Demonworld (17 page)

He was unarmed. Any moment he expected the ghouls to throw their spears. To his surprise, those armed with spears simply let them drop.

Why aren’t they throwing spears at me?
he wondered, casting about for some kind of weapon. In a flash he understood: Their small spears could not guarantee a kill. He could potentially arm himself with a thrown spear. They aimed to drag him down into the muck, even if they died themselves.

He looked up at the darkening red sky. The monsters were almost upon him, trudging slowly, eyes dead and hungry.
I can’t die here!
he thought. At once he saw a vision of thirty-three interlocking gears turning, turning, turning, and he wondered,
Is it my fault that we’re here? Founders, Fathers, forgive me!

A shadow passed over Peter, swift and silent. He saw something like a ghoul hanging over him, arms and legs raised, armed with a wide earth-colored blade. He thought for a moment that it was a hyper-evolved ghoul come to claim his soul. But it was the boy, Wodi, shirtless and pale and shining with a halo of sweat. Wodi crashed into the bog behind Peter and brought the sword of the dogman pup crashing into the skull of the nearest ghoul. The ghoul’s head split and the blade continued down, scattering black teeth and shattering jawbone.

Peter was dumbfounded at the whirlwind of violence. Wodi jerked the blade free with a twist of his arm and swung it into another ghoul. With one pass the blade severed fingers, cleaved a flint blade in half, splattered eyeballs, and even tore the ghoul’s nose free from its face. The ghoul screamed as rotting ooze spurted down its face, then it fell back among its brothers, scattering them.

“
That way!” cried Wodi, pointing back the way he’d come. Peter scrambled towards the bank as best he could while Wodi covered him.

One clever ghoul rose up from the scum beside Wodi and the boy instantly grasped the thing’s neck. Black teeth chomping, filthy nails raking the air. Wodi lifted the shivering bundle and, with his sword arm, hacked once, twice, three times at the ghoul’s side. The spine stopped the third chop, but when Wodi freed the sword from the ghoul’s innards a great rush of black came spilling out with a tide of vomit-colored organs and coils.

Covered in sweat and filth, hair clinging to his head, Wodi dropped the dead thing and turned to Peter. “I’m right behind you!” said Wodi. “Get on dry ground and we’ll be fine!”

“
Gods, you’re a savior, boy!” said Peter.

The two reached the bank and dragged themselves over the side. Wodi stood over the ghouls that now seemed to move in slow motion through the sludge below. Their barks were weak with exhaustion. He felt the weight of the dripping blade in his hand.

“
They’re already dead,” said Wodi.

The domination of the lord of the valley abandoned the minor ghouls. While Wodi finished off the creatures trapped in the bog, the remnants of those who’d been on the hilltop were free to fight over the combat knife, then take it and scatter into the surrounding woods.

But the lord of the black valley, the demon called Blindness, only left them so that he could concentrate all of his powers into the ghoul pack-leader. He and Marlon fought like maddened beasts – grappling, throwing one another, bellowing, punching, rock-throwing. Covered in blood, blinded by blood in their eyes. Marlon was exhausted, but the ghoul’s demonic guardian forced his exhaustion into a deep well in a forgotten corner of his mind – eventually the ghoul elbowed Marlon in his throat and tossed him to the ground. As the ghoul climbed atop Marlon, the Havender curled into a fetal position. The ghoul rained blow after blow on top of his arms. Laceration upon laceration, bruises spreading like a sick rainbow, accents of black blood spraying from the ghoul’s mouth and nose. The violence was intoxicating and the ghoul moaned with glee – he would be triumphant!

But after several long minutes the ghoul’s body very nearly gave out. His heart would soon explode, so the possessing demon relaxed its grip. The ghoul leaned forward, breathing, spitting occasionally, and looked for a stone that he could use to finish off the human…

In a flash Marlon upended the ghoul and was on top of him. The ghoul might have been a powerful brute, but every young Guardian was trained in the art of wrestling, which included an understanding of the “full guard” position – in which a fighter could lie on his back, cover himself, and build up his strength once more. In a panic the ghoul felt fists turning his face into hamburger, elbows turning his throat into mush, knees driving the air from him.

Keep fighting, degenerate! Keep fighting!
screamed the voice of Blindness, but the ghoul’s limbs could no longer respond. The floodgates cracked and slipped from his control: Pain and exhaustion flooded the host. The beating slowed and the ghoul opened one throbbing eyelid. He saw Marlon, then saw a boot descending on his face, then he used the last ounce of his strength to close his eye.

Iduna walked up the hill. Already a gang of vultures stalked about on stiff legs and cast their lean heads from side to side. The graves and walls were covered in shivering, oily-feathered crows. She heard wheezing, then saw Peter leaning on Wodi as they ascended from the opposite side. Both were covered in mud but Wodi looked like a terrifying savage covered in black and red paint.

“
Alive!” she said. Wodi smiled at her and waved, eyes and teeth shining through.

Wodi stopped, said, “Who’s that down there?”

“
It’s me,” said Marlon.

Wodi released Peter, who groaned and fell on his side, and ran down the hill to join Marlon. He stopped short when he drew near. Marlon’s arms were covered in bruises, his teeth were a checkerboard of clotted blood, and his hair was spiked with coagulation. Iduna joined Wodi, then gagged when she saw the ruined corpse of the ghoul leader.

“
Wow,” said Wodi. “Marlon, you really turned that scumbag into a work of art!”

Marlon whirled suddenly and cried out, “Wodi? I didn’t realize that was you! Oh, man… oh, man!”

Wodi smiled and clapped Marlon’s shoulder. Marlon patted his hand and rose slowly.

* * *

They stood over Hermann’s body as night fell. Marlon looked to Peter, who refused to look at the body or at anyone else. Marlon sighed, then said, “Well, I’m not sure what to say. I guess being here kind of turned him into a psychopath, or somethin’.” Iduna glared at him and he quickly added, “But he, ah, he sure saved my life, so, you know… I guess that made him a pretty good doctor in the end.”

He bent over the body and pulled at the black spear. The thing was stuck, and he ended up tugging on it sharply enough to thrash the body. Iduna stopped sobbing, her eyes wide and still. As Marlon put his foot on Hermann’s back to pull more effectively, she said, “Marlon!” He yanked, hard, and freed the spear.

He looked from the spear to Iduna, back to the spear, then to Hermann, and said, “Uh... sorry.”

* * *

Wodi wiped the sword of the dogman pup on the grass. He saw Iduna pick up the spear of the doctor and study it. He could tell that she found some meaning in the fact that it had been used to save a life. Marlon hefted the heavy black spear in his hands, then turned to Peter, who sat and refused to arm himself.

“
Peter,” said Marlon. “You want this spear? I was gonna keep it as a trophy, you know, but my hand hurts so freakin’ bad I’m not even sure I could use this thing.”

“
I don’t want it,” said Peter.

“
You okay, man?”

Peter sighed loudly, then said, “I could go for some pain killers right about now. Something to eat, a warm bed. My family. Home. Anything but this place.”

“
Well, you’re not dead yet, so I guess you’re not doing too bad.”

“
You the doctor now?” said Peter, laughing weakly. He looked at Marlon’s mouth, said, “Too bad you’re not a dentist.”

“
We should bury Hermann,” said Iduna.

A long pause, then Marlon said, “We’re too tired. We gotta get away from here, soon. It’s dark and we gotta sleep someplace safe.”

“
I have to rest first,” said Peter.

“
That’s fine,” said Marlon, “but we gotta move soon. Don’t forget about that thing that got Saul.”

“
What thing?” said Wodi.

“
This lizard thing,” said Marlon.

“
The one I saw yesterday? It got Saul?”

“
I think. It almost got us, but there was a monkey...”

“
What monkey?”

Marlon shook his head, said, “I’ll explain later.”

They heard leaves crackling, then suddenly Jules was with them.

“
Hey!” said Marlon. “Where’d you come from, fish-food?”

Jules shrugged slowly, said, “They was about fifteen ghouls runnin’ in these parts, and that big spear-chuckin’ bastard was with ’em. I… well, I figured I’d warn y’all.”

Marlon shook his head, said, “Thanks, asshole. We’ll keep an eye out for ’em.”

The Eye of the Black Storm

Darkness ate the world and the night came alive with the sound of wild beasts killing and mating. Insects crackling with green flame lit their path. They passed by smooth, ash-gray trees with branches weighed down by heavy amber berries. Whenever a glowing insect landed on the amber, they could often see the still, frightened eyes of birds and squirrels trapped within, their bodies visibly stripped in various stages of digestion.

The five walked in single file until Wodi quietly moved ahead and paced himself beside Marlon. Finally Marlon said, “So after we lost you and Jules in the river, we ran into these animals. A pack of them… these little rat things, but they were kind of monkey-shaped.”

“
They were monkeys,” said Iduna.

Marlon exhaled loudly, said, “We were on them before either of us knew it, and they all ran away, except for one. He was creepy. He just stared at us. Very robotic. When we moved on, he followed. Saul liked him, and I told him not to touch the damn thing, but… I’m pretty sure he did.”

“
What did it do?” said Wodi.

“
Didn’t do anything. It followed us, and I let it. Figured we’d eat it later.”

“
Well, what happened to Saul, then?”

“
We took a nap. When we got up, he was gone.”

“
Nobody saw anything?”

“
No, but I could feel something around us. We didn’t have to wait long to find out what got Saul. We started to spread out, to look for him, and pretty soon I hear Peter screaming like a bitch.”

“
I was not,” said Peter.

“
I go toward him,” said Marlon, “and I see him running as fast as he can, like really
hauling ass
.”

“
It wasn’t like that,” said Peter.

“
So he runs right by me. And now the monkey starts looking around, like fast, like this is something he didn’t expect. Then I see what was chasing Peter. It was...”

“
A flesh demon?” said Wodi.

“
Well... I thought it was. It might be. I dunno. It was... it was like a huge lizard, but shaped like a man.”

“
That’s the one!” said Wodi. “That’s the thing I saw! Did it have black scales?”

Marlon nodded slowly.

“
That’s the very creature that got into a fight with that white flesh demon, the one that nearly killed all of us on that first night. If it wasn’t for that reptile creature, I’d be dead. Or worse.”

Marlon smiled, then said, “I gotta admit, I… I thought you were lying about most of that stuff.”

“
I don’t blame you. So what happened?”

“
Anyway, so Peter is running and flailing and I see this humanoid lizard-monster barreling through the woods right behind him. It stopped when it saw me. It was awful. It was covered in scars, man. Its eyes were pure rage. I could tell it was ready to pounce on me. Of course, Peter was long gone by this point –”

“
I was going for help!” said Peter.