The Dark Horde (23 page)

Douglas’ hand tightened on the baton as he advanced towards Brian.

“Forensics? Homicide? What about the media?”

Douglas slugged Brian across the face, splitting his lips. Brian spat more blood and laughed back at Douglas.

“Do you want to die?” Douglas said.

Brian smiled. “Nah, I wanna join. What do I do?”

Douglas smashed the baton across Brian’s face again. “Shut up and I will tell you!”

Brian smirked. “But why are you so keen for me to join?”

Douglas leaned forward into Brian’s bruised and bleeding face. “If you knew why you were so important, then I’d definitely have to kill you, which I’m going to do anyway if you ask one more question!”

“Is it because I actually have the balls to stand up against you arse-lickers?”

Douglas drew his pistol on Brian...

Then there was a knocking sound at the door.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake! Didn’t I say that there were to be no interruptions!” Douglas cursed. He gestured at Robert standing next to the door. “Get that, will you.”

Robert nodded and opened the door, revealing Constable Annette Baker, distressed and shaking.

Her cries flooded the room. “Constables James and Lisa are under attack and need our help!”

Douglas turned from Brian to the door. “What the hell are you babbling about? Where are they?”

“At Frank Weston’s house. They’ve turned on us, Douglas!” Annette panted. “They’ve already killed Constables Barry and Peter!”

Douglas planted his face in his hand. “Shit! Why does this have to happen now?”

Brian shifted forward in his chair.

Douglas looked up at Robert trembling and Annette white-faced. “Look, you two will have to go and check this out now whilst I deal with this here. Let me know what you find.”

Robert nodded and Annette spoke up. “But there’s no other officers on duty. There’s no one else to mind the station.”

“Well, then get someone here.”

Annette lowered her voice, “Douglas, there
is
no one else.”

“Well, call Benalla. Call D24 in Wangaratta. JUST GET SOMEONE!”

“Okay.” Annette cast her eyes to Brian. He returned a smirk.

Robert and Annette scurried off, closing the door behind them. Douglas returned to his subject...

Just as Brian launched from his seat to slam the top of his skull into Douglas’ face.

Douglas toppled backwards and Brian landed on top of him. Brian reached for Douglas’ pistol and a desperate struggle ensued.

The gun fired and Brian pulled free from Douglas and scrambled to his feet. Brian held the pistol behind his back in his handcuffed hands, pointing it side-on at Douglas who lay writhing at his feet, his stomach soaked with purple blood.

“Even when I’m handcuffed and outnumbered, you’re no match for me, Douglas.”

Agonised, Douglas raised himself up on one arm.

“I was never gunna join. You should have killed me when you had your chance.”

Douglas vainly raised a palm in resistance, “Listen, Brian–”

And then the gun fired again.

“Cos I won’t make the same mistake you just did.” Brian finished, stepping over Douglas’ now lifeless body to get his keys...

“CONSTABLE KLOPSKI, ARE YOU THERE?” Annette shouted into the headset.

Annette looked over at Robert and shook her head. “I’m not getting anything.”

“I’m not getting anything either. There’s no signal on any band.”

“Maybe something’s wrong with our transmitter. Try calling D24.”

There was the muffled sound of a gunshot from the interrogation room.

Annette frowned. “That’s the second one. You better go check that out, Robert.”

Robert hesitated.

“I’ll call D24. Now you go.”

Robert nodded, his hands trembling as he started off down the corridor towards the interrogation room. Annette dialled a line to D24...

But the line was only static like every other.

Robert stepped carefully down the corridor, pistol outstretched. Ahead on the right side lay the door to the interrogation room. Beyond the corridor reached a t-junction where a holding cell could be seen, currently occupied by the young man that came in last night. There were no signs of activity from this direction.

Robert reached the closed door to the interrogation room. Pistol in one hand, he gently turned the doorhandle with the other...

The door swung open to reveal an apparently uninhabited room. A pool of purple blood had collected on the floor amidst the scattered arrangement of the desk and chairs. The blood trailed out of sight to the corner behind the door. He stepped forward...

“Don’t move,” said Brian quietly as he placed the barrel of his pistol against the back of Robert’s head.

Robert twitched with fright and froze.

Brian stepped back into the interrogation room and closed the door behind him, revealing Douglas’ bloody corpse in the corner.

“Please don’t kill me, Brian. I was only following orders.”

“That all depends, Robert,” Brian said as he deftly disarmed Robert and put him into handcuffs, “on the colour of your blood.”

Brian shot him in the foot. Robert fell to the floor in agony.

“You deserved that anyway,” Brian said.

A purple trickle emerged from the side of Robert’s shoe.

Robert struggled to his knees. “Please, Brian! It’s not my fault! They made me become one of them!”

Brian levelled his gun at Robert’s head. “Now it’s your turn to answer questions. Tell me what you know and how I can stop them. Then I might let you live.”

Robert began to cry. “They make us
Halform
so that they can blend in with you. But
Halform
are not like them – they do not die as we do!”

Brian cocked his pistol. “Now I know you’re lying. I’ve already killed one.”

Robert shook his head. “No, Brian. You didn’t!”

The door flew open. Annette’s bulky frame stood in the doorway holding a shotgun. Brian stood in her firing line, his weapon aimed at Robert.

“Drop it, Brian, or you’re dead,” Annette said.

Brian looked over his shoulder at Annette... And sighed.

“You’ve got three seconds to drop your weapon. Then I shoot.”

Brian hesitated, glancing around the room.

“One... Two...”

Brian dropped his pistol. Annette and Robert both relaxed.

“Now kick it over,” Annette ordered.

Brian grimaced in reluctance.

“Three seconds to die, Brian, counting one...”

Brian’s lips pinched together as he booted the pistol at her. It flew across the room and into her thick shins with a fleshy thud.

“I ought to shoot you for that,” Annette said without flinching.

Brian shrugged as he looked over at Robert rising slowly to his feet and backing away.

Then Annette bent down to pick up Brian’s pistol...

You stupid bitch.

In the time it took for Annette to reach past her torso, Brian had crossed the room to take a running kick at her lowered head. His foot smashed into her face, throwing her backwards in a spray of spittle, teeth and purple blood. She landed on the other side of the corridor, whilst the pistol landed near his feet.

Purple, eh?

A bloody smile cracked Annette’s lips as her eyes opened onto the barrel of Brian’s pistol staring down at her.

“I cannot–”

She ate the first bullet before the next two struck her forehead, silencing her.

Brian regarded the mangled remains of Annette before him and Douglas’ corpse in the corner of the room. Satisfied they moved no more, Brian turned to Robert whimpering against the wall...

“What do I do with you?”

WEDNESDAY 8:41
AM

A horrid stench of unclean beasts. A pervasive red glow, the borders of which flickered with moving figures. Minds in whispered conversation:
“We cannot take him... He slips from our grasp.”

The cold, hard reality of the room materialised into being around Jason. Leather straps bound him to a bed, digging into the flesh on his wrists and ankles. High on the wall facing him, sunlight entered through a small, brick-lined window blocked by iron bars. Dull grey brick walls surrounded him, tangled cobwebs hanging from their corners. Not far behind the dusty pillow his head rested on, he could make out the stout iron bars of his police cell.

What the fuck just happened?

The sound of keys jiggled in the lock behind his head.

Jason stretched his head back to see an officer, slightly built and boyish-looking, slide aside the bars to his cell. Smiling, the officer limped through the entrance and looked down at him.

“What the fuck is going on?” Jason demanded.

Giggling, the officer drew out his pistol and pointed it at Jason’s head.

“Aaahhh! For fuck’s sake, what are you doing?”

The officer giggled again but said nothing.

I’m going to die!

Then there was a voice from the corridor behind them, “I knew I should have killed you Robert, you slimy fuck.”

The officer called Robert turned to the voice without taking the gun off Jason. “If you shoot me Brian, I’ll shoot him.”

Brian’s answer was nonchalant. “Fine.”

Jason interjected, “Hey! I haven’t done anything! I don’t even know how I got here!”

Neither of them answered Jason.

“Tell me how you got out of those handcuffs before I kill you like the worm you are,” Brian said.

“I believe I can answer that,” came a third voice further away and deeper than the rest.

Two shots from different pistols fired in quick succession and Jason heard bodies crashing to the ground. The officer nearest him was one of them.

Then everything was still.

Jason angled his head around, but could see only walls and ceiling. His heart hammered in his brain.

Tell me I’m fucking dreaming!

Wait... Someone’s moving. And it’s not the officer who’d fallen next to me...

I can’t believe this is happening! I’m fucked! I can’t do anything!

Down the corridor, someone burst into laughter and declared, “Douglas, you fuck! You shot your own man, haha!”

A dull thud sounded from the proximity of the speaker, followed by a low groan.

“I dunno how you got back up, you determined bastard, but I’m gunna make sure that
this
time, you don’t get up again.”

A rasping reply, pained and furious, “I’m already dead, Brian! And I’ll–”

The gun sounded twice more. Silence followed.

Excruciating silence. Seconds passed in agonising, surreal slow-motion... Unrelenting.

Then came the sound of approaching footsteps...

The middle-aged face of an officer emerged into view. Solid, a little unshaven like himself, with intense blue-grey eyes.

The officer smiled. “It’s your lucky day!”

“Worst fucking day of my life! Um... What is going on?”

The officer bent down to retrieve a pistol from the body at his feet, pausing to check the body wasn’t moving.

He rose and looked back at Jason. “I wish I knew. Have you used a gun before?” He held out a pistol to Jason, even though he was still bound to the bed.

Jason frowned. “Yeah... I do have a shooting licence. But–”