Gatekeepers

by Sam Ferguson

  “Me?” I said. “What am I supposed to do?”

  “Indyrith could explain it better than I, but essentially, the reason dream walkers are feared is because they are the only beings who can master the dream world to such a degree that you can flow between the dimensions unseen. Harbinger wolves can sometimes use the dream world, but not to the same degree a dream walker can. They can only inflict psychological harm on most beings in their dreams, and sometimes more physical harm, but a dream walker can slip in and out and kill enemies without detection.”

  “The drakkul and other master races that dominate each dimension mainly rely on portals,” Flint said. “They are like the amphibious assault teams. Everyone can see them coming, or at least it’s easier to see them coming. The harbinger wolves are like paratroopers in the dream world. Sometimes they can use it to their advantage, but they have to use smaller strikes. But you, you are like a stealth tactical nuke. No one can see you coming, and no one knows about your arrival until after the flash.”

  I shook my head and waved my hand. “But, I’m not ready,” I said. “I… I’ve only had a couple of fights in the dream world, and I nearly died both times. I need training, I…” The drums sounded in the back of my head. A voice whispered something to me in a language I didn’t know, and I swear it felt as though a hand squeezed my shoulder.

  “We’re out of time, Mills,” Hank said, pulling me back to the conversation. “The plan is simple. We steal the engine, take it through the portal to the drakkul, but Mack here is going to rig it to malfunction when they try to use it. Your job is going to be keeping the drakkul off our trail, and using the dream world to eliminate key targets. Then, once the engine is out of commission, we will launch an assault on the sixth dimension. Rolf and his brothers will fight for the right to challenge those hunting your family, but you will simultaneously use the dream world to make sure they don’t escape.”

  “So, we’re back to using me as a cosmic assassin?” I asked.

  Hank shrugged. “We have bullets and blades here, but none of us can even come close to doing what you did to that alp. I won’t lie, it might be impossible, but if we fail, it will mean that someone is going to use that engine to link all of our dimensions. It won’t just be your family, or even our world at stake. It will be seven parallel dimensions, and everything on them.”

  “The collision alone could create a cosmic event that would be second only to the big bang,” Mack put in.

  I shook my head. “And here I thought Mack didn’t believe in anything bigger or greater than himself.”

  “I still don’t,” Mack said. “If there is a god, then he shouldn’t have let the world break apart in the first place.”

  “Or maybe that was the point all along,” I replied without thinking. “To see how hard we would fight to reach the light.” There was a moment of silence, and for the briefest of seconds I thought that perhaps I had stunned them all with something clever. Flint put that notion to rest by hiking his leg and letting out a rank, juicy fart.

  “Yeah, well, all I see are targets and objectives. Let’s just stick with that instead of debating philosophy,” Flint announced. “We need to move. Section Four is likely going to be on our doorstep any minute.”

  Hank nodded. “Mills, there is more I need to tell you. The rest of you, you know your assignments. Gear up in the next room, and get to work.”

  The room cleared out fast. The door closed, leaving me alone with Hank. The man smiled sheepishly and glanced at the closed door before letting out a huge sigh. “Indyrith filled me in on everything, including the fact that he wiped my memory after I had a bit of a meltdown. I wanted to apologize for that. I understand the love for your family is a powerful force.”

  Wow. I mean, I knew Hank was more human than Briggs just from the night he saved me at the hotel, but this was way beyond anything I expected, even from Hank. “It’s all right. On the other side, I can see that what I was doing would seem selfish to anyone else.”

  Hank nodded and slapped the table. “The trouble is, now when you go to sleep at night, you are going to be hunted. The harbinger wolves will need to find you physically to inflict real harm. They know they are no match for you in the dream world, but there are other things out there. We are about to go into the muddy waters, and we’re wading in fully aware that there are crocs and snakes waiting for us. This isn’t going to be easy, but you have our full support.”

  I nodded. “I’ll do what I can, but…” I pointed down to my side. “I still have a hole from that scuffle on the street.”

  Hank sucked his teeth and glanced down at my torso. “Yeah, someone ought to tell you that you don’t bring fists to a gun fight.”

  I smirked. “Will I feel this in my dreams?” I knew that wounds received in the dream world left me sore and hurting in the physical world. If that worked both ways, then it was going to make things a lot more difficult.

  “I honestly have no idea. Indyrith never let me in on his little secret about dream walkers. We’ve always dealt with the monsters in the real world with bullets and knives. All I know is, we’re in for a helluva fight. Brent Rathison isn’t just a billionaire. He is the son of a powerful vampire family. His wealth is dirty, and he has more powers than his silk shirts might make you think.”

  “So, my father sold an engine to the son of a vampire?” I smiled and nodded my head. “He never was very lucky with his schemes.”

  “What we haven’t figured out is how the drakkul consider it theirs. From everything we discovered, it appears as though Twin Turbo invented the designs. There is nothing inherently alien in its mechanics. Furthermore, Brent Rathison has had it in his possession since the day your father sold it to him well over two decades ago, and only in the last couple of months have they come close to a working prototype.”

  “How would they know of the other dimensions?” I asked.

  “Vampires are crafty devils,” Hank replied. “They know far too much about everything. They have their fingers in just about any pie worth having, and they control most of the world banks.”

  “Sounds like a conspiracy my uncle would believe,” I commented wryly.

  “This one’s true. They’re hard to hunt. They have learned to live in the shadows and remain hidden. They let their human offspring be their faces when they have something they really want to accomplish, though. Brent Rathison attends charities, galas, you name it. He has many allies. If we go after him, it won’t just be vampires chasing us, it will be all of his political allies, and his reach is far and wide.”

  “Why not team up with Section Four then?” I asked. “I mean, surely they don’t want the engine to make the dimensions collide do they?”

  “Indyrith tried,” Hank said flatly. “I called in a favor with Jones. Jones arranged for his boss to meet with me and Indyrith. Problem is, the meeting was a failure. Jones’ boss was hit before he reached us. Some creature we never heard of ripped into his convoy and killed thirty-two men. Since then, Section Four has clammed up tight. They put eyes on you and then you know the rest. Doesn’t help that the two men you trounced were actually Section Four agents.”

  “Wait, the beggars beating people up were from Section Four?”

  “They wanted to get close to you, thought you were scheming something. We told them you were out of the group; that your memory had been wiped clean going back several years, but they didn’t trust that, not after what happened with that convoy.”

  “They don’t think you had anything to do with it, do they?”

  Hank shrugged. “Oh they probably think we did something stupid to piss some demon off somewhere. I doubt they think we helped ambush the convoy, but I think they blame us all the same.” Hank ran a hand through his hair and took in a deep breath. “The thing I really need to tell you is—”

  The door flew open and Marcus stormed in, cell phone to his ear. “Hank, Houston just got hit!”

  Hank spun around. “What?!”

  Marcus held the p
hone out on speaker. Gunshots and curses came through the speakers.

  “Tell Hank to activate Alamo. I repeat, activate Alamo!” someone shouted on the other end. A loud snarl smothered the shouting as the rapid gunfire continued to pop pop pop! There were explosions, and then the line went dead.

  “That was the safe house,” Marcus said soberly. “They’re all gone.”

  Hank snatched the phone from Marcus and frantically worked the buttons. When the phone failed to ring, Hank swore at it and turned it off. “Go, activate Alamo now!” Marcus nodded and rushed out the door. Hank turned to me. “Mills, you better come with me right now!”

  A shadow flew across the window to my left. I looked just in time to see a four-legged beast with dark purple skin crash through the glass. I turned the table up and over to use as a barricade. Hank pulled a .357 magnum from his hip and fired six shots into the creature’s face. Blood and bits of flesh splattered out around the room, but the thing kept coming. It slammed into the table and threw me against the wall. The stitches in my side ripped open and along with the blinding pain I could feel the rush of fresh blood pouring out.

  Hank shouted at the creature and went for a bowie knife. I struggled to get to my feet and help, but the muscles in my core wouldn’t work. I was wracked with spasms that rendered me useless in the fight. The door flew open again and Dan was there with a massive weapon that looked like a shotgun but had a drum magazine attached to the bottom.

  Sparks and flames exploded from the barrel as a deafening thunder echoed off the walls. Goo and blood painted the room as Dan unleashed everything he could with his automatic weapon. The creature, what was left of it after the gun stopped roaring, flopped to the floor in a torn heap. Hank was on his back, leaning against the other wall with a mess of blood matting his shirt to his chest.

  I could hear gunshots coming from other areas in the house as well. People shouted orders as guns popped off and creatures snarled and roared, but for the moment my eyes locked with Hank’s. All the chaos out there seemed miles away as the man who had rescued me twice slumped lower to the floor. Only as he fell to his side did I see that his right arm had been ripped away at the shoulder, along with much of the flesh on his upper chest and back. His face was white as a sheet, except for the spots of purple blood that had gotten on him from the creature.

  Dan was working to stop the bleeding, but ultimately there was nothing he could do.

  I watched, helplessly clutching what now seemed a miniscule hole in my stomach, as Hank died in front of me. His once vibrant eyes turned to a dull shine. He was gone.

  Dan jumped up, rage conjuring swear words that would have made Katya blink, as he left Hank’s broken body. He barely stopped long enough to toss me a pistol before running down the hall and joining in the fight. I held the weapon, a glock 23, and stared at Hank’s body. I kept wishing he would get up. I had seen people die before, but they had been old and in hospitals. This was the first time I had seen this side of death. It filled me with both regret, and fear, but I wasn’t left alone to those feelings for long.

  A slender shape stepped through the hole where the window had once been. It was a woman, or female at least, for I could see the shapely curves, but there was little about her that looked human in a normal sense. Her skin was pale gray, her hair long and dark, but covering much of her neck and face as well as her head. As she stepped into the room, I realized that she was not clothed, but instead covered by a thick coat of dark fur. Long, sharp claws protruded out from the ends of her massive fingers. I wasn’t sure whether it was a harbinger wolf or a werewolf, but I didn’t care. My stomach wouldn’t allow me to run, but my arms were ready and willing to do their jobs.

  I snapped the gun up and peppered the wolf creature with three shots to the face. She fell backward and tumbled out the open window. Her body fell out of view. I grunted, struggling to push myself up to a better position. I had to be ready if she came back inside. I used the corner for support, leaning my left shoulder into it and breathing heavily as blood continued to trickle out from the wound in my stomach.

  A mess of dark fur launched up and into the window so quickly I barely had time to react. I fired seven more times, and then the slide cocked back, indicating the magazine was spent. A moment later, the wolf crashed into me. Her arms reached around me, but the claws did not dig in. Her head slammed into my chest, but she did not bite me. Not wanting to wait and see if she would regenerate, and pushed her away and forced myself to stand. I made for the door quick as I could, but a hand wrapped around my ankle and dropped me to the floor. I hit hard, but quickly turned over to try and kick at her with my free leg. I hit her three times in the top of the head. I’m a strong guy, but my kicks did little more than slow her down.

  She started to come more fully to her senses. Her grasp on my ankle tightened until it felt as though the pressure had cut through my skin and was now crushing my bones directly. She turned her ugly face toward me and sneered, blood seeping out from the several bullet holes I had given her. My ankle popped, and then a burning pain washed over me as I felt the bones succumb to her grip. She started to advance, slowly at first, still dazed from the shots, but she was gaining strength with every passing second. I looked around for something, anything to use as a weapon. I saw Hank’s knife, still clutched in his left hand. I wrenched it free just as the wolf lunged for my throat. I plunged the knife up under her jaw and deeply into her neck. She yelped and then tried to push my hands away.

  I drove it in with everything I had. She raised a hand as if to claw down at my face and neck, but at that moment I heard the loudest, deepest boom! A spray of blood and tissue plastered the wall. All that was left of the wolf’s head was her lower jaw. Everything above that had been obliterated by the obscenely long rifle in Katya’s hands. The wolf’s arms and legs twitched and convulsed, but the danger had passed. I turned over and dumped the body on the ground with great effort, heaving and gasping for breath.

  Katya set the large rifle down and came in with a machete to finish severing the neck, kicking the lower jaw and bit of neck away from the rest of the corpse as she cursed it in her native tongue.

  “Still alive?” she asked me.

  I nodded and reached up for her hand. She pulled me up and then helped me through the hallway. I could see Marcus patching up a wound on Flint’s arm. Dan had the back of his shirt ripped off and there were gashes over his shoulder blade, but he didn’t seem to mind them. Mack was holding a wad of gauze to his head, and I could see a bit of blood oozing downward over his left eye.

  Three of the other men whom I had not met prior to my rescue from the hospital were dead. Briggs was standing over Jones’ headless body, staring at it silently. He had a shotgun in his left hand, and a very bloody knife in his right. A creature that looked like the purple monster that had killed Hank was dead at Briggs’ feet. There were two more werewolves in the house as well. The southern wall of the house was missing, blown off by explosions and gunfire. In the lawn in front of the house were several mangled creatures.

  Flint walked away from Marcus and out to the yard where one of the purple monsters was trying to crawl away. He pulled his 1911 and poured everything into the monster’s head. Flint then returned to the house. “Briggs, you can call it in, but you’re coming with us.”

  Briggs dropped the shotgun, sheathed his knife, and walked toward Flint. For a moment, I thought they were about to fight, but Briggs walked past Flint and out into the yard.

  “Briggs, stop or I’ll shoot!” Flint shouted. Flint reloaded his 1911 and aimed it at Briggs. Briggs held his arms out and kept walking away. “Dang it Briggs, you can’t make it on your own!” Flint yelled as he lowered his weapon.

  One of the other operators ran into the house and motioned for everyone to follow him. “I got one of the armored vans to turn over. Come on, we have to go.”

  “Briggs!” Flint called out.

  “Let’s go,” Katya said to me as she turned to aim me for the hole
that had previously been the door to the driveway. Within two minutes, we were all in the van, except for Briggs, and speeding out of there. I had a million questions about how an incident like this was going to be kept a secret, but no one was in the mood to answer questions.

  We drove northward without stopping until we could hit I-80 heading east into Nevada.

  Exhausted from the day’s ordeal, and drowsy from the pain meds Marcus gave me to calm my broken ankle and ruptured sutures, I fell asleep.

  CHAPTER 13

  I could tell I was dreaming. It was the kind of scenery that seemed to melt with every movement, moving fluidly in response to my actions. I was in a desert somewhere. I didn’t recognize the area. It was nothing like Utah. The dirt was red and orange, with massive, gray rocks dotting the ground. Large cacti rose up with great spines and simple, bright yellow flowers. A pair of birds tweeted and chirped at each other as one hovered just in front of a hole in one large cactus and the other sat inside. The sun sat high in the sky, but it wasn’t as hot as the setting would have suggested in real life. A mirage rose up to my right. I stopped and watch the wavy illusions for a moment, watching them start to take form and approach.

  The creature wasn’t overly tall, but the three horns and brown fur put a rock in my stomach that threatened to pull me down into the desert floor. The alp that had threatened my family was here.

  On my left, behind me, and off to the north, three flashes of light ripped through my dreamscape. Before the harbinger wolves stepped through their portals, I knew what they wanted.

  I took in a deep breath, trying to focus my mind and take control of my dream. I was relieved to find that my broken ankle and other injuries did not transfer over into the dream world. My sword materialized in my right hand and I watched and waited as the monsters approached.

  “You broke your word?” the alp hissed as it stopped some twenty yards in front of me. The harbinger wolves snarled and paced back and forth as they locked their eyes on me and licked their lips. “What have you done with your family?”