood up straight and nodded, then pushed forward through the pain and the fear. But never again would he rid himself of the deep-seated anger inside him.
DEREK CROUCHED against the wall inside one of the old dusty barns. He could hear a horse screeching in pain, and he hated the sound even more than the screams of humans. Slowly he crawled across the floor, inching closer to the stall.
He could hear the wet growls and tearing of flesh from inside the enclosure. He knew there was a demon in there, one who must have run off when the guns started firing. They had spread out when Katie had landed in the center like a badass ninja.
He had to admit she had really jumped it up a notch and gotten everyone stoked as hell. She had been that girl he had seen in the Vegas street, with moves that he hadn’t seen before, not even on a Damned with a Level-Four demon.
He didn’t know what Kool-Aid she was drinking, but he was definitely going to hit her up for some if he got out of there.
He scooted up to the edge of the stall and peeked around the corner. A demon was finishing off a horse, and puddles of blood had soaked into the hay. He turned back, pressing his back against the wood and letting out a deep breath. You got this. You are not going to die in some damn commune in the middle of nowhere.
He counted to three and, grasping his 9mm tightly in his hands, he turned and aimed the gun at where the demon had been sitting. He blinked, panic fighting to get in, when he realized the demon was no longer there. He looked all around the stall, but there was no trace of him.
His eyes scanned up the wall, where he saw two bloody clawed footprints. He followed them up the wall to a beam overhead.
As he focused on the beam a single drop of blood fell from it, splashing just below his eye. He shook his head, but by the time he was able to look back up the demon was plummeting toward him.
The beast hit him hard, taking Derek to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
His single shot was wasted, hitting a wooden beam that wasn’t even near the demon.
Derek grabbed the demon’s forehead and held it back as it attempted to take a bite out of his face. He struggled, but his body wasn’t as strong as this demon’s. Desperately he turned, looking for anything that could help him, and found a long-handled gardening hoe on the ground. He reached for it, but his fingertips barely grazed the end of the handle.
“Come on,” he groaned through gritted teeth.
He yelled, pushing his heels into the dirt and forcing his body back. He grabbed the hoe, and pulled it to himself to use it like a quarterstaff. He pushed the demon back and pivoted the handle, knocking the demon to the left as he rolled to the right. He got to his knees and then to his feet, raised the tool over his head, and swung it over and over at the demon.
“I. Will. Not. Die. Here. You. Ugly. Piece. Of. Rotted. Flesh.” He finally stopped swinging, staring at the body a moment before kicking it. “And your fucking breath stinks!”
He spat at the demon and threw the hoe, then straightened and dusted off his hands. He pulled down on his shirt, nodded his head, and started out, proud of the work he had done. He snatched his pistol off the ground as he passed it and walked out of the barn, limping slightly from his fall.
“You all right?” Garrett yelled to him.
“Yeah,” he answered in a high-pitched voice. “Just doing a little gardening.”
Derek kept walking and Garrett looked at him in confusion, but then shrugged his shoulders and continued tending to the wounded.
There were humans here who hadn’t been Damned, but were too injured to make the walk to safety. Garrett wanted to help fight, but he knew his place was here, trying to save anyone he could. He walked to a little girl who was curled into a ball against the building.
“Hey,” Garrett said, leaning down. “Are you hurt?”
The little girl shook her head no.
“Where is your mommy or daddy?”
The little girl looked at him with wide eyes and pointed toward the fountain. Garrett turned around slowly and let out a deep breath. Impaled on the pointed top of the fountain were a man and a woman, their mouths open and their eyes staring at Garrett.
He grabbed his chest with his hand as a touch of fear moved through him.
He closed his eyes for a moment, bringing visions of his boys running through the tall grasses with smiles and laughter on their faces into his mind.
He opened his eyes again and leaned down, picking the girl up in his arms and ran her over to one of the buildings that had been secured.
A woman met him at the door.
“Her parents are on the fountain.” He answered the unasked question.
She nodded and took the girl from Garrett, carrying her over to the others. Garrett wiped the sweat from his forehead. Anger surged through him as he walked away, looking around for anyone else who might need him.
“Help,” a man’s voice called from the side.
Garrett grabbed his bag and ran over to him. He had accidentally been shot in the leg in the spray of bullets at the beginning.
Garrett leaned down and lifted his chin.
“Look into my eyes,” he commanded, taking a flash
light and checking his pupils for red circles.
He was clear.
It was the first time he had felt relief since he got here.
GOD DAMN SHE’S FAST, Katie said as she chased down one of the Damned. She had hoped the woman wasn’t too far gone, but when she turned the corner and watched a dagger fly past inches from her face and stick into the wall next to her, she knew the woman wasn’t going to be saved. Katie just stood there for a minute, dazed by the scene. There were bodies everywhere, and the woman was standing amongst them.
That bitch almost hit you with a knife in the face, Pandora growled. Fucking kick her ass.
You got it, Katie thought breathlessly as she bolted toward her.
She dove forward, tackling the Damned and rolling with her across the dirt and dust.
The Damned hissed and growled, her eyes almost completely red and her features twisting.
“Oh, shut the fuck up!” Katie grabbed a knife from her belt and plunged the dagger deep into the woman’s heart, twisting it at the last. “Death by porous heart, coming up,” Katie got out.
Seriously? was all Pandora asked.
“Arnold would have said it,” Katie spat out loud, leaving the knife in.
The demon screamed for just a moment before her body went completely limp. Katie climbed off, breathing heavily and shaking her head. She leaned against the wall for a moment to catch her breath.
Don’t stop now, Pandora barked. There are two full demons left. I can feel them.
Right. Katie pulled herself away from the wall. You are brutal, you know that?
I know, Pandora chirped happily.
Katie picked up the pace, running from the building and turning the corner into the open area. She looked around, finding that almost all the threat had been cornered.
Katie watched as the others fought off newly Damned, some dying and others being restrained and tranquilized. Garrett was bandaging a wounded man against the barn. As her eyes moved upward, she caught sight of a demon creeping up on Garrett.