by Michael Todd
Both demons were too scared to say a word and just hung there, staring at her. She began to make her way back out of the portal, but demons were everywhere. They were starting to notice that there was an angel among them. Several of the smaller demons lurched toward her, ready to attack and save the others. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Can’t anything be easy?”
The two knucklehead demons looked at her and smirked, but she wasn’t giving up that easily. She pulled her arms apart, dangling them above ground, and then smashed them together. Their heads collided with a sharp crack, knocking both out. She nodded, satisfied, and tossed one over each shoulder, then awkwardly drew her sword.
She studied the demons attacking and shrugged. “You had the chance to get away. I wasn’t going to mess with you, but here you are, trying to attack me. I guess I’m gonna have to put this sword through your faces. And I’m pretty sure that if I kill you here, you don’t come back.”
Katie swung her sword, taking off the heads of the demons before they could even move. The demons slung over her shoulders restricted her movement, but she didn’t mind. She grinned and slashed. Instead of turning to ash like they did on Earth, the demons screamed and exploded into black mist that floated into the portal. Katie was surprised for a moment; she was not expecting that. She shrugged, figuring it was a lot cleaner than the dust she always had to clean off her shoes.
Only a few other demons tried to attack her, but Katie was on a roll. She figured if she was there, she might as well take as many as she could. If killing them ended their lives here in hell, she could cut down on Moloch’s army. Even a small reduction in his demonic forces would be positive.
Pandora scoffed. Like there aren’t plenty of human souls to be sent down here at a moment’s notice.
Yeah, well, I didn’t really think about that. Plus, it’s kind of fun to watch them explode. It’s like squeezing a grape. Pop!
Pandora scanned the area around them. Gig’s up! Lots coming! We’ve gotta go!
Katie pouted but sheathed her sword, then flipped the demons off her shoulders and held them by their necks as she took off at a run. The demons were flooding through the gate, trying to get back into hell before it closed. It was like driving down a one-way street in the wrong direction during rush hour in New York City, only she was carrying two bodies.
Katie shook her head and backed up. She couldn’t fight through that kind of crowd, especially not with two demons clutched in her fists. She took off at a run and jumped high, her wings sprouting from her back, and she soared over the horde of demons and out of the portal. As soon as she was through, a rush of cool air hit her in the face. She let out a deep breath and drew in air untainted by sulfur and the damned. She sighed as she touched down on the ground. Her wings folded up and disappeared.
Calvin let out a relieved sigh as soon as he saw Katie. “That girl is going to give me a heart attack. Everybody thinks I’m gonna die from a demon incursion, but it’s going to be worrying about Katie and her crazy antics that does me in.”
Korbin tilted his head to the right. “What the hell is she carrying?”
Calvin squinted and took a step forward. “What the fuck? She’s got two unconscious demons in her hands. What the hell is she gonna do with those?”
Everyone, including the human guards, was shocked to see Katie carrying out two comatose demon bodies. Katie had done a lot of weird things in the name of winning a war, but diving into hell and coming back with demons was a new one. She slowly walked toward the guards, just glad she was no longer burning to death in hell.
Pandora cackled at everyone’s shock. I think you surprised them for once. I’m pretty sure they thought they had gotten to the point where nothing you did could surprise them.
Katie gave a crooked smile. I guess I gotta keep them on their toes. By the way, thanks for keeping that portal open. I’m not exactly sure what I would’ve done if it had closed while I was in there.
The air crackled with electricity and thunder boomed overhead. The sky over the base shimmered, and a crackle echoed across the killing field. The portal had snapped shut. Pandora was silent for a second, and then cleared her throat. Uh, as much as I like to take responsibility for the good things, I had nothing to do with keeping the portal open. I actually thought it was you.
Nope. At least, I don’t think so.
Katie walked up to Korbin and Calvin, who grimaced at the demons she was clutching. She looked over her shoulder at the guards, who were kicking at loose hunks of concrete the demons had torn from the base of the production building. It would take a lot of work to repair.
Joshua picked up a stone and tossed it into a pile. “At least it’s not as bad as last time.”
Katie tilted her head and grunted. “Calvin, Korbin, and Timothy? Before you guys get started on the base thing, I want you guys to come with me underground. Where’s Stephanie?”
Korbin seemed nervous. “She’s down there. Originally, they had just bandaged her up, but she needed stitches. One of the girls is a nurse, and she’s taking care of her.”
“Good. Come on, let’s go down there,” Katie ordered. “We will grab her on the way.” Katie shook the demons, and they woke up, hissing and struggling.
Timothy pulled out his tablet and started pressing buttons, and all the lights and electricity came back on. Korbin looked at him, impressed. “You can do all that from a tablet?”
Timothy put his arm around Korbin as they walked toward the elevator. “I could rule the world from this tablet.”
Korbin raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.”
Katie struggled to drag the two demons across the sand. They were acting up, but she didn’t want to knock them out again. “I’ll take the emergency hatch with these two idiots. I’ll meet you down there.”
When Katie approached the emergency hatch and flung it open, the demons tried to avoid going down into the base. “Stop struggling, or I’ll knock you the fuck out again.”
Pandora cleared her throat and sat up straight inside of Katie. Let me take care of this. Hey, you two fucking idiots. Don’t you understand that you’ve been caught by not only the famous mercenary Katie, but Lucifer’s wife? That’s me. You need to settle the fuck down before I get involved.
One of the demons growled. I don’t have to listen to you. You’re weak. Powerless. Lucifer is even talking about taking a new wife. That makes you just another lonely demon on Earth.
Pandora cackled. Is that what you really think? I can show you just how powerless I really am. And I promise you, afterward you’re going to have to clean off the shit and piss.
Katie smiled as the two demons calmed down and went silent. She tossed the beasts down and jumped into the hatch after them, then dragged them down the hall, stopping at the sickbay.
Stephanie was laid out on one of the stretchers. She was gritting her teeth and holding onto the edge of the stretcher as the nurse finished her stitches and put on fresh bandages. She let out a deep breath and sat up slowly. She dangled her legs over the edge but put on a brave face when she saw Katie
Katie gave her a sympathetic look. “You okay?”
Stephanie patted her bandages with a wince. “I am now. Stitches suck when you don’t have anything to numb them with.”
The nurse scrunched her nose. “I’m sorry. We have very limited supplies here right now.”
Katie pointed at the girl with one of her demons. “Remind me of that later. We need to stock full medical supplies in here.”
Stephanie looked at the demons and lifted her eyebrows. “Starting a collection?”
Katie chuckled. “Nope, but I came to get you. You think you can walk?”
Stephanie stood up from the table and headed out of the room. The demons started to struggle again, and Katie stared at them with her angelic eyes. Both of them whimpered slightly, and one softly farted. They went quiet again, pretending that they had fainted.
Katie was fine with that. At leas
t they were silent.
“All the demons have gone back into the portal, and the portal is now shut,” the grizzled guard reported to the general.
The general let out a relieved breath so loud the guard could hear it over the phone. “Excellent. And what was the outcome?”
The guards sounded happy but tired. “We did well. We lost a couple of guards at the beginning, and their bodies are being sent back to the base. All in all, the team won. Katie was really the game changer for us, of course.”
“Of course,” the general replied.
The guard grunted slightly as he moved his shoulder, which had a long scratch from one of the demons. “The base is pretty roughed up, but the underground facility and the weapons factory are still intact. We are definitely going to need some more men out here, and a cleanup crew would be helpful too. We want to get this place back up to standard fast. They know where we are now, and they know our defenses. We’re going to have to change things up.”
The general tapped his fingers on the desk, staring at the computer. “Of course, we’ll get another group of support personnel out there to you. Whatever keeps the base safe, and the weapons factory safe. The only thing is, we’re going to have to move them. We can’t support them out in the open like that.”
“Absolutely. You just let me know what you need us to do.”
The general made a note of it on his clipboard. “Thanks for all your hard work. I’ll get back to you soon.” He hung up without waiting for a response.
He sat there for a moment thinking, and then picked the phone back up. His secretary came over the line with a sweet voice. “What can I do for you, General?”
The general sat up straight. “Get me the Navy liaison.”
Chapter Sixteen
Stephanie entered one of the medical rooms set up for emergencies. Korbin, Calvin, and Timothy were already there. She walked over next to Korbin and gave him a kiss on the cheek, smiling as best she could. Katie walked in behind her, still dragging the demons by their necks. She kicked the door shut with her foot.
The demons wriggled slightly, but then remembered who Pandora was and went still.
Katie gathered her thoughts, then decided to cut right to the chase. “I know this is weird. I figured I’d give you guys the choice. Stephanie and Korbin? You were Damned before. You fought valiantly today, but it’s obvious that we might lose you if you continue this way. So, I brought a couple of knuckleheads to meet you. Knuckleheads, introduce yourselves.”
One of the demons raised his scaled head and growled, “Go fuck yourself.”
Katie kicked him hard in the back of the thigh, and he collapsed. “Now, that wasn’t too nice, was it? I can always let Pandora take me over so she can handle the two of you. I promise you if you aren’t put into a body today, you’re gonna go back home in a manner so painful you’ll be glad to see the fiery depths of hell again.”
The demon grumbled and put his head down, rubbing his thigh. “I’m Volruz.”
Katie smiled. “Good job. And how about you?”
The demon grumbled and mumbled her name. “Durixath.”
“Very good. Well, Vol and Duri, this is Stephanie and Korbin.”
Korbin looked at Stephanie and back at Katie. “And these are for us?”
Katie nodded. “If you want them. You’re probably the first ever to get a chance to interview your demons and decide if you want to become infected. Anybody have any questions?”
Stephanie studied the female demon from head to foot. “If it’s real death or being stuck with me, could you learn to live with it?”
Duri slowly lifted her eyes toward Stephanie. “Depends on how stupid you are.”
Timothy put up his hand to stop the proceedings and sashayed forward to inspect the demons. He leaned into Duri. “I don’t want my girl Stephanie to be in the same situation I’m in. It’s obvious by those that you’re a girl. And my girl over here? She’s in love with that man right there. That’s not going to change. So, I want to know—do you like guys?”
Duri smirked and shrugged her shoulders. “I like them in one way when I’m a human and another when I’m a demon. When I’m human, I like to do what all humans do. When I’m a demon, I like to eat them from the bottom up.”
Timothy wrinkled his nose and walked back to the group, whispering to Stephanie. Korbin lifted an eyebrow at Volruz. “How about you? Do you like guys?”
Volruz growled loudly and snarled. “Hell, no.”
Korbin nodded, pleased with the answer. Calvin put his hand up. “I have a question. What’s your preferred food?”
Everyone stared at him strangely and he shrugged his shoulders. “What? My demon’s a taco man, which is maybe in the top three foods on the planet. Katie’s demon loves donuts. I think it’s important. How would you like to get stuck with a demon that only wants tuna, and you hate fish?”
They chuckled, and the tension drained from the room. The two demons grumbled. Katie listened to Pandora confer with them. When she was done, Katie called Korbin and Stephanie over. “Vol is powerful. I mean, he’s wicked strong. Duri is incredibly sneaky. They make a really good pair, which is why they worked so well together. I figure if you’re gonna have demons and you’re in love, you need to have two demons who play well with one other.”
Stephanie took Korbin’s hand. “That’s true. Korbin’s the most important person in my life. I don’t want anything to come between us.”
Katie agreed. “You guys came here at our request and have not asked any questions or for anything from us. Just like you were when you were Damned, you have been selfless. However, if you want to continue to be part of this team, I think you need to make a decision. You could really use the benefits of being Damned. None of us want to see you get injured or worse, and I know that it hit all of us when Stephanie was injured today. To stay with the team, you’re going to have to be infected again. It’s not the same as becoming uninfected. You won’t forget your time together.”
Katie could see the relief wash over them. While that made her feel good, some part of her felt terrible for having ripped them back out of the peaceful lives she had put them in. Now they were here, and they knew the group’s secrets. Katie felt it was her responsibility to make sure they were as safe as possible. “It’s completely up to you. I know you probably need a moment to talk about it, but unfortunately, we don’t have long. These two demons won’t last forever outside a human body, and I don’t think my patience will either.”
Stephanie chuckled at Korbin before looking at Katie. “I understand. If you could just give us a few minutes to talk about it, we will let you know.”
“Of course. I’ll stay here with them and you guys talk. Just let me know what you come up with.”
Stephanie and Korbin smiled at Katie as they walked out of the room. As soon as they shut the door behind them, Calvin looked at Katie. “So that was why you jumped through the gates of hell.”
Pandora sighed, rolling her eyes. No, numbnuts, we just wanted a tan.
“We’ve got several subs in that area, but subs don’t move very fast,” the Navy liaison explained.
The general shifted the phone to his other ear. “No, I suppose they don’t move quite as fast as a Leviathan. What does that mean for tracking this monster?”
The liaison chuckled. “It means we’re doing the best we can. We have to track a monster the size of the Empire State Building underwater. From the outside, that sounds like a simple task, but in reality, it’s not. Not to mention the fact that we have to figure out how to kill this thing.”
“Yes, have you put any thought into that?”
The liaison sighed. “We could go with conventional missiles, although our fear is that if our ordnance does not penetrate this beast’s outer shell, we might just piss it off. We thought about a nuclear option as well. That would involve taking the beast out to deep water and detonating the bomb there. The problem is, we aren’t sure how to lure it out there. Not to mention how we
keep our soldiers safe after releasing the bomb. We can’t just shoot those kinds of bombs from hundreds of miles away underwater. Whoever detonated the bomb would not be coming back.”
“Have any attempts been made to take this creature down yet?”
“No, we’re just trying to get it back on the radar at this point. Again, we’re very hesitant to take action. We want to avoid pissing it off,” the liaison explained.
The general thought for a moment and realized he was going to have to bring the mercs into it. “I’ll get you specialty torpedoes. However, to make them, I’ll need to use a large amount of special metal. I may have to stop making our demon-killing bullets.”
“I think the sacrifice will be worth taking this creature down. You’ve seen it. He could take New York City down in a half an hour.”
“All right. How many torpedoes are you going to need?” The general began taking notes, wanting to make sure he had every bit of information that Katie’s team would need.
The liaison thought for a moment. “I would say that we would need at least a dozen. I mean, if that’s possible. I want to say that one would work, but we just don’t know.”
“We could create some sort of special Army packages in them; fashion ball bearings from the special metal that would explode inside the beast’s body, poisoning him. That would allow you enough time to use normal torpedoes to rip him apart.”
“That’s an interesting theory,” the liaison replied, although he sounded skeptical.
“We’ve seen it work in smaller applications with our grenades and bullets. I think that on a large scale it could definitely do the trick,” the general assured him.
The liaison filled his lungs with air and held his breath for a moment, deciding. “Let’s do it. Make it happen, and let me know what I need to do.”
The general made a note on his books and got off the phone with the liaison. He organized his notes quickly and picked the phone back up, calling Katie.
