Holes in the Ground (49 page)

“Bub made similar claims. Claims that held no proof at all.”

“I make no claims. You ask questions and I give answer.”

“But you don’t deny that you are the devil?”

“My name is Lucifer. The devil is a name I have long sought to shed.”

Nessie laughed. “Are you saying that you’re reformed?”

Lucas grinned back, almost confrontationally. “I’m saying that my eyes were open to what God created. I saw the beauty and compassion that I once thought absent. I realised my misjudgement of man. I love you now as God meant me to from the beginning.”

“So you’re here to save us?” West said. “Well, you need to get a move on.”

Lucas looked at the man pityingly. “If I could pluck your ass from the fire, then I would. But it’s not within my abilities. I cannot directly interfere with the actions of men.”

“Some devil you are,” said West. “Aren’t you supposed to be almighty—God’s adversary?”

“I’m afraid you’re putting too much faith in your own press there, fella. I have no power. Without God’s love and a connection to Heaven, I have little more influence over the world than you do. I can be anywhere I choose, can read a man’s heart, but those are just parlour tricks—remnants of my nature as an angel. But I cannot breathe fire or summon legions from Hell. Those are just the fantasies of men and their fiction.”

“So why the hell are you here, then?” Andy asked.

“Because if mankind is going to fall, I want to stand shoulder to shoulder and go down with it. I have lived on this earth since the days when you crawled out of your own shit. If somebody is trying to destroy it all, then I’m as much involved as any man. While I cannot act directly. I will do what I can to help you. Bub and his little bastard offspring are the most deadly things on this earth, but they bleed like anything else. I’ve seen enough of mankind to know that it does not give in to extinction. I believe you will fight back. You in particular, Andy, and your wife, Sun. You have a destiny to stop Bub.”

“I don’t believe in nonsense like ‘destiny’, but if it predicts we’re going to fight back, then it’s got that much right.”

“Damn right we will,” said West. “I ain’t going down without a fight.”

“So what do we do now?” Andy asked. “We’re trapped in here and those suckers are outside ready to come in at any moment.”

“You could always read a book,” said Lucas, looking around at all of the bookcases. “I hear
Twilight
is quite the read.”

Andy’s face screwed up in disgust. “I thought you said you’d given up being evil?”

“That reminds me,” said Nessie. “I found something in a book earlier. Something I’ve been meaning to show you.”

“What is it?”

“A clue to what Bub is planning. An indication of what we’re in for.”

“Let me guess,” said Andy. “It’s nothing good?”

“No,” replied Nessie. “It’s very bad.”

“The shaft ends here,” said Rimmer. “We must be at subbasement 10.”

Jerry swung his leg out onto the concrete lip that sat below the floor’s elevator hatch. Rimmer did so too and they both balanced precariously next to one another.

“Can you get it open from this side?”

Rimmer nodded. “Shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I’m guessing the problems will start once we get into the corridor.”

Rimmer sighed. “I say we’re both going to be dead in about three minutes.”

Jerry nodded. “So about as long as it takes to have sex then?”

“Have you even had sex?”

“Yeah, plenty of times. Just never with a person.”

Rimmer shook his head. “Perhaps it’s best that you’re about to be put out of your misery.”

Jerry nodded. “Euthanasia by monster. That’s how I always dreamed of going.”

“You ready?”

Jerry nodded.

Rimmer slammed his knife between the elevator doors and jarred them open. Both men gripped a door each and together they slid them aside.

They were surprised by what they found.

The corridor was empty.

“Where is everyone?”

Rimmer tried his radio briefly, but it was a pointless exercise. Every channel came back with static. Perhaps Kane had put a block on all of the radios.

Jerry called out, making Rimmer wince.

“Will, you keep your goddamn voice down. Just because there’s no one here, doesn’t mean we want to advertise our presence.”

Rimmer stepped out into the corridor, his boots padding softly on the concrete. Unlike the other corridors, this one was not stained with blood. All of the high-security glass cells were wide open, however, and none of their former inhabitants were present. The vilest creatures in the Spiral were all loose.

Rimmer narrowed his eyes
. But where the hell are they?

He had a bad feeling. It was like he was walking into a trap. It was the same way he had felt moving silently across the Iraqi desert, leading his entire squad into the deadly ambush which had ultimately led to him joining Deus Manus.

Rimmer placed a hand up over his shoulder and stopped. Jerry understood the signal and stopped too.

“What is it?” Jerry whispered.

“I don’t like this? The monsters on the upper basements are like animals. They just come running soon as they see you. The freak shows on this floor are smart. They think. They plan.”

“So what would be their plan?”

Slowly, Rimmer raised his head and stared up at the ceiling. “I think their plan would be to get the jump on us.”

On the ceiling, clinging to an air duct was an abomination right out of a nightmare. Rimmer had no need for nightmares, though. He lived in a world where reality and dreams were one and the same.

“Clever girl,” Jerry muttered.

The creature above them was Grendaline Historicum. More than just a beast written about in
Beowulf,
it was a creature of unrivalled strength and ferocity.

“Move!” Rimmer shoved Jerry aside and performed a combat roll.

The grendal hit the concrete with its ham-sized fists, sending out cracks like an earthquake.

Rimmer attempted to bring his rifle up, but the beast swatted it out of his hands so hard that it almost broke his wrists.

Jerry ran at the creature, smashing his fists against its boulder-like back. The grendal spun around, snarling. It swiped at Jerry with what would surely have been a fatal blow if it had connected, but he managed to duck just in time and leap away.

Rimmer scrambled for his fallen rifle, but the grendal stomped forwards and grabbed him by his belt. It yanked him up by his waist, three feet off the ground, and stared into his face.

Rimmer winced as the creature’s foul breath washed over him. He was starting to pass out.

The grendal opened its jaws, ready to take off Rimmer’s head with a single bite from its vile, stained teeth.

Rimmer fiddled with his belt. Found the clasp.

Just as the grendal snapped its jaws shut, Rimmer pressed the release on the belt and slid out of it. He hit the floor and crumpled. The grendal bit down on thin air.

Jerry appeared in Rimmer’s peripheral vision and was grinning ear to ear.

“Say hello to my little friend!” The kid had picked up the fallen assault rifle and was holding it at his hip like Al Pacino. He pulled the trigger and let off a burst of rounds.

Ratatatatt.

The rifle kicked upwards, striking Jerry in the face and knocking him on his ass.

Rimmer shook his head and sighed. If anything, the errant gunfire had at least distracted the grendal. Rimmer leapt to his feet, pulled his backup combat knife from the scabbard around his thigh, and lunged at the beast in front of him. He managed to leap three feet into the air and brought his arm around like a windmill.

The grendal caught Rimmer in its thick tree-trunk arms and immediately began squeezing the life out of him.

Rimmer managed to use the last of his momentum to bring the knife around, but he couldn’t land a lethal strike. Instead he buried the blade up to its hilt in the beast’s shoulder where the bulbous arm met the hairy collarbone.

The grendal roared. Blood jetted out from its wound.

Fighting against the vice-like grip around his waist, Rimmer yanked and pulled at the knife, working it around like a gear stick and doing as much damage as possible. The beast continued to roar but the high-tones of agony had entered its mighty voice. The wound on its arm widened, spilt more blood.

Rimmer managed to yank the knife free. He slammed it down again in the exact same place as before, widening the existing wound into a bloody canyon.

He pulled the knife free again.

Stabbed again.

The grendal wailed; released its grip on Rimmer.

Rimmer left the combat knife sticking out of the creature’s collarbone and instead used his hands to yank at the creature’s arm. Jerry recovered and ran over to help. Together the two of them pulled and tugged at the grendal’s arm as though they were dancing around a maypole on a sunny English day.

The arm tore loose.

Blood jetted into the air.

The grendal whimpered; immediately backed away.

It staggered down the corridor, roaring and whimpering in equal measures. It passed by several cells before entering the one that was his.

His home.

Rimmer picked up the assault rifle and ran after the beast. But when he got to the cell he saw that it was hunched over and dying. The grendal was lying inside an artificial rock cave, surrounded by a growing pool of its own blood.

Rimmer raised his rifle, surprised that he even possessed the capacity for mercy.

Nessie led Andy, West, and Lucas over to the desk she had been working at. Upon it sat an open book, dusty around the edges but wiped clean across its open face.

“Jerry and I were researching Bub’s origin earlier today, trying to find how far back in history he went.” Nessie cleared her throat and seemed to sadden. “Does anybody know what happened to Jerry?”

The three men shook their heads.

“Sorry,” said Andy. “Kane had Rimmer take him to the upper levels after he opened up one of the cells and let the werewolf out.”

Nessie straightened in her chair. “He did what?”

“He let the werewolf loose.”

West sighed. “Then the kid was most likely dead before any of this even started. I’m sorry Mr Dennison.”

Andy said nothing. The time for mourning would likely never come.

Nessie stared into space for a few moments, but then cleared her throat once again and went back to the book in front of her.

Andy took a seat beside her and leaned over the book to see. “So what are we looking at?”

“This book covers the Aurignacian period—approximately 40,000 years ago.”

“Yikes,” said Andy.

Nessie nodded. “Yeah, it’s pretty far back to say the least. The earliest cave paintings ever discovered were from that time period. It is those paintings, found inside a cave in Cantabria, Spain, that
this
was discovered.”

Nessie pointed to a picture on the page. It was pretty clear what it was supposed to depict.

Andy narrowed his eyes. “The batlings?”

“Yes.”

The image portrayed a dozen flying red demons, leading an army into battle. The army was made up of a vast assortment of monsters—monsters just like the ones kept within the Spiral. Facing down the batlings was an opposing army: one made up of men and…

“Are those angels?” said Andy.

“Aye,” said Lucas, standing behind their chairs and leaning over the top of them at the picture. “Angels joined with man to stop the scourge before it extinguished every last spark of God’s creation.”

Andy craned his neck. “How do you know about this?”

“Because I was there, lad. I led God’s armies alongside Michael and Gabriel. The war waged for centuries, until there was barely a soul remaining on either side. Those left amongst the angels retired to Heaven while mankind inherited the earth, left behind as its protectors. The surviving humans made an oath to contain the defiler and his wicked creations for evermore.”

“Deus Manus?” Andy asked.

“Aye. Deus Manus took what was left of the scourging army and vowed to keep them from ever being able to do harm again. The defiler was cast into a tomb never to be released.”

“What happened?”

“Civilisation happened. Mankind pillaged and manipulated the earth to suit their every whim, digging and cutting, reshaping things to their liking. Eventually the defiler’s tomb was unearthed and he once again began walking the earth—biding his time until he could regain the strength he once wielded. Until recently he had been unable to rediscover his armies. Then came along the Internet; and some fool who gave Bub access to it at Samhain.

“Dr Belgium?”

“Aye. Bub was able to research enough from online conspiracy theorists, secure military websites, and Google Earth images to make an educated guess at where his former legions now lay.”

“That’s why the batling is here,” said Nessie. “It wanted to get captured all along; so it could spring a prison break and raise an army.”

Andy tapped at the book on the table. “And if these pictures are anything to go by, this place is just the tip of the iceberg.”

“What do we do?”

“What can we do?” said West. “If we even last the hour I’d call that a success.”

Andy rubbed at his forehead and tried to think, but all that his mind could focus on was Sun. If West was right, that they would be dead soon, then he wanted to be with his wife.

But getting across that hall to the next room may as well be a swim across shark-infested waters.

Andy looked over at Lucas. “Okay, so if you’re here in some sort of ‘advisory capacity’…start advising.”

Lucas sighed. “Well, the way I see it, you got two options. One, you wait here until those things bash through and get ya. Or, two, you man up and go out there and get them rotten sods first.”

West snorted. “We just go out there and get them? Simple as that? I couldn’t even land a single shot on that sucker when it was just him alone. Now there’s a handful out there, not to mention the other prisoners that are wandering around God knows where.”