"The snow's getting thicker," Marvin muttered, hunched over the steering wheel of the fire truck. Thick gobs of white mashed into the windshield almost as fast as the wipers could clear it, and it was hard to manage the big rig on the slippery roads. His brow creased with the strain of driving. He wore his fire-fighter's gear as if it was armor, and he was going into battle. He did not dare glance over at Maia. The fire chief was staring straight ahead with a look that could challenge the sun. He held his Halligan bar across his lap like a battle axe. The Halligan was a tool for prying open doors. It was a length of steel with a tapered spike and blade at one end, and a short claw at the other. Marvin had seen Maia use the tool on locked doors before. He wondered what it would be like to use such an instrument on a human skull or any available orifices. That thought made him suppress an evil smile. It wasn't wise to be smiling around Maia when he was in one of his moods.

There were only five of them in the pump truck, all dressed in their regular gear, and searching for their fallen comrades. Maia knew that Death had somehow gotten the best of them. Now, it was his responsibility to unf.u.c.k the mess. He made it a point to stay away from any washrooms mirrors before he rallied his troops. He did not need any messages or threats to know what was at stake. He knew.

Maia knew big time.

He decided in taking out the pump truck, a ma.s.sive red machine with all of the traditional equipment fire-fighters needed for a wide range of fire fighting and rescue tasks. He took this over the other because of the fire monitora deck gun capable of blasting out fifteen litres of water per second or up to thirty bars of pressure. That was enough to tear up cobble stone streets under a sustained onslaught. It was certainly enough to break bones. Maia once witnessed an industrial water jet cutter cut through eight inches of rock, and while he would have loved to have gotten the city to purchase such a device, there was no real means to justify it. The images of what such a device could do to bare flesh entertained his mind for weeks. But he had the water cannon on the roof of his truck, and that would suffice if they needed it. The truck carried a full tank of two thousand litres of water. It would be enough to stun even Death if Maia saw the chance to use it.

Squinting, Marvin took his foot off the gas and gently applied the brake.

"What the f.u.c.k do you think you're doing?" Maia asked in a calm but dangerous voice. It frightened the s.h.i.t out of Marvin. He put his foot back down on the accelerator, and the pump truck picked up speed in the growing blizzard and darkness. For a single terrifying instant, he had a vision of his chief burying the pick end of his Halligan into one of his eye sockets. Saunders, Edwards and Northman, sitting quietly in the back and thankful to be behind the chief, remained quiet.

Maia went back to looking out at the road. They were heading north off the main highways now, heading into the great wilderness of Northern British Columbia. It was just the place where if someone wanted to get lost, it could easily be achieved. Maia wondered how many had lost their lives in the surroundings timberlands and mountains in years gone past. He wondered how the coming War would change the landscape. It would be changed. He would be right there with a napalm rack on his back and a flashing nozzle in his hands. That thought calmed him, so he kept right on thinking it.

The red machine sliced through the white arcs of snow that had collected on the highway. There was no traffic on the stretch of road, and the snow piled up. The fire truck had no real trouble going through, but it was the black ice that was proving to be tricky. Marvin hoped there would not be any sudden stops anytime soon. If there was, he would be at the wheel of a very large piece of machinery sliding out of control.

Onwards they drove, moving through the death of the day and not impressed with the coming of the dark. It would be difficult to hunt in the dark. The fire trucks lights flicked on, and the snow began to flash into both the headlights and windshield like chunky comets.

"Slow down." Maia ordered after a while. He was leaning to his left. His arm came up pointing. "What's that on your side?"

His crew looked. Although the snow had covered up the tracks and partially filled the gap in the snow bank, when the car left the road, it left behind the wake of a rocket. When Marvin realized what it was he was looking at, he stopped the machine. The Minions peered through the gloom and saw the path the car made before the tree stopped its flight. Even in the gloom of the falling night, it was an impressive wreck.

"You stay on the wheel," Maia ordered Marvin. The chief then glanced back at the other three. "You all come with me. Keep your eyes open."

Maia briefly met the impa.s.sive gaze of Grey Northman. The man had said nothing since the fire station, and for that, Maia was both relieved and suspicious. He did not trust the grey one. There was something about the Minion he just did not like. He did not want to be any more careful around his Minions than he routinely had to be. They were pyromaniacs after all, but his gut cautioned him about Northman.

Doors popped open, and the Minions disembarked their pumper, dressed in their heavy Nomex fire coats marked in bright stripes of battle yellow. They carried axes. No one wore their helmets, wearing black ski masks instead. They fell in behind Maia, wary of their chief's Halligan. Silently moving through the snow in their heavy boots, slogging ahead as the snow came up to their knees.

The snow covered most of the blood around the car, and the cold stifled the smell like one great outdoor freezer keeping meat. The interior of the car was still a mess despite snow having blown in through the broken windows, covering the four headless corpses. Maia stood back for a moment and simply took in the scene. The other three Minions gathered around the demolished vehicle with their axes at the ready. After a moment, Maia stepped forward and stuck his head in through the pa.s.senger side window. He could tell Peters and Bull from their body sizes and clothes. He gazed up at the gore coating the ceiling of the car. Behind his ski mask, his mouth cut into a grimace of disgust. All dead. Without even a fight, he guessed. It made him sick.

Maia straightened up and beheld the car once more. "f.u.c.kin' Angel of Death," he muttered clear enough for his Minions to hear. "I told you stupid b.a.s.t.a.r.ds to be careful. Should've chiselled the words into your G.o.dd.a.m.n foreheads."

The Minions surrounding the car could see what had been done to their companions. A sense of dread, awe and perverse excitement rippled through them. They had been afraid of missing out on the fun of torturing Death while they waited for the End to arrive. They had been extremely resentful of not being selected to take care of Death, dangerously jealous of not being in Maia's finer graces to have been a.s.signed the task of finding the Boatman and whisking him away. Now, it would seem they would have their chance after all. And the reality of their brethren's demise was just as freezing as the temperatures of the great north. Whatever resentment they might have felt had evaporated.

This was Death they were hunting.

The f.u.c.king Grim Reaper himself.

He would not go lightly.

And there would be casualties.

Maia broke the cold silence surrounding them.

"Alright then, motherf.u.c.ker," he quietly swore at the headless foursome in the car wreck. Maia had f.u.c.ked with the best in the past and won. He would do so again. "Alright."

He turned and locked gazes with the ski-masked Grey Northman standing on the other side of the car.

"What?" Maia demanded of the Minion. Northman did not reply. He merely stood with the snow coating his Nomex coat, slowly coloring him white. He held his axe two handed across his pelvis.

"You got something to say, f.u.c.ker, you say it now!" Maia roared at the figure. Saunders and Edwards glanced uneasily at each other. They had heard this tone from their chief before. It was usually before he did something incredibly violent. They had long sensed their leader's dislike for the newcomer, and perhaps now was the just the ignition needed for the chief to do something about that dislike.

"Or you just going to stand there in the f.u.c.kin' snow?"

Northman kept right on staring at the fire chief.

Livid, Maia brought his Halligan up like a spear, and moved to circle the car.

At the same time, Marvin sounded the horn on the fire pumper.

The sudden blare of the red beast froze Maia in the snow. Edwards and Saunders both whirled about in the direction of the horn. Northman kept his attention on the Minion fire chief. The three Minions that were looking could see what Marvin could see in his rear-view mirrors.

There was a car approaching.

Chapter 59.

Stickman took long and deep breaths, trying to fight the wave of nausea threatening to empty the contents of his stomach. Lucy explained what she was going to do, and he listened with a smile. h.e.l.l, he even nodded his understanding when she asked for it. And then, she went and did exactly what she said she was going to do.

Stickman's sunbird went into warp speed.

There was no other way to describe it, and yet, wasn't there supposed to be like G-forces or something like that? He didn't feel any sensation of being pushed back into his seat although the streaking lights outside of the moving car did bring on the stomach sickness. Day faded rapidly. He felt he was going to barf at any time, and his throat started to hitch.

"Oh, no," he heard Lucy say, and then the car was slowing down.

There was a fire truck in the middle of the road.

Stickman slammed on the brakes. The car slid. He kept his hands on the wheel, and somehow the tires found purchase. It would stop long before it kissed the a.s.s of the red behemoth taking up the road and filling up the Stickman's windshield. In truth, it didn't bother the Stickman much, colliding with a fire truck. If one had to slam into a vehicle, it might as well be a First Responder unit. The sunbird slowed to a stop not five feet from the rear b.u.mper of the fire truck.

The Stickman opened the door on his side, dropped out onto the cold pavement on his hands and knees, and vomited. Repeatedly.

And on the final retch, the one where his stomach felt as if it should throw out his kidneys, liver and any other organ handy, Stickman moaned and let his forehead touch the black snow covered asphalt. His only concern in the world right then was not lying down in his own pool of puke.

"Oh, Jeezus Christ," the Stickman moaned into the frigid wind and was thankful for it. "Oh, Joseph and Mary... Lord tunderin Jeezus... Murphy."

He felt hands on his shoulders and knew instinctively it was his angel Lucy. G.o.d bless her heart. He wanted to say exactly that, but instead, pushed himself away from the contents of his stomach on the highway. He rolled over onto his back, blinked and saw the concern on Lucy's face above him. That caused him to smile.

But only for a moment.

"Is he okay?" a man's voice asked, and Lucy's smile disappeared. It was replaced by a look of distrust and even loathing. It was enough for even the Stickman's smile to frost over. He arched his head to see.

He saw heavy steel-toed boots. He saw the greenish protective pants worn by professional fire fighters. He saw that this particular fire fighter was also carrying a red axe. This puzzled the Stickman. Why would Lucy have cause for alarm with ordinary firemen?

"I asked if he was okay, lady," the voice repeated, and the question hung in the air.

Then, another voice cut in. This one was mean and angry sounding. Stickman cringed. It sounded like Burr from long ago, the same Burr that had raped him in the showers. It sounded so much like Burr that Stickman felt that his back and b.a.l.l.s had just frozen solid to the highway.

"Jesus Christ, you idiot," the voice snarled. "Can't you see who she is?"

Lucy backed up as a black, ski-masked fireman pushed his way past the first axe-wielding fireman and stood before her. She could just distinguish the blackness of the cotton mask from the obsidian gleam of the Minion's eyes. The realization of who they had almost run into made her want to scream.

Maia stepped forward, actually plodding into Stickman's steaming pool of vomit and not caring in the least. He hoisted up his Halligan and jabbed it in her direction. "Picked the wrong f.u.c.kin road, didn't cha, b.i.t.c.h?"

Lucy did not reply. Terrified, she backed up and b.u.mped into the open driver's door of the sunbird.

Maia paused and regarded the helpless form of the Stickman in the road. He bent over, and slowly with one hand, finger by finger, clasped the front of the Stickman's coat. He lifted the Stickman up as an adult might pick up a child's doll. He brought the Mundane in close, inspected him briefly and snorted his disgust into Stickman's rolling face.

"Cur," Maia scoffed and tossed the helpless Stickman a full fifteen feet across the road. He landed out of sight in the snow. The fire chief forgot about him. He was only a Mundane. A speck of fly s.h.i.t. But the woman was a different case. It wasn't often Maia got to see one of the Ent.i.ties, but the glow was unmistakable. She was one. He didn't know which one, but it did not matter. The Ent.i.ties were all the same to the Minions. They all looked down upon them, forever favouring the human cattle and forsaking the Minions. Many were the times Maia wished and prayed he could exact revenge on just one of their kind, but they were crafty, the Ent.i.ties, and hard to locate when they took on their suits of flesh. But this one, for whatever reasons Maia did not think or care about, just happened to appear right at a time when Maia wanted to lay a hurt on something. It made the fire chief smile.

"Lucky, lucky me," he purred, baring teeth.

And then, just like so many times before, because it was Lucy's nature to have such luck, the absolute luckiest thing that could happen at the moment of danger happened. Head lights blazed through the darkness of the highway, back from where both fire truck and sunbird had come. The vehicle raced towards them, not slowing in the least. Maia turned in the direction of the approaching vehicle, swearing. "Who the f.u.c.k"

Those were three of the last five words he would ever speak.

Chapter 60.

Behind the wheel of the Celica, Danny gritted his teeth, tried very hard to contain his fear. Sweat popped out on his forehead and armpits and chest, and still, he could not turn away. He tried so very hard to turn the wheel, but his master, for Fear was both Danny's and Crew's master now, merely snorted at the feeble gesture and did not even bother turning his head to acknowledge the attempt.

Fear focused on the road ahead. He knew who the firemen were. What they were. He knew who it was they had pinned up against the piece-of-s.h.i.t sunbird. And while Fear wanted nothing more than to get pay back for the rubbing he had sustained at Tony's hands thanks to Lucy, he despised Minions even more.

"Ram them," Fear ordered Danny quietly, his voice full of hatred.

Grinding his teeth, Danny stomped on the accelerator.

Chapter 61.

"Is that?" Maia's scowl vanished as the black Celica showed no signs of slowing. Even as he realized what was about to happen, the car's engine sang out with the sudden burst of power Danny delivered to it. The Celica fired forward with a roar, hitting all three of the Minions in its path and sending them up and over the low-riding car's hood and roof. They fell behind the car in ragged broken heaps. Maia landed squarely on his face, crushing his nose, and sending bone and cartilage fragments into his sensitive nasal cavity like a ball of needles. He shattered both arms, along with his rib cage and one unlucky leg. Saunders and Edwards were just as unfortunate. Edwards also landed on his face, smashing all of his front teeth on his fire axe and snapping both his arms to compliment his already broken legs. Saunders landed on his hands and knees. His femurs splintered, the bone ends puncturing muscle tissue and skin to make tiny tents underneath his Nomex pants. His wrists snapped as clean as icicles when he kissed the asphalt.

The car missed Lucy by a fat centimetre.

The Celica's brakes clamped down, and the car fish tailed off into the darkness. Rear lights burned like something evil in the distant dark. From where he sat, Marvin watched the car bring itself to a stop, and he looked into his rear mirrors to see what had happen. He heard the approaching car, but his attention was distracted by someone, one of the Minions, running back into the forest.

Then there were the sounds of impact, and the car sailed on by.

He stared at the car ahead. It was still in the blackness of the winter night. He looked in his side mirror and saw the crumpled forms of three of his comrades lying in the road.

"Holy s.h.i.t," Marvin spat out, he reached for the light switch.

Then his door was yanked open, and he was grabbed.

Danny hauled the man from behind the wheel of the fire truck and threw him to the ground. Marvin landed on his side. He grunted loudly and regained his feet as nimble as a cat. He shook his head clear and zeroed in on his attacker. His lips pulled back, and in the second before the sound left his throat, Crew's fist cracked across his chin, dropping the Minion to the ice-slick asphalt. The fireman shook his head, again, and struggled to his knees. Crew kicked him hard in the face, breaking teeth, a nose and part of a cheek. The fireman toppled over onto his back, his legs twisting at the knees. He gargled on blood and slivers of enamel. Dazed as he was, Marvin decided that he would just rest for a while.

"Finish him off," Fear commanded as he strode up to Crew. Danny stood just behind the man, looking down at the hit man's handiwork. Crew studied the man at his feet and shook his head. Both men felt sick to their stomachs.

"Finish him," Fear ordered, again, looking at Crew's profile.

"No," Crew whispered in a strained voice, fighting back his nausea. As sorry as it sounded, he had rules. He was a contract killer. He didn't kill without a contract. He felt the push from Fear, but the force was less than before. Crew resisted.

Fear knew why even if Crew didn't. "Fine, then," he said. He stepped past Crew and did not waste any more of his essence on the Mundane. There were bigger beasts in the woods now, and part of him would enjoy putting this particular one down. His eyes met those of Lucy's as he pa.s.sed her. She said nothing to him. She knew what the four men were on the road. She knew what they weren't.

Fear picked up the Halligan tool where it had fallen on the roadside. He inspected the instrument's tapered pick before walking back to where Marvin lay. Almost casually, Fear thrust the steel pick into Marvin's skull and left it there. Lucy gasped. The Minion's back arched, like an impaled spider, and then went limp. Blackness spilled from the hole just above Marvin's still open eyes, but there wasn't as much as either Danny or Crew would have thought. Then, they realized that whatever was coming out of the hole wasn't blood at all. It smelled like rotting meat.

"Jesus," Danny whispered, coming very close to vomiting. He could not take his eyes off of the impaled man on the road and the dark pool forming around his head.

Then, he heard the others.

The others he had run over. They were all moaning in agony.

Fear heard them, too. He looked to Lucy. She held his gaze.

"We have to get out of here," she said to him.

Looking uneasy, Fear nodded mentally vowing that there would be another time to confront the b.i.t.c.h. "Get back to the car," he commanded Danny and Crew. He sent a wave of pure fear in their direction. Even with Lucy's presence, the force struck them hard enough to make their hearts suddenly palpitate. Both men staggered backwards, clutching at their chests and moving in the direction of the Celica.

"I need one of them," Lucy said urgently.

Fear scowled at her. She pointed to the edge of the road. "He's over there. We can't leave him. We'll need him."

Fear looked to where the Stickman had fallen. He regarded Lucy and snorted in disdain. "Help her," Fear ordered Danny, stopping him cold in his tracks.

Danny did not hesitate. As much as he wanted to, he could not do anything in the presence of the man he had rode with for what seemed like an eternity. Ignoring the churning of his innards, which was lessening now, he moved to help.

"He's over there," Lucy pointed.