Demon Gate: Beyond the 9th Circle: The Rapture Was Just The Beginning. (12 page)

Gretchen brushed off a few glass
fragments as Bountiful Boulevard turned into
East 400 North. Finally, Gretchen took a hard
right onto North 500 West before rejoining I-15.
Everybody sat in silence for a long moment
before Jessie spoke up.
“What now? Jessie asked.
“What do you mean?” Rodney asked.
“The demons can corrupt every sacred
location, and God will keep destroying those that
are corrupted,” Jessie paused to sum up her
distress, “The demons can corrupt any sacred
place, and God will just destroy the corrupted
places. We’re running out of places to hide. What
are we going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Spencer said, resigned, as
he turned to stare silently out the shattered
window.
It was maybe ten minutes before Spencer
noticed something that should not be possible;
there was an electronic sign that seemed to be
getting power. It was an advertisement for an
amusement park on the other side of the parking
lot that it overlooked.
“What the hell?” Gretchen asked in
astonishment as she followed his gaze. They
looked at each other and shrugged. Gretchen took
a quick right to get onto Highway 89 and soon
ended up on Park Lane. A right turn got them
headed towards the amusement park.
Pulling into a small parking lot meant for
waiting patrons doing a quick pick up or drop off
they stopped and got out. They whole group was
still wary so they armed themselves with P-90’s
and M-249’s and a grizzly fifty caliber. Spencer
grabbed some explosives and a detonator from a
crate before hurrying after the others into the
larger parking lot. Jessie, Rodney, and Halley
also armed themselves and brought up the rear.
Halfway into the parking lot there was a small
storage building that had a tree growing on the
side like a parasite. On the north side of the
storage building there was another building
which looked to be like an office of sorts. None
of the windows were broken; there was no
damage to any of the buildings or anything else
that they could see, it looked as though the park
had just closed for the day.
“Spencer!” Gretchen said and pointed to a
big window. There was movement inside.
Spencer watched the window and soon
saw a human face. “It looks safe,” Spencer
decided.
Jessie directed Rodney and Halley to set
up a perimeter while Spencer went in for a closer
look. Spencer carefully crept up to the door and
listened to a conversation that was taking place
inside.
“Kortney, I need you to check on the
south end, I’ll send Tony to watch the Central…”
the voice said before it stopped. “I know you’re
there.”
After a couple of seconds the door opened
and an older man stepped out. “Hello and
welcome.” The man said in a downright
charming manner. Spencer was taken aback; the
man was very charismatic, and almost unaware
of the danger that was sweeping like a plague
around the globe.
“Did you guys see a demon around here?
Black as night, silver scales. Big guy?” Spencer
asked.
“There actually are a small handful of
demons in my park.” The man said then extended
his hand. “My name is Richard.” the main said,
still very pleasantly. But Spencer wasn’t willing
to trust him. Something was off here.
Spencer took Richard’s hand, it felt
warm, no, that wasn’t the word. It felt odd,
almost like evil. But he was human. Wasn’t he?
“I take it you want us to go kill them?”
Spencer guessed.
“Kill? No, I have reason to believe they
can be reasoned with.” Richard assured the group
gathered around Spencer.
Spencer didn’t like the idea of trying to reason
with a lethal demon, and something didn’t sit
right with Spencer about Richard. It seemed like
he was a lion trying to convince a gazelle to get
into his mouth.
“I know, I’ve reasoned with several, at
fifteen hundred yards.” Spencer retorted holding
up his sniper rifle.
Spencer heard a voice, either in his mind or
carried on the wind.
“There are souls in danger here, lives at
stake. Save them, if you can.”
It sounded like Michael.
“You don’t need your weapons.” Richard
emphatically disagreed.
Spencer heard a voice, either in his mind
or carried on the wind.
“There are souls in danger here, lives at
stake. Save them, if you can.”
It sounded like Michael.
“If it’s all the same to you, I’ll keep
them.” Spencer retorted, “How do I get into the
park?” Spencer asked.
“The main entrance is that way.” Richard
said pointing to the southeast.
Spencer turned the focus to the other people
Richard was talking with inside.
“Are you having a meeting in there?”
Spencer asked.
“Yes, they were about to go make
contact.” Richard verified .
“They’re going to ‘make contact’?”
Spencer asked dubiously.
Richard nodded.
“That’s right.” Richard confirmed.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Spencer
said. before reaching for the door.
“What are you doing?” Richard asked.
“Save some lives if I can.” Spencer said
as he pulled the door open. Inside there were two
sets of stairs. One was straight ahead and went
down; the other was to the left and went up three
steps. At the top four people stood.
“Hello?” The first asked, he had short
hair, almost a crew cut. “My name is Tony.” He
said.
“I’m Spencer.” Spencer said.
“This is Terry, Kortney and Sean.” Tony
introduced.
Terry had a goofy face and dark spiked
hair, Kortney was a short chubby woman, who
wore sunglasses despite the lack of light, and
Sean had spiked hair like Terry, but it was also
short and dark to match his skin tone. Each wore
lavish and expensive looking outfits and an
arrogant look to their faces and persona to match.
“You guys are going to make contact with
the demons?” Spencer asked.
Tony nodded.
“Richard, the park owner, wanted us to
divide to cover more area.” Terry replied.
“That’s the stupidest idea I have ever
heard.” Spencer said then pointed in the general
direction of the park. “Those things won’t let you
get a word in before they KILL you, brutally and
with extreme prejudice!”
“You’re just being paranoid.” Tony
chastised.
“Am I?” Spencer defended. “How many
of these demons have you seen?”
There was no reply for several seconds. None
had seen a demon, nor have they been privy to
the information that Spencer felt was common
knowledge.
“Not one.” Spencer guessed.
Again, there was no reply, neither was anybody
able to look Spencer in the eye, they were
convinced that Spencer was paranoid.
Spencer smirked. “You guys are
unbelievable.” Spencer began, “I faced off
against five of the nastiest damn things just this
morning in Las Vegas. I left Salt Lake before half
the city was vaporized, and barely made it out of
Bountiful before half of it was wiped off the map.
Those damn things will rip your head off without
a second thought, but if you really believe
Richard that much, then go ‘reason’ with the
damn demons. When you’re all being
dismembered I might be there to say ‘I told you
so’.”
Spencer reached for a pair of radios that
were sitting on the counter before leaving to meet
up with Jessie and the perimeter guard.
“How many survivors are there?” Jessie
asked.
“Five, four are like lambs going to the
slaughter, the other one. I don’t trust him.”
Spencer admitted. “They’re going to need help.”
“I agree.” Jessie said, then grew silent as
Tony, Terry, Kortney and Sean walked by.
“Do you still think we’re in danger?”
Sean asked.
“You have no idea what you’re getting
yourself into.” Spencer commented.
Spencer looked back and noticed Richard was
gone. Then realized he had not seen Michael
since Bountiful.
“Are you alright?” Gretchen asked.
“There’s something about that guy, but I
can’t put my finger on it.” Spencer said.
“Come on.” Gretchen said. Spencer
handed Gretchen one of the radios.
Spencer, Jessie, Vince, Gretchen, Rodney
and Halley walked up to the park and onto the
main midway. At the north end of the park they
saw a Ferris wheel and a tall ride painted white
that stood over two hundred feet tall.
“Gretchen, can you and Jessie get to the
top of that thing and cover us?” Spencer asked.
Jessie swapped her M-249 for Spencer’s
grizzly and then directed Halley and Rodney to
assist and lead the way to the tall ride.
“Let’s go bag us some demons.” Spencer
said.
Spencer and Vince tailed Tony at a distance of
twenty feet or so until they came to a sort of
interactive fountain.
Tony lifted a radio to his face and pressed
the talk button.
“Where did you say they were?” Tony
asked.
The voice of Richard squawked back.
“There are two or three demons southeast
of the Falling Star.” Richard replied.
Tony lowered the radio and proceeded east.
A shriek sounded and Spencer looked up
to see a demon swoop down and latch onto a
confused Tony. The demon lighted on top of a
building on the north side of the midway, still
holding Tony.
Tony was babbling incoherently as the
demon held him fast by the throat allowing him
to stare his death in the face. Spencer and Vince
started firing at the demon figuring that Tony was
already dead but they had to try and least they
would get some quick justice for Tony. The
demon closed his hand tighter and tighter until
Tony fell silent and blood started leaking out of
his ears, mouth, eyes and nose. Then the demon
forcefully removed Tony’s head. The demon held
the lifeless body and head for a split second
before throwing the severed head to the ground,
and continued removing limbs; finally the torso
was released to fall to the ground.
Spencer and Vince continued firing but
the demon leapt from the roof and charged amid
the gunfire, and then mowed through unscathed
forcing Spencer and Vince to jump out of the
way.
“His queen must be around here
somewhere.” Spencer guessed.
“What do you want me to do about it?”
Vince snapped.
“Run like hell!” Spencer shouted.
Spencer and Vince got to their feet as the demon
bounded off a neighboring building before
turning back to attack.
Spencer and Vince made it fifty feet
before they came to a wide concrete staircase
leading up to an indoor spook ride called
Transylvania Express
. They were left with little
choice but to head into the ride and hope the
demon was unable to follow.
Inside the main loading area there were
three doors: one to the left at the far end of the
loading area, one to the immediate right and one
by the door on the left. It slid open allowing
Spencer and Vince to slip in and close the door.
The demon was forced to land and proceed in on
foot, it shrieked in frustration.
Inside Spencer and Vince found a trap
door and dropped down a level. To the right was
a tunnel that looked like it might have rotated and
it lead right back to the demon. The only way
they could go was to the left which lead through
a sort of crypt; of course it was all staging for the
show.
After the crypt there was a large stone
skull over a small pond that reeked from moss,
mold and more than a week’s worth of mildew.
Trying to ignore the pungent aroma, they pushed
past to a mine. On the wall were several faces
that stuck out from a fake cave in. Pushing
further, they came to another trap door that took
them to a hallway. A thick double door stood at
their left.
There was the exit! Pushing the door open
they ducked through, cautiously looking all
around. They had lost their pursuer, at least for
now.
That’s when they found him. He had been
dead for several days, decomposition had long
since set in, but it was him without a doubt.
Richard, the park owner, was pinned to
the wall outside the door by several knives, each
one looked to be at least eight inches long and
was inserted at the shoulder. A final knife pierced
his heart.
With few precious seconds before the
demon found them and killed them, they could
not help but ask a single crucial question.
“If this is Richard, then who sent us out
here?”
A loud crash erupted from inside forcing
Spencer and Vince to flee though a large wooden
gate. They had to find any of the others that
‘Richard’ sent to find the demons, they were in
serious trouble.
It didn’t take long. Kortney was seen
running for the front entrance of the park, blood
flowed from a cut on her head and she was
hysterical.
Spencer and Vince ran to catch up with
her. “Kortney, happened?” Vince asked.
“SEAN,” she screamed. “HE’S DEAD.”
Spencer backhanded Kortney. He had never
struck a woman, but this was not the time to be
chivalrous. Her frantic movements and loud
voice could bring the demons down on them, she
had to get it together and quick.
“Calm down or we’re all dead.” Spencer
begged, then looked back and saw the demon had
found them, but it was trapped in a gate and
corral used to line up riders. However, it
wouldn’t be held for long. It started to rip and
shake the bars.
“Come on, we have to get out of here.”
Spencer said then ran for a door labeled
Guest
Services
. Pulling the door open they headed for a
conference room and barricaded themselves in
with a large conference table.
“Alright, what happened?” Spencer
demanded.
“We found one of the demons, I know
Richard told us to go alone, but we thought two
was better than one. They went for his jugular,
and he bled out…they killed him the moment
they saw him.” Kortney cried. “After he bled to
death they picked him up and tore his arms and
head off.”
Kortney looked at Spencer.
“Are you going to say ‘I told you so’?”
“I will if we get out of this alive.”
“Does Terry have a radio too?” Vince
asked, but Kortney was too busy sobbing and
trying not to freak out so Vince grabbed the radio
that Spencer grabbed from the office off the park.
Vince pressed the talk button, “Terry,
Terry are you there? Sean and Tony are both
dead. We saved Kortney. We’re pulling out of
the park, we were all fooled by that guy. I’ll
explain later. Terry … answer me,” Vince
ordered.
“Did Richard give the okay to leave?” the
radio replied.