Awakened

by C. Steven Manley

  Israel surged forward as fast as he could and leapt into the air. He caught Stone ten feet off the floor and with enough momentum to carry them both through one of the large windows that lined the building. What little glass there was shattered around them as the aged frame collapsed under their combined weight and exploded into the desert night.

  Israel twisted in mid-air and managed to take most of the impact when they hit the ground. He moved at a panicked pace, checking Stone for a pulse and checking his wounds.

  Blood soaked the front of his shirt. The scent of it lit a fuse in Israel and he mentally recoiled at the sudden urge he felt to taste the crimson fluid. He clamped down on his impulses and focused on his fingers at Stone’s neck. There was a pulse there, but it wasn’t a strong one.

  He put one arm under Stone’s back and the other under his knees, lifting him easily. He ran around the side of the building toward the SUVs they’d taken cover behind earlier. He knew Erin could see them from here and he shouted her name.

  “I’m here,” she said from behind him.

  He turned to her and saw her take a hesitant step away from him. “Holy shit,” she said.

  “The Screeds ambushed us. Stone’s been shot,” Israel said, his voice thick.

  “Okay, I see that, but, Izzy, you don’t look good, man. You’re freaking me out.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” he said as he placed Stone on the ground.

  The injured man was muttering something through blood flecked lips. “I am Thur’lyn Thrane, Stonecaller of House Ironbrow, and I will not yield,” he whispered. “I am Thur’lyn Thrane, Stonecaller of House Ironbrow and I will not yield. I am-”

  “What the hell is that?” Erin said.

  “A mantra. Look, you need to get him back to Silversky. He’s in a bad way, Erin.”

  “I get that, but what if he was right? What if I can’t get back? You’ll be out here alone.”

  Israel shook his head. He could smell them both now, a savory musk under the metallic tang of fresh blood. “If you can’t get back, you tell Olivia to do whatever she has to do. We can’t let this go down without a fight.”

  Erin nodded. “Okay, but I’m taking him back to Carter. He can help him.”

  “Why?” Israel snapped, an unintentional growl coming into his voice.

  “Because distance matters!” Erin said, her intensity a match for his. “The farther I go, the harder it is. It might make a difference when I try to come back.”

  Israel tightened his jaw against the hunger and nodded. “Just go. He’s going to die.”

  “What about you?”

  Israel turned his glare back toward the old meat packing plant. “I’m going to go end this shit.”

  When he looked back, Erin and Stone were gone.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Lights blinded Erin when she reappeared on the tarmac outside the Desert Magic hangar. Wind roared around her and there was the coughing sound of an engine sputtering to a stop and rubber tires screeching along concrete. The plane they’d appeared in front of stopped well short of hitting them, but it was still close enough that Erin let out a short scream of surprise.

  When she realized whose plane it was and that it wasn’t going to inadvertently kill her, she started pressing on the wounds in Stone’s chest. She didn’t know whether or not it was the right thing to do, but she’d seen it in movies and on television hundreds of times.

  It wasn’t long before the hatch on the plane popped open and Carter Black emerged, his face contorted in confusion and anger. “Where the hell did you come from?” he said. “I just dropped you-” He saw Stone on the ground and his face immediately relaxed into controlled focus. He rushed forward to help Erin. “What the hell happened?”

  “He got shot. I brought him back here for help.”

  “You brought…?”

  “Later,” Erin said. “We need an ambulance, Carter.”

  Carter nodded and pulled his phone from his pocket. He spoke quickly into the phone and a few seconds later doors opened in the hangar and three men came running in their direction.

  “My guys are all ex-military,” he said. “One of them was a medic. He can help until the ambulance gets here.”

  The three men came running up and gently pushed Erin to the side. One of them carried a large orange and white toolbox that opened to reveal a professional-looking first aid kit. Carter helped Erin to her feet and they walked a short distance away.

  “Okay,” Carter said, “I dropped you guys off less than three hours ago and as soon I get back here I find this. I know Sentry gets into some weird stuff, but what the hell is happening here?”

  “Have you talked to Warburton?” Erin asked.

  “Yeah, I contacted her as soon as I was in clear airspace.”

  “What did she tell you?”

  “I think it amounted to ‘Thanks for calling.’”

  “Yeah, typical. Would you mind calling her back? I don’t know the number.”

  Carter hesitated, shook his head, and then pulled out his phone. He tapped a button on the screen and the sound of a phone ringing came over the speaker. As soon as Warburton answered, Erin started talking. She filled her in on everything that had happened since Carter had dropped them off in the desert. Erin saw his eyes widen when she mentioned teleporting them through Leticia.

  “What’s Israel’s condition?” Warburton said in even tones.

  “He’s a little beat up and looks… hungry… but he’s still with us,” Erin said.

  “And the Breach?”

  Erin shook her head. “We didn’t actually see it, but Stone was freaked the hell out about it. Whatever it is, it’s happening now and it’s happening fast.”

  “I’ve been in touch with the DGRI. They wanted more intelligence before taking any kind of decisive action. I think you just provided it. Erin, you need to get back and get Israel and yourself out of there. If the military takes over with the time left to us they will have no choice but to fire rockets into that area to close the Breach.”

  “Will that work?” Erin asked

  “No,” Carter said. “Olivia, they can’t do that.”

  “They are the government, Mr. Black. I promise you they can.”

  “No,” Carter said, “I don’t mean they can’t get away with it. I mean they literally can’t do that. Didn’t you hear Erin when she said that nothing electrical was working? The way she’s talking, light isn’t even behaving correctly. I was more than a hard mile away from the town when my instruments started screwing up.”

  “And every asset the military has at the ready is electrically-based,” Warburton said. “Good god. It could take hours for them to come up with some kind of mechanical response, assuming they even can.”

  “Olivia, it sounds like the Inner Dark is bleeding into our reality and altering or overwriting it. When has this ever happened before? How do we close that?”

  There was silence for a long moment. Then, Olivia said, “Stand by.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Erin said in disgust. Red and blue lights washed over them in rotating waves as an ambulance pulled up next to Stone and the trio of Carter’s men.

  “How do they normally close one of these things?” Erin said to Carter. “A normal sized one?”

  Carter shook his head. “I only ever dealt with the one that Awakened me. The thing is, Breach points begin with a focus, something that is empowered with the kind energy you need for the job. It can be large or small. Just something that can provide even the smallest conduit to the Inner Dark. Even a suitably powerful Awakened would work.”

  “Okay, okay, get to the closing the hole part.”

  “Well, that’s just it. You start with the tiny conduit and add more power to it by whatever means and it gets bigger. The theory is that eventually the Breach will get big enough to draw its own power from the Inner Dark and become self-sustaining. At that point, it can’t be closed.”

  “So, if you want to close it you have to do i
t before it gets too big.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And you do that by breaking whatever it was that started it in the first place.”

  “The focus. Yeah. Back in Sentry, we used explosives or incendiaries depending on what we needed to destroy. If the Texas Breach hasn’t reached the point of no return then there’s a focus point that can shut it down but I’ve got to be honest, Erin: As big as that thing is, I think we need to plan for the worst.”

  Erin cursed and turned away from the ambulance lights flashing in her face. She looked out over the runways and the city lights in the near distance. Nearby, she could see a plane being loaded and refueled by men and women in bright orange safety vests.

  She took in the scene and said to Carter, “Hey, when you were with Sentry, did they teach you how to blow shit up?”

  Carter walked over and joined her. He followed her line of sight. When he realized what she was looking at, he said, “You can do that?”

  She shrugged. “I’m damn sure gonna find out.”

  Carter considered it and then nodded. “Yeah, I think I can rig something.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Israel ached with hunger. He tried to ignore it as he made his way through the sickly light of the abandoned meat packing plant but it kept snatching his attention. Fortunately, there weren’t many sources of nourishment nearby even though he could catch the occasional scent, however faint, that made him shiver with need. When he found the door Jordan had pointed out he entered it and descended a dark stairwell that opened up into a large basement walled in brick and supported by thick, brick columns.

  The light was stronger here, but seemed more a luminous mist than any kind of real light Israel had ever seen. He watched it swirl and flow around him as he moved his hands. Then, he realized it was in motion, flowing very slowly up the stairs and into the world beyond like bright smoke in a vent.

  Israel realized he was letting his curiosity distract him and turned his attention to his surroundings. The basement had obviously been the site of some kind of construction. There were many lights and generators, now dark and cold, scattered through the space, and tools of all sorts leaning against the walls and resting in toolboxes of various designs. The wall just opposite the door had been demolished and Israel could see a natural cavern winding away beyond the opening. The mist-light was flowing from that direction. He was moving toward it when the squidheads attacked.

  The first one dropped from the tunnel ceiling and rebounded off the floor like some kind of huge, jumping insect. It hit Israel at chest height and wrapped its arms around him in a bear hug. Israel managed to keep his feet under the weight and flinched away from the snapping teeth and grasping tentacles coming at his throat.

  He heaved his arms away from his body and managed to break the thing’s grip. He shoved it hard and it slid backwards across the floor and into a collection of freestanding work lights that clattered to the floor with the monster.

  A second squidhead charged at him from behind, knocked him off-balance, and sent him staggering forward. Israel’s foot caught on a bucket filled with demolition tools and he pitched forward into hard dirt. He knew the squidhead would be right behind him so he rolled fast to his back as soon as he hit and brought his legs up to kick out at the thing. The timing was perfect. The monster had jumped for the prone Israel and landed on the bottoms of his feet, clawing and snapping at his face and throat. Israel kicked out hard with both legs and the creature sailed backwards and into one of the heavy brick columns. Its head cracked hard against the stone and it slumped to the ground, twitching.

  Israel got one knee under him and knelt there as he watched the first squidhead finish untangling itself from the lights it had collided with. It kicked away one of the lights and stalked toward Israel like a hissing, violet-eyed cat. A third monster came forward from the deeper parts of the basement and joined its hissing with the first’s. They stood tensed and ready to spring.

  Israel stayed very still, thinking through the scenario while he had the chance. His eyes fell on the bucket he’d tripped over. Its contents were scattered across the ground and there, just within his reach, was a heavy, steel crowbar. Israel looked up at the monsters that were stalking him. They looked like they had been blue collar working men in life, likely two of the people who’d demolished this basement. That’s not who they were anymore, though. They were something else now, something horrible, and Israel realized he had to start thinking of them in those terms.

  Mind set, teeth clenched, Israel grabbed the crowbar and sprinted forward.

  The squidhead that had gotten tangled in the lights was closest and met his charge with arms wide to grapple him. Israel sidestepped the monster’s grip and swung the crowbar in a backhanded arc that landed solidly on the back of the creature’s skull. With Israel’s enhanced strength, the bone and tissue collapsed under the blow until the crowbar was touching the back of the thing’s ear. Tentacles and limbs both went limp as the thing died and Israel wrenched his weapon free with a spray of blood and gore.

  The third- and Israel really hoped last -squidhead ran toward him with the same wild, teeth snapping abandon as the others had. He met the thing’s charge and cleaved in its head before it even had a chance to grab him. He stood there for moment, looking around at the dead monsters and the gore-slick crowbar in his hand.

  He expected the hunger to rage at him, urge him to feed, but instead he was repulsed. The scent of these things was wrong, unnatural, and diseased. He remembered Olivia calling them Corrupted and thought that was probably a more accurate name than the one he’d been using.

  Still, though, the full-body ache was there, clawing at his reason and threatening to overwhelm it. Israel stood in silence and refocused himself on what he was there to do, what was at stake, and what could happen if he failed. Hunger did not matter. He did not matter.

  He made those words his new mantra and entered the tunnel.

  He was still reciting it when he found the end of the tunnel and the chamber that it opened into. He clenched his teeth against the overpowering scent of blood that permeated the air and made his jaw quiver with the urge to feed. Israel walked with controlled and deliberate movements to the ledge that overlooked the chamber.

  The terraced sides of the bowl-shaped chamber were covered in blood. It ran freely from the bodies that circled the room and spiraled down to the center where another body floated above a stone table with the sickly light pouring from a gaping wound in its chest and abdomen. The light coalesced into a kind of black, glowing disk that filled the top of the chamber. From that disk, hundreds of writhing and sliding tentacles swayed in lazy arcs through the room as though tasting the dank air.

  Israel heard the sound of steel thudding into stone and looked toward the sound. There, across the chamber on the third tier up from the bottom, was a pale skinned man dressed in pure black. Israel hadn’t noticed him before or he would’ve tried to stop him from shoving the dagger into the man he was standing over. With one swift motion, the man in black dragged the dagger through his victim’s torso and raised his hands in a wide arc to the ceiling.

  “Is it not glorious, Mr. Trent? Is it not all that was promised? Power and darkness and the blood of the weak.”

  Israel watched as a thick line of black mist rolled from the body and trailed up into the center corpse. It was just as Jordan Screed had described; at least he’d been honest about that.

  “Do I know you?” Israel said through clenched teeth. The blood smelled so damn good.

  “No, but I know you. I know so many people. All of those here, all of those before these. You and the Simms woman, though- you were the only two who got away. My great masters did not choose to show me that. I’m curious as to why and what plans they have for you.”

  Despite his mental struggle, Israel half- smiled. “I don’t really do the whole ‘master’ thing.”

  “What you do is irrelevant. They are the glory. They are the power. Their will is all.”<
br />
  “Right. That’s why you had to commit mass murder in order to open the door for them. I guess their will and power doesn’t extend to doorknobs.”

  “Do not blaspheme, boy!” the man shouted. “We must show our faith! We must show our dedication! The blood of the innocent and the powerful are the balm which will ease their rebirth into this world! It is the color of their glory and the sea in which they will swim!”

  “Rebirth?” Israel said. “Then what are you? The world’s most screwed up mid-wife?”

  “I am their Seer! I am their High Priest and the architect of their glory and renewal! I will sit at the left hand of their throne and enact their will upon the weak, unawakened maggots who crawl this earth!”

  Israel looked up at the writhing mass stretching through the disk of light and said, “You’re going to need a big-ass throne for that.”

  The Seer shook his head in disbelief. “How can you stand there and look upon the glory of the Old Ones and still mock them? Look at it, Israel! Look at the immensity and power that they are!”

  Israel actually took a moment and looked into the mass of sliding and curling black that was caressing the ceiling and swaying in the air. He looked deeper- toward the center of the mass -and, just for an instant as two appendages slid away from one another, thought he saw the deep black of outer space. He shifted his gaze back to The Seer, to his rapturous expression and his blood-caked face. A smile crossed the High Priest’s lips as one small tentacle came down and lightly caressed the man’s brow. Tears of joy formed in the man’s eyes and rolled pale streaks through the blood on his cheeks. Israel took a few steps back from the edge.

  “All I see is a monster,” he said, “and I’m not talking about the giant squid.”

  Israel sprinted forward and jumped from the ledge as hard as he could. He flew through the air in a perfect trajectory for The Seer with the crowbar held behind him readied for a blow that would shatter the man’s skull like it was an eggshell. Israel was a little over halfway across the chamber when The Seer flicked his wrist and one of the tentacles slapped Israel aside as though he were little more than an annoying insect.