Authors: Lucas T. Harmond
The second man caught an eyeball full of glass dust as he peered through the glass panel of the door he was hiding behind. He screamed and fell from view holding his eye.
“Oh Jesus!!!!” Rufus was shrieking. His arm again swung in the direction of the last man and sent two bullets, smack, smack, into the now chewed up post before the hammer hit against an empty
chamber.
“Carthy, I’m out of bullets!!!!” he yelled.
The last man standing let out a charged laugh and chambered the first round of his fresh magazine. “You fucking cunts! you fucking cunts!!!” He was yelling, all too aware of the bodies of his now dead comrades and the screaming of the wounded. “You bastards!!!!!!” He screamed and swung into view raising his gun towards Rufus, who stood trembling, from a mixture of adrenaline and terror.
The metal bar snapped open with a decisive thunk and then Carthy turned his murderous intent on the last suit. With his mind shrinking to a single point he manipulated the room’s energy into a stream and directed it at him, knocking him from his feet and sending him screaming through the air to collide with the wall, shattering his ribs and piercing his heart.
“Throw down your fucking weapons!” Came the heated cry from above.
Carthy ignored it. “Come on! Everyone out.”
They burst across the rain-slick car park. The now empty gun fell from Rufus’ trembling fingers.
As they ran the headlights of one of the black cars came on and its engine rumbled into life. Josh’s first thought was that there was someone in it but on seeing the driver’s seat empty quickly realised it was under Carthy’s control.
As Carthy flung open the door there was a cry from behind, followed quickly by another volley of gunfire.
“Come on,” he yelled above the wind and rain.
Rufus and Josh spilled into the car, both panicked almost beyond control.
Rufus’ mind was reeling. He could see nothing but the face of the man he had murdered, every detail as his life had been extinguished, taken by his hand. The shock was beginning to fade and he was frantic, close to vomiting, but he just barely managed to hold it back, the hot liquid scorching his throat. Nothing could have prepared him for what he felt now... nothing.
Carthy put his foot through the floor, sending the car’s wheels screaming on the slick asphalt.
Looking back from the window Josh could see the suits left standing in the car park in heated argument as of what to do.
“Are they following us?” asked Carthy, then paused and said to himself, “No, I can see that they’re not.”
Josh let out a deep sigh of relief, allowing himself to relax slightly, although he dreaded what was to come. In his heart and mind he knew Karen and Rufus’ parents were already dead. He shivered as some remaining trace of Blue shot through his veins and he experienced a vision of his friend’s parents being marched zombie like through vague streets by an assailant he couldn’t quite see.
“Jesus...” The ball of pain in his chest flexed and a tear rolled down his cheek.
I’m sorry Rufus
, he thought. Rufus looked at him, consciously unaware of the knowledge he had just received.
Josh saw Carthy’s sharp eyes observing him in the mirror. He looked at him like an animal sizing up it’s prey. ‘keep it to yourself,’ he sent silently.
Josh wiped the tear from his eye and looked back once more to confirm they weren’t being followed.
“How’d you find us Carthy?”
“Lines,” Carthy said abruptly.
“What??”
“Lines,” he repeated tiredly. “You just follow them and see where they lead, where they intersect. See the locations they pass through.”
“What the fuck is he talking about?” Rufus mumbled while looking back through the rear window. In truth he was barely listening, inside he felt numb. He’d crossed that invisible line now, he realised,
He’d taken life
and he knew he’d carry that always. There was bile in his stomach and tears in his eyes. He felt like screaming.
Josh however half-understood. His experiences over the past few days and his trip on Blue had expanded the perimeters of his awareness. He nodded solemnly. “Okay, but why come for us?”
“I would have thought that was obvious? I need your help.”
“What!?” said Rufus. “
You
need
our
help?? Jesus you can stop fucking bullets!”
Carthy laughed. “Believe it or not, it’s true.”
“Yeah right,” barked Rufus. “Bullshit, bullshit man! you don’t need us!”
“Well, you’re partly right, I don’t need you.” Carthy’s eyes gleamed in the mirror.
Rufus swallowed hard, but Carthy merely fell silent again.
“
So it’s me you need
?” asked Josh fearfully.
“Since the start of this, all I’ve been doing is tracing lines and at some point in every one,
every fucking one
, there
you
were, you and your band of merry idiots. In most ones, your interference was causing me nothing but problems, alerting my enemies before I wanted to face them, causing them to escape, getting the police involved and in a few even getting me dead. I figured if you had to be involved, if circumstance really demanded it, then you’d get involved under my terms, so I chose the lines which worked best for me and played you on them.” He laughed bitterly and shook his head. “So here we are at the end of one line where our path and their path intersect. The conflict could still go many ways but I see this way at least that we stand more chance of winning.”
Josh sat back silently, absorbing the information. “You’re not a cop are you?”
Carthy burst into laughter. “Jesus no!!” he said at last. “Did you ever really think I was? Fuck no!”
“Then what are you?”
“Well first up, in my world the nearest thing we have to cops are called Casendrulls and their job’s not about crime as such but maintaining reality, you really wouldn’t understand anything past this point so I won’t bore you.”
“You’re not answering the question.”
“I’m an entrepreneur. Just like the guys we’re going to see now, only my operation’s based in the capitol and it’s been running close to twenty years.” He paused. “Twenty years undetected by your people or mine. Their operation’s crude in comparison. Sure, it was a little rough when I was on my way up, but the fucking mess they’re making is beyond compare, attracting the authorities here and I knew they’d draw the Casendrulls to this world and once they did, that it would only be a matter of time till they turned their attention on me. For all I know it’s already too late. Most of all though I didn’t want the threat, I run a unique operation, I don’t need the competition.”
“Jesus,” said Josh. “That’s
all
this is about,
wiping out the competition for your drug
?”
“Drugs are just the tip of it but, in essence, yes. In time they would have built up a network of puppets and when they learned of me, it stands to reason they would have moved on me and my people. Well the two that remain are equal in power to me and the thought of all three in a direct attack on me was unthinkable, so I decided to move on them first while I was still off the radar.”
Rufus laughed. “So this is some kind of demonic turf war?”
“Actually, there’s another level to it but I really don’t think you’d understand.”
Josh was frowning, the truth troubled him. “How’d you even know this was happening here?”
“It’s not the first time this has happened. When you’ve been here as long as I have you set up certain security systems sensitive to certain vibrations. Before now, I’ve taken care of the threat quickly but this time they were more powerful, I had more trouble locating them, also your mind’s interference made things more difficult on various levels too. I sensed the disturbance they caused the night they ripped into this world, it left ripples and straight away I could sense lines which would one day lead to a conflict between me and them. They were vague, but all led to the end of my operation and my death by either their hands or the Casendrull.”
“Why aren’t they aware of you then?”
“They have been since we executed one of them, but before that I was masking myself. I’ve grown quite good at it.”
“Hmmm,” said Josh. “So what now?”
Carthy smiled. “Well, now we stop at a petrol station, get some petrol, kill them and torch the place.”
“I don’t want to kill anyone,” said Rufus.
“You already have,
remember
? Besides they’re not human, their bodies ain’t their own. you’d be doing their hosts a favour.”
Josh shook his head. “No, I don’t want anything to do with this.”
“Really? What about Sarah? Remember they’ve got the cure.”
“Why should I believe that? Everything you’ve said so far’s been a heap of crap!”
“Okay, you got me, but I can help her,
if
you help me. Ah here we are.”
Carthy swung the car off the road into the petrol station. He turned off the engine and turned to his passengers. “
Don’t fuckin’ move!
” he said, rooting them both to the spot.
They watched him duck out through the rain and head to the lit-up shop.
“Josh? Can you move?”
“No, he did something to us again.”
“No, me neither. Oh shit, what should we do?! I mean they’ve got my parents, we’ve got to do something but,
but that guy
? Man, he’s dangerous!”
Josh sighed heavily and braced himself. “Rufus, your parents...” He was cut short as Carthy returned. First he threw two red plastic cans of petrol into the boot and then sank back into the driver’s seat, but not before giving Josh a warning glance. ‘Shhhhh’ he thought.
“Okay campers, lets roll,” he said and turned on the ignition.
BATTLE ROYALE
TEN MINUTES LATER they rolled to a halt on the murky street next to the warehouse. “Hmm,” said Carthy. “They’re on their way, we’ve got to move fast.”
“Who?” asked Rufus. “The demons?”
“No, they’re waiting inside. I meant the police.”
“They’re waiting for us!?” asked Josh panicking.
Carthy looked at him disappointedly. “
What did you expect
? They want vengeance for the man we killed and for messing up their plans. They’ll try to kill us, then flee the city.
Seriously what did you expect
? you already knew this was a trap. Now come on.” He opened the door and stepped out.
Josh shakily got out of the car. “I know it’s a trap but that doesn’t change anything. I’m still not prepared. I don’t know what you expect of us?”
Carthy looked at Rufus. “I don’t expect anything of him, a distraction at best.”
“Hey, fuck you man!” Rufus shot back.
Carthy ignored him, moving to retrieve the petrol from out the back of the car.
“Do they know we’re here?” asked Josh.
Carthy frowned. “I can’t sense them, they’re shielding themselves, but let’s be honest, we all know they’re waiting for us in there. What other possibility could there be?”
Rufus felt edgy. He was concerned for his mother and father and he felt no desire to go up against two supernatural creatures with psychic powers.
He looked at the space past the chewed-up security fence. Before the warehouse there was a space of wasted machinery, oil drums and long ago left-behind industrial transportation crates.
A lot of spaces to hide
...
“What if they ambush us?” he asked.
Carthy shrugged, beginning to march towards the distant building. “If they do, they do. We’ve got to face them sometime.”
Reluctantly, the two friends followed him, both uncertain of what they would find inside the building.
Most of the windows were smashed, water cascaded off the rusty iron roof and the huge doors were sealed with coils of chains.
“Hmmm,” said Carthy. “There’s got to be another way in. Round here.”
They followed him ’round the corner of the building and found themselves facing a white van. Next to it a dangerous set of scaffold steps climbed their way towards a fire exit.
Josh shivered as something uncoiled in his mind as something began to focus in on him.
“Carthy,” he started nervously. “I can feel something in my mind.”
“I can feel them too. First they’ll read us, get a measure of us, our power, our fears, then the attack will begin.”
Rufus freaked out, his mind snapping. “Fuck this man! I’m outta’ here! I can’t deal with this. No fucking way man!”
He turned, began marching way, then remembering his parents, paused.
“
You coming
?” Carthy asked sarcastically.
“Fuck!!! What choice do I have!? They’ve got my family man!!!” He glared at Josh. “If we live through this, I’m gonna’ kill you man.”
If
we live through it, thought Josh, but didn’t say it.
Carthy had moved ’round the back of the van, he flung open the doors and stared into the darkness.
“Must be inside,” he said to himself.
“What?” asked Josh, looking past him. Inside was the gleam of metal, empty bird cages.
“You’ll find out.”
“What’s with the bird cages?” he asked.
“
You’ll find out
,” Carthy repeated as he began to make his way up the steps. They groaned ominously.
‘Welcome to my web said the spider to the fly.’
They all heard it, tattooed across the back of their minds.
“Oh, what the fuck was that?!” asked Rufus, looking about all wide eyed.
“Ignore it. They’re just fucking with us. Believe me it’s gonna’ get much worse. At the moment I’m shielding you both from them, but I can feel them getting stronger.”
They reached the door at the top and Carthy pushed the bar open. The smell of decay hit them instantly. A great many dead things, long dead.
“Oh Jesus!” said Rufus, shielding his nose, nearly vomiting. “My parents!”
“No,” said Carthy. “It’s not them.” And then turning to Josh. “At least the
smell
isn’t.”
“And what the fuck does that mean?!” snapped Rufus.
“Nothing,” Carthy grunted and pushed past him.
Rufus turned to Josh. “Hey man, what the hell did that comment mean?!”