Bex turned, his face intense. “Shells coming over the hill!”
“That’s it! We’re on our own!” Jared yelled. He took the safety off his pistol, and grabbed a fistful of my vest.
Claire and Ryan left the Humvee first, and Jared and I followed. The bullets were already flying, landing in the sand at my feet. We hunkered down in a small alley just inside a stone corridor until Kim and Bex joined us, and then Jared silently ordered us to move.
Claire pointed further inside the corridor. “Damascus Gate. Markets and pedestrians. No good.”
Jared nodded once, and then we moved out. Claire took to the street with cover fire, running at full speed to the next alley. People walking in the street would run, and then suddenly stop to follow. Jared pulled me across the street, and a large man with military fatigues ran at us. Claire put a bullet in his head in less than a second. Jared didn’t bother to slow down. We jumped over the corpse and caught up.
Duck and cover seemed to be the plan of action for the next two streets. The Old City was a series of narrow rock roads and corridors lined with trinkets and rugs for sale. We reached the end of one road to find ourselves at the beginning of a marketplace. Claire froze, and we stopped abruptly behind her. A hundred or so people stopped, slowly turning around. They eyes of men, women, and children were black as night and bulging from their sockets.
“Move,” Claire said, waving us back.
Jared turned on his heels, leading us to the next building and up a set of stairs. We climbed to the roof, with the mob just behind Bex and Kim. Jared took a few wide strides and then we leapt from that roof to the next. He wanted to continue, but I refused, waiting for Kim. Once they breeched the top of the stairs, I saw hands clamoring over bodies, the shells trampling each other to get at us. Bex was focused, but Kim’s eyes bulged.
“Just hang on to him!” Claire called.
Bex, still running, hugged Kim to him, and when his feet left the roof, he cradled her to his side like a football. His landing was smooth, but Kim had to take a moment we didn’t have to get her bearings. The mob still came at us, most of them falling to the alley below when they tried to make the jump.
My hands flew to my mouth. Children were among those falling to their deaths.
We made the jump four times, and then descended a set of stairs that lead us to another series of corridors.
Jared hunkered down, letting Kim catch her breath. “We’re in the Christian Quarter. The Sepulchre is two klicks away. We’re going to take the west bypass, and make a path. It’s a high traffic area for tourists, with high rock walls on each side, so we’re going to have to mow a path.”
“Copy that,” Ryan said, cocking his rifle.
Jared began to speak again, but a small group of young men shot at us from above. We ran again, dodging shells and bullets. Bex followed up the rear, turning and shooting as he ran. Ryan and Claire were at the front, their rifles against their faces, pointing the barrels in every direction they looked. As many times as I had tried to imagine it, we really were in the middle of a war. The sounds of the AK-47s trading shots and the bullets ricocheting off the walls and roads just made me run faster.
Already exhausted, Kim had trouble keeping up, and Bex kept encouraging her to keep moving. We took cover behind dumpsters and parked cars every few seconds, and the noises around us paused ever so often when we hunkered down, and began sounding like a familiar beat.
Claire and Ryan would reload at nearly the same time, and then we’d start again. Jared would drop a clip and reload as we ran, and Bex did the same. At one point, he pulled a second pistol, turning to lay down more cover fire until Jared yelled for him to keep up. He was next to Kim in less than a second.
Shells that were unarmed simply tried to grab us, but the demons were still human on the outside, and Ryan quickly learned how to incapacitate them. He would use his elbow or the butt of his gun, and shooting the ones he didn’t have time for. I noticed most of his bullets landing in their kneecaps or shoulders, hoping to give them a chance once the demons let them go.
In the court of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a large crowd obstructed the two giant wooden doors that led inside. They stood like statues, their arms calmly at their sides, their black eyes and ashen skin confirming control by the demonic. Some of them were civilian, but most were in fatigues, holding AK-47s. The building itself was massive, much larger than I had imagined, made of stone. I suddenly felt much better about being holed up in there for the next sixty days or so, but the high rock walls made it impossible to do anything but initiate a head-on invasion.
“Should we wait until dark?” Bex asked.
I grabbed his bloodied shoulder, pressing my palm against it. “You’re hit.”
He winked. “It’s not bad. So…should we wait?”
Jared shook his head. “We just need to get in there.”
Kim sighed. “But how? There are hundreds of people out there.”
Claire pulled a pin from a grenade. “Like this.” She rolled it into the crowd, and in seconds a large explosion blew people and body parts in different directions. A huge brown cloud of smoke filled the area and Claire and Ryan ran full speed into it.
Jared grabbed my sleeve and we followed. We didn’t get five steps before a hail of bullets rained down on us. Jared was hit several times and faltered. A bullet ripped through my arm. At first it didn’t hurt, but the closer we got to the Sepulchre, the more the burning surged through my veins. The memory of the pain in my leg at the Japanese restaurant in Providence immediately came to the forefront of my mind. Jared flipped around, and emptied his pistol into the dissipating cloud. He pushed me forward, and Claire and Ryan took me into the church.
“She’s hit!” Ryan said.
They had already cleared the main room. Ryan tied a piece of cloth around my arm while Claire took out the shells in the rest of the church and secured the entrances. Jared, Bex, and Kim came into the doors as one unit, with Kim sliding in on her knees. Bex slammed the door closed behind them, and immediately covered the window.
After a few minutes and sporadic gunfire, Claire returned. “We only have a few minutes before they reorganize. The barricades won’t hold for long. We need to get underground.”
I winced as Jared tightened Ryan’s tourniquet. “I thought they couldn’t come in here.”
Jared frowned at the dark red saturating the cloth on my arm. “It’s the tomb they can’t violate. The church and basilisk itself are fair game.”
Bex glanced back from the window. “Whatever we’re doing, let’s do it fast.”
The cloud from the grenade had cleared, revealing dozens of mutilated corpses on the ground. More shells were crowding the Sepulchre, and were now climbing its walls and beating on the doors.
Jared lifted Kim off the floor. “You have the book?”
She nodded, breathing hard.
“You ready to do what you came here to do?”
“Yes, and it’s about damn time, Ryel,” she said, tightening her grip on the pack.
We retreated into the church, passing extravagant garnishing of gold, marble and artwork. Candles lined altars, and pictures of the crucifixion of Christ. We passed a set of stairs that made Claire pause before advancing into the Sepulchre of Jesus.
“Where do they lead?” I asked.
Jared glanced at the stairs only briefly. “That would be the stairway to Calvary. Christ climbed those steps on his way to be crucified.”
We continued through a large room to another room that held a smaller room within it. You could walk around this room, but Claire advanced inside.
“Is this it?” I asked.
Jared squeezed my hand. “The Holy Sepulchre.”
We filed in, and everyone dropped their packs. I was confused. The adornments around the room signaled a holy place, but all this time, my mind pictured an underground cavern.
“This can’t be it. How can we protect ourselves in here?”
Claire sighed. “Not in here.” She pushed the altar to the side, revealing an ancient steep staircase. “The true tomb is hidden below. It’s hidden from the public.”
“I’m having my baby in a hole,” I said, more of a statement than a question.
