by N. P. Martin
“Hey,” Frank said, raising his hands. “Just move the barriers, will you? It’s been a long night. Lot of crazy stuff happening out there, you know?”
“Yeah,” the soldier said, raising his weapon slightly. “Crazy stuff. What unit you from?”
“Unit?” Frank had no idea what to say to that. He shook his head, looked straight out the window, got ready to gun the truck forward and smash through the barriers ahead.
Then Michelle spoke. “Hey,” she said to the soldier as she leaned across towards Frank. When the soldier looked at her, Michelle’s gaze seemed to intensify and Frank frowned at her, wondering what the hell she was doing. She spoke slowly, deliberately. “Wave to your men and tell them to move the barriers. Everything is fine. We’re just two fellow soldiers carrying out orders. There’s no problem here. There is no problem here.”
The soldier frowned slightly, looked almost confused for a second, then he nodded and signaled to the other soldiers to pull the barriers out of the way, which they did immediately. “No problem here,” the soldier said, smiling at Michelle. “Move out.”
Frank was staring at the soldier when Michelle punched him on the leg. “You heard the man. Move out.”
“Yeah,” Frank said. “Sure. Move out.” He put the truck in gear and drove past the other soldiers. When he got past them, he looked in the side mirror and saw the soldier he’d been talking to still standing in the road, staring after the truck.
Michelle sat casually in her seat, looking out the windshield.
“What was that weirdness?” Frank asked. “Was that mind control?”
“Training at the Facility has advanced since your day,” she said. “Grace training includes mind control techniques now, as well as telekinesis, pyro kinesis, teleportation and lots of other wild stuff. None of it is perfected yet, not by a long shot, but the basics are there.”
“Lots of us have tried that stuff before. We could never get it to work. Thought only the demons had those powers.”
“They work if you bring science into it. Some of us were injected with a new serum that facilitates greater use of our powers. Even so, it takes a lot of practice. I’ll teach you—” She stopped dead as soon as Frank drove the truck around a corner.
“What the fuck?” Frank said and slammed on the breaks. Just yards away from the truck there was a huge crowd of people, scores of them, and they all looked to be fighting one another. Frank had never seen anything like it. Everyone on the street either had weapons of some kind, or were using their bare hands to try and kill the nearest person to them. Michelle and Frank could only watch as people got brutally stabbed, bludgeoned with metal bars and hammers, got punched to death, kicked to death, had their eyes gouged out with fingers and thumbs, had lumps bitten out of them. The worst part of it all was that everyone involved seemed to be in the grip of some violent rage. Their faces were so contorted by anger, hatred and aggression that they each looked hideous, monstrous. Even the ones who were getting killed still maintained their look of pure violent rage right to the end.
“Fucking go back, Frank!” Michelle said.
He couldn’t help being shaken up by the intensity of the horrific violence in front of him. That, coupled with the fact that he was unfamiliar with driving the army truck, made his hand fumble for and then slip of the gear stick as he went to put the truck in reverse. “Shit!”
By the time he was able to grip the gear stick again, it was too late. The crowd had noticed them and at least a dozen of them broke away and charged like mad dogs towards the truck. “Frank!” Michelle shouted. “Get us to fuck out of here please!”
“I’m trying!” He finally got the gear stick into the proper position, but by then three of the crazy people were on the bonnet of the truck. One of them managed to punch through the windshield like it wasn’t even there.
Michelle didn’t hesitate. She raised the M16 and fired a single shot at the heavyset man who had punched through the glass. The shot hit the man in the leg and he went tumbling of the truck onto the road. The other two people, a man and woman, started battering at the windshield, trying to break it in.
Then something thudded against the door on Frank’s side. It was another crazy from the street. The man was slavering as he punched at the window, finally shattering the glass. Before Frank could get to his gun, the man was clawing at Frank, trying to insert himself into the truck. Frank punched the guy in the face, the punch loaded with bad grace, and the guy went flying back onto the road, bouncing back to his feet almost immediately.
What the fuck? Frank thought. What’s wrong with these people?
Within seconds the truck was surrounded by the crowd outside as they swarmed around it like a pack of rabid dogs, snarling and eager to get at Frank and Michelle to rip them apart it seemed.
Michelle was shooting through the by now caved in windshield. Frank had his Beretta out and was firing at people who were trying to rip the door of the truck. Some of the crazies stayed down after getting shot, but most didn’t. Most of them came running back like nothing had happened.
“There’s too damn many!” Frank shouted as he put a bullet in a crazy who was trying to crawl through where the windshield used to be.
Michelle hit a crazy woman in the face with the butt of the M16, knocking the woman of the passenger side door. “I know!”
“Now would be a good time to try those teleportation powers of yours!”
After kicking a teenage boy in the face, Michelle grabbed on to Frank’s leg.
“We’re still here!” Frank reminded her as he ran out of bullets.
“I’m trying!”
There were crazy people all over the truck like a swarm of bees, the only thing slowing them down from getting a hold of Frank and Eva being the fact that there were so many of them and they kept getting in each other’s way.
Hands were gripping them now. Clawing them. Scratching them. Pulling them.
“Michelle!”
The second Frank said her name he found himself lying somewhere else completely.
They weren’t in the truck anymore.
“Thank Christ,” he breathed. “Nice job on the teleporting. Although you had me worried for a second there.
“It’s a new skill,” Michelle said. “I’m still working on it.”
Frank stood up and looked around at the old warehouse buildings surrounding them. “You’re co-ordinates were slightly off. I was expecting to land outside the factory doors.”
Michelle was on her feet. “I’ll try harder next time,” she said sarcastically.
“Relax.” Frank smiled. “I was just kidding. You definitely have your father’s sense of humor, which is to say, none.”
Michelle looked put out, if a little offended. “I can do humor.”
Frank shook his head at her. “You can do humor, huh?” He laughed.
“Maybe after we stop the apocalypse from happing, I might tell you a joke.”
“Well, that’s one joke I can’t wait to hear.”
She smiled, her normally hardened expression softening for a second. “You’ll laugh, I promise.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it,” Frank said. “But at you or the joke, that remains to be seen.”
Michelle shook her head but kept her smile. “Whatever. I got us to the warehouse district. Never mind about my comedic potential.”
“That you did.”
“You ever see anything like that back there?”
“Nope, but I have a feeling their violent behavior had something to do with the fact that they had no souls.”
“And that’s down to this demon we’re here for? Krakus?”
Frank nodded. “Just one of the many reasons he needs to be stopped.”
“What with?” Michelle asked. “We have no weapons. I have my knife. That’s it. We need a plan before going into that factory.”
Frank looked around, trying to orientate where the old meat factory was. “Well,” he said beginning to walk, Michelle alongside
him. “We have until we reach the factory to think of one.”
“Preferably one that isn’t going to get us killed,” she said.
CHAPTER 26
It took about twenty minutes for them to make their way through the warehouse district to get to the old meat factory. On the way, they discussed plans and possible tactics. Neither of them came up with anything that you would call solid. When you’re dealing with demons, no matter what your plan is, things always got dangerous. The more powerful the demon, the more dangerous things got. Krakus was a mid-level demon and therefore pretty powerful. Not click his fingers and you would explode into tiny pieces powerful, but powerful enough. The only way to insure yourself against a powerful demon was to have the upper hand on them somehow. This could mean employing certain spells or forms of magic against them, or it could mean using powerful weapons against them, such as the Watcher knife. Surprise was always a good tactic, as with any enemy. So was overwhelming force via superior numbers. Of course, Nephilim like Frank and Michelle also had their own not inconsiderable powers to use, but those powers barely levelled the playing field against the more powerful demons. All of which meant that Frank was taking a risk in confronting Krakus again. More than that, he was putting his dead friend’s only daughter at risk for personal gain. Sure, the soul stealing rituals had to stop, but Frank was under no illusions about his motives for being there at that factory.
“Okay,” Frank said as they stood around the side of the factory. “There’s no easy way to do this. We have no weapons apart from the knives, and there’s only two of us.”
Michelle threw her head back, stood tall. “We’re Watcher’s, they’re demons,” she said. “We keep them in line, right?”
Frank half smiled. “You sound like Jack.”
“You knew my father. He believed in what we do.”
“Yeah, he did.”
“So how we going to do this?”
“I go in the front door, alone. Hopefully I can distract them long enough for you to teleport in and use your knife on Krakus.”
“That’s your plan? I don’t even know if I can teleport again. I told you, it’s new to me. I don’t have a handle on it yet.”
“Well, you’d better try,” Frank said. “I’m assuming Krakus is in there with his two sidekicks. They’ll kill us both if we just walk in the front door.”
“What about you then? They’ll kill you surely.”
Is it worth the risk, Frank? Possibly getting killed just to bring me back?
“I don’t die that easy,” Frank said, trying to convince himself as much as her. “Just give me two minutes and then get in there, alright?”
Michelle didn’t look happy with what he was proposing, but she nodded anyway.
Frank left her at the side of the building and went around the front, hoping Krakus hadn’t upped his security since the last assault. As it was, Frank saw no one as he came around the front of the factory. The double doors were wide open and Frank walked into the darkness inside, grace beaming from his hand, allowing him to see where he was going. A moment later he had reached the door to the big room where he knew Krakus would be. He could already hear the demon in the midst of the ritual, Krakus’s voice low and full of dark intent.
After taking a moment to steady his nerves and focus his brain—wishing at the same time that he had his hip flask on him—Frank pushed the doors open and went inside the room.
He was surprised to see Krakus sitting alone in the circle of black candles in the center of the big room. Frank barely acknowledged the naked unconscious bodies strewn haphazardly all across the floor. No doubt it was too late for them anyway. Their souls would already be taken to Hell. “Hey!” he shouted, snapping Krakus out of whatever trance he was in. “Remember me? It’s your buddy, Frank.”
As Frank started stepping through the bodies on the floor, not really worrying if he trod on them or not, Krakus stared at him, eyes blazing red. The demon looked furious for a second, then he laughed. “Once again, Watcher, you’re too late. Everyone here is soulless now.”
“Not everyone,” Frank said as he continued to pick his way through the floor of naked flesh, trying not to be too disconcerted by the sheer number of bodies around him. There seemed twice as many as before.
“Keep telling yourself that,” Krakus said, having made no movement to get to his feet yet. Instead, he merely sat cross-legged while Frank drew closer. “One day you might believe it.”
Ouch, Frank. That had to hurt.
Frank stopped about six feet away from the still sitting demon. “Look, Krakus,” he said, hoping Michelle was going to show very soon. “I don’t care about you—”
The demon cut him off before Frank could continue with his not so subtle ruse to stall for time. “Then why are you here? For this?” Krakus picked up the long feather from the bowl of blood, its pristine whiteness unsoiled by any blood stains, as if the blood just ran off it leaving no trace.
Frank swallowed as he tried to stay casual and not fixate on the feather, even though that’s exactly what he wanted to do, almost like he was under the feather’s spell. Where is Michelle? he thought. “I’m not here about that. I’m just here to talk.”
Krakus waved the feather at him. “Come now, Frank. I can feel your wanton need from here. What do you want it for?”
“I told you, I’m just here to talk. Tell me about Tolloch.”
The demon’s eyes narrowed as his lips curled slightly. “I see you’ve been digging.”
“I know he’s your boss. You’re just a small player in a bigger game. That’s why I don’t give a shit about you.”
Krakus leapt to his feet, the feather still in his hand. His true demon face was now in full view, huge mouth open, twitching the tusks on the side of his jaws. “I’m sick of you, Watcher,” he said, his voice so deep and gravelly Frank could hardly make out the words. The demon’s intent though, was quite clear, even if his words were not. “Time to die!”
Before Frank could make a move, the demon shot out an arm towards him. A second later, it felt to Frank like a steel vice had been clamped around his neck, pressing in from every side, making it impossible for him to breathe.
Then he found himself lifting off the floor as Krakus telekinetically held him in suspension. The pressure around his neck was so forceful and so sudden that he could barely think as he hung in midair, his head feeling like it was about to explode at any second. He could only stare down at the demon below, helpless.
Then, just before the blackness rushed in to meet him, Frank saw Michelle suddenly appear behind Krakus and then he saw, or thought he saw, Michelle stick her knife into the back of the demon’s head. After that, the blackness took Frank away.
“Frank! Frank! Wake up, Frank!”
His eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright, unsure of where he was or who was kneeling beside him. He drew his head back to look at the person. Such blonde hair. Such a beautiful face. An angel? He can’t be dead…
“It’s Michelle, Frank. Are you with me?”
Michelle. Of course. “What—” He had to stop when he felt a rush of blood to his head that almost made him faint. He felt hands on his back as Michelle steadied him.
“Krakus was about to kill you,” Michelle said.
Krakus. Of course. The demon that held him up in the air and who was about to break his neck. That Krakus. “Shit,” Frank said, remembering. Then he froze. The feather. He looked around to where the circle of candles was, at the hollow meat suit that used to house Krakus. He couldn’t see any sign of the feather.
“Looking for this?” Michelle held the feather in front of her and he reached out to grab it. She pulled it away so he couldn’t reach it. “Come on, Frank. Why else would you be here, risking your life? Certainly not to stop Krakus, not when we could have been trying to stop his boss instead.”
Frank sighed. “It’s important I have that. That’s all you need to know for now.”
Michelle stared at him a moment. �
�I risked my ass to get this. Saved your ass in the process. You owe me an explanation, at least.”
“And you’ll get one,” Frank said nodding. “Just not now. Please.”
She handed him the feather, said, “I hope it was worth all the effort to get it, especially when there’s a city out there that needs us.” She stood up and began to walk through the bodies on the floor, all of whom would be waking up soon, every one of them capable of causing much destruction and mayhem, not to mention murder.
A wave of shame came over Frank after hearing Michelle’s last words. She was right. There was a city out there about to go under and here he was, running personal errands. Despite the guilt that cut into him like a knife, he couldn’t help feeling pleased and vaguely excited when he looked at the feather he now held in his hand.
Redemption was now within his grasp and he didn’t know whether to feel happy or terrified by that.
CHAPTER 27
Before he left the factory, Frank phoned Lucas. “It’s me,” he said. “I’ve got what you want.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line, then Lucas said, “I’m very glad to hear that.”
“You find out what I need to know?”
“I did. You’ll know everything when I have the feather.”
“Well, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait on that. I have to try and find a way to stop this city from going to hell first.”
“Tell me where you are,” Lucas said. “We could meet and—”
“No,” Frank said, cutting him off. “The feather stays with me until I’m ready to hand it over.”
A tight sigh came down the line. “Try not to get killed in the meantime. I don’t fancy another hunting expedition.”
Frank shook his head. “Jesus, to hear you, anyone would think you risked your ass to get the damn thing.”
“Just be careful with it,” Lucas said and then hung up the phone.
