by Joey Ruff
Crushing pressure fell on my legs, and the pain in my calf was so severe it caught the breath in my throat.
Grace’s flame sputtered to sparks, but not before it caught the edge of the wall on fire. Dancing tongues licked up the wall and started trailing across the ceiling.
More screams erupted around me.
Then I screamed. The pain in my legs became more intense as the gargoyle atop me slowly worked his way up to my waist.
From over by the elevator, I heard a gargoyle roar, which summoned a response from the others as a chorus of snarls went up. I could feel the creatures around me, walking on all fours and approaching slow and sure, steady as prowling panthers. I struggled against the weight on top of me, but couldn’t move. My face was pressed against the floor, forced to watch as the beasts shattered glass and bone - helpless as the screams began to die, one by one. Ruby blood splattered against walls and pillars, trickling across the floor towards me.
It was a fucking bloodbath, and not just of the resident halflings. Men roared in pain, women screamed until their vocal chords were slashed from their throats. Children were stomped underfoot.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way, damn it. They shouldn’t be attacking innocents. They didn’t harm humans unprovoked, unless…
Gunshots barked above the screams and chaos, but my head was too foggy to make sense of them, or determine where they came from. Breathing became too much work and my vision grew cloudy. I realized, as the cold and blackness swept over me, it was my fault. I had provoked them.
38
My last cognizant thought was directed at the Big Man: Is this how it all ends? You wanna step in here and fucking do something? I thought you had some fucking plan, or was that all just talk?
A gunshot erupted loud and clear from the camera store, and the prowling creature to my right collapsed.
Amid the ringing in my ears, I heard the last of the terrified screams become a chorus of cheers.
“Move! Get out of the fucking way, you dumb cunt! Shit, son, I’m gonna stomp your ass and feed you to these motherfuckers if you don’t move out of the fucking way!”
There was another gunshot, much closer, and then the pressure on my back and legs lessened. As the gargoyle atop me collapsed to the side, I spun onto my arse and pulled the Five-seven, not sure what to expect.
London smiled at me with a shit-eating grin, his Judge pistol smoking in one hand. “Judgment has been passed,” he said. “We find you guilty of being an ugly, fucking sonuvabitch.”
I took two deep, hungry breaths and said, “What the fuck are you doing here?”
He held out a hand and helped me to my feet before turning to fire at the gargoyles that still approached. “I needed some film.”
As I reloaded the Five-seven, I tried not to look at the camera store, to the carnage that it had become. I heard the quiet whimpers and looked down at the ground, seeing the red splatters against London’s boots.
I looked up as one of the workers from the camera store hobbled nearer. His face was pale, wide-eyed and haunted. His clothes were splattered. He held a gash on one of his arms. He stared at me with a ghastly expression that said, “Are you here to save us?” He must’ve shut down. The human mind can only take so much.
I looked from the worker to London to the torn open expanse where the mall’s entrance had been. Flames licked along the walls and smoke hung heavy in the air. The inflow of gargoyles had stopped, but dozens or more had already entered the mall and were moving through it.
I felt panic well up inside of me for a minute. The whole situation had gotten out of control. I was powerless against a hive of gargoyles. And I certainly wasn’t anyone’s fucking savior.
But I heard Huxley’s voice in the back of my head saying, “Swyftt, what’s the first rule of being a hunter?”
I turned to the worker. “Close the gate,” I told him. “Pull the fire alarm, and if anyone’s left, get them outside. If anyone’s injured, get them to the hospital. Don’t wait around for an ambulance, you understand?”
Despite the wide, blank stare he gave me, he nodded and disappeared.
I didn’t wait to see what happened. I looked at London. “Come on.”
Glory sat to my right, and I scooped her from the ground, reclaiming Grace from near the wall, as well.
We ran towards the center of the mall, firing as we did. London took careful aim and timed his shots right, dropping another creature with each pull of the trigger.
On the other side of the hallway, the people in the women’s clothing store took a cue from the camera store, backing inside as the mechanical whir signaled the lowering of its gate.
Ahead, a voice that sounded like Ape’s cried out.
Surprised, I looked toward the elevator to see the Renault cleaved completely in two and Ape staggering out from between its halves. His sword was pointed at the nearest gargoyle, the violet light emanating from its naked blade signaling what the beasts already knew: Halflings – or worse – were present.
The flames had spread over the complete arch of the corridor, and we passed under them into the open center courtyard. To my left, gargoyles rushed at us from another corridor. I fired flares, and the approaching gargoyles stopped as the magnesium cores burned bright and hot in front of them.
Near the elevator, I found the tall, lanky man. He’d never made it to the stairs. He lay limply against the wall, body split like the letter V from the center of his stomach up through his shoulder. A streak of purple painted halfway up the reach of the elevator’s shaft.
London looked at me, looked back at Ape and the gargoyle, then back to the gargoyles in the corridor. “Just like old times, motherfucker,” he said with a proud smile.
I shook my head, saying nothing.
He popped open the Judge and reloaded the shells as he said, “I thought you said it was a fucking troll.”
“It’s complicated.” I fired and reloaded as quickly as I could. The beasties seemed to come from every direction. It was impossible to tell how many there were. Gaping, gawking faces encircled us. Looking up, more curious faces peered over the ledge of the balcony from the shops on the second floor. “We’ve gotta get the fuck out of here.” I slid my cell phone out and dialed. After three rings, Nadia answered.
She spoke in hushed tones. “Jono, what?! I’m in the middle of a movie.”
“I’m on my way. What theater are you in?”
“Oh my God, are you here?” DeNobb squealed in the background and said something in muffled tones. “I’m nineteen. When are you going to let me grow up?”
“I’ll make you a deal, love. I’ll let you go on a date when all the fucking gargoyles are dead and the Fallen angel I’m about to piss off is done skull-fucking my corpse.”
“Good imagery,” London said.
I shot him a look.
“I’m at the elevator down by the camera store,” I said. “I’m heading your way. Try to meet me in the middle. The mall’s about to come down around us.”
“Jono, I…”
“Save it, kid. Tell me when you see me.” I went to hang up and added, “Hurry.”
I slid the phone back into my pocket and turned to see Ape. The gargoyle had backed up, shielding its face with its wings, and Ape leapt into the air, the sword hanging above his head. He brought it down in a flashing arc of purple light and clove through the wings, which sprang open and back as tatters fell away.
Ape spun, carved the air, and jabbed, piercing the gargoyle in the chest. As he pulled the sword away, straight up through the side of the gargoyle’s neck, black liquid gushed like Texas crude. With a twist of his wrist, the sword dazzled, and the creature’s head fell away.
The Judge barked in my ear, and London said, “We gotta fucking move, brother. These motherfuckers are angry as a horny bear without a dick. A little fire’s not gonna keep them for much longer.”
“Ape!” I called.
He hobbled over to me in a limp, cleaving a way through the b
easties as he did.
“No fucking way,” London said, eyeing him. “I fucking told you, Swyftt. I don’t fucking work with his fucking kind. You can’t trust them.”
“London!” I snapped. “This isn’t the time for your bullshit. Pull it fucking together right now, or I’ll drop you where you stand. We don’t have time for in-fighting. Can you do it?”
He said nothing and only stared at the Judge solemnly.
“Can you fucking do it?”
He rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. “Yes.”
I looked at Ape. Ape nodded. “Good,” I said. “We’ve gotta move. What way is the theater?”
Ape had cleared a path and was already in motion as he pointed down the hall. “Follow me.”
“This is humiliating,” London mumbled as he trailed behind. I ignored him.
Looking around, I saw the crowd of shoppers had all but dispersed. A few scant faces still peered at us in shock and awe from the mouths of various retail shops.
“What are we gonna do about these fucking people?”
“There’s a storm outside,” Ape said, trudging forward. “And gargoyles.”
“Outside, it’s a roll of the dice, mate. They stay in here and eventually, this whole bloody place will collapse around them.”
Ape nodded.
Before I could say anything, London lifted the Judge into the air and spent two rounds of buckshot into the ceiling and yelled, “What the fuck is wrong with you fucking people!? The mall is on fire! Pull the goddamned fire alarm and get the fuck out!!!”
The crowd scrambled and not thirty seconds later, a loud, blaring siren ripped through the vacant halls and sprinkler heads popped from the ceiling and pissed cones of water that began to puddle on the hard tile floor or soak into the places someone had bothered to carpet.
We moved quickly, and I noticed the grimace on Ape’s face and the stagger in his walk, which was more limp than stride. “You okay?”
“Fine,” he said. “You try having a car tossed on your ass.”
London laughed.
There was an explosion behind us, and the elevator shaft crumbled, sending billows of dust and debris towards us in a wave. Three gargoyles leapt from the hallway and turned to us, moving quickly and on all fours. Their broad wings were folded low over their shoulders.
Despite the throb in my own leg, we quickened our pace, but they were faster. The hallway was free and empty before us clear down to the next big department store, and there was nothing to slow us, but we’d only passed three stores before their heavy breathing was in our ears.
London spun with the Judge and caught the nearest under the chin. Its face was nearly human in appearance, but moldy green with ram’s horns that swept forward from its brows. It snarled at him in defiance, and London pulled the trigger once. Then again.
Ape took another with his sword.
When I spun around, my foot caught and my leg gave out. I fell over onto my arse with the momentum, and as the gargoyle moved over me with bared fangs, London slammed into its neck with his shoulder, throwing it off balance, and Ape took its head off.
By the time they helped me to my feet, four more gargoyles broke from the flaming hallway and locked on to our position.
Although I didn’t see anything, I heard the loud, pounding discharges of heavy artillery. It was impossible to tell where it might be coming from.
“What is that?” Ape asked. “The National Guard?”
“We’ve got an outbreak,” I said. “A fucking epidemic. Would you be surprised?”
On our right, we came to a service hall, and Ape took it, saying, “This way.”
The hall was narrow – maybe five feet wide – long and white. It seemed almost sterile. It ran about a hundred feet to a bank of payphones, cut to the right, jogged up past the public restrooms and cut sharply to the left for another 200 feet before dumping out into another main wing of the mall.
By the time we’d made it to the payphones, the first of the gargoyles hit the mouth of the tunnel. Although a tight squeeze, it pushed through, scratching along the walls and moving slowly.
The one behind it was smaller and leapt the first, clung to the wall, and ran sideways along it at a respectable gait. We took the corner and moved past the bathrooms before it came around at us. It shot from one wall to the other and bounced back and forth between them like a pinball.
As we disappeared around the final corner and hit the straightaway, London paused and took aim. The creature took two, three shots and kept coming, leaping from the wall to pin London at the shoulders. Ape was halfway down the corridor and I was just on his heels as London cried out. I spun to see the talons piercing into his shoulders and the anguish on his face made every inch of visible skin flush red.
Behind me, Ape didn’t stop, but he turned and yelled, “Jono! The theater’s right…”
His words were lost under the report of the pistol, as I aimed the Five-seven and put four rounds into the side of the creature’s head. The gargoyle forfeited its claim on London as chunks of leathery skin flaked and fell like autumn leaves, black puss bubbling and gushing like a dozen burst blisters.
London brought the Judge up and hit it with his last round under the chin, then he shrugged it over onto its back.
“You okay?” I asked.
He nodded and took a deep breath. “Shit, brother. It fucking takes more than…”
Another came around the corner by the payphones and stared at us with cold, serpentine eyes.
“Come on,” I said. London nodded, saying nothing, and we ran towards Ape as the gargoyle charged clumsily, striking against the walls with each bounding step.
Ape had cleared the hall, and as we approached the wider space, I heard a series of shouts and grunts in front of us. Behind, the gargoyle was joined by a second, and they pursued us madly.
We emptied out into the middle of the mall and immediately were drawn to the right, to the entrance of the movie theater.
Two sets of glass doors stood in the wall, with a lobby and snack counters visible beyond. A row of ticket booths sat between them with a scrolling, digital marquee above. Nadia and DeNobb were pinned in front of the ticket booths by the gathered throng of gargoyles that stood in a hungry arc all around them. There must have been two dozen, and the only thing that kept them at bay was the small circle of gargoyle statues that still glowed with an aura of red light. Nadia had used her ability to create a perimeter wall of her attackers to keep the others out, but it was only a matter of time before that trick wore off.
From what I could see, Nadia was on her knees. She wore torn denim jeans and a tank top under her close-fitting red trenchcoat. Her hair, which had obviously been done-up fancy, was scattered and disheveled, matted with tears and sweat and a small patch of blood around her crown. Mascara ran down her cheeks and mingled with the smear of red lipstick. Her eyes were closed and focused, and her mouth moved as if in prayer. Huxley’s amulet glistened around her neck.
Standing just behind her, DeNobb looked like a bunch of grapes. He was topless, and nearly every inch of his skin was bubbled in softball-sized boils. The only part of him that wasn’t blistered was his face, but that was cut-up with scrapes. Blood trickled from a cut on his forehead and down his temple, past his black eye to his split lip. He was snarling.
Ape circled around to the opposite side of the throng. Behind him was a hallway that was wallpapered with framed movie posters and ended at a set of glass doors that led to the parking lot. He kept turning his attention to those doors, undoubtedly drawn by the coughs of gunfire, which broke intermittently through the droning siren of the fire alarm.
London didn’t waste any time and immediately took to reloading.
Behind me, the gargoyles that had been chasing us emerged from the narrow hallway with a hiss. Slowly, they pressed in on us, forcing us back until the gargoyles along the fringes of the huddled group turned to take notice of us, rather than focusing on Nadia.
My hands be
gan to sweat under the grip of the Five-seven.
Behind me, Nadia whimpered and collapsed. The red light that held the gargoyles around her faded.
London stifled a laugh and said, “Been nice knowing you motherfuckers.”
39
There was a sudden, quick burst of machinegun fire, followed by a cacophony of breaking glass and screeching tires as a candy-apple red ’57 Chevy convertible burst through the exterior doors and came to a halt among the debris and movie posters.
Mounted above the driver’s seat was a belt-fed fifty-cal anti-aircraft cannon – an M2 Browning – and it spat a quick, thunderous, rat-a-tat-tat. The gargoyles on the edge closest shook violently as they were hit and turned to face their attacker. What happened next took only a matter of seconds.
Glowing red lines formed from each entry wound, snaking and winding across their features, splitting the skin like the crust of dried earth. Regardless of their skin color – green, blue, or red – they all turned the mottled grey of cigarette ash, gave off an odor of sulfur, and sizzled like frying bacon. Then they exploded into broken clumps of soot.
The blonde bouncer, who manned the weapon, roared his approval as Cassiday, in his backwards ballcap and bomber jacket, stepped from the driver’s seat. He brought a Barrett sniper rifle to his shoulder and came around the corner firing, striking gargoyles between the eyes with uncanny accuracy. Given the rapid and fluid way he moved, he was scary, sweeping the weapon side-to-side and dropping the next beastie in the time it took him to chamber his next round.
As the Browning rippled through a dozen rounds, Cassiday aimed towards us. He took his shots without hesitation, as if he’d known prior to looking where the gargoyles that swept the corridor behind us were. They were ash before I could turn around.
From the center of the crowd, DeNobb screamed something primal. I thought he’d been hit – a shot from the M2, especially at that range, would sever a limb – but he hadn’t. He’d leapt in front of Nadia, and the sacs all over his body burst in a chorus of sloppy, squishing sounds like bursting water balloons.
