Winter Falls

by Eddie Skelson

  Macgregor reversed as far as he dared and then hit the brake and turned the steering wheel as far over as it would go. The Jeep almost turned back on itself but it was enough for Macgregor to hit the accelerator and get it headed in down the road without driving straight into a drift.

  At the top of the road the truck’s engine roared into life.

  ‘Ok lads get in.’ Kevin yelled. The Roscregan men quickly returned to the back of Sally and Kevin ran around to the cab and clambered in.

  ‘We good to go?’ Tim asked.

  ‘Aye.’ Kevin replied. ‘Fuckin go fer it’.

  Tim had to steer carefully to bring the big truck around and not get stuck in the drift either side of him and so kept his upper body as low as he could as he turned her, meanwhile Kevin leaned out of the window with his M16 braced and ready to fire at any sign of movement. Finally, the truck was back in position, Kevin took his rifle from the window but held it ready to fire if needed. Tim recommenced his journey down the road.

  As he approached the Nissan, which looked as though it had been through a shredder Tim frowned.

  ‘That was the boy’s car no?’

  ‘Aye.’ Kevin replied.

  ‘You don’t think...’

  ‘No.’ Kevin interrupted.

  Tim saw a figure running across the snow towards the woods. He looked to Kevin. ‘Let him go.’ Kevin said, ‘I want to see where that Jeep is going.

  Tim nodded and steered the truck carefully around the SUV.

  ‘Christ almighty.’ Tim gasped as he saw the bodies of their attackers sprawled around it. ‘Fucking hell Kev, we did that.’ It was almost a question.

  ‘They shot first.’ Kevin said. And that ended the conversation.

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Macgregor had almost crashed into the swarm of bodies as they scrambled off the Jetty and into the road. He jumped out of the jeep and grabbed one of the men to find out what the fuck was going on but heard the truck’s brakes squeal to a halt not far behind him.

  He dragged the man, who had a shotgun in his hands, to the side of the Jeep and bawled at him as he pushed him to a kneeling stance. ‘Keep your fucking eyes open and if anything moves down there you shoot, do you understand me?’ The man nodded. Macgregor turned to the rest of the group who were staring back towards the Jetty.

  ‘You lot, what the fuck are you doing? Get your weapons and get into cover.’ Macgregor stormed into them and pushed each man into a defensible position. Peake had taken the best of the town’s men for himself, which was only natural for the arrogant, cowardly fuck, so these would at least have a chance of shooting in the right direction.

  Peake couldn’t understand how it had all gone so horribly wrong. He lay flat behind a stack of crates that were marked with a faded stencil that read ‘WEIGHTS’.

  The Government man had killed a brother, right in front of him, his thoughts reeled. ‘Clarke had a fucking gun POINTED RIGHT AT ME!’ His mind had shrieked with shock and disbelief.

  He had to get away from here, get to the lodge. The others would be here soon and would take care of it all. He had no clue where Clarke had gone, no idea where Melanie was but at least Macgregor was here now. Peake looked out from his hiding place and along the Jetty but nothing stirred at the end of it.

  They were coming though, the scouts had arrived and that fucking imbecile Clarke had killed one of them, but they were coming and they would tear that fucking London retard to pieces.

  The thought of this relaxed Peake a little, he even managed to etch a grin onto his face. He heard Macgregor shouting orders and thought that it seemed to be quiet and under control, enough for him to make an appearance, but he had come to this conclusion too soon.

  No sooner had he stood up than the air was filled with gunshots. One of the crates near to him was struck, sending up a shower of splinters.

  He heard Macgregor roar at the men, ‘Take em, kill those fuckers.’ He bellowed. Peake raised his head so that he could see over the crate that defended him and saw Macgregor standing with a rifle aimed down the street. He fired two shots in succession then got to his knees as fire was returned. He couldn’t help but notice that there was considerably more coming back at them than his men were firing out.

  ‘Was it the army?’ He thought. If it was it was all was done, it would be Innsmouth all over again and if he didn’t die now his masters would make him die a thousand times over. He crawled around the side of the crate, trying to ensure that it shielded him as best he could and shouted to Macgregor.

  ‘Macgregor, over here, Macgregor! Here man!’

  His lieutenant turned and seeing Peake crawling behind the crate scowled.

  ‘What the fuck is going on?’ Peake shouted. ‘Is it the army?’

  ‘No!’ Macgregor shouted back and then, after looking towards the attackers, sprinted over to Peake. Even crouched Macgregor was enormous and Peake felt safer with him in front of him than when he was behind the crate filled with iron weights.

  ‘It’s the fucking Roscregan lot.’ Macgregor spat. ‘Armed to the fucking teeth.’

  ‘Ok.’ Peake said. ‘Don’t worry, they’re coming, just keep them busy and they will be taken care of once our brothers get here.’

  ‘Keep them busy?’ Macgregor snarled. ‘They are shooting at us from five hundred yards down the road with assault rifles, our shotguns can’t penetrate a fucking tee-shirt at that range.’

  ‘Just do your fucking job Macgregor and I’ll do mine.’ Peake snapped. ‘Do it or explain to them.’ Peake cocked his head towards the sea. ‘Explain how you let a bunch of villagers get past you.’

  Macgregor stared at Peake with sheer loathing painted into his expression. He wanted to grab Peake’s greasy skull and crush it in his hands. He spat at the floor as though speaking to Peake had left a bad taste in his mouth and returned to his position.

  Peake retreated back behind the crate. Macgregor just had to keep the Roscregan men tied up for a short while and then, then they would hear the Roscregan men screaming and it would all be fine again.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  When Joe awoke he struggled to open his eyes, the lids were heavy and felt sore. He could tell that his hair was wet but the rest of him seemed dry, and he was warm. He tried to sit up but his body ached too much to allow that just yet.

  Someone was talking. No, not talking, more like praying, as there was a gentle, sensual sound to it and he thought there was repetition. It was almost certainly a female voice he could hear and as the only female voice he had heard in a week belonged to Melanie he recognised it almost instantly.

  ‘Mel…’ He tried to call out but produced a weak whisper. The praying voice continued. Joe used what strength he had to turn on to his side, it hurt, but he managed it. He closed his eyes tightly for a few seconds and then slowly forced his eyelids to open.

  He was in a large room lit only by flickering oil torches. At its centre was a circular wall of brickwork about a foot in height and from within it an eerie blue light reflected off the sides. Stood before the ring, naked, with her profile presented to him and head bowed was Melanie.

  He almost smiled at the sight of her but then his eyes focused on something else lying nearby. A man, with a thick beard and tattered clothes typical of a hill walker and he lay dead, very dead. His eyes were gone and his open mouth was black with congealed blood.

  ‘Christ almighty.’ Joe thought. ‘Does this never stop?’

  He croaked out her name again, it was a little clearer but she continued her prayer. Finally Melanie lifted her arms up above her head and said more loudly and in a language Joe couldn’t comprehend, ‘Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah-nagl fhtagn.’

  Her arms dropped to her sides and she remained still and silent. Joe didn’t call now. For some reason it felt wrong to interrupt her, as though he had spied her in church in deep reflection.

  At last she turned to face him and could see that he had woken. She walke
d towards him. To Joe she looked almost serene.

  He realised that he was wearing a long heavy cotton robe and he was naked underneath it. He supposed that Melanie had removed his wet clothes and put this on to him to stop him dying of hypothermia. How she had stopped him from drowning, from being drowned, he couldn’t reason.

  Suddenly he began to spasm. His mind had visited the moment when, as ice cold water had filled his throat, he had seen a huge glassy eye next to his face as he thrashed in the water, he felt the hand, large and powerful that gripped his face as it pushed him deeper into the dark depths.

  But no, that was a nightmare, hysterical dreams, the hand that had grabbed him had been small and soft. It had drawn him through the water and to the shore. He had seen pink skin, a slim body.

  Melanie’s cool touch that brought him out of his panic.

  ‘It’s Ok Joe, you are in shock, relax.’ She stroked his forehead and then trailed her fingers down his cheek.

  Joe coughed a little and then felt his mouth and throat lubricate a little as his body began to produce saliva again.

  ‘What happened...there were things...in the water’ He said.

  ‘Deep Ones.’ Melanie said as naturally as though she were naming a breed of cat. ‘Peake called them.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’ Joe eased himself on to his back, enough strength had returned to his limbs to allow him to bring his hands to his face and he covered it rubbing gently at his eyes.

  ‘It doesn’t matter, this is the end of Winter Falls, at least for us.’

  ‘Us?’ Joe said.

  ‘For me, for Peake and my brothers, for Macgregor. It’s over, here at least. Those who survive today will have to move on, some won’t be able to of course, they are too far gone in their returning but not close enough to change. They will have to be taken care of. The Wardens will scatter, those that live, and they will find other broods to protect.

  Melanie’s words meant nothing to him. He couldn’t understand, Wardens, broods, the things were...Deep Ones, he remembered those. He shook his head.

  ‘Who’s he?’ He nodded towards the dead man.

  ‘I’m not sure but I think he knew what was happening here, the man in the forest, what remained of the man you saw in the forest, he was with him. Father will have used this one to call the them.’

  ‘What, another ritual? Jesus this place needs burning to the fucking ground.’ Tears began to well in Joes eyes.

  ‘It’s Ok Joe. It will make sense soon. But you will need to be brave. Mother is coming, she is coming to take me home. I am her first child in a long while to be able to speak to her and she will protect me.’

  ‘I don’t...Mother?’ Joe said. He managed to move to a sitting position with Melanie’s aid and was able to look at her face to face. She looked different. Not markedly so but her eyes were a little bigger he thought, as though pressured a from behind.

  ‘Joe, I told you that there are no women in Winter Falls over twenty five years old and the reason for this is that they are all murdered, sacrificed.’ Joe opened his mouth to speak but Melanie placed a finger on his lips to silence him. ‘Every twenty five years Deep Ones come ashore to breed with human women. They do this because a pure bred Deep One has little to no attunement to the Essence. This is a powerful force through which the stuff that you would call magic is projected. However only the female offspring of these unions can utilise the essence fully, males can only tap the shallowest depths of it.

  This is anathema to Father Dagon, he who rules the depths while the Great Old One sleeps. Father Dagon is the strongest of all Deep Ones but this is only because he won’t allow Mother Hydra, a sister of sorts, to claim her own brood.’

  Joe couldn’t hide his confusion. It was visible in every crease and line of his face, in his trembling lips and wide eyes.

  ‘They are here now to protect their secret and to destroy us Joe.’ Melanie said.

  Joe had made nothing of anything that she had said but a question crossed his mind.

  ‘Is Peake really your Dad?’ He asked

  Melanie shook her head and smiled a little. ‘No, he isn’t. Some women are brought in to give birth to human daughters and they in turn will be raised to look after the brood. All of the girls born of Deep Ones are not given this chance. They are taken to the Falls and offered to the Father as sacrifice. But my mother switched me out with another, a human child, Peake’s child.’

  ‘If this is true then, if the monsters out there...’ Joe stopped, if Melanie truly believed what she was saying then technically she was one of them, those eyes. He decided to alter his question ‘If the things that attacked me are here so that all of this can be kept a secret then why tell me?’

  The smile that had appeared on Melanie’s face faded.

  ‘Mother Hydra can see what will come, she has seen what Dagon cannot because she can see into the Essence. It is a gift that very few of the Elder Gods possess.

  The Great Lord is dead, but eternal, and when the stars are right he will rise again, this is prophecy. Dagon is in thrall to him and obeys his every command but Mother Hydra has seen what he will bring to Earth, to time and space, and seeks to aid mankind Joe. Only with your people as allies can she stop his return. This is her home as well as yours.’

  Joe gazed at her, he let his eyes fall from hers and sweep over her naked figure, ‘How can someone so beautiful be so fucked in the head.’

  He felt a vibration through the floor and looked down. ‘Did you feel that?’ He asked

  ‘She is here.’ Melanie said she looked towards the far doors.

  ‘She?’ Joe said ‘Mother Hydra?’

  ‘Yes.’ Melanie replied.

  ‘Ok.’ Joe said, feeling his old self return. ‘So what do we do now? I assume that Macgregor and his band of merry men are still out there somewhere. Where are we by the way?’

  ‘We are inside the lodge you saw when you visited the town. Macgregor is busy with your friends, the Deep Ones have come ashore and are attacking them.’’

  ‘My friends?’’ Joe said.

  ‘The village men, from Roscregan. Somehow they got through the ward and assaulted the town, but the Deep Ones are strong and they are legion, your friends won’t stand a chance.’ Melanie replied.

  ‘So that’s what they were looking at when I was pulled under, what was going on down the road.’ Joe said.

  ‘I’ve got to help.’ He carefully got to his feet.

  Melanie stood and steadied him by his elbow. ‘You can’t help, you are in no fit state and besides they have guns and they still won’t be able to hold back the Deep Ones.’

  ‘I’ve not heard shots.’ Joe said.

  ‘The lodge is sound-proofed.’ Melanie said. Joe looked at the dead Norwegian and thought that at least made sense.

  ‘I’ve got to help Kevin if he’s out there, he tried to help me.’ Joe looked around the lodge to find an exit. There were two standard doors set either side of the wall closest to him and at the far side the large double door Melanie had looked towards

  ‘Is that the way out?’

  ‘Your friends are already dead Joe, just stay until Mother is ready for me.’

  Joe ignored her and walked stiffly towards the door. Another vibration ran through the floor and this time the walls shuddered sending down showers of plaster. Melanie kept pace with him.

  ‘Can’t you put some clothes on?’ He said.

  ‘I don’t need them.’ Melanie said

  ‘I was thinking more of me than you to be honest.’ Joe replied. When he reached the double door he pulled on the handle and one side swung open. He found himself in a large foyer that was empty except for a few big but simple wooden chairs. Directly across the room was an ancient looking door, obviously the other side of the one he had examined when he had first seen the lodge.

  He walked over to it and turned the handle. As he did so Melanie’s hand closed over his.

  ‘Nothing you have seen comes close to this Joe.’ She said.<
br />
  Joe turned the handle and opened the door.

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Once past the remains of the Nissan and the spectacle of the corpses Tim focused on chasing after the Jeep to try and shake the terrible sight from his thoughts. The head start the driver had got was quickly lost as it skidded and ploughed into a drift. The Jeep was undamaged but it had cost the driver valuable time as he had reversed out of the verge and back on to the road.

  The truck was a beast to control on the ice but Tim had negotiated worse, he had been through mud and rock falls with the old girl and knew how to handle her. Watching the Jeep’s lights swerve violently showed that he was in pursuit of a man who didn’t know how to get the best of out such a vehicle.

  When they entered the town proper Kevin observed the outlines of the buildings ahead as best he could. It was obvious that the driver would go to wherever he could find support and Kevin didn’t want to run his men into an ambush. Whenever the Jeep hit a corner and vanished from sight Kevin instructed Tim to ‘go easy’ and reluctantly Tim gave up a little of the ground he had made.

  The snow had ceased falling with any real strength and visibility was now as good as it was likely to get with only the widely spaced streetlights to illuminate the way. They had come to a long wide road when Tim and Kevin saw the Jeep slide to a halt ahead and Kevin told his friend to hit Sally’s brakes.

  Tim performed a manoeuvre similar to the one he had done at the hill, hand-braking the vehicle so that its back end skidded across the road and presented instant cover for the men who promptly jumped out of it and took position. Once again he felt the mild buffeting on the cab as the men seated on the left side took a small dive into their friends on the right. Tim managed to grin a little.

  Kevin saw a man, a huge man quickly exit the Jeep and at the same time a crowd suddenly emerged from the right hand side of the road. His first thought was that it was an ambush, that the big man had radioed ahead, but he realised that that there was some altercation taking place behind the fellow. Some looked down the road towards the truck others back to where they had appeared from. Kevin couldn’t know that because of the noise of the truck he had missed the sound of Joe firing at the Deep One but as he observed the confused crowd there were three loud reports that sounded to Kevin suspiciously like those his own pistol might make.