by SD Tanner
“What’s the point of having arty if we know the weapons aren’t gonna work?”
“If we get the gates to hell closed, then it’ll be an option.”
“Yeah, but all our other weapons will work then. And exactly how do we close the gates to hell? Does Gears know how to do that?”
“I dunno, but it probably has something to do with getting Ruler to back off…or die.” Pausing, he added, “But I don’t think anyone can kill the Devil. I’m not sure it works that way.”
“How do you know that?”
“I dunno, but I do.”
“What are the numbers on this?”
He hadn’t discussed detailed numbers with Gears. “I’m not sure they know. It depends on how many shooters Wolfie and Mike bring, but I’m guessing around thirty thousand in the front line and fifteen thousand on each flank, plus the rest in reserve troops, arty and medical.”
“So, why aren’t we briefing and assigning people now?”
“We can’t. We’ve got a manifest of our troops and supplies, and I asked Logan and Nelson to make sure Wolfie and Mike bring theirs as well. I guess we’ll assign the battalions at the rendezvous point, and as you know, most of Terry’s experienced doctors and medics are already at the Ranch.”
“Bandannas, we’re gonna need bandannas. We’ll have to find some on the way.”
Giving him a quizzical look, he asked, “Bandannas?”
“Yeah, we’re gonna need a way to identify which battalions people are in. It’ll make it easier for people to find their battalions when we march them out to the battlefield.”
He grinned and said, “Good idea, let’s go shopping.”
After another day of driving, they were fifty miles from the rendezvous point having found a fabric store in a small town. They took large rolls of fabric in six different colors. Yellow, bright blue, white, red, green and pink. The platoon and squad leaders already wore orange armbands as part of their standard uniforms, and men and women spent hours cutting and tearing the fabric into strips, long enough to wind around a person’s arm. He thought Cutter’s idea was a good one, and he began to read through his manifest of shooters and assign them to battalions, but he wasn’t prepared to brief anyone until he met with Gears. The closer they got to the rendezvous point, the colder it was becoming, which didn’t make a lot of sense, and people were asking him what was happening to the weather. He didn’t really know, but while the sun still shone brightly and the earth looked parched, the temperature was steadily dropping.
Just as he was completing his assignment of the battalions, he saw and heard a bird heading towards the convoy. “Halt the convoy.”
His order was relayed by all the platoon leaders, and slowly two thousand vehicles behind him came to a stop. With such a long train of trucks, it took at least twenty minutes to bring the whole convoy to a complete halt, and he’d learnt from his experience at Ruler’s camp not to park the trucks too closely together. Last time he’d done that, they were attacked and unable to move the convoy. It was another example of his inexperience, and he didn’t intend to make the same mistake twice. While he waited for the convoy to come to a complete stop, he watched the bird bank to the right as it came into land, when it seemed to pause in mid-air and then plummet to the ground. Jumping out of the truck, he ran towards the crashed bird that was about five hundred feet away. The bird was lying at an awkward angle on its side, with its rotors half buried in the dry land. As he sprinted, he saw the bulky body of Gears climb out of the bird, and then turn and help Ip to the ground.
Finally reaching Gears and Ip, he asked, “What happened?”
“Dunno. We jus’ dropped out of the air. No warning, nothin’. Flyin’ one second and down the next.”
“That doesn’t happen unless something shoots you outta the fuckin’ sky.”
Gears was looking around the flat arid land and said, “I don’t think anythin’ shot at us.” He then turned and climbed back into the bird.
Studying the broken bird, he was surprised it hadn’t caught fire, and now he looked at it closely, it seemed to be covered in ice. Reaching his hand out, he touched the side of the bird and he could feel the sharp edges of the icy crystals stuck to the dull metal. It appeared to have frozen in the air, which simply wasn’t possible at the altitude they were flying. Hearing a loud thud, he saw Gears had dropped the body of the pilot onto the hard ground. He climbed out of the bird and they both examined the corpse. Dressed in a flight suit and wearing her helmet, the woman’s hands were frozen in claws and her body was stiff. They pulled her helmet off and she was pale, with her eyes were wide open as if she’d died instantly and without warning.
“What the hell happened?”
“We musta run into some invisible demons up there,” Gears replied dourly. “It was cold anyway, but I’m guessin’ a demon musta frozen her somehow and that’s why we crashed.”
“The bird’s covered in ice.”
“It was a lot colder up there than it shoulda been.” He looked up at the sky as if scanning for something and added, “Pax and TL are on the other bird. We were gonna send the birds back to the base. Most of the fleet’s at the Ranch and I don’t wanna have all the birds at risk.”
He scanned the sky, and then pointed to the horizon on their left at a slow moving dot he assumed was the bird. “Looks like they’re still airborne.”
While they watched, the bird landed at least two miles ahead of them and Gears said, “Guess they know what happened to us.” With a sharp flick of his head, he added, “Let’s get the convoy movin’ again and we’ll meet up with ‘em.”
Ip hadn’t been paying attention to them or the pilot, but as they headed towards the convoy, she said, “The magician has been and he has seen.”
Gears gave her a confused sideways look. “What are you talkin’ about, honey?”
Looking confused by his question, she repeated slowly, “The magician has been and he has seen.”
“You never make any goddamn sense, but I’m startin’ to think maybe you should.” Turning to him, he added, “I gotta feelin’ she knows stuff we need to know, but she never says anythin’ in a way we can understand.”
“Men are from Mars and women are from Venus.”
“That makes no goddamn sense either. Now you’re both talkin’ shit.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: A divide conquered (Gears)
After their last night of peace at the Ranch, he felt his mind shift into another gear, and he thought of almost nothing, but the upcoming battle with Ruler. On their last night, Benny took one of their trucks and disappeared with Lucie, and he was disappointed with him. The young man was handpicked and trained as a soldier and a leader, but in their hour of need, he abandoned his position. He thought he knew Benny well, and although he’d hoped for more from the young man, he wasn’t angry as much as he felt let down. To his surprise, Ip wanted to hunt them down and kill them, but he didn’t want to waste the time and didn’t think Benny deserved to die. Sometimes he thought she lacked empathy for the human race, but whenever he questioned her about it, she would shrug and say death was a transition and not a destination. With his new understanding of who he really was, he accepted her point of view, but believed life was worth living for as long as a person was able. He supposed if she didn’t see death as any sort of loss, she could probably kill without conscience or concern. Strange wife I picked for all eternity, he thought dourly, but he knew her calm perspective on life and death brought a sense of peace he couldn’t never seem to give himself.
Moving forty thousand combat shooters, plus their heavy weapons, was no small achievement and behind him the convoy was moving slowly. They’d used pretty much every vehicle they had, and the convoy was a strange collection of heavily armored vehicles, buses, trucks, minivans, sedans and small hatchbacks. Hatch and his fleet had dropped supplies along the route, but the bulk of their food and additional ammo was waiting for them at the Ranch. Once everything was moved into position, Hatch grounded t
he fleet five miles from the Ranch, and was awaiting orders about when he could put them back in the air. He’d told Hatch to keep the fleet fully fueled and armed and he still hoped they might be able to use them during the battle.
They were only ten miles from where they planned to rendezvous with Wolfie and Mike, and he, Ip, Mackenzie and the driver were heading to the location ahead of the convoy. Without air support, their communications were limited, and he was keen to get an update on their troops. Pax and TL stayed with Captain Ted to help him manage the convoy. He realized they’d left Captain Ted with more work than was reasonable, and he’d done an excellent job getting the convoy this far with so few leaders. Assuming all went well, Wolfie and Mike should bring another thirty thousand troops, and between them they would have seventy thousand fighters for the battle. According to Gray, Ruler only had thirty thousand demon super hunters, but he knew every one of them was worth far more than a single man. Each of them could control thousands of hunters, and thanks to the ghostly demons, he anticipated failure of their weapons and their prospects weren’t looking good. Assuming they wouldn’t be able to use their guns, or even their armored vehicles, every man and woman was armed with a variety of less lethal weapons. Swords, machetes, axes, hammers and even crossbows were found and handed out. Of course, few of their troops were trained in hand-to-hand combat, and if it came down to it, it would be a messy fight with a bad result.
Startling him from his worried thoughts, Mackenzie exclaimed loudly, “Holy shit!”
Annoyed and feeling slightly rattled, he asked irritably, “What?”
Ip was sitting in the middle seat at the back of the truck, and she leaned forward, touched his shoulder and pointed ahead of him. He blinked as her mind gently invade his, and then saw what she was pointing at. In front of them were thousands of dark shadows, so densely packed they blocked the light and he couldn’t see through them. Looking out of his passenger window, he saw a complex scattering of shadowy people drifting across the landscape, headed in the same direction as they were.
Confused by the scene, he asked, “What am I lookin’ at?”
“The gates to hell aren’t just open,” Mackenzie replied unhappily. “Hell is here and we’re in the middle of it.”
While he continued to share Ip’s mind, they were about to join the dense darkness. The shooter driving their truck couldn’t see what they were seeing, and she continued to drive unconcerned towards the shadows. He thought about telling her there was a problem ahead, but decided to wait and see what would happen next. He didn’t have to wait long, and as they entered the dark mass, the engine of the truck seized and ground to a halt. Through Ip’s mind, he realized they were stranded in the middle of a dense, cold and dark fog. Outside the windows was a greyish swirling blackness, and his skin prickled at the sudden sharp drop in temperature. The driver remained oblivious to their situation, and cursing, she tried to restart the engine. The engine failed to kick over, and all he heard was a dull metal click when she turned the key again.
“Forget it. We’re gonna have to walk the rest of the way.”
“No, let me take a look at the engine first. I serviced this truck myself and I know it was all good.”
“It ain’t the engine.”
Opening the door, the driver climbed out, and looking up at the sky, she said, “I don’t get it. Sun’s out, but it’s freezing cold.”
Cursing to himself, he realized he hadn’t told the troops to pack warm clothes. Of course it’s cold, he thought, we knew it would be, but we didn’t plan for it. He suspected this was going to be only one of the many things they hadn’t prepared for, but he was going to blame himself for every single one of those mistakes. He knew somewhere in his head he had thousands of years of experience leading men into battle, and yet he still missed the basics. Mentally kicking himself, he opened the door and stepped out into the freezing misty cold. Ip and Mackenzie climbed out with him and he reached back into the truck for his gun and pack.
“Guess we’re walkin’,” he told Mackenzie.
“Guess so, but if there’s this many demons and ghosts here, just how many are ahead, and shouldn’t we warn the convoy behind us?”
“Nah, no point. Pax and the guys know what to do when we lose the vehicles. I’d hoped we’d make it to the Ranch, or at least the rendezvous point, but I guess we’ll be marchin’ the rest of the way.”
Breathing in deeply, he wondered whether he was drawing in demons, and saw Ip was smirking at him. What’s so funny, honey, he thought?
Ip speaks: You cannot swallow a demon, they do not exist. All you see is nothing but mist.
In his mind, he asked, you mean they’re not here?
Ip speaks: They have no form, but only effect. They alter the space and make it wrecked.
Makes some sense, he thought. The ghosts and demons had a presence and not a form, and he supposed the mist and shadows they created was their impact on nature. Shrugging at her, he accepted he was only breathing in cold air and walked deeper into the darkness. Once he was ten steps in, he couldn’t see anything other than the ground at his feet. It was an odd darkness that seemed to swirl around him while being pitch black. Looking up, he could see the faint lightness of the blue sky he knew was above him, but it was only a trace. Next to him a shadowy man appeared out of the swirling dark and seemed to be aware of him. The man smiled the toothless grin of the insane, and then laughing maniacally, he drifted away. He’d been surrounded by hunters with their vibrating heads intent on eating their prey, but somehow he found being enclosed by the ghosts of the dead more unsettling.
Listening closely, he became aware of a growing chattering noise building up around him. “What the hell is that?”
It sounded like a thousand sets of teeth clacking mindlessly to create an odd music-like clicking sound, and as the sound grew louder, it began to grate on his nerves. In answer to his question, an uneven row of faces appeared out of the mist in front of him. Eyeless, with dome-shaped and earless heads, all the faces had were holes where the nose should be, and large shattered chattering teeth that were rapidly snapping open and shut. When the disembodied heads drew closer, he saw their eyes were sewn shut with strands of thick black thread, and it seemed they were denied the human senses of sight, smell, sound and touch.
“What the fuck are they?”
“They’re demons,” Mackenzie replied. “There are all sorts of monsters in hell. This is only one of them.”
“Well, they’re fuckin’ noisy.”
In his mind, he said, shut ‘em down, honey, I need to keep moving. The road ahead reappeared instantly, and once again the sun was brilliantly bright, but it was still cold. He slung his backpack over both his shoulders and began to trot, hoping increasing his pace would keep him warm.
Next to him, the driver fell into step. “What are you guys talking about?”
There was no point alarming her. “It doesn’t matter, but all the trucks will be down now and we’re gonna need to travel on foot.”
“Seriously. That’s fifty miles away and we’ve got kit to carry. How do you expect us to fight at the other end? It’s not like we’re real soldiers.”
Still jogging, he looked at her in surprise. “What do you think a soldier is if it ain’t someone with some trainin’ and a lotta guts?”
“I dunno. I kinda thought they’d have more confidence or…experience…or at least something more than I’ve got, which is practically nothing.”
Running was warming his body, and no longer able to see the demons surrounding them, he felt his mood lighten. “You’re willin’ to fight and you won’t quit until your last breath. Trust me, you’ve got everythin’ you need. The last man left standin’ is always the one that refused to lie down.”
It took them an hour to cover the last five miles to the rendezvous point, and when they arrived, there were thousands of tents surrounded by men and women dressed in ACUs. Clearly both Wolfie and Mike had arrived, but without a single vehicle in sig
ht, he figured they must have run into the pack of ghostly demons. Looking over the temporary camp, he saw a flag flying high over one of the tents, and assumed it was their command post. Walking through the chaotic lines of canvas tents, he saw people were cooking over small portable stoves, and the smell of coffee wafted through the air. Small fires were burning everywhere while people tried to cope with the deep cold that was settling on the usually warm land. Men and women alike looked up as they walked past and as he nodded to them. The camp had a good feel to it. No one asked them who they were, but he guessed some of them probably already knew. Approaching the large tent with the flag, Nelson emerged through the open flap.
“Gears!” Nelson called, as he strode over. “Good to see you.”
Briefly gripping Nelson’s hand, he half-hugged him. “And you, my friend. I see you made camp, but no trucks.”
Nelson laughed the deep rich laugh he’d come to know so well. “No, but we got your warning and were ready for that. They broke down about ten miles back.”
“When did you get here?”
“Yesterday night. The weird thing is, there’s been no hunters for days.”
“Yeah, we noticed the same thing. There’s been a few, but Ip sorted ‘em. I dunno where they’ve gone, but it’s made our life easier. I’m guessin’ Ruler’s called ‘em to his side.”
Mike joined them, and after briefly shaking his hand, he asked, “Do you have a plan to deal with the hunters under Ruler’s control?”
