Horde of the Demon Priest (Demona Book 3) (8 page)

She stopped and motioned for the others to do the same. They huddled in a spot behind a small hill out of sight of the priest.

Demona whispered. “We’re at the abandoned roadway. When I was a field-agent Salina and Foss were able to track the demon priest to this location. It’s sort of his home base.”

“Let’s keep going to see what he is doing,” Persephone said.

Demona was surprised that Persephone seemed genuinely interested in doing her job well. They all agreed to continue to follow the priest to his destination. Maybe they could gather some kind of information that would aid them in eventually defeating the leader and his army.

The priest and his followers disappeared behind some remaining tall grass and browning Elephant Ear that stood several feet high. The group cautiously made their way in the same direction and peeked behind the grass to find a gathering of beings. There must have been close to a hundred gathered. The priest walked through the crowd, which parted as he made his way across to the other side. The possessed stood around waiting for the priest’s directions, while guardian demons swirled around the group in mist form. The hive seemed to wait for their king bee to give orders.

Demona took note of the differences between the possessed. Those with a somewhat healthy complexion seemed almost human-like. They stood together in a large group as if mingling with friends. The others were clearly those that had died during their possession, some were even in advanced stages of decay. Demona smelled the rot of flesh, thinking it had been coming from the dead possessed, but quickly noticed the pile of bodies in decomposition.

She was horrified. She was quickly in a state of shock and disbelief after viewing the scene. What had sent her over the top was when she watched one of the possessed, clearly almost unable to function, stagger toward the pile of death and fall on top of the bodies. The possessed ceased to move and suddenly the misty form of a demon burst from within the body and swirled up into the sky.

So, that’s how there is an endless amount of demons. Once the host is useless, they abandon it. Which means that demon is going to be looking for a new body very soon.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I think we should get out of here before we are noticed,” Persephone said.

“I second that motion,” Felix replied.

The group dared not turn their backs to the gathering as they inched from this scene. They did not turn until they could no longer see any of the swirling demons that sped through the air or hear the hissing responses to the demon priest’s presence. Each of the patrollers, TGHC and GLC, had vowed to report what they had witnessed to their superiors. As they were preparing to part ways, several of the demonic mists went flying into town.

“I think it’s time to get out of here. There are too many demons for us to fight today,” Demona said.

“This completely sucks, because those demons that just came into town are only here for one reason…” Persephone said.

Felix nodded. “Yes, that just means that tomorrow there will be even more of the possessed we will eventually encounter.”

Demona nodded as well. “And most likely more demons searching for a fresh host…”

Chapter 8:

The Quarantine

Felix was driving his red sedan through town towards the location of the GLC headquarters. Demona sat in the passenger seat watching the love of her life sing along to a heavy metal song. It put a smile on her face to see him still enjoying the little things, despite all of the chaos that seemed to be surrounding them. Felix turned to her and made a goofy face as he continued to sing and topped it off with a little head banging. Suddenly, he stopped everything he was doing and stared straight ahead.

They were making their way toward the edge of town, back to headquarters. Demona noticed the flashing red and blue lights of police cars and fire vehicles parked on the side of the road. The firemen and policemen stood huddled on the sidewalk deep in conversation. One of the police officers pointed farther down the road, in the direction Felix and Demona were travelling.

“Huh,” Felix said, “I wonder what’s going on.”

Demona shrugged.

Felix waited for a line of oncoming traffic to pass, before he drove around the vehicles and continued on their way. The traffic coming in their direction was a steady flow. It was unusual to see so many cars and trucks driving into town.

Soon afterwards they again found themselves being stopped by a police officer with a bright yellow vest on, who was directing traffic. An ambulance was pulled off to the side with the back doors wide open. They watched, while they waited, as two medics brought a stretcher out of one of the old townhomes on the right side of the street. They wore blue gloves, protective eyewear, and masks that covered their nose and mouth.

Felix’s brows were furrowed in a quizzical expression. “Something is definitely going on.”

“Well, if those demons that entered town are already wrecking havoc, then it’s no wonder there are so many safety personnel out,” Demona replied.

Felix nodded. “You’re probably right.”

There was a woman on the stretcher covered partially with a thin white blanket. Her hair looked wild and matted. She thrashed around, as they wheeled her toward the ambulance, attempting to break free of the restraints that held her down. She was yelling something unintelligible as the medics lifted the stretcher into the ambulance and packed up their gear. The woman managed to pull an arm free, but the emergency management technician quickly hopped into the back of the ambulance and strapped her free arm to the stretcher.

The EMT inside administered an intravenous medication, which must have been a sedative because the woman suddenly became calm. Then, the other EMT slammed the double doors on the back of the ambulance shut and made his way to the driver’s side of the vehicle. The engine started and the sirens wailed as the ambulance sped away. The policeman waited until it was out of sight before he waved them to move along.

They were about to follow the road that exited town, when they spotted even more emergency vehicles with lights flashing ahead. A volunteer fireman in his turnout gear flagged their car down as they approached. He signaled for Felix to roll his window down as the sedan came to a stop.

“What’s going on?” Felix asked.

“You can’t pass through here. You’ll need to go back the way you came,” the volunteer said.

Felix shook his head and rolled up his window. The volunteer fireman allowed Felix to pull the car up so that he could do a three-point turn and go back down the other lane. Demona tried to see what was happening ahead as Felix carefully maneuvered the vehicle to avoid hitting any orange cones or vehicles waiting in the traffic behind them.

Demona strained her neck to see. “They’ve blocked the road.”

Felix remained focused on maneuvering the car. “What? Is there an accident?” Felix attempted to see what was going on in the rearview mirror, but they were already too far away.

“No, I mean they are actually blocking the road. There are concrete barricades and police cars spread across both lanes. There are even police men patrolling the barricade with batons in hand and Kevlar vests on.

“Strange,” Felix said. “I’ll see if we can get back to headquarters by going a longer route.”

By the time they got close to the edge of town a different way, they had been sitting in a line of traffic for fifteen minutes, which was highly unusual for the small town. Traffic usually consisted of a few cars moving at a crawl. Felix was beginning to get annoyed with the continuous complications that they were encountering as they attempted to make their way back to headquarters.

“I’m going to run up ahead to see if we’re dealing with another road block,” Demona said. “I’m starting to wonder if that quarantine that Barty and Anne mentioned is happening right now.”

Felix gave her an anxious look. “Be careful.”

Demona gave him a quick peck on the lips. “Don’t worry, I will be right back.” She exited the car and peered down the long line of vehicles sitting at a standstill ahead. She glanced backward to see a long line had formed. She walked in the direction that they had been going and passed many frustrated drivers. After several moments her fears were confirmed, there was a road block at this location as well. She continued walking towards the flashing police lights in the hopes that she could find out what was actually going on. She came upon another volunteer fireman instructing vehicles to turn around.

The fireman held a hand out to stop her from going farther. “Miss, you can’t go this way.”

“Why not?” Demona asked.

“I’m not at liberty to say.” He shook his head. “Go back the way you came.”

At that moment a man stepped out of a beat up pick-up truck a few places back in the line. “What’s going on here?”

“Sir, return to your truck. You will be able to turn around very shortly,” the fireman responded.

“I’ve been waiting here for more than half an hour. Now, I asked what was going on. Is there some kind of accident or something?” the truck driver asked.

“Sir, please, go back to your vehicle.”

“Not until you tell me what’s up. I was just on the other side of town about an hour ago and ran into a similar situation. Why are you guys blocking the roads?” The man was clearly growing more and more agitated. He began throwing his arms around erratically and started raising his voice in response to the fireman.

Another driver in line leaned out of his car window, “What’s going on?”

“Ma’am, please stay in your vehicle until you can turn around,” the fireman instructed.

Several other impatient drivers stepped out of their vehicle.

Demona watched the fireman attempt to pacify the drivers, who continued to become more irritated with the situation and the lack of answers. Each time the fireman instructed them to return to their vehicles things seemed to grow more intense. Several of the drivers were yelling at the fireman and Demona feared that he might be attacked with the way the crowd began to gather around him.

Demona, however, decided to take advantage of the fireman’s distraction and slipped farther towards the outside of town. She came upon the road block made of police vehicles and large, white metal signs that read “road closed.” Demona walked to where one of the police officers stood by his car and was speaking into a walkie-talkie.

After he released the button on the walkie he walked toward Demona. “How did you get past the flagger?” the officer said. “Never mind... Please, turn around and go back towards town.”

“Why can’t I go this way?” Demona asked.

“The road is closed, as the sign says.”

Demona flung her black hair behind her shoulders and promptly placed her hands on her hips. “So you’re telling me that every road out of town is blocked? I need to go this way!”

“I understand that you’re trying to leave town, but at this time you need to return to your vehicle and wait for further instructions.”

Demona looked past the policeman to find large white vans with the letters CDC painted on the side and a canvas canopy had been erected off to the side of the road. Several other personnel were slipping into yellow protective suites and clear plastic masks that covered their entire faces. This confirmed Demona’s suspicions about the quarantine. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention had been called in; the quarantine was well underway.

What was his name? Eli something
… “Do you know where I can find Eli Itzig?” Demona asked.

The officer’s eyebrow rose. “You know Itzig?”

Demona nodded. She was happy that she had remembered his last name correctly. “Yes, I need to speak to him. It’s important.”

The policeman pulled his walkie-talkie from his belt and spoke into it. A response came back that sounded to Demona to be a jumble of static and police jargon. The officer pressed the button on the walkie and gave a reply before reattaching it to his belt.

“Okay, wait here. Detective Itzig is on his way,” the officer said.

Demona nodded and stood off to the side watching the police and other personnel run around completing tasks. The men in yellow suites were completely dressed now and standing in a group discussing something important.
Health officers
. She had read an article sometime ago that mentioned the term for the CDC personnel. Some of the other health officers were setting up expensive looking equipment under the canopy.

One of the health officers began to set up a large generator and attached numerous electrical devices to it. He switched on the generator and it hummed noisily. The officers arranged the medical equipment on two long white folding tables. Demona recognized some of the equipment: a microscope, a small fridge to store samples in, and centrifuge. After all of the devices were unloaded from the back of a CDC van the health officers untied the flaps of the canopy and allowed them to fall downward to enclose the medical equipment from the elements and prying eyes.

A tall scrawny looking man with a shaved head came walking towards the policeman. He wore navy pants and a button up white shirt. “Someone wanted to see me?” the man asked.

“Yes, I’m Demona Brennan.” She stretched her arm out to shake Eli Itzig’s hand. Itzig did not take it, but instead looked at her hand with scrutiny.

The police officer’s brows creased. “I thought you said you knew Itzig.”

“I do…well I know of him, from his aunt and uncle.” Demona turned to Eli Itzig. “Your Uncle Barty and Aunt Anne are acquaintances of mine. There’s something I’d like to discuss with you, in private.”

The police officer stepped forward.

Itzig held up his hand to indicate that the policeman did not need to worry, he had things under control. Itzig directed Demona several feet into the yard beside the road. “Is this something to do with my aunt and uncle? I haven’t been able to reach them for over a day now.”

Demona picked at her fingers. “Yes, and no,” she said. “I know where they are and they’re safe. In fact, if you could come with me I’ll take you to them. There’s something that you’ll want to hear.”

Itzig shook his head. “How do I know you are telling me the truth?”

“I can fill you in on everything that’s going on in town. And probably fill in a lot of the blanks that have you guys thinking that this quarantine is necessary, because of some kind of viral outbreak. Besides you have that weapon,” she pointed to the gun holstered at his hip, “to protect yourself if need be.”

Itzig subconsciously placed his hand on his holstered 9 mm pistol. “How do you know about the quarantine?”

“Barty told me. And I’m not blind. I know that those guys over there are from the CDC and are preparing to monitor the town in order to figure out what is going on.”

Itzig studied Demona for a moment. “Okay. I believe you, but I can’t just let you leave town.”

“Look, it’s not a viral outbreak. There’s no illness,” Demona placed her hands on her hips, “This is something completely different than your policemen, health inspector, or even the CDC have ever dealt with before. This is not a contagion; well not like they think. This town is being overrun by demons.”