Hunted by demons

Ridgedog

"Well, now we know who sent us here." Nilesy says.

"Are you sure? He could have been sent as well." Parv asks.

"Ridge doesn't seem like someone who would let an anonymous text tell him where to go." Lewis says.

"And he fits the criteria of someone who could organise this." Kim adds.

"Great! So Ridge brought us all here, is he trying to kill us or something?" Ross asks.

"If he wanted to he probably wouldn't have come, just blow us up or something." Trott says.

"But we still don't know what he meant by life or death." Simon remarks.

"Maybe that was just to scare us all into coming." Sjin suggests.

"Or he is gonna kill us." Sips adds.

"Or he really stepped in something and wants us to clean it up." Hannah ponders.

"Whatever man, I need a drink." Smith says. There are murmurs of agreement and Ravs pours drinks for everyone.

"Would you mind getting me something to eat as well, Ravs?." Rythian asks. Ravs pauses, then asks,

"Would you like a sandwich or..." "Don't bother, just get me some meat please." He interrupts. Ravs nods, reaches into the small fridge under the counter, takes out a pack of raw hamburger meat.

"I'm assuming I shouldn't bother cooking it either?" Ravs asks. Rythian nods, takes the pack, and says,

"Thanks." Everyone averts their eyes and focus wholly on their drinks as he lowers his mask to eat. Kim does her best not to stare but is taken aback by seeing his scars for the first time. Pale scar tissue goes across his mouth in vertical lines, and even from a distance she can see dozens of dots around these lines showing that they had to be stitched back together.

"Do you know why Rythian has... Those?" She whispers to Duncan. He looks quickly at Rythian to make sure he didn't hear her, then responds as quietly as he can.

"It was ages ago, before he even met Zoey. Apparently he thought he was just hunting one demon, but he got ambushed by a whole gang of 'em. They had him for three days and did... That... Before he got out." Kim winces at the story and does her best to avert her eyes. She looks around the rest of the room, most of everyone focuses on drinking besides Parv and Strife muttering at their table. The sun has set at this point, Kim returns her attention to her whiskey. Nearly an hour later, Duncan, Fiona, and Zoey emerge from the back room and Rythian pulls his mask back on. Duncan put his jacket back on and Fiona cleans her bloody hands with a rag.

"We set his leg and I removed all the shrapnel and bullets I could find," Zoey says. "There doesn't seem to be any internal damage but he's lost a lot of blood. It'll be a while before he wakes up." Zoey and Fiona sit at the bar and Duncan sits next to Kim.

"So what do we do until he can fill us in on what's going on?" Hannah asks.

"For all we know, nothing's going on and he just woke up and decided to kill us." Trott says.

"Or something else is gonna kill us before he even wakes up!" Strife counters. Lewis sighs and asks,

"How long do you think until he wakes up, Zoey?"

"Well, he's gotta get all that blood back so I'd say three hours, tops."

"Or, ya know, ten minutes." Says an american voice. They turn to see a shirtless and bandaged Ridge leaning against the doorframe.

"Ridge, what the heck!" Zoey shouts. He laughs and limps over to a seat at the bar. Once seated next to no one, he pulls out a small wooden circle on a beaded leather string, the circle has small bones hanging from.

"Healing talisman." He says simply, before returning it to his pocket.

"Witchcraft!" Nilesy shouts. "You're seriously doing witchcraft!" Ridge chuckles again and says,

"Hey, we're all going to hell, whats a little damnation gonna do to me? And besides, just because you don't have the balls for it doesn't mean i don't."

"Okay, well, everything aside, what the hell is going on!" Lewis asks.

"Right, long story short, Israphel's back and he's pissed." Ridge simplifies. The Caber goes silent, everyone processing the information.

"Wait a second, who exactly is this Israphel?" Kim asks.

"Yeah, I've heard some stories but don't know as much as I'd like to." Nilesy says.

"He's a demon. A damn powerful demon who thinks everything would look a whole lot better if it was on fire. Simon and Lewis tussled with him a few years back" Ridge explains.

"Yeah, and we used the most powerful exorcism we had! There's no way he's out of hell!" Simon says.

"Yeah he's stuck in hell, with thousands of demons. And he's used those demons to build an army and they're after all of us."

"Why us? Why not just Simon and Lewis? No offence." Sjin asks.

"He's going after everyone close to you. While also trying to get rid of the best hunters so that no one stops him once he is topside again."

"Then what the hell are we doing here! If he wants all of us we should be on different continents right now! As far away from each other as we can! I should be on the god damned moon right now!" Sips shouts.

"Look dirt brain!" Ridge shouts more intimidatingly. "If I told you to scatter then it would take less than a month for all of us to be dead! These demons aren't messing around, and no matter how safe your safe house is it's not gonna hold against an army! Our only chance is to get a game plan that consists of more than running away with our tails between our legs!" The caber is silent again. Ridge digs in his pockets and fishes out his car keys, and tosses them to Strife.

"In the trunk, brown bag, black markings. Touch nothing else!" He instructs.

"Yeah, yeah." Strife says as he walks out the door. He comes back with a leather bag with enochian markings charred onto the side. He drops the bag on the counter next to Ridge, and goes back to his seat. Ridge opens the bag and pulls out a hex bag.

"This'll make sure that the demons can't track us once we leave." He tosses the hex bag to Lewis, then tosses bags to each person in the roadhouse.

"Okay, so what's the plan once we leave?" Lewis asks, pocketing the hex bag.

"We need somewhere safe. A base we can hold up in for the time being, somewhere hidden, with a well stocked armory, and has enough space to hold all of us."

"Well, our base sounds like it would work." Trott says. "Big building in backwoods Washington, mostly underground, it's got a panic room in the basement and guns a plenty. The whole place is demon proof as well."

"Good, we'll split up in as many directions as we can, I'll text you with the coordinates one or two at a time, if in three days you aren't at the base you'll be assumed dead. Until you get the text you don't stop driving. Sound like a plan?"

"What if we don't come?" Sips asks. "What if I decided we'd be better off in cuba?"

"I'll have a moment of silence for your bloody demise." Ridge replies. Again, the room goes silent.

"So, does it sound like a plan." Ridge says again, no longer asking. There are murmurs of apprehensive agreement. They all make their way to their cars, Ravs in his dodge and Fiona and Zoey hopping in the VW, and they scatter as best they can on the winding roads.