by Aiden James
“I don’t know,” Rafael replied, worriedly. “Let me try one more time!”
He dialed the number and placed the radio’s receiver against his ear. He frowned, cursing under his breath.
“I do not understand it. All I get is static!”
“Here, let me try,” said Jeremy. Rafael handed him the radio and recited Francisco’s number. He got the same response.
“Is there anyone else who has one of these, or a base station?” asked Jeremy.
“There is a base station, but it makes no difference,” said Rafael. “The number we dial is always the same, regardless if we have another radio in use or not. If Francisco cannot hear us, no one can!”
“Well, we sure as hell can’t wait around here much longer!” said Jeremy, stating the obvious while glancing warily at the demons now crowding into the room. “The torches won’t burn for much longer, ya’ll, so let’s get going! Rafael, you, Pedro, and Ricardo need to go first. Jack and I will follow.”
Rafael watched the demons drawing ever closer. Jack noticed how they still seemed mindful of the torches, but no longer tentative. Rafael returned his attention to both Jack and Jeremy, and then addressed Jack.
“You sense it, too, do you not?”
“Yeah, I do” Jack admitted, which drew an immediate curious look from Jeremy.
The demons no longer feared being burned or destroyed by the fire from the torches. It was only a matter of time before they made their final move.
“What the hell are you both talking about??”
Jeremy couldn’t believe they were wasting precious time like this.
“They’re not afraid of us anymore,” said Jack, pointing at the horde growing more restless by the minute.
“What?? What makes you think....?” Jeremy stopped, as surely the same realization now hit him. “Shit! It’s the reason these fuckers didn’t burn when my torch touched their wings back in the cavern!”
“I am afraid you are correct, my friend,” said Rafael, his voice filled with sadness.
He turned away from them and motioned for Pedro and Ricardo to come closer to him. He spoke quietly, and they both looked down at their feet, silently nodding in agreement to whatever he told them. Rafael handed his torch to Pedro and turned his attention back to Jeremy and Jack.
“Pedro and Ricardo have agreed to stay and hold them off while you two and I try to make it back to the castle,” he said.
Pedro and Ricardo pulled small knives from their belts as they prepared to protect themselves.
“That’s fucking nuts!” said Jeremy. “They’ll die, man! Let Jackie and me stay up here, and you three go back. We’ve survived this far, so maybe we’ll get lucky again. Regardless, ya’ll saved our lives once already and I’m sure Jackie agrees that ya’ll need to go and leave us here.”
“Then you shall die!” said Rafael. “That can not happen, Señor Kenney!! I am charged to protect you both, since the future destiny of the western world depends on it! I am not talking about what is taking place right now in Alabama, but your destiny ten to twenty years from now, after the earth changes begin in earnest!”
“What the hell—” Jeremy started to say.
“Stop, now, before we all die, Jeremy!!” shouted Rafael. “We must go!!!”
He glanced nervously toward the hostile brood continuing to creep closer.
“Pedro and Ricardo understand how it must be, for I must return,” he told them evenly once he turned to face them again. “Our Order is dying, and should anything happen to Francisco, the only other person left to take care of our business is me. Otherwise, I would willingly lay down my life for all of you right here!!”
Without waiting for Jeremy’s response, he pulled him and Jack over to the basket sitting by the shaft’s edge. Hurriedly, he motioned for them to take their places on either side of the basket, and then climbed in between the two, this time foregoing precautions about their collective weight distribution.
Taking Jeremy’s torch and holding it away from the rope, Rafael motioned for Ricardo to guide the basket over the mouth of the shaft. After one last goodbye, Ricardo turned his focus to the machine’s crank while Pedro bravely waved the other torch and his puny knife at the approaching demons. Jack noticed some of the monsters’ wings had begun to twitch and flutter. At any moment, the entire black army would be upon them all.
The basket put to the test again under the three men’s weight, they didn’t have the luxury of being transported slowly this time. Once Ricardo began turning the crank in earnest, the basket swayed from side to side as it descended into thick darkness. The torch’s flame glistened eerily against the ice-covered sides of the shaft, and grew dim as if not enough oxygen to sustain it much longer.
The unsettling shrieks and growls of the demons above them continued to increase. Yet, in the midst of this cacophony another sound emerged. It started softly, and its whispered echo drifted down into the shaft. As the sound grew louder, Rafael smiled. Pedro and Ricardo were repeating an ancient chant, their voices more and more fervent.
The basket descended rapidly into the shaft’s frozen depths, and as it approached the last hundred feet, Jack, believed there was enough time to send the basket back up to claim Rafael’s comrades. But that hope soon died when Pedro screamed. All three looked back up toward the mouth of the shaft, where they could still detect the faint glow from the other makeshift torch. Pedro continued to cry out in terror while Ricardo kept turning the pulley machine’s crank.
The demons’ shrieks erupted into a cacophonous roar that drowned out Pedro’s terrible death cries. Fearing the worst, Jeremy, Jack and Rafael anxiously awaited some sign of Ricardo’s fate, their faces turned upward while the crank continued to drop the basket closer to the bottom of the shaft.
The demons’ voices grew even louder, with a feverish excitement that could only indicate a feeding frenzy. All at once the pulley machine came to an abrupt halt, causing the basket to bounce up against the ice-covered sides of the shaft. The horrible dissonance from above continued, moving directly over the shaft’s mouth.
When the basket stopped moving, the brothers bravely pointed their lamps up into the darkness. A pair of small lights tumbled swiftly toward them. As the lights came closer to the basket, they realized the first glowing object was the makeshift torch, its flame nearly extinguished as it reached them. Jeremy and Jack pulled against the rope to move the basket out of the path of the burning pickaxe. But they were unable to avoid being hit by the next object. The shower of moisture gave them only a slight advance warning.
“Dear God!! No-o-o-oo!!!” cried Rafael.
Ricardo’s severed head landed in his lap, his helmet still attached with the lamp burning brightly. The Essene’s handsome face half-eaten, his remaining eye revealed the terror of his last moments.
“Give me your knife and let Jack have your axe, Rafael!” urged Jeremy.
They all gazed anxiously into the darkness above. The flapping from hundreds of wings descended rapidly toward them. Rafael did as Jeremy requested, and the brothers worked furiously to sever the thick nylon rope that held the basket.
“How far are we from the bottom?” Jack wondered aloud, tearing madly at the rope’s fibers with the pickaxe.
“From what I can tell, I believe we are anywhere from fifty to eighty feet above the floor of the chasm!” said Rafael.
“What?? We’re going to get crushed against the floor for sure!” said Jack, peering over the edge of the basket.
“Keep cutting the rope, goddamn it!” hissed Jeremy. “Those motherfuckers will be here in a minute!!”
He tore harder at the rope, severing a large fiber twist. The rest of the rope began to rip and unravel from their weight. He joined Jack in finishing a cut on a thicker fiber twist on the rope’s other side.
“Ah, sh-i-i-t-t-t!!!”
The basket pulled free from the rope, dropping them to the bottom of the shaft. The fall was actually less than forty feet, which aided them a
ll in escaping permanent injury or worse. That, along with the fact they were able to briefly prepare themselves for the impact after catching a glimpse of the frozen floor in their lamps’ illumination just before the basket hit.
They landed hard and awkwardly on the thick ice covering the bottom of the chasm. Fortunately for Jack and Jeremy, their excellent physical condition spared them, limiting their injuries to a handful of scrapes and bruises. Rafael not so fortunate, he landed hard on his right knee and leg. Grimacing in pain upon the floor, he managed to stand long enough for Jack and Jeremy to assist him as they hurried back to the castle.
The demons flew in mass down the shaft. Losing ground while carrying Rafael on their shoulders to the mouth of the tunnel, he begged Jack and Jeremy to leave him and save their own lives. A loud crash suddenly resounded from the bottom of the tunnel.
“What the hell was that??” asked Jeremy.
“I do not know, but maybe Francisco and the others are finally on their way!” offered Rafael. “See, if you leave me here, you two can make it back safely! I will only slow you down to where it will be too late for us all!!”
He looked anxiously over his shoulders at the shadowy forms pouring into the room behind them.
“We’re not leaving you here!” said Jack, looking over at Jeremy, who for the moment seemed to be considering the idea of doing just that.
He looked at Jack and started to say something, but then stopped as if another thought occurred to him instead.
“Wait here!” said Jeremy.
On what appeared to be an insane impulse, Jeremy ran back toward the demons. They didn’t immediately move to attack him, growling suspiciously at the much smaller human moving within a few feet of their grasp. Barely acknowledging their presence, he grabbed the basket and raced back to the others.
“Quick—get in!!!” he yelled.
Jack and Rafael jumped into the basket. The angry horde set out after them in earnest as Jeremy pushed the basket down the steep incline of the icy tunnel. As soon as the basket picked up enough momentum, he jumped in as well. It flew down the passageway like a runaway toboggan, with Bochicha’s emissaries in hot pursuit. Their cries seemed even more venomous, likely infuriated by Jeremy’s audacity and the fact the trio was getting away.
The basket proved difficult to steer, but they managed to avoid direct collusions with the tunnel’s sides. Nonetheless, whenever it brushed against the sides, it briefly slowed down, allowing the demons to gain on them. About to be overtaken, another loud explosion ripped through the air less than a quarter mile ahead. A small patch of light appeared in the distance.
“We are almost there!” shouted Rafael, his countenance filled with hope.
Once within a hundred yards of the light the demon closest to them took a swipe at Jeremy’s head. It barely missed its target, but managed to tear away the neck area from the back of his parka. He jerked his body away from the demon, causing the basket to roll. All three were thrown out, and the flock of hellions hovered above them as they continued to slide down the tunnel another twenty feet.
Rafael simply laid there, resigned to whatever fate awaited. Jack tried to stand up but fell face down on the ice, where he began to slide again. Jeremy managed to stand up long enough to take a foolhardy swing at the demon closest to him. Suddenly, the bright beams from several large miners’ lamps blinded them from less than sixty feet away.
“Señor Kenney, get down!!”
Jeremy did as instructed just as a sharp talon scraped against the back of his ear. A shower of bullets ripped through the air around them. The demons drew back, shrieking angrily as a dozen men armed with AK-47s pursued them up the tunnel until they secured enough space to rescue Rafael and the brothers. They brought them over to the guide rope and connected their harnesses to it. The armed Essenes continued to fire multiple rounds while securing their own harnesses. Then the entire group slowly retreated down the tunnel toward the castle.
Huge chunks of ice covered the floor around the castle’s entrance. Obvious from the powder burns on the floor and walls of the tunnel, the explosions they heard took place here. The mystery was where the ice chunks came from, since the passageway was clear when they first left the castle. The chunks appeared to have originally been part of a single immense piece of ice.
They detached their harnesses from the guide rope and carefully stepped through the debris. Just as they reached the castle’s door, the demons made one last attack. This time, they hurled their shimmering disks of light at them all. Since the other Essenes had never seen anything like these weapons before, at first they weren’t sure how to respond. They did have the sense to turn and run once a disk beheaded one of their comrades and severely maimed another.
Slipping and sliding just outside the castle’s heavy door, several more Bolivians were cut down before the group made it safely inside the castle. Once the door was closed and secured the assault ceased, though a few demons tested the door’s sturdiness by throwing their immense bodies up against it. The terrible sound of their angry voices amid the muffled cries of the dying Essenes on the door’s other side chilled Jack’s heart.
***
“Are you all right?” asked the man whom Jack recognized as Juan, the one Rafael had talked with on the cargo carrier the previous afternoon. Bleeding from a wound to his right arm, a demon’s disk had sliced through his coat.
“No! What took you so long??” Rafael demanded.
“We came as quickly as possible, Rafael,” he replied, his voice cracking from emotion. “It only took a few minutes to collect our weapons and get down to the tunnel. But once we got there, the passageway was sealed with ice. I called Francisco right away, and as soon as we located enough explosives we began blasting through the ice. We brought as many weapons as we could carry since Francisco told me the devil’s angels had already taken Montes and Fernando from us.”
The younger Essene seemed truly pained by this information, and Rafael’s anger quickly faded.
“I see. We heard the explosions from the top of the tunnel, and have now seen what is left of the ice,” said Rafael. “So, where is Francisco?”
“I am right here.”
Francisco moved toward the group, having just recently stepped into the hallway. In the soft illumination provided by the torches he looked tired and even more worried than earlier. Dressed in military fatigues, he was armed with an automatic weapon similar to the others.
“I see that you are hurt, Rafael. How bad is it?”
“I will be all right,” said Rafael. “I twisted my knee, but once we treat it, I should be ready to go back for the Cristal Del Sol.”
“Where are Pedro and Ricardo?” Francisco asked him, but the look on his face said he already knew the answer.
“They are with Elohim, for we had to leave them above the second level after the demons cornered us,” Rafael explained, his voice filled with sadness. “There wasn’t enough time for us all to reach the first level safely, so they sacrificed their lives for us.”
“Willingly?” Francisco pressed him while his eyes seemed to bore through his assistant’s tender psyche.
“As willingly as could be expected,” Rafael replied, looking down at the ground.
“Who else?”
“We lost Raoul, Jorges, Juan Galegos, Savernes, Armand, and Ramone just now,” Juan advised, his voice choked with tears.
Francisco looked away from everyone for a moment as if unsure what to ask next. When he looked back toward the group gathered before him, his eyes were filled with tears. Rather than continue probing the fate of his men, he addressed Jack and Jeremy.
“I have had time to review the materials in your backpack. We shall discuss them in detail shortly, but I see that you must clean up first,” he said, noting the heavy bloodstains on their clothes. “It is now eleven-twenty. I will meet with you both in my study at noon. Lunch has been moved up to twelve-thirty, and we will leave here by one o’clock this afternoon. If not for the heavy
surveillance going on right now for all flights entering the United States, I would insist on our immediate departure. But with so much at stake, we cannot afford to be too hasty in our efforts to retrieve the Cristal Del Sol and successfully interrupt the Estrella De la Sangre’s restoration.”
“Are you saying the restoration has actually begun?” asked Jeremy.
Francisco almost answered him, but hesitated, stating it would be better if he waited to discuss this at noon as planned. After making sure the heavy wooden door to the outside was securely locked, he motioned for the other Essenes to assist Rafael down the hallway and back to the castle’s main level while he followed behind them all. Jack and Jeremy returned to their rooms upstairs to clean up. Francisco advised Juan would meet them in the reception area at 11:55 a.m. to bring them to his study.
“This shit’s never going to end,” Jeremy told Jack, when they reached their rooms. “It doesn’t matter if we’re in Alabama, Virginia, or fucking Bolivia, man,” he sighed. “I’m going to take a warm shower and try to enjoy another one of those cigars. ‘See you in a few, bro.”
“You told me long ago not to think too much about the kind of shit that happened today, or I’d go crazy,” said Jack, after he leaned against the heavy door to his room and pushed it open. “I suggest you should take that same advice to heart, Jeremy, ‘cause I know your view of reality was seriously tweaked today.”
“True,” said Jeremy from inside his room. He peered through the doorway again after he stripped off his bloodstained parka and shirt and left them lying on the floor. “Actually seeing an angel is a whole lot different than simply believing your description of one. I’ll bet that was your first encounter with any demons like the ones we met today, unless you consider Genovene their kin.”
“She might be,” said Jack. “We can discuss it later. Do you want me to knock on your door at eleven-fifty?”
