Nancy chewed the inside of her cheek, then said, “I’m really hoping this isn’t the last time we see each other, Damien.”
“Promise me you’ll do everything you can to stay out of trouble. We might have kicked demon ass back in Indiana, but this place is different. You don’t know the land.”
She placed a kiss on his cheek. “Trust me when I say I’ll do everything I can to stay alive, but you do the same, okay? Whatever happens here, survive.”
Damien felt tears coming. “You should go. You’re wasting light.”
“Look who’s in a hurry to be rid of the ol’ ball and chain. Got your next chick lined up?”
“There’s no one else. I’ll be waiting for you.”
Nancy grabbed his hand and squeezed, holding onto it as she turned away and keeping contact until the last second, when their fingertips slid apart. Damien watched her walk away, wondering if her gait had ever been feminine and gentle instead of strong and powerful. In a previous life, they would never have got together. Damien had been a young banker, frequenting pubs by night for a pint and a shag. Nancy had been a mother of two on her second marriage. In this new world, they were soldiers bound by blood and pain.
Damien thought Nancy would look back, but she didn’t. She joined her escorts and started shimmying between the cars and vans that blocked the road. The morning sun was dazzling, sending shards of light across the fading metal paintwork. At first, Damien thought it was those shafts of light that caught his eye, but then he realised it was something else – something moving. A shadow ducked and dived between the stalled vehicles, getting closer. Then it wasn’t just one solitary shadow but many.
Damien yelled at the top of his lungs, “Demons!”
Nancy and her bodyguards raised their rifles. Damien didn’t see who fired first, but once it happened, the chorus of war began in earnest. Damien added to the cacophony, firing blindly ahead and hoping to hit something.
The first shadow revealed itself, leaping up onto the wide, round bonnet of a silver saloon. It was a demonic primate, a creature so twisted and perverse that it was more beast than man. It glared at them and snarled.
“Fall back,” Nancy bellowed. “There’re too many of them.”
Damien fired off an entire magazine in less than three seconds, hitting the primate on the bonnet and the one that immediately leapt up beside it. Nancy took one out as well, but as she’d said, there were too many of them – two dozen at least. They had to retreat.
Damien waited for Nancy to fall back in line, but as she did so, one of her escorts tripped on a fallen wing mirror. The stumble was all it took for a primate to leap across the roof of a smashed-up Porsche and land on him. His screams lasted less than a second, his throat quickly torn open.
“Where the hell did they come from?” Nancy’s attention darted left and right as she fired several shots. “I thought this area had been cleared.”
Damien had that bad feeling again, but this time there was no mystery behind the cause. “This is what we’ve been preparing for. Whatever the demons have been planning, it just kicked off. We’ve been ambushed.”
“I’m never going to find my kids. These fucking monsters. I hate them. I hate them so fucking much.”
Damien wanted to argue – to tell her that everything would be okay – but when he spotted more demons racing towards them, he couldn’t deny the truth. There was no way out of this. They couldn’t run, they couldn’t fight. All they could do was take down as many of the bastards as possible to make sure those back at the castle had a slightly better chance of survival.
“It’s been an honour fighting with you folks,” said one of Nancy’s escorts, a thick-necked old boy named Norton. He’d run an Indiana textile factory in his former life with two sons who were both now dead. Perhaps that was why the old guy was so brave; he was eager to rejoin his family. “I’ll buy you some time to make it to the treeline.”
Nancy shook her head. “Norton, don’t!”
But it was too late. The brave American had moved forward, picking his shots and catching the attention of every demon. The two remaining escorts bolted for the treeline, and Damien was about to take off after them, but Nancy didn’t move at all. She aimed her rifle and fired, rooted to the spot. Damien grabbed her and yelled. “Come on, we have to go!”
“I’m not leaving Norton.”
“He’s made his decision. It’s too late to change it.” And that was the truth. The demons had already surrounded him. Damien fired a shot and hit one of the demons in the thigh, but it was hopeless. More monsters emerged from behind the wrecked vehicles. Who knew how many would eventually present themselves?
Damien pulled at Nancy again. This time, to his relief, she let herself be moved. She turned and picked up speed, rushing for the trees. The two escorts hadn’t yet fully retreated, and they fired their rifles to provide cover.
Then the worst thing happened.
The two escorts fell at exactly the same time, wailing first in shock and then in agony. Burnt men appeared behind them in the trees, twenty at least, forming a wall and blocking any chance of escape. Damien’s knees deserted him and he collapsed onto the road. His rifle struck the ground and discharged accidentally, the round ricocheting into the air, seeking clouds. “We’re fucked,” he moaned. “Totally fucked.”
“They’ve cut off our retreat,” said Nancy in disbelief. “We’re idiots.”
“We couldn’t have known. This area was clear.”
Nancy knelt beside him. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, you’re going to die because of me.”
Damien shrugged. “I would have happily
