Guy looked over at Frank and felt a rage bubbling in his chest. His oldest friend shot dead by a faceless sniper on the orders of a jumped up lieutenant. Hernandez would pay for this.
Tosco lay on the deck nearby moaning. Guy crawled over to him and checked for a bullet wound, finding it on his left shoulder—a leaking hole in his trapezius muscle. “You’re going to be okay, Lieutenant. It’s just-“
Tosco managed to lift himself slightly. “A flesh wound? Yeah, I know… Jeez, hurts like a mother though. How’s Frank?”
Guy shook his head and fought back tears.
Tosco cursed, from anger now, instead of pain. “That idiot must have thought we were firing at him when Frank shot that demon.”
Guy snarled. “Hernandez was waiting for an excuse. He didn’t want to order his men to fire on us without cause.”
“He’s stopped firing now,” said Tosco through gritted teeth. “They’re still heading away from us.”
A nearby radio squawked. It lay on the deck, and the voice of Hernandez came through it loud and clear. “Men and women aboard the USCG Hatchet. Your senior officers are dead. Please put me in contact with whoever has inherited command. I wish you no harm, only that you follow the Augusta back to the coast where it will be added to the Navy’s relief effort. You are no longer bound to fulfill whatever promises you made to Captain Granger. You are free.” A brief pause. “Come in, come in, Hatchet. Whoever is most senior, please respond.”
Guy crawled over to the radio and answered it with venom in his voice. “Hernandez, this is the senior ranking member of the USCG Hatchet, Captain Guy Granger. You just killed a man worth ten of you, and I’m going to make you pay for it. You see, when this war is over, they will string men like you up. I will be the one to do it. As soon as I find my kids, I’m coming for you.”
There was the mutter of a reply as if someone was about to speak but had changed their mind. The line went dead.
Everyone aboard the Hatchet remained in cover until the Augusta was a mere dot on the horizon. Guy shouted for the ship’s medical officer, Gonzalez, and got Tosco some help. The lieutenant was in good spirits as a group of enlisted men carried him off to the sickbay. Guy remained on deck, staring out across the vast ocean and feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. Frank’s body lay beneath a blanket at his feet.
The old captain, Skip, came up beside Guy and stared right at him. “Your second in command is quite a hero,” he whispered. “Led the men against the demons and took a sniper bullet for you.”
Guy nodded. “If more men had his backbone, we would already have driven those monsters back to Hell.”
Skip nodded, but exhaled as if something worried him.
“What’s on your mind, Skip?”
“I worry for you.”
“That was always Frank’s job.”
“Then it’s a job vacant for me to fill. He was a good man, the Chief Petty? Your friend?”
“The very best of both, friend and man. I don’t know how I would have fared these last few days without him questioning my every move. He was always my conscience, making me consider my actions.”
“Well, if I can attempt to fill his boots, I have some advice for you, Captain. Keep Lieutenant Tosco onside. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but these are his men more than they’re yours.”
The insult was grave, almost unforgivable, but the old captain was right. “I know what you’re saying,” he admitted, “but he gave me his word he would help me find Kyle and Alice. After that, I’ll just have to be ready for whatever happens. Don’t worry about me, Skip.”
“I always worry about good men. We’re back to the old days now, Captain Granger, and in the old days, there was only one way for a captain to lose his ship.”
Guy looked down at Frank’s body beneath the sheet and thought about his friend’s earlier advice. Be firm. He turned to Skip and smiled. “You’re wrong, you know? These aren’t the old days, Skip. They’re the new days. And if Lieutenant Tosco tries to take my ship, I’ll kill him.”
~Mina Magar~
Slough, Berkshire
When Mina awoke, the day was in full swing and approaching late afternoon. She felt refreshed for a few moments, but then the grogginess hit her and she craved coffee. She got up off the floor, knees and elbows clicking, and went out into the office. It was as frantic now as it had been when she sneaked off to take a nap. David was in the centre of the room directing things, having apparently taken control away from Big Jimmy.
Andras stood at the kettle, and Mina went and joined him. “You seem to spend a lot of time here. I’d love a coffee,” she said.
“Coming right up. It’s the only thing I’m good at apparently.”
“They won’t let you help, huh?”
“Nope.” He made her the coffee and handed it over. “It’s not that they won’t let me help, it’s more that I don’t really have any way to help. I don’t have a network of contacts to call.”
“You can help me,” said Mina. “I’m used to being treated like a spare part around here. Nobody ever wants help from a photographer.”
“So what are you working on?”
“Updating the website with information people can use. We need to get people fighting back. It’s our only chance.”
Andras smiled at her. “I’m all yours.”
Mina had a thought. “Where’s Alice?”
“Asleep in Carol’s office. Carol’s taking a nap too. David’s in charge at the moment, I think.”
“I’d imagine he is. Go over to my computer, Andras. I’ll join you in five minutes. I want to check in with David and see where we’re at.”
“Sure thing.”
Mina interrupted David in the midst of giving orders to the paper’s sports editor. The bump on the side of his head had turned a sickly green colour. “Ah, Mina,” he said when he saw her. “Back in the land of the living?”
She ignored that he had gone off for a nap too. “I needed sleep.”
“The news never sleeps.”
“What’s the latest?” she asked.
“Much the same as before. The demons—that’s what we’re officially calling them now—have formed up into three main armies within the U.K. Most of the smaller groups merged together, and the largest army is now currently south of Luton. It’s being led by the same giant we encountered in Hyde Park. As such, we’ve started referring to him as Hyde. The second largest army is based outside Carlisle, on the Scottish border. It, too, is being led by one of the giant beings. We call this one-”
“Let me guess, Carlisle?”
“No, we call it Hex, for the gate it came out of was in Hexham. The third giant has been moving around Wales and is currently outside of Cardiff. We call him Aberdare. His army is the largest by far, and it’s yet to meet any real resistance.”
Mina filed the names away. “Hyde, Hex, and Aberdare, okay. So the giants are definitely leading these armies?”
“Undoubtedly. We’ve been gathering reports from all over the country—local police stations, other newspaper offices, et cetera. People are blogging on the Internet like crazy, can you believe it? The world is at war, and people are sharing it all over the web like the latest Game of Thrones episode.”
“People are probably trying to keep themselves occupied. So what have we learned?”
“After the initial attacks, the demons converged to the three main locations I mentioned, each headed by one of the giants. There are outcroppings of smaller groups around, but they seem to be exercising guerrilla tactics—attacking randomly to cause disarray. What’s left of the British Army upper Brass believes that the three main armies are intended to destroy us. Similar armies are gathering abroad too, from what we can gather.”
“Are we fighting back?”
“Just trying to rally at this point. The Army made a dent in the enemy foot soldiers, but nothing has scratched the giants. People are calling them angels. If that’s the truth, then there may not be a way to
take them down unless drastic action is taken.”
“Like what?”
“Nukes. The Government is already discussing a scorched earth policy. If it comes down to the survival of the human race, I don’t see what choice they’ll have. Hope they give us fair warning first. Would hate to look out the window and spot a bomb falling out the sky.”
Mina’s opinions on nuclear weapons had never changed since learning about them during her college days. The grainy video footage of Hiroshima had convinced her that atomic weapons were barbaric and invited calamity. Now she wasn’t so sure.
“Do we have any chance, David?”
“We’re still alive, aren’t we?” He surprised her by putting a hand on her shoulder. “You and I made it through Hell together. Oxford Street was the enemy’s opening gambit. They won’t get a jump on us like that again. The worst has happened, but now we dust ourselves off and fight back. You and I, Mina, will do our part.”
Her tiredness wore off. “I’ll do whatever I can to make those monsters pay.”
David smiled. “Then get people ready. The hits on the website have started to rise. Other websites are linking to us and we’re making waves.”
“Really? That’s great. I’ll get right on it.”
“What are you waiting for then?”
“Right.” She hurried to her cubicle with renewed energy. Her work was important; people were reading her words and looking at the pictures she’d taken. People might have a chance of staying alive because of her.
Andras was waiting at her desk and pulled up a chair for her. “Ready for your command, mistress.”
Mina blushed and giggled. “Thank you, Andras. We need to update the website with anything we learn about the demons. What did we find out while I was asleep?”
“David told you about the three armies?”
Mina nodded.
“Okay, did you know there are three different types of demons?”
She leaned forward. “No, tell me.”
“Okay, well, um, there seems to be three different types of demons. There’s the extra crispy kind—the burn victims. They are the most common and strong as bulls. They can also talk and use weapons, but they die as easily as us.”
“Okay, what are the other two types?”
“There are the corpses—like zombies, except they aren’t braindead. They can also talk, but don’t die as easily as the burn victims. You can damage them, and they keep on coming. Damage them badly enough, though, and they’ll die. The third kind are less like human beings. They’re the ones that are hunched over like apes and have those nasty claws. They’re as agile as spider monkeys and can disembowel with a swipe, but they die easiest of all. The biggest problem with all three is their numbers. They just keep on coming through those gates. Mankind keeps dying, but the demons keep getting stronger.”
“So, to stand a chance, we need to find a way to close the gates. Has anybody tried yet?”
“Nobody has even got close. The gates are the enemy’s strong points, and the Army isn’t in any shape to stage an attack on them.”
“Then that’s what we focus on: Closing the gates.”
Andras raised an eyebrow. “No big thing then?”
“We aim high, or we lose.”
“I understand the stakes, Mina. We all have to do whatever is necessary to survive.”
Mina scrolled through the website and saw updates she hadn’t put there, as well as some of her photos. The picture she had taken of the stray Labrador had over a thousand views. “I assume David added these extra bits?”
Andras shrugged. “He told everyone to add whatever they could verify. I know Corporal Martin added a few things about how to kill the different demons. David added something about iron being helpful.”
“Iron?”
“Yeah, he got an email from some girl in Crapstone.”
Mina accessed the website emails and located an email from someone called Diane Potter. The subject-heading read: The demons can’t pass iron barriers!!!
She opened the email and read a hastily typed message from what seemed to be a teenage girl. There was a group of survivors in Crapstone where one of the gates had opened. They had taken refuge at a retired pop star’s house surrounded by big iron gates. Apparently, the demons couldn’t pass the iron bars or even touch them.
David had already posted about it on the website, and Mina found comments piling up. People cited their own stories of survival, thanks to the tip. A group of survivors in Stockport had fled to a local church after reading the website and were now safe behind its old iron doors. Another group was hiding out at a scrapyard, constructing barriers of their own from the iron junk collected there. People were surviving because of the website.
“It’s working,” said Mina. “Iron works against the demons and word is spreading. This is how we win, Andras. We find out the enemy’s weaknesses, and we spread the word.”
Andras seemed troubled when she looked at him, but he changed his expression to a smile. “I guess humanity has a chance after all—especially with a woman like you looking out for it.”
A brief flutter of butterfly wings in her belly made Mina blush. “I…”
Andras blushed too and turned away embarrassed. “Not really a good time to flirt, is it? Sorry.”
“No, no, don’t be sorry. Tell you the truth, it’s been a long time since a guy flirted with me. If it takes the end of the world, then so be it.”
Andras patted her on the knee and gave it a furtive squeeze. He nodded to her coffee cup. “Time for a refill. Allow me.”
Mina grabbed his hand. “Your job fetching the coffee is over. I’ll make this one.”
Andras smiled. “Milk, three sugars.”
“Wow, you like it sweet.”
“What’s life without the senses?”
On her way to get the drinks, Mina swung by to say hello to Corporal Martin. The soldier looked ready to drop, wobbling on his feet and rubbing at his eyes every couple of seconds. “You look ready to fall into a coma, Martin. You should get some sleep.”
He smiled at her. “I keep meaning to call it a day, but something else pops up that I need to deal with and another hour passes by.”
“Are you still in contact with the Army?”
He nodded. “I assumed they would call me back to base, but Command has asked me to remain here and pass on any intel you folks get.”
“Makes sense,” she admitted. “I’ll let you know whatever I find. You know about the iron, right?”
“Yes, I passed it up the chain of command. They’re already looking at ways to make use of it. Maybe setting up a central base surrounded by iron fences, or fashioning ammunition out of it, I don’t know. If only it wasn’t such an outdated substance. Wooden stakes would be better.”
“Like in the movies?”
“Yep. We have plenty of wood, but not so much iron. Would make the war a lot easier if people could just grab the nearest chair leg.”
“When is war ever easy?”
“I suppose you’re right. Still, most wars aren’t against supernatural creatures that aren’t supposed to even exist. A little help would be fair enough in my book.”
Mina’s phone rang. She pulled it out her pocket and sighed. It was her father again. “I have to take this.”
Corporal Martin nodded. “Of course.”
Mina headed away to get some privacy. The newsroom was still a chaotic hive, so she headed out the exit into the waiting area. There was a chair behind the reception desk, so she sat as she answered the call.
“Dad, I didn’t expect to hear from you again.”
“Mina, you are safe?”
“Yes. I’m fine, dad. Are you oka—”
“The monsters are here, Mina. Mrs Patel next door is screaming. I can hear her. Mina, what should I do?”
Mina bolted to her feet, clutching the phone and wishing she could yank her father right through it. “Hide, dad. You need to hide.”
“But your websit
e says to fight. Should I go help Mrs Patel?”
Mina almost got stuck on the fact that her father had been reading her website, but she knew there was no time for pride. Her father was in danger. Could she really tell him to hide when she knew it was the wrong thing to do?
“How many are there, dad?”
“Hundreds. They just appeared in the streets, dragging people from their houses. They will be here soon, Mina. My God, Mrs Patel, has stopped screaming. I think they killed her.”
“Hide, dad. You need to hide, and I’ll find a way to come get you.”
There was silence on the line. Then: “No, Mina. I cannot hide. You are out there helping people and facing the evil. How can I hide when my daughter is so brave? I will not hide. I must fight the monsters so that there are less of them for you to face in the days ahead.”
“Dad, listen to me-”
“I love you, Mina. I am proud. And I am sorry.”
Mina shouted down the phone, but was forced to listen to her father’s manic shouts as he entered some unseen battle. She heard the shrieks of monsters, the screams of victims. Then the line went dead.
“Dad? Dad?” She knew it was of no use, but she couldn’t help it. She kept on shouting. “Dad?”
“Whoa, what’s wrong?” Andras came into the waiting room, two coffees in his hands. When he saw the state she was in, he placed them down on the reception desk and went over to her. “What’s happened?”
“My dad. H-he was attacked. I…” She shook her head as tears came.
Andras put his arms around her and pulled her close. “I’m sorry.” He left it at that.
“He said he was proud of me.”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t he be?”
She huffed. “You never knew my father. I’ve never seen him be proud of me, ever.”
“Then at least he got to be proud of you before he died. You’re helping people.”
“That’s what he said.”
“Well, it’s true. People are already fighting back because of your website.”
Mina’s phone went again. She snatched it up to her ear. “Dad? Dad? Oh, it’s you, David. Yeah, I’m in the reception area. I… What? No, I didn’t. I was just there, and everything was… Jesus. I’ll get back on it right away.”
Hell on Earth Trilogy: The Complete Apocalyptic Saga Page 21
