The Cave

by Tom Clarke

  The man standing over Darrel with the knife stumbled back as the two expanding-tip handgun rounds hit him in the side. He turned just in time to see Jim run up and at almost point-blank range fire a third round into his head. As the man fell to the ground Jim turned, and fired two rounds into the next closest pursuer, and then two more into the man behind him. He then dropped the magazine from his handgun, letting it fall to the ground, seated a fresh one, and then fired on the last man who had been chasing Darrel.

  “You good?” Jim asked as he did another magazine change and tried to catch his breath.

  Darrel, who was so exhausted from running with his gear and the young girl, started to respond, and instead vomited. He then rolled onto his side and completed the magazine change on his rifle.

  Looking back towards the church Jim could see additional figures running towards them. “Shit! Here you take this, I’ll carry the kid!” Jim said as he removed the small pack carrying the stone.

  Darrel, who was still wheezing, got to his knees, and took the small black frameless pack and slung it over his shoulders. Struggling, he rose to his feet as Jim lifted the young girl into a fireman’s-carry.

  As they started moving back in the direction of the garage they could hear Shelly slowly firing the rifle Jim had given her in the direction of the church. With Jim leading the way they made it back to the tractor that Shelly was kneeling behind and firing.

  “I got to get some more cardio going” Darrel said, still wheezing. “Nico, I didn’t hear him on the radio?” Darrel said looking towards the garage.

  As they got back to Shelly’s position behind the tractor Jim dropped the young girl and took a knee. He looked at Darrel and just nodded, “Come on, let’s get going!” he said, taking the rifle back from Shelly.

  The group started moving towards the building with Shelly now helping the young girl walk. As they reached the side of the large garage, Jim led the way, his handgun at the low-ready, and his rifle now slung across his back. Stopping at the corner of the building he took a quick look around towards the back, “I see the rig, but I don’t see Nico or Paul.”

  “Jimmy, we got to go!” Darrel said from his kneeling position where he was covering the rear of the group with his rifle. “Nico’s a badass, he can take care of himself.”

  Jim begrudgingly nodded and said, “Okay, I’m in the driver’s seat. Darrel you’re in the very back to cover out the rear window. Shelly, you and the kid get in the back seat and lay down. Let’s go!”

  With Jim in the lead, and Darrel covering the rear, the group moved quickly towards the SUV. Just before they got to the vehicle there was a loud banging sound, like two metal pipes knocking against each other. The banging quickly morphed into the sound of women and children screaming. Screaming so loud that Jim and the rest had to cover their ears.

  As the screaming intensified a smell of rotten meat began to permeate the air. Clenching his teeth, trying to fight through the noise and the smell, Jim grabbed Shelly by the arm and started pulling her towards the SUV. Moving forward, he was stopped in his tracks by the sight of a large black wolf, about the size of a miniature pony, walking around the back of the SUV.

  The wolf, whose matted pitch-black fur, walked slowly towards Jim. There was a dampness around the monster’s mouth that, as it stepped into the light, revealed itself to be fresh blood. As it walked closer the screaming stopped and suddenly there was a heavy silence. The wolf smiled as it locked eyes with Jim, “Hello Jimmy. Oh, have I missed you!”

  Jim quickly turned away and started to move in the direction they had just come from, only to see that they were now encircled by men in brown suits. Their faces were sullen, eyes sunk back into their sockets. Some had blood stains down the front of their suits, while others had what looked like blood in their hair and on their hands.

  Looking behind him, Jim saw that Darrel had drawn his handgun and pulled Shelly and the young girl in close to him. He was scanning around, watching for any of the men around them to move in.

  Jim took another look around, he could see in the eyes of the men surrounding them that there would be no quarter. Nodding his head, he turned back to the large wolf standing a few feet in front of him. Jim didn’t say a word as he removed the magazine from his rifle, looked at how many rounds were left, and then replaced it with a full one. He hit the bottom of the magazine hard to ensure it was seated in the gun, rolled his shoulders, and said, “Now what?”

  The wolf walked a circle around Jim as it swayed its head back and forth. “Now you give me the talisman and I will think about letting some of you live” the wolf replied.

  “Some of us?” Jim replied as he tightened his grip on his rifle. “I’m not giving you shit! I got 30 pieces of lead with your name on them you Godless fuck!”

  .17

  Because the Raven Said So

  As the wolf continued walking its wide circle Jim adjusted his stance and started digging his back foot into the dirt. Seeing this Darrel discreetly passed Shelly a set of keys for the SUV. He whispered in her ear, “When I say go you grab the kid, hit the truck, and get the hell out of here.”

  Shelly whispered back, “I’m not leaving you guys.”

  Before Darrel could answer there was a booming voice that sent a chill through Jim, “Godless? No, not Godless.”

  The smile on the wolf’s face was suddenly replaced by a sneer. The men in the brown suits started to become visibly uneasy as the hair across the wolfs back stood up like a dog confronting a squirrel.

  Walking up behind Jim, as if appearing out of thin air, came Alan, immediately followed by the woman who Shelly had been walking with. The wolf snarled at Alan, who growled back with a fierceness that made the wolf bow down and back away.

  Alan walked towards Jim and smiled, “You owe me a new suit.”

  He then looked up at Shelly, “And you, I am very disappointed in you! I mean really, you broke poor Sarah’s heart” Alan said, pointing to the woman with him.

  “You heard what I said to Fido over there,” Jim said. “The same goes for you!”

  Alan smiled as he turned to face Jim, “Jimmy, so much anger. It’s what makes you so appealing to me. Tell me, how do you manage it so well?”

  Jim didn’t answer, he just stared at Alan, his eyes full of the anger he was talking about. “No matter” Alan said. “So, tell me, what have you done with poor Paul?”

  “You mean your used car salesman? I hate to break it to you, but he’s on our side now,” Jim replied with a crooked smile. “That’s right, he saw an opportunity to replace you, move up in the ranks a little, and he took it.”

  Alan smiled as he looked back at where the wolf had been standing, “Is this also you’re doing?” he asked.

  “No master” replied the disgruntled voice of Tyler, who was now standing where the wolf had been.

  “Hmm, serpents, so untrustworthy” Alan said. “No matter! Now to the business at hand.”

  “Jim, I trust that you have what we agreed on?” Alan asked.

  “Yeah, we have it,” Jim replied. “You let Shelly, Darrel, and the kid walk. Once they're safe I’ll take you to it and then you can do whatever you want with me.”

  Alan spun and looked Jim directly in the eyes, “You would do that? You would sacrifice yourself, how gallant! Your wife, even your friend I understand, but for this child that you don’t even know? Amazing.”

  Alan walked over and put a hand on Jim’s shoulder, “I have no desire to kill you, quit the opposite, I want you on my side working with me.”

  Walking over to Sarah, Alan continued, “Jim, there is a change in management coming. We have been positioning ourselves for thousands of years and soon we will be in charge. Of this there is no dispute, even your highest church members recognize this, and are on board. I can use someone like you, a fixer if you will. Besides, I don’t need to kill anyone to get what I want.”

  Alan brushed a hand across Sarah’s cheek, “My dear, would you do the honors?”


  Sarah smiled as she leaned into Alan’s touch. She then rolled her head and whistled. From all directions ravens began flying above them, a large one flew down and landed on Sarah’s arm. It let out a loud screech, then several low croaking noises.

  “Darrel!” Shelly yelled. Jim turned and watched as Darrel dropped his rifle and all his equipment to the ground. All the equipment except for the small pack Jim had given him.

  Darrel then Started walking towards Alan, “Darrel what the hell are you doing?” Jim yelled.

  “He’s right Jimmy” Darrel replied. “These guys are going to come out on top brother, there is nothing we can do to stop them. I for one don’t want to end being lunch for one of them.”

  Jim reached out and grabbed Darrel, “Don’t!”

  Darrel lunged towards Jim and grabbed him by his shirt collar. His movements suddenly became disjointed and he started stuttering as if trying to speak, but something was keeping the words from coming out. Jim watched in horror as cuts and small puncture wounds began forming on Darrel’s face.

  “I’m sorry Jim” Darrel said. He let out a slight giggle, “The birds, they marked me Jim. At the cave, they came and told me the truth.”

  Darrel went to his knees as Jim stumbled backwards away from him. “No, no, no,” Jim said as he watched Darrel start to rock back and forth on the ground, giggling and mumbling about ravens.

  “You see, Jim?” Alan asked as he walked over to Darrel. “I have been here for more than 10 thousand years. I was there when your so-called savior was pinned to the cross, in fact, I’m the one who told your friend Nico to go and stick him with that spear. I was there when the Tenth Legion took Masada. When Gavrilo Princip murdered Franz Ferdinand and his wife, I was leading the Black Hand Society that ordered it. After world war II when the Nazi’s needed to escape Germany it was my contacts in the Vatican that moved them.”

  Alan kicked Darrel over so that he was lying on the ground, shook his head, and walked back over to Sarah. “All through your limited history I have been making moves, peddling influence and power, helping my friends and destroying my enemies. Jim, don’t you see? There cannot be light without the dark. Your world has been bathed in the light for too long, so I’ve been changing it. Slowly, eroding the moral fiber, making your world more hospital.”

  Jim thought back to what Thor had told him in that bar in Montana. How the world was going to shit, and no one seemed to notice, or care.

  “Why me?’ Jim asked. “Why are you messing with me and my family?”

  Alan thought for a second, “That’s a good question. Why you? Jimmy, why not you? When I first met you, all those years ago, I knew then that you were something special! Now look at you, look where you are, where you have been. Look at where you could go!”

  Looking down at his friend who was rocking back and forth in the dirt, smiling, and mumbling about ravens, Jim asked, “And where could I go? Tell me, how much wealth and power could I collect under your leadership?”

  Alan smiled, showing a mouth full of jagged, yellowing teeth, “I would make you a king my son. A king among men with power that is unrivaled! You would be my right-hand man Jim. All you have to do is reach down and take the bag from that your friend and then give it to me.”

  Jim looked back at his wife, who was sitting on the ground at the feet of three of the men in brown suits. She was holding the young girl Darrel had rescued when she looked up and made eye contact with her husband. Jim could see the fear in her face as she just stared at him with tears running down her face.

  “Go on Jimmy” Alan said with a sneer in his voice. “The future is yours, all you have to do is reach out and take it!”

  Jim looked at the bag on the ground next to Darrel. Then he looked up at Alan who was starting to hunch over at the shoulders. As Jim watched Alan’s eyes began to turn a deep grey, behind him shadow figures started to manifest themselves. Alan smiled and began to say something in a language Jim didn’t understand.

  Looking deep into the darkness of Alan’s eyes Jim lowered his stance, tightened his grip on his rifle, and smiled back. Before he could put his plan of shooting Alan in the head, and then shooting the Tannerite bomb he had attached to the stone in the back-pack a round object came flying and hit Alan in the chest.

  Alan stepped back as he looked down at Paul’s severed head. “Why don’t you tell him how much wealth you’ve acquired!” Nico’s bellowing voice came like a roar.

  Jim watched in amazement as Nico stepped out of the shadows and into the light. Standing there next to him was Thor who looked clear headed and very angry. “Go on, tell him! Tell him how the most physical wealth you can possess is 30 pieces of silver.”

  “Slave!” Tyler yelled. “How dare you defy me!” Before Tyler could say another word, Thor pulled a handgun from his waist band and shot Tyler twice in the chest and then once in the head. As Tyler fell to the ground Thor trained the handgun on Alan.

  “Justin!” Jim yelled. “How?”

  “Nico here sorted me out” Thor said. “And then he gave me this nice pistol and a cell phone.” Thor turned and looked at Jim, “I called some friends.”

  As Jim raised his rifle pointing it at Alan he could hear in the distance the familiar sound of motorcycle engines. Several of them, and they were getting closer.

  “Roman, how dare you!” Alan yelled, the sound of screams echoing under his voice. “You have no right to interfere!”

  “I have every right!” Nico yelled back. “And she’s standing there next to you. Sarah, do you recognize me?”

  “How sweet” Sarah replied as she walked over and stood next to Alan. “He still thinks that Sarah’s still in this body. Okay, I’ll play along, it was you! You are the reason my baby is gone. You are the reason why my true love is having so many problems. You are the devil in this, you Nico, you!”

  Nico stepped forward towards Sarah and Alan, “Yes, it was my fault. If I had never come to your town, if I had never met you, then none of that would have happened. But Sarah, you must remember who killed your family. It wasn’t me, it was this!” Nico said as he pointed to all the men in brown suits. “It was him!”

  “NO!” Sarah half screamed sarcastically. She turned to Alan, “How could you?” and then started laughing as Alan cracked an evil looking grin.

  “Nico” Alan said as if he were talking to a young child. “You know how it works. Once we take the body the soul moves on. You came all this way, spending all those years, Killing how many people? Just to confirm something you already know. How typically Roman of you.”

  As Nico, Alan, and Sarah bantered back and forth Jim noticed that the sound of approaching engines had been getting louder. He looked over at Thor who checked his watch, looked back at Jim, and smiled.

  He then heard Alan yell, “Enough! Nico, why do you hate me so much? I arranged for you to have eternal life. I made you what any good Centurion would want, to be the ultimate soldier. All the gifts you received, and I ask for so little in return, kill a few priests, take out a safe house, plant a bomb or two. So unappreciative!”

  Jim’s heart dropped when he heard Nico yell back at Alan, “And you promised to release me from this curse if I did those things! No more demon, no more!”

  As Alan began to growl like an animal Sarah suddenly leapt towards Nico. Seeing his former love launching herself towards him Nico stepped back and to the right. Sarah’s eyes widened as she watched Nico produce a Roman short-sword he had secured to his back.

  Nico reached forward and grabbed Sarah, redirecting her forward energy downward, slamming her to the ground with a thud. He struck forward with the rounded butt of his sword hitting Sarah in the forehead. He immediately followed with the same style of strike, except this time to her solar plexus, knocking the wind out of her.

  As Sarah struggled to get her breath back Nico grabbed her by her hair and lifted her head off the ground. Making the sign of the cross in the air above Sarah Nico said, “I release you!” In one swift movement Nico
swung his Gladius, cutting Sarah’s head from her body.

  As he stood and pointed the sword at Alan all the men in the brown suits began to scream and wave their hands in the air.

  “What have you done!” Alan roared. “I will tear you into little pieces for this!”

  As Jim watched the scene play out between Nico and Alan he suddenly realized that the engine noise, which had been almost on top of them, had stopped. Jim quickly looked around and then dropped to the ground as gunfire erupted all around them.

  The men in the brown suits again started screaming and running in all directions. Tyler, who was working on getting back to his feet from the head wound Thor had given him was shot numerous times in the chest and fell back down.

  Looking around Jim could see several men, all with long hair, beards, and wearing motorcycle vests and jackets moving forward towards Thor. One of them threw Thor a rifle, which he immediately began firing.