Vamps was vulnerable while he held the portcullis over his head and seemed to realise it as Ted marched towards him with his fists clenched. A demon got in the way and tried to bite Ted, but Ted grabbed it in a headlock and snapped its neck. He continued towards Vamps, planning to tear the demon’s arms off before he died. Even if they grew back, the agony he inflicted would be worth it.
Vamps had no choice but to let the portcullis drop to face the rampaging Ted. The iron spikes sliced two demons right in half and seared a half-dozen more that collided face-first with it.
Vamps threw his arms out to either side of him, and his claws extended. His face twisted into a ghoulish grin, and a nerve-rattling hiss escaped his jaws.
Ted charged, roaring like a viking.
An almighty earthquake knocked them both off their feet. The vibrating BOOM! had Ted covering his ears and screaming in pain. He had no idea what was happening.
The air whooshed, picking up leaves, dirt, and debris. Anyone still standing was now blown over or forced to anchor themselves.
A bright light suddenly consumed everything.
Ted’s eyes were wide open, yet the light was not blinding. He stared right into it but felt no heat, or piercing stabs in his retinas. He wasn’t sure how much time passed, but it might have been years. Tiredness crept into his muscles and he lay back, embracing the end of everything.
Frank’s voice brought Ted back to reality. “Kidda, yow gotta open yow eyes and see this!”
Ted opened his eyes and saw stars with the one that still worked. Not stars in his vision but those hanging in the clear, inky-black sky. He sat up and looked around. Frank and Aymun were on their feet nearby, and the teenagers peered down from the walls.
The demons were gone. No sign existed that they had ever even been there besides the clutter of broken arrow shafts. The massive explosion, whatever it had been, had taken the monsters away.
Hannah, you did it, luv! You soddin’ saved us all.
Ted grinned from ear to ear, proud of his friend, but already feeling her loss. He broke down in tears, losing control of himself completely. This time, his rage was all gone and all he felt was grief.
55
TED
Days later…
Ted moved to the front of the group, everyone looking to him to say something. In his previous life, he’d been a divorced builder with a daughter he loved. Now, he was the half-blind leader of a camp and a father to three-dozen children. It wasn’t what he had ever planned to be, but it was a role he would never turn away from.
Buried in the ground at what had become the camp’s graveyard were three new crosses. One was for Hannah, who had tried to save them all with her dying breaths. One was for Philip, who had given his life to make sure she succeeded. The third was for Nathan, a boy none of them had trusted, but had somehow turned out to be their savour. Kamiyo had witnessed the boy throw himself into the lake when all else had failed. If not for Nathan, everyone here would be dead.
Ted cleared his throat and began. “Before all this happened, I had a daughter. Her name was Chloe. I spent most my life building things, but she was my greatest achievement by far. Until she was born, I didn’t know something could be so perfect.” He smiled at the thought of her. It still hurt, but the memories also brought him joy. “Last Christmas, I dressed up as Santa and asked her what she wanted. She told me she wanted to have a sleep over at the North Pole and help Santa deliver all the presents to the good children. She didn’t ask for anything for herself, just to help spread joy to others. When the demons came, Chloe, in her innocence, kept telling me I needed to head to the North Pole to Santa’s workshop. Santa had invited her to stay and would keep us safe. With all that was going on, I just humoured her with a laugh and a pat on the head. Then the monsters took her away from me, and I realised all of my mistakes at once, in a single moment. I should have spent Chloe’s last days heading towards something, not staying still and waiting to die.”
He wiped tears from his eyes before carrying on. He pulled the photograph of Chloe from his pocket and held it out to the assembled crowd. “After she died, I promised I would get her to the North Pole, if only in spirit. As long as I was alive, I would head north and drop her photograph, and myself, into the North Sea. Stupid, now that I think about it. The last thing Chloe would have wanted is for me to be alone.” He looked at the faces in front of him—his new family. “I’m done trying to outrun my guilt. This is where I’m supposed to be, making Chloe proud by taking care of people and allowing people to take care of me.” He wiped more tears from his eyes. “I’m just sorry that my new family is short so many members. Jackie, Hannah, Steven, Eric, Bray, Philip, Emily, and others who I barely even got to know. We will never forget them.
“Civilisation has restarted, and this is our graveyard to remember those who got us this second chance. Hannah and Philip died two nights ago trying to save us, and they did that through their actions. They courageously stepped out amongst the monsters and fought them, which allowed Nathan to slip by unnoticed and throw himself through the gate.
“None of us here understood Nathan. He was strange, and perhaps even dangerous, but he was brave too—perhaps braver than us all. He sacrificed his life to save us all. So I just want to say to Nathan, in case there’s any chance he can hear me, that I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t kinder to you Nathan, and I also want to say thank you. Thank you for showing us that we can do the right thing even when people don’t deserve it. If Hannah is up there with you, tell her I want my sodding knife back. Cost me a monkey down the pub, that did.”
The crowd chuckled.
“Anyway,” Ted continued. “Today is a new beginning. The demons are gone because of the sacrifices of our old friends, and we welcome new ones in their place.” He pointed to Pritchard and the newcomers from the supermarket. “We will spend the next weeks and months and years building a real community. We don’t know what radius the gate cleansed for us, but for the time being at least, we can go scavenging in the surrounded towns with relative safety. Now is the time to gather supplies and find more survivors and reinforce ourselves here. I promise that the next time the demons face us, we will be an army like the one in Portsmouth. We’ll push them back every time they dare to attack and show them what Hell truly is. Mankind is not something to be crushed, it is something to be feared.”
The crowd cheered and whistled. The teenagers were already looking full grown—the events of the last few days had aged them. With Pritchard’s group, they were now almost a hundred strong, and they had learned lessons from the siege that would see them more prepared than ever. Ted would set about reinforcing the walls further and creating a thousand arrows for the bows. He would build more catapults, and more spears. He would seek out every scrap of iron that existed. The demons would not be defeated with bullets and tanks, they would be beaten by stone walls and iron gates.
Demonkind was on the run. They had been routed like any other panicking enemy, and that fear, used so effectively against mankind at the beginning, would spread throughout their ranks. Their leaders were falling, and the promise of their paradise was being delayed again and again.
With his words all spoken, Ted moved to the side, next to the charred remnants of the log cabin.
Kamiyo came and joined him. “Can we put a new infirmary on your list of things to build?”
Ted laughed. “You got it, Doc. How are we set right this minute?”
“We salvaged half of what we dropped outside when the siege began, plus Pritchard brought everything we left in the Pharmacy, along with a whole lot of food. We’re looking good, and with three groups ready to leave this afternoon, we should bring back more than enough to keep us going. I just can’t believe we made it. We really survived, didn’t we?”
Ted nodded, but then he sighed. “Not all of us.”
“I’m sorry about Hannah. I know you two were close.”
“Not as close as I should have allowed us to be. She saved me, Doc.
As much as I fought her on it, she saved me. It should be me lying there in that grave.”
Kamiyo shook his head. “Don’t do that. Don’t regret living. Hannah went out the way she wanted to.” He took a moment and rubbed at his forehead and stubbly chin. “You still sure we shouldn’t tell them?”
Ted grunted. “What? That a giant demon came out the gate and was still alive after the blast? You told me it was hurt. Maybe it ran into the forest and will never come back.”
Kamiyo nodded. “It was mangled beyond all recognition after the gate exploded, but it was capable enough to escape into the forest. It feels wrong not letting people know about the danger they might be in.”
“They know they’re in danger. The specifics don’t matter. You and I will ensure they’re ready for whatever comes.”
“And what about the Red Lord? Do you think he’s dead? Aymun wasn’t so sure. In fact, he left this morning to go search for him.”
“The Red Lord was gone with all the other demons when I opened my eyes. No reason to believe he’s any different from them.”
Kamiyo didn’t seem convinced. “But he was able to touch the iron gate and regenerate after injury. He’s in a human body, not a demon one. Maybe the gate exploding didn’t affect him like it did the rest.”
Ted grunted. “Like I said, he was gone when I opened my eyes. The Red Lord is finished, I’m sure of it.”
“I hope you’re right, Ted. I hope you’re right.”
Ted headed for the castle. Whether the Red Lord was alive or dead, there was work to do.
56
VAMPS
Vamps woke up in the dirt, surrounded by trees. His face was wet, and he realised it was raining. The pitter-patter of the droplets on the leaves almost lulled him back to sleep, but then he sat bolt upright. “Where the hell am I?”
The last thing he remembered was being back at the cabin, helping Dr Kamiyo and his patients.
He got to his feet, which would have been fine, except for the fact he made no move to do so. He wrestled his legs back and forth, horrified by the resistance that seemed to come from his own brain. “What the…?”
“Do not defy me human!”
Vamps gasped. Words had come out of his mouth, but they weren’t his. The Red Lord was still inside of him, but it wasn’t the same as before. Vamps wasn’t taking a backseat anymore. He was present.
“W-What’s happening to me, man?”
“You are defying a god. Release your flesh to me and be a part of my glory. I am the Red Lord and I command you to obey.”
“This… This don’t feel the same, man. I… I can fight you.” Vamps’s hand clenched into a fist, but he forced himself to open it again. “Ha! You my bitch now.”
Vamps bit down on his tongue hard enough to make it bleed. “I am nobody’s… bitch. You shall obey or die.”
Vamps spat blood. “Do what you want, dawg, but I ain’t letting you hurt no one else, you get me?”
“Silence!”
“Suck my big dick!”
“Argh! You will burn in a thousand hells for this.”
“Look forward to it. Never been abroad before.”
A presence emerged from the trees. The expression on the newcomer’s face was a mixture of shock and fear, but also, perhaps, happiness? “Vamps, my friend? Is it you?”
Vamps gawped. “Aymun? What the hell are you doing here, man?”
“Is it you?”
“Yeah, it’s me. The Red Lord is still here though, except…” His fist clenched again, and Vamps fought to open it once more. He succeeded, but this time he broke a sweat in doing so. “He’s still in me, but it’s like we’re sharing a body now. We’re both in control.”
Aymun squinted for a moment, obviously thinking. Jeez, Vamps had missed the weird little dude. “I believe,” said Aymun, tapping his chin with his index finger, “that the explosion at the gate weakened the Red Lord’s hold on you. He can still manifest inside you, but no longer has the strength to cast you aside when doing so. I fear you shall not be in for a pleasant experience, my friend.”
Vamps gouged his own cheek and drew blood. “Fuck man, it’s like I got demon Tourettes. Can you help me with this?”
Aymun folded his hands together and looked very serious. “It is my duty to keep the Red Lord from doing harm, as it is your duty also. Together, the three of us will defy his will.”
Vamps frowned. “The three of us?”
Aymun nodded. “I have been searching several days and nights to find you. Along the way, I gained a companion. David, it is okay. You may come out.”
To Vamps’ astonishment, a burnt, mangled demon loped out from behind the trees. His eyes seemed somehow human—afraid, compassionate… lost. In the most bizarre fashion, he gave Vamps a wide smile. “David help. David want to do good things.”
“Traitor!” The Red Lord shouted from inside Vamps.
David shied away but didn’t retreat. “David not traitor. David free to choose. David not choose monster. David choose happy.”
Aymun grinned. “He is discovering more of himself every day, but from what I can gather, he died as a boy some time during the 14th Century in Wales. Or Scotland. This is not my part of the world, I am afraid.”
Vamps shook his head, then forced the Red Lord aside in order to speak. “This is a bad idea, Aymun. You can’t trust no demons.”
Aymun waved a hand. “Hell’s grip on demonkind is loosening. Many are returning to their former selves, which, I grant you, are mostly evil souls, but some—like our David here—are just misguided victims. David’s mother was a witch and offered his soul to an archdemon in exchange for great power. His punishment was unjust. Many punishments are unjust. Hell is a place deserving of very few.”
“Hell is a broken creation of a broken creator,” Vamps spat, then shook himself and apologised. “That was him not me.”
“I gathered.”
“So, you said you were looking for me? What now?”
Aymun shrugged. “I do not know, my friend, but whatever happens, we shall face it as Heaven’s warriors. We have won battles together, yes, but the war is not over. In fact, I fear it has only just begun.”
“I shall gut you all and wear you as a cloak. I shall wash my feet in your blood. I shall…” Vamps rolled his eyes and groaned. “Sorry, that was him again.”
“Once again,” said Aymun, “I shall assume such words are not yours. Shall we begin our journey?”
“Where we going?”
“To Portsmouth. We must inform Major Wickstaff that there are people here in this forest. We must start working together to rid this world of evil, so to Portsmouth we shall go. Destiny leads us south.”
Vamps smirked. “A reunion sounds sweet. Let’s skiddaddle, bro.”
And so they did.
57
TONY CROSS
Tony Cross didn’t know why he’d been hailed by General Thomas, but he had a bad feeling about it. As a captain, he hadn’t spoken with the General directly before, and he took most of his orders from Major Harvey who was a pompous prick at the best of times.
Most of the Sandhurst elite were dead, which was why Tony was now a Captain instead of a sergeant, and why he’d been deeply involved in the Middle East operations—jokingly labelled ‘Operation Bring Back Gaddafi,’ referring to the fact the dictator had been a far preferable enemy to the one they now faced.
After the human counter-offensive, Turkey had been liberated quickly, due mainly to its role as a forward-positioning base for western forces. The United States air base there had given humanity a massive advantage against the scattered demon forces. They had used the nation as a launchpad to liberate Syria, already full of armed locals, then Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel. Each country they reclaimed gave them more resources, more men, and more equipment. They took their time, but eventually they had reclaimed Iraq too, and then stomped a foothold into Iran. They were spreading out slowly and cautiously, closing gates and killing the Fallen as they went.
They even had a regiment full of willing victims prepared to jump into the gates to close them. Many were locals, old or ill, but several more were devout Muslims who felt it was their calling to die for the sake of others. They were the bravest people Tony had ever met.
The demons were beginning to amass in Iran and Saudi Arabia, the smaller groups forming together and forming greater masses, like cancer cells beneath a microscope. There was much fighting still to be done, but mankind was strong and united. The contingent of the human resistance had left the Air Force base at Incirlik, relocating to what had used to be Camp Victory. It surrounded Baghdad airport and was the most secure area of the eastern front.
Tony had been instrumental in gaining that security.
So why did General Thomas want to see him?
General Thomas was a stoic, no-nonsense kind of man, and as such, he conducted business in a large tent outside rather than inside one of the many cement buildings.
Tony marched across the tarmac and approached the guard outside the tent. He didn’t know the corporal, but then there were sixteen-thousand soldiers, of mixed nationality, currently working out of the base.
“Business?”
“Captain Cross reporting to General Thomas as requested.”
The soldier nodded. “You’re late.”
“I’m five minutes early.”
“That’s late.” The soldier pulled aside the flap so that Tony could enter.
The only things inside were a large desk and chairs, a laptop and radio, a cot bed, and General Thomas.
“You’re late.”
Tony saluted and stood to attention. “I apologise, sir.”
The general had his hands behind his back, but he brought them forwards now and pulled out a chair. “No matter. Sit.”
Hell on Earth- the Complete Series Box Set Page 111
