The Hole

28

The flame ran across the cavern floor and the nearest group of demons went up in a whoosh of heat and light and screaming. Fred felt a burst of burning air in his face, and smelled burnt hair at the same time as he felt his eyebrows curl. He turned his face away as the flash threatened to blind him, and when he looked back, there was no sign of any demons around the crater. Gray smoke rose from burning tissue; all that was left of the things that had stood there seconds earlier.

The chanting from the bunker rose to a new level of volume, so much so that it seemed to echo around them. An answering call came up out of the pit, piteous and wailing.

Weemean.

Charlie kicked over the remaining canisters, sending a flood of fire down over the edge.

The response was instantaneous. The walls shook, dislodging stones and pebbles in a rain around them. A rock struck Fred just above the brow and he felt warm blood run past his ear.

“Time to go,” Charlie said, and headed for the exit. Ellen Simmons followed him without question.

“What about Doc and Big Bill?” Fred said, starting to move for the iron door to the bunker.

Sarah pulled him away.

“She’s buying us time. That’s all she was ever going to do. And she knows it.”

He didn’t get close enough to see inside the bunker, but he heard two voices raised in unison. He felt the chant ring in his mind. It stayed with him as they fled.

“Ri linn dioladh na beatha, Ri linn bruchdadh na falluis, Ri linn iobar na creadha, Ri linn dortadh na fala.”