The daemons seemed unaffected by the intrusion. That or the rift’s defense system was so automated that they never imagined a small team of humans would ever make it this far. The turrets were probably made to keep their own kind away. There were no feral in the area so we assumed that they had been trained somehow to stay away. What better way to train them then death. This was a place for only the pure bred daemons.
“Those turrets are going to light us up,” shouted Nate from the cockpit.
“Not so fast, I think I see a path to the generator but we are going to have to do some walking,” said Jackson. He was squinting his eyes staring downward and up again towards the crater.
“Yeah, I have a plan, I can lead us there and we might not have to worry about any of the turrets, it looked like those pure bred suckers probably can’t get too close to the generator themselves. I see a walkway with several daemon symbols on it, looks like a pathway, maybe made for engineers or elite,” he said smiling.
“Nate keep this ship in the air. Everyone gear up and get ready to drop,” said Michael.
The daemon canons already spotted us. Nate had taken us too low to the ground. A single shot from one of their canons took hit the side of our ship tearing apart the wing and sending us in a downward spiral towards the ground. Emily ran towards Nate and the two of them took us into a controlled dive gliding the dropship to the ground sideways as the rear engine fluttered. We hit the ground hard but we were all conscious. I could feel my muscles tense. My arm was knocked back out of place but Michael quickly fixed it for me while Cassandra looked after the others. We were lucky. Only minor injuries. Scrapes and bruises. Nate however wasn’t so lucky. The smartest of us all he had pushed Emily aside safely away from the front of the dropship as it hit the ground. The broken pieces of hull went through his chest and he was dead before we settled on the ground.
We had no time to waste.
No moment of silence.
Nate was just the first of us, the first domino to fall.
The daemons knew we were coming. We could hear their scams and growls as many of the pure breeds began to wake up. They were angry. They never imagined any humans, lesser creatures would make it this far. We had invaded their home and they were already cracking their safe. Jackson disengaged the nuclear reactor. It was small enough to fit inside a backpack. However it was leaking radiation. He injected myself, Cassandra, and Emily with an tiny needle. Some cocktail cooked up by a genius back on Earth that would help boost our antibodies and protect us from the radiation for awhile. It was still experimental but he expected none of us would survive long enough to find out if there were any long lasting side effects anyway. Michael refused to take it instead suiting up in his daemon armor / skin. Jackson placed the nuclear reactor inside a bag and then inside a thick ballistic backpack. Michael had offered to take it saying how his body would have less to worry about should any radiation leak out but Jackson refused. He was determined to carry out our mission until the end.
“Move now!” shouted Michael as the pure blooded daemons came upon us. They were similar in shape to the ones we had fought before only they lacked the armor that had been nailed into the other’s skin. In fact these daemons were darker in color and had red cat like eyes. They were several feet taller and most of them had wings. Some carried alien rifles that shot a vibrant blue energy that tore through walls while others were carrying swords. Their bodies had been covered in scars from centuries of violence. It was possible I thought that we weren’t the first civilization that they had gone to war with. We ran faster then we had ever run before. Faster then any of us thought possible. The sweat ran down our suits and I personally felt like I was going to pass out from exhaustion. A few times Michael and Emily grabbed hold of me and told me to keep moving. I felt weak in the heat both dehydrated and dizzy. I had to keep going. I was pushing my body to the limits.
The walls around us were carved with eldritch circles. There were so many geometric designs I couldn’t be sure where one began and another ended. They seem to have been etched in the ruins long ago. We were at the entrance to the power generator when Cassandra fell behind. Michael tried to go back for her. He used his body as a shield against the daemon weaponry but when three got too close to him with their swords he couldn’t block. He lifted his arm in the air as one of the daemons hacked down. It didn’t cut straight through but it was enough to make him bleed. His blood poured on the ground were Cassandra was laying. The daemon took another swing as the other two went to grab Michael from behind. I fired round after round from my rifle till my clip ran out of ammo. I only managed to make one fall and break the skin of the other. They let go of Michael though so it was a near win. The larger daemon grabbed him and began flapping it’s wings against the ground. I could see the dirt and dust rise as the two began to lift up into the air. Michael scratched at it’s chest before grabbing hold of it’s wrist and breaking it. He grabbed the daemons sword as the two of them fell. Swiftly Michael stabbed the fallen daemon and moved his sword back plunging it into the chest of the other. The other daemons that had gathered had been watching. They were lesser then the three, smaller grunts. They dared not interfere with the fight until now. They began coming at Michael in waves. He used the daemon sword to kill the ones that came close throwing their bodies to the ground. Others shot from a distance but their weapons were useless against Michael’s daemon hide.
Cassandra had not been so lucky. She had been shot several times and she was screaming at Michael to run. For the first time in his life he listened. He ran towards us as we blew open the entry to the generator and Cassandra grabbed hold of one of the daemon’s legs. She had the power to give life and take it away. She quickly healed from her wounds but became something else. Pieces of her body that had been human flesh became daemonic the same as Michael. Wisps of energy glowed around her as she began reaching out to the other daemons that were coming for us. She pulled them back with what I can only describe as clear vibrant red tentacles that glowed like a wisp of energy from her body. They fell to the ground and as her condition continued to get worst.
The wisps from her body spread out across the maze of daemonic ruins. She filtered the life from everything within a hundred yards. Some of the wisps even came towards us before we managed to shut the door. We stared through a small hole in the wall as she devoured the daemonic life-force around her taking it inside her. Silence fell. She stopped moving. Her skin began to turn grey and harden. Cassandra smiled towards us. She was not a part of our original team but she had since become family to us. Both her and Lt. Barker, rest his soul. I could see a tear rolling down Michael’s eye. The two of them had become very attached. I had no idea what the two of them had done or talked about at the waterfall but it was written all over his face. He would do for her what I would do for you if given the chance.
One moment she was flesh and blood and the next Cassandra had turned to stone.
Descent
We made it, tear this place apart, find a way to stop the power flow,” said Jackson. Michael made quick work of the controls using his daemon claws to shred the alien console apart. We heard a sound that made me feel like I was sitting inside a movie theatre listening to the sound of a bass drop all around me. The turrets went dark. Our plan was actually working.
“Now we have to descend into the pit,” said Emily talking about the massive crater that surrounded the rift.
“How far down do you think it goes?” I asked.
“Pretty fucking deep,” he replied. His way of stating the obvious.
We pressed on. Jackson was the first to step outside but Michael quickly shoved past him grabbing Emily by the wrist. He was pulling her hard. Parts of his arms and lower body were still in daemon form. It looked almost like his claws were cutting into her skin but it was impossible to tell. She might have been using her power as a shield to protect her. Burning and regenerating the flesh that Michael ripped away again and again. He pulled her toward
s Cassandra. The two of them stood near her stone corpse. She looked like a statue lit by the red light from the rift. Daemons lay dead all around us but we could hear more screaming, a war cry from far away. They outnumbered us hundred to one and even with our powers we had little time to waste if we were going to destroy the rift.
Michael screamed, “Save her,” pointing towards Cassandra.
Never in my life had I seen him demand or try to force something from someone else. Emily was crying. She placed her hands on Cassandra. She had a look of shock in her eyes something that all of us had feared. Cassandra, frozen to stone was still alive. One of Emily’s hidden powers. She could feel the warmth in all the creatures and world around her. The same way that Cassandra drew in the life-force of living matter Emily could draw out the heat. Michael screamed again, “Use your fire, melt away the stone. Save her or..” Emily cut him off, “I can’t do what you want me to do, that stone is her skin inside and out” she screamed. Michael then realized that Emily was clutching his arm so very tight while at the same time holding her hand glowing with red energy against Cassandra’s frozen waist. Emily had been trying. She had been burning her fingertips against Michael the entire time and he didn’t even realize it.
“She’s gone,” she said tears falling from her eye.
“Then kill me, if it means saving her take all the energy you can from me,” he said. “That’s not how my power works, I don’t drain from others,” she said.
“We’re all going to die here, just let her go,” said Jackson walking up to the two of them.
I was at a loss of words. Michael and I had bonded like brothers since this whole thing began but right now I felt so helpless so far away.
“You don’t know what the hell is going to happen, you can take your nuke and shove it down that hole without us, we there is still a chance we could run,” growled Michael even more furious now as he held Emily’s wrist against his human chest.
“We’re all damned on this world, let her go,” Jackson said.
“I won’t,” Michael said pushing him aside. Jackson then took out his gun and pointed it not at Michael but at Cassandra’s stone corpse.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” screamed Michael who’s face began taking on daemonic form. I could see his teeth begin to crack and sharpen as the daemonic skin broke through his human flesh shedding it like a snake rubbing against a rock. He was ninety percent daemon now. I could see it in his eyes. He was ready to kill Barker, Emily, anyone that wouldn’t help him. “We’ve been down this road before,” said Michael staring at Jackson.
“Both Nate and Jake were ready to kill Barker to save you and Emily, now you are going to let Cass die,” said Michael who stretched his arm into a daemonic blade. He held it against Jackson’s chest.
“This is the mission, she’s a loss to us all,” Jackson said closing his eyes and firing a round from his rifle. Cassandra shattered into a million pieces. Michael changed a hundred percent into a daemon and struck his blade arm against the ground causing massive damage all around himself as Emily fell back towards myself and the others. Jackson lowered his rifle. There was so much remorse in his eye. I felt the sting out it from where I was standing at least ten yards away.
“Was there anything you could have done,” I whispered to Emily.
She was crying, “I could the warmth from her body, from her heart beating just beneath the stone but there was nothing I could do but put out the flame. I couldn’t save her, even if I had her power it would have been useless. I did what I could before Jackson,” she stopped pausing, “we have to go, we have to honor our fallen, we have to save those that we still have left,” she finished picking her rifle from the ground and moving toward Jackson who had begun looking for a way into the pit.
“This way,” I said motioning for everyone to follow me. I saw a staircase carved into the side of the pit from above when we were using the drone. I didn’t bother to explain to them how I saw it. Time had been speeding up and slowing down so much over the last few hours there were few details I had not noticed. I even had a pretty decent idea of where and how many daemons there were surrounding us. The staircase looked ancient. The rift it seemed had been built before the Ema uploaded their consciousness into their daemon avatars. As we descended downwards we could see tall statues carved into the side of the rock query. They looked very human like but there was something off about them. Several of the statues had six to seven eyes, others only had two. Some had elongated foreheads while others had four to six arms. The statues were everywhere and varied in size from eight to fifteen feet tall.
Michael was trailing us.
His silence said it all. He was ready to be done with all of this. I wish I knew what to say to him. Five years ago I lost you. I would have done the same thing. I was doing it now. All of this on the chance you would wake up.
The staircase came to an end and we found ourselves at the threshold of a massive bridge and cavern. We assumed that the caverns led deeper underground. How hollow was this world? It seemed as if the Ema had been digging mining this world for resources for awhile. The ruins outside were covered in grass and nature but once a long time ago this planet must have been sprawling with cities. Even the thousands of daemons that were left must have been only a small fraction of the massive population that had lived on this world. A massive daemon came out to greet us. There was something strange about it. It was twenty feet tall and had several heads, a fat body, tail, and shorter arms then the others. It looked like a Troll or some kind of freakish goblin. I couldn’t help but think of all the fairy tales I had read as a kid. The stories told by the brothers Grimm. Had they somehow tapped into this reality. Their imagination fueled by untold truths. I couldn’t shake the feeling that this had all happened before. I felt like I was fighting inside a dream.
Michael jumped ahead of us and attacked. The daemon pushed him aside shoving him into the wall. Michael’s body lay stuck there for several moments as his broken bones quickly healed themselves from the impact. Another daemon trait. Another hidden power he had when his body took that form or perhaps a gift from the time he had spent with Cassandra. Either way he wasn’t down for the count. We took cover were we could but the staircase was only about fifteen yards wide and had little for us to hide behind. We began climbing back upwards. The daemon moved slowly and clapped it’s hands in the air as we fired at it. I could see the sound wave move from across it’s body towards us. I closed my eyes. Jackson screamed. I could see his ears bleeding. His super hearing had become his greatest weakness. The sound the daemon made had blown apart the inside of his ear. He began firing on the giant relentlessly until it rushed him breaking his legs and throwing him behind us. Emily began to glow red. Michael jumped onto of the daemon from behind hoping to take it by surprise. The daemon threw him to the ground beside the rest of us. We were all weak compared to this gluttonous daemon.
“Thow me,” said Emily looking at Michael.
“What?” he said confused.
“Throw me as hard as you can at the daemon I’m going to go supernova,” she said.
He did just that. Picking her up and throwing her towards the raging daemonic giant. As she flew through the air I felt like I saw her grown wings of fire. She looked like an angel rising it’s way out of hell. At first she was glowing red but the closer she burned towards the daemon the more vibrant she became. First purple and blue then green and white. When she hit the daemon she tore a hole through it’s bowels. It screamed in agony as it fell to the ground. The various faces on it’s body began to break away as smaller daemons began shredding their way out it’s corpse with smaller scrawny bodies, long bony arms and tails. They burned up in Emily’s embers as she stood on the ground at the entrance to the cavern. Her entire body was aflame. Michael walked through the fire towards her in his daemonic form. She fell into his arms and he whispered, “I’m sorry.”
There was no longer any light around us.
The c
averns were pitch black and filled with hundreds of hatched daemon eggs. Jackson stayed behind telling us he would hold off any daemons coming our way. There was little we could do to change his mind. He motioned for us and screamed at us to go on without him. He had gone deaf and had two broken legs. His left eye was also badly damaged and bleeding. He handed me the backpack with the nuke and we left him.
We made our way through the caves until we finally came to an opening. It felt like we had been walking in a downward spiral. The red light from the rift was visible. We finally saw the truth. What the daemons had been hiding. In front of us stood a giant sixty to seventy feet high with chains wrapped around it’s neck, arms, wrists, and ankles. It was being held upright against some kind of massive cross. Giant nails had been driven through it’s wrists, shoulders, and several places around it’s stomach. It was completely naked yet it had no gender. It had seven eyes. Three on one side and four on the other. No nose and it’s mouth had been sewn shut with wire. On it’s back were two torn wings. A voice in the back of my mind told me that this was an Ema. A variation of the statues we had seen on our way down. This place at one time must have been a temple. A place of worship. This was their true form. The body of the creature bled wisps of red light into small tubes that were attached at random to different parts of it’s upper half. Several of the tubes ran out from behind it. They flowed upward into a sphere that formed above creating the rift. We had made it to the bottom layer of hell against unsurmountable odds. Now it was time to kill an angel.
Sleepers (Convergence Book 1) Page 15
