“No,” said Neal. “I mean how did you arrive at Mont St. Michel?”
Bill seemed confused by the question. “We’re here because the Hell Gate opened.”
“I think he’s asking what happened to us after that,” said Sook-kyoung.
“Exactly.”
She placed her empty plate on the ground in front of her. “I was an exchange student from the University of Seoul getting a bachelor’s degree in history. When classes were over, I decided to spend the summer in Europe and see the things I had been studying about for so many years. I was at Rheims when the gate opened. I made my way to Brest, hoping to find a ship that could take me home, but none were working because of the EMP. So I followed the coast until I came across Mont St. Michel and Jacques took me in.”
Sook-kyoung glanced over at Petra. The Italian contemplated whether to tell her story and then gave a slight shrug. “I was on an El Italia flight from Paris to Rome. We were on the taxiway when the gate opened.”
“Did you see it?” asked Sasha.
Petra shook her head. “We knew something bad had happened, but we had no idea what. Our flight had been delayed twenty minutes. At the time we didn’t realize how fortunate we were. I was watching a JAL flight take off, a 747. The plane made it about two hundred feet into the air when the EMP hit. Its engines cut out, and it took a nose dive into the runway. I doubt anyone survived the explosion. Not that it would have mattered. There were no emergency vehicles to help them. Anyways, our pilot evacuated the plane and led us back to the terminal. By then, everything was chaotic. Airport officials had no information on what happened.”
“How did you wind up here?” asked Neal.
“I didn’t stay at the airport long because it became too dangerous. People began to panic. Fights broke out. Some people looted the food court. I even saw one teenage girl being assaulted. When we heard about the Parisians evacuating the city, five of the flight attendants and I decided to get out while we still had a chance. We headed for the highway and joined the mass of refugees heading west.” Petra’s voice trailed off and she lowered her head.
“What happened to the others?” prodded Sook-kyoung.
“We lost Maria and Theresa in the crowd on the second day. They became separated, and we never saw them again. The rest of us were afraid to stay on the highway since the situation was becoming tenuous, so we set off cross country. We eventually found an abandoned farmhouse with a well-stocked pantry that we held up in. Unfortunately, Raphaela gave up and committed suicide on the second night. Gabi wanted to stay put in the farmhouse, so I left her there and set out on my own. I kept on walking until I reached Normandy and one of Jacques’ search and destroy missions rescued me.” Petra paused and shrugged her shoulders. “Here I am.”
“I’ll never top that story,” said Ray, trying to add some levity to lighten the mood. “I had finished a NATO exercise in Germany and had stopped by Normandy to tour some of the battlefields. When everything went south, I headed for Mont St. Michel because it was the closest, most fortified location around. I’d do anything to get back to the States.”
“We all would,” said Shane.
“I have a wife and two kids back in Fayetteville, and I have no idea whether or not they’re safe.”
“Sorry,” Shane whispered.
“Don’t be. It is what it is. I’m not the only one who doesn’t know what happened to their loved ones.”
“Not much to tell on our end,” said Shane. “The three of us were vacationing in Nice. When all this shit went down, we tried to make our way to the American Embassy in Paris, until we learned that the city had been evacuated. So we wandered around France until we heard rumors of a sanctuary being set up at Mont St. Michel. The rest is history.”
“And you?” Neal asked Christophe.
“I’d been vacationing in Lisbon and was on my way back to Vienna.” Christophe slid his glasses up his nose. “The EMP stopped our train outside of Tours. Since everyone I ran into was heading west or north, I went in that direction and eventually made it to the city.”
Neal turned to Renato, yet did not ask since he could not understand English. The Italian grinned, trying to hide his embarrassment.
“What about you, Reinhard?”
“Vat does it matter?” Reinhard practically spat the words. “The vorld vent to hell. Mein life vent to hell. And now I’m going to hell. Literally.”
A strained moment passed as the German glared at Neal. Thankfully, Philippe broke the tension. “I have the most boring story of all. I was born in Mont St. Michel.”
Josh laughed, and most of the others joined in. Reinhard stood up, flung the remnants on his plate to the side, and walked away. Neal waited until the German had walked out of earshot before asking, “What about David and Antoine?”
Jason shrugged. “All I know about David is that he was one of the security guards from CERN. He helped Doc and me get out safely and stayed with us as we made our way out of Switzerland and into France. As long as I’ve known him, he has never talked about himself. As for Antoine, rumor has it that he belonged to a crime syndicate in Lyons and barely escaped the city when Hell Spawn overran it. No one dared ask him about it, though. We’re afraid to.”
“Wow.” Neal glanced down at his plate. “I never knew.”
“That’s why most of us don’t talk about our past,” said Petra.
“It’s too painful,” added Ray.
The sound of approaching footsteps caught the group’s attention. Andre stepped up and slid his FAMAS onto his shoulder. “If you ladies are done gossiping, let’s switch out so the rest of us can get a meal.”
“Roger that.” Ray stood first, followed by the others.
“I want everybody bunked down in half an hour,” said Andre. “Sasha, your team will sleep in the house and mine will take the barn. I don’t want us to be surprised by any Hell Spawn tonight, so each team will take a four-hour shift. Haneef, your people will stand watch until ten o’clock when Sasha’s team relieves you. My team will take the watch from two until dawn.”
“Gotcha.”
“First, I want to chat with Doc and the team leads. The rest of you are dismissed. Bait, you stay behind, too.”
Chapter Thirteen
Andre waited for the rest of the team to leave before moving closer to Doc. He talked softly so his voice would not carry. “I’m concerned about that swarm of Nachzehrer we ran into earlier. They’re getting too close to Mont St. Michel.”
Doc shrugged. “We knew that sooner or later the Hell Spawn would find us.”
“It doesn’t bother you?”
“Of course it does. But there’s nothing we can do about it, besides making it to Paris and closing down the Hell Gate.”
“At least they were heading south,” chimed in Jason. “Away from us.”
Sasha made eye contact with Jason, hoping to engage him in conversation. “I wonder where they came from?”
“Probably Vire,” Doc replied. “The town is about fifteen miles north of Ger. It’s pretty large, so I assume they wandered down from there.”
“What made them head south?” asked Andre.
Doc shrugged the shoulder of his remaining arm. “Maybe they spotted a refugee and gave chase. Or maybe they wandered in that direction. There’s no way of knowing.”
“As long as they’re not heading west, that’s all I care about.” Andre huffed. “What do you make of the fact that some of the Nachzehrer wore clothes?”
Doc thought for a moment. “What type of clothes?”
“What type is there?”
“Were the clothes older in style or contemporary?”
Andre’s eyebrows crinkled. “What does it matter?”
“If the clothes were old, it might indicate that the Nachzehrer were wearing them when they left the Hell Gate. If the clothes were contemporary, that means they’ve recently been turned.”
“Shit,” Andre mumbled. “I didn’t notice. Bait, did you?”
“Yes. They wore m
odern clothes.”
“Wait a minute, Doc.” Andre sounded flustered. “Are you implying the Nachzehrer can turn people into one of those things by biting them?”
“It’s a possibility.”
Jason unconsciously reached up and felt the wound on his shoulder from two days ago. He noticed the others staring at him suspiciously.
“That doesn’t make sense,” said Sasha. “Several of us have been bitten and none of us have turned. Are you sure about this?”
“Not at all. There could be several reasons why they’re dressed that way. Maybe they didn’t turn out here. Maybe they died, went to Hell, and came back. Maybe the naked ones have been in Hell longer, and their clothes have rotted away. I don’t know. It might be a good idea to stay far away from the Nachzehrer from here on in.”
“No argument here.” Andre gave Jason another wary look.
Doc cocked his head to one side in disagreement. “I’m more concerned about what we’ll find in Flers or Falaise.”
“What do you mean?” asked Sasha. “They weren’t even heading in that direction.”
“Caen is forty miles north of Flers and only twenty-four miles north of Falaise. Given what we ran into in Ger, we should consider the possibility that we’ll come across another, even larger swarm tomorrow. I don’t even want to think about what’s waiting for us as we get closer to Paris.”
None of them said anything. Jason had not thought about it before. It made sense that if the Hell Gate was actually in Paris, then the closer they got to the city, the greater the number of Hell Spawn they would encounter. God only knew what type of demons the portal spit out that hadn’t made it this far yet.
Andre broke the awkward silence. “You’re a ray of chertov sunshine today.”
As the Russian walked away, Sasha stepped over to Doc. “Do you really think we’re going to run into a lot more of these things the closer we get to Paris?”
Doc grimaced. “We’ve only seen a fraction of what the Hell Gate has spewed out.”
Sasha turned to Jason. At first, he thought she would admonish him for coming along on this mission. Instead, her eyes showed fear. In all the time he had known Sasha, he had never seen her afraid of anything. For her to feel this way, they must be heading into some serious trouble. Then Jason detected a nuance in Sasha’s aura. She knew that most of the team would die in Paris and had become resigned to that. He sensed that she didn’t fear for her safety but his. Sasha not wanting him to come along had nothing to do with his being too young. She cared too much to allow something to happen to him. Jason felt guilty that he had misjudged Sasha’s motives, but was not ready to let her off the hook, especially after the dressing down she gave him in public. Maybe Sasha did have some affection for him, but the way she treated him resembled an older sister taking care of her younger sibling. When she started to act like his girlfriend rather than his babysitter, then he could forgive her.
However, knowing Sasha did care, if only a little, made the prospect of going into harm’s way seem not as grim as before.
Chapter Fourteen
Sasha made her rounds around the farmhouse, checking on the rest of her team manning the perimeter. She kept her pace slow, enjoying the surroundings. She had not noticed how peaceful the setting was when they had first arrived. Now, with everyone asleep or quietly standing guard, she could appreciate the serenity of the countryside. A gibbous moon sat high, its soft light shining down on the fields and forest in the distance. Stars dotted the cloudless sky, more than she could recall seeing in her life. One streak stretched from one horizon to the next in a long ribbon of white. She now realized why ancient astronomers referred to that density of stars as the Milky Way.
The silence struck her most. Even a small city such as Mont St. Michel maintained a certain bustle at night that she had never really noticed before. Out here, the only noises came from nature, mostly crickets. A rustling near the edge of the overgrown field caught her attention. She paused for several minutes to watch a family of deer forage for food among the grass, two adults, and three fawns. The animals didn’t even run when they spotted her, no longer fearing man as a natural predator. After several minutes, the family moved deeper into the grass. Only then did Sasha continue her rounds.
If any good came out of the Hell Gate, it was that nature had reclaimed the land. Sasha suddenly remembered a geology professor back in college who always compared the world to a living organism, and referred to humans as parasites feeding off of it. He used to say that, like any living organism, the earth would one day purge itself so it could survive. She had always laughed off his lectures as the ramblings of an eco-nut. Now she believed him. A part of her wondered if the opening of the portals wasn’t inevitable, nature’s way of saving itself from what man had been doing to the planet. Sasha knew her professor would say yes if he were still alive. However, considering that Hell Spawn were now the dominant species, she couldn’t help thinking that the cure may be worse than the disease.
Sasha slowed as she approached the driveway leading to the farm. She couldn’t see Petra anywhere. She whistled once, short and loud. Petra’s head appeared out of a ditch along the side of the road. Upon seeing Sasha, she waved and crawled out. Sasha walked over to her.
“Paranoid?” she asked.
“Just being cautious,” replied Petra. “Better safe than sorry.”
“I hear ya. I assume you haven’t seen anything?”
“Some deer and a few rabbits, which is fine by me. I’ve been enjoying the quiet.”
“It’s beautiful.” Sasha removed her canteen from her belt and unscrewed the top. “I could get used to living like this.”
“It’s very romantic.”
“Are you coming on to me?” Sasha laughed and took a drink of water.
“No. You should be out here with Jason.”
The statement caught Sasha by surprise. She spat out the water and wiped her hand across her lips. “Why do you say that?”
“Because he’s in love with you. And it’s obvious you feel the same way about him.”
“That’s not true,” Sasha lied.
Petra chuckled. “You can stop the pretense. We’ve all seen the way you watch out for him when we’re on a mission.”
“I do that because he’s young.”
“Philippe is young, too, yet you don’t protect him the same way. Besides, I can see it in your eyes whenever you look at him.”
Sasha sighed. Had she really been that obvious? “I do love him.”
“So why haven’t you told him?”
“Because he’s sixteen and I’m twenty-three. He should be with a girl his own age.”
“They’re all dead.”
Sasha was aghast.
Petra chuckled again. “I know that sounds cruel, but it’s true. Everything changed when the Hell Gates opened, even the social norms we all lived by.”
“What will people think?”
“Who cares what they think? We live with death hanging over our heads every single day. God only knows how much time any of us have left, so why waste it?”
Petra was right, thought Sasha. Everything had changed over the past several months, and it seemed ridiculous to deny herself some measure of happiness. Considering how many times they had put themselves in harm’s way, only luck had prevented either of them having been killed before this. She had already squandered too much time because of her own outdated sense of morality. In a few days, they would be in Paris, and the odds were good that none of them would make it out alive. She needed to act now if she hoped to have any chance—
Approaching footsteps interrupted her reverie. Andre came down the driveway with the rest of his team slogging along behind him. Jason had a lock of blonde hair dangling across his face. She smiled.
“Everything good here?” the Russian asked.
Sasha nodded. “No sign of any danger.”
“Let’s hope it stays that way.” Andre motioned to Jason. “Bait, you take over from Petra. If
you see any sign of Hell Spawn, call out and we’ll come running.”
The teenager nodded.
Sasha stepped up to Jason. “Can we talk for a minute?”
“No time for that now,” interrupted Andre. “I need you to walk the perimeter with us and show me where the others are posted. You can chat with your boyfriend later.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.” Sasha regretted the words as soon as she spoke them. Petra shook her head in despair. Even worse, Jason showed no reaction to her outburst.
“Whatever,” Andre huffed. “Let’s go.”
Sasha led the way to the other guard stations. As they departed, she glanced over her shoulder to see if Jason watched her leave. Her heart sank when she saw him crawling into the ditch where Petra had been; his attention focused on the farmland ahead of him rather than on her.
Chapter Fifteen
The group left the farm after sunrise and continued their trek to Flers. The first hour passed uneventfully, although Jason did not necessarily see that as a blessing. All he could think about was what Doc had said about the clothed Nachzehrer possibly having been turned and the implications that had for him. He tried to ignore it. After all, if their bite could infect someone, then he should have been showing signs of becoming a Nachzehrer by now. So far, he had been feeling better. Even so, every twinge in his shoulder now gave him cause for concern.
About two miles outside of Flers, Andre brought the group to a halt. Jason sidestepped his horse out of line to see why. Something stood by the side of the road one hundred feet ahead of them. At first, it appeared to be a Nachzehrer. This demon had the same type of leathery skin, although it was not emaciated like the rest. Its head was bowed, which at this distance appeared misshapen. It stood motionless and seemed oblivious to their presence.
Slava rode up beside Andre and unslung his FAMAS. As he aimed the automatic weapon, Andre reached out and lowered the barrel.
“What’s wrong?”
“The shot will attract too much attention. Besides, I want to know what it’s up to.” Andre shifted in his saddle. “Bait, get up here.”
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