by Roy Bright
Twenty-Five
Pete brings his vehicle to a screeching halt as their radio bursts into life with the distress call of the helicopter.
Both men vacate with haste and look to the sky in the direction of the grid reference they are headed. In the distance, they see the helicopter spinning out of control before it drops below the tree line, then hear the delayed sound of the crash followed by the explosion as fire and smoke spews into the air seconds before the sound reaches their ears. They look at each other in shock.
“What the fuck, Pete,” Martin whispers.
Pete fires into life and grabs hold of the police radio. “All units, all units, this is Stillman, OIC of ground support. I want every available unit to head to the scene of the crash and cordon off the area. Do not attempt a rescue operation as to do so will put your own lives in danger. Dispatch, this is Unit nine!”
A panicked and anxious female voice answers, “Unit nine, this is dispatch go ahead, over.”
“Dispatch, I want full emergency services out here to the last reported grid location of the Mayday call. We need fire-fighting teams that specialize in aviation incidents and paramedic units also. We need to move fast on this, over.”
“Copy that, unit nine, taking care of it right now.”
“Copy dispatch; keep me up to speed with their respective ETA’s, Unit Nine, out.” Pete shoves the radio handset back into its holder. “Martin, into the car come on, let’s go, man.”
Martin dives back into the passenger seat and Pete floors the accelerator, screaming off up the dirt track.
Twenty-Six
Abaddon stands on the highest branch of the tallest tree in the area. He smiles and cackles to himself as he surveys the wreckage. He had fun with that one. The looks on their faces was worth getting involved today alone, whether he finds the child or not. He knows they are here somewhere nearby. He can smell divinity a mile off and although whatever is giving off the scent is managing to mask it, making it difficult for him to pinpoint, its odor is unmistakable. They are here, somewhere, and Iscariot is with them so he will know what has just happened. Judas is cunning indeed and he will know what stalks them now. He will also know that he must leave this area or face being caught by more than cops alone. When they bolt, like all little frightened animals do, he will have them. He looks out over the forest and smiles. “Come on, Iscariot, show me your little head so I may peel it.”
The demon bursts into demented laughter.
Twenty-Seven
Judas looks at each of his passengers in turn.
“Okay, people, this is gonna get fucked up big time and I mean big time. We have just been smoked out and that’s a fact. It will be Abaddon and that will also be a fact. He will be waiting for us to run and that is a very unpleasant fact. This demon is not like the rest; it is of significantly high rank and very difficult to dispatch.”
“Have you fought this thing before?” Gary says, his face awash with concern.
Judas stares at him for a second before replying, “Yes, yes, I have.”
…. “And?”
“And? It kicked my ass… three times! If it wasn’t for the fact that God, in his most curiously ironic form, has made me un-killable, then it would’ve slaughtered me. I barely got away the last time or he would’ve made me his plaything for the rest of eternity.”
Gary stares at him.
“Fuck me, we’re all gonna die!” Abi says, throwing her head back.
Judas looks at her and then turns his attention to Charlotte. She looks terrified. He remembers his promise to her sat under the oak tree. He looks at Abi. “Not today, Abi, we’re not. Not this time.” He returns his attention to Charlotte, “Remember the motel room, remember what you did, can you do it again?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know, I’m not sure, maybe!”
“Okay, honey, well try to figure it out whilst I get us out of here, cos I’m gonna need that power you have inside of you, okay?!”
She nods.
He turns and looks at Gary.
The detective nods.
He fires the car into life and revs it with ferocity. “Okay, kids, hang onto your asses, this shit is about to get real!” He slams it into gear and races out of the clearing. Spinning the wheel to the left, he careers onto the dirt track and floors the accelerator hard. The car charges forwards, roaring like a lion announcing its dominance.
Abaddon snaps his head to the left as the sound of a supercharged car growls through the forest. “There you are!” He says, beating down his massive wings and lifting himself into the air. “Iscariot, you won’t escape me this time!” The immense demon powers forward and into pursuit.
Judas drives relentless and determined down the dirt track. The car bounces as it fires over uneven ground causing everyone to jolt around.
Gary frantically searches out of every window. “I can’t see anything following us; maybe it’s not out there.”
“Oh, it’s out there all right; he will make his move very soon,” he responds as he whips the wheel around to the left and joins a fresh track that leads to the highway.
“You’re going back to the highway?” he asks.
“Damn straight I am, Gary; I’m hoping he doesn’t want to be seen in daylight.”
“You think he won’t?”
“I don’t know, man, but I hope he—”
The car lurches forward as a huge weight lands on top of it.
Judas fights hard with the steering wheel to keep the vehicle under control. He looks out of the left and right windows. “Fuck! Where is he?”
Abaddon’s head snaps into view at his window.
“Hello, Iscariot. Long time no see. Things haven’t changed; you’re still running from me, you fucking chicken shit,” it cackles.
He jerks the steering wheel to the right forcing it to lose its grip, and it skids off the roof.
Performing a barrel roll midair, it forces its right wing out to bring the spin under control then beats down hard with both and bursts forward once again, laughing.
Judas almost loses control of the car as the dirt track offers little traction for maneuvers such as the one he just pulled off. He glances into the back and sees Abi gripping onto Charlotte; both girls terrified out of their minds.
Gary has drawn his gun and waits for the next attack.
“Centre of his chest repeatedly. As many rounds as you can get into him,” he says, switching his attention between him and the road ahead. “You’re gonna have to cause a truck load of damage to this fucker just to slow him down. Understand?”
He nods and grits his teeth.
The car lurches forward once again as Abaddon lands on it.
Gary fires into the roof and the shots hit the demon in the torso forcing him to readjust his attack and let go. He peels off to the right and mirrors the car’s speed, flying parallel to it. He smiles at Gary and leans to the left, powering towards the car’s side.
“He’s gonna ram us!” Gary screams
Judas whips his attention to the demon powering towards the right side of the vehicle and, just before the moment of impact, forces the wheel to the right, meeting Abaddon as he smashes into them, negating a good portion of the impact that would have sent them careering off the road.
The demon beats its wings and ascends up above the vehicle. It once again comes crashing down onto the top of the car and Gary unloads the remaining rounds out of the handgun.
Abaddon lets go and drops back. He is loving the game.
The top slide of Gary’s gun locks in the rear position and he turns to Judas, “I’m out, need to reload!”
Judas curses as he watches Gary fumble into his jacket to retrieve a fresh clip. He returns his attention to the road. Something looms up ahead as it appears out of a dip in the road and his eyes open wide. “Gary, there’s another car.”
The detective ceases his hunt for more ammunition and looks on in horror as he sees the other vehicle speeding its way towards them.
Abaddon closes in on the Mustang from the rear at high speed, the dust thrown up from behind the vehicle marring his vision; but that does not faze him as he is almost upon it.
Martin Dowd’s eyes widen as he sees what Judas has just seen, only in reverse.
“Pete! The fucking car!”
Pete goes to brake and Martin stops him.
“No, he will hit us anyway, go round him!”
Pete screams back at him. “Fucking round him? Round him where?”
Both cars race towards one another, the small distance covered in seconds.
Abaddon is within grasp of the Mustang, his plan to dig his claws deep into the rear of the car, and parachute it to a crushing halt by braking with his massive wings, almost at hand. He reaches out for it.
Judas screams at his occupants, “Hold on! This is gonna be tight!” He whips the wheel to the right and then to the left at the very last second.
The Mustang misses the Police Impala by millimeters; the distance between the cars so close, they scrape against each other at high speed, the sound heard clear by all occupants of both cars. Everybody screams, including Judas.
Abaddon sees the police car too late. He attempts to pull out of the attack and bank off by extending his left wing to its max and turning his body to the right. The front of the Impala hits the wing sending Abaddon into an uncontrollable spin and he smashes into the trees on the right hand side of the road, exploding and devastating a large area of forest.
Pete feels the front of his car crunch as it hits something large and he slams on the brakes as hard as he can. The car lurches forward, and the back end pulls out to the right. The vehicle’s traction fails and it starts to spin. It spins around three times but doesn’t leave the road much to Pete and Martin’s amazement and they come to a terrified, skidding halt.
Judas struggles to keep the rear right-hand tire on the road with the steering wheel too heavy to pull the car out of its drift as it scrapes along. The rear passenger-side wheel hits a small stump on the side of the road and the tire explodes, ripping the wheel out of the axel in the process. The car jars downwards with a thud and Gary’s window shatters. The underside of the vehicle grinds into the dirt track spitting up countless tiny stones that hit him in the face forcing him to hold up his arms to protect his face.
The chippings also rattle against the window at the side of Abi and both she and Charlotte scream.
The car crunches to a sideways halt on the road broken beyond repair, filling up with dust and both men realize that they are lucky the whole thing didn’t flip down the track a few times.
Judas slams the steering wheel with both hands, as he knows they have lost their transportation. “Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuuuuucck!” he screams. He turns around remembering his most important responsibility and reaches out to her. Cupping his left hand around the side of her face, he asks, “You okay, honey?”
She looks at him, coughing in the dust, then gives him a thumbs up.
Gary drops his arms from his face and coughs as he checks on people in the car, “Is everyone okay? I think that was my guys, I need to check on them.”
“Gary, we need to get out of here,” Judas shouts, “Abaddon, remember?”
“I think they hit him, man, I think they killed him.” he says, fumbling with his seat belt.
“Not fucking likely!” Judas replies, doing the same.
Both men try to open their doors.
Judas’ door opens and he steps out but Gary’s has taken too much damage and it won’t budge. He clambers over the seats and out of the driver’s side.
“Okay, come on, hurry, get out,” Judas urges everyone.
Charlotte and Abi climb out as Gary holds the driver’s seat forward.
Abi stumbles, the heels she is wearing not suited to the gravelly road.
He grabs her arm to steady her and she looks into his eyes with thanks.
Judas has hurried to the back of the car and is opening the trunk to retrieve the bags when a voice calls out.
“West Babylon P.D. On the ground, now!”
He looks over his shoulder to see a tall, thin police officer advancing, his weapon drawn and aimed at him.
“West Babylon P.D. Get on the fucking ground now, do it!” This time the warning has more force to it.
Gary steps forward to the side of Judas and waves his hands. “Pete, put it away, man, it’s okay, he’s okay.”
“Gary, is that you? You all right?”
“Yeah, Pete, seriously, put your gun down, this guy’s okay, he’s a friendly, it’s cool.”
“No way, Gary, I’m not putting down my gun. Get him onto the ground and I can get this under control.”
Judas drops the duffel bag back into the trunk, grabs his swords and turns to the armed detective, “Shoot me!”
Gary steps forward. “Whoa! What, wait, no! Pete, don’t shoot him. What are you doing, Judas, please, let me deal with this.”
“Gary, trust me, we are wasting valuable time here.” He turns to Pete once again, “Shoot me, Detective, shoot me now, in the head, shoot me, shoot me in the fucking head. Come on.”
Charlotte screams for him not to do so and runs to Judas’ side.
Gary grabs her as she rushes past him and holds onto her as she continues to scream. He backs away with her struggling in his arms.
“Don’t shoot him; don’t shoot him, he’s my friend!” she screams.
Judas looks at her then takes a deep breath and strides towards Pete. “Shoot me in the head right now, Detective.”
“Stand still! Stand fucking still! Don’t you move or I will open fire!”
He stops moving and raises his arms to the side, swords outstretched. “Shoot me, shoot me in the head, come on, shoot me.”
“Stand fucking still, do not move”
“Shoot me, shoot me now!”
The sirens of approaching cruisers break the standoff and Judas considers his options. He realizes handing himself over at this time might actually save everyone’s lives as Abaddon will be getting himself back together after the crash and may not want to engage them with these numbers approaching. He looks at Charlotte and knows that surrendering into custody will buy them some valuable time and with a whole host of cops protecting her, he can collect his thoughts, formulate a plan to get a new vehicle and get them back on track. He sighs, drops his swords, raises both arms into the air, and falls to his knees.
Abi and Gary look at him, open mouthed.
Charlotte breaks free of Gary and runs towards Judas, throwing her arms around him, crying.
“Shh it’s okay, sweetie, trust me,” Judas says, as she looks at him. He smiles. “You do trust me, don’t you?”
She nods.
“Then this will be okay.”
He pushes her away towards Gary.
Martin has now joined his partner, his weapon drawn also and trained on the suspect. He runs over to and secures him, grabbing the two massive swords from the ground and holding them aloft.
“Whoa!” he says, his eyes wide, looking at his partner who just shakes his head.
He backs off, puts the swords on the ground and then inches back to him. Pulling out his handcuffs he takes Judas’ hands, forces them down to the center of his back and places him under arrest.
Pete holsters his weapon and moves towards the group as uniformed officers get out of their cars, joining the scene, eager for orders. He directs a few of them into the forest to search for whatever they had hit and orders the rest to continue up to the reported crash site of the helicopter.
Martin hauls Judas to his feet, “Looks like we got ya, buddy, yeah! Thought you would get away from us, hey?”
He marches him to a police cruiser and places him in the back seat then joins Pete and Gary next to the wrecked Mustang.
Gary shak
es his head. “Pete, it’s not what you think. You need to listen to what that guy has to say.”
He shrugs and shakes his head. “What am I supposed to do, Gary? You tell me what I am supposed to do. We have our suspect, we’ve recovered the child and we have a shit load of questions that need answering. Your guy surrendered. I gotta take him in, people wanna talk to him.”
“Well, take him in, Pete, but you must talk to him and when you do, listen, listen properly to what he has to say. When you do that, you and I will talk because both he and that child need our help, and what’s going on here is bigger than you think, bigger than a police investigation. This is about the survival of the human race and the only people that can make that happen are that man in that car and that child over there.”
He shakes his head at Gary once more.
“Pete, just listen to what he has to say.”
Pete stares at him, then shakes his head once more and walks away.
Martin shrugs at Gary. “Dude, what in God’s name is going on?”
“That’s just it, Martin,” he replies, “It is in God’s name.”
Detective Pete Stillman secures the scene by putting everyone into squad cars and orders them back to the station. He walks over to Martin. “Bro, you and I question these guys, alright? No one else until we figure out what’s going on. Gary is straight as an arrow, and I trust him. I also wanna know what the fuck we hit cos that was some freaky shit, man. I have known something has been very wrong and I don’t want to be the person who makes all the bad calls. You with me, partner?”
Martin raises his arms to the side and smiles. “What? Like you even have to ask, bro?”
Pete slaps his shoulder in thanks and they get into a squad car.
Two uniformed officers comb the wreckage of the trees attempting to pinpoint whatever has crashed into them, causing the extensive damage.
“What the hell are we looking for?” the first officer says.
“Beats me, man,” his partner replies, “but something sure took a bite out of these trees and I ain’t too sure I wanna find it.”