Hello all,
Just posting up something i have been working on for a while. Truth be told it is the longest piece i have ever written and im not even half way through the story line. what will hopefully be book one of three anyway. but either way, that is my ambition and hopes getting ahead of me. At least for now
So without further adue (god i wish i could spell that word) i will post part one of book one (im up to part four). if you like, i'll post the rest, but only if prompted.
Praise and Criticism more than welcome.
... ok, part one is too long for one post, the rest of it will go in the second post.
PART ONE:
DEVIL’S ADVOCATES
“Stay low,” her voice drifted over to him and he was once again amazed at its melodious and ever calm quality, “Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Don’t think.”
Jonas nodded quickly to himself, then mentally cursed, and nearly cursed again as he nearly thrice broke her command. Instinctively he recalled his training and focused his mind on nothing, ‘white silence’ as it was first described to him. Even when he heard and felt the impacts of heavy footfalls and the whining shriek of sharp things dragging along the metal floor he still did not move. Jonas kept his mind focused, the white oblivion filled in his mind’s eye leaving no room for any conscious thought, only instinct. The footfalls approached him and stopped, just over a metre away, and his nose was filled with the smell of rot and decay wafting from the creature just around the corner. Its breath intensifying the stench as it came to him in heavy waves. He heard it sniff the air followed by complete silence as even it stopped its deep breathing in order to listen.
Jonas huddled tighter into the corner, pressing his back into the metal bulkhead and his gun to his lips.
The silence stretched into the minutes and Jonas was beginning to find it hard to keep his grip on his focus. Desperately he tried to stop the nothingness from coalescing into thought when all of a sudden he heard a snort and the footsteps began again. The creature passed through the doorway, which he was couched next to and as he saw it his mind was filled with its terrible visage.
It stiffened then turned towards him with frightening speed. Standing well over 8 and a half feet tall with shoulders that scraped the sides of the corridors. Terrible veins and seemingly self inflicted cuts scarred its massive frame and long sharp claws extended from the ends of its ape like arms. Its head was almost comically too small for its body, sitting between its shoulders, misshapen fangs forming a cruel smile as its eyes burned with crimson fire inside hollow sockets.
A rumbling voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, filling his head with its terrible booming growl, "There you are little one, I thought I heard something. You think too loud." Its massive bulk took a step toward him, but Jonas could somehow not bring himself to shoot the creature, despite how desperately he wanted to. "Oh, we can't have that," the terrible voice invaded his mind again, "weak though your pathetic technology is, I have no desire to have to find a little metal slug." Jonah saw his partner melt out of the shadows above the creature's frame, silver blade gleaming in the low light. Just as he saw it the creature seemed to react turning towards her, but she was too fast, she landed silently on its’ back and plunged the blessed silver blade into the base of its’ neck. The fire of its’ eyes seemed to glow radiant blue for a split second before it faded completely and the Demon collapsed lifelessly to the floor, dissolving as it did.
His partner looked up from the now pile of ash at her feet and her almost luminescent emerald green eyes bore into his. Strawberry blond hair framed her thin, delicate features. Thin lips and perfectly formed cheek bones sat below her large and soul-full eyes. The pale skin of her neck disappeared under the loose black tank top she was wearing, a dull metal cross hanging outside it. Loose black cargo pants and short black boots finished off her attire and made her almost impossible to see in the shadows. She offered a hand to him and as she helped him to his feet, muffled clinking sounds came from the small pouch they both wore at the small of their back. She re-holstered the knife back into her thigh holster next to her pistol.
"Hold firm, little one. I have no time to die tonight, there is much we need to do…" He bowed his head in shame and was about to mumble an apology when she straightened suddenly and stared down the corridor. For a few seconds he heard nothing, then casual footsteps approaching them from down the corridor.
“He was right though,” a smooth baritone drifted down the hallway apparently belonging to the owner of the footsteps, “You do think too loud, Jonas.” As he said this the owner of the voice strode from the shadows. He was just over six feet tall and dressed casually in dark cargo pants a simple dark shirt and a long coat. His features were angular and almost elfin in their precise gracefulness, but there was a hardness, an edge, perhaps given more by his eyes than his face. The eyes in question were the oddest thing about him, so bright they almost glowed. But perhaps stranger than that, one was red and the other was blue.
“Lucifer” Jonas’s partner hissed, but never the less straightened and sheathed her knife. Jonas was in shock, ‘Lucifer’ his mind rang, ‘it can’t be-’
“No, I’m not that Lucifer,” the stranger chuckled, interrupting his thoughts, “But my parents had so hoped I would be like him.”
Before Jonas was even able to think about formulating a response his companion asked in her normal, cool and modulated voice; “What are you doing here, Child of the fallen?” Although she sounded, and even looked relaxed, both of the others in the corridor could feel the tension radiating from her. The stranger chuckled again.
“I’d tell you, but I doubt you would believe me. Suffice to say I, as always, mean you know harm. You know very well I’m not… You know why I’m here” and with that he began walking towards them again.
As he approached, Jonah felt himself tense and his muscles bunch, as if getting ready for something, but the stranger just walked by. As he did so Jonas noted markings on the devil apparent’s neck that snaked down under his shirt. Like a tattoo. Lucifer gave a snort and kept on walking.
Jonas and his partner didn’t move until the footsteps had faded to silence down the other side of the corridor. “S-S-Sarisel,” Jonas stuttered his partner’s name, cursing internally as he did so, “If he was a devil, why didn’t you slay him?”
Her piercing gaze snapped to his and he could almost feal the heat behind it before she composed her self again, staring down the corridor in the direction he had gone. When she spoke it was so soft it was barely audible, “I don’t think I could…” her voice rallied and she looked at him again, “come, we have work to do.”
“One more thing,” Jonas said as she began walking away, “that marking on his neck, it looked like script… what does it say?”
Sister Sarisel Rossette stopped dead in her tracks and for a minute Jonas almost though that she would either turn and attack him or bolt into the darkness ahead of her. Instead, in the same quite voice before she simply said;
“Long is the road and hard is the journey that from darkness leads into the light...”
-//-
They ghosted down the corridor in absolute silence, but Jonas could not stop thinking of Lucifer, the devil they had met in the hallway. A few times he had been about to open his mouth but Sister Sarisel hand turned sharply to stare at him, as if knowing he was about to speak and promising dire consequences the likes to which the end of the world could not even compare. They came to a stop at an intersection, and stopped to catch there Breath, Jonas ejecting the clip from his pistol and checking the ammo regardless of the fact that he had not yet fired the weapon. He then pressed the barrel to his lips and uttered a short prayer. It was a nervous habit he had acquired before the Order had found him. Remembering that time, the blood and screams made him shudder and he forced his mind away from those images, and they settled again on strange devil. Without thinking he turned to where Sarisel was crouched and asked “Why didn’t he attack us? He was a devil wasn’t he?”
Her eyes flashed in the light as flicked over to lay another of her penetrating stares onto him. After a moment she replied in a melodious whisper. “He is a Devil. He is Lucifer, son of the Morning star, The Lucifer,” she paused and Jonas’s choked gasp, then continued again, “however he has never been in with his fathers ilk. He is… complicated.”
“So he is on our side?” breathed Jonas.
“No.” the cold statement rang through the corridor and Sarisel had the grace to look a little embarrassed, “He is on no ones side, or more to the point he is on his own side. He fights not for good or the survival of humanity. He simply rails against his father, childishly fighting his father’s will for no other reason than to cause him inconvenience.”
“But…” Jonas’s brow furrowed with thought, “Why? And what is with the script on his neck?”
“Why… arrogance, Pride, Childish insolence, I don’t know, you choose…” Sarisel did not speak again for several minutes. “And as for the branding… only he knows where it comes from, and he doesn’t appear to be telling anyone.” She exhaled sharply and her eyes focussed once more. “We need to move, little one, we need to find out why the Devils want a military base all of a sudden, let alone an old and empty useless one. So come on, little one, its time to go.” She turned and sprinted off silently down the corridor adjoining the one she was resting against and he had to scramble to move after her with a muttered; “I’m taller than you are, and I’m 22 years old… and you aren’t that old…”
-//-
He heard it felt it first this time as they were moving down a flight of stairs. First the slight sense of wrongness at the back of your mind, like a creeping doubt that slowly gets stronger as they approach. Then the sound of its scraping footsteps as the feeling grew stronger. Had he not been deep underground in a long unused military base infested with Demons and Devils and whatever other perils awaited in the dark shadows he might have remarked that he had never been quicker than Sarisel in picking them up, normally she seemed to have an almost preternatural sense about them. A brief glance showed an expression of distant concentration on her face. “Demon” Jonas hissed, and nudged her with his elbow. Her attention snapped back to the present and she gave a curt nod, drawing her blade again pressing herself into a corner of the stairwell and not for the first time Jonas marvelled at how she made herself nearly invisible in the shadows. Jonas again lifted the barrel of his pistol to his lips and muttered his customary prayer, “Lord, let me be your shield and hammer…”
He knew there was more to the prayer, but he had forgotten it in time, as that was all he had customarily had time to utter. Again he blanked his mind, the shame and anger at his previous failure bolstering his resolve and once again he lived in the moment. Agonisingly slowly he crept down the stairs, the gun held loosely in both hands. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he pressed his back to the wall and slid down into a crouch, leaning his back up against it and edging his head around the corner and gazing down the hallway. At first he saw nothing, and was about to advance further when he heard a slow, rasping intake of breath, barely audible, from the other end of the hallway. He focused his eyes on where he thought the sound was and the outline of a disturbingly female figure slowly came into focus as his eyes adjusted to the shadows down the hall. It was disturbing not only because of the seemingly grossly over exaggerated yet recognisably female proportions but also because the hands and feet seemed to end in long, wicked claws and something akin to another pair of smaller, stunted arms seemed to sprout from somewhere in its back.
Had Jonas not been so focussed on picking out the details of the demon in the shadow he might have seen the one climbing over him, pressing its body into the roof as its claws found purchase in the cement ceiling without any sound or apparent effort. Jonas had been right about its shape. Discounting its cruel claws and the smaller, obviously easily concealable extra arms, its body was extremely shapely and would make any human woman jealous with its flawless imitation of Human beauty. When it was directly above Jonas, it bent its head backwards, its neck bending an unnatural 180 degrees so its cruel softly glowing eyes could glare at him from almost perfect face and through a curtain of seemingly lush red-black hair.
Jonas felt something brush his cheek ever so gently and, only moving his eyes, checked behind him. Again he nearly missed it but he just managed to see the light reflect off a single strand of long, red-black hair. Without thinking at all, lest his he betray his knowledge of their trap, he sprang around the corner and fired off a shot at the demon in the shadows, which upon impact flared golden blue for a minute and his ears and mind were filled with a pained shriek.
Still acting completely on instinct, he continue his spin, dropping his aim to fire one handed at the demon who had just landed where he had just been, while his other hand fell to his waist. The succubus, for that is what he recognised them as now, stepped aside with contemptible ease and hissed at him as it lunged forward only to be forced to arrest its leap and pull back as Jonas blade, held in a reverse grip in his left hand, cleaved the air between them. Despite the demon’s supernatural speed and reflexes it still sported a deep scar that across its pale cheek, the edges of the cut smoking and glowing golden blue.
Glancing down the corridor he saw the other succubus charging down the hall towards him, its entire left arm missing, as well as a chuck of its torso, evidently Jonas’ blessed bullet had impacted somewhere around its left shoulder. Jonas leapt into action again firing at the closer of the succubi, forcing it to leap between him and the other and with trained proficiency Jonas reversed his grip on his short sword and swung it hard into the succubus’s side, causing it to howl in pain as the holy blade cut through it’s flesh with ease.
Finally, with an almost feral growl he pressed the barrel of his pistol squarely against its chest and fired 5 times, the bullets passing through both the demon’s body’s making them nearly exploded in blue gold explosions of smoking ash.
All this had taken less than 6 seconds.
Jonas stood still for a moment, recalling the fight and playing it over in his head. The order had trained him to fight without thought, letting instinct guide him so as to take away the demon’s advantage in being able to hear his thoughts. There were many subjects in training that Jonas was disappointed with his studies, he was especially surprised that he had remembered anything at all about the succubi, let alone recognising them. However despite his poor marks in many of the academic studies and his, at times, short attention span, combat was not a subject in which Jonas was lacking.
His thoughts were interrupted by a gentle clapping coming from the stairwell and he looked over to see Sister Sarisel softly applauding him with one of her rare, soft smiles. “well done, little one,” She winked as he grimaced at her favourite title for him, “although, perhaps a little more subtly could have been.” Sarisel never got to finish her sentence however as an otherworldly roar came from the stairs they had just descended followed by heavy, booming footfalls approaching their location. They both looked back at each other for a second before acknowledging the silent command they had both given; “Run!”
-//-
“Sister!” Jonas panted, “Sister, I have to catch my breath.” She stopped and looked back at him, panting heavily also, and, not having breath to give voice to her reply simply nodded and fall against the cold concrete wall and let it support her. Reaching behind her back she retrieved two small, silver rods and passed one into her other hand. Just more than half a foot long they had leather wrapped around the middle of them to form some sort of grip, while the rest of the space on it appeared to be shiny metal carved with text.
Jonas propped his shoulder against the wall and ejected the nearly half spent clip into his hand, which he tucked into a small pouch at his waist and he pulled another clip from another pouch and slid it slowly into his pistol. He was muttering his prayer against the cool metal of the gun when the beast following them bellowed another roar and trampled around the corner about 60 metres away.
Its bulk nearly filled the corridor, tortured muscle rippling under scarred skin, it stood on four thick legs and Jonas thought he saw some sort of armoured tail whipping behind it. Its head protruded from between and just below its shoulders, its flesh , hugging tight to its skull revealing that it lacked ears completely and made its glowing, menacing eyes appear as if they were bulging nearly completely out of its head. It roared at them again, sending the barbed tentacles that seemed to function as its mouth waving angrily in all directions, revealing a perfectly circular mouth filled with rotten teeth.
Jonas slid down the wall to one knee and lifted his pistol and fired. All 19 shots flew true down the corridor impacting with flaring flashes and the smell of burning flesh and the two of them could quite clearly see chunks of flesh being blown off the creature but the creature didn’t seem to care. As the creature began charging towards them time began to slow for Jonas. In slow motion the clip he ejected fell to the ground, almost as if sinking through water, and with the same exaggerated sluggish speed he saw Sarisel step in front of him, flicking her wrists and causing the rods she had in her hand to telescope outwards making two nearly foot and a half long baton’s inscribed with gently glowing script that seemed to get slightly brighter as the Demon hound approached, its feral claws kicking up pieces of broken concrete into the thick air. Jonas was somewhat doubtful that the two baton’s, holy though they were, would accomplish anything against such a large and seemingly powerful demon.
Then he heard it, the same casual footsteps as he had heard earlier that day. Even stranger was that the footsteps were coming at normal speed despite everything seeming to be happening in slow motion. Jonas began to turn, but the stranger, Lucifer, was already upon them, striding forwards and stepping around sister Sarisel, his hands buried in his pocket and despite the lazy, almost mocking smile his mouth was set in his eyes were focussed on the charging menace.
Time resumed its normal speed and Jonas watched in amazement as the beast came to a scraping and scrabbling stop less than a foot away from Lucifer, eye to eye with the devil. It seemed to become a staring contest, with no one daring to move until, after a seemingly immeasurable amount of time the hound gave a low long growl. And Its muscles began to bunch as if to pounce. Jonas would have shouted a warning but before he had even opened his mouth the Devil’s hand had moved almost faster than his eye could follow in what appeared to be a backhand slap. With a resounding boom that masked some nastily organic cracks and squelches the Demon hound’s head had buried itself into the wall, its body following and creating a large crater full of snaking cracks, under the force of Lucifer’s blow. The creature wasn’t moving.
Lucifer turned to them and winked cheekily, his almost patronising grin set firmly in place. “It seems I always arrive in the nick of time, doesn’t it…” he drawled, and began to squeeze himself around the side of the hound, both Sarisel and Jonas too stunned to answer. The devil’s voice came again, muffled from the other side of the beast, “You might want to finish it, it will regenerate sooner or later.” After that, the sound of his footsteps began again and receded unseen down the corridor.
“We should probably…” Jonas stopped as he saw Sarisel’s face, for painted on it was some a war between anger, pain and some other expression he could not quite recognise. It seemed as if anger was winning and he looked away quickly, deciding instead to draw his sword once more and plunge it into the Beast’s massive chest. Unlike with most unholy flesh, the blessed and sanctified blade did not slide in easily and Jonas had to push it in with all his strength and finally he thought he felt it pierce what might have been the terrible beast’s heart. To prove this correct it seemed to turn grey slowly and flake away into ash, which, having no where to go in the corridor blew around in dense cloud for a minute before being swept away by the installations ventilation system.
Looking back to sister Sarisel, he saw her still staring down the corridor after Lucifer, her face flushed with fury and her gloves creaked as she squeezed the batons tighter. He touched her arm softly and she came back to her self with a start. “I’ve only got one and a half clips of sacred rounds left,” he muttered, then in a clearer voice, “c’mon, he have a job to do, lets go… little one.” She could not see the small mischievous grin on his face as he had already passed her, but the chuckle he couldn’t help but utter a few steps later did bring her from her shocked amused silence and she started after him.
-//-
“Sooo… what do we do when we have found out what they are doing here?” Jonas asked, looking quickly around a corner then darting across it to take cover further down the corridor. “That depends on what they are doing here” she replied as she darted past him to look down the around the bend they were approaching. “So how are we supposed to do that? All we have seen so far is a small collection of Demons romping around an old army base. It doesn’t look like they are doing anything”
“Well then,” despite her terse tone, her voice was still oddly, conflictingly, serene and melodious, “when we have finished searching this whole complex and find nothing, you can report that to the council.”
“Nuh uh, that’s not my job,” he whispered as he pressed himself to a wall and edged closer to a near by open door, “I’m just a lowly initiate, that’s your job Sister Sarisel.” Jonas leaned his head carefully around the doorframe and, detecting no movement span around and pointed examined the room more carefully, lead by his gun. “We must be in personnel quarters” he said softly, bending to, quite literally, see if there were any monsters under the beds. Sister Sarisel stood alert as he exited the room but here gaze were far away, deep in thought.
“So where to next? We’ve been to Admin, storage, we completely cleared the first three levels, now personnel, what have we left to check?”
Sister Sarisel’s gaze returned and it was almost with glee that she said “the Armoury.” Despite his best attempt at professionalism until now Jonas couldn’t help but get a little excited. ‘After all,’ he thought, ‘what’s the fun of being a grunt initiate if you don’t get to play with all the fun toys that go boom.’ Out loud he asked, “So how do we get there then?” There was the smallest of hesitant pauses before she said “This way” and turned down a corridor but it was just enough to make Jonas’s excitement plummet. “You don’t know do you?!” Jonas screeched after her, but from the redness spreading over the back of her neck and the way she wasn’t looking back at him or even scalding him for being too loud he knew his accusation was correct.
-//-
‘Great! We’re bloody lost!’
Lucifer sighed to himself, not for the first time today, that boy really does think too loud he thought. ‘it’s a good thing none of my kind around here have as good hearing as I do’ he demon thought as he strode down a featureless corridor, hands shoved resolutely into his pockets. Rounding a corner he was faced with a number of succubi standing in the middle of the corridor, discussing something in whispers. He continued walking casually towards them without pause, offering them a roguish grin as they recognised noticed his approach. Instant recognition flared in their perfectly proportioned eyes and one of them uttered throatily “It’s Him’ which the other answered with a seductive purr. He heard an almost silent click in front and to the left of him and came to a halt. “Why is it you ladies always go to the bathroom in groups?” He asked, amusement flowing easily through his voice, answered by a round of coquettish giggling from the gorgeous demons before him, the other stepping from her hiding place, contriving to look a cutely embarrassed as she nibbled on a finger. The one that had first spoken bit her lip and stepped forward, caressing her bare stomach with apparently perfectly manicured fingers.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” He said, holding his hands in front of him, pleading her pause, “I’m all out of penicillin so no can do ladies…”
The demons’ face changed instantly and her fangs and claws suddenly appeared, along with the two arms that had been concealed behind their backs and they hissed savagely at him.
“They do say hell hath no fury,” he chuckled, “but I thought that only meant the pretty ones”
The closest leapt at him and he easily stepped out of its way. He clucked his tongue as he heard it nimbly land on its toes behind him. “Now look, as I rule I really don’t like hitting women,” He said, in a placating tone, but suddenly he span and caught the leaping Succubus by the throat, completing the turn so she acted as a shield between him and the other succubi. He looked over its shoulder at them and suddenly all amusement was gone, fury the likes of which only the spawn of a devil can accommodate painting his features, “But shooting them is fine…”
There was a loud boom and the demon’s head exploded, then the corridor went black.
-//-
The sound of gunshots filtered down sounded and caused Jonas to jump, and he span, seeking the source of the sound. The crack of a distant gunshot rang 5 times, followed by a familiar otherworldly howl that was cut short mid-bellow. “What the fuck was that?!” Jonas demanded.
Had be been facing her, Jonas might have seen Sarisel’s odd expression, or her mouth the word ‘Lucifer’.
-//-
The lights in the corridor flickered to life and Lucifer tossed away the spent, gore-covered pistol at a pile of ash where one of the succubi had recently been. He snorted and turned to the hell hound slumped against the wall, its head crushed into its body as if by some massive force. “Lucifer placed his palm against its mottled flesh for a moment his eyes flashed pure black. In answer, the beast was instantly enveloped in hellish black flames, and exploded into ash a moment later. He coughed twice, then thrust his hands back into his coat pockets. He surveyed the scene one more time. Then set off walking casually down the corridor once more.
-//-
“You know, for an army research base, we haven’t exactly seen any research facilities. I mean, we saw the barracks, we saw the, the admin and general supply sections, but we are 3 floors down now and no signs of anything so much as beaker of water.”
Sarisel’s only response to this was to raise her fingers to her lips, then point a the words “SILO ACCESS” painted on the wall just above his head. Jonas bowed his head in a gesture of apology and set off, hugging the wall, in the direction that the sign had indicated, Sister Sarisel following close behind. The corridor dead ended in a small door that looked as if it should have been fixed to a bank vault.
“so do we do this the easy way, or the quiet way?” Jonas asked, having knelt down and inspected the visible parts of the door’s locking mechanism, despite he had absolutely no idea what he was looking for exactly.
“What is the quiet way?” Sarisel asked quietly, a puzzled expression gracing her features. “No idea, but I know the easy way involves explosives” He grinned up at her, trying to coax one from her.
“This is a stealth mission, we have no explosives” she said, disapproval warring with small amusement in her voice.
“we’ll I have no other ideas… besides, this is an army base, how hard can it be to find explosives?”
“I-” Sarisel started, but stopped suddenly, looking at the keypad next to the door. Jonas turned his head and couldn’t help a sharp intake of breath as he saw the code slowly being entered, one digit at a time. There was a satisfied beep, then a hiss, and slowly the door’s many bars and locks began to open.
Jonas eased his shortsword in its scabbard, then lifted held his pistol to his lips and uttered his prayer. After a few moments he looked to Sarisel, who met his gaze and nodded.
Jonas closed his eyes and slowly took a deep breath before easing the heavy door open, stale fetid air rushing in and nearly choking him with its’ putrid smell. Sarisel reached down to ready her gun, but her fingers grasped only air. Shocked, she looked down to see an empty holster and she cursed. Unbidden, Lucifer’s devil-may-care grin entered her mind.
Jonas looked back to see Sarisel glaring down the corridor behind them. “What is it?” he hissed. She turned to him and with conscious effort controlled her anger. “Nothing, my gun… I must have lost it.”
“How could you have...” Jonas sighed and took another deep breath, “Never mind. I have a spare pistol in my back pouch, do you still have any ammunition?”
“Yes” Se said, reaching into his pouch and taking the offered pistol, loading it with one of her own clips. She gave him a nod of thanks and returned it, turning back to the entrance and edging through it, leading with his pistol.
The silo was pitch dark and the dim light from the corridor only managed to illuminate the walls curving away from him and the metal platform on which he stood, which had a mangled looking ladder to one side. Reaching into his back pouch he retrieved something that Sarisel realised was a gun mounted flashlight, which he fixed to his pistol and switched on. In its fairly narrow cone of light he first examined the opposite wall, it easily 10 to fifteen metres away, next he, having seen many horror movies before horror seemed to become reality, he aimed the light up but the top of the silo was too far up for the beam of light to reach. The beam glinted off something, but he could not make out what it was. He spent a long minute looking at it, but not once did anything move so he next turned to examine the ladder. As he though, it was completely mangled, warped and twisted as if by some incredible heat and broken a few metres down. Further down, nearly at the edge of the range of his torch, he saw massive cracks winding through apparently well scorched wall.
Sarisel entered behind him, similarly looking up almost straight away. She began walking over to the ladder but Jonas held hand out in front of her, “Don’t bother,” he whispered, “its busted… if I had my guess, whatever missile they held down there went blew up on them, completely fragged everything down that way… it’s a good thing they made this silo fit to withstand the missile the held in here…” Jonas realised he was babbling, and had the good grace to look a little embarrassed. He looked back at Sarisel and saw her staring intently down towards the bottom of the silo. “We should get going… it’s probably not safe here given the structural damage to the walls down there.” As if to confirm his words he heard a shrill creak and the platform began to tilt a little under their weight. Jonas stumbled and scrabbled to the entrance.
“We need to go down there” said Sarisel, cold determination ringing in her voice.
“what, why?”
“We just do… whatever we are here for, its down there…trust me”
“It’s a bloody hole, whatever was down there probably wouldn’t be any more, besides, who puts stuff at the bottom of a missile silo? How do you know?”
“I just know. Trust me, please.” Sarisel turned to look at him and he could see the conviction in her emerald eyes. He sighed heavily and walked a carefully over to where she was standing at the edge of the platform. Reaching again into is deflating back pouch he pulled out a flare, mumbling “I’ve only got one of these you know.” He looked at her one last time before activating it and throwing it down the into the dark depths. It fell for about 50 metres before it landed on something solid. The flaring light revealed an uneven terrain, rubble and other curious shapes, but in the dubious light they could not make out the all the details.
“So how are we going to get down there, I don’t have any rope, so unless you are hiding some James Bond gadget with filament wire, I dare say its…” He trailed off as Sarisel turned and walked back to the hatch.
“I thought you said we had to go down there!”
There was a bang from just outside the hatch, metal on metal, and Sister Sarisel re-entered the hatch soon after, dragging something with her. As she approached him Jonas realised it was the end of a fire hose. “Oh you have got to be kidding me.” Sarisel just gave him one of her customary dead pan stares and moved to the edge of the platform. She ducked under the railing and stood straight again. She turned her head to look at him, and Jonas could have sworn he saw her wink, and then she was gone. He quickly looked down and saw her plummeting down towards the flare on the ground below, the fire hose rushing by his feet and plummeting after her. All of a sudden the hose went taught with a loud snap and he saw her form outlined against the harsh flare light dangling at the end off the hose, obviously it didn’t reach the ground.
“oh crap,” the thought, “now I’m going to have to pull her up again aren’t I?”
He was about to bend and do just then when all of a sudden she let go of the hose and fell the last 5 metres, tumbling and rolling as she hit the ground. Sarisel winced as she stood again, she must have Jarred her ankle when she hit the ground. Still, she conceded, she could still walk on it and the pain would be gone in a few minutes. She waved up at Jonas, knowing he would see her against the light of the flare, and as she saw him begin edge over the side of the platform.
She then looked around the bottom of the shaft and immediately the shapes and colours she couldn’t quite make out in the flickering light of the flare from up on the platform sprang into focus. Bodies. Some nothing more than skeletons and others half decomposed, half decongested some of them sitting upon piles of rubble or forming their own crude piles of decaying flesh. There were too many of them to count and all at once she was overwhelmed with the smell. She gagged, but swallowed her own bile in time to hear the thump behind her. She turned, words forming on her lips, but it was not Jonas how had landed, but another corpse, what was left of its’ clothing marked it as some kind of soldier. Jonas landed with a thump and a scuffle, turning to the body and nearly screaming “WHAT THE FUCK WAS…” his voice trailed off as he saw the macabre surroundings, “oh dear god...”
Sarisel herd a noise, like rapid wind, but had no time to even think about investigating as Jonas tackled her off her feet and moment later there was a loud boom. Over Jonas’s shoulder, she was a Giant, spider like creature had landed on the scorched and gore-strewn ground with enough force to crack the ground and send pieces of sediment and debris cascading down from above. It turned, and to their horror, they saw that from where the spider’s head would have been, instead rose an almost human upper body, and head, but covered in some kind of bony carapace. The monster’s ‘head’ seemed to be just two large curved carapace armoured plates lined with sharp teeth, dripping a kind of greenish goo. As the creature let out an unearthly screech some of the creature’s viscous green spittle landed inches away from Jonas’s foot, and began to slowly eat away at the concrete floor, sending up a small wispy pillar of acrid smoke.
Jonas heard Sarisel utter a curse from next to his ear and he barely had time to gulp before she, and the creature, sprang into action. She quickly nudged him off her and rolled in the opposite direction one of the demon’s massive and cruelly sharp spider legs crashing to the floor between them.
Sarisel continued rolling, somehow narrowly avoiding the creature’s lancing legs as it tried to impale her three more times. When she was out of it’s immediate reach, the creature turned its’ attention to Jonas. Awkwardly Jonas kicked his legs over his head and rolled onto his feet, only to be grappled by the creature as it charged at him and picket it up in its large chitinous hands and slamming him down again on a pile of rubble.
Jonas’s training kicked in as the air burst from his lungs and he lifted his legs and kicked again, shoving hard into the leering and hissing demon’s armoured shoulders. While he knew this would not actually damage the heavily armoured hell-born creature it did wrench its’ grip from him with a painful scratch. With his now freed arms he quickly drew his pistol and rammed it into the creature’s snarling maw. Screaming as he did so he emptied he the contents of the gun’s magazine into the back of its face. He closed his eyes incredibly bright light shone through from between its teeth.
The demon shuddered and collapsed, its humanoid torso falling forward onto Jonas, completely still. Jonas just lay there for a moment, catching his breath but cried out suddenly as a burning pain flared in his left shoulder. Quickly looking as he flinched away he saw that the creature’s corrosive spittle had started falling from its slack mouth onto his shoulder. He scrambled out from under it and quickly tried to wipe the goo off with a gloved hand but quickly found that it ate through his leather glove just as fast and cursed it began to burn his hand. He felt small, slender yet surprisingly strong hands grabbing his arm, which turned him rather fast and he found himself facing Sister Sarisel, who lifted a rather small but still ornately crafted glass bottle of water and tipped most of its contents onto his shoulder, washing the goop away and providing nearly instant relief, she then grabbed his hand and rinsed it under the last of the Holy water.
“Thanks” he panted as she idly threw over her shoulder and examined the burns on his.
“They aren’t too bad,” She sighed and turned her gaze to his eyes, “But you will have to get some cream put on it when we get out of here.” A notion occurred to Jonas and he cast a look up to the platform from which they came, just in time to see it jerk and squeal once, then fall, landing with a loud crash on the opposite side of the silo to them, bringing the hose and its wall mount with it. ‘How in the hell are we supposed to get out of here now?’
As if reading his thoughts, or maybe just following her own out loud, Sister Sarisel said “No choice but to go forward now.”
“Yeah” Jonas sighed. He looked around for an exit and spotted one, just next to the fallen platform, a slightly lighter shadow than the rest of the wall. He pointed it out and they both began walking to it. They were halfway to the doorway when another thought occurred him; ‘don’t demon’s turn to ash when they are killed?’
As if to supply evidence to his alarming thought they heard an odd clicking noise from behind them, almost as if many chitinous plates were knocking together, like a giant spider was moving. Slowly they turned, muscles tensed and expectant.
They weren’t let down.
The spider demon had climbed slowly to its feet and hissed at them again, spreading its arms wide as if mocking their pathetic attempt at killing it. Jonas heard the two snaps that told him that Sister Sarisel had drawn her telescopic batons as he unholstered and lifted his own pistol, ejecting the spent magazine as he did so. His hand found his last blessed clip with practised ease but it was as he was just about to slide it into his gun he noticed that the entire front of the pistol, slide and barrel, had been warped, twisted and eaten by the beast’s saliva.
A deep, infernal chuckle rumbled through his mind and he knew it came from the beast standing in front of him. He quickly dropped the pistol and drew his sword as the creature was taking slow, purposeful steps towards him. The demon’s laughter grew louder and more manic as it approached, its arms still held wide. The burns on his shoulder twinged once through the adrenaline coursing through his system and he was struck by another bolt of inspiration. And he reached into his pouch. His fingers slid along something sharp and wet. ‘Fuck,’ the curse rang through his mind, ‘it must have broken when that bastard threw me down before.’ The demon bellowed its laughter through their heads as he thought this.
The creature was on him, it reared and another unearthly howl rumbled from its gaping maw. As it began to crash down towards him, time distorted in a way that almost becoming familiar and a whistling noise met his heightened senses. He didn’t even have time to look up as the creature seemed to crumple in front of him, as if hit by an enormous weight. A Sickening crunching noise filled the silo as nearly its entire exoskeleton cracked and broke, demonic ichor flying from its exploding wounds and sizzling against the walls, debris and corpses.
Time resumed its normal pace as with a ‘woosh’ the broken remnants of the Demon erupted into a black on black flame.
Jonas and, in spite of herself, Sarisel watched in almost frightened awe as from the abyssal flames emerged a fearsome figure. Black flames flaring blue then extinguishing as they vainly attempted to gain purchase on its clothing. While still cloaked in the smoke and shadow of the nether fire, two bright red orbs glowed threateningly from where its eyes would be. The smoke seemed to curl and float ominously around its shoulders, creating the impression of great black insubstantial wings. The echoing malevolent chuckle that rumbled through the smoke was somehow more frightening than either of them had experienced that day. The unforgettable chuckle faded from their ears and an inexplicable wind blew away the smoke and extinguished the flames, scattering the ash around the silo and where the terrible nightmare had stood was Lucifer.
“Nick of time…” he gloated, the smugness dripping from his voice. Jonas was having a hard time reconciling the demonic visage he had just seen with the entirely too human image of arrogance and roguish smugness confronting him now.
He spoke again. “Well it looks to me like we are after the same thing,” His grin somehow grew twofold and his eyes sparkled as he gazed straight into the eyes of sister Sarisel. “I guess that makes us,” and seemed to savour the next word with almost unnatural relish, “… partners”
-//-
It was hard to describe the awkwardness that they waded through as they crept silently through yet another nameless and featureless corridor. A quiet seething made Sarisel a palpable menace in the corridor. This was offset by Lucifer’s incredibly smug yet inexplicably silent swagger as he marched off in front of them the darkness enveloping him in an almost loving embrace. Detecting his train of though Lucifer turned back to him and shared with him a grin, his eyes flashing a menacing red for half an instant as his slightly enlarged canine’s glinted in the light of Jonas’s torch.
Jonas hastily looked away, and studied the wall opposite. Something seemed wrong about it. The longer he stared at them, the more he thought he saw strange, pulsating runes crawling over the non-descript grey cement walls.
“You’re not seeing things,” Lucifers spoke, without turning around, “This place has been marked and warded.”
“Then how are you allowed entry?” Sarisel hissed.
“I didn’t say it had been warded well” Lucifer quipped. He paused for a moment, then continued “Besides, these are meant to keep something in, not out.”
“so…” Jonas paused to make he had his train of thoughts right, “so you wont be able to get out then?”
“Didn’t I just say they weren’t made particularly well?” He stopped and turned to give Jonas another smug and sarcastic grin, “I’m surprised it actually managed to hold him in here.”
“Who’s him?” Sarisel asked.
“Ah…” Lucifer paused for dramatic effect, “Now that would be telling.” And with that he turned and strode away, Jonas heard Sarisel hiss something that sounded suspiciously like ‘bastard’, prompting a chuckle from further up the hall. Jonas was momentarily amused by the notion that he had Sister Sarisel curse more in the last few hours than in the entire time he had known her, which was admittedly not all that long.
A traitorous thought that rang in a smug voice suspiciously akin to Lucifer’s drifted across the back of his mind “You just haven’t know her long enough.” Despite himself he couldn’t help but chuckle, earning him a suspicious glare from Sarisel. He hastily turned the chuckle into a cough and set off after Lucifer.
-//-