Judgement (The Twelve) (52 page)

It spun a curve through the air missing Priest, turned and struck a Shade that was rushing him. One of the points buried itself to the hilt in the centre of its forehead. Hot ash rained down on the cowering captives.
Chris looked at her with interest in his eyes.

Patch placed her hands on hips and in a mockery of a teachers voice said, “Hira Shuriken is a modern, smaller ver
sion of a much bigger Shuriken. Shuriken is Japanese for ‘
Hidden sword’
. It
has four
thin
longer iron spikes. I was taught to use the Shuriken by my master. The art is called ‘
shurikenjutsu
’.
I prefer the smaller ones because I’m dainty
and cute
. 
Here ended the lesson
” She
pointed her tongue at him

Chris gave her a quick teenage smile then strode
forward until he stood between the captives and the remaining Shades
. They
were
getting ready
to rush him.  He straightened the brim of his hat
dropped the smile and changed instantly to Judgement as he raised his
head to stare directly at them all.

“Be Judged.” His voice echoed off the walls.

One Shade took a step
forward,
hesitated and fell to its knees, hands held out imploringly.

“Judged,” Chris replied softly.

The Creature simply turned to dust and a gentle sigh drifted away into the darkness. The other
s
how
ever
,
screamed a bubbling war cry and charged.

“Judged!” Chris bellowed.

Chris gripped the lapel of his long open overcoat and swept it out and across his body. As the leading edge caught each Shade, the creature was cut in two with fire and flame.
All but one
exploded without a sound.
The
last,
he held back
from judging
. Instead Huntress sent an arrow through its thigh and another through its arm. It fell to the floor, gurgling cries of pain, as black ash and red rimmed holes appeared around each of the arrow heads.

Chris swept his coat tails aside and knelt on one knee before it, “Tell me what I want to know and I shall free you.”

Chris pulled one arrow free. Instantly the wound healed, easing the pain.
The creature looked up at him, “You Judgement?” It bubbled.

Chris ignored him, “Tell me what I want to know and I will free you painlessly from this shell and your bondage to The Dark.”

“Yes free! Ask question.”

“Tell me where The Chosen one is?”

The thing squirmed and struggled as it tried to answer. It cr
ied out in pain and fell back hissing, “
Cross bones Graveyard
.
Follow the sewers.
” The words came out strangely human
.

“Be judged as saved and depart.” Chris laid his hand gently on the creatures head.

Anvil could have sworn it actually smiled as it silently turned to ash.

Chris stood and wiped his knee free of dirt, “That last act allowed it to partially redeem itself.  I have sent it onwards to
P
urgatory where it will be given a second chance in life or death.”

Anvil looked at Chris questioningly, “So Purgatory exists?”

Chris nodded, “It is that place
where
no living
person
should tread.”

The penny dropped, “Is that w
h
ere you took us before you fixed the In-Between?”

Chris offered his father a s
light shrug and a quick nod
before
address
ing
the captives, “You’re all safe now. Follow th
ese
gentlemen and they
will escort you back to a safe area.”

Chris
instructed
a stunned ‘Boom Boom’ to
take
three of his men
and escort
the captives back up on top.

“What are you?”
Pat
asked in a stunned voice.

Chris smiled, “Something you don’t want to be.”

One of the three security agents
helped the male to his feet. The women were made of stronger stuff and followed on stead
ier
feet with whispers of thanks to Anvil and the others.

Chris looked around and his eyes
fixed
on the second tunnel, “
They are still at the Graveyard.
That way.”

Anvil didn’t argue, just strode off into the dark with Priest
and the others
hot on his tail.
Only
Speed and Huntress held back with Chris who was looking down at the corpses.

“Not a pretty sight.” Huntress commented.

Chris said nothing for a second, before stating matter of factually, “It ends today.”

Patch asked from the dark, “As a matter of fact anyone know
how to get to the
Cross Roads Bone yard
from down here
?”

Chris smiled, “Actually I do.”

Chapter Twenty Three

U
p on the street
the sold
i
ers took charge of the captives and led them away to nearby ambulances.
A
few minutes later a
Sergeant ra
n up to his commanding officer, the Queens Captain of the Guards, Phillip Simmons,
“Sir the
medical team
say that
the survivors state
some sort of monsters ate, and I repeat, ate some of the captives and whe
n
requested
further they say
and get this Sir, the one with the wide brimmed hat. He set
a dozen of those monsters o
n fire with
just a sweep
of his bloody
over
coat. What’s going on Sir?”

Captain Simmons was just as much in the dark. He was about to speak when one of his men shouted, “Enemy sighted!”

Captain Simmons spun around to see at least five hundred……creatures, heading at a slow trot down a main road directly towards him and his men, directly across from Embankment and the bridge.

“
Sikes!” he bellowed.

Up ran his corporal and radio operator.”Sir”

“Order the tank to make ready with his heavy calibre machine guns. Tell him to open fire when my men start firing
. Save the main gun, lets try and keep the damage
to the buildings
down.
”

As the radio operator was relaying orders, Captain Simmons ran to where his men were kneeling or lying in a curved line across Embankment with the Bridge.

“Prone positions
, p
ick your targets and open fire on my command.” He shouted.

Simmons checked
the positions of his men he didn’t have time to wonder what the hell these things were. He was
a professional
sold
i
er and they were the enemy, done and dusted. But what the hell
were
they? He took stock of his surroundings and realised that they must have been responsible for almost destroying London.

“Pick your targets, semi auto and
……
!” He
was about to shout fire when…

All hell let loose just behind and slightly to his left, as ‘
One Shot’
Harrison and two other Starlight security agents opened fire with three General Electric
,  electrically
driven, 6000 rounds per minute, M134 Miniguns!

Each rotating Gatling
gun
, spewed a five foot long flame of fire, as thousands of 7.62 mm rounds blasted the Shades to shreds!

“……Open fire!” a shocked Simmons
fin
i
shed
saying
.

The security agents had previously backed three Range Rovers in a line onto Embankment. Simmons had thought they were intended as personal carriers for the civvies, but no! Miniguns for Christ’s sake!  Where did they get the bloody things from? Even he couldn’t requisition them for the regiment.

He jumped slightly as the heavy machine guns opened up on the tank to his right
,
’Jesus get a grip
!’

“Sergeant Harding!” Simmons bellowed to be heard.

His regimental drill Sergeant scuttled over, “Sir.”

“My compliments to those…gentlemen.” He pointed to the mini gunners. “Ask one of them to sweep the area over there.”
H
e pointed to a second group of some one hundred and forty odd Shades and ghouls coming from a narrow side street, further up Embankment over to there left.

“Buggers are trying to come up on my flank.”

The Sergeant saluted and scuttled off to obey.
Meanwhile Simmons noticed another group of at least two hundred, coming from the right. The bastards were climbing up out of the water, onto Embankment directly next to the bloody tank.

Simmons ran over and shouted up at the private manning the .50 calibre machine gun. “Button up!”