by Michael Todd
Katie opened and closed her fists, feeling the power in her. Why have you not done this from the beginning? I feel like I could fight for days.
Pandora cleared her throat uncomfortably. Well, we don’t really know what will happen when we take you off the juice after prolonged use.
Are we talking hangover or something worse?
Let’s say hangover for now. I figured it was the only thing that would keep the team going in this climate. The guys were already about to drop. The only thing I can’t do is help the humans.
Hopefully, this is the last time we’ll bring any normal humans to hell. Once the R&D is done, they’ll be Earth-side.
They glanced at the doctor and Alice, who were moving quickly around the space. The machines were ticking and spitting out reports. The doctor was organizing the data as Alice started to pack up all the tools and pieces they no longer needed. It was obvious that she was done with the place, and as soon as the experiment was complete, she wanted to rock and roll right out of there. Her time in hell was just about over. She was sure of that.
Katie ran around the crew and flipped over the carts like she was superhuman. She stopped with a skid in front of the doctor. “How’s it going?”
He glanced at her, and she saw he wasn’t doing so well. The conditions starting to wear on him. His face was drawn, and his eyes were watery and bloodshot. “We have eight minutes left on the experiment. As soon as it’s done, we unplug and run.”
Katie nodded and started to turn away. “Good.”
The doctor suddenly grabbed her arm. “The problem is, I’ve just acquired radar capability through one of my programs.”
Katie didn’t understand. “That’s a good thing, right?”
He turned the screen toward her. “You see those large dots? I’m tracking a group of demons not that far over the mountain to the…uh…to the…”
Katie looked up and around. “Oh shit, you can’t tell direction here because there’s no sun.”
Alice yelled, “And don’t even think of a compass. The metal in these rocks will just make the needle spin. This is not a place you can easily tell direction in. It’s more a maps kind of place.”
Pandora pushed forward and cut in. “It’s never totally dark here, but there’s no light source like you’re thinking. It’s not like Earth, with that big star looming overhead warming up the place.”
Katie shook her head, pressing the record button on her helmet. “We are going to need a way to figure out where things are. We need to map as much of the terrain as possible. We don’t need to get lost out here. It’s not really the place I want to wander around in for eternity. We need drones for surveillance and perimeter patrol. I’m not going to become a fucking cartographer in hell.”
The doctor coughed dryly. “You’re going to need sonar detectors, and heat screeners that can withstand these types of temperatures. You want to be able to see the demons coming at all times, and this is a really good way to do it. I’m not sure how your comms work between dimensions, but if we can figure that out, you can have an IT guy on the other side manning drone feeds and detecting dangerous heat levels.”
Katie nodded and repeated the information into her recording device. She looked at Alice. “Do you have any idea how the metal on those carts is handling the heat?”
Alice looked at the metal cart simmering below her. “It’s not touchable without thick gloves, but it’s not melting either. I’m not sure it will keep its strength for more than a few more hours. The bullets you guys brought, whatever metal this is? They’re not reacting to the heat at all.”
Pandora rolled her eyes. “Great. The metal we need to keep things stable also happens to be the metal that can do damage to the mercs. We’re going to need some damn good gloves to touch shit like that.”
The doctor cleared his throat nervously. “Whatever direction is actually north or east, it doesn’t really matter at this point. The demons seem to be coming toward us, and they’re closing quickly. They look to be very large, and given their speed, they are either demonic gazelles or they take very long strides.”
Katie took her conversation with Pandora inside. Uh, you don’t have demon gazelles, do you?
Pandora chuckled. No, just big-ass demons.
That’s what I thought.
Man your stations, chick. This shit is about to get real.
Katie and Brock exchanged glances. Without asking, he knew what was coming. He yelled, “All right boys, drop your cocks and grab your socks! Showtime!”
Chapter Twenty
The general paced the floor. He was a bundle of nerves, and his chest was tight. He reached up and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt. He wanted to be on the base receiving firsthand knowledge of the mission, but he had to keep everything else on the up and up while Katie was in hell with her team.
“Fuck this. I need an update,” he growled, heading to his desk.
He dialed his contact number to the commander in Research and Development. “Commander, it’s General Brushwood. I’m anxiously awaiting any news right now. It’s been a while, and I thought they would be back by now.”
The commander sighed. “I did too, but I don’t have anything to report.”
Suddenly a flash of light blinded the commander for a moment. A portal opened just outside the building, in the open air. “Hold on, General. Someone is coming through.”
The commander set the phone down and walked to the door. Doctor Thorough, Alice, and two of the carts came bursting through. The portal immediately shut hard behind them. They stumbled forward, pulling their masks off and bending over to take in great gulps of air. Steam rose off everything.
The doctor sat down hard on the floor. “Oh, my. It really is quite a bit cooler here than it is in hell.
Alice stumbled to the commander, and he grabbed her arm to support her. “Commander, Katie and the rest of the team aren’t coming back, sir.”
The commander brought Alice into his office and sat her down in one of his chairs. He handed her a bottle of water and a towel to mop the sweat pouring from her forehead.
He picked up the phone and put it to his ear, not wanting to relay the information he had just heard. “General, Katie and the others haven’t returned yet. The doctor and his assistant are back.”
The general slammed his fist on the table. His voice was cold. “Let me talk to whoever gave you that news.”
“Yes, sir. Her name is Alice,” the commander replied before handing the phone off and leaving the room.
Alice pushed a sweaty lock of hair back and put the phone to her ear. “This is Doctor Alice Cromwell.”
The general could hear the exhaustion in her voice, and he calmed himself before he spoke. “Alice, I’m glad to know you returned safely. Did you get all the data you needed?”
Alice shook her head. “Not all of it. There’s still one very significant test running. It’s almost done, but we picked up a large movement of demons heading right for us. Katie didn’t want to risk human lives, but we didn’t want to take the chance of not getting all the data we could. She told us to come back. From the looks of it, the comm system is working between the two dimensions. We still have data streaming into our programs through the portal.”
The general was angry with Katie, but he was also thankful that she’d had the brains to get the humans out. “When will they be back?”
Alice did some calculations in her head. “It shouldn’t be long. As soon as the timer counts down to zero, they can get out of there. Katie has her team, and she knows how to bring the equipment back. Even if it gets left behind, we have all the data, sir. She and her team are going to hold off as long as they possibly can. The doctor is pulling up the countdown clock right now.”
The general began to pace the floor of his office. “Where is the commander now?”
Alice looked up. “He’s in the chamber with Doctor Thorough. I’ll take the phone to him.”
“Thank you, Alice, and good work out there.
That data is imperative to the success of future missions.” The general was sincere, but he was still worried about the others.
Alice ran into the chamber and handed the commander the phone. “He wants to talk to you.”
The commander set the phone down and put it on speaker. “General, you have the doctors here with you, too.”
“Commander, I need you to get the noncombatants out of the chamber and prepare for a quick exit and fumigation. You need to be able to pull Katie and the others out of the chamber, hold back any demons coming through the portal, and then gas the motherfuckers. It is imperative that you do not hurt our people. I can’t make that clear enough. Katie, Calvin, and the four special ops are vitally important to the future of these missions. We need all of them in one piece.”
The commander motioned to his men, and they started moving quickly. “I’m on it, General. We’re clearing the field now.”
The doctor hadn’t been paying much attention. He leaned over the speakerphone and spoke excitedly. “General Brushwood, this is Doctor Thorough. You will not believe what we’ve discovered. Acidity levels are way lower than we expected and the oxygen level is far higher, but the temperatures are crazy. It affects everything in the area. If you look at the raw data, you would think it was a planet like Mars. There’s no source of light, yet it’s never dark there. There was no detection of dark matter, which seems scientifically impossible since dark matter and matter go hand in hand. However, there is life there, as we know. There are geological formations and organic creations.”
The general tilted his head. “I guess that doesn’t shock me much. We are talking about demons and angels here. I expected there to be a scientific conundrum.”
The doctor mopped sweat from his neck. “I haven’t seen anything like this since we started trying to measure the forces at the event horizon. This is even more baffling than that.”
Alice put her hand over the doctor’s mouth. “Which part of ‘Get out of the way’ didn’t you understand?”
The doctor realized he was no longer needed. “Goodbye, General.”
The general laughed. “Goodbye, doctor. I promise we will talk soon. I want to know everything about this place.”
“It’s a fantastical dimension or world or whatever it is, and the data we collected will shine a lot of light on the future,” the doctor replied.
The soldiers ushered the doctor and Alice out of the room and got them safely into the R&D main area. They signaled the commander, and he picked up the phone. “General, the area will be clear as soon as I leave. We will get your people out of there, and I’ll give you an update as soon as anything happens. The IT guys are transferring the countdown clock to your office. As soon as that clock hits zero, we should be expecting action from the other side.”
“I sure as hell hope so. Good work, Commander. Keep me up to date.”
The general hung up the phone and clicked on his television. The screen flickered and shifted until a countdown clock came up. He sat down on the edge of his desk, watching the numbers as they ticked down. He had to admit, it was the first time he’d been this nervous in a very long time. Katie was important both tactically and personally, but the matter was completely out of his hands.
All he could do was sit and wait.
Calvin sat on a boulder and propped his rifle on one leg, surveying his surroundings. “Anyone got a deck of cards?”
Katie climbed on top of the boulders and peered out over hell. “No, but I have a rather large demon coming around the hill.”
Calvin stepped up to look, and his mouth fell open. “That’s one large sonofabitch.”
“Yeah, but this time he doesn’t have any fucking buildings to climb on. Maybe fighting on his turf will be to my advantage.”
Calvin laughed. “You sure do see the bright side of every hopeless situation.”
Katie waved to Brock and his team. Brock nodded and turned to his team. “All right, guys, I need two of you to stay here with the equipment. Protect that shit at all costs. I need you to be ready to launch that fucker through the portal when it opens. Watch the timer. That’s when the experiment ends. Can you handle that?”
Tattoos pointed to the large display. “This hits zero, and we get the fuck back to Earth?”
“Fucking-A right.”
“I love it, boss.”
Brock waved Turner on, and they ran to meet Katie. She dropped from her boulder. “I need you two to prepare a perimeter to protect those machines. You are the first line of defense for this information. It is more important than our lives. This information will give us the capability to fight back on our terms. Without it, humanity faces a dire consequence.”
Turner lifted an eyebrow. “Damn, that’s some heavy shit.”
Brock slapped him on the chest. “We got this, Katie. Just make sure that when the portal opens, you two get your asses back there. We don’t want to leave anyone behind.”
Katie nodded. “And you remember that information is more important than me.”
Calvin and Katie walked back to the boulders. Katie turned to Calvin and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Here’s the deal. This bad boy is going to need some personal attention. Weapons alone aren’t going to do it. I have to take care of this. I’m going to be coming back and coming back hard. I need you to make sure you guys get out if Pandora throws a portal open for you. Then, get everyone out of the building. Who knows what will happen? That chamber won’t contain a bitch like that.”
Calvin understood but grabbed her arm. “If we go through the portal, what will you do?”
Katie looked at him for a moment and shrugged, averting her eyes. “I just need to know I can count on you to make the hard decisions. I need you to get that equipment and those guys out of here. I don’t trust that Brock can make that choice alone. I’m afraid he’ll stay behind if I can’t go through with him.”
Calvin pulled her into a one-armed bear hug. “I got you. I’ll leave your ass behind in a heartbeat.”
Katie laughed. “Good to know.”
Calvin flashed her a wide smile and turned back to the guys.
Katie turned to face the demon, adrenaline rushing through her. She watched the beast stomping toward her with purpose. She was the only one who could give the team a chance to get out of there, but she had never faced a demon this huge. Not even T’Chezz was this big, but there was always a first time for everything.
Pandora cleared her throat. So, uh…if they leave us behind, what do we do? I may not have the energy to open a portal.
Katie didn’t answer. She climbed to the top of the big boulder, getting out of the way of the guns. She looked back over her shoulder as Calvin situated himself with Brock and Turner. She nodded at him, and he returned it. Then he pointed at the demon charging full-speed toward them. She could see a swarm of lesser demons running alongside him, trying not to be trampled.
Calvin waited for a moment and then gave the order. “Light them up!”
The sound of gunfire filled the valleys of hell, and bullets flew wildly through the air. The monstrous demon didn’t seem deterred. The lesser demons scattered and reformed, not faring quite so well. Katie lifted her foot and put it on a taller rock, resting her hand on her knee. She watched the demon shrug off gunfire and advance.
She was thinking about the kind of future this mission would give mankind.
Pandora whistled. I don’t think my cooch has ever been this sweaty, and I used to live here.
Katie didn’t answer.
Pandora poked at her. Are you still in there, or have you finally succumbed to the heat? You are just on autopilot right now, right?
Katie didn’t move a muscle. That is a giant son of a bitch.
Yep. They grow em’ big down here. We don’t like to brag, but ours is always bigger than yours.
Katie laughed. He’s eighty feet tall at least. He’s big, but you can have him.
I may have had him once, way back when. I don’t quite recognize him, thou
gh. Pugluzz? Shit, is that Pugluzz? I take it back; sometimes yours are bigger than ours. Pugluzz is not exactly well-endowed.
Whoever he is, he’s striding fast, but maybe not fast enough. I don’t know that he’ll beat the clock here. Balls. I hate clocks. All movies end with a countdown for something. It’s ridiculous.
Pandora narrowed her eyes. What was that one movie you showed me where the guy blew up the asteroid, but he was still on it?
Armageddon.
Pandora clicked her tongue. That’s it. Armageddon. Fuck that shit. I would have gotten in my spaceship and blasted the rock with a laser cannon. That’s how it’s done. Why be a hero? It’s only cool until you, I don’t know, fucking die.
Katie smirked and shook her head. Humans have this obsession with being heroes. That’s why you will always find someone willing to volunteer for a suicide mission. They want a school or a library named after them. I don’t know. I guess I can relate, but I want to save my people. I don’t care about the school.
One of the lesser demons charged ahead of the pack, roaring in his own language until he was hit in the forehead by a spray of bullets. He tripped, face-planted, and skidded over the black rock before coming to a stop. His body turned to ash.
Calvin lowered his smoking weapon and turned to the other guys. “That’s right. Give the man a prize. I’ll do this all day.”
“The way it’s going, you just might have to.” Brock switched magazines and focused on the huge demon still lumbering toward them at a crazy pace.
Turner tapped his foot. “Why does this shit always have to be last-second? Why can’t it be, like, there’s a countdown, and it reaches zero a good ten minutes before the demons get here? Why does life always have to have some crazy-ass clock on it? I hate this shit with the passion of a thousand suns.”
Brock snorted. “Wow, Turner, that is some serious hate. Besides, what kind of hero story would that be to tell the girls? Oh yeah, this huge demon came lumbering toward us, and the clock was ticking down. We took our time, played some cards, and then leisurely walked the equipment back through the portal. Talk about a lackluster ending. If I’m going to go down, it’s going to be fighting for the whole fucking world, and fighting against the clock. That’s glory right there. I don’t want to be the guy in the first three minutes of the movie who dies because he was smoking a cigarette in the wrong place.”
