Demonworld (37 page)

A single oil lamp cast a greasy light on boxes, a handful of guns and clips, and a table with a map laid out like a tablecloth, as if its owners were preparing to devour the world. Wodan studied it. The encampments of primitives and dogmen were marked on the mountains surrounding the valley. Pontius lay to the west, a whore with her legs spread to the river that ran through her; the purple skull-and-scar flag of the Ugly flew above it, and below it flew the green standard of the Coil, the black and gold standard of the Smiths, and the blue standard of the Law. He glanced at Sunport, far from Pontius, in the north. A nail was tacked into the desert closer to the port city than to the valley from which he had come. He laid his hand on the map, dug his nails into it, and clenched his hand, tearing the world apart.

Wodan could hear the other four guards rambling outside. As he gathered up a handful of guns and kept his eyes on the entrance, he could hear Barkus reading far away. “In the evening they heard the Ghost walking in the garden, so they hid themselves among the trees. The Ghost called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He replied, ‘I heard you coming, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.’ ‘How did you know that you were naked?’ the Ghost asked. ‘Have you eaten the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge that I commanded you not to take?’ When the Ghost questioned them, the man blamed the woman, and the woman blamed the trickery of the Worm.

“
So the Ghost cursed them, saying to the woman, ‘You will bear children with intense pain and suffering. Since you have lusted after knowledge, your children will have large skulls full of trivia; their heads will tear your hole as you squeeze their bones into the world. Further, you will desire for nothing but the love of your man, but he will love only his dreams, and the possibility of more, and so he will be your master, now and forever.’ And to the man he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit I told you not to eat, I have placed a curse on your world. You will be blind to the world, the sky will be gray compared to the light of your dreams, and your dreams will torture you just as you have hurt me. All your life you will struggle to squeeze a living from the dying earth. The dirt will grow thorns and weeds for you, and you will eat it. All your life you will sweat to produce food, planting seed every day until the final harvest when you plant your own dead bones in the field. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.’

“
Then the Ghost returned to its kin, and said, ‘The people have become as We are, knowing everything, both good and evil. Now what if they eat the fruit from the Tree of Life? If they do that,
they will live forever
.’ So the Ghost banished the man and his wife from the garden, and sent them out to cultivate the ground from which they had been made. And so was woman made a slave of man, and man a slave of his dreams. The fruit of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge make war upon one another even to this day. The human puppet, subject to whims beyond reason, will dance in darkness for all eternity.”

Suddenly the four Ugly guards just outside the entrance fired their guns into the air, laughing and screaming. Wodan shook his head in disgust. He had a pile of rifles and handguns and a few small boxes of ammunition gathered. As he prepared to tie a rag about them to take them to the others, he wondered what would happen. Would they stand up and fight? Would fear get the best of them? Would the Ugly realize that Adem was dead and sound the alarm?

Suddenly the four Ugly outside the entrance went silent. Wodan quickly crouched behind a large box, then saw that they were staring off to the side. One of the Ugly, with cross-bones carved into his face, shouted, “Hey! What are you doin’ walkin’ around, slut?”

Wodan’s heart raced. He craned his neck and saw Rachek approach the guards.

“
Sorry to bother you boys,” she said, smiling. She held her arms behind her back and pushed her breasts out, smiling shyly. “I just had something that I wanted to tell you.”

The guards gathered around her. Wodan could see that she had tightened her shirt to accentuate her breasts, hiked her skirt up so that her legs were exposed, and rolled her waistband down so that the curve of her belly was visible.

“
Tell us?” said one of the Ugly, chuckling. “Mmm, I remember this one. Fight like a kitty, she do!”

“
Sorry about that!” said Rachek, eyes fluttering as the goons towered over her. “Sometimes I get shy when the other girls are around, you know? But I thought maybe I could give you some news, and maybe you could get me some food in exchange, you know? And of course… you can do whatever else you want with me.”

News?
Wodan thought. His heart hammered uncontrollably.
She wouldn’t! She can’t!

“
Aaaaaw boah,” said another goon. “Yeah, I got somethin’ to feed ya, don’t worry ’bout that!”

Wodan’s eyes narrowed and he raised the rifle, jamming the butt into his shoulder.

The Ugly nearest her, a fat pig carved up with the names of the souls he had snuffed out, grabbed the back of her head and whipped out his belt in one swift motion. His pants dropped. “Alright, sweetie,” he said. “We listenin’. What’s this news you reckon’s so important?”

Wodan’s rifle drifted from the Ugly to Rachek’s neck.

Just then he heard the sound of feet pounding the ground. Rachek brought one up arm, fast and hard – and Wodan saw her twisting the handle of a long knife that was jammed into the base of the man’s skull, grinding it under his jaw and into his brains.

“
You’re dead!” she screamed.

The other three cried out and, as they moved to clasp their pants shut and lift their guns, a crowd of tribals crashed into them, a torrent of brown fists and flashing teeth. Two Ugly fell immediately, crushed under the weight of stomping feet; one crawled away and a primitive leaped on him, biting his face like a wild animal. The last Ugly stumbled away, cursing and crying. With his pants around his ankles he raised his rifle and prepared to fire into the crowd. Wodan dashed through the door flap, moving faster than he ever thought possible, and fired his rifle from the hip. In a flash of sparks and smoke the Ugly spun, clutching his gut. Wodan ran straight for him and when the man’s eyes locked onto him for a moment, body bent over awkwardly, Wodan fired once more and sent a trail of destruction through the man’s jaw, neck, torso. The dead man sat down heavily, legs out straight and body slumped over and bouncing.

Wodan turned and saw the primitives standing before him, covered in blood, eyes shining, a terrifying sight. Rachek pushed herself to the forefront, adjusting her clothes. “We couldn’t let you do everything yourself!” she said. Wodan was so jacked up on adrenaline that he could not speak, only nod.

Brad ran up to Wodan, his face and hair slick with blood. “You shoulda seen it, buddy!” he said. “Some of the old heads were causing so much trouble, everyone was arguing. Then the dicks watching us decided they were gonna have some fun with our girls, and everyone was already heated as it was. They came right up to us and were pissin’ us off, so we jumped up and beat the shit out of ’em proper! They didn’t even fire a shot! I mean, that was it. The ones ready to get out just got up and left right then. I guess Hari convinced most of the others to stay put.”

Wodan guessed that they were about forty in number. The Ugly outnumbered them, but he knew that the ones who stood before him had laid their lives on the line and were willing to fight to the death. “Don’t think about the others from here on out,” said Wodan. “Your families are dead. Even if you went back to them now, you would only be separated once they sold you on the market. Don’t ever look back!”

The mob nodded grimly.

Wodan turned to Brad, said, “You took the guns from the ones guarding you?”

Brad nodded, tilting his head toward the mob.

“
Why didn’t you use them?” said Wodan.

Agmar came to the front. “Rachek told them not to. Said we might hit you.” He smiled, said, “She was confident that you were in the area, hiding and just waiting to strike.”

Wodan grabbed her arm, then said, “Listen everyone! There’s a few guns in the tent, go and grab them! The end point is the horses, if we get split up, make for them. I’ve got keys that might go to the truck, we’ll hit it next. After that, we hit their feast and kill ’em all and save those girls!”

The mob grabbed the weapons on the ground and filled the tent and looted what guns they could find. Wodan turned and ran toward the torch that lit the truck. The desert wind raked across his skin, waking up his soul. The revolution had begun!

The heavy truck loomed over him. He yanked the staked torch from the ground and propped it against the truck so he could see the lock that shut the rear. As he fumbled with the keys, Brad ran to the truck and leaped on something. Wodan saw that he was strangling a man who laid on the ground. Brad looked up, said, “Bitch was passed out like a li’l ho.” The body flailed weakly and Wodan knew that he could have been killed by the unseen man if he had been fighting alone.

Wodan unlocked the rear door of the truck and it raised loudly. A mass of men and women ran up to him. He grabbed the torch and leaped inside.

Guns!

Wodan sighed with relief. He kicked and tore open boxes of ammunition and threw them at the mob below, laughing with bloodthirsty glee, and others poured inside and armed themselves. Wodan saw a few of the tribals giving impromptu lessons on how to load and shoot and he laughed, teetering on the brink of mania. He noticed Agmar hanging on the periphery. He carried a dour expression, a witness to madness with no will to take part.

“
What are you doing, Ag?” said Wodan. “Come to stack up some bodies and earn your freedom?”

“
I’m just here to make sure you don’t do anything too stupid,” he said.

“
This is no time to baby-sit, old man!” Wodan shouted.

Before Agmar could reply, Brad swung his heavy rifle about and shouted, “We’re the biggest badass killers they ever was!”

“
That’s right, Brad!” said Wodan. “Let’s go save those girls! Show no sympathy, none whatsoever! Kill anyone who gets in your way!”

The slaves tumbled out of the back and Brad led the way. Wodan and Agmar looked at one another. They knew that the thing that was unleashed would not go back into its cage unless it was dead – and it would tear the whole world to pieces before that could ever happen.

A great bonfire burned where the Ugly celebrated the Feast of the Eclipse. Many scarred, naked men were gathered to take part in a ritual that would invoke the black sun. They held down the women and, through rape and learning to ignore screams of protest, they hoped that the symbol of the black sun would eclipse the conscience that had hamstrung them since birth and replace it with something more powerful. The high priests of the Ugly taught that man was born with one soul, and that soul was the soul of a sheep; he was born to be food for demonkind, his natural superior. Now several Ugly youths, who had already passed the test of self-mutilation, gathered with the elite and cut their victims and burned them and raped them repeatedly so that the old soul, the old way of thinking, would die and they could be reborn as creatures more fit to inhabit the world of the demons.

No longer sheep, but wolves. Not quite demon, but also no longer quite human.

Barkus, leader of the Right Arm of the Ugly, sixth level initiate in the Rite of the Demon Theory and accomplished reader of the
Leather Book
, also called the
Book of the Red
, stood atop a crate and looked down at the tableau of misery that played before him. He wore the long, shimmering robe of the Theorist, which was open at the chest to display his rat’s skull. His two massive handguns hung low on his belt. In one hand he held a whip that was tied to the neck of a girl who sat in the sand below him. In the other hand he held the
Red Book
, a leather-bound tome filled with arcane lore, a priceless thing made over the course of years by artists initiated in that society. Barkus watched Wallach, shaped like a shaved pink bear, as he groaned atop a small girl suspended in the air by two laughing Ugly. He turned to the book and read from it.

“
Now the earth had one language and one flag. And the people said, ‘Let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the black and milk of the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the universe.’ ”

Barkus tugged on the whip so that the girl choked. He read on, saying, “But the Ghost came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Ghost said, ‘Indeed, the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s ideas.’