Demons 3 Draft 1 CH 24 (Patreon)

I wake to the sounds of movement and smells of food. After a shower, I head downstairs where Taros fries something and Gregg sits at the table, looking down at his plate.

“Morning,” Taros calls. “I didn’t know what you’d eat, so I hope you don’t mind I didn’t prepare you anything, but if you want, feel free to take soldier boy’s plate, it doesn’t look like he’s going to be eating it.”

Gregg doesn’t react to the comment.

Nothing replaced the fresh food I ate, so I close the fridge.

“Coffee’s over there, serve yourself.”

I fill a glass with water. “If I need food, how do I get it?”

Taros looks at me, then the fridge. “I know there’s food in there, and I saw you look.”

“I need fresh food.”

“We all need that, but that doesn’t mean the rest isn’t going to get you by.” He grins. “City living isn’t the same as being on the move, right?”

“I’m allergic to the preservatives used in anything not fresh.”

Taros empties the content of the frying pan on a plate. “So this doesn’t look even a little appealing to you?” I shake my head. “Spiced fried bacon with sliced potatoes in caramel is the one thing I truly miss when I’m on the move.” He starts eating before sitting. “What’s on the agenda for the two of you?”

“I need to get a sense of the forces in the city,” I answer, joining them at the table. Taros stares at my glass of water like it’s poison, then makes a show of how much he enjoys drinking his coffee. I watching impassively before continuing. “I can get about even in the daytime without attracting attention, but Gregg doesn’t have my capability for jumping rooftops. So we’ll have to move at night and know what the patrols are like.”

“And go where?” Gregg demands as Taros opens his mouth.

“We have a mission to finish,” I remind him.

He rolls his eyes. “Have you looked around? It’s the three of us—”

“I’d rather not be included in this,” Taros says, “if you don’t mind.”

“Oh, I do mind. And you should too, considering this place is about to go up in the mother of all balls of fire.”

In the ensuing silence, something crashes to the floor in another room and cursing follows. Gregg is on his feet, reaching for a sidearm. Taros startles, but possibly at Gregg more than the sound.

The soldier is out of the room and the sound of a scuffle sounds. I join him, where he holds a thin man against the wall, forearm on his neck hard enough the man had trouble breathing. A bag is on the floor, cans and a liquid spilling out of it.

“Shit,” Taros exclaims. “Let him go, that’s Florent, I know him.”

“What is he doing here?” Gregg demands, “Spying on us?”

“Bringing food,” Taros replies. “Or did you miss the bag?”

I pick it up. The liquid smells sweet and fruity. Juice of some sort. Remnant of a glass bottle is in the bag. The cans are a variety of food.

“Who are you,” Gregg asks, moving the forearm only enough the man can answer.

“Flo,” the man croaks. “I’m bringing a few things, Taros said he was running low on, and with more people here I figure I should check and make sure you have everything. What did you mean by a ball of fire?”

“Yeah.” Taros looks from Gregg to me. “What did he mean?”

“You want to tell him? Or should I?” Greg asks.

“You told the colonel the mission is still a go.”

He snorts, “And how long is that going to work? Three, four days, at most? Faster if they’re looking at the feed hard enough and notice Walker doesn’t have much of an escort when she’s moving around. If they catch her walking around on her own? They’re probably going to blow the place right then and there.”

“Even if she’s working for Mister Graves willingly, that doesn’t mean we can’t retrieve her, Just that once she’s back in the military’s custody, they will have to be more careful with her.”

He glares at me before releasing the man but grabbing his arm before he bolts. “And I told her we’ve been caught. If there are no signs we’re moving around, Fallon isn’t going to wait forever before determining the mission failed for sure and they need to sanitize the area.”

“And by sanitize?” Taros asks.

“Boom,” Gregg replies.

“But why?” Florent asks.

Gregg stares at him, “You’re kidding, right? Why would the military ever want to blow up a group that’s found a way to work alongside demons?”

“Instead they could study them and figure out how they made it work?” Taros asks, which makes Gregg glare at him. “Hey, just saying. Seems to me if a bunch of criminals have found a way, everyone else should be able to, right?”

“Hey,” Florent protests, “We’re not criminals.” He squirms under our stares.

“Maybe not at the moment,” Taros replies, “but that’s just because with the city evacuated, there is no one to commit crimes on other than each other. I’ve heard enough stories from the others to know exactly what this group got up to when the city was populated.”

“I wasn’t there for that. I—” Florent closes his mouth.

“What you think the military should do is irrelevant,” Gregg says, “because it’ll always do only what it wants and not care about the years you give it. And that’s if you could get out of here, make it within the camp without getting shot.” He looks Florent over. “Which I don’t see you accomplishing.”

“So, how do you make sure they don’t bomb the lot of us then?” Taros asks.

“We bring them back Amanda,” I answer.

Gregg glares at me. “You really think that’s going to do it? Now that they know about these people, there aren’t going to let them continue. You have no idea what humans and demons working together on this scale represents. Everyone in power’s has been assured it wasn’t possible.”

“Then it’s time for them to realize they are wrong.”

“They aren’t interested in being wrong!”

“Then it is not our current problem,” I state. “Our mission is to get Amanda. Once that is done, you can work on keeping everyone here alive.”

“Me?” Gregg asks in disbelief. “You’re the one looking to save everyone else.”

“My only interest is in not killing. What others do is their own problem.”

“Are you saying you aren’t going to help us?” Taros asks.

“I’m saying that I will finish the mission, ensure I, Claws, Gregg, and his soldiers make it back. What happens after that is beyond my control. So I am not going to worry about it.”

“But can you tell them not to do it?” Florent asks. “Can you explain that the demons here aren’t like those elsewhere?” He falters under the stares.

“Didn’t you go through the maze?” Taros asks.

“Sure, everyone new does, we need to get out to be accepted in.”

“And what do you think happens to those who don’t make it out?”

Florent opens his mouth, closes it, his face clouds over. “Oh.”

“Yeah. I mean, don’t get me wrong, what I’ve seen here is pretty amazing and nothing like the few encounters I’ve had with demons, other than the maze.” Taros shuddered, “That was too close for comfort. But they’re still demons. However we make it work eventually, they aren’t going to sit at the kitchen table with us to enjoy a meal and a drink.” He looked at Gregg. “That doesn’t mean I’m for blowing them up, with or without us here.”

The man points to the outside. “Go tell someone who can do something about it, because that’s not me. I’m stuck here.”

“What if we help you?” Florent asks. “If we help you rescue that person you’re looking for, could you put in a good word for us? Maybe convince them not to blow up the rest of us?”

Gregg is surprised by the offer, and I wait to see how he’ll react. This is his mission. If he considers it can’t be done, I’ll still attempt it, and leave with Claws one I determine it can’t be done, but so long as he is willing to work toward getting it done, I will stick with him.

“You know,” he answers with a smile that tells me the next words out of his mouth will be a lie. “If can get that to happen, and I can guarantee that I can have them cancel the order to blow this place up. But just how can you make that happen?”

“That’s easy, once everyone knows about the danger and that by helping you we’ll avoid it, I’m sure there won’t be any problems.”

Taros groans.

“What did you do before getting roped into this group?” Gregg asks the man. “I’m asking because I can’t think of any job that would allow someone to keep that level of naïvety.”

“What?” Florent looks from one to the other.

“There’s no way someone like Graves just hands over the person they want,” Taros says.

“Well, we don’t tell him,” Florent sound like he expects us to have already worked that out.

“And how do you tell everyone,” Taros says, “and not have him find out?”

“Oh.”

“But I do know a handful of the guys I think will help,” Taros continues. “Newer recruits like me and Florent who are in this because the alternative is to be shot or fed to a demon a second time.”

“So you can get us to the prison and then to Walker’s lab?” Gregg looks pensive.

“Sure. You’re no longer enemies, you survived the maze. You’re one of us now. That’s all the others need to know. Of course, once you’ve freed the prisoners, you might lose a few of them.”

Gregg nods. “I can deal with that. So long as that demon from before doesn’t show up, me and my men can handle anything.”

“Rules them All isn’t going to be a problem,” I tell him. “They don’t care about Amanda.”

“How?” Taros asks.

“So that’s where you went last night,” Gregg says. “Looking to get buddy-buddy with another demon?”

“No,” I fling the soul stone to him, which he catches and looks at oddly. “I needed to know what their role in this situation was, and how they wanted Hard as Steel’s soul stone handles. You killed them, so that honor should be yours.”

Taros and Florent step away from Gregg, awe on their face, and terror in their scent.