Sanctuary 12 (Fallen Gods Saga), page 27
‘Did she tell him where we’re supposed to be heading to?’
‘No specifics—just south.’
‘South, great. What’s with all this cryptic bullshit? Why doesn’t she tell us where to go, for Christ sake?’
‘I guess it doesn’t work like that,’ Stuart replied.
‘Convenient that, isn’t it?’ Jerrico gripped his hand. His rising blood pressure catapulted the pain through his system.
‘But you said we needed to do this—that we had no other choice.’
‘I know what I said. Doesn’t mean I’m not pissed off about it. Why can’t she give you a fucking postcode? And where the hell do I figure in all of this?’
‘She told him you would find us, and that she would alert him when you were close—which she did.’
‘The thing is, I’m not sure I believe you, and if I did, I’m not so sure we should believe him,’ Jerrico pointed towards Barnes. The dog growled quietly, hardly moving. He sensed Barnes was creating the anger to shield his other feelings. Clever little bugger; Jerrico thought.
‘I don’t know about you, but if finding her means putting distance between us and him, then I’m all for it.’ Stuart meant every word.
Jerrico’s recent experiences made him inclined to agree. He thought for a moment, scratching between his braided locks of hair. ‘You’re right—I’m just—you know.’ Jerrico averted his gaze to the window and the blurring landscape outside before turning his attention back to Barnes. ‘What did you mean on the platform when you said Barnes was moving between the lines?’
‘Do you believe in the theory of alternate dimensions?’
‘I believe in the possibility, and lately, I’m widening my parameters of what’s possible.’ As he spoke, Jerrico saw the tattered, bare feet and dirty dress on the platform in his mind’s eye.
‘Barnes tells me there are billions upon billions of these dimensions, which overlap at certain points. When this happens, holes or tears can be created within them. Some have multiple tears—sometimes an entrance and an exit—those are the ones which he passes through. There’s no invisibility, it’s just that in those split seconds, he isn’t actually here in this world.’
‘I’m sorry, kid. I shouldn’t have asked.’
As the two of them chuckled away, Jerrico noticed Stuart staring at him a little bit too inquisitively. ‘What’s on your mind?’ he asked.
‘It’s nothing,’ Stuart said.
‘Let’s hear it.’ Jerrico smiled to reassure him.
‘Since we met, you have always had that red mark in the corner of your eye.’
‘It’s always been there. When I was a kid, the doctor told my parents it was nothing to worry about, and it would fade in time—it didn’t. It flares up every now and again, but it doesn’t really bother me.’ Jerrico’s mind wandered to his lost pills. The thought of them made him long for Ridley’s counsel. He would help to put all of the confusing events and experiences into neat little bundles of logic, separating the fact from the fiction. However, Ridley was not there, and if he were, the only responsible thing his doctor could do would be to turn him in to the authorities. He had to fight again to put him to the back of his mind, along with Kate, Frank and everyone else. The only person who mattered now was Celeste. ‘You know what’s weird?’ Jerrico remarked.
‘What?’
‘Although I know nothing of this girl, and I’ve never heard her voice in my head, I somehow feel that I’m being guided directly—as though I would have made my way even without the two of you.’
Stuart nodded in agreement. ‘Want to know something else?’
‘Go on,’ Jerrico replied.
‘I don’t think we’re the only ones heading to our destination.’
‘Did Barnes tell you that?’
‘No. It’s a feeling I get. Barnes feels it too.’
‘I wonder how many Cradleworth was referring to when he said others,’ Jerrico said.
The dog simply turned his eyes towards each of them.
Jerrico had already guessed that since Barnes entered the carriage, he’d been trying to recoup the energy lost from his dimension jumping. It was strangely amusing that the introduction of dimension jumping into his vocabulary was now par-for-the-course in light of everything else. ‘So why don’t I feel them?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Stuart looked to the window, and the racing landscape.
Jerrico scanned Stuart, as clearly as he’d done during their first meeting at the motorway services—he was lying.
The rest of the carriage was virtually empty. In front was a man in a suit hiding behind his broadsheet newspaper. A youngster in a dark, hooded sweatshirt sat listening to his iPod. In the opposite aisle to the boy, a little further down, were two teenage girls. They both fixated over the screen of a mobile phone, giggling incessantly whenever a new text beeped through. The high-pitched giggles, the noises of the rocking carriage, and the grinding of the track below, had a hypnotic effect. The sun, that had been shining all morning, started to dim above them. As they all gazed towards the sky, Barnes let out a short, sharp, yelp. The clouds congregating over the top of the train looked like the smoke from a house fire; like burnt orange glue, blotting out the remaining light. The other passengers got to their feet in awe of the otherworldly mass moving over their heads.
‘What is it, Kerry? Kerry—what is it?’ One of the girls badgered the other for an answer, something to put her at ease. Her friend pressed herself against the glass of the window in their booth, transfixed by the strange burning mist.
‘Listen,’ Jerrico whispered.
Stuart heard it—the guttural, inhuman humming of multiple voices emanating from the cloud.
The young boy in the hoody sent his iPod bouncing across the aisle as he took off towards the front of the train. His reaction increased the panic in the shouting teenager. She began screaming at the top of her lungs, ‘Will somebody tell me what that is in the sky, please?’
‘It’s him, isn’t it?’ Stuart said.
‘Looks that way, mate,’ Jerrico replied. He caught a glimpse of something separate from the main formation, descending onto the roof of the train. ‘Stuart, did you see that?’
‘What?’
Barnes whimpered to indicate that Jerrico was not alone in his observation. It was then that the humming stopped, and the screaming started. The noise sounded distant at first; but they all heard it. The teenage girl even stopped her crying, straining to listen. No one moved. The nightmarish gargling floated along the aisles from both directions. Each second, the tortured squeals multiplied, louder and louder. The jarring and mangling of metal soon joined with the howling choir of agony. The vibrations reaching their carriage made them suspect the express was being ripped to shreds at both ends. Everyone had taken to the aisle except for Stuart and the silent girl. She still hugged the window of her booth, set in stone. The screams almost deafened them. It was the sound of death closing in at break-neck speed.
Jerrico saw the garbled images of devastation beginning in the carriage linked to theirs.
Turning in the opposite direction, Stuart could see the same thing unfolding there too. ‘We have to do something,’ Stuart said.
‘Do what? There’s nothing to do,’ Jerrico replied. It felt like he was observing the events on a television screen in some other place. His paralysis wasn’t merely the result of his own fear; the pain and fear of those in the other carriages flowed in a tidal wave down his nose and throat—amplifying each time another passenger fell to the unfolding butchery. The carnage reached the middle of the final carriages. They could see people trying to flee from the pockets of burning mist. Bodies flew through the air, along with fixtures from the train and cascades of blood. An unbelievable pain surged through Jerrico’s broken hand, as if it was being crushed under an almighty force; several sharp objects punctured through his flesh and into the muscle. He looked down to see Barnes’ jaw clamped onto him, biting hard. He yelled out, instinctively kicking his attacker in his chest. The dog released his grip. An eruption of dark blood soon followed, pouring from the wound onto the floor. Jerrico could barely muster enough strength to shout at Stuart. ‘What the fuck was that?’
Barnes looked up at them apologetically.
The pain had taken the fear away—it was weird. Jerrico found his thinking much clearer. He wanted to apply pressure to slow the flow of blood, but the splintered bones were excruciating to touch, so instead, he squeezed it at the wrist.
The mist from the carriage ahead reached them first. The businessman, who clung tightly to his umbrella, crouched down as the ferocious darkness entered. He then froze to the spot, mouth open, eyes wide in disbelief. As it curled in around him, the man spoke one word. Stuart thought it sounded like a woman’s name. Something emerged from the mist, snapping back so quickly, it was impossible to distinguish. It struck the man across his neck. The cut was clean. His head didn’t have the chance to bleed before it hit the floor.
‘Oh my God.’ Stuart spun to face the carriage behind them. The mist from that direction had not yet finished devouring the passengers in the tail section of the train; but it was getting very close. Their present danger on the other side moved further into the carriage, caressing the sides with its long, wispy fingers. It was no more than a few feet away from the two girls. The silent one hadn’t even turned to confront her fate. She’d not taken her eyes from the shrouded sky. Thunder raged within the approaching clouds, changing shade from orange to black, and then blood red. Stuart strained his eyes to try to determine the form contained inside the mist. There was definitely something there—something tangible and large—much larger and broader than a man.
Jerrico focused on the sobbing girl. She gazed up at the shape, now silent after her last outburst. She stood crouched in the aisle as the force leered over her trembling body. ‘Don’t do it.’ Jerrico pleaded under his breath. It was no good. Just before the girl made her move, he noticed a stillness in her—a quiet acceptance of the probable outcome—making it all the more difficult to watch. She broke for the right hand side, jumping over the backs of the seats, desperate to get around the mist before it had a chance to react. The last thing Jerrico saw as she disappeared into it was her body splitting in two at the waist. Averting his eyes in despair, he dropped to his knees.
‘Jerrico?’ Stuart remarked.
‘Just close your eyes, kid. You’ve seen how it works—it’ll be quick.’ Jerrico followed his own advice. As the dark replaced the blood and the madness, a strange relief took hold. Finally, he would be free from the torment of shared emotion; moments in time that did not belong to him. Free from the nightmares that controlled his life. Never would he see those dirty, bare feet ever again. They would crumble to dust along with everything else.
Stuart gathered Barnes in his arms, pulled him up onto his lap and buried his face into the dog’s soft fur. Soon, it would be over.
They felt the results of a massive impact against the right side of the train. It sent them toppling over to the left of the carriage. The glass from the windows on the right exploded around them, showering sections in front and behind with hundreds of shards. Something had struck the outside of the speeding express with such force it almost derailed. Stuart would have fallen from his chair, but the weight of Barnes across his knees held him firm. They regained their balance and their senses, trying to stare past the flying debris. They caught a glimpse of something huge dragging the form in the mist out through the belly of the train. As it pulled away, the whole side of the carriage went with it. The train rocked back the opposite way, before bouncing upright on the tracks with a metallic thud. The fierce wind from the carriage’s open wound hit them instantly. Jerrico struggled with one hand to tip the Jollybird onto all four of its wheels. The screams of the passengers in the tail section reminded them they were still far from safe.
‘We need to stop the train,’ Jerrico said.
‘Then go.’
‘I’m not leaving you here alone.’
‘I won’t be alone.’ Stuart looked over to the girl, who still pressed herself up against her window.
‘No way.’
‘What are you going to do—carry me? With one arm?’
‘If I must.’
‘We wouldn’t get to the end of the next carriage. There’s nothing you can do, Jerri.’
It killed him to leave Stuart behind, but the kid was right; what choice did he have? ‘I’m so sorry,’ Jerrico said. He reached forward and grasped Stuart by the hand.
‘You have nothing to be sorry for. Besides, I don’t think I’m going to die here.’
Jerrico wasn’t inclined to agree, but it was obvious that Stuart believed it.
‘You have got to go too.’ Stuart pushed Barnes from his lap. The dog whimpered, trotting back to the Jollybird immediately after he’d hit the ground. ‘No!’ Stuart shouted, ‘go with Jerrico.’
Barnes fell silent, looked at his friend and scampered away down the aisle. Stuart delivered their parting line. ‘Cripples, eh,’ he said, forcing a smile. Jerrico turned his back to pursue Barnes to the front of the train. The mist began to creep through the adjoining section of the last carriage. Stuart could feel the tips of its icy touch reaching for the back of his neck. It was futile to turn and face it—it wouldn’t change anything. He would sit facing ahead, knowing his friends still had a chance, and wait for it to happen.
Barnes had stalled his escape, allowing Jerrico to catch up with him. As he looked down upon the dog, he wanted to boot him in his backside for what he’d done. Without the bite, he may have actually been able to carry Stuart to the driver’s cabin. They passed the huge tear in the carriage and saw the tree line speeding along under the clouds that had turned the early afternoon to red midnight. Edging closer to the next carriage, they passed the silent girl. Jerrico placed a hand on her shoulder. She felt stiff, cold, as if she had gazed into the sky and turned to stone. There was no time to get through to her; they needed to move on.
It took a couple of steps into the next compartment before they were confronted with the full level of human devastation. Jerrico tried not to look. It was impossible to ignore every chunk of mutilated flesh hanging from the jagged sections of metal and torn up seats. He fought hard against his gag reflex, stepping over a leg attached to the slither of a person’s torso. He tried to avoid what he could, but entrails still squelched and slid under his boots. The stench was horrendous. It was difficult to tell exactly how many bodies they were looking at, such was the level of mutilation. Clumps of bloodied matter dripped down from the trains ceiling, hitting Jerrico on the head and rolling down his neck.
Barnes paused in anticipation of something. Another almighty shudder and crashing of metal came from the carriage they had just exited. The dog let out another whimper for Stuart and carried on.
At least it was quick; Jerrico thought.
When they reached the end of the carriage, the shrouded beast slithered in from the other side like water, moving up onto the ceiling; it was gaining on them. ‘Move!’ Jerrico urged Barnes forward, taking a large jump over two mangled bodies piled on top of one another. He caught his hand on a piece of luggage that had fallen from the overhead compartment. The pain from his injury almost knocked him unconscious, but he somehow regained his faculties to make one last push for the next section of the train. Even though the creature was right above their heads, they could still make it. Jerrico felt something tugging at the bottom of his jeans. Jangling his foot behind him, he tried to free himself from whatever held him back. He looked back to see an arm reaching out from under a mass of tangled metal.
‘Help me.’ A voice spluttered through the blood in its throat. There was so much damage to his face and body that it was barely recognisable as a man. He was missing both legs from the knees, and the skin on the left side of his face hung down in a flap, revealing soft tissue and cheekbone. Although the man entered his final throes, Jerrico could not get free from his grip, no matter how much he wriggled and kicked out. The creature was upon them, looming above like a huge spider navigating its own web. As the creature descended, Jerrico managed to kick the wounded man full in the face with his free foot, forcing him to release the hold on his jeans. Looking up, Jerrico saw the mist about to fall from the ceiling in one huge drop. There was no time for him to get back on his feet. The creature within was rising to strike. It would cut him in half for sure. Suddenly Barnes leapt forward, landing between Jerrico’s legs, crouching low to the ground and growling furiously, baring his sharp teeth. Jerrico needed to blink at what he saw. The dog that had plunged those same teeth into his hand moments earlier, now tried to protect him. The creature in the mist seemed to switch its target accordingly, heading straight for Barnes.
‘Jesus,’ Jerrico said. He laid his head back, closing his eyes. The next sounds he expected to hear were Barnes’ yelps of pain as the creature turned him to mince meat—and after—it would be his turn. To his surprise, he heard more grinding metal. Sitting up, he saw the section of roof above tearing away and the creature being carried off into the air. He shot to his feet and watched the silhouette of a large winged beast blasting its way through the sky. Below, in its claws, were the two beings. The huge claw that plunged into the train had missed Barnes by inches; he was unscathed. Jerrico clambered across the broken seats and tables, pressing his face against the window to try to reaffirm what he’d witnessed. He couldn’t see a thing through the darkness apart from the outline of hot cloud. There was, however, a faint, indefinable screech in the distance.
A bark from Barnes got Jerrico’s attention back on track. He still needed to stop the train. Someone on the outside may well have seen what was happening and reported it. The next station could be crawling with police, and to his knowledge, they were the only ones left on the train alive. Although it was impossible for any one person to commit such insanity, what would he tell them had happened?
It didn’t take long for them to reach the carriage before the drivers’ cabin—it just felt like it did. Having to move through one grizzly pile of pulp after another was truly unnerving. Minutes ago, these people were going about their daily lives, laughing and joking, thinking about their plans for that day. In the last row of seats, Jerrico came across a man still sitting upright in his booth. He looked almost normal. Dressed in a sky blue shirt and jeans, a small cup of tea perched in his right hand, his face clean-shaven that morning; there was only one aspect out of place. The section from the top of the man’s head to the bottom of his brow had been removed, along with his brain. The door to the cabin was pulled from its hinges, lying in a crumpled mess on the floor. The entire back section of the driver’s cabin had been torn away to expose its jagged edges. The train hurtled along at its utmost velocity, and there was a jump from where he stood to get to the remaining part of the cabin—at least four feet across. Under normal circumstances, most fit young men would not find the distance difficult to clear. However, on a speeding train, under severe stress, with blood escaping from a badly broken hand, Jerrico could not be sure he would make it. He took a couple of steps into the carriage until he was back alongside the man with the missing brain. Barnes released a single, piercing bark.
