Stone Cold Bastards

by Jake Bible

  “We barely got here,” Shandra said, looking disappointed. “The possessed have all the roads blocked. They’ve been hunting us for months now. As soon as we left our house in Kentucky, they were on us. We didn’t think they even knew we were there. I hadn’t seen signs of the possessed for a couple of years. But the well had run dry, and Tom had scavenged the last of the food for a hundred miles in all directions. We couldn’t stay.”

  “They had been waiting the whole time,” Morty said and nodded. “They do that. Surprised they didn’t hang outside your land and mock you. They do that too.”

  “They ambushed us less than a mile down the road,” Shandra said. “Tom stopped them. We’ve been running since. They attacked us with guns in Bristol, and Tom was able to carry us until we found that truck up in Johnson City, Tennessee. Made it this far before, well, you saw.”

  “He drives?” Morty asked. “How did he learn to drive?”

  “We’ve had a lot of time on our hands so I taught him,” Shandra said. “Our land was over two hundred acres. Plenty of space. Used to be a horse farm, but my dad bought it and turned it into an artist’s colony back in the seventies right before I was born. He carved Tom from a piece of granite he pulled right from the land. My whole life I thought he was merely a statue in our garden.”

  “Then the Gates of Hell opened and he woke up,” Morty said. “I know how it works. Except that you say your land was a sanctuary? How? Was there an old church there or something?”

  “The magic doesn’t come from religion, but from the soul of the Stonecutter,” Shandra said. “It is conveyed from the soul through the blood and into the stone. My father said he knew of old family legends of what he was and ancestors like him, but he never in a million years would have believed them to be true. Not until Tom shook himself awake and began talking.”

  Four slot machines went flying across the casino and through a wall.

  “I know I’m going to regret this, but could you let him talk again?” Morty asked. “His trashing the place is kinda distracting.” Morty patted the top of his head. “I’m not stupid, but I do literally have rocks for brains, so I’m trying to concentrate on what you’re telling me.”

  “Why?” Shandra asked.

  “Why what?” Morty replied.

  “Why are you trying to concentrate? What does it matter? You can’t get your medic here and Desiree can’t make a flight to your sanctuary. My daughter is going to die,” Shandra said and shivered. “Nothing to concentrate on.”

  “Yeah, I’m not going to let your daughter die,” Morty said. “I’m going to figure out a way to get Highlander’s butt out of the sanctuary and back here so he can save your daughter.”

  “You what?” Shandra exclaimed. “Why’d you change your mind?”

  Morty stood up and Tom was standing between him and Shandra before Morty could even work out a single kink in his battered stone body.

  “Chill,” Morty said. “I’m going to help, okay? Knock off the protector crap with me, will ya?”

  Shandra moved around Tom and placed a hand on Morty’s chest.

  “You figured it out,” Shandra said.

  “Took me a minute, but yeah,” Morty said, “I figured it out. Sometimes it skips a generation.”

  He looked over his shoulder at the last rays of sunlight and the horde of possessed hissing and growling outside in the parking lot.

  “If we are ever going to win this damn war, then we’ll need your daughter alive,” Morty said and looked back at Shandra then directly into the eyes of Tom. “After all, she is the last Stonecutter, isn’t she?”

  10

  HER SKIN MIGHT have been a deep brown like her mother’s, but as Morty stood over her, it was nothing but ashy pale, a sign that Desiree only had a few more hours to live. If that.

  “She’s beautiful,” Morty said without thought or hesitation. The girl’s face was lit and shadowed by the candlelight that flickered from several tapers that were stuck haphazardly about the bar’s backroom. “I didn’t think. . . . I didn’t think a human could be so beautiful. Not even Elisa . . .”

  “She isn’t human,” Shandra said then shook her head. “Or she is, but she’s also something else. I knew it the moment she was born. Desiree has always been different, always glowed with a power and light that transcended her humanity. Strangers would coo and smile at her when she was an infant. Teachers adored her and kids flocked to her.”

  “A little messiah,” Morty said. “But here to raise stone, not heal lepers.”

  “Something like that,” Shandra said. She pushed back a curl of hair from Desiree’s face and leaned in to put her cheek to the girl’s forehead. “She’s cold.”

  “I have blankets,” Tom said as he stood outside the bar’s backroom.

  His shoulders and wings were too wide for him to get through the doorway. He glared at Morty, obviously jealous that the grotesque could navigate the human world more easily. But the world was only slightly more accommodating to a G of Morty’s size.

  Morty continued to stare at Desiree as Shandra fetched the blankets from Tom. She came back and draped them across her daughter’s body, tucking them under to keep what little body heat the girl had trapped inside.

  “How old is she?” Morty asked. “Five? Eight?”

  “She’s twelve,” Shandra said and frowned at Morty. “Five?”

  “What do I know about human ages?” Morty responded. “You all look the same to me.”

  He said it in a way that was obviously a joke, but the statement still elicited a low growl of anger from Tom.

  Morty tore his eyes from the sleeping girl and glanced over at the fuming grotesque blocking the doorway.

  “When was the last time you went solid?” Morty asked. “It’s got to have been a while.”

  “What?” Tom asked. “I haven’t been solid since the Gates opened and woke me.”

  Morty didn’t bother hiding the shock from his face. It only pissed Tom off more.

  “What? What are you looking at?” Tom snapped. He waved a hand at Shandra and Desiree, cracking part of the doorjamb with his fist. “Why would I go solid when I have these two to protect? Is that what you do back at your sanctuary? Take naps while everyone else does the hard work?”

  “We all take naps,” Morty said. “Gs have to go solid every twenty-four to forty-eight hours or so, or we shut down and then we’re solid for days.”

  “Never happened to me,” Tom said. “Not once.”

  “That true?” Morty asked Shandra.

  “Of course it’s true,” Tom bellowed.

  “Tom. Stop it,” Shandra said as Desiree frowned in her sleep and made a quiet moan of irritation. “You’ll wake her.”

  “Sorry,” Tom said. He pointed at Morty. “You figured out how to get your medic here yet?”

  “Yeah, I think so,” Morty said. “I’m leaving.”

  “I’m sure you are,” Tom said.

  “I’ll be back, tough guy,” Morty said. “I have as much vested in this as you. With New York falling, we need a Stonecutter more than anything.”

  “New York?” Shandra responded. “It fell? How?”

  “Does it matter?” Morty said and continued as Shandra glared at him. “Demon trickery and human weakness, as always.”

  “We’d tried going north at first, but it was too dense with possessed,” Shandra said. “We stayed in a casino in Pennsylvania for a couple of months before turning back and heading south.”

  “Another casino?” Morty asked. “Why casinos?”

  “They’re protected,” Tom said.

  “Like this one?” Morty asked. “The possessed can’t get in any of the others either?”

  “Only the ones on reservations,” Shandra said. “Desiree figured it out. Or pointed us in the right di
rection. She can feel the holy spots. Something my dad used to do too, but he never knew why. Casinos like this are protected by the collective magic of the tribe. That’s my guess. I saw a newspaper clipping on the wall of one of the offices in the Pennsylvania casino showing how the whole tribe had come out for a blessing ceremony when the casino was first being built and then again on opening day.”

  “That explains it,” Morty said, shaking his head. “I always wondered why they wouldn’t come in here. Even when you ram a truck through the front doors.”

  “They will try,” Tom said. “Now that we are in here, they will try. The power and blood of the Stonecutter calls to them.”

  “So? They’ve tried to get into our sanctuary and they’ve failed every single time.” Morty chuckled. “The possessed are idiots.”

  “This is not a sanctuary,” Tom said. “It has no gargoyle to maintain the power. If they press, and they will, they will overcome the blessing and the magic will fail. They just do not know that yet.”

  “You need to move, Morty,” Shandra said. “Fast. Fetch your medical savant, or whatever he is, and get back here so he can save my daughter.”

  “It’s not quite that easy,” Morty said. “Highlander is not a normal kid. Trust me. His brain ain’t wired like other humans. Getting him to step outside the cathedral is going to take all my strength. Getting him to fly with me back here? He’s gonna have to be sedated.”

  “Then he can’t work on Desiree,” Shandra said. “He has to be sharp, focused.”

  “I told you it wouldn’t be easy,” Morty said. “That’s the logistics with Highlander. I’m not even taking into account the night snipers that will be shooting at us.”

  “Night scopes don’t work for the possessed,” Shandra said. “All the electronics.”

  “Doesn’t matter. They can see just fine in the dark. And if the night is clear? I’ll be a sweet target up there,” Morty replied. “I’ll need to stick to the shadows of the ridges which will take a while. You sure we can’t move her? If I can get her to the sanctuary, then we’ll save hours.”

  “Hours?” Tom snapped. “You fly as slow as you fight!”

  “Tom, please,” Shandra said. “He’s being honest.”

  “He’s being a coward,” Tom said, more to himself than to Shandra or Morty.

  “Call me all the names you want, pal,” Morty said, “but the reality is, I’m marked. Any move I make, the possessed are going to know it has something to do with the Stonecutter. The secret is out by now. You know how fast they communicate.”

  Shandra looked at Tom. “You could carry her. Take her up high, out of range of any rifle fire. You’re powerful enough that you can make the journey smooth.”

  “There is nothing smooth about flying,” Tom said as he shook his head. “No. The blood flows too freely. She will die in my arms.”

  “She’s going to die on that table,” Morty said, pointing at Desiree. “Listen, pal, you don’t know Highlander. You don’t know this area. I do. Even if I survive long enough to get the kid here without drugging his ass, he’ll still be a mental mess. Back in his element, he’s a genius. Out here? He’ll be a nightmare, no good to any of us. You have to trust me on this. Flying that girl makes sense. Good sense.”

  Tom started to argue, but closed his stone lips tight. He shook his head again then locked his eyes with Shandra’s.

  “We don’t have much of a choice,” Shandra said, staring until Tom looked away. “She’s nearly dead already.”

  “She won’t make the flight,” Tom said.

  “She won’t make it staying here,” Shandra said.

  “Shandra . . .” Tom growled. “You know I’m right.”

  “I’ll leave you two to work this out alone,” Morty said, sensing there was a lot more to their argument than what they were revealing. “This is obviously a family matter.”

  “Where the hell are you going?” Tom barked.

  “I’m going out there to watch the possessed. Get a feel for what they’re up to,” Morty said. “It’s gone kind of quiet. I hate it when they go quiet.”

  Tom and Shandra cocked their heads and realization dawned on both their features.

  “Didn’t notice that, did ya?” Morty said, smug in his confidence that he knew the casino, and the ever-present horde of possessed that surrounded it, better than they did. “Take five minutes, figure out what the next move is. When you know, come tell me and we’ll go from there.”

  Morty didn’t wait for a response. He walked to the doorway, glared up at Tom until the G stepped aside, then sauntered out of the bar and back to the main lobby where the wrecked truck still sat, taking up most of the entrance.

  Night had come, and the world outside was nothing but darkness. The possessed didn’t usually bother with torches or fires, but Morty could still easily make out their shapes as they milled about. He walked toward the truck then stopped. Something moved by the tailgate of the pickup.

  Morty squinted into the gloom, but found nothing which accounted for the movement. He squatted down and looked under the truck. Nothing there.

  A clank and rattle from behind him.

  “Oh, come on,” Morty said as he spun about.

  A few feet from a pile of broken slot machines was an empty beer bottle. It spun in a lazy circle, like a teenagers’ game, but minus any of the teenagers. Morty knew it was a trap. It was so obvious he almost laughed out loud. The problem was, who set the trap? The possessed couldn’t get inside.

  Could they?

  They never had before and what Shandra said about blessing ceremonies had made sense. The tribes drew from heavy earth magic. Whether they knew what they were doing or not, their mojo laid one hell of a whammy on the casino. In all his years, Morty had never seen one single possessed get closer than a few yards from the building.

  Collaborators? Was that it? Did they bring collaborators down from New York or wherever they kept the traitorous meatbags? Were the demons ready to play their hand like that now that the last Stonecutter had been revealed?

  Possibly. Probably.

  Morty walked to the bottle and stomped it into glass dust, his eyes searching the huge room for the source of the trap. He was ready, waiting for the attack to come. Again, nothing.

  “Come on,” Morty pleaded. “Make your move, pal.”

  There was a crunching from behind him and Morty glanced over his shoulder. Maybe the jerk had doubled back.

  He hadn’t.

  The crunching was from feet walking slowly across the shattered bulletproof glass of the front entrance. A hundred feet walking slowly. Fifty faces, all smiling, eyes dead and gleaming with possession, the demons inside looking happy and smug.

  “Crap,” Morty said as he realized the casino’s magic had failed finally. “Crap. Hey, guys!”

  The possessed were in no hurry. Step, crunch, step, crunch, step, crunch. On they came, weapons in hand, but hands held casually down at their sides. They had the numbers and Morty could tell by their attitude that they knew it.

  “Guys,” Morty shouted as he backed away from the entrance. He spread his wings, flexing them, getting them ready for flight or fight, whichever came first. Probably fight. “Guys! We have to go. Now!”

  The second the words came out of his mouth, he knew they were a mistake. He’d been playing the game a long time, so he knew better, but everything since the truck smashed into the casino had thrown him off. He wasn’t thinking like a protector because, technically, the humans in back of the bar weren’t his to protect. He’d help, yes, because sweet mother of all that was holy, it was the last Stonecutter.

  But they weren’t his wards, so his instincts were off. That was all there was to it.

  “No, wait,” Morty shouted as he heard feet coming his way. Human feet. “Shandra, go back!” />
  Tom had stayed with Desiree, as he should have. That left Shandra to come out and see what Morty was making all the noise about. The second she showed herself, the torches were lit and the casino became a dance of fire and shadow.

  “Close your eyes,” Morty yelled as he leapt at Shandra, knocking her to the floor.

  He was too late. He saw it in her eyes. Eyes that were perfectly human one moment, but then not so much the next. That’s all it took. For a possessed that was occupied by one of the higher demons to make eye contact with an unprotected human. The transfer was instantaneous.

  “Where am I?” a weak voice cried. The voice came from the human who had suddenly lost the parasite that had been living in her for years. “Oh, God, where am I?”

  The possessed around her laughed and the dispossessed woman began to weep and plead for someone to tell her where she was, what was happening, who they all were. They didn’t offer her any answers. Instead, they tore her apart.

  The blood and gore was for Morty’s benefit. Normally, the possessed wouldn’t have wasted a vessel like that, but they wanted him to see their cruelty. Not that he needed to see it. He felt it writhing underneath him as Shandra bucked against his stone form.

  “Hello, Mordecai,” a multi-toned voice said. “I have missed you.”

  Morty looked down to see that Shandra had three faces, not one. Her beautiful face was no longer hers, but of a handsome man, smiling with razor-sharp teeth. The other two faces, taking up each side of her head, were not handsome and were not human. One was a serpent’s face, tongue flicking out at Morty’s cheek. The other was of a cat, feline eyes narrowed and confident.

  The mouths spoke as one.

  “Valac was right,” the faces said. “Humankind’s last treasure is here, in this backwoods, inbred, podunk shithole of a casino. He had a feeling, a gut instinct, but none of us believed him. We were wrong, as always. Valac does know his job.”