Awakened

by C. Steven Manley

  Stone’s weapon stuttered out three-round bursts with mechanical efficiency, muzzle flashes momentarily lighting up the black and showing Israel his friends’ faces in full color. Erin screamed a profanity as one of the things ran at her and suddenly vanished as she shoved her hand against its face. Israel scanned the street with desperate eyes. The squidheads were moving fast in their direction. It wouldn’t take more than a minute before they were overwhelmed.

  “Stone!” Erin screamed, “we need to leave! We need to leave right fucking now!”

  “No!” Israel shouted. He pushed Erin and Stone against the wall and said, “Stone, give me your lighter.”

  “What?”

  “Lighter, man! No time!”

  “Israel, what are you doing?” Erin said in a voice thick with panic.

  Stone pulled out his lighter and Israel snatched it from his hand. “Erin, keep your eyes straight ahead and up! I’m heading for a rooftop! Look for the light!”

  Stone’s weapon roared again and a body skidded to a dead stop at Israel’s feet.

  Israel stepped over it and ran toward the opposite side of the street. A squidhead rushed in at him screaming but she’d been a petite young woman in life so he just shoved her in the sternum and threw her away from him. She collided with a plate glass window nearly thirty feet away. The glass ruptured into a web of cracks and the squidhead bounced to the sidewalk. By the time it regained its footing, Israel had torn a sleeve from his hoodie, lit the fabric with Stone’s lighter, and was waving it over his head and shouting, “Come and get it! It’s feeding time you ugly bunch of bitches!”

  The tactic worked better than he had hoped. The majority of the monsters that had been running for Erin and Stone veered from their paths and headed toward Israel. He dropped the burning fabric strip and saw at least fifty squidheads rushing at him amid a chorus of furious, hungry screams.

  “Well, shit,” he said, and started running for the tallest building in his path with monsters screaming at his back.

  A squidhead leapt over a car and hit the ground in front of him. It rushed forward, arms extended to try and grapple with him, but Israel hit it at full speed and the thing was knocked backwards into the car it had just vaulted. The impact was hard enough that the thing’s head shattered the driver’s side window and snapped backwards with enough force to break its neck. The monster slid unmoving to the ground.

  Israel didn’t see it. Six of the squidheads had converged in front of him and were coming at him head on. At least ten more were coming from his right and he could only guess how many were behind him. He veered hard to his left and dodged around a group of monsters that were coming around another parked car.

  He heard two gunshots echo through the night and, underneath that, Erin shouting his name.

  Israel turned toward the sidewalk and found what he was looking for. A short distance ahead of him was an old movie theater with a weather-worn marquis mounted on top of a small overhang that completely covered the sidewalk. It was lower than the roof but still higher than the monsters could reach without climbing. The only obstacle was the twenty or so squidheads running toward him from beneath it.

  Another burst from Stone’s weapon echoed through the black.

  Israel sprinted toward the theater and jumped. He sailed up and over the oncoming monsters. He felt fingertips and cold tentacles slap at his shoes as he cleared them, enough so that it threw off his trajectory and he hit the overhang roof and fell forward off-balance. He was on his feet instantly, though, and climbing to the theater’s roof with frantic motions. With a curse, he realized he had dropped Stone’s lighter. It only took a moment for him to see it lying next to the edge of the roof where he’d fallen. He took three quick steps to retrieve it when suddenly two hands and four thin tentacles appeared on the edge of the roof and heaved their owner over the edge like a hideous Jack springing from its box.

  This particular squidhead had been a large man in life and he surged toward Israel with blazing, violet eyes and hideous black lines curling into his mouth and nostrils. He hit him hard enough that Israel was lifted off his feet and skidded to a stop at the far edge of the overhang. He landed face-down and saw dozens of hands and slashing tentacles reaching for him from a pool of faces that were slavering and insane. Stomping feet rushed at him on the overhang and under that he heard another scream from Erin.

  Israel rolled to his back just as a booted foot came down in the spot where his spine had been a moment before. Rather than try to rise, Israel hooked the monster’s ankle with the nearest arm and then half punched, half shoved the creature high on the back of its thigh. The creature flipped forward and fell off the overhang and onto its monstrous cousins below.

  Other hands started to appear on the far edge and Israel scrambled forward and grabbed the lighter, shoving it into his pocket as different squidheads started fighting each other for dominance at the lip of the overhang. Without looking back, Israel climbed onto the theater roof and ran to the adjoining building.

  The theater shared a wall with another building that was a full three stories tall. It was an old brick structure that had large windows at every floor. Wasting no time, Israel went to the wall and jumped as high as he could. He rose into the air and, for just a moment, thought he’d made the jump but suddenly lost his upwards momentum. He grabbed at the edge of the brick rooftop but missed and fell back to the theater roof.

  He landed solidly and managed to keep his footing. Behind him he heard the scrape of claw and boots on the asphalt roof. Without looking, he tensed his legs and leaped again as hisses and shrieks came at his back like a nightmare chorus.

  This time, he snagged the edge of the roof with his fingers and managed to clamper over onto the adjoining building’s rooftop. He spared a moment to glance back down at the theater roof and saw a dozen or more squidheads trying in desperation to follow him, but none of them seemed to be able to make the jump.

  Israel looked across the street as he pulled out the lighter. They were coming at Stone so quickly that he’d abandoned trying to shoot the monsters and was instead just clubbing them with his weapon’s stock as they got close. Erin was slapping at squidheads in a furious frenzy and making them disappear, but there were so many that Israel thought that it would only be seconds before he they’d be completely overrun.

  He ripped the other sleeve from his jacket and lit it, cursing the fabric for burning so slow. Once it was burning, he waved it over his head and screamed, “Erin! Erin, up here!” He kept waving, kept screaming, kept hoping against hope that whatever crazy physics was running this place would let her see the light.

  The monsters that had abandoned chasing him had chosen easier prey and joined the assault on Israel’s friends. One moment he was watching them fight for their lives, the next all he could see was silver and gray squidheads swarming like piranha.

  Israel screamed with a rage he’d never felt before. Suddenly, there was a hard thump from behind him and he whirled, ready to tear whatever had come for him limb from limb.

  Erin and Stone were lying on the rooftop, tangled up in a mix of limbs, torn clothing, and bloodied faces. Erin rolled off of Stone and looked around, eyes wide with panic and angry tears. “Israel?” she said.

  “Here,” he said. “We’re okay for now; you did it.”

  Erin scrambled to her feet and reached out for him. He touched her hand and she grabbed him in a fierce hug before sobbing softly into his chest.

  Below them, in the dark, the monsters raged on.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  “Looks like they don’t have the sense to get up here,” Israel said as he looked back down at the theater roof and the street beyond. There were maybe a hundred squidheads roaming about and occasionally hissing at one another. Israel tingled with the first vestiges of the hunger, like fleshy termites crawling around just beneath his skin. He tried not to notice.

  “They’re vicious,” Stone said, “but not all that bright. Easy enough to avoid if
they aren’t swarming.”

  They were settled on the roof three stories above the street. Erin and Stone had both sat down and were taking a few minutes to compose themselves. Erin had stopped crying and was sitting with her head down and her eyes closed. She seemed angry at herself for the display of emotion and Israel figured she was just trying to get her feelings in order. Stone was as about as expressive as his namesake.

  They were both scratched and battered from the fight. Erin’s clothes were torn and she had a long line of three parallel scratches along one side of her neck. She had lost whatever was holding her hair into a ponytail and it fell in long waves just past her shoulders. Stone was in about the same condition, with two long scratches that ran from his forehead and over his nose. His lower lip was split and had bled into his beard, leaving a dark patch on his chin. Israel tried to ignore the pleasant coppery aroma he was giving off. He turned at stared down the row of rooftops leading west through the town.

  “Can we go now?” Erin asked. “We are literally stumbling around in the dark here. We’re not any good to anybody.”

  “We can’t,” Stone said. “Not until we’re sure it’s too late.”

  “We can’t even see where we’re going, Stone. And we’re surrounded by those damned things.” She gestured toward the street. “In my book that’s a no-profit scenario.”

  “Erin,” Stone said, “I want to thank you.”

  There was a moment of silence while that hung in the dark air. Israel continued staring over the top of the town at the distance. He squinted a little at what he thought he might be seeing there.

  “This should be good,” Erin said. “Thank me for what?”

  “I mean it,” Stone said. “You had every right and reason to disappear on us back down on that street. You could have taken me or just gone yourself in the blink of an eye, but you didn’t. You stayed the line and faced the enemy until what looked to be the bitter end and for that, Erin Simms, you will always have my deepest respect despite any disagreements we may have. That said, though, I need more from you. Every moment we sit here the Progeny are potentially killing another victim, just like they would’ve killed you and Israel, and with every death they grow closer to summoning something that I’m not entirely sure this world is equipped to fight. We’re talking millions of lives at stake here, Erin. Potentially billions. The things that live in the Inner Dark are the literal doom of this planet. They are nightmares made flesh on the scale of a skyscraper. That is why we’re here, Erin. Not for this town or for the poor souls caught in the Progeny’s net, but for this world. I need you to stay the line again, Erin. You are an unexpected and unequaled asset in this fight and could very well be the difference between victory and defeat.”

  Erin took it all in silently. She held that silence for a moment and then groaned, “Screw you, Stone.”

  “What?” Stone said.

  “Screw you. Screw you for that little speech and screw you for making it work. What do we do now? We’re still blind and stuck on a roof.”

  “Maybe not,” Israel said. “Stand up, guys.”

  They did as he asked and he said, “I’m going to grab you by the shoulders and face you in the same direction, so don’t freak out.” Israel gently turned them both in the same westward direction he’d been studying. “Look hard,” he said. “Can you see it?”

  Israel watched as they studied the darkness.

  “I got nothing,” Erin said.

  “Same here,” Stone said.

  Israel cursed softly. “I thought you might see it. Okay, look, this street runs another… hell, I don’t know, a couple of football field lengths, then the buildings end and there’s a big hill. The road curves to the left around the base of the hill but I swear I see a really strange, dim glow coming from the other side of that hill.”

  “You’re certain?” Stone said.

  “Ninety-five percent,” Israel said.

  “Good enough. Now we just need to get there, which is a bit of a problem since the street is off limits.”

  “The fire thing worked,” Erin said. “I mean, I saw it enough to get us up here.”

  “Indeed,” Stone said. “Israel, do you think you can go rooftop to rooftop and guide Erin with the light? Go over a few buildings then signal us and she can follow with me?”

  “I think so. The buildings are all close together and I don’t see any squids on them. It should work.”

  “Don’t get too far ahead, though,” Erin said. “I barely saw the light from the street.”

  Israel nodded. On Stone’s instruction, they spent a minute working out exactly to what side of the light and how far above it Erin would aim for so that they had some consistency to the plan and to make sure that Israel left them an empty space to appear in. Once that was done, he turned and started for the edge of the roof. He was just about to jump down to the next building when Erin said, “Hey, Izzy.”

  “Yeah?” Israel said.

  “Running and jumping across rooftops like this, you sure you don’t want a cape and a mask?”

  “Bite me, Simms,” Israel said as he stepped off and into the dark.

  The plan worked better than Israel had expected. It took them twenty minutes and six teleports but at the end of it they were on top of a two-story building looking at a hill whose base was about fifty feet from the building they were on. Israel could see the glow clearly now and asked his companions if they noticed any difference.

  “Only just,” Stone said. “It’s just a lighter shade of dark. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it light.”

  “Yeah,” Erin said, “I still can’t see it well enough to pull us over there.”

  Israel looked back down the street toward town. In the distance, he could still see the squidheads wandering about. None of them seemed to have made their way to this end of the town yet.

  “Looks like all the squids think we’re still back there,” he said. “There aren’t any I can see below us.”

  “That you can see,” Stone said. “Assume they’re in the places you can’t.”

  “You think they took the whole town?” Erin asked.

  “Likely not,” Stone said. “There’s always a few with the sense and instincts to hole up and hide when the monsters come knocking. Could be some in this very building. The best thing we can do for them is to end this madness.”

  “Okay,” Israel said, “so I guess I make a run for the hilltop and do the fire thing again.”

  “Watch yourself,” Stone said. “Be fast and quiet. If they come at you again, try to get back up to us.”

  Israel gave him a nod and dropped off the roof. It was dirt from that point forward and he made his way across dry soil and rough desert grass as quietly as he could manage. When he reached the top of the hill, he paused for a second and looked out over the scene below before lighting the last strip of his jacket and waving it for Erin to see. As soon as she and Stone were next to him, he dropped it and stomped out the flaming fabric, making sure it was fully extinguished. He watched the town for a full minute, making sure no squidheads had seen them, and then said, “It looks good. I think we’re clear.”

  He joined Erin and Stone. They were staring out from the top of the hill toward a small valley that stretched for what must have been miles to another range of large hills. Immediately below them was an old, three-story, L-shaped structure of some kind with loading docks at the back and tall, brick smokestacks at either end. Light the color of a fresh bruise glowed from every window and lit up the area around the building, bathing the few vehicles that were parked nearby in distorted, unnatural shadows. It was as though the air itself was glowing with the sick light.

  “Are you guys seeing this?” Israel asked.

  “Yeah,” Erin said. “It kind of makes me want to go back into town.”

  Stone was staring with an expression of suppressed panic on his face. “We are well and truly at the sharp end of the spear here, mates. This is very, very bad and I’d be lying if I said anyth
ing else. Whatever is happening down there has to stop and I mean right now.” He ground his teeth together and turned to Israel.

  “You’re with me. We’re going to go down there and see what’s what. Erin, you watch from here. If it looks like things have gone pear-shaped on us, you get back to Silversky and tell Olivia what we’ve seen. Tell her I said to crater this place as soon as humanly possible.”

  “Fuck that,” Erin said, “I’m coming with you. I can help.”

  “No,” Stone snapped, “you’re not. You’re our only means of getting word outside of this place. If you get ambushed or accidentally appear in the path of a bullet or something then we lose that. It’s imperative the rest of Sentry knows what’s happening here.”

  “But-”

  “No,” Stone said, his tone unflinching. “You agreed to follow my orders and this is the one you absolutely must. Give us about half an hour. If you haven’t heard from us by then, do what you have to do.”

  “How about I just go now and come back with some help? Trust me, I’ll remember this fucking place forever.”

  Stone shook his head. “No, we can’t risk it. So far we’ve managed with you making short jumps within the Breach’s sphere of influence, but there’s never been one this big before. It nearly wiped out every instrument on Black’s plane and as near as I can tell nothing electrical is functioning inside this blackness, not to mention the whole lighting issue. There’s no guarantee that you could get back into this mess once you’re out, assuming you can get out at all. We just don’t know enough about how all of this or your power works. If we can shut this down ourselves, we need to, but if we can’t, Olivia will have to involve the military and that will level everything around us including whatever survivors are back in that town. Please, Erin, just do as I say. Thirty minutes, then make your move.”

  “Well, how am I supposed to time thirty minutes?”

  “Count to five thousand slowly,” Israel said. “Won’t be exact, but it should get you in the ballpark.”