Demonworld (16 page)

“
Let’s keep moving as long as there’s light,” said Marlon. He picked a path up the hill and continued on.

“
Maybe we should stay up here tonight,” said Peter. “You know, make our stand against that… that
thing
, if we have to.”

“
You didn’t see it good enough,” said Marlon. “We don’t want to tangle with it if we don’t have to.”

Iduna pulled Hermann behind her as she walked up the steep hill. “Thank goodness for that monkey,” she said. “It saved our lives!”

“
I
saved our lives,” said Marlon. “The monkey was an unwilling participant, believe me.”

“
Do you think that thing you saw was the demon that took Saul?” she asked.

“
Probably,” said Marlon. His fingers nervously played with the handle of his club and knife.

They stopped at the top of the hill. Formerly obscured by the dying light, it was now clear that the ruined structures had been raised by human hands. The leaning walls of cut stone were riddled with bullet holes and a plague of black moss. Small stones marked dirt mounds, the beds where cold bones slept forever. Marlon’s eyes locked on a chipped yellow helmet that rested in the dirt.

“
Peter, look,” he said. He dug out the discolored helm and brushed it clean. The eye guard was shattered, the lining rotted out. “It’s an old model, but definitely one of ours.”

Peter sighed, then nodded slowly. “Guardians were here.”

“
It’s from your day?” said Marlon.

Peter nodded.

“
You know anything about this?” Marlon said loudly.

Peter shook his head quickly.

“
What the
shit
,” said Marlon. He threw the helmet into the dirt.

“
I mean,” said Peter, “there were times in the past when the Guardians… ranged out into the wasteland… but that’s all a matter of public record!”

“
I knew the Guardians were involved,” said Iduna. “There’s probably more out here, waiting to kill us.”

“
Uh, for one thing,” said Marlon, “those weren’t Guardians that sent us here, and for another thing, I think it’s pretty obvious that they made some kind of stand out here, a stand against demons.” Marlon stood, then said, “So shut your goddamn mouth already!”

Hermann laughed and scratched his ear raw.

Peter stepped forward, said, “Now, Marlon-”

“
No!” Marlon shouted. “I see you guys sending dirty looks when you think my back’s turned! You think I had something to do with this mess, but then when it comes down to a fight, who do you depend on to get you out alive?” Hermann began laughing. Marlon continued, said, “You think Peter’s gonna help you, Iduna? He can’t even hold onto a bag of food that’s already strapped to his back! And that psycho doctor over there? Why not point a finger at him, if you want to accuse someone of being worthless?”

“
You can’t bully us!” said Iduna. “Your brash attitude got Wodi and Jules killed! And you didn’t do much to that lizard monster that probably took Saul. We’re not children, Marlon, and we don’t recognize the authority of the badges and ribbons you have hanging up back home!”

Marlon started forward. Iduna backed away, but her voice rose and she shouted, “You’re a trained brute! A thick-headed goon! You don’t have any authority in this place and we-”

“
This is my authority,” Marlon said, raising his club.

Hermann whooped loudly and said, “Is he gonna bash her brains out! Ha ha! Hey Peter, look! Is he gonna bash her brains out or what?”

“
Good lord!” said Peter. “Shut up, Hermann!” Peter grabbed Marlon’s shoulder and said, “Easy boy! Easy! Look, you’re the leader, alright, kid? We’re just a little stressed out, so-”

“
I’m not stressed out,” said Iduna.

“
Me neither!” said Marlon.

“
Alright, alright,” said Peter. He ignored Hermann, who was either sobbing or laughing, and said, “Whatever the case, let’s just take a second and remember what it means to be a Guardian, alright? Control yourself. We depend on you, boy. You know? We depend on you.”

They fumed in silence for a moment, then Marlon said, “I… I wasn’t going to…” He lifted his head, then said, “What’s that smell?”

The sun fell over the edge of the mountains. All was red and black in hard angles. The wind was full of rot, as if the gates to a world of decay were opened wide. They heard a screaming chorus, soft at first, then louder, then saw a great shivering shadow in the woods below. Then the ghouls burst forth, fifteen freaks running on three or four limbs with knives held in their teeth or spears held high, and with their black spear leader in the middle. Their throats were torn by their unending scream, minds lost to some god of destruction.

“
Don’t move, any of you!” Marlon shouted. “We’ve got the high ground!”

At once Iduna ran and grabbed Hermann, who sat against a stone and watched the ghouls with vacant disinterest. “Come on!” she said, hauling him to his feet.

“
Peter, hold this spot!” Marlon continued. “We’ve gotta hold the high ground or–”

His words were drowned out in the tide of white berserkers leaping up the hill. Peter barely had a chance to raise his spear before the storm of limbs was upon him. He swung wildly, felt sharp blows and hot breath, then his defense became a wild backpedaling rush. He turned to run further up the hill but several ghouls leaped upon his back, biting and slashing, and he fell sideways and rolled heavily down the hill with seven white devils behind him.

One savage leaped at Marlon and he swung his club, knocking teeth and eyeballs and brain matter across the sky. As the body fell into the others, Marlon scrambled backwards up the hill, fearful because he knew something had changed in the ghouls. Something had erased their cowardice and turned them rabid. The leader urged the seven others to follow Marlon, then crept around the side of the hill, unwilling to run into a fight when his spear could fly for him.

Hermann regained control of himself in the woods at the base of the hill and pulled his arm from Iduna’s grasp.

“
We have to go!” said Iduna. “Don’t you see? The others, they’re already-”

Hermann pulled away when she reached for him. Ever since he’d been tortured on that first terrible night, his will had been broken. He knew something had crawled into the space in his mind that had been left vacant, and the endless fight against that other presence was exhausting, utterly exhausting. He did not believe in supernatural forces, but he had been forced to watch himself say and do terrible things, and he hated what he’d become. A burden, something less than human.

But now he had breathing room. Whatever was in him was now in the ghouls. He saw the spear in Iduna’s hands and jerked it away from her.

“
I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry about everything!”

He turned and ran back to the hill.

Marlon stumbled between two tall stones at the top of the hill. He’d planned on using the stones to help break up the pack, but the seven poured through the opening behind him so fast that he only ended up swinging his club, knocking it against the stones on either side, then falling over as the ghouls spread out. As he scrambled backwards on his ass, one ghoul flew in from the side and bit down on his wrist. He screamed as his hand went numb and the club bounced away. Others bounded around the stones, growling like dogs; Marlon pulled free his combat knife and jammed it into the skull of the ghoul on his wrist, then pried the thing off and tossed both knife and ghoul to the side.

Marlon staggered to his feet before the circle of white bodies could close on him. He ran to the club as one ghoul knelt over it. Marlon lashed out with a vicious kick that sent the creature soaring. He grasped the club with his off-hand just as another ghoul leaped at him from the stones overhead; in one smooth motion he batted the thing, crumbled its torso into a sack of bones, and splattered it against a stone wall.

Five ghouls surrounded him, jabbing and hissing. Marlon was exhausted and knew that his options were disappearing with the dying sun.

The ghoul leader circled the hill. Because his god was in his mind, he knew how the fight on the hilltop was going without seeing it. He was charged, alive, free of all doubts. Finally he reached his vantage point – he saw Marlon with his back exposed as the others herded him into the leader’s kill zone. Marlon began to move and would have disappeared behind a stone, but one of the ghouls threw himself into Marlon’s path. Marlon clubbed the creature to death – and remained perfectly positioned for the black spear.

The ghoul leader smiled, then kissed the spear. He raised his weapon and bent his body back –

At that moment he heard a whistling in the wind. He turned and saw a small spear gliding toward him. The thing struck the ground nowhere near him, but by some awful turn of luck the thing bounced off a stone and the butt of it struck him under his jaw. Pained grinded all across his face and tears welled in his eyes. Rage blasted through him.

In the distance he saw Hermann. The doctor bellowed in triumph and, even though he was weaponless, he ran toward the lead ghoul. Overcome with fury, the ghoul ignored the inner voice that told him to ignore the small doctor; instead, he dug in his feet and threw the vicious black spear with all his might. The spear tore through the sky like a lightning bolt, then passed through Hermann’s body, tearing ribcage and heart to pieces and flinging him down the hill. The ghoul spit, cursing the man as he rubbed his jaw.

He looked at the hilltop and saw Marlon staring directly at him, mouth hanging open.

“
You son of a bitch,” Marlon hissed.

Marlon dashed through the circle of ghouls, braining one with his club as he tore through them. The others dashed around to stop him from getting to their leader. Marlon tossed his club into them, tripping and scattering them. One moved too slowly and, as Marlon picked up speed, he leaped and fell upon the thing, crushing organs as he landed and sending great coils of sausage flying on either side.

“
Son of a bitch!” cried Marlon, eyes burning into the leader as he ran still faster. “You’ll pay for that!
You’ll pay for everything!
”

Before the large ghoul could decide whether to move or dig in his feet, Marlon crashed into him. The two hit the ground and rolled down the hill in a sickening tumult of limbs and senseless caterwauling. Marlon gagged on the creature’s rotting breath. As they neared the bottom the ghoul tucked his head against Marlon’s shoulder, then they crashed into a bed of stone. Marlon’s face took the full force of the collision. The ghoul’s head bounced painfully, but as he crawled away from Marlon he was entranced by the sight of his foe’s broken teeth and pool of blood spreading from sliced mouth and tongue. He saw something magical and overwhelming in the vision of agony, and was able to ignore his own nausea.

Finally the spirit of the lord of the forest that was in the ghoul was able to pull himself from the sight and the ghoul was urged to bring more pain to the human. He lifted himself up and prepared to finish the slaughter.

They killed Hermann!
Marlon thought.
They killed Wodi and Jules! They killed Saul, they’re probably killing Peter, and they’ll kill Iduna next!
He lifted his heavy, aching head, then thought,
I can’t let them get away with this!

The ghoul lashed out with a kick and, still on his knees, Marlon grabbed the monster’s scab-covered limb and pulled him forward. He grasped the ghoul’s waist, howled like an animal, then stood and fell backwards, smashing the ghoul’s head on the rocks behind him. He staggered away from the ghoul, who gagged and spat a thick wad of black blood.

“
Doesn’t feel so good when it’s happening to you, does it?” said Marlon.

The two stood and faced one another in the shadow of the graveyard hill.

Peter flew down the hill like a legless pig and rolled into a stinking bog choked with black reeds. He rose up spluttering and waving his arms, then pushed deeper into the sea of mud in hopes that he would be left alone. To his horror, the seven little fiends leaped in after him. Pond scum clung to their bodies like robes and Peter thought of priests marching toward their sacrifice.