Bub’s eyes narrowed and he screeched, just as wet cement began to rain down on them both.
It was the most beautiful thing General Kane had ever seen.
And it was quickly followed by the second most beautiful thing General Kane had ever seen. Standing in the doorway was the man from Manx.
“Looks like your plans for world domination have come to an end, Bub-lad.”
“Liiiight beareeeerrr!” the demon hissed.
“I’m here to do something I should have done forty thousand years ago,” Lucas said, rolling up his sleeves. “I’m going to kill yer, you dirty little bleeder.”
“Kick his ass,” General Kane said, a final smile crossing his mangled face.
Then he died for the very last time.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
The giant mantis swayed, then pounced next to Nessie.
Well… half of it did, anyway. The other half was in Wolfie’s mouth. He shook it back and forth like an enormous, disgusting chew toy.
“Wolfie! You need to help me with Rimmer. You need to carry him to the elevator.”
Wolfie sat down and cocked his massive head to one side, ears pricking up.
Then cement began to sluice down through the ceiling slot.
Nessie screamed in frustration. Again she tried to pull Rimmer by the wrist. But he wouldn’t budge at all.
Then the three imps began to jump up and down and chirp at Wolfie. Wolfie backed back. A moment later, he had Rimmer in his mouth, picking him up as gently as a cat carried her kittens.
Monster talk. Go figure.
Nessie gathered up the imps, keeping them under her shirt to protect them, and then sloshed through the wet cement, heading for the elevator. She pressed the call button.
The doors didn’t open.
Looking at the LED screen, Nessie saw it was on level 4. At least a minute away.
“Come on! Not now! This can’t be happening now! We’re so close!”
She kept pressing the button as the cement rose past her calves. Wolfie whined. The imps against her bare stomach were trembling.
“God,” Nessie said. “I’ve never asked you for a single thing. Not once. But please. Please. HURRY UP WITH THE GODDAMN ELEVATOR!”
Chapter Fifty-Nine
A nightmare about being chased by a Medusa started Jerry’s heart beating again.
His eyes slammed open, and he was seized by a terrible abdominal cramp, making him curl up into the fetal position.
He remembered running. Being bitten by the Gornman-thing. Falling over. Dropping the box.
The anti-venom box.
Anti-venom.
Anti-venom!
Jerry searched for it, found the box just a meter away. It was open, and several of the vials had broken on the floor.
He crawled to it, his head swimming, his whole body damp with sweat. Then he began to grab random vials.
Scorpion anti-venom.
Man o’ war anti-venom.
Giant wasp anti-venom.
Mutant platypus anti-venom.
Easter bunny anti-venom.
Seriously? Easter bunny? WTF?
Cobra anti-venom.
Stingray anti-venom.
Wait… cobra anti-venom?
Jerry pulled a syringe from his jacket pocket and jammed it into the rubber seal on the bottle. Everything was getting blurry, and he could feel his heart slowing down again.
Draw the liquid in. Take the needle out. You can do it.
Now just inject yourself…
Inject…
In…
Once again, the darkness took him.
Chapter Sixty
“Hello, Dennisonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnns.”
Sun watched her husband stand up on wobbly legs and point directly at the Gorman-thing.
“I told you several times before, you stupid, ugly, ignorant hellspawn.” Andy reached up, grabbing one of the snakes, and ripping it right off of Gornman’s head. “It’s Dennison-Jones!”
Then he fell over.
Gornman screeched, pinchers snapping in the air and reaching for Andy.
Oh no you don’t! NOT MY HUSBAND!
Sun flung herself at the Gornman-thing, getting between the scorpion claws and punching her straight in the gut. One of the spider legs knocked Sun across the room, into the wall. She slumped to the floor, several ribs broken.
The Gornman-thing advanced. Sun managed to sit up. Every breath she drew was labored. The creature opened up its pincers, reaching for her.
“Are you in there, Bub?” Sun said. Each word brought a spike of pain to her chest. “Can you hear me?”
The Gornman-thing crouched next to Sun, sticking its horrible face in hers as the cement rained down. “Weeeeee hear youuuuuuuu.”
“You… are… pathetic,” Sun said. “You’re never going to win. Do you… want to know… why?”
“Telllll usssssssssssss.”
Sun looked at Andy. The love of her life, snake bitten and lying next to the elevator.
“Because, you prehistoric asshole, we have something you’ll never have.”
“What dooo youuu have? Emotions? Love?” The demon barked with laughter. “Love makes yooooooou weak!”
“No, it’s not love.”
“What issssssss it?”
“You really want to know what we have that you don’t?”
“TELLLLLLL USSSSSSSS!”
Sun’s stalling worked. The elevator dinged, and the doors opened.
“We have a giant fucking werewolf, motherfucker.”
The Gornman thing turned as Wolfie pounced out of the lift, clamping onto her neck and biting her head clean off.
A moment later, Jerry stumbled over from the other side of the room, a syringe sticking in his leg, a box hugged to his chest. “Anti-venom,” he rasped, falling to his knees.
Both Sun and Nessie hurried over, pulling Jerry and the box into the elevator. Then they went back for Andy, pulling him through concrete a foot deep. Nessie ordered the lift to go to the top exit. Then Sun searched for cobra anti-venom while Nessie sought out the harvestmen anti-venom.
Three shots later, Andy, Rimmer, and the imp were all waking up.
“I… I can’t believe it’s over and we’re getting out of here alive,” Jerry said. “It’s a goddamn miracle.”
And then the elevator squealed to a stop between levels 1 and 2.
Chapter Sixty-One
“Join us, Lucaaaaaaaassssss. We can rule thisssssss world.”
“Not interested,” Lucas said. He’d adopted a boxing stance, and he shuffled over to Bub as the cement rained down. He’d learned pugilism from Joe Louis himself. Hell of a guy.
Left. Left. Right. Left. Stick and move. Stick and move. The demon’s face broke under Lucas’s blows, but the bones healed almost as fast as he could throw punches.
Bub lashed out with his talons, taking a chunk out of Lucas’s shoulder. The wound filled itself in as Lucas continued to rain down jabs. Bub grabbed Lucas, biting him in the neck, and then Lucas wrapped his arms around the demon. They battled out of Kane’s office and out into the hall.
Lucas sighted on his target. The elevator doors ten meters away. But the cement was already up to his knees and coming down fast.
“Why doooo yooooou protect them?” Bub demanded. “They are weeeeeeeak.”
Lucas focused on the elevator. One foot after the other.
“They’re stronger than you think. Stronger than I think, too. You know how I can see things. I saw Andy Dennison-Jones saving the human race. And he did it. Do you know how?”
Five meters away now. Bub began to claw at Lucas’s belly, pulling out parts.
“I’ll tell you how. He convinced me; an outcast, a murderer, a liar, shunned by God, to help him. Not by asking, but by showing me what he and his friends were willing to do to stop you.”
“Fooooooool! They aaaaaaare insects compared to ussssssss!”
“No, they aren’t. Our time has passed. This w
orld is theirs. Let em have it. They came up with musical theatre. What did we ever do?”
Lucas reached the elevator and wrenched the doors open with one hand while clutching Bub with the other.
“STOOOOOOOOP! DON’T BE A FOOOOOOOL!”
Lucas peered into the deep, dark shaft. At the bottom, meters of wet concrete, drying fast, was quickly rising.
“It’s time for us to go.”
Bub clawed and bit, but Lucas hung onto the demon as he stepped into the open air.
They hit the concrete below with enough force to shatter most of the bones in each of their bodies. As they healed, they began to sink.
“I’ll get oooooooooout of here.”
“That remains to be seen.”
“You’ll die here tooooooooo.”
“That also remains to be seen.”
Bub continued to squirm, which only accelerated their sinking. Soon only their heads were above the cement.
“Doooo you think your god will forgive yooooou? See your self-sacrifice and taaaaaaake pity?”
Lucas shook his head, slightly. “You and I, we’ve been around a long time. We’ve done terrible things. We don’t deserve pity. Or forgiveness. But I am holding an ironic thought in me bonce, which I’ll share before we go under. I’m Lucifer, who fell from heaven. You’re Beelzabub. Neither of us presides over Hell, even though people think we do. So if we die, where do we go? Aren’t you curious to find out?”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
“Well, my demon friend, you’re about to find out just the same.”
Then the concrete overtook them.
Chapter Sixty-Two
“The cement hardened in the pulley system,” Nessie said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
She was standing on Jerry’s shoulders, sticking her head through the access ceiling panel.
“Can we get out and climb the ladder?” Sun asked.
“The cement is coming down pretty fast, and Rimmer still isn’t strong enough to climb out. It would also mean leaving Wolfie here.”
Wolfie whined.
Jerry didn’t know what to do. They were so close. It was so cruel it was actually hysterical. Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
The tiny imp, bitten by the spider, crawled up Jerry’s shirt, looking concerned. He’d made a full recovery now. More irony there. Saved from venom to be entombed in cement.
“Sorry little guy,” Jerry said to him. “We tried our best.”
The imp frowned at him. Then it began to chirp. After what seemed to be a serious discussion among the imp folk, the little one hopped onto Jerry’s shoulder.
“We can help,” it said.
“Wha? Did you just talk?”
One of the other imps tugged on Jerry’s pants leg, pulling off some hardened concrete. It popped the rock into its mouth and chewed.
“They can chew through concrete!” Jerry said. He remembered General Kane mentioning the imps could deliver a nasty bite. Jerry never could have guessed how nasty.
The imps began to climb Jerry’s body, and then Nessie’s, until all four were standing on top of the elevator, looking down at the humans.
“But if you fix the elevator, how will you save yourselves?” Jerry said, his voice rising in pitch. “You’re too small to climb the ladder, and the rising elevator will squash you.”
The biggest imp squeaked. “We save. Save you.”
Then the imps began to ascend the elevator cable.
Sun helped Nessie get off of Jerry’s shoulders, and Jerry held her as they waited.
“We should close the panel,” Rimmer said. “Cement is getting in.”
“No!” Jerry shook his head. “If it’s open, the imps can jump back inside.”
“Kid, they aren’t coming back. And those four little guys aren’t going to free an elevator.”
“Shut up, Rimmer.”
A minute passed.
Two.
Three
A foot of cement pooled on the floor of the lift.
“It’s been quite an adventure, everyone,” Rimmer said. “Vaya con dios.”
Nessie clung to Jerry’s side.
Andy and Sun clutched hands.
Wolfie whined and licked Rimmer’s face.
Then the elevator groaned, jerked, and began to rise once again.
Everyone cheered, except for Jerry.
Come on. Jump through the panel, little guys.
Jump.
You came too far to die.
Don’t die.
Please.
Don’t die.
The elevator reached the exit floor.
The imps were nowhere to be found.
Chapter Sixty-Three
To everybody’s relief, the exit hatch opened when they reached the top of the stairs. Nessie still had her employee key card, which activated the lock automatically.
The blinding glow of sunlight caused them all to shield their eyes as they stepped out into the open-air. After so many hours of being surrounded by the stink of blood and cement, the fresh breeze from the forest was divine. Andy managed to catch his breath back and filled his lungs.
“Freeze!”
Andy looked around to see a line of black-suited soldiers pointing automatic rifles at them. Sun put her hands in the air and so did he. Nessie chose not to, instead she addressed the man in front of the line who seemed to be the leader. She held her employee card in front of her.
“My name is Gwen Nester. Senior Apprentice, facility 26, the Spiral. With me are Mr. and Mrs. Dennison-Jones, and Jeremy Preston, all brought in by General Kane. Among the injured is Sergeant Rimmer. He’s the one riding his, um, giant dog.”
Rimmer gave a wave from atop Wolfie’s back.
“Your dog?” The soldier said. “It’s rather large.”
“Organic dog food,” said Jerry, patting Wolfie’s muzzle. “Builds strong teeth and bones.”
The soldier kept the gun aimed. “Where is the General?”
“I assume dead,” Nessie answered. “Do you know if anybody made it out before us?”
The soldier nodded. “Several dozen employees have already been evacuated. Another helo is en route.”
“Did anything… else get out of here?” Andy asked.
“We have multiple readings of creatures escaping into the forest. But we have a lock on their GPS tags. We’ll get them rounded up in no time.”
Andy sighed in relief. These men seemed to have the situation under control.
“The facility has been completely destroyed,” Nessie said. “They’ll be nothing else through that door.”
“Roger that. You’re the current ranking officer of facility 26, Ms. Nestor. You’ll need to give a full report upon arrival at the Albuquerque facility.”
“Can I take a shower first?” she asked.
“Me, too,” Jerry said.
Nessie stared at him, wide-eyed.
“I mean, my own shower. By myself. Unless, you uh, need some help getting the cement off. I mean, I’d volunteer for the—”
Nessie kissed him.
“Isn’t that cute?” Sun asked.
“If they don’t shower soon they’ll dry and get stuck that way.” Andy turned to the soldier. “Look, my wife needs medical attention, and we don’t want to go to another facility.”
“Of course not,” said the soldier. “We’ll take your report en route to wherever you wish to go. Then you can go back to your honeymoon. You’ll need to swear secrecy, of course.”
Andy nodded. “I know the drill. How do you know we were on our honeymoon?”
“The Director of Homeland Security briefed us. He had a feeling that the faustlings were planning some sort of attack on our facilities. Texas fell a few hours ago and Toronto is currently under attack. We have it under control, though. Now that we know the play, we have armed forces converging on all of our sites. You can return to your lives as quickly as possible, Mr. and Mrs. Dennison.”
“Dennison
-Jones,” Andy corrected.
A brief movement caught Andy’s eye, making him peer into the woods. He could not be sure, but he thought he saw a man staring at them.
Andy squinted harder.
Lucas?
But whomever Andy had just seen disappeared between the trees.
Just then, a helicopter came in for landing, ready to take them far away from this nightmare. Andy held his wife and wished with all his being that they had seen the last of Bub and his batlings.
Somehow, though, he knew that his wish would end up going unanswered.
But until then, he had a honeymoon to enjoy.
Epilogue One
Little Sally O’Malley gave her father a great big hug. She relished the school breaks where she could stay home and help her daddy on their San Bernardino farm.
Sally loved the outdoors. Loved the feel of sunshine on her face and the sound of birds chirping. So much better than school where the only thing that covered her face was the shadows of bullies. Having a lazy eye was not the “beautiful difference” her daddy told her it was. Still, school was out for the week and she was here on the farm, ready to get her hands dirty.
“What can I do today, Daddy?”
Her father smiled, his cracked lips creasing between his salt and pepper beard. “Today we’re going to paint the old barn a new shade of red.”
Sally hopped. “Yay! I like to paint.”
“I know you do, honey. Now, go on and fetch me the paint can from the storage shed. I’ve already pulled out the one we need. It’s on the bench. Careful, it’s heavy.”
Sally shot out of the front door and onto the porch, before flying down the four wooden steps to the lawn. She raced across the sun-baked dirt towards the rickety old storage shed where her daddy kept the old ride-on mower and the tools he rarely used.
She yanked open the door—which was yawing open a crack—and stepped inside. Sure enough, the paint can was right where her daddy had said it would be, sitting on the work bench.
Sally took it, and it was so heavy she almost dropped it. Especially because the wire handle dug into her palm.
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