For Whom The Bell Tolls

by Michael Todd

  “There is currently no comment from the White House or any sources within the White House on whether we are facing another terrorist attack on US soil. All representatives have been pulled into a meeting, but the press has been kept out. We really have no idea what is going on, but we will update you as information becomes available. For now, the only thing we know is that the local police in that small town have gone silent. The military has put out a short statement warning civilians in the area to get inside, lock their doors, and stay hidden until the area has been cleared. Cleared of what, we don’t know.”

  “It is obvious that something big is going on there,” the reporter continued, turning toward the camera in the studio. “From the reports given to our sister station, it looks like some sort of attack by beings not of this world. Is this fake news? We have yet to confirm. The initial reporter is unknown in most journalistic circles.

  “We are struggling to understand how this sort of attack could be real. The photos sent in are anything but conclusive, but where we stand those creatures aren’t human. We will be staying with you throughout this crisis and bringing you updates as they arrive.”

  The camera angle switched to the studio and Jessica shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “To recap, there have been unconfirmed sightings of strange beings attacking a small Wyoming town, although the exact location has been withheld to keep the public from wandering into a dangerous situation. The military is on hand, and an unknown reporter has been posting information from the scene. We are going to switch to the weather for just a moment, but we will be back soon with further updates.”

  Morris, Brown, Davis, and Wilson moved through the open doors of the library. They kept to the walls, their guns raised in front of them. Morris put his fist up to stop the crew and they held there for a moment, listening for any sounds. They heard a soft whimper from inside the main area and Morris nodded to the others. He stayed low as he moved to the doorway and cleared the area, making sure no demons were waiting to jump them.

  The others quickly followed, Davis watching the rear. In the center of the room they came across the young librarian, who was hiding under a table trying to stop the blood running from deep gashes in her leg. She covered her mouth and cried as the soldiers moved to her side. Brown, Morris, and Davis turned their backs, keeping watch as Wilson began to tend to her wounds. He had never seen gashes like that before, and he was struggling to get the bleeding to stop.

  “What did this?”

  “One of those things,” the girl whispered through her tears. “They dragged off the people in here and…Mrs. Owens, the head librarian. I don’t think they made it.”

  “Let’s get you taken care of.” Wilson wrapped her leg after staunching the wounds with fresh gauze. “Then we are going to get you out of here, okay? Can you stand up?”

  “Wait,” Morris whispered.

  The woman sat back down and Wilson grabbed his gun to back up the others. Half a dozen demons scurried through the door and climbed the shelves, then leered and hissed at the four soldiers, licking their lips. Morris shifted his stance, his M-16 firm in his hands.

  “This might get ugly.”

  Davis nodded. “Fuck these assholes.”

  He let the bullets fly and the others followed suit, tracking the demons with the sights of their guns. Davis hit one in the back of the skull, and it fell from the bookcase and hit the ground with a thud. Another not too far from Davis jumped out and slashed his arm, knocking his gun from his hand. He looked at the blood on his hand and narrowed his eyes, then grabbed the beast by the shoulders and slammed it to the ground. He seized its head and twisted hard and fast to break its neck.

  Morris jumped onto the table and removed the empty clip, taking a fresh one from his waistband. He aimed carefully at one of the demons scurrying up the wall and pulled the trigger, hitting the beast in the back. It fell to the floor, but before Morris could finish it another demon tackled him. They rolled across the floor, the demon’s black scales scratching against his hands as they grappled.

  He landed on his back with the beast on top of him, snarling and dripping saliva as it snapped at him. He hit the demon in the face, knocking it to the side, then pulled the pistol and jumped on top of the beast, shooting it twice between the eyes. As it turned to dust he whirled toward the demon he’d previously shot, who starting to get back up.

  “Like fuck you’re getting up.” He ran over and grabbed the demon by the back of the neck, then pressed the pistol to his temple and pulled the trigger. The demon turned to dust in his hands and he looked back to see how the others were doing.

  Brown was standing back-to-back with Wilson as they fought hand-to-hand with the remaining two demons. Blood ran down Wilson’s face from a scratch the demon’s claw had ripped in his cheek. The demon took him by the throat, his snarling teeth getting closer, but Wilson grabbed his knife from his belt and slammed into the side of the demon’s head. The demon screamed and turned to dust and Wilson turned to assist Brown, who was fighting a losing battle. Wilson sidestepped Brown and drew his knife across the demon’s throat.

  The demon fell back and burst into a cloud of dust. Brown rubbed his throat and shook his head, looking at Wilson. “Thanks, brother. That one had the upper hand.”

  “That’s forty-seven so far between the four of us,” Morris recounted. “Let’s get the librarian to safety and then triple that fuckin’ number.”

  “Hooah, motherfucker,” Brown yelled.

  Calvin stood next to Eric in the doorway. They had watched the four soldiers taking down the six demons, surprised by their skills.

  “Are they Damned?”

  “I thought maybe, but no.”

  “Shit, so they are just total fucking badasses.”

  “Badasses possessed by the indomitable spirit to fuck up anything that would attack Americans, apparently.” Calvin swatted Eric in the chest. “Come on, there’s a big group of these bastards across in the park. Let’s finish them off and then go find the others.”

  Eric shook his head and ran after Calvin, glad that there was someone else there who could handle their shit.

  Eric and Calvin ran along the side of a building toward the park where they’d spotted three or four demons gnawing on human remains. Calvin looked at them through his rifle scope, grimacing when he saw fingers sticking out of one of their mouths.

  “Looks like they are trying to have a nice picnic in the park.”

  “No time for romance today, fellas,” Eric told the demons, taking a step forward, but then stopping.

  He pressed his ear against the door of the building to listen to the voices inside. The voices didn’t belong to any of their people, and they were talking about killing humans, which kind of clinched it. Eric opened the door just far enough to peek through the crack and saw several demons and a few Enlightened. Eric tapped Calvin’s shoulder and moved to the side so he could see.

  Calvin peered through the gap for a moment, then swung his rifle around to his back and pulled his knives. “Looks like we just found some of the idiots who started all this. Let’s teach them a lesson.”

  Eric grinned and gestured to the door. “After you.”

  Calvin kicked the door open, surprising the Enlightened. Eric followed him, raising his gun as a demon dived toward the two of them. He shot it in the head and it burst into dust.

  Calvin grinned, twirling his knives. “Looky what we have here.”

  The Enlightened mercs raced toward Calvin and Eric, attacking as one, and Calvin chuckled as he dodged their hasty punches. He stepped to the side and grabbed one of the Enlightened by the back of his neck as he ran past, growling as he threw the demon merc across the room. The merc crashed through the wall and Calvin followed him, jumping through the hole to land on top of him. He slashed the demon’s face and it screamed in agony.

  “You come into this town and kill these people?” Calvin growled through gritted teeth. “I’ll show you what we do to fuckers who pull that shit.”
He slammed his knife into the demon merc’s chest to incapacitate it, then pulled his short sword from its sheath on his back and severed the guy’s head from his body.

  Eric grunted as the demon merc took him to the floor and knocked his gun from his hand. It skipped across the floor and slid to a stop at one of the demons’ feet. The beast looked curiously at it and picked it up, and Calvin watched in disbelief as the demon looked down the barrel and pulled the trigger, blowing a hole right between its eyes. It grunted and turned to dust. Both Eric and the demon merc had paused for a moment to witness the stupidity.

  Eric headbutted the merc, breaking his nose. “And you work for those idiots?”

  Eric got his feet under the merc and pushed hard, flinging him into a pile of stone and rubble, then walked over and grabbed his weapon, dusting the demon dust from the stock. He turned back as the merc groaned and pulled himself to his feet, then puffed out his chest as he advanced toward Eric. With each step the merc took Eric fired, hitting the demon in the chest, the arm, the neck. It just kept coming toward him, grabbing a metal pipe as it approached.

  “The head, motherfucker!” Calvin yelled.

  “Oh, yeah.” Eric chuckled. He unloaded the rest of his clip into the Enlightened’s head.

  The third demon merc took off up the stairs toward the door to the roof. Calvin sighed and told Eric, “I’ve got this.”

  He ran up the stairs two at a time and grabbed the roof door before it had completely closed. He shaded his eyes from the sun as he ran onto the roof. The Enlightened ran toward the edge of the building and leapt to the next roof.

  “Where you goin’, motherfucker?”

  Calvin took off across the rooftops after the fleeing demon, jumping the gaps between the buildings and easily keeping up his prey. Calvin put on an extra burst of speed when the demon reached the edge of the next building and made a move toward the school. He shook his head and pulled his rifle back around.

  “Hell, no. Leave those kids alone.”

  Calvin quickly knelt and propped his elbows on the edge of the building, sighting the demon through the scope. When the demon looked back Calvin exhaled and pulled the trigger, and the bullet flew almost in slow motion and struck the demon merc right between the eyes. The demon’s head jerked back and he flailed his arms as he fell over the side of the building.

  Calvin ran to the edge of the roof and looked down just in time to see the demon turn to dust. He returned his rifle to his back and tightened the strap with a jerk.

  “That’s what you get, asshole.”

  17

  Korbin, Stephanie, Damian, Timothy, and Joshua formed a line as a huge number of demons charged toward them. Korbin lifted an eyebrow and glanced at Stephanie, who gripped her gun and offered Korbin a tight smile. Joshua looked at Damian and then at Timothy, never having seen so many demons at one time.

  “At least I know my product works.”

  “You got like a bazooka or something? That’s a lot of demons.” Timothy had wide eyes and his gun hand was shaking.

  “Not so many as all that,” Damian told them calmly over his shoulder.

  Eighty or more demons formed a circle around the group, and Korbin and the others moved to cover each other’s backs and aimed their weapons outward. Damian stood back to back with Korbin, staring worriedly at the snarling teeth around them.

  “So...what’s the plan?”

  “Uh...” Korbin raised both eyebrows and shrugged. “Don’t really have one at the moment. Would love input from my team, though. Any suggestions are welcome.”

  Stephanie pointed her gun and pulled the trigger, taking out three demons in the front row. The ranks closed the moment they turned to dust and the demons scuffled toward them through the remains.

  “We could kill three at a time.”

  Joshua chuckled. “That would technically be fifteen at a time since there are five of us, but I’m thinking they won’t just stand around like targets if we open fire.”

  A demon lunged from the group, his claws aimed at Joshua’s head. Timothy turned and fired, splattering Joshua’s face with the demon’s blood. The demon screamed before turning to dust, Timothy pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and blotted Joshua’s face.

  “Sorry about that, sweetie.”

  Joshua wiped his face, then turned toward Timothy and raised his gun. Timothy flinched as Joshua pulled the trigger, catching a demon right in the head, splattering blood on Timothy’s face. Joshua smiled and handed back the handkerchief.

  “My bad.”

  “They’re movin’,” Stephanie called, then looked at Damian and Korbin. “Okay, boys, boost me straight up in the air.”

  As the demons began to swarm Stephanie hopped onto Damian and Korbin’s outstretched hands. With his free hand Korbin shot into the crowd of demons. He hit three or four, which was enough to hold them back for just a second. They tossed Stephanie into the air and she turned a somersault as she flew, spraying fire into the crowd of demons. Stephanie twisted as she came down, both guns firing into the front row of demons, and took down five before landing. Slowly she stood up and cracked her neck, smiling at a gaping Timothy.

  The crew battled back and forth, taking down row after row of demons until the beasts got the hint and backed up. Their claws slashed the dirt as they howled and snarled. They weren’t giving up, not on this crew; not when they had them surrounded. Korbin pressed back against Damian again, shifting his gun from side to side.

  “They’ve already had a taste of blood. They aren’t going to quit until we kill every last one of them.”

  Damian held his cross in his right hand and pulled out a long sword from under his trench coat. “Then I suppose we will just have to kill every last one of them.”

  “That’s what I’m talkin’ about.” Stephanie laughed as she holstered her guns and drew her sword. The thing was almost as long as she was tall, but for some reason it fit her perfectly. She ran forward, dipping down and sliding along the ground, slicing at the demons’ knee level. The legs of four demons were severed and they dropped to their remaining knees. Stephanie stood and her sword flashed in an arc as she brought it down on their necks, removing all four heads before they even figured out what was going on. Their heads rolled around for a moment before turning to dust along with the rest of them.

  “That was fucking awesome,” Timothy exclaimed. “I gotta train more. Fuck, back off!”

  Timothy had turned to look a demon straight in the eye. “Your hot ass-breath is fucking up my chi here. I need you to take two steps back; personal bubble and all.” The demon just snarled at him, his teeth dripping saliva and blood. “No? Fine…it’s your funeral.”

  The beast growled loudly and a single drop of blood fell from its mouth like a raindrop and splashed onto Timothy’s brand-new tennis shoes. His eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth, then he pulled out a knife and brought it back.

  “These are three hundred-dollar shoes, you fucking moron!” With that he began to stab, slicing the demon’s neck and moving on to the next until he was so out of breath he could barely stand. Stephanie pulled him back into the center.

  “Okay there, Machete Man. They are getting pissed.”

  He looked up as the beasts took another step forward. “Well, fuck. That’s a lot of red eyes.

  “Dude, seriously—the damn guy was jumping from roof to roof and I was right on his tail. He got to the last one and looked at the school and I was like, hell no. So I dropped to my knees, propped up my rifle, looked through the scope and POP! Right between the motherfucking eyes. He made a kind of ‘whoaaa’ noise as he fell…” Calvin made the motions with his arms. “And down he went into a pile of dust.”

  “Bro, I don’t know about that, you seem pretty swole over this whole thing. I mean, seriously…there’s no body to prove it.”

  “Dude, I swear on my grandfather’s dick it happened.”

  “Whoa, whoa! That is so against code. You can’t swear on another man’s dick! Seriousl
y, bro, come on. I have—”

  Calvin put his hand in front of Eric and glanced around. “It’s a bit too quiet.”

  The town was a charnel house. There were a few demons to the right of them and some behind them, but there was no longer the chaos they had walked into. The wind carried the stench of death.

  “Maybe they all went to the other side of town?”

  “No, something isn’t right.”

  Calvin pulled his rifle around in front of him, scanning for any movements in the distance. On top of the hill was a huge swarm of demons, circling something or someone. As Eric and Calvin squinted at the horde Stephanie flew into the air, firing. More gunfire erupted and Calvin’s eyes went wide.

  “It’s the team! They’re surrounded.”

  Calvin and Eric took off toward the swarm, jumping over bodies and sections of buildings that had been destroyed in the battle. They couldn’t believe how many demons there were.

  “We gotta get in there and help them,” Eric yelled over the growls and screams. He pulled his gun and fired it into the crowd of demons.

  Eric put his gun away and drew his knives, not wanting to shoot one of the team by mistake, and started slicing throats and breaking necks. He jammed the knife in his left hand into a demon’s back and sliced its throat with his right. Calvin yelled to Korbin and the others, but the howling and snarling were too loud; they couldn’t hear him. Frustrated he screamed, his muscles tensing and flexing as he picked demons up bodily and threw them to the side to clear a path.

  Little by little they made their way toward their crew, some demons turning to dust and others soaring through the air.

  Inside the circle, things were getting tense; the demons were closing in. Stephanie wiped the sweat from her forehead and swung her sword again, taking a demon’s head off his shoulders. Korbin grabbed another from behind and twisted, snapping his neck. Damian shot several demons, making the sign of the cross with each death. Joshua and Timothy stood close together, shooting every demon who even attempted to take a step toward them. Their tactic was apparently working pretty well, since there was a knee-high mound of dust in front of them.