Risen: The Demontouched Saga (Book 6) (7 page)

“How far up do we need to go?” I ask, approaching the stairs.

“I’d say at least the 12th floor, if we can swing it,” Bill says. I’m not so worried about something getting in the way of the shot as I am having someone see us up here.

“You can’t make the shot from inside the building?” I ask.

“No, sir.” Spencer shakes his head. “The missile relies on thermal imaging to track the target. There is a chance it will pick up the building.”

“It’s small,” Bill says. “But we should try to get onto one of the balconies.”

I’m all for doing things the right way, especially with what’s at stake.

We take our time climbing up the stairs, trading off the rocket launcher every few floors to help with the weight. Even though it doesn’t look like it, the launcher is one heavy little beast after a few dozen steps.

We keep pushing hard, only stopping on the 9th floor to give our arms a rest.

“You sure this won’t work?” I say, surveying the damage on the floor.

Much like the lobby, glass and debris litter the floor though most of the furniture is still in place. I guess this was too far up to carry it down the stairs. Papers swirl around the room as I approach the broken windows before the canopy.

On the battlefield, I see Azrael and his group moving in from the south, making a full assault on the nearby crane. They are making good progress, but it is only a matter of time until they get pushed back as some of the people guarding of the other cranes is moving in to help.

The only other thing that really stands out from here is the massive number of bodies laying on the ground. While this wouldn’t go down as the bloodiest battle to happen on US soil, it is easily the most bodies I’ve seen in one place my entire life.

Granted, I was never in the military, but I was never one to seek out bloodshed.

It wasn’t until after the Rising that I saw my first body, I still remember the look in her eyes.

I found her on the highway, still behind the wheel of her little Ford Focus.

What was left of it anyways. Pitted against a tractor trailer, there are few cars that stand a chance. If the truck’s driver is one of those taken, anyone in the way is fucked.

I felt her neck and wrist looking for a pulse, but wasn’t able to find one. She couldn’t have been gone for that long though. Her blood was still oddly warm.

“You ready to finish this, Mitch?” Bill asks, walking up beside me.

I nod. After living like this for nearly the last four years, I’ve had enough death. I could live a happy life if I never had to see another dead body ever again. There will be more before this day is done, but one well placed shot could end a lot of it.

I take the rocket launcher for the next two floors, wanting to save Bill the effort. Spencer pitches in and takes it for the last.

I exit the stairwell ahead of the other two men, holding Spencer’s gun. The first thing I notice is the damage on this floor is not as extensive as it was on the others. On the floor, the glass and debris is located close to the windows, the result of stray bullets from the battle below.

“Are they all in one piece?” Bill says, knocking on glass.

We search the floor, room by room without seeing an opening large enough to crawl out of.

“Let’s head back down to nine,” Bill says. “It will be high enough to work.”

“I have a better idea,” I say, walking over to Bill. “Give me one of your grenades.”

Bill looks at me with concern. “What do you have in mind?”

“Gonna throw it in the room. There should be enough of a blast to shatter the windows.”

“I don’t know,” Bill says, looking out the window facing the portal. “They might see the blast.”

“That’s why I’m going to throw it in there,” I say, pointing to the corner room down the hall. The rooms back there are on the opposite side.

“What if we just shoot the glass,” Spencer adds. “I doubt they’d even hear a few gunshots from down there.”

“Let’s give it a shot.”

I hand Spencer back his gun, opting for the pistol in the small of my back. The two soldiers enter the room, standing a few feet apart from each other, leaving me to stand in the open door.

Our salvo only lasts a few moments, but leaves my ears ringing. Between the automatic fire of soldiers, the glass shatters quickly, sending shards of glass onto the floor and out onto the balcony.

I walk up to the mess and use my sword to knock free a few loose shards. The last thing we need is for one of the larger pieces to fall and impale Bill. I’m sure I could figure out how to use the rocket launcher if I had to, but I would rather let the pros handle it.

Bill walks up ahead and climbs out of the window, using one of the runners to protect his hands and legs. He walks the platform for a moment before settling on the place he will fire.

“Make it count,” I say, handing him the weapon.

“Always.”

Bill walks down the balcony to a spot two rooms down before kneeling on the edge. He takes a knee on the edge and places the weapon on his shoulder.

“What’s taking so long?” I ask Spencer when Bill still hasn’t fired after a couple of minutes.

“That’s the one downfall to the Javelin. In order for the thermal view to work properly, it has to cool the system on the launcher. Normally it doesn’t take this long.”

“The heat have anything to do with it?” I say. It isn’t really that hot outside, but it doesn’t take much for the sun to heat a building like this.

“Could be,” Spencer adds, jerking his head to the door. “You hear that?”

I nod, hearing the sound of footsteps on the other side of the door. I tiptoe across the room, careful not to step on any of the broken glass. Once I get to the door, I poke my head out to get a good look.

Two men, both holding automatic rifles, are walking down the hall away from me. Unlike the people fighting for Nal, these guys are wearing matching red shirts and blue jeans, much like the crew by the cranes. Instinctively, I reach for my knife wanting to end this quietly. When it isn’t in its normal spot, I remember that I gave it to Sara earlier in the day.

Oh well. The pistol will have to work.

Leaning around the corner, I aim the weapon at the man on the left, bringing him down with a well placed shot to the back. The other guy, seeing his friend fall lifelessly to the ground, runs into the nearby room.

I signal for Spencer to head outside, leaving me to follow the man. Creeping down the hallway, I keep my gun trained at the empty door. I want to drop this asshole if he so much as pokes his head around the corner.

Reaching the door without incident, I lean in slightly to take a look inside. At first glance, I see nothing other than a few chairs sitting around a large wooden desk. When I don’t find him hiding underneath the desk, I take a deep breath before entering the room.

“Drop it!” I shout with my gun aimed at his head.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he says, nodding his head outside.

“He isn’t the only one who can shoot it,” I say, stepping forward.

“But what if I shoot his arm? He may drop it over the edge.”

The odds of that happening were unlikely, but there was enough of a chance of it happening that it wasn’t worth the risk. But, I couldn’t let him know that.

“Try me,” I say.

When he turns his head to laugh, a single gunshot rings out from the outside that shatters the glass before the contents of his skull decorate the room.

I breath a sigh of relief when he falls to the ground, the death shot not taken. Walking to the window I see Spencer standing on the other side of Bill with his gun aimed in the room. He finally relaxes his grip when he sees my ugly mug.

“All clear,” I say, loud enough for them to hear.

“Finally!” Bill says. “Damn thing finally locked. You two may want to stand back.”

Taking his advice, I walk back to the doorway wanting to get away from the glass. I’m not sure how this missile works, but I’ve seen enough YouTube videos to know they have a nasty back blast.

“Good!” I shout, hearing Spencer shout the same from the nearby room seconds after.

I hear the glass shatter in the nearby room followed by the sound of the missile taking off. As the glass crashes to the ground around the room, I see the projectile heading towards its target.

The three of us cheer when the missile hits the target, the sound of the impact shaking the building violently. Smoke fills the air from the area of impact with parts of the piece falling to the ground below.

Ahead I see the towers of the cranes swinging wildly, trying to control the piece as it swings wildly in the air. I run close to the window, looking down to see the two cranes in front being ripped from the ground as the piece swings in my direction.

Then I hear the loud pop as the top half of one crane tower snaps off from the movement, followed by the other. On the ground the two cranes crash to their sides, crushing the people foolish enough to stand close.

Reaching the end of its swing, the piece swings back in the other direction. The crane on the backside of the portal is holding firm, the momentum failing to send it into a dive.

Then I hear it. A loud pop as the piece crashes into place between two towers of the pillar.

We don’t wait to see the result of our failed blast. We just run down the stairs as fast as our legs will take us to the battle below.

- 11 -

Not needing to defend the cranes anymore, the remaining enemy forces make a hard push at Azrael’s position on the west. It is doubtful, but unless they pulled out a few more fighters out of the rubble in one piece, this battle is going to be over quickly as they are easily out gunned at this point.

Bill, Spencer, and I give it our all, hoping to draw off enough of the enemy to give them a chance. It may not amount to much, but even splitting part them away could make a world of difference.

“This should work,” Bill says, kneeling down next to the concrete railing on the west side of Memorial. “With Az falling back to the camp, we should be able to pick off a few of them.”

Back at the camp, Nal would have a few people stationed to help defend the others, but the vast majority of our fighting force is out there with the angel. If they are pushed back all that way, the rest of them are all screwed.

Including Sara.

“Why do you think the portal hasn’t opened yet?” Spencer says. “I thought it would open right away.”

“Maybe we destroyed the rune enough that it won’t work,” Bill says, swapping out magazines on his weapon.

“I doubt that,” I say. “There’s someone down there near the large stones they put in.”

“You think we should take him out?” Spencer asks.

“I got it,” I say, putting away my pistol. “I won’t be much help here without my rifle, anyways. Just do me a favor.”

“Anything,” Bill says.

“Just watch my back. Make sure I don’t get any unwanted company.”

“We got you,” Bill says. “Just make sure you come back in one piece.”

I nod. “You too.”

Being horrible with goodbyes, I run along the railing until I get to Walnut where I cross the highway. I stop long enough to take one last look at the charred remains of my Expedition next to the old cathedral. There isn’t much of it left to honor, honestly. One tire, part of the rear bumper, and the passenger door is all that’s left of the car that got me here.

Once I pass the cathedral, I see the three stones they have set up in the center of the portal. Each one is about eight feet tall and adorned with runes like the portal, but without as many. Between them is a flat circular stone on the ground with a small rectangular stone on top of it.

A woman walks up from a nearby car holding two glowing yellow orbs in her hands. She doesn’t even bother closing the trunk of the car where I see another half dozen of the orbs glowing bright against the dark blue paint.

Unless I’m mistaken, I’m staring at Abaddon while she handles her own dirty work. After the mishap at the warehouse, I can’t say I blame her.

I try to stay hidden as I approach, wanting to keep hidden as long as possible since I’m still without my knife. Slowly I move between the shattered remains of the trees until I come to the last, leaving nothing but a hundred yard run between me and her makeshift altar. Not wanting to be caught unprepared, I pull the angel blade from my hip and wait for her to make another pass to her car before starting my sprint.

I cover half of the distance before she makes it to her car and another quarter of the way while she pulls out two more of the orbs. Shifting my route, I use the large stone to block her view of me.

I make it to the altar about ten seconds before her, but opt to stay hidden behind the large piece of stone. Quietly, I lean against the stone, waiting for her to make another trip to the car before I strike.

She is talking to herself in Demonic when she walks onto the platform, stopping only when the orbs are in place. When I no longer hear the footsteps on the stone, I give her to the count of five until I strike.

One. I take a deep breath in.

Two. Peeking around the stone, I see she is unaware of my presence.

Three. I envision the combat and how it is going to happen in my mind’s eye.

Four. I exhale slowly while mentally preparing for my move.

Five. I run out from behind the stone pillar silently, sword poised to strike.

The seconds drag on while I close the distance. Five meager yards is all the room she has. I let a smile creep onto my lips knowing this will all be over soon. I raise my sword to strike the woman down, only to slam into an invisible barrier a few feet away. Before I move, the barrier shifts around me. As I struggle to move away, the barrier wraps itself around my body, halting my escape.

“Demontouched,” she says. “So we meet again.” Her long black hair flies in the air when she faces me. On first appearance, she isn’t much to look at with her pock-marked face, but I find her deep red eyes drawing me in. “Did you think you would be able to strike me down from behind?”