by Greg Dragon
The woods were thick and black on all sides but she kept on running despite the rocks digging into her bare feet. When she came upon another campsite she pulled up short. Her heart sank as she looked at what seemed to be the aftermath of a massacre.
There were bodies everywhere, charred and disfigured, and on the ground near what used to be a bonfire lay the corpse of a woman in a purple dress very much like her own. Alysia paused to examine her fully, and the evidence of what the demons meant for her played itself out in graphic detail.
The girl looked as if they had drained her blood, and her skin was pale to the point where she was alabaster beneath the moon. They had drawn all sorts of symbols on her body, and her wounds were different compared to the others that lay strewn all over the clearing.
Alysia cursed herself for staying too long, and took off running back into the woods. She was crying but she didn’t know why. Maybe it was the thought that she would have been that girl if she hadn’t escaped the night before, or maybe it was tears of joy.
She kept on running until she came upon another site, this one empty and eerily quiet. She walked through it towards a large expanse of grassy field that sat bordered on three corners by the untamed forest. She wondered what the city had planned to do with this big field but it didn’t matter; the grass felt good beneath her feet.
Her mind was racing and all she could think about was the pale, marked up girl in the purple dress. What were the symbols, why did she look drained? Alysia thought of all the movies she had seen and all of the games she had played and her imagination went wild. She thought of the demons summoning something that they needed, or better yet “someone.”
She realized she had been standing in the open field going over this and that she had stopped moving. The moonlight shone down on her like a spotlight and she turned around slowly to see if the demons were coming for her. She saw nothing and the only sounds she could hear were the sounds of people screaming in the direction of the city. She forced her legs to start walking, the soft grass of the field massaging the soles of her feet and tickling her toes. Why me? she thought. Why was I the one chosen for sacrifice?
She brought her wrist up to her nose and smelled the oil; it was strong and sweet. She wondered what the demons wanted to summon. Was it a beautiful, demon queen, born from the vessel of a young, chaste woman? Or was it something monstrous and terrible, bursting from the flames and gobbling up any demon that stood too close when it emerged?
Alysia was still deep in thought when suddenly the clouds covered the moon, and the sky turned pitch black. When lightning struck she fell to her knees as her fear finally broke through. The lightning had revealed the form of a giant that stood up from the forest and was looking down at her as she sat frozen on the grass. The clouds pulled back a bit and the silhouette of the giant stood menacingly before her as he watched her every move.
“Snap out of it, CeeCee!” she yelled at herself, and she stood up, shaking, looking about for a place to run. Anywhere she ran, the giant could catch her. The only thing she could do was retrace her steps and run back the way she had come. The giant was forcing her to confront the demons, or go back to the ritual and play her role. She could face the giant, who could smash her with one step, or she could turn around, hide until daytime, and let the demons have her.
Fight or flight, baby girl, she could hear her father say as she dusted off the dress and ran towards the giant. He stepped out into the clearing to face her, but she didn’t slow her sprint as she darted towards his feet. The creature let out a loud roar that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, but she was too committed to let it stop her. She was going to get out of the clearing and into the woods behind the giant.
The giant lifted his foot and slammed it down at Alysia but she jumped and rolled out of the way as she ran to his other foot. She grabbed one of the jagged toenails on his planted foot and jerked up on it hard, causing it to tear away from the toe. The giant bellowed out in pain and fell backwards to grab his injured foot and Alysia sprinted towards the woods.
She laughed at herself loudly as she ran. She was fearless, and she didn’t know why. She had faced kreples, demons, and fought a giant, but much of it came from instinct, nothing calculated, planned, or even reasoned through. Her adrenaline was up and she had gotten used to her heart racing. It felt good, and for the first time she could appreciate the cool night air against her skin.
~ * ~ * ~
James Knight washed the blood from his hands as he looked over at the bullets that lay in a plate next to the sink. He lifted his eyes to the sleeping woman bandaged up and lying on the couch. He knew that he should leave her and find his daughter but he couldn’t do it. Tracy was hurt and she needed him; he would give her one more day and they would set out for Alysia together.
He hoped that he had gotten her bullets out without rupturing anything, and he hoped that he had found all of them. It was in this instance that he missed his wife the most. Kendra was an ace when it came to patching people up, and everything he knew he learned from her. He thought about her smooth, mahogany skin and her large brown eyes, and a painful loneliness took over him.
It was Luciano, the happy kitten that saved him from his dark thoughts. The cat managed to get his attention, as he stood frozen, letting the water wash over his hands and coalesce into the drain. He turned it off, dried his hands, and lifted the tiny cat up to look him in the eye. Luciano meowed and pawed playfully at his face, forcing him to smile and pet behind his ear gently.
“Well, aren’t you the little survivor,” James said to him as he took him to the loveseat next to Tracy and continued to pet him.
“How long was I out?” Tracy asked as she looked over at the big man, petting away at her Luciano. “Aww, I see he got you too, huh?” she said and smiled at Luciano and waved.
The kitten lazily looked away from his new friend to see the familiar Tracy and meowed meekly before hopping onto her chest.
“Back to mommy,” James said, and then stood up and looked around. “You were out for a few minutes. How do you feel?”
“Alive, but I can barely move,” she said, looking down at her bandages and then throwing her head back in frustration. “You know, I’ve been a cop for three years now and I haven’t gotten so much as a scratch on my body this whole time. World goes to hell and I start getting hurt. Helluva lucky streak I got going.”
“Who took Alysia?” he asked her bluntly.
“A couple of thugs. They were wrapped up and masked real good, like they don’t want anyone to identify them.”
“You got one of them,” he said, as he walked over to the window and looked out at the setting sun.
“Yeah, just one, but the others got CeeCee.”
“It’s not just men out there capturing people,” James said without looking at her.
“What do you mean?” she asked, trying in vain to sit up.
“I shot, killed and burned the body of someone that tried to pull me from my bike. What I burned was not a man; it was some kind of demon. Red skin, horns, black lips… just no horned tail or bat wings.”
“Demons? Are you freaking kidding me? Demons are running around, too?” Tracy asked and she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She had always joked about it being the end of the world but now the religion of her youth was flaring up. It must be the end of days, the apocalypse, and Satan was sending his creatures up to earth in order to harvest souls. “So, we have kreples—”
“Cripples?” James asked in a concerned tone as he turned to look at her.
“No, kreples. The lizard creatures that are everywhere,” Tracy said, hoping he wouldn’t ask anything more about the name.
“How do you know their name?”
She sighed. “It’s from a videogame that CeeCee and I both play. Those creatures look just like them, so we call them kreples.”
James wanted to smile. “You mean, Blue Fantasy Six. I’m the one that got her into that game. So you’re a fello
w Paladin, too, huh?” he asked, referring to the common title players of the game dubbed themselves.
“All Paladin here, James. Just like your daughter.”
“Call me Jimmy,” he said and sat back down on the loveseat to look at her. “Need anything? Painkillers, liquor? I know it hurts like hell.”
“I’m good; the conversation helps take my mind off it. So demons, too, huh? kreples, giants, and freaking demons.” She made a popping noise with her mouth and then stared past him to the setting sun. “It will be dark soon. We have no lights here and it gets pretty creepy outside with all the screams and whatnot.”
“Do you have candles?” James asked.
“I have a couple bulb droids,” she said and pointed to a mechanical orb on the table.
James picked it up and twisted it once. The droid hummed and floated up towards the ceiling where it began to glow, illuminating the entire room.
“Tomorrow we will need to get moving, find Alysia, and take her back from those damned things,” James said.
Tracy smiled at his small voice. It was a welcome surprise from the large, intimidating man, and she wanted to get to know him better. There was something gentle and pure about him, and she really, really liked him. Maybe it was Alysia’s story about how he had taken her and her mother in, or maybe it was the fact that he had saved her life. Whatever it was, she enjoyed him being there. And as they talked into the night, she fell asleep to the sound of his voice.
It was early the next morning when they headed out. Tracy could barely move and the cold air that seemed to come from everywhere made her pain worse as she struggled to walk with him. The big man had bandaged her up, and she was on enough painkillers to make it tolerable, but still it wasn’t enough.
“No way am I gonna be able to ride on that thing,” she said when she saw his hover-bike.
He looked at her and sized her up. “It hovers. No bumps, no discomfort. Plus, this one’s been rigged to fly up beyond a foot,” he said proudly as he walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder.
“I’m not worried about the pain; I’m worried about falling off. That seat is obviously meant for one person.”
“This is why you will need to trust me,” he said. “You’ll have to sit facing the other way.” And he watched her eyes to see if she understood.
“You mean sit on your lap facing the other way,” she said, looking at him to see if she could read something in his intent.
“Listen, my girl is out there hurting somewhere. I only hesitated because of your condition. Do you really think that—?”
“Okay!” Tracy said, realizing he was right. “Let’s just head out. The longer we stay out here, well, you know.”
He kick-started the bike and it roared like a mechanical lion. She tugged at her jeans to pull them up more as she threw her leg over his and sat facing him. She almost found it comical, as he adjusted her enough so that he could see past her face. She reached down and held the bars that ran alongside his seat and he handed her a large handgun.
“If we get followed, you can keep ‘em off us,” he said and she tried to ignore her pain and think past the fact that she was on his lap.
“So, quick question before we leave,” she said.
“Yeah, sure, what is it?”
“This tiny crotch rocket you have us on. It will get us around, no doubt about that, but what happens when we find CeeCee? Where is she gonna fit?”
“I’ll figure it out,” he said, and they lifted into the air and took off.
4
“So, how do we find her?” Tracy asked as she lay on the dirty sleeping bag, bordered by tall grass.
It was the question of the century and James didn’t have an answer for it. He had tracked the demons that took his daughter all the way to a campsite, but something had caused them to scatter. He would follow some steps one way and then come back to follow some others, but he couldn’t make any sense of it. Tracy was doing better, but they had to take numerous breaks and on this particular day, he had allowed her to stay still while he did his tracking.
“She ran this way,” he said and pointed back towards the area that he had come from. “Into the city, away from those things. I found a bathroom where she was for a time, and then a few corpses up further. My girl was fighting all night, and it looks like she got a few of ‘em. We should keep moving; I’m on to her trail now.”
Tracy nodded but groaned as the pain was becoming unbearable. She tried to soldier through it but James took notice.
“Tell you what, Tracy. Let’s get you somewhere safe; you don’t need to be running around with me, looking for CeeCee. I’ll find her and then we’ll come back for you. I don’t know what kind of hell the world is turning into, but you’re a survivor. We need your help just like you need ours.”
Tracy wanted to object, but sleep and recuperation sounded like heaven. She knew James was a military man, and he more than looked like he could take care of a few thugs.
“Not cool of me to let a partner go out on his own against the enemy,” she joked, and he looked at her as if he was trying to decipher the meaning behind her words.
“Wouldn’t be my first time soloing it, Tracy. You just heal and stay alert. No telling what those damn things really are.”
They rode back into the city and found an old Raze Hotel. It had 23 floors and the refrigerator, which should have been raided, still had water in it. James grabbed anything that hadn’t spoiled from the heat, lifted Tracy into his arms, and walked her up to the eleventh floor. She tried to object but he ignored her; speed was more important than ego for him. Tracy got down and gingerly walked over to a door, motioning for him to come over when she got there.
“I think I like this, room number 1121. It’s easy to remember, plus it’s lucky number twenty one, right?”
James smiled at her as he tried to slow down his beating heart. “I see that the police lady plays a little blackjack on the side eh?”
“Actually I meant basketball, big man. When I heal, I’ll take you out on the court and school you.”
“Yeah, and that won’t be happening,” he said under his breath as he tried the door. He knocked three times before putting his ear down and listening. “You just might be in luck, lady,” he said to her as she forced a smile and played with her hair. He spun, causing her to fall against the wall in a panic, and side kicked the door in. Once inside, they found the room spotless, and Tracy walked over to the bed and tested it with her hands.
She pushed open the curtains to let the sunlight in and then kicked off her boots before sitting on the bed. James walked into the bathroom and tried the tap; there was still running water and he walked back into the room to give Tracy the thumbs up.
“You have my number, right?” he asked her, and she shook her head and pointed to her phone, which was out of battery power. “We should have broken into one of these electronic stores and grabbed us a few of those,” he said, frustrated.
“Aww, it’s okay, Jimmy. When I feel better, I may do that. Just keep trying to call – one day I’ll pick up.”
James nodded and then looked around the room as if he were taking inventory mentally of what was in there. She had a bag full of junk food, wine and water; courtesy of the downstairs bar, and then there was a little refrigerator stocked full of more adult beverages, in case she ran out. “Looks like you have enough liquor to keep you under until we get back,” he joked and she brushed her wild hair back to wink at him, then turned to look out at the abandoned city.
“Why don’t you stay?” Tracy said without looking at him. “Just the night. It’ll be evening soon and you won’t get very far. Plus, you just carried 130 pounds up eleven flights of stairs. You’re a big guy but you have to be exhausted. Just like, sit down for a sec, will you? Alysia needs you, I know, but you won’t be any good to her worn down and hungry.”
~ * ~ * ~
Darkness, loneliness, and anxiety, were just a few of the emotions Alysia experienced as she
walked through the woods away from the giant. She had heard him stand up when she ran away and had come into the woods to look for her. She kept walking the entire night, worried that a gang of kreples would assault her, or the demons would catch up to her again. When she grew tired, she wanted to stop, but her mind wouldn’t let her do it, not until she was out of the woods—literally.
She pushed on through until the sound of helicopters pulled her up short, and she walked up to a fence that kept the trees back from what appeared to be a compound. There were many parked vehicles and military personnel walking about, and in the background, she could see a large assortment of tents. So, this is where they evacuated everyone to, she thought and looked around for an exit to the fence. There was none and she assumed that it had electricity flowing through it to stop the creatures. It was tall enough to stop a giant, and in the distance, she saw large guns pointed in her direction.
She flagged down a guard walking by and he came up to her with his gun drawn, ready to shoot. When he saw that Alysia was an actual human being, he motioned for her to come close so he could talk to her. The way he kept looking around made Alysia suspicious.
“You cut all the way through the barrens?” he asked, looking her over suspiciously and flinching a bit when he saw that she had bare feet.
“Yes, I was chased by one of those giant … things.”
“What about the red zombies; you see any of them out there?”
“Yeah, they were who I was running from when I saw the giant,” Alysia said, annoyed at the questions that didn’t seem to hint at him letting her in.
“Well, sorry, see I can’t let you in here,” he said, looking down at his feet as if they would help him.
“How come? Look, I’ve been walking all night, those things want to kill me and—“
“This is a military base. We have strict rules not to take in any civilians. We got our hands full with those damn things attacking us, and the last thing we can do is take care of you.”
