by Brewin
Brian didn’t move. The bartender paused before speaking again to the caller.
“There really is no use fighting, Brian, it makes no difference,” Bernard said.
Brian’s face began to boil.
Try telling me that when I put a bullet in that fat gut of yours.
The bartender put the phone down and walked over to their table. “Excuse me, sir,” he addressed Brian. “I hate to interrupt but–”
Brian turned briefly to the bartender. “No, my name is not Brian. You’ve got the wrong person.” He turned back to Bernard, staring daggers.
Bernard laughed awkwardly and the bartender fidgeted for a moment before saying, “I’m sorry sir, but the caller, a young boy, said to say his name is Howard.”
Brian’s heart sank at the mention of the name.
“He says that his father Brian is here and that it’s very important he speak to him. Are you sure it’s not you?”
“You can’t win, Brian. So just play the game,” Bernard said.
Brian stormed over to the phone behind the bar. “Hello?”
“Hello, Brian,” came a calm response. The voice was that of an adult man.
“Who is this?”
“We’ve yet to meet, but you know who I am.”
“Are you gunna tell me? Or are you just gunna waste my fucking time?”
“You don’t recognise me, but you’ll recognise this...”
“Look pal–” Brian began.
Another voice came over the phone. Howard’s. “Daddy?”
“Howard! What’s happened?”
“I’m scared, daddy... The monsters have really got me. They’re horrible, daddy and–”
“I’m coming to get you, Howard. I won’t let them hurt you. Where are you?”
The adult male voice answered again, “Yes you are, yes we will, we’re in Howqua Hills.”
Brian reeled back from the phone, his pulse an endless drum roll in his ears. The bartender was now serving another customer, whilst Bernard remained sitting at their table, staring into space and stroking his white beard.
“Is this Henry Wilcox?” Brian said.
“Good guess. Surprised?”
“What the fuck are you doing with my son?”
“Oh not just your son, your daughter Samantha too.”
“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT WITH ME AND MY CHILDREN!”
“Actually, it’s not just your children I’ve got here... Sasha, Julie and I wouldn’t bother going to your parent’s house tonight, ‘cos they won’t be there.”
“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT? TELL ME!”
“I want you to come back to Howqua Hills now and be reunited with your family.”
“Oh, I’ll be doing that, YOU FUCKING ARSEHOLE! I’m gunna fuck you up too for this! WHERE ARE YOU?”
“Just drive back into Howqua Hills, you won’t miss us, haha.”
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THEM?”
“Nothing really yet. I was saving that until you got here, but don’t keep me waiting ‘cos I’ll get bored.”
Henry hung up.
WEDNESDAY 9:55 PM
Calm.
Lucas floated on gentle waves that rippled under a cool, soothing breeze: oceans of tranquillity stretching out to blue infinity. Consciousness immersed in transcendental timelessness, the outside world ceased to exist.
Seagulls flitted across the clear sky, catching the morning sun on their white feathers, flying in ones, twos, threes...
Now an exodus in one direction: north.
As Lucas watched the trickle transform into a flood, he felt panic seeping into his thoughts. Now the seagulls moved swiftly past him in huge numbers, flapping and squawking frantically.
A desperate flight.
Then Lucas became aware of something rising from the unknown depths below, something so huge that its dark form obscured the sea just as clouds cover sky. Incomprehensible, unstoppable...
Evil.
Lucas’ eyes flicked open as he became re-acquainted with his surroundings. His heart racing, he knelt alone in prayer on a square woollen hassock, in the front pew before the candle-lit chapel altar at Timberhome. In the darkness beyond the fifteen-metre-high windows of the prism-shaped chapel, Lucas looked onto the lights of the rest of his school, bordered by an expanse of eucalypt forest, stretching away down the hill.
Then in steady sequence, the lights along the tree-lined drive to Mueller Road and civilisation, began to go out. Approaching...
Ominous.
Lucas fled the serene sanctuary of the chapel and ran down to the central courtyard, around which the other school buildings clustered. Gathered in the light outside the dining hall, were Matron Susan Inglis and about twelve school children. Fear and exhaustion painted their faces. Among them was Danny Malone.
Susan turned to Lucas as he arrived, her eyes heavy with tears. “Oh Lucas, thank goodness you’re here!”
“What’s happened?”
“Something’s attacking us Lucas, some kind of werewolflike aliens! These children have run all the way back from the campsite to escape them and many at the campsite have already been killed! There’s no answer from anyone at the staff village and to make things worse, I can’t even get through to the police because the line’s busy!”
Lucas was too stunned to speak.
Werewolf-like aliens? What in God’s name is going on?
Then came a chorus of growls, its source somewhere beyond the far end of the dining hall. Then the dining hall lights went out. A heavy animal stench rent the air, foreboding.
“We’ve got to get out of here now,” Lucas said.
“But what about the others?” Susan answered.
“Susan. We can’t stay here.” Lucas cringed at the guttural sounds approaching and looked across the school carpark. “We’ll take one of the minibuses and get these kids into town where they’ll be safe and come back for others if we can, or at the very least we can send for help.”
Susan shivered and rubbed her arms. “Okay, how about you take the kids and I go in my car? I’ll get there more quickly then and can go to the police station for help.”
“Agreed. Let’s meet there.”
The sound of breaking glass came from the dining hall. In the darkness alongside, a horde of hairy figures crept forward, their red slits for eyes catching the light of the full moon...
Menacing.
Ignition.
With shaking hands fighting to steer the key into the lock, Susan started the engine of her red Ford Laser. She looked over and saw Lucas ushering the last of the children into the minibus...
And alien figures running in the gloom of the gum trees around the carpark. Encircling them.
First gear.
Susan stamped the accelerator pedal, slammed the gearstick into first and lifted the clutch. The front wheels spun on the loose surface of the carpark before gaining purchase. The car charged forward towards the dirt driveway on the far side that lead out of the school grounds. Lucas managed to wave goodbye as she passed.
Second gear.
Wiping sweat from her brow, Susan steered the car towards the exit. Something black and huge leapt between the two venerable Manna Gums flanking the exit. Then another.
Third gear.
The accelerator flat to the floor, Susan gripped the steering wheel in two fistfuls of white knuckles as she launched the car through the gap in the trees where the carpark exit was. She glimpsed red eyes watching her from the shadows...
Too many to count.
She accelerated down the hill and around the wide bends, unleashing a spray of dust as the car skidded sideways on each corner... Ever faster and closer to losing control.
Top gear.
At the bottom of the hill now and with the school gates a few hundred metres ahead, swarms of black figures began to leap across the road in front of and around her. Huge muscular beasts with piercing red eyes, covering the hillside like locusts.
Inescapable.
Ther
e was a loud crash and skitter of claws as one of them landed on the roof. Susan screamed, fighting to control the car and see the road. It smashed its claw through the passenger side window, showering her with glass. Another landed on the back of the car.
Susan screamed again and shook the steering wheel, desperate to dislodge them. Speeding on the dirt road at one-hundred kilometres per hour, the car swerved violently and pitched over sideways, rolling many times.
The world spun to a stop.
Danny was the last to get into the minibus. All the seats in the back were taken. He hesitated at the edge of the open side door.
“Jump in the front, Danny,” Lucas gestured to the front passenger seat as he rolled the side door shut. By the time Danny clambered into the front seat, Lucas had dashed around to the driver’s side and jumped in too.
Susan spun her wheels as she passed them in her red Laser hatchback, disappearing out of the driveway soon after. He managed to wave.
Then he turned the headlights on and saw what surrounded him:
In the forest shadows at the carpark’s edge, hundreds, if not thousands of the hulking demonic beasts lurked, their red eyes lighting up like stars in the night sky...
Creeping closer.
“DRIVE!” shouted the children from the back seats.
Lucas snapped from his brief trance and drove the minibus forward, struggling to pick up speed.
A futile effort.
They were halfway across the carpark when one of the creatures landed on the side of the minibus, not far behind where Lucas sat. Lucas strained to concentrate over the din of screaming children and the beast clawing at the window. As he neared the exit, it smashed the window next to his head.
Lucas steered the bus close to one of the gum trees flanking the exit, scraping paint, the side-mirror and the demon hanging on in the process. Torn from the side of the vehicle, the monster fell into the dust trailing from the back of the minibus and began to give chase...
Others followed.
The minibus leapt from the carpark into the driveway beyond. Lucas spun the wheel and careered down the dirt road to the bottom of the hill, thronged by the horde on all sides. Through a blur, he heard their blood-curdling roars, saw their swift movements and their awful faces leering at him from the moonlight.
Enjoying the thrill of the chase while it lasted.
The minibus surged out of the school gates, struggling to maintain a top speed of one-hundred kilometres per hour. The way ahead looked clear. Lucas dared to look in the rear vision mirror...
At the waves of black demonic beasts, fading into the murk behind. They seemed to be laughing.
My God, we might just get out of this alive.
Lucas raced down to Mueller Road and followed its mountainous bends towards Howqua Hills. The surfaced road sliced through the side of Mount Warrambat, its sheer mountain face plunging away on his left, adorned with Manna Gums and Peppermints.
A strange quiet fell over the minibus. Salvation was now only a few minutes away.
Danny broke the silence, “Thank you, Lucas, for taking us. You’ve saved us quite a lot of time and effort.”
Lucas looked puzzled and glanced over at Danny. “Of course, Danny! I wasn’t going to leave you!”
“Of course you weren’t.” Danny smiled back. “You may even be spared for your services, although I can’t guarantee anything... They look pretty hungry, y’know.” Danny directed Lucas’ gaze to the rear vision mirror:
The cabin behind was filled with demons and not children at all. Their massive hairy bodies crammed the available space, the air hard to breathe for their heavy odour. They were laughing.
“I’ve got lots of friends now, Lucas.” Danny grinned.
Lucas shrieked and drove the minibus at the cliff edge. In a couple of panicked seconds, he’d unclipped his seat belt and flung himself out the door, all as the minibus launched off the road and down the steep, forested mountainside. He landed on the road and rolled many times before stopping: shaking, bruised and bleeding.
Lucas lay shuddering a few moments, before forcing himself to his feet. He staggered to the roadside and looked down to see the wreckage of the minibus, smashed against a tree amongst scrub fifty or more metres down the slope.
Grimacing in pain, tormented to tears, Lucas turned and started running towards town...
Soaked with tears and sweat, Lucas ran on down the lonely mountain highway, his tortured mind circling endlessly over the same questions:
What fell calamity had befallen humanity? What cruel cosmic forces had delivered such an indomitable evil? And what unspeakable act had he just committed?
He rounded a corner and in the moonlight saw the figure of a child standing in the middle of the road...
Waiting.
As Lucas approached, the shadows slid from the child’s face and Lucas stopped, speechless in open-mouthed horror.
Danny smiled back at him. “We meet again.”
Lucas struggled to speak, “B-B... How did you get here?”
“Don’t underestimate me, Lucas. I can do lots of things now. I’m not a useless wimp anymore. Now I’m on the winning side.”
Lucas began to make out the details of Danny’s injuries. Through gaps in torn clothing and across his grinning face, numerous cuts oozed blood that seemed black under the feeble light.
“You’ve joined forces with them?” Lucas asked.
“They chose me, Lucas. And now I have more power and freedom than I ever could have imagined.”
“What do they want?”
Danny’s smile grew wider. “The fruits of humanity.”
“Where do they come from?”
“I’m not actually sure. But regardless, it doesn’t matter: they’re here to stay.”
“Somehow Danny, sooner or later they will be destroyed. Such evil cannot succeed. It is against God’s design.”
“Yes, that’s a nice fantasy, isn’t it. Good always triumphs over evil. A God exists to save us. Such fairytales you believe, haha.”
“Once the word is out, they cannot hide. They will be hunted. They will be defeated. They will be destroyed.”
Danny laughed long and loud. “You and who’s army?”
“The world’s! We will come together to fight for our survival. We have to. Perhaps this is our judgement day.”
“You cannot even comprehend them, let alone defeat them. They can manipulate our minds with ease and control our perceptions, thus changing reality as we know it. And through them, we can too. That’s how they blend in and what they’ve already been doing for aeons, accumulating power and waiting for the right moment to strike.”
“I don’t understand.”
“No one can. Such things are beyond the human mind.”
Suddenly, one of the demonic beasts burst forth from the bush lining the road. It landed next to Lucas on all-fours, shaking the earth with its force. Cruel red eyes stared at him from its wolfish visage.
“Behold the future,” Danny said.
The beast reared up, brandishing long bloodstained claws and unleashed a thundering roar, exultant.
Lucas turned and ran on towards town. Head down, arms pumping, he didn’t look back.
God give me strength.
But the beast merely watched him go...
Laughing at his folly.
WEDNESDAY 11:44 PM
The end of all.
All life, all hope, all belief in this cold, heartless world of lies, hate and greed. Gone. Gone with the world he had once known: his home, his family, his relationships, his job, his very being.
Yet the fury burned on within, an all-consuming fire propelling him onwards...
To victory or death.
Brian drove towards Howqua Hills in his blue Ford XF Falcon, oblivious to time. Manic, he drove at frantic speed, no longer caring for the law he had once fought to uphold. Everything rode on what he had to do now, in what might be his final act.
The last roll of the dice.
As Brian crested the rise into Howqua Hills, he was greeted by an ominous ruby glow over the town ahead. Gritting his teeth, shotgun across his lap, he urged his car faster, speeding into the heart of hell.
Fuck them all.
Brian reached the edge of the small town where Banner Road became Main Street and wondered what he had returned to. No houses were lit, no cars drove on the roads. There was only an eerie red permeating the town. In a few more moments, he could see the town centre...
And the source of the sinister light.
Where the Troopers’ Monument once stood at the large roundabout in the centre of town, there now soared a luminescent fifteen-metre obelisk, bristling with horrible barbed spikes impaling the bleeding bodies of tortured victims, undulating slowly with nefarious life.
Crowding the ruby shadows cast by the unholy pillar, were swarms of hairy beasts, under which people lay slowly squirming in their final agonised death throes. An army of demons in an orgy of torture, rape and slaughter.
Towering over the flock near the column of pain, stood a six-metre scorpioid abomination, shining crimson in the infernal light. Its armoured body bore two massive red pincers, a long segmented stinger arching forward over its head, spiky mandibles like tusks and a mass of green eyes like a spider.
The massacre of mankind had begun.
Brian slowed the car to a stop a few metres from the writhing masses and stared hopelessly at the thousands of Dark Horde gathered before him.
Fuck.
Then came the sound of chanting, growing more distinct as the volume increased:
“We are as one, as many are we...”
Brian shivered in his car as he looked for the source of the sound.
Then the crowd parted to expose the road leading to the centre of the hellish congregation, as a chilling chorus repeated:
“Become one, once more be...”
Brian saw that about eight of the demonic beasts stood at the base of the pulsing pillar fifty metres ahead, clad in purple-embroidered robes. They raised barbed and bloody candles to acknowledge his arrival, as if they’d been expecting him.