by Bill Myers
I felt something on my own stomach. I looked down and saw one crawlin’ up me, too. “Wake me up,” I shouted. “Get me outta here!”
“We can’t.” Stephie said. You could hear the emotion in her voice. “You’ve got to do it yourself or it could damage your limbic system.”
I watched the first one move up my chest. It was slimy, wart-covered and had a nasty overbite.
“I don’t care what it damages. I don’t want these things in me!”
There was no answer.
“Hello? Anybody?”
Cowboy came back on. “Miss Brenda? Will you pray with me?”
“What!?”
“We got the power. We got the authority.”
“Cowboy!”
“All we got to do is use it.”
The thing had reached the base of my neck. I heard its fangs gnashing and clicking. I clenched my jaw shut. Shouted through gritted teeth: “Anything! Just do it!”
“All right, then,” he said. “Demons of hell—”
It crawled up my neck.
“—I command you by the authority of Jesus Christ—”
Now it was on my chin—claws poking and prodding, looking for an opening.
“—leave!” Cowboy shouted. “Go!”
Nothing happened.
“Miss Brenda, you got to agree with me. Brenda?”
I swallowed and gave a hm-mm, which was about all I could come up with. And it was about all I needed. ’Cause when Cowboy shouted, “Go!” again, something happened. Something brushed against my face. Wind, but harder. At the same time I heard a smack and saw the thing flying off, squealing as it fell into the tunnel.
The others that had been following it up my chest froze. But Cowboy wasn’t done.
“Do you hear me?” he shouted. “In the name of Jesus Christ, I order you to leave!”
Their heads swiveled, eyes filled with panic.
“All of you! Leave! Now!”
I felt another blast of wind. Heard the things shrieking and screaming as they got swept off, tumbling into the darkness.
But they didn’t leave Chad. When I turned to him I saw a line of ‘em continuing to run up his chest and leap into his mouth.
“Cowboy,” I shouted. “What about Chad? You’ve got to—”
Stephie interrupted. “You’re at level now. Take a breath. Force yourself to wake.”
“But—”
“Now! Hurry!”
I did like she said. I took a breath and made my eyes open. The light was bright, but there was Andi and Cowboy staring down at me. It took some doing, but I turned my head toward Chad in the other chair. He was anything but dead. His body twisted and fought against the restraints, his eyes bulging.
“I thought—” my throat was dry as sand. “I thought he was dead.”
Cowboy explained as Andi removed the sensors. “We did like you said. We kept up the CPR. But then . . .” He didn’t finish.
Stephie stood beside Chad, stroking his head, trying to calm him, but he would have none of it. “We read about this in the Army logs,” she said. “We knew it was a risk, but we never—”
“Read about what?” I asked.
“Sometimes the subjects—” she tried to be calm and brave, but that’s hard when someone is snapping and snarling at you like a wild animal. “Sometimes they returned with severe mental illness.” She looked down at him. “Schizophrenia. Or worse.”
“That ain’t schizophrenia,” Cowboy said. “That’s demons.”
“Demons?” Andi repeated.
“That’s what was attacking Miss Brenda.”
They looked to me and I answered. “It was something.”
“But she’s okay,” Stephie said. “How come she’s okay and Chad, he’s—”
“Cause I took authority,” Cowboy said. “Miss Brenda agreed and I used my authority to—”
“Then I’ll do it,” she said, “with Chad.”
“I don’t think that’s such a—”
She turned to the kid and shouted, “Demons!”
“Miss Stephie, I don’t—”
“I command you to leave Chad.”
No response. Just more snarling and snapping.
“Like I said—” Cowboy came to a stop as Chad’s eyes flew open.
“Chad!” Stephie cried. “You’re back.” She threw her arms around him.
He opened his mouth, tried to say something.
“What?” she said. She lowered her ear to his lips.
He tried again, a low, raspy whisper.
“Yes!” she said. “Until you’re stronger, of course I’ll take them. Then we can both find a way to—”
“Miss Steph—!”
But Cowboy was too late. She gave a startled cry. Her head flew back. Her eyes widened and she began choking.
“Stephie?” Andi shouted.
“No,” Chad wheezed, trying to talk. “That wasn’t me.”
“Miss Stephie, are you—”
“A trick.” Chad coughed. “They tricked her—”
Stephie cut him off with a scream—more like a howl, deep and from her gut. Then she doubled over, gagging, holding herself up by the medical cart between me and Chad.
“It’s them,” Cowboy shouted. “They’ve left him and gone into her.”
“Do something!” I yelled. “Cowboy, do—”
“In the name of Jesus.” He stepped toward her. “In the name of Jesus Christ, I—”
She came up fast, medical tray in hand. She slammed it hard into his face. Harder than a person her size could swing. Cowboy staggered backward. Andi tried to catch him, but was no match for his weight. They fell to the ground, Cowboy thumping his head on the tile floor. Not bad, but enough to leave him dazed.
“Tank!” Andi shouted to him. “Are you all right?”
Meanwhile Stephie bolted out the door. Out the door and out the building.
“Stop her!” Chad shouted. “Before they—” He broke into a coughing fit. Tried to move, but the sensors and restraints held him down.
I threw my feet over the side of my recliner and rose. Things went white a moment and I had to reach out and steady myself. Andi stayed on the floor helping Cowboy as Chad kept yelling, “Stop her! Somebody!”
I finally got my head clear enough to stumble out of the room. My sprained ankle didn’t help. “Stephie!”
Outside, the late afternoon sun blinded me, but I caught movement near the highway and limped after her. “Stephie!”
She heard my voice as she reached the highway and stopped and turned.
“Come back in,” I yelled. “Let Cowboy help. We all can—”
Her voice was deep and guttural. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”
The tone gave me chills and I slowed to a stop.
“You think you can stop us?” she said.
I cleared my throat. “Stop who?”
“Have you not read your own scriptures?” Before I could answer, her face twisted with pain. “Help me.” It was Stephie’s voice. “Please. Help—” She stooped over, like she was fighting something, then rose with the other voice. “Continue down this path and your fate will be no different than your partner’s.”
“My part—Are you talking about the professor?”
An approaching eighteen-wheeler hit its horn—the driver obviously not thrilled with someone standing so close to his lane. Stephie turned to it, then back to me. An ugly smile filled her face. More like a leer.
My mind raced, fearing the worse. I started toward her. “No, Stephie. Don’t. Whatever you’re thinking—”
She turned back to the truck. It was coming fast, horn blasting.
“No!”
She sprinted toward it.
“Steph—”
She darted into its lane. The driver hit the brakes, wheels screeching, smoke rolling off its tires.
If she screamed, I didn’t hear. The semi hit her. Dead center. It threw her into the air. She hit the pavement, bouncing like a dol
l—until the left front tire caught up and rolled over her.
Chad’s scream drifted out of the building. “Stephie!” He hadn’t seen what happened, but somehow he knew. And even where I stood, you could hear his agony. “Stephie . . .”
Chapter 16
“You sure you ladies are gonna be okay?” Cowboy asked as he tossed Andi’s backpack into the rear seat of my car.
“No worries,” I said. “Stephie got the hose patched up good enough to get us to town. We’ll get it repaired there.”
“Or scrap it,” Cowboy joked.
“Not this baby.” I opened the door and climbed in. “It’s a collector’s piece. Can’t buy nothing like this at a car dealership.”
“She’s got a point,” Andi said, fighting to open the passenger’s door. Cowboy joined in and after two or three tugs it cooperated with a sickening groan.
“We’ll have them look at that, too,” I said.
Andi climbed in, looked back at the lab. “It kills me to know you’re going to completely destroy the place.”
Chad leaned down to her open window. “Not destroy it. Dismantle it. I’ll probably get fifteen, maybe twenty grand for all the stuff.”
“But the research, the possibilities. I mean, it brought us to the Gate.”
“We don’t need the occult to get there,” Cowboy said, “not if we’re workin’ for the good guys.”
“You keep using that word, occult,” I said. “What’s the difference between that and what we’re doin’?’”
“We’re using our God-given gifts. The occult is when you try to barge into the supernatural on your own.”
Chad agreed. “And with gifts like mine, who needs to barge?”
Andi turned away from him, rolling her eyes. It had been seventy-two hours since we lost Stephie. Chad had been mostly silent and sullen. When we offered to stay and help with the cremation and all, he said it wasn’t necessary. But we all noticed he didn’t put up much of a fight when we insisted. And later, when we helped pack her stuff to send to her folks, I saw him slip her white stocking cap into his coat pocket. I didn’t say nothing. I knew he knew.
But all good things come to an end, and slowly, his pain-in-the-butt ego was resurfacing.
“Sorry we never found your professor friend,” he said. I nodded. But he wasn’t done. “’Course if I was on my own, it would have been a different matter. But having to hang back and show you the ropes definitely cramped my style.”
Andi and I traded looks, wondering what reality the kid was visiting now.
“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry for being such a bother.”
“It happens,” he said. “No worries.”
Seriously? He’d not caught my sarcasm?
“What about our bosses,” Andi asked him. “The Watchers? Any message you want us to deliver to them?”
“Tell them I may reconsider. If their offer is good enough, I may be willing to talk.”
“Offer?” Cowboy said. “As in pay?”
“Naturally. A person would be crazy to do this stuff for free.”
We all got silent. Andi might have coughed a little.
He just looked at us. “You’re kidding me, right?”
We didn’t say a word—which we were finding wasn’t so necessary around him.
He shook his head. “Amazing. You guys are amazing”
I fired up the car. “Saving the world?” I called out to him. “That ain’t enough for you?”
“Not even close.”
I shook my own head and ground the gears ’til I found first.
“Drive safe,” Cowboy said. “And give Daniel a howdy for me.”
“Will do,” I called.
“You boys behave yourselves,” Andi said.
“Don’t worry about us, sweet cheeks,” Chad said. We’ll have this place cleared in a week—with plenty of time to take this good ol’ boy of yours into town and show him a thing or two.”
“I wouldn’t be taking any bets on that,” I shouted through the window as I pulled up to the highway.
“That’s right,” Andi called back to them. “He and the good Lord may have a thing or two to show you.”
“Amen!” I shouted.
We laughed and waved goodbye as we turned onto the highway. It was supposed to be a joke. But when I glanced into the rearview mirror, I saw Cowboy nodding thoughtfully and slapping his big hand on Chad’s shoulder.
I had to smile. Chad Thorton had no idea what was in store for him.
Then again, I guess none of us did.
Don’t miss the other books in the Harbingers series which can be purchased separately or in collections:
CYCLE ONE: INVITATION
The Call
The House
The Sentinels
The Girl
CYCLE TWO: MOSAIC
The Revealing
Infestation
Infiltration
The Fog
CYCLE THREE: The Probing
Leviathan
The Mind Pirates
Hybrids
The Village
Other Books By Bill Myers
NOVELS
Child’s Play
The Judas Gospel
The God Hater
The Voice
Angel of Wrath
The Wager
Soul Tracker
The Presence
The Seeing
The Face of God
When the Last Leaf Falls
Eli
Blood of Heaven
Threshold
Fire of Heaven
NON-FICTION
The Jesus Experience—Journey Deeper into the Heart of
God
Supernatural Love
Supernatural War
CHILDREN BOOKS
Baseball for Breakfast (picture book)
The Bug Parables (picture book series)
Bloodstone Chronicles (fantasy series)
McGee and Me (book/video series)
The Incredible Worlds of Wally McDoogle
(comedy series)
Bloodhounds, Inc. (mystery series)
The Elijah Project (supernatural suspense series)
Secret Agent Dingledorf and His Trusty Dog Splat
(comedy series)
TJ and the Time Stumblers (comedy series)
Truth Seekers (action adventure series)
TEEN BOOKS
Forbidden Doors (supernatural suspense)
Dark Power Collection
Invisible Terror Collection
Deadly Loyalty Collection
Ancient Forces Collection
For a complete list of Bill’s books, sample chapters, and newsletter signup go to www.Billmyers.com Or check out his Facebook page: www.facebook.com/billmyersauthor.
