by Heath, Joel
A loud thunderous crack ripped through the air. Rodney’s first attempt to eliminate the queen, but the shot missed. Rodney reloaded again as Spencer, Gretchen, Vince and Jessie gave chase but the queen had already reached the 24thStreet Bridge and disappeared from Rodney’s field of view.
“Where is she going?” Jessie wondered aloud.
“She’s retreating,” Vince guessed with a degree of certainty that, unfortunately, fell short of the mark.
“No, she’s regrouping,” Gretchen observed as the queen reached a large building that looked in severe disrepair. Then the creature began climbing an exterior wall toward a shattered window on the third floor, right under a sign that read Smith and Edwards.
Jessie saw the building and filled with dread for no apparent reason. She had tried to block out the memories but at the sight of a derelict factory, the memories came flooding back.
“Jessie,” Vince called as he glanced back and noticed the terror in Jessie’s eyes. Vince stopped causing Spencer and Gretchen to stop.
“What’s wrong?” Spencer asked.
“I don’t know, Spencer. Something about has her spooked. She just froze up.” Vince asked as he approached Jessie.
“Are you alright?” Vince gently shook her should while asking in a low voice.
Jessie turned her focus away from the building, then to Vince, “I’ll be fine.”
Vince and Jessie took off running to catch up to Spencer and Gretchen on their way to the rundown building that concealed a deadly and angry queen who was anything but rundown.
Spencer was the first to round an over turned delivery truck before reaching a door on the south wall.
“Spencer, wait,” Vince said. “Gretchen and I should go in first.”
“He’s right,” Jessie agreed. “If the queen is just inside they would stand the best chance. I’ll go in behind them.” Jessie’s voice trembled as she put her offer on the table; something about the building terrified her.
“I guess I’m taking up the rear,” Spencer conceded. Vince raised his foot and kicked the door open and charged in.
The light emitted from the swords in Vince and Gretchen’s hands lit up the interior which looked like a sort of office, or it had been several months earlier. Vince reeled at the pungent odor of rotting corpses and mold that was now flooding out the open door as Gretchen, Spencer and Jessie charged in behind him. A heavily decayed corkboard hung on the wall fastened by a single rusted screw. The floor was plastered with papers, long dried blood and three severely decomposed bodies.
A sound bounced throughout the room, like corroded metal scraping against something, concrete, another metallic object. The sound came from a double door on the north wall, one of the doors hung on a single hinge the other door was laying on the ground as though it was forced opened by something large. Several large gashes in the door which lay on the ground testified that it had been attacked by a large creature. On the west wall there was a single door, sitting slightly ajar. Beyond the doorway was a long corridor which stretched away from the office before turning north. A double door
Spencer headed for the double door and peered into the main factory which was kept dark from a lack of electric light. The only source of light beyond the white swords was the sun that was streaming in though a series of windows on the west wall and shining down onto the factory floor. It seemed safe enough so Spencer and Vince pressed forward into the factory, Gretchen and Jessie followed.
The light from the windows and the celestial swords were focused toward the ground leaving the rafters of the factory in darkness. Most of the equipment that once occupied the factory had long since been removed leaving the floor vacant except for a dusty grey concrete floor.
A vague silhouette of a catwalk could be faintly seen, but there was no sign of the hive queen.
Spencer stopped; Gretchen looked around for the hive queen. Vince attempted to keep Jessie calm even as she looked as though she would bolt.
“Jessie, what’s bothering you?” Spencer asked while scanning the area for their quarry.
“I told you I was from the area, right?” Jessie asked, and Spencer nodded as if to imply that he only vaguely recalled.
“When my mom died, I came here; the factory had been shut down because of a union strike years earlier.” Jessie tried to explain, but it had become difficult, she gulped to try to stop herself from hyperventilating. Spencer’s eyes widened in shock and concern.
It had become clear that the factory had become a sort of emotional wound that reminded Jessie of her late mother, perhaps even more: perhaps the sight of some terrible abuse.
“Jessie, I need you to pull it together. Can you do that for me?” Spencer asked. Jessie nodded quickly, and then he focused on Gretchen.
“Gretchen, do you see anything?” Spencer whispered.
Gretchen paused, staring up into the darkness. But after a minute Gretchen gave up the search.
“No, if she was up there we would have been attacked by now.” Gretchen suggested.
Gretchen immediately regretted her words; a hiss pierced the silence that filled the deserted factory; a long menacing hiss that made Spencer’s blood run cold.
The hiss was followed by a brief silence as Spencer, Gretchen, Vince and Jessie glanced around the room, and then at each other.
“She’s here.” Spencer said looking around. A shape dropped down from the ceiling just as his words faded. Barely noticed inside Spencer’s peripheral vision. Spencer turned his head expecting to see the hive queen, but she was nowhere to be seen.
“Spencer, look.” Vince said drawing Spencer’s attention away from the darkened shape, “There’s something in the shadows.”
“There’s another one.” Jessie shouted, realizing that there was more than one.
“You think she called for
reinforcements?” Gretchen wondered aloud.
Jessie raised her M249, and fired a volley into the shadows, intermittently dispelling the darkness, but the muzzle flash did not reveal a hive queen or even any demon. What it did reveal was darkness that had taken humanoid form; bullet after bullet penetrated the shadow demon and ricocheted off the far wall leaving the shadow demon unharmed.
“Spencer?” Gretchen asked as she noticed what she hoped was just a figment of her imagination. “Is it me, or is it getting darker in here?”
“I was just about to ask the same thing.” Vince fretted as he noticed the encroaching darkness.
Four pairs of eyes could be seen; the eyes were glowing the color of blood, and advanced with the darkness before stopping three feet from the group.
The first of the shadow demons lurched out from the darkness, its target: Spencer. Gretchen raised her sword and carved a gaping hole down the demon’s right side, it hit the ground shrieking in agony, flailing and kicking. Another shriek echoed from the darkness of the rafters and three more shadow demons left the safety of the gloominess to join the fray.
Vince and Gretchen moved to defend Spencer and Jessie and effortlessly dispatched the three remaining shadow demons.
“That wasn’t so hard.” Vince haughtily commented with a smirk.
The factory was filled with silence. Then the hive queen spoke; her voice seemed to increase the silence which caused her voice to echo.
“Foolish mortals!” the hive queen hissed from the darkness, “My servants of darkness do not die so easily.”
At those words, a dozen dark tendrils lashed out from the mire that created them and latched onto Spencer and Jessie before pulling them in.
“SPENCER!” Gretchen yelled, but he was beyond her reach in less than a second.
“Get back, Gretchen!” Vince called pulling Gretchen away from the shadows. Gretchen looked back at Vince, but he pointed at the wall of impregnable darkness, it started to inch closer.
Gretchen raised her radiant blade and sliced at the shadows only to cause a momentary gash, like smoke being dispersed and then rejuvenated. Vince raised his blade and cu
t through the shade and met the same result but one thing was different: he caught sight of a face, a human face. It was Spencer and he was mouthing something, “Jonah.”
Was he saying? Was it a name? If it was it seemed unfamiliar.
Vince raised his shimmering sword again, and then it hit him.
“Jonah!” Vince said in shock and awe, Spencer and Jessie must have already pieced it together, and suddenly it seemed odd that the two who could not summon a celestial weapon were taken while Vince and Gretchen were not.
By now Gretchen was frantically attacking the wall of darkness; tears were showing on her fair but weathered complexion. Vince grabbed Gretchen by the shoulders and pulled her away, but she fought him.
“Gretchen, listen to me, Spencer needs us, and I know how to save him, but I need you to focus.” Vince urged and Gretchen nodded.
“What do you need me to do?” Gretchen asked. Vince glanced at the wall of darkness.
“Stay close, because we’re going inside.” Vince said.
“Are you crazy?” Gretchen asked moving her gaze from the shadows to Vince and back. The shadows had spread across the windows blocking out all light except for the light that the two celestial swords gave off.
“Maybe,” Vince admitted “But it worked for Jonah, it’ll work for me.”
Vince charged the shadows that contained Spencer and Jessie, swung his sword leaving a gash in the shapeless black mass that was barely big enough for him to fit through and jumped in as Gretchen cut her way in as well.
Once inside Vince and Gretchen found Spencer supporting Jessie, both were on their knees. Jessie’s head was slumped over; nearly all color had fled from her body. Her skin glistened from sweat that poured off her nearly motionless body. Jessie’s strength was spent; she was unable to keep her head from drooping down. Spencer looked almost as bad. He still had some strength left, but his checks were taking on the same color that Jessie already exhibited. Both were barely breathing, a symptom that was quickly starting to overtake Vince and Gretchen.
Vince weakly raised his sword.
“No,” the queen hissed from the rafters, “STOP!"
Gretchen pulled her sword back and let loose aiming for a single point where both swords would intersect and shatter the barrier of despair that kept them imprisoned.
Just before contact, the hive queen dropped from above, landing on one knee. A single clenched hand hit the concrete floor; the other arm was extended outward, its hand closed around a black sword, her gaze settled on the ground. As she lifted her gaze she inhaled with a menacing snarl. She was met by Vince and Gretchen, each stood with swords at the ready, both blades swung for the hive queen and struck, she wavered like a pillar of smoke in a stiff breeze.
“Where did she go?” Vince rhetorically asked.
A dark tendril lashed out and struck Vince’s hand causing him to drop his sword; another shadowy tendril lashed out and knocked the glowing sword from Gretchen’s hand.
As the celestial swords hit the ground, a pulse of light as bright as the sun shot out and sped off in each direction chasing the darkness away. Vince and Gretchen quickly reached down; Vince rolled as he reached for his sword, and quickly got to his feet, the hive queen stood helpless against the wielders of the celestial sword. Vince and Gretchen did not hesitate, both swords sliced through the air with lethal ferocity and into the hive queen, her skin started to peel and flake off as the effect spread through out her body, turning her into a pile of volcanic-like ash.
Spencer and Jessie, now freed from the darkness that held them began to breathe, strength returned to their limbs. Spencer weakly stood and approached the pile of dust that only seconds earlier was a hive queen.
“It’s odd that we haven’t seen any demons other than the hive queens.”
“It is a little unsettling.” Jessie admitted.
“Do you think Lucifer took most of his cronies when he ran with his tail tucked firmly between his legs?” Gretchen asked.
“It’s possible.” Spencer conceded.
“I think we should fall back to the mall.” Vince advised.
“I agree, though I think we should go for a resupply first.” Spencer commented before heading out of the factory. As Spencer greeted the diluted light of day, he signaled Rodney, who was secluded in a dilapidated building at the corner of Wall Avenue and 24thStreet, to rendezvous at the Hummer and then moved out.
The Hummer passed over a long overpass that crossed over the train yard before heading through an abandoned neighbor hood on the way to the I-15 on ramp.
Passing into Layton the Hummer turned off I-15 at Hill Field and turned right and through the main street intersection into a Wal-Mart parking lot. There were a small number of cars that sat abandoned for the last week, some still had rotting corpses inside; some were
dismembered and some look like an animal attacked them, their torsos looked torn open.
The Hummer stopped in front of the groceries entrance. Nearby a tarp covered several decaying bodies.
“Spilt up, get anything you can that isn’t spoiled: food, water, medical supplies.”
Spencer and Vince headed in each grabbed a shopping cart and rushed into the body of the store. They were slapped by the pungent odor of spoiled food.
Passing into the store Gretchen turned to Jessie, “Why don’t you go with Rodney and Halley to get more food, I can handle the medical supplies.”
Jessie nodded and followed Rodney and Halley. Everybody grabbed a shopping cart and headed in. Gretchen slid over a white counter into the pharmacy area.
Vince and Spencer walked down the snack food aisle and Vince looked to make sure nobody could hear them.
“Is it me, or does Gretchen look like she’s putting on a little weight?” Vince asked.
“I hadn’t noticed.” Spencer casually replied.
Vince gawked.
“Seriously?” Vince asked,
“I’m too busy watching you stare longingly at Jessie.” Spencer declared.
Vince shut his mouth after letting it hang open awkwardly.
“You noticed?” Vince smiled.
Spencer nodded.
After half an hour, the shopping carts were gathered outside the store and the supplies were loaded into the hummer before heading to the mall on the other side of I-15.
Spencer pulled into a loading dock on the side of the superstore that opened into the mall, and unloaded the supplies and returned to their base of operations in a sporting goods store on the lower level just off center court.
Gretchen finished unloading some of the supplies before she tried to slip out without being noticed, but Jessie didn’t miss Gretchen’s exit. Jessie would have followed but had to finish unloading the supplies.
In the bathroom Gretchen emerged from a stall with a small thermometer-like object in her hand, she hid it when someone unexpectedly entered the bathroom.
“Gretchen, what are you doing in here?” Jessie asked.
“I was just going to the bathroom.”
Gretchen lied.
“Are you alright?” Jessie asked poking
her head into the bathroom.
“Nothing’s wrong.” Gretchen assured. “I don’t know, you’ve been acting a little
weird lately.” Jessie asked.
“I’m fine,” Gretchen snapped; she only
wanted to get rid of Jessie.
Jessie wasn’t buying it. She noticed that Gretchen
was trying to hide something and reached for it,
Gretchen tried to stop Jessie but to no avail. It
was a pregnancy test.
Jessie held up the test “Is this why you’ve
been acting so odd lately?” Jessie asked in
disbelief.
“What’s it to you?” Gretchen demanded.
Jessie read the result and for a moment was
unable to breathe. She looked at Gretchen; her
eyes were wide open in surprise.
“You have
to tell him,” Jessie practically
ordered.
“What would I tell him?” Gretchen asked. “I don’t know,” Jessie admitted, “I’d start
with ‘you’re going to be a father’.” Jessie
retorted. “Spencer has the right to know.” “What am I going to do?” Gretchen
asked. Tears welled in her eyes, a totally new
type of fear was creeping up her legs.
“What are you going to do?” Jessie asked,
“How are you going to handle prenatal care?” “I don’t know, if we’d seen Michael in
the last few months he might be able to tell us
something.” Gretchen suggested.
Jessie’s concern turned to compassion
and she wrapped her arms around this girl who
had become like a younger surrogate sister to
comfort her.
“I’m sorry,” Jessie apologized.
Gretchen just stared vaguely into the
middle distance, she was wondering how she
would tell Spencer, but at length she decided to
forgo revealing her pregnancy, for now. “How far along are you?” Jessie asked
taking a step back.
“I don’t know, I’ve never been pregnant.”
Gretchen retorted as tears began streaming down
her face.
“You had to noticed missing your…”
Jessie began but was abruptly interrupted when
Vince approached the half open door of the
bathroom and poked his head in.
“Somebody is coming.”
Gretchen dropped the pregnancy test into
the trash on her way out. Vince lead the way
back to the food court exit where Spencer was
watching a man approach. He wore a long offwhite cloak and he had something strapped to his
back, it was a sword.
“Michael?” Vince called, hoping the man
