It was Chris’s turn to get the accusing finger,” War. That means blood and death and collateral damage. Civilians will die. ”
Priest looked confused, “What else did you expect?”
“I hate wars! I hate all the damn killings. I could just about stomach it when Anvil told me we were here to save the human race from the occasional monster, but now we’re getting them involved in a war! ”
Heartless looked down at the floor, “You want to know something? I got blown up by an unexploded shell as we were marching away from the trenches on Armistice Day. I was thinking just before the blast, that finally all the killing was over. Then boom! The next thing I remember was Anvil and missing my hands. I laughed in his face when he told me that I’d been re- born as a warrior to protect mankind! But he made me these hands and I believed him. Since then all I’ve known is death and I’ve had enough”
Anvil tired to answer but couldn’t, neither could Priest or anyone else, except for Chris.
Chris looked out from under the brim of his hat. His voice resonated through the warehouse, “God shall reward those most trusted when sacrifice is made in order that his people and the souls he created are saved from the Fallen One.”
Chris walked over to Heartless, “Your pain is great but you are a good man, otherwise you would not have been re-born. When we destroy the evil that threatens us, you shall rejoice that which you most desire.”
Heartless stood there for several moments, staring into Chris’s eyes, trying to find a lie and failing. He managed a quick nod of his head, “You promise?”
Chris nodded and Heartless grinned without humour, “Let’s get it done then.”
Speed whispered to Slash, “What was that all about?”
“Don’t know but it stopped Heartless bloody moaning.” replied Slash out loud.
He winked at Heartless to show he was only joking,” Hey amigos what say you help me get my battle vest ready?”
Heartless took a deep breath, patted Chris once on the shoulder and walked over to join Slash who was walking towards the bedroom area. Patch saw the questioning look from Chris and explained that Slash had a special leather jerkin that contained five spring loaded metal sheaths running down the left hand side angled towards his throwing hand. Each sheath contained four flat bladed throwing knives, “He pulls one out and the next slides into place. Anvil designed it for him, ready for this coming war. In fact we’ve all got special weapons in storage. Mine is my father’s swords. Huntress, a carbon fibre super bow with explosive arrow heads. Heartless with his curved sword attachment, that can cut through steel plate. Speed has a pair of gauntlets with razor sharp metal edges and short curved blades like claws along the top of each knuckle. Priest has a steel helm and body armour. He’s like a reinforced rhino. Bulls Eye has a whole slew of weapons that you wouldn’t believe. Anvil, well he has that amazing hammer, nothing beats that.”
Chris removed his hat to scratch his head, ”What about me?”
Patch took his head in hers, “Chris you’re the most powerful weapon of all.”
Anvil was talking to Huntress, and looked up, “I’m sending Huntress out tomorrow with both of you in civilian clothes. I want you to check out the area that Jennings mentioned down around Embankment and Waterloo Bridge. See if you can find any trace of the Dark.”
Anvil saw the look Chris and Priest gave him, “I know Shadow gave us another location but something tells me we need to check this out first. Always scout the surrounding areas before going in for the attack.”
Patch grabbed Chris by the hand, pulling him towards the bedrooms, “Nothing to do today then except heal and you know what they say about healing?”
Chris smiled,” What?”
“Best done flat on your back!”
Anvil watched them both disappear into the sleeping quarters and allowed himself a half smile. He realised Rage had crept up behind him, which was no mean feat considering his size, “You do move quiet for a big lad.”
Rage grunted, “Anvil we go way back when. We’re both from warrior stock and know the way of battle but young Chris there….” He left the question un-finished.
Anvil opened the fridge door to remove several more cooked chicken legs, he offered some to Rage replying, “That lad just destroyed one of The Dark.”
Rage held a chicken leg up as if to make a point then lowered it,” Hum forgot that. Maybe Chris is the better warrior out of us all?”
Anvil took a bite of his chicken and thought that through, finally when he answered, he found several of the others had gathered to hear his reply, “No, I don’t think so. You and I are trained to fight and kill, we draw up strategies, plan our attacks but we kill. Chris wasn’t acting as a warrior when he destroyed Shadow. He looked so sad when he did it. I think he believed he was doing Shadow a favour when he judged him, I saw the look on Shadows face. It was similar to the one on Heartlesses a few moments ago.”
Heartless, sitting on one of the settees checking his metal claw, glanced up but said nothing, he just shrugged and carried on checking the hinged joint on his evil looking clawed pincer.
Priest took an offered chicken leg, “Involving normal people is something new. Do we need to meet and greet all his men?”
Anvil wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, “The simple answer is yes. I believe the rules have changed again. The Dark can recruit more re-born, we can’t. So we’ve been allowed to use Jennings and his men. It all balances up in the end.”
Priest bit into his chicken, Dark against humans?”
“Humans that are all ex specialist solders, who are hard as nails and with ammo we will provide.”
Priest pointed out the obvious, “The Dark will want retribution for the destruction of Shadow. The next move is there’s unless Huntress and the others find something down at Embankment.”
Huntress took the last chicken leg, “So we go out tomorrow. Why not today?”
“Time to heal.” was the simple reply.
Speed looked at the empty plate, “Any more food left I’m starving.”
Priest grinned,” Tell you what. I’ll cook us up a load of smoked Haddock. How’s that sound?”
Speed rubbed his stomach,” How long will that take?”
Priest belched,” As long as it takes me to steam the Haddock, boil up a few pounds of new potatoes dripping in butter and bake four loaves of bread, all hot and soaked in lovely butter as well. I’ll even throw in three bottles of 1983 Chateau Mouton Rothschild that I’ve been saving for a special occasion.”
Speed grinned,” Sounds like a modern version of the Last Supper.”
None of the others laughed.
Chapter sixteen
Across the city, Jennings was greeting the first of his people. The Security Company owned a shooting range and armoury. There was a large conference room attached to the range complete with a map wall. London was currently displayed.
The room could seat sixteen plus the Chair. Presently it held fifty six field agents. Men and female ex special forces, called in from all four corners of the globe. All current operational duties were suspended, which caused a few to question this decision as they where body guards to top government officials and members of four Royal house holds around the world. But Jennings message had been brief, this was a triple A recall. That meant, ‘get your arses back here pronto, the shits hitting the fan.’
Jennings had two deputies, an ex- lieutenant from the Para’s, called Pat Mackinnon. Six foot three, broad across the shoulders, broken nose and looked like a bouncer, but clever as hell and an expert with explosives. His nick name was ‘Boom Boom’. He was a master when it came to using C4 and other chemical explosives.
The other was an ex- Staff Sergeant from the SAS but a different unit to the one Jennings had been in charge of. Mike ‘Sure Shot’ Edwards was a normal looking sort of guy. He hid his well muscled and finely honed body behind casual slacks and a baggy open necked Hawaiian shirt. He been recalled from Kuwait and hadn�
�t has time to change. Once he removed his sunglasses however, his eyes gave him away, grey, cold like a shark. He was a pure killing machine, expert with the knife, garrotte and the Big Gun. His weapon of choice was the McMillan Tac-50 sniper rifle that fired the big .50 calibre round, accurate up to 1,600 metres, but Mike had made a kill at 1,900 metres. That was one mean firearm.
Jennings had already prepped both men and it had taken him quite some time to win them over. If it wasn’t for the fact that both knew him so well, they would have dismissed him as mad and walked away. Now Jennings was trying to explain the situation to the rest of his team and already hands were flying skywards. After half an hour of answering questions, the entire subject material was made easier to explain. The firing range was protected by a silent intruder alarm. A red flashing strobe suddenly came on over the map wall.
Jennings turned to ‘Boom Boom’ Mackinnon and asked him to check the entry door which had been left locked. No sooner had he left the room, when the re-enforced door burst open and in flew Mackinnon, landing with a heavy thud on his back.
Mike Edwards who was nearest the door wondered who the hell could have done that to Pat. The guy was a human tank. His answer came in the form of three deformed and obviously dead individuals, two men and one female to be precise. Each one was in a different status of decay and each one stunk the place out. The ghouls burst into the room, followed by a dozen or so grey faceless monsters.
Instantly the scene was changed to one of utter chaos. Three men fell, ripped apart were they stood. Then training kicked in, weapons where drawn and now return fire was given. Two of the ghouls were literally blasted apart by fire from ten different side arms. But the Shades were inside very quickly and now there was a chance of hitting each other. Jennings had one pinned against the wall so he blasted it several time until it exploded. His gun had been blessed by Judgement. The other agents hadn’t been issued with the new ammo yet.
Some carried knives which they drew and used to slice off huge chunks of body parts. ‘Boom Boom’ had recovered enough to use the first weapon that came to hand, a steel framed chair. One of the Shades flew across the table with its head caved in. It tried to rise and as it did, ‘Boom Boom’ dived across the polished table and brought the chair down with so much force it smashed the creature to the floor. Mike pulled his pistol and careful precision aimed with his arm outstretched. The creature came upright and Mike shot it once in the right eye, it staggered but stayed upright so he shot it again in the left eye. The Shade exploded in a spreading cloud of red hot ash.
Mike was struck dumb, “What the fu…”
Pat ‘Boom Boom’ Mackinnon threw his chair at another Shade, “Cover fire!” He ordered in a drill Sergeants voice.
Jennings added,” Normal weapons are no good unless fired in concentration. We need to blow these things apart, best aim for what goes for their necks. Decapitate them and they explode. Back up towards the firing range, form two lines down by the target area.
The door to the range stood three quarters of the way down the conference room. Most made it as ordered some weren’t so lucky. Jennings tried to help a wounded man by the name of Reilly but he was snatched from his hands by the remaining ghoul, who sank its teeth into Reilly’s neck. Jennings recognised a dead man walking when he saw one. Instead he grabbed a female who was laying semi unconscious and dragged her through the door. He passed her to ‘Sure Shot’, “ Grab hold, I think I can reach Thomas.”
The man in question was crawling towards him on hands and knees; he was bleeding badly from a head wound. A Shade jumped upon his back but before Jennings could shoot, Sure Shots gun discharged directly behind him and at the same moment the bullet struck the creature in the forehead, an arrow pierced its skull from behind and the thing exploded.
A beautiful white haired woman stood in the door way armed with a large hunting bow, he recognised her as being the one called Huntress. She ran forward, somersaulted over one of the Shades who was feeding off one of his men and landed on the table. The one called Hot Cross was next. In his hands he held balls of lightning.
‘Boom Boom’ strode up to protect his boss who was pulling Thomas back to the door of the firing range, “Shit me not! Are they the ones you talked about?”
Jennings grunted as he kept pulling Thomas across the floor and watched Hot Cross laugh as he threw first one then the other ball of lightning. Two Shades violently exploded into a cloud of drifting red hot ash.
Hot Cross strode into the room to make way for Judgement. As far as Jennings and ‘Boom Boom’ where concerned, time visually slowed down as Judgment slowly entered the conference room, each slow step he took echoed with each footfall upon the carpeted floor.
The Shades that ran at him veered away in panic. Those still fighting or feasting on Jennings team stopped everything and backed away in fear. With his wide brimmed hat covering his eyes and with his head slightly downcast. Judgement approached the centre of the fifty foot long room, but a thirty foot solid three quarter ton mahogany conference table stood in his way. Judgement lifted one foot and kicked out. The table slid the full length of the room as if made from cardboard. With a resounding crash it struck and partially embedded itself in the stud wall. Judgement stepped forward until he stood centre stage, “Get the wounded out now.” He ordered.
Huntress grabbed two that were still able to walk. Hot Cross lifted another female who was unconscious but alive. Jennings ran into his conference room and lifted up a man who he knew was called Patterson. The man was bleeding badly from a neck bite but still alive. That left three bodies. With his eye on the cowering Shades, ‘Boom Boom’ checked the others, “Dead. “ He explained to this strange youth wearing a wide brimmed Preachers hat.
The south wall suddenly burst inwards as a giant Shades head and shoulders forced its way through the shattered breeze block. ‘Boom reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of King Edward cigars.
The female archer raised her eyebrows, damn she was pretty, “Strange time for a cigar.” She shouted from across the room.
‘Boom’ grinned broke the packs spine with an audible click, “Fire in the hold!” He yelled.
Running forward, he thrust the cigars into the creatures gaping maw, “Smoking can damage your health big boy!” He yelled before diving out of the way. A flash of light was followed by an explosive blast. The Shades head disintegrated, covering the room in tiny bits of grey slime and ruddy flesh before its body collapsed, blocking the hole.
‘Boom’ looked up, “In your case it proved fatal knob head.”
“Everyone get out of this room now.”Chris ordered. “Judgement is coming.”
‘Sure Shot’ didn’t like the sound of whatever the hell Judgment was, but it sounded final. Gun covering the room, he waited until the strange woman with the white flowing hair and the man who seemed to be able to shoot electricity from his hands backed into the corridor leading to the firing range. Jennings and ‘Boom’ were the last but one to leave, “’Mike get your arse in here now!”
“Roger that.” Mike replied as he fired off three more rounds. At the doorway he turned to see the kid was still in the room! He started back but the kid held up a hand towards him and bugger if he wasn’t pushed physically back through he open doorway.
Chris let Judgement take control, he stood with arms folded as if waiting for something else to happen. He didn’t have to wait long. With a crashing rendering impact, the doorway into the conference room, together with the frame and several breeze blocks, crashed inwards. A new member of The Dark entered. This one was larger than even Rage. It resembled a Neanderthal, heavy of brow, low on intelligence. “I am Brick Head sent here to kill humans. You human, so me kill you.”
At the sight of Brick Head, some of the other cowering Shades now snarled or hissed in anger and slowly they moved forward prepared to attack.
Judgement raised his head until his eyes were visible. He unfolded his arms and held them wide, “Be judged.” He shouted.<
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The room started to vibrate; maps fell from the walls, picture glass shattered and a water cooler over in the corner exploded.
Huntress pulled at Jennings, urgency clearly showing in her voice. “We need to move now!”
Jennings saw the two leather clad warrior, helping one of his men drag a wounded female towards the firing range at the end of the corridor, several of his men followed, some staggered or limped, holding onto the walls for support. Jennings looked back over ‘Boom Booms’ massive shoulders and saw the giant monster. Then he saw Judgement. A glow was forming around his body! “Jesus ‘Boom’ get a friggin move on now! Code Alpha!”
Judgements eyes were glowing white, “Be judged!” his voice booming out.
The giant called Brick Head started to walk towards Chris, arms outstretched to crush him, “Brick kill human.” The top of his head shattered what was left of the overhanging strip lighting.
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