Hope at Dawn’s Edge
This is my most adrenaline-fueled short story. I love the mixture of military tactics with supernatural foes, all seen through the eyes of a sarcastic but determined soldier who refuses to give up and die. You can’t rely on hope, but it sure is a good motivator.
This story won a Silver Honorable Mention in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest.
“There’s no way we can do this.”
I turn and see her sitting in the dirt, back against a ponderosa pine. Her knees are pulled up to her chest and she’s hugging them so tight her fingers look like they belong to a skeleton. She meets my eye, and I see tears streaming down her face.
“Hey,” I say, walking over to her and squatting down to get my eyes on a level with hers, “Negative thoughts get you killed out here. We got to the other side of the mountain. Now we keep going.”
“But . . . back there . . .” her voice trails off.
“Back there sucked,” I say, letting just a tiny piece of my pain color my voice, “but it’s done. It’s over. It’s behind us, and if we want to survive this, we have to move forward.”
She stares at me so long I wonder if something’s short-circuited in her awkward brain, but then she nods, blows out a huge breath, and pushes herself off the ground.
“Good, now let’s go over the plan again,” I say, and my remaining men and I discuss our approach to Dawn’s Edge.
We’re moving off through the trees within a few minutes, dispersed just in case we come across any random demons. It’s slow, boring work bushwhacking through the wilderness, and I’m doing my best to limit the number of pine needles and other debris that make it down my collar, but we’re close enough to the town that I can’t risk us using the road anymore. Sometimes security is speed.
The sun’s hit the horizon by the time we rally up behind the last hill before the town. I send a few guys to the hilltop to watch the town while the rest of us study the Dawn’s Edge tourist map the Intel nerds found somewhere. The cartoonish rendition of the main drag is too cutesy for my taste, but I smile a little when I see the stick-figure demon some smartass drew near the historic old church.
“That where they think the Gate is?” I ask the scientist, pointing at the picture.
She purses her lips and nods. “It’s the most likely location, given its proximity to –”
“Great,” I say. I trace my finger along the town’s main street, leading directly from about where we are to the church. “Looks like this is the quickest ingress.”
“Do we know the demon situation?” one of my guys asks, and I call a lookout down from the top of the hill.
I have a hard time believing him when he tells me he hasn’t seen a single demon moving about the town. It sounds a little too easy, but I hope the town’s as deserted as he says.
You can’t rely on hope, but you also can’t just sit around behind a hill deep in demon territory because you’re afraid to approach their Gate.
So we enter the town, being as quick and tactical as possible. The light’s fading fast in the evening, and I’m seized by a sudden desire to get the hell out of there. The demons love the dark. But we have a mission to do, and if we succeed, humankind might just have a chance against the powers of hell.
I really am not exaggerating.
I’m pressed up against the side of a building, waiting for my turn to sprint across an intersection, when tons of demons attack from the front and the right. It’s a perfect ambush, and we walked right into it.
My men are shouting, firing their weapons into the two demon hordes as fast as they can. I’m firing my weapon, too, trying to keep my guys alive. But there’s too many demons, and I’m helpless to stop them from cutting first one, then three, then five men down.
Ramos drops right at my feet, and I unload my rifle into the dog-shaped demon that’s got its teeth in his throat. The thing dies, but it’s already too late for Ramos.
The scientist presses up against my shoulder, cowering into me like I’m going to be able to keep her alive.
“We need to get to the Gate!” I yell to her, and she nods, eyes panic wide.
There’s a bubble of open space around us, and I replace my rifle mag before grabbing up Ramos’ pack and throwing it over my shoulder.
“Advance to the church!” I shout, pitching my voice to carry over the battle.
Then the scientist and I are sprinting the remaining hundred yards to the church, leaping over bodies – demons and men – and I’m firing my rifle into demons as we move. We reach the church and fling ourselves inside and I spin around to cover our six.
Two of my guys rush in after us – Hutchins and Schmidt – and slam the door behind them.
“What about the others?” I ask, even as I’m helping to drag pews over to barricade the doors.
“Down,” Hutchins says, and for once there’s no joke in his voice.
The barricade built, we turn to look around the church.
There’s nothing here.
Not a damn thing.
“Where’s the Gate?” I grab the scientist by her skinny arms and shake her. “You said it would be here!”
“I said it was the most likely place!” she shouts, trying to push me away from her. She looks confused as hell and I know she’s telling the truth.
I let her go and meet Hutchins’ and Schmidt’s gazes over where they’re standing by the barricade.
“What now?” Hutchins asks.
I’m about to tell him I have no idea when something screeches behind me. I whirl around, raising my rifle just in time to see three demons running through an interior door, sprinting right at us. It takes six shots to put them down.
“Maybe . . . maybe the Gate is somewhere further inside the church?” That’s the scientist.
“You think, genius?” I motion to Hutchins and Schmidt, and we move toward the door the demons came through, rifles trained at the opening. The scientist falls in behind us.
We enter a hallway, lined with open doors. More demons are coming at us from the far end, and we fire our weapons until nothing’s moving. We keep moving forward, checking the empty rooms as we pass, making for the door all the demons were coming from.
There’s stairs leading down.
“It had to be in the basement,” Hutchins says as I motion for him to take point. I’m right behind him, then the useless scientist. Schmidt’s pulling rear security.
“Carry this,” I say to the scientist, sliding Ramos’ pack onto her slim shoulders. She staggers under the weight but nods. “And get your weapon out. It’s not doing you any good in your holster.”
She fumbles at the safety strap and pulls out her pistol, holding it in two hands like she’s hoping she’ll never have to use it. I’m about to tell her to flick the safety off, but then I change my mind. I don’t want her to accidentally shoot me in the back of the head.
We’re heading down the stairs, and Hutchins cries out at the bottom, going down, spraying bullets up into the ceiling. I rush after him with a shout and Schmidt pushes his way down to help as well. He and I kill the remaining demons, but Hutchins is already gone.
Ahead –
It’s this black archway, molded from some kind of shiny rock. The air inside the arch is shimmering and iridescent. It’s beautiful, reminding me of a Japanese beetle I saw once, only with more rainbow colors.
As I watch, a demon comes through the shining stuff like you’d push through a bead curtain, and Schmidt and I immediately put it down.
When the Intel nerds briefed us on what the Gate should look like, they used vague words like “probably a shining in the air.” They said nothing about a black stone Doorway.
“Where the hell did that arch come from?” I ask as I reload my weapon. I can hear Schmidt doing the same.
The scientist looks at me and shakes her head. “I’m not sure. No one knows how the Gate was first opened. But this – the first demons through must’ve built it.”
Two more demons poke their heads through the Gate, and Schmidt and I fire immediately into their faces.
“You’re up, genius,” I say to the scientist, who’s just standing there like it’s Sunday afternoon and she’s got nothing better to do than smell some flowers. “Time for you to set up the portal equipment.”
She looks over at me, eyes wide. “What portal equipment?”
