Demonworld (52 page)

“
Dead,” said the Ugly, smiling. Wodan noted clearly the rain dripping down his scarred head, the missing teeth inside his smile. “Looks like I got you.”

“
You never broke me,” said Wodan, his will strangely firm even though he stood on the brink of eternal darkness.

“
I can live with that,” said the Ugly. He pulled the trigger, then a flame sputtered and died where the stock met the barrel. The killer’s jaw dropped as he realized that water had soaked through where plastic and metal joined in the shoddy buckshot shells.

“
Can you?” said Wodan. He raised his revolver and fired once. The man’s face shook and imploded as the metal round caved in his nose and forehead. The dead body fell backwards with a terrific splash.

On the other side of the wall, Barkus waited, suddenly unable to breathe. The will of the storm faded. The thunder grew weak, then shafts of light pierced the dusty black sky. Suddenly he heard the boy’s feet walking through the water, regular, determined. For the first time since he’d sold his soul, a terrible fear pierced his heart. He heard the boy say, “Well, Barkus, you got any more flunkies to send after me?”

“
Y-yes!” Barkus shouted. “I’ve got a reinforcement brigade of… twenty fighters! No, thirty! Coming up the mountain! I can see them now!” He slogged through the water, desperate to be away.

“
I don’t see anyone,” said Wodan, still walking.

“
I’ve got a devil protecting me!” said Barkus, trying to force authority into his voice. Still the footsteps continued. He tripped and fell, casting about for one of his guns. “If you touch me, that devil will kill you!”

Wodan laughed, said, “I don’t see him either.”

“
Do you even know why they kicked you out of your home in the first place?” Barkus shrieked, desperate to make the boy doubt himself. He found his gun and pulled it from the water, then dropped his other gun.

“
Maybe I’ll never know,” said Wodan.

He could not slow the boy down. Barkus felt insanity threatening to engulf him, for he knew the boy would come around the wall at any moment.

“
W-wait!” Barkus screamed. “I… I have something incredibly important to tell you!”

“
I think I’ve heard enough out of you,
boy
,” said Wodan.

Just then a scream flew across the open reaches of stone. Wodan turned. In the new light of the day he could see several friends on a lower tier far away. Three primitives stood over Rachek, who was laid on the ground; they raised their hands in surrender as Wallach strode up to them, shotgun raised.

Wodan ran for them. He tore through the water faster than ever before, feet pounding stone, lungs filling with fire. The wind raked across his face. He heard Barkus firing from far away. He rounded a corner. He slid, kneecap biting into hard stone. He rose and ran still faster downhill in a suicidal rush.

* * *

“
Go find the others,” Brad said weakly. “Go find Wodi.”

“
You gonna die?” said Mohawk.

“
Heck no, ’course not,” he said, but his face was pale and bloodless. He handed his friend the shotgun. Mohawk held it alongside his rifle, then turned and ran to find the others.

* * *

Agmar crawled across the rocks. He had followed the sound of gunshots through the darkness until, finally, the light had broken through. He found himself on a narrow ledge that twisted around the face of a sheer rock wall.

“
On your knees, slavemeat!” he heard, far below and around a corner. Agmar crawled and peeked around his aerie. There, on the side of the mountain, below a high ledge, he saw three of his friends, hands raised, covering Rachek. The monster Wallach stepped before them, shotgun raised. He was flanked by three Ugly. Agmar wheezed painfully. He caught movement, then saw two more Ugly ambling casually along a narrow path to join their brothers. He did not know it, but these were the two Ugly that abandoned Barkus in order to find the more sensible lieutenant Wallach; besides Barkus and the flesh demon, all of the remaining Ugly were now gathering in one area.

Agmar watched in horror as Wallach and his companions fired point blank on the standing primitives. Their bodies fell, forming a wreath around their sleeping queen.

As he raised his rifle, Agmar knew that he would die. The long trails of his life twisted before his eyes.
I’ll make up for what the Ugly turned me into
, he thought.

Agmar positioned his rifle along the ledge and aimed at Wallach. He breathed deep and slow. At that moment the two Ugly strolling along the path called to their friends, who turned and waved. As they turned, they immediately spotted Agmar. Agmar panicked, fired, and missed. Wallach pointed up at the ledge, shouted, “Sniper! Up there! Kill that bastard!”

Hands shaking terribly, Agmar tried to work the bolt on his rifle to chamber another round, but was forced to roll away as the Ugly fired on the ledge, sending up rock dust into his eyes. Agmar cursed violently, knowing full well he’d never get another chance at killing Wallach. He crawled backwards along the ledge, hoping to at least hit one of the Ugly along the path beneath him. Then, amidst the gunfire, he heard a primitive war-cry.

Peeking over the ledge, he could see a primitive with a Mohawk bounding up the pass bearing a rifle and shotgun. The two Ugly below Agmar looked about in confusion, then raised their guns. Mohawk ran straight at them maniacally, then fired both guns. One raider’s chest armor bounced as if struck by a sledge hammer and his neck opened up in an incredible torrent. Before the other could return fire, his ally’s corpse flew through the air and crashed into him, pinning him to the ground.

Mohawk threw his rifle to the side and cocked the pump-action shotgun with his free hand. A smoking shell spun in the air. Wallach and his three nearest allies sent a volley of hot lead down the pass, tearing Mohawk’s body to shreds. He never slowed in his wild run, but crashed full-speed into the Ugly who was already pinned beneath his friend. The Ugly gasped and flailed like a turtle on its back.

Agmar rose on his knees, determined to use the distraction to get off a shot. But the Ugly were jacked up on adrenaline and immediately turned back to him, blasting his position over and over. Agmar crouched and hugged the ground, then heard an insane shrieking draw near.

Distracted by Agmar and Mohawk, no one saw Wodan racing down the steep ledge above them. In a blur he tore across the incline in a suicidal rush, then screamed, “Wa-a-a-a-allach!” with enough force to strike terror into the hardened killers. Wallach and his allies turned in time to see Wodan leap from the ledge above them, arms extended like some bird of prey dropping on them from a blindingly blue sky. Wallach raised his shotgun, but was too slow; Wodan crashed into the man’s chest with his feet planted into him, pushing the giant back with incredible force. As Wallach stumbled backward, they grabbed one another, then Wodan planted Rachek’s revolver into his neck and fired round after round, nearly severing Wallach’s head as gallons of red gore erupted and covered them both. Wallach’s legs jerked about mechanically, dancing on the edge of a sheer cliff, then both of them fell over the side.

The Ugly were dumbstruck. Then they heard someone grunting down below.

“
He’s hangin’ on the side!” one of them shouted. The three Ugly ran to the ledge.

Agmar crawled forward again, raised his rifle, then ducked back as bullets hit the rocks near him. “Ah no, you don’t!” shouted the Ugly below him, still buried under the dead.

Barkus reached the point where the stony field met the high ledge. He was completely out of breath, unable to fathom how the boy had flown across the dangerous incline with such selfless abandon. Something bounded on top of a boulder near him. He turned quickly and aimed his two guns.

It was the demon. The thing sat atop a boulder, crouching like an animal.

“
You!” said Barkus. “Get down there and make sure that boy’s dead!”

The demon tilted its head one way, then another.

“
You heard me!” said Barkus. “You haven’t done a damn thing this whole fight! Now get down there! Now!”

No response.

“
Well, what are you waiting for? I bargained for the devil’s help, didn’t I? Why don’t you do something?”

Underneath its hood, the demon opened some membrane, then cleared the chamber of mucus. “Didn’t come here for you,” the thing wheezed. “Came here for our business, not yours. Came here to scout, not to fight. Now we know how to find this place. My job is done. Good luck with yours.”

“
What... the... hell...” said Barkus. He raised his guns at the thing.

“
The one you met was named Soul Taker - not
Soul Trader
,” said the demon. “If he lies, that is his right, and his own business.” The thing hopped down from the stone and ambled away.

“
You mean... you lied, and I went through all that... for nothing?” said Barkus.

No reply.

“
Don’t you turn your back on me!” said Barkus. He fired both guns into the monster’s back. It hopped forward, lost its balance, and fell down on its knees. Barkus walked forward, blasting the thing over and over until ribs and purple organs littered the ground. He emptied his clips and stood over the flesh demon. The thing was a twisted pile of goo.

“
Where the hell am I?” thought Barkus. “What have I done to myself?”

Wodan clung to a slim crack in the sheer rock. He ground his boots into the wall, but could find no purchase. He tried to lift himself, then probed with one hand but found nothing to hold on to. He slipped, nearly losing his hold. He cried out in desperation.

Faces peered over the edge. The light caught them, showing scarred heads, grim faces.

“
I get to kill this one,” said an Ugly with a shotgun. He leered at Wodan.

Wodan glared at him.
I have to let go!
Wodan thought.
I can’t let him kill me… I have to let go!

He gave one last look at the Ugly. Something flickered on the man’s chest. A red dot of light danced wildly on him, then hovered on his neck. Another dot appeared, then moved to his head. Then another, two, three more. As the Ugly raised his shotgun to fire, a mass of red dots of light covered him.

* * *

When the storm still raged, a horse bearing a dead man scratched at the ground. The boy Maxil, alive but driven by fear, found the horse. He rode the horse, dead man and all. Exhausted and sure that he was dreaming, he found an angel clothed in white and blue armor. The angel took him to a place full of angels. They used their holy machines and contacted God. A proud warrior angel driven mad with sleep deprivation heard the prayer and arrived with a host of shining guardian angels bearing lances of black metal. Together they rode the storm in great machines with wings of steel feathers.

* * *

The raider aiming his shotgun down at Wodan exploded from a thousand points as the bullets of airborne Guardian snipers followed the course of their laser targeting systems. A mass of black helicopters brimming with machineguns bore down on them, their doors open wide revealing dozens of bright, shining white-armored Guardians.

A shower of meat fell past Wodan. He looked at one of the helicopters as it flew by, saw Maxil shouting and pointing, saw him surrounded by armored soldiers.

Barkus saw the helicopters before anyone else. He saw how the clouds were whipped apart by the blades of their wings. He crept back among the stones, far from the others. He felt his control of reality slipping through his fingers like water. Shadow covered him.

How things fall apart
, he thought.
How the gods betray
.

The two Ugly bounded down the pass, nearly driven mad by the sight of the armored dragons. Their friend below waved to them wildly, then threw the bodies off of himself with panic-induced strength. They heard something slam into the ground behind them. One of them turned, a violent prayer of forgiveness pouring from his mouth even as he raised his gun. He saw a giant of a man covered in a psychotic mane of red hair, wearing white and blue rubber-and-steel armor, wielding a massive black automatic rifle.

Sevrik Clash slammed into the Ugly shoulder first, raising his open palm upward in a blow that shattered the man’s jaw, sent his teeth flying, then drove his nose deep inside of his skull. Another Ugly turned in time to see Sevrik swing the rifle into his face. The butt of the rifle crushed his skull instantly, spun his head around and broke his neck in thirty-seven different places. Sevrik flipped the rifle around and into his own armpit before the carcass hit the ground. The last Ugly raised his hands. Sevrik fired. The bullets tore through the raider’s torso, spilling his heart and lungs and ribs a hundred yards behind him.