Eight feet from the alley’s exit, Keisha raised her hand indicating for us to stop. Still plastered to the wall, we didn’t dare to breathe.
Grunts and screeches grew louder, and my heartbeat rose with each taloned footfall scratching the concrete. My palms became sweaty, and I closed my eyes willing my fear and nervousness to back away. The alley was wide, which meant whoever crossed by its entrance had a good chance of looking in and seeing us. There was enough light coming from the entryway to illuminate our position. I just prayed the boxes and garbage hid us well.
I didn’t believe we would get out of the city without engaging demons, but the less attention we attracted, the better it would be, especially because Raisa and I didn’t know how to fight or even how to wield a weapon.
The first demons appeared through the alley’s opening, and Raisa squeezed my hand. Two demons jogged across, no problem. A third walked slowly. He stopped and howled to someone or something behind him. Two more showed up, and the third one grunted at them. The three of them resumed their walk. Five others ran past us. Then two others came by. One of them stopped, eyeing the alley. He sniffed the air and grunted. The second one stopped and smelled the air too.
Raisa let go of my hand and clamped her mouth.
One of the demons pointed to the wall on the other side of the alley. Three human bodies laid there. Blood dripped from the gashes across their faces and chests.
Raisa swayed to my side, squeaking.
The demons’ attention turned to us.
“Shit,” Keisha muttered. She pulled the string of her bow and let the arrow fly. The arrow pierced the demon’s forehead, and it fell back.
With a loud growl, the second one darted to us. By then Keisha had another arrow poised. She let it go, and the arrow ripped through its chest. The demon stumbled and fell.
Holding our breath, we waited. The others had heard us. There was no way they hadn’t. Ten seconds passed. Twenty. Thirty.
A full minute later, Keisha exhaled loudly and turned to Raisa. “What the hell?”
With her back to the bodies across the alley, Raisa crouched, one hand still over her mouth the other on her stomach. “I’m sorry.”
I rubbed her back. “It’s okay. Just breathe in and out.”
“It’s not okay.” Keisha paced in front of us, her eyes hard. “There are hundreds of demons out there. Maybe thousands. I would rather hide quietly than fight them all, and that means you can’t whimper or squeak or gasp.”
“Hey!” I glared at Keisha. “She has a sensitive stomach, okay? This isn’t easy for her.”
Keisha turned to me, her eyes hard. “Do you think this is easy for me?”
“You’re the one who just took some swords off a table and used them as if you were a knight out of a medieval tale. It does seem easy for you.”
“Are you insane?”
“Enough!” Greg muttered, though I could see he wanted to yell instead. “We can’t argue among ourselves, and we can’t waste time.” He turned to Raisa. “Please, can you try to take this all in so we can keep moving?”
“You gotta do it,” I whispered. “It’s the only way to get away from here.”
She looked into my eyes, terror visible in them. She had always been sarcastic and free-spirited, yet now she seemed scared to her bones. Well, she never thought she would fight in a demon attack and see bloodied, dead bodies.
I helped Raisa up. She pressed both hands over her stomach.
“Please, all of you, try to bottle your feelings up and let’s do this.” Keisha grabbed a new arrow from the quiver on her back. “All right. Let’s move.”
“Do we know which tunnel or bridge we are going to cross?” Greg asked, putting the safety of his gun back on.
“The Holland Tunnel is the closest one,” I said.
Keisha gave a curt nod. “Then that is where we’re going.”
She spied out of the exit and gestured for us to come to her. We crossed the street with hurried but muffled steps, looking side to side to make sure no one was coming, and hid under a store’s entrance. I recognized Houston Street. We were close to Sixth Avenue and closer to the tunnel than I first thought. We could do this. Finally, I had a glimmer of hope.
Bat demons soared through the sky every couple of minutes, and wingless demons rushed down the streets even more often.
“How about that car?” I asked, pointing to an abandoned car thirty yards from where we hid.
“That would attract more attention,” Keisha said.
“If we can outrun them, who cares about attracting attention?” Greg said.
Keisha thought it over for a moment. “All right. Stay here. I’ll see if it’s working.”
She checked the street for demons and then rushed to it. The door was unlocked, and she was able to slip inside before a group of demons hurried by. She waited until they were gone and tried the engine. It worked! She tried driving it, but it rolled like a beaten wagon for ten feet, and then stopped. Keisha opened the passenger door and spied out. With a disappointed expression, she came back to us.
“Two flat tires,” she said. “And almost no gas. It wouldn’t get us far anyway.”
Still, if it could have gotten us through the tunnel, it would have helped.
We walked three blocks without any problems—two south on Sixth Avenue, and one west onto Spring Street. Closer to Hudson Street, the sounds and movements increased. Shrieks echoed through the air, and more demons ran past our hiding spots.
“There’s something going on,” Keisha said, pulling us into an alley two buildings from the corner of Hudson Street.
We took in as much as we could, trying to find out what was happening. After a couple of tense minutes, I gave up looking out and leaned against the alley wall. I was tired. I was hungry and dirty. I hadn’t felt like this in three months, and I had hoped I would never feel this way again.
“If I didn’t know better, I would say the monsters are gathering for a parade,” Greg said, peeking around the corner of the alley.
It did look like that. But why would demons get together for a parade?
A bat flew by right when Greg was retreating into the alley.
“Fuck,” he swore, aiming his gun at the coming creature.
The bat landed in the alley’s entrance and shrieked. The creature was tall, taller than a human, with a bony body covered by viscous gray skin. It bared its sharp teeth and recoiled its large and bristly wings.
Its putrid stench of rotting flesh reached my nose, and I breathed through my mouth before I puked.
“He’s going to call more monsters!” Raisa yelled.
The bat took two steps into the alley, scratching its talons along the concrete and screeching. Keisha pointed her bow at him, but Greg was faster. He shot the demon twice—between the eyes and in the chest. Trembling, the bat fell to the ground, and green liquid poured out of its wounds.
Beside me, Raisa doubled over. I rubbed her back, thinking she would throw up, but she only gagged. I gagged too.
With a lethal expression, Keisha pointed an accusing finger to Greg’s gun. “If the demon’s scream hadn’t been enough, I’m sure your shots were.”