Callsign: King II- Underworld

The Altima was still moving forward at about twenty miles per hour when its front end crunched into the obstacle. To Leilani, everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, but her responses were entirely reflexive—disconnected from any conscious decisions. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel…felt the phone slip from her grasp as she did…and then she was thrown forward. The airbag exploded from the steering column, protecting her from impact even as it showered her in a fine spray of pyrotechnic residue. She rebounded from the safety cushion, and was surprised by the fact that, except for a throbbing pain across her collarbone, where her seatbelt had locked in place to restrain her during impact, she was unhurt.

A wave of sublime joy washed over her, cleaning away the terror of the preceding moment. She was alive and that was unexpected. But her transcendent happiness was fleeting. A glance across the rapidly deflating airbag revealed the aftermath of the crash; the front end of the Altima looked like an accordion, crumpled beyond recognition, and steam was hissing from the destroyed radiator.

Oh, my god. It’s totaled, Leilani thought. How am I going to pay for this?

Such mundane thoughts ricocheted through her head, transforming the miracle of her survival into something onerous, but this too was a temporary reaction. She pushed down the rising despair as a more rational part of her brain realized that the crisis was not over.

The phone had been knocked from her hand by the airbag, and as she tried to pick it up, she found that her hands were trembling. Just closing her fingers on the slim plastic case was like trying to thread a needle. She finally got a grip on it and brought it up from the floor, but as soon as she tapped in 9-1-1, she saw the words “No Service” flash across the display.

“What is this, the 90’s?” she muttered. Leilani couldn’t remember ever not being able to get coverage. She directed a few choice curse words at her wireless service, but the message did not change.

“Well, what good are you, anyway?” she finally said to the phone. Then it occurred to her that it was more than just a phone.

She activated the video camera function and then held it out in front of her, framing the crash scene in the phone’s display. “Okay,” she said, haltingly at first. “I was just in a huge accident. A semi flipped over right in front of me, and I couldn’t stop in time. There’s also some weird shit going on out in the desert. A lot of lightning… I wonder if that’s why I can’t get a signal?”

She aimed the phone toward the mountains on her right, catching several flashes at an oblique angle. “Anyway, it’s pretty weird. I think I’ll get out and take a look around.”

As she said it, it occurred to her for the first time that the driver of the eighteen-wheeler might be injured…or worse. Somehow, that made the idea of shooting video of the crash seem more than just silly; it was almost ghoulish.

She depressed the button on her seatbelt, but it refused to release. “Damn it. Doesn’t anything work?”

Suddenly, something slammed against the window beside her. A sound like a gunshot reverberated through the vehicle, startling her and opening the adrenaline gates once more. She tried to pull away instinctively even as she snapped her head around to get a look, but the seat belt held her fast.

A nightmare gazed through the window at her. It was a man…except it wasn’t a man; it wasn’t even human. It was the face of a demon.

The thing’s baleful red eyes fixed on Leilani, and it bared its teeth in a feral snarl as it hammered its hairy fists against the glass again.

Primal panic tore through Leilani, as she struggled in vain to loosen the seat belt. She didn’t even bother with the latch, but instead slipped her upper torso under the shoulder strap, giving the belt enough slack to allow her to squirm snake-like out of its restraining embrace.

The creature pounded again, and the Altima shook under the assault.

Leilani half-rolled over the center divider, but the seat belt caught on her shoes. She struggled and kicked, and when that didn’t work she tried slipping the shoes off.

The car shuddered again, the impact so ferocious that Leilani pitched forward, into the foot well on the passenger side. She tried to push herself up but her arms were pinned beneath her and every inch of movement was a titanic struggle, made all the more impossible by the relentless shaking.

There was a harsh snapping sound as the driver’s side window broke under the furious hammering, transforming instantly into an opaque mosaic of tiny tempered glass particles, held together only by a thin laminate coating, and then the curtain separating her from the demon fell apart as the creature thrust both arms through.

Leilani felt its fingers graze her leg and somehow found the will to wrestle her arms free and push herself off the floor. She stretched a hand out for the passenger’s side armrest, felt her fingers close on the latch lever, and frantically pulled at it. There was a click inside the door panel as the mechanism released. She threw the door open, and with a near-superhuman effort, heaved herself through the opening.

She felt the creature’s nails rake the bare skin of her leg, but that minor injury was nothing to what she experienced when she crashed face first onto the hot asphalt alongside the wrecked Altima. Both hurts however were muted by the anaesthetizing flood of endorphins. The scrapes and bruises might as well have been happening to someone else for all that she felt them. A single imperative drove her now.