“Yeah… Right, okay, well, um just help me find what I need and maybe we can trade info. Later. Maybe.”
Aymun sighed, unhappy at the prospect, but seeming to understand that this was a negotiation. “Time is not something I have a lot of.”
“Then you better get a move on and start searching, pet.”
He sighed and began sulkily piling dried noodles into a blue shopping basket. Hannah went behind the counter to a display behind the tills. The cigarettes and booze were all gone, but she found other prizes. She waved a fist in the air and declared, “Back of the net!”
“You have found what you need?” asked Aymun.
She grabbed the bottle of TCP and held it up like a trophy. Antiseptic might not reverse an infection, but it was perfect for preventing one in the first place. It was what she needed for her ankle, and what Dr Kamiyo would need in the days ahead. “Like I said earlier, it’s a good start.”
Along with the TCP, she also found bandages, plasters, painkillers, cold medicines, and a shit-tonne more antiseptic. It wasn’t what they desperately needed, but it was better than what they had. Along with some food, matches, and sanitary towels, it might be enough to make life easier for a while. She was hurt, and every step made it worse, but this supply run had been successful enough to call a win. She would heal up and then go out again. Maybe by that time, the fabled Portsmouth Army would have arrived to save the day.
Hannah looked at Aymun. “There’s really a push-back going on in Portsmouth?”
He had picked up a pack of sanitary towels and was examining them curiously but put them down now and looked at her. “Yes, General Wickstaff, a great woman, led many men to victory. They closed the gates and killed the Fallen.”
“The Fallen?”
“Fallen angels. Those of God’s chosen who turned away to serve the Red Lord. They attacked London and the surrounding areas. There will be many more to face in the days ahead, but we know they can be vanquished.”
“You’re talking about the giants? You killed some of them?” It was exactly what Vamps had claimed. Was this some elaborate confidence trick, or the crazy, impossible truth?
Aymun seemed to sense her cynicism because he moved a little closer. “When one who is living passes through a gate, it weakens the damned greatly. I did such a thing myself in Syria and exited in London. I did so again in Portsmouth, and this time came out of a gate many miles from here. I seek my friend. The friend who I believe you have met, no? His name is Vamps.”
Hannah studied Aymun and considered it possible that he was one of the good guys. Just being human made it more likely than not. Was she being hard on him? On the road after Derby, she’d been ready to embrace the first stranger she met, but now she had people depending on her. People she needed to protect.
She sighed. It was time to take a chance. “Yes, I’ve met Vamps. He was hurt, but our doctor brought him back to health. For a while, he was… I dunno, possessed or something. He attacked some of us, and we had to restrain him.” She nodded at her rifle, which she held onto more tightly since having it taken off her once. “He almost got a bullet in the skull.”
Aymun nodded but grew weary. He had to steady himself against a fridge filled with spoiled ice cream. “He is indeed possessed, as you put it. The Red Lord resides within him, an unwanted passenger.”
Hannah shook her head. “Vamps is fine now though. This Red Lord or whatever, went away. He’s been helping us back at the camp for weeks.”
Aymun’s eyes widened, and it looked like he might topple over. “He… He is…” He crumpled to the floor, wheezing. Hannah yanked him into a sitting position against the fridge and tried to keep him from passing out. Blood stained his shirt, and when she lifted it, his bandage was soaked through. “Shit. You’re bleeding.”
“I think, perhaps, that I was not done resting.”
A sound outside startled them both. Hannah looked out through the door’s glass panels and saw something that shocked her—a demon staring right back at her. Unlike the others she’d encountered, this one did not attack. In fact, it seemed alarmed and confused. A healing wound glistened on its horrendously burned chest right beneath its collarbone.
A gunshot wound.
This was the one that had got away.
I knew I shot four of you ugly bastards.
Hannah gripped her rifle and sprang to her feet. The demon’s alarm turned to full-blown terror, and it bolted. She’d never seen a demon leg it, and it gave her the confidence to give chase. But Aymun grabbed her leg and kept her from leaving. “Vamps…” he said in a rasping voice. “He-He is deceiving you. He is not who he says he is. Your friends are in terrible danger.”
Hannah looked down at him, not quite comprehending his words—her heart beat too loud in her temples. “I… I need to get that demon before it reaches its friends. It’s seen our camp. It’ll bring an army.”
Aymun shook his head, groaning in pain. “You must return to your camp now. Before it’s too late.”
Hannah kicked him away and threw open the door. She aimed her rifle at the fleeing demon and fired. The demon stopped dead in its tracks, then turned around with its hands on its head like a bank hostage. The rifle shook in her hands, and she stared into its eyes. The demon seemed too… human. It was terrified. “David!” the creature said in a pained and hopeless voice. “David run!”
Hannah pulled the trigger by instinct, but she’d missed her chance. A cottage window shattered behind the demon, and it dashed into a side
