Hell Gate

by Josh Matthews

  “I’m Jeanette,” she said with a French accent. “As you Americans say, it looks like we showed up in the nick of time.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Jason slid off his horse and stood for a moment, dumbstruck. He could not be quite sure if it was because his life had been saved thanks to this group of strangers who appeared out of nowhere, or because they were led by an attractive teenage girl. He pushed the loose hair back behind his ears as he stepped forward. Lucifer and Lilith started to follow, so he motioned for them to stay. Jeanette offered her hand, and Jason took it. His palm tingled when he touched her. The girl’s skin felt especially warm and silky. He gave it a single weak pump.

  Way to go. Jason felt his face flush. This girl defeated a magma monster. No handshake of yours is going to hurt her.

  Trying to dig himself out of his embarrassment, Jason offered up the only smartass response he could come up with. “Better in the nick of time than too late.”

  Damn, what a lame answer. A part of Jason hoped the magma monster would come back out of the Seine and drag him away.

  Jeanette smiled. When she did, her green eyes glowed. “And do you have a name?”

  “Jason.”

  Off to his right, Sasha cleared her throat. She stood a few feet away holding the horse’s reins in her hand. He detected the jealousy underneath the forced grin. “Oh, and this is Sasha, one of my team leaders.”

  One of the men carrying an AK-47 stepped up beside Jeanette. “Nous devrions y aller avant cette chose revient.”

  “Bien sur.” Jeanette started to walk away. “Come with us.”

  “Where are we going?” Jason asked.

  “We’re taking you back to our place. It’s not far from here, and it’s well defended. You’re welcome to stay the night.”

  Jason perked up. “I’d like that.”

  Jeanette beamed.

  Sasha huffed.

  The three men carrying rocket launchers waited until the others were clear before following.

  Jason caught up with Jeanette, leading his horse behind him. “I have to round up the rest of my group.”

  “My people are doing that now. They’ll meet us on the other side of town.”

  “Thanks for helping out back there. We were lucky you came along when you did.”

  “It was more than luck. We were on patrol when we saw your group walking along the embankment. It’s a shame we arrived too late to save your friends.”

  In the excitement of meeting Jeanette, Jason had forgotten about Philippe and Renato. He closed his eyes and said a silent prayer for his fallen comrades.

  Sasha moved up along the other side of Jeanette. “I pumped a couple of hundred rounds into that thing with no effect. How did you stop it with regular rocket shells?”

  “Oh, there’s nothing regular about them. The shells contain liquid nitrogen. It freezes the skin. It’s the only weapon effective against that thing.”

  “Where did you find liquid nitrogen out here?” asked Jason.

  “We didn’t find it out here,” Jeanette chuckled. “We confiscated it on one of our foraging raids into Paris.”

  Jason stopped short. “You’ve been to Paris?”

  “Several times.” Jeanette glanced over her shoulder. “Why?”

  “Because that’s where we’re heading.”

  The girl’s face became grim. “We need to have a long talk first.”

  Jason let the conversation drop. A few minutes later, they reached the southern outskirts of Notre Dame de la Garenne. The rest of his team milled around in a circle. Four men stood nearby with their weapons cradled in their arms. Jeanette swiped her hand across her neck and the four men relaxed, slinging the weapons over their shoulder.

  Doc knelt by Petra, giving her a shot from a hypodermic. When he saw Jason and Sasha approaching, he said, “Thank God. I thought that thing had gotten you.”

  “We’re fine. How’s Petra?”

  “She got jostled around as we raced through town. She’s been moaning for the past ten minutes, so I gave her another shot of morphine.”

  “What happened to her?” asked Jeanette.

  “Last night we were attacked by thirty soul vampires,” answered Doc. “One of them spewed acid on her.”

  Jeanette mouthed the question “thirty?” to Jason. He nodded.

  “You’ll be safe tonight,” she said. “Our camp is not far from here. You’ll be able to get a good night’s rest, and we’ll find a bed to make your friend comfortable.”

  “Thanks.”

  “My pleasure.” Jeanette flashed him a flirtatious smile. “Let’s move out. I want to make it back to camp before nightfall.”

  The group continued south for another hour, crossing through fields and farmland covered in high grass. Off in the distance were three deserted villages, the buildings dark and silent against the encroaching dusk. The only sound came from birds chirping their final song of the day and the crunching of the dried underbrush beneath their feet.

  Jason was apprehensive. Not because of their newfound friends. So far, no one on Jeanette’s team had given him any reason to make him fear for his people’s safety. No, his concern came from their security methods. For the past ten minutes, they had followed a well-worn path through the grass that even the Nachzehrer could follow like an arrow leading directly to food. If Jeanette’s travel patterns were so predictable, he wondered how secure her camp could be.

  There were a lot of things Jason wondered about, and not just Jeanette. Who were these people? How did they get here? Most importantly, how did they survive this long? His teams had only been out here for a few days and already had run into more Hell Spawn then they had seen in the past six months, and had lost three of their number with one severely wounded. Yet these people not only seemed to have survived in the midst of it, but they had also adapted and taken the fight back to the Hell Spawn. And they claimed to have frequently traveled into Paris. He would have to find out as much as he could about Jeanette’s group.

  As they exited the overgrown grass, Jeanette and the others spread out in a line abreast. She stopped and waited for Jason. Two hundred feet ahead of them sat a wooded area. At first, nothing seemed unusual. Once his eyes adjusted to the fading light, he noticed three dark shadows within the tree line. Jeanette removed a hand-held radio from her belt and keyed the microphone.

  “Gardes Enclave, c'est Une Rover. Nous revenons, et nous avons des invités.”

  “Compris, Une Rover. La zone est sécurisée, afin ramener à la maison.”

  Only then did Jason realize that the shadows belonged to well-camouflaged Humvees. He probably would not have noticed them if a guard had not climbed out of the vehicle on the left and waved them on. A beam of light emanated from the woods, beginning as a sliver and growing wider. It took a second for Jason to realize that the light came from inside an underground bunker, the door of which was opening.

  Jeanette smiled at Jason. “Here we are. Welcome to the Enclave.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  From what Jason could see of the bunker entrance, the exterior walls were at least three feet thick. A flight of cement stairs descended to a landing before turning right.

  “What is this place?” asked Jason.

  “It’s an underground bunker from World War II. The Nazis used it to hide supplies from Allied bombing.”

  The group paused by the entrance. The blast door looked new, and a string of fluorescent lights hung from the ceiling above the stairs. “This is in pretty good shape for a bunker that’s over seventy years old.”

  “Reno purchased it from the state ten years ago and has fixed it up since.”

  “Who’s Reno?”

  “Claude Reno, the leader of the Enclave. He’s a….” Jeanette thought about the right word. “I think you Americans call them ‘preparationists’?”

  “You mean prepper?”

  “Oui. The locales laughed at him when he began renovating this bunker for Armageddon.”


  Jason grinned. “No one’s laughing now.”

  Jeanette nodded. She motioned to the guard who stood outside the Humvee. “Appelez-François et Charles-vous ici pour effectuer une civière de la pauvre fille.”

  “Oui, mademoiselle.” The guard keyed his radio and relayed the order.

  “Renaud is calling up two of my people to carry your friend’s stretcher,” Jeanette explained. “She can have my room where she’ll be comfortable.”

  “Thanks.” It suddenly dawned on Jason. “How do the microphones work? I thought everything electronic was wiped out by the EMP?”

  “They were. Reno had placed several radios in a steel container that shielded them from the pulse. If it weren’t for him, we would never have survived out here this long.”

  The sound of footsteps caught their attention. A man ascended the stairs. He appeared to be in his early fifties, with a well-shaped physique, graying hair, and a five-o’clock shadow. His brown eyes were serious and intense. As he approached, his face broke into a smile.

  “I assume these are our guests?”

  “Oui. This is Jason, the leader of their group. Jason, this is Reno.”

  The man extended a calloused hand and gave Jason’s a firm pump. “Welcome, my friends. Our place is yours, so make yourselves at home. I only ask that you store the miniguns and automatic weapons in our armory. You’ll get them back when you leave. You can keep your side arms and machetes if you like.”

  “Thanks,” said Jason. “What about the horses?”

  “We have a corral nearby where we keep livestock. We’ll put them in there. It’s guarded constantly, so they’ll be safe.”

  Lilith saddled up beside Jason and whined. He scratched behind her ears. “May I bring Lilith and Lucifer with me?”

  Reno studied the two animals, his eyebrows furrowed. “They’re werehounds?”

  “Yes, although they’re more like pets. They go everywhere with me.”

  Reno glanced over at Jeanette, who nodded her approval.

  “Tres bien.” Reno spoke loud enough so the rest of the group could hear. “We don’t have much space, so we’ll set you up in the community room. It’ll be cramped, but you’ll be able to get a safe night’s sleep. Follow me.”

  With that, Reno spun around and went back into the bunker. Jeanette placed her hand on Jason’s shoulder and ushered him inside. The others followed.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Dinner was a pleasant treat, and not because all of Jason’s people could eat together at one sitting without having to post a guard. Because the Enclave maintained livestock and a garden, tonight’s menu consisted of carrots, green beans, and steak. Being a special occasion, Reno also brought out several bottles of red wine. All three teams devoured their meals like they hadn’t eaten in months. Jeanette even provided Lucifer and Lilith with their own choice cuts, which endeared her to the werehounds.

  Jason, Doc, Sasha, Haneef, and Slava sat at the table with Reno and Jeanette. Everyone from Jason’s side told their stories, except for Sasha. She sat sullenly through the meal, casting an occasional glare at Jeanette. After Jason had finished relating the details of their journey up to the encounter with the magma monster, he sat back and waited for Reno’s reaction.

  “You’re lucky you made it this far,” said Reno.

  “How so?” asked Doc.

  “Several months ago, this area was uninhabitable because of the Hell demons.” Reno refilled his wine glass. “I bought this bunker and renovated it because I wanted a safe haven for me and my brother’s family when the crisis hit. I always figured it would be social unrest brought about by economic collapse or political crisis, or maybe the disruption of the power grid due to a solar flare. That’s why I set up a pair of windmills not far from here and have a backup generator in the basement, which is why we have electricity. Who would have guessed I would be defending my family from Hell demons?

  “Anyway, after the EMP took down most of Europe, Charles and his family moved in, and we settled down to ride out the chaos until things blew over. They never did. Once the TV and radio stations went off the air, Charles and I ventured out once a week to check on the situation. You can’t imagine the nightmare that took place outside this bunker. Most of those who tried to escape from Paris stuck to the main roads, making them easy prey for the soul suckers. Not many Parisians lived through those first few weeks. Some of the locals tried to escape using back roads, although most of them didn’t fare much better than the city folk. Once the food supply dwindled, the soul suckers moved on. For those who survived, things got better for a little while.

  “That’s when the gangs arrived.” Reno drank some more wine. “They weren’t trying to survive. They just enjoyed raping and killing, like the Boche from World War II. That’s why I began letting others join our group, mostly locals who had stayed behind and some stragglers whom I felt I could trust. It was as much to save them as to bolster our numbers against the gangs. At one point, close to fifty of us lived here, which turned out to be a Godsend.”

  “Why?” asked Sasha.

  “Because then the other Hell demons arrived. We lost five of our people the first time we encountered those lava monsters in the Seine, like the one you ran into earlier today.”

  “There’s more than one?” asked Haneef.

  Reno nodded. “We’ve seen as many as three at one time. They never stray more than a few hundred feet from the lava flow. The undead weren’t too bad. They’re slow and stupid, and don’t pose much of a threat as long as you can avoid them. Except for those things whose heads exploded and spread spores. Have you run into them yet?”

  “Outside of Falaise,” said Jason. The image of Christophe came back to him, and so did the guilt. “We lost one of our people to them.”

  “That’s how my father died.” Jeanette’s eyes watered up. “He had gone to check on one standing in a field when its head burst, infecting him with spores.”

  “We call them pus zombies because of the fluid in their skulls,” said Doc.

  “What an appropriately disgusting name for them.” Reno took another sip of wine. “Since the number of people living here had increased so dramatically, we had to send out scavenging parties to bolster our supplies. Almost every time we did, we had to battle the Hell demons. Over time, our ranks dwindled to twenty-nine. Eventually, the Hell demons moved west in search of food, and the frequency of the attacks decreased. Other than the lava monsters, we haven’t seen any of the demons in almost two months.”

  Jason performed a quick mental calculation. At the Hell Spawn’s rate of advance, they should reach Mont St. Michel in less than six weeks.

  “What happened to the gangs?” asked Sasha.

  “The Hell demons got most of them.” Reno finished his glass. “And they deserved what happened to them if you ask me.”

  “Jeanette told us how you protected the hand-held radios from the EMP,” said Doc. “Did you also protect a long-range radio?”

  “I did.”

  “Do you have any news about the rest of the world?”

  “Yes, although none of it is good.” Reno sighed. “The same thing happened with the experiments being conducted in Russia, China, Japan, and the United States. As far as I can tell, the electronic blackout extends across Europe from Great Britain to beyond the Ural Mountains. Most of China and all of Japan are out of communication. Second-hand reports from the U.S. military in Okinawa say the Asian mainland is in chaos, and that in Japan rioting and cannibalism are rampant. The east coast of the United States was taken down by the EMP. Apparently, everything west of the Rockies is functioning normally, although their resources are stretched to the limit as survivors make their way west. The only regions not affected by the EMP are Latin America and Africa. The Middle East remained untouched for a while, at least until six months ago when Israel and Iran got into a nuclear exchange. Tel Aviv, Tehran, Damascus, Amman, Cairo, Riyadh, Baghdad, and Kuwait City were obliterated. There were even unconfirmed reports t
hat the Iranians nuked Mecca because the Saudis backed Israel. Most of the region is contaminated by fallout. No one has heard from the area in months, and what little news comes from the region is all from Sudan.”

  Haneef bowed his head and muttered a silent prayer.

  The rest of the group sat in stunned silence. No one knew what to say. There was nothing to say. Even in the depths of worldwide despair, mankind could not put aside its petty differences for the common good.

  Jason broke the silence. “Jeanette says your people have been to Paris since the Hell Gate opened.”

  Reno nodded. “In the beginning, we sent several parties in to scavenge for supplies. We stopped that about three months ago because the number of Hell demons infesting the city became too great.”

  “Then you know where the Hell Gate is located?”

  Reno nodded again. “It’s inside Notre Dame Cathedral. It’s ironic that the portal to Hell is in the most sacred spot in the city. Why do you want to know?”

  “We’re going to close it.”

  Reno looked stunned. “How do you plan on doing that?”

  “I’ve created a device with solidified antimatter,” answered Doc. “If I can insert it into the Hell Gate, I think I can collapse the portal.”

  “’Think’?”

  A glimmer of doubt shattered Doc’s confidence. “We won’t know until we try.”

  “We’d like your help,” Jason said.

  Reno leaned back in his chair and rested his elbows on the arms. “What do you need?”

  “Your people have been to Paris and know what to expect,” Jason said. “We’d like to have some of them accompany us to the Hell Gate.”

  “What you ask for isn’t easy.”