Legion (An Apocalyptic Horror Novel) (Hell on Earth Book 2) (20 page)

Hernandez tapped his foot. “Can we speed this up, please, Lieutenant?”

Danza nodded. “Protocol demands I fall inline under Lieutenant Hernandez’s command, for he is the senior officer aboard. Those are the rules. It isn’t best for my crew though. Today, we survived Armageddon, and I don’t just mean aboard this ship. The world has fallen to ashes. We capable men and women of the US Navy are in a position to do something about that. Our country—the world, needs us, so the rules no longer apply. I will not follow the rules when they make no sense.”

Hernandez scowled. Not only had Danza referred to him as ‘Lieutenant’, but it did not seem in any way like he was apologising. Every word out of the man’s mouth seemed to take him further and further away from the word ‘sorry’.

Hernandez tried to interrupt, but Danza waved a hand at him. “Just let me finish, Hernandez. All day, you’ve talked, and you’ve talked, and you’ve talked. At first, I thought you were losing it, but you’re not that innocent. It’s your ego. Your whole life you’ve wanted to be the man, but being the man isn’t something you can seize. It’s something you earn.”

“I’ve heard quite enough. Will someone please escort Lieutenant Danza to the brig?”

Nobody moved.

Hernandez prodded Cuervo. “Do your duty, Lieutenant.”

“Yes sir.” She snapped off a salute and hurried towards Danza, but she was cut off by another member of the crew. Outerbridge stepped out of the crowd and blocked her.

Hernandez exploded. “Outerbridge! You were detained to the brig. You have defied a direct—”

“I released him,” said Danza, “along with all the other innocent sailors you sent there. It is not a crime to refuse to pander to your ego.”

“I am in command of this—”

Danza shook his head. “No, you’re not. I’ve spoken to a portion of the crew, and they have all agreed to recognise me as Johnson’s successor. The Augusta is under my command.”

“Mutiny!”

Danza ignored the slur with a smile. “I am leading the Augusta to Jacksonville, where we will all do our very best to work together and help our nation. I will not be making decisions based on ego. I will do what is best for my crew and my country, and send only one man to the brig—you, Lieutenant Hernandez.”

“How dare you? I have committed no crime. The command is rightfully mine.”

“Perhaps, but until we ascertain the circumstances behind Commander Johnson’s death, you are suspended from service. You will be contained to the brig for your own safety.”

“Fuck you, Danza.”

“You will address me as Commander.”

Hernandez looked around at the men and woman on deck. Danza had not yet got to all of them, but a large enough portion seemed to be firmly behind him.

Hernandez pulled his Beretta out of its holster and pointed it at Danza. “The Augusta belongs to me!”

He pulled the trigger.

“
G
len
? Glen, what do you mean they’re coming?” Richard shook his colleague, but he was unconscious. A quick examination exposed a ragged wound across his tummy, the skin grey and moist either side of a bloody furrow. It was bad.

“They’re here, aren’t they?” asked Aaron, standing over Richard and still wearing his chip shop apron. “The demons are coming.”

Richard looked up at the boy and finally saw how scared he was. “Yes, I think so. Are you ready?”

Aaron looked like he might throw up all over his shoes, but he nodded.

“Then get your boys, get weapons, and get on the barricade.” Richard placed Glen down on the pavement and stood up. He addressed everyone, almost shouting. “You hear that? The enemy is coming to kill us. Get ready to kill them first.”

The seven newcomers still stood next to the barricade. Richard approached the one who had announced their arrival, a tall, middle-aged man wearing a leather jacket and carrying a cricket bat. “What happened to Glen?”

The man shook his head. “I don’t know. We just found him lying on the side of the road. He said he’d been attacked by a demon.”

Richard looked at the new group suspiciously. “Who are you people?”

“I work at the garage on Trotter Lane, and these guys work at the supermarket next door. We heard your friend shouting, saying he had a place we could all go to be safe. That sounded great to us, so we left to find where he was shouting from. Around the corner, we found him bleeding.”

“So there was no demon? What about the officers who were with him?”

The man shook his head and looked like he wished he knew more.

Richard rubbed at his chin, then grimaced when he realised he had Glen’s blood on him. “Thank you for bringing him back. You can get yourself a hot cup of tea at the church, but there might not be much time to relax. If the demons really have made it here from the city, then we have a fight ahead of us.”

The man held up his baseball bat. “I’m ready, governor, don’t worry. I’m Leonard, by the way.”

“Good to meet you, Leonard. Get your guys ready.”

Leonard nodded and took his six companions with him. Richard turned back around to face the disorganised chaos behind him. If he had not realised it before, he saw it clearly then. The people in the camp were just ordinary people panicking for their lives. Overcoming panic and acting courageously was not a normal response—it was either learned, in the cases of soldiers, firemen, etc, or occasionally built in, in the case of random heroes, but it was most certainly not the norm. The people in the camp were normal. They would not be courageous. They would not be brave—especially now the sun was going down. The dark sapped a man’s courage.

He needed heroes, but until the battle began there was no way of recognising them from the cowards.

“Help me get him up.” Richard looked aside to see Riaz struggling to get Glen up off the floor. It was wrong to leave their colleague there, so the two of them carried him towards the church. “You really think he was attacked by a demon?” asked Riaz, grunting.

“What else could have caused such awful wounds?”

“Many things, but I agree death is coming.”

Richard moaned as he readjusted his grip on Glen. “Can I count on you?”

“I may not believe we have a chance, but I still believe it’s my job to protect these people.”

“Good, because they will be looking to you, Riaz.”

Riaz said nothing. They struggled with Glen and got him to the church. Inside, Reverend Miles helped them take the man into the vestry where they set him down on a bench.

“I will tend to your friend,” said Miles. “If the Adversary is on his way, you both must go. Lead us all to salvation.”

Richard smiled, but did not mock. He liked the vicar, Christian or not. Before he went out to rally the troops, however, Richard went to find his family.

Jen held Dillon against her breast. He was sobbing and trembling. “We just heard,” she said. “Someone ran in screaming that the monsters had come. I didn’t know what to tell him.”

Richard looked at his wife and wished he had eternity to spend with her. He reached out and rubbed Dillon’s shoulder. “You remember what I said, sweetheart. You do whatever your mother tells you, okay? I will do everything I can to keep us all safe, but you need to stay inside.”

“I can’t let you go out there,” said Jen, her eyes wide and full of tears.

“Jen, I wish you could stop me, but this isn’t going to go away. We have people here that know what’s coming. If we run now, we’ll never stop running. Fighting is the only chance we have.”

She nodded, and a tear spilled down her cheek. “Go.”

Richard turned and ran. He exited the church as the first cry of terror rang out.

Fifty people manned the barricade. Aaron stood in the centre, and it was to him—a mere teenager—that Richard ran. “Aaron, what’s happening?”

“They’re here, boss. They’re coming.”

Richard wobbled and almost fell. Now that it was finally happening, all the talk seemed absurd. They had to run. Surely they couldn’t stay.

“I had everyone link arms,” said Aaron. “It was the only way we could all get up here without knocking each other off.”

Richard nodded. “Good thinking, Aaron. Is there room up there for me?”

Aaron reached out his hand. Richard took it. Then he was up on the barricade, staring down the road with everybody else.

Death was indeed coming.

Just like news had promised, the enemy was a legion of burnt men. They shambled up the hill like zombies, their flesh peeling off in bloody scraps and littering the road. Leading the enemy’s charge was a creature so burned that it was more skeleton than human. A foot taller than the other abominations, it cut a slender figure. Only the loosest slivers of muscle and sinew remained on its frame. Atop its shoulders sat a naked skull. The reason Richard knew it was the enemy leader was because it marched ahead of the line, several feet in front of the legion that followed.

“Oh God,” someone cried. “God help me, please!”

Richard saw movement in the corner of his eye. People fell away from the barricade and ran towards the town. They were fleeing before the battle had even begun.

“Stand and fight! We must stand and fight!”

Aaron remained in place beside Richard and yelled to his friends. “Anyone runs, and I will find you and beat the shit out of you. Let’s show these fuckers the real meaning of Hell.”

Richard’s heart lifted at the sound of the teenagers roaring defiantly.

Something sailed through the air, launching from the safe side of the barricade towards the incoming army. It smashed to pieces in the centre of the road and a fireball ignited. A dozen of the tightly-packed enemy went up in flames, their already burned flesh turning from glistening pink to charred black.

Richard looked back and saw one of Aaron’s friends standing with a crate full of liquor bottles at his feet.

Aaron smirked. “You told us to be ready. Plenty of petrol going to waste in all these cars. Seemed a shame to waste it.”

Richard shook his fist. “Good lad.”

Aaron’s friend lit another petrol bomb and launched it. Flames filled the road and took out more of the enemy. The rest of the barricade—those who had not run—followed suit and started lobbing bricks and chunks of concrete. Most did little to halt the progress of the legion.

“They’re not going to stop,” someone shouted. “This is insane.”

More people abandoned the wall. Those remaining spread out, keeping the line as solid as they could. Aaron leapt down too and for a moment it looked like he was going to run, but he only went to help his friend with the petrol bombs. It was the best weapon they had. Together, the two of them launched rapidly, lighting and throwing one after the other. Fire filled the entire road for fifty metres. Diseased bodies combusted. Others marched through the inferno, limbs smouldering. The smell of burning flesh permeated the air.

Richard understood what Hell must be like.

The enemy leader, Skullface, reached the barricade first, and his proximity caused another rout. Droves of people left the wall, leaving it unmanned in several areas.

Skullface moved right up to the barricade, but did not seek to climb it. He looked down at the ground and growled. The cast iron drainpipes from the church had worked. Demons could not pass iron.

The legion caught up to Skullface and paused at the barricade.

“They can’t pass,” said Richard triumphantly.

Skullface looked up at Richard and glared. Then he snatched out at a burnt man and seized it by the throat. The demon squirmed and fought, but was powerless as the taller monster tossed him at the barricade. It hit the iron drainpipe and exploded, sending chunks of meat everywhere. The concussive force threw a handful of people off the wall.

The iron drainpipe rolled away from the barricade.

Skullface leapt up and grabbed a brave young woman who had stood her ground. She froze as the creature towered over her but did not scream. It grabbed her by her brown hair and tossed her over his shoulder like a shopping bag. She flew twenty feet through the air and landed on her back in the middle of the road. An almighty wheeze escaped her impacted lungs. The enemy ripped her apart. The burnt creatures surrounded her and tore off her legs and arms, before shoving their skinless fingers into her torso until nothing remained but human mash.

Skullface grabbed a piece of the barricade and tossed it aside, exposing a gap for its comrades to infiltrate, then he hopped down on the other side and set upon anyone unlucky enough to be within reach. Two seconds was all it took to pull a screaming man’s head from his shoulders.

The battle was lost. They never even had a chance.

“Fall back!” Richard shouted. “Fall back to the church.”

Even as he said it, he hated himself. His family was at the church.

But he couldn’t let everyone stand and die.

The barricade dissolved as bodies bled from it. People scattered and raced for the church—although many kept on running long after they had passed it. Richard stopped to get Aaron. The lad was still lighting petrol bombs and tossing them. Tears and snot covered his face. “Aaron, we have to go.”

“No, we have to stop them.”

“We can’t do it here. Come on.”

Aaron’s hands shook as he struggled to light another fuse. Richard grabbed the lad’s hands and looked him in the eye. “I need you alive!”

Aaron nodded and allowed Richard to drag him away. Behind them, burned bodies clambered over the barricade. Their hungry moans echoed off the shop windows on either side of the road.

They found Riaz outside the church trying his best to organise the crowd of screaming terrified people. “Grab whatever you can. Stay together. Shoulder to shoulder. Help your neighbour.”

Richard skidded on his heels trying to brake from his full on sprint. His colleague had to steady him. 

“Still think this is the smart thing to do?” Riaz asked.

“What choice do we have? Are Jen and Dillon—”

“Still inside the church.”

“Then I want to make sure the enemy stays on the outside.”

“Oh my God!” somebody screamed. The crowd began to split apart.

“Stay together!” Riaz shouted at them again.

Nearby, Aaron’s friends appeared around him. Each brandished knives—something Richard would have pulled them for once—just days ago, everything had been different.

He realised he brandished no weapon of his own, so he moved over to a public bin and wrestled off the top. The plastic lid would make a basic riot shield. He pulled the telescopic baton from his belt and whipped it open.

The enemy came.

People screamed louder, but this time nobody ran. What remained were the people who understood that there was nowhere
to
run. This was a problem they could not escape.

Skullface was nowhere in sight, and only burnt men attacked the church. An old man swung an axe at the first ones and scored an immediate kill, but his weapon lodged in its skull and left him defenceless. The next monster fell upon him easily. The old man’s wife bellowed in anger and poked holes in the creature’s back with a pair of scissors. The demon went down, but so did the old woman when the next demon grabbed her.

People were dying.

But at least they were taking the enemy down with them.

Richard rallied Aaron and his friends to a charge, and together they threw themselves at the enemy. Richard swung his baton over and over again until his shoulder went numb. The burnt men came apart like roasted chickens, their flesh barely clinging to the bone. They were easy to destroy, but their numbers were endless.

Aaron buried his knife in the eye socket of a creature that came at him from the side. As the thing died, it twisted and fell away, taking the knife with it. Aaron fought the next attacker with his bare hands, tossing it over his leg in a basic judo throw. Then he produced another blade from the back of his jeans and buried it in the thing’s skull. He gave Richard a cheeky wink and got back to fighting.

Richard glanced back towards the church, trying to imagine what Jen and Dillon were doing inside—how scared they must be. It filled him with bone-shaking dread that the enemy moved so close to his family, but his spirit lifted because a crowd of people stood armed and ready. Richard and Aaron’s display of courage had given hope to those watching, and Riaz rallied even further back. They were gaining a foothold.

In front of Richard, Aaron’s group were joined by others—the front line swelling. They hacked and slashed at the burnt men, opening up their sinewy necks and disembowelling them.

Their confidence grew.

They were doing it.

They were standing their ground.

They could win this!

Then Richard heard the screams from inside the church. Suddenly, he realised that everything might already be lost.