THE
DESECRATORS
By
Daniel Skye
Jane Ignolia had screamed for three consecutive hours.
She screamed until her throat was dry and hoarse, until her vocal cords were so
strained that she could barely speak five words without her voice cracking.
This was all that Jane’s screaming had accomplished.
There was nobody there to hear her cries for help. Nobody but Russ Barclay.
The doors of the barn were chained and padlocked from the
outside on both ends. Aside from the few bales of hay that had become Jane’s
bed, the barn had been cleared out.
No cattle or livestock remained, only a lingering scent
of what once was present. Jane was all the livestock Russ needed now.
Russ was not crazy. Not in his own mind, at least. He
didn’t even consider this kidnapping or wrongful imprisonment. He had spent
years carefully planning every detail, stockpiling weapons, picking the right
allies.
“I’m sorry for this,” Russ called to her from outside the
barn.
“You’re sorry? You drugged and kidnapped me, imprisoned me
in your disgusting barn. And all you have to say is you’re sorry? Are you going
to apologize before you kill me too?”
“I have no intention of harming you, Miss Ignolia. Quite
the opposite. I need your help, ma’am.”
“You need help alright.”
“I understand you’re confused and you’re frustrated–”
“Not frustrated,” Jane cut him short. “Pissed off.”
“Ok, I understand you’re pissed off, but I need you to
listen to me. Many lives are at stake here. Your life, mine, and the whole town
of Spring Harbor. We’re all in danger.”
“Go on,” Jane insisted. It would do her no harm hearing
him out. Even if he was delusional, he knew how to be dramatic and grasp ones
attention.
“I know you’ve only lived here two years, so you haven’t
experienced it yet. But every so often, a great fog rolls into Spring Harbor.
But this is no ordinary fog like the ones were accustomed to. This fog is
thicker and greener than any natural fog man has encountered. But the fog
doesn’t come alone…It brings forth creatures the likes of which you couldn’t
begin to imagine. In 2006, they got my boy on a hunting trip. In 2007, they
returned again. A group of local and two outsiders tried to stop them. They
failed. And I’ve been waiting ever since for them to return. That fog is due
any day now.”
“So why do you need my help?”
“Like I said, I planned out every detail. I’ve been
watching you, Jane. You’re tougher than all the men in this town put together.
You know how to shoot a gun, and you know how to defend yourself. I need
someone like you on my side.”
“You really think I’m going to help you?”
“I know you will,” Russ said, sliding a worn photograph
under the red barn doors. She flipped it over and saw a rosy cheeked boy, no
more than five or six years old, decked out in old western attire and brandished
a toy gun like he was a cowboy.
“That was Andy,” Russ told her. “My son. This is what he
looked like after those things were finished with him.” He slid another photo
under the barn doors, this one not nearly as pleasing as the first.
* * *
Released from the barn, Jane was free to roam the
property. After Andy’s untimely demise, Russ had let his place go to hell.
Paint bubbled and peeled along the white picket fence. Mold had formed and was
starting to devour the sides of the farmhouse. And as dilapidated as it looked
from the outside, the inside was no better.
The place reeked like a cross between a gin mill and a
walk-in humidor. Jane supposed that the house could use a woman’s touch.
Russ had shifted into third gear and was gathering every
gun, every weapon at his disposal from the basement, setting them all on the
Formica kitchen table. There were handguns, shotguns, rifles, crossbows,
semi-automatic and automatic weapons. Her hazel eyes bulged when she saw the
grenades and flamethrower. Russ Barclay clearly meant business.
“If these things are what you say they are, how do you
intend to stop them?” she asked.
“The old-fashioned way. A hail of gunfire and a shitload
of grenades.”
“Are you sure it will work?”
“I’m sure that these abominations are not of this Earth.
They come from somewhere that even people like you or I would not dare to dwell.
But whether they’re from this Earth or they’re from the planet Neptune, they
must have a weakness. All we have to do is find it and exploit it.”
“Uh huh,” she nodded, unconvinced. “And the two of us are
going to stop this horde of monsters?”
“Not just us,” Russ assured her. “I’ve got
reinforcements.”
* * *
The world didn’t end on December 21st, 2012,
which came as a surprise to few who chose to believe such a preposterous
prediction. But on December 29th, 2012, the town of Spring Harbor
was evacuated by a sudden catastrophe.
A
mysterious thick fog had rolled in from the bay, enveloping Spring Harbor.
Living in a place like Spring Harbor, Burt Austin was accustomed to the fog.
He’d seen it a thousand times before.
But something was different about this fog. This fog was
green and ominous. It seemed conscious, sentient. It carried a dark, unsettling
presence. But that wasn’t all the fog carried.
His grandfather had told him the legend of the green fog
when he was nine. Once in a blue moon, a great green fog, green as the color of
envy, rolls into the peaceful town of Spring Harbor. And along with it come the
Desecrators. He had described them all in grand, vivid detail.
“What are they?” he asked, shivering, feeling his
nine-year-old-self shrinking to the size of a walnut from the utter fear his
grandfather’s tale invoked. “And why do they come here?”
“Don’t be silly,” his grandfather laughed. “They’re
monsters. Nightmares from another dimension. And they come here for one thing.
They come here to destroy.”
It was a splendid campfire yarn, or a surefire way to
induce many sleepless nights for impressionable minors. But it was not a tale
that his older self was ready to accept. Not until he saw it with his own two
unblinking eyes. And not until his brother, Jake, had his throat torn wide
open.
That was the day he swore revenge. And so when this fog
appeared, it wasn’t dread that filled Burt Austin. It was bliss.
The Desecrators were crossing the threshold as the fog
crept in. Soon they would come, and soon the final showdown would commence. As
Burt ran to gather his guns, the ringing phone stopped him dead in his tracks.
He didn’t have to answer to know who was waiting on the other end.
Russ Barclay had made a pact with Burt years ago. They
swore that they would vanquish the Desecrators or die trying. And that’s
exactly what Burt intended to do.
* * *
Burt loaded his truck and rendezvoused with Russ at his
farmhouse. There, Burt was introduced to Jane Ignolia and Tyler Reese, a new
acquaintance of Russ. They had met on the internet, as Tyler had encountered a
creature of similar description on a routine business trip years before. The
townspeople all had their theories of where the creature came from. Some believed
it was a gift from above, a guardian to shield and protect them. But Tyler knew
this unholy creature was not of this world.
“How’d you two meet?” Burt asked Jane.
“I’d rather not talk about it,” Jane turned away from
him.
“What about you?” Burt asked Tyler.
“Internet chat room,” Tyler answered. “Everyone I told my
story to thought I was a whacko, except for Russ. He believed every word. He
told me about Herman Coach and helped me understand more than I ever could.
About Planet X, about the government experiments.”
“The fuck is this guy talking about?” Jane asked
unbecomingly.
“I’ll explain,” Burt took over. “Herman Coach was a local
resident, and one of the victims of the Desecrators. So was his wife, Shelly.
She was torn to shreds giving birth to their twisted offspring they had
impregnated her with. Coach was the one who dubbed their dimension Planet X. He
was a brilliant man, but he wasn’t very creative.
Herman Coach surmised that government time travel
experiments conducted in the 60’s were responsible for a rift in the fourth
dimension. A rift that allows the Desecrators to cross over into our world.”
“I’m going to need a fucking drink after this one is
over,” Jane shook her head. She was holding a double-barreled shotgun that held
eight rounds and fired four shots. She was given a holster belt and two
semi-automatic pistols to tuck into the holster. The guns were loaded with ten
rounds apiece, and Russ had given her four extra magazines for backup.
Russ was decked out like Rambo, war paint smeared over
his face, a bandana tied around his head. He donned a vest of grenades and
carried two large automatic weapons at his sides.
Tyler had helped himself to one of Burt’s AK-47s. “You
know how to shoot that thing?” Burt inquired as he loaded his rifle and tucked
a pistol into his waistband. He had two grenades in his pockets for extra
security.
“Sure,” Tyler assured him. “I’ve seen plenty of action
movies. I know exactly what to do.”
“Poor kid is doomed,” Burt mumbled as he slowly slinked
away.
The fog grew thicker, darker, and a horrible shriek
filled the air. The Desecrators were close, too close for comfort. As the men
around her shifted into war-mode, Jane exhaled deeply and steeled herself for
the challenge. “Let’s fucking do this,” she said.
Loud, booming footsteps echoed through the fog and as the
mist slightly parted, the Desecrators made their appearance.
The leader was a six-armed beast that stood nine feet
tall, towering over the pack of hushed makeshift soldiers. Its massive
shoulders were adorned with spikes which supported its grey, pyramidal head.
Beside it was a woman whose face was frozen in a horrible
state of perpetual agony. Or so she appeared to be. In actuality, the female
creature had skinned a helpless woman’s face and fused it to her own. Two
spiraled horns protruded from her misshaped skull.
And next to her was what resembled a mutated porcupine to
Jane. Its brownish-yellow fur was shielded by a layer of thick spikes. The
spikes all contracted and expanded, as if each individual spike was a living,
breathing organism.
The fourth had no eyes. But its lack of sight was
compensated by its ultra-sonic hearing and its razor-sharp fangs. Its black
torso had a slit in the center that ripped open to reveal a second mouth inside
its own belly.
The final creature had the torso of a dragon, the hooded
head of a cobra, the claws of a wolverine, and long green wings that made up
for its lack of legs. A forked tongue slithered in and out from its mouth.
“We’re fucked,” Jane said frankly.
“FIRE!” Burt screamed and the shooting commenced. He
aimed his rifle steady and fired through the fog, targeting the female creature
that had murdered his brother, Jake. Three rounds pierced her chest, but the
bullets failed to take her down.
Russ was screaming like a madman, pumping off round and
round from his automatic weapons. He wasn’t focused on one particular target.
He was spraying bullets at anything that moved through the mist.
The first shots from the AK-47 almost knocked Tyler Reese
off his feet. A member of the census bureau in the real world, Tyler was not
the gun aficionado he professed to be. He couldn’t handle the recoil of the AK
and quickly abandoned it for an easier-to-handle pistol.
Jane tried unsuccessfully to take the nine foot behemoth
down. Even when she blasted a hole through its chest with the double-barrel, it
still kept coming. Its six arms flailed wildly, smashing everything in its
path.
It approached Burt’s pickup truck and lifted it with ease
over its pyramidal head, hurling it into the second floor of Russ’s farmhouse.
It could’ve crushed any of them with that truck. But it chose to destroy the
house just to prove its strength and dominance.
Still, the four makeshift soldiers refused to back down.
When Burt ran out of shells for his rifle, he pulled out his pistol. He had
fired nine shots at the female creature, and none of these shots had been
fatal. A yellow substance oozed from her wounds, but the loss of fluid failed
to slow her down.
The two-mouthed creature rammed into Russ with all its
might, knocking him off his feet and relieving him of his two automatic
weapons. It bent forward, and the slit of its black belly peeled open,
razor-sharp fangs protruding from its second mouth. As its gaping mouth closed
in on his face, Russ yanked the pin from one of the grenades that dangled from
his vest and tossed it right into its mouth. “FIRE IN THE HOLE!”
He managed to crawl to safety before the grenade
detonated and its belly burst, coating the farm in yellow slime and warped
entrails. “We got one!” Russ cheered, but his celebration was short-lived as
the winged creature closed in on him. Its mouth parted and its forked tongue
slithered in and out as it spat a yellow ball of fluid in Russ’s face.
It burned like acid and as he tried to wipe it away, he
realized he was wiping away chunks of his flesh. His fingers, now contaminated
with this corrosive substance, were melted down to the bone and his face
dissolved away until nothing remained but a partial skull.
Tyler was shaking as he fired his pistol, but he managed
to clip the porcupine-looking creature in the back. It released a horrible
shriek as it fell to its side. The female creature rushed to its aid as the
nine foot behemoth and the winged demon formed a wall around it.
“They’re trying to protect it,” Burt muttered. “Officer
Fleming was right. The newborn is the key to their bloodline.”
Burt tossed his pistol and rolled across the ground,
snatching the AK-47 that Tyler had tossed. He opened fire and didn’t cease
until the gun was empty. But the beasts were still standing strong.
He grabbed one grenade from his pockets and plucked the
pin, sending it sailing through the air. The behemoth snatched it with one of
its six arms and tossed it across the farm, striking the red-painted barn.
The grenade exploded with a thunderous bang and reduced
the barn to a pile of smoking rubble and splinters. Burt dug into his other
pocket and pulled the second grenade. He yanked the pin and this time, rolled
it instead of tossing it.
The behemoth caught the brunt of the blast. Flames
engulfed its chest and spread around to his back. It dropped to one knee and
the ground quaked from its fall.
Burt, thinking on his feet, moved for the flamethrower
and strapped it to his back. He held the barrel steady and squeezed the
trigger, and a stream of flames came spouting out. The flames caught the
behemoth and fueled the fire it was engulfed in. It sank to the ground and
tried briefly to crawl before its movements ceased, the flames still devouring
it.
The winged creature took flight and hovered over Burt’s
head. It spat a corrosive ball of acid, just missing Burt and landing on his
AK-47, dissolving it in seconds. Burt sprayed the flamethrower over his head
and the fire clipped one its wings. It pulled back and spat again, striking
Burt in the chest. It ate through his shirt and melted the flesh down to his
ribcage.
Then
it turned its attention to Tyler, who had acquired one of Russ’s automatic
weapons and was firing wildly into the air. The creature soared through the air
and came down on Tyler’s shoulders, its wolverine claws tearing into his neck
and ripping the head from his shoulders.
A geyser of blood sprayed up from his neck as Tyler’s
head smacked the ground and rolled to Jane’s leg. Alone and defeated, she
dropped the shotgun and raised her arms as a sign of surrender, assuming these
creatures had any concept of surrender to begin with.
“Hello, Jane,” a voice spoke. But it wasn’t her own, and
it wasn’t spoken aloud. It was a voice inside her own head, clear as day.
“Who said that?” she asked, terrified of the answer.
“Me,” a voice echoed through her mind as the winged
creature hovered in front of her.
“Are you…are you speaking to me?”
“Yes,” the voice answered. “We have studied your language
and have managed to emulate it through the use of telepathy. It is our only
method of communication.”
“Where do you come from?” she dared to ask.
“A world far different from yours. A place devoid of
human emotion and compassion. There are more of us, others that haven’t dared
to cross the threshold yet. But your world is of much interest to us.”
“Is that why you’re so keen on destroying it?”
“You misinterpret our actions. We don’t mean to cause
harm to everyone. Only the ones you see before you, the ones who pose a threat
to us or others. Our planet is dying, and soon the rift that your planet
created will obliterate ours. That’s why we explore other planets, other
dimensions. To find a new home to call our own.”
“And I take it you’re considering Earth?”
“Considering? No, it’s already been decided. We must go
now, but rest assured, we shall return, my dear.”
“You killed a six year old boy. His name was Andy
Barclay. Was he a threat to you?”
“Not to us, but to your people. Andy Barclay would’ve
grown up to construct a nuclear device. A device that would’ve been responsible
for the deaths of ten millions people. He had to go.”
“You can see into the future?” she said in awe.
“We can. And it’s a bleak future for most of mankind.”
“What about Shelly Coach?”
“The wounded creature you see before you is her
offspring. We artificially inseminated her while she was unconscious and under
our influence. Her death was tragic, but necessary. You see, we cannot
reproduce genetically. Not anymore. Genetic defects have occurred as a result
of your planets time travel experimentation. But that wounded child before you
is pure, his genes not yet affected by the anomalies of the rift. He is the key
to our salvation."
“When will you return?” was her final question.
“Sooner than you think,” the voice said as the creatures
disappeared in the mist.
* * *
By the time Jane had reached town there were no people to
be found. People had seen the fog, heard the explosions and destruction
emanating from Russ Barclay’s farm and got the hell out of dodge. The fog had
faded just as Jane reached the outskirts of town.
On the border of Spring Harbor and Braxton, a mob of
angry and concerned citizens had formed. Some had only heard the legends
before, others believed, and others had seen it with their own two eyes. And
the general consensus among the mob was that immediate action needed to be
taken.
The people were like moths to a flame, getting drawn in
by speeches of standing united and fighting for their town with everything they
had and then some. The mob was getting worked up into an uncontrollable frenzy.
And it was decided upon that the next time the green fog enveloped their
otherwise peaceful town, they would fight with every ounce of strength and
courage they had.
Jane pondered urging them to reconsider. But their minds
were set. And she was already invisible to the mob as it was; she figured it
best if she stayed invisible. Just blend in and don’t say a word about what
you’ve seen or heard.
If she did speak up and try to explain the so-called
Desecrators meant no harm, they’d laugh her off or haul her away in restraints.
She could see the fire and passion forming in their eyes. These people were willing
to die for what they believed in.
And
people willing to die for a cause can be the scariest threat of all.
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