“The only constant in all of it is the dead. Each group of demons, or whatever one chooses to call them, seems to use the dead as their primary foot soldiers in their secondary war against us. So with the demons at war and humanity nearly gone, I would be forced to say that if anyone ‘rules the world,’ as you put it, it would be the dead.”
Mike leaned close to Kyle. “Stop it. I am sorry for whatever happened to you, but there are no such things as demons. Hell doesn’t exist. Everything that’s happening out there is the combined result of a virus and an aberrant evolutionary spike in the rodent species.”
Kyle held his ground. “Believe what you wish. I don’t care. I’m just telling you what I’ve seen and heard. Hell has been loosed upon the earth, and because of where we are, we are going to die. Maybe not today, maybe not even for a year or two in this base, but we are going to die. Unlike most of the other factions, the rats just want us gone and they’ll stop at nothing until their borders are clear of our infestation.”
“Mike, we’ve all seen those creatures with the rats,” Darren argued. “Warren and some of his crew even nicknamed them demons. He may be telling the truth.”
“Or he may be completely crazy! We have no way to verify who he is or any of his claims.”
Kyle reached into his pocket and slapped down his U.N. identification card in front of Mike. “And I recorded some of the transmissions I spoke of. If you haven’t fired them while jury-rigging the base’s systems, I suggest you listen to them yourselves.”
Warren watched Mike closely. He could see that the man refused to accept anything Kyle had told them, but as much as his own instincts told him not to trust the U.N. agent, Warren had to admit his story had the ring of truth about it. “What do we do, Mike?”
“Lock him up until we figure out what’s really going on.”
“Mike,” Benji interjected, “we can’t do that. He has rights.”
“I’m not suggesting we kill him! I just think we should keep an eye on him until we know he’s not crazy. For his sake and our own.”
Kyle said nothing, resigning himself to the group’s judgment.
“I agree with Benji,” Darren spoke up. “This guy knows this place better than we do. Frankly, we could use his help, and he hasn’t done anything.”
Mike turned to Warren. “I want you to find somewhere to lock this man up and make sure he stays there.”
“Sorry, Mike, they’re right. We need him. If there’s a chance he can get this base fully online and the main doors locked down, he’s a hell of a lot more use to us here than tucked away somewhere. Everyone else deserves to know he’s here as well, and what he knows too. We’re all in this together.”
“Did any of you listen to the crap he claimed was happening? Demons, Hell on Earth—I mean, my God, come on.” He slammed his fist into the console beside him. “He needs to be locked up.”
“Benji,” Warren said, “get the group together for another meeting. I want all of us there, understand?”
Benji nodded, though it pained him to go against Mike.
“And Mr. Higgins, you’re going to stay right here for the moment and help Darren with his work. If you so much as think of doing anything that would put us at risk, I will personally put a bullet through your damn skull.”
Mike threw up his hands. “So that’s it then? I’m out just like that, and you’re all listening to Warren instead of me?”
“Mike, we’re grateful you got us here,” Warren said, stepping closer to him. “No one’s saying we don’t respect you, but rats or no rats, this is still a free country where people get to decide what’s best for them. None of us has the right to decide things for this group alone.”
Mike rocked back in his chair. “Fine. Fine. Do what you think you need to do. I won’t stand in your way.”
Warren nodded. “Benji, the meeting…”
Benji leapt up and scurried out of the room, glancing back at Mike as if to say he was sorry.
“Do things always work so smoothly for you guys?” Kyle asked, unable to resist his tendency for dark humor.
Two hours later, the survivors of the convoy gathered into the mess hall. Mike, Warren, and Kyle sat at a table facing the rest of the group. Warren finished explaining who Kyle was, how they’d found him, and what Kyle had told them about the state of the world. “So that’s what we know. Darren has spent the last few hours working on retrieving some of the transmissions Mr. Higgins spoke of. Darren?” Warren motioned for him to start.
“I have rigged the transmissions to play into the room for all of us to hear at the same time,” Darren said, walking over to the room’s intercom panel. “They’re random, and most likely some of them will be garbled, but the base’s computers have translated them into English where needed; this was the best I could do.” Darren punched a button on the intercom and the transmissions began to play.
“To anyone who can hear me, this is Captain Vladimir Nabov of the Soviet Home Guard. Please send assistance. We are cut off and running out of ammunition. The push to free the capital has failed. The main force is broken and shattered. My men and myself have taken shelter inside a cathedral outside of Moscow. Conventional weapons seem to have little effect on the enemy beyond slowing them down. Three of them alone decimated my entire unit with their bare hands, without a single loss to their forces.
“For whatever reason, the creatures themselves will not attack us inside these walls; however, we are far from safe. The bats… the bats come in waves, hundreds at a time, pouring through the shattered windows. So far, we have beaten them each time they’ve tried to overrun us, but we cannot hold on much longer. Please, in the name of God, if you can hear us, we need assistance.”
The intercom crackled and the broadcast changed to a voice with a heavy French accent. “So it’s me again. I’m still on the air as of now. I think I have enough fuel to keep the generator running and the heat on for another day or two. I don’t know why I’m doing this. I doubt actual people are listening to this anymore, but it helps me stay sane. Once a radio geek, always a radio geek,” the voice joked, then turned sad.
“They took my wife yesterday. We left the station to see if we could find some food. We’d used up the stuff from the vending machines and the stuff for the lounge fridge, despite careful rationing. We snuck out the rear entrance and were heading for Baker Street because we knew there was a grocery on that block. The thing must have caught our scent or something, because we were being quiet and as careful as possible. It came tearing out of an abandoned car it must have been sleeping in. It wasn’t a wolf either. We didn’t see any of those.
“This thing was one of their leaders, a full-on monster in the flesh. Must’ve stood eight feet tall. It went straight for Margaret, tossing me aside like trash.” The voice had become heartbroken and on the verge of tears. “When I got to my feet again, she was screaming and it had her skirt torn open, just… just taking her right there in the street.
“I lost it, I guess. I had a metal bat with me that one of my friends had kept in his office, and I started beating the hell out of the thing’s head. At first, it grunted like I was a mere annoyance, and it kept rutting away. Finally, it turned and I caught a glimpse of its yellow eyes before it backhanded me. When I came to, they were gone. Margaret’s blood was smeared onto the street where she had lain, but I don’t think she’s dead.”