by Greg Dragon
He pulled the door and tried to lock it, but Tracy’s kick had almost taken it off the hinges. There was no way they would be locking the demon in, so they pondered what to do next.
“If I had a proper blade, I could just take his legs out,” James said, but Tracy wasn’t listening as she walked over to hand him a length of electrical cord.
“This was lying behind the building where it had been cut,” she said. “At least now we know what caused the system to go haywire.”
James took the cord and tied the demon’s arms and legs, then pushed him into the bathroom, where he locked the door and wedged a piece of pipe beneath the handle.
“Do you think that’s gonna hold him?” Tracy asked.
“It better,” James said, “because if he comes at me one more time, you can forget about all this ‘saving him for experimentation’ business. I’m gonna snatch the life out his body.”
He then walked over to Debdan’s house and pushed the door wide open. As he suspected, there was no one inside.
“Do you think that the boy somehow turned?” James asked. He was worried—now that he knew what was going on—that Alysia was vulnerable and out in the underground city, looking for the demon.
“Yeah, seems to be that way,” Tracy said. “They seem to go through phases, too if you think about it. We are used to the red and black demons, who I’m thinking used to be people.”
“Even if you’re right,” James said, “I hope it’s a complicated process to get us to turn into one of them. Because if that isn’t the case, then I don’t know how to feel. It would mean that all the demons we’ve been shooting up are actually people possessed by whatever the hell we fought in the woods.”
Tracy thought about his words and felt a wave of sadness come over her. “This sucks,” she said.
“We can’t dwell on it,” James said. “Let’s stick to the plan and not obsess over guessing at what they are. We have a demon queen to find and we had better do it fast.”
“Hey, I have an idea,” Tracy said and James looked at her to see if she was making an ill-timed joke again. She took his arm and led him up towards the entrance rather than deeper into the bunker to look for the demon. “They store weapons up here, remember? All we have are these knives and they just aren’t going to cut it. No pun intended. We need to get some real weapons.”
“Good thinking,” James said and they headed up towards the entrance together.
Chapter Four
Alysia and Jaime had been darting in and out of the alleys in between the buildings, looking for the demon huntress. They couldn’t find her and Alysia was beginning to wonder if the cold and the possessions were coming from something else. As they tried their best to avoid the soldiers and the demon people wandering about, it became increasingly difficult to continue searching.
“It’s a bust, CeeCee, we have to do something else. Either one of those guys is going to accidentally shoot us, or we’re going to get jumped by those demons,” Jaime said.
Alysia had been running when he said this, and she pulled up and stopped to talk to him. “You’re right, it’s a wild goose chase. But I know she’s out here, hurting people, and I need to find her to put a stop to it.”
“With what, that old sword?” He laughed. “Have you even considered that you got lucky the first time? She had two other people shooting at her when you fought her, right? Now it’s just us, and she has the element of surprise. What’s to stop her from—?”
Alysia put her hand up to stop him when she saw a body lying in the street. She recognized the red dress and the black tuft of hair below the blinking lights, but she couldn’t remember whom it was that dressed like that. She ran over to the person and flipped her over, and Angelica’s face revealed itself beneath the mass of hair. “Oh, no…” Alysia whispered, and she checked her vitals to see if she was dead. There was a weak pulse, and she thanked God as she motioned for Jaime to help get her up.
“Knock on one of those doors. She needs help!” she ordered him and he knocked on the door of the nearest house. It took some time before he got an answer, but he had to curse and make a few threats before a woman inside opened up to see who he was.
“This woman is hurt, and she cannot be out here,” he said to her, and the dark-skinned woman cursed at him, and took Angelica in before slamming the door in his face. Jaime tried to apologize, but the woman was not trying to hear it. He turned back to Alysia, looking tired and extremely annoyed.
“That was Angelica, you remember her, right?” she asked him when he came back over to her side.
“Yeah, she has a little girl,” he said.
“Yes, she does. I hope she’s fine!” Alysia said, looking around frantically to see if she could find Maria.
Jaime shrugged and took a deep breath. “Maybe she made her sleep and locked her in the house,” he said to her, and as soon as he said this he felt the cold.
Three large men slid from behind one of the bunker houses and surrounded them. Jaime couldn’t finish his thought as he pulled his pistol free and held it low, examining them intently as he did this. They had the glowing eyes and the chill, and he backed up into Alysia as the demons inched closer towards them. The cold was becoming unbearable and Alysia pulled her sword free and slashed the hand of the nearest one that tried to touch her. His hand came off easily from the blow—almost too easily—and he retreated, holding it as she lifted the blade above her head.
“Oh no,” she said to Jaime. “I can’t believe I just did that. I only meant to scare him off. When he wakes up, I’ll be responsible for hurting him so badly.”
“Are you freaking kidding me?” he asked her as he raised his gun threateningly at the remaining two. “These guys aren’t possessed or coming back. CeeCee, they’re just like Debdan. Don’t you feel the cold? They’re like that thing you told me about. They’re gone, and you need to get serious with them.”
He glanced at her and then shot one right between the eyes.
“JAIME!” Alysia screamed, and another demon ran up to join the rest. She was a pretty blonde with long hair that hung loosely over her shoulders. She was wearing heels but seemed to have no problem maneuvering in them. Outside of her red eyes, she was every bit the super model, but her skin was outlined in red veins, and she was even colder than the rest.
“See her? That’s the progression, Alysia. You haven’t been paying attention but I have. Whatever is getting these people is taking them over completely. We can’t save them. We have to think about our friends, like Angelica and her baby.”
The one-handed demon rushed in to claw at Alysia, and she cut him in the legs and spun quickly into a sidekick that knocked him off his feet. He reminded her of her Uncle Ronnie. He was a shade of brown lighter than her mother, and his hair was in a fade—immaculate in its care—with a little beard, just like her uncle. Jaime had killed one of them, and she didn’t know what to think, but what if he was right, and she was putting them at risk by playing nice?
“I’ve never killed anything before,” she said to Jaime. “These are—were—people, and I can’t do it.”
“You’re gonna have to learn to get past that,” was all he said, and he shot the blonde in her arm. “Damn, this gun is overheated,” he said, and as if on cue the group of demons charged in.
Alysia was not expecting the sudden rush, and before she could think to do anything else, her instincts kicked in and she stuck the blade into the stomach of the nearest one. She pulled it free, spun and cut him again, but this time the cut caught his throat and was ultimately fatal. The demon fell back into a bloody mess, retching on the ground while she stood stunned, not believing what she had just done.
Jamie hit the blonde with the butt of his gun, and she stumbled away from him as he pulled the trigger, forgetting that is wasn’t functional. He didn’t give her any time to retreat, and he charged at her, pushing her down. He then proceeded to stomp on her face, over and over until he heard bones crunching.
“Jaime,
stop!” Alysia said. “Lord, forgive me. I can’t believe I’m a murderer now.” She turned to face the last wounded demon and closed both her hands on the hilt. She looked over at Jaime, who was staring at her. He was still breathing hard and ready to take on anything.
“So, what are you waiting for?” he said to her, and before she could answer they heard the “BANG” from a high-powered weapon. The demon went down with a gaping wound in its chest and Alysia spun to see her father with his rifle pointed at it. He was dressed in all black, along with Tracy, and the two of them had a similar look of no nonsense.
“Dad, you’re up!” Alysia exclaimed and James sighed and lowered his gun as he looked around to make sure there were no more demons.
“The soldiers have been briefed on what to do when they see the main demon,” he said to them, and he stepped in and hugged Alysia before slipping back in between the buildings. Tracy came over and looked at the carnage, then glanced at their weapons and shook her head.
“She turned a lot of people in a short period of time,” she said to them. “We saw your friend, Jaime. I’m so sorry. We tied him up so he couldn’t escape, but I can’t lie, he don’t look so good.”
“What do you mean?” Jaime asked as he walked up to her, glancing at his pistol to see if it had cooled down.
“You plan to use that on me if I say something you don’t like?” Tracy asked, and Jaime quickly shook his head at her.
“No, I’m overheated so I was checking the gauge.”
“Those pistols are crap. You should grab one of the more advanced Glocks,” she said to him.
“Tracy,” Alysia interrupted her, and took her to the side away from Jaime. “Tracy, we found Angelica—”
“YOU FOUND HER OUT HERE?” She screamed the question, shocked and frightened at what Alysia said.
“Yeah, just over there before they attacked.”
“Where is she, and where is Maria?” Tracy asked. She knew the answer would be grim, but she needed to hear it and she didn’t want to wait for an answer.
“Angelica is being taken care of by the lady in this house. We haven’t seen Maria, but we were thinking that Angelica left her in the house.”
“You don’t know Angelica; she takes her baby everywhere. If she’s out here then she would have either been looking for Maria or the little one escaped when her mother was attacked.”
Tracy knocked on the door rapidly to get the woman to open up, and Alysia went back over to Jaime, who was being questioned by a patrolling soldier.
“You all can’t be out here,” he said to them, and Alysia fanned him off as if he was a mere bug.
“We’re with my father who you know as Lieutenant James Knight,” she said.
“Oh, you’re the daughter of The Stunner?” he asked with a smile.
“The Stunner?” Alysia repeated with a puzzled look on her face. “I guess, but we’re hunting that thing alongside him.”
“Alright, I’ll let the team know, but you can’t be staying still. Those things like to crowd you if they feel that they can get the drop on you.”
Alysia thanked him as he took off, and Jaime checked his pistol again then looked at her and nodded. “Looks like we’re back in business,” he said and then he pulled it out and kept it ready.
The woman in the house had let Tracy in and they could hear her talking loudly, trying to get answers from Angelica.
“Let her worry about finding the kid and all of that,” Jaime said to Alysia. “We need to rejoin your father in hunting the demon. He went up that road, so what say we take this one over here?”
They ran up the road without attempting to hide between the buildings like they had done for their few hours of searching. Then the lights cut out completely, and Alysia stopped in her tracks, her hand finding Jaime’s as they backed into a wall. There were screams and the temperature all around them dropped as people went into a panic over the loss of lights. A few floodlights came on, but they were low and red, so the houses became mere silhouettes against a backdrop of crimson.
All around them were glowing eyes, and the sounds of gunshots picked back up.
“LET’S SEE THEM TRY AND HIDE NOW!” a loud voice yelled, followed by a fit of maniacal laughter. Then there came a chorus of cheers as the soldiers began to track the eyes down to kill them.
“I can’t believe someone killed the lights on purpose,” Jaime said as Alysia held her sword up, paranoid that a set of those glowing eyes would pop up on them and beat them to death.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Jimmy said suddenly, and fired two shots into the back of a figure that ran in front of them. The demon he shot was using the body of a soldier, so he was dressed in the armor they wore. Jimmy’s shots didn’t do much damage but the impact of the bullets caused the demon to stumble and Alysia leapt forward and brought her sword down, removing his head.
“Whoa, ninja!” Jaime said, his voice a mixture of admiration and surprise at Alysia’s speed. The blood splattered on them and all over the street, and Alysia looked down at the head with a look of disgust across her face.
“It’s not funny or amusing that we have to do this,” she said, facing him. She pulled out a piece of cloth from her waist and wiped the blood from off her sword.
“See, we make a good team,” Jaime said, and Alysia looked at him as if she couldn’t believe it.
“I figured that out since the beginning,” she finally said. “Why do you think I always come and get you when there’s trouble?” Jaime laughed when he thought about how she said it. Her tone reminded him of people who were caught red-handed but still acted as if they were innocent.
“You know, I always thought it was because you liked me or something,” he said, and she rolled her eyes and sheathed the sword.
~ * ~ * ~
When James Knight left the company of Tracy and his daughter, he had seen a little girl running behind the buildings and had decided to track her down. He didn’t know who she was and wasn’t sure if his mind was playing tricks on him, but he wanted to stop the demon and save as many lives as he could. A child would not be able to handle the cold or the attacks of the demon so he had to make sure she was okay.
He had tracked her for about fifteen minutes when he came upon the woman that had attacked him in the woods, and in her arms was Angelica’s Maria. It was so sudden and unexpected that he literally rubbed his eyes, and as she looked at him with what seemed like lust, he raised his gun and aimed at her head.
“You don’t want to do that,” she said to him, her voice sounding like a multitude of voices instead of the sultry, feminine one that he expected to hear.
He noticed that he didn’t feel cold, and that her eyes were no longer glowing. It was frightening and mysterious, this female demon that talked, and he wondered if the entire time she had simply blended in with the civilians that now locked themselves inside their homes.
“Put the baby down and step away from her,” James ordered the woman, but she simply smiled at him and stood where she was. There was something odd about Maria: she didn’t seem to recognize James, and she looked extremely comfortable in the demon’s arms.
“Shooting me will not end us. We will not die,” she said, and she flashed him a wicked smile. “You have tried to kill us before. Why do you think you can do it now? We are beyond death, but you must listen, or this one will be turned and made to join our legion.” She followed the threat by using a hand to touch Maria’s nose and the tiny girl started to laugh as if she was with a loving aunt.
James lowered his gun and considered his options; he had not expected to run into the demon alone. If he had Tracy with him, or a few of the soldiers that knew him, he would have opened up on her because she would not have an easy escape. He had to get Maria away from her, but he heard her threat and knew that she meant it fully. She would turn the little girl into one of her red-eyed demon zombies, and they would be forced to kill her – a thought he couldn’t fathom. He stood with his feet slightly apart, and watched
the demon as she bounced Maria in her arms and smiled at him.
“Maria, hide!” James shouted as he reached behind him for the E11 Sultan Magnum he kept tucked away in the small of his back. The little girl buried her face into the demon’s shoulder and hugged her close, just like she and James had practiced when they traveled to the bunker. He brought the gun around and pulled the trigger, ripping a hole into the face of the demon, causing her to leave her feet and fall on her back with Maria still holding on for dear life. James sprinted to the fallen demon and grabbed Maria with one motion. He swung her around to his back, and she locked her legs around his body and held on tightly to his neck.
“Good job, baby girl. You remembered. I’m so proud of you!”
“I’m your little soldier,” Maria said proudly, and she hugged him close as he slipped between the buildings and made his way back to Tracy.
The demon huntress, blinded and disoriented, tried to regain her vision. The shot from the powerful handgun had blown a hole in her face and the bullet flew through as if unobstructed and lodged itself within the bunker wall. The wound was taking too long to heal, so she summoned the darkness from her minions to collect itself around her body and heal the wound from James’s bullet.
As the darkness left the bodies of the possessed, it released the control she had over their minds, leaving them petrified and moronic. They became easy targets for the soldiers, who took full advantage to cut them down. The darkness, freezing and vicious in its form, came to her quickly, and before long, she was healed and whole again.
She threw all caution to the wind and made to pursue James, determined to punish him for what he had done. She cut through the buildings and grabbed a soldier, freezing him where he stood, and pouring one of the many demons that lived within her into his helpless form. He was instantly changed and ready to protect her, and she sent him ahead of her to find James Knight.
