The Demon Deception (35 page)

The horde flinched back from the massive
death that took a thousand of their fellows. The van hit the portal
right in time with the recoil of the horde. The van screamed as its
wheels hit the plain of the alien world. The heavy bulk of the van
hit the alien horde, causing even more confusion. The van rocked
back and forth as screaming aliens fell beneath the wheels. Other
aliens flew through the air as the van hit them and threw them to
the side. Lazarus was glad he was hooked in. As it was, he almost
launched out of the back of the van when they landed on this side
of the portal.

The van didn’t delay the horde for too long.
The horde’s goal was to get through the portal and establish a
bridge into the new world. Once the van was out of the way, they
flowed back to the portal. Lilith, leaning from the side door of
the van kept driving balls of hellfire into them, destroying them
by the hundreds. In the back of the van, Lazarus picked up one of
the M60s. It took longer than the five seconds that Sam had talked
about, but he finally had the belt of bullets in the feed tray, and
pulled the charging handle back. He put the weapon on fire, and
pulled the trigger. Bullets ripped into the back of the horde,
every bullet taking an alien life, sometimes more, the mass of
flesh too closely packed for Lazarus to miss. This took some of the
pressure off of possessed on the other side of the portal.

The horde wasn’t just some mindless mass of
flesh, though. Leaders saw the problems the van was causing, and a
thousand of the horde turned to chase after them. Lazarus kept
pumping rounds into alien bodies, causing major damage, requiring
more of the horde to turn to deal with him. As groups surged
towards him, he pulled pins from grenades and lobbed them. Aliens
went down as the silver and gold particles scythed through the air.
He wasn’t able to kill as many as Lilith, but he put down a lot of
them.

Then fate shined down on them. A lightning
bolt flew out of the darkness streaking from one horde member to
another, destroying a hundred or more. Lazarus reloaded a fresh
belt, and began shooting the M60 again. Belt after belt of
ammunition disappeared as he ran out of bullets and reloaded. He
pounded away, yelling, “Get some. Get some.” Lightening kept
striking against the horde, as Lilith and he continued to kill as
many as they could.

The horde gave up on the van as more
lightning strikes hit. The lightening was doing far more damage
now. The van was able to pull away, and had a brief respite. They
got far enough away, and Lazarus yelled at Sam to stop the van. The
van came to a shuddering halt as wheels threw up a curtain of
gravel.

“Sam, I need you back here!”

Lazarus couldn’t get unbuckled in time, so he
pulled his Kabar and cut through the seat belts. Attaching his
carabineer had been a stroke of genius. He had bounced around in
the back, and had almost been thrown out time after time as the van
bounced across shattered alien bodies and the broken landscape. As
it was, he had a devil of a time keeping the weapons and munitions
from falling out as he engaged the aliens with the M60. Sam came
running back, and Lazarus pulled out one of the AT-4s. Sam stepped
to the side so that the back blast wouldn’t hit the interior of the
van. He sighted on the huge bulk in front of him, and pulled the
trigger. The AT-4’s tail flame lit up the dark as the rocket shot
towards the giant creature.

Lazarus didn’t stop there. He threw another
to Sam. Sam lined up, and fired again. The first rocket hit the
giant creature, and it screamed its outrage as it took damage. One,
two, three, four AT-4’s hit the creature. One of the creature’s
arms hung by a thread. There was blood gushing down the side of the
monstrosity.

“I need the Javelins,” Sam screamed as the
horde noticed what was happening to its master. They turned, and
started running towards the van. Only a few were left at the
portal. Lilith increased her salvoes of hellfire, immolating more
of the horde aliens. More lighting strikes took out aliens as
well.

Sam raised the Javelin, sighted in, and
pulled the trigger. At first, Ragosh thought that the strange magic
arrow had missed as the rocket flew out, then shot straight up.
Ragosh soon realized his mistake as he traced the arc of the
missile. The Javelin arced up, then turned and flew straight down,
the heat of the great bulk lighting up in infrared like the heart
of a volcano, drawing the heat seeking missile directly to it. The
first one punched straight through the top of the chest, and burned
through, exploding deep inside. The second one couldn’t have been
aimed any better, or any luckier. It arched straight down the
gigantic maw, following thousands of pulped corpses.

Lazarus watched as the first Javelin punched
into the chest. The great chest expand as the explosion ripped
through whatever kind of vitals the great monster possessed. The
second Javelin didn’t explode until it had gone deep into the
monster. The gut seemed expand endlessly. The gut ripped, spilling
the entrails across the front of the monster. The great bulk tilted
as it died. This doomed the slaves under the great throne. The
uneven weight of the carcass caused first one side of the great
throne to crash down, and then the other side settled as well.
Infinite screams sounded as the slaves were crushed.

With Ragosh dead, the magic dissipated. The
great horde died. They died hideous deaths as millennia of
agelessness caught up instantaneously. Some of them turned to dust.
Others exploded. One seemed to shatter. Different phenotypes died
in different, equally hideous, unique ways as magical energies
stilled. About a thousand of younger horde members survived.
Lazarus opened up with the machinegun to rake the survivors.

“Unexpected,” Sam said.

Sam stopped, looked at Lazarus. Lazarus
looked back at him. The sound of the machinegun stilled. They both
turned to look at the portal. Lilith looked as well.

Lilith didn’t even have to ask, she ran for
the van. Sam and Lazarus were right on her heels. Sam had the van
fired up before they even had their seats. Another curtain of
gravel flew as they turned and drove as fast as possible towards
the portal.

On the great corpse, the gems cracked and the
magic whorls of the tattoos faded. The great jewel tumbled to the
ground.

----------------------------------------------------

Darcy woke up. She didn’t know where she was.
She heard Ragosh call to her. She sat up, gathered her legs under
her, and stood up. She saw the dead figure of Dargonth lying on the
ground. Around her, corpses lay scattered. Nothing in the mine was
alive but her. The portal still pulsed, though she felt it
collapsing.

Her plans were ruined. She was upset. She
just wanted her mother and father back. Hazy memories of her
parents disappearing overwhelmed her. She began crying, tears
running down her face. If only Daddy hadn’t yelled at her, this
never would have happened. She was only a little girl. She didn’t
know. Daddy shouldn’t have yelled at her. When Daddy disappeared,
Mommy had yelled at her, also.

She could get them back, though. She knew
that. Things had been spoiled here, but she could still get them
back. She knew it, because the voice told her she could. She walked
forward, towards the portal. She stopped at the edge, and held her
hand out.

----------------------------------------------------

Sam had the accelerator all the way to the
floor. Lazarus looked over at the speedometer. It was jumping
between sixty and eighty miles an hour. He just hoped that Sam
would be able to thread the eye of the needle when they hit the
portal.

He looked ahead, “What the hell?”

Sam nodded, “I see it, too.”

There was a lone figure standing at the
portal. Lazarus wasn’t sure, but he thought it was Darcy. She had
one hand up.

“What do I do?” Sam asked.

“What do you think you do? If she doesn’t get
out of the way, you run her over!” Lilith screamed.

Sam glanced over at Lazarus. Lazarus
nodded.

Something caught the corner of Lazarus’ eye
as it flew past the van. It glinted as it flew.

“What the hell was that?” Lilith asked.

Lazarus knew what it was. It was the jewel
that they had seen in the center of the behemoth’s chest. He had a
very bad feeling about what was going to happen next. The jewel
flew until it hit Darcy’s hand. They weren’t too far behind it.
They were so close to getting through. Then disaster struck.

Darcy stepped back from the portal, and it
slammed shut with a violence that sent a visible shock wave through
the air. The shock wave hit the van, and Sam had to stand on the
brakes to keep from hitting what was now a solid wall of stone in
front of them. He twisted the steering wheel to avoid the rock
wall. The van turned sideways and slid to a stop, tipping and
almost turning over. The side of the van touched the stone and the
van fell back down on all four tires.

They were alive, but just barely. Lazarus
cursed. Lilith cursed. Sam’s broken heart showed plainly on his
face.

Lazarus looked at Sam, “Darcy, queen of
demons,” He paused, “I didn’t see that coming.”

Lilith folded her arms across her chest. In
her pique, she said, “You should have let me kill her.”

Sam growled.

----------------------------------------------------

The van was still sitting next to the rock
face. They had a fire burning between the van and the rock wall.
Lilith was sitting in the side door of the van, holding her hands
out to catch the heat of the fire. Sam and Lazarus had pulled out
camp chairs to sit on. The remnants of ammunition boxes had been
splintered to feed the fire. Sam was making coffee in three army
surplus canteen cups. Water was boiling in the cups, and Sam was
using a handkerchief to dip coffee into the cups and steep it.
Lilith was chewing gum from an MRE meal. Strange stars in an
unknown sky flickered above them.

“And you guys were upset that I had to stop
at the Bisbee Coffee Company.”

Sam spoke, “In retrospect, I believe that may
have been a good decision on your part, Eli.”

“Oooh, a three syllable word. Watch it, you
might hurt yourself, Sam.”

Sam scowled at Lilith, “You may be immortal
on the other side of the portal, but I wonder what would happen if
you were killed on this side.”

“Do you think you have the juice to try,
Baby?” she purred.

Lazarus held up the palm of a hand towards
each of them, to calm down the interaction between the two. “Now, I
think we may want to pool our resources, not divide them. We still
have to figure out how to get back to our own world,” Lazarus
interjected. “Probably best if we waited to kill each other until
we get back.”

Sam settled back to making coffee, a growl
welling up from deep in his chest, frustration from not being able
to deliver destruction to Lilith.

Lilith had her legs crossed, the suspended
foot kicking out a tempo that matched her jaw as she chewed her
gum.

“So, Eli, that lightening we saw shooting
across the field as we fought that demon horde. Who do you think
that was?” Sam asked.

Lazarus shrugged, “Not sure. Whatever it was
saved our bacon back there. The M60 and the hand grenades were
taking out a chunk, but they were still going to take us down
before we could hit that gigantic tub of lard with the
missiles.”

A voice boomed from the darkness surrounding
the van, “And you were lucky in your choice of weapons.”

Fire blazed up around Lilith’s hands. Sam
pulled his pistol and aimed in the general direction of the voice.
Twin swords appeared in Lazarus’ hands, and he twisted around,
standing as he shifted, to meet whatever fate was behind him.

“Don’t worry, if I wanted to kill you, I
think I would have done it without alerting you first.”

“Who are you?” Lazarus asked.

“I believe you stated it as me being the one
who saved your bacon.”

Lazarus lowered his swords. Lilith dialed
back the hellfire. Sam pointed his pistol down towards the dirt.
None of them relaxed completely, though. They thought they had
killed all the aliens after the portal closed, but you never
know.

“Do you mind if I approach the fire? Or are
you going to let me stand out here in the cold all night?”

“Sure, come on in. Just please don’t do
anything that might be viewed as provocative. I’d hate to have to
kill you before you introduce yourself.”

“Ah, you always were jumpy, Eli.”

A figure walked forward into the light.
Lazarus recognized him. Lilith figured it out pretty quickly as
well. Sam didn’t have a clue though, “Eli, how does he know your
name?”

The figure’s secrets gave way to the light of
the fire. Medium height in the modern world, he would have seemed
much taller in antiquity. A nimbus of wild, gray hair surrounded
his head. The long beard looked like it hadn’t seen a comb in quite
some time. Bluish-gray eyes took in the scene before him. It was a
kindly face, but Lazarus knew that face could turn into a
terrifying visage in battle. A long sword was strapped to the left
side of his body. Over his robes, he wore leather armor.

The man walked forward, “How are you, Eli?”
He turned to Lilith, “And you Lilith? I must say I’m very surprised
to see you both in such a cordial setting. Usually, you’re set on
killing each other.”

The man turned towards Sam, “Good Lord, this
one is a veritable giant among men. Is he human? Or is he one of
the Titans of old?”

Sam looked at Eli, confused.

Lazarus did the introductions, “Sam, this is
Aurelius Ambrosius, also known as Myrddin Wyllt. Or, as you would
know his more modern name, Merlin.”