“But what?”
“Being so open…it has to have consequences. There was nothing we could do, but I feel there will be a backlash somehow.”
“I don’t get it.”
“We stopped it. The zombie apocalypse.”
“Ghoul…and actually if it wasn’t for Nightingale-”
“Whatever! It’s done. They’re defeated. That must mean the demon is dead. But look at the sky. It’s still as black as the ace of spades and it’s supposed to be afternoon. It just feels like…”
Melina struggled for the words, but Lauren found them. “Something’s still missing?”
“Or something’s still coming. Either way, we get to Dante’s house, you go to Clive. We lay low and regroup. Whatever happens, we have to be prepared.”
Lauren reacted instantly. Pulling Melina and Nathaniel into her embrace. Melina was saved from asking what was going on when she was able to see straight ahead. Headlights. Not belonging to a car, but a jet-black van. And it wasn’t alone. A line of them followed the first, zooming past them, racing towards the city, towards where the three had just come from.
Lauren counted eleven of them. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know. But did you smell that?”
“I did,” Nathaniel replied, scrunching up his face.
It was the overwhelming stench that attracted Lauren. She recognised it from the battles she had been in. Perhaps it was the reason she had felt so uneasy at the sight of the procession of vehicles. They were only vans with tinted windows, but something in the ferocity of their speed and the smell, made Lauren wary.
“Gunpowder,” she answered. Different amounts, belonging to different shells. Meaning assault rifles, pistols and perhaps something more akin to armour piercing bullets. So, eleven vehicles with the armoury of a tank were racing towards the city. “You know that thing you thought was coming, the consequences?”
Melina nodded, knowing where this was going. “I think it just passed us.”
*
Koha helped Matt into the abandoned car service repair place. Matt wheezed with the effort of sitting down, even as Koha eased him lower. Koha made a quick scan of his surroundings. Hollowed out and filthy, rank with dampness. The air was stale with dust and an almost overbearing hint of WD40, yet pitch black, perfect for what he needed. This place was commonly used by members of the Forgotten for flame portals. Transporting their consciousness to the realm of the Night Mother for advice and guidance.
“Keep the pressure on,” Koha reminded Matt as he prepared a flame portal. Matt hissed and wheezed as he pulled the tattered remnants of his own shirt from the wound in his side to check the damage. The bleeding had stopped, but several gouges and almost chunks of flesh had been torn from his body. The result of the fight with the ghouls.
“Will I turn into one of them?”
“I don’t think so. If you were going to, you would’ve.”
“I have to get to Alex…I have to check on her…”
“You’re not going anywhere until…shh-”
Koha and Matt looked at the same spot at the same time. The roar of an engine, several of them in fact, exploded into the otherwise silent night and rushed past them. One though, the very last, slowed considerably. It stopped just outside where they sat. A figure emerged and shone a high beam LED torch inside. Koha quickly lifted and pressed Matt against the side brick wall, their bodies obscured at an angle behind an iron girder.
Koha closed his eyes, trusting his senses to see for him. The footsteps were heavy and the figure was weighed down by his clothing. Perhaps Kevlar or riot gear. Koha heard the clinking of a weapon knocking a brace on his lower leg. A semi-automatic perhaps. Serious firepower, Koha thought, gripping his boomerang tighter. Just as it occurred to him to unleash it, the figure turned and jogged back to the van with a barely audible mutter into a radio device of some kind, before the van motored away. “All clear. Catch up to the others.”
Koha eased himself off Matt, when he was sure the coast was clear, and helped Matt back to his sitting position. “What the fuck was that?”
“No idea. But it didn’t sound friendly. Whatever. She’ll know.”
Koha finished his work and blew a steady short breath into his makeshift kindling, and a blue flame erupted in front of him. “Stay here and keep watch. I won’t be long.”
Koha pressed his face forward and when he opened his eyes he was once again in the cavernous dwelling of the Night Mother, surrounded by fellow Forgotten members. They whooped and cheered for him upon his approach. Calen ran forth and gave him a brief, yet relieved, embrace. With a simple raise of her bony hand, the Night Mother silenced the entire cave.
“You left us a champion. You return a hero.”
More cheering and yet another raise of the hand. More forceful this time, and the silence gripped again, only faster. “You also return troubled. What has happened?”
“The white fulla. He’s been bit. It looks bad. I did what I could, but we need help.”
The Night Mother gave a small turn of her shrouded head. “Calen. Danara. Go.”
“We are at the old chop shop in Randwick.”
Calen nodded. “See you soon, bruv!” And with a pop, disappeared.
“Night Mother, there’s more. There was a fleet of vans that rushed past us. One stayed behind outside the chop shop. We hid as someone exited the van and searched the place. He didn’t see us, and I couldn’t get a look at him from where we were, but I sensed heavy body armour and weaponry. I don’t know if he was after us
