The Gates: An Apocalyptic Novel (22 page)

She put the phone back in her pocket and looked at
Andras. “Did you do anything on my computer?”

Andras smiled. “Like what?”

“David just told me that the website has been
deleted. All the information we posted is gone.”

Andras frowned. “Weird.”

“Yeah, it is. You were sat at my computer when I
came out here. What did you do, Andras?”

“Nothing. I… Maybe I did something by accident.”

“No, you’re an IT specialist. You wouldn’t accidentally
delete a website. You could only have done it on purpose.”

Andras folded his arms. “What are you accusing me
of, Mina?”

She sighed, rubbed at her eyes with her thumbs. “Nothing.
Sorry. I need to take a look at my laptop and just hope I can get everything
back online. I’ll soon find out what happened. Andras, if you did something by
accident it could cost people their lives.”

“Good.”

Mina had been about to walk away, but the comment
stunned her. She turned to Andras in confusion. “Good? What do you mean, ‘good’?”

He grinned at her, his teeth mouldy, his breath
foul. “I mean
good
that your pathetic attempts to get people fighting
are finished before they even got started. You really think you can change
anything with a silly little blog? You’re all doomed.”

The venom in Andras’s words was enough to make her
stagger back. “Y-you’re helping the demons?”

“No, I’m not helping them, you stupid worm. I’m
one
of them.”

Mina opened her mouth to shout for help, but
Andras’s hand went over her lips and stifled her. His other hand went over her
nose, and he forced her down to the ground and climbed on top of her chest. She
couldn’t breathe.

Andras glared at her as she struggled.

“There will be no resistance,” he hissed. “You are
all going to die, and this world will be ours. Do you know what it’s like to
spend an eternity in the fires of Hell? You will find out.”

“Mina? Are you out here?”

It was David. He was looking for her. Mina was
behind the reception desk—out of sight—with Andras pressing down on top of her.
She tried to scream out, to kick at something and make a noise, but she could barely
move. She raked at Andras’s neck and squealed as one of her nails tore away.

“Mina?” David called out again. “Damn it, girl, I
need you to help me get this website sorted. Where are you?”

Mina tried desperately to cry out.

The door swung closed again.

David had gone.

Andras laughed as her vision began to darken. It
felt like her head would explode, her eyes bulged out of their sockets. Breathing
was so instinctual and automatic, but right now she couldn’t catch a single
mouthful of air. Every cell in her body panicked. Andras kept on pressing down,
squeezing her nose and mouth shut. He bent over her and licked her face. “Sweet
dreams, maggot.”

Mina hated that the last thing she would see was
her murderer laughing at her terror, but that’s exactly what happened.

“You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all
your art of war.”

--Napoleon Bonaparte

“We’re fucked,” said Tony
as Aymun and the remaining fighters regrouped behind the vehicles.

Aymun agreed. “Yes, we die here.”

Tony looked around desperately. “Where’s Harris
and that PKM? We need to get it firing again.”

Corporal Rose pointed over to a battered old van
and shook his head. Private Harris was slumped up against the rear tyre with
his chin resting against his chest. “He did’na make it, Staffie.”

Tony cursed the air. Harris’s wounds had caught up
with him, and he had bled out from a torn gut. The PKM was nowhere in sight.

And the demons were coming.

Along with Corporal Rose, only two of the British
soldiers still lived. Aymun’s men were all dead, but about ten of the villagers
remained. Tony had witnessed the death of hundreds of brave men and women in
less than forty-eight hours.

What was left of them returned fire, trying to
take down the demons before they formed up again in groups. They had the
advantage for now, picking off the enemy one by one as they came through the
gate disorientated, but the advantage would not last forever. They were running
out of ammunition, and trying to keep up with the flow of demons flooding through
the gate was already beginning to outpace them. Now and then, a demon would make
it a few feet before going down to a headshot.

“We can’t keep this up,” said Tony. “We have to
retreat.”

Aymun nodded. “Perhaps that is wise, but I will
not go.”

“Don’t be a fool and die here, Aymun. This isn’t a
test. Allah doesn’t require you to die.”

“No,” he said. “I require it of myself. I am tired
of fighting infidels and invaders. It is time I struck at my enemy in their
home.”

“What do you mean?”

“I will die having looked upon our enemy truly, so
that I may pass on the information to Allah. He needs soldiers in the next life,
as well as this one. This is not his work.”

Tony tried to understand and thought that he
might. “You’re going to go through the gate?”

“Yes. Will you cover me, my friend?”

“I…” Tony saw there was no point in arguing. “I’ll
make sure you get there.”

Aymun smiled, seemingly at peace. “Continue the
fight after I am gone.”

“Damn right I will.”

“Good to have met you, Tony.”

“You too, Aymun.”

Without another word, Aymun broke cover and sprinted
towards the glowing gate. Tony gave the nod, and the remaining men laid down
covering fire, riddling the gate’s entrance with what remained of their
ammunition. Demons danced and spun as bullets ripped them apart, but one by one,
their rifles ran dry, and the chorus of gunfire lessened. Dead demons continued
piling up in front of the gate, but more and more continued coming through.

Aymun ran so fast, he kicked up dirt behind him.
He’d thrown down his rifle now, but held a grenade above his head—pin removed, ready
to be released. The villagers shouted something in Arabic—
numuur
numuur
—while
Tony’s last few men gritted their teeth and remained silent.

The last of their rifles ran dry.

The gunfire ceased.

Silence descended upon the desert just as Aymun
made it to the gate. A demon came through and dropped right front of him, but
before it had time to leap at Aymun, Aymun surprised it by leaping at it first.
He tackled the demon backwards, their two bodies took flight and disappeared through
the gate.

The gate shimmered. The glowing edges warped and
bent while the sound of a cracking whip bounced across the desert.

Something was happening.

The next creature through the gate was on fire. It
hit the dirt and spun around, clawed arms flailing. Then it slumped to the
ground and went still, leaving the fire to consume its corpse.

Corporal Rose stood up and pointed with a
trembling finger. “The gate. It’s closing.”

Tony saw it was true. The glowing edges of the
gate had twisted and contorted, knotting together like a child’s tangled
skipping rope. The translucent centre darkened. Smoke billowed into the air,
and the light started to fade. The shimmering centre solidified into the dark, gnarled
consistency of old wood, and then it disintegrated into ash and blew away in
the wind.

The gate was gone, and so was the black stone.

Tony drifted out of cover and approached the patch
of desert where the gate had been. All that remained was a large pile of ash.

“Martyr,” one villager shouted. “Martyr.”

Corporal Rose came up beside Tony and whistled.
“Aymun did it. He closed the gate.”

“Yeah,” said Tony. “Not bad for an extremist.”

“He was brave.”

“He was devout,” said Tony. “Never thought I’d
ever think it, but we will need more men like him. More men will be needed to
sacrifice themselves and close the gates. Aymun’s sacrifice has showed us how we
can win this war.”

“We need to make it to the border,” said Corporal
Rose. “We have to spread the word.”

Tony snapped out of his shocked daze and got to
work. He straightened up and gave his corporal a look of urgency. “See if we
can get any of the villager’s vehicles running. We don’t have time for a trek
across the desert anymore. We leave in one hour.”

The villagers gathered around the pile of ash and began
chanting in prayer. Then they all got down and bowed to Mecca. Tony considered
joining them, changing his mind about everything he had once thought about a
Lord Almighty. If these gates led to Hell, then somewhere there was a Heaven.

So why wasn’t God helping?

***

Tony, Corporal Rose, and
the two remaining privates were ready to go within the hour. They had lost a
lot of comrades in the last two days, but each of them knew they were lucky to
be alive. That they had destroyed one of the gates would make the sacrifices of
their brothers meaningful. The intel could give humanity a fighting chance.

They still needed to reach the Turkish border.

Tony had tried the cell phones of some of the
surviving villagers, but getting through to anybody in authority had been a
nightmare. Most of the calls failed, and others laced with interference. It
left Tony with no choice but to hand deliver the information. Perhaps the
military forces of the world already knew how to close the gates, but if they
didn’t…

Time was of the essence, so he thanked the
villagers who had given him a battered Toyota minivan, and then ordered his
three remaining men inside it. The villagers all piled into a Nissan 4x4 like
some bad joke—
How many Arabs can you fit in a 4x4?—
but then they were
off, honking their horn in salute as they fled back to their homes. They were
simple folk, who had faced an army of evil and lived. They would return to their
wives and children as heroes, but it might not be long before they were called
upon to fight again.

Tony slid into the driver’s seat and clutched into
first gear. It was like a furnace inside the cramped vehicle, and the drive would
not be comfortable, but the quiet boredom would be sublime while it lasted. There’d
be nothing but scrubland for the next many hours, but after that, who knew?
Tony dreaded losing more men over the days ahead.

It was the end of days.

As a soldier, Tony had been conditioned for war,
but deep down, a soldier needed to have conviction in his heart to operate. A
soldier needed hope—however minuscule—that the final battle could be won. He
didn’t feel that yet, and as much as he knew that the information he had to share
was vital, it might only buy the world some added time. Things had changed so much
that mankind had already lost. Nothing would ever be the same again, and only
darkness lay ahead.

Tony took off across the desert with the last of
his men.

Rick woke up with a
hangover, but it wasn’t caused by drink. He fingered his head at the line where
his fringe ended and flinched when he felt a wide-open gash. Blood stained the
top of his shirt, and he could feel it caked on his face.

That bastard. His own brother had clocked him with
a beer bottle, like some thug at a nightclub. Keith had never been violent in
his entire life, so what the hell had got into him?

Rick got up off the cold floor and saw that he was
in his garage. The only light was from a frosted square of glass above the side
door, but it was enough to see all the stacks of unsold albums with his face
on. It was the worst place in the world to wake up with a headache, like being
surrounded by a manifestation of his regrets. His own face seemed to mock him
from the cover artwork, showing him how stupid his pink and silver-streaked
hair had been.

A cross to bear. The past.

Days gone by looked good now, considering the
current state of affairs. He had no idea how long he’d been out, but there was
no doubt in his mind that demons still surrounded his home. The black haired
corpse wanted to finish what he’d started with Sarah.

“Hey, let me out of here,” Rick demanded, banging
on the side door of the garage. There was a flicker of a shadow across the
frosted glass, but no one answered.

“Come on, man. Whoever is out there, stop acting
the prick and unlock this door. This is my goddamn house.”

The jangle of keys preceded the rattle of the
doorknob, and the door opened a tad. Someone slipped inside before Rick had
chance to force his way out.

It was Daniel.

“You all right in here, pal?”

“No, I am not. I’m leaving.”

“Right you are, but listen to me first, okay?”

Rick folded his arms and let his pissed off
expression do the speaking.

“You’re probably planning a little pay back
against your brother for bottling you,” Daniel surmised. “Can’t say I blame
you.”

“Goddamn right I-”

“But my advice is to cool your jets for now. We’re
all under stress. Your brother is just trying to protect you—although he’s a
bit of a bastard in the way he shows it.”

“Trying to control me, more like.”

Daniel chewed at the side of his cheek, then said.
“Yeah, you’re probably right, but I’m on your side, okay? This is your house,
and everyone is alive because of your hospitality. Other people don’t see it
that way though. They only look at what’s in front of them. You’ve been out a
few hours, but your big brother has been rallying the troops during that time.
He’s got everybody onside, so don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. You
kick off and your brother will lash out at you again. The others will likely
have his back too. The only person who didn’t think you were insane for wanting
to leave was Maddy, but she’s gone quiet.”

“I don’t give a shit,” said Rick. “If I want to leave,
then that’s what I’m bloody well going to do.”

“Actually, I think you’re better off staying. The
problem you will have now is keeping everyone else from leaving.”

Rick growled and pointed his finger, but he let
his arm drop and tried to make sense of what he had heard. “Huh?”

“Your brother told me to let you out. He wants to
leave before it gets dark.”

“What? How long have I been out? What’s happened?
He was dead set against leaving.”

“You’ve been out less than three hours, Rick, but
a lot has changed. Come on, I’ll show you.”

Daniel opened the garage door and let Rick step
through. It was still light outside, but the chill in the air told him it was
getting late. “Where is he, Daniel? Where’s Keith?”

“Still inside, but wait…”

Rick marched across the gravel driveway towards
the house, hands clenched in anticipation of what he would do to his brother. Instinctively,
he glanced back over his shoulder at the gate.

But the gate was clear. The road deserted.

Rick stopped so quickly that he tripped and
stumbled. By the time he had recovered, Daniel had caught up to him. “They left
about an hour ago,” he explained. “Just dispersed suddenly.”

“What? Why?”

“Diane has been checking the web. According to
some newspaper in Slough, the demons have assembled into three main armies. Your
brother thinks the demons were recalled to go join their buddies.”

“So we’re safe?”

“Your brother thinks so.”

“But you don’t?”

Daniel shrugged. “Maybe, but if we are, then why
be in such a hurry to leave? Why not wait a while until we know for sure that
all is well?”

Rick nodded. “You’re right. It could be a trap.”

“I know you wanted to leave, Rick, but that was
when you knew the demons were crowded around your front gate. Now, we don’t
have any idea where they’re lurking.”

Rick thought about it. “We should all stay put. There
could even be help on the way.”

“And there’s your problem. Your brother has
everybody getting ready to make for the south coast. The nearest demon army is
north, so he thinks it will be plain sailing all the way down. Ironic, actually,
that he’s pretty much following the plan you laid out.”

Rick looked once again at the gate. Everything
Maddy had said was true; they couldn’t stay trapped inside forever, but he had
a bad feeling about leaving now. The demons were smart, not mindless monsters.
The black haired corpse wanted them all dead. It was personal. Would he just up
and leave so suddenly?

Rick decided. “I’m staying here, Daniel, and
you’re welcome to join me.”

“What about your brother?”

“He can leave if he wants. I couldn’t care less,
to tell you the truth. He’s always been a shit, but to do this…” He pointed at
the wide gash on his forehead. “Fuck him.”

“The others will leave with him.”

“So?”

Daniel sighed. “Come on, Rick. You really want a
young girl like Diane out there in danger? Maddy and Steve are both good
people. They’re just a bit lost and following the loudest voice in the room—your
brother’s.”

“What could I do, even if I wanted to? Maddy wants
to go home.”

“Yeah, she does, but I think she’d rather do it
later, and with friends.”

“I’m not her friend.”

“Rick, all of us are friends now, whether we like
it or not. We have mutual enemies, and all we have is each other. You let your
brother leave with the others, and you’ll be regretting it this time tomorrow.
The television has already stopped, and the phones are working less and less. How
long before the lights and water die? You want to be alone when that happens? We
need to stick together and stay alive. Your brother has the first part down,
but I worry he’s going to fall on his ass regarding the second.”

Rick said nothing else because he was still
thinking things through. He went inside the house and found everyone huddled inside
the kitchen. They were packing up supplies into a bunch of holdalls that
belonged to him.

Keith smiled when he saw his brother. “Rick? I’m
glad you’re okay. I’m sorry for what I was forced to do, but good news: We can leave
now, just like you wanted.”

“It’s too risky to leave right now. We all need to
stay put a little while longer.”

Maddy was the first to argue. “Rick, I told you
how bad things will get if we stay here. We have to go while there’s a chance. The
demons are gone.”

“But why?” asked Rick. “Why have they suddenly
left?”

“Because there are armies forming up and they were
called upon to head north. Diane found out all about it.”

Rick shook his head and shrugged. “Called by whom?
We can’t be sure of anything right now. You wanted to stay so badly earlier, I
can’t believe you’re being so stubborn about leaving. You don’t know why they
left; admit it.”

Keith leaned back against the counter and grunted.
“Maybe they’re telepathic and received orders. Only thing we know for sure is
that they’re gone, and we have an opportunity to make a break for it. This is a
good thing, Rick. If I hadn’t subdued you, then you might have been caught right
in the middle of them as they left. I saved your life.”

The sudden burst of anger was so sudden that Rick
snarled like a dog. “You saved my life? Are you kidding? You smashed a bottle
over my head like a fucking savage. Who the hell do you think you are?”

“I’m your big brother, and I’m trying to look
after you and everybody else here.”

“Who the hell asked you to?”

“Nobody. It’s a burden I’ve taken on for myself.”

Rick unclenched his fists and tried to calm down.
“Look, Keith, if you want to leave, fine, but I’m staying. I suggest everyone else
does the same. There’s nothing to tell us that this isn’t all a big trap. The
demons can’t get inside because of the iron bars, so they’ve thought of a way
to get us out instead. I’m staying here until I know more.”

“Me, too,” said Maddy, moving over to Rick’s side.
“He’s right. We could walk right into a trap. Let’s wait until tomorrow and
make sure the coast really is clear.”

Keith slammed his hand down on the counter. “If we
don’t leave now, there might not be another chance. Do you people not
understand what’s going on? There’s a war. We can’t just lie around here hoping
help will come. We need to help ourselves.”

“I agree,” said Steve.

Diane nodded. “Me too.”

“And I’m with Rick and Maddy,” said Daniel. “So
that splits us in two.”

There was silence while everyone waited for
someone to change their mind, but no one did. Maddy had already taken off her
backpack and sat down on a stool.

Keith shoved a bottle of water into a holdall and
pulled the zip closed. “That’s fine,” he said. “We go our separate ways. When I
find help, I’ll send it to come get you. Hopefully, you’ll still be alive.”

“Don’t do this, Keith,” Rick pleaded. His head was
still thudding, but he didn’t want to see his brother make a mistake.

“I’m sorry I had to hit you, Rick. I was trying to
save your life, but it seems there’s no helping you.” He shouldered the bag and
shoved his way out of the kitchen. Diane hurried after him. Steve was a little
slower in following and first stopped to speak with Rick before leaving. “Your
brother is an arsehole, but I want out of here. It’s safe, so I’m going, but I want
to say that it took backbone to stay calm after what your brother did to you. I
would have smashed his face in. You’re a better man than he is. Thanks for
letting me stay at your house.”

Maddy pulled up a stool for Rick. “They’re not
leaving for twenty minutes,” she said. “Might still change their minds.”

“They won’t, but why did you?”

She shrugged. “I keep thinking about my husband,
and who he would want me to tag along with. He would want me to be safe, and I
feel safest around you. You did come and try to save me outside the pub after
all.”

“Yeah, but it was Keith who came out and rescued
us in the end.”

Daniel chuckled from the corner of the kitchen. “I
suppose it’s the thought that counts.”

Maddy chuckled too. “It mainly comes down to me not
trusting a man who can smash a bottle over his own brother’s head. I’d rather
follow a good guy to my death, than a bad man like your brother. It was
different when we were all leaving, but if it comes down to you or Keith, I
choose you. Because my husband would have chosen you.”

Rick put his hand out to grab Maddy’s, which placed
on the counter, but he ended up hovering over it awkwardly. Maddy helped him
out by standing up and giving him a quick hug. “You, me, and Daniel will have
to think about leaving soon ourselves. If your brother gets out safely, we
might end up chasing after him.”

“I hope so,” Rick admitted. “I hope I’m wrong and
the demons really have all gone north.”

Maddy nodded and exited the kitchen, leaving Rick and
Daniel alone together. “You still sure you want to stay now that everyone is
splitting up, Daniel?”

“I’d rather we all stay together, but at least you
convinced Maddy to stay. Three is better than two. Plus, if it was just us two
dudes hanging around together, it would be weird.”

“Huh, you still think my brother is walking into a
trap?”

“I do, yeah. Diane said the demons were forming up
in three big armies, but she also said that there were smaller bands dotted around
causing havoc. Your brother doesn’t seem concerned about that though. Me, I think
that black haired demon has unfinished business here.”

“I can’t make the others stay, Daniel.”

“I know, but at least you tried. God likes a
trier. Idle hands and all that.”

“You really think there’s a God? How can you?”

“How can I not? In the presence of demons, one
cannot possibly deny the existence of God.”

Rick rubbed at his throbbing head, loosing several
flakes of dried blood. “Then why isn’t He helping us?”

“Maybe he was caught as unawares as everybody
else. Maybe backup’s on its way. Maybe you should pray.”

“If I live another day, I just might start. Feel
like it would be easier to lay down and die right now.”

Daniel went to the fridge. The water had gone into
the holdalls, so he was left with nothing to snatch up but a couple beers. He
handed one to Rick.

Rick shook his head. “If I start drinking now, I
won’t stop.”

Daniel took the beer back and broke the tab. “I
hear you, pal. There was a time I let myself get carried away with things that
were bad for me. Learned a little self-control since. It’s never too late for a
man to start changing.”

“Not sure if I believe that. With Keith around,
I’ve realised that I’m no different than when I was a kid.”

Daniel took a swig of beer before placing the
bottle down on the counter. “You’ve changed since I met you. The guy I met
wanted to bury his head in the sand and go sit in the corner and drink himself
asleep while everyone else did what needed to be done. The man you are now
marched into this kitchen and spoke up for what he believes in, then sat down
and refused a beer. You’re not a little kid anymore, Rick. Your father’s long
gone, and your brother’s a tit. That pop career you lament so badly can finally
be put behind you. The world has changed, and so have you. You have a new cross
to bear now, and it’s called: keeping everyone around you alive. Even if you
don’t see it, people gravitate towards you. That will be important in the days
to come. God needs leaders.”