Vamps swiped a lethal claw through the air, aiming for Aymun’s exposed neck.
Aymun sprung aside and thumped Vamps in the ribs, then rolled away quickly. A long blade jutted out of Vamp’s chest, left there by Amun. “Now!” He yelled at them all. “The beast is wounded. Attack him.”
Kamiyo didn’t know what he could do with two broken hands, so he got involved by roaring at the others to attack. Frank struck Vamps in the back of the head so hard with his sword staff that it bent. Nathan buried another arrow in Vamp’s chest. Jackie and Philip stabbed at his mid-section with sharp sticks. Vamps leaked blood from a dozen places. He thrashed and grew weaker.
The heavens opened, and the rain came down in buckets.
Frank leapt into the air and walloped the bent sword into the back of Vamps’ neck. “Boing boing, you shit-faced dingle.”
Vamps fell forward onto his hands. Aymun stepped forward and pulled the knife out of his side, holding it to the monster’s throat. “Vamps, my friend, if you are in there… my soul weeps for you. You were a warrior until the end. May God shelter you for eternity.”
Vamps leapt up and seized the knife before it had the chance to cut his throat. He twisted it until Aymun had no choice but to let go or see his arm broken. He gasped, taken by surprise, and this time he lost his footing for real, tumbling backwards nearly onto his back. Vamps gnashed his filthy, crooked teeth, and raised the blade in his trembling, blood-soaked hand. Everyone stopped what they were doing, too fearful to move, waiting for what the beast would do next.
Vamps tossed the blade into the wet grass and fled into the forest. Frank gave chase, but was too slow, so he resigned himself to shouting obscenities at the trees.
Aymun clambered to his feet. He brushed off his clothes. “We must prepare. The Red Lord will return, and not alone. He has taken my friend’s body and will use it to assemble an army. An army designed to wipe out whatever people are still alive in this world. That cannot be allowed to happen.”
Frank put his hands on his waist. “Yow don’t ‘afta tell me twice, kidda.”
“I’m sorry,” said Aymun. “I didn’t catch that.”
“I said yow am right, kidda.”
Aymun frowned.
Kamiyo’s heart was beating so fast he worried he might pass out, but he couldn’t take his eyes of the stranger. “H-How did you manage to injure him? Everything we tried before you came…”
“He is bound by my friend’s human body. While the Red Lord is immensely powerful, he is still a prisoner to the flesh. Injure his vessel’s brain or heart and it will take him longer to recover. I thought we had him, but he is resilient.”
“Who is he?” asked Kamiyo. “I know he’s The Red Lord—whatever that is—but what the Hell are we up against here?”
Aymun watched the tree line for a moment, then seemed confident enough to address them further. “The Red Lord is a being so powerful that God imprisoned him mere moments after he was formed. The Red Lord’s true name is Crimolok. He is the 3rd angel, created after Michael and Lucifer. Crimolok was God’s first and only mistake; a perversion of everything he intended to create.”
Philip put a hand against his forehead and pushed back his rain-soaked hair. “Why can’t the end of the world just be simple? Airborne Ebola virus, a meteor… something like that.”
Aymun didn’t seem to understand Philip’s words, so he continued with his own. “Of the First Three, Michael was good and pure, created to serve and obey. Lucifer was strong and proud, created to honour and lead. Crimolok, however, was impulsive and emotional, created to create. He was supposed to tend to God’s creations, as infinitely wise and as vastly knowing as God himself. But one god can never willingly serve another, so Crimolok sought to destroy his creator so he might become the new maker of worlds. He believes his own Garden of Eden would be superior and will not stop until he sees it born.”
“So, he’s a dangerous shite then?” said Frank glumly. The rain pouring down his face made him look utterly miserable. “Jesus wept.”
“And still does to this day,” said Aymun. “Tonight, we faced not just our enemy, but the enemy of all existence. These are the end of days, my friends. The Red Lord shall return. And soon.”
Kamiyo looked at Hannah and sighed. “Cheery fellow you brought us.”
Hannah seemed worried. “It’s not just the Red Lord we have to worry about though,” she told them. “When I learned you all might be in danger, I had to make a choice. I let a demon escape. The one I wounded in the attack two weeks ago. It’s still on the loose. It still might lead others here.”
“So, this is it.” Philip was shaking his head. “We’re doomed.”
“Not yet,” said Aymun. “But probably very soon.”
30
CALIGULA
It had been several days since Caligula tasted human flesh. This air was dry, filled only with the stench of his own damned troops. A vast army had assembled with no enemy to fight. His scouts had come up empty-handed every time they'd set out to find human survivors. It appeared he had done too good a job of scouring these lands. His glory had peaked and was now in decline.
Rome is only Rome when it conquers.
Two-thousand demons formed ranks in the fields where they had made their camp, set to the task of building earthworks and fortifications, if only to have something to do—a Roman camp built by monsters. Monsters who were acting too human for Caligula's liking. Now and then, he caught them staring into space, mouths moving as they tried to form words. Some demons could talk well, but most did not attempt it. Until recently. He had even found one of his creatures fumbling with a pile of red and black cards, trying to shuffle them into random order. What was happening to them? Why was the stink of humanity upon his troops?
He needed to give them something to kill. A reason to be monsters.
“Rux!” he bellowed. “Present yourself at once!”
The battered slave hobbled before Caligula, broken bones grinding with every agonised step. He had almost killed the pathetic Gaul during the last beating but was glad he had not gone so far. Having a pet to kick around pleased him.
“I-Imperator, how may I serve?”
“By telling me we have found humans to slaughter.”
Rux trembled and failed to make eye-contact. “I-I fear it is not so, Imperator. The scouts have all returned without news. It is possible that no humans remain in these lands, such is the completeness of your conquest.”
Enraged to hear news he did not want, Caligula raised his fist, but before he could strike Rux, he was interrupted. One of his Germanic guards raced towards him with a bedraggled demon trotting behind. “Imperator,” he shouted. “I bring you auspicious news.”
“What is it? Speak quickly!”
“A casualty returns to us, wounded during a recent battle with humans.”
Caligula felt his sinewy eyelids rise of their own accord. He studied the burnt husk of a creature standing behind the guard. “You know the location of humans? Where?”
The demon nodded, drool hanging from his charred lips that were trying their best to form a smile. “Yes, yes, David knows. David knows. Humans live like bears. Bears in woods.”
Caligula snarled. This creature had named itself David, suffering the same ill-effects of whatever was happening to his troops. “Speak plainly or lose your tongue, creature.”
The demon cowered, a festering wound on its upper chest opening and closing. “David apologises. I…” He stopped to concentrate on what he said next. “David see many humans in woods. In forest. Many. The forest is near. People within. Near. Many. David knows.”
Caligula couldn’t help but grin. This was the Intel he'd been starving for. “So, there's a camp somewhere in the forest? Most excellent. Guard! Take our dutiful messenger to get cleaned up. Tomorrow, he leads us to new glorious battles. Tell the troops they shall feast on human flesh once again.”
The guard placed a fist over his chest in respect and then raced to carry
out his general’s orders.
Caligula smiled. Tomorrow would bring blood. Finally.
31
DR KAMIYO
They retreated to the castle under the starry night sky, barricading the sally port and posting teenage guards on the wall. Panic erupted when people learned Vamps, or the creature wearing him, was somewhere in the forest, and that the wounded demon had fled to a nearby village.
Kamiyo sat on the brick surrounds of an ancient well and hung his head in despair. The rain fell heavy, matching his mood. The hope of saving this place slipped away, and he now felt the same thrumming dread he used to feel on the road—only this was worse. Instead of fearing his own death, he now feared the death of three-dozen children.
With Eric’s death, the number of familiar adults dwindled, which caused the children obvious distress. They huddled together around the remaining grown-ups, but kept their distance from Aymun. Nobody knew the man enough to trust him.
This is my fault. I should never have been so careless with Vamps. My eagerness to actually heal someone blinded me to the danger. I thought Vamps was better. He seemed fine.
Kamiyo had risked the entire camp.
Hannah shuffled over to him, stepping out of the light of the campfire and entering the rain-soaked shadows. “Hey, Doc. I brought something for your wounds.”
Kamiyo almost asked what she meant, then remembered Vamps had crushed his hands. The pain was so constant it had become the new baseline of how he felt. Agony was normal now. “You found supplies out there on the road?”
She handed him a packet of pills. “Ibuprofen was the strongest I could find, but we have plenty of antiseptics and dressings.”
“Thank you. It should help. I’m not sure how bad the damage is yet; my hands have swelled too much to assess.”
Hannah took his hands and examined them gently. “Wow! Regan really did a number on you.”
“Regan?”
She smiled. “Yeah, you know, the girl from the Exorcist. She was possessed by a demon too.”
Kamiyo chuckled. “You’re a film geek?”
“Not much to do on a base in peacetime but watch movies.”
“Well, the demon in the Exorcist was named Pazuzu. Regan was the innocent girl, so your analogy doesn’t work.”
“Well, whatever, you were lucky to survive.”
“It was toying me.” Kamiyo thought back. “Whatever’s inside Vamps is smarter than the other demons.”
“The big bad from what I’ve heard. The Red Lord.”
Kamiyo nodded. Every time he had been alone with the Red Lord, he’d felt a soul-consuming fear. The Red Lord was a creature no human was ever supposed to encounter, one of the universe’s vile secrets. “It wants us all dead. It’ll be back.”
Hannah lay Kamiyo’s hands palm-up on his knees and wrapped them in fresh bandages. She had a surprisingly delicate touch for a soldier. “We’ll face what comes when it comes,” she said. “What else can we do but that?”
“You lost your rifle.”
“I know. I could cry. That bastard threw it into the sky like a frisbee. I might try to find it in the daylight, but it was running low on ammo, anyway. Time I learned to rely on something else.”
“Plenty of bow and arrows.”
“Yeah. Suppose I could be a little less GI Jane and a bit more Lara Croft.”
“I can see you pulling that off.” Kamiyo grinned a little leeringly and hoped it didn’t offend. His social manners were a little rusty.
Hannah laughed, but didn’t seem to mind his leer. “Don’t get too excited, I bat for the other side.”
“Oh!”
She laughed again. “Yeah, well, maybe I’ll have to change my preferences, because Jackie is the only other woman in the world as far as I know, and I think she might have a thing for Ted.”
Kamiyo cackled, forgetting his pain for a moment. “You’re kidding me?”
“Nope. She lights up around him. I think I saw him crack a smile the other day too, which is saying something.”
“Wow, I suppose love never dies. Anyway, Jackie isn’t the only woman. There’s Carol. She’s stopped coughing up phlegm now by the looks of things.”
Hannah pulled a face and whispered. “She’s a bit too old. Plus, I don’t think there’s a lot going on upstairs.”
“Beggars can’t be choosers.”
“I ain’t begging yet, Doc. I have to believe that, somehow, out there in the world, is another lesbian. One day, I’ll go out there and find her.”
“That’s beautiful,” said Kamiyo, beaming. “And one day I’m going to find an Amazon warehouse and rip open every box I find until I have all the fun stuff.”
Hannah frowned. “Like what?”
He shrugged. “I dunno. Drones? Comic books? Figurines.”
“Wow, you’re still a wee ben, ain’t you?”
Kamiyo blushed. “I never got to be a child when I was actually supposed to be one. I’d just like to try it on for size, and forget all the horror, you know? I had strict parents, and they decided I would be a doctor before I was even born.”
Hannah had finished wrapping his hands, so she took a seat on the well beside him. “It’s not what you would have chosen for yourself?”
“I don’t know. Maybe if it wasn’t thrust upon me, I might have been more passionate about medicine. When I was a kid, I remember wanting to be a comic book artist. I wanted to create superheroes and monsters.” He laughed to himself. “I suppose at the time I was trying to create friends and family to keep me company. I used to draw myself alongside all the crime fighting giants. My parents used to think I was doing homework, but I would hide my pad behind a textbook.”
“Sounds sad, pet.”
Kamiyo nodded, then pointed up at a pair of teenagers standing on the castle’s rear wall. “I still had it better than these kids do.”
Hannah glanced at the shifting shadows of the children. “Puts things into perspective, don’t it? Maybe one day, you’ll get to draw your comics again for these kids to enjoy. Hell, I enjoy a bit of Wonder Woman myself. You seen the jugs on that chick?”
Kamiyo smiled. “Can’t say I have, but I’ll keep an eye out next time I’m in a book shop. Thanks, Hannah. For looking after my hands and chatting.”
“Don’t mention it. You might have grown up a lonely kid, but you’re surrounded by family now. We’re all in this together.”
That thought filled him with dread. “Things are going to turn nasty.”
“Survival always does. These kids will get through it though. Kids have been enduring horrors since the moment mankind chucked its first spear. We need to show them that horror isn’t all there is. The monsters will come, and we’ll fight them, but it’s what we teach them afterwards that will matter most.”
“You’re right. I… need to be more than just a doctor. I used to be a person.”
“You still are. You’re the same comic book loving geek you’ve always been. Now try to get some sleep. Nothing more we can do tonight.”
Kamiyo got up from the well and ached his back. He felt a hundred years old. “Let’s hope our enemy sleeps too. If not, we’re in for a tiring fight.”
“You’re a real downer, you know that?”
“Yes. Yes, I do. Goodnight, Hannah.”
“Good night, Doc.”
32
TED
Ted slept poorly, and sometime before the sun rose, he gave up trying and left his tent to start work. As much as he still felt the pull of leaving, he had to admit that putting his skills to use was the most content he’d felt since the world ended. He was a simple builder again, starting at dawn and finishing when his body ached too much to go on. It was the first thing that made sense in a long time.
Today, he planned to begin his most ambitious project yet. Something that might help them when the enemy came to their gates. He had everything he needed, the thick trunk of an ash tree Frank’s team had felled, and a collection of recurve bows that had once been used t
o teach archery by the lake. The idea in his head was fuzzy, but he hoped it would clear up as he got to work. Once the others in the camp awoke, he would set them to digging a trench in front of the main gate, then shaping pikes to place along the main approach.
He worked in solitude for around an hour, fighting off the dewy morning chill with physical exertion. The world was silent and peaceful, the only sounds, other than fitful snores from the tents, came from the birds nestled in the forest. Their dawn arias were unchanged, the world no different for them than it had ever been. Whoever won the war between humanity and demons was of no import. Or perhaps they would welcome the end to the animal that had raped and stolen the land for so many thousands of years.
Once the snoring within the tents changed to the clearing of throats, Ted knew his solitude was at an end. The camp would soon erupt into life.
No longer needing to be quiet, Ted set about sawing the ash trunk into sections. He would need to find a way to plane them down into long poles once he was done, and it would be an arduous task whatever method he decided on.
Frank awoke first, scrambling out of his tent like a zombie. He nodded to Ted and exchanged a few words, then headed into the castle like he did every morning. The hearth would need lighting, and as Frank was not a morning person, he enjoyed getting right to work instead of chatting.
Others awoke within the following ten minutes, with the teenagers naturally being the ones refusing to rise until the last possible minute.
Jackie slept in the castle with most of the children, and she approached Ted now with a cup of tea. “We’re running out of tea bags,” she said. “So enjoy it.”
Ted nodded. A hot cuppa each morning was one of the few pleasures left in life, but everyone knew the cabin’s small canteen had possessed a finite supply. They’d already begun rotating green tea and earl grey in with the breakfast tea, and that swill was as disgusting as it had ever been.
Hell On Earth Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 100
