“So how did you end up here again, doctor?” Philip chose not to sit and instead hovered over them. His greying hair was still as dishevelled as ever, and his broken specs hung slanted from his ears.
Kamiyo didn’t want to admit he’d been fleeing demons only mere hours ago, and it felt absurd to be in this place now, sat beside a picturesque lake beneath a castle on the hill. All notions of demons and monsters now seemed ethereal and unreal. These people didn’t need to know demons had come so close to their sanctuary, so he decided not to tell them.
“I was just trying to keep out of sight,” he said with a shrug. “I’ve been travelling alone, and it’s safer to keep to the countryside. Tell you the truth, I entered the forest and got lost. I found this place totally by accident. It’s still hard to believe that you’re all here. I never thought I’d ever see children again.”
Philip didn’t seem to accept fully what he heard, and his eyes narrowed behind his specs. “Seems a tad unwise to wander into the largest forest in the UK. You might have died out here if you hadn’t found us.”
“I had no idea the forest was so big. I’m not from around here originally.”
“Neither are we,” said Jackie in a lighter tone. “We travelled from Smethwick. Philip here owns fifty sandwich shops throughout Staffordshire.”
Philip rolled his eyes. “I own four, Jackie.”
Kamiyo smiled. “Still impressive. I’d give everything I have for a Ploughmans with mustard.”
“Ha! You help Bray get better and I’ll give you a lifetime’s supply when things get better.”
Kamiyo smiled. Did this man truly believe there was a ‘better’ ahead? These people were dangerously sheltered. How would they react if demons attacked? Would they stand around kidding themselves that the monsters weren’t real?
Jackie seemed to sense his doubt because she looked away sheepishly. Kamiyo was about to tell them to wise up, to understand that they weren’t on a camping holiday, and that this was the end of the world. He was about to tell them that, but something else happened first.
An almighty bell pealed from atop the hill. It sent the whole camp into high-alert, and the adults sprang to their feet, hustling the children into the cabin. Jackie leapt to her feet too, staring at Kamiyo like he might suddenly take charge. He just stared at her blankly.
The whole time the bell continued to ring. Clang-clang-clang.
Kamiyo grabbed Jackie as she went to dash off. “What’s happening?”
“It’s Frank,” she cried. “He’s never rung the castle’s bell before.”
“What does it mean?”
“It means the demons have found us! It means they’re here.”
Kamiyo released the woman and allowed her to race off to join the others. He tried to see the castle up on the hill, but the night cloaked the land in shadow.
What horrors had spilled out of the forest? What had Frank seen?
12
TED
The bell rang out from nowhere.
Hannah raised her rifle. “What the hell is that? A goddamn bell?”
“A church maybe?” Ted looked around. Whatever it was, it didn’t give him a good feeling.
“A church? In the middle of the forest?”
“What else could it be? We might be closer to the edge of the forest than we thought. I still smell smoke. It must be coming from the same place. It can’t be anything good. That amount of noise…”
“Yeah,” agreed Hannah. “Any survivors would have to be insane to ring a bell like that. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Maybe it’s some kind of alarm. Maybe there’s a camp in this forest somewhere, and it’s under attack. It could be the Army.”
“I thought the Army was finished.”
“The Army I served is,” Hannah scanned the trees. “but Command splintered early on. There were other units out there on their own, doing their own thing.”
“Well, Army or not, you don’t ring a soddin’ bell nowadays for any good reason.”
“Whoever they are, we have to find them.”
Ted shouldered his hammer and grunted. “No way!”
Hannah looked at him, eyebrows dropping into a V. She didn’t use words to convey what she thought, but the disgusted shake of her head said enough. After a moment more of judging, she turned and pushed off into the trees. Within seconds she had gone, only the sound of her footsteps crunching on distant twigs proving she existed.
Ted stood there in the middle of a vast forest. Just when he’d thought he was getting to grips with things, he found himself in the wilderness haunted by a disembodied bell. “I must be round the bend,” he said to himself before taking off in a run.
He found Hannah twenty-yards ahead, pushing her way through a tangle of bushes. When she sensed him coming she turned and smiled, clearly pleased that he had decided to come along.
She’d gone back into silent commando mode and moved in crouches and crawls. This was her ballgame now, so Ted stayed behind and followed her lead. Once again, her focus was unnerving, and she moved through the undergrowth like a ferret, flicking her gaze left and right and not missing a single leaf. Whatever anxiety she claimed to have, this was her cure. Action was this girl’s emotional salve.
The smokey stench increased, but the ringing bell still seemed distant. Were the two things connected, or separate?
Hannah threw a hand signal that Ted guessed meant come closer, or possibly to stay low, so he did both just to be safe. “There’s something ahead,” she whispered. “People are crying out. Do you hear them?”
He did hear them and wondered why he hadn’t sooner. Then his ears homed in on something even more horrifying. “Those are children screaming.”
Hannah nodded grimly. “I know. Stay on me. We’ll check it out.”
“Fuck that! Those kids are in danger.” Ted rose out of his crouch and surged forward. He exited the forest within a hundred steps and was half-blinded by a roaring campfire. At first, it seemed the ground was a giant mirror, reflecting the stars in the night sky. Then his eyes adjusted and he saw a massive lake and reflected in it was a dozen screaming children.
Ted saw a woman crawling in the grass, clutching her neck and bleeding from her throat. A demon stalked her, grinning at the sight of its wounded prey. Ted’s vision turned red. His head seemed to narrow at the temples and blood pounded the back of his eyes. He hoisted his hammer and bellowed at the top of his lungs. “CHLOE!”
He brought his hammer down on the demon’s head, obliterating it. He spotted another creature rounding on a group of screaming children. They were backed up against the steps of a huge log cabin, unable to escape. The demon had one of the children by the arm, and the sight of the terrorised youngster sent Ted deeper into his rage. Crossing the space between himself and the demon, he swung his hammer so hard that the demon’s entire torso folded in half like a paper plate. An enraged warrior, Ted somehow sensed rather than saw the next demon, and as it moved behind him, his hammer came around like a meteor and sent it sprawling across the grass.
Gunshots lit up the night at the edge of the forest. Hannah crept out from the trees, picking her shots with that grim determination of hers. Ted sought his next target and blinked in disbelief when his gaze fell upon a castle on a hill. What the hell was this place?
Something brushed his shoulder, and he lunged, yelling at the top of his lungs. “DIE!”
A young woman melted in front of him, hands out and mouth wide in a scream. “Please!”
Ted stopped himself from caving in the woman’s skull just in time, twisting his wrists and sinking the hammer’s head into the mud. He tried to say something, but his heart leapt into his mouth and choked him. His arteries threatened to burst. All he felt was the need to smash and destroy. To kill. Or die.
More gunshots snapped the air. Hannah fired and moved, fired and moved, until she reached the campfire. She scanned the tree line with her rifle, the calmest, most even-headed person th
ere. “I think we got them all,” she shouted. “The dees are down.”
Strangers huddled together around a large campfire, and they stared at Ted and Hannah like they were aliens. Ted clutched his hammer, panting and snarling, desperate for another target, but there were none. Dark shadows lay scattered in the grass, but it was impossible tell demon from human. The woman he’d nearly brained stepped in front of him and startled him. Then she shocked him even more by throwing her arms around his neck and kissing his stubbly cheek. “You saved us!” she cried. “You saved us!”
Hannah was grinning, but all Ted could do was groan.
13
DR KAMIYO
The bell stopped ringing, but the chaos remained in full swing. Kamiyo knew he couldn’t stand by and do nothing. For months, he’d avoided the demons at all costs. But this was different. He was the only person there with any idea of what they faced, the only person in the entire camp who’d encountered demons before, a veteran among civilians. Only a coward could stand by and do nothing. Yet, that was what he did for an entire minute, hoping somehow that this gathering of people would take care of things, that they possessed a contingency plan for this situation. Clearly, they did not. They had only planned as far as ringing a bell.
The children screamed and sobbed while adults fought not to do the same. Only a few had a mind to pick up weapons, or to try to corral the children into cover. Jackie was one of them, shouting at the other adults to calm down and stick together. She looked terrified but was a doer not a spectator. Fear didn’t control her.
Kamiyo knew demons could be killed, had witnessed people fight them in the early days and score victories. From his third-floor apartment, he witnessed a guy in a white shirt and red tie hold his own against a mob of demons with only a cricket bat. Then there had been a lone police officer who fled a corner shop by shooting his way back to his squad car. He eventually drove away unscathed, three dead demons in his wake. Kamiyo himself had killed a demon this very afternoon with only a frying pan. Now he wished he hadn’t left the weapon behind.
Kamiyo turned to Philip and told the man to go find himself a weapon, but Philip froze in terror. “M-My boy. Bray?”
“You can’t help Bray if we’re all dead. Arm yourself and defend this place. Now!”
Philip nodded and sprinted off.
Kamiyo tried to get his bearings. The danger seemed to originate from the castle. It was hard to see in the dark, for the blazing campfire confused his eyesight, but Kamiyo counted less than a dozen demons coming down the slope towards the camp.
“Fight back!” he yelled as he ran from the lake towards the cabin. Unarmed, he gravitated towards Jackie, now handing out broom handles, shovels, oars, and an all manner of other long, stiff objects. Kamiyo put out both hands. “Give me something. There’s enough of us here to fight back.”
Jackie’s face contorted. “There are less than ten adults. We have to get the children out of here.”
“We protect the children by fighting back,” said Kamiyo. “How have you not prepared for this?”
“We have! Why do you think I’m handing out weapons?” She thrust a fishing spear into his hands that must have been a prop from the cabin, for it was blunt and hollow.
Kamiyo gave the woman a steely look which she returned in full force. It wasn’t that these people were unprepared to defend themselves, it was that they weren’t battle-tested. Their resolve shattered the instant that bell had rung, and they needed help growing back their spines. If Kamiyo took down a demon, they would see the monsters were just flesh and bones. Not bogeymen.
But he was a doctor, not a fighter. A healer not a killer. Could he really take on demons with nothing more than luck to rely on?
No choice anymore. It’s time to stop running.
Kamiyo clenched the spear in his hands and hurried toward the campfire. He homed in on the screams to know where he was needed; first the terrified cries of children, and then the agonised wails of adults. Soon, he fought against a tide of bodies—panicked men, women, and children striking him from all angles as they tried to find safety. Kamiyo was the only one heading towards the demons, adrift in a no-man’s-land between safety and danger.
A pair of shimmering eyes spotted Kamiyo, and a demon launched itself in his direction. His terrified mind froze, but his body reacted well. He swung the spear and struck the demon in the jaw. The impact jolted his wrists, a sudden flare of pain that sent him stumbling backwards. When he attempted to swing again, he realised the spear had broken. It really was just a prop.
The demon collided with him, and he grappled with the demon just in time to keep it from slicing open his face. The stench of burnt flesh made his eyes water as he came nose-to-nose with the monster. The odour of its breath made him gag.
Kamiyo fought with all he had. This was the moment he lived or died, and with both arms busy, it left him with only one option. He aimed a head butt. Awkward and ineffective, it succeeded only in making the demon roar. The creature raised a jagged claw and prepared to open Kamiyo’s throat.
Kamiyo cried out, anticipating pain followed by death.
A gunshot fired. The demon hit the dirt, bleeding out from a massive hole in its forehead. Kamiyo glanced around, wondering what on earth was happening.
More gunshots rang out and more demons fell. Something moved through the camp, a bulky shadow jerking violently. It looked… It looked like a man swinging a hammer—a viking berserker brought up from Valhalla. The man took down demons left and right, like he was fighting infants. Kamiyo could barely believe his eyes. A soldier appeared out of the tree line, popping off shots as he moved towards the campfire. Where had these people come from? A soldier and a viking.
Within minutes, the demons had all been dealt with. The threat was over.
The dust settled. People crept out of their hiding places. Jackie ran to meet their saviours while everyone else stood agog. The whole crisis played out in scant minutes, but they hadn’t come through it unscathed. Carrie-Anne, a woman he’d not even got to say hello to, leaned up against a tree, clutching a gushing neck wound. Nearby, a child lay face-down, motionless.
Somebody cried out behind Kamiyo. Distant. He turned towards the lake and saw someone flailing in the water. They waved their arms madly and yelled for help.
The lake was glowing.
In the chaos, nobody else noticed the drowning man, or the amber glow pulsing beneath the water. Kamiyo needed to figure out what was happening, but he would have to do so later—after he helped the drowning man. He raced towards the lake, praying the pulsing glow beneath the water wasn’t a leviathan waiting to devour him or an alien craft about to take off. Both were crazy notions, but once so had been demons invading the earth.
Dashing into the water, Kamiyo pinwheeled his arms to keep his balance. The drowning man was ten-metres out, too far to wade to, and he tried to remember the last time he’d swum, deciding it was childhood. He threw himself forwards into a breast stroke and hoped it all came back to him. The water was oddly warm, and the glow beneath the surface hurt his eyes when he tried to look at it. So he focused on the flailing stranger in front of him. How had they got out here? Had they taken to the lake to escape the demons? It made sense on an instinctual level—like how people threw themselves from burning buildings four floors up.
The stranger continued panicking, unaware Kamiyo was trying to save him. If the man didn’t calm down, he’d grab ahold of Kamiyo and drag him under.
Kamiyo concentrated on his breathing, frightened he’d be too tired to make it back to shore, or fight off the stranger if they struggled. He turned into a side paddle and called out. “Hey! Hey, I’m coming to get you. Try to stay calm, okay?”
The stranger spotted Kamiyo, and his eyes flashed like torch beams. Then his mouth opened wide—too wide—and from within came the most awful of sounds. An inhuman screech.
Kamiyo realised he’d swum into a trap—a demon trick. The stranger reached out and grabbed him by the should
ers, pushing him beneath the lake, trying to drown him. The world went dark. Sounds swirled together in an aural blur. Kamiyo fought back, kicking and thrashing until he got his head back above water. Disorientated, he tried to keep an eye on his attacker, but when he looked now all he saw was a man—a drowning, desperate man.
“Help me!” the stranger cried. “Please, help me!”
Kamiyo was seeing things, stress and fear messing with his mind. Reality was a strange beast, and one to be wary of these days, but there was, without a doubt, an ordinary man drowning in front of him. Kamiyo kicked his legs and reached out with both hands, grabbing the exhausted stranger and pulling him towards the shore. He hoped he had enough stamina left to get them there.
14
DR KAMIYO
By the time Kamiyo got to shore, the drowning stranger had lost consciousness. Kamiyo’s training kicked in and he began chest compressions at once. Within ten beats, the young man coughed up a lungful of lake water and breathed on his own. Thank God! Or whoever the Hell is in charge up there.
The next threat was hypothermia. Kamiyo touched the back of his patient’s neck and found it chilly, so he peeled off the young man’s t-shirt and rubbed at his body brusquely with both hands. After a while, he spotted Jackie and called for her help. “I need to go check on anybody else who might be injured,” he told her. “I dragged this young man out of the lake. He’s stable, but he’s cold.”
Jackie studied the half-naked young man uneasily. When Kamiyo asked what was the matter, she told him. “I’ve never seen this man before. What is he doing here?”
“I don’t know.”
“I have a bad feeling, doctor. We’ve been hidden in this forest for months without seeing a soul. Now we’ve got strangers coming out of our ears. First you, now him—in addition to our two action heroes over there.”
Hell On Earth Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 90
