by Michael Todd
She crouched with a smile on her face as the beast swung his scaled black fist.
She jumped and rolled across the ground as Pandora’s energy started moving through her, then leapt to her feet and swiped her poles across the beast’s leg. The blades dug into his flesh, and he roared when the metal burned. She waited for him to gather himself and finally he lumbered toward her, knocking down anything in his path. Katie jumped into the air and landed on one knee, slowly looking up at the demon.
Her eyes flashed red and she leapt to the demon’s chest, then slammed her blade into his chest. The blade stuck, and as he scrambled to pull it out he threw Katie to the ground. She let out an oomph as the air left her lungs.
Stop playing around and kill the damn thing.
I’m trying. Katie gritted her teeth and got to her feet, then ran at him again. This time he swung his arm at her, and she took the opportunity to get closer. She jumped onto his arm and leapt toward his head, catching the scraggly black hairs protruding from his chin and using them to swing around to his back. She slammed her remaining pole into the top of his head.
The demon went stiff, his eyes rolling as the pain surged through his brain, then tumbled to the side. Katie let go, bracing herself as she fell. When she landed a line of cops had their weapons pointed at the demon.
They began firing into his chest, arms, and legs so Katie put her hands to her mouth and yelled as loudly as she could. “The head! Put a bullet in his motherfucking head!!”
They simultaneously shifted their weapons upward and let ‘em rip. A dozen or more rounds struck the demon in the head, pushing it backward, and he roared loudly before exploding into dust. The cops cheered, and as Katie dug through the ashes for her poles there was a crackle above her and droves of demons began to emerge.
DAMMIT!
She called back, “Boys, you think you can do that again? This time aim for the heads.”
The cops raised their weapons and shot into the portal. Demons screamed as they plummeted toward the ground, bursting into dust before hitting it. Katie looked at the hill, seeing the second large demon making its way toward the canyon’s edge. Katie took off toward the demon with barely any noticeable hesitation, plowing through piles of dust. She jumped over several fallen officers as she made her way to the demon.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
The demon looked down at Katie and gave her a grimacing smile, then hunched his shoulders and jumped into the canyon below.
Katie sighed and cracked her neck, getting ready for the leap. “You had to do it. You just had to go there.”
Katie looked over the edge to find the demon and backed up to get a running start. When she reached the edge she leapt forward, diving straight for the demon.
She put her arms to her sides and flipped upright, raising her poles over her head and then striking the demon in the back. She held tightly to the poles as they slid through the demon’s flesh, dropping her down to the ground as they cut lower. She braced one foot on his leg and yanked them out, ducking as he whirled and waved his wicked claws at her.
She looked down, wrinkling her nose at the thick black ooze that covered her arms and poles. “Come on, dude! You really should think about cutting out the salt. Your cholesterol has got to be off the fucking charts.”
The demon bent forward, opening his massive maw to emit a deafening roar that echoed off the canyon walls. Katie’s hair blew back, and she put up her arm to shield her from the rocks and stones blowing at her.
“Fucker, that stench is hideous!” She glanced at a medium-sized boulder and set her poles down, then picked it up and heaved it into his mouth. He shut his mouth and grabbed his throat, flailing his other arm.
After a loud cough the boulder flew out, slamming into the canyon wall and sending a landslide of stones tumbling down.
The demon had just stepped toward her with his fists balled tightly when a rocket hit him right in the head. He swiped his hand against the flames, his scraggly beard going up in flames. Katie looked up, finding the chief standing on the edge with a rocket launcher on his shoulder. She gave him a thumbs-up and ran up the canyon wall. When she had reached the height of the demon’s head, she leapt toward him and seized the back of his neck.
Katie held on tightly as the demon whipped back and forth to try to throw her off. Pandora cackled loudly in her head, apparently finding the situation funnier than Katie did.
Yeah, doggie, ride that bronco.
You are no help at all.
Katie pulled a dagger from her belt with one hand and pushed herself onto his shoulder, then thrust the dagger into his eye and ducked as he attempted to swat her off. As he screamed in agony, she pulled her pistol and pressed it against his temple.
She had to hold on as he moved erratically. “I told you not to come down here, fucker.”
She pulled the trigger, sending a bullet straight into his brain.
His eyes rolled back, and Katie held on tightly and rode him down to the canyon floor, where he turned to ash. Katie fell right into the pile, briefly disappearing from view. She stepped out a moment later, blowing dust out of her mouth.
“Yuck!”
She spat several times but had nothing to use to wipe away the disgusting stuff. She retrieved her knife and staff, put them back in their holsters, and leaned against one of the boulders breathing heavily.
A year before she would have been demon meat, but today she had taken down two of the things—with some help, of course—and none of her team was there to see it.
She sighed. “They are never going to believe me. They will think I’m a complete liar.”
I saw it, and it was fucking badassery at its best.
Thanks! Okay, gotta get back up there, see how it’s going.
Katie stepped forward and began to climb the wall, pausing as she heard another voice roll through her head. At first it was so faint she could barely make it out, but as she perched on the canyon wall the voice became louder and clearer. It was Moloch.
Katieee, he hissed. Come to the caves. I just want to talk.
Uh, hell no, bro. I got your mess to clean up. Pandora, your buddy is kind of creepy.
He’s not my buddy. Do you need a lift up the canyon? At this rate, the demons will have killed each other by the time you get up there.
They do that?
Probably. She sniffed. They’re a bunch of idiots.
Katie shrugged and let go, her feet hitting the ground a second later. Pandora juiced her and she pushed off hard, landing on the cliff above. As she dusted the grit from her arms and legs, a loud crackle from the portal forced Katie’s attention upward. A third large demon stepped through the dark hole to hell, bending down as he stepped onto Earth. The five LAPDF agents moved slowly around him, giving him his own perimeter.
Katie sighed and pulled her poles back out, wincing as dust flew everywhere when she opened the blades. She shook them off and wiped them on the ground to get the dead demon off of them. There was a thick coating of demon blood and other crud on the blades, but it was going to take some serious scrubbing to get that shit off—something she didn’t have time to focus on right now.
They would still work just fine.
The demon stood before the five, and the rest of the cops headed for the ammo tent. They knew that crew had trained for a demon of that size, so the rest just wanted to get out of harm’s way. Katie was making her way toward the new arrival when out of the corner of her eye she saw a body on the ground; one that looked just like Calvin. She ran over in a panic, but when she got there the deceased looked nothing like him. She shook her head and rubbed her face, realizing that she was starting to hallucinate.
It’s Moloch—he’s fucking with you. He wants an audience with the two of us.
And you think we should go?
Hell, no. If that pussy has to hide in the caves, let him. We have other riffraff to clean up. It looks like this is the last guy. You got it?
Yep, and
if I don’t, I know where to find you.
Pandora snickered. Back at the hotel munching on donuts?
No, right here with me, wanting to fight.
There was a pause before Pandora replied. You might have hit your head harder than I thought.
Katie chuckled and continued up the hill and looked up when the portal slammed shut with a noise like a thunderclap. The demon either didn’t notice or had known it was going to happen.
They had been defeated but had sent one last rogue in for a Hail Mary. It was too bad that Katie and Pandora had expected it. She would have some of the skilled police fighters by her side.
Oh yeah, this motherfucker is gonna go down with a bang. He shouldn’t have come. They locked him out of hell.
Shit, that’s never happened before. Once you’re there, you are always there. Trust me, I know.
Chapter Eight
When Katie reached them they raised their eyebrows. She was covered in dust and her hair was colored gray with it. Katie put her poles in their sheaths and pulled one of her pistols, blowing off the dust.
She looked around, shrugging. “I tripped. Don’t judge me.”
The LAPDF team smiled and aimed at the demon. Katie cleared her throat and stood tall; she was tired of fighting. She was on vacation, and it had been nothing but drama after drama. She had half a mind to go kick Moloch’s ass.
I don’t think so. He would fuck your shit up.
Fine, but let’s kill this demon so I can get back to relaxing.
Deal.
Katie could feel a rush of energy blow through her and she smiled up at the demon as she briefed her team. “All right, boys, you go for his legs to distract him and I’ll leap toward his head. We gotta injure him enough to make one bullet in the brain take him down.
“Why just one?”
“Because I’ve only got two left.”
With that, Katie started moving toward the demon and the guys stared at her in awe before rushing toward his legs. Two of the five shot at his knees, dodging his punishing fist when it slammed down to squish them. The third guy pulled his bow from over his shoulder and started releasing special metal-tipped arrows. The demon screamed in pain, stumbling back a bit and rubbing the wounds.
Katie only had two shots, so she had to get this right. She picked up a good-sized boulder and threw it at the demon with gusto. It bounced off his head and knocked him back onto his ass, caught by surprise. She ran forward and jumped on the demon’s leg, clenching the gun in her mouth as she climbed up through the rolls of flesh covering the beast’s body. When she reached his chest she retrieved her gun and fired one of the two rounds into his chest.
He roared and bucked forward to loosen Katie’s grip. “Fuck.”
Katie slid down the demon’s front to land hard on his leg and the men ceased fire, since it was too dangerous to shoot those bullets and arrows while she was in range.
The demon rubbed his hand across his scaled chest, smearing the thick black blood across it. Katie jumped back up, using Pandora’s strength to push her higher, and grabbed his earlobe when she landed on his shoulder.
The demon was so focused on the five men who were now ambushing his lower extremities again that he didn’t even feel Katie climbing the side of his head. She held onto the folds of his face with one hand and raised the gun up to his forehead. She knew she was going down with him, but she couldn’t get a better grip.
“Bye-bye, asshole,” she whispered into his ear.
“Huh?” His eyes shifted and he noticed her just before she pulled the trigger, killing him the same way she had killed the others.
“This is a pretty sound way to kick their demon asses.”
The demon stumbled and his red eyes flashed wildly around as he fell. The floor of the canyon shook when he hit it. Katie landed hard but rolled to the left, staying seated on the ground when she had come out of the roll.
The demon swayed, his eyes trying desperately to clear.
“I thought that would kill it?” one of the five yelled to her.
“Just wait a minute,” Katie yelled back, crab-walking backward. “Aaaannd …now!”
She pointed at the demon as it evaporated into dust, the wind catching the remains and taking them nowhere in particular. The guys looked at each other and cheered again, the boys on the hill joining their celebration. One of the cops walked over, reached down and helped Katie to her feet.
“Thanks! You saved the day.”
“I had a hell of a lot of help from some damned brave men and women.”
The six of them stood there for a moment as the detritus from the last battle began to settle. Across the fields were the bodies of several fallen men and dozens of fallen demons. Katie’s heart was heavy for those they had lost; she wished she could do more to help this team.
They were brave, some of the bravest she had come across since Incursion Day.
“Come on, let’s get cleaned up. I bet they’ll deliver us some chow.”
Katie chuckled. “You sound just like my demon.”
“She like food?”
“Hell, yeah, she does, and I owe her a bunch of donuts.”
The guys all laughed, having heard the rumors about Katie and Pandora before she’d even arrived. Of all the things to be famous for, I have to get gluttony.
Pandora scoffed. I’ll take that over being the town whore any day, my friend.
Then why are you always trying to get into bed with the guys?
I said I didn’t want to be famous for it, not that I didn’t want to be one.
Once they were up top, Katie grabbed a couple of bottles of water and went to work cleaning the guts, blood, and grit off herself and her weapons. She had never seen them so dirty, not in any fight she had ever been in.
When they were clean enough, she put them back in their various holsters and sheaths and poured some water into her hands, splashing it over her face. The cold water woke her up enough to feel like she could go another round, but luckily, the demons were all dead and she could focus that energy on her interrupted vacation.
“Hey,” one of the five called as he walked up. “We thought you might be hungry.”
He handed over a bag of Chick-Fil-A and nodded. Katie thanked him and set the bag down, inhaling the aroma of the chicken inside of the bag. Pandora sniffed the air and Katie’s stomach growled. She pulled out a container of chicken tenders, opened the honey mustard, and took a bite.
Holy fucking shit, what is this chicken wonder you just put in your mouth?
Uh, it’s Chick-Fil-A. You’ve never had it before?
NO! You have deprived me. Fuck Chicken McNuggets, they are like dog food compared to these. This is like real actual chicken.
One of the five walked over and sat down with a bag of his own. He saw the smirk on Katie’s face and asked, “What’s up?”
“My demon has never had Chick-Fil-A before and it is blowing her mind.”
“That’s ironic.” He chuckled.
“Why?”
“Because Chick-Fil-A is one of those Christian fast food joints that are based on the love of Jesus. They even close on Sundays for a ‘day of rest.’”
Damnnnn! Part of me wants to hurl, Pandora said as Katie took another bite. But the other part of me can’t stop wanting them.
Pandora’s conflicted emotions were tough for her that afternoon.
General Brushwood stared down at the intelligence that had come in from around the country. The old days of two or fewer daily pages were gone.
He was getting thirty- to fifty-page documents a few times a day now. Some of the intelligence was quickly debunked, but the rest included calls to arms to rally the people into fighting this war on their own.
He had to sift through the bullshit and to find the verifiable information mixed in with the rest. He had always been good at pointing out that stuff—the little details that made a story credible—but he had a lot of other things to worry about and the briefings were slowing him down.
He sighed, lowering his glasses and wiping his eyes. He was worn down, and there had just been another incursion in LA. From the report it looked like the casualties were under a dozen, which was probably because Katie had been in the area.
From what he’d heard she had been on “vacation,” which had meant she was free to help out. She had ended up taking down two large demons on her own, another large one with assistance, and fifteen or more smaller demons.
She had done the work of ten on the field.
Brushwood put his glasses back down and continued reading. When he reached the fifth page he stopped and set the papers on his desk, then leaned forward and read through it again twice to make sure he had read it right.
He picked up the phone and called his contact at Katie’s base.
“This is General Brushwood. I need to speak to Staff Sergeant Barrow, please.”
The general sat there shaking his head, not believing what he had just read. It was like no one could catch a break. If only these people knew what Katie and her team had done to protect them over the last year, they might think twice about going after her. Not only was what they were doing illegal, but it put the whole operation at risk.
A new voice came online. “General, what can I do for you?”
The general got to the point. “Staff Sergeant Barrow, are you alone?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. You are the only person on the team right now I know well enough to trust. I need your men to add a very important duty to their ever-growing list. I need them to protect Katie at all costs.”
There was a short pause. “Is everything all right, sir?”
“No, and until I get to the bottom of it her life is in danger. I want you to understand this very clearly: you cannot assume that just because they wear our uniform they support her.”
The grunt of exasperation was easy to hear. “Jesus, we have a war going on, and people on the inside are trying to sabotage us?”