Gatekeepers

by Sam Ferguson

  “Thank you, Rolf.”

  The large warrior smiled and nodded once more. He then turned and followed Arne and Bjorn to the hallway. Indyrith approached and looked down at my sword once more. “I am envious,” he said. “I have not seen such a weapon in person for many years. If I did not think it was better that you have it, I would ask to use it myself.”

  “You could use it if you wish,” I said. “I’ll feel a lot safer than before with Katya and Dan bringing in the heat, and I will have my own sword.”

  Indyrith shook his head. “No, it is better that you keep it. I cannot walk in the dream world as you can. Should any of the gargoyles be lurking there, I would want you to have the equipment you need.”

  The door opened quickly and Katya stuck her head in. “Time to go.”

  Outside the safe house there were two large vans prepared. Indyrith and the three Vikings went in the second van along with some of the other team members that had survived the ambush in California. I went with Flint, Dan, Katya, Marcus, and a driver by the name of Lucas. Marcus rode shotgun, while Flint helped Dan work a mess of rigging that held a very large machine gun on it. As I squeezed into the back with Katya, who was busy checking her magazines for the obscenely large rifle standing next to her, I saw that the roof of the van had been cut out during the night to allow for Dan and Flint to raise the machine gun up and fire at enemies.

  That was when it hit me.

  This was going to be a big fight.

  The engines roared to life and then we sped out and away from the safety of the underground bunker. After a couple hours of driving, we crossed into California once more. We took a slight detour off of I-15 to stop in Mojave National Preserve just long enough to meet up with Briggs and the four black SUVs he had along with him. When we got back on the road, there were two SUVs in front, and two in back. I would have expected Briggs to ride in the last car, but he proved more courageous than I had given him credit for and was in the lead vehicle.

  We drove straight and then hooked south around Barstow, taking the 247 down to Yucca Valley. Then we cut across on highway 62 until we hit I-10. We followed that to Indio and then went south on highway 86. I only remember the signs because compared to the beauty of the Olympic Peninsula, there wasn’t much to look at on this drive. It likely didn’t help that the entire drive felt as though I was walking into something far too large for me to handle. Highway 86 took us down to Salton Sea where I finally had something worth looking at.

  We pulled off in some small town and Briggs called Flint up to his car. Flint cursed, but did as he was asked and threw the door of the van open. A couple of the guys took the opportunity to find a roadside bush to take care of some business, and then we waited until Flint came back.

  The ex-special forces operative had a foul look on his face, and told Dan to mind his own business when asked what had happened. Flint turned on a hand-held radio and then tossed it on the floor at his feet. The vehicles started up again and we drove eastward on a small road. I think Flint was trying to go unnoticed, but I saw him pull out the bullet with the two red marks and kiss it just before loading it into the top of a magazine that had no other bullets in it. I thought about saying something to Katya or Dan, but then I remembered how much of a douche bag Briggs always was. The memory of the silencer pointed at my face in a crappy hotel room in Texas gave me a few moments to pause and think about which of the two men I would rather side with. Thinking about Flint’s family solidified my decision. I kept my mouth shut. Briggs was on his own.

  The caravan slowed considerably as we went over unmarked gravel roads winding through the mountains. I stared out the window, bouncing in my seat and wondering why any billionaire would ever bother building his mansion in such a remote spot.

  Then I thought of the vampires and sighed. Where else would a vampire family live if they wanted privacy?

  We drove for a couple hours, making our way through the unpopulated hillsides and mountains and then finally came out around a bend to find a paved road. The blacktop was smooth and smelled of fresh tar. Ahead of the lead car, I saw a large stone wall with an iron rod gate over the road. A guard shack stood off to the side. A pair of dragon statues sat on either side of the massive gates. I gripped the mithril sword, half expecting the statues to come alive. Thankfully, they didn’t.

  Drendarin’s sword might be great against gargoyles, but I wasn’t sure what would work against a dragon, and I frankly didn’t care to find out.

  A guard came out with a clipboard in hand. He motioned for Briggs’ SUV to stop.

  “Buckle up,” Dan said. “This is where things get bumpy.”

  I watched as the second SUV broke out to the left. The side door opened and then some sort of mechanism extended out the side of the vehicle and an agent with a minigun let loose on the guard.

  “Wait, what if he’s just a normal guard?” I shouted.

  “Section Four operates a little differently than we do,” Dan said.

  “That’s why I generally avoid calling them in to work with us,” Flint put in.

  Briggs’ SUV sped up and a man in riot gear stood out of the sun roof. He pulled out something that looked like a bazooka and then there was a flash and a trail of smoke. Two seconds later the gate exploded to pieces. The caravan sped through the demolished barrier.

  I turned around to see the last vehicle stop long enough to let two men out. They ran to the guard shack. One went inside while the other took up a position outside the door and held his weapon at the ready.

  “What are they doing?” I asked.

  “Hacking into Rathison’s network,” Dan said. “They’re probably not as fast as Mack, but they’ll get the job done.”

  Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen Mack at all before we left. I was about to ask where he was, but Briggs’ started shouting over the radio at Flint’s feet.

  “Tangos at one o’clock!”

  I watched as the second SUV veered out to the right. The man dangling from the extended seat went to work with his minigun. There was another guard shack. This time, they came out with rifles instead of clipboards.

  “Going hot!” Dan shouted.

  A couple of bullets hit the front of the van, but I was the only one startled by it. The minigunner made quick work of the handful of guards that came out. Then the agent in the lead car with the RPG hit the building.

  The caravan sped up. I could see the pools and gardens zipping by us as we made our way toward the mansion. My stomach twisted in knots and I nearly retched on the floor of the van. Every fight up until now had been so different. I was ambushed in Dallas. I was attacked in my dreams. The only times I led assaults were the cruise ship and then another time in the dream world to stop the harbinger wolves, but even though I initiated the fights, they were in defense of my family. Even when I had my memory wiped and confronted the men on the street corner that had roughed up the beggar woman I was defending someone else.

  This was the first time I was starting a fight without it being a purely defensive action. I started to feel sick as I wondered how many innocent people might be in the mansion right now. What about Stanley, did he deserve a bullet from Briggs? And the guard out front with the clipboard, he could have been a normal rent-a-cop.

  I dropped my head and started to struggle for breath.

  Katya was there in an instant. She slapped me across the face and grabbed the front of my shirt. “War is not pretty,” she snapped. “Do not forget those you fight for! The engine cannot be allowed to launch.”

  “The guards,” I said. “They were just normal people.”

  Katya shook me. “Today we are a club, not a scalpel. We hit hard, kill everything that stands in our way. You stop to think, you die. You die, we fail. We fail, the world dies.”

  I looked up to her hard eyes as the van veered suddenly to the left.

  “Here they come!” Dan shouted. “Flint, get me up!”

  “The gargoyles smell you,” Katya said. “Tell me, do th
ey smell your fear, or do they smell their own deaths?”

  I looked up and saw wings darkening the skies above us as Flint and Dan worked the rigging to raise the fifty cal machine gun. I felt the sword in my hand and I knew that Katya was right. Looking up at the swarm coming toward us, there was no other way. We had to hit hard and fast. If we stopped to show mercy to anyone, then we would lose, overwhelmed by the sheer number of creatures that served Rathison.

  “Holy frickin sh—” a voice came over the radio just before a massive gargoyle dove and slammed into the minigunner in front of us, ripping him and the entire rig out of the SUV. A second monster crashed down into the roof of the vehicle and brought it to an immediate halt as glass and metal shout outward.

  I decided in that moment that everyone at Rathison’s mansion was guilty.

  “For Hank!” Marcus said as he popped something into the CD player up front.

  I’ll tell you this. Most people would choose a million different things to play while charging into battle. Heavy metal would seem the obvious choice. Maybe even something angry from DMX if you wanted more of a rap vibe, but nobody on God’s green earth would turn on Mama Mia. Yet, as Dan and Flint finished loading the monstrous machine gun and let loose with a barrage of deafening bullets that lit up the sky, it somehow felt right to blast ABBA as loud as the van could. I could almost see Hank singing along as he rode with us in spirit. I bet he would have enjoyed watching the fiery red shots explode on impact, blowing the gargoyles apart and scattering them in the sky.

  “Come get some!” Dan shouted out as Flint kept the gun fed with a steady stream of bullets.

  “Dream world,” I said.

  “What?” Katya asked.

  I took in a deep breath. We would be at the mansion soon, but if I could join the fight on the dream world side, then I could engage the gargoyles and put the mithril blade to the test. I closed my eyes and focused my thoughts. Then, instead of trying to create a dream, I envisioned myself standing and stepping out of my physical body. I felt a rush of cold air and looked down. Katya was poking my body in the chest and talking to me, but I was not in my body. I was in the dream world.

  It was time to put the gargoyles down.

  I flew up through the ceiling of the van and shouted.

  The swarm of monsters turned as one, like bees defending their hive. I charged through the air, sword at the ready. Drums pounded in my head as the first gargoyle sailed toward me, and I knew that I was about to do something marvelous.

  The monster roared and stretched forth its massive hands, tipped with deadly claws. I spun away and lashed out with the mithril blade. The gargoyle’s hands came off at the wrists as if I was cutting a pair of threads, and then a fire burst out from the open wounds and the gargoyle fell to the ground, hissing and screaming until it crashed into the dirt below, nearly crushing the fifth car in the caravan.

  A second gargoyle rushed in. I dodged by, ascending upwards, and drew my blade across its left wing. The gash was small, but it too burst into flame and the gargoyle fell from the sky.

  I laughed and went to work hacking and slashing at any gargoyle foolish enough to come close. I killed a third, then a fourth, and then a fifth and sixth in the span of a few seconds. I flew into the heart of the swarm, unaffected by the raucous incendiary rounds Dan fired into the air as I went on the offensive, driving the gargoyles from before me. One of the creatures managed to scratch my left calf, but I paid the wound no mind, knowing that I was in the dream world and that it wasn’t a mortal wound. I cut the head off of one gargoyle, and then spun around to slash another’s chest. Then, there was a terrible scream that rent the air. The gargoyles split from the battle, taking off in all directions.

  Dan’s blazing fifty cal continued to chase them, as did gunfire from the other vehicles, but they were no longer a threat.

  I flew back down and sat into my body just as the van pulled up on the fountain in the driveway.

  Katya looked at me curiously as I opened my eyes and smiled at her.

  “The drakkul’s sword worked,” I said with a wink.

  “You were just…” Katya pointed to the sky and I nodded.

  The van screeched to a halt and doors flew open. Dan continued to unload the fifty cal at the sky until the belt ran dry, and then he grabbed a pair of MP5s and jumped out. Katya ran out to the side about forty feet and then scanned the windows. Before I had even joined with Dan, she was firing at the building.

  “Windows, two o’clock high,” Flint shouted.

  The Section Four agent with the RPG fired up and destroyed a good portion of the mansion. Briggs ordered a team up to the door. Six men from the SUV behind our van sprinted up to the front doors.

  Then all hell broke loose.

  The front doors exploded open with fire and smoke spewing out just as Briggs’ team got into place.

  Before the smoke even cleared a horde of monstrous things that looked like giant mastiffs with burned skin lunged out. They tore through the remaining three agents that survived the explosion and then started down the steps.

  Katya’s rifle clapped like thunder, catching one of the dogs in the head and stopping it cold.

  Briggs pulled out an AK-47 and blasted into one of the monsters, but the creature seemed unfazed.

  That’s when I heard the shouting and hollering from behind.

  The three Vikings charged in. One threw a spear and caught one of the nasty dogs in the eye. Another threw an axe and struck the same monster in the skull. The dog fell and skidded to a stop just as Rolf rushed in and jammed his spear into the thing’s snarling mouth and down its throat. Gunfire erupted all around and the fight was in full swing now. I ran forward with my mithril blade and joined with Rolf. Shoulder to shoulder we cut and hacked our way through the burned dogs. Blood and smoke spewed out from each wound we gave them as we pressed forward. Bjorn lifted his mighty axe and cut through the spine of one dog as it lunged at Arne. Arne used his shield to rebuff another animal and then kicked its lower jaw so hard that its bone shattered and it fell to the side. Down came Arne’s sword into the creature’s chest and it convulsed, scratching at his shield with its claws until its life expired.

  “Come on, Mills!” Dan shouted. I turned to see Flint working a hand-held minigun and my team was forming a wedge of sorts.

  “Go on, Christian,” Rolf said. “We’ll be at your back!”

  We worked our way up the stairs. The three Vikings kept me safe from the monstrous dogs trying to circle around while Flint cleared the front.

  Briggs and his men had formed a wedge of their own as well. We all went up and into the mansion.

  “Which way?” Dan shouted.

  “Straight!” I replied. “To the elevator.”

  Dan patted Flint on the shoulder twice and the mini-gun kept whirring as more dogs poured into the entryway from the grand staircase and the hallways. Blood and limbs flew into the walls as Flint swept the monsters away from before him.

  A fiery explosion threw several of the dogs into the air and I looked over to see Briggs holding his own against a mess of the beasts. He stomped one in the face as he poured a magazine into its body, and then he used his left hand to fling another grenade.

  BOOM!

  Just like that, the dogs were dead. Briggs’ agents kept firing at anything that twitched or moved. We got to the back wall where the elevator was and then Marcus ran up and slapped a strange contraption into the door and forced it open.

  I caught the slightest glimpse of a pale-faced man in the elevator and then the lights went out and there was a snarl followed by Marcus screaming. There was a wet squish and then Marcus went silent. I heard the whir of a machine and then Flint’s minigun exploded into the darkness. Yellow and orange flashes streaked forward and something screamed.

  A red flare shot out overhead and Briggs put his men to work setting green glow sticks that were as powerful as flashlights. A few of the agents clicked on headlamps and tactical lights mounted to their we
apons as well. Soon I saw what was coming.

  Vampires.

  The one that had slain Marcus was cut in half by Flint’s minigun, but there were more of the cursed things. They were crawling along the walls and ceiling, and coming at us fast. One leapt out from the hall on the right, but Katya pushed me aside, raised her massive rifle, and blew a hole in the monster’s chest big enough to let a watermelon pass through.

  It sneered at her and started advancing, but Dan whipped one of his MP5s up and riveted the vampire to the wall with an entire magazine. I jumped in then and swung for the vampire’s neck with my mithril blade. Off came the head, and the mutilated body fell to the floor.

  “Down!” Briggs shouted at the top of his lungs. I turned and saw three agents pointing massive weapons up at the vampires on the ceilings. An instant later there was a giant WHOOSH! The air seemed to get sucked away as flames poured upward and engulfed the vampires. There was a chorus of screaming and wailing and the creatures backed off.

  “Enough Briggs! You tryin to bring the whole place down on top of us?” Flint shouted.

  Dan turned to me. “Get to the elevator. We’ll be right behind you. Go!”

  I didn’t think. I ran. Rolf, Arne, and Bjorn went with me as Dan, Katya, and Flint kept firing at the vampires closing in from all sides.

  “Grab Marcus’ bag,” Flint shouted as I sprinted by. I grabbed the green duffle bag and then leapt into the elevator. Rolf and the others made it into the little box and I pressed the button that would take us to the appropriate subfloor. The doors closed, and then the elevator started moving. Gunfire and explosions sounded from above, shaking the whole house and the elevator as well.

  “They’ll be right behind us, right?” I said as I looked up.

  Rolf looked to Arne and grunted. “I fear Odin has not heard our prayers this time.”

  CHAPTER 20

  The elevator moved far too slowly for my comfort. Gunfire echoed from above and the cables squealed and shook with each explosion. I remembered how far down we had to go to reach the hallway with the red door. We weren’t even half way there yet. The red numbers at the top of our shaking death box kept counting off the floors, but I swear it felt as though we were crawling to a halt.