Journeys of Rufus Hardy

Chapter 5

Rufus sat in a cold, dark alleyway thinking about his next move. How to get the Vietnam and who was the man on the telephone who apparently knew him. He thought about every contact he had and who could get him there. Sheperd was dead and Dmitri was nowhere to be seen. He heard a tapping and stood surprised at who he saw.

Henry Farrell was MI6’s top field agent who was constantly praised for his bravery and combat skills.

Rufus pulled himself up and spoke first. “I thought MI6 wasn’t getting involved”

Henry loaded his gun. “Yes well, since those bastards took one of our agents, we found it imperative to the protection of the British and her commonwealth, that we stop them, it appears we need to get to Vietnam”

Rufus nodded “That’s where it’s believed to be the Soul Gate”

“I’m so sorry, the what?”

“The Soul Gate where they will be able to release the armies of hell and earth” Rufus explained.

“Right, let’s go then”

As the two men walked onto the small airfield that evening which was really just a plane of tarmac coated in ice, a German pilot greeted them. “Hello gentlemen, my name is Hans Berk, I will be your pilot for this mission”

They shook hands with the pilot and stepped onboard.

Once the plane was in the air, Henry lay down a map of Vietnam and drew an area around a small part of Vietnam. “The place where our intelligence tells us the illuminati have been digging at the Soul Gate is here, the Nihn Bihn province along the Red River Delta, Hans will allow us to parachute not far off the location, there are believed to be armed guards and watch dogs, as well as concrete walls guarding the area”

Rufus nodded and lay back to sleep.

Four hours later he was roughly woken by Henry who was equipping his parachute. Loading all his equipment they stood holding on to handlebars on the roof. Hans held his hand up showing three fingers and counted down. Rufus braced himself for the air rush. Hans reached zero and pushed a button and the door swung open. Rufus and Henry felt their bodies be pulled outwards. Rufus smiled and gestured Henry to jump. “Ladies first”

Henry gave a face of grimace and after accidently dropping a bag which slid to the back of the plane dived off. After ten seconds Rufus dropped off the plane as well. He felt the air rush past him as his body descended rapidly towards the ground. He swallowed and pulled the strap causing the parachute to fly out and inflate leaving him dangling in the air.

Henry was already on the ground and fully ready by the time he landed down. “Come come Mr Hardy, our operative is in danger”

Rufus gave a grunt of annoyance and loaded his equipment onto his back and slinging his Commando Rifle over his shoulder.

They crept silently along the Red River, their eyes darting and surveying rapidly, every rock and twig assessed and evaluated. The cool water up to his waist reminded him of his time in Vietnam. At any moment he expected Vietcong to ambush and stab him, or to be incinerated by a flamethrower. He heard voices and rushed over to a rock and issued Henry the order to stay quiet. Removing his Boone hat, Rufus poked his head around the rock, his body submerged up to his chest as he knelt down. Two guards talked and joked loudly as they walked towards Rufus and Henry. Using two fingers, Rufus ordered Henry to go to the other side of the narrow stream. Henry stood silent and awaited further order. The two guards walked past and after an order from Rufus, the two charged into them and slit their throats.  Putting his Boone hat back on, they continued along the river after hiding the bodies.

They crept along for almost half an hour longer before a large concrete wall loomed over them. Army crawling along the wall’s base, they avoided detection. After discussion, Rufus threw a grappling hook over the wall and began the accent first, covered by the night time darkness and the shadows of the jungle.

The two of them quickly made their way to the camp and then stopped hearing shouting. They shuffled along to a cabin wall and then Rufus turned the corner and devised a plan. He looked and saw a large man carrying a steel chain whip civilians into aiding with the carrying of ammunition boxes and lighting.

“They’re using the neighbouring town’s people as labourers, and they send them there” Rufus pointed at a long line of labourers being ordered down a hillside. He could only imagine what awaited the weak and unable to work. He looked at a large group of cables. “Those cables should lead us to the Soul Gate” he turned to Henry. “I’ll go first”

Henry nodded and watched Rufus turn the corner only to receive a face full of shotgun pellets. Rufus turned to Henry, half his face covered in blood and then groaned with pain as the wounds healed and the pellets fell to the ground. Henry looked bewildered. “How did you....?”

Rufus turned and fired. The alarms went off and guards began barking orders at people. Some cowardly soldiers put guns in the hands of labourers and told them to fight. Avoiding kill shots, Rufus and Henry dispatched of the labourers and killed the guards. Henry then ran over to the generator powering the base security system and cut the cables. There was a strange noise as the power went down.

Following the other set of cables they walked into a large building which looked like an asylum. There were steel beds all over the place and gaping holes were rockets and mortars had blown holes in the wall. Rufus’ stomached lurched, he felt he knew this place, he felt he knew what every single one of them felt the day they were sent here. Something told him the place was just as hellish when it was populated. It was built into a cave and by the looks of it, stretched for miles. He felt the coolness of the bed when Henry tapped him on the shoulder. “How long do you think this place has been uninhabited?”

“Must be since before the war ended”

Henry leaned over still staring away from him. “Then who the hell is that?”

Rufus turned and saw a man in a blood-stained doctor’s coat holding a syringe and a mouth mask covered part of his face. He held a scalpel in his other hand, his eyes black as the night sky. He suddenly screamed with anger and pointed the scalpel at Rufus who felt a sudden pain causing him to collapse to his knees. The scalpel enabled the doctor to cut him from a distance. Henry fired and the doctor fled. Rufus groaned in pain and looked at the source of the pain and saw cuts heal up. Suddenly a pale orange light could be seen in all the rooms and the two of them loaded their guns. Rufus squinted his eyes and suddenly a man on fire came running out manically waving his hands at them, his face covered in bandages but deep burns could be seen beneath it. Then dozens more came.

In a moment of blind panic Henry fired shouting “Die you freaks! Leave me alone!”

After a few minutes they all stopped coming and fled. Rufus walked forward and removed the bandages and stumbled back in shock. Beneath the bandages lay a soldier he recognised from the war. He ran over to another and then another, all of them he recognised. He heart raced, his blood chilled, the hairs on his kneck stood on end, what the fuck is happening, he thought to himself.

Suddenly Henry ran over and kicked the body. “Fucking spiders!” he shouted.

Rufus gave him a look of confusion and suddenly black mist faded and all that was left was a burning body. But he didn’t recognise the face. Henry looked about. “Where’d the spiders go?” a look of sheer terror on his face.

“It’s meant to be what we feared most” Rufus said understanding. “Let’s go”

They ran until they reached a cross roads where there were two ways to go. They heard a scream to the left and a roar to the right. Rufus looked at Henry and Henry said. “You take the monster, I’ll get the girl”

After a grunt of dismay Rufus nodded and headed right while Henry headed left. Running along the dark corridors, the roaring grew louder until he entered some kind of hall, with large stone columns holding up an arched and decorated roof. On a balcony stood a man Rufus knew all too well even though he was much older.

The man laughed. “Private Rufus, you don’t look so good” he said looking at the black mist that now curled around Rufus’ kneck.

“Captain, why are you doing this?” Rufus asked his ex-captain.

The Captain clenched his fist angrily. “They lied to us; they said we were there for the protection of the American world, to stop those commies, do you know why we were there?”

“Enlighten me” Rufus smirked.

“They were there for the Soul Gate, the spear had been found by our government and they wanted control of the armies, well, we can stop them, we can bring the world into a new age of glory, where all are unified under one flag” The Captain explained glorifying his cause. “You should join us Rufus; a man of your skills would be invaluable to us”

“Hmmm, Chaos out of madness, you really think I would join a bunch of religious nutcases like you, you would enslave humanity, take away their freedom” Rufus retorted aggressively.

“Slavery is Freedom!” The Captain barked angrily. “Look around you Rufus, look at what our world has become, look at what we thought we were fighting for. Nineteen and a half fucking years we were out there, nineteen and a half years I lost because I thought I was fighting for my country” he shook his head. “No Rufus, our friends died to protect an era of stupidity and ignorance, of people who have no respect for the old ways; we are freeing them of their ignorance but enslaving them into our ways”

“I’m sorry it has to end like this” Rufus said loading his gun.

The Captain sighed. “Yes, as am I” as he said that a large dog with dark red hair stepped out. However, it was no ordinary dog; it has three heads and was larger than Rufus by almost two meters. “You see, you were too late, we all ready released the armies of hell before you arrived, and this is Cerberus, guard dog of the underworld” he said showing the dog. “Unfortunately for us, the part that we require to release the armies of heaven is still stuck inside your body, after your death however we shall remove it from your body”

In a split second the dog lunged at him and after batting him with his chest, left a large cut on Rufus’ stomach. It healed and Rufus suddenly felt weak and fell down. “What’s.....happening?”

“You see Rufus, the spear enables anyone in possession of it the virtue of being basically indestructible, a man could be chopped to pieces and his body was still repair itself, however it comes at a price, to be exact, two years of your life, the longer the spear is within you, the sooner you will die” the Captain explained and walked off.

Cerberus barked and Rufus stumbled backwards. He raised his hands and spoke softly. “Good doggy, good boy, let’s not do anything stupid”

It growled furiously at him, bearing rows and rows of razor sharp teeth. Backward and backward Rufus went to stay away from the huge creature. “Ok, that didn’t work, how am I supposed to kill you?” Rufus said to himself.

He watched Cerberus’ mouth open and a wall of fire cascaded out towards him which he evaded. A few minutes later and having swiftly dodged more waves of fire, Rufus was still no closer to working out how to kill the beast. Best idea, run, he thought to himself. He ran backwards firing and then began sprinting away from the mad dog.

Dipping and diving over fallen columns, Rufus saw a small crack of light appear in the roof and a staircase leading up towards it. He ran towards the light firing and the crack got larger. He spun round and fired an entire magazine into Cerberus. Walking backwards he came into the light of day into a motor pool where dozens of guards stood shocked and then aimed their guns.

Rufus swallowed and then Cerberus lunged out grabbing the first three people it could see and ripping them apart with its powerful jaws. The guards looked in terror and began to run away and for a faint second a flash of joy coursed through Rufus’ body. Only however until Cerberus turned its sights on him.

His muscles tensed and he watched the creature the entire time while trying to think of a plan to kill it. As he thought, it climbed onto the wall and crawled along. “Oh you can climb on walls as well” Rufus gave a fake murmur of laughter.

He turned and began climbing up a large wall, cursing as he did “I am way to fucking old for this now” he said heaving himself up using his finger muscles.

There was a rumble as Cerberus began his ascent as well at a faster rate than Rufus. Daring not to look down, Rufus climbed up and up until he rolled himself up onto the roof. He leaned over and saw Cerberus manically climbing up to him. Think Rufus think, he thought to himself.

He backed away as the creature’s huge paws landed down on the roof top. His heart sunk and then he remembered being in the illuminati headquarters with the Molotov. Man this is gonna kill me if it doesn’t work, Rufus thought remembering being tired after using his powers the first time. He looked about and saw a gas lantern hanging, still lit. He pointed his hand and the fire smashed out of the lantern and formed a whip around Rufus’ arm. He pointed his arm and fired but it wasn’t doing enough damage to the hell dog. He fired again, still not enough. He turned and saw a power cable running up onto an antenna. He backed slowly away until he reached the antenna. Smashing in a power breaker he took the electricity and formed a whip of electricity.

The dog leaned over and touched the antenna. In an instant Rufus launched the electricity at the antenna which was conducted into Cerberus. It roared in pain as Rufus fired what was left of his fire into the huge dog which stumbled back. Shouting Rufus charged into the huge dog and pushed the both of them off the side of the building and landed on a truck. Stabbing down into its heart, his knife burned up and Cerberus gave a last shriek of pain.

In that last gesture of effort Rufus collapsed and lay down.  He was carried along by Laura and Henry to the plane which was waiting at the end of the river for them, Hans waved in a friendly manner. Rufus looked over at him but his body told him something was wrong and it was right, suddenly the plane exploded tossing Hans like a fiery ragdoll into the water. Rufus tried to stand up then collapsed and blacked out.