A blast of air sent everyone for cover. No one knew what was happening.
A gate appeared right in front of them.
“This can’t be good,” said Smithy.
“Get those handguns loaded,” said Addy, crouching beside him.
Demons were about to spawn behind their defences. They would tear the docks apart from the inside. It was the worst thing that could’ve have happened.
But Mass was wrong.
A person stepped through the gate, someone Mass recognised. His mouth fell open. The person was Maddy.
Where the hell has she been?
Maddy walked out of the gate and marched right up to Thomas. The old man was shaking his head, utterly confused. “What? How did you?”
Maddy lifted a handgun and aimed it at Thomas’s head. She pulled the trigger and splattered his brains all over the men standing behind him.
“That was for Amanda.”
The stand-off resumed, Thomas’s shocked men drawing weapons on Maddy while Mass’s people pulled weapons on them. Wanstead’s people took cover and aimed their rifles at the people coming through the mysterious gate that had appeared right inside their walls.
It was chaotic.
Maddy stood over Thomas’s corpse, not seeming to care about all of the guns being pointed at her. Commander Tosco appeared behind her and placed an arm around her. He whispered something in her ear, and slowly her body relaxed until she lowered the still smoking handgun to her side.
Wanstead broke the silence. His voice was respectful and curious rather than authoritative or demanding. “You’re Maddy, correct? Commander Tosco, I believe we’ve met several times. Where exactly have you come from?”
Maddy glared. “We just got our backsides handed to us in a fight with the demons. We’ve come here to make sure the same doesn’t happen to Portsmouth.”
Everyone panicked. At first Mass didn’t know why, but then he saw that a huge demon had emerged from the gate. It was the real deal, with horns, hooves and wings.
Tosco threw a hand up and barked in his officer’s voice, “Nobody do a thing. He’s a friend. You can call him Sorrow, but he likely won’t respond.”
The men looked at each other nervously, but mostly they were confused.
A young girl appeared next, sidling up behind the demon and clutching her stomach like she needed to run to the toilet. She waved a hand and smiled. “Please don’t shoot Sorrow. He’s a big fluffy kitten really. Also, if you shoot him, he’ll kill you all.”
The big demon bowed. “That is correct. I will.”
The next person who came through the gate shocked Mass. It was Damien. At least… sort of. Same face, same height, a little skinnier, but definitely Damien – or his twin brother. “D-Damien?”
The doppelgänger raised an eyebrow. “Do I know you?”
“In a way. Your name is Damien?”
“Yeah. How did you know that?”
Mass shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, but be prepared for a shock.”
“Um, okay.”
“We need to get back in the fight,” said Addy. “Can we sort out everything else later?”
One of Thomas’s men pointed at the old man’s headless corpse. “She just executed our leader.”
“He might be your leader,” said Maddy, “but he was never mine.”
“Mine neither,” said Mass, nodding at his friend. It was good to see her.
“Or mine,” said Tosco.
“There’s no time to fight each other,” said Smithy. “Can’t we just get along. For the love of all that’s holy?”
Wanstead stomped a foot. “With Thomas out of the picture, I am the commanding officer in Portsmouth. I order everyone to focus solely on the only thing that matters right now – defending the walls and preventing our extinction. Leave your grievances aside and get to it. Now!”
Many of the men scattered, seemingly glad to escape the tense situation. More people were coming through the gate. They nearly all lacked weapons.
Wanstead moved in front of Mass. “I will leave you with these newcomers as you seem to know them. Do whatever you can, I beg you.”
“I’ll do what I can. Good luck, Colonel.”
Wanstead took off, leaving Mass with his Urban Vampires and the people from the gate. They were a right mix. Although there were a few dozen fit, young fighters, most were children or the elderly, the wounded and weak. Now that he looked at them, he saw burdens instead of reinforcements. “These people can’t fight.”
“Speak for yowself,” said a small man in the crowd. His face was almost completely covered in thick black hair.
“Some of us can fight,” said Maddy. “The others are who we are fighting for. If we have any chance of surviving as a species, these children need to live.”
Mass nodded.
Smithy pulled a face at a little girl, but he stopped when Addy elbowed him in the ribs. Mass shook his head and sighed. Seeing the immediate effect the children had on those around them, even during a siege, made him realise that Maddy was right. A world without children was no world at all.
“Okay,” said Mass, “we’ll keep these children safe. Cullen, you and your team are on permanent guard duty. Protect them with your lives.”
Cullen was likely unhappy receiving babysitting duties, but he nodded all the same. “Nothing’ll get past us, I promise.”
Maddy squeezed Mass’s biceps. “It’s good to see you, Mass. Still working out, I see.”
He chuckled. “Just getting up in the morning is a workout lately. It’s good to see you too, Maddy. Shall we go and kill some demons?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
Maddy couldn’t believe how much things had changed in the time she’d been away. Portsmouth was under siege and half its inhabitants were dead, led to slaughter by Thomas. At least the bastard was dead now.
And at my hand. How do I feel about that?
And she couldn’t believe Thomas had been the very first person she’d seen after stepping through the gate. She’d been floating in a void, unable to
