by Michael Todd
The demon Pandora was sending back to hell screamed and begged. It really didn’t want to go. When the demon was gone the politician passed out cold and Katie let go, letting him fall to the floor.
“Hey, where’s my bartender?” Katie asked.
“He passed out.” Stephanie jerked a thumb at the space behind the bar as she sat down and started popping pretzels into her mouth. “I guess he couldn’t take anymore.”
“Too bad.” Katie sat next to her and sipped the drink in front of her. “Humans these days! Oh, wait, didn’t one run out of here earlier?”
“I got him.” Eric kicked a body out of the way as he looked around. “Damn, you took out the whole bar.”
“They wouldn’t give him up.” Stephanie shrugged and picked up a cherry. “You gotta do what you gotta do. How was alley duty?”
“Fine,” Eric wiped the blood off a barstool with a napkin. “I think I now have rabies and tetanus, but hey—at least I’m alive, right?”
“So, are we off to dinner before Pandora has a complete meltdown?” Katie asked.
“Yes, I’m starving!” Stephanie jumped up and headed for the door.
“You guys go grab the car. I’ll be out in a second,” Katie told them.
She went to each of the unconscious possessed and yanked their demons out. Why the hell they had all chosen this establishment, she wasn’t sure. Only two were merely human.
She walked back behind the bar and wrote a thank you on a napkin before shoving it into the bartender’s pocket. She propped him against a stepstool and put a balled-up coat behind his head, then stood back with her hands on her hips and nodded in approval.
“Sorry, buddy. You were really brave there for a second.”
Several cops busted through the front door with their guns drawn.
“Hey, hey!” Katie put her hands up. “I think you guys know me.”
“Guns down, boys,” the lead cop ordered. “It’s the D Squad.”
“Most these people are just unconscious now; all the demons have been removed,” she told them, popping a cherry in her mouth. “This guy, though…he gets VIP treatment, you hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am.” The cop chuckled.
“You boys have fun now, you hear?” She waved as she walked toward the back door. “Oh, and this one?” She nudged one comatose body. “He’s a politician. A big one, but he won’t be going back to the Hill for a while, most likely. I heard he voted against police raises anyway.”
Katie disappeared out the back door, leaving the half a dozen cops shaking their heads as they stepped over unconscious bodies.
“All right, boys, spread out,” the lead cop said. “We got a lot of people to see to.”
“Damn!” one of the cops exclaimed. “This guy was punched in both eyes, and he is still holding onto his ‘nads.”
“Right, left, kick in the junk?” his partner asked, looking over his shoulder.
“Yeah, that’s definitely my favorite move,” the cop replied. “Poor guy is gonna be hurting when he wakes up.”
“Wait!” His partner looked at the pool table. “Is that guy wearing a tutu?”
Everybody chuckled, moving the furniture around to clear a way for the EMTs to get through when they got there. The captain walked into the place and looked at the guy in the tutu on the table, two pool balls placed right next to each other between his legs. He sighed and looked at the lead cop.
“Let me guess…the D squad was here.” He chuckled through his long curly mustache. “At least they have style when they break up a bar full of people. How many were there? Six or seven?”
“Uh, no,” the lead cop said. “It was just two of them. Maybe three, but we heard two female voices when we were coming in.”
The captain let out a long whistle. “I need these girls on the force. Whip you idiots into shape. All right, get this mess cleaned up, I’ll figure out a story, because I don’t think the guy holding his balls is going to believe a gas leak made them pass out when he wakes up.”
“Probably not,” the lead cop agreed, holding back a laugh. “But the truth isn’t very likely either.”
“Too true.” The captain looked around one last time before walking out the door. “None of this is believable anymore.”
Chapter Three
General Brushwood looked out the window as his helicopter touched down on the landing pad.
A short skinny man with thick-rimmed glasses and a white coat stood next to two armed guards, waiting for the general to exit the helicopter. He sighed, grabbed his hat, and swung open the door. He hated dealing with the scientists; they were always so clingy and nerdy. Still, he was at Research Base 221 for a reason, and it wasn’t the vibrant nightlife in southern Louisiana.
It was the main research base for the demon-related research. Demons were rife in the area.
The general stepped out of the helicopter and shook the scientist’s hand as they hurried across the helipad. The general saluted the two guards at the entry to the building and was ushered inside, then into an elevator.
The activity that went on in the building was top secret, and most of it happened hundreds of feet below the surface. From the outside it looked like a normal office building, but that was just a façade.
“Doctor Dolt, it’s good to see you,” the general started as the elevator doors closed. “I expect you have been busy.”
“Oh, yes,” he replied excitedly. “Examining the demons’ blood has been very educational.”
“And what exactly are you looking for?” the general asked.
“Well, first we had to make sure that we understood the complexity of the human RBC, sir,” he began, then noticed at the general’s lifted eyebrows. “The human red blood cell, that is. Anyway, the RBC is biconcave, meaning that it has a disc shape to it; a discocyte, which can bend when going through our smaller capillaries. Now, we know our blood cells can be infected, and are subject to changes due to genetic deformations and the like. We started out by studying these with different testing devices and through controlled experiments. Then came the fun part: we redid all the trials and tests with demons’ blood.”
The elevator door opened and Dr. Dolt gestured the general into the hallway, walking quickly to catch up with him.
They took several turns through the long corridors and stopped outside a glass-fronted room. The general looked through the window at several scientists in all-white suits, who were doing various things including taking blood from possessed humans strapped to tables. These humans were the ones that couldn’t be saved; the ones who had lost their reason.
They were starting to fully morph into their demon.
“Our specimens have been fantastic,” the doctor said. “They have provided us with some really great samples.”
“And what do you do with those samples?” The general asked as he squinted through the glass.
“Well, we run them through the atomic force microscope, we splice them with optical laser tweezers, and really, a whole slew of procedures. We subject them to normal twists and turns, and to abnormal external stress.”
“And?” the general asked.
“Well, did you ever make a homemade lava lamp with oil and water when you were a kid?”
“Yes,” the general answered.
“When the bubbles move up and down in the oil, they bend with the shape of the glass,” he explained. “They are oblong and transparent, and they look like if you held them in your hand they would be harder on the outside than on the inside.”
“Okay, sure,” the general replied, understanding what he was hearing for the first time since he arrived.
“If you were to pump one through a tube, the bubble would conform to the shape of the tube and bounce back when it came out the other side,” he explained. “That’s the human RBC, only red in color and very small. Now, a demon cell is more of a jelly-bean shape. It doesn’t conform as easily to a smaller space; it would stretch out. Over time, the human RBC, with the right press
ure from the demon, starts to look like that.”
The scientist pointed to a woman strapped to a bed. She was fighting the cuffs on her arms and her face was distorted: her mouth wide, her eyes bulging, and her tongue almost black. The tips of her fingers were dark like they had been frostbitten, and on the end were talons.
“Her cells are morphing her body,” the scientist explained. “They will ultimately kill the human body.”
“And trap the soul,” the general muttered.
“Well, we don’t believe in the soul here.” The doctor chuckled. “But yes, in essence; it traps the human brain inside.”
“How do we kill it?” the general finally asked, turning to the doctor.
“That’s what we are trying to figure out, because that jelly bean—it isn’t affected by outside influences,” the scientist replied. “Not yet, at least. We are trying to find an injectable that will do the trick; something that once it is in the bloodstream, the demon dies. Of course, this will kill the human too, most likely. But the human is completely gone at that point anyway.”
“So you are looking for demon cyanide.” The general glanced at the woman again. “Kryptonite for the demons. You are trying to find a way to infect the infected.”
“Precisely,” the doctor said, relaxing a bit. “And when we do, we should be able to find a cure for the rest of the Damned; the ones who haven’t been taken over.”
“Right.” The general nodded. “If that is even possible.”
Joshua stepped out of his van and looked out across the new landscape. This was his new home; a feeling that he wasn’t sure he liked. He had never been very good with change. His “issues,” as his mom called them, or “gifts,” as Stephanie called them, gave him a bit of anxiety when it came to differences in his environment.
Still, he had fought demons, ferchrissake! He could handle a new building, especially knowing that all of his things were set up and ready for him inside. The place wasn’t finished, but the base structure for his workspace was complete, and that was enough for him.
He could make it feel like home later.
Joshua looked at the two girls he’d brought with him and nodded, gesturing to the building in front of them.
They clapped and shouted, excited to get to work in the new space. He fumbled with the keys as he walked to the door, finally putting the key in the lock before entering the security code on the pad next to the door.
When the green light came on, he put his thumb on the scanner and waited to hear the door lock click. He turned the key and slowly opened the door, revealing a wide-open space covered in white tile. His equipment, shined up like new, waited for him.
He closed the door behind them and locked it again, setting his things on the table just inside. The girls walked around in awe, as if they were in a foreign land.
Joshua chuckled. He loved seeing that; it helped him feel like he wasn’t the only one who was looking at everything like it was the first time.
“Check this out.” Joshua smiled as he walked over to another keypad.
He pressed his code in and stood back as a hatch in the floor opened. Slowly a platform moved upward, filling the space. The girls frowned, unsure what the big deal was.
“Is that an elevator?” one of the girls asked.
“No. Gosh,” Joshua chuckled, “I would never fit in there.”
“Me neither,” she said with relief. “Then what is it?”
“It will have the cabinet for the finished work on it,” he explained. “We designed it to keep as much of our work underground as possible. Whenever I finish a piece I’ll bring the cabinet up, load it, and send it back down for safekeeping in an underground chamber. It’s not finished yet, of course. They are struggling to get through the shafts because of the ventilation, but it keeps us that much safer.”
“That’s brilliant.” She nodded and bent down to look closer.
“Well, here we are.” Joshua rubbed his hands together and headed over to his workspace, turning on the machines as he passed them. “Let’s get to work. These demons aren’t going to wait on me.”
Calvin pulled the handkerchief from over his nose and mouth and squinted across the sandy plain.
It was a windy day out at the new compound, but they couldn’t waste any more time, they needed to get things in place.
The fence was finished, except for the newly-implemented security system that would detect any movement around it, so he was out there helping get that in place. Demons were cunning; he knew that. The team wanted to utilize every possible precaution in case they decided to attack the new base.
Calvin looked toward the fence, which was about three hundred yards out. He lifted his binoculars, taking note of the small yellow flags sticking up from the sand along the corridor.
Those would help them identify the traps and weapons, but they blended in enough for a demon on the hunt to not notice them. Deep traps had been dug and lined with cement in various areas near the fence.
A board was then placed over the trap and covered with sand. Anything over ten pounds would fall right down into it, trapping the beast inside. They had made them large enough to accommodate several regular-sized demons or one very large one.
Closer to the buildings were pop-up machine guns, barely visible to the human eye.
The team could run out to the guns and lie in the shallow trenches behind them to aim the guns at their targets. Of course, these were all secondary protections. The entire point of the base was that demons wouldn’t get that far to begin with. Korbin and Calvin were smarter than that, though; they knew that if they didn’t prepare, they would be left unguarded just like last time. But here, the idea of being trapped underground with a bunch of demons was far too dangerous to ignore.
Calvin sighed and made his way to a tent set up next to Joshua’s new space. He dusted the sand off his clothing and sat in a folding chair, grabbing a water from the cooler he had brought with him.
He took a sip, letting the cool breeze under the shaded tent wash over his sweaty skin. It was one of those things; a task that needed to be done, but the whole idea behind it was almost depressing to him.
He used to feel so safe and secure inside his barracks or compound—whatever they wanted to call it—but staring at those little yellow flags caused discomfort in the pit of his stomach.
He couldn’t get past them. They were like doomsday flags waving in the wind…right in his front yard.
Damian climbed the stepstool and set a hook into the wall. He had brought his lighted cross to the new base for his chapel. He had a larger room this time, and the freedom to set it up however he wanted.
Sure, for him it was about faith, but it was also about creating a space that felt comforting and safe to the team, regardless of their beliefs. That was one of the things he had loved about the chapel at the old base; it had been a haven.
Even during the demon invasion, not a single book had been moved in that area. He wanted to achieve that same effect at the new base.
Calvin walked up behind him. “Hey, Cross Boss. Getting settled in?”
“Trying.” Damian grunted; he was trying to find the hook while supporting the large cross, but he succeeded a moment later.
He stepped back down the ladder, plugged in the cross, and stood back smiling. Calvin sat down on one of the pews that had been brought over and took a drink of his water. Damian shrugged and sat down next to him.
“It isn’t home yet, but it will be,” he offered.
“You know what I’m waiting for?” Calvin asked.
“What’s that?” Damian replied.
“I’m waiting for someone to literally burst into flames when they walk into your chapel.” He chuckled. “I mean, you hear people say it all the time, but you’re always left wanting, you know?”
Damian chuckled. “Though that would be interesting, I’d like to keep the space combustion- and ash-free for a bit.”
“Well,” Calvin announced after a moment’s p
ause, “I gotta get back to work. I just wanted to check on ya.”
Damian smiled. “Thanks.”
His eyes followed Calvin as he walked out of the room and he sat there for a few moments, staring up at the lighted cross on the wall and thinking about how it would all look in the end.
He grabbed the bag he brought with him, pulling out several candles, a bible, and his cross. “Oof.” He stood up from the creaky old pew, walked up to the front, and lowered himself to his knees.
Damian set up the candles on a table and lit each one with a small prayer. When they were all lit, he opened his bible and started a ceremony to bless the space. He went through the chapters and verses as he had been taught, but at the end he paused, not feeling like it was enough. Like it wasn’t personal enough for this place.
“Lord,” he added. “I pray You bless all of us, Damned and non-Damned alike. I pray You make this a sanctuary for the house, a place where anyone can feel safe. And mostly, Lord, I pray You give us the aptitude, the speed, and the courage to kick those demon assholes right back to hell.”
He nodded and started to stand up, but stopped.
“Oh, and thank you for your blessings, Amen.”
Chapter Four
“Did you see how that guy looked in that tutu I found hanging above the bar?” Stephanie laughed. “I mean, seriously…that guy is going to be so confused when he wakes up.”
“Don’t you think it’s even the slightest bit mean, what you do to the humans left after the possession?” Eric asked as they reached the old base. “I mean, they aren’t possessed anymore.”
“This coming from the guy who knocked out a human and hid his body behind a dumpster.” Katie laughed.
“That was an accident,” Eric argued. “But I have to admit, the guy in the tutu was pretty awesome—especially with those pool balls between his legs.”