Dark Side Darker (38 page)

“Nothing,” said Josh. “Come on, let’s get your parents and get the hell out of here.”

Cautiously Carthy made his way down the metal stairs. His metallic foot steps echoed in the expansive space and he could feel the others’ presence everywhere. In the back of his mind a sick laughter was spiralling as his enemy closed into his mind. Soon they’d break the barrier and either Josh or Rufus,
most likely Rufus
, would attack him and he would have to kill them.

They reached the bottom of the steps, surrounded by darkness and the sick smell thick in their nostrils.

Rufus was beginning to chuckle to himself and Carthy considered killing him before they took him. Then changed his mind deciding while they were focusing on Rufus it gave himself some respite.

“Josh,” he warned. “They’re beginning to take Rufus. Force them back like you did in that alley, I’ve got to keep up the field around us.”

“
What
??
I don’t know how
!”

“If they take him, I’ll kill him. keep them back, you
do
know how.”

Josh was panicked and in no way doubted anything Carthy had said. Weakly he thought about Rufus and his mind flooded with words. ‘
You
push us out!? you’re next, dead by your friend’s hands, but first the game. you may keep him for now.’ And then they were gone leaving them alone in the darkness.

“What just happened?” snapped Rufus.

“They tried to possess you,” said Carthy. “Josh pushed them out. But they’re not really trying yet, I sense they want to show us something first, play a little game.”

“What is that smell?” asked Josh.

“Up ahead,” said Carthy with a nod no one could see.

At first Josh thought there was nothing but darkness and then his eyes began to grow accustomed to the low light and the deep blue midnight sky he could see through the broken windows. He could make out an object silhouetted against the rest,
the shape of a cross
? And then he noticed the creatures, glowing quietly, the dim internal lights flickering out of the cages in which they floated. There were twenty of them. They looked like spiders with swirling delicate tendrils, smokey bodies that looked as if they would come apart on touch. They changed shape and flickered from one moment into the next.

Josh was stunned, when he spoke, his voice was a whisper. “
Carthy, what are they
?”

“The source of the Blue.”

And then Josh saw the blue light at the bottom of the cages, a collection of tiny capsules.
Were they shitting the Blue
?

“No,” said Carthy, reading his mind. “Eggs. It’s the enzyme their young are cocooned in till they’re developed enough to be born. They must be injected to kill the embryo or it grows in the body of anyone taking it as a drug. your Sarah,” he finished simply.

“Inside her? One of those?”

“They’re from our world, almost air. The liquid in those eggs in a manifestation of almost pure psychic energy.”

“What about the cross?”

The strip-lights above flickered into life and with them the vocal cry of, “And now the games begin!!!”

Rufus span ’round in terror looking for the source, but Josh instead stood horrified, his eyes transfixed on what stood before him.

The body was crucified onto a huge rusty, wrought iron cross. He recognised it immediately. What its purpose had been originally he could only guess, but now Harper’s eyeless corpse, his mouth frozen open in a scream of perpetual agony, was tied to it with slicing strands of barbed wire. His body was bruised and cut all over. It had been rotting for a long time. At its feet was a collection of bodies in various states of decay, most he didn’t recognise, but close to them were the bodies of Rufus’ parents and next to them Karen’s father. Unspeakable violence had been done to all of them, throats torn out, eyes gouged out, innards left to spill across the cold concrete. The smell was unspeakable and maggots churned across the floor and squirmed in the crevices of their new homes.

Rufus followed Josh’s gaze. “oh god!!!!!!” he cried and fell to his knees.

“Guess we’re too late,” said Carthy dryly.

Above and around them manic laughter started.

Rufus rose to his feet, his face a tapestry of tears. “I’ll fucking kill you!!!!!!!! I’ll fucking kill you!!!!!!”

The laughter seemed to change directions, seemed closer. They all turned back to the pile of bodies.

Rufus’ father’s head slowly turned to look at them with its dead eyes.

Oh god, anything but this
!!! thought Josh.

Quickly his mouth cracked open, the disembodied laughter seeming to echo around the revealed chasm. And then like some kind of sickened puppet the body began to awkwardly get to it’s feet, until it stood, head resting to one side above its torn-open throat.

“No! No!! noooo!!!!!!!!” Screamed Rufus.

“Get ready!” Carthy said cooly, and threw a wall of petrol over the now animated corpse of Rufus’ dad, soaking into its clothes and spilling onto the bodies around his feet, most of which were now beginning to move.

Josh began to back away. Rufus, who was still weeping, followed his lead.

His father began to stagger forward, its arms outspread as if to embrace them. Behind him, his mother and then Karen’s father also rose to their feet.

“Oh shit, run!” cried Josh, dragging his friend away.

Carthy threw another sheet of petrol over the corpse as it lunged at him, and then it seized him, its dead jaws moving to tear out his jugular.

Josh looked back to see him kick the body away, and then throw more petrol over the gang of advancing corpses. There was roar of air as Carthy set fire to the body of Rufus’ father and then kicked the flaming form to collide with the others. Some caught, but most didn’t. They watched paralyzed as Carthy ducked and dodged in between lashing bodies, throwing more and more petrol, fires leaping up to consume all it touched.

Suddenly they were thrown to the floor as Nickoloi turned his attention on them. They looked up to see a body, alive with flame, running at them silently, arms outspread to hug them as it burned.

Rufus was helping Josh up. “Come on,” he said and then they were both running with the body in close pursuit. They could both feel the heat on their back as they dashed around old shelving units and concrete pillars.

The smell in their nostrils was putrid, no longer rotting, but cooking flesh. And on they ran. Behind them the puppet’s legs gave way, a combination of decay and fire damage to the muscles and nerves. It slumped lifelessly to the floor, still burning, and then Nickoloi abandoned its body and refocused on Rufus. His running feet suddenly found themselves above the floor and the next second he was sent hurtling through the air to crash into the wall. He hit it once, twice and then was hurled like a rag doll to collide with the wall for the third time. With the last impact his screaming stopped and Josh knew his friend was dead. The body dropped to the floor, like some now discarded toy. The wall was dark with his blood and Rufus’ broken body lay crumpled on the concrete.

Josh screamed, wasn’t sure if the sound was real or only in his mind. He was on his knees, covering his face with his hands, oblivious to the chaos around him.

Behind him, Carthy punched a body from its feet and then turned to run, but as he did so the body suddenly levitated and flew after him. The smoking body hit him hard, knocking him from his feet, and as he fell its animated limbs were already wrapping around him and clawing at his face.

“Get the fuck off me!!!!!!!” he howled and with his mind pushed out, ripping the corpse away from his body and sending it soaring up twenty metres to explode against the warehouses’ ceiling.

“Fuck you!” he yelled and then felt the full impact of his enemy’s psychic assault. Nickoloi had been focusing in to explode Josh’s heart in his chest, but now took Zackeriah’s cue and shifted his attention onto the far more dangerous Carthy.

Carthy rose ten metres into the air and felt the forces around him begin to tear his body apart, attempt to wrench limbs from sockets. He pushed back hard, but without knowing where his assailants were it was difficult to fight back. Desperately he looked ’round. The force changed, instead squeezing, trying to fold in ribs, crush organs. Then he saw where they were, hiding in the office at the top of some stairs on the opposite side of the building. There were glass windows all along its side. From up there they could survey the entire warehouse.
It had to be there
!

Carthy directed his rage at the office. The plate glass windows imploded and the sheet metal walls buckled under the pressure. He saw Zackeriah’s body fly to hit the back wall, and with his enemies being temporarily stunned, he collapsed to the floor. He hit hard.

Josh was crying over Rufus’s body. He’d
known
Rufus’ family was dead, he’d known Rufus would die too,
in his heart he had known that
and yet he had blindly marched him to his death, all for a girl who didn’t love him.
What right had he had
?
What fucking right
!?!

He was crying hard when the doors next to him crashed open with a roar of engines. The riot van crashed through the doors and then rapidly reversed to leave the entrance clear. It was only seconds before the first suit armed with a machine gun ran into the building, and on seeing Josh aimed his weapon at him.

“Don’t fucking move!”

Josh, still crying, ignored him. He was in a different world.

More suits ran in, taking in the scene with horror. The opposite side of the building was now on fire, the caged creatures screaming and small objects were hailing through the air in the feedback from the psychic battle that was being fought.

“What the fuck is that!!” yelled one of the men as a charred and naked corpse shambled into view from behind some shelving units, and then they were all firing in panic, the body simply absorbing the bullets and continuing to move towards them.

“Its not stopping them!”

One of the men suddenly directed his fire at the closest man to him, leaving him winded as his vest was torn up with bullets.

“Holy shit! They took him, take cover!”

The possessed soldier stood rigidly firing at his own men who ran further into the warehouse, dodging lines of fire and taking cover where they could.

On seeing his targets escape the man turned onto Josh and aimed down at him.

“I can’t stop myself!” he warned weakly.

Josh knew he was going to die and found he didn’t care. In that moment he felt that he deserved to die.

He waited but nothing happened. He closed his eyes and then heard the shot.

He wasn’t dead.

He opened his eyes, the man had turned the weapon on himself.

Josh heard Carthy’s voice in his head. ‘For fuck’s sake Josh, stop fucking about and help me!!!!!’

Josh no longer cared about anything, of course; but then suddenly he did. The thoughts were injected into his mind without conscious awareness of their source. He would avenge Rufus.
But how
? And then he knew.

Around him the air buzzed with energy, suits were firing on each other before being flung through the air, Carthy was yelling obscenities and walls were on fire, smoke filling the air and further adding to the confusion. One of the men screamed as a dead body lunged out of the smoke and seized him.

Josh scrambled through his pockets and found it—the Blue!

He popped the lid and swallowed the remaining capsules.

Near him, one of the agents began to scream, blood streaming from his nostrils, ears and eyes and then as the intensity of the assault grew his whole head exploded in a plume of red haze, skull fragments and brain matter painting the air for a moment.

“Fuck!” yelled one of the men. “We can’t handle this!” The radio on his breast was hissing static and white-noise, he screamed into it. “All units move in, kill anything that moves. No warnings.”

Over the psychic distortion he wasn’t even sure the message had got through. Lastly he turned to Josh.

“If you want to live, you better get the hell out of here!”

With that and a hand signal to his men, he ran blindly into the smoke, shielding his face.

Josh listened to the sporadic bursts of gunfire and felt the Blue beginning to expand the boundaries of his consciousness. Quickly he was becoming the room. He felt the location of the remaining suits, felt the creature’s panic and pain as they began to burn in their cages, felt Carthy and Zackeriah’s conflict and lastly he sensed Nickoloi’s approach.

The wall of smoke parted and swiftly, floating above the ground, Nickoloi’s thin body came rapidly towards him. On his viper features was stretched a death mask grin.

Josh flew up into the air, soaring towards the ceiling. On instinct he directed his mind against Nickoloi’s will and he began to slow, until he hung suspended a few metres from the smoky ceiling. He felt Nickoloi’s surprise.

Cracks began to appear in the ceiling above him. He pushed back.

Josh hung, uncertain of how he was alive, uncertain of what to do next. He realised he’d slowed his ascent on an unconscious level, will alone, the simple desire to survive.

Nickoloi spoke directly into his mind. ‘I wouldn’t worry deary, you’ll be dead before you understand how it works.’

‘Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure,’ Josh thought back.

He could still feel the Blue expanding through his veins, being absorbed into his system. He became aware of his body in a new way, felt the blood running through his veins, could feel his lungs expanding and deflating, felt his control over his body as his mind shot electric signals through out his nervous system. He felt the limits of his existence, the field of energy around him, felt the electric thoughts of his consciousness coming into and leaving his mind, becoming the charged air around him before being eaten up by other entities in his shared existence.

He imagined the world at a molecular level, tiny beads of organic data all built up from a series of tiny strings of energy, building up the room, the city and the universe which contained it.