by SD Tanner
If he could live his life over again, he thought he would make very different decisions. For one thing he would have moved as far away as he could from where he found himself now. When the virus erupted, he’d been sleeping off a bender in some woman’s apartment. Waking to the sound of gunfire from outside the apartment, he’d pulled on his pants and quickly high tailed it over the balcony. Dropping two stories, he’d landed in the bushes, and still hiding, he’d seen people were covered in blood and attacking one another. Luckily the keys to his truck were in his pants pocket, and he managed to skirt the violence and escape in his truck. It was a chaotic drive to get out of the town and into the country where it was quieter. That was the start of spending months on the run until he was finally caught by the Black Army. Assuming his number was up, he was surprised when they told him he was chosen to join Hull’s Army. He’d done some camping and hunting in his time, but he was never interested in joining the military.
As far as he was concerned, it was going quite well and Hull’s Army got everything they needed. Weapons, food, comfortable enough quarters, and access to women. All in all, he thought he’d done very nicely until a few weeks ago when Ruler decided he wanted Hull’s Army for his demons. He’d ordered them to leave their weapons behind and meet him in a field. Of course, not everyone left all their guns, but when they got to the field they were surrounded by hunters, and their weapons had been useless. Without warning, they were possessed by demons, and he wasn’t entirely sure how it was done. It wasn’t the usual process he’d seen where a demon swapped one body for another. One minute he was standing in the field prepared to beat the living hell out of any demon that came near him, and the next he was sharing his brain with another consciousness that was in control of him.
That consciousness was still in control of him now. Initially he’d found sharing his brain intrusive and disgusting. The demon liked to eat the flesh of the still living, and he’d learned he didn’t like the taste or the texture of raw and still bleeding meat, plus the screaming of the victims as they were slowly being consumed gave him a headache. Fortunately his demon didn’t seem to need to feed every day, but it was still his least favorite part of being possessed. Some of the things his demon did were entertaining, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy his demon’s perverse sexual tastes. All in all, it wasn’t working out as badly as he thought it might, and he did enjoy watching the hunters doing as they were told. Sometimes just for kicks, his demon would have the hunters’ fight one another, and he would secretly make bets with himself on which one would win. He didn’t exactly talk to his demon and there wasn’t really any need. They didn’t have anything to say to one another, but they did sort of share images and feelings.
His demon had left Ruler’s pack and travelled to the base in Jacksonville, Florida. Initially they’d travelled as a group of six demons, and he’d been expected to take turns driving one of the two cars they were using to get to the base. Even if he hadn’t wanted to cooperate, the demon could simply have used his knowledge and experience, but he was happy to drive. It gave him something to do on an otherwise long and boring trip. Once they arrived at the base, they’d split into teams of two and each pair entered the base separately pretending to be survivors. To his surprise, no one at the base questioned their story and they were given access to the whole site. It was all too easy. The base was crowded and no one paid much attention to them. He understood from his demon that one team decided to go with the transport ships to the UK, and the other team were planning to go to some Ranch. His team were going to gain access to the cruise ship, but that was proving to be difficult. Where everywhere else had almost no security, there were strict rules about who was allowed on board the ship. His demon had been discussing the problem with his female partner, and the two of them had hatched a plan. Right now, his demon and the female demon were standing between two of the containers on the base that were used as sleeping quarters, and his demon had just pulled his KA-BAR from his belt. He thought living with a demon was better than watching television, and he was eager to see what was going to happen next.
He watched his hand flip the fierce looking blade so it was pointing towards him and became confused. His other hand wrapped around the blade and he held it ready to plunge into his own gut. No, no, no, he thought wildly. Without his consent, the demon plunged the knife into his gut, and in his mind only, he howled with pain. He felt the blade slicing through muscle, and the pressure in his arms as he pushed the blade home. Suddenly there was a weight inside his abdomen he’d never felt before. With a twist of his wrist, the blade turned while it was still buried in his gut, and he howled again. Then his arms dragged the blade upward toward his chest. Desperately willing his body to stop tearing him apart, he screamed silently, stop, stop, stop. The searing heat of the blade gave way to a warm sensation spreading down his gut and the front of his pants. He couldn’t believe he’d just stabbed himself in the stomach and he was fairly sure he’d peed his own pants. In deep shock, he listened unwillingly to the female demon.
“That’s enough. You need to be alive, or they won’t take us to the CDC. It needs to be serious enough to need to go to there, but don’t overcompensate.”
He wasn’t in control of his body, and he couldn’t even look down at his injury. He wanted to grab his open gut with his hands, but he couldn’t do that either. The pain was cutting through his mind as effectively as the knife cut through his body, and he felt light headed and nauseous.
The female demon gave a flick of her red hair and rearranged her stunning features to look shocked and frightened. “Help! Help! I need a doctor. My husband has been stabbed! Help!”
Being far too consumed by his pain and dizziness, he didn’t pay much attention after that. In fact, he buckled to his knees and lay on the ground feeling numb and cold. He vaguely remembered people fussing about him and then the pain went away, but he felt groggy and disoriented. He was pretty sure he’d been in a helicopter, and some part of his mind was disappointed at not remembering the trip. One of the things he’d really enjoyed about being in Hull’s Army was they used to get to travel by helicopter. From the moment he collapsed onto the concrete between the two living containers, everything was a blur until he woke up in a small room in what looked like a hospital. Throughout his ordeal, the demon in his mind had kept singing, and as his consciousness surfaced, he could still hear it humming. Stop it, he thought, but the demon continued to hum a tune he didn’t recognize. He wanted to feel his gut to assure himself it was no longer gaping and bleeding, but the demon still controlled his every move.
Unwillingly, he sat up and looked around the room. The female demon was standing in front of a mirror inspecting her face and primping her hair. The room itself looked like a private room in a hospital, and lying on the bed opposite him, was a small person with a tube running from their nose and another from under the sheet that looked like it fed a bag of urine. As the demon forced his injured body to move, he felt something tugging in his gut. Assuming it was stitches, he wished he could look down at his body, but the demon controlling him wasn’t listening to him.
Strolling over to the body lying in the bed opposite, his demon remarked, “Oh, I don’t want this one. It’s so short.” Peering closer at what he could now see was a man lying on the bed, his demon added with disgust, “And it’s ugly.”
“I don’t want it either,” the female demon snapped irritably.
Without wanting to, he turned and faced the female demon and pursed his lips. “No! No! No! I’m not being the short one!”
Before they could finish their argument, a lean, worried looking man wearing spectacles, walked into the room. “What are you doing in here?”
Both demons whirled and he wanted to tell the man to run, but couldn’t. The demons launched themselves at the man, scrabbling to see who could possess him first. Like children, they pushed and pulled at one another, eager to reach him first. He felt something give across his abdomen and a warmt
h flooded down his belly. The man looked completely confused by their childish behavior and it was the female demon who reached him first. Grabbing the man fiercely by the back of his neck, she pulled him closer to her as if she was about to kiss him. At last moment, she ducked her head and deftly nipped his cheek hard enough to draw just a little blood. He’d seen this many times before and knew the man was now possessed by the female demon, and her body dropped lifelessly to floor.
“You’re such a bitch,” his demon said in frustration.
No longer fussy, the man turned to his demon and said smugly, “Too slow.”
His demon made his face pout and it said petulantly, “I have a hole in me. It wasn’t a fair fight.”
The newly possessed man walked to the mirror and peered at himself. “Ugh, it wasn’t a good trade.”
His demon walked his body over to the short man lying on the bed. Wait, he cried in his mind, what happens to me? Will I die? For the first time, the demon that controlled his body spoke to him. “You’re already dead.”
The dawning realization that his life was about to end was short lived. The demon that owned him took the hand of the short man and lifted it to his mouth. His last memory was that of the salty metallic taste of blood sliding across his tongue and then he thought no more.
CHAPTER TWELVE: Army of the Dead Souls (Hull)
Busy, busy, busy, he thought with some delight. Ever since Ruler shared his power with him, all he’d done was work. Barely any time for that hot blonde, barely any time for anything, he thought, but he wanted to secure the other island and build up their supply of armaments. The power of being second in command to Ruler was something he was enjoying more than he enjoyed sex. This was new and sex was old, no matter how far he took it. Whereas before the demons scoffed at him, now they were respectful and feared him almost as much as they feared Ruler. He had admit, he was giddy with the power he was granted.
Clapping his hands loudly, he said sharply, “Get your head in the game! We need to keep moving!”
The demons, who’d been idly standing around the vehicles, suddenly looked alert and wary. Enjoying their fear, he smiled to himself. He needed to get the demons and their hunter army onto the island and they could take control of it the same way Ruler had taken control of Manhattan. Concurrently with taking the island, he had some of the men from Hull’s Army, who were now possessed by demons, travelling onto the mainland to find supplies to feed the captured humans. Now he had command of Ruler’s powers, he felt even less compassion for the living. As far as he was concerned he’d left them behind him. Along with the orders to find food, he’d told the demons to find armaments. His intent was to make the demon army dual skilled, and they could use both guns and the hunters as weapons. He still had a small fleet of helicopters from his original set up at their previous camp in Hopkinsville, but he planned to add to more. Ruler thought taking Gears’ bases would be easy, but he didn’t agree and now they were a team, Ruler no longer argued with him. Gears really pissed him off and he was still determined to bring the man to his knees.
He had over a thousand demon super hunters scouring the state and another thousand preparing to take Staten Island. The demon super hunters were in vehicles crossing over the bridges that led to Staten Island. Running alongside their vehicles were a million hunters. Every demon was now armed with an M4, and thanks to their training as humans, they knew how to use it. He’d picked the best of the bunch to join Hull’s Army and he had no intention of losing control of his army just because they were possessed by demons. If anything, he realized they were now an improved asset. They could control the hunters and they could handle a gun. That was more than Gears’ army could do, and he was looking forward to seeing Gears’ face when he realized he was underpowered by comparison.
Striding over to the waiting helicopter, he climbed on board and prepared to manage the invasion from the air. Once he had the attack on the island underway, he planned fly to the teams searching for supplies and make sure they were getting the job done properly. Ruler could communicate with his demons telepathically, but he thought they were an undisciplined bunch. Unless closely monitored, they had a tendency to amuse themselves with petty trivialities. Always eager to inspire terror and be playfully violent, he’d caught them more than once distracted by their joy at torturing the living. He wondered why Ruler didn’t keep them under closer management, but suspected he enjoyed their cruelty more than he cared about practicalities. Although cruelty had its place with him, it didn’t rule his actions, and he supposed that’s why Ruler needed him.
The helicopter lifted into the air and he looked over the once majestic city. It was still was a sight to behold. Although the buildings stood empty and the streets were largely still, it was the statuesque embodiment of the power man once wielded. He’d never been to New York before the world ended, and looking at the city as it stretched out beneath him, he wished he had. The straight lines of the roads, the towering glass office blocks interspersed with buildings that looked almost gothic, made the city seem complicated and intriguing. The helicopter left the city and traced the roads through Brooklyn, leading to the bridge already filled with a long line of vehicles and hunters. It was an invasion force for a battle he knew he couldn’t possibly lose. It was a good feeling to know he was a winner and he reveled in it.
The vehicles travelled down the narrow roads on the island and more hunters emerged from buildings, joining their brothers as they ran through the streets. From his helicopter, he watched while they disappeared into buildings and dragged the living from their hiding spots. He wanted the living herded onto the beach on the west of Staten Island, and he would use the same approach to separating the living from the future demons as he used in New York. Some of the living were for entertainment and food and a much smaller number would be possessed by demons. So far Ruler had increased his demon force by over two thousand and he knew there were a lot more to come. He didn’t know how many demons Ruler could bring to earth through the bodies of the living, but he got the impression that there was an almost limitless supply of demons to possess the living. Once they possessed the living, these new demons gained the skills of the person they possessed. The demons possessing the men who’d once been Hull’s Army were still skilled soldiers. Demons might be able to control hunters, but if their humans were cooks before they were possessed, that was all they knew how to do after they were possessed. He still had to find a way to train them to use weapons and he was hoping this was where their telepathy might pay off. If he taught some to shoot, maybe they could telepathically share that knowledge with the others. Well, that’s the theory, he thought. In practice, the demons seemed to have an attention deficit problem, and getting them to focus long enough to learn anything first hand, much less second hand, wasn’t going to be easy.
While he watched the hunters hauling more and more people from buildings, he pondered the problem. It’s a question of motivation, he decided. The demons were not motivated by anything other than to be entertained or by their fear of Ruler. Maybe if he made an example of a few of them, it might sharpen their focus. Looking over the island from the air, he decided it would take them at least a week to drag the living out from all of their hidey-holes, but there was no rush. After the past few weeks of screw-ups, he wanted a controlled operation.
He had his pilot land him on a baseball field next to the beach he planned to use as the holding bay, and immediately called hunters to surround him. Not being a super hunter, he wasn’t sure how he could command hunters, but Ruler assured him all he had to do was think it and it would happen. So far that proved to be true, but he was still getting used to having this sort of power. Striding across the intersection, he was met by a demon super hunter who’d once been a man in Hull’s Army called Callum.
Fixing the demon with a cold stare, he ordered, “I want to talk to Callum.”
The demon looked slightly surprised, but shrugged, then suddenly the demon’s face filled with anxiety. “H
ull, what the fuck is going on?”
Now speaking to Callum, the living person sharing his mind with the demon, he replied, “Ruler had his demons possess you.”
Callum shook his head as if to clear it of the demon. “I don’t like it. I can’t control my own body.”
Narrowing his eyes at Callum, he asked dourly, “Did you ever?”
With more than hint of desperation in his voice, Callum said, “It’s not funny. It’s fucking strange and you need to make it stop. They eat people alive, Hull, and it tastes disgusting.”
As part of the deal with Ruler, he asked him to release Hull’s Army from the demons. Ruler explained to him the once possessed the people were actually dead and trapped inside their own bodies unable to leave. It was only the demonic possession that allowed their bodies to appear alive. If the demons left, then the body would no longer function and they would die instantly. He understood it meant Hull’s Army were literally dead men walking. Initially he was shocked, but the more he thought about it, the less he cared. If anything, he now saw himself in command of dead souls and he thought that had an even better ring to it than Hull’s Army.
“Can’t do that, mate. When the demon leaves, you die.”
Callum continued to shake his head and sounding shocked and confused, he asked, “What do you mean? I’m not dead!”
He shrugged dismissively. “You’re dead, mate. When the demon infected you, you died. The only reason you’re still walking is because the demon’s in possession of you.”
