Hellgate London - Exodus Part 7

"They say the communications systems were taken out early on. Either they were destroyed or some kind of damper was put over them. Maybe he couldn't call."

"They have shortwave radios." When he saw the stricken look on Saundra's face, Simon knew he'd spoken too forcefully. He softened his voice. "Hey. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap like that."

"It's all right." But she looked away from him.

Simon sighed. They'd both stayed away from family stories. He knew she had a mom and dad in Australia, and three younger siblings, a brother and two sisters, or it could have been the other way around. But he didn't know all the little anecdotal stories for them.

He'd mentioned he'd had a dad, and that his mother was dead, but nothing much beyond that. There was no way he could have brought up the Templar upbringing. Although after the way he'd dealt with the poachers, she'd wanted some kind of explanation but hadn't been rude enough to ask for one.

"It's just..." Simon hesitated. "You'd have to know my dad. He'd get a message out. Shortwave radios don't depend on satellites or anything, and you can broadcast halfway around the world on one of those."

"I know about shortwave radios. I grew up in Australia, remember? Long way from anywhere if you didn't grow up in one of the bigger cities. My dad still has a base radio. But who would your dad broadcast to? Does he know where you're staying?"

Simon thought about it only for a moment, then shook his head. "No."

"Nowhere to send the message, no message," Saundra said. "I don't have a message from my dad, either." She paused. "And I'm scared, too, Simon. I want to be home."

"I know." He turned to her and put his arms around her, just holding on. "We'll find a way."

Six.

DOWNTOWN LONDON, ENGLAND.

On his knees in the wrecked supermarket with a dozen other scavengers, Warren Schimmerfelt the demon before he saw it.

All his life, he'd hadfeelings about people, situations, and things. He could generally tell when someone meant him harm, and no one could lie to him. He knew when a street was dangerous at night, whether because of muggers or because of motorists. When he held objects, he sometimes got intimations about the past history of a particular piece.

Sometimes, if he concentrated hard enough, he could guess which sports team to bet on, or which horse at the track. He'd never had enough money to make a big profit with a bookie or at the track. Money in his life was hard to come by. It always had been. But not being able to be a big winner allowed him to score a good bet every now and again that helped tide him over. But generally, he had to watch his finances.

That was why he was out scrounging for food now instead of staying at home hiding from the demons and hoping the military units would find a way to evacuate them from London. There simply wasn't enough food in the flat to last an extended stay. And his instincts told him the demons were going to be in London for a long time. He hoped to be evacuated soon. He had no feelings about that.

Not that Warren had anywhere to go. He'd lived his entire life in London. He'd never even been to France or Scotland or Ireland on a lark. On what he made working at the bookstore, there hadn't been enough money.

He'd barely made enough to keep his three flat mates from putting him out on the street. If they'd been able to make enough money between them-at the very least control their spending habits-or had been able to pick up another fourth to share the rent, he was certain they'd have gotten rid of him.

For them, he was too creepy or too strange. Too silent and withdrawn. They called him Weird Warren behind his back and didn't think he knew that. Although they didn't know it, they had few secrets that he didn't know after living with them.

Personally, Warren thought of himself as taciturn. He didn't like the company of others, and that usually bothered others. Instead of being glad he wasn't trying to continually get into their business, they looked on him with resentment and suspicion.

They hated the fact that he always had his rent ready at the first of the month without fail, and sometimes had a little extra to cover someone who was short. Instead of being grateful that he had it and was generous enough to share, although he'd been forced to do that through circ.u.mstance, they had speculated that he was involved in something illegal, which wasn't a lot of fun for Warren, either.

As a result of their suspicions, they'd sometimes tried to follow him. They also went through his things in his room and occasionally nicked any money he might have left lying out. He was creepy, but lucky, and everyone knew it.

That was why he was one of those that got sent out tonight to get rations. Because he was lucky.

Only now he knew that he had a demon sniffing him out. There was a fine line between good luck and bad luck, and all his life Warren Schimmer had experienced tons of both.

Warren cowered in the back of the small convenience store. He knelt flattened against the refrigeration unit along the back wall. Nothing inside the unit was cold any more, of course. When the power had gone out, the refrigeration had died as well. The meat and vegetables were bad, but much of the cheese was processed and would keep at room temperature for weeks. Soda, juice, tea, and other beverages would keep as well. He'd hoped to get some of those.

Kelli, the more sane of the two women in his flat group, started to move. He seized her wrist. She was blond and pretty, but had mean eyes and a small heart when it came to taking care of others. She worked mornings at a pastry shop and Friday and Sat.u.r.day nights at a gentlemen's club. Not as a dancer, but as a hostess.

Her blond hair made her stand out in the darkness, but Warren knew he was almost invisible. At six-two, he was more than a head taller than she was. He was twenty-three, a couple of years younger than she was. He was long and lanky, dressed in black jeans, black motorcycle boots, black turtleneck, and a long black duster. With his black skin, he was a shadow among shadows.

"Don't move," Warren whispered. That warning tickle still exploded inside his brain. It was everything he could do to keep from running away and leaving her there. If she put up much of an argument or a fight, he was going to do exactly that, though. He still wasn't sure why he wasn't doing that now.

"What's wrong with you?" Kelli demanded, yanking her hand free. She reached for the door of the refrigeration unit.

"We're...not...alone."Warren breathed the words into her ear.

"No, we're not." She whispered, too, hooking her fingers in her long hair and pulling it back from her face. "This place wasn't empty when we came here."

The other scavengers were busy with the canned foods. All of them worked as fast as they could to gather everything they could safely carry.

Warren and Kelli had brought pillowcases, doubling them to increase the strength.

"Listen to me," Warren said desperately, locking eyes with her. He'd found over the years that making eye contact with people he wanted to persuade was somehow more effective than simply voicing a logical argument. "There's something out there."

Kelli hesitated then. Warren had gone out of his way to get her from the club one night four months ago. He'd convinced her he'd had a premonition that something bad was going to happen. Only minutes later, a jealous boyfriend came in and shot his girlfriend and nine customers. The girlfriend and two of the customers had died.

"What makes you think that?" she asked. "I just know it. We need to get out of here." "We need food," Kelli argued. "We're running out of things to eat."

"If we don't leave," Warren told her, "we may not be going home tonight." She stared into his eyes. "Are you sure?"

Warren nodded. "I'm sure."

Kelli glanced around, but Warren knew he had her. "All right," she said.

Warren took a fresh grip on his pillowcase. It was less than half full, but he'd scored peanut b.u.t.ter, which would make George happy.

Lights suddenly flashed against the broken windows of the convenience store. "Coppers," one of the other scavengers groaned.

Immediately the scavengers began dumping items they'd stolen from residences onto the floor. For many of the scavengers, looting was a natural outgrowth of survival. Maybe they couldn't at the moment sell the jewelry, tri-dees, or individual entertainment systems they'd boosted, but they believed everything would return to normal soon. Then they planned on making small fortunes selling their stolen goods.

George was doing the same thing when he went out to forage.

The policeman entered the convenience store and s.h.i.+ned his flashlight around. Illuminated by the beam, the man looked tired and old. He wore riot gear, bulky and stiff. He carried an a.s.sault rifle in his other hand.

"You people need to get out of here," the policeman said. His beam fell across the scattered jewelry and other items on the floor that clearly didn't belong in the convenience store. His face hardened. "And stop that b.l.o.o.d.y thievery. Don't any of you have a conscience? You're out there robbing the dead. Or people that have been scared out of their homes."

"Don't lecture us," a big man snarled. "We might not even get out of this. And if we do, we aren't going to have much. Insurance isn't going to cover our losses. I didn't have any alien insurance. Did you?" "They're not aliens," someone else said. "They're demons."

"What do we have here?" the first man asked sarcastically. "Did the parson leave the vicarage long enough to come down and loot with the rest of us heathens?"

"Don't talk like that," someone else said.

"Get moving," the policeman said, "or I'm going to run the lot of-"

A shadow unfurled in the window, swinging down into the window from above and smas.h.i.+ng through the gla.s.s. The policeman tried to turn and bring his a.s.sault rifle into play. He had his finger on the trigger and was firing in a heartbeat.

But it didn't last long. In one stride, the demon was on the policeman. It closed one hand around the policeman's head and yanked.

Warren heard the man's spine snap even across the store. By then Warren had Kelli by the wrist and was dragging her into motion. He ran for the back door, slamming through the alarm bar.

Immediately the alarm filled the night.

Forgot about the batteries,Warren chided himself. Alarm systems would have a secondary power source in case the primary one was shut down.

The cobblestone alley ran in both directions, but the way to the left dead-ended at a tall fence topped with barbed wire. Kelli immediately took off to the right.

Warren started to follow but the warning tickle fired through his brain again. This time it bordered on painful. He stopped short, tightening his grip on Kelli's wrist.

She cursed at him. "Come on." Her voice was tight with desperation. "That thing is going to be coming!" People ran past them.

Warren held his ground and maintained his hold. "No. We can't go that way." "Let me go!" Kelli jerked, trying to get free.

"Don't! If you want to live, don't-"

The first of the scavengers fleeing the convenience store reached the end of the alley. Something huge and monstrous burrowed up from under the street.

Warren had never seen anything like the creature. It was as huge as an elephant with a gaping maw.

The lead runner vanished into the hole through the street. The demon reached out and captured another person-things were so confusing that Warren didn't know if the victim was male or female-then bit down. Stumps of legs fell to the ground like crumbs.

The other scavengers tried to reverse their direction, but it was too late. A line of mastiff-sized demons vaulted over the back of the first demon and dropped onto the scavengers, taking them to the ground in their jaws.

Warren pulled Kelli into motion again, heading for the dead end. He halted at the bottom of the wall and formed a stirrup with his hands.

"Up you go."

Kelli stepped into Warren's hands. Thankfully she was slight of build. He had no problem propelling her up. She grabbed hold of the top and rolled over.

Warren leaped up after her, managing the top on his first leap, then pulling himself up. He flung himself over the top and pushed off. He landed and threw himself forward, seeing that Kelli already had a good speed worked up.

Seven.

Something smacked into the wall behind Warren. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a wedge-shaped head with ruby eyes hang on the barbed wire for a moment, then it slipped back down to the other side.

The fence is too tall,he told himself, and hoped that was the truth.

Then something-or several somethings-kept smas.h.i.+ng against the wall. Wood splintered and gave way. By that time Warren had caught up to Kelli. They reached the street together in four more strides. "Which way-"

Before Kelli could finish her question, Warren felt the warning itch increase again. He threw her down, covering her with his body. The broken window of the Italian restaurant ahead of them showed the menacing reflection of a feminine-shaped demon with wings. She missed them by inches.

Pus.h.i.+ng himself up, Warren hauled Kelli up and started running again. She couldn't keep pace with him despite her best efforts.

Run! Leave her behind!Warren knew that was what he should have done. But he couldn't. He didn't truly care about his flat mates. They had all shown too much disrespect over the last few months for him to trust them. But there was no one else in the world that he even came close to caring for.

The door of a comic book shop that Warren sometimes frequented stood open ahead. He ducked inside, pulling Kelli after him. She was out of breath, gasping hoa.r.s.ely, all but undone.

Two of the hound-looking demons charged past the door.

Slowly, not wanting to attract their attention, Warren guided Kelli to the back of the showroom. Posters of superheroes with amazing powers covered the walls. Those worlds-not the impossible things that happened in them, but the way most things ended happily-seemed a million miles away. The heroes in those magazines weren't afraid of death. But Warren Schimmer was. He'd seen it close up, had taken a life before and knew how easy it was.

"Quiet," Warren breathed into Kelli's ear. He tried to keep his fear out of his voice but doubted he succeeded. "Just stay quiet and we'll get out of here."

She was tense, shaking against him. She didn't believe him. But that was fair; he didn't believe himself. One of the demons turned toward the comic shop and thrust its snout into the air.

Does it scent us?Warren didn't know. He reached the back of the sales floor and went through the open door to the stock room. He'd never been there before. Too late, he saw that there was nowhere to go.

Boxes lined the shelves. A table occupied one end of the room. Thankfully the room was dark. The demon approached the door and threw its snout into the air again.

Warren willed Kelli not to speak or make a sound. And he wanted her to obey him without him having to give instruction. She let him guide her like a child, dropping to the floor and crawling under the table. Outside, the demon's footsteps drew nearer.

Kelli almost screamed. Warren put his hand over her lower face.Don't, he thought at her.Don't make a sound.

She quieted, but her heart throbbed against his arm thrown over her body.

In the darkness, the demon was barely visible, but Warren made out its feet. They were gnarled and misshapen, nowhere close to anything human. But they were corded with muscle and sharp talons curled over the toes.

You can't see us,Warren thought at it. Then he corrected himself.You can't sense us. We're not here. No one is in this room.

A moment later, the demon thrust its ugly head under the table. The slavering jaws were less than a foot from Kelli's head. One snap of those powerful jaws would tear her face away.

You can't sense us. We're not here. Go away. We're not here.Warren's unspoken words felt like hammer falls inside him. A ma.s.sive headache suddenly throbbed between his temples. He clung to the words desperately, and he clung to Kelli because she was shaking so hard there was no way the demon wouldn't see her.

A moment later, unbelievably, the demon withdrew. Then it left the room. Stunned, Warren listened as the footsteps receded and finally disappeared.

Long minutes pa.s.sed. During that time, Warren felt Kelli's tears rolling across his fingers, felt her shaking as she silently cried. He also heard the screams and cries of those who didn't get away. After a while, he heard only silence.

"Stay here," he told Kelli. "I'm going to go look."

"No." She caught hold of his s.h.i.+rt and tried to keep him with her.

"Let go," Warren said automatically. His voice was more harsh than he intended, but his head ached so severely that he wanted to lie down and sleep.

Kelli let go.