Demon Gate: Beyond the 9th Circle: The Rapture Was Just The Beginning. (4 page)

“You’re not riding with the redneck
brothers?” Spencer asked and Gretchen
understood what Spencer was talking about.
“It was an accident. You didn’t know I
was…” Gretchen paused trying to word her
question carefully, “in the river…Did you?”
Spencer ignored the question and put his
car in gear. Then he looked into the rearview
mirror at Louis and Lester.
“What’s wrong?” Gretchen asked.
Spencer stayed quiet for a long moment
before he replied. “Nothing, let’s go.”
Spencer put his car in gear and returned to the
road with Louis and Lester following. He got to
I-10 and started working his way west, away
from the rising sun.
With every passing mile, he felt a foreboding
feeling grow like a plague spreading.
Crossing the border into Mississippi he
anticipated a quick transition into Louisiana. As
they neared Shreveport, they saw what looked
like the site of a skirmish. As they passed they
noticed the area was littered with weapons and
bodies. The strange thing was that there were
human bodies
and
demon bodies. Spencer
decided to stop and investigate. Getting out,
Spencer approached one of the demon corpses.
“No way.” Spencer exclaimed. “Are you
seeing this?”
“I’ll be damned, they can be killed. But
how?” Louis wondered, approaching the
motionless body.
A soft moan carried on the wind. “Y’all
hear that?” Lester asked.
“Hear what?” Gretchen asked.
“Sounds like someone moaned.” Lester
explained as he listened for more to help pinpoint
a location, but he didn’t need it; a hand in the air
signaled the cavalry to come in.
“What the hell happened here?” Spencer
asked as he knelt at the man's side.
“We kicked their asses back to Hell.” The
man replied weakly, a significant portion of
blood leaking through the man’s shredded shirt
indicated a fatal wound.
“How did you kill them?” Spencer
demanded.
“The ‘queen’. Every hive has one.” The
man choked out, “You need to find and kill the
queen.” The man explained before exhaling his
last breath.
Spencer stood; everybody knew what he
was thinking. “You’re nuts, we should make for
Arizona.” Lester suggested.
“These guys killed an entire ‘hive’ of
demons. We should get as much information as
we can. Maybe we can find other survivors and
mount a counterattack.” Spencer offered.
“Louis, I know you’re with me.” Lester
said. His fear was showing for the first time in
days.
“No, this city boy’s right. We should find
others, figure out how to find the queen and find
out how they killed it.” Louis said. “If we
actually find the queen here, we might be able to
see how they did it. That would help as I really
doubt anyone else is left alive here.”
“Then let’s spread out and find it.”
Spencer ordered.
Everybody started looking. Spencer was
worried about Gretchen. How would she handle
death on this scale? They continued searching for
another twenty minutes before Lester found a
demon corpse that was significantly different
from the others.
“I done found it. It ain’t got no head, but I
done found it.” Lester cheered triumphantly.
Spencer, Louis and Gretchen came to
investigate the corpse. Spencer found a body that
had suffered numerous gunshot wounds and most
severe of all, decapitation.
“Wow, she didn’t go down easy.”
Spencer observed, then he noticed something in
the queen’s hand. It was a kind of sword. The
blade was three feet long and the edge of was
smooth and slightly curved. The sword itself
exuded darkness which swirled just around the
entire blade.
“You think we should take this with us?”
Spencer asked, staring at the blade.
“I don’t know, that there’s bad hoodoo.”
Lester objected.
“I think we should take it,” Spencer said
before reaching down and prying the demonic
queen’s hand open to release the sword. Then he
noticed a strap across the queen’s chest and
turned the headless body over to find a sort of
scabbard. He removed the scabbard and placed
the sword inside.
“Check for other weapons and supplies,
then meet back at the cars in ten minutes.”
Spencer said. Louis and Lester nodded before
heading off in one direction while Gretchen and
Spencer went in another.
Spencer strapped the sword to his back
and headed out away from the cars where a
Humvee was parked. Spencer figured taking the
vehicle with them would give them one more
weapon; inspecting under the hood he found that
the engine seemed to be in working order. He
jumped into the driver’s seat and tried to start the
engine. It whined as Spencer turned the key in
the ignition and refused to start so Spencer
looked at the fuel gauge; it was empty.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Spencer
mourned. Then he got out and realized why there
was no longer sufficient fuel; there was a gash in
the vehicle just below the window, and it looked
deep. On the ground some fluid had spilled out.
From the smell Spencer realized it was gasoline.
The fuel line or gas tank must have been
breached during the fighting. It was no use trying
to find out who had done it or if they could
possibly fix it. Spencer had only four minutes
until he had to meet back at the cars so he opened
the back of the Humvee to see if there was
anything useful left inside. Bingo
,
Spencer hit
pay dirt: four cases of MRE’s and two large
containers marked
water
. There was also a small
arsenal of weapons. A couple FNP-90’s, an MGL
140 grenade launcher, each with limited
ammunition, and a pair of single fire AT-4
missile launchers.
Lester, Louis and Gretchen were
congregated around their vehicles waiting for
Spencer to return. When he did, he was packing
two cases of MRE’s and the AT-4’s.
“Where you done found all that?” Lester
asked.
“In a Humvee, it's over there.” Spencer
said pointing in the direction of the hummer.
“There’s more, I need help getting it back here.”
“Lester, let’s give him a hand,” Louis
offered.
Spencer led the way back to the Hummer
where the rest of the food, water, and weapons
waited.
Before hitting the road Spencer offered
Louis and Lester one of the water containers, two
of the MRE’s cases, and one of the P-90’s,
loading the rest into the trunk of his GTO. Before
closing the trunk Spencer removed the sword
from his back and placed it into the trunk, not
knowing if it was wise to use it, at least not until
he knew more about it.
The Texas boarder was soon behind them
and daylight was starting to fade. As they
approached Dallas, the radio crackled to life.
“Can anybody hear me?” a voice pled.
“My name is Brock Walton. I’m in Dallas,
Texas. There are some demon-like creatures
outside. I don’t think they’ve seen me, but I don’t
think I can stay hidden for much longer.”
Gretchen turned to Spencer. “Should we
go try and help him?”
Spencer returned the glance, and briefly
considered going into the city. “Let’s do it,” he
agreed. He veered off the eerily uncluttered
highway towards the city. Louis pulled his truck
alongside Spencer’s GTO and yelled through an
open window.
“What the hell are you doing?” Louis
hollered from the safety of his truck.
“We’re going into the city.” Spencer
replied.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“There’s a survivor trapped in the city.
Are you coming?” Spencer hollered back.
“Hell no, we ain’t goin’ in there.”
Spencer swerved onto the exit that
plunged into the heart of Dallas, Louis and Lester
took to the dirt and foliage until they could get
back onto the highway.
Spencer pulled onto South Ervay Street
just off Main Street before coming to a stop.
Getting out in the canyon created by the lining of
massive skyscrapers they saw them. They littered
the ground as far as the eye could see. Pale, cold
and beginning to decay; they were human bodies.
Most had died suddenly, but a few were
dismembered.
“Why did they dismember some of these
people?” Spencer wondered aloud.
“Maybe the survivors tried to mount a
counter attack.” Gretchen suggested.
Then the voice called from the GTO’s
radio, but this time it was no longer pleading, it
was taunting.
“Help, please help. They’re coming to
take my soul down to Hell.” The voice finished
with a fit of maniacally evil laughter.
“I think we shouldn’t be here.” Gretchen
urged, wanting to get the hell out of there. It was
then that they saw her, a feminine figure standing
down the street. She was the embodiment of
darkness. Pulsing with evil, she drew a sword just
like the one Spencer had nabbed from the dead
queen.
“Get into the car, I have a plan.” Spencer
said as he climbed into his car. Gretchen got in.
“What’s your plan?” Gretchen asked,
“This.”Spencer replied as he floored the
gas pedal and began accelerating towards the
hive queen.
“Are you insane?” Gretchen asked and
Spencer pointed at the P-90 in the back seat.
“You know how to use one of those?”
Gretchen reached back and grabbed the
weapon and racked it before she leaned out the
window and fired half a clip into the queen. Then
Spencer hit the brakes and turned the wheel so
hard he was afraid the car would roll. The car
swung around, hitting the queen with the rear of
his GTO leaving a hefty dent in the car’s left
side. Spencer took the P-90 from Gretchen, got
out and finished the clip, but the queen just
wouldn’t die. Spencer reached inside his car and
while the queen was stunned. He tossed the
empty weapon back to Gretchen. Spencer was
apprehensive about using one of their weapons
but it was either that or die so he popped the
trunk and grabbed the sword.
By the time he unsheathed the blade this
new queen had recovered enough to defend
herself with her own blade. She swung wildly
causing Spencer to duck and dodge each attack,
occasionally having to parry the queen’s attacks
with the dark sword. One such parry left Spencer
wide open for an unseen foot that came out of
nowhere and knocked him to the ground. The
queen raised her sword high for the finishing
blow when the sound of a P-90’s rapid firing
mechanism ripped through the air accompanied
by dozens of rounds.
Spencer got back to his feet, charging
after the queen who was writhing on the ground
and took a final cut. The queen’s head fell to the
ground. Her lifeless body hung on another couple
of seconds before joining the head. The sound of
thousands of demons realizing their queen had
been killed rang through the streets.
“I think it’s time to go,” Spencer said,
putting the sword into the back seat before he got
in and sped away. The sound of the shrieking
demons echoed through the once heavily
populated city that would forever more be a ghost
town. Spencer turned onto Elm Street and
pressed the gas pedal, accelerating toward the
riverfront where Elm turned into Commerce
Street and connected back up to I-30 and headed
west. Spencer’s speedometer was reading ninety
miles per hour, but it wasn’t fast enough. He
didn’t want to stop until he could no longer see
Dallas in the rearview mirror, and he just kept
driving until long after the sun vanished beyond
the western horizon.
It was several hours before they stopped
near Tesco, which was nothing more than a
power plant on County Road 131, just off of I-20.
There wasn’t much in the way of foliage, but
they did the best they could do in going about
and hiding the car from sight.
“We’d better get some sleep while we
can; I want to get to the safe zone before
sundown tomorrow,” Spencer urged.
“Where did you learn how do that?”
Gretchen asked.
“Do what?”
“You were pretty good with the sword,”
Gretchen commented.
“I think you mean lucky. She almost
killed me.” Spencer began, and then explained
his experience. “My uncle and I were close. He
knew a lot about fighting, knives, swords, guns.
You name it he taught me…or tried to anyway.”

“My father taught me the same before he
died. My real father did anyway. My biological
father was killed when I was twelve; I was sent
America to live with a friend of his.”

“Where are you from?” Spencer
wondered.
“I was born and raised in Belfast,
Northern Ireland. So, where are we going?”
Gretchen asked, changing the subject.
“According to Louis and Lester the safe
zone is in a town in Arizona called Prescott.
We’ll head there first thing in the morning.”
“What if…” Gretchen stopped herself;
she didn’t want to think about the possibility.
“What if the safe zone isn’t safe?”
Spencer asked. “I guess I’ll head for Vegas,
there’s a military base near there. We might be
able to hold out for a couple weeks. Get some
rest.”
Gretchen soon fell asleep. Spencer looked
at Gretchen, and he didn’t realize it but he was
smiling. It was crazy, he couldn’t be developing
feelings for Gretchen, she was rather young – or
could he? Society had all but collapsed, did the
laws that society was governed by still apply? He
decided to try to get some sleep.
It was early in the morning. Light had just
begun to appear in the east; the sun was rising.
Spencer awoke to hear the sound of a car’s
engine. It was coming from the Interstate.
Spencer got out of the car grabbed the M-16
Lester had given him two days earlier and
quickly made his way to the interstate trying to
remain hidden.
Seeing Louis’s truck driving erratically he
stepped from his hiding place and tried to flag
Louis down. The truck screeched to a dead stop
and Louis emerged, he was seemed terrified, his
left hand gripped his right arm above the elbow,
there was a gash. He was heavily winded.
Spencer looked into the cab and did not see
Lester.
“Oh ,thank God.” Louis praised. “I never
thought I’d see you two again.”
“Louis, how did you find us?”
“I wasn’t lookin’, I just, oh God, Lester.”
Louis mourned.
It was then that Spencer noticed Lester wasn’t
gone. “Where’s Lester?”
Crying, Louis replied, “Dead…they got to
him and almost killed me.”
“What the hell happened?” Spencer
asked.
“We was takin’ a detour through Waco
when they came out of the woodwork. They
pulled most of ‘im outta the winda while we was
tryin’ to get away.” Louis explained with tears in
his eyes.
Spencer glanced into the truck and found
an arm severed below the shoulder.
“He’s dead.” Louis wept.