by Michael Todd
Katie spoke fiercely. “Listen to me. If we fight beside you, celebrate with you, and cry next to you, then you are one of us. We don’t discriminate, and we have all gone out of our way to leave your past in the past. We have all stepped up and started looking at you for what you do now, not what you did yesterday. That is how our team works. We all have secrets or pasts, but none of that matters here.”
Juntto nodded. “Thank you.”
Katie waited for a moment before she spoke again. “However, we are about to go to hell again to pay them back for all of this.” Juntto perked up, but Katie put her hand up. “I’m not sure you should come.”
Juntto was taken aback. “What? Not come? That is why I was brought here. I am just as good a fighter as anyone else, and I can withstand hell better than even you. I am perfect to go in there. I can put myself in the most dangerous situations and spare your human and infected lives. I don’t understand.”
Katie shook her head. “It’s not because you can’t fight or that you aren’t an asset. It will hurt me not to take you in. I’m just not sure you will break off when I tell you to. I need to bring everyone back, and that includes you. We don’t leave our men behind, but at the same time, if you take matters into your own hands and run off chasing demons, I can’t afford to sacrifice others’ lives to find you.”
Juntto ran his hand through his white hair, stunned. “I don’t even know what to say, Katie. I have done nothing but what I’ve been told from the beginning. You think death scares me? You think that standing in that field, I chose to join you because I didn’t want to die? Death is the next great adventure. Today, standing in that backyard, I looked at a pool full of dead bodies. On top was a young man who reminded me very much of me, except he was dead and no longer able to be a Viking hero. That was why I lost it.”
Katie went to say something, but Juntto shut her down.
“I joke, and I have fun killing demons because it feels good to show them pain. But more than that, in every dead body on this street, I see my team’s faces. I am the only one here who is, well, like me. Except for Pandora, but she is a demon. I believe in what we are doing, and if I can have one more swing at those bastards for what they did to this town, I want it. I want to stick it to them where they stuck it to me. Where they stuck it to all of these people. I want to stand with the humans as a willing ally. I was not tricked into this. My honor should not be questioned.”
Katie looked him in the eye and could see that he meant everything he was saying. Finally, she nodded. “Okay. You can go. Not because I’m telling you to, but because you want to.”
Juntto smiled and pulled Katie into an awkward hug. “You won’t regret it. I’m going to fuck them up like a twelve-year-old playing Fortnite.”
22
A few hours later they were on their flight to the base in Colorado, where they would be opening the portal. Katie talked to Angie on the phone. “I know you wanted to fight more, but you have done your duty. Besides, you have one of those frail little human bodies, and it needs rest.”
They both laughed, and Angie conceded. “Okay, I’ll hold down the fort back here. Tell everyone good luck, and tell Juntto I’ll get his Halo rank up.”
Katie smiled. “I’ll tell him. Watch for our videos, and I’ll see you in a couple of days.”
The flight was strangely quiet. Everyone was silent, absolutely exhausted from the fight and the cleanup. Katie was not sure if she had dozed when the plane touched down. The lights on the side of the runway flickered as they sped by and the plane slowed and curled around, coming to a stop.
They unloaded their gear and headed to the hangar. Katie called to them as they walked away, “Get a good night’s sleep. You’re going to need it.”
Pandora cleared her throat for attention. I know you got all this shit coming in on planes, but you need to get your rest too. Going down to hell is hard on both of us, so I need you at one hundred percent. The people here will take care of the loadouts.
Katie didn’t want to leave. She needed to supervise the men loading and unloading the shipments. She yawned, feeling Pandora reducing her energy levels.
I’m serious. Get your fine ass to bed.
Tricky bitch.
Night-night, girl.
She made her way to her room and plopped down on the springy mattress, but instead of complaining, she curled into a ball and fell asleep.
The moonlight shone through her window as Katie drifted through a dream world. She dreamed about her past, long before she was Damned.
She dreamed about the fight, and about the future where humans were free from demonization.
Her next dream took her off-guard. She found herself standing in a dark room, but she couldn’t see the walls or floor. Standing in front of her was the little girl with the bright blue eyes.
Katie leaned down and stuck out her hand. “Come on. I can get you somewhere safe.”
The little girl just stood there staring at her. Katie slowly stood back up and wrapped her hands around her shoulders as an icy chill went through the room. She looked at the little girl and jumped. Blood was running down her neck, and the girl’s eyes had turned black. The little girl put her hand out. “You can’t help me. You are Damned, and you will damn everyone you care about.”
The girl flew back into the dark and Katie screamed, running after her. She slammed into the wall and stumbled back, shaking her head. All around her a white mist floated. She held up her hands and found them dripping with blood. She screamed, but no one could hear her.
Katie sat up in the bed breathing heavily. Someone was pounding on her door. She threw her covers off and opened the door. Calvin and Brock stood there with their guns out. They rushed into the room, ready for anything, but they found nothing. Calvin lowered his weapon. “We heard screaming. What is going on?”
Katie looked down at her hands. They were perfectly clean. There was no trace of the blood from her dream. “I had a dream. A really bad one, I guess. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to freak you out.”
Juntto was standing behind them chewing on a toothpick, unworried. “I told them you were fine. Pandora kicks nuts all day long. But no, they had to be your rescuers.”
Calvin scoffed. “You ran faster than the rest of us.”
Juntto waved his hands and headed for the hangar. “Come on, there are donuts.”
Pandora perked up. Fuck, yes. Exactly what I need to get that demon child out of my mind. Seriously, your brain is freaky sometimes.
Katie locked eyes with Brock and shook her head. He nodded. She waved to Calvin. “I’ll be out in a second.”
Katie geared up and headed out to the hangar, where she grabbed a couple of donuts to shut Pandora up. Lined up behind the donuts was a shitload of ammunition for the big day. Everyone stood around the donuts talking, eating, and drinking coffee. When everyone was done, Katie jumped up on one of the large pallets of ammo and put her hands up to get everyone’s attention.
Calvin and the others, including the twenty troops and the people who worked at the base, gathered around. Katie chuckled and looked at the crowd. “I’ve always hated making speeches, but I figured this one was important. Yesterday we walked through the final resting place of two thousand, three hundred and eleven souls. We battled their attackers, but we were too late for them. Today we are going to hell itself and we’re going to give those motherfuckers the payback they deserve.”
She reached into the top part of her shirt and pulled out a very old, wrinkled piece of paper. Calvin recognized it immediately. Katie unfolded it and looked at her team. “After every great battle, I used to read this. In honor of those who lost their lives yesterday, and in honor of our friends and family before Incursion day, I’d like to read it again.”
She cleared her throat.
“We are the ones who did not make it home.
We are the chosen.
The infected,
battling our demons night and day.
Protecting the uni
nformed from reality.
We fight where the stupid meet the clueless to perform
the asinine for our teammates every day.
We are cops, military, special forces, and SWAT,
medical techs, priests, and clergy.
We are the dimensional derelicts,
the legion, the host, the forgotten.
The feared.
The sheep can sleep at night because we don’t.
We fight for humanity—yours—and for our own.
We are the Damned, and death is our enemy,
our escape,
and our tribute.”
Everyone stood perfectly still, tears in their eyes as Katie folded the paper back up and put it into her shirt. “Usually, we would mourn our friends or our loved ones who had passed. Now, though, we are going to go to hell and deliver our reply.”
Everyone was pumped up as they prepared for the fight. The room was no longer sullen and thoughtful. An air of determination flooded each and every one of them, including Katie. She marched through the halls of the barracks and out into the hangar, greeting every soldier she passed. She walked to the map Dr. Thorough had created from the data they had gotten so far.
Katie scanned the rocks and volcanos. Okay, Pandora, you’re up. Where are we going? Let me get their attention, then take over.
Katie waved the captain, Calvin, Brock, and Juntto to the table. “Pandora is going to take over for a minute or two and put in her two cents.”
She closed her eyes and let Pandora slip forward. It was becoming easier for the two of them to work together. Pandora stood up tall and shivered, then took a deep breath, still holding Katie’s form. “All right, gentlemen. I have a new place for us to land.” She slammed her finger down in the area of the map that was relatively blank.
The captain peered at the spot. “But what is there?”
Pandora smiled. “There is a drone on its way there now. I gave the directions to Dr. Thorough. This is closer to the inner ring than we’ve ever been before, but it is very defensible. A demon by the name of Rector owned this castle two hundred years ago, but he was thrown into the abyss by Lucifer. It was an ugly scene. Rector disagreed with Lucifer about something, words were said, and poof—he was gone. Anyway, he is still climbing out of the pits to this day, but his castle still stands there. It is a ruin, Lucifer’s minions saw to that, but it stands. It will be the perfect place for us to start our incursion.”
The captain rubbed his chin; he wasn’t sure. Alice came over, pushing a monitor on wheels. “I’ve got it up.”
They all looked at the screen as it displayed the live footage from a drone.
The captain nodded in understanding. “I see what you are saying now. That is very nice. They can set up weapons all along this outer wall, and they’ll have good visibility. Very nice. Uh, thank you, Pandora.”
Pandora gave him a mock salute. “Thanks. On top of that, Moloch won’t be able to turn his head after we’ve invaded his territory. I know him too well. He’ll have to don his ridiculous armor and come out to fight. It is exactly what we need.”
Pandora dropped back, letting Katie take over. Her eyes flashed to blue and then brown again, telling the group Katie was back. “Does anyone have any questions? The new suits should protect you while we are down there.”
The captain saw no one had any questions and asked, “All right, Katie, why don’t you give us the rundown.”
Katie nodded. “Okay, so getting there is relatively routine for most of us. With Pandora’s help, I will open a portal that will lead right into the castle. Our force will don their suits and simply step through. We’ll have teams pushing carts of our equipment while others will be carrying armor and weapons. Once in, we need to clear any and all demons from the area. We can expect to walk in and make immediate contact. They won’t know we are coming, but our entry point is so close to the inner ring that we won’t be able to avoid them. They will come from all directions. The last few times we went, we had some advanced warning, but that’s an advantage we won’t have this time. We basically won’t see them coming.”
Pandora chimed in over Katie. “They will be of all shapes and sizes, too. It’s possible a few might slip through, so you have to be prepared. It’s going to get hot in this tin can.”
Katie cleared her throat. “Exactly. Now, once the demons are cleared from the castle, we will immediately move to set up the defenses and traps. We want to keep the demons as far away from the castle as we can. We don’t want them to see what we are doing. We don’t want them accidentally setting off any of these traps while any of us are still in there. You would be sitting ducks.”
Calvin made a check mark in the air. “Careful with the explosives, check.”
“We will be under extreme pressure. There will be no perfect time to evacuate. We will be under heavy attack. You can expect wounded, and possibly casualties. We will have to work under those circumstances to get everyone out. We are the A team, people. We are responsible for getting every last human and Leviathan life out of there. We leave no man behind.”
Everyone nodded, but Juntto put up his hand. “What if that is impossible?”
Katie looked at him for a moment, not having thought about it. “We go in with a full team, and we come out with a full team. Dead or alive, nobody is left behind. This will be hard on a lot of the men, but this is our chance. We go in today, and we let those demons know exactly where we stand. Failure is not an option. Our world depends on it.”
The troops lined up in ranks across the hangar bay. They were outfitted in their new atmospheric suits and bore custom rifles made to withstand the heat of hell. The equipment teams had their carts of supplies and explosives. In front of the ranks stood Calvin, Juntto, Brock, Turner, Eddie, and Sean. They had their helmets in their hands, ready to begin the mission. The hangar was as quiet as a mouse, and Katie knew they needed something special to knock the nerves out of them.
She came to the front of the crowd. Pandora, I need you to take this one. Give them a speech that will send them running into hell. These boys need to be powered and amped.
Pandora smacked her lips. Oh yeah, I got this one.
Pandora took front and center and put her arms high in the air. “Today, we march. This reminds me of a speech given by Hannibal when he addressed his soldiers after crossing the Alps in 218 BCE. ‘On the right and left two seas enclose you, without your possessing even a single ship for escape. The river Po around you, the Alps behind, hem you in. Here, soldiers, where you have first met the enemy, you must conquer or die; and the same fortune which has imposed the necessity of fighting holds out to you, if victorious, rewards than which men are not wont to desire greater, even from the immortal gods.’ That is some serious shit.”
Pandora put Katie’s hands together and paced back and forth. “You will not find riches like gold and gems, but you will find something even greater. Today, we send a message to these disastrous pricks that we won’t stand by and let them wage war on our soil. We won’t bury our children and stand back in fear. We won’t be bullied by a half-cocked imbecile from hell. We will bring demise and destruction to their door and see what they make of it.”
Everyone cheered and Pandora nodded Katie’s head, still pacing. When they had quieted, she continued, “Hell needs to be taught a lesson. What better soldiers to teach him than those created by the hand of God himself, led by an angel, backed up by the Damned. Together, we’re going to take that red-hot poker Lucifer holds between his claws and ram it right up their asses! Dispel your fear, boys; you won’t need it in here. It’s hot and it’s sweaty, but when those demons fall, they fall to the pits of hell. When Moloch falls, he will fall right into the hands of Lucifer. I can tell you now, that is not a comfortable place to be. Put one boot forward and take it home for all humanity!”
The whole place went up in cheers.
Pandora put her back to the crowd and held up her hands. “Are we ready?”
“Hell, ye
ah!” everyone yelled.
Pandora closed her eyes, and her hands morphed into demonic claws. She slashed the air, creating a large portal in the middle of the floor. The guys held onto each other as a strong, hot wind blew through the hangar. They all had their suits on, but they could see the metal around them shimmering as the room heated excessively.
Every single one of the guys knew that it hadn’t been Katie talking then. They knew it was Pandora, but they all loved it. She had become a leader amongst the men.
She was a demon turned, a lost soul on the right side for the first time in history.
She was the dark to Katie’s light, like a perfect yin and yang.
Pandora stood at parade rest as the soldiers walked into the portal to hell. First Calvin, Juntto and Brock’s team, then the brave volunteers. The last soldier ventured a glance at Pandora and winked at her before hopping in. Pandora giggled, but Katie took back over. Sorry, lover girl. We got business to take care of.
Almost immediately, shots began to ring out. The battle had started as soon as the first soldier stepped through the portal. The demons scattered, not expecting the intrusion. Some fought back while others ran for cover, dodging the special metal bullets they had come to fear. Katie directed the equipment teams as the weapons and ammunition were carried across the castle floor and mounted on the walls.
She took a deep breath and turned toward the view. Hundreds upon thousands of demons milled about the inner circle below. Lava boiled through molten rivers. Thunderous explosions from the volcanos shook the rocks beneath their feet. They were deeper in hell than they had ever been, and they had a job to do.
Calvin began pulling out the drones and switching them on. He set them free one at a time until they had enough out flying to capture a full view of the battle. Katie pulled her gun and put out her arm, stopping Calvin as he was about to grab another drone. She pulled the trigger and a bullet whizzed past him, striking a charging demon between the eyes.
