Judgement (The Twelve) (51 page)

Priest learned over and blessed the blade, “Jim would be proud you carry it for him.”

Huntress had a full quiver of arrows again, reaching over her shoulder she somehow managed to find one
single
black
tipped arrow
from
amongst the rest, “This is for Edge.” The tip was unusual in that it was conical in shape. “I’ve filled this with holy water
,
blood taken from Hot Cross and a small explosive charge. It’s a present for that sick mother fucker.”

“Please….”Priest began. But Patch laid a hand on his arm, “It’s only an expression priest
,
none of us mean any disrespect to The Creator.
”

Patch looked over to Chris, “I will use
the
sword
of my father
to revenge Hot Cross. She drew
the
blade and made a small cut to the palm of her hand, “I swear by this blood oath. To win this day or die trying.”

Bulls Eye snatched a gun and spun it around first horizontally and then vertically, “People used to say I
disrespected the law and even hid from it as a performer in Wild Bills circus
, but I was a lawman once, a deputy for that murdering bastard John Wesley Harden then that back shooting Earp.
They don’t mention it in history but at the shootout of the OK Coral Earp blasted away all over the damn place, killed a young mother, blamed her death on Johnny Ringo. Funny thing was Ringo wasn’t that bad a kid, far better than Doc ever was, t
hat’s what made me sick of killing
” He spun the gun back into its holster and held out the palm of his hand. “Patch”

She hesitated for a second before realising what he wanted. Carefully she made a small cut to his hand then clasped it with hers. He nodded, “Today I
’ll
be
a
law
man again
,
a
law sworn by this blood oath and before God, to win or die trying.”

Rage walked over and held out a massive hand to Patch, she nicked the flesh. He placed his hand over theirs, “Win or die trying.”

The others followed suit
, Speed moved solemnly and slowly as he allowed Patch to cut his hand, “Win or die trying but let’s win eh?”

H
eartless
nicked his cheek with his pincher claw, placing the
red stained
metal on top of
their hands
, “By my blood so do I swear.”

Anvil
,
Chris
and Priest
remained. Anvil glanced at Chris who
ordered
, “You go first.”

Anvil nodded
,
allow
ing
Patch to cut his skin. He
laid
his hand over theirs,
“We
shall win this day.”

Chris walked up, plac
ing
his own hand over the
irs. It started to bleed all on its own.
His
skin   glow
ed
with a golden light, “Today we face our fate. I’ve only been with you all for such a short time but I’ve c
ome to think of you as my brothers and sisters.” He smiled at Anvil, “And you as my father.” Then at Patch, “And you as my girlfriend. Today we
shall
win.”

Priest was the last and with the first drop of blood closed his eyes and blessed them all in the name of God the Creator, w
hen he removed his hand, they all found that their cuts had healed. Patch walked with
Chris
to a secluded area.

“Am I your girlfriend?”

Chris took both of her hands in his, “I may only be s
eventeen
going on sixty but if you
want to then
yes I want you as my girlfriend.”

Patch grinned from ear to ear, “After the battle, let’s seal it with a kiss and a cuddle in my bed.”

Chris turned bright red, “That’s a deal.”

Chapter Twenty Two

T
hey stood on Embankment, together with Jennings and his people
. B
ehind them
,
covering the area
were
two
compan
ies
of
The Queens
Guards
, or in this case the Grenadier Guards
.
The tide was high and running fast.

Jennings had mentioned that it was seven at night but still blood red light. “Those sold
i
ers are itching to shoot someone.”

He pointed to the city which still burned in places, “It will take ages to rebuild and fix all the damage the Dark have done
.”

The streets where deserted, black smoke billowed along streets mixed in with litter and rubbish. A female shoe lay abandoned in the road near to where they where standing. A mini had crashed into a lamppost and was empty, the driver door wide open with dried blood on the seat and window. A pedal cycle stood on its single foot rest in the centre of the road on the bridge
.
The only other vehicles
on the bridge
were the tanks,
which in itself looked very surreal.

An army helicopter flew past fast heading towards Battersea. Big Ben struck eight pm, a lonely isolated sound.

The sold
i
ers watched the strange selection of leather clad people gathering at a flight of steps leading down to a doorway into the bridges nearest arched leg.
They looked on with awe and
amazement at the huge hunch back Rage and
the other strange leather clad men and women. W
hat was the white hair
thing
all about? Then there was the question of the weapons some of them carried. A huge black hunting bow, samurai swords and a massive hammer, as well as someone festooned with knives of every description and what about the one with metal hands!
The solders looked at Jennings and his people,
all
were
heavily armed.  This unsettled the solders
even more so
. Civilians with guns for Gods sake!

Chris adjusted his wide brimmed hat and with Anvil and the rest backing him up, he slowly started down the damp slippery concrete steps. The door at the bottom was closed but not locked. Pushing it slowly open, Chris allowed his eyes to adjust. Entering the pump room, he immediately saw the missing back wall leading to the Victorian sewers, “This way.”

Jennings
had twenty of his people guard the entrance. He called
for torches
,
pass
ing
some of them
down to Anvil and his people
.
The sewers stank as they trudged along the sewerage covered walkway. Chris stopped at an intersection. From the left sewer came a scream of pain. Silently Chris ordered Jennings
and twenty men
to wait there
with Bulls Eye, Slash and Heartless, whilst he
led
the remainder of the Twelve plus
‘Boom Boom’
and the rest of the security team
in that directi
on. It didn’t take long before he found the cause of the screaming. A pumping area consisting of a large concrete platform with dozens of pipes and rusty pressure valves also contained the bodies of thirty mutilated people. Most had been eaten down to the bones.
But four people were cowering in the corner, three women and one male. They had yet to be consumed. A party of eight
een
Shades and a ghoul, were just finishing off an unfortunate victim (Chris couldn’t tell if it was male or female). He guessed that had been the dying scream he’d heard.

Chris whispered, “Destroy all but one.”

Anvil let fly with his hammer
that
blasted a standing Shade to ash.
The weapon ricocheted off the far wall, taking out several masonry bricks before
returning to Anvils outstretched hand via another Shades head.
Speed shot across the water
, actually RAN over the water!  A kneeling Shade w
as sweep off the ground so fast
it looked
no more than
a grey blur until it impacted with a wall
and exploded
. An arrow hissed across the space to thud home in
a Shades yellow vacant left eye
. It too exploded.

The ground trembled violently as Priest pounded along the walkway, turning the corner he targeted the ghoul which had decided to go for another victim. Seeing Priest at the last second, it raised both blooded and clawed hands to defend itself. It was like standing in front of an approaching train! The impact
with Priest
lift
ed it off its feet. Priest
didn’t stop until he hit the tunnel wall
. The
Shade just  blew apart.

Patch drew and threw a wicked looking ‘
Hira
S
huriken’
,
a four pointed short bladed throwing
star
.