by Joey Ruff
The troll continued to come. It hit the forklift with the force of a linebacker, sending it crashing towards us, through the space where the gryphon both was and wasn’t, and crashed against the rockslide behind us. Smaller rocks crumbled from the top.
The gryphon continued to beat its wings, harder, faster, and the chain continued to slacken and then slam taut, and it shrieked an ear-splitting cry as the troll took another step closer. Every time the chain eased and tightened, it rubbed against a particularly large rock at the bottom of the stack, and every time, the boulder moved about a quarter of an inch.
“We’ve got to do something,” Ape said. “It’s gonna pull all those rocks down on us.”
“What do you want to do?” I asked. “I’ve fucking tried everything already.”
Ape’s eyes fell on the boxes of blasting dynamite along the cavern wall. “Everything?”
“Fire hasn’t worked around the gryphon. I doubt you’d be able to light the bloody things.”
The troll didn’t appear to see the gryphon. It continued to tromp closer and closer, and the gryphon stretched for it, pounded its wings towards it, and the chain clattered against the rocks defiantly.
The silver chain snapped.
With a shrill cry that sounded like an air raid siren, the gryphon dove at the troll. The troll didn’t seem to know what was happening at first, but its arms went instinctively to shield its face. It staggered back, but the gryphon hovered above it angrily, beating its wings down around it, staying just above it, striking and clawing with the talons on its forelegs.
The troll stepped directly into the beam of one of the construction lamps, and where the gryphon had been a void in space before, it began to take form once the light touched it. Orange and brown feathers began to form over the wings, across its chest, and up its neck. From the top of its head and down its nape to between its shoulder blades, the feathers bloomed wildly and looked almost like a long mane of hair. Tawny, smooth fur developed over its flanks and back, along the sweep of its tail. It was majestic and fierce, and the silver sparks in its eyes shone with what could only be righteous anger as its ebon claws carved deep lacerations across every inch of the troll’s visible skin.
With the gryphon visible, the troll howled in fury and shook. It brought the metal stump up and smacked the gryphon across the face, knocking it against the wall, but the gryphon rebounded quickly, rearing back on its hind legs and advancing at the troll as it brandished its claws and continued to beat its wings in intimidation.
Ape moved for the explosives, and Rino met him there. “I like the way you’re thinking,” Rino said quickly, and though he tried to be quiet, I could still hear him. “Uncuff me, Terry. We can take them both out, ya understand. It’ll be just like it used to be.”
“No, Rino,” he said. “You’re not the man you used to be. How could you ever think it was right to sacrifice innocent lives…?”
“Innocent,” Rino scoffed. “I forgot you were always a softie when it came to doing the heavy lifting. Maybe your condition has made you sympathetic, but in God’s eyes and the eyes of Cosa Nostra, these creatures are abominations.”
Before anything else could be said, the cave began to fill with a bright, ethereal light as the gryphon began to glow like a fluorescent jellyfish. The troll had it by the throat in its free hand, and the gryphon’s beak gnawed at the mangled digits. I could just see long, deep canyons across the troll’s chest that oozed grey puss – talon wounds that, for whatever reason, didn’t heal as the bullet wounds had. The troll began to glow as well. The light increased in intensity, and a moment later, both creatures were nothing but stark white silhouettes against a washed-out background. As the brightness hit a crescendo, I covered my eyes.
The next heartbeat, they were gone, and the light faded with them.
I heard Rino laugh before I opened my eyes. He’d slipped his cuff and stood over the explosives with a stick of dynamite in one hand. In his other, he held a metal lighter which he’d kindled to life. A malicious smile curled over his lips.
Ape opened his eyes to see him, and Stone, who sat in the far corner, wore a defeated expression. “Rino,” Ape said. “Don’t do this.”
“I knew I could count on you and your partner,” Rino answered. “Somehow, Aegir’s avoided the few gargoyles I was able to awaken so far, but with the main hive opened, he will have nowhere to run.”
“Wait,” I said. “Petrovka’s weapon…is gargoyles?”
“What else?” Rino asked. “The tales say Petrovka found the weapon and brought it here, but Petrovka only found the hive. The gargoyles dug this cavern. They were here long before anyone discovered them…long before the house. What Petrovka brought was the guardian, which you’ve now gotten rid of. And now that the gryphon isn’t here to extinguish my flames…”
“You can’t release them,” I said.
Rino laughed.
“He doesn’t care about the collateral,” Ape said.
“Yeah,” I said, remembering his earlier words. “Abominations. I’ve been hearing that a lot.”
“Halflings like the Nephilim are the reason God flooded the world,” Rino said. “Do you think He cares if I kill a few of them as I hunt down the Fallen who oppose His people?”
“They’re innocent,” I said. “Not so much Seven, but Kevin Hastings… It wasn’t his fault he was the way he was.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“You think we’re gonna let you blow that?”
“You’ll never stop me in time,” Rino said.
He lit the fuse and tossed it at our feet. I ran, but Ape pounced on it and snuffed the wick. I came up with Grace and aimed at Rino. “Make a move,” I said.
“He doesn’t get it,” Rino told Ape. The mobster turned to me. “My life doesn’t matter in the grand design. All that matters is Aegir. Kill me if you must…”
“Don’t mind if I fucking do.”
“Jono, no!” Ape called.
I pulled the trigger in the same instant that Rino tossed his lit lighter. The rifle round struck him between the eyes, and he collapsed back on the rockslide. The lighter hit the side of the wooden crate that was stamped, “Caution: Explosives.” It bounced off the ledge, twirled, and dropped inside.
Stone still stood in the corner. Her eyes were vacant as she was attempting to process everything – the troll, the gryphon, Chuck… “Natasha!” I yelled. She looked at me wearily as Ape grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to the ground. The crate began to sizzle and hiss.
I caught a glimpse of Stone, saw realization set in as her eyes went wide. She threw herself to the ground.
My hands went instinctively to cover my ears, but it was almost too late...
The crate exploded.
36
Thick clouds of dust swallowed us. I lay there with my face pressed against the dirt while the world shook, feeling Ape’s weight draped over me.
The sound was so loud and painful in the echoing cavern. I wished for silence, and after a moment, it came. Perhaps my ears had taken enough and just shut down
When I opened my eyes, the dust had mostly settled until it was nothing but a fog hanging in the air. Ape rose first, brushing the debris and few scattered stones from his clothing. His grey suit, along with his auburn hair and the sides of his face, were powder white.
As my hearing returned, the silence was replaced with a loud and constant ringing, like a siren. The backs of my eyes vibrated, and my head felt like someone was playing a bass drum between my ears.
“Jono,” Ape said, and he sounded like he was shouting through a wind tunnel. “Are you okay?”
I propped myself on my elbows and looked around. “Maybe.” I looked around at the rubble. “Where’s Stone?”
He was ominously silent for a moment. “Oh my God.”
I sat up. “Is she…?”
Ape moved to the far side of the tunnel. At first, I didn’t see what he saw. The forklift was on its side, and large rocks surrounded
it. Ape moved to the forklift and bent to get his fingers under the frame. It was heavy as shit, but with a little effort, he raised it about an inch and a half from the ground.
“Jono…,” he said with a strain.
I moved quickly. He struggled to hold the vehicle up, and as I neared, I saw blood.
“Stone?” I called.
She didn’t answer.
“Natasha? Nat?” I fell on my knees beside Ape and looked under the forklift. Her body was wedged in the open space near the driver’s seat. Her arms were over her head, and blood covered her legs. She didn’t move.
I climbed over a couple of rocks to stand over her. Shaking her gently, I said, “Stone?”
“Get her,” Ape said through clenched teeth. He was starting to shake. Normally, something like a forklift wouldn’t be that big of a deal for him – I’d seen Ape bench press a Cadillac – but I hadn’t noticed the massive boulders that pinned the bent tines to the ground and rested against the frame.
I snaked my hands down into her armpits and lifted. She didn’t give. “Her foot’s stuck,” I said. “If you can lift another couple of inches, I can pull her free.”
He took a deep breath and nodded.
“Ready?” I said.
He answered with a grunt and lifted. I pulled Stone free. Ape set the forklift down and came around to help me carry her. He looked about ready to pass out, and his face was as red as his hair normally was.
We set Stone down in a clear area, and Ape examined her foot. Bone broke through the skin at her calf, and blood spilled everywhere. He slipped out of his vest and said, “We need to stop the blood. Give me your jacket.”
“My…” I sighed, shrugged out of it, and handed it over.
He wrapped her leg as tightly as he could with a straight piece of metal he tore from the edge of the forklift. “It’s not perfect,” he said. “But it’ll do. We’ll get her to Dr. Cooper later.”
“Cooper’s gonna love that.”
I looked at Stone. She was unconscious still and looked peaceful.
Ape looked up at the cavern in front of us, to the newly opened tunnel. The rockslide that had previously blocked the entire passage now only came up a few feet. Large boulders and rocks the size of my fist were scattered everywhere. Beyond the rocks, there was nothing but darkness as the construction lamps didn’t extend beyond.
“You’re gonna wanna go in there, aren’t you?” Ape said.
“Not really a matter of wanting…”
He nodded. I pulled the Five-seven and turned on the light. It was brighter and stronger than the older model I’d been using on my Colts. We climbed over the small ledge of stones and navigated the fallen rocks carefully. Once we made it to the other side, I took point, and Ape followed behind.
“I’m sorry about your mate,” I said.
“Rino?”
“Yeah.”
“…wait, why are you apologizing, Jono? That isn’t like you.”
“I know what’s it’s like,” I said, “when your heroes let you down.”
He didn’t say anything, but I heard him sniffle. “Stub your toe?”
“There’s not a lot of light,” he said.
Normally, I’d give him my other gun. “The other Five-seven is…”
“Jono,” he said. “What happened to Agent McKnight?”
I stopped and turned halfway to him, watching the ground.
“Stone’s going to blame me, and that’s fine. She’s been pissed at me for a long fucking time now. I can deal with it.”
“Is he dead?”
I turned back to the tunnel and started to walk. His footsteps echoed behind me.
“It was the troll. Not that it matters any more. He…fell off the forklift. I didn’t know, and….”
My voice broke, and I felt his hand on my shoulder.
“This is war,” Ape said. The words were supposed to be comforting.
“He was my responsibility. He’d just popped his bloody cherry to this world. He didn’t fucking deserve that.”
Ahead of us, the walls opened into a cavern that was larger than the reach of my flashlight. The ground around us was open and as smooth as a roller derby. The huge domed ceiling rose a hundred feet or more and was covered with several hundred massive stalactites.
We ventured slowly into the heart of the cave, shining my light this way and that, but finding nothing. The cave was empty.
“Where are they?” I asked.
“Jono,” Ape said. “Shine your light up again.”
I swept the beam towards the ceiling and over the rows of jagged rock that jutted out like teeth in the mouth of a beast. As I swept the light across, one of the rocks moved.
There was a loud noise not far away, but in the echoing distance, it was difficult to tell where. “What was that?”
“Don’t know,” Ape said. “I can’t see anything.”
I spun the light around. Nothing. Empty cave all around. I spun back to the front.
A gargoyle stood in front of me.
It was about a foot taller than me but twice as wide, sculpted muscles rippling across its arms and chest. It was slate grey with soft, golden eyes and wings that billowed out like a parachute behind it. Long, straight horns, like that of a gazelle, swept back from the thick eyebrows, and its mouth elongated to an almost beak-like shape.
It stared at me, and for a moment, I was completely still. I felt increasingly cold, and behind me, I could feel Ape’s rigid form, just as intense, focusing on the creature in my light.
Its head came near, and it sniffed me. I half expected its mouth to part open and a small, alien tongue to protrude out and nip at me. It hissed, grabbed me by the throat, and lifted me three inches off the ground.
My hands went instinctively to its wrist as it began to squeeze.
Ape surged forward and struck it on the face, but the gargoyle was unfazed. It swatted him away like he were nothing more than a bug, and Ape tumbled away into the darkness. I watched him roll, and then I turned my attention back to the gargoyle.
All around us, I could hear the whistles of the other gargoyles dropping from the ceiling, followed by a chorus of thudding impacts. My gun hand began to shake, and I dropped the pistol. I was surrounded by almost total blackness, and the tightness in my throat continued to mount.
“Stop,” I said. While my voice was barely a whisper, I was shouting inside my head. I gripped its wrist with both hands and willed it to understand my thoughts somehow, praying almost. My hands grew very warm where they touched its cold skin. Stop! I’m not your enemy. Let me go!!
My breathing became very sharp and quick, and my throat burned as it contracted. Then it dropped me. I fell to my knees, gasping. The pistol sat in front of me on the ground, the beam fixed on the gargoyle’s enormous, forked toes.
With a rush of wind, it leapt over my back.
One of the gargoyles shrieked and everywhere around me, others of its kind answered. In the echoing darkness, the loud, shrill cry sounded like a thousand voices.
The next thing I heard was a series of whooshes that sounded like the sweeping roar of the ocean’s tide. I was left kneeling there – my heart beating like a marching drum behind my eyes, my jaw and throat burning. The cave felt empty, and somehow I just knew, we were alone.
“Ape?” I called. My voice sounded hoarse. “You okay, mate?”
He moaned.
“You gonna let a little thing like a gargoyle keep you down?”
“Shut up,” he said.
It hurt to laugh, and even though my body ached, I managed to pull myself to my feet. I swept the room with my light until I found Ape slouched against one of the walls. He stood when he saw me. “You okay?”
His hand went to his side. “Maybe cracked a rib,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”
“Those fuckers are heading for Aegir,” I said.
“Isn’t that what you want?”
“They’re gonna tear through anyone who smells just a little inhuman. May
be Aegir smells the most, and maybe they’ll head straight towards him, but anyone they find along the way is in danger.”
“Not to mention a gargoyle invasion will be all over the evening news. There must have been at least two hundred, maybe more.”
“Fuck.”
I started to run along the tunnel, and Ape fell into step beside me. Once we made it over the remains of the rockslide, he moved to Stone, who was still unconscious, and picked her up.
“Take her to the hospital,” I said. “Then go get Nadia.”
“Me? Where the hell are you going?”
“I’ve gotta warn the Song.”
“Jono…Nadia’s your daughter.”
“Someone has to warn them.”
“What’s more important here?”
“You mean one life or many?”
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
“Look,” I said. “Someone needs to warn the Song. Are you going to do it?”
“Jono,” Ape said. His voice was even and slow. “You’ve already lost one daughter…”
I felt the knife twist in my ribs. “That was a low blow.”
“And?”
“And fuck you.” I turned to the door that led into the cellar. “C’mon.”
We moved silently through the house. There wasn’t a soul to be seen, and it was dark. When we made it to the Renault, Ape said, “You’ll have to put her in your lap.”
I laughed.
“I’m serious. There’s no backseat.”
“And if she wakes up?”
“She’ll appreciate that you didn’t leave her alone in a cold tunnel.”
“I fucking hate it when you’re right.”
He smiled and got in the car. I managed to somehow position Stone on my lap and get the door shut before we pulled out along the drive. In different circumstances, I might’ve enjoyed having her in my lap. Things being what they were, it didn’t seem right to have those sorts of thoughts.