The Glooming (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 1) (45 page)

At that moment, a group of four soldiers burst through the door. For half a second, they all just gaped at the monstrous transformation as the expanding fleshy blob had grown into the size of a bus that was now crowding the center of the hall. Reacting quickly, one of the special forces operators moved forward as he activated the nozzle of his X15 flamethrower and sprayed flaming napalm over the creature. Another man readied his multi-grenade launcher.

The giant bulbous thing writhed in agony as it was sheathed in flames, Solomon turned to the being that hovered beside him. “I have done my part of the bargain so you must grant me safe passage now!”

“Follow me, there is someone waiting for you,” the spirit beckoned as Solomon hobbled after him and they both disappeared back into the shadows.

As the second man began firing high explosive 40mm grenades into the creature, the other two men kept firing at it with their M4 assault rifles. The first soldier kept up with the flame thrower. The X15 had a sixty-second total burn time and the operator wanted to make sure he would use all the fuel in it. The explosions rocked the building, but the creature discarded its outer shell as it lashed out and rolled its gigantic, worm-like body on top of the screaming soldiers, crushing them like matchsticks as it began to grow even larger until it began to burst through the ceiling.

The Otherworld

They had found the clearing in the center of the great forest just a few minutes before. The three of them hid behind one of the large trunks and watched. A huge oak tree dominated the center of the clearing; its bark was gnarled and ancient as it was bathed in a glowering orange fire.

“Look,” Ilya said as he pointed towards the base of the oak tree.

Tara could see two ghostly forms standing on opposite sides of the oak. They both looked like American Indian men and were almost identical though one had very handsome features, while the other’s visage was twisted and distorted into something malevolent. Both figures had antlers growing from the sides of their heads. “Who are they?”

“There you can see Okeus and his counterpart Ahone,” Coyote said. “They are the two primary gods of the ancient people who dwelled in the eastern coast. One of them is about to be born into your world.”

“We need to stop them,” Tara said. “Let’s get down there.”

Manhattan

The firefight upstairs had turned into a stalemate. The ESU troopers had the numbers and they controlled the entryway into the great hall, but the soldiers had the firepower and were dug in as each of them shifted from one prepared position and into another, all the while maintaining a steady rate of fire at anyone who tried to get in. Valerie was lying prone on the ground, but she was on the far side and the spec ops soldiers were too busy concentrating their fire towards the entryway to notice her. Carbone took out a handkerchief and made a makeshift tourniquet on his leg as he tried to get a bearing on the situation.

Valerie began crawling towards the edge of the display that she was hiding behind. “Carbone! Are you okay?”

“Stay there, Val,” Carbone said as he sat up behind his cover. “Blake! Why in the hell did you shoot my men?”

“Tell your men to back away from this hall, Carbone,” Blake said as he crouched low behind a shattered case. “I have my orders!”

At that moment, the entire hall shuddered as if hit by an earthquake. Everyone instantly froze in complete surprise as a loud rumbling sound began underneath them. Then the ground began to move as cracks appeared in the center of the hallway floor. The remaining undamaged displays began to topple over as the surrounding walls and ceiling started to collapse. A split second later, there was a rupture in the floor as the head of a giant worm pushed its way out. Carbone screamed in terror before the monstrous creature turned to him and bit his head off along with the upper part of his torso.

Even the experienced spec ops soldiers began to scream and panic along with everybody else as they all started running in every direction. As Blake got up and looked around in sheer terror, he saw one of his men, the soldier with the night vision goggles, slip and fall off the edge of the ruptured floor, and then was crushed by the giant grub worm as his body fell down into the basement. Blake knew that the position was untenable as he sprinted towards the device. The modified B83 nuclear bomb had an instant detonation fuse in addition to the timer, so all he had to do was to take the key that he wore in a necklace around his neck, and twist it into the key lock on the side of the cylinder.

As more of the floor collapsed, Blake tore off his backpack that had the flamethrower and threw it to the side before jumping over a tottering display. He made one last sprint as he got to where the bomb was sitting. Thankfully, they had placed it in front of one the main bulkheads in the building so the floor around it had yet to collapse. He could already see the concrete support beams cracking as the gigantic maggot grew even bigger. As he opened a flap along the side of the cylinder, Blake holstered his pistol and used both hands to pull out the keychain from underneath his ballistic armored vest. As his hand clutched the key, he inserted it into the lock and was just about to twist it when Valerie tackled him from behind and they both fell over to the side, near the edge of the gaping hole in the floor.

Blake instantly rolled and then got up as Valerie dove at him once more. She tried to put him in a headlock, but the spec ops soldier elbowed her in the chin and she fell back onto the floor, stunned. As she fought through the pain and tried to sit up, she saw Blake move towards the cylinder just as the remaining floor shifted again. Blake almost fell over the side as more of the floor collapsed right beside him. He struggled to regain his balance, the key he had in his hand fell away and flew down into the basement level. As he roared in frustration, Valerie crouched and leapt up into the side exit and into another hallway, just as both Blake and the bomb were crushed when the giant worm rolled its body sideways as it burst through the roof of the museum. Valerie started to run towards the Grand Gallery exit as the walls began collapsing all around her.

Brooklyn

Most of them had walked out of the command tent and stared across the river. They too had felt the earthquake and they could see the giant worm’s monstrous reflection up in the night sky, as if it was some sort of ghostly image that had projected itself onto the rain clouds above. An intense, roaring noise like that of a shrieking bird, reverberated across the entire city as the great god Okeus had started to come into being.

“Oh my god,” Paul said as the rain had intensified.

Joe shook his head in disbelief. “What is that thing?”

The Otherworld

The great oak tree looked even bigger now that they were alongside of it. The two spirit manifestations of Okeus and Ahone seemed to be just standing there as if suspended in midair. Ilya noticed a silvery thread of energy that was emanating from Ahone’s avatar and it connected like a current to the tree. Okeus’s aura was blood red as the evil god’s energy tendrils were also connected to the oak’s trunk from the other side.

“Look, there’s something here,” Tara said as she stared at the trunk of the tree.

Ilya walked over and stood beside her. Lying on the outside of the trunk was a very large white maggot trying to eat its way into the bark.

Tara immediately remembered her dream. “This is the symbol of Okeus! We need to kill it. I need to find a rock so I can crush it.”

“Gods cannot be killed,” Coyote said as it sat down on its hind legs to observe what the two of them would do.

Tara looked at the trickster in frustration. “Then how do we defeat it then?”

Ilya thought about it for a minute before looking at Coyote. “Wait, you said that they were two gods, right? Or are they just different sides of one god?”

“The ancient peoples believed that the many gods could have good and bad aspects to them,” Coyote said. “Even the most malevolent god could also become a protector to their people.”

Tara frowned. “I don’t get it.”

“That’s it then!” Ilya exclaimed. “If we cannot destroy the evil god then we combine him with the good one. It will be a stalemate, like in chess. That worm is a larva—it can grow into something good or into something evil … if we show its true form, maybe it can grow as one god who can be both.”

“And the balance will be restored,” Coyote added.

“Okay,” Tara said. “How do we do that?”

Ilya grinned as he took out some bits of the magical raskovnik plant from his jacket. “If the worm likes to eat, then feed it this. It is said to uncover the truth in whoever eats it and unlocks all doors.”

“That’s a plan then,” Tara said as she grabbed the maggot and set it down on the ground. “Eew, that was gross. I can’t believe I had to touch it.”

Ilya placed the bits of raskovnik in front of the grub worm. “Now let’s see what happens next.”

Almost immediately, the maggot chewed on the magical herbs. Seconds later, it began to glow as it grew bigger. Sensing danger, both Ilya and Tara began to back away, but the grub worm had suddenly turned into a bluish wisp of energy that divided itself into two halves. The ghostly figures of Ahone and Okeus each started to move. Both gods took an equal share of the energy pool as both their forms began to merge into one. Within minutes, there were no longer two avatars but a single god that stood before them. As both Ilya and Tara stared in wonderment, the god placed a hand on each of their foreheads before finally turning around and walked into the great oak tree’s trunk as they too merged as one. When Coyote walked over to the two astonished kids, they now saw that the oak tree had somehow gotten bigger and was now glowing with a multicolored, mystical aura around it.

Tara and Ilya looked at each other and grinned. There was a feeling of peace and accomplishment between them as they sensed that they had just averted a major catastrophe in their own world.

“Gimme five!” Tara said as she and Ilya clapped their hands together in triumph.

Ilya recoiled as soon as he touched her palm. “Your hands are sticky and disgusting!”

Brooklyn

As everyone stood watching with a sense of growing hopelessness, the gigantic reflection of the maggot suddenly began to shudder and collapse in on itself. A few seconds later, there was a loud scream like that of a dying animal heard across the city with such force that nearby windows shattered and doors flew open. The simulacrum of the larva had disappeared as its energy wave seemingly began to dissipate into the night sky.

Paul looked up as the rains suddenly stopped and the clouds began to miraculously clear over the brightening horizon. Some of the police offers gave a loud whoop while others began to scream and holler with delight.

General Benteen had been looking out from the entrance of the command tent. Then he finally walked over and stood beside Joe, Paul, and Commissioner Donovan. “Just what the hell happened?”

Commissioner Donovan didn’t even look at him. “A miracle, that’s what.”

“We need to get EMS crews over to the museum,” Joe said as he turned and headed back towards the command tent.

Commissioner Donovan looked at Paul. “Did that giant worm somehow die or something?”

“I don’t know,” Paul said. “Perhaps that larva was a sign of change since worms like that grow into something else once that stage of their existence is over. I’d like to think that it transformed into something beautiful, like a butterfly.”

“Let’s hope it didn’t change into something even worse,” Commissioner Donovan said.

Manhattan

By the time the emergency teams arrived at the museum, it was already mid morning. As Valerie Mendoza stood beside the rubble that had once been a historic landmark, she realized that she had just somehow escaped the wrath of a very angry god. She looked up, and was immediately surprised to see that the rain clouds had miraculously parted as the morning sun shined over her. Valerie closed her eyes in quiet satisfaction as she could feel the heat on her face for the first time in weeks.

The convoy of emergency rescue teams came over fifteen minutes later. There were about a dozen other cops that had survived the giant grub worm’s attack and the ensuing destruction of the museum. And about half of them were hurt. A number of emergency crews took the ones who couldn’t walk onto stretchers and into the back of the half-dozen ambulances in the convoy. Valerie refused medical attention, but she did take the offer of a blanket as she wrapped it around her shoulders.

A Humvee parked itself beside her. Dr. Paul Dane came out from the passenger side door along with Lieutenant Joe Pascorelli. She hugged them both and told them what had happened. Just as she had gotten out of the museum, the giant maggot had somehow begun to shudder and collapsed in on itself as an energy surge was all around it. Within seconds, there was nothing left … almost as if it never existed.

“That was a near thing,” Paul said wistfully. “Manhattan would have blown up if it wasn’t for you.”

“I think it was something or somebody else that saved me,” Valerie said. “I’d like to meet whoever it was that did it.”

Joe gave her a playful punch in the arm. “Maybe it was Myron. He’s your guardian angel now.”

“Maybe,” Valerie said.

“So I guess it’s all over then,” Joe said.

“Nope,” Paul said to him. “We’ve still got big problems all around the world. This isn’t over yet.”

“I can’t help but think that maybe God was the one who saved us,” Joe said. “If that’s really what happened then maybe there is justice in the world.”

“Either that,” Valerie said. “Or it was just us.”

Siberia

“God, I can’t believe how cold it is where you live,” Tara Weiss said as she walked along with Ilya Volkhov and the little dog along the snow-covered trail in the moonlit night. The jacket and sweater she wore just wasn’t enough to block the cold, and she felt they needed to get to shelter soon. As they had passed through a portal and were now in the forests of Siberia, Coyote changed back into a little Chihuahua once more.