---Em---

     Slam. Another slam. Ace, Topher, and I wait out the onslaught in a run-down convenience store. Our makeshift barricade won't hold for much longer. These hellhounds are persistent as, well, hell. I smash the glass doors of the refrigerator with my baseball bat. Catch my reflection in the glass shards. If that thing gets through here, I'm slicing open my neck before it gets the chance to eat me alive.

     We were pretty damn thorough with the barricading, though I can still glimpse the outside world through patches of glass window. Slowly but surely, the murky purple of night is giving way to the hazy green of day. We've only got to hold on a little longer. Question is, will our barricade last that long?

     Answer is, no.

     The hellhound comes crashing through our barricade. The fridges, the ATM, the vending machine—pretty much everything not attached to the floor that we could move—all topple over like dominos. The hellhound emerges from the wreckage, slobbering lava-drool. Hound is a bit of a misnomer—more like a rabid, fanged beast the size of a lion, with prickly crimson fur, blood-red eyes, and scaly claws.

     I grab a shard of broken glass and hold it to my neck. Topher pushes me out of the way, nearly making me stab myself. He aims a fire extinguisher at the hellhound and lets loose. A thick stream of foam smothers the hellhound. I gape in disbelief.

     Once he's emptied the canister, Topher looks over at me and shrugs. "I thought it was worth a shot."

     If I die now, I can at least say I lived to see someone attempt to incapacitate a hellhound with a fire extinguisher. Actually, that sounds stupid enough that it just might work. I watch the foam bubbling, clinging tightly to my glass shard.

     The hellhound shakes like a wet dog, spewing fire extinguisher foam everywhere. It waddles forward, all soggy and sticky, and then collapses on the floor in front of us. Well I'll be damned. Except, you know, not literally. I just spent the last six hours trying to avoid that.

     "Please tell me there's not a fourth wave," Topher groans, his arm covered in cockroach bites. I'm still not really sure which of the waves was the worst: the pterodactyls, the mutant cockroaches, or the hellhounds.

     "I think we're in the clear," says Ace, still a little out of sorts from his chest wound. "Sun's coming up."

     "Then we should get going," I say, sidestepping the felled hellhound. We wasted all of yesterday waiting for Kag and his demon posse to abandon the toll booth, and look how that turned out. By Ace's projections, travelling on foot, we won't be able to reach Dante's lair until evening. Comma could already be... No. I'm not going to entertain that thought.

     Tired, bruised, and just all around demoralized, we set out once again. The city is dead quiet around us; it's hard to imagine this was the same place teeming with pests and predators just hours ago. We duck into each convenience store and fast food joint we pass, on the off-chance that we might be able to scavenge something to eat or drink. Not that I'm entirely sure we'd want to, anyway. The vines and moss growing on the abandoned cars, the rusted fire hydrants, and up the dilapidated buildings on the verge of crumbling like chalk all seem to indicate that this world has been apocalypsized for longer than any reasonable expiration date.

     So it turns out Ace's estimate was a little off the mark. We've still got a bit of a ways to go when the first pterodactyl takes to the skies. One way or another, we're going to have to relive last night, aren't we? This time we'd best take cover underground. We head for the nearest sewer grate and are working on prying it off when we hear the roar of a motorcycle.

     That can only mean one thing: kravlar demon. We scramble out of the road and duck for cover behind a totalled minivan. Peeking out from behind it, I catch a glimpse of the demon as he zooms past us. Sunlight glints off of his bald, boney head. His arachnid eyes shimmer in a myriad of colours, and his leather jacket ripples in the wind. I hold my breath as he passes, or rather, I'm unable to breathe in his presence. He speeds past us in literally half a second, but it feels like hours.

     "That was Dante," says Ace, once the demon has vanished over the horizon, leaving behind a trail of exhaust fumes.

     "The boss man?" Topher furrows his brow.

     Ace nods. "Change of plans. We infiltrate tonight, while the big bad's MIA. We won't get a better chance than this."

     "No complaints here," I say.

     We lay low for a couple of minutes, just to make sure Dante isn't about to double back and squash us like the bugs we are. Then we head out, doubling our pace. The pterodacyls are already flying low—they'll be on our asses in a matter of minutes.

     Just as my lung's about to burst, the warehouse finally comes into view. Thick mould and slimy grime cling to the windows, and graffiti and guts decorate the brick walls. Three large dumpsters rest against the side of the building, their stench detectable from where we stand. We hop a chain-link fence and drop down into a large vacant lot that stretches out in front of the warehouse. Puddles of oily residue lay scattered along the pavement.

     A hairy demon comes barrelling towards us, splashing through the puddles. My heart flutters when I notice that he's got Comma slung over his back.

     "Son of a bitch." Topher draws his gun, taking aim at the demon.

     "Don't!" I shout. "You might hit—"

     He fires, straight up into the air. It seems Ace tackled Topher to the ground just in time. "Thanks," he mutters. "Now they know we're here."

     Topher growls. "Who the hell do you think you are?" His eyes go feral, just like they were when I caught him pounding on the good doctor. But I haven't got time to deal with another one of his mood swings.

     The demon skids to a halt and then changes course, attempting to avoid contact with us. I sprint after it, willing my lungs to pump just a little bit faster before they collapse. Comma leans forward and bites the demon in the nose, just as it's splashing through one of the deeper puddles. It slips and falls flat on its face.

     I catch up to the demon and start wailing on it with my bat, bashing its face again and again. But I only get in three hits before the demon catches the bat between its teeth and wrestles it free from my grip. The demon tackles me, and I fall back into the puddle. The oily substance stings against my skin, and I scream.

     The demon tightens its claws around my neck and slams my head against the pavement. I nearly black out. He goes to slam my head again, but this time I lurch forward and headbutt him right in the nose. That hurts more than the pavement, but when his acid blood dribbles down his lip, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I managed to bust his nose at the very least. The demon recoils and plunges his own face into the puddle to try and wash off the blood before it melts his face off. I crawl out of the puddle and make a grab for my bat.

     I look up and see Topher crumpled over, unconscious. Good—Ace managed to knock him out. I take a deep breath and grip my bat with both hands. Turn my attention back toward the writhing demon. I don't stop swinging until the job is done. Afterwards, I toss the bat aside, my hands stinging from the impact of each successive blow. My skin itching from the most-likely-toxic puddle. My eyes watering.

     "Em!"

     I hold Comma in my arms. She's sickly, her skin's all splotchy, her hair is a knotted mess, and her forehead is about as hot as a hellhound's breath, but she's still Comma. I carry her back over to where Ace is and set her down beside Topher. Then I rummage through Topher's pockets until I find the pill bottle. I twist off the cap and shake one of the capsules into my palm.

     "Here," I say, tilting my palm and letting the capsule spill into Comma's mouth. I'm not exactly sure what the proper dosage is, but I didn't come all this way just to have her overdose on this mystery drug. One capsule will have to do for now.

     She swallows and tilts her head back.

"Can you carry Topher?" I ask Ace.

     "Not without bleeding my guts out." Ace punches the power stone embedded in his chest and his arm cannon starts to hum. The glowing circuit lines slither along his arm. "Back up plan."

     A pterodactyl swoops down, landing in one of the puddles.

     "We have to..." Comma's voice trails off, and she coughs. She tugs weakly on my collar. "Have to go back. For... Rex."

     "Rex?" Ace frowns, trying his best to keep still as his canon charges up. The pterodactyl inches forward, growling.

     "They'll kill him." The words spill over Comma's chapped lips.

     "You're out of your damn mind," says Ace. "Rex dying? That's a good thing."

     The pterodactyl lunges forward. Ace fires, blowing a beach-ball-sized hole right through its chest. The half-vaporized pterodactyl collapses into the puddle.

     He'll show you the way.

     Olivia's voice echoes in my head.

     Who will show me the way?

     Rex. The demon.

     He's my ticket to Ganeden—my ticket to finding Olivia.

     I grab Topher and start dragging him towards the warehouse.

     Ace just gawks at me. "What the hell are you doing?"

     "Lend me a hand." I drag Topher over to the nearest dumpster. Ace shakes his head and then jogs over to me. Together, we open up the dumpster lid and then toss Topher inside. I let the lid fall shut. "That'll keep him safe, for now."

     "Why do I get the feeling you're about to do something stupid?"

     I grin. "Guess." I hurry back over to Comma. She's already on her feet.

     "I'm fine," she says, when I try to get her to lean on me for support. "Medicine's starting to kick in."

     "Right." I grab her and force her to let me bear the brunt of her weight. She's fragile—weaker than I've ever seen her. But with my help, she's able to make it over to the warehouse entrance.

     "So what's the plan?" asks Ace.

     "There's no..." Comma breathes heavily. "No time. Have to... hurry."

     I go to kick open the door. Always wanted to do that. Unfortunately, this door opens outwards, so all I really do is make myself look like an idiot. And injure my knee. Comma rolls her eyes. Ace gets a good chuckle out of that. He goes and opens up the door.

     We step through the threshold and right into the middle of a bloodbath. More demons than I can count lay dissolving in puddles of their own sizzling acid. At the far end of the room, Rex is doing his best to fend off three kravlar demons while a fourth, this one extremely buff and sporting glossy black scales, swings a giant ball and chain.

     Rex snaps the neck of one of the demons and then bites off another one's ear. He spits out the ear and glares at the black-scaled demon. "Fight me yourself, you git!" The third kravlar demon decides to change sides and tackles the earless demon. Rex laughs maniacally. To our right, six kravlar demons are engaged in a bloody brawl. One demon grabs another by the neck, springs up into the air, and slams the demon's face right onto one of the meat hooks.

     "Traitorous scum," the black-scaled demon growls.

     "No use fightin' a losing battle." Rex's upper lip is all burnt up from acid nosebleed. The bone that constituted his left ear has been shattered. His scales are all chipped and scratched up.

     The black-scaled demon swings the ball and chain and obliterates the kravlar that turned against him. He then takes a step towards Rex, gritting his teeth.

     "Now that's just not fair." Rex cowers in the corner of the room.

     The black-scaled demon prepares to flatten Rex, who's reduced to a whimpering mess. He swings the ball and chain like a lasso, lets out a guttural growl, and then the chain flies right out of his hands. A chakram—Comma's chakram—protrudes from the back of his head. The gigantic metal ball descends, crushing the black-scaled demon beneath its weight. He explodes, spewing acid everywhere. The acid eats through the ball and chain.

     Comma grins triumphantly and then loses her balance. She collapses into me. She's still running one hell of a fever.

     Rex tiptoes around the acid. Ace and Topher both take aim at him as he approaches us. "I come in peace," he says, throwing his hands up. Two demons splash into an acid puddle behind him.

     "A little late for that," Ace mutters.

     "Don't." I grab Ace's wrist before he can start charging his arm cannon. He looks at me in disbelief. I shake my head. "He's coming with us."

Author's Note:

So, Em clearly didn't learn his lesson the last time he chose finding Olivia over doing what was best for the group. Will keeping Rex around turn out to be as big a mistake?

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