The Gates: An Apocalyptic Novel (23 page)

Rick smirked. “That religious stuff never quite left
you, did it, Daniel?”

“None of us ever loses the Lord, we just sometimes
forget that he’s there. Believe me, though, Rick, he never forgets about us.”

Rick got up from his stool. “We should see the
others off.”

They went into the entrance hallway and found that
the front door was open. Noise came from outside. Keith was busy backing Rick’s
Mustang up the driveway and away from the gate. Maddy, Steven, and Diane stood
by, watching, so Rick and Daniel went and joined them.

“When we leave here, Rick,” Maddy told him. “I
want to drive your car.”

“Be my guest. I was always too scared to put my
foot down anyway.”

Keith parked the Mustang and got out. Then he went
and got into his Range Rover, which he reversed out of the way of the gate as
well. It felt like taking the safety chain off a front door during a dark and
stormy night.

Keith got out of his car once it was parked and
marched back towards the house. “I need the padlock key, Rick.”

Rick sighed. “Sure I can’t talk you out of this?”

“I’ve made up my mind. The only chance we have is
to leave now.”

“I was talking to Steven and Diane.”

“Sorry, Rick,” said Steven. “I can’t stick around
while there’s a chance to find help.”

“Me too,” said Diane. “The Internet said the coast
is safe, so that’s where we need to go. There’s a gate too close to here. If
more demons come through, we’ll end up trapped again.”

Rick pictured the gate in Crapstone and wondered if
anything was coming through right now. Were there a limited number of demons,
or would they continue to pour through forever? Did the Army have any idea of
how to close them? Was it even possible?

“Okay,” he said with an air of finality. “I’ll open
the gate for you all.”

He walked down the pebble driveway while Keith and
the others got in the Range Rover. When he reached the gate he peered through the
bars. The coast certainly did seem clear, but the road was too quiet. The
cottages down the road were quiet, and trees obscured the farmland further
along. There might not be a person alive for ten square miles, or there could
be a thousand people dotted around, hiding in houses or in the woods. There was
no way of telling what the world was like beyond the driveway.

Rick pulled the padlock around so that he could
insert the key, and then unlocked it. Holding his breath, he took one last look
through the bars, expecting demons to spring forth from the trees, but none
did. The rev of the Range Rover’s engine jarred him, and he swung the gate open
without further hesitation. It felt like stepping in front of a speeding train.

But nothing came.

Keith’s Range Rover crept forwards and almost shunted
Rick out of the way. Tradition took him, and he lifted his hand to wave his
former housemates goodbye, but Keith kept his eyes pointing forwards. The
tinted rear windows kept Steven and Diane from view.

The Range Rover passed through the gate, turned
into the road, and sped away.

They were gone.

Maddy and Daniel came up beside Rick. Daniel
spoke. “You think we can get that gate closed again, pal?”

Rick took a hold of the gate and began to close
it, but stopped when there was an almighty
crash
.

Maddy’s eyes went wide as she looked at Rick.
“Jesus! What the hell was that?”

Rick held the padlock in one hand and the key in
the other. He thought about putting the two together and going back inside, but
he already knew he couldn’t. “Keith’s crashed the car. The demons never left.
It was a trap.”

As if to confirm his suspicions, a group of
corpses burst from the tree line on the other side of the road and sprinted
towards the gate. One of them threw itself at the gate before Rick had chance to
fully close it. It struck the iron bars and shunted Rick backwards. His ankle
twisted in the gravel and he fell down onto his rump.

Daniel leapt forward and kicked the gate closed,
but the demon was half inside and became trapped between the bars. Its skin began
to smoke and burn until it squealed in agony and withdrew. Maddy ran up and
helped Daniel keep the gate closed until Rick could get back to his feet and
insert the key in the lock. His hands were shaking so much that it took him
several attempts to get the gate secure, but once he had, the three of them leapt
back towards the house.

The dead men and women threw themselves against the
gate, even as the iron burned their flesh. They were angrier than before, snarling
and hammering at the bars, like angry gorillas.

“They’re pissed off,” said Daniel. “They had a
chance to kill us, and they failed. Maybe they have a boss they’re going to have
to answer to.”

“The son-of-a-bitch with the black hair,” said Rick.

Maddy looked around. “Then where is he?”

Rick remembered the sound of his brother’s Range
Rover crashing. “He’s wherever Keith and the others are. We have to go rescue
them.”

Daniel looked at him like he was mad. “Are you
serious?”

Rick nodded firmly. “You said your God needs
leaders. Well, I’m leading. We grab whatever weapons we can and we go out there.
I’m done hiding.”

Maddy tried to stop him as he marched into the
house and into the living room. “Rick, we can’t go out there. They’ll tear us
to pieces.”

“Why? Because they’re monsters?”

“Well, yeah.”

“So we should just lay down and die? They aren’t monsters—we’ve
seen them die. If all we do is cower away, waiting for someone to rescue us, then
we’re all screwed. They’ll pick us off one by one. We need to fight back. In
the pub, we fought back and won.”

“Sarah died,” said Maddy. “So did lots of other
people.”

Rick nodded. “But so did lots of demons. I’m going
to get my brother. He’s a complete and utter shit, but he saved my life. I
don’t want to owe him anything.”

“Your mind is made up?” said Daniel, standing next
to the couch.

“Yes.”

“Then I suggest we put all that booze in your
kitchen to good use.”

“You want to get pissed?” Maddy asked.

Daniel grinned. “Oh, I’m already pissed, darlin’,
but I wasn’t thinking about having a drink. Let me show you some of the things
I learned
after
I left the church.”

***

Within ten minutes, the kitchen counter had been
transformed into an armoury. A row of spirits—whiskey, tequila, and vodka—sat
with dishcloths stuffed into their neck. Keith had taken the iron poker with
him, but Maddy had found an old field hockey stick. Daniel had fastened a long
chef’s knife to the end of a broom handle, producing a makeshift spear. Rick,
himself, clutched the long stem of an antique brass lamp he kept in the
conservatory.

They all now wore whatever they could fashion as
armour. It was hot, but Maddy had put back on her thick paramedic overalls and
wrapped a scarf around her neck. The only skin showing was her hands and face. Rick
wore a long leather jacket from his pop-star days—the type of thing that looked
stupid on anybody who wasn’t famous. It was a thick second hide that would hopefully
protect him from the claws and teeth of his enemies.

Now that it was time to go, Rick’s resolve
threatened to leave him. His stomach churned like a blender, and the urge to
lurch forward and vomit was hard to resist. When he looked at Maddy and Daniel,
reminding himself that they would be with him, he felt a little stronger. It
wasn’t as if any of them had a choice. The demons were back at the gate, which
meant they were once again trapped. Their only choice was to fight their way
free, or stay and eventually starve. If they could help Keith, Steven, and
Diane, all the better.

“Let’s do this,” he told the others, who had both
taken on the colour of whipped ice cream. They headed out the front door and headed
down the driveway. It was now the tail end of dusk, and the security floodlight
had come on, bathing the demons in a silvery skin of light. More like angels
than monsters, but then Rick heard them growl and knew there was nothing pure
or holy about them.

“Let them have it!”

Maddy and Daniel lit two of the Molotov cocktails
and let fly. Both flaming bottles smashed against the fence and ignited in a
cloud of fire. The demons screeched like tortured children, flailing around like
puppets with twisted strings. Flames crackled in the evening breeze, and the
smell of burning flesh added to the scents of summer.

Rick followed the next part of the plan and ran to
unlock the gate. Once he’d popped the padlock, he yanked the gate open wide
enough that the driveway was clear. Maddy hopped into the Mustang and gunned
the engine while Rick jumped clear just in time to avoid getting run over.

The heavy American beast struck the group of
burning demons and sent them scattering across the road. They seemed to roll
and bounce endlessly before coming to rest. There was no ambiguity about their
condition. Every one of them was dead, burnt, and battered.

Maddy reached across and shoved open the passenger
side door. Daniel was cooped in the back. “Rick, get in.”

Rick threw himself into the passenger seat and
slammed the door shut behind him. Maddy took off, the car beeping at them to
buckle up, which they had to do to shut it up.

“Is this a bad time to say I need a piss?” said
Daniel.

“Why didn’t you go before you left?” Maddy
growled.

“I should have done. Sorry.”

“You can go after we kill the rest of the demons,”
she said.

Then they all broke out laughing, not because they
thought it was funny, but because their nerves were so fried. They had just
survived a battle unscathed, and the adrenaline in their veins was like a hit
of cocaine. It gave them giddy hope that they might just be okay. So they
laughed.

It didn’t take but a few moments to get around the
bend and find Keith’s Range Rover. The vehicle was on its side, windows
shattered and axles bent.

“He’s still alive,” said Daniel. “I’ll be damned.”

Rick couldn’t believe what he saw. He’d felt obligated
to come to his brother’s aid, but had possessed slim hope that there would be
anything left to rescue.

Keith was holding his own. He popped up out of the
Range Rover’s side window, which was now facing the sky, and swung his iron
poker at any demon that got too close. They tried, in vain, to drag him out of
the wreckage, but he picked his swings and made sure every one counted. Several
of the demons lay dead in the road, their skulls caved in.

Steven was dead. He lay on the tarmac, face down
after having apparently launched through the windscreen. Keith’s older vehicle must
have lacked the nagging seatbelt alarm that Rick’s Mustang possessed.

Diane was nowhere to be seen.

Maddy repeated the manoeuvre she had performed at
the gate and ploughed the big American export right into the group of demons. Some
of them got up, but most stayed down.

Demons still surrounded Keith’s Range Rover.

Maddy pulled on the handbrake, and Rick leapt out
of the car. Maddy and Daniel were right behind him, running at the enemies with
all the fierceness of barbarians. They swung their weapons with everything they
had. Daniel stabbed a demon in the guts with his spear, before pulling it free
and using it to pluck out the eyes of another. Maddy swung her hockey stick like
a baseball bat and caved in several skulls. Rick bludgeoned demon after demon
with his antique lamp.

But the demons kept on coming, attacking like a
pack of hyenas. The dead men and women were joined by hunched-over creatures
with long, twisted claws. Rick caught one in mid-air, smashing it in the side
of its face before it had chance to return to earth. Maddy hit another so hard
with her hockey stick that its lower jaw detached and rolled across the road.
Atop the Range Rover, Keith fought with renewed energy. He saw his rescuers and
dragged himself out of the broken window, fending off demons with one hand,
while he climbed with the other.

Rick fought his way over to the Range Rover and
helped his brother down. “Sorry about your motor,” he said.

Keith shrugged. “Least I can say I owned one. A
dream fulfilled for a while is better than a dream out of reach.”

Rick frowned. “Sounds like something I’d say.”

“Look out!” Keith shoved his brother out of the way
as a demon slashed the air with its talons. Keith jabbed out with his poker and
impaled it right through the mouth, then lifted his leg to kick it away. The
next demon that attacked fell afoul of Rick’s lamp and hit the floor with a
broken spine.

“We make quite a team,” said Keith.

Rick nodded. “If only we’d found out sooner.”

Keith stared at his brother and let out a laboured
sigh. “Let’s leave the past where it belongs, huh?”

“You mean like you being an arsehole most of my
life, culminating in you breaking a bottle over my head and locking me in my
garage?”

“Yeah, stuff like that.”

Rick patted his big brother on the back. “It’s
forgotten. Now, come on.”

Maddy and Daniel were back to back in the middle
of the road, demons coming at them from all sides. Rick was about to wade in
and help them, when Keith grabbed his arm and stopped him. “Diane,” he said.
“She’s still inside the Range Rover.”

“What?”

“She was in the front with me. Her head hit the
dashboard. We have to get her out.”

Rick turned back to the Range Rover and leapt up
on top of it. As he looked down inside the broken windows, he could see the
pale shape of Diane. Unconscious.

Keith climbed up beside Rick to help. The whole
time they were up there, Maddy and Daniel continued to fight for their lives.

“Hold on to me while I lift her out,” Rick told
his brother.

Keith nodded.

Rick lowered onto his stomach and reached an arm inside
the window while Keith kept a tight hold on his belt. Diane murmured when his
hand brushed her face, and it was a relief to know that she was still alive,
but she didn’t wake up. A shadow cast across her face, and as Rick’s eyes
adjusted, he saw it was blood from a wound hidden beneath her blonde hair. He fondled
between the shadows and shafts of light and located her wrist. When he pulled, Diane
slumped back in her chair and her eyes fluttered open. She moaned. Ignoring her
pain, Rick heaved her upwards; a dead weight, but just about manageable—the
girl couldn’t have weighed over eight stone. There was still life in her legs,
and once he pulled her up into a standing position, she kept herself there.