Judgement (The Twelve)

by Jeff Ashcroft

  “What are you?” Pat asked in a stunned voice.

  Chris smiled, “Something you don’t want to be.”

  One of the three security agents helped the male to his feet. The women were made of stronger stuff and followed on steadier feet with whispers of thanks to Anvil and the others.

  Chris looked around and his eyes fixed on the second tunnel, “They are still at the Graveyard. That way.”

  Anvil didn’t argue, just strode off into the dark with Priest and the others hot on his tail. Only Speed and Huntress held back with Chris who was looking down at the corpses.

  “Not a pretty sight.” Huntress commented.

  Chris said nothing for a second, before stating matter of factually, “It ends today.”

  Patch asked from the dark, “As a matter of fact anyone know how to get to the Cross Roads Bone yard from down here?”

  Chris smiled, “Actually I do.”

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Up on the street the soldiers took charge of the captives and led them away to nearby ambulances. A few minutes later a Sergeant ran up to his commanding officer, the Queens Captain of the Guards, Phillip Simmons, “Sir the medical team say that the survivors state some sort of monsters ate, and I repeat, ate some of the captives and when requested further they say and get this Sir, the one with the wide brimmed hat. He set a dozen of those monsters on fire with just a sweep of his bloody overcoat. What’s going on Sir?”

  Captain Simmons was just as much in the dark. He was about to speak when one of his men shouted, “Enemy sighted!”

  Captain Simmons spun around to see at least five hundred……creatures, heading at a slow trot down a main road directly towards him and his men, directly across from Embankment and the bridge.

  “Sikes!” he bellowed.

  Up ran his corporal and radio operator.”Sir”

  “Order the tank to make ready with his heavy calibre machine guns. Tell him to open fire when my men start firing. Save the main gun, lets try and keep the damage to the buildings down.”

  As the radio operator was relaying orders, Captain Simmons ran to where his men were kneeling or lying in a curved line across Embankment with the Bridge.

  “Prone positions, pick your targets and open fire on my command.” He shouted.

  Simmons checked the positions of his men he didn’t have time to wonder what the hell these things were. He was a professional soldier and they were the enemy, done and dusted. But what the hell were they? He took stock of his surroundings and realised that they must have been responsible for almost destroying London.

  “Pick your targets, semi auto and ……!” He was about to shout fire when…

  All hell let loose just behind and slightly to his left, as ‘One Shot’ Harrison and two other Starlight security agents opened fire with three General Electric, electrically driven, 6000 rounds per minute, M134 Miniguns!

  Each rotating Gatling gun, spewed a five foot long flame of fire, as thousands of 7.62 mm rounds blasted the Shades to shreds!

  “……Open fire!” a shocked Simmons finished saying.

  The security agents had previously backed three Range Rovers in a line onto Embankment. Simmons had thought they were intended as personal carriers for the civvies, but no! Miniguns for Christ’s sake! Where did they get the bloody things from? Even he couldn’t requisition them for the regiment.

  He jumped slightly as the heavy machine guns opened up on the tank to his right, ’Jesus get a grip!’

  “Sergeant Harding!” Simmons bellowed to be heard.

  His regimental drill Sergeant scuttled over, “Sir.”

  “My compliments to those…gentlemen.” He pointed to the mini gunners. “Ask one of them to sweep the area over there.” He pointed to a second group of some one hundred and forty odd Shades and ghouls coming from a narrow side street, further up Embankment over to there left.

  “Buggers are trying to come up on my flank.”

  The Sergeant saluted and scuttled off to obey. Meanwhile Simmons noticed another group of at least two hundred, coming from the right. The bastards were climbing up out of the water, onto Embankment directly next to the bloody tank.

  Simmons ran over and shouted up at the private manning the .50 calibre machine gun. “Button up!”

  The soldier glanced towards him, then to his right. He didn’t need telling twice and slammed shut the hatch, just as several Shades swarmed over the turret.

  Simmons slapped a soldier on the head, “Pick five men and get them off that bloody tank.”

  ‘My God, it’s taking at least a dozen rounds to blow those things apart.’

  A Shade came up behind him, “Jesus were the hell have you sprung from!” He opened fire point blank range on full auto. Each round hit the Shade, ripping into its grey slime covered body, zipped the bloody thing right up the middle, three rounds to the head, with shots pinging off the bridge supports.

  The thing exploded and he nearly jumped out of his skin as his regimental drill sergeant spoke calmly in his left ear, “Control your shots sir! You’re firing like a bloody recruit.”

  A huge man, one of those damn security people appeared at his side. He held a Manville Projectile Launcher, a huge barrelled gun with a 25mm rotating drum.

  He smiled at the Captain, “Fuckin Irish, a load of pussies!”

  He aimed the weapon over the heads of the prone solders, “Fire in the hole!”

  Each high explosive round was an invention of his own, the compressed explosive was five times stronger than standard C4, unlike the mini guns, which hadn’t had time to be blessed or the round to be dipped in holy water. ‘Boom Boom’ had taken the time to dunk each and every round in a local abandoned church font!

  ‘I may not be this Priest geezer but holy water’s holy water’ he’d thought.

  The first round blew ten Shades to kingdom come as he emptied the weapon in a spreading field of fire. Several prone solders glanced over the shoulders to see who was firing. Shades exploded along with bits of road, pavement and even an old fashioned telephone box. His grin however faded as a hundred giant Shades lumbered into view. All appeared to be wearing metal body armour, that looked like rusting steel plates, pop riveted to there bodies! Each one carried a massive spiked mace. ‘Boom’ let fly with a round that landed right amongst them. Several staggered but none went down. “Shit!”

  One of the creatures let fly with its home made mace. Spinning through the air it blasted a furrow through the solders, killing five instantly and wounding as many more.

  The soldier manning the tanks interior machine gun was firing blind as he had a monsters face, or what appeared to be a face, spread across the thick armoured glass panel above the weapon looking in at him.

  He shouted to his boss, “Lieutenant Winters Sir can’t see for shit!”

  “Damn it, cease fire.”

  The main gunner managed to get a brief view of the scene before him and saw the giants lumbering across the street, seventy feet away.

  “Target acquired!” He shouted

  Winters thrust his head down, “What target?”

  “Fuckin big ones …sir!”

  Winters swore under his breath, checked himself and made a command decision, “ HE up and fire!”

  “Away!” the gunner bellowed.

  The tank recoiled as the high explosive round covered the distance in the blink of an eye. He scored lucky, the round hit one of the monsters in the head and blew it off. The thing fell apart in a shower of sparks and ash. The steel plating fell with several clangs to the ground.

  Simmons was fighting for his life, several Shades had jumped over the tank and where coming for him and the few men he held in reserve, all were firing on full auto but they still came on. ‘Boom Boom’ glanced to his left and quickly spoke into his concealed throat mike, “One shot!”

  ‘Boom Boom’ pointed a finger towards the approaching Shades. Harrison raised a thumb then stabbed it downwards.

  ‘Boom Boom,’ “Shou
ted in his best drill sergeant voice, “Captain Sir, incoming! Hit the deck now!”

  Simmons was to good a soldier to hesitate, “Down flat!” He bellowed at the men around him. All obeyed without thinking, which was just as well, for Harrison swivelled the mini gun sideways and opened fire. Even though not blessed, the lethal discharge of hundreds of rounds per second at close quarters turned the Shades to pulp, then ash. Harrison gave the tank a quick spray before turning away with a quick wave towards ‘Boom Boom’.

  For those inside the tank, it sounded like giant hail stones were pummelling them senseless. The gunner had both ears covered, “Bloody hell fire.”

  Winters knew they’d just been cleansed with machine gun fire, “That’s exactly right Jimmy. Gunners find a target!”

  The machine gunner had a clear field of fire and opened up on those grey monsters. Jesus look at those big buggers.

  The main tank gunner loaded another HE round and not only blew one of the giants to ash but the round took out the entire left side of another that tried to carry on walking!

  “Jimmy you see that?” he called

  Jimmy had and finished the creature off with a .50 round burst that first blew its other leg off, followed by an arm and finally the head which finished it off. He grinned. It reminded him of the famous black knight scene in a Monty Python film when one by one the knights limbs were cut off. Finally just its head and shoulders remained as it shouted, ‘Tis nothing but a flesh wound.’

  “Flesh wound that, you sod!”

  The Shades had been halved in number but still they came on. Any second and it would be hand to hand combat.

  Simmons could think of but one order and it certainly wasn’t going to be retreat, “Fix bayonets!”

  The mini guns had ceased firing. They’d overheated and needed time to cool down. Harrison wasn’t going to wait instead he climbed up on top of his vehicle with his second favourite weapon, a grenade launcher. A giant Shades mace flew through the air, hit the back of Harrison’s Range Rover, ripped off the door, smashed the mini gun to pulp along with a security agent, ricocheted upwards and sent Harrison flying backwards together with a section of the roof.

  Twenty Four

  Back in the sewer, Chris followed Anvil along the narrow ledge as the sewer grew narrower. The others followed behind him, silent and deadly. Anvil stopped next to a wide rusty iron ladder leading upwards to a ledge some fifteen feet above. He gently tapped the ladder, it sounded solid enough, Looking down he saw a fresh pile of rust on the concrete floor.

  Huntress stepped up, bent down and fingered the rust, “Someone’s climbed this ladder not to long ago.”

  Bulls Eye and Heartless looked upwards, “I wonder what’s up there besides that street grid?” Heartless asked.

  Slash gripped the ladder with his one good hand, “Only one way to find out.”

  “Bugger I hate climbing!” Priest muttered.

  Patch giggled, “Isn’t buggering a no, no, Priest?”

  He turned bright red, “Right you are. Score one point to you.”

  Anvil tapped Slash on the shoulder and pointed upwards, “Wait on the ledge above.”

  Slash climbed first, followed by Bulls Eye and Heartless.

  Heartless whispered down that it was all clear but not much space for any more. He explained that there was a walkway running along a narrow tunnel with a low head space, “The good news is I don’t think it’s a sewer. The bad news is I can’t see how far it goes.” He glanced up at the sewer grate above his head, “Do we go up?”

  Chris climbed the ladder to check, he hung there staring into the brick walled tunnel for some time. Finally he called out to everyone, “This leads to the graveyard but it’s going to be about a half mile walk m with branches running off every now and again that will lead to other sewers.”

  Priest had heard of this tunnel, “We need to stay on the main walkthrough as it used to be called in Victorian times.”

  Climbing back down, Chris whispered to Anvil, “Actually It’s at least eight miles of twists and turns. Some parts have heavy concentrations of Methane gas. I need to take everyone into the In-Between place to get us through and that will include Jennings and his men.”

  Anvil glanced upwards, before looking back along the tunnel to Jennings and his people. “You can take them all?” He asked.

  Chris nodded, turning he called to Jennings, “I haven’t time to explain. I’m just going to make the trip seem…quicker and quieter. You will experience a change in the colour around you. Everything will appear in black and white and you will experience a feeling of moving very fast whilst you’re walking normally. Just try and relax.”

  Jennings called back, “Care to explain that?”

  Chris answered, “I haven’t got time just trust me. It won’t hurt you.”

  Judgment guided Chris who concentrated and Anvil felt Chris envelope everyone in some sort of invisible blanket. Then with a slight pop he found himself in the familiar In-Between place. He was really impressed, normal humans shouldn’t be able to move into the In Between. Chris was fast becoming the master here.

  Without a word, for Chris needed to concentrate, he set off with the others following behind. It only seemed like a few minutes had passed when Chris called for a halt. In reality Anvil knew it would have taken them hours in normal time to get here. If in fact they ever did, for he sensed them passing through at least three small deadly methane pockets and realised Chris had actually trapped clean air in with them as they moved.

  Chris stood upright in a much larger open chamber, with dozens of very small pipes running off in different directions. An old mattress lay in the corner with a wooden crate next to it. Several old burnt down candles lay on the crate together with an old comic book and a very mouldy half eaten sandwich.

  Bulls Eye looked around the cramped area, “Nice place to live.” He smirked.

  Chris smiled faintly, “I thought so.”

  Patch caught her gasp just in time, “You lived down here!”

  Chris nodded, “Before cardboard city I tried several places out. This was just one of them. I thought I recognised the tunnel. Could only go along it a short distance though, the gas got pretty awful and the air got very bad but I somehow sort of recognised the tunnel even from the opposite end. I think I can thank Judgement for that.”

  Huntress called from back in the narrow tunnel, “Don’t want to hurry you up but my back is killing me back here!”

  Chris pointed to a ladder set in the far wall, “That way leads up and out into a crypt. The place was covered over but was unearthed when the council started to flatten the land at this end. They didn’t know about the crypt, it shouldn’t really be here. As my father explained, the people found out the lands true origin and blocked the council building on it. I found my way down into the tunnels, via the collapsed earth around the remains of the crypt. It was my home until the council security guards found me. They gave me a beating and threw me out. They use the land as a council storage area for bio waste and a few out of service buses, street repair and maintenance vehicles. ”

  Jennings glanced back at the faces of some of his startled men and women, ‘Did he say a bloody crypt?’

  But before he could ask, Chris was leading the way up. ‘His people didn’t even look surprised when he said crypt for Gods sake!’

  Chris was true to his word and led them into a musty dry crypt which had several mattresses and camp cots placed around an old paraffin heater. Old clothing, some covered in mould spores lay littered around the floor. Weirdly enough a large antique looking free standing mirror, stood off in one corner next to a proper oak framed bed.

  Anvil was instantly on his guard, “We’ve come up right inside The Darks home. Trust them to use an old crypt.”

  Priest touched one cold moss covered block stone wall and hastily withdrew it, “Not sanctified or blessed. Whoever built this did so without the blessing of the church or God.”

  Heartless looked around, �
�Some dead whores wealthy sugar daddy maybe?”

  Bulls Eye had both weapons out and ready, “Lucky no ones at home.”

  Priest pointed out the mirror that Patch was admiring herself in, “I think that belongs to Coffee, as does the bed.”

  Patch drew her sword and raised it to smash the glass. Speed tut tutted, “Seven years bad luck.”

  Anvil looked to Chris, “Best check out the area so we can prepare an ambush.”

  Chris nodded, “This way is out, be prepared.”

  ‘Out’, led them into a fairly large undulating bulldozed area. It was raining heavily as they checked out surrounding hillocks of different sizes and shapes, all made from rubble clay and rain soaked earth covered in weeds and the occasional bush or shrub. Ditches ran here and there all filled with rain water. Old council vehicles lay dotted around the area, abandoned in small bulldozed flat areas with a winding pathway that led to a steel mesh fence and a big rusty Iron gate covered in different coloured bunting, all faded with age as well as ivy, ribbons, flowers, feathers, jewellery and other curious totems.