by Michael Todd
Katie unfolded the map and laid it over the dashboard in front of them. She ran her finger down the main highway and pointed out the last place she remembered seeing a road sign. “Then we took that exit and entered the Twilight Zone for the fourth time today.”
Calvin shifted his hands on the wheel. “Yeah, weird, because we got gas and then it was like there was no highway anymore.”
Katie spotted something by the side of the road. “Oh, slow down. That looks like a sign!”
Calvin applied a liberal dose of the brakes, and they crept by the sun-bleached road sign.
Katie took note of the name and looked back down at the map. She shook her head. The road they were on was nowhere to be found on the map, and there were no other landmarks to help them pinpoint their location. “Yeah, we’re definitely lost again. We need to turn around and head back to the highway before the gas starts getting low. I don’t wanna have to haul ass up the dusty highway to find somewhere we can get more.”
Calvin laughed, pulling a U-turn. “I don’t think that would actually happen, but I can’t see you doing that if it did.”
Me either, Pandora stated. Not unless you can guarantee me a donut when we got there.
Katie shaded her eyes and looked back down at the map. “No, you’re right. I wouldn’t do that.” She sighed and folded the map. “Fuck, dammit, I’m sick of getting lost!”
Calvin grinned at her. “Don’t think of it as getting lost. Think of it as an adventure.”
Oh sure, an adventure through the closest thing to hell I’ve seen here on Earth since I was in Hawaii when the volcanoes erupted.
You’re not exactly helping. Don’t you have some sort of demon GPS or something?
I am a demon, not a fucking Girl Scout. Even at home we have maps, not that anyone really goes exploring. It’s so…anguishy there. You can’t exactly enjoy a stroll through fields full of screaming souls. It’s distracting.
I’m sure your home is very lovely, but for now, let’s focus on getting out of here before the car breaks down and we end up being someone’s dinner.
You have a badass demon watching your back. I don’t think they will get close.
You don’t know. I could take them down, and they could get up and just keep coming. I’ve seen too much weird shit in my life.
You’ve seen too many weird-ass movies.
They eventually made it back to the main highway and followed it all the way to Puerto Los Cabos. The ride was long and hot, and Katie was more than ready to get out of the car before the temptation to reach inside herself and strangle Pandora became too strong to resist.
Calvin pulled over to the side of the road and got out to stretch his legs and look at the scenery below. The crystal-blue waters caressed the shore, inviting Calvin to step into the silky coolness. He felt like he could spend a lot of time here in Mexico, but he had a feeling he would never fully be welcome here.
Katie came to stand beside him. She folded her arms, and they enjoyed the view together. “It’s so pretty. I think I’ve always dreamt of what it might look like, but it’s even more beautiful than I’d imagined.”
Calvin let out a contented sigh. “This isn’t even the most beautiful place I’ve seen here.”
Katie chuckled. “I am definitely going to have to start planning a vacation, then.”
Calvin went back to the car. “All right, no more standing around. We have a job to do. We can’t go into the gated community. There’s too much cartel security, and I promise you that they’ll know what we look like. You know at least one of those cops at the airport was on the cartel’s payroll.”
“No, I get it.” Katie pulled out her phone and let out a happy yip when she saw the bars. She opened Google Maps and searched the address Timothy had sent her for the cartel guy. She showed the result to Calvin, who looked at it and across the landscape to compare the architecture of the resort community to the image on the screen.
Katie closed the phone and put it back in her pocket. “Let’s go find somewhere to prepare. We know where our target is, so we can come back after dark to scout the place. We don’t want to hang around too long here. If they really have people watching, we need to disappear.”
“Disappearing sounds good,” Calvin replied.
Chapter Sixteen
Brock and his team had just arrived at the checkpoint. They scoped out what had been put in place, and what they were doing to prepare for a possible invasion through one of the three gates. The French soldiers had set up a good way back, their weapons aimed over the tops of their trenches at the portals. However, the French didn’t have the special ammunition, and Brock knew their plain cold steel would barely faze the beasts when they emerged.
“Man, the French sure are putting everything they got into these three portals,” one of the guys remarked. “Let’s hope there aren’t any other portals in other areas or they will be screwed.”
“Not our place to question their strategy,” Brock replied. “We go where we are told, and that’s it.”
The guys walked back from the front lines and nodded at some of the soldiers standing watch. Brock couldn’t help but notice how eerily calm everything was. Sure, they were in the middle of nowhere—or so it seemed, but there wasn’t even the chirp of a bug to be heard. The other soldiers noticed the same thing. They got to their feet and looked around uneasily, finding the quiet anything but soothing.
A blast of sulfured air exploded outward from the portals, flattening everything in a two-hundred-foot radius around them. As the downed soldiers scrambled to their feet, a second burst exploded across the fields. Everyone ducked and covered, their rifles raised toward the portal as twenty large fingers unfurled and grasped the edges.
Brock narrowed his eyes. He knew the men in the front were woefully underprepared for what was about to happen. He had been there on Incursion Day, so he had seen the demons pouring from the portals.
He had seen the death and destruction they had caused.
People had been torn to pieces, children killed in the streets, and it was only thanks to Katie and the mercs that they were able to hold back the demons and eventually send them back to hell. But there Brock stood, shoulder to shoulder with his Damned brothers while the festering breath of hell killed the grass beneath their feet and choked the air from their lungs.
The mercenaries were not there to save the day this time. It was down to Brock and his team. To all the Damned soldiers standing by, ready to give their all for the freedom of humanity.
The mere possibility of failure sickened Brock. The demons had made their move, and now it was time for Brock and his team to do the same. He watched as two fifteen-foot demons stepped through the portal and screamed their fury at the men. Their black scales shone with red ribbons of heat where it wasn’t protected by molded armor. The soldiers opened fire, but the slugs only ricocheted off and rained down on the ground around them.
Brock felt like everything was going in slow motion as he raised his weapon and yelled for his men to take cover. The beasts roared and swiped through the line, scattering the soldiers and killing more than a few. Brock swept the scope of his rifle up the demon’s body, looking for a weak spot. However, as the scope hovered over the demon’s stomach, Brock saw a bright red glow fill its belly.
He stood up and pointed to the front line. “Watch out!”
His screams melted into the canticle of gunfire and moans, not even close to reaching the men. His team dove for cover as the beast clenched its fists and opened his mouth, spraying a stream of white-hot fire from its throat. The fire blanketed the men in the front, singing them to ash where they stood. When the fire had finished, the demons stood huffing and puffing. Smoke rose from their nostrils, billowing into the sky. You could no longer tell where the smog stopped and the clouds began.
All along the front line, ash-covered weapons littered the ground. The smell of burnt flesh stung Brock’s nostrils. He growled, jumping up out of the ditch to point his rifle at th
e large demons, firing wildly. However, the shots didn’t seem to do much good, only bouncing off the armor and pissing the beasts off more. Once the large demons had cleared the way, the flood began.
Hundreds of smaller demons poured out of the portal, looking for their first victims.
The soldiers focused on the smaller demons, shooting at their heads as they ran toward them. The screams of dying men rang out across the grassy landscape as the demons devoured them where they stood. Brock ran toward a group of French soldiers and slid down into their trench.
“You have to shoot them in the head,” he screamed, pointing at his forehead. “You don’t have the right ammunition for anything else. Shoot them in the head!”
None of the men spoke English, and Brock growled in frustration. He closed his eyes, thinking back to high school when he took four years of French. At the time it was to impress the ladies, hoping to one day end up in France with his band, but now it was to save his and others’ lives, something he had not seen coming. Still, he only remembered bits and pieces.
Do you know French?
Uh...yes. Yes, I do, his demon stuttered. What do you want to say?
Shoot them in the head, nowhere else.
It’s...uh...shit.
Come on...come on.
Give a girl a second, dammit. Yes! That’s it. Tirez-les dans la tête, nulle part ailleurs.
Brock looked at the men and pointed to his forehead. “Tirez-les dans la tête, nulle part ailleurs.”
All of the men nodded enthusiastically and turned back to the approaching hordes. They raised their weapons and began to shoot, hitting one after another right between the eyes. Brock jumped back out of the hole and pulled out his knife, stomping up to a demon that was devouring a human leg. He sliced through the beast’s neck, and after it flashed to dust Brock moved on to the next. Black, gooey blood sprayed across his face. As he walked toward his team he slashed relentlessly, then drew his pistol and aimed to his side, pulling the trigger and shooting a demon in the head without even looking.
Things were getting intense. Lives were being lost, but the men were starting to catch on as to how to kill the smaller demons. Brock approached the team and squatted behind a mound of dirt. They were sweating from the heat of the portals.
Brock wiped the blood and salty residue from his eyes. “We need to get the big ones down,” he yelled.
“How? They are wearing some sort of armor. They look like the damn aliens from Halo.”
Brock peeked over the top of the mound of dirt and then back at his men. He had no idea how to take them down. None of their demons were strong enough to face a beast like that head-on, and they had very little to work with.
“This is when we need the T-47 air speeder,” one of the guys remarked.
Everyone looked at him strangely, no one having heard of that kind of plane before. The guy looked around at them and rolled his eyes, throwing his hands in the air.
“Come on, guys. Star Wars? The planes that took down the At-Ats. You know, when they flew them through the big robot legs, pulling the rope through and knocking it to the ground? What planet do you guys live on?”
“The one where we aren’t complete and total nerds.”
“No, wait,” Brock said, looking up at the beasts. “That’s a fucking brilliant idea, except we won’t have a plane, we’ll have to do it ourselves.”
“I think Brock hit his head.”
Brock stood up and grabbed the rope from his side, pointing to the others to do the same. He unwound the rope and pulled on it hard, making sure it was strong enough. He turned and stared at the first big demon, watching as it stomped around swinging its arms. They were big but slow, and Brock happened to be pretty damn fast.
“All right, I need you guys to create a distraction. Keep it stationary for long enough to allow me to tie one end of this rope around his ankle. Once that’s done, I will loop it in a figure eight around the demon. That is when as many of you as possible come back and help me pull the rope tight. If we are lucky the damn thing will tumble down hard, and you can take him out with your bullets and knives.”
One of the soldiers lifted an eyebrow and looked up at the demon, which had a human leg sticking out of his mouth. The guy sighed and shrugged before nodding in agreement. He couldn’t believe that of all the military tactics they had been trained on, they were going to take a demon down using something from a Star Wars movie.
Brock stepped up out of the hole and waited until his men scattered, all gathering in front of the beast. They began to taunt him, getting his attention long enough for Brock to bolt across the ground and loop the rope around the demon’s ankle. He tied the knot as tight as he could and shook his head.
I really fucking hope this works.
He took off in a figure eight pattern, winding the rope in and out of the demon’s legs. When he had reached the end, he darted back through and started to pull. The other guys bolted over and grabbed on, like a group of boys playing tug of war. They growled, pulling the rope tighter and tighter as the demon attempted to fight back. Finally, his legs came close together, and his arms swirled in circles around him. Brock held his pistol to the back of the demon’s knee and pulled the trigger, and the demon stumbled forward and hit the ground.
Immediately the soldiers jumped on top of him and began firing their weapons into his head. Others joined them, and before long a hundred men were stabbing and slicing at the demon until he finally lay still. With one last loud wail he burst into dust, throwing a couple of the guys back onto the ground. The boys clapped and cheered at their victory, gathering their rope and turning to do the same to the second demon. However, the French soldiers had already caught on and were winding a rope between the beast’s legs as they watched.
The ground shook as the second demon hit it, the men giving war screams as they climbed onto its shoulders and stabbed and sliced at the beast. Brock and his team continued to fight the smaller demons, keeping an eye on the big one until, finally, it too turned to dust. Their morale went up ten-fold and the soldiers jumped through the pile of grit, firing their weapons indiscriminately at the smaller demons.
Brock looked across the field, finding a demon backing a soldier farther and farther away from the others. The soldier tried to fire his weapon but it was jammed, so he tossed it to the side and pulled out a knife. Brock took off across the field, slicing the necks of several smaller demons as he ran past before they had even turned to dust. He trotted up the side of a pile of rubble and leapt off, landing on the demon and plunging his knife deep into the demon’s skull.
The soldier nodded in thanks and Brock smiled, breathing heavily. He pulled his rifle off his back and tossed it to the soldier, pointing to his forehead as a reminder. They both ran back to the fight, Brock taking down beast after beast. When he had reached the front line, he stopped for a moment trying to catch his breath. He looked up at the waves of heat pouring out of the portal and grabbed one of his special metal smoke grenades.
He shrugged and pulled the pin, stepping back and throwing it hard into the portal. “If a grenade goes off in hell and no one is there to hear it, does it kill every last one of the sonsabitches? I sure as fuck hope so.”
He chuckled to himself as the smoke bomb exploded inside the portal, sending out a wave of hot energy that knocked several demons to the ground like bowling pins. As the portal spat and flickered the demons started to run, but Brock wasn’t going to let them get away that easily.
One by one the troops lined up in front of the portals with their guns raised. As the demons made a break for it, trying to escape back to hell, they opened fire, taking line after line of the scaly black monsters down to piles of dust.
By the time the last row was gone and the last few stragglers had had their throats cut, everyone was just about out of ammo. They all looked around for a moment, and the portal slammed shut. It was still eerily quiet, but this time the feeling of victory overtook the fear that had once been there. The
y had won the battle, and after a few moments that fact sank in and a roaring cheer went up. They had lost many, but they had killed so many more, including two very strong and powerful demons who a year before would have squashed them where they stood.
One of the French soldiers climbed on top of a pile of rubble and put his hand up to quiet the crowd. “Shush! The general is speaking over the com!”
The French general addressed all in audio range. “Bien que cette bataille ait été gagnée, nous sommes tristes de rapporter que ce n'était peut-être rien d'autre qu'une diversion. Plusieurs petits portails ont été ouverts sous Notre Dame et pendant que nous battions valablement ici, l'île a été prise et tout le monde dans la région a été tué. Rapport à vos commandants immédiatement. Ce n'est pas la fin de tout.”
The soldiers couldn’t tell what he was saying, and when it was done Brock grabbed the arm of one of the French soldiers. “We don’t understand. What happened?”
“C'était…this was a ruse. We have won nothing. Notre Dame is lost, and the people around it also. We are to report to our commanders for orders. Si c’est vrai…ma famille. les bâtards de démon paieront.” The soldier shook his head
Brock nodded in thanks and turned back to his men. They were all waiting to hear the news. Brock wiped his forehead and took a deep breath, shaking his head.
“This was a diversion. They have attacked Notre Dame and killed everyone in the area. We have to go back to camp to clean up and prepare, then go to the area and fight to get Notre Dame back.”
“Just nuke the bastards.”
“Though that would seem to offer the fewest casualties, France is not willing to bomb Notre Dame Cathedral unless it becomes absolutely necessary.”
“I think a demon takeover might make it ‘absolutely necessary.’”
Brock shrugged. “Well, it doesn’t matter. We don’t make the choices, they do, and they are not willing to do that. So, we are going to go in, find these portals and these demons, and send them straight back to hell. We follow orders, boys, as best we can. As you can see from this incursion, they are relying on us and our weapons to help, and we will represent the United States in the finest manner. Now, gather your shit. We’re heading back.”
