Demon Trackers: The Anointed

part nineteen

They came to an abrupt stop when the rope twisted around the tonsil pillar, grainy hemp digging into their flesh. Jake felt Cal’s body lift as the beast tugged the kid’s arm and bit into it. Jake screamed, shoving, slapping at the monster, but with the way he was tied to Cal on his stomach, he couldn’t get any leverage.

But their dad had somehow gotten up, gotten the other gremlin off his leg and was there, stabbing his knife into the leathery back over and over until the grotesque head lifted, hissing and Henry kicked it away. Again, again, stomping on the short neck while bones crunched beneath his boot and the little beastie went still.

Pivoting, Henry slashed the blade through one of the ropes between the boys, giving Jake room to work, and dropped the knife before racing away. As his fingers curled over the hilt, Jake heard the whoosh of a propane torch and the squeal of monsters being burned.

Jake made quick work of the rope, getting himself separated from Cal just as their dad ran back and thrust both propane torches in Jake’s hands then bending, scooped Cal over his shoulder and ran.

There was no need for spoken orders. Jake was on gremlin burning duty. Seeing the remaining Hobbit wannabes were still fleeing the other way from Henry’s last eruptions of flames, Jake raced after his family.

Henry was just up ahead, running with a tight limp. Cal’s arms swayed against their father’s back with each pounding step. They raced to the cave exit. Skidding to one knee, Henry pulled Cal gently from his shoulder, laying him on the ground by the opening. “Jake, you first, and pull your brother out. Go Jake, now!”

The gremlins were getting closer. He could hear them pattering across the rock. A lot of them by the sound of it. Jake dropped the torches near his dad and scrambled beneath the low opening, twisting around on his belly to reach back and grab the leg of Cal’s jeans and the bunched material of the kid’s jacket just beneath his armpit. Scooting backwards, he dragged his young sibling across the sand and out into the night. Loud screeches and the flash of fire flickered from inside.

Trusting his dad to do his job and knowing his dad was trusting him to get Cal out of there, Jake wrapped his arms beneath his brother’s shoulders and started dragging him backwards across the ravine to the other slope, the wounds on his own shoulder in agony, his gaze steady on the flashing firelight coming from inside the cave.

All at once his dad was out, running fast, a dark silhouette rimmed by flames spouting far behind him as Henry twisted, still running, the torch on its highest setting, arcing a jet of flames yards and yards behind him, flames that poured over short little monsters that spilled out of the cave after him. Monsters that erupted into fireballs that spun off across the ground, spun over fuse lines laid down for dynamite.

The explosion kicked across the air, rolling through the ground, rocking Jake off his feet and tearing Cal out of his arms.