‘Fuck...’ he muttered, looking up.

  Echo covered his head and curled into a ball, as a downpour of alien blood splashed down from above, covering the entire town green. Slowly, he got to his feet, smelling like rotting flesh and surveyed the land. All the surrounding buildings had been destroyed by the explosion. The lower half of the alien beast was still stood in the street, it’s ribcage bones visible to the naked eye from where it had been blown in two. The android leader was nowhere to be seen.

  ‘Are you good?’ asked Echo.

  Breaker was gagging loudly. He had the unfortunate luck of the green blood going into his mouth.

  ‘Do you think I look good?’ he vomited onto the street.

  ‘Come on,’ Echo wiped down his assault rifle, ‘we have to find Rogue.’

  ***

  The light of the wormhole danced off the walls of the empty room. There was no sound. There was no wind. There was just light. Stillness reigned in this cellar beneath the decaying church on the dead alien world. ‘NO!’ Rogue screamed out at the top of his lungs, as he fell through the wormhole, throwing himself against the wall with all his strength. Hideous burns riddled every inch of exposed skin, his body armour was twisted and melted, smoke rising from his chest, back and shoulders. The majority of his clothing has been burnt off. Rogue cradled his head in the palms of his hand, squeezing his temples together as if trying to stop his brain from exploding out through his skull. ‘NO! NO! NO!’

  ‘I gave you what you needed,’ said the voice in his head.

  ‘NO. IT WAS A TRICK!’ He screamed, loudly, his voice echoing off down the dark corridor.

  The voice laughed, ‘that was no trick. Everything comes with a price.’

  ‘DEMON!’

  The voice laughed louder, its voice twisting into something darker and more dangerous.

  ‘I WON’T LET YOU HAVE YOUR WAY!’

  Rogue pulled his sidearm from his thigh holster and stuck the barrel into his mouth. And then... nothing happened. He tried to squeeze the trigger, but his finger wouldn’t move. He pulled the gun out of his mouth, pressed it against the side of his head and he couldn’t squeeze the trigger.

  ‘Do you really think I would allow you to kill yourself?’

  ‘W-What...?’ asked Rogue, in disbelief.

  ‘Do you have any idea how much planning has gone into getting you here, Rogue?’ The voice laughed, but this time the words were coming directly out of Rogue’s mouth. This new voice was coming directly from his lips. ‘Do you honestly think it would be so easy to catch one of my soldiers turned on this world a thousand years ago? It was a beautiful sacrifice. It was a beautiful sacrifice to allow you to learn the location of this planet. Did you not wonder why my army was attacking every single Pegasus House base at the same time? It was to force your hand to come to this world.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because there is only one-time line and one set of events,’ said the voice. ‘You came here to change what has happened. You came here with the hope of finding the origin of all of this and using the wormholes to destroy that place before all this began, but you have never done this, Rogue. You have always come to this world. You have always stepped from the wormhole to the realm of the Gods. You have always seen the nightmares you just witnessed. You have always taken that information and doomed mankind.’

  ‘NO!’ Rogue pressed the gun against his head.

  Nothing happened.

  ‘Let me kill myself!’

  The voice laughed louder and louder. Rogue felt his head turn and look down the corridor. The demon was controlling him. Two figures were coming down the bottom of the stairs. The demon smiled a sickening smiled, allowed his eyes to roll back into the back of his head and then collapsed down onto the floor, unconscious.

  ***

  ‘Is he breathing?’ asked Echo, staring into the centre of the wormhole.

  ‘Yes, but he is completely out of it,’ replied Breaker.

  ‘Is he wounded?’

  ‘No. I can’t see anything wrong with him apart from being a bit burnt.’

  ‘What should we do?’ Echo frowned, looking back at the unconscious high priest. ‘We came here to get information on the wormhole technology, but is this all there is? How can we go back with just this? Shouldn’t we keep going?’

  ‘You want to go into the wormhole?’ Breaker rolled Rogue onto his side, placing him in the recovery position. ‘We have no idea what is waiting for us on the other side. What if that is what Rogue did?’ Breaker looked up at Echo, but Echo was no longer there. ‘Echo...?’ Breaker got to his feet, the butt of his assault rifle pressed into his shoulder, as the barrel swept the room. Echo was gone. A cold shiver ran down his spine, as Breaker looked into the wormhole. Is that where Echo had gone? He turned back to find Rogue standing directly behind him. ‘FUCK! Are you fucking mad? I nearly shot you.’ Breaker cursed, lowering his gun. He hadn’t felt this jumpy since the first time he saw one of the dead walking.

  Rogue stepped forward, placed his hand on Breaker’s face and shoved him into the wormhole.

  ‘N....’ was the only sound Breaker made before disappearing into the light.

  ***

  Z-1642 made his way down the spiral staircase into the underground tunnel. The leader of the Cyber House pathfinder company could see the heat signals through the walls. There were three humanoids located in a hidden chamber beneath the ground. Orange silhouettes stood like flaming candles to his enhanced computerised brain. His sensors were also picking up on a large amount of power from some unknown source in the middle of the room. Shoulder mounted mini-guns clicked into place as the sole survivor from the landing party entered the narrow corridor leading to the hidden room. Z-1642 killed all lights on his body, concealing his metallic frame within the shadows. In his hands, he held the oversized assault rifle with the capability of ripping a normal man in two. Z-1642 paused in mid-stride, as all three heat signals turned to face him. Had they noticed his approach? If Z-1642 was capable of feeling emotions, he would have felt an overwhelming sense of dread and fear. That powerful human response of flight to such a feeling might have just have kept him alive a little longer, but Z-1642 didn’t feel emotions, he had no fear, and at no point did natural instinct encourage him to run for his life. No. Human emotions were beneath him. Instead, he watched. He watched as the three heat signals morphed from humanoids into eight-foot tall mutilated monsters. One of the figures lower half turned into a serpent's tail, as his arms grew into razor-sharp claws six foot in length. His head cracked open, splitting down the centre, as a crocodile-like mouth extended forward. One figure had extra limbs snap out of its body, as extra joints popped into place between the thigh bones and upper arm bones. The third and final creature was like an oversized human, standing twelve foot tall with large muscles like a steroid addicted weightlifter. Tusks grew from the man’s face, as long spikes grew out it’s back like the spines of a hedgehog. The whole transformation happened in a handle for seconds. Z-1642 aimed his guns forward, and then in a blink of an eye, all the heat signatures disappeared as if someone had just turned them off. Haunting howls echoed off the corridor walls, as the creatures cried out. Z-1642 switched through the various optical settings his enhanced mind could offer. He settled on a setting that inverted the natural colours, turning darkness light and light into darkness. The three demons were practically on top of him. The spider was on the ceiling above him, as the serpent and horned one sprinted forward. The sound of mini-guns whirring into life echoed through the air, as a high calibre machine gun thundered loudly. Z-1642 recorded his entire death, transferring the entire feed wirelessly to the deep space communications beacon he had placed in orbit. Cyber House needed to know about the monsters he had discovered. Z-1642 didn’t take any satisfaction in this final act, as human emotions were beneath him.

  ***

  Babylon waited on the ramp of the transport ship, his long sniper rifle resting upon his lap. He smiled at the sight of his three teammates appearing out of the mist. The three of them looked pale as if they had just seen a ghost, but Babylon could see no others wounds.

  ‘You okay? You three look like shit.’

  ‘Thanks for the compliment,’ replied Breaker, heading straight up the ramp and into the ship.

  ‘Did you find anything?’

  ‘Yes,’ responded Rogue, ‘we found information that might let us win this war.’

  It was a bold statement, but Babylon liked it. At least Hex and Joker hadn’t lost their lives on some wild goose chase. Babylon followed the other three up into the transport ship, slapping his hand against the red button in the cargo hold, which automatically brought the ramp up into place. Babylon couldn’t put his hand on it, but something was different about his friends. The air around them felt different.

  ***

  Six weeks had passed since they had left the alien world. Babylon walked through the transport ship, occasionally tapping his fingers against the automatic sidearm in his thigh holster. Unconsciously, he looked back down the corridor behind him. It felt like the shadows were watching him. Echo had made the decision to deactivate all un-necessary systems that drained the ships power supply. Lighting and heating were two of the first things to go. Thermal clothing was the way forward, but six weeks of not being able to wash their clothing were making the transport ship smell like the decaying armpit of a maggot infested zombie. Babylon tapped the gun on his thigh again. Babylon couldn’t put his finger on it, but something felt off. The atmosphere in the ship felt heavy and full of danger. His sleeps were full of lucid nightmares of unimaginable demons. Sometimes he thought he could hear whispers in the walls, but maybe he was going a bit stir crazy. High Priest Rogue hadn’t stepped foot out of his quarters in four weeks. Breaker and Echo acted normal, but there was something different about them. Did they see something on the alien planet? He was sure they would have told him by now if something had scared them into acting so strange. Babylon walked into the main mess area, and triple checked the weapon on his thigh. Breaker was sat in the corner of the room reading an old copy of the bible and laughing like it was some kind of joke book. Babylon headed into the cockpit. Echo was sat in the pilot’s seat. He was always in the pilot’s seat. Relief washed over the sniper as he looked beyond the cockpit to the fleet of battleships in orbit of a small moon. They all bore the insignia of the Pegasus House. There were survivors from the mass assault. At a glance there looked to be two dozen battleships, freighters, deep space jet carriers, a hundred or so civilian ships, medical ships, engineering ships and science ships. He could see one mammoth hammerhead. The super-sized ship dwarfed the battleships and was used purely to smash through the enemy lines in deep space conflicts.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me we reached the fleet?’ asked Babylon.

  Echo looked up at him with emotionless eyes.

  For a brief moment, Babylon felt an attack coming.

  It was like looking into the eyes of a dangerous beast.

  ‘I was just about to inform you.’

  ‘O-Okay,’ Babylon replied, tapping his fingers against the hilt of his gun.

  ‘Arrange a meeting with whoever is in charge of Pegasus House,’ ordered Rogue.

  Babylon spun to face the pale-faced High Priest. He was stood a mere inch behind him. Babylon hadn’t even heard the man approach. Rogue turned and headed back into the mess area where Breaker continued to laugh at the bible. The eagle-eyed sniper glanced down at the horrific wounds on Rogue’s forearm. Blood was dripping down onto the metal floor. It looked like he had been cutting on himself. Babylon looked back at Echo who was sat watching him. Babylon headed out of the cockpit and through the mess hall. He looked back over his shoulder. Echo was still watching him. Breaker continued to laugh as if he had just heard the funniest joke that had graced his ears. Something was truly wrong on this ship. Everyone was acting so weird. Once again, Babylon double checked his sidearm was still there.

  ***

  ‘What is taking them so long?’ asked Echo, his voice dark and twisted.

  ‘Do you suspect they know?’ Breaker spoke with many voices both male and female.

  ‘No,’ replied Rogue.

  ‘Babylon might have warned them.’

  ‘We should have killed him when we had the chance.’

  ‘He will tell them we are acting differently. This is good. It will give emphasis to what we are going to tell them that we saw,’ explained Rogue, sitting at the head of the silver table in the briefing room. Narrow windows ran the length of the room, revealing the surviving ships of the Pegasus House. A smile split his lips. To a human, they might be nothing more than battleships created for war, but to Rogue, they were vessels that would carry his people to the heart of the realms. ‘I will let this human tell his story. He saw hell, but he also saw hope. All these primitive people want our weapons in their war. I showed him the weapons they would need. He is not to know he will never get his dirty hands on them.’

  The door to the briefing room opened, and a tall man in military uniform led an assembly of intelligence officers, priests and generals into the room. Babylon followed them into the room and reluctantly joined his crewmates at the far end of the table. Everyone pulled out a chair, placed down data pads and recording devices. One person was still using a very outdated paper pad and pencil to make his notes. The demon lurking within the depths of Rogue’s mind surveyed the people in the room. All he had to do was convince them to go to the place of origin. It was the place where the holy battle had taken place. It was a place without form or time. It was a place where a million souls waited to be free. It was a place where his people waited. It was a place where the true apocalypse for all the realms in the multi-verse would begin. The creature had to contain his laugh. Everything was happening as Star said it would. A promise of weapons of mass destruction and these foolish mortals would be eating out of the palm of his hand.

  ‘High Priest Rogue,’ began the man in the military uniform. ‘Tell my team what you told me.’ He gestured with a wave of a hand to all the other officers and military personnel in the room. ‘Tell them about the weapons you discovered.’

  ‘Yes, Sir,’ said High Priest Rogue in his normal voice. And so he told his story to the room.

  Books by Simon Smith-Wilson

  ***

  (City of Sin Series)

  Five Days Notice

  Hand of God

  Last Tomorrow

  All those Yesterdays

  Blood for Blood

  Dark Fantasy

  (Prisoner 3-57 Series)

  Prisoner 3-57: Ghost

  Prisoner 3-57: Nuke Town

  Prisoner 3-57: Phantom Soldier

  Prisoner 3-57: Trilogy

  (Zombies Series)

  Zombies

  Zombies: Black Rock

  Zombies: Death Squad

  Zombies: Hell Dimension

  Zombies: Dead Space

  (Generation Series)

  Personal Apocalypse

  The Curse of Meredith Holmes

  Erasing Creation

  (Heroes of Magic Series)

  The Legend of the Hermit Master

  The Last Magic Dog

  Liquid Crystal

  Star Slayer

  (Beast Trainer Series)

  Beast Trainer: King’s City

  (Infection Series)

  Infection

  Infection: P.O.T.U.S

  (Novels)

  Sinister Shadows

  Tokyo Terror

  Adultery & Murder

  I Believe

  The Arrangement

  Killers

  Bridge to the Moon

  Attack of the Sprouts

  Winter is Coming

  Black Ocean: Genocide Device

  (Short Stories)

  Dirty Honey

  Princess Amber and the Unicorn Valley

  The Owl

  Before the Dawn

  Angels of Abortion

  Story of God

  Gift from God

  The Longest Wait

  Wanderers of the North

  Dark Fantasy

  ***

  Prophecy is in motion. A woman marked by destiny travels the wasteland, searching for the girl that will father her God. Rebecca blows away all evil without mercy, whilst gathering followers for her new and mysterious religion. Rumours of her magical exploits reach far and wide, shaking up the powerful families that control this dying world. Day by day her forces grow larger, increasing her threat to the stability of power.

  Snake sets off from North City with a Special Forces team. Intelligence reports have confirmed a Wanderers of the North nest has been located. It is the furthest south the army of cannibals has ever been, but not everything is as it seems. Terrible secrets are revealed, as a new threat steps out of the shadows. In order to survive, Snake must kill everything and everyone that steps in his way.

  Democracy reappears for the first time since the bombs were dropped almost forty years ago. Lamar dreams of a better life for everyone in this post-apocalyptic world, but no one will listen to the empowering words of a Muslim man. War crimes and genocide are no longer considered crimes. North City is consumed by the worst atrocity in human history, as religious intolerance sweeps through the streets in a river of blood and violence. Christians and Muslims clash for the final time, as one faith is hunted to extinction.

 

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