Gates Read online

  “Am I still green?” I asked Jen when Henry left.

  Jen laughed a little, a very welcome relief from seeing her crying. “Very. If we're talking about your mind. If we’re discussing the bizarre taint in your blood vessels—not very, actually, it appears to be disappearing.”

  “Good. I hate to be reduced to saying Eric smash! in every conversation,” I commented, trying to inject some levity into the situation.

  She laughed some more just as Henry came in with three plastic bottles. He smiled.

  “I heard that last part, Eric. But I think it would help if you turned into a huge, green-skinned mountain of a man.”

  “Please don’t add to it, Henry. Green is really not my color,” I weakly replied.

  ***

  As the hours passed, I started to recover my strength. Henry and Jen took turns standing watch. From time to time, we could hear loud explosions and the din of fighting. I knew we should have at least evacuated back to the forest but in my condition, that option was out for the moment.

  Thankfully, Henry didn't start with the inevitable question of what the blazes was I doing out there. I guessed Jen must have filled him in. In hindsight, what I did what pretty stupid, but that's what being alive after a bad decision is for—God didn't put repentance at the end of the cause-and-effect chain for a reason. Instead, the man gave me a running account of what was going on. The fighting was apparently confined to the plaza area where the ziggurat was located. More of the flame giants were coming into town and slugging it out with the new claimants.

  “The ones who set up the temple appeared to be of a different breed than the ones we saw before,” he told me. “Another claimant?”

  “I guess so,” I answered. “The green beam behaved strangely last night. As if it was also struggling to break open another portal. It was extinguished a few times, if you noticed.”

  “I did. That only means when a faction claims a new territory; it leaves some sort of paranormal sign behind. A symbol or barrier a new rival must break before grabbing the region from the previous owner,” remarked Henry. “Well, at least we learned something. But the presence of those giant flaming figures has got me stumped. Any ideas?”

  “I’ve been thinking about it. I don't recall anything about such creatures in the mythology of Kur, the Mesopotamian underworld. If I am right, then it's bad news as they would have come from another dimension or reality, an assumption which again begs the questions of what reality, and how severe the dimensional damage had become. Or is becoming,” I answered.

  “Give me your guess. That’s more than what I have right now, which is zero.”

  “Giants of fire can be found in much of Earth's mythology. But right now, there's only one such dimension I could think of which has a direct relation to Earth in its mythos,” I said.

  “And that is?”

  “The nine worlds of Norse mythology, which includes Midgard, or Earth. Among those nine worlds, specifically to the south of Midgard, is Muspelheim, or Muspellheimr in the old Norse - the land of fire, ruled by the fire jotunn Sutr. A being believed by the ancient Norse to be instrumental in bringing about the fiery end of the world.”

  “Eight more worlds! In addition to the Mesopotamian underworld realms? We are so fucked!”

  I admit I was surprised at the vehemence of Henry's reaction. I had never heard him say the F-word with such intensity before.

  “Look at it this way. It’s not going to be a one-sided fight anymore,” I said. “The first ones now have credible competition.”

  “And we get stuck in the middle, trying to avoid getting crushed.”

  “It gives humans some breathing time,” said Jen from the window. I didn’t realize she was listening. “Provided we stay out of the way. Time to understand and come up with a counter.”

  “It would be next to impossible to convince people that science might have to play second fiddle to magic,” observed Henry.

  “I know. Magic is the stuff you read about, or watch in movies. The FX thing is what people could accept, not the real deal. I wouldn’t be surprised if humanity is still in denial, trying to come up with a scientific basis for what we’re seeing,” I replied.

  “Science did start everything. There’s no doubt in my mind that the accident at that facility created this mess of an apocalypse,” commented Henry, his brow furrowed in thought.

  “Well, it has been said that magic is but undiscovered science,” Jen piped up. “And those bruisers are still slugging it out, but the fighting had conveniently moved to the other side of town. Fewer of those flaming giants, though.”

  Jen’s comment had me thinking. It was indeed strange that this side of town didn’t become a battleground.

  “The mass of those temple builders was on that side. If the fighting had moved farther away, it could only mean those Muspellheimr creatures are winning since they’re driving away the original owner,” said Henry.

  The more I considered the situation, a rising tide of apprehension came over me. What could possibly follow if the foot soldiers of Muspellsheimr gained control of the area? Then the reply struck me.

  “Guys, we have to bug out for a while. At least go back to the forest. We are going to be stuck in a town full of flaming jotnar once the newcomers gain full control of that shrine,” I immediately told them.

  “What’s a jotnar?” inquired Henry.

  “Plural of jotunn. That’s the Norse term for that kind of creature.”

  “Do you think they can use that ziggurat thing?” asked Jen.

  “I think they believe they can. Considering the sudden interest of the jotnar in kicking out the former occupants, it’s a solid bet.”

  “More of them,” commented Henry, shaking his head.

  “They do have their icy counterparts too, though we haven’t seen any yet.”

  “Thanks, Mr. Sunshine,” replied Henry sarcastically.

  ***

  The professor started moving what we had collected. He had prepared a cache for it in the forest, making use of the lumber and aluminum sidings lying around. It did take him several worrying trips before the supply room was emptied. All that time, Jen kept a close watch on the struggle for control of the town and told us that the fighting appeared to move farther and farther back.

  The sounds did appear to be less distinct, though I couldn’t believe that the Mesopotamian denizens could be defeated that easily. One thing did bother me though – how those jotnar were able to consider the temple as a worthwhile objective? Magic is magic, but it would require magical knowledge to convert the ziggurat to their own purposes. The jotnar by themselves were but foot soldiers, and the undue interest in the temple and the concerted effort being made by them could only mean somebody or something was directing the entire fighting from the jotnar side—a leader or leaders with the needed magical skill to use the ziggurat. Not a good thing.

  By late afternoon, everything was ready for our transfer to the forest. Henry offered to carry me, but somehow my pride refused to allow it. Thankfully, my rubbery legs had regained a measure of their strength. I latched onto his shoulder, and with Jen following us, sneaked out of the town. Upon reaching our bivouac, I was impressed to see that Henry had prepared sleeping areas for us high up in the trees, a fact which gave rise to another complication.

  In my condition, climbing up would be arduous as hell. But somehow, with the help of two ropes and both of them, I made it up.

  “Thanks,” I said weakly when I finally slumped on the makeshift bed of branches.

  “No problem,” grinned Henry and Jen took her place by my side. I was breathing heavily; the effort took a lot out of me than I expected.

  “What do you think will happen now?” whispered Jen.

  “I really don’t have an idea, except that the town is going to be a battleground sooner or later. I don’t think those guys who arrived first would just to back down. There’s more of them, even if they do have a lot of territory to cover.”

 
; Henry was close enough to hear us. “I saw a laminated poster map in one of the shops. Our best option now is to head to Great Falls. If there’s anything in Montana still standing, it would be there. It’s near Malmstrom Air Force Base, where some of our ICBM’s are based. Those in Fort Harrison would have withdrawn to its vicinity.”

  “How about the cache?” asked Jen in a low voice.

  “It would be safe here. But I do intend to set up such caches whenever and wherever possible — no sense leaving them to the elements to be destroyed or rendered useless. We also don’t know when and if we’ll need them. We might be forced to retrace our steps and they could come in handy.”

  I laughed. “And it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to carry all of them with us, anyway.”

  The night passed quietly, with no major disturbances, except for a flash of light in the distance once in a while. The blankets from the store kept us relatively warm, though I was sure it was because I had Jen’s body heat too. Dawn was breaking when I felt somebody shake me awake.

  “Eric. Wake up.” It was Henry’s voice.

  “Huh… what’s wrong?” I asked, still sleepy.

  “Looks like a major rumble’s coming. Look at the town.”

  That woke me up faster than a cup of Colombian coffee, though I took care not to wake Jen. I turned over on my stomach and slowly crawled to the edge of the makeshift cradle. On the far end of the town was a vast approaching cloud of flying beasts.

  Even from a distance, I could recognize the spiky outlines. That also meant an army on the ground. The first visitors were clearly not going to give up on the town that easily. When I looked at the ziggurat, I noticed the thin green beam shooting out of it had a red tinge to it. The jotnar had obviously started work on converting the temple during the night.

  Henry handed me the binoculars.

  “Look at the right side of the town. In the distance. Observe the treetops.”

  I did as he said. The movement of the trees was discernible. Some even disappeared. The Mesopotamians were advancing on the town from two directions—the far side and along the highway. No wonder nothing happened last night. They were mustering their forces. I swept the town with the binoculars, but aside from the occasional fire creature striding along the streets and the group in the park, I didn’t see any defensive preparations.

  “They’re not doing anything? I mean the jotnar?” I turned my head and whispered to Henry.

  The professor started to answer, then suddenly stopped. He put his finger on his lips, and then pointed to Jen. I woke up Jen in a low voice. She looked at me and saw me repeating Henry’s signal. Then I pointed toward the town. She adopted my prone position and observed for herself the advent of the coming battle.

  Suddenly, I found I couldn't breathe. It was as if my entire body was abruptly under water. A heaviness was on my chest and other senses were numbed. After a few moments, the bizarre sensation passed, though I found I was sweating. I glanced at Jen. Thankfully, she didn't notice my momentary and peculiar ailment. Jen would have been worried sick about me on top of everything. Then I noticed the forest was eerily quiet.

  Henry gently tapped me on the shoulder and pointed downward. A mass of large lizard shapes had silently gathered below us, some with riders. From my angle, they looked like mutated dark green geckos, without any other coloration. The warriors riding them were different. You couldn’t see them in their full glorious weirdness, and some sort of dark miasma covered their shapes, constantly billowing and spinning around them. Even the long spears they held were covered with the strange substance and considering their bizarre effect on metals, I doubted if the weapons were made of iron or any similar material.

  Fucking magic, I inwardly swore. I knew it was unfair, to say the least, but that was life for you. Absurdly, one of the historical comments on why the British Raj created such a vast empire came to my mind. We have the Maxim gun, and they have not.

  I guessed the same principle applied, though humans as a whole were now on the receiving end and I didn’t think the newcomers were interested in colonization.

  5

  Bugging Out

  Suddenly, at an unseen signal, the slimy lizard horde noiselessly rushed the town. Watching them was like seeing a bunch of slippery eels quickly being emptied from a large bucket. They filled the ground in front of us and flowed into the empty streets, all moving in the direction of the ziggurat. Small wisps of murky fog streamed from the ones with riders. Just like that, the forest was emptied.

  Henry slowly and carefully turned around, shifting his attention to our rear. The forest was still unnaturally quiet, though the town was already exploding in furious fighting. The attackers had climbed up the houses and other structures as the streets were already full of their kind.

  One could see the edge of the live wave sinuously moving down to the park where it met the waiting jotnar. It was seeing a wave of dark green goo moving forward. At first, I couldn’t account for the number of the defenders, until I saw jotnar coming out of the ground and bursting into flame among the attackers.

  Henry didn’t pay attention to the town and stayed in his position for several minutes. Jen and I, looking in the opposite direction, were at the front row of a chaotic struggle. Whoever was leading the fire entities wasn’t stupid.

  As the lizards were being fought to a standstill, more jotnar were exploding in flames as they arose among the invading ranks. The structures along the side roads began to burn, roasting those unfortunate creatures unable to leave the rooftops in time. And that was merely the reception for the attack coming from the forest. I wondered what surprises they had in store for the main enemy coming from the side and along the main road.

  Then I felt a tap on my legs.

  “No stragglers,” said Henry. “Let’s move.”

  ***

  We kept moving in the direction of Great Falls City. As Henry said, and I believed him, if any human community remained near us, it would be there. We doubted if the government or the military would withdraw from such a vital center and from what we’d seen last night in the town we just left, the US military still fought on despite the odds.

  The same situation must have been prevailing throughout the world. Humans could be tenacious at times, especially in the face of otherworldly enemies. Some would turn tail and run, but that was to be expected. Though at times when I thought about it, it seemed so hopeless. The equation appeared simple—they had magic, and we didn’t.

  Henry froze and lifted his left hand in a fist, his right still on the M4. Even I knew what that sign meant. He moved to cover and signaled us to join him. I saw we were on an overhang covered by trees and bushes. Directly below us was a dirt track. Nailed on a tree trunk was a big handwritten sign which read: ‘SANCTUARY. Safe Area. Food and Water.’

  Henry looked at me. He grinned.

  “You believe that?”

  “Nope. Looks fishy. If this was a natural disaster, I might believe what it said,” I replied. “But I admit my curiosity is asking me to look.”

  “Mine too,” said Henry. “I’d first believe in Santa.”

  Jen was quiet.

  ***

  We followed the road, staying on the elevated area and keeping to cover. Several meters from the turn-off, we began to see abandoned car, one or two at a time. I guessed they ran out of fuel. The ground slowly sloped downwards, but the underbrush remained as thick as ever.

  Sometime later, Henry came back during one of our rest breaks. As usual, he had the practice of scouting around during our pauses. We must have walked about three miles through thick forest, though it felt more like ten.

  “A compound ahead. Four structures. Barbed wire and wooden fence. Two armed guards at the entrance. Five abandoned cars as the roadblock, but there are a good number of vehicles at the back, out of sight. Two dogs.”

  “What do you think?” I asked.

  “There’s a large farmed area just out of sight of the main structure. 500 meters dow
n and to the left of another gate. People are working it, but the woods prevented me from getting a clearer view.”

  “Your binoculars?” I commented.

  “This is for kids. Low magnification, blurry details once you try to reach out. Though better than the Mark One Eyeball.”

  “So, what do you think?”

  “I can’t put my finger on it, but something’s wrong. Stay here with Jen. Keep under cover and your M4 ready.”

  “Gut feel?”

  “Nope. But my left hand is itchy like crazy. Never failed to warn me when a shit situation’s coming up,” he replied. Henry wore a grin, but his eyes were serious. It was strange, seeing the eyes of somebody you knew changing expression.