Rise of the Demons
Prologue
My Name is Delia Winds and I live in a world that shouldn’t exist. It’s a world of fear, power and danger that no one had never known or imagined and it never should have been any more than a figment of your wildest nightmares. But it did exist and the evil that began in the world will end with world.
At the time of great evil countries began to grow more powerful than ever before. Many joined to make powerful legions whose only goal was world domination. These countries such as United Russican, Indo Chipan, Austrica, Euro-Atlantika and many others had begun to dominate other territories of land and claiming false document that belonged to one another, bringing about the Civil World War. The worst war recorded in the history of the world. The war was more devastating than any war ever fought before, full of so much death, destruction and ignorance.
Years ago, when technology had begun to advance further than it ever had before, a team of government scientists in United Russican created a high security and top-secret program that would change the human race as we know it and bring them into a new generation of a superior race. The program enhanced human genes to create swifter and more productive soldiers, advanced military generals, and more lethal assassins. They had begun to modify regular adult humans but the process slowly failed because the humans’ immune system couldn’t handle so many bodily changes at once, causing the humans’ system to fail and die by the thousands.
So they began creating their own. Embedding new genes into the embryos of undeveloped infants and at first it was a success. The infants had surpassed intelligence and ability of every kind than those of regular infants. They were stronger, faster, and better in every aspect of life. They also had become more advanced as they developed. The only significant appearance trait, other than their advanced stages in growth, physical ability, and strength, was an intricate blue-black birthmark in on their right arm that identified them for what they were. But eventually the plan backfired. As the infants grew into adults the scientists soon discovered that these superior human beings could not be controlled, as they believed they could and began to rise against them refusing to follow the scientists’ guidance.
Soon the civilians found out what the governments had done and went into a worldwide panic at the creation of these new humans, calling them Demons. With no control and no guidance but their own the Demons started to destroy everything. Buildings, cars, streets, homes, anything they could find to wreak havoc upon in a rebellion at what they were and what they had become. The total casualties were that of millions, cities crumbled, lands perished as the Demons continued their unstoppable rampage.
With the remaining public’s fear rising, the government demanded that the Demons be stopped and eliminated. It was only after a worldwide invasion did the other countries decide to set aside their rivalries and put an end to the Demons. Some months after the invasion scientists in Indo Chipan created a new virus called the Superior Human Deterioration Virus. The virus did not affect regular humans but any Demon that came in contact with it died instantly from bone and organ deterioration. The body of a Demon was much more complex than those of natural humans and so the virus was created to attack the complex cells in their bodies, causing the cells to deteriorate within a short amount of time.
SHDV had wiped out nearly half of the one million species of Demon that were created and with only half of the species erased those who were left started to fight back for their survival. They invaded government labs and stole information about the virus, taking vials of the deadly disease for their own studies. Over a period of time the Demons had become immune to the virus but not soon enough. Nearly one fifth of the population remained and went into hiding.
Now the government has resorted to hunting them down and killing the rest off one by one until the government’s nearly fatal mistake is erased from history. I am one of those Demons. Created and bred in a lab years ago, immune to the virus that was meant to destroy us and forced to go into hiding, met with fear everywhere I go. For years we’ve been fighting back against the governments of the world that want to be rid of us once and for all. We’ve been trying to survive against the odds that have been set for us.
Some have found refuge from those who seek to kill us, continuing to grow stronger, readying themselves for the ultimate blood bath that will determine who rises above all the rest. The war is just the beginning for us and we intend to fight with every one of our lives. Ready to put an end to it all and ready to show the world we will never be erased.
Chapter 1
Sitting on the roof of a crumbling building known as the Sanctuary, with music blaring in my ears, I tried to block out the noise of the busy city below. The sun had begun to slowly set and as I watched I wondered about my life. Why out of all of the millions in the world I was chosen for this? Why I had to be the cause of such misery? Why was I the target of so many whom I had no connection to? These questions and many more plagued me and the more I thought on them the more they started to consume me.
Attempting to shake away the negative thoughts, I stood up quickly nearly falling off the edge and in this state of paranoia is where Samuel found me.
“Delia, you shouldn’t be out here.” He said his voice full of concern. I glanced at him carefully as not to fall or show my inner vulnerability with him. “And since when do you order me around?” I asked.
He stared at me, obviously annoyed at my remark and I tried my best to hide my smirk. It was so easy to annoy him. “It’s dangerous to be up here. I don’t know if you have noticed but we are at least three stories off the ground Delia. You need to be careful.” He reached his hand out toward me but stopped when I glared at him.
Turning my back to him, I took out my ear buds, and laughed ruefully. “As if you care. As if any of them care. To them I am just another threat or something more to fear. They don’t care if I was alive or dead and neither do you. So don’t try to come off as worried. I know better. I am not ignorant.”
I looked down below at the lights in the city that began to flicker on as the sun slowly disappeared beyond the horizon, leaving us in the darkness.
“You know that’s not true. I care for you very much and I assure you that nothing is going to happen to you. I won’t allow it to happen.” He said tenderly.
He reached out again to take my hand but I shook my head sadly. He knew too well. “Samuel, you have no power here. None of us do. We are…unique and you know that! From the day we took our first breaths we became a threat to them,” I gestured below to the large number of people still milling around in the crowded streets below.
Silently and full of natural grace he came to stand next to me and together we watched people walk around in the busy streets, watching them shop and feel free as if they didn’t have a care in the world while we stood above them; doomed from the beginning.
“I don’t understand why you’re like this,” he said quietly trying to rest his hand on my shoulder. “If you only knew how much better it is for us and people like us to stay here, out of the world, isolated. It’s for our protection.”
I shrugged off his hand. “Our protection or theirs? In my entire never-ending nightmare filled life our kind has had to hide or be killed. It’s always been this way for us. Always!”
Tears slowly swelled in my eyes but I quickly blinked them away, afraid that he would see. “Why can’t we have a chance at freedom like the rest of them who are practically born with it?” I asked, my voice straining.
Samuel gently turned me to face him taking my right hand from my side gently and lifted it so that I could see the tattoo-like birthmark engraved on my skin. It was a deep bluish black color running up in an intricate star design from my fingertips to the end of my forearm. It was like a death sentence to our kind because it was the mark that we were hunted by and it was that piece of skin that would turn everyone that was normal in the world against us.
“This is why.” He said pulling up his leave showing me his own birthmark. “We are not human and this is our daily reminder that we never will be. As long as this mark binds us we will never be free Delia.” He let go of my hand and bent his head down darkly as if remembering a horrible memory. I could tell it was just as hard for him as it was for me to have such a predictable life. To know when your end came, to live forever in fear.
At that moment a wave of strong emotion ran through me, mingled with fear and adrenaline. I felt my hands shake and my breath caught in my throat. I stared at him shaking my head stubbornly. I had the sudden urge to run. Somewhere. Anywhere. But the only place to go was down into the streets below.
“No. No!” I screamed. “I can’t be like this! I don’t want to be like this anymore!” I turned from him and faced the edge of the roof thinking quickly. Turning to face him I said, “I will be free. Even if it takes every last drop of life left in me then so be it but I will be free.” Then, with no plan in mind and nothing but faith in predictability, I stepped off the edge of the roof into the dark watching Samuel’s stunned face through the blackness.
But before I could brace myself for the fall his hand was grabbing my arm, faster than anything possible, and pulled me up as if I weighed nothing. His voice deadly as he hissed, “We must stay in hiding! What do you not comprehend about that?” He thrust me up onto the roof as if I was a light as air and dropped me so that I landed hard on my stomach. Lifting myself up from the concrete I was without as much as a cut from the impact.
“We can’t hide forever Samuel. One day they will find us and will kill us so why must we confine ourselves to a life of secrecy when we already know our fate?” I said standing in front of him. I could feel my anger building into a boiling rage that was very common for me and ready was I to release it on him until I looked at his face.
Sometimes looking at Samuel was difficult for me and for why I’ve never been certain. He was a tall man, six foot four as compared to my five foot nine. He was muscularly built with toned arms and chest. He was also slightly tan, although he almost never went out in the daylight, with jet-black hair and deep ocean blue eyes. He was quite handsome for his twenty years but I knew from experience that his appearance was a façade and underneath he could be very lethal if he had to be. But talking with him sometimes distracted me from what I was thinking.
“Because we are the last of our kind and we must preserve what life our kind has left. We can’t go around inviting our death. We have too much to live for Delia.”
“Ha! If we had something to live for we wouldn’t be hiding like criminals or rats in broken buildings and sewers now would we?”
He sighed while continuing to stare at me. “But we must in order to ensure our survival. Don’t you think I hate this as much as you do? I will never be able to see the sun except when it sets or to never let down my guard. I will never be able to be productive in this world and neither will you, Delia.” His words hit me like blows and I looked down at the roof stricken. Of course I knew. Samuel and I shared the same pain, in a way. We knew the delicacy of the situation that we were in and that we must not do anything to attract suspicion.
“I know Samuel but this…this seclusion…this is torture to me and I can’t take it anymore! It’s slowly killing me inside to be isolated like this. I feel trapped and caged all the time! I… you just don’t understand…”Suddenly I began to sob, not caring whether Samuel saw or not. I couldn’t take the feeling of the heavy burden that all of our kind had to bear and as I always did with Samuel I showed him my true self, my vulnerability. Standing in font of me he took me into his arms and pulled me close. I cried against him with my chest heaving and my tears staining his shirt. I felt so helpless yet I continued sobbing quietly against him.
“Hush Liah... It’s going to be okay I promise…hush now…” He soothed me as I dried my tears. Looking up at him I marveled at how peaceful he always looked, always serene and never worried or emotional as I was, always comforting.
“You can’t protect me forever.” I whispered softly as he pushed my scarlet hair from my face.
He started to rub my back with his other hand and said, “Then I will for as long as I can. You know I will never leave you.”
I stared at him as he stared back at me. Samuel always captivated me. Ever since we were small he was my protector, the one I turned to when I needed help, the one I needed to be there for me. I never knew how to feel about him or what to feel around him. I was just glad he was there.
After some time I noticed that the lights had become very bright in the city and that it had become darker outside than before, making the glare from below hurt my eyes.
“We should get back before Michael notices we’re gone.” I said looking at the shadows that displayed across the rooftop. “I didn’t realize how dark it had gotten and I don’t want them to miss us.”
“Its alright. I lost track of time myself.” He said nodding and gently he let me go. Standing there for a moment he gazed at me and I flushed self-consciously. He laughed and revealing a dazzling smile. “Come on.” He said grabbing a hold of my hand as he led me down to the dark, broken building below that we called home.
When I was five years old a scientist, Dr. Michael Devote, brought me to his secluded, underground, warehouse after the government began destroying the labs where the Demons were created. I was created in his lab, which was one of the first to be demolished. However he saved Samuel and me during the killing spree and relocated us to keep us safe. He believed that even though we were created for evil purposes we could learn to become better people and learn to use what we were given in a better manner other than destruction.
He made sure we developed properly, and unlike the millions of uneducated Demons, he taught us all he knew so that we would become more productive and understand why we created. He is the closest thing to a father that I, or any of us, have ever known and over the years he began to collect more Demons, educating them and keeping all of us safe from the government. It was also because of him that Samuel and I remained close.
Since the Demon Raid, or the mass slaughter of our kind by the government, we had to go into immediate hiding. Michael had brought us to the run down and decrepit warehouse, which we called the Sanctuary. From the outside it looked like any other crumbling building in the ghettos on the outskirts of what was known as Los Angeles but the inside had been renovated to look like the inside of a large first class hotel. The building itself was held up by a large metallic frame, made from various substances to survive everything from a nuclear attack to any force of nature.
Samuel and I descended down a large staircase that connected the bottom basement to the other three levels of the building. We stopped at the ground parlor floor level and came into a large spacious room, furnished well despite the crumbling building on the outside. In the room were plush velvet couches and chairs surrounded by small round tables made of polished wood. On the tables sat different books, magazines, and small candy dishes while the floor sat plush rugs that filled up the hard wood space. A fireplace stood to the far right wall with a small fire lit illuminating the room in a golden glow.
To the far back wall of the room stood a giant bookshelf that reached near the ceiling full of books from The Genetics of the Human Body to the Best Way to Dismember an Army. No one ever asked where Michael acquired all of the things in the Sanctuary but then again many were afraid to know.
As we came into view several heads went up from their tasks and stared in our direction. Other Demons were casually lounging on the couches reading, sleeping, or meditating. Michael looked up from the piece of machinery he was working on and smiled.
“Well it seems that the mystery of where you two disappeared from has been solved.”
Michael was a man in his middle thirties already with graying brown hair, pale blue eyes, and standing at an average height of five foot nine. He was a lanky sort of man with a thin waist and long arms and legs. Standing above a desk strewn with papers he was wearing his usual dark pants and lab coat with different objects filling his pockets. It was hard to believe that he was once one of the greatest scientific minds in the world for to look at him now someone would think him to be a stressed schoolteacher.
“Sorry about that Michael. Delia ran off…. again,” Samuel said seating himself down in one of the plush chairs in the far corner. Glowering at Samuel I said, “I was just on the roof watching the sunset. I didn’t find any thing wrong with it.”
Soon everyone in the room began laughing. “Delia you watch the sunset everyday. With the way you act someone would think that you had never seen the sun set before,” said a girl sprawled out on a red couch, a mass of golden blonde hair cascading down her back. I immediately recognized her to be Cassidy, one of the few Demons I became close to since the time we were brought here.
“Well you know how it is Cassidy. We never know when seeing the sunset may be the last time we ever see one.” I replied tonelessly while the room sobered up. We all knew what our fate could be if we were discovered here and that stayed with us as a constant reminder.
“Still Delia, you need to be careful. You never know who could be watching.” Michael said cautiously. Which was true, we never knew who was working for the government or who wasn’t. It was just a precaution for us to keep hidden, which is why we have to stay in the building until sunset.
“She also needs to learn to not jump from the roof.” A Demon named Linx added snickering behind his book. “You would think that as sensible as she is she would’ve learned that by now.”
A look of horror passed over Michael’s face and he was so startled that he nearly dropped a device that he had steadied in his hands.
“Delia! Please tell me you didn’t!” Michael said putting down the device to tare at me.
I looked around the room nervously and pulled at the outfit I was wearing. “I slipped. It was an accident and Linx doesn’t know what he’s talking about. You know how he loves to start trouble. If you don’t believe me ask Samuel.”
Everyone in the room turned to look at Samuel. He didn’t seem at all worried that all eyes were on him as I was when people stared at me, just annoyed at the fact that I was dragging him into my trouble. I quickly gave him a Please don’t say anything look knowing that years of friendship would still qualify for getting me out of trouble.
Sighing he replied casually, “She slipped. She got to close to the edge and I grabbed her before she fell. I don’t think anyone saw anything.”
Michael raised his eyebrow and stared at both of us carefully. He seemed worried on the surface but underneath that I thought I saw something flash in his eyes. I ignored it and pretended to be fascinated with a rug design on the floor. After a long time he finally said, “Well be more careful next time Delia. Please for your sake.” With that he returned to his work but I felt unsettled. Michael always knew how to bring out the guilt in me.
“Yes Michael. So what is that you’re working on?” I asked hoping to change the subject.
He looked down and replied “Oh, just a cloaking device. I found it in my old things from the lab and I thought I could fix it up. You never know when it could come in handy.”
I nodded and tried to smile but the attempt failed. “And how are the weapons coming along?” asked Daniel who was reading a thick volume of Natures Deadliest Poisons.
“As good as can be expected Daniel. I’m still not sure how many more we need for defense of the Sanctuary. I can only get so few at a time because the government regulates everything that comes through the city and I can only smuggle so much through the Rave.” Michael said. The Rave was the market where illegal activities took place in the tunnels under the city. It’s the one place where the government doesn’t have any kind of surveillance in the entire city. It’s also the route Demons use to get from one place to another in secrecy and without detection.
Daniel nodded his head once and returned to his book. Cassidy sat with her legs crossed on the couch twirling a long strand of her hair with her fingers. “Do you think that the government will really kill all the Demons?”
“It’s possible. Nobody knows what the government is up to Cassidy. They’re too secretive.” replied James, who stood leaning on the mantel of the fireplace. “Although I’m sure that they will find a way. They always do. I mean they’ve already killed more than half of us as it is. I wouldn’t put it past them to continue to hunt us down.” His voice sounded strangely sad and hollow in my ears.
“But still, how are we suppose to defend ourselves if we don’t know when they’ll strike? Are we that vulnerable?”, asked Rebbecca. She was standing next to the bookcase with a thick volume in her hand, flipping the pages absent-mindedly. “It’s suicide to just sit here like waiting targets!”
All at once voices began to rise as everyone started to debate and speak their opinion of the matter. It was a scene of pure chaos. Michael ,standing away from his desk, was shouting trying to be heard above the noise. For such a small man he had a very loud voice. Thank God that the Sanctuary is sound proof or we surely would have been discovered by now, I thought.
After many attempts the room eventually was silent. “Well that doesn’t matter right now. All that matters is that we are alive and well so enough of the talk of the government. It poisons the mind.” Michael said firmly.
Choruses of “yes Michaels” went up as everyone returned to their studies. I still stood at the front of the room looking around at the other Demons. They seemed so content in their own worlds, within their own lives but I wasn’t. I couldn’t understand how they could just sit there when there was so much going on in the world around them.
Soon the silence was starting to work on my nerves and I just wanted to be away from everyone. “I think I’ll go train awhile with Jaxon.” I said as I started to back out of the room. No one objected or even looked up at my departure except for Samuel who raised his eyebrows in question but said nothing.
I walked to the staircase climbing my way up to the second level of the Sanctuary. At the top of the floor I turned down the long hallway filled with numerous doors. Pictures of beach scenes and landscapes hung on the walls as bright lights shone from their places on the wall, lighting my way. The carpet was soft against the soles of my boots and I was thankful for it after standing in them for such a long time.
I walked until I came to the end of the hall and found an open room with no doors or windows. It was large room filled with training obstacles, weapons, and a large weight system. Black and blue mats littered the concrete floor and various weights hung on racks on the four walls of the room. In the very back held a display case of various weapons. Blades, iron-tipped whips, different types of guns, bows and arrows, and my personal favorite a set of stainless steel daggers along with small spiked disks.
In the middle of the room stood a man with dark brown hair and very muscular body. He wore a red tight ripped t-shirt that showed off his arms and his chiseled chest, dark black sweat pants, and hiking boots. I noticed from behind him as I entered that he lifting weights. Jaxon.
Jaxon had come with Michael when we all fled the Demon Raid. He had been a military solider of thirty-two then until he became one of the first humans that the scientists had used to experiment with. He had, by some miracle, become a Demon like the rest of us while many others died. When he found out what he had become he vowed to destroy the government and helped anyone who was in league with the Demons. Since then he became our combat trainer. Teaching us everything he knew. Every military strategy, every combat move known to man, and taught us everything about weapons he knew of, which he was an expert in. He helped us to prepare as best to his ability for the war that was soon to come. He was one of my favorite people in the Sanctuary.
“Someone came to spy on me, eh?” He turned around to look at me smiling. Smiling back I replied. “No. I just came to take my feelings and frustrations out on something.” He laughed setting down the weight he was using and I walked into the center of the room to be were he was standing.
He raised his eye curiously. “Uh oh. What’s gotten you upset Delia?” He threw me a weight and I caught it naturally as if it were a ball instead of a heavy mass of metal. Sighing I said, “Just the same old same old. Never being able to go outside, never being able to go anywhere, being a prisoner in my own home.” I rolled my eyes and Jaxon laughed.
“Well to be honest, I never pictured you for a nature girl but you never know.” He shrugged. “I mean, come on Delia, it can’t be that bad. The Sanctuary’s pretty cool and better than some of the places I’ve been. Trust me on that but you know it’s for your protection.”
“Ugh! I am tired of hearing that! That’s what everyone tells me.” I dropped the weight sending it crashing to the floor with a thud and went to the weapons case. Carefully I picked up one of the blades and twirled it expertly in my hand.
“You would think that someone who is as experienced as I am could definitely take on a couple of dozen human soldiers. I mean I’m one of the best weapon experts that are in the Sanctuary… well that is other than you of course. I can take care of myself.”
I put the blade back in the case delicately and stared at Jaxon who had stopped weight lifting, dropped his weights, and had his arms crossed across his chest.
“Okay Miss High and Mighty. Do you think you could take on a whole regiment of military officers that have been trained far better than you have and that know more advanced combat skills better than you do?”
I laughed, “Doesn’t matter what they can do ‘cause the government created us to be better than their soldiers anyway. I know I can take them....that is, if Michael would let me.”
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Does anything scare you anymore Delia?” he asked sarcastically.
I tilted my head and thought for a second before saying “ No, not really or at least not anything that matters.” I shrugged my shoulders and he looked at me for a long time.
“Liah, you have to be careful. We live in dangerous times and its not safe anywhere. I know you want freedom but it’s too risky right now. Maybe once things calm down…”
“But what things?! Why are we always left in the dark? How can you expect us to live in a world where we are totally clueless?” I yelled frustrated.
“Because Delia, Me and Michael know what you and the rest of the Demons would do if they found out what’s going on in the world. You’d grab all the weapons you can get a hold of and go parading in the streets to get shot bringing on an unnecessary blood bath.”
He came to stand in front of me and gripped my shoulders. “We don’t need that right now so it’s best if you not know.”
“But…but we can help…” I stammered but Jaxon held up a hand to silence me. “No and don’t say another word about it Delia Winds.”
I looked up into his face wishing I could change his mind. Even though he was thirty-two he looked to be in his twenties with dark brows and lashes that matched his dark hair. He had pale green eyes and a stubborn chin with high cheekbones and pale skin. He had a scar that traced the outer corner of his left eye and went down to his chin, which was from a wound of his early war years.
“Okay Jaxon.” I felt defeated in a way that I always did when Jaxon foiled one of my attempts to be in the outside word. He was the only one in the Sanctuary who had any effect as to what I did and didn’t do. I could never make quick or irrational decisions with him next to me or around me. Jaxon always gave me a sort of clarity that nobody did.
“Hey, don’t start sulking on me.” He lifted my chin so that I met his gaze. “You know I’m right.”
I sighed and said sarcastically “Yeah you’re always right.”
He laughed letting his hand fall to his side. “No, not always. Just about most things.” I rolled my eyes and shoved him playfully, “Are you going to help me train or what?”
He smirked and said “Okay, fine but I won’t go easy on you.” I grinned broadly while I got into my combat position.
“I never asked you to.”
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