For Whom The Bell Tolls

by Michael Todd

  “Motherfuckers.”

  A huge piece of one of the buildings came flying at the chopper and Korbin dove, whipping back up at the last second. The piece of stone hit the building across the street, sending stones down onto the civilians below.

  “Missed me, fucker.”

  Just then a boulder hit chopper’s tail and it spun while Korbin tried his best to keep it under control.

  Timothy closed his eyes and gripped his seat. “I’m too young to die, bitches, I’m too young! I haven’t even seen Cher in concert yet.”

  Korbin sighed with relief when he spotted a patch of grass in a park just over the hill. He gripped the cyclic tighter, growling as he fought to force the chopper out of its downward spiral. The stick bucked in his hands and the chopper listed back and forth as he pushed it to its limits to reach that spot where he could at least land without taking any buildings out.

  “All right, kiddies, buckle in tight. This is gonna be one hell of a landing.”

  Another boulder clipped the back end of the chopper and it tilted forward. Everyone tensed as the chopper sped toward the ground at an angle, not slowing down.

  Timothy clenched his eyes shut. “I wish I was religious right now.”

  The chopper landed at an angle and the blades skimmed the grass, but Korbin was able to pull it back enough to not send debris flying. The tips of the skids scraped the ground as Korbin shut down the engines and the blades continued to whirl quickly, throwing up mounds of dirt as the chopper slid forward.

  Time slowed for Calvin as the chopper skidded toward a sturdy sycamore and his eyes grew wider and wider as they got closer and closer. Finally they stopped and the back end of the chopper slammed down on the ground. The nose of the craft was just inches from the trunk.

  Everyone sat still for a moment to regain their bearings. The demons had already put a hurting on them, and Korbin was madder than hell that his beloved chopper was now a twisted ball of useless junk. He slammed his hands on the dash and looked back at the others.

  “Everyone all right?”

  “Yeah,” Calvin replied.

  “Does shitting your pants count as all right?” Timothy asked.

  Stephanie nodded at him, dabbing at a small cut on her forehead she’d gotten during the landing. Korbin undid his belt and grabbed his weapon. “All right, guys, let’s get out of this thing before they swarm us. Remember, keep your eyes open and look out for each other, and if you find that motherfucker with the baseball arm, send him to me. We need to talk about my chopper.”

  Katie bent her knees as she hit the ground in a billow of dust. She looked up as the chopper blew by with Timothy’s silhouette visible through the window. She smiled as she stood up and looked around.

  Her heart sank as the dirt settled. There were bodies everywhere, some freshly killed, others half-eaten. Those sonsabitches had opened up hell in this little town, which was obviously their point. She stepped forward but stopped when she heard a sound to her right.

  Two demons were growling and snarling as they walked toward her. Poor dumb bastards think I’m easy prey.

  Pandora growled, Kick their asses into the ground, and let me have a few punches.

  Katie smiled, leaning her poles down against a bench on the edge of the sidewalk. She dusted off her hands as walked over to them, then pulled her arm back and punched one of the demons right in the face before either of them could react. He flew back, landing in the town’s fountain fifteen feet behind him.

  Katie turned to the other demon and Pandora juiced her.

  “So, you think you can come to my world and to my country and do this to my fellow Americans?” The demon tilted his head, sensing something strong. “How wrong you are.”

  Katie grabbed the demon by the shoulders and thrust her knee into his stomach. The other demon came running toward her, having extricated himself from the fountain, but she backhanded him across the face, which sent him to his knees. She turned back to the demon she had just kneed and punched him in the face, her rage growing by the second. The demons wavered, stunned by the force of Katie and Pandora’s blows. She grabbed her poles, tapping the blades against her legs.

  “Fuckers!” she yelled. She crossed the poles over her body and slashed them down across the demons’ throats, and they grabbed their necks. Black blood oozed through their clutching fingers and their red eyes flickered for just a moment, then both of them turned to dust.

  Katie smiled for just a moment, then there was a loud crunch. When she looked up the helicopter was spinning; it had been hit by a boulder. She watched helplessly as the bird spun and then wobbled from side to side. Korbin had clearly regained some sort of control, but he needed to get down safely. She pulled a pistol from its holster and shot to the left, killing a nearby demon as it grazed on a body.

  The chopper hit the ground and skidded forward before finally coming to a stop in front of a large tree. Katie let out a deep breath and shook her head as she turned back to the street. “Korbin is gonna be pissed as hell.”

  Katie stepped over the debris in the street, her poles raised for a fight, and when she turned a corner she came across a group of Enlightened backing a couple of teenagers into a corner.

  Katie gritted her teeth and gripped her poles tightly.

  Fucking demon mercs! I knew they had to be at the bottom of this.

  These are the weak ones. You can take them.

  Damn right.

  Katie banged her pole against a piece of metal on the ground to attract the demon mercs’ attention and they turned as one, their eyes bright red and their demon teeth showing inside their human mouths. They snarled at Katie, who just smiled coldly at them. The two teenagers saw their opportunity and took off, but the mercs didn’t care. They knew that face. She was the one who killed their brothers in the woods outside the hotel.

  “My friends are here too in case you were wondering—and we have had enough of this shit.”

  “You’re too late,” one of the demons snarled. “Hell has been unleashed. The demons will make it through, and when they do you will watch your entire country burn in hellfire.”

  Katie lifted her eyebrows. “Well, that doesn’t sound like something I would enjoy now, does it?”

  The merc hissed and lunged at her. Katie swung her pole, barely missing as he rolled to the side. He landed in a squat and leered at Katie. He had her in height and reach, and he was about three of her in width.

  Katie was unfazed. “You’re a big guy, aren’t you? What, like three-fifty? You know what I’ve learned about the big guys?”

  “What’s that?”

  “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Katie swiped the blunt end of her staff down and over and knocked the merc off his feet, then jumped on top of him and leaned in, her face just inches from his. “You see, we are way tougher than you and your little demon.”

  Pandora’s arm reached out of Katie’s chest and grabbed the demon inside the guy, holding it up in the air as it screamed and writhed. It finally disappeared back into the depths of hell and Katie looked at the dead mercenary beneath her. She had never seen an exorcised human fail to recover.

  His soul wanted and welcomed that demon. They were intertwined. None of the mercs are redeemable, Pandora told her.

  Katie stood up and narrowed her eyes at the others. Well then, we’ll just have to kill them all.

  14

  The local authorities were the first ones on the scene, but from the looks of scattered and torn uniforms in the streets, none of them had stood a chance. They had been lost before Korbin and the team had even gotten there.

  They were small-town boys used to petty thefts and the occasional domestic abuse call, so the demons took them down before they could pull their weapons. Two groups of National Guard had been deployed shortly thereafter, but with no training, no special weapons, and no idea what the hell was going on, barely any of them had made it out alive. The few who did made their way to the edges of the town to await backup,
tending their injuries in the meantime. It was pure hell in that town; already too many lives had been lost.

  The state troopers came barreling toward the town, but before they arrived they were told to stand down and wait for the big guns at the edge of town. They had gone all wide-eyed at the girl jumping from the helo two hundred feet from the ground and seen Korbin’s chopper crash land.

  “Boys, I can’t explain this,” the captain told them.

  “Maybe they can,” one of the officers suggested, pointing at the C-17s landing in the distance.

  The National Guard soldier stood up and squinted his eyes. “There’s our boys. Army boys.”

  The captain peered at the insignia on the side of the plane. “What battalion is that?”

  “I don’t know, but from the looks of the beast painted on the side of the plane, they know a hell of a lot more about what is going on in this town than we do. I don’t know about you, but I’d welcome a briefing right about now. I lost all but six of my men down there, and your local cops were just meat for those beasts.”

  Several choppers roared into the fields beyond the town, hovering for a moment as they surveyed the wreckage of the chopper. Korbin and his team were running, guns blazing from the downed helo. The new arrivals set down on the perimeter and the general climbed out with Colonel Jehovivich in tow.

  He walked up to the captain and shook his hand. “General Brushwood. I have to ask that you and your team hold here and keep a perimeter if possible.”

  The captain looked at the three hundred or so men marching toward them from the planes. They were carrying ammo and supplies. They didn’t look like normal soldiers, although they were dressed in regulation fatigues. “What team is this?”

  “We are the Demon-RRF, Ready Reaction Force. We were able to get here quickly, and the army is behind us. We are three hundred strong, including a hundred new members freshly trained and ready for this sort of situation.”

  “And what sort of situation is this, General?”

  “Demons,” the general responded, patting him on the shoulder and looking at the town below. “Straight from hell. Genuine Lucifer’s-stamp-of-approval fallen-from-grace demons.”

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Long story, Captain, but we’ll get you up to speed soon. Just have your men fall in. The colonel here will get them some better ammo to take down these bastards. Anyone with red eyes who’s not part of our team rushes you, take them down, bullet to the head.”

  “How will we know who’s on your team?”

  “Trust me.” The general smirked. “You’ll know.”

  The general turned to Jehovivich. “I want you to brief the few National Guard who are left and get these state police some decent rounds for their guns, then get the RRF spread out. Let’s start with the horseshoe formation to make sure none of these bastards get out of town, then we’ll assess what comes next. The rest of the mercs should be arriving soon, and I need their eyes and ears on the ground before the rest of the Army shows up. This needs to be smooth and calculated. Ignore the chaos and get this under control.”

  “Yes, sir.” Jehovivich nodded and glanced at the town. Demons were clearly visible, most of them no longer looking anything like human. There were bodies piled in the streets, and screams echoed through the valley.

  This was the worst thing she had ever seen during her time in the Army, and she knew it would only get worse before it got better.

  Charlotte pulled her car up to the edge of the gravel road and grabbed her camera and notebook. There were soldiers moving ammo and supplies to the front of the wall of men they were building around the town. She had caught wind from one of her hacker friends that there was another demon sighting, but what she was about to walk into was way more than that. She got out of the car and hung her camera around her neck, scanning for Korbin’s Killers.

  The place was so chaotic that no one checked her credentials; she just walked straight into the center of it. To her right was the general, who was speaking to the state police captain. There was no sign of the local police, and that made her stomach drop. She had seen these demons in action, and for that many first responders to have shown up it must be one hell of an incursion. She shook her head and scooted past a couple of armed guards to scan the town.

  Charlotte’s eyes grew wide at the sight of hundreds of demons running amok in the town. They were so enthralled and focused on tearing bodies apart that they hadn’t even noticed the growing number of military working their way around the town. It was complete carnage and chaos down there. She pulled a pair of binoculars out of her bag to get a closer look and focused on a tall black man on the street.

  “Calvin,” she whispered.

  If he was there, the rest of them were too. She raised her camera and started taking pictures, trying to get the story documented as fast as possible, then picked up her phone and dialed her editor, but hung up when she saw two highly-decorated soldiers pull another one over to the side. She put her camera down and turned her back to them, trying to act nonchalant as she backed closer to eavesdrop on what they were saying.

  “It’s a fucking mess down there,” one soldier declared. “I’m not sure what the general wants us to do, since I doubt there are any civilians left down there to save.”

  “What we need to do—I heard one of the colonels talking about it—is clear the whole town. That will keep the situation under wraps and we can focus on saving the people who might have a damn chance elsewhere.”

  Charlotte swallowed hard and walked away, unsure what they had really meant by clearing out the whole town. There were a lot of different possibilities, but the one that stuck in her head was blowing everything and everyone up. Clearing the way for progress in a hopeless situation. That wasn’t something she could fathom—killing innocent people, not to mention the mercs who were down there fighting—instead of going down and fighting with them.

  She sighed and stared around, wondering if there was anything she could do to stop them if that was the case. They couldn’t be giving up already, not with the mercs down there and more to come, as Charlotte was sure they would. Blowing up an entire town—wiping it from the map—had to be the last-ditch solution; she had to believe that.

  If they blew up their own people the demons might lose some, but the bad guys would ultimately win in the scenario. If the hell creatures could force humans to kill their own people, they won. She didn’t know how they couldn’t understand that.

  “I can stop this really easily,” Charlotte told herself. She pulled out her phone and called a friend at a news station.

  “I have a story for you, and can upload photos and give you commentary on air. I’m sending you a picture right now so you can see.”

  “Holy shit,” her friend responded. “Send over the pictures and hold on—we are going to get this on the air and fast. Good work, Charlotte. Good work.”

  Charlotte smiled, though she knew the only reason she was calling it in was to save the town from being bombed. She waited off to the side, keeping her movements low-key, and spoke on the air.

  “Charlotte, can you describe what you are seeing?”

  “A whole lot of military uniforms, Elise. And a whole lot of scary-looking creatures tearing up that little town down there. I couldn’t send most of the pictures I took because there’s too much carnage. There are specialist teams down there, who came here to get this under control and attempt to get the survivors out of town. It also looks as if they have started to surround the town with troops in order to keep the...uh…enemy from escaping.”

  “Do we know where these terrorists are coming from?”

  Charlotte paused, unsure what to say. Was the world ready for that kind of news?

  “Hell,” Charlotte replied.

  “It sure seems that way. That was Charlotte Hillway, reporting live.”

  Charlotte took the phone from her ear and stared down into the town. “Hell” didn’t even begin to describe what was going on down
there.

  The soldiers who had talked earlier about clearing the town watched some demons snarling and growling as they tore a woman’s body to pieces below and one of them looked away, grimacing. He had seen some crazy shit in combat—dead bodies and the aftermath of bombings and the like—but he was not prepared mentally for what they had walked into.

  “What they need to do right now is deploy a GBU-43/B and singe the last remaining hair off these bastards.”

  “The MOAB? Are you kidding me? There won’t be anything left of anyone down there,” a fellow soldier replied.

  “That’s the fucking point. That or drop a nuke. We are far enough away from any surrounding towns that the collateral damage will be minimal, even with the breeze today. There is no place for those creatures here on Earth, and we need to send a clear message to whoever is behind this that we aren’t playing games. There will be no peace talks; we will just exterminate their entire race and not lose any sleep over it.”

  “Yeah, because a MOAB is the answer,” another growled. “It is doing so well for us in Afghanistan right now. What we need to do is save the innocent and start just plowing through these bitches. Show them who’s boss, show their master or whatever the fuck they call him that we won’t be pushed around. That we can handle ourselves with troops on the ground, without backing down or wiping the slate clean. What happens when something like this ends up in Austin or Chicago, or New York even? You gonna bomb the shit out of major cities?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Then you have to start here. You have to show them that we aren’t pussies. That no matter how many of them they push through their little hellholes, we will stand our ground here and anywhere else on this planet.”