The Gates: An Apocalyptic Novel (17 page)

“His name was Kyle. He liked blue.”

Carol gave Alice an enormous smile. “An American?
I love Americans. So, did Kyle like his baseball?”

“No, he liked ice hockey. Clark took him to see
the Montreal Canadiens in Canada once.”

“Clark your daddy?”

“Step-daddy.”

“Right you are. You can tell me all about him too.
Come on now, my love.” Carol took Alice’s hand and straightened up. She turned
to David. “Big Jimmy will catch you up on things. I’ll be in my office with
Alice, but I don’t want to be disturbed. Not much else a woman my age can do
but calm a child’s nerves.”

David nodded. “Call me if you need anything.”

“I need good news, but don’t think I’ll get it.”

Carol walked away just as Corporal Martin appeared
with a mug of piping tea. She snatched it off him as she passed and left him to
stand there looking confused.

Mina chuckled. “Come on, Martin. Let’s find you
something to do other than make tea.”

He looked at her and nodded eagerly. “Please do.”

***

Sitting at her computer,
Mina realised that things were as bad as Carol had told them. People in
Scotland were fleeing to the highlands, and refugees from the cities flooded
the British countryside. There were over eighty gates in the U.K., spread wide
enough that nowhere was safe. Likewise, America was under attack far and wide,
but had a little more land to work with. Some areas did not have gates at all,
and it was to these areas, like the greater Chicago area, where survivors were
fleeing. It was also true that Africa was doing better than most other places. As
Mina streamed the news channels broadcasting out of Somalia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria,
and South Africa, she saw armed militia holding their own against the hordes of
creatures. For the first time in history, the whites and blacks in South Africa
were fighting alongside each other, instead of against. Mina marvelled at the
sight of a little white boy and a black girl holding rifles and standing over
the corpse of a demon. Likewise, Al-Jazeera, in the Middle East, gave positive
reports of resistance in Iraq, Iran, Jordan, and Israel, but their reputation
for propaganda made them less than credible.

The more and more Mina researched, the more she
understood that Corporal Martin was right. The nations faring best were the
ones where the citizens were armed and fighting alongside the military. Countries
with a political climate of unrest, such as Somalia, followed by places like
America and Canada where guns were legal, were giving as good as they got. The
countries worse off were the ones with the most totalitarian governments, like
Russia and China. In those countries, the people at the top seemed happy to
scorch the earth to defeat the enemy. Moscow and Shanghai were both burning
craters now.

Whatever chance Britain had was unclear, but it
was a country famously free of firearms, which meant that it was now almost defenceless.
Even the nation’s police force used weapons sparingly. The only ones to use
them in any significant capacity was the Army, but its majority was overseas,
further contributing to those countries like Iraq who were already fighting
back.

Exasperated, Mina glanced around the room.

Andras had gone with Martin to try to liaise with
the military. David was working alongside Big Jimmy—an overweight West Country
native with a lot of intelligence, but very little personality—to run
operations. Mina had taken her orders from Mitchell, the newspaper’s System
Support Manager, and had been tasked with gaining insight into the situation
worldwide to try and form an overall picture. What she really wanted was to
find out what was behind those gates—where did they lead? She thought of the
creatures as demons now, even though nothing had confirmed it. What did other
people think? Did anybody understand what was going on?

The Internet was ablaze with theories—millions of
people hiding in their homes and offering opinions. The two main factions were Aliens
vs Demons. One forum online operated only with the understanding that the black
stones had opened up inter-dimensional portals and that humanity was being
invaded by an alien species. Conversely, those who believed Demons were
responsible, pointed out that many of the enemy resembled burned human beings,
not aliens. What intelligent species would evolve to have burned flesh? The
other side would then rebut with the explanation that the burns were from an
unforeseen side effect of travelling through the gates. The theoretical victory
tilted more towards the demon theory whenever somebody brought up the giants. That
they were flawlessly beautiful and possessed scorched wings upon their backs
gave credence to the fact they could indeed be Fallen Angels from the depths of
Hell. Mina agreed with that theory, then chided herself for believing in
something so absurd. Yet, the more she said the word ‘demon’ the more it lost
its potency and supernatural connotations. Now, the word was as real and
mundane as ‘dog’ or ‘cat’. It became easier and easier to grasp her new reality
every minute, yet harder and harder to accept.

They were being invaded by demons.

She listed the things she knew for sure:

Black
stones opened gates.

Demons
(?) came through.

Giants
are in charge of the demons?

Need
to fight back. Everyone must fight back.

Humanity
must fight back.

Fight.

Fight.

Fight.

Mina sighed as she realised that she had so little
to offer anybody who might read the newspaper’s website. Everyone needed to
understand that they were at war, but even if they did, what should they do? This
wasn’t like watching Iraq on the news and remarking upon the politics of it
all. This was war on people’s doorstep, outside the local McDonalds. There
could be no pacifists in this. Everyone needed to be ready to kill the enemy.

But could ordinary people become killers—soldiers?

And would that even be enough?

Mina leaned back over the keyboard and typed a
message onto the front page of their website:

NOTICE:
Please post anything you know about the creatures. Have you seen one die? How? What
do you know that might help others? Please, please share whatever you know,
wherever and whoever you are. Please share. We need to help each other.

It was nothing more than a shot in the dark, but
just maybe somebody would share something helpful that she could share.

Ring!

Mina flinched as her phone rang. She had forgotten
she’d switched it back on earlier to check for messages. There had been a
couple of texts from a handful of friends, but most of them just wanted her to
tell them what was going on. The only thing she sent them back in reply was:
Find
weapons. Fight.
It was short and a tad dramatic, but there was no time to
caress people’s sensibilities. Millions were probably already dead, and those
remaining would have to go from nought to sixty in a single second. As Mina
looked at her phone now, she saw that her father was calling her. It was 7AM,
and maybe he’d just woken up. She was the first thing he had thought about.
That affected her in a strange way. Made her want to cry.

“Hello, dad. I sent you a text. I’m safe, so you don’t
need to worry.”

“Mina, I will stop worrying about you when you are
home. Where are you?”

“I’m at work.”

“You need to come home.”

“No. I’m working.”

“Bloody goddammit.”

“Do you realise what’s going on, dad? The world is
being attacked. It doesn’t matter if I’m at home or work. Nowhere is safe. At least
here I can do some good.”

“You can do good at home with your father. I need
you here.”

“For what? To look after you? Don’t be so pissing
selfish. Do you know how many people have died in the last twenty-four hours?”

“You swear at your own father?”

“Yes, I do swear when you’re acting like a moron.
I love you, dad, but I’m not coming home. In fact, there’s a chance you might never
see me again. I was there in London; I saw it all. Maybe that’s why I
understand and you don’t. Now is not the time to argue with the people you
love. The office is two miles away; if you want to see me, dad, then come
here.”

“You order me to come see you? I am your father,
and I have bid you to come home.”

“You are my father, yes, but not my master. I’ll
be here if you want me, but if not, then just keep safe and prepare for the
worst. I love you, dad. I really do.”

Silence.

Mina looked at her phone and realised her father
had hung up on her. Exactly when, she did not know. Twenty-four hours ago, she
would never have dared speak to him like she just had. Even now, in her
mid-twenties, she feared the strict man who was still more than willing to
strike her. Yet, gradually, over the years, she had started resisting him, placing
just a little more of that distance between herself and his cloying rules. The
conversation she’d just had with him was the final snare on her independence
being torn away, sped up by the events in London, but always inevitable. She
loved her father, but she had also resigned herself to never speaking to him
again. She knew that, one day, she would rebel, and that their future
relationship would depend very much on his ability to let her go willingly. It
was just a pity that, with the way things were, he would have to make his peace
quickly, for there might not be a chance later.

Mina stood up from her computer and went to make
herself a cup of tea. She needed to wipe her mind and start again.

She met Andras over by the kettle. “Things are
bad,” he told her. “Corporal Martin keeps shouting and kicking things. I don’t
think the Army is doing well.”

Mina wearily poured some milk and threw in a tea
bag. She would need sleep soon, or she’d pass out where she stood. “I don’t
think wars ever go well,” she said. “It’s how they end that matters. We need to
make sure we do whatever we can to help. We’re in a position of authority. People
will look to the media to inform them about what to do. We have to make sure
that anyone who finds us gets the best information available. We have to rally
people to fight.”

“You think they will? I mean, when you found me, I
was lying in the road, terrified. I’m afraid I’m a coward when it comes to
violence.”

 Mina thought for a moment, then said, “That was
different. When those kids mugged you, you had the option to lie down. When you
have to face the demons, that option won’t be there. You’ll fight. We all must
fight.”

“Perhaps you’re right. Still, seems pretty hopeless.”

“You’re alive, Andras, same as yesterday and the
day before that. So what’s hopeless? Hope only dies when we die. So don’t die.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“And I’ll do mine.” She then went on to ask him, “Do
you need to call anyone? Everybody has been making calls home to check on
friends and family, but I haven’t seen you make a call.”

“I have nobody
to
call.”

“No one?”

“No one. I’m new here; came to start again. Some
fresh start, huh?”

Mina gave him a lopsided grin. “I guess I don’t
have anyone to call either. Not sure if that’s a blessing right now.”

Andras put his hand on her arm and squeezed. She
liked it. “Better to have loved and lost, they say, but what do they know? The
only people I have to worry about are in this room. Thank you for helping me,
Mina. I’m so glad I’m not alone right now.”

“Don’t mention it.” She yawned. “Hey, will you
find David for me and tell him I’ve gone to take a nap?”

“He already went and did the same. I saw him
sleeping on a sofa in the waiting room.”

Mina rolled her eyes. “Nice of him to tell me.
Well, you’ll find me somewhere nice and quiet for the next few hours, if such a
place still exists.”

“I’ll wake you if anything happens.”

“Thanks, Andras.” She headed off toward one of the
unused offices, of which there were several. Web-based news had led to less and
less boots-on-the-ground reporters, and by the time Mina had got the job at the
Echo,
Carol said she was lucky to find work at all.

There was no soft furniture in the empty office
she chose, but that was okay. She nestled down in the corner and closed her
eyes as if the worn carpet were a silk sheet. Before she fell to dreams, she hoped
against hope that somebody out there would find a way to fight back. She also
hoped that her father would call back, but perhaps that was too much to ask.

Rick awoke with a headache,
but it was nothing new. For a few, blurry seconds he lay on the couch in his
living room and didn’t remember that anything was wrong. He was just waking up
with a hangover like he had a thousand times before. Then it came flooding back.

He turned and saw Maddy asleep on the floor next
to him, and he saw Diane and Steven sprawled out on the other, larger sofa. His
new companions, he reminded himself—his partners from last night’s battle
against the minions of Hell. The thought made him wish he could go right back
to sleep. But he couldn’t.

He swung his legs down onto the carpet and rubbed
at his eyes with the heels of his palms. His head throbbed, his mouth was dry,
but before he went into the kitchen to get a glass of water, he wanted to check
on something first. Before going to bed last night, he had overridden the alarm
to keep it from beeping, but he had left the monitor switched on. When he went
over to it now, he saw the creatures still lined up outside his front gate. There
were more of them now, standing shoulder to shoulder and filling the entire
video screen. And there, right in the middle of them, was a corpse with long,
black hair.

Rick narrowed his eyes as he recognised the demon
that had killed Sarah. It glared directly into the camera as if it knew Rick
was watching it.

Rick felt his fists clench.

“He’s been there all morning,” came his brother’s
voice. Keith stood behind him with a mug of tea in each hand. He handed one
over, which Rick took gladly. “How’s your head?” he asked. “You were blind
drunk by the time you fell asleep.”

Rick took a sip of tea and shrugged. “I can handle
a hangover. I had an expert father to show me how. You were drinking pretty
heavily yourself up until we made it back here.”

“Difference is: I stopped. Well, at least I did
this
time.”

Rick turned to his brother and saw there was
something different about him this morning. His shoulders were lower, his chin
raised less proudly. “What is it, Keith? Has something happened?”

He sipped his tea, sighed, then said, “I used your
laptop this morning. I had an email from Marcy, sent about an hour after I left
to come visit you. She told me she was taking Max to stay with her mother in Gloucester
for a few days.” He seemed to be holding back tears as he spoke. “Gloucester is
hit pretty bad apparently. BBC news is trying to sugar coat it, but when you
search the smaller news sites, you get the real truth. There’s a newspaper in
Slough which has posted a list of the gates that have opened. Gloucester is on
the list.”

Rick squinted, his head still banging, but now he was
confused as well. “I don’t understand. Why did Marcy go to her mother’s?”

“Because I cheated on her with my secretary.”

“Oh God, Keith, seriously? That’s so fucking clichéd.”

Keith’s face screwed up in anger, but he seemed to
force it away and stared down into his mug of tea as if trying to channel his
rage into the liquid instead of his brother. “I’ve been drinking heavily and… I
don’t know. I wasn’t in my right mind. My secretary ended up causing me all
kinds of bother. She called Marcy in the middle of the night and told her I was
leaving her and was going to get a divorce. Crazy bitch. All the shit I give
you, huh, Rick? Makes me a hypocrite.”

This was Rick’s chance. The opportunity to finally
tell his big brother what a self-centred prick he was. It had been a long time
coming, and he savoured the moment.

But he couldn’t do it. “I guess there’s a bit of dad
in both of us. Impulse control has never been a strength of the men in our
family.”

Keith chuckled, a tear forming in his eye. “You know,
I never thought about other women before, but lately I’ve just started feeling
so… unfulfilled. You lived your dream, Rick, even if it was fleeting. What did
I ever do?”

Rick placed his tea down on a side table and
folded his arms. “Are you kidding me? You’ve always got whatever you’ve wanted.
You’re a rich accountant with a beautiful wife and a genius son.”

Keith shook his head. “No, Rick. I’m a rich
accountant who used to have a beautiful wife and genius son. Now they’re dead,
and it’s all because of me. If I hadn’t cheated, we’d all be together at home now.
I sent Marcy and Max to their deaths.”

Rick put his arm around his older brother and let
him sob into his shoulder. “You don’t know they’re hurt, Keith. Look at us: We were
attacked and made it through okay.”

Keith eased away, wiped his eyes with the crook of
his elbow. “Wake up, little brother. We’re not okay. It’s a stay of execution,
that’s all. Those things have us surrounded.”

“The iron gates are keeping us safe.”

“You don’t really believe that lunatic, Daniel, do
you? All that talk about seals and demons. I don’t understand what’s out there,
but it’s going to get us eventually.”

“For fuck’s sake, Keith. Last night, you held
everyone together. You were a rock. You’ve had bad news about your family, I get
it, but you need to keep your head straight. Marcy and Max might still be alive,
and you owe it to them to make it out of this so you can make things right
again.”

“Why can’t I just give up like you? Last night,
you did nothing but drink. You would’ve died if I hadn’t saved you back at the
pub.”

Rick groaned as he saw the old Keith return. The
moment of vulnerability was over. “I’m a sad alcoholic with a failed pop
career. You’re not me, Keith. You have every reason to go on living. If Marcy
and Max are still okay, we’ll find them, okay? Maybe not in the next
forty-eight hours, but eventually. Until then, we just have to keep our wits
about us—me included. I’ll try to knock the drink on the head. You’re right: It’s
no good.”

Keith sighed. “You’re right. If there’s a chance,
I have to try. Thanks, Rick. You do have your uses.”

“You’re welcome.”

“This place is massive,” said Daniel, trotting up
behind them. “Took me a half hour to find the lavvy. You might want to give it
twenty minutes by the way.” He leaned forward and studied the video screen.
“Those sods still out there?”

Keith nodded. “Haven’t moved an inch. That one in
the middle with the long black hair is the one who attacked us at the pub last
night. Drove an ambulance right through the door.”

Daniel whistled. “Quite the Die Hard villain.”

“Makes you wonder, why he doesn’t try something
similar now?” pondered Rick. “They may be monsters, but they’re not stupid. If
the iron in the gate is keeping them out, then why aren’t they trying to knock
the fence down?”

Keith said, “They wouldn’t be able to ram it like they
did with the pub’s door. I parked our cars up against the gate, remember?”

“You think that’s the reason they haven’t tried to
force the gate?” Rick asked, looking at Daniel to see what he thought.

“Maybe,” he said. “Or maybe they’re waiting for
something.”

Keith frowned. “Like what?”

Daniel shrugged. “Reinforcements?”

***

“My husband’s dead,” said
Maddy as she stood beside Rick in the master bedroom. They were both staring
out of the window at the demons outside. Rick counted over a hundred of them
huddled in the road. A crowd of rotting corpses waiting to devour them.

He glanced at her. “How do you know?”

“I left my mobile in the ambulance, but I used
Diane’s phone to call him. A stranger picked up, told me that my husband died
last night in Milton Combe. The demons from the gate in Crapstone have spread
out to nearby towns. My husband was on his way home from the hospital when the
village was attacked. He tried to help the injured, but he should have run.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. You’re not wearing a ring.”

“I have to take it off when I’m working. It’s at
home. I keep thinking about it, wondering if I’ll ever see it again. My husband
is dead, and I keep thinking about a silly old ring.”

Rick looked at the young women and saw the anguish
behind her confident strength. “It’s not silly,” he said. “Your ring is a
symbol of your love for your husband, and his love for you. I think that we
hold on to symbols because it makes our feelings easier to tie down and make
sense of. I suppose that’s why my garage is full of unsold albums—I don’t value
the CDs, I value the time in my life they represent. Your ring is important. I
hope, one day, you manage to go get it.”

Maddy closed her eyes. When she opened them again,
she seemed a little distant. “Those things outside aren’t going to go away, are
they?”

“Daniel thinks they might be waiting for
something.”

“Like what?”

“I have no idea. Is Diane still checking the
Internet?”

“Yeah, things are bad, Rick. The whole world has been
hit. There’s even talk of giant angels stomping around the earth killing
everyone.”

Rick pulled a face. “Angels?”

“Yeah, bad angels—like Lucifer kind of angels.
Looks like Daniel’s theory about Heaven and Hell might be right.”

“Keith doesn’t believe him. Not sure I trust him
either.”

Maddy kept her stare on the demons outside. “I see
no reason not to trust him. We’re all as screwed as each other. How much food
do you have, Rick? I see a lot of beer, but not a lot of stuff to eat.”

“I’m a bachelor. I order in.”

“I assumed as much, which means we’re all going to
be dealing with hunger pangs by tonight and feeling pretty rotten within a
couple of days. How long will those things keep us penned up in here?”

Rick hadn’t even considered it, but Maddy was right,
they couldn’t stay there indefinitely. “We’re going to need to find supplies,
aren’t we?”

“Or starve to death. It’s not a problem right now,
but it will be soon. I don’t see things going well for us here, Rick. That’s
why I’m thinking about leaving.”

“What? You can’t go out there. They’ll tear you
apart.”

“I listened to what you said last night about the
step ladder. The demons are all at the front of your house. If I can make it
over the back into the woods, I’m sure I can get away. I can find help and
bring it back.”

“You might get over the gate from the inside, but
what if you get attacked and need to get back?”

“I’ll figure something out.”

“It’s a bad idea. What if help comes while you’re
gone and you’ve taken the risk for nothing?”

“There’s no help coming, Rick. Just take a look on
the Internet, and you’ll see enough to understand that we’re on our own. The Army
tried to fight back in London and got torn apart in Hyde Park. Somebody hacked
into the CCTV footage and leaked it onto YouTube for all to see. It’s
devastating. I can accept that we’re all going to die, Rick, but I’m not
prepared to do it by starving to death. And I don’t want to die without my
wedding ring.”

Rick studied the demons outside the gate and weighed
up Maddy’s chances. She might be able to slip away unnoticed—maybe they all
could—but was getting out really for the best? Yet, how long would they have if
they stayed?

The black haired demon glared up at them and
grinned. The malicious intent in his crooked expression gave Rick little doubt that
he was not standing there aimlessly. The monster had a plan.

“I think we should
all
leave,” said Rick
after having considered things. “Some places are still okay, right? Diane found
a couple of areas we could go?”

Maddy nodded. “A few places, yes.”

“Then we find the nearest safe place and head
there right away. Somewhere better than this—some place where we can survive.”

Maddy’s face lit up. “Yes, we should all get out
of here together. I’d appreciate the company.”

Rick nodded and confirmed it to himself, as if he
couldn’t quite believe it. “Okay, let’s leave.”

They headed downstairs together and went into the
kitchen where Diane was still busy on the laptop. Steven was in the living
room, piling up anything they could use as weapons. Knives mostly.

Rick went over to the fridge and reached for a
beer, but stopped himself and grabbed a can of coke instead. He pulled the tab
and sat down next to Diane at the computer. It was the first coke he’d had in a
long time that didn’t include whisky. “Hey,” he said. “Where’s the nearest
place that’s safe?”

“Torquay. All the South Coast up to Southampton is
safe. Plymouth is okay too, but it’s so nearby the gate from Crapstone that the
demons might reach there soon. I’ve been reading this website for a newspaper
called the
Slough Echo
. They’re trying to list all the information
people have found out. I told them about the iron gates and how the demons
can’t come in—maybe they can pass it on to the army or something. Anyway, this
newspaper has listed all the safe towns that they know about. Torquay isn’t
anywhere near a gate.”

Rick looked at Maddy. “If we can get a car, we can
be at Torquay in a couple hours. I’ve always loved the English Riviera.”

“I want to go home first and get my ring.”

He sighed. “I know you do, but the village isn’t safe.
Better to stay alive and get it later.”

Maddy looked to argue, but ended up nodding. “I
suppose you’re right. If we’re all leaving together, then we should head for
the coast like Diane said. If there’s any sort of evacuation effort it would be
better to be near the ports.”

Rick nodded. “Then that’s where we head.”

“Head where?” said Keith, entering the kitchen
with Steven by his side.

“We’re heading to Torquay,” Rick told him. “It’s safe.”

“Nowhere is safe, Rick. We’d be stupid to leave.”

“Yeah,” said Steven, who had finally taken off his
tie and opened his collar. “That gate is the only thing keeping us alive.”

“Yes, the gate is keeping us safe,” said Maddy,
“but we can’t just hide in here forever. We need to go somewhere with supplies
and food. The longer we stay here, the worse it will get outside. There’s a
chance to reach safety that might not be there later.”