Our Devils, page 42
There was still a big gap between them and the bigger beast. The hermit crab plowed face first into another brick building. All six stories crumpled against its shell, not even reaching the top of it. Marcus rode ahead to get its attention but he was swarmed by more lemurs on approach, narrowly avoiding a popped tire and a slash to the chest. Aster turned around and rocketed himself backwards in a high arc, landing on several of them like a cannonball. Aaron rode Pulsar into the thick of it, the devil taking several shallow cuts as he tore through the crowd with reckless abandon. Aaron slashed upwards with his axe, cleaving off pieces of the wild devils below. A stray tail blade flew past him, slicing his cheek with a distant hiss of pain.
By the time they caught up with Marcus he had cleared a safe patch with his katana, weaving on the dirtbike with uncanny instinct. He spun in a wide arc, blade out, dispatching them three at a time. Soon he drew the hermit crab’s attention, the devil turning its bulk on hundreds of legs. Marcus led it down the next wide street, slashing nonstop to clear the path. Once he faced a clear stretch of road, he turned and did an honest-to-fuck Akira slide, grinning like a devil himself. Only one lemur closed the gap, and Marcus held his kanata in reverse grip like a spear. He hit the throttle. Tires squealed for traction and he lined up the shot. The lemur lept, its terrible jaw opening wide, but it never had a chance. Marcus’s blade slid straight through its mouth and out the back of its head. His bike wiped out as he planted his feet on solid earth, slicing the sword out again with a flick of the wrist.
Jess and Verne were still far behind, putting down wild devils as fast as they could. Jess hacked away with her shortsword while Verne fired with all five of her guns. A huge glut of lemurs gathered around them, probing for an opening with their sickle tails. When they approached a little too close, Jess flung Verne up onto a balcony to provide better cover. The agent tossed several more magazines up after her, which Verne reloaded in a heartbeat. Jess fought on the ground to parry the tails away with her short sword, slicing several of them clean off. When a lemur pounced at her, she kicked it square in the face, stunning it, and dispatched it with a furious series of kicks. Her devil grinned with pride and fired freely.
Without warning, two helicopters appeared overhead, firing on the lemurs around them. It thinned their numbers just enough for the group to push to the front where the crab’s pearly shell loomed large.
Orion soared above the helicopters, taking in a wide view. From that angle the shell looked almost like topography, its mountains and gulches built over centuries. But as the big devil lurched towards Marcus, the faintest weak point showed itself. There, not far behind its eyes, was a tiny patch of pinker carapace about the size of a basketball hoop. “Weak point on the head,” Nat announced. “I’m going for it.”
“Good luck,” grunted Jess, kicking another lemur away as she dug for a spare magazine.
Nat opened up with both submachine guns as Orion swooped low, landing a line of direct hits. The crab flinched almost imperceptibly. “I think that’s the best chance we’ve got.”
Marcus shouted, “Aster, get a grenade up there!” The frog dispatched two more devils with his hands while grabbing several grenades with his tongue. He pogoed up above the crab’s head and tossed them in a perfect cluster on the weak spot. The hermit crab lurched from the impacts, but otherwise it didn’t even slow down. Pulsar circled back towards Jess and Verne, and Aaron leapt off to clear a path on foot. He swung his big axe like a madman, throwing it into a lemur’s face and retrieving it again in a single motion, fast and brutal as a devil himself.
A helicopter tried next, a deafening strafe running along the top of the big crab’s head. At best it staggered a bit before turning its attention to another school bus.
Jess watched helplessly as the beast spun the bus with its meaty claw. “Should we bomb it?” she asked.
Aaron realized with horror that the bus was full of people, all hunched down in their seats. A man stood on the roof, kicking through the hatch and struggling to pull a lucky few to safety. “Too many people.”
Verne shouted. “We can’t get close enough to extract them!”
Aaron nodded in agreement and said, “Plan C.”
Verne bounded away from another lemur strike. She leapt into the air at the last minute, letting two of them collide into each other. “What’s plan C?”
Marcus yelled, “Namesake!”
Pulsar grinned with a savage snarl. “Orion! Beam me up.”
Without a word she swooped down. Nat leapt off as she flew, tearing into lemurs to slow her descent. Pulsar gripped Orion’s talons as he shouted directions, and the owl took him up along a skyscraper. He leapt off and ran along the wall, holding his fists behind him for balance. Then Orion circled back down, plucking a startled Aster off the ground. The humans and Verne closed in on each other for defense as a fresh wave of lemurs came leaping. The helicopters turned back to help, struggling to clear out the wild devils.
More lemurs sprang up the building after the hare, but he was too fast and too far ahead. He rounded the corner and crashed into the next building, gaining even more momentum and altitude with each swift step. The owl shot past him, straight up, as the frog held tight to her talons. Pulsar reached the end of the second building and leapt to the third. He launched forward with his massive arms as his steps left craters in the wall.
At last he ran out of runway. In one flawless moment, he leapt out towards Orion as she hauled the frog to the apex. She released Aster. Pulsar caught him. The frog and the hare embraced in mid air as they spiraled. Aster nodded so slightly and sprung as high as he could. Pulsar gripped the tongue with his enormous fists. The hare began to spin vertically, quickly picking up speed, faster and faster. By the tenth rotation it was blinding, a star in motion, a blur, a force of nature. A pulsar in full, namesake fulfilled. Once he reached top speed, it was time for one more namesake. Pulsar timed the shot and released his grip. The asteroid plummeted to earth.
The air was sucked out of the sky like a big breath in. For a moment there was silence. Then, violence. Hot pink gore erupted, painting buildings in an impossibly large arc. Trucks tumbled through bus stops and hot dog stands were thrown blocks away. The gang braced against the onslaught as viscera and chitin rained down like caustic confetti, sending lemurs scattering. A crater cut into the earth, laying power lines bare. Chunks of flesh and shell and gore soaked everything in sight. A pink haze lingered.
The big beast had no head.
Aaron rushed to pull Aster out of the wreckage before the world could come down around them, digging with his arms through the rough chitin and reeking gore, his face drenched with hot pink blood. A fat blue hand twitched from under a chunk of carapace. Aaron held it for dear life and yanked back with all his might. Jess fought her way through the eyestalks and claws and brains and pus to help pull Aster from the mess. His right arm was blown completely off to the bicep by the impact and blue blood flowed like a hose. Jess tore off a piece of her pant leg and tied it around the stump as quickly as she could.
From his high point in the sky, Pulsar had no way to control his fall. He plummeted straight down with a scream as the ground rose up to meet him. Nat shouted out and Orion swooped low, barely catching him on her back. She banked again and the hare tumbled to safety behind them.
Verne and Orion, together with the helicopters, drove off the few lemurs who remained. Marcus leapt to his devil, shoving fistfuls of crab claws into the frog’s mouth, desperate for him to rebound. Aster’s eyes flickered and blinked, holding onto consciousness by a hair. But as he chomped some small bit of strength returned to him, and the frog smiled weakly.
Pulsar lurched up to his human, battered and bruised but still very much alive. Aaron wrapped his arms around the devil and screamed in victory. Bubbles of gore popped from both their nostrils. The devil wrapped his huge arms around his human, drawing him closer. Aaron choked out his words, “That was so fucking dirty.”
“Thank you,” said his devil, hacking up green blood directly into the human’s face. “Thank you.”
Aaron thought Pulsar was bleeding internally from the impact, and maybe he was. But when Orion started bleeding from her eyes, the understanding hit them fast. The Return Gate was closing. Nat collapsed into her devil, giving her the tightest hug her poor muscles could offer.
“No,” whispered Jess, her little monkey’s eyes bleeding pink blood.
“It’s okay,” shuttered Verne. “It’s okay.”
“I’m so proud of you,” whimpered Marcus.
“I’m so proud of you,” whined Aster.
“It’s over,” cried Orion, flushing out her tears. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Nat smiled through a fresh wave of tears. “We won, right?
Chapter 94
They reached the Return Gate as the reinforcements finally arrived in San Judah, better late than never. Machado's voice came over the comm. “No new sightings and we’re cleaning up now. You’re free to go.”
Hugh’s voice slipped out next. “Good work, everyone. You were incredible. Safe travels to all our devils. I hope we meet again soon.” There was a brief pause before he added, “Give Elton my love.”
The portal opened on a ruined city street by a gas station, near the last exit out of town. It was some small blessing that they didn’t have to go far for it, but now with it swirling before them, Aaron wished it took longer.
The wild devils were thick there. Hundreds rushed the Gate. No, thousands. Galloping and slithering and soaring, plunging into it like a stream. They were driven by pure instinct, but that didn’t stop them from bringing souvenirs. They carried playing cards in their beaks and hockey sticks in their talons. A snake with the face of a cardinal tumbled down with a rotary phone in its beak. Three little blue monkeys with bug faces held a surfboard aloft as they took the plunge. An orange dinosaur lugged a backpack full of dildos and sex toys to the edge. He coughed fresh blood onto the ground as he struggled. The devil hugged the bag tight as he leapt.
On the far side of the portal sat the semi trucks. They had blocked off an edge of the Gate, forcing the wild devils to go around them. Gina and Miss Sakura were there, helping the labbies push the kennels to the edge. They unlocked them as they tumbled into the swirling pool below. It was full of psychedelic colors of blood and bones and grizzle, some eighty feet across. One by one the bunk devils fell through the swirling gore until the last truck sat empty. Then the hangar devils emerged from the newest van, waving and shouting goodbyes to Scar Gang as they took the plunge. A smaller Bradbury loped up, blood still caked across his feathers. He gave Aaron a long, sad nod with a glimmer of pride. And then he, too, was gone.
Isaac paddled up next, no bigger than a kitten. He headbutted Miss Sakura’s leg—she crouched down to pet him. To their surprise, she broke into a gentle sob. They traded a few quiet words before the devil leapt into the Gate.
Gina brought up a tiny Titan—her human was nowhere in sight. They traded some words and the human hugged the devil like she was her own. Titan waved back to Scar Gang and she somersaulted into the Gate, going home.
A light breeze kicked up on the last edge of sundown. Scar Gang looked around at each other, knowing time was finally up. By then the devils vomited and bled out of so many different holes. Their masses were a fraction of what they were only minutes ago. It was horrifying to see them shrivel away before them.
Jess took a ragged breath. Soon she took the first step. Verne was barely bigger than her time in the hanger, just a little capuchin. Her extra arms had shriveled away into nothing.
“You were amazing,” Jess whimpered, squeezing her devil tight. “You were so strong.”
“Take care of yourself Jess,” whimpered the monkey. “You deserve it. That’s an order.”
“Yes ma’am.” Jess carried her to the edge and Verne leapt. And then she, too, was gone.
Marcus took the next step, a deflated beach ball of a frog against his chest. The bandolier was somewhere in their wake, too loose to hold on. Aster’s body trembled as he blubbered. “We had some good times.”
“The best,” cried Marcus, squeezing him too tight. “The fucking best.”
The frog hugged him back and gulped hard, turning in his arms. “This isn’t the end.”
Marcus wiped his face and nodded to his devil. “Believe it.” Aster leapt. And then, he too, was gone.
Orion was such a little thing. Nat cradled her in her arms and choked on tears. “It’s okay,” said the little owl. Her two eyes were wet and glistening.
“What if I never see you again?” sobbed Nat, the words squeaking away into nothing.
“You hunt together now,” whispered the owl. “Trust them.”
“I’ll try,” she choked. “I’ll try.”
The human carried her devil to the edge. The owl zipped up from her arms and plunged straight down. At the last possible moment, Nat cried out “I love you!” The devil pulled up sharply for one last loop. “I love you too,” she chirped. Then she was gone.
The little devil in Aaron’s arms broke his heart. He had lost so much blood, and so much mass. Now he was only two feet tall—or three at the ears. Pulsar smiled weakly and squeaked, “We won.”
Aaron screamed silently as his shoulders heaved in despair. “What the fuck am I going to do without you, bud?”
Pulsar coughed up more blood on Aaron’s face. The devil looked smaller by the moment. “Live.” He snorted and more blood bubbles popped. “Make friends. Love someone.” His smile wavered. “You don’t need me like you used to.”
But the human just held him tighter. The devil looked up at him, his dark black eyes bulging out of his tiny head. The man took a step. His chest trembled. “Aaron?” asked the devil.
The human’s words choked out one by one. “Fuck,” and, “You.”
Aaron took one more step. And then they, too, were gone.
D. L. Berger, Our Devils
