When The Angels Came - Chapter IV: That Immortal Darkness Part 2

A Chapter by DeusExMachina

I've been wanting to write this bit for so long... Its my favourite, and I hope the epic-ness (Is that a word? Its got to be a word) comes across as much as I hoped.

When The Angels Came- That Immortal Darkness

Part II [The Change]

“How is that possible” Whispered a voice in the shocked silence that followed. The man who’d shot the monster turned and strode past them, shaking his head. Famina turned and followed him.

“What’s your name?” He didn’t answer at first, but when they’d turned a corner he stopped and looked back at her, his face grim.

“Jakob. Who are you?”

Famina smoothed her hair back slightly. “Famina. Famina Marimana.” He nodded, and let the gun hang limply at his side.

“We should find a way out of here,” he said, glancing around. Famina shook her head.

“There is no way out. The blast doors are shut.”

Jakob turned to her quizzically. “Of course they are,” he said in a perfectly logical tone. She furrowed her brow and backed away slightly. He continued: “Of course the blast doors are shut. Of course the ventilation shafts have been sealed off, giving only a limited supply of oxygen that will, after a day or two, run out. And of course there are troops on their way to raid this place and blow you all to smithereens. And here you are trapped in here with creatures you think are just mindless animals.” There, in his eyes. Shadows. Nothing but black, no inch of humanity left in him. She screamed as his jaw began to slowly open, revealing snake-like fangs. Then he was on her.

When Lahmin and Makammad arrived at the scene, other armed men in tow, they half-expected to see a corpse lying prone on the ground. What they found was a relief, in some way: Famina in the clutching arms of a ‘Husk’, struggling to break free from his vice-like grip.

“Keep back, or she gets it!” growled the thing.

“You talk?” Asked Makammad, spitting on the ground as he levelled his gun.

“Oh yes, I talk. We’ve learned your words now. They are, let me say... Primitive.” The creature licked its cracked lips with glee. “You think of us as beasts, don’t you?” It snarled, “Beasts with only a basic instinct. Well, sorry to disappoint you...”

“Give her back!” Shouted Lahmin. Jakob smiled at him, glanced at Famina, and threw her at him. She fell to the floor at his feet, crumpled and breathing heavily. Lahmin took a pot shot at the beast, but it had vanished. He bent down and helped his wife to her feet. She looked at him.

“What just happened?” she said, tears in her eyes. He said nothing, just held her close. She felt him against her, his bones more prominent than before, his muscles weaker. Makammad looked on with an outsider’s curiosity, not having even a suitor for himself. He wondered what married life was like, idly. Then he spoke.

“We should try and find the creature. It ran off somewhere in that direction,” he said, pointing vaguely, “I’ll go with Sal, Gregorii and Todd. Lahmin, if you tae your wife back to where everyone else is. Keep her safe. Remember how to shoot. And tell them all to make some kind of defence, keep contact with the other groups around the prison, and to shoot the b******s on sight. Got it?” Lahmin nodded grimly and led his wife away, leading with his rifle.

Makammad turned to Sal, Gregorii and Todd. Sal was a girl, but she’d been eager to fight to try and retrieve her husband. Unfortunately they hadn’t found him as yet, and everyone could see in her eyes that she’d already given up on him.

Gregorii and Todd were brothers, but apart from that, Makammad knew no more of them, save the fact they were both handy with a hunting knife.

“We move down the corridor. Once we manage to reach the food hall, we circumnavigate it and cover every entrance. The thing went that way. Now move!” They walked slowly, guns pointed forward, Gregorii, checking behind them. Sal’s radio back to the others crackled with occasional noise, but apart from that, the place was silent. They turned a corner. Nothing lay in the next corridor, or the next, ort the next. Every doorway they passed was scoured with the barrel of a gun. Then, at the end of the next corridor. A figure. Tall, thin, skeletal, with dark, dark eyes was the last thing they saw before the lights went out.

Sal shot fist, her gun illuminating the black with fire. There was the noise of a ricochet as the bullet bounced off the metal walls, before it was drowned out by Makammad and Todd’s rifles going off, all shooting wildly and any flash of movement they spotted in the nano-second long bursts of light. Something slammed into Sal’s back from behind, knocking her to the ground. She lashed out with the butt of her gun, catching a body, and there was a loud thud. She scrambled to her feet, but was lost, couldn’t work out where the shooting was coming from. Again something hit her, this time she felt claws rip through her arm like knives. Stepping back and shooting one armed in the direction the thing had come from; the girl had only a few seconds to register that she couldn’t feel her left arm. Then the lights flickered on slowly. Revealing Makammad and Todd standing next to her. But Gregorii was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Sal hadn’t been on the same ship as Lahmin and the others. When the angels came for her village, back on Earth in old Afrik, they didn’t run like so many of the other communities had, didn’t try to reach one of the larger population centres for protection. They fought back.

News of the monsters had preceded them, a wave and panicked people carrying word of an unstoppable force, an army of savage aliens. The small community of Ankaal’Sd, where Sal had lived throughout her small lifespan, would stand no chance against this horde.

“Run”, they were told. “Run for your life.”

But the men of the village refused to allow these foreign invaders to take their land, and kill their wives and their children. As the women stood further back, hiding the boys and girls too small to help in closets and cellars and barns. Sal was one of these, then only just six, cowering in between bags of grain, wondering whether her Ma and Pa would be come back. She tried to understand what was going on from the noises outside, muffled shouts, cries and unearthly howls which chilled her bones. There was a crack in the wood panelling at the back of where she hid, and she slowly crawled over to it. She was curios and scared, if nothing else.

At first all the little girl could see was dark shadows and fire. Then it became clear, although the furious pace and barbaric violence of the battle shook her to the core.

She saw Mr. Finargili, one of her dad’s good friends who was always so nice and kind, thrusting a spear into the heart of one of the horrors, the demon roaring in the man’s face as it collapsed to the ground, startlingly red blood pooling around its twitching form.

Quick as a flash, another ‘Husk’ was on Mr. Finargili’s back, clawing at his face. More of the things charged in, mindlessly crushing the man beneath them. More men rushed past, charging into the mayhem, slashing with swords and shooting with pistols. The five ‘Husk’ who’d murdered her father’s old friend where surrounded and slaughtered within seconds only for more to appear and the two sides to clash in a press of bloodied, broken bodies.

Her mind tried and failed to justify this brutal war. She watched the two opposing groups circle each other. Both blended in with the shadows, both streaked with gore. She didn’t know which side were human and which were the alien.

They charged into each other, and she saw a gun flash and a body topple to the ground. Claws and weapons flailed, scything through the air and flesh like a sudden freezing breeze slices into the brain. More dead, more blood on the cracked sand. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to turn away from the terrible spectacle as men became animals and animals became worse. One of the figures bent over and picked up something holding it curiously. It seemed to smile.

Another shape came at it from the right, and the figure turned, almost casually, and the object flashed with fire. The other shape collapsed.

The figure turned to more of the other shapes and began shooting into them with the gun, it had to be a gun, seemingly indiscriminately. More loping gates joined the fray, overpowering the other side quickly and easily. It ended so suddenly.

The figure with the gun turned towards her hiding place. She shrunk back, shaking, trying to hide away in the shadows. It took a step towards her, just enough so the light rested on its face. It was a ‘Husk’. How had one of these monsters learned how to use a gun so well? How did it know she was there? How-

It raised the gun and shot one bullet through the wood of the barn wall. It whistled by and lodged itself into the grain bag directly next to her. She scrambled back further, panic rising inside her. Sal looked desperately for a hiding place as another bullet whizzed past her. Then the wall exploded, and she ran.

The creature tore through the wooden wall, sending splinters flying in all directions. It charged through into the centre of the room and sniffed the air, followed by four other, eager for the thrill of the hunt, even if this prey was only young. Like this, Sal got her first real look and one of them. Tall but spindly, with oversized limbs and a hunched back, they struck a terrifying figure. Their faces seemed to fifer, like humans, as did their heights and other bodily features. Their eyes were dark and shadowed, and their mouths were loaded with glistening fangs. Some held weapons taken from the humans, others used their claws as their only armament. Only the one held a gun in his hand.

It turned to look around; it was turning to look at her. It lifted its gun and she swore she saw a smile on its twisted face.

The door to the barn opened with a creak. Suddenly, the attention of ‘The Husk’ was on this new arrival, more prey perhaps. But this was no ordinary prey. Sal nearly squealed with delight as she saw the man step in and raise and automatic rifle, a spear slung over his back, noble red robes draped across his body. He shot the first square in the face, and its head exploded like a balloon. The rest charged at him, but he took out a second and a third with single shots before he swung his rifle and used it to club a third down, repeatedly hitting it till it moved no more.

The fourth vaulted at him and landed, gripping his shoulders, and roared in the man’s face. He pushed it off and sent some bullets into its writhing form to finish the blow.

“Sal!” He called, and she ran into his arms.

“Sal... I need you to go with your mother. I need you to leave this place.” She was crying.

“But, Pa,” she said, “You said we wouldn’t run. You said...”

“I know, I know. But this place, its no place for you, my dear. Go with your mother and get to safety. Go!”

Her mother appeared, scratches covering the right side of her face. She smiled as she saw her daughter.

“Ma...”

“He’s right. You need to come with me, Sal.” The girl hugged her Dad, then her Mum. They turned to run, but Sal looked back one last time.

Her Pa looked at her and shed a tear. “Your Ma’ll look after you. Just make sure you look after your Ma, alright? Now go. I’ll see you again, both of you. Go!” They turned and ran off into the darkness. In his heart he prayed for their safety, as he turned back to the ruins of the village he once loved. The buildings were towering infernos, and bodies littered the ground. The last twenty men surrounded him, and he nodded at them. They returned the silent gesture, and then looked forwards toward the enemy. Fifty or so ‘Husk’ were massing together for a final charge.

Sal’s Pa felt a sudden pain in the back of his head, like a knife. He felt slow and sluggish as he tried to conjure up the words for a rousing speech, but nothing came. All he said were four lines of poetry, a scrap from a famous epic, that he felt summed up them and the enemy as one.

“We are black, we are white,” He begun, as his limbs began to shake, “We are sickness, we are blight”. The rest of the twenty joined in, solemnly. “We are anger, we are hate, we are the end, we are your fate.” With that, the enemy began their charge, slow at first, then picking up pace. His limbs were now near uncontrollable, and his legs were close to giving way. He just managed to clutch his head and wince at the excruciating pain, his eyes felt like fire, his teeth began to ache. The man fell to the floor, spasming as some rushed to his aid and others ignored him, focussing on the incoming enemy.

He was screaming now. A scream changed somewhere into a howl of pain, and the howl of pain began to morph into something else...

His back arched and his fingers, his nails strangely long and sharp, clawed at the dry ground. Now there was mass panic among the last twenty as others seemed to be acting the same, seemed to be changing, changing into-

The thing that had once been the father of Sal Kastika roared and stood, lashing out with talons at the men nearest it. It pounced on one and tore him to pieces, then turned to face the incoming horde, a horde of its own kind.

“We are the end,” it screamed as the two armies clashed, and the last of the twenty survivors of Ankaal’Sd were slaughtered by monsters from both the charging force and corrupted men that burst from their own ranks, “We are your fate!”

* * *

“So you’re here for your Mother then?” Asked Makammad. Sal nodded darkly, almost regretfully.

“But she’s not here. They haven’t found her. And with those... those monsters stalking the corridors, I don’t think I ever will.”

Since they’d lost Gregorii, they hadn’t moved, just stayed put. Todd hadn’t spoken, so Makammad had taken the opportunity to try and learn more about the mysterious girl in their group.

“I’m sure it’s just a small pocket that managed to escape from Earth. Nothing big.”

Sal didn’t answer. She just sat, polishing her gun for no apparent reason, staring darkly at Makammad. When the radio crackled, she was first to it, listening intently, gripping it so tightly her knuckles went white.

“They’re here!” screamed the message. There was more crackling as Sal fiddled with panic at the dials, then the voice came in, clearer:

“They’re here! The Husk are coming from everywhere! Help! We need urgent help! They’re every-“ The sound cut off, and there was only static.

“We have to help them, now!” Shouted the girl, eager and strong. Makammad nodded, and turned to look at the silent Todd. He looked back and copied the gesture, before picking up his gun and turning to move in what he thought was the right direction. Sal moved to follow him, hoisting the radio onto her back.

Suddenly, there was a noise from the other end of the corridor. They turned and saw Gregorii, covered in blood, limping towards them.

“Gregorii!” shouted Todd, running toward his brother with the joy of two brothers separated for years, rather than a few hours.

“What’s that behind him?” Asked Makammad, a growing fear inside him. He could see a shape, dark and tall, turning into their section of the corridor, followed by more. It looked at him and seemed to smile.

“Husk,” He said, moments before the things charged. Todd saw them and raised his rifle, taking down the first with ease. He moved back, his arm around his brother, continuing to shoot at the monsters. Sal joined in with her pistol (her other arm was useless thanks to the alien’s claws), and soon the small space was a deafening cascade of gunshots and screams.

“Its here!” cried the girl as one of her bullets punched through a demonic skull. 2The second coming! Its here!”

All across Mars, the citizens of New Afrik screamed the same as the invasion began.

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