Dark Creations: Hell on Earth (Part 5) (22 page)

To the east,
not too far from their camp, an orange flash blazed brightly.  Gray smoke billowed from the glow and was sooty against the pitch-black expanses.

“What the fuck was that?
” Jack shouted as he raced from Ed’s house, bleary-eyed from not enough sleep. 

“Nothing good,” Melissa said but doubted he’d heard her. 

She feared the worst.  The sound, undoubtedly an explosion, had come from the direction Gabriel had ridden off in with Amber.  She panicked and worried Gabriel had been near the the blast, or worse, that he’d been in whatever structure that had exploded. 

Melissa closed her eyes and took her head in her hands and cried quietly.  Her mind pleaded with any and every deity she could think of for Gabriel’s safety.  Whether he wanted her or Amber, she prayed Gabriel was okay.

Chapter 18

The floor beneath Gabriel’s feet quaked and he watched as a brilliant glow of orange flared in the night sky to the east.  The rumble of concrete and steel crashing to the ground echoed in the distance like thunder.  A quiver of nervousness passed through his stomach as he realized that the first part of his plan had been executed.  The warehouse had been destroyed, and with it, the entire arsenal Lord Terzini’s members had possessed.  But not before he had relieved them of as many guns as he could transport on Amber’s motorcycle.  If all went as planned, the Hunters would move toward the sound, toward the burning building.

He pulled the small pair of binoculars Jack had given him earlier from
a utility pocket of the pants Amber had given him.  He’d slipped them from the jacket he’d worn when he’d changed on the side of the road before stowing it in the seat of her motorcycle.  Now, he peered through them.  Sinuous shapes began to emerge from the shadows, powerful, hulking shapes that moved with impossible grace and fluidity despite their size.  Slowly at first, the Hunters gathered until nearly a half-dozen had congregated by the stop sign at the end of Kyle’s street. 

“Let’s go!
Enough of this waiting around already,” Kyle urged as he paced nervously.

“Not yet,” Gabriel tried to calm him.  “They are still out there.”

“What are they waiting for?  Maybe your plan is blowing up in our faces,” Kyle began to fume.

Gabriel could have done without Kyle’s arrogant tone, but chalked it up to sheer panic. 

“Just wait, Kyle,” Amber said evenly before Gabriel had a chance to retort.  “Give it a chance to work.”

“And if it doesn’t, then what?” Kyle
persisted and Gabriel dismissed his persistence as just worrying aloud.  “We all sit here and wait to die all because he said to?”  Kyle said only to Amber as if Gabriel wasn’t even there.  “Maybe this guy is not what you think he is.  Maybe he can’t help us.”

“
Are you just about finished with your tantrum, Kyle,” Gabriel said firmly and glanced at Hailey and Jackie who stood ready to leave as soon as they were told to.  “Perhaps you need to shut your mouth for the sake of other people in the room,” he narrowed his eyes and warned.  “We are getting out of here, tonight.”

Gabriel did not want to consider the possibility that his plan would fail.  It was the only one he’d had.  But if he had to, he’d come up with another plan, and another if that one didn’t work.  He would not let Kyle or his sisters die.  He would get them out of
Taft somehow.  In the meantime, he saw no reason for Kyle to doubt their escape in front of the girls and worry them further.  They’d been through enough already.

Kyle got Gabriel’s not-so-subtle hint and stopped talking for the moment. 

Gabriel stared through his binoculars again and saw that the Hunters were padding back and forth anxiously.  A loud yelp sounded and startled them.  Gabriel flinched, a rush of concern flooding him as he watched the beasts tightening their circle and butting heads briefly.  When two in the pack bolted in the direction of the fire, a degree of relief edged its way against his concern. 

“What’s going on, Gabriel?” Amber asked.

“Two of them just took off,” he said and watched as three more followed suit.  “Hold on, three more followed.  Just one is hanging back.” 

One lone Hunter lingered, sniffing the air and scratching his front paw against the pavement.  It lifted its head, as if it knew it were being watched, and scanned the area.  It looked in Gabriel’s direction, its sinister
, golden eyes shimmering in the darkness, and if he didn’t know better, he would have thought the beast was staring right at him.  An icy chill raced across his skin, the murderous gaze of the Hunter unnerving him.  He was about to turn to Amber and ask her why she thought it remained, watching, when it surprised him by turning from him and darting after the others. Gabriel blew out the breath he’d been holding and knew the time to act had come.

“Let’s go,”
he said calmly.  “Right now.”

With the building burning and the Hunters gone,
all that remained was for him to lead Kyle and his sisters to safety, a risky task that kept his heart pumping anxiously.  He felt it thundering against his ribs as he gripped Hailey’s hand firmly and stepped outside.

“Okay, we need to run, as fast as we can, until I tell you to stop.  Can you do that?” he asked her.

She nodded and he began jogging.  She followed his lead and looked over her shoulder occasionally at Kyle who ran holding Jackie’s hand.  Amber kept pace with them and ran with two rifles slung over her shoulder, the rifles he’d taken from the warehouse.  Both he and Kyle kept two handguns for themselves and had them holstered at their hips.

After sprinting for several blocks, Hailey and Jackie began to shows signs of tiring.  Hailey stumbled several times and Jackie faltered, as well.  Neither girl complained, but the sound of their labored breathing told Gabriel that they would not be able to continue for much longer.  When Hailey’s breathing morphed from labored panting to a tortured wheeze, he scooped her up and carried her.  Her waifish body went limp in his arms and he could feel her heart hammering against his chest.  It almost beat in time with
his. 

“I can’t,” he heard Jackie say a few steps behind him, her voice a strangled whisper.

“I’ll carry you,” Amber said and was barely winded. 

“No, she’s my sister.  I’ll carry her,” Kyle gasped and lifted his sister into his arms.  He cradled her against his chest and began jogging. 

After jogging past numerous street signs and covering a considerable amount of ground, Gabriel’s legs began to tremble.  His arms quivered as well.  Though he guessed Hailey only weighed roughly sixty pounds and was light by ordinary standards, carrying her while running for more than two miles had made his arms feel as if he’d been carrying a boulder.  Each of his muscles seared with exhaustion.  He feared that if he did not stop running, his legs would give way.

“I-I can’t keep going,” Kyle struggled to say and echoed Gabriel’s feelings. 

Amber stopped and looked at her watch.  “It’s been too long.  We’ve been running too long.  The Hunters will be returning.”

Gabriel’s lungs felt
as if they were collapsing between breaths.  “What do we do?” he barely managed.  “We’re so close to the edge of town.  Just a few more miles to go and we’re in Salvage,” he recovered.

Amber looked to Kyle
, and Gabriel saw something flash across her features, tenderness perhaps.  “There’s a house a half-mile from here,” she hesitated.  It practically straddles the Taft-Salvage border.  Do you think you can make it there?” she asked and looked only at Kyle.

“Yeah, I think
so,” Kyle said and sounded slightly less winded.

Worry gathered Amber’s brows together as she assessed what Kyle had said. 

“I can make it, too,” Gabriel said.  “But didn’t you say that members are stationed at all the houses here?”

“Yes,” she said and finally looked
at him.  “There are three there.  We will have to take them out,” she said unemotionally.

“I
s this for real?” Kyle asked.  His eyes were wide with disbelief and he raked a tired hand through his hair.  “There are
members
at the house we’re going to?  What are they members of, your army?”

Gabriel contemplated answering as Amber’s face paled.

“Members of the new race,” she shocked him by answering with such honesty.

“What?”
Kyle said and his face became a mask of confusion, of horror.

“The people at the house we’re going to, they’re not
regular
humans.  Neither are we.”

Kyle’s features smoothed briefly before they wilted altogether.  “What?  What does that e
ven mean?” he asked and searched Amber’s eyes.

“Not now.  This is not a conversation for now.”  She looked over both her shoulders.  “We have to get out of here,” she said and started walking briskly.

Kyle seemed reluctant to follow.  He hesitated for a moment and Gabriel could only imagine what he was feeling, knew the bewildered expression he wore all too well.  Melissa had worn it.  Daniella had worn it.  But neither of them had been in mortal danger when they’d been told as Kyle was currently, as all of them were.  Gabriel offered him a knowing smile before he hoisted Hailey up into his arms again and started to run.  His arms and legs complained by stinging unbearably.  But Gabriel did his best to block out the pain and continue.  The sound of boots hitting against the blacktop behind him meant that Kyle followed. 

As they ran the remaining distance to the house, Gabriel’s mind worked nearly as hard as his body.  Members awaited them.  Their presence was a certainty.  How well they were trained and how fiercely they would fight remained to be seen.  If the Hunters were any indication of what Lord Terzini was producing, he assumed they would fight ferociously. 

With the Hunters in mind, he was reminded that at any moment, the Hunters could appear.  The stress and worry united with the physical strain he was experiencing and taxed his cardiovascular system as it never had before.

Ahead, Amber strode with long, agile strides. 
She slowed at the edge of a tall, stockade fence.

“This is the backyard of the property,” she gestured to the fence.  “Gabriel, you will enter at the gate,” she pointed to an entry a few feet away, “make your way across the lawn to the rear door.  It will
probably be unlocked.  Members almost never bother locking their doors.  They’re overconfident.  I will go to the front door.”

“And what, ring the doorbell?” Kyle asked incredulously.

“Precisely,” Amber said calmly.

“Wait, what?  You can’t be serious!”

Kyle’s face was a combination of equal parts disbelief and torment and Gabriel shared his sentiments.

“Why not?  I’m a member
, remember?” she reminded them and Gabriel saw shame color her cheeks.  She cleared her throat and continued.  “I’m a ranking officer.  Ringing the doorbell would not be out of the ordinary.”

“Yeah, if you weren’t going to, I don’t know,
kill
them!” Kyle said with mounting frustration.  “Shouldn’t we have a better plan?”

Gabriel understood Kyle’s frustration.  Their plans to this point had been sketchy longshots.  But they were running out of options.  “We’ll keep you and your sisters safe, don’t worry,”
Gabriel assured Kyle, though he did not feel as confident as he sounded. 

“He’s right, Kyle, we
will
keep you safe,” Amber promised and emotion touched her eyes.  “I will wait five minutes to ensure Gabriel is inside the house before I ring the doorbell.”

“What about them?
” Kyle asked and nodded toward his sisters.  “Where will they go?”

Gabriel hadn’t thought that far ahead, but fortunately, Amber had.  “They will stay with you until the house is secured.  Keep your gun handy and stay as close to the house as possible.”

Kyle shook his head slowly with his eyes closed.  “I don’t like this,” he muttered.  “But there’s no other option, is there?”

“Not unless you can run another two or three miles,” Amber answered.

Kyle did not respond save for a quick frustrated sigh. 

“Let’s go,” she said to Gabriel.
  “Check your watch.  What time do you have?’

“Eight fifteen,” Gabriel checked his watch and replied.

“Good.  Me, too.  At eight sixteen, you will all enter the backyard.  Gabriel, you will get inside and wait for my signal.  There are three members there, remember that.  At eight twenty-one, I will ring the doorbell and we will take them out, all right?”

“Eight twenty-one, okay,” Gabriel repeated and realized that Amber had been groomed for leadership.  Her tone, her posture, the set of her jaw, all of it exuded authority and no one questioned her.

He couldn’t believe what he was about to do.  He was about to risk his life again to save people he did not know.  A part of him regretted agreeing to come in the first place.  But a quick glance over his shoulder at the matching faces of the frightened little girls he cared most about saving at the moment changed his mind.  They needed him.  Countless others like them had died already, too many.  Helping Hailey and Jackie did not right the wrongs that had already been committed. It simply prevented two more senseless deaths.