Doomsday

2. Invasion-2

Two women approached the men and passed over AK-47 machine guns. As the four men dug in behind the sandbags, the women disappeared on the right side of Parrish’s house. Anton got his cell phone and dialed 911.

“My name is Anton Edwards. I’m visiting my friends Mark Parrish and Matilda Price at the end of Oak Avenue.” He yelled upstairs. “What’s your house number, Mark?”

“One-seventy-two!” called Parrish, hurrying down the stairs with guns and packs of ammo.

“You need to get a number on your house.” He spoke into the phone again. “Hello? Yes, we’ve got a serious problem, and whoever you send had better bring automatic weapons. Why? Because that’s what they’re going to run into. Ma’am, I’m watching them now! I don’t know how many are out there, a couple dozen at least, but they’re armed with AK-47s. I’m not joking. No, I don’t know who they are, but it looks like they’re setting up for a war.”

One woman outside moved close to the front porch and shouted at the top of her lungs. “Hey, Matilda! Mad Dog sends his regards!”

Automatic fire opened up from all sides. Anton pulled Yvette to the floor, face-first. They instinctively crawled away from the windows and back into the dining room, but there were windows there, too. This house had plenty of windows all the way around.

Bullets ripped into the brick, sending a reddish cloud of brick chips in every direction. More rounds struck the windows but bounced off. Anton peeked over a windowsill and saw the men out front blasting away at the house. One by one, they’d use up a magazine of bullets, ejected it, and slapped in a new magazine. They timed it so they never ran out of ammo together and could keep a steady stream of hot lead tearing at the house.

“Can you hear that?” cried Anton into his phone. “Get help here fast! I’m hanging up!” He put away his phone. “Stay here!” He left his frightened wife behind a sofa and crawled to the stairs, where Parrish knelt with the weapons. Parrish passed him an HK416 and a shoebox full of mags.

Parrish shouted. “How about a Glock for Yvette? It’s light and easy to handle.”

Anton called out. “She’ll take it! Police are on their way.” He looked at the windows concernedly. “How tough is the glass?”

Parrish loaded his HK416 and crawled to the front door. “They’ll break, eventually. We’ve got a problem, Anton. I set the house up with all this protective equipment, but I never considered being able to shoot back at anyone. We can’t shoot unless we open a door or window.”

back“Not a good idea!” cried Matilda, rushing downstairs to join them. She had a large handgun holstered on her hip and carried a riot g*n along with a small backpack that looked half empty. “We need to get Yvette out of here, pronto. The tunnel?”

“Yes,” said Parrish. “I’m staying a while. I want to defend my home.”

“They out g*n and outnumber us, Mark. It’s not the time for heroics.”

“You’re one to talk.” Parrish laughed. A woman ran onto the front porch and stood on the porch.

“What’s she doing?” asked Anton, getting more nervous by the moment. “Who’s Mad Dog?”

Matilda looked warily at the door, as the figure on the other side of the stained glass moved out of sight. She jumped off the porch and ran away.

“Oh, hell!” cried Matilda. “Everyone to the tunnel!”

They turned to run. A split second later, the door exploded inward. The shock wave from the explosives hit Anton in the back and tossed him into the kitchen. He rolled until he slammed into the far cabinets with a thud. He looked up in a daze, his ears ringing so severely he couldn’t hear.

“Yvette? Where are you?”

“In here, Anton. Hurry!”

“Where’s here?” He shook his head to deal with the ringing in his ears, but it was still loud. Smoke filled the first floor to where he couldn’t see anything at all. He coughed in the foul air. “Where are you?”

He realized that he’d lost the g*n and the box of ammo. He groped around on the kitchen floor but found nothing. Footsteps burst into the house. Shots rang out. He crawled as fast as he could down the hall into the first room. He rolled inside and slammed the door. He scrambled to his feet to lock it. He was trapped. The only thing between him and the clones was a wooden door, and they’d shoot that to pieces in seconds or kick it in. He rushed to the back window, but a man outside looked up and opened fire at him. He ducked, thankful once again that the windows were bulletproof.

Something grabbed his ankle and knocked him down. It had a powerful grip as it slid him across the floor like a rag doll. A moment later, the door was ripped apart by a shower of bullets. Anton got the feeling he would never write that book.

TRAVIS

Travis heard a woman shout Matilda’s name, and an instant later, the shooting began. He was alone in the garage waiting for Chris to get back from the bathroom. He set the purple martin house on the workbench and ran into the house.

He was wide-eyed with fear and adrenalin when Angie ordered him and Dante to go to the window above the garage. He ran upstairs and got his Heckler and Koch MP5 and a bag of ammo, then met Dante in the hall. The sinewy old man carried a riot g*n and wore two bandoliers of shotgun shells. He also had matching Glocks in holsters on his belt.

Angie pointed at them. “Both of you stay up here. Don’t shoot unless you have to and only if it’s a safe shot.”

Travis nodded, then looked out the window over the garage. Bearded demon-humans had made a sandbag mini-fort in the middle of the road just beyond Parrish’s house. Others were lined up across the big man’s front yard firing round after round at the new brick wall and windows. Still, more had surrounded the place. The shooting sounded like a Fourth of July celebration gone very wrong.

He looked back at Angie in a fright. “Who’s Mad Dog? Why are they shootin’ at Dr. Parrish and Granny?”

Angie shook her head. “No idea, Travis. I’d like to know how this Mad Dog person convinced demons to fight for him.”

Chris came out of the bedroom, holding his Thompson submachine g*n and a backpack. “I got the garage roof.” He opened the window and climbed out onto the roof. “Call Mark and tell him to use the tunnel. We’ll all stand a better chance behind our brick wall.”

Angie nodded. “This is insane, Chris. Demon-humans in the middle of the day? What’s that crazy Demon Boss thinking?”

“He likes surprises,” said Chris. He lay flat on the roof and aimed over the peak. “Travis, can you watch the street for me? I’m going to concentrate on the attackers on the side of the house here. Dante, go into Kelly’s room and get her g*n and ammo. We may need it.”

Dante nodded. “God id!” He went off as fast as an eighty-six-year-old man could move.

Jon burst into the hallway from his room with his handgun holstered on one hip and Devil’s Bite in hand. Travis shook his head and pointed at the Sword.

Devil’s Bite“You can’t use that,” he said. “Those are demon-humans. You’ll explode!”

Jon’s expression changed from battle rage to lost and confused. Travis was right. Dante had told them about the Demon Boss testing the weapon on demons he had turned into demon-humans. The resulting explosion had knocked the giant demon across the cave. Jon slid the Sword back into its scabbard on his back. “What do I do? Use this?” He pointed at his Glock 9mm like it was a water pistol.

thisAngie shrugged. “It’s the only g*n you have.”

Dante returned with Kelly’s HK416 and gave it to Jon. “Here. Kelly would wand you do use id.”

Jon took the automatic weapon with trepidation. He pocketed some ammo and headed downstairs, calling back to them on the way. “They’re not attacking us, but they’re using our wall as cover. I’m going after the ones in the back.” His voice faded as he went out the sliding glass door to the deck.

usTravis tugged on Angie’s arm. “Lindsey and Joey are here.” He pointed down toward the basement.

Angie went pale. “I thought they were going to the mountains today. You and Dante stay with Chris. I’ll see to Lindsey.”

She had no sooner spoken when an enormous explosion from the house next door rattled the windows.

“They blew out his front door!” cried Chris, as he took potshots at the demon-humans running around in the yard. “We’ve got to do something!”

Travis saw three demon-humans lying temporarily dead on Parrish’s front lawn.

“We will do something!” cried Angie, heading downstairs. “We will! I just wish Kelly was here to tell us what!”

willwhat