Thanatos by Carmen Kern

Author:Carmen Kern [Kern, Carmen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gods, of, Greek, Underworld, the, God
Publisher: Djinn & Tonic Publications
Published: 2021-02-23T22:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

One by one, they passed the final pile of garbage and slipped out of an opening in the fence. Once the last of them had cleared the borders of the dump, they turned off their flashlights.

The sky appeared similar to the Overworld’s at first glance. But as their eyes adjusted to the night, the stars shone brighter, making the constellations almost comical, with fully formed cartoon shapes outlined by auroras and stars that hung over them like party lights. It took only a minute for their eyes to adjust.

The group marched in silence. The night stretched out above them, expanding. Birds called out to each other in a strange song that sounded like women mourning their dead young. Critters hid in the scrub brush then scurried from one place to the next, rustling the dead plant life.

“I’d pretty much kill for a smoke right now,” Hades mumbled, a dull ache growing in his left side.

Reshawna glanced at him but said nothing.

And on they walked, until, out of the silence, there was shouting, yelling of curses, and orders. “Fliers,” someone cried. In an instant, the group scattered, some dove to the ground while others fled into the darkness. Hades dropped to one knee and brought his rifle up, sweeping the sky with the barrel.

Somewhere ahead, short bursts of bullets arched through the sky toward strange organic shapes blocking out the stars. They spread out, flapping their wings, sweeping the air with powerful strokes that sounded like an army marching on hard ground. Thrum. Thrum. The air turned thick with creatures. They soared together in a diamond formation.

Guns blasted from all around Hades, but he waited for the winged beasts to come closer, to smell their bloodlust before he took his first shot.

The dark fliers turned as one, diving and rolling in waves as they bore down on their prey. Those pierced with talons or fangs cried out, fighting with their bare fists when their guns failed them. Some of them were carried away, dangling beneath the flying demons like strange appendages until they dropped to the ground a kilometer away, into a pit the creatures had dug out the night before.

Another wave of fliers dipped down, this time coming closer and lower to the ground. So close Hades could see their forked tongues lolling from meaty lips, their huge teeth gnashing in anticipation. Some of them were painted with blood, but others had yet to kill.

The night both sped up and slowed. Bullet blasts lit up the sky like fireworks, snapping and zinging while the fliers seemed to hover above, frozen in midflight. One rolled back its ugly lips to let out a raw-throated scream of rage. Hades pulled his trigger. His bullets ripped through the top of the flier’s mouth, blowing away most of its head. It spun in a graceful circle and floated to the ground.

One after another, they came.

To his left, Hades spotted Reshawna running with her first-aid kit.

A man made from boulders burst out of the

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