At the hub, the ritual had already begun. I knew this because Ell and I followed Nick and the others to the garage. We were their cover if anything were to go wrong. And once the ritual began, the infected citizens of the City didn’t care about a few flies escaping the trap. All they cared about was keeping the wraiths happy while they brought forth the Matron.
I hoped, at least.
The monsters revealed themselves as I watched the snow swallow up the red taillights of the tank, as the others got farther and farther away from the City. I heard them first, a droning-buzzing sound, the kind you hear after a loud explosion goes off much too close to your ears.
As the wraiths came closer, the air changed. It grew colder—not the temperature, but colder in the same way that death is cold. Then their dark shapes emerged through the haze of white.
I froze for a second, but only for a second, thanks to Ell. She grabbed my gloved hand and dragged me inside as we made our way back to George and Stone.
We went through the threshold of the open door, the wind actually spurring us forward rather than blowing us back. Once inside, we entered the panic room and locked the door.
The droning-buzzing grew louder. It was the type of sound that could drive you insane. I remember how I felt close to insanity at that point, and I remember wishing I had just left altogether. Because the wraiths scared me more than anything.
The fact they could lock onto my deepest fears, bring them to life, and possibly turn me raving mad didn’t scare me so much as they themselves did. They were alien in the deepest sense of the word.
“We got company,” Ell said, cool and calm as ever. I admired her for that.
“Let ‘em come,” Stone replied. He was on his knees. An open emergency roadside kit sat before him. He dug through it, tossing away pliers, gloves, and bright yellow caution signs. “Yes!” He held up a handful of flares. “Something useful. Let’s burn these fuckers to hell.” He gave us all one. I shoved mine into my jacket pocket.
Burning the fuckers to hell was the plan, but that was as far as that plan went. How we would do it, I had no idea. The flares weren’t going to do the trick, that was for sure. We’d need a damn supernova.
“Can you see where they’re going?” George whispered. He cracked the door open. A gust of wind almost knocked him off his feet, and for a big guy like him, that was hard to do.
I peered around him. “Looks like the hub.”
“They know we’re here,” Ell said.
“Bullshit,” Stone barked. “They’re weird, but they’re not all-knowing.” His voice lost some of its confidence near the end of the sentence. I think because he knew Ell was right.
“Do you hear that?” George asked.
For a moment I heard nothing…but then a low thrumming replaced the silence, building in intensity. The ground began to tremble before it shook violently.
I pitched forward and stumbled into the snow. The door flew open and the sky, I saw, was blacker than ever, which I previously thought was impossible.
The reason for this revealed itself shortly after: more wraiths had joined the party. No longer were there hundreds; now there were thousands.
The ritual had officially begun.
6
The Ritual
I froze before I made it two steps outside. Not in fear, but in awe. The hub’s roof had cracked open, and a stream of black shadows stretched upward. The only reason I was able to see them was because they were darker than the sky. Void-black. Staring into it was like staring into an abyss of nothingness…yet a haunting, ethereal glow emanated from them.
“What in the fu—” Stone began.
Ell grabbed my jacket. She clicked off her flashlight just as about fifty of the monsters floated by, paying us no mind. “Don’t move.”
They advanced in single file, like subways controlled by a central computer. Hive-minded. They passed so closely that the cold they brought with them chilled me worse than the arctic temperatures ever could.
George lifted his gun, but Stone, his mouth hanging open, shoved the barrel down.
“No,” he whispered. “They don’t see us.”
Or they did, but they didn’t care about us. We were in the jaws of a sleeping beast. Any wrong movement, any wrong sound, could wake it up, and then we’d become its next meal.
“Seriously? We need to kill these bastards while we can,” George snapped.
“Wait, wait,” Ell said, her hand up. “Just wait.”
I was in no hurry, trust me.
“You and Stone get the other tank. We need an escape plan. We’ll have to move quick once we save the survivors.” Ell’s eyes burned with intensity. “Meet us up there as soon as you can. Can you two handle that?”
Stone nodded. “Hell yes.”
“Good.”
Once in the clear, Ell let go of me and followed the wraiths toward the hub. I looked back at Stone and George and shrugged.
Then I went with her.
The foundation of the hub had cracked. Walls and barricades had fallen. We perched ourselves among the rubble and took in the horror, all of us silent and sick. The terrible noise earlier, followed by the shaking ground, was the reason for this.
The gym floor was split open. A large fissure zigzagged down the middle. The roof had also cracked. Parts of the ceiling had caved in, showcasing the black sky above. And although I couldn’t see the monsters, I felt their presence close by. They weren’t my main focus, however.
My focus was the people still alive. I counted thirty. They were tied and chained together in bunches, beaten and bloody. Most of them looked defeated and lackadaisical, like they were waiting for the Reaper to put them out of their misery.
I counted more
