Then
The truly giant gremlin alpha loped on over-long arms, gorilla-like, toward the mass of people that were desperately streaming to and out of the parking lot’s open driveway. The wrought iron fence on either side of the opening created a bottleneck. The people at the rear weren’t going to escape in time.
Eron sprinted toward the gremlin alpha, until he suddenly veered to his right. He saw a golf cart parked next to a small shed. It was race now with the lives of people as the prize.
Eron grabbed the side of the cart, near the bottom part of its metal frame. He spun around with his body as the axis, cart held tightly in outstretched arms, like an Olympic hammer thrower. He let it go. The cart flew in a shallow arc, impossibly fast for such a large and heavy thing. It slammed into the gremlin with a loud crash.
The gremlin was knocked into the wrought iron fence, bending it back. It shook its monstrous head, stunned for a few seconds. Before it could get back on its feet the golf cart slammed into it once again, pinning it against the fence. It was Eron.
The gremlin snarled, Eron roared back as he pushed against the golf cart with everything he had. It wasn’t going to be enough. Cal could see that Eron was slowly sliding back, his feet continuously pumping without going anywhere, as if he was on a treadmill.
Unsure of what to do Cal could only watch as his brother struggled to hold down the enormous, nightmare of a monster. The mass of people were steadily filtering out of the parking lot, but it was taking much too long.
He ran to a position behind Eron and the gremlin alpha, placing him closer to the interior of the high school campus where the majority of the classroom buildings were located and further away from the escaping people. Cal had a terrible idea.
“Eron! I’m going to try something! Be ready to run!”
Cal focused his mind on the gremlin alpha. A wave of malice, hunger, overwhelming in its intensity dropped him to one knee. He pushed past the tide by imagining a wedge in front of him to cut through. It was a simple thought. The one he pushed into the monster’s thoughts. Come and get me!
“Now! Run!”
Eron listened to his brother and let go of the cart. The gremlin alpha exploded into action. The cart was sent rocketing away, nearly clipping Eron, who barely spun out of the way as he turned to run after Cal, who was already sprinting away deeper into the high school.
The pair led the gremlin alpha on a mad chase. They stayed ahead, just barely, by dipping into and out of buildings, classrooms. The monster’s enormous bulk made it difficult for the thing to make it through the comparatively tight spaces. It broke doorways, plowed into lockers, and generally destroyed everything around it in its crazed state. There was only one thing on its mind and that thing was Cal, torn to pieces and devoured.
“Give me your ax!”
Cal didn’t look at Eron. It was taking all his concentration to keep running. It seemed unfair that his brother could sound like he was sitting and relaxing instead of sprinting. Cal couldn’t even speak to ask why Eron wanted his ax with the way his lungs were starting to burn. The drain of his telepathic attack on the gremlin alpha was somehow affecting his physical stamina.
“C’mon, I need it against that monster! Don’t think punching it is going to be good enough. I figure my best bet is to chop its legs and arms off… or something like that.”
Cal managed a nod, before fumbling his ax out of its sheath and passing it off to Eron like a relay race baton.
“Thanks! So, where are we leading this thing?”
Cal managed to point toward the three story building. The one that they had left Jay and his einherjar to be swamped by the gremlin train.
“Ah… nice,” Eron murmured appreciatively.
They ran into the building. The loud crash just behind signaled that the gremlin alpha was still on their heels. The sprinted up the stairs, feet sliding on the linoleum flooring, as they rounded the corner. Up they went past the second floor and into the third. Cal hastily took a couple of chemical lights from his go bag, cracked them and flung them in both directions down the hallway. They were brought to an abrupt stop by the carnage that filled the hallway.
Gremlins, human-sized ones, Cal mentally amended the designation he had given the monsters. Their corpses were all over the place. Some were bashed into bloody pulp, while others had limbs torn off, a few had clear scorch marks, but these were in the minority. The dim green light cast over the scene made it all the more surreal. In a way it hid the true scope of the horror.
There was a loud bang from somewhere below them. Eron took a few steps down the stairs and looked down.
“Sounds like the giant gremlin got itself stuck in the stairwell. Looks like we get a breather,” Eron said. The stairs shook with another bang. “Maybe don’t sit down though.”
Cal looked at the carpet of corpses. He couldn’t find what he was looking for. His gaze went to the stairs leading up to the roof, more dead gremlins.
“So, you said something about a plan?”
Cal took several deep breaths before he replied. “I think I’m going to call it the ‘Let them fight’ plan.”
“Ah.” A look of recognition crossed Eron’s face. “But what if they aren’t on the roof?”
“Then we make like the road runner and hope the giant monster is dumber than the coyote.”
The stairwell shook again as a roar rocked the brothers to their core. They exchanged a look before Eron rushed up the stairs, Cal right behind. Navigating through the gremlin corpses slowed them down somewhat, but the knowledge of what was just below drove them upward.
“I don’t know what you shits were trying to pull here, but I’m going to make you regret it.” A harsh voice, full of hatred, greeted them as soon as they burst through the rooftop door.
It was Jay, at least that’s what Cal assumed based on the man’s appearance. The racist cop was a big man, just as Eron had described him. At a guess, Cal put him at close to 7 feet tall and well north of 300 pounds. The man was thickly built, like a power lifter or an NFL lineman. The tactical clothing hung of the man in tatters. Small cuts and scratches crisscrossed his body. From his massive arms to his barrel chest, nothing was unmarred.
“You must be Jaden” Cal said lightly. He decided to poke the bear. From what Ron had said the man hated his full first name, felt that it made him sound like a ‘pussy’ in his own words. “Man, those tattoos must’ve cost a lot of time and money to get done.” Cal glanced at the man’s full arm sleeves. The tattoos were a mix of skulls, crosses, dragons, and what looked like runes of some kind. He was hitting all the stereotypes. “Those runes, dwarvish or elvish?”
Jaden’s face turned red and he sputtered, flecks of spit sprayed out of his mouth, some dribbled into his wild, thick, straw-colored beard.
Eron shook his head. “Did you even get the right translation on those?” He mocked. “I know you lot aren’t exactly the sharpest up here,” he tapped his temple. “Although, I’m thinking you probably should get your beard braided if you really want to pull of the wannabe viking look.”
“Listen up, Jaden,” Cal said. “Your little concentration camp operation is done. Your men are done and from the looks of it, I’m guessing that your so-called einherjar are done too.”
“I don’t know,” Eron said, “I didn’t see their bodies among all the monsters.”
“What I’m trying to say is that you should just give it up,” Cal said.
“You dirty mud people ruined everything!” Jaden’s voice boomed out across the dark rooftop. “I was building something great, a true homeland paradise without your kind. You foreigners come here and think you deserve the same rights as us! We, who are your betters in every way!”
The ugly rant shocked Eron and Cal, even though it was to be expected. To see it and hear it right in front of you was another matter. Cal didn’t need his telepathy to see the depths of the racist cop’s deranged hatred.
“Your liberal social justice communism is a plague on all true Americans!”
“Jesus,” Eron said. “Do you even understand the words that are coming out of your mouth?”
“You had a handful of racist shits and you managed to imprison a small group of women and children,” Cal said. “A truly pathetic operation at all levels.” He continued to poke.
“That was just the start.” Jaden’s voice grew low. “With the power granted to me by the gods I can still turn this around. Begin again. This time I won’t hold back.” He started to move toward Eron and Cal. “I’m going to fuck you two up. Then I’ll find your family, anyone you care about and do the same to them. Then I’ll start my empire on all your bones!”
“So predictable,” Eron said as he moved in front of Cal, camping ax held lazily on his shoulder.
Jaden growled, but he approached with caution. Measured, shuffled steps, never crossing his feet, doing nothing that put him off his base. He held his hands in loose fists. Right hand near his head. Left hand extended just a bit.
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Eron exploded into movement. He lunged and swung the ax with one hand in a downward chop. There was practically no wind up. One moment the ax was laying lazily on his shoulder, the next it was swinging at Jaden.
There was a resounding thwack! Jaden caught the ax head in the palm of his left hand. There was a trickle of blood that slowly dribbled down his arm. He sneered at Eron, then he yanked the ax as hard as he could.
Eron was smart enough and his reaction quick enough to let go. The ax went flying over Jaden’s head to clatter somewhere in the distance, lost in the darkness.
Jaden stumbled back several steps, thrown off-balance.
Eron stepped into the opening and started throwing wild haymakers. Before the spires and monsters appeared, he had never been in a fight. A few lessons from Cal, who was no better than an amateur in his own right, wasn’t enough to turn Eron into even a mediocre fighter in just a couple of months.
A handful of the initial punches found their homes on Jaden’s head and face. That ended as soon as he regained his composure and covered up. The rest of Eron’s punches merely impacted Jaden’s hands and arms.
Jaden waited calmly until an opening appeared. He drove the air out of Eron with a right uppercut dug deep into Eron’s stomach. The blow bent Eron over, which placed his head in the perfect spot for the left hook that followed.
The loud crack of the ham-sized fist on Eron’s face sent him reeling, stumbling to the side.
Jaden stalked after Eron.
Cal chose that moment to act. He stepped in and stabbed his knife up and under into Jaden’s belly. He surprised himself, belatedly realized the lethality of his actions. Truthfully, he almost dropped the knife, he had never seen himself as capable of being a killer. He was either lucky or unlucky, he wasn’t sure, when the knife skipped off of Jaden’s bare skin. The only thing Cal managed to do was nick Jaden and give the knife a broken tip.
“Wouldn’t have guessed a soft pussy like you had the balls,” Jaden leered in Cal’s face.
Cal jerked back reflexively at the sour smell on Jaden’s breath. The move likely saved his life. Jaden’s fist lashed out. Cal felt the wind whistle inches from his nose.
Jaden came after Cal, slinging punches, left, right, left, right.
Cal bobbed and weaved for all he was worth. The combinations kept coming and he kept dodging. Here and there, Cal desperately stabbed and slashed with his knife to no effect.
It was apparent to Cal that Jaden was a quite a few steps above him in terms of skill and technique. The only thing that was keeping him alive was that he was proving to be just a bit quicker to react and move. He was pretty sure that it would be his end if the hulking, racist cop landed a clean hit like he did on Eron.
Jaden swung too wide. Cal ducked under the punch and shifted to the side. In the same motion he stabbed his knife toward Jaden’s eyes. A moment of fear at what would happen if he struck true caused Cal to pull back. It was all Jaden needed to lean back and swat at Cal’s knife hand.
Cal heard a crack as the knife went flying from his hand. The pain came a moment later.
Jaden barked a harsh laugh. “How’s that feel, you little shit?” He relaxed his stance as he watched with obvious relish at Cal, who cradled his broken hand.
Cal saw the opening right away. He kicked Jaden right in the junk. The blow doubled the Jaden over, placing his face right in line. Cal jabbed his thumb right into Jaden’s eye. Racist assholes didn’t deserve a fair fight as far as Cal was concerned. Besides, this wasn’t a fair fight. They weren’t in the ring with rules, gloves, and cups.
Cal shook his hand. Hitting Jaden in the eye felt like hitting a wall.
As Jaden bellowed in outrage it was Cal’s turn to get distracted.
“Doesn’t feel as bad as that,” Cal said.
Jaden’s hand shot out and he half shoved, half swatted at Cal. It was only a glancing blow at best. A small percentage of the big man’s strength exerted on Cal.
Cal went flying across the rooftop. He came to a stop in a tumbling, rolling heap a good twenty feet away.
“You are dead!” Jaden roared. The sclera of his left eye was blood red and it was starting to swell shut. “I’m going to tear your ar—”
A hard object struck Jaden in the back. He snapped around to find Eron grinning at him.
“Best keep your eye on me.” Eron lightly tossed a chunk of masonry in one hand.
“Looks like you just volunteered to go first, you little brown monkey,” Jaden spat.
“Bla bla bla.” Eron mimed a sock pocket with his free hand. “Why you thought that you could run things with your high school education? I will never understand. I guess you just don’t—”
The roof suddenly started to shake and before anyone could react the door exploded outward. Eron turned away just in time. Shards of wood, metal, and plastic splashed against his back rather than in his face. Jaden was closer to the door, but the debris had no effect. The man’s skin was almost as strong as steel plate.
Cal was a lot further away from the door. He was in the best spot to observe as the gremlin alpha finally made its appearance. The hulking beast loomed in the dim lighting provide by the moon and stars. It towered over even Jaden. It turned its grotesque head. It looked at Eron, then at Jaden.
Cal realized that it was deciding which person to attack first. He wondered if it thought more like an animal, going after the closest threat or maybe the weakest one. He wasn’t a zoologist and his knowledge extended only to what he remembered from watching nature shows. Could it be based on a dominance thing? In that case it’d go after the most dangerous threat.
Or he could be completely on the wrong track. What if it was closer to a person in the way it thought? Then how would it decide on which target to go after first?
He also couldn’t discount that it might operate like a monster in a game, like much of how the spires had changed the world. What was its aggro radius? From the fact that it chased them all across the campus seemed to indicate that it had an enormous radius. How did it assign threat? If it was based on who damaged it last, then Eron was in trouble.
Too many unknown variables for Cal to figure out the best course of action. The pain of his broken hand and bruised body wasn’t helping either.
The gremlin alpha rendered his musings moot the moment it went on the attack.
Jaden, who was closest to it, fell back at the monster’s charge.
Plan ‘Let them fight’ was now in effect.
Cal edged around the titantic combatants as the two traded immensely powerful blows. He could practically feel the boom whenever Jaden or the gremlin alpha landed a hit. He made his way over to Eron careful to avoid drawing attention.
“Nice plan,” Eron said.
“It’s working so far,” Cal shrugged.
“Yeah, but what happens when one of them wins?”
“Still working on that.”
“Oh… that’s good.”
The two fell into silence as they slowly edged away from the fight.
Jaden hammered into the gremlin alpha with his ham-sized fists. The thud on flesh and the crack of bone sent the gremlin alpha reeling back.
The monster slashed at Jaden in return. Wicked claws scored deep gashes in steel-tough skin.
Back and forth they went. Neither seemed to gain an advantage.
“Don’t do it,” Cal said.
“Why not?”
“You might draw aggro.”
Eron dropped his arm with the chunk of masonry back down from the cocked position.
“Which one were you aiming for anyways?”
“Either,” Eron shrugged. “I was just going to throw it in there.”
The fight drew on and the gremlin alpha kept cutting into Jaden’s flesh. The huge man steadily grew fatigued. His punches looked slower and weaker. He was breathing heavily out of his mouth. Perhaps sensing a kill opportunity the gremlin alpha lunged in, only to step and slip on a corpse of human-sized gremlin.
The monster stumbled and fell right into a knee from Jaden. The strike caught the gremlin alpha underneath its chin and lifted it up in the air. As soon as it crashed back into the ground Jaden was on it. He stomped and kicked at the monsters head. Over and over again with a renewed surge of brutal strength.
“Shit! Should I help… the monster?”
Cal looked at Eron, unsure of what answer to give. It would be bad if Jaden got the rewards for killing the gremlin alpha. It would also be bad if the monster killed Jaden. Then he and Eron would be stuck on a rooftop with the monster.
“Damn it! I might have not thought this through properly.”
Eron looked at Cal in disbelief, but before he could say anything the gremlin alpha let out a window-shattering screech.
The two brothers and Jaden all clutched at their ears and fell to their knees.
The gremlin alpha stood and stepped back from Jaden. Its head and face was a bloody ruin. Its skull was dented, teeth broken, and one eyeball was hanging out of its socket. The monster merely stood there and watched Jaden as the seconds ticked on.
The three humans warily kept their eyes on the gremlin alpha.
“Hey, assholes!” Jaden didn’t take his eyes off the monster. “I’m thinking we can work together against this thing. I promise I’ll let you go after.”
“Screw you,” Eron said quickly. “You’re the member of the master race. You don’t need our help.”
“C’mon, don’t be stupid,” Jaden said. “We can settle our business later. For now we need to take care of that thing. It’s up to something.”
They got their answer as numerous human-sized gremlins came streaming out of the ruined rooftop door. They rushed directly for Jaden. He put his super strength and durability on display as he batted gremlins away, while ignoring their clawing fingers and biting teeth. Unfortunately for him there were just too many of the monsters. They swarmed him and held him in place by sheer weight of numbers. Held him in place for their alpha.
The gremlin alpha bounded forward, its huge, fanged mouth wide open. Before Jaden could even react it bit down over his head.
Cal and Eron watched in horrified silence as the gremlin alpha gnawed and ripped its head from side to side, like a dog trying to get a stubborn piece of meat of a bone. They heard Jaden’s agonized screams even if muffled within the monster’s maw.
The gremlin alpha finally won its prize and pulled its head back. The triumphant monster threw its head back to swallow and blood spurted high from the ruin of Jaden’s neck. The rest of the gremlins tore at Jaden’s body, while the brothers looked on.
“I’m going to be sick,” Eron said.
“Didn’t see that coming,” Cal said.
The gremlin alpha turned its malevolent gaze toward them. Cal locked eyes with the monster. He probed at its mind in desperation to find something, anything that he could use.
“Uh… Cal,” Eron poked Cal’s arm. “We’ve got a problem.”
“What?” Cal tore his attention from the gremlin alpha.
“Down there.”
Cal looked down into the inner courtyard of the campus. There, barely visible in the moonlight, was a mass of gremlins. It was like looking at a moving carpet. There must’ve been hundreds of the damn things and they were all headed for the building that Cal and Eron were standing on.