by Peter Repton
‘There’s the car you just passed it up that side track, back up quickly.’ Paul did so turning into the lane, stopping right behind Danny’s car. Both front doors of Danny’s car were wide open. Paul jumped out of his vehicle. Racing towards the other police car he saw what lay in the grass in front of it. Taking two paces forward Paul fell to his knees and vomited. David was right behind him, stopping dead in his tracks and he turned to Lisa climbing out of the car saying.
‘Lisa please don’t get out you don’t want to see this.’ Lisa ignored him. She got out and then immediately regretted not taking David’s advice. Lying on his back with the front of his head missing was Danny Quill. This young police officer had bought her a whisky just an hour ago. Now he was dead. Lisa had never seen a gunshot wound but knew that it was one.
Paul sobbed loudly, tears flowing down his freckled cheeks onto his shirt.
‘This is all my fault,’ he cried. ‘If I did not take his car, he would still be back at the station now. The poor bastard was going to quit the force at the end of the summer. I have killed him. I should have insisted that he followed the correct police procedure. I shouldn't have let him go haring off like that.’ Paul wailed again. David moved to console him and said.
‘It is Sammy who killed him, not you. Sammy also murdered my wife. We know he must be around here somewhere. He must have West with him. They are going to kill Lucy at midnight, so we have to keep looking, Danny would want us to,’ David felt bad using the death of the young policeman to try to manipulate Robert’s to carry on. But time was running out. It would be dark in just over three hours. Paul met his gaze; his eyes were hard.
‘Sammy is a cop killer now. The cop he killed was my best friend. We find him, but we throw away the rule book OK. You are still supposed to be a murderer, so I expect you to live up to that reputation when we find him,’ his voice was like ice. Lisa shuddered, turning to Bob whose face was ashen with grief. Bob felt responsible for Paul driving them all from Lincoln and he said to Paul,
‘I found this cell phone in the car it must be Danny’s,’ offering it to him. Paul took it passing his own to Bob saying.
‘Contact DCI Ford on the last number dialled on my phone as soon as we have gone. Let him know what happened here. If I tell him, he will order me to stay here; then we will lose the scent. I can use Danny’s phone to call you. But I insist you both stay here with my friend’s body until help arrives. Do not use the police radio.’
Lisa opened her mouth to speak but closed it again when she saw the determined look on both men’s faces. Paul and Andrew got back in the car. The lane in which Danny died was a dead end, so they went back to the main road and drove away. Bob and Lisa were left alone with Danny’s body. Paul drove around the area for thirty minutes with no sign of the bikers. He pulled over in a lay-by with the engine running to phone Ford back after ignoring several calls to Danny’s phone. A dark shadow blocked out the bright late afternoon sunlight. Neither of them took any real notice thinking it to be only a passing cloud. The car engine then died as the vehicle was lit up in a bright white light. David, stunned, heard a familiar voice say to him.
‘David I want you to follow the light and bring your young friend with you.’ David gasped as he recognised the voice to be that of Raphael. The ball of light with the large shape above it moved off sideways from the lay-by. It moved towards an adjacent wood. David leapt from the car shouting.
‘Come on Paul follow me, but don’t be afraid, I have been through this shit before.’ They both ran to the woods. Paul felt terrified but also thrilled at the same time. Putting his hand inside his jacket pocket, he felt comforted by the touch of his rosary beads. They could see a giant white cigar shaped craft hovering above a small clearing in the dense woods. From this ship a ball of light twelve feet wide descended to the ground. David reached the clearing a few seconds before Paul, who then came gasping up behind him and falling to his knees.
The brilliant white ball of light appeared to dim just a little. The glow from the ball bathing the ground in front of him slowly changed its shape from a sphere. It flattened out becoming a circular lens. Paul made out a bright white figure within, just a vague image within the lesser glow. The circle of light dimmed further as the vision within brightened, increasing in clarity until it took the rough shape of a man. Paul could see right through it to the trees opposite. It must be a hologram he decided. Then the hologram spoke.
53
‘Hello, David I am sorry about what happened to your other policeman friend. I saw what happened, but I am powerless to intervene. I am only able to give information or advice. I usually remain anonymous preferring to be unseen. My role is simply passing on insights to suitable individuals throughout time. I feel this manifestation now is essential to motivate you to complete your task of saving the human race.’
The voice was considerable deeper now. David could actually hear it through his ears and he looked at Paul to see if he could hear it too. The open-mouthed shock on Paul’s face told him that he could. David said to Raphael.
‘I do not even understand why you have been feeding me unsolicited information. Why are you showing me these all events before they occur? Telling me to see this and to look at that. I have been powerless to prevent any of it happening. My lovely wife was murdered,’ David shouted.
‘I keep having blackouts and nosebleeds every time you are in contact. I think it’s time to tell me what or who you are and why you chose me or I will do nothing more.’
Raphael heard the determination in David’s voice. His shape shimmered and changed hue to a bright blue as he started to explain.
‘I am a pure energy being and spend most of my time on the other side of the veil. I visit this world often since the Creator first seeded it with life hundreds of millions of years ago. The Creator creates all life; my role is simply to maintain that life. Species under threat of extinction I save. Some of them get relocated to other worlds where they can continue to exist. Sometimes they will be returned back to the Earth. Your species has returned many times to enable you to continue to thrive.’
Raphael, changing from white to gold said.
‘Throughout the ages, they called me an Angel, then an Alien and now an extra-terrestrial. I get a warning of calamitous events that are about to occur. In the same way that dogs start barking long before an earthquake. That is so my kind can get the condensers in place to capture all the death energy that is about to be released. To collect this energy these craft have to pass through the veil. Only then do they become visible. There have been thousands of these sightings over time. They are only visible when they are performing their task of harvesting. These vessels will attract and condense the death energy and store it like a battery stores an electric charge and then they take it away for enrichment.’ David just had to interrupt.
‘But I don’t understand what any of that has got to do with me. Why was it my head that heard your voice, what exactly made you pick on me?’ he implored.
‘I can answer that by example. Consider yourself to be in a large football stadium among many thousands of people with personal mobile phones. These phones all operate on different frequencies. I sent out a signal from across the veil, but only your phone rang. I then chose you as my champion to try to and make a difference.’ David cut in again as Paul was still open-mouthed.
‘So why on earth did you abduct me, sticking something in my neck if I am supposed to be your so-called champion?’ David said very confused by Raphael’s comments. The bright image changed shape again before answering.
‘This time it has been a bit like a cosmic game of chess. White moves first in chess, but in this scenario, black moved first. Evil always does. It always has. The night you went missing it was Belial who picked you up, not me and he inserted a tracking implant into you. So his chosen champion Sammy would always know exactly where you were. Belial gave Sammy a tremendous advantage. Belial never plays fair, and he never will.’ David took a few moments
for the enormity of what Raphael had said to sink in.
Sammy knew David was at the Cleethorpes guest house. Sammy also knew he was in the restaurant where Lucy Higgins worked. He also knew he was in the other bed and breakfast when he rode past with Lucy on the back of his motorbike. David was furious and shook his fist, yelling at the glowing entity.
‘Sammy knew that I was in Brigg. Then he murdered my wife, Sarah. Sammy also knew we were in the Bradley Inn a short time ago. Now he’s killed poor young P.C. Quill. What is the point of telling me this other crap about saving the world when you could have just told me where he is? Could I not then have saved my Sarah and this poor man’s friend? It just does not make any sense. No bloody sense at all. Who the hell is this Belial?’ Raphael changed shape again, for a moment David though he appeared to have wings. Raphael spoke again.
‘I understand your frustration. I will reveal all tonight. I can now track Sammy, and I can see where he is right now. David your task is to save the girl Lucy before midnight. Kill Sammy; then you may be able to save humanity.’ It was now David’s turn to be mute as he considered the enormity of his task. Paul had recovered a little from his shock, finding his voice.
‘You said that Angel was one of your names. I read of a Raphael in the scriptures referred to as one of the seven archangels that stand in front of the Lord. What you stated is in essence, that your role mainly is to move species around, away from endangered habitats into safer areas on other worlds. So they can survive until you can bring them back later. In this regard, you are really little more than a cosmic gardener.’
Paul walked closer to the entity and said.
‘You over-winter creatures by saving them from extinction. Then move this precious life to other planets. You also endow others with life. I had not expected any of this. I see how it all makes sense. In a way, it sits well with my beliefs that God will somehow always protect us. But I don't understand why this man has to kill another to save us. Why can you not do more?’ Paul sounded frustrated and he was not sure how much more he could take. He was close to breaking point. First, his best friend was murdered and now he was witnessing the bizarre manifestation of this energy being. Paul had always believed that they existed. But he had never imagined meeting and having a conversation with one.
‘I am unable to intervene. I have to maintain a cosmic indifference. My goal is the preservation of life forms of all species. Believe me, right now I am trying to save yours. The challenge is simple. If Sammy kills the girl and he is still alive at midnight tonight, he will win. Your species will end forever then. If David kills Sammy and the girl lives you still have one last chance of survival. See what is happening right now.’ The image of Raphael faded away within the lens and was replaced with a vision of a living hell.
It was the Yellowstone national park or rather where Yellowstone should be. All that was visible was a sixty-mile wide column of smoking ash. Red hot rocks were blasting out in an elongated ellipse into the sky. The image panned out to show the ash cloud stretched from the Rockies all the way to Texas.
The dense toxic cloud drifted away from Yellowstone in a southerly direction carried by the prevailing wind. David gathered his wits and shouted once more at Raphael.
‘So tell me how will killing Sammy stop that and the other monster volcano at Toba then?’
‘Nothing will stop them. I did not say you can stop it. If the girl still lives and Sammy is dead by midnight, I can save some of you. The rest will all die; all seven billion of you regardless of the outcome. But your species will still survive. Now you must act quickly as time is short. They took the American to a farm three miles from here. You must turn left at the next junction and go now; Sammy is there.’
Both men looked at each other and without hesitation turned and ran back to the car. Robert’s looked back over his shoulder. The light and the huge shadow above it had already gone.
54
The two Hell’s Angels, Chisel Face and Snake took Nick to the farmhouse on the Trike. Pulling up in the farmyard outside, Nick saw Sammy standing in the doorway of the large old building. Nick thought he looked like Charles Manson with his long black shiny hair. It hung loosely over his shoulders.
Sammy's eyes fell upon him. Nick felt a shiver running down his spine. Their eyes met, he had never seen anyone’s eyes shine with such malevolence. Sammy stood six feet four inches tall, wearing big gold gipsy bangle earrings and the same leather and denim attire as Chisel Face and Snake.
‘I was expecting Kempston instead of you. I have already prepared the girl ready to die with him at a place near here,’ Sammy sneered, ‘But I guess we can have some fun with you until he shows up. It is still too early to do the girl yet so you can keep us all amused to pass the time,’ Sammy said.
Nick oddly thought a lot of women would fancy Sammy as he was very tall, dark and handsome.
‘Bring him inside,’ Sammy said to Chisel Face.
‘It’s a pity the old couple who live here won’t be able to welcome you, though. They kept us amused for two whole days last week but then I got fed up, so I killed them both. You should have heard the old man cry when I gouged out his wife’s eyes and then cut her throat in front of him.’
Nick was pushed roughly onto an old wooden hardback chair by Chisel Face with the long goatee. The fat bald guy called Snake tied his arms to the back of it, then his ankles as well. Nick was shaking with fear, but he still asked.
‘Why do you want to kill Kempston? As far as I know, he has done nothing to you. I understand that you killed his wife?’ Sammy glared at Nick, his whole demeanour changing. His eyes narrowed to slits; his thin, cruel mouth became tight with anger, even his skin paled.
‘Nothing,’ Sammy hissed with rage, ‘Nothing you say. How can you know this you meddling yank? You come over here with your big shot attitude. You don't know anything about what this man has done to me. Because you have so little time left to live, I will tell you what Kempston did to me. What he did to my mother.’
Sammy pulled up another chair away from the kitchen table. It was identical to the one that Nick sat on. He placed it opposite him leaning forward so that his face was only inches away. Nick felt frightened now that Sammy was this close. Despite the chill creeping into the air now that the sun was setting, Nick started to sweat.
‘It was not an accident that Kempston got picked, not an act of chance, or random bad luck. My mother suffered from kidney failure. She spent years on dialysis suffering, hoping for a kidney transplant. I loved my mother,’ Sammy took a deep breath.
‘Kempston was her renal consultant. Then one day a good match for a transplant came up. He called two patients in at the same time for the one kidney. Kempston chose which one got it. Both patients received dialysis treatment at the hospital that evening to prepare them both for whoever was chosen to receive the transplant. Kempston chose the other patient, sending my mother home. The next week she was having her dialysis in a sideward at the hospital. One of the lines carrying my mum’s blood to the kidney machine was faulty,’ tears formed in Sammy’s black eyes.
‘It started leaking blood all over the floor. That bitch of a nurse Kerry Harrison that I killed first was the dialysis nurse on duty. My mother died because she was not paying attention. I later found out Kerry that was on Facebook for a full hour in the day room, while my mum bled to death. The bitch had jammed a toothpick into the low-pressure alarm as it had kept going off as my mum’s veins were bad.’ Sammy had tears running down his face now.
‘So you see if Kempston had authorised her transplant instead she would still be alive now. I thought it only fitting that the nurse should suffer the same fate as my mum by bleeding to death. Also, that Kempston’s wife should die the same way. You should have seen their faces. They woke up trying to make sense of why they were hanging upside down naked. How they sobbed when I showed them the sharp dialysis needle. I began explaining I was going to bleed them out from their necks until they were dead. How that bitch nurse p
leaded for me to spare her. She begged me to save the life of her unborn child. That was an unexpected bonus, a bit like you are now. Snake here cut her belly wide open while she watched him. Snake then dragged the tiny infant right out of her womb and he just threw it away.’ Snake laughed out loud at this point. Sammy continued.
‘How she suffered, and it was just the same for Kempston’s wife. I made Kempston watch until she died. Then I hit him hard again with my cosh, placing her severed head into his hands. Soon now it will be his turn. The girl Lucy is the bait to draw him here. You see I have agreed on a deal with my master. I swore to give Belial three ritualistic blood sacrifices so that I can become one with him. When the girl Lucy dies, she will be the third, the final one. I will exalt his arrival. I will then receive my reward of immortality.’
Sammy stood, walked over to the kitchen table and he picked up an evil looking knife from it. He turned back to West with the knife held in his right hand. The blade was a full twelve inches long with a wicked point. Three inches back from the point was a barb. The blade narrowed after this barb to half its width. The jagged edge ran all the way down both sides right down to the hilt. Snake and Chisel Face tensed with grim anticipation as Sammy came back holding the knife right in front of Nick’s eyes, saying with menace.
‘This is called a zombie knife. I used it to kill both the Nurse and Kempston’s wife. I killed the owners of this place with it too. Now I am going to use it to kill Kempston. I have had two opportunities to do it already, but I had to delay my gratification. Belial abducted Kempston the same night we seized Kerry Harrison, and he put the tracker in his neck while he was unconscious. Then he dropped him off after dumping his fancy car. Snake had him doped up for three full days on a mixture of Ketamine and Rohypnol. He is a bit of an expert on the date rape drugs…’ Snake interrupted and said.