“The stones,” David said flatly as he pointed his camera phone at a prominent blond, shaggy-haired politician he’d found tangled in the wreckage of a shiny bicycle. “Wherever they’re from, the stones are the key.”
Mina agreed. The stones had opened some kind of gate, but who had put them there? The monster she had killed outside the pharmacy mentioned ‘The Red Lord’. Was that the Devil? Or something worse? Was the giant creature she had glimpsed the Red Lord?
“I wish you hadn’t ruined your camera,” said David. “We’re alone out here and have the exclusive.”
Mina groaned. “It was my camera or my life, and we don’t have the exclusive. It’s happening to everybody, so there’s no need for anybody to report it.”
“Nonsense. People will be too terrified to understand what is going on. We have a chance here to gain evidence and try to help piece things together. You already have your theory about Hell coming to Earth—as silly as I may deem it—and we can see if it holds water.”
Mina took a moment to think about it. They were alone in the aftermath of a catastrophe, and perhaps there were ways to help, but, as she viewed the utter devastation of London, she felt powerless. She prodded the dead creature with her foot and grimaced when the toe of her boot came back sticky. The demons had attacked en masse and with complete surprise, but they could be hurt—and killed. They were ferocious and relentless, but as fragile as any human being. Maybe the Army and their guns could turn things around.
Mina’s phone rang and made both of them leap. David had spoken with their Slough office multiple times since they’d left the pharmacy, but Mina had completely forgotten about her own phone.
She answered the phone and heard her father’s barking voice on the other end. “Mina? Are you all right?”
“Yes, dad, I’m fine. I’m in London.”
“London? Bloody damn it, Mina, why are you always in trouble? You could be at home safe with children, but instead, you are out in the middle of everything.”
“I’m a journalist, dad.”
“You are not a journalist, Mina. You take your hobby too seriously. I could have lost you today because of your irresponsible behaviour. You need to come home right now. Get away from that city. There is fighting.”
“Yes, dad, I know. I saw it first-hand.”
“Bloody damn it. You are where it happened? How did you stay safe?”
“I hid.”
“Good girl. Now, I am wanting you home.”
“It’s not that easy, dad. Things are bad here.”
“That is why you must leave.”
“I have a job to do.”
“No, you do not.”
Mina sighed and gripped the phone tightly in her fist. “Yes, I do, dad. I’m standing in the middle of a thousand bodies, and it’s my job to do something to help. I’m not interested in being at home, raising children, and cooking dinner. I’m a journalist, so let me journalist…lise.”
“Mina, you do as I am saying.”
“I’m twenty-five years old. I’ll do what I say.” She put down the phone and switched it off, hands shaking.
“You okay?” David asked her.
She swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
David looked at her, the first time he hadn’t frowned or given her an order. “You were good on the phone. Didn’t take any nonsense. Attitude like that will take you places.”
Mina smiled. “Perhaps. More likely, my dad will make my life a living hell.”
“Hell is already here, so what have you got to lose?”
“Good point.”
Movement ahead. A man stepped out of an alleyway and headed towards them.
“Oh no,” said Mina.
David glanced at her. “What is it?”
Mina watched the racist thug heading towards them and felt her bladder loosen. “This guy is bad news.”
“Do you know him?”
“More than I would like?”
“Give me that phone, luv,” the man demanded once he was close.
“You forgot to say please,” said David, folding his arms.
There was blood down the racist’s white t-shirt, and when he looked at David, there was murder in his eyes. “What did you fucking say to me, mate?”
David shifted a little, but there was too much pride in him to back down. “Manners cost nothing, my friend. You want to borrow my colleague’s phone, then I suggest you ask nicely.”
“David, it’s fine. He can have my phone.”
The racist grinned spitefully. “There you go mate, your little slag doesn’t mind giving it up.”
David strode forward, wagging his finger. “Now look here you-”
The thug punched him around the side of the head so hard Mina thought his skull might have cracked. Unconscious, he flopped face first to the pavement with not even his arms to break his fall.
Mina yelped in shock.
The bald menace sneered at her. “You’re that Paki from earlier, ain’t ya?”
“I’m not a… I am English.”
“The fuck you are.”
“I was born in Wigan.”
“More like a fucking call centre in Mumbai.”
“Mumbai is in India, so how could I be a Paki?”
“You fucking cheeking me, slag?”
Mina swallowed, tried to find whatever it was she needed to stand up to this beast. “People are dead. You shouldn’t be attacking people. We all need to help one another.”
“Which is why I want your phone. Give it.”
Mina reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. She was about to hand it over when she caught sight of David, face down on the floor. Rather than scaring her, it made her angry. She placed the phone back in her pocket and shook her head. “It’s my phone and I’m not giving it to you. You try to touch me and I’ll scream. The monsters might come.”
“Oh, you’re going to give it to me, sweetheart, and you can scream all you like.” He lunged forward and grabbed her, threw all of his weight on top of her so that she fell backwards and struck the pavement. The wind escaped her lungs and the man grabbed her arms. He bent over her and started to lick and bite her neck like a panting dog.
“Stop it! David, help!”
David remained unconscious just three feet away.
“Never had a Paki before.” Her attacker nibbled at her earlobe. His fumbling hands went to the buttons on her jeans and popped the first one. “Gunna fuck the shite out of you, Paki.”
Terror got the best of Mina and she screamed.
The beast cut her off by smashing his fist into her mouth. “Shut it!”
He was just about to punch her again when a small red hole appeared in his windpipe, followed almost instantly by a piercing snap! He looked down at her with an expression of utter confusion. The little red dot on his windpipe leaked blood and air, making a gargling sound. He slumped sideways and collapsed to the pavement.
Mina clambered to her feet as quickly as she could, moaning in a mixture of fear and relief. She turned around and saw a group of men in jeans and sportswear—not much more than kids. One of them, a black lad in a luminous green beanie hat, held a smoking pistol in his hand turned sideways. “Racist motherfucker,” he muttered as he lowered the gun to his side.
Mina took a breath and said, “Y-you… you shot him. How…? Where did you get a gun?”
The lad gave her an odd look that made her feel stupid. “Ask me no questions, I tell me no lies. You all right, darlin’?”
“I… Yes. Thank you. You’re not going to hurt me, are you?”
The lad glanced back at his friends, who seemed to bristle at her comment. Then he looked again at Mina but didn’t seem happy. “I just saved your arse, luv, and you accuse me of bein’ a mugger and shit. I ain’t gunna hurt you. We ain’t even like that.”
“Oh,” said Mina. “It’s just that you all look so… scary.”
The lad looked down at his baggy jeans and black hoodie, then surprised h
er by chuckling. “Just how we do on the streets, innit? You dress how you want, and we dress how we wants. Just clothes, innit?”
“Thank you,” said Mina, truly meaning it this time. Her attacker lay dead at her feet, but she didn’t care one bit. There were lots of people dead today, and the racist bully was among the most deserving.
“What’s your name?” Mina asked her rescuer.
“Vamps.”
“Vamps?”
The lad gave her a wide grin, revealing his gold plated fangs. “Yeah, Vamps. These are my homies: Mass, Ravy, and Gingerbread.”
The other three men nodded silently. The one she assumed was gingerbread—due to the gingerbread man on his t-shirt—was a huge white guy with curly ginger hair.
Mina shook all of their hands. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”
“You need to be careful out here,” Vamps warned her. “There’s some heavy shit going down.”
“I know. I’m a journalist. David and I are trying to get out of the city. You should come with us.”
Vamps looked down at David, who was finally beginning to stir, and then back at her. “Nah, I’m sound, darlin’. These are my streets, d’you get me? Me and the boys are staying put, and any of them fucked-up, Freddy Krueger bitches wansta come take us on, they welcome. This is our manor and ain’t nothing gonna bowl up and make a mess of it. You take care, darlin’. Next time, just hand over your phone, innit? And ‘ere, take this.” He pulled a thin black stick out of his belt and tossed it Mina’s way.
She caught the object and saw that it was a metal police baton. The weight of it in her hands felt deadly, and she immediately felt safer. She couldn’t help it, she hugged Vamps as he was about to leave. “You’re a hero,” she told him.
Vamps eased her away, looking awkward. “Easy now. I ain’t no hero. Don’t you go writin’ ‘bout me in your paper. I ain’t news friendly.”
Mina nodded. “I promise. Take care.”
“You too.”
Then the group of young men disappeared, merging into the side streets as if they were a part of the city itself. The spirit of London had just saved her.
David managed to sit up and rub at his head. He saw the racist thug lying dead on the pavement, and then he looked up at Mina. “What the hell happened?”
Mina helped her colleague up and told him, “You wouldn’t believe me. There are angels in this city as well as demons.”
***
“Did you hear something?” David asked Mina about an hour later. Since setting off again, they hadn’t encountered another soul. Mina had secretly been hoping to run into Vamps and his gang again, but they were long gone. David listened to her story about the young man’s heroics, and was upset that she hadn’t kept the lad around for an interview. He’d been grumpy ever since waking up, and it was hardly surprising, considering the angry red lump on the side of his head where the thug had punched him. He’d also grazed his forehead on the pavement when he fell. Mina, herself, had a fat lip.
“I said did you hear that?”
Mina clutched the police baton Vamps had given her and raised it by her side. “I don’t know what it was, but maybe it’s a bad idea, us being out in the open like this.”
“Perhaps you’re right.”
The noise came again, and this time Mina spotted movement. It came from the top floor of a double decker bus. Someone was staring out of the window.
“Oh god,” said Mina. “There’s a kid up there.”
David looked up at where she was pointing and gasped. “My word.”
“I’ll go get him.” Mina hurried, but then slowed down. The last thing the poor kid needed was someone sprinting towards him with a weapon. She reached the bus and climbed the steps carefully. The seats on the lower deck were all empty and the driver’s compartment door hung wide open.
“Hello? You don’t have to be afraid. My name is Mina.”
The sound of scurrying feet came from above her head, but no voice in reply. She worried what she had seen only looked like a child, but might have been something else—another racist bully, or a demon. She hated having to have the police baton at the ready, but she lifted it now and was more than prepared to use it as she headed up the stairwell behind the driver’s compartment. When she reached the top deck of the bus, she saw more empty seats. Litter and abandoned possessions littered the floor, including a fat wallet with cash poking out of it.
A thatch of brown hair rose above the back of a seat, and a young boy peered at her.
“Hey there, little guy. Are you hurt?”
No reply. The staring eyes scrutinised her.
“My name is Mina. What’s your name?”
“Don’t come any closer.”
“It’s okay.” She took another step, despite the boy’s warning, and this prompted him to leap out at her and wave a claw hammer in her face. “I said step back.”
Upon closer inspection, the boy wasn’t so young—a teenager in fact, and probably as tall as she was. She took a step back. “I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to see if you’re okay.”
When the boy spoke again, she noticed his American accent. “I’m fine,” he snapped. “Just leave us be.”
Mina frowned. “Us?”
A girl popped up from behind another of the seats. Unlike her older brother, she had golden blonde hair. “Kyle? Is she another monster?”
“No, Alice. She’s just a normal lady, but she’s going now.”
“I don’t want her to go.”
“We have to stay here, where it’s safe.”
“It’s safer if you come with us,” said Mina.
The boy pulled a face. “Out there? Everybody’s dead.”
“I want to go home,” Alice moaned.
Kyle placed an arm around her. “I know you do, Ally, but home is far away. We have to keep ourselves safe. I’ll look after you, I promise.”
There was the sound of footfalls coming up the stairs, making them all fret, but it was only David. He rounded the last few steps and entered the upper deck. “Crikey,” he said when he saw them all standing there. “Two children? How did you both survive?”
“We hid,” said Kyle, puffing out his chest. “We were on a school field trip—my entire grade plus a few from the grades below. We were all headed to the zoo, but we got attacked by a bunch of monsters. All our friends and teachers are dead. Only reason we got away is cus I had to take care of my sister. I got her and ran. One of our teachers was with us for a while, but he left us.”
Mina gasped. “He left you?”
“Yeah, more of those monsters came at us from down an avenue and Mr Campbell ran into an alleyway. We didn’t have a chance to follow him, so we hid inside a store—that’s where I got this hammer—but then the store caught on fire and we had to run again. Alice spotted this bus, and that’s where we’ve been for hours.”
“We need to get you out of the city,” said Mina. “David and I will protect you. We won’t run away on you like your teacher did. Will we, David?”
“What? Oh, no, of course not. You’re safe with us, lad. We’re journalists.”
Alice looked at her brother like a hungry kitten. “Please, Kyle. I don’t want to stay on this bus anymore. The monsters are all gone. We watched them leave.”
“I think it’s safe for now,” Mina assured them. “The monsters seemed to have gone someplace else.”
Kyle huffed. “Yeah, but where? They didn’t just vanish.”
“Which is why you need to come with us,” she said. “It’s getting dark, and the monsters could be back any minute. You’d be all alone out here if they do.”
Alice whimpered.
Kyle’s expression lost some of its confidence, and the hammer he held so confidently lowered to his side. “Okay, we’ll come with you folks, but only if you promise to get us back home to America. No offence, but London sucks balls.”
Mina laughed. “It’s certainly seen better days. Good to meet you, Kyle and Alice. This is my col
league, David, and I’ve already told you that my name is Mina.”
“Pleased to meet you,” said Alice, offering out her little hand and shaking Mina’s.
“Are we ready?” David asked impatiently
Kyle raised his hammer and nodded. “I want to get my sister home.”
***
They had headed east through Mayfair, planning on using the first working car they came across, but they were yet to find an area where the traffic hadn’t snarled up into an impassable wall at every intersection.
Hyde Park was ahead, Marble Arch sat just a little way off in the distance. For now it was as good a place as any to head, so that’s where they went.
“They say that’s where you used to hang people,” said Kyle, a macabre grin on his face.
David returned the boy’s smile. “That’s right, lad. They called it Tyburn in those days, and the elm trees here were used to execute condemned men. The most famous of them all, the Tyburn Tree, used to be at the site where Marble Arch now sits. Executions were entertainment.”
Alice looked horrified. “They used to enjoy watching people die?”
“They don’t anymore. Great Britain doesn’t execute people in this day and age. America would be wise to follow our lead. It’s uncivilised.”
“America is the greatest country in the world,” said Kyle.
“For now, yes,” David conceded. “But the British Empire once ruled the world, and look at it now. All great empires are destined to eventual mediocrity and extinction. No dynasty lasts forever. Before the British Empire, there was the Ottoman Empire, and before that, the Holy Roman Empire. Before that-”
“We get the point,” said Mina. “I think what David is trying to tell you, Kyle, is that you should never think yourself better than anybody else. We’re all just people, and we should stick together. Especially now.”
Kyle chewed at the inside of his cheek and seemed to consider the lesson being taught to him, which Mina thought was pretty level headed for a teenage boy.
“I like England,” said Alice. “Even with the monsters. I like all the big statues and the palaces. America should have a King instead of a president. Presidents are rubbish.”
“My mum says they’re all crooks,” Kyle added.
Mina smiled. “Are you sure you can’t remember your mother’s telephone number, Kyle? It would be good to call her.”
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