by Michael Todd
Katie gave Calvin a side glance of worry and sat forward, looking out the front of the chopper. Ahead in the distance was a massive rip in reality, a gate that was more than just a portal. It was a grand entrance, big enough for anything in hell to use to join the fight. Even Pandora was impressed by the sheer size of the thing.
Holy shit, that’s fucking huge. That is the work of at least two of those fuckers. There is no way either Moloch or Baal did that themselves. They aren’t that powerful.
What about Lucifer?
He could make it, sure, but he wouldn’t. If he did, he would get a serious Godly foot right up his ass, and I’m pretty sure this time God wouldn’t keep him around to guard hell. Nothing those dickwads up top in heaven have done allows him any special privileges. If nothing else, it keeps him trapped in the slums of the underworld, just trying to get by.
I’m sorry, P, but I don’t feel bad for Satan.
He hates that name. He prefers Lucifer, but a word of warning—don’t ever call him Luke. He will rip your innards out and fry them up for dinner. I’ve seen it, and it's not a pretty sight. In fact, I think he kept the guy alive and made him eat his own intestines. It was very Hannibal Lecter of him.
That is not helpful in the least.
Pandora stopped talking and watched through Katie’s eyes as the choppers flew closer to the rip. She blocked her thoughts from Katie and thought about the knowledge she held. She didn’t know where she got the full details from, but it felt like they had been there all along. Either Katie had it, or Gabriel was setting her up for a really bad situation. He had been very forthcoming with the knowledge, and had done everything he could to keep Katie safe. Still, that didn’t mean that anything Gabriel had told her was true.
Pandora hated to be played. In fact, she hated it so much she had once killed twenty-five people in one sitting because they had messed her up so bad. She was a demon, but she didn’t tolerate devious behavior or lying. She would take them out really fast.
She decided that until it was a life or death scenario, she wasn’t going to inform Katie of anything; not yet at least. She wasn’t going to set Katie and herself up for total failure, and if that kind of secret were to be used, it just might kill them both. She didn’t trust the angel. They were known for being tricksters; the mercenaries of the high courts. They weren’t known for pure unbridled truth, and took their jobs way more seriously than they actually were.
“Holy fucking shit, look at the number of demons down there.” Calvin gawked out his window. “They are all scratching and pawing at each other, digging into the ground. What the fuck are they looking for?”
“They heard we were coming and thought it would be easier to dig back to hell.” Katie snickered. “But seriously, they’re probably looking for whatever Moloch sent them there for.”
“Whatever it is has got them in a frenzy. A smoke bomb would be perfect right about now. Just drop it right down the center.”
“Unfortunately, there are still too many men and women down there, and we don’t know what their demon status is. We don’t want to come to England and kill their guardsmen. It would be an international clusterfuck.”
Calvin chuckled. “Too true. This is why I keep you around.”
Katie smiled. “For a while, at least.”
She unbuckled her belt and looked at Calvin, who reached up and patted her on the back. “Have a good fall!”
She slid the door open, and the air whooshed into the chopper and whipped her hair wildly. She looked back at Calvin and laughed. This was what she lived for; what she was made for. Nothing was going to stand in her way, and she definitely wasn’t going to let those bastards down there fuck with anyone else.
The residents of Towton were stuck right in the middle of the chaos, and had no idea what to do or what was even going on. They ran wildly to escape the town the portal sat next to, screaming and trying to beat off the demons with anything they could get their hands on. One had a rake, another a shovel. A couple of others brandished knives from their kitchens and were attempting to slash their way through the demons before they were ripped to shreds.
A few of the local hunt club members had pulled their rifles from their safes and were striding through the town blowing demons to bits, at least until a demon got them from behind. On the other side of things, there were more than a few hiding in the shadows or running through the crowds with their phones out, streaming it live on Facebook and Instagram and posting sections to YouTube. The world watched in horror as people were eaten right out from underneath their phones.
The carnage was worse than any incursion thus far, but that stemmed more from the idiots than from the number of people close by. It was like they hadn’t any paid attention to the incursion that just occurred in France, or all the battles raging across the Pond. They were running through the streets, staring into their phones and yelling at the top of their lungs like it was a joke.
“I’m going to die, but you will be able to watch the whole thing live here on my phone. Make sure you share so my dying wish goes viral!”
To make matters worse, the people watching were egging them on, laughing, and finding the entire situation more humorous than tragic. Some of those reading the comments were starting to think that demon selection might just be a good thing for some of the more idiotic members of society. Of course, no one thought they were among the terminally stupid, even those with phones streaming in their hands.
One guy, a college student home on holiday, ran across the cemetery at the front of the church looking into his phone whispering.
“I just saw a demon take out Ms. Beasley’s house, so if you are in her science class you’ll probably get away with a late assignment, you get me? The rest of the town is going wild. It’s a proper mob situation. I’ve managed to escape a load of demons. The wankers were laughing as they ran off in the other direction.”
He turned the phone around and showed the chaos on the streets. A demon jumped off a roof, taking a middle-aged woman down and knocking the garden trowel from her hand. She screamed as the demon grabbed her by the hair and began to drag her back toward her house. The guy turned his phone back around and grimaced.
“Not a good day for Mrs. Alberts. Looks like that demon is on the hunt. Look, people, I don’t know how long I am going to survive. I don’t know if I will survive. Make sure you share this video and hit the Like button. If I make it through I’ll make sure to upload it to YouTube, but if I don’t, well, it was a bloody good ride.”
Just then he looked up to the side and put his hands up. The footage tumbled about as the phone hit the ground. The viewers could see the boy fall to the ground dead, his eyes wide and blood coming from his neck and mouth. Slowly he slid off-camera, although the muffled sounds of groaning and crunching could still be heard. There was a slight pause, and a demon picked up the phone. It looked right into the camera lens and shook the phone, not sure what to do with it. It bit down on it but realized it wasn’t edible.
The demon snarled and tossed the phone over its shoulder, no longer interested. Those viewers watching were left staring straight into the bloodied and half-eaten face of their formerly-humorous host. Slowly the viewers dropped out and his video was lost, lumped together with the victims of England’s first major incursion.
All across the town and out into the countryside, the screams echoed loudly. People fought with everything they had, but there was just no hope for most of them. The mercs were there, but there weren’t enough of them to go around. It was just Katie and Calvin, and though they wanted desperately to help the people, their focus had to stay on shutting down the gate and getting rid of the demons who had already crossed over. All anyone could do at that point was run, hide, or fight.
The people of that small-town England village weren’t backing down.
“Is it bad?” the teenage girl huddled in the corner asked. She held her ten-year-old brother in her arms, hugging him tightly.
Her mother walked
over to the small window in the attic wall and looked out. She watched as people ran screaming through the streets, some still with weapons and others hobbling while clutching injured limbs. No matter who she looked at, there was at least one demon close behind them. She turned back to her children, glancing down at the boy and back at her daughter. She nodded just once and crossed her arms, pacing back and forth.
“Sit down, Mam,” her daughter chided. “If any get in the house they’ll be able to hear your footsteps. We’ll sit here and wait. They won’t leave us here without help forever. It’s stupid to think that people are running. So stupid. The best thing to do is hide and wait.”
The boy leaned back and wiped tears from his eyes. “When’s Daddy coming home?”
The girl looked at her brother and forced a smile, pulling him toward her and kissing his forehead. “Soon, sweetie. He just went down the street to get some milk, remember?”
She hugged the boy close to her and looked up worriedly at her mother. She had always been the strong one, dealing with her mother’s crazy nerves and her father’s inability to handle anything. She was the only one there for her brother, and she would be damned if she let anything happen to him.
Her mother made for the door. “We should try to call for help, but I left the phone downstairs. I could go get it.”
“No.” The daughter shook her head. “Sit down here with us and hug your son. We are going to be okay up here. I told you, just wait it out and someone will come for us. I swear it. I saw the footage in France and in America. They never just leave the people for... for.... Well, you know. They come to help.”
He mother nodded and walked over, then sat down on the floor and pulled her son into her lap, wrapping the blanket around them both. The daughter stood up and walked over to peer outside. Suddenly she could hear the clacking of a helicopter. She smiled and turned quickly back.
“I told you they would come. Any second help will fly over. Just watch.”
She stared out as a chopper crested the hill and came toward them. She furrowed her brow and sighed. “What’s one helicopter going to do with about a million demons?”
Her brother jumped up and ran over, looking through the window on his tiptoes. They watched the chopper get closer, and they both gasped when a woman swan-dived from the chopper, her wings gracefully unfolding as she swooped down and skimmed the ground. She flew through the people, taking the heads off several demons with slashes of her sword. The demons screamed and hissed at their angelic assailant as she swooped again.
All three watched open-mouthed. “I think they’re following her,” the mother gasped.
Katie blew past the church and the cemetery and back toward where the portal had initially appeared. The demons all dropped what they were doing or who they were eating, and took off after her. They swarmed through the streets, blood and saliva dripping from their jowls, ready to attack the new enemy. None of them had any clue that they were rushing to their doom.
The girl turned around and happily looked at her mother. “They are here—the Killers. We are going to be okay.”
Just then there was a loud bang on the attic door, and everyone jumped. The boy slid around behind his sister, and the mother clenched the blanket close to her face. They stepped forward quietly, wondering who was below.
“Open up. It’s your father.”
The girl sighed in relief and ran over, opening the thick wooden doors. Her dad was standing outside, battered and bruised but okay. He kissed his daughter’s forehead and handed her the carton of milk. He locked the door behind him and dusted off his clothing.
“We should stay up here. Right now it is the safest place for us to be. The demons all ran off chasing that winged woman, and I have no idea why that whole sentence isn’t absolutely absurd. Anyway, whoever that is, she is leading the demons back toward that portal thing that opened. Hopefully, they will be able to keep them there and destroy them. For right now, though, I want us to stay here and stick together.”
“I know who she is,” the girl exclaimed excitedly. “That’s Katie from Katie’s Killers. She is pretty much the biggest badass on the whole planet.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Katie rode a low air current through the streets, letting her wings take her just low enough to swipe through the demons who were attacking the locals. She took several heads, then grabbed a demon from its perch on a roof and flung it away with one hand. It hit the side of a pale stone building and smashed into the ground below. She dove again and knocked another few demons for a loop.
For some reason, the demons abandoned their food and chased after her. It was the perfect moment to get them the hell out of the populated area and back to the dirt mound they were digging in.
She flew up and over the rift and landed on the ground. The demons attacked as soon as her feet hit the ground. She pulled the halves of her staff out of their sheaths and launched into her kata. She hit two demons in the neck and then pressed the buttons, slicing them with the special metal blades on the downswing. She yanked them both back out and twirled them around, sticking them back into their spots. She pulled out Tom and Harry and blasted the demons in front of her.
A demon jumped on her back, and she twisted and shot it over her shoulder. Luckily for her, the beast flew backward, only lightly drenching her in demon blood. She turned to the right and pulled the trigger until she had cleared a circle around her. The demons hissed and screeched and she pulled the triggers again, but her big guns were empty. She slammed them into their holsters and drew her small pistols. She turned in a circle as she emptied them into the approaching horde.
She released the magazines from the weapons and slammed them down on her belt to reload. She tore through the crowd of demons, firing left and right as she ran. A demon launched itself at Katie, and she sidestepped and pulled the triggers of her pistols until they clicked empty a second time. She snapped back up and holstered those, realizing that she was completely out of bullets.
“Looks like it’s time for a little swordplay.” She smiled and reached back for the two swords that were crisscrossed on her back.
She whirled around and brought her swords up to slice through the necks of the five demons closest to her. Their heads fell from their shoulders, and she held her back-stance as their bodies turned to dust at her feet one by one, like dominos,. She looked to her left to watch a cop, probably the last one standing, surrounded by demons, his gun useful only as a club.
She ran toward him in a storm of flashing metal. She turned right and then left, stabbing the demons in the stomach and ripping her swords up through their bellies. Finally, the two stood together, the demons stalking them.
Katie reached down and picked up a picture of a woman with a small baby and handed it to the guy. “You dropped this.”
“Thank you.” He smiled. “And damn, am I glad to see you!”
Katie patted his arm. “Get to safety. Reload or whatever you need to do, but don’t stay here,” she yelled, taking out another demon with an upward slice.
He nodded and took off through the perimeter, which was just a pile of beat-up cars and empty tanks at that point. Katie sighed and turned back, ready to take down some demon ass. She stomped through the crowd, killing every demon she could get her hands on. She swung around to strike a taller demon, and it grabbed her wrist and glared at her with bulging red eyes.
She growled as it pried the sword from her hand and threw it away. “Hey, fucker! That was fucking expensive.”
She jammed the other sword into the demon’s side, and it winced and hissed in pain. She pulled the sword out and took a step backward, straightening her shirt and cracking her back. When the demon looked at her again, it only caught a quick, bright flash before its head was cut clean off its shoulders. She kicked its body to the ground and ran over the resulting dust pile.
She jumped onto the armored vehicle and got behind the turret, blasting the crowds of demons with bullets. Hundreds of shells fell from
the large gun, bouncing off the metal of the vehicle onto the ground. When she had run out of bullets there, she jumped back down, looking out across the field. She felt like she hadn’t even made a dent.
Damn, that’s a lot of red eyes and black scales.
No shit. I didn’t even know we had that many low-level demons down there. They are stepping up their game.
Just then Katie felt herself being lifted off the ground and she yelled as she was thrown into a pack of demons, knocking them down. She landed hard, and her hand hit the ground. Her sword flew across the grass and into the hole the demons were digging.
“Well, fuck.” She was running dangerously low on weapons, and things were starting to look bleak.
Calvin rappelled from the chopper on the west side of the incursion. All he could see was a sea of demons in front of him. Katie was fighting her heart out, a small speck in the distance. He saw her sword fly out of her hand into the hole. He wanted to get to her, to help her, but the field of demons was too thick to push through. He growled and pulled his automatic rifle around from its place on his back.
“Compliments of humanity, bitches,” he yelled as he pulled the trigger and sprayed the demons with bullets.
The special bullets tore into the demons, taking down five or six at a time. Calvin braced his feet and turned his spray right and left, destroying every demon in front of him. However, as soon as he was done with one line of the bastards they were replaced by another. He blasted the gun until it was out of bullets and threw it around his body onto his back.
He drew his pistols and fired with precision. Several of the demons flew back as they turned to dust, showering the other demons with ash. They didn’t react, just continued to claw ever downward. The sound of a scream to his left made Calvin turn to find several people in the small town behind the rift fighting for their lives.
