Tribulation (17 page)

He caught
Olivia’s eye. “What is it?” he asked.

She shook her
head. “It’s nothing. Just one of the others. Dead,” she said.

“How?” asked
Sam but he already knew.

“Plague. She
must have died during the night.”

Sam said
nothing. What did you say at times like this? For all he knew,
Olivia and this nameless victim of the bubonic plague had been
friends or family. But he didn’t have time for that now. “Sorry,
you’ll have to leave her. The guards won’t allow the body onto the
base in any case.”

The words
sounded harsh even as he said them. He caught Olivia frowning at
him but he didn’t have time for that.

He darted over
to the main depot doors at the rear of the building. The massive
roller door looked like it was usually controlled electronically.
No good. This building hadn’t had power in years. He inspected the
area around the door with as much haste as he dared. Then he saw
it. There was a chain dangling in the corner, used to manually open
the door. Unlocking the door at its base, he yanked on the chain.
Painfully slowly, the door edged upward. He pulled on the chain
harder, again and again. When it reached the point where Sam
thought the truck would clear the opening, he stopped. Outside,
beyond the wire fence, he could see Lemure gathering. But he also
saw something else. A fuel pump.

Mike and Olivia
were already in the cab. Sam could see Mike struggling with
something. He raced over.

“What’s wrong?”
he demanded.

“I think I’ve
flooded it,” said Mike, his voice strained.

“Has it got
gas?”

Mike nodded. “A
bit.” Sam watched him turn the ignition. The truck gave a sick
cough but the engine didn’t turn over.

“Try it again,”
said Olivia.

She sounded as
tense as Mike and Sam knew why. Heard clearly throughout the depot
were sounds of frantic scrabbling against the main doors. These
were interspersed with louder, heavier thuds. One of the Horned
demons had reached the building. The door wouldn’t hold out for
much longer. In the compound, the Lemure were stacking up, piling
on top of one another. Soon, they’d be level with the top of the
fence and be able to trickle over. That trickle would quickly turn
into a flood.

Mike closed his
eyes, took a deep breath and waited for a moment. Time seemed to
drag; everyone in the depot seemed to hold their breath. Then Mike
turned the key. The engine coughed again, louder this time, and
roared into life. Sam heard several people cheer.

“Over here,” he
yelled over the engine. “The pump’s over here.” Sam guided Mike
over. The pump was locked of course, but Sam made short work of
that with his Wakizashi. He thrust the nozzle into the truck and
squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened.

Mike poked his
head out the window. “It needs electricity to run but there should
be a hand pump.”

Quickly, Sam
checked the other side. There was a rotary handle, also locked,
which Sam cut through. He wound the handle and was rewarded with a
splutter as diesel began to dribble out. He could feel it through
the pipe. He wound harder and now the diesel began to flow. Mike
kept the engine going. Inside, he heard a crash and a tearing
sound. If Sam didn’t know better, it sounded like the door had just
been torn off its hinges.

A terrible cry
sounded from above. Sam looked up to see an Astaroth was
descending. The nine people in the back were heedless of this. Sam
shouted a warning but it was too late; the Astaroth tore out of the
sky and hurtled down to the rear of the truck. It grasped one of
the women in its leg talons and shot back into the sky again. She
screamed in shock and terror. Sam could see her face clearly but
knew there was nothing he could do for her. Several people raised
their guns but there was no way they could fire for fear of hitting
her. It would’ve been a mercy though. A fate worse than death
awaited her.

As the Astaroth
and the woman disappeared into the night’s sky, her screams drifted
back to them on the warm breeze. The action seemed to act as a
catalyst for the others. They began to scan the skies, moving their
weapons around nervously.

Several things
then happened at once. Sam heard the thud of enormous footsteps,
and he looked up to see a massive Horned Demon at the door of the
depot. It saw them, raised its huge stone mallet and charged. At
the same time, the wire fence, incapable of maintaining its
integrity any longer, collapsed under the weight of the mass of
Lemure pressing up against it. They also surged towards the truck.
Sam yanked the nozzle out and dropped it on the ground. Without him
turning the pump, the flow of diesel dried up. He jumped into the
passenger side of the cab next to Olivia.

“Go, go, go!”
he yelled. “Drive.”

Mike didn’t
need to be told twice. He revved the engine, and the truck sprang
forwards, charging straight towards the horde of Lemure descending
upon them. Mike didn’t bother to swerve. The truck itself weighed
several tons. Combined with the plough at the front, it was almost
an unstoppable force. The Lemure didn’t stand a chance. They
scattered in front of him; any caught head-on were scooped up by
the plough, most falling under the wheels of the truck where they
were flattened. Many would have suffered injuries but most wouldn’t
have been fatal. Only cold iron had the power to do that.

Behind them,
the Horned demon bellowed in frustration, built for power, not
speed and unable to keep up with the truck. Sam turned and saw
several of the survivors firing at the demons, keeping them off the
truck.

Mike sped on
through the flattened remains of the gate. He swerved wildly,
guiding the truck onto the main highway, smashing his way through
two abandoned vehicles. At last Sam turned around to face the
front, satisfied that they would make it out safely. He could see
Olivia’s expression and Mike’s face. Both were flushed with victory
- but at what cost? Sam had already lost one of the people he had
rescued, and another had died. How many would be left by the time
they got to Columbus?

Sam needn’t
have worried. The rest of the trip passed rather uneventfully. The
snow plough was easily capable of smashing aside any obstacle. The
Lemure struggled to get a grip on the on the solid metal sides,
especially when they had to deal with a lethal barrage of fire from
the gun-wielding occupants in the back. The only obvious weakness
was from above but Sam kept a close eye on the sky and warned
everyone when an Astaroth was near. A few of the great demons tried
an aerial assault but had been driven off by the iron rounds. One
Astaroth had even been destroyed.

Mike had been
reasonably confident that they’d have enough fuel to reach
Columbus. Even though Sam hadn’t had much time to fuel up the
truck, it seemed that it already had some to begin with. Luckily.
Mike was right, but he’d slowed down to conserve fuel as they
neared the outskirts, just to be on the safe side.

In the back,
the others had satisfied their hunger, using Sam’s pocket knife to
open cans of beans and other assorted fast food, eating it cold.
Despite the fact that they had lost two of their number, there had
been almost a party atmosphere in the truck, a feeling that Sam
hadn’t shared. He’d become somewhat pessimistic over the years with
the belief that things seemed to go wrong, in spite of his best
intentions and planning. Experience had taught him never to assume
and he didn’t feel any sense of relief until they had actually
reached the outskirts of Columbus.

It was almost
dawn when the gates of the National Guard base reared up in front
of them. The streets of Columbus were completely deserted. Apart
from a few determined survivors, the only living humans in the city
were in the base. A few demons, clearly wary of the Army base, made
a half-hearted attack on the truck as it passed but Sam could see
that they were too occupied with the coming dawn to pose any great
threat. As soon as the truck was in range of the bases’ defenses,
the demons drew back.

Sam got Mike to
stop a hundred feet from the main gates. Spotlights played upon the
truck from towers dotted around the perimeter. Sam walked towards
the gate, hands above his head, passing a sign with ‘Beightler
Armory’ written on it. Even though it had a fine layer of dust
covering it, Sam could see that someone had made a recent effort to
clean it.

The gate, like
the one at the depot was made of heavy wire. It had been
strengthened and reinforced by layer upon layer of razor wire that
had been made especially for the base. Sam could smell the iron
from where he was.

Sam had been
here before and knew some of the men and their commanders, but he
wasn’t about to take any risks. Some of the soldiers based here had
very nervous trigger fingers. The first whiff of a demon and they
wouldn’t take any chances. As Sam approached the gate, a bright
light blazed down upon him, forcing him to squint.

“Stop right
there,” said a voice. Sam did as he was told, keeping his hands
where the soldiers could see them.

“Remove your
hood so we can see your face.”

Sam hesitated.
If he removed his hood, everyone would see what he was and that was
a closely guarded secret at the base. He didn’t really fancy
getting shot after all that he’d been through to get this far.

“I can’t,” he
said.

Sam heard the
tell-tale noise of weapons being cocked and readied. “Remove your
hood or we will fire upon you.”

Sam sighed. He
really didn’t have a choice as usual. His hand reached up towards
his hood, slowly, ever so slowly, not willing to give the soldiers
an excuse to squeeze off a few rounds at him. He knew all their
weapons were loaded with iron.

“That won’t be
necessary,” said a commanding voice that Sam recognized. “Soldier,
shut off that light.”

The light
immediately disappeared and Sam could see clearly all at once. The
gates were open in front of him. An extremely solidly built man of
average height and dressed in fatigues walked through the gates and
towards Sam. It wasn’t until he got closer that Sam recognized him.
Someone he thought dead years ago. Someone he had long thought he
would never see again.

Adam.

Beightler Armory

“
For false Christs
and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles
to deceive even the elect--if that were possible.”
Matthew:
24

F
or a moment, neither man moved or spoke. For Sam, a
variety of emotions were competing for attention - elation and
confusion being the primary ones. While he didn’t know for sure,
Sam had long suspected that Adam had been taken to Hell, especially
after what he’d discovered at Black Ridge almost three years
earlier. And three years was such a long time. What on Earth had
happened to him?

“Good to see
you, Sam,” said Adam, smiling lopsidedly.

Sam couldn’t
help it – he smiled back. “You too,” was all he could manage by way
of response.

Adam moved in
closer, his hand extended. Sam was about to take it when Adam
suddenly lowered his hand and went for the hug instead. Sam didn’t
know what to do or how to react as the extremely powerfully built
man squeezed him in a massive, bear-like grip. It was all so
foreign to him. It wasn’t often he was touched. In fact, the only
times he’d actually had any affectionate human contact was from
Hikari and Aimi. And Grace… but that was years ago. This was
outside his realm of experience and if he was going to be honest
with himself, slightly uncomfortable feeling. Although, saying
that, a tiny bit of him was actually enjoying it. Not that he was
about to show it.

Adam finally
released him and stepped back and looked Sam up and down. “You look
well.” Suddenly, he laughed – a loud happy bark that Sam remembered
from Black Ridge. “Actually, no, you don’t. I’m just being polite.
You look like your normal moody self but you’re still a sight for
sore eyes.” He gestured at the gates and the armed guard that was
even now marching through. “Sorry about this, though. I’d heard you
were around and so I kept an eye out. Lucky for you. These guys
probably would’ve shot you otherwise.” He winked and Sam and smiled
again.

Suddenly, he
became aware of who and what was behind Sam. All at once, his
demeanor became all business. “I see your mission was a success.
Don’t worry about them, my men will see to their needs and get the
truck squared away. That snow plough will probably come in useful.
It certainly did for you.” Adam paused, noting the expression on
Sam’s face. He relented, appearing to read his mind. “All right, go
and say your farewells. You might not get a chance later,
especially after you hear what I’ve got to say.”