Judgement (The Twelve) (46 page)

Chapter Twenty

A
long
Embankment
,
down inside the support structure of Waterloo Bridge,
next to the river wall,
a massive hole had been knocked through into the huge Victorian sewerage pipes and tunnels that cris
s
crossed underneath the river and
the main part of the
city of London.

The tunnels ran for miles in every direction,
they were
maintained at a huge cost to the city but
would cost millions more to
replace. Wide ledges ran along on either side of a river of slowly moving human waste. Rats ran everywhere and the place stunk beyond belief. In fact some areas had high concentrations of Methane, Ammonia and
Hydrogen Sulfide.
Once upon a time
,
street lamps ran o
f
f the Methane bi product
,
but now only one lamp remains as a tourist attraction.

At this moment in time, rats and gas wasn’t mans greatest danger in these cess pits of waste. Thousands of Shades filled mile after mile of tunnel and pipe. Every now and again a few ghouls were mixed in with the seething swaying Shades.
Here and there giant Shades lumbered along, waist deep in the stinking mess.
The Dark were in the pump room next to the bridge below the level of the river. Edge stood at The Chosen Ones side, a g
leam of pure hatred in his eyes and most of it directed towards her.

Coffee (as she asked Chris to call her) looked upon The Dark
. So far they had added three new recruits. Pigswill, a fat nosed bug eyed pot bellied dwarf. His weapon was to spit acid. Ridgeback a massive hunchback like Rage, he carried a huge wooden mallet, reinforced with steel hoops on each end and Willow, a beautiful female if not for her with a scorpion like tail. 
Brick Heads
re birth had been short lived and Coffee was
beside
herself with rage.
She had spent days torturing Leech for allowing him to be destroyed so quickly but she allowed him to live. Chris
however
would
not be shown such mercy.

Coffee, gathered a bucket of stinking sewerage and walked over to a dried up shape on the ground, upending the bucket, she soaked the person from head to toe. Slowly the figure expanded and grew, finally crying out with relief.

“Leech go soak yourself I need you strong.”

Bowing and scrapping, Leech kissed the air before her as he sidled over to the sewer and jumped in.

She addressed those gathered
,
before her,
her voice was low, hypnotic and full of menace, “Brothers and sisters. Tod
ay we stand here without Shadow or
Brick
.
for our comrade
s
and friend
s
( the others never thought of each other as a comrade or friend but kept quite)…. ha
ve
fallen victim to those cowards that dare call themselves The Protectorate of the Human Race. What are they protecting?
Dog meat with a soul fit for
eating and
enslaving
.
We have obeyed our
Master and harvested the humans slowly over time, in order that the authorities didn’t know what was happening to them. United, they could have made a nuisance of themselves. We stayed in the Dark living up to our name. Now the long wait has paid off.
Today our Lord has closed the gateway to Heaven
and the World is ours for the taking.”

Edge glared at her back,
’
W
hat
did she know of waiting?
Newly
re-born
,
in
has
te
she broke the truce and tried to
kill Judgement, a breaker of rules
, angering the Master himself
. All tortured for her hast
y work, blasted
two thousand miles
away
to
the
Sahara
desert
.
Forced to Kill
goat herders
so they could
steal there camels. Riding them to death within the In Between.
Stowaways on a stinking cattle ship, then again on an iron ore carrier, hiding like petty criminals.
It had taken
The Dark
two weeks to get back
and regroup
and all during that time Coffee raged and ranted, blaming Judgement. The others kept quiet or spoke in hushed whispers with Edge
.
Now this foolish slip of a girl leads them into war.
’

The gathered Dark hissed to please her
as the Chosen One continued to talk,” In the past we have fought and killed within the safety of the In-Between.
Now our Master wishes us to bring terror to these humans who have for years believed this to be there world.
Today we attack the
dog meat here in the capital of this puny country.
Today we bring hell to Earth.
We shall rejoice as they
scream and beg for mercy. Fe
ed off
the
ir
fear and pain as you render them limb from limb. Enjoy the tormented wails of souls that we shall reap
and enslave
.
Feed on the
dog meat
and
warm flesh.
Today you will
hear
God weep for his children. Today
you will hear laughter from our Master
!”

Whilst all the Dark howled, shuddered, swayed and screamed in rapturous joy. One dared to raise his hand in question.

Coffee turned her gaze fully upon
The Dark, Total
silence
followed
before she
asked
. “Yes
Venom, you wish……to speak?”

All eyes turned in amazement to the creature that for hundreds of years had never spoken a single word. In fact Edge thought
Venom
incapable of speech. It’s reptilian like jaw
was
not designed for the human speech.

“
Whatsssssss to be done with Judgement , mistresssssss not mentioned him
?”

Its mouth struggled to master the nouns and vowels but somehow
it made itself
understood. Its yellow slit eyes never blinking stared hard into Coffees.

If Coffee was surprised Venom had spoke, she hid it well, not like Edge who half drew one sword, “You dare question The Chosen One!”

Coffee half raised her arm and hissed,
she thought that for a second Edge may have hesitated defending her honour but let it pass, for now.
Edge backed away from her.

“Venom
my
d
ear,
y
ou have been keeping secrets from us. Let me see if I understand fully. Are you asking who shall kill Judgement?”

Venom just nodded this time.

Coffee raised her hand and
casually
blasted Venom across the chamber. He managed to turn like a cat and collided with the far wall with hands
,
feet and
a
tail,
which
partially absorbing the blow.
Falling
to the floor in a heap,
Venom
shook his head to clear it and painfully turned on
his
side to stare across the forty five foot gap between them.

Coffee drew herself up right. Her body expanding and grew until she cowered over them all, her voice now crackled with energy, her breath death, “When any of you address me you shall call me The Chosen One and I defy any to stare me in the eye for it is death to disrespect me.”

W
illing herself to calm down, her voice resumed its normal hypnotic level, “Venom, dear Venom.
You are lucky to find me in a forgiving mood.
Your question has merit and I admire you for asking. I shall be the one to destroy Judgement and his brother shall assist me.”

Edge lowered his hand from the hilt of his sword, “Me
…Chosen One
?”

Coffee chuckled, “Yes Edge
, you shall strike at your brother and he shall hesitate for he is weak and seeks to turn you from us.
You shall cause
his downfall for a
t that moment I shall
kill him
. Don’t worry about the right moment
.
I shall know when to act.”

She was too sure of herself to notice the furrowed brow on Edges face.

Coffee turned to the Shades that stood watching her from the hole in the sewer wall, “Go now my legions
.  R
ise up
into the sunlight and feed!”

The Shades gurgled with rapture and rushed away to obey. Turning to The Dark
,
Coffee smiled, “
S
hall we go and wait for the moment to strike my children. Edge
,
I shall allow you to
appear to
lead
T
he
Dark
whilst I
remain in the shadows. I shall
strike when the time comes.
”

Edge, who up until now was used to being their leader
anyway
, simply nodded in acknowledgement. Swallowing his hurt pride he led the way into the sewers. In a split second they vanished into the In-Between place.

The newspaper seller had been at this pitch for twenty three years, passed down to him by his father and his father before him. He enjoyed his work and hoped one day his son would follow in his foot steps. But right now he was taking mighty big steps and
glad his son was no where near
! Inky at he was known, was running for his life. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d run, but he was sure it was no where
near
as fast as this. With his heart pounding in his chest, he risked a quick glance backwards. The damn thing was nearly on top of him. Inky screamed, but his scream was lost in the dozens of others that filled the noon day sky. A blood red sky, that suddenly went from
amazing to one of
abject terror.

Inky hit the junction hard, narrowly missing a taxi travelling across from right to left. The Shade wasn’t so lucky and was sent spinning through the air with its right hand side crushed in. The taxi skidded and crashed into a lamppost.  Inky stopped to get his breath, hands on knees he sucked air into his sixty year old lungs.
Still panting he glanced across to the taxi, just as another creature dragged the unconscious driver from the wreckage only to sink dull yellow fangs into his neck, Blood spurting up and across the cracked wind screen.

“Oh shit!” Inky managed to gasp
just as a street grid four feet from him, burst upwards. The head and shoulder of a Shade thrust itself into view and immediately eyed up Inky. Without saying a word, Inky kicked it as hard as possible in the face. He was
,
as it happens from Islington and they didn’t mess about down there. The creatures head snapped sideways, slowly it turned back to offer Inky a yellow fanged snarl as it started to climb from the sewer grate.

“Oh Shit!” was fast becoming his favourite words.

He managed to grasp
and
lift the iron grid
with the aid of fear driven adrenaline
and brought it crash
ing
down on the creatures head. That did the trick! Its squashed head and shoulders fell back down into the darkness.
A huge puff of ash rose from the manhole, forming a giant circle of smoke.

Inky took off
around
the corner, only to side step another creature attacking a woman
. He paused to kick it in the head, grabbed the woman and thrusting her away, shouted , “Run!”

He
jump
ed
over the prone figure of another
monster
feeding on a
victim
that lay prostrate and bleeding. The woman cried out
of help. Inky skidded to a stop as he saw her walking stick lying on the floor, the end broken off.
Yank
ing
it from the ground,
he thrust the broken end in through the side of its head. He was surprised at the little resistance and with a grunt thrust it all the way through.
There was a very loud bang and t
he
creatures head exploded
!
The body followed suite seconds later
in a shower of hot smoking ash
. Both Inky and the woman were covered in
grey soot.

The woman getting her breath
back
sobbed her thanks, whilst Inky just stared at
the
walking stick   in his hands.
Shaking his head, he reached into his trouser pocket and pulled free a white clean hanky, “Here.” He offered it to her. She held it to the bloody wound on her neck.

“Better get her inside mate.”
t
his from a male voice
,
standing
directly
behind Inky.

Spinning around
, Inky raised the
stick
again. A total of eight men and two women stood there, all with drawn firearms. The man who had spoken had used his handgun to blow the creatures head apart. Even as Inky looked on, one of the females shot
another
creature that was feeding
nearby on the body of a Labrador
.
She held a massive Smith and Wesson model 500 .50 calibre six shot revolver in her muscular hands .
The thing exploded just like the
first, “I fucking love dogs!” she sounded hurt and angry.

Inky should have asked who they were. He should have phoned the police
telling them
that armed people were on the streets. He should have done tons of stuff. But on this occasion, he simply grabbed the woman by the arm
, pulled her to her feet
and headed towards a shop entrance.

The woman with the gun shouted, “Get
the fuck
inside
, l
ock the doors and hide
…sir
.”

This was Jennings team Beta, led by Susan Wilkinson
, the animal lover
and ex marine Sergeant attached to the Bomb Disposal Unit, with five tours on Afghanistan behind her. On her last tour, her favourite IED dog, Rosie a Cocker Spaniel, had been blown up saving her life. Returning from service she was due for retirement and had been snapped up by Jennings. Susan had been in charge of a guard detail for a US Billionaire and now here she was blowing away monsters on the streets of London.

All hell had broken loose with thousands of Shades and ghouls flooding the streets of London in broad daylight
. Th
e police couldn’t cope
,
a
t
least not the unarmed officers
. It
would take an hour before the army responded. Mean while shops and office buildings were starting to burn. Hundreds of bodies lay on the pavements and in the roads and main streets. Cars, buses and lorry’s all stood abandoned or crashed. One or two were also burning.
What people couldn’t see was the hundreds of souls in the In Between being gathered by the Shades for The Dark.

Gun fire could be heard everywhere
, that and the continuous sounds of screaming, breaking glass and police sirens. The city of London was at war and burning. Down by the Houses of Parliament fighting was at i
t
s worse. Police here were armed and knew how to use there weapons but there were just two many Shades and ghouls. One police officer was dragged down by two ghouls who started to eat him alive.

A black van skidded
onto the pavement
near one of the entrances to Parliament. The armoured vehicle ran over a score of Shades which after being crushed under the wheels, exploded one after the other. An extra large Shade absorbed the impact from the bonnet, crushing in the engine compartment with its huge grey slime covered hands.
The driver was stunned and momentarily  trapped behind the  steering wheel airbag.
The
side
doors to the van burst open and out flew ‘
Boom Boom’
with seven other heavily armed men plus one woman who was carrying of all things a flame thrower.

A police officer took one look at the armed men, raised his pistol and shouted, “Armed police drop your weapons!” Just as two Shades climbed over the security railings. Both ran at the police officer from two different directions. He hesitated, frozen with fear for a second before starting to bring his gun to bear on the right hand creature.

‘Boom Boom’ raise
d
an old fashioned Thompson
sub
Machine
Gun
with a circular one hundred round .45
calibre drum attached underneath and let fly. The creature on the right exploded into a cloud of red hot ash. The man behind ‘
Boom Boom’
was Paddy McGuire
and he opened fire with a modified Israeli Uzi fitted with a
hefty looking silencer and a
fifty round magazine that fired nine millimetre parabellum bullets, at a rate of seven hundred rounds per minute. The Shade
on the left
was there one second and a cloud
of expanded hot ash
the next. Both ‘Boom Boom’ and McGuire’s bullets had been blessed with holy water.
The woman pulled the trigger on her flame thrower. With a deep throaty roar, a jet of fire ignited another Shade, who staggered around blindly in circles until ‘Boom Boom’ blew it away.

‘Boom Boom’ smiled, “Still want me to put down my gun.
”

He held out a security card towards the officer, who was just standing there with his mouth hanging open, “
Starlight
Home Office
Security, here to help
mate
.”

The officer
recognised the ID, he’d seen them hundreds of times during his stint on Government protection detail. He
look
ed
around at the hundreds of Shades running this way and that
, h
e could see
that
several of his
colleagues
where
already
down
. “I put round after round into those things and
they
hardly slowed them down.”

McGuire tossed him a Glock over the railings, “Use this.”

The officer was about to object when a
drain cover burst upwards and a
Shade
heaved itself up onto the pavement no more than ten feet from the officer. H
e fired a short burst directly into its gaping jaws. The thing exploded into hot ash that
scorched
the exposed skin on the back of his gun hand.