Fire City

by Bali Rai

  ‘Where’s Oscar?’ she demanded, her legs beginning to shake uncontrollably at Marko’s words.

  ‘He stayed up top,’ Marko explained. ‘If the demons look like they’re coming through, he’s going to set the charges. I’m sure he’ll be back any minute.’

  ‘What do we do, then?’ she asked.

  Marko looked at the hatch they’d been so quick to barricade. ‘We wait here,’ he said. ‘We wait for Oscar.’

  Emily shook her head. ‘We can’t,’ she told him. ‘May gave orders to seal everything if you hadn’t made contact within five minutes. It’s been eight.’

  ‘No,’ Marko insisted, removing the thick wooden planks that held the hatch in place and throwing back three rusting bolts. ‘We can’t just abandon Oscar. I’ll stay here until he gets back.’

  Emily considered Marko’s words for a second or two before nodding her consent. They opened the metal door and looked out into the gloom. That was when they felt and heard the explosion . . .

  47

  JONAH AND MACE encountered the army on the very outskirts of Fire City, where an old fast-food drive-through sat desolate amidst thick weeds. The area around it had been completely destroyed; above, the bridge that had once carried the ring road over the urban area had collapsed into a pile of twisted metal rods and concrete lumps, some bigger than the cars they had crushed. A narrow lane cut southwards through the dense overgrowth – the route they needed to take, but it was blocked by a small platoon of human soldiers; seven visible, and three more staked out in the remains of the restaurant.

  Jonah had sensed the soldiers’ presence early, ordering Mace to stop three hundred metres short of their position. He’d spent the entire journey fiddling with the thermobaric grenades, taking out their fuses and re-calibrating them, just as an expert in the north had shown him with normal explosives. All bombs worked the same way but Jonah took extra care with the grenades at hand, having never worked with thermobarics before. It was no easy task as they bounced along uneven and pitted terrain. Twice Mace had asked him what he was doing, receiving no reply either time. Jonah had wanted Mace to concentrate on the road, not worry about being burned to ashes by a wrong move.

  ‘Just let me concentrate,’ he had told him.

  ‘They look dangerous,’ Mace had retorted.

  ‘They are,’ Jonah replied. ‘Which is why I need you to concentrate on the road and avoid any large bumps.’

  ‘If you set one of those things off,’ Mace joked as the wheels of the jeep hit yet another pothole, ‘I’m going to kill you.’

  ‘Just watch where you’re going and shut up,’ Jonah had demanded.

  Now they were using the undergrowth around the ring road as cover, creeping ever closer to the unit. Two soldiers stood at the entrance to the drive-through, facing east, with a third standing by a lorry, facing west. The other four that were visible stood in pairs facing north, two hundred metres apart, with the city at their backs.

  ‘There’s no other way,’ Jonah told Mace. ‘This is the most remote way into the city. All the other routes are more open and they’ll be heavily guarded. We have to go through here.’

  Mace shrugged his meaty shoulders. ‘So let’s do that,’ he replied. ‘Just take the soldiers out.’

  Jonah shook his head, thinking about his own, private mission. There was no point in giving Valefor a warning about his return. If his mother had been right about the demon lord, Valefor already knew of his presence. He would have sensed it.

  ‘The minute we show our hand,’ he pointed out, ‘they’ll get on the radio for reinforcements. We have to use stealth.’

  ‘Guess so,’ said Mace. ‘Use your demon thing on them.’

  ‘My demon thing?’

  Mace nodded. ‘Whatever you call it, then,’ he offered. ‘It’s not like you’ve told me anything about it. You’ll have to excuse my lack of understanding.’

  Jonah sensed his friend’s sarcasm and smiled. ‘I’m sorry,’ he replied. ‘It’s just that since I told you, we’ve been on the move. We’ve got a moment now, so what do you want to know?’

  ‘Everything,’ Mace admitted. ‘I mean, how is it even possible that your mother was demon and your father human? That’s the craziest shit I’ve ever heard. And then there’re all the powers and the fact that you hate your own kind so much you’ve joined the battle to get rid of them. None of it makes sense.’

  ‘I guess if I was human I’d think that way too,’ Jonah replied. ‘But I’m not – human, that is – and I’m not completely demon either.’

  ‘See?’ Mace pointed out. ‘You don’t actually answer questions.’

  ‘OK,’ Jonah parried, ‘let me try and explain a little. My mother was a succubus, and when she was killed, she’d already lived for over three thousand years. She fell in love with my father, a human, and I don’t know how or why that happened – it just did. My mother gave up her species to be with my father, and that upset the other demons, broke their ancient decrees.

  ‘My parents hid for many years and had children, but eventually, when the Demon Reign began, the Hell-kin, as you call them, came for us. They’d probably always known about us because my mother couldn’t hide her true origins. They sensed her presence in the same way that my mother sensed that they were coming.

  ‘She separated us all and sent us away, to members of my father’s family. I ended up in the north, around what was called Manchester before the War. That was the last time I ever saw either of my parents or my siblings again . . .’

  The explanation hadn’t been entirely truthful but it was enough to spark more questions from Mace.

  ‘How do you know they’re dead, then?’

  ‘Every one of us, bar my human father, has a connection to the other. I mean, a way of feeling what the other is feeling, directly. I know my parents were slaughtered because I could see and hear and feel everything my mother went through.’

  ‘Because you’re half demon?’ said Mace.

  ‘Yes,’ replied Jonah, trying to shake off the memories of his parents’ demise.

  ‘But how?’

  ‘How what?’

  ‘How could your mother give birth if she was a demon?’

  ‘Succubi prey on men,’ Jonah explained. ‘They appear as beautiful women and lure men into bed. Once there, they devour them. My mother took over a human body and decided to live through it. She became the person she possessed.’

  ‘And you?’ continued Mace. ‘Do you age like us or like them?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Jonah admitted. ‘The human part of me has aged already. I was born and I grew up like any other human child, but inside there’s something else, something my mother taught me to tap. The demon part of me . . .’

  ‘So all those “skills” that you have, they’re all produced by your Hell-kin blood?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Jonah, ‘although Hell doesn’t really exist, not in the way most humans think of it. The demons exist in a parallel dimension, one that is always there. That’s where they emerged from when the War began.’

  Mace looked pensive as he digested Jonah’s words and caused the boy to feel uncertainty. The problem for Jonah was that he couldn’t allow himself to be discovered, at least not by everyone. His yearning for vengeance was too great, the only true driving force in his life. It was the thing that fed and sustained him, shaped and reshaped his emotions and thoughts. He couldn’t let something as trivial as human friendships endanger that. He needed Mace to understand, to react with tolerance and to abide by his desire to be secretive. For Mace’s sake as much as his own.

  His mother’s face took over his thoughts – her pale, porcelain skin, her intensely black eyes and the perfectly symmetrical beauty of her smile. ‘They’ll never understand us,’ she’d warned, gathering Jonah and his siblings to her. ‘They’ll never let us be. We don’t fit their narrow definitions, and we never will. In order to survive, we have to keep our true selves hidden. You must always remember that. Always . . .’

&
nbsp; ‘But if your mother couldn’t hide from them, how do you manage?’

  ‘My mother didn’t have a human soul, she’d only possessed one – it’s not the same thing.’ said Jonah. ‘I do have a human soul and I’ve learned to bury the demon deep inside the human part. I only allow the Hell-kin to surface when I need it.’

  Mace’s eyes widened. ‘So when you fought Mias, you alerted the other demons to your presence?’

  ‘I alerted Valefor,’ Jonah told him. ‘He’s the only ancient in Fire City, and the only one who would have sensed me. He probably knew about it before the confrontation with Mias.’

  ‘And you want to kill Valefor.’

  ‘Not want,’ said Jonah. ‘I am going to kill him.’

  ‘Which is the only reason you came to Fire City . . .’

  ‘Yes.’

  Mace shook his head, trying to make sense of what he was hearing. ‘I think I’m more confused than before,’ he admitted.

  ‘Another time,’ said Jonah. ‘We’ve got business to take care of.’ He pointed to the nearest soldier, six or seven metres away, standing with his back to the lorry, watching the road. ‘There are three humans hidden inside the building,’ Jonah told Mace. ‘We’ll take them down slowly, one at a time.’

  ‘Better get the knives out, then,’ Mace replied grimly. ‘I’ll do the closest one.’

  Jonah agreed and they split up, with Mace edging towards the first soldier. Jonah went right, round behind the lorry, using it as cover. He kept low, still concealed by the weeds until he could see the soldier’s legs from underneath the vehicle.

  Mace was almost within reach now, lying flat on the ground, his machete clenched between his teeth. He waited until the soldier turned before pouncing, jumping to his feet and using his spade-like hands to cover the soldier’s mouth and bring him down, breaking his neck in the same movement. The whole manoeuvre took less than five seconds and the rest of the platoon failed to notice. Sure that he was dead, Mace dragged the soldier’s body underneath the lorry and past Jonah, leaving it deep in the undergrowth and taking the soldier’s gun.

  ‘What next?’ he asked Jonah as he rejoined him.

  ‘The far side,’ Jonah replied. ‘We’ll take the four facing this way before we deal with the ones guarding the building.’

  ‘We’ll have to be careful,’ said Mace.

  ‘We’ll distract them.’

  ‘How?’ Mace asked him, causing Jonah to shrug nonchalantly.

  ‘We’ll think of something,’ he said. ‘Come on!’

  48

  ONCE STONE AND his driver had removed the bodies, Martha and the others rushed to the Haven, leaving the customers to take what they wanted from the bar. Not that it mattered any more, with the Mayor dead and their secret discovered. She’d barely thought any more about killing her stepfather, beyond the initial feelings of anger and horror. It had to be done and, even though she felt bad at taking his life, the only concern running through Martha’s mind was for the Haven and the people inside it.

  She knew that May would be there, alongside Oscar, Raj and a few others, and prayed that they’d understood what was happening and hidden away. However, Martha also knew that an attack was the last thing they would be expecting. The Haven had been a closely guarded secret for so long that any thought of its discovery would be discounted. Not once had the demons or the army come close to finding out about it, never mind raiding it.

  She cursed Aron and his treachery, the shock long since replaced by rage. It was doubtful that she’d see him again, but if she did, Martha knew that she would kill him. Nothing excused what he had done – not his anger at being ostracized or his jealousy of Jonah. Aron had destroyed nearly twenty years of secrecy, devotion and sacrifice, belittling every life lost in their cause. All of it done in the service of creatures he claimed to hate.

  ‘That stupid little bastard!’ spat Prior, echoing Martha’s thoughts.

  They’d turned left out of the bar and gone straight over the crossroads into what had been the main thoroughfare before the War. Much like elsewhere, nature had reclaimed every nook and cranny, a particularly fast-growing and invasive knotweed covering walls and floors, weaving around the dense brambles and nettles. The three of them – Martha, Faith and Prior – wanted to run but knew that they couldn’t. All around them were soldiers, on foot and in vehicles, and armed to the teeth.

  ‘This is bad,’ said Faith as they passed yet another group of soldiers, each one giving them the eye. Faith’s usually rosy cheeks were hollow and the bags under her eyes seemed larger than ever. She’d tied her filthy hair back with a length of twine and longed to take a wash.

  ‘Things are going to change for ever,’ said Prior. ‘Once they find the Haven, that’s it. We might as well get shot now.’

  ‘Nothing’s ever final,’ replied Martha, feeling a sharp pain in her abdomen at the thought that Prior might be right.

  The old man half smiled at her, knowing that his illness was certainly final.

  ‘We can’t give up,’ Martha added. ‘If we lose the Haven, we’ll have to start again. We can’t let these bastards win. That would mean that everyone who has died to protect it lost their lives in vain.’

  Faith shrugged and told Martha that she understood what she was saying. ‘Still doesn’t matter though,’ she continued. ‘I’m not sure there are enough of us left to care. I mean, who even remembers the days before the demons – me, Prior, Mace, maybe a handful of others? Most of the people around us gave up years ago. They just don’t care any more, Martha. They try and get by, struggle and survive, and when their time comes they just accept it.’

  ‘Which is even more justification to fight,’ Martha insisted. ‘To wake them up and show them a better way.’

  ‘I’m with Faith,’ said Prior. ‘The Haven was our stand, kid, the one we were all proud to make. If it goes, then we have nothing left. We no longer have the means or the will to begin again.’

  ‘But . . .’ began Martha only for the words to die on her tongue.

  They had reached the clock tower, a fifteen-metre-high monument that sat at the intersection of five streets, surrounded by armed vehicles and men. Each of the five roads was barricaded and a five-metre cordon had been imposed around the tower. The route that Martha and the others wanted to take was the most heavily obstructed and caused each of them to panic.

  ‘That’s it, then,’ Prior said in a resigned tone. ‘They know.’

  ‘Maybe we can go round?’ Martha countered. ‘There’s got to be another way.’

  Faith shook her head. ‘Forget it, Martha,’ she advised. ‘It looks like they’ve locked the city down. We might as well turn back.’

  ‘But what about Oscar and May and everyone else?’ asked Martha, her eyes pleading and face almost scarlet.

  ‘I’m sorry for them,’ Faith replied impassively, her thoughts already turning to their next move. ‘But we have to think about the future now. The Haven can be shut down completely, and hopefully that’s what May and the others will have done. There’s a secret tunnel that leads out, one that only we elders know about. They can last a week down there anyway, and both May and Raj are resourceful. Only we can’t do anything for them right now. If we act now, we’ll just be killed and that won’t help anyone. Do you understand?’

  Martha nodded slowly, sadness and resignation etched across her features. She knew that Faith was right but still wanted to fight, wanted to get to her aunt. She wondered what her mother would have done in her place, but understood Faith’s stoicism. Maria would have reacted in exactly the same way, even if that reaction hurt like hell and caused her heart to fold in upon itself.

  ‘I wish Mace was here,’ said Faith.

  ‘I wish that little rat Aron was here,’ snapped Prior. ‘I’m going to cut out his heart the next time I see him.’

  As yet more soldiers appeared, Martha spoke up again. ‘We should go back, then,’ she suggested, even though everything inside her urged her towards the Haven
and May. ‘I don’t trust these soldiers.’

  As they turned and walked away, a voice boomed out from a loudhailer: ‘THIS IS A CURFEW – CLEAR THE STREETS! ANYONE DISOBEYING THIS ORDER WILL BE EXECUTED!’

  At precisely the moment that Martha had nodded in resignation, across the city Stone walked in on Aron, who was sitting at a table in the mess, scoffing down hot dogs. The mercenary patted the boy on his back.

  ‘You did good,’ Stone told him.

  ‘Martha?’ Aron asked, after swallowing his latest mouthful. ‘Did you . . .?’

  ‘She’s safe,’ Stone replied. ‘I warned her well in advance and besides, there’s no way she can make it to the Haven now. Pipe and his men have closed down Fire City.’ He looked at his watch. ‘The curfew begins in five minutes,’ he continued. ‘Shoot-to-kill orders. No one will be spared.’

  ‘What about the others?’ Aron added. ‘The ones at the Haven?’

  Stone smiled and shook his head. ‘Sorry, son,’ he replied. ‘They aren’t going to make it out alive. That’s the price they’ll pay.’

  ‘And I made them pay it,’ Aron pointed out, shame crawling across his face, discolouring his cheeks. He hadn’t meant for them to die.

  ‘You did what any sensible human would do,’ Stone told him. ‘You took the best available option.’

  ‘Did you tell Martha?’ Aron asked expectantly.

  ‘Tell her what?’

  ‘That I’m the one who blabbed?’

  Stone didn’t answer the question. Instead he told Aron to finish his meal – another plate of hot dogs smothered in baked beans, with two cans of cola to wash it all down. The mercenary felt his own stomach complain about the hunger he’d forced it to endure. ‘Who knows when you’ll get another chance,’ he added.

  Aron ignored him and asked again if Stone had revealed his betrayal.

  ‘Yes,’ Stone admitted. ‘You knew that I would.’

  Aron felt his stomach turn somersaults. His former life was over, finished by his act of duplicity. He could accept that his old friends would never forgive him – he expected it, even though he knew that his actions had been those of a true hero. Coping with their hatred would be made easier by the knowledge that he had saved Martha from death, and that alone made everything feel worthwhile. It would sustain him in his new life, running with Stone and his gang and working for Brogan. Maybe one day he’d get the chance to explain to them, and then they would understand how he had helped them.