Demons 3 Draft 1 CH 20 (Patreon)

The men lead us through a featureless hallway with another thick door at the end. This one opens into a larger room with four more men, but without guns or armor. One sits at a computer board with screens showing the cells. Another is listening to something on a headset, the other two are playing cards at a table and eating.

Humbert’s scent shifts to that of alertness, and I ready myself.

We are in the center of the room when he moves, and before his punch connects with a guard’s exposed throat, I have struck the closest to me in the chest and sent him flying across the room. I catch the next as he raises his machine gun and holds onto the gun as I kick him away. I turn and smash the butt into another’s face. The last two still standing back away as the two at the table stand, looking toward a locker. I shoot them in the knee while Humbert runs for the two at the computer.

I fire in the armored men’s chest to keep them off balance. The scuffle by the computers is quick. I fire at the guard who attempts to rush, and part of the armor rips off alongside blood before he falls.

“This is Humbert, We need an extraction, I repeat, the mission has gone sideways and we need an extraction, Respond!” He glances at me as I look in his direction. He has the headset on and is typing at the controls. When the response comes, it’s over the speakers.

“Captain Humbert, This is a negative, I repeat it is a negative on the extraction.” The woman sounds calm, unbothered.

“Are you fucking kidding me? They’re already executed three of my people, they have a fucking elder demon, we need to get out of here and regroup.”

The last guard and I have our machine gun aimed at one another, keeping each from doing anything.

“Captain Humbert,” a new voice says, the colonel, “You knew the mission parameter when you agree to this.”

“Colonel, we were woefully misinformed.”

“That is irrelevant, the mission is either a go or not. If it is not, you know what I have to do.”

“Colonel,” Humbert’s voice has an edge to it. “There are nine of us left, you can’t just sacrifice us.”

“You know very well, I can, and will do us unless you tell me the mission is a go.”

“But,” Humbert’s voice fails. “What about all the years I gave you?” he whispers. And the despair in it makes me look at him. The microphone is away from him.

“Say that again, Captain, it didn’t come through,” the colonel asks. The guard uses the opportunity he thinks he has to shift his aim to Humbert’s back. I fire three times in his side, staggering him off his feet.

“The mission is a go,” Humbert answers, but there’s no energy in his voice.

“I’m happy to hear that, we’ll wait for the next contact. Fallon Out.” There's a click, then static.

I wait for a signal while keeping the guard covered. Others groan, move.

“Humbert?” I ask. I understand he didn’t get the response he hoped for, but now he must decide if he fights on or surrenders. I can’t take them all on by myself.

The captain looks around, there’s no life left in his eyes. He kneels and puts his hands on the back of his head. I understand the meaning from the movies Jason had me watch in his perpetual quest to make me human. I place the machine gun on the floor and copy him.

“What just happened?” a man says.

“Sound like they’ve been abandoned,” the last one I face replies, his voice hard as he gets to his feet. “Took the wind out of their sails.” He points his machine gun at me.

“Don’t even think of shooting them.”

“Have you seen the damaged they caused? No one hurts us like that and just walks.” He steps to me, presses the muzzle against my forehead.

“If you want to deal with Mister Graves that badly, how about I just put a bullet in your head? It’s going to be faster and a lot less painful. You know where anyone who disappoints him ends up. You want to take their places that badly?”

The threat makes him back away.

People move about. Injured are helped up, escorted out while anyone capable keeps their guns on us. When the only trace of the fight is the blood on the floor, someone moved behind me and shackles my arms. Humbert only gets handcuffs.

We are pulled up and escorted out of the building. What waits for us is a heavy-duty vehicle that looks like it could take a few demon hits before failing. I follow Humbert in, and the vehicle takes us to the tower. The lobby is a large space, the walls metal, just like those in the maze, and have the same marks; even here the configuration of the space can be modified. We enter the elevator, the two of us pressed against the six remaining guards. There is no indicator telling me where it stops, but I recognize the short hall leading to the maze. Where the door to the stairs should be is a metal panel the height of the wall.

It isn’t this one floor that is the maze, it is the entire tower.

The door opens and a straight corridor takes us to a large room, possibly the kill box we were caught in before. The guards back slowly and the section of the wall slide in place, closing the only escape.

“Welcome to feeding time,” Mister Graves’s voice resounds over speakers, just covering up the sound of metal sliding against metal. “This is where normally I’d give the people I put in here a speech about how if they manage to make it outside, they’ll have redeemed themselves and be welcomed back within the fold, or, for people in your situation, how it will serve as a demonstration they are worthy to working for me. It would be more elaborate, you understand with allusions to Rules of All and his generosity and how he protects is, I usually go on for a good five minutes, but you aren’t getting that. There’s no point because I’ve made sure to pit you against someone you can’t survive. Call it unfair if you want, but the demons who work with me do matter more than the two of you. Still, I expect you’ll give my friend a good hunt, and that is the important thing.”

A different section of the wall moved, revealing a short but wide corridor and then a turn.

“Now is then you start to run,” The man said, and I looked at Humbert for his intention.

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