They all now wore whatever they could fashion as armour. It was hot, but Maddy had put back on her thick paramedic overalls and wrapped a scarf around her neck. The only skin showing was her hands and face. Rick wore a long leather jacket from his pop-star days—the type of thing that looked stupid on anybody who wasn’t famous. It was a thick second hide that would hopefully protect him from the claws and teeth of his enemies.
Now that it was time to go, Rick’s resolve threatened to leave him. His stomach churned like a blender, and the urge to lurch forward and vomit was hard to resist. When he looked at Maddy and Daniel, reminding himself that they would be with him, he felt a little stronger. It wasn’t as if any of them had a choice. The demons were back at the gate, which meant they were once again trapped. Their only choice was to fight their way free, or stay and eventually starve. If they could help Keith, Steven, and Diane, all the better.
“Let’s do this,” he told the others, who had both taken on the colour of whipped ice cream. They headed out the front door and headed down the driveway. It was now the tail end of dusk, and the security floodlight had come on, bathing the demons in a silvery skin of light. More like angels than monsters, but then Rick heard them growl and knew there was nothing pure or holy about them.
“Let them have it!”
Maddy and Daniel lit two of the Molotov cocktails and let fly. Both flaming bottles smashed against the fence and ignited in a cloud of fire. The demons screeched like tortured children, flailing around like puppets with twisted strings. Flames crackled in the evening breeze, and the smell of burning flesh added to the scents of summer.
Rick followed the next part of the plan and ran to unlock the gate. Once he’d popped the padlock, he yanked the gate open wide enough that the driveway was clear. Maddy hopped into the Mustang and gunned the engine while Rick jumped clear just in time to avoid getting run over.
The heavy American beast struck the group of burning demons and sent them scattering across the road. They seemed to roll and bounce endlessly before coming to rest. There was no ambiguity about their condition. Every one of them was dead, burnt, and battered.
Maddy reached across and shoved open the passenger side door. Daniel was cooped in the back. “Rick, get in.”
Rick threw himself into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut behind him. Maddy took off, the car beeping at them to buckle up, which they had to do to shut it up.
“Is this a bad time to say I need a piss?” said Daniel.
“Why didn’t you go before you left?” Maddy growled.
“I should have done. Sorry.”
“You can go after we kill the rest of the demons,” she said.
Then they all broke out laughing, not because they thought it was funny, but because their nerves were so fried. They had just survived a battle unscathed, and the adrenaline in their veins was like a hit of cocaine. It gave them giddy hope that they might just be okay. So they laughed.
It didn’t take but a few moments to get around the bend and find Keith’s Range Rover. The vehicle was on its side, windows shattered and axles bent.
“He’s still alive,” said Daniel. “I’ll be damned.”
Rick couldn’t believe what he saw. He’d felt obligated to come to his brother’s aid, but had possessed slim hope that there would be anything left to rescue.
Keith was holding his own. He popped up out of the Range Rover’s side window, which was now facing the sky, and swung his iron poker at any demon that got too close. They tried, in vain, to drag him out of the wreckage, but he picked his swings and made sure every one counted. Several of the demons lay dead in the road, their skulls caved in.
Steven was dead. He lay on the tarmac, face down after having apparently launched through the windscreen. Keith’s older vehicle must have lacked the nagging seatbelt alarm that Rick’s Mustang possessed.
Diane was nowhere to be seen.
Maddy repeated the manoeuvre she had performed at the gate and ploughed the big American export right into the group of demons. Some of them got up, but most stayed down.
Demons still surrounded Keith’s Range Rover.
Maddy pulled on the handbrake, and Rick leapt out of the car. Maddy and Daniel were right behind him, running at the enemies with all the fierceness of barbarians. They swung their weapons with everything they had. Daniel stabbed a demon in the guts with his spear, before pulling it free and using it to pluck out the eyes of another. Maddy swung her hockey stick like a baseball bat and caved in several skulls. Rick bludgeoned demon after demon with his antique lamp.
But the demons kept on coming, attacking like a pack of hyenas. The dead men and women were joined by hunched-over creatures with long, twisted claws. Rick caught one in mid-air, smashing it in the side of its face before it had chance to return to earth. Maddy hit another so hard with her hockey stick that its lower jaw detached and rolled across the road. Atop the Range Rover, Keith fought with renewed energy. He saw his rescuers and dragged himself out of the broken window, fending off demons with one hand, while he climbed with the other.
Rick fought his way over to the Range Rover and helped his brother down. “Sorry about your motor,” he said.
Keith shrugged. “Least I can say I owned one. A dream fulfilled for a while is better than a dream out of reach.”
Rick frowned. “Sounds like something I’d say.”
“Look out!” Keith shoved his brother out of the way as a demon slashed the air with its talons. Keith jabbed out with his poker and impaled it right through the mouth, then lifted his leg to kick it away. The next demon that attacked fell afoul of Rick’s lamp and hit the floor with a broken spine.
“We make quite a team,” said Keith.
Rick nodded. “If only we’d found out sooner.”
Keith stared at his brother and let out a laboured sigh. “Let’s leave the past where it belongs, huh?”
“You mean like you being an arsehole most of my life, culminating in you breaking a bottle over my head and locking me in my garage?”
“Yeah, stuff like that.”
Rick patted his big brother on the back. “It’s forgotten. Now, come on.”
Maddy and Daniel were back to back in the middle of the road, demons coming at them from all sides. Rick was about to wade in and help them, when Keith grabbed his arm and stopped him. “Diane,” he said. “She’s still inside the Range Rover.”
“What?”
“She was in the front with me. Her head hit the dashboard. We have to get her out.”
Rick turned back to the Range Rover and leapt up on top of it. As he looked down inside the broken windows, he could see the pale shape of Diane. Unconscious.
Keith climbed up beside Rick to help. The whole time they were up there, Maddy and Daniel continued to fight for their lives.
“Hold on to me while I lift her out,” Rick told his brother.
Keith nodded.
Rick lowered onto his stomach and reached an arm inside the window while Keith kept a tight hold on his belt. Diane murmured when his hand brushed her face, and it was a relief to know that she was still alive, but she didn’t wake up. A shadow cast across her face, and as Rick’s eyes adjusted, he saw it was blood from a wound hidden beneath her blonde hair. He fondled between the shadows and shafts of light and located her wrist. When he pulled, Diane slumped back in her chair and her eyes fluttered open. She moaned. Ignoring her pain, Rick heaved her upwards; a dead weight, but just about manageable—the girl couldn’t have weighed over eight stone. There was still life in her legs, and once he pulled her up into a standing position, she kept herself there.
“Diane,” he urged. “Diane, wake up. You have to—Jesus!”
Rick was jerked backwards by his belt. He twisted around and saw his brother stumbling across the top of the car. From the road, the black haired demon snarled, a massive gash in his torso pouring with brown sludge. Keith slipped off the edge of the car and disappeared out of sight.
Rick turne
d back to Diane. “Diane, wake up!”
Her eyes fluttered and eventually stayed open. Her gaze fell upon Rick, and she panicked.
“Diane, it’s okay. It’s me, Rick.”
She stopped struggling and took a hard look at him. “Rick? I… I thought we left you.”
“You did. It was a trap, but you’re okay. Come on.”
Diane reached up with both arms and allowed Rick to drag her up onto the side of the car. She was unarmed and disorientated, so he told her to hop down and run to the bushes at the edge of the road. Rick, himself, dropped down and went to join the battle. He retrieved his brass lamp and smashed in the brain of a nearby demon. Keith was right ahead, being beaten half to death by the black haired, dead demon.
Rick shouted. “Leave him alone!”
The demon raised his fist to strike Keith again, but held it in the air and looked at Rick with a sickening grimace. “Wait your turn, worm.”
“That’s an ironic thing to say for a maggot-riddled corpse.”
The demon wasted no more time with trash talk. It dropped Keith to the pavement and stalked after Rick. Rick clutched the lamp, but felt as if he were holding an inflatable mallet. The creature coming towards him was massive, and the gaping wound in its torso had not been enough to stop it.
Rick leapt forward and took a swing, but the demon was too quick. It backhanded Rick across the cheek hard enough to send him down to the ground and see stars. The loose stones on the road bit into his palms as he tried to right himself. Keith staggered back to his feet and leapt at the demon’s back, but he too was swatted away with a cruel backhand. He ended up on the floor right next to Rick, and the two brothers crawled backwards together. The demon stalked after them with the plodding ferocity of a rhino. His gnarled hands were thick, and perfect for breaking bones.
In the background, demons surrounded Maddy, while Diane cowered in the bushes at the side of the road. Daniel was nowhere to be seen.
“Why are you here?” asked Rick.
The demon stopped his approach and seemed to answer after careful thought. “Because the alternative is remaining there.”
Rick shook his head. “Where?”
“Hell. Do you know what it is like to finally be free from there? To return home to the place that allows us the pleasure of life?”
Rick saw sadness on the demon’s face and made an assumption. “You were people once. You were a man?”
The question seemed to enrage the demon. “Not just a man—a prince. My family’s kingdom stretched from the Euphrates to the Tigris, and all we wanted, we took. Now I am a prince once more, here to take what I wish and answer only to the Red Lord himself.”
“So, it sounds like you’re still somebody’s bitch,” said Rick.
“I am a prince!” The demon’s face screwed up in fury, but, having stalled sufficiently to recover his strength, Rick was able to spring up and wallop the demon around the head with his lamp.
There was a resounding crack and Rick shouted triumphantly, “We already have a monarchy, thanks!”
The demon reeled backwards on its thick legs, face distorted from the large dent now in the left side of its skull.
But the black haired dead man did not go down.
“Fuck sake,” cried Rick. “Don’t you die?”
“Princes die when princes choose to die.”
“Do they choose to go to Hell? Because that’s where you’ve been rotting.”
The demon tried to backhand Rick again, but this time, he ducked and gave his enemy’s knees a hefty blow with the lamp.
The demon bellowed and stumbled sideways. “I will tear you into shreds and feed your remains to vultures.”
“You’d need to go someplace else for that,” said Rick as he smashed the demon in the hip. “No vultures here, I’m afraid.”
“There will be nothing left when we are done with it. We will destroy all.”
“Except vultures, apparently.” Rick took another swing, but his luck ran out, and he missed. The demon caught the lamp stem, yanked it away from him, and threw it to the ground.
“Now you die, worm.” The demon punched Rick in the stomach, and his ribs cracked like twigs. He slumped to his knees, able only to catch half a breath.
Keith raced to help, but Rick put his hand up and waved him away. “No… Keith, go… help Maddy and Diane. Get them out of… here.”
The demon grinned. “Yes, Keith, run while you can. I’ll deal with you later.”
Keith kept on towards Rick, but slowed down, and then stopped. “Rick, I can’t-”
“Just go!” shouted Rick, clutching his ribs in agony. “Get the hell out of here.”
Keith swallowed, then turned and ran. He called Diane out of the bushes and they went to Maddy’s aid—just in time to save her from being torn apart by a demon creeping up behind her.
Rick coughed and tasted blood in his mouth. Every breath he took was shallower than the last. The effort of even staying upright on his knees was too much. He slumped onto his side.
The black haired demon stood over him, deep, guttural laughter coming from deep down from its dead insides. “A valiant display—braver than a thousand other worms we have slaughtered in this village. It will be a pleasure to add you to our ranks, once your time in Hell is over.”
Rick flailed, no longer able to take another breath. His vision fizzed with swirling rain drops, and he tried to find the strength to get back to his knees and face his death with his head held high, but he only felt himself getting lower and lower to the ground. Eventually, his head rested against the cold tarmac. He looked up at the sky and saw the moon shining down on him. It was pretty.
That was when the demon raised his foot into the air and stamped Rick’s skull into pulp.
~David Davids~
Slough, Berkshire
“Mina? Mina, where on Earth are you, girl?” David had tried Mina’s cell, but it only ever rang out to voicemail. The last couple times, the call hadn’t even connected—it appeared the nation’s cellular network had started to fail. Whatever contingencies were put in place by the networks could obviously only last so long without human intervention. David imagined call centres and hub offices lying empty, employees all fled, or ripped apart by demons. Inside the offices of the Slough Echo, things seemed almost normal, but he knew that was likely an exception. It was just a busy news day as far as the staff of the Echo was concerned. Everybody had been tasked with the same jobs they would have been given if a local celebrity died. They were somehow outside of the situation, as journalists so often were. It was hard to realise that the current situation affected them as much as the people they were reporting the news to.
The last time he’d spoken to Mina, she’d said she was in the waiting area, but when he stormed out there to find her, she had been nowhere to be seen. Her whole website had been erased—didn’t she care? People had been funnelling through to the landing page in droves over the last several hours, and there was evidence that it was directly helping people survive. How on Earth had it been deleted?
David headed back out into the waiting area, returning there to check, even though he’d already inspected it once. It was the same thing he did with his car keys some mornings. Whenever he misplaced them, he’d go to the sideboard in the hallway again and again because that was where they were supposed to be. Mina said she was in the waiting area, so that was where he went once again.
He never expected to bump into Andras.
“Do you know where Mina has wandered off to?” he asked. “She’s needed.”
Andras nodded and looked rather sad. “She got a call off her dad. I think he’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“Yeah, you know… dead.”
“Oh, poor Mina. Is she okay?” He felt for her. From what he’d witnessed, Mina’s father was a controlling man, but still her father. He could tell she loved him, but lots of people were dying in the world, and no one had the luxury to mourn them. They needed to keep working
.
“Do you know where she went, Andras?”
“For fresh air, I think. I asked her if she wanted to talk, but… well, she doesn’t know me, so she went to be alone.”
“Of course. I’ll go look for her, and see if she’s okay.”
Andras nodded. “I’ll make myself useful inside.”
“Yes, please. Little Alice is awake, so Carol will no doubt be back on the floor ready to give out tasks.”
“Great, I’ll get right on it.”
Andras walked away, but something occurred to David that made him call the man back. “Andras?”
He turned. “Yes?”
“You were at Mina’s computer last. Do you know what happened to the website?”
“Don’t ask me. Everything was fine when I left it. Maybe it was hacked.”
“By whom? Who out there would want to stop us giving out information about the demons?”
“The demons, for one.”
David thought the idea of tech savvy demons was ridiculous, so he gave a thin smile and walked away. There was something off about Andras. They had found him cowering in the road outside the building, but since then, the man had shown little fear or concern. Nor had he made any phone calls to friends or loved ones.
Mina had probably gone out to the front of the building to get fresh air, but David would rather her be inside. The army south of Luton had been spotted moving west by a middle-aged postal worker trapped in a Chinese restaurant. He had been providing typo-ridden email updates from an iPhone attached to the building’s Wi-Fi. The updates had stopped about fifteen minutes ago.
David opened the door in the hallway that led to the stairwell. He wasn’t about to trust the lift—the power could go at any minute and he didn’t fancy being trapped inside a metal coffin. Despite the mugginess of the summer night, the stairwell was chilly, and a draught whistled up the central gap between the levels.
He started down the step, his ears picking up a rhythmic thudding, like a tree branch tapping against a window in the wind. It seemed to come from the floor below, and as he looked down the central hollow of the spiralling stairwell, he saw something flashing in and out of view. What on Earth was it?
Hell on Earth- the Complete Series Box Set Page 24
