Chapter 10
“Stuart? Bring the barrier down at the graveyard, please. The vampires have been dealt with and the portal’s gone.”
“Then what…”
“David’s trapped inside.”
“Oh, alright. Miss Ephemeris said she’d meet you at the school.”
“Why?”
“She has something for you. You may need it if you’re going to, er, do battle with…”
“Something came through?”
“You could say that. A sort of vine thing, with teeth. It’s spreading through the whole school. Nick set off the fire alarm, but there may be some people still trapped inside.”
“Okay, I’ll look for Jen when I get there.” Turning to David, I said, “Follow when you can, please. I may need you.”
The pizza guy had advanced into the graveyard where he was looking at me angrily but eyeing David warily.
“Go,” he said – David, I mean. “I’ll catch up.” To the scooter guy he said, “How much damage? Less than a couple of hundred quid? Will you take this in exchange?” He took off his jacket and offered it up. It was big on him, but that was probably part of the intimidation tactic, I didn’t know. He took it in payment leaving me feeling awful.
Running, I reached the college around ten minutes later. Miss E was waiting outside with a large wooden box in her hand.
“You might find this handy,” she said.
I lifted the lid and let out a gasp of appreciation. The axe inside was quite exquisite. Head made of shiny chrome steel with a long, intricately curved blade large enough to take the head off anything I’d faced so far, okay, not including the big bad. The haft consisted entirely of polished horn which curved gently forward, in the direction of the blade. The finishing touch was the braded cord handle which made the whole thing feel exactly right in my hand.
“It’s beautiful,” I said. “How did you… you know, so quickly.”
“I have a friend who’s a master weaponsmith. The moment I showed him the horn and told him what you had in mind, he couldn’t work on anything else until he’d completed it. He made me wait while he was working on it too, so good job I had some phone calls to make. My MoD contact is coming down to meet us here, but don’t wait for him. I think Nick said there might be some students trapped inside. How did you know…?”
“Something David told me. I’d really like you two to talk sometime.”
“Maybe after this then. Do you have any ideas?” She nodded at the main building which had tentacles reaching out through all the downstairs windows and most of the second floor ones.
“Can we cut the power?”
“I imagine so.” She dug out her phone and dialled a number. “Hi Phil. Yeah, it’s Jen. How do we cut power to the college main block? Uhuh. Okay, thanks.” She hung up. “Over here. Bring that.”
I hefted the axe. It was heavy but comfortable in my hand.
Jen pointed at a large grey box on the wall of the main building, fortunately away from any windows. Armoured cables ran up and down the wall top and bottom.
“Main power distribution,” she said. “If you cut it above, it’ll be cheaper to fix.”
I swung the axe. It sliced through the cable and embedded itself a couple of inches into the brickwork.
“So what did that achieve?”
“It powered down your ultraviolet lamps, so hopefully this thing won’t grow any more tonight. We’ll need to give it a lot of space come sunrise, but the sun should take care of it permanently.”
“Won’t other things be able to get through now that the wards are down?”
“Maybe. It depends how much space is left down in the basement. Stopping the plant growing any bigger is our main concern right now, but can your MoD contact arrange for some high intensity UV spotlights tonight?”
“He’ll want a reason.”
“Everything that carries the parasite is sensitive to UV. If anything else comes though, we’ll have a better chance of containing them with the spotlights.”
“What about the plant?”
“We should try not to shine the spotlights at the plant. I think we’ll need actual sunshine to deal with that.”
“I’ll see what I can organise. Roll call after the evacuation suggests there may be a couple of classes still trapped inside. I hate to ask, but…”
“No, it’s okay.” I’d already spotted a fire escape running down the windowless side of the building. The doors to it on the first, second and third floors were solid steel. Overengineered, since they were potential ways in for burglars. “Send David up to the roof after me when he gets here.”
“What makes you think he’ll listen to me?”
“Because you’ll tell him, ‘Sarah asked if you’d follow her up onto the roof.’”
She shrugged and nodded.
The axe felt amazing in my hand, like it had been made for me. I took the fire escape all the way to the roof then looked for roof access doors. There was just the one near to the fire escape. Planning that made sense for a change.
One swing of the axe took care of the lock. The stairwell was dark, but there seemed to be a hint of movement glistening in the depths. Fire would be nice, but I’d have to wait a while.
I headed down to the top floor and checked my way through all the classrooms. Everything was covered in water from where the sprinkler system had gone off, and in the last room about half a dozen girls huddled under their desks, trying to protect their clothes and hair from the impromptu shower.
Priorities!
Mind you some of those blouses looked like they were silk, and the water wouldn’t be kind to them.
I assured them the danger was over, both to them and their clothes, and led them out to the roof where David had just arrived. He took over from me. They seemed happier to take his instructions over mine, which didn’t bother me much. I could see what there was to appreciate there.
I asked David to wait on the roof for me and headed down into the building again. There wasn’t much combustible up here. The labs and workshops tended to be on the ground floor where delivery of supplies was simpler. I grabbed a wastepaper bin and an old – I hoped it was old – textbook from a bookshelf where it had been closed, protecting the pages somewhat from the sprinkler. Striking a piece of flint from one of the geology classrooms against my axe gave me enough of a spark to set the basket of paper burning. From there, I dropped it down the stairwell to see what was happening.
Dark, glistening and slowly moving, woody vines moved back and forth on the ground and first floors. The second seemed relatively clear, but probably wouldn’t remain so for long. It rather depended on how quickly the vines could grow without ultraviolet rays.
Mind you, considering where it had come from, it would probably do well enough from blood and guts, if it could find enough.
I just needed to find its potential source first and persuade them to leave before the plant could get at them and turn them from people into fertiliser.
I chased down the stairwell to the second floor, then down the corridor, checking one classroom after another.
Clear this time, which meant what came next would be somewhere between difficult and impossible.
Down another level where vines slithered across the floor. They reacted to my presence with vine tips rising up to stab at me. I struck down around my feet, severing the vines closer to the core of the plant. The pieces I sliced off writhed about aimlessly, giving me a relatively clean path.
I kept listening to my instincts. The first room I checked had my spidey senses jangling at me. I opened the door anyway to find a bunch of toothed protuberances snapping at me through a hole in the floor. I sliced my way through a couple of them before slamming the door shut on the rest.
The next two rooms gave me equally bad vibes, so I bypassed them. The fourth one felt different, so I opened it.
More of the teeth and quite a few tentacles, but not so many as in that first room. They were close to the door and had their attention directed towards the far end of the room where a group of terrified students and a couple of nearly equally terrified teachers crouched behind upturned desks.
I could have gone straight in, but I could see seemed a better way. I ignored their cries of protest as I shut the door on them and headed for the next room along.
No vibes here. I eased the door open and found it clear, for now. Judging a point on the wall close, but not too close, to the trapped students and staff, I let my axe do what axes are good at, other than hacking at gruesome enemies that is. It was only a partition wall and it splintered into nothing much after just a couple of blows.
Now it was the plant’s turn to scream in outrage as I pulled my rescuees through the shattered wall and into the presently empty classroom.
“This next bit isn’t going to be as much fun,” I said. “There are going to be vines all over the floor. Some are already chopped off and wriggling about aimlessly, others may try to attack, but I’ll keep them off, or at least try to. If we go in two groups, I’ll be better able to keep you safe.”
That set off instant pandemonium as everyone volunteered to be in the first group.
“Shut, the fuck, up,” I yelled with enough command in my voice to persuade them to do so. I divided the group into two with a sweep of the arm, then jiggled things slightly till I had one teacher in each group. Pointing at the right-hand group, I said,” You lot follow. The rest of you stay. I will be back.”
They did as they were told, and all went well until we reached the stairwell where tentacles and teeth aplenty reared up at us.
I sliced and danced until there was space enough then yelled at them to run past and all the way to the roof where someone was waiting for them. They didn’t want me to leave them, but they ran off when I yelled something vaguely threatening at them.
I stayed, fighting a rearguard until they were all above the level of the vines, then backed off into the corridor and back to my remaining charges.
Eight of them. Three guys, four girls and a teacher, also a guy. They stood wide eyed with terror and therefore useless. “Follow,” I said and headed down the corridor in the opposite direction.
At the far end was another stairwell. It didn’t go all the way to the roof, but it did go as far as the top floor. Spidey senses tingled moderately so I opened the door ready for a battle and found one waiting for me. Not so severe as at the other end of the building, but significant. This stairwell was closed in the centre, so not as many nasties could get past, however quite a few had climbed higher up the stairs than our level. I told my charges to wait and headed upstairs until I was ahead of the threat, then fought my way back downstairs.
Kicking the door open, I yelled, “Up to the top floor and wait.”
Once again, I fought a rearguard as they climbed up behind me, squealing at the severed tentacles wiggling about under their feet.
Yeah, tentacles, vines, it was hard to tell in the dark, so either or either (pronounced eether or eyether in case that doesn’t make sense).
The top corridor was clear as was the top part of the opposite stairwell, just. David was waiting to guide us off the top.
“Is that everybody?”
“If it’s not, the rest are dead,” I said. “We’ve done what we can.”
Down on the ground, Jen waved us over to where a man in military uniform with a rash of fruit salad on his chest looked on in awe.
“What the fuck is that?” he wanted to know.
“My friend here calls it a hellmaw,” I said. “It’s a crap name, but since he was the first to survive one, he gets to name it.”
“What can you tell me about it?” the man asked.
“Sorry, but who are you?”
“Lieutenant Henderson,” Jen said. “He’s the Rupert I was telling you about.”
“Your name’s Rupert?” I asked.
“No. Army slang for an officer. Rupert’s kind of a posh name so suggests an Eaton education. I actually went to Harrow, so not quite the pedigree. Now, if you don’t mind?”
I looked at David who reluctantly responded.
“Carnivorous plant,” he said. “Came through from the same place as the other monsters we’ve been fighting. Thrives off blood and ultraviolet light. Too much of the latter and it will outgrow its resources and die. Best thing we can do now that all the people are out is keep everyone back and wait till morning. If the last one I saw is anything to go by, it’ll grow to about four or five times its current size then fizzle out.”
“This is what you wanted to show me, Jen?”
“Up until an hour ago I had no idea this thing existed, but yes, it’s part of what we have to show you. Did you bring the UV spotlights?”
“Yes, but I don’t see what good they’ll do if that thing feeds of the stuff.”
“There may be other things,” I said. “If there’s space for them to get past that monster plant, our best protection against them will be the spotlights.”
He looked at Jen. “I’m taking a hell of a lot on faith here,” he said. “My neck on the line as much as anyone’s.”
“I know, Greg, but when have I ever steered you wrong?”
“I suppose you haven’t. Shown me some fucking weird shit, but it’s been genuine weird shit. Alright what do we do with this lot?”
“Send them home?” Jen asked me.
I had a niggle in the back of my neck.
“Maybe set up a couple of your UV spotlights over to one side and get them all to walk though first.”
“Is that necessary? I mean they’ve been through quite a bit.”
“I know, but they won’t really know we’re asking them to do anything special, and if there happen to be any nasties hiding in their midst, we’ll be better off finding them now rather than later when they start killing.”
As it happened, my precaution was unwarranted. All the students went through the UV without reacting and we were able to clear the grounds around the college without further unpleasantness.
With the civilians out of the way, David and I set up vantage points either side of the building to keep an eye on it. David’s dark vision was well developed from having spent so much time in it – the dark I mean – and some aspect of the power I’d been granted allowed me to see better and further in the low light. The lieutenant instructed his men to take orders from us and left us to it.
The situation felt like it had settled a little, and I was allowing myself a moment to relax when my phone rang.
I fished it out of my shoulder bag and noted Dad’s caller ID. I swore quietly to myself and lifted the phone to my ear.
“Hi Dad.”
“Whatever happened to home by ten o’clock?” He wasn’t happy.
“Sorry Dad. We’ve had something of a crisis at the college.”
“I don’t care. It’s a school night. You need to be in bed by now if you’re going to be awake enough to learn tomorrow.”
“Yeah, well I won’t be learning tomorrow. The college is going to be closed.”
“What? Why?”
“Hard to explain, but the main building is going to be unusable tomorrow and probably for some time to come. It’s unusable right now. All the evening classes had to be evacuated. We have the authorities here and I’ve been asked to stay around until things are resolved.”
“You’re talking rubbish. I’m coming down.”
“Suit yourself, but you won’t get near the place. Dad, I’ll know more tomorrow, and I’ll tell you about it then. In the meantime, please don’t make an issue of it.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes.”
“Whatever.” I hung up.
Five uninteresting minutes later, the phone rang again.
“I’m at the carpark. Why are their soldiers stopping me from coming closer?”
“No civilians on site Dad, I thought I told you.”
“And what are you if nit a civilian, young lady? If I can’t get in to you, you can certainly come out to me.”
“Sorry Dad, I’ve been asked to stay here. Call it consultation if you like. I’m fine, just a little tired. I’ll explain it all when I get home.”
“You’ll come and explain it to me now, young woman. I want to know why the police came round to the house earlier showing me traffic cam footage of you riding a motor scooter through the centre of the village at high speed without a crash helmet.”
“That’s something else I’ll explain in the morning. Dad, I have to go, I think something’s happening.”
It wasn’t just an excuse. I could make out some movement in front of the building.
I pointed it out to one of the soldiers nearby. He pointed one of the spotlights and turned it on.
Something thin and vaguely humanoid lit up in the beam momentarily then leapt back out of the dim purple light.
Fucking krrst.
“Full spread, with overlap, fifty yards closer to us.” I shouted. I’ll give them their due, they knew how to obey orders.
Hang on, what was that?
“David?” I spoke into the walkie talkie.
“What is it?”
“Krrst.”
“I know, I saw.”
“Try your UV lights on them.”
He did so. “Interesting. Wouldn’t have suspected that.”
Moments later, the spotlights he commanded came on. We co-ordinated our efforts until we had a complete loop lit up around the building.
I say lit. The spotlights only gave out a dim violet glow in the visible spectrum, just enough to see where they were pointed.
What I’d noticed was how radically the UV seemed to affect the krrst. The second the purple guide light touched their skin, they’d phase out of sight and leave a faint trail as they dashed towards the closest edge of the beam. From there they’d stay in sight and feel their way around the affected zones. Now we had the lamps overlapping all the way round the building, they had nowhere to go. One of them tried phasing out and dashing through, but just a few yards into the affected area, it stopped, flickered briefly into existence and retreated to safety.
“They should be pretty easy to take out from here,” David said over the radio.
“Yeah,” I replied, “except when we do, we’ll just be telling the Big Bad that they’ve failed.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s how we figured out how to open the portal in the other direction. When these guys die, some part of them goes back through the portal. As long as they’re alive, they’re not sending any feedback through. It might make him a little more cautious.”
“Doesn’t look that way.”
The comment followed immediately after an almighty roar heralded the arrival of a Fyarl demon. Larger than the one David and I had faced and strong enough to smash a hole through the side of the building, opening a gaping window through to the central mass of the hellmaw, which seemed to consist of a particularly large and nasty tooth lined mouth.
“What weapons do you have?” I asked the soldier next to me.
“We were told not to use conventional weapons, that they wouldn’t work.”
“Not on vampires and the like maybe, but anything that might smash the horns on that thing would be good.”
“We have a fifty cal machine gun.”
“Sounds just the thing. Aim at the horns. Fire.”
He gave the order and the night tore apart in a scream of gunfire, the muzzle-flash bright enough to diminish my night vision, even reflected off the surrounding vehicles and machinery.
The gunfire lasted no more than a couple of seconds. When it stopped, the top half of the demon’s head was missing and an equally brilliant flare of energy emerged from where its horns had been attached, accompanied by a diminishing wail as the demon shrank to nothing.
“Okay, so that worked,” I said to the nearest soldier. “I doubt it’ll have the same effect on that plant, put it’s going for the ultraviolet, so you may want to try something on it.”
The machine gun tore into the night one more time, slicing through the vines reaching out through the gaping hole in the side of the building. Hydra like, each severed vine was replaced moments later by two more. They reached out into the UV beams and the central body of the plant visibly swelled.
“Do you have any herbicide or other nasty gases that might affect plant life?” I asked.
He shook his head, swallowing. “We could shut off the ultraviolet,” he suggested.
“You don’t want to let those grey things out into the wild. Give us a few seconds.” I wasn’t sure we had a few seconds, but we had to try something. I picked up the walkie talkie. “Okay David, let’s try it your way.”
We ran towards the building from opposite sides, me brandishing my axe, David his daggers. The krrst weren’t used to being attacked and I had the heads off two before the rest vanished on me. I leapt back into the UV where an instant later one of the remaining monsters ran after me, flickering into existence as it entered the light. I stabbed it with the haft of my axe resulting in a highly gratifying explosion of guts that fortunately turned to dust before they reached me.
The others took a little longer since they were hiding in their alternate dimension.
“Move the beams closer to the building,” I yelled. It would mean feeding the hellmaw, but…
Two more krrst flickered into existence nearby. One ended with an axe slice through its neck, the other took the haft in its chest and erupted a little too close, covering me with its guts, which then dried out. The last krrst appeared about ten yards away. I threw the axe, embedding it in the back of its head, then covered the distance between us before it could recover, sticking it in the back with one of my heel spikes.
I retreated to the spotlight trucks.
“Fuck me,” the nearest soldier said.
“I’m a bit young for that, so no thanks, but I appreciate the offer.” I smiled in an effort to show him I was joking. David was down to his last one by the looks of it, and now done.
“Cut the spotlights,” I said into the walkie talkie, “but be ready to turn them back on.”
David was back on his side, keeping an eye on things.
“Vampires!” he yelled, “And greshnick!”
“Lights on!” I yelled and the sudden rush of vampires turned to dust as the ultraviolet licked over them. Even the greshnick struggled to make it through. One my side, two David’s.
I ran to face my threat before it could recover. It was still stopped and struggling to regain its feet when I reached it, vaulting over its head and stabbing it in the base of its spine even as I swung around with the axe to decapitate it. There was too much hellmaw on the ground now for me to keep going and help David, so I trusted him to cope, and ran back to the lights.
“Do you have an RPG or anything like that to try on the central mass of the plant?” I called.
He looked around for someone to give him permission. Honestly, it couldn’t have been much worse than the fifty cal, could it?”
“Do it!” Lieutenant Henderson barked out and seconds later a soldier with a tube full of high explosives was aiming into the building.
“Aim for the big mouth there in the middle,” I pointed.
“It’ll fuck up the building big time,” he replied.
“Not a lot of option at this stage,” I said and turned away, crouching to avoid whatever the shot was going to be like.
Not much more than a whooshing sound as it happened. I looked up to see the missile heading straight and true into the hellmaw’s, well maw I suppose. I closed my eyes as the explosion turned half of what remained of the building into rubble. By the time I looked up, the vines were writhing about uncontrollably, but they settled soon enough, lifting away broken bricks and concrete to reveal a distorted but still functioning core to the plant.
“Shit! What does it take to kill that thing?”
“Sunlight,” I said, “but we have a few hours to wait before that comes around. In the meantime we just have to keep it controlled, along with anything else that might come through the portal.”
“I thought you said those things thrived off ultraviolet light.”
“They do, unless they get too much of it.”
“Say again?”
“We need oxygen to survive, right?”
“Yeah,”
“But if we get too much oxygen, it can kill us. Kind of like when someone hyperventilates. The brain can’t tell the difference between too much or too little, so when it’s getting too much, it triggers you to breathe harder, until eventually you black out.”
“What are you saying?”
“Yes, young lady,” the lieutenant had approached while I was trying to explain.
“Look, Jen – that’s Miss Ephemeris – knows more about this than I do.”
She shook her head as eyes swivelled her way. “Don’t look at me. I’ve never seen one of these before.”
“Oh, right. That would be David then.”
“Who’s over the other side of the building,” she continued. “Sarah, please. We need information, and we need it now. If you know anything at all…”
“Right. Well, we know that portal leads to another dimension or another world or something.
“Yes,” Jen said impatiently. The others were looking at me a little like I’d gone nuts.
“Fine,” I said to the lieutenant, “you tell me where in this world any of those things might have come from.”
He shrugged but nodded.
“We know the light level on the other side is a lot lower than our world. The creatures that live there have no defence against ultraviolet light because they don’t have any, or at least not much, on their side. It means we can use sun beds to prevent them from coming through the portal…”
“You picked up on that, huh?” Jen asked.
I nodded. “Creatures who’ve been affected by the vampire parasite are especially susceptible.”
“The what now?” This was the soldier who’d been listening in.
“That last wave of attackers. The large majority are what we call vampires. Very fast, very strong, suck your blood if they can, which will infect you with parasite at the same time. Whether you die or not, the parasite will alter you physically and mentally and turn you into something very much like the thing that bit you.”
“Worse,” Jen added.
I ignored her. “The greshnicks are tougher. Different species, but also affected by the parasite, and the krsst which were those grey things. Really nasty. They can step into a different dimension next to this one and move in that one to reappear in a different place in this one. Kind of tough to fight, but as you saw, very susceptible to UV. As far as I can tell, they’re all infected with vampirism.”
“What about this plant thing though?” the lieutenant asked.
“Like all plants, it thrives on light, ultraviolet in particular. There’s enough in its world for it to get by, but if it comes into our world and finds an artificial source, like the ones we use to prevent other creatures coming though, it grows like mad. When the sun rises, it overdoses – grows out of control, beyond the other resources it’s been taking in, like water and nutrients. It grows to about four or five times its size in a matter of minutes, dries out and crumbles into dust.”
“How do you know all that?” Jen asked. “David?”
“Yeah. He was watching fifty odd years ago when your people tried locking a tethered portal with ultraviolet lamps. The hellmaw killed everything except the dog, I think he said, then it had this massive growth spurt and turned to dust.”
“So if we can give it a major dose of radiation, that would take it out?” Lieutenant Henson asked?”
“You’re not thinking of dropping an atom bomb on it, are you?” I asked?
“No,” he laughed. “At least not yet.”
My turn to give him a look.
“Joking,” he said. “It takes someone with a hell of a lot more clout than me to authorise a nuclear strike. What I do have access to is an argon flash device. Twenty-five-thousand-degree temperature and massive amounts of visible and ultraviolet radiation for about half a microsecond. You think that would be enough?”
“One way to find out,” I said.
“There wouldn’t be much left of your school.”
“There doesn’t seem to be much left as it is, but I guess it’s not my call to make.”
“No, it’s not.” A new voice from a new person. This one was Principal Piccolo. “Would anyone care to tell me what happened here?”
“Miss Ephemeris?” I offered since she was trying keep hidden in the shadows. I mean, come on, she was the adult here, and a staff member.
Piccolo looked across at Jen, his expression filled with expectation.
Jen gave me a sour look, then turned to the principal.
“You remember that incident a couple of weeks ago with Sarah, when she said she heard something down in the basement?”
Piccolo rounded on me. “This is you again, is it?” He asked.
“How could it be sir? I wasn’t even here.”
“She’s right, she wasn’t, but it turns out she was also right about there being something in the basement.”
“Something in the basement that did that?” He waved at the building, complete with vines sticking out of every window and a sizeable hole in wall nearest us.
“I think it’s grown in the past few weeks sir.”
“You don’t say? You said you couldn’t find anything down in the basement.”
“You didn’t give me a lot of time to look, sir. I wasn’t looking for a seed or a plant or whatever it was then.”
“What the hell happened to make it do this?” He asked.
“I couldn’t say sir. My friend, Nick, texted me to say all hell was breaking loose down here. He set off the fire alarm to get people out before it got too dangerous, and I came as soon as I could with another friend, David, who’s over the other side of the building. He said he’d come across something like this before and told me that we had only a few minutes to make sure everyone was out of the building.”
“Do tell me more.”
“Yes. I think Miss Ephemeris called for the military to come. I think she could already see that it was more than the police could handle. We couldn’t wait, so David and I went up the fire escape and looked for anyone who was trapped and got them out before they really were.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“When we arrived, the plant thing had spread through the ground floor and the first floor. I found one class full of kids on the top floor and sent them up onto the roof where David was waiting to guide them to safety. I then went down to the second floor, which was in worse shape, and found another couple of classes trapped in one of the classrooms.”
“Trapped?”
“Some of the vines had broken through the floor. There was no way to reach them directly, so I used an axe to smash through from the next-door classroom. We escaped to the top floor via the western stairwell, then I kind of held off the vines on the eastern stairs while everyone went up to the roof, and from there down the fire escape.”
“And what on earth made you think you could survive running into a building overrun by that?”
“I guess I didn’t think, sir. I heard one of the teachers saying that not everyone was accounted for, and I just sort of reacted.”
“You were damned lucky, Miss Geller. Mind you, by the sounds of it, so were those people you rescued. Right now, I don’t know whether to yell at you or thank you.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Lieutenant Henderson interjected “but I can’t afford to let this thing spread. You’re the head teacher here I take it.”
“Principal Piccolo, yes.”
“Well, my apologies, sir, but that thing is growing out of control, and we have to do something to stop it now. Miss Geller has provided me with intelligence to suggest a method of attack. Unfortunately, it will cause a considerable amount of damage to the building. I’m afraid I don’t have the luxury of asking your permission. I have already called in an air strike which will be here in two minutes. I’m going to have to ask you to retreat at least a quarter of a mile.”
“What are you going to do?” Piccolo looked concerned.
“It’s called an argon flash device. It burns very hot and very bright for a very short period of time. There probably won’t be a great deal left of your college at the end of it, sir, but I’m hoping there won’t be much of the plant either.”
“Could I recommend people move back further than a quarter of a mile?” I suggested. “My friend, David, indicated that when the plant ODs on UV, it grows to about four or five times its size before it finally dies.”
“Half a mile it is then. Mr Piccolo, will you please organise any of your staff and students who’re still here while I sort out my troops? Please warn them to close their eyes when the weapon is released as there is a very real danger of permanent retinal damage.”
Two minutes barely seemed long enough. Admittedly, we were already some distance from the building, but by hustling people into a run, we were all behind the demarcation line when the lieutenant called out.
“Fire in the hole!”
I crouched with my back to the college building and closed my eyes tight shut.
The flash was brilliant, almost blinding, even through closed eyes, even with my back to it. It lasted the briefest moment and was gone. I opened my eyes and turned to see what was happening, only to find vines exploding from every window, smashing through walls, spreading across the gap separating us from what remained of the building, Thickening, growing, multiplying… Drying out, slowing, shrivelling… crumbling to dust.
“UV spots!” I yelled.
A soldier I recognised clambered up onto the back of a nearby truck and turned the spotlight towards the building. I jumped up after him, guiding his aim until it was pointing at the point where the portal had been.
Other spotlights lit up and trained on the same point. I called for them to spread out, to cover a wider area. I wasn’t sure how much point there was to our actions. The rubble covering the basement under the library had been heated until it melted. The heart of the school building was little more than a twisted mess of black glass shards. At the heart, where the centre of the hellmaw had sat, there was no hint of a sparkle.
“Nothing?” Jen said quietly from behind me.
“Not that I can see.”
“Hardly surprising. That last explosion and the death of his pet plant would have disrupted the ley lines in a big way.”
“So, what happens now?”
“We enjoy a few days rest from supernatural horrors, which means we’ll actually get to relax for Christmas.”
“You mean that was it?” I asked. “That was the threat Stuart told me about when this all started?”
“Well, I don’t think it’s over, but Stuart can keep an eye on the ley lines for now. I expect they’ll settle back into something like their original distribution by the end of the week.”
“So what then? Will the portal go back to being tethered under his shop, or it will return here?”
“Here would be my guess. An event like this is likely to cause the convergence to intensify rather than dissipate.”
“Meaning I’m going to have to set up a permanent camp around here to keep things contained,” Henderson said. He’d been standing nearby listening to us.
“It looks that way, Greg. Sorry about all this. I was hoping we’d be able to involve you sooner, before it all got out of hand. So much for keeping a lid on all things mystical.”
“Oh I shouldn’t say so. Not necessarily.”
“What do you mean? You saw how many people we had here, how many cameras were out filming all of this.”
“Yes, but this isn’t our first rodeo. It’s standard procedure to put a filter on all digital communication in an event like this. We’ve had a team of technicians filtering everything that was uploaded since you first reported it to me, corrupting the data. We leave enough of the original sound and video in there to show that something happened, but not enough to show exactly what.”
“And when half a hundred eyewitnesses start to give out their supporting stories?”
“Never underestimate the human capacity for self-deception. We have people who are very good at coming up with boring explanations for unbelievable events. You’ll see, the locals will be thanking us for sticking around by the time we’re done.”
“I look forward to hearing how you’re going to explain this away.”
“Okay, the official story is that the army has an underground store of toxic chemicals nearby, including a particularly unpleasant hallucinogenic gas. We detected a leak earlier and were on standby to respond as soon as we had an indication of where it reached the surface.
“Your call of a giant plant attacking the college was just the sort of thing we were waiting for. The black light spotlights helped us pick out the gas leak, the fifty cal and the RPG were attempts at igniting the gas and were partially successful, we just needed the argon flash to get rid of it all.”
“Isn’t it a bit unlikely that everyone would hallucinate the same thing?” I asked.
“She’s bright, this one,” he said to Jen. “I can see why you like her. The power of suggestion, Sarah – it is Sarah, yes? One person screams there’s a giant plant attacking the school, and everyone starts seeing their version of the same thing. Someone else yells, ‘Look, it’s a demon!’ and suddenly everyone’s seeing a demon.”
“Okay, I can see how that would work.”
“Anyway, your idea of passing everyone through a UV screening gave us an opportunity to ensure they were all given an injection as well. Harmless, other than it will make them all feel pretty lousy tomorrow. Enough to convince them that effects of the gas have been dealt with. We’ll say we want to maintain a presence here in case there are any pockets of gas we missed, probably build a containment shell over the remains of the college. There will be compensation. All affected individuals will receive a small payout – enough to pay off a university student loan for instance – and we’ll rebuild the college nearby. We have prefabs to get lessons up and running by the time you’re due to come back to school, which means you’ll have your Christmas break a little early this year.”
“Sounds like you thought of everything.”
“We believe so, but that’s not quite all of it. Jen tells me you have special experience fighting these sorts of things. You and your friend David.”
“Well, this plant thing is a first for me, but Davids seen them before.”
“Yes, it was his information that helped us destroy it, but those other things. The demon…”
“Fyarl demon. Next best thing to invulnerable, except all its power is in its horns.”
“Yes, and those, er…”
“Krrst. A type of vampire with the capacity to phase into a nearby dimension. Effectively, they vanish and reappear right next to you with those serrated arms sticking in your gut. They can’t see you anymore than you can see them when they’re phased, but they can kind of peak into this dimension from time to time. It looks like a sort of heat haze shimmer in the air that happens briefly at very regular intervals. If you know what to look for, you can predict where they’re going to come out. Plus I discovered tonight, they are very susceptible to ultraviolet whether they’re in our world or phased out of it.”
“You see, expertise we could really use. We’d like to have you consult for us in the coming weeks. Help us find effective ways of fighting these things.”
“Well, there’s only two other types of creature I have experience with. I don’t know about David.”
“I’ve talked to him. He won’t help unless you do too.”
“Well, I guess I’m in then, only after tonight I get the impression I’ll be grounded until I retire.”
“That was your father at the gates earlier, wasn’t it? I can see the resemblance. You have his bull-headed determination.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“Well, if you’ll let me drive you home, perhaps I can help get you airborne again.”
“What?”
Hang on, no! That’s Stuart’s line.
“The opposite of grounded?” he offered with a smile.
“What if…”
“The portal’s closed for now,” Jen said. “Stuart is keeping an eye on it, and we have your number if we need you.”
“Your teacher’s, right?” he said holding out a guiding hand. “Come on, let’s get you home.”
The lieutenant was as good as his word. He drove me home and accompanied me to the front door.
Mum had gone to bed, but Dad was still up and pacing when we arrived. Henderson didn’t allow him to get a word in but shook his hand and started praising me for my courage and initiative. The way he described it, I’d almost single-handedly saved the situation from becoming a real – and he apologised for his language – shit show. By the time he finished, Dad didn’t have a reason left to be angry at me.
Well alright, there was the thing with the scooter, but Henderson spun some story about people near the college being badly affected by the escaped gas and my doing what needed to be done to chase them down before things got out of hand. There had sadly been one death and one injury as a result of those affected, and it could have been a lot worse if I hadn’t acted as I had.
Overall, my actions before the army arrived had saved a considerable number of lives and he should be immensely proud of me. He apologised for my late return, but I’d needed some precautionary treatment as well as an extensive debrief prior to being released.
The lieutenant promised he’d smooth things over with the police, the scooter owner and anyone else who might have been affected. He said there would be quite a lot of compensation being paid out, and I’d most likely see a fair chunk of it.
For one thing, I’d already be getting the same compensation as the other students and staff present during the – ahem – unpleasantness. For another, since the college was going to be out of action until the new year, the army was particularly interested in hiring me for at least some of the time as a consultant. He mentioned the amount of money I’d be earning for just a week’s work and both Dad and I had coughing fits.
Dad’s no mercenary though. He took his parenting responsibilities seriously, perhaps a little too seriously for my liking, and wanted to know more details about what I’d be doing. Again the lieutenant came through in spades, leaving Dad with no room for objections.
“It’s been a long night for us all, Mr Geller,” Henderson drew things to a close. “I suggest we all get some sleep, you especially Sarah. I’ll send a car for you around noon tomorrow, I assume that’ll be give you enough time to sleep and pack?” I nodded. “Great, then I’ll see you when you arrive at the base.”
And that was it. Dad didn’t know how to talk to me after the lieutenant left, so he just gave me a pat on the shoulder and said he was off to bed.
I drank a couple of glasses of water and stood under the shower for half an hour, which meant another half hour drying my hair, but at least I felt clean. One soft, floaty nightdress and one comfortable bed. Add one exhausted me and you have a perfect recipe for instant unconsciousness.
