by Greg Dragon
“Just watch and learn, young tadpole. I’m pretty good with a staff, aren’t I, Dad?” She looked up at her father for affirmation.
James Knight nodded and touched her shoulder. “You stay at my hip no matter what happens, okay, baby girl?”
“THREE SECONDS!” the lead soldier yelled and they all hastened with their preparation.
Alysia hated when he called her “baby girl” but she knew how he meant it and it almost broke her heart. “I won’t leave you, Dad, I promise,” she said. “It will be like the old days when we sparred.”
“Stay close, and stay awake. This is the real thing,” he said but as soon as he did, the lid was pulled open and a horde of demons rushed down the stairs and got peppered to death by the soldiers’ machine gun fire. They moved up the stairs while everyone followed, and as they fought their way to the outside, the non-combatants closed the door behind the volunteers and sealed it shut.
Outside the rain was pouring down, and the glass on Alysia’s mask adjusted itself to clear up the mist and residue that threatened to blind her in the atmosphere.
“What does that mean?” Alysia asked, pointing at the locked door behind them.
Tracy turned and shrugged her shoulders. “It means that we are now the guardians of the bunker. I’m guessing this was a suicide mission that no one bothered to tell us, huh, James?”
“Every mission is a suicide mission, but if you’re going to go out, this is how you do it,” he said and brought up the pulse rifle to drop a flying creature, then spun it around to put a few more rounds into the swarming horde of demons.
“I’ve never seen them this desperate!” Jaime yelled as he fired shot after shot from his pistols.
“They’re after me,” Alysia said, and a number of people turned to look at her to see if she was joking. They couldn’t tell through the mask, but from her voice, James knew she was being sincere.
“What are you talking about, Alysia?” he said as he turned around to face her.
“I mean throughout the time you’ve been searching for me, Dad. They’ve been trying to capture me for some sort of ritual.”
James couldn’t believe it. The story just didn’t make any sense. Why Alysia, why now? Why would it be his daughter out of a country of millions that the demons wanted to capture?
They continued to fight but a few men went down and Alysia began to feel guilty for people dying on her behalf. Maybe it would be better to let them have her; then they might go away and the country could get back to normal once that happened.
She thought of the first day, wanting to see Tavi and how the calls to evacuate did not reach her school. She couldn’t go anywhere without them finding her, and so many people had died trying to keep her safe. She was only one person and she could save millions, yet here she was amidst brave people, fighting back. Wouldn’t martyring myself for the greater good be the right thing to do?
She thought about the stories her father would tell her, how soldiers were trained to give themselves up to protect their brothers. She loved life, she had so much left to do, but what sort of future would there be if she was always running, and people were dying for her?
She looked over at Jaime, who was past guessing at her odd words and was firing into the crowd with his two pistols. Tracy was next to him, like a warrior queen from the books she had grown up reading. Then there was her father, who was now in the front, taking charge, pointing out targets, keeping them all alive.
It felt like time slowed as she thought about what to do: to choose life and stay in hell, or choose death and save everyone. What would James Knight do? But as soon as she asked herself this, she broke into a sprint and ran back past the entrance of the bunker to the area where the old concrete barracks lay vacant. Time moved slowly in her mind as she sprinted, and the demons surged towards her. Some kreples broke past them to get at her, but she was fast, too fast, even for them.
James and Tracy saw what happened and were after her in an instant, shooting what they could and screaming her name in unison. She was almost to the barracks when the wounded giant from before knelt right in front of her, appearing as if from nowhere.
She tried to stop to avoid him but slid and fell on her face. His wounds were grave and a puddle of blood splashed near where she lay. It was the end of the line, and as he reached for her she shot at his hand to stop him. It didn’t work and she was lifted airborne despite her attempts to claw her way out. She felt the pressure as he squeezed her slightly and she kicked her legs and punched at his hand to let her go.
James and Tracy shot at the giant but he ignored them as if their shots had no effect. It was like Alysia was a magnet he just couldn’t resist. James shouldered his rifle and then ran to the giant’s feet while pulling out his knife. Tracy kept the demons off of him with her automatic rifle, and as the soldiers caught up with her to help, the giant shifted and tried to step on them.
James moved quickly and cut where his Achilles tendon would be. The beast bellowed in pain as he dropped Alysia to reach back and clutch at his damaged foot. The injury was severe and as he shifted to touch it, it tore open into a bloody gash and he groaned loudly and toppled to the ground in pain.
The earth shook from the giant’s impact, but Tracy ran up and slid gracefully to catch the falling Alysia. As she did this a number of aircraft flew by, pumping even more bullets into the body of the giant. James rallied the people to him and together they ran back to the barracks where they could get out of the rain.
“No use in staying out there when the threat to the bunker is dead and bleeding out,” he said.
The soldiers lined up by the windows to pick off any demons that got close, and Tracy laid Alysia on a bench and checked her body for any wounds.
“How you doing, kid?” Tracy asked.
“Why did you guys follow me? I was leading them away. They are after me, remember? They—”
“Stop it, CeeCee!” her father shouted from across the room. He walked up to her with a look of anger flushed across his face. “They aren’t after you, they are after girls like you. I need you to bring it in and stop acting like this is all about you. Many of us are out here to protect the ones we love down there.”
He jabbed his finger downwards to indicate the bunker where thousands of families were locked in their rooms, praying that the monsters wouldn’t break through. “I have the luxury of having the one I love up here, and I don’t appreciate you trying to kill yourself on my watch. What were you thinking?”
Alysia shook her head, not knowing how to shake the shame she felt at her actions. “I just … I just thought that I could lead them away so everybody could be okay. I thought they were after me. Why else would they keep me alive after capturing me twice?”
Tracy stood up and nodded at James, indicating that she hadn’t found anything off about Alysia’s gear. She helped the girl to her feet, and then handed her a rifle and touched her on the butt. “Give her a break, Jimmy, her intentions were good.”
When she said this, it took all of James Knight’s patience to not lash out at Tracy for stepping in on their family disagreement, but he simply turned away and rejoined the soldiers who were shooting out at the demons trying to reach the bunker.
Alysia did the same thing and walked over to a window to shoot. Jaime took up a position next to her.
“You okay, CeeCee?” he asked. She looked at him to see if he was mocking her but he seemed to be sincere.
“Yeah, it’s just a little too surreal for me right now. I keep trying to fight and do what I assume is right, and it keeps on ending up with me hurt or captured somehow. I don’t know why you guys stay with me. I’m nothing but trouble, apparently, and I can’t get out of my own way.”
“You know, it’s not so hard to see why people stay with you, Alysia. You’re human, you’re allowed to mess up. Does your dad demand perfection from you or something? Were you one of those kids, nothing less than an A or you get shamed?”
“Nothing like t
hat,” Alysia said, and then tried to aim down the sights to shoot at a kreple that was tugging at the bunker’s handle. She squeezed the trigger, which was too tight for her untrained finger, but the shot flew true and the creature’s head exploded.
“Nice shot!” Jaime exclaimed, and a man standing next to her reached over, touched her shoulder, and gave her a nod of approval. I can do this, Alysia thought, and decided she would not make any more rash calls when other people’s lives were involved. She looked over to see if her father had seen her make the shot, but he was behind his pulse rifle, focused on the objective and dropping the demons one after another.
“My dad didn’t demand straight A’s. He made me understand their importance so that I could hold myself to that standard,” she said. “When I had a low grade, I beat myself up more than my parents did. My problem is that I strive to be perfect, it doesn’t have anything to do with anybody but myself.”
Jaime didn’t say anything more, but he knew that she was okay by the way she responded. He wondered how long they would have to hold the bunker until the patrolling soldiers returned.
They had been out there an hour, and the excitement with Alysia had sent his heart beating faster than he had ever felt it beat before. He had wanted to vomit but the suit and mask prevented it from being a real solution. He was glad they’d run into the barracks as it had given him a chance to catch his breath.
“Any word from the front?” a large man asked.
A soldier with a radio attached to his suit shook his head. “Negative. There must be a lot of those damn things on the perimeter. When I hear something you will know.”
So they kept on fighting, Alysia trying to forget her poor decision to run, and the others trying to keep the bunker clear.
~ * ~ * ~
“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask,” Alysia said as she sat with Jaime on a bench in the rear of the barracks. “What do we plan to do with all those bodies once things settle down around here? The smell already makes me want to hurl, and I can only imagine that with this rain and a few days of rot … ugh! As if those demons could get any worse.”
Jaime looked over at her and then back at his gloved hands. He was tired, hungry and worn-through, but he would be the last to admit it. Their group was now taking turns at the windows, shooting at the creatures when they got close. They had decided that the first group of soldiers to the north was trapped or dead so it was up to them to protect the bunker, and they needed rest to keep going.
“You’re worried about the demons with the smell. We’re required to keep wearing these suits, remember? Imagine how we’re going to smell in a few days,” Jaime said as he played with his gloves, looking as if he wanted to remove them. “Like, how do we even know that anything is in the air? There’s no indicator to tell me how toxic the air is. And besides the giant that attacked you, everything else seems to still be intact and healthy.”
Alysia had been thinking the same thing, but she didn’t want to be the one risking everything to prove a theory like before. “We’ll be back in the bunker sooner than you think. So don’t do anything crazy that could get you killed. Okay?”
“Yeah, I’m not, don’t worry about it. But I can’t promise that tomorrow, if we’re still stuck here, I won’t pull these gloves off. This bunker thing was a dumb idea, CeeCee, and I still think that wasn’t really the President on the intercom.”
Alysia shook her head and leaned back, hoping to get tired so that she could fall asleep. “So you’re back on that topic, huh? The conspiracy theory about our President. Come on, Jaime, even if that wasn’t really him, we’re screwed. Just look around you. It’s only a matter of time before we are overrun.”
“Not if I can help it. And look at you now, throwing the towel in and being a Debbie Downer. What if I were to go over there and tell your dad what you said? How do you think he’d like it?”
“He wouldn’t, so keep it to yourself. Look, I get it, and I’m not giving up, okay? It’s just depressing, and I’m tired and can’t even bring myself to close my eyes.” She sat up out of frustration and checked the watch attached to her glove. It read 4:30 a.m. “It’s gonna be light soon. Once the sun is up, things will settle down. Those demons are quite nocturnal.”
“How do you know this, Cee?” Jaime asked as he struggled with the sudden urge to remove his mask and light up a cigarette.
“Spent a couple nights with them, remember? They get pretty cranky in the day.” She rubbed her head in remembrance of the demon that had punched her in the face for fighting back. “You know, I found a body when I was on the way to this camp.”
“So what? There’s bodies all over the place nowadays.”
“This one was different. They had done something to it, the same thing they were going to do to me. She—the body, I mean—was pale, like really, really pale, and there were demon corpses all around her.”
“That’s some freaky stuff. What if they awakened some sort of evil spirit in her, and the spirit—upset that they brought her into our lame world—wiped them out, drifting back to hell where there’s beds, cigarettes, and the ability to fall asleep,” Jaime said. He was enjoying his sarcastic retort and the reaction he was getting from Alysia, who stared daggers into him.
“Joke all you want, jerk face, but I’m being honest.”
“Okay, but so what?” Jaime said, suddenly sitting up to look directly at her. “So what if they drained some poor girl and died while attempting it? They’re after us to kill us — all of us! I think that their rituals is the least of our problems right now, don’t you?”
“Jaime, I think that it’s important. With them running into our gunfire, there is a chance they will die out, but what if this is all a ruse and there is something bigger going on?”
Jaime stopped and thought about it for a second and then went back to his brooding. “You’re tired, Alysia. Why don’t we try to get some sleep so we’re able to function in the next few hours?”
~ * ~ * ~
Alysia hadn’t realized that she had passed out, but when she woke up, it was eerily quiet in the barracks and the sun was coming through the windows. It sounded as if the rain had picked up, but it was now light outside and the creatures had slowed down their assault on the barracks.
“Wake everybody up and get them back to the bunker,” Alysia could hear her father saying. The first team of soldiers had never shown up and he took easy command of their tiny army of volunteers. She looked over at Jaime, who was curled up on the ground like a baby. It made her smile, considering how hard he tried to be a classic male.
“Get your friend up, CeeCee, we’re moving out,” her father said, and she looked up at him with surprise.
“Dad, can we talk?” Alysia said, and James walked over and sat down next to her.
Alysia told her father about the girl she found, the details of her own capture, and her concern with their motives. James sat quietly for a long time afterwards, running the details over and over in his head.
“CeeCee, you and the boy pack up and head back to the bunker. Tell Tracy and Donald I need to talk to them,” he said.
“Which one is Donald?”
“The skinny guy with the sword on his back.”
“You’re going to investigate this without me, aren’t you?” she asked, ready to argue with him if he confirmed.
But he merely looked at her and shrugged. “Baby girl, are you trained for reconnaissance?”
“Well, no Dad, I’m not, but—”
“Have you had any real-time experience sneaking into enemy territory?”
“No.”
“Then let me do this, CeeCee. Let me go see what you’re talking about with these things. I need you to get these people back to the bunker and keep them ready. There ain’t no telling what our future is here with the Army guys missing in action. The three of us are going to look for them and rescue them if we can. Once we do that, we’re going to find this campsite you told me about and figure out what they have planne
d for us.”
2
A gloved fist was thrust up into the air and the party of three froze amidst the tall trees of the forest. Tracy could see everything through her night vision goggles, but she couldn’t make out what it was that made James give the signal to stop.
The light rain continued to play tiny drumbeats on the leaves as it had been doing the entire day that they tracked the demon party. She closed her eyes to try and enhance her hearing and then opened them quickly when Donald shot forward and impaled a kreple on his sword.
“Good, we’re still undetected,” Donald whispered and they made to keep moving towards the camp.
Donald, from what Tracy had learned about him during the day, was a man of many talents. His origins were Japanese and he had come from a long line of military people. He had a rich history and had served in the Marine Corps as a sniper.
After his service he had become homeless but managed to live off the land through hunting wild animals and camping out in various parks. His skills for tracking were even better than James, and he was an accomplished master of the sword. A skill he had honed since childhood when he was a competitor in Kendo.
They walked for a time, sliding their feet to mask their footsteps with the rain. Then the fist came up again, followed by a finger jabbing in the direction of a light. Tracy turned off the night vision to see if she could see and was quite surprised by the large bonfire that peeked through the trees about one hundred yards ahead of them. They worked their way through until they were close to it with James and Donald leading the way with their guns out, ready for action. She pulled out her handgun and did the same thing, ready for any kreples or demons that might hop out.
When they closed in on the campsite they could hear the whimpering of a girl that the demons had captured. Tracy wanted to bolt in and rescue her but James held her back, cautioning her to remain quiet as they listened. She forced herself to comply as they crept forward through the trees to see what was going on.
