With a resigned sigh, he began to jog.
It was almost nightfall when he got to Black Ridge. He knew he should’ve been exhausted but whatever Gabriel had done to him made him feel like he’d just completed a short sprint. He was slightly out of breath but that was about it. Even his feet didn’t hurt anymore.
He found the cave complex just as the red moon broke through the dark clouds above. He’d been to these caves twice before and even explored them, so he knew them relatively well and had a pretty good idea where the survivors would be.
The main entrance was heavily defended. They had built a ten foot palisade out of thick trunks, with sharpened points at the top. A fighting platform ran around it, giving the dozen guards or so that he could see a clear view of the surrounding countryside. The space directly in front of the palisade had been cleared of all vegetation, creating a killing ground. Two arc lights were mounted on long posts, and Sam could hear the tell-tale whine of a generator.
They were well organized, that was for sure. Sam completed a quick circuit and found that all the other entrances to the caves were securely boarded up. The only way demons could enter was through this main entrance. They must also have discovered the demons vulnerability to iron. There was no other way they could have lasted so long.
Although they couldn’t spot him where he sheltered behind a dying juniper, he could see them clearly. A number of the guards carried guns. There was even a heavy machine gun mounted on a tripod with a nervous-looking man attending it. He wondered how effective they would be against demons.
He was about to get a closer look when it was like the sun exploded in his eyes. Someone had switched the arc lights on. He shielded his eyes with his arm and melted even further back into the trees.
Gabriel had said they couldn’t last much longer but he failed to see why. Possibly because they were going to run out of food? That didn’t make any sense. One day wouldn’t make much difference and the survivors he’d seen, while thin and gaunt, certainly didn’t seem to be in any danger of spontaneously dying of hunger. There was something else going on here. What hadn’t Gabriel told him?
He supposed he’d soon find out. It was full night now and the demons couldn’t be far away. In fact, he could just about sense something coming out of the east. It was like an itch he couldn’t scratch. Their presence wasn’t strong as yet, but it was getting stronger.
They were coming from the direction of Bryce Valley City. He knew it was over there from studying maps when he was planning his training runs. It wouldn’t do to blunder into a strange city unexpectedly. The city was several miles away, so the demons would presumably take some time to cover the distance. He’d seen them move though, and while not quite as fast as him, they could eat up the miles at a fearsome rate.
He slid even further into the trees, taking out his swords and examining them in a patch of moon light. They were beautiful things. He never got tired of looking at them. Recent action had done little or no damage to them, but he could see one tiny nick in the katana.
Careful not to actually touch the blade itself, he pulled his whetstone out of a pocket and began systematically to sharpen it. The rhythmic scraping sound was oddly comforting and he moved on to the wakizashi without being consciously aware of it.
As he worked, he found himself wondering why exactly the demons had to travel from one place to the next. Surely, when they arrived on Earth, they had travelled directly from the Abyss. Why couldn’t they just appear wherever they liked? It was something he’d thought about when he was in Jacob’s Ladder. The demons always seemed to come from somewhere — they just didn’t materialise in front of him. If they had, he would’ve been hard pressed to stay alive as long as he had. It was something he planned to ask Gabriel the next time he saw her — if there was, in fact, going to be a next time.
The demons were getting closer, a huge, surging mass of them — much larger than the band that had attacked him at the airport. There were other demons with them too. He felt the surging hot rage that was the Astaroth. And something else. Something he had never encountered before.
It was important to keep the mind and hands occupied so as not to lose one’s nerve. Lately, he mused, he’d become very good at waiting but it was still good to keep busy and not let the mind dwell on things that hadn’t even happened yet. The waiting or expectation before a battle, he had read, was meant to be the worst. Soldiers would often scare themselves imagining what the enemy was like even before they had encountered them. He’d seen the enemy though and they weren’t so scary anymore.
He let out a long intake of breath and shrugged, setting to work with a will. When the demons arrived, he’d be ready for them with the sharpest blades known to human — or demon — kind. It was the sort of greeting he was almost looking forward to.
He met the first wave well in advance of the killing ground. Sam thought that was wise given that the survivors all seemed to be armed with guns. Surely they must have somehow loaded the guns with iron shells and he wasn’t about to take the risk of getting hit. In the darkness, he could easily be mistaken for something else.
A score or so Lemure broke off from the main pack and charged towards him, screaming, as the rest continued towards the cave complex. This in itself was odd. Normally the demons would throw themselves at him in great numbers. In this instance, the prize of the humans was obviously greater.
His swords were already out and he sliced through at least five with his first pass, his blades whirling in a concerted blur too fast for the human eye to follow. He pivoted and met them again, continuing to duck and weave as the Lemure swung and clawed at his body. His swords wove in intricate patterns and forms honed by continuous practice. Demon after demon fell before him. He felt minor wounds being inflicted but he ignored them. Above him he heard at least two Astaroth roar impotently, the closely-packed trees making it impossible for them to land. Behind him in the forest, he heard the first of the guns open up.
The last of the Lemure fell under his blades and disappeared. He stopped and listened. Something else was coming towards him. Something big. Even over the roar and screams and bark of gunfire, Sam could hear trees splintering and crashing to the ground. He edged back behind the cover of a tree and watched.
From the darkness emerged demons he had never seen before, not even in Hikari’s tome of Demonology — massive beasts that smashed aside trees as if they were twigs. Larger than the Astaroth, they were heavily built with tree trunk legs. Like the Astaroth, they had four arms, each one as big as a grown man. Huge curling ram horns adorned their black, goat-like faces. On their backs were large wicker baskets, and each one carried a heavy stone mallet.
He edged back even further behind his sheltering tree but he needn’t have worried. They were not interested in him. In fact, they didn’t even spare him a glance as they stomped past. One came so close that one of its great muscled arms brushed against his tree. The tree shuddered and almost fell, raining ash all over him. He counted three of them, and as they passed, he stepped out from his concealment and stared at their backs. At first he thought that their skin was black but now seeing them closer up, he realized it was black armour. Similar to the Astaroth but clearly much thicker. Thicker, presumably, to stop bullets.
Sam raced around behind them, careful to avoid their path. In the clearing, the battle was in full swing. As he suspected, the survivors had armed themselves with iron shells. The roar of gunfire was deafening as whole swathes of Lemure were taken out by the deadly hail. The arc lights were causing great confusion in their ranks. As soon as the Lemure dashed out from the sheltering darkness of the tree line and met the blazing light, they looked disorientated. Demon after demon fell before the withering fire. The killing ground was working; it looked like the humans were holding for now.