Graham Masterton - The Doorkeepers

Her face was both alarming and remarkable. It wasn’t the face of a modern woman at all. It was broad, with a heavy jaw, and the faintest trace of freckles across the bridge of a small, straight nose. A wide black band of cloth had been tied around her forehead, but underneath it Josh could still see traces of reddish-gray hair.

Mr Leggett stepped forward and raised his hand for attention. “Today you will witness the removal of the donor’s legs, arms and head, and the attachment of her entire body to the queen. At the moment, the queen is breathing with only one lung, the other having been misplaced during her most recent transplant. Today’s operation will strengthen her respiration, her digestion – and something more.

“We have been planning for over a year to give her reproductive capabilities. Ovaries, and a womb. Today we are going to attempt to make it possible for her to have a child. It is possible that – if she can do this – her child will eventually be able to carry on her conscious existence in her place. In other words, she will have an heir to keep the six doors open for her.”

“You’re crazy!” Josh shouted at him. “All of you! You’re all fucking crazy! How can you think of killing anybody to keep that thing alive? How can you do it? And you call yourselves men of God!”

One of the Hooded Men clamped his hand over Josh’s mouth. Josh tried to bite into his glove, but it was too thick, and it tasted of sour, untanned leather.

“We will commence by removing the donor’s legs,” said Mr Leggett. “You will remember that this is a punishment as well as a surgical operation, so it is the law’s requirement that this young lady should suffer as much pain as possible. If she screams and begs for mercy from the Lord, then you will know that Master Spire’s judgement was true.”

Mr Crane handed him a black surgical crayon and he drew circles around Nancy’s upper thighs, as close to her pelvis as possible. Josh wrenched himself from side to side, almost blind with anger and fear, and with the Hooded Man’s glove clamped so tight over his mouth that he could scarcely breathe. This was a nightmare. It had to be a nightmare. He felt that he must have gone mad, and that he was hallucinating that he was here in this operating theater, with all of these faceless men and this grotesque thing that was lying in front of him, staring out at nothing with her death-white face.

Josh dropped to his knees, but the Hooded Men heaved him upright again. He tried to turn his head away so that he wouldn’t have to watch what Mr Leggett was doing, but they seized his hair and made him look straight toward the operating trolley.

Nancy herself said nothing at all – just lay on the trolley making no attempt to struggle. Josh guessed that she had put herself into a medicine-trance, which badly-wounded Modocs used to do to numb their agony. Whether it would be enough to anesthetize her when Mr Leggett started to saw through her thighbones, he couldn’t tell. God, please help her, he said to himself, with tears in his eyes. This one time, God, please help her.

Mr Leggett held out his hand and Mr Crane slapped a scalpel into it. “Now,” said Mr Leggett, “you should watch this closely. It’s always fascinating how quickly the human body protects itself against massive injury – how rapidly the bleeding stops of its own accord.”

He leaned over Nancy and started to cut. A thin rivulet of blood ran across her thigh. Because of the dim blue light, it looked almost purple. Nancy shuddered, but she didn’t cry out.

Josh raised his eyes to the tiers surrounding the operating theater. He couldn’t watch any more, even if the Hooded Men were gripping his hair. He saw tier after tier of faces, the Masters of Religious Observance, and apart from the hessian hoods with their torn-open eyes, all he could see were lit-up expressions of ghoulish curiosity, almost a sexual excitement.

He lifted his eyes to the very top tier, which was empty. He tried to remember a prayer that his mother had taught him and Julia when they were children – a prayer that we would all find Jesus one day, and that when we did, He would pick us up in His arms and comfort us for ever.

And then he saw Abraxas.

The dog was standing in the middle of the tier, alone, staring at him through the railings. Josh couldn’t believe his eyes. He must have gotten bored and restless in Josh’s room, and decided to find out where he was.

The theater was gloomy, and Josh couldn’t even be sure that Abraxas had seen him. But he stared up at him hard; and he tried to convey with every ounce of his will that he wanted Abraxas to jump down into the center of the theater. Jump, Abraxas! Jump, you stupid bastard! Jump!

Abraxas’ ears pricked up, but he stayed where he was. Josh heard Nancy cry out, but he didn’t take his eyes away from the topmost tier. Jump, Abraxas! For God’s sake, jump!

Abraxas turned and started to trot away. In desperation, Josh twisted his neck violently to the right, and then to the left, and cleared the Hooded Man’s glove away from his mouth.

“Abraxas!” he yelled, and gave a high-pitched, curling whistle. “Here, boy! Here, boy! Jump!”

The Hooded Man fumbled his glove over Josh’s mouth, but Josh managed to twist his head sideways again and shout, “Kill!”

Abraxas came leaping down from tier to tier, until he landed with a scrabble of claws in the middle of the operating theater. There were cries of surprise from all around. Some of the Masters started to laugh. Mr Crane shouted, “Get that dog, somebody!” and Mr Leggett looked up from the operating trolley in alarm.

Without any hesitation, Abraxas launched himself at the Hooded Man holding Josh’s right arm. He sank his teeth into his leg and furiously tussled his head from side to side. The Hooded Man fell backward, knocking over another Master. He grabbed Abraxas’ front legs and tried to pull him off, but Abraxas was part bull terrier, and once his jaws were locked, they stayed locked.

“Get it off me!” roared the Hooded Man, smacking and punching at Abraxas’ head. “Get this infernal mutt off me!”

The other Hooded Man released his grip on Josh’s left arm and drew his sword. But Josh – his adrenalin fired up – was even quicker. He grasped the Hooded Man’s wrist and forced it violently backward, snapping all his tendons. The Hooded Man dropped his sword and Josh picked it up.

Now he went mad with rage. He grasped the sword in both hands and swung it around, hitting the Hooded Man across the chest. It cut through cloth and leather and bone, and the Hooded Man collapsed on to his knees. Next he thrust the point of the sword straight into the hessian face of the second Hooded Man. It went right into his head and stuck in the back of his skull. Abraxas looked up from the man’s leg.

“Come on, boy, kill!” Josh urged him.

“Seize that man!” shouted Master Spire. “Seize him at once !”

But Josh yelled out, “Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” and advanced into the center of the operating theater with his sword whirling over his head and nobody was ready to take him on – not even the Hooded Men. Mr Leggett dropped his scalpel and pushed his way toward the rear doors. Mr Crane came hurrying after him, knocking over the trays of surgical instruments.

One-handed, Josh unbuckled the straps that held Nancy’s wrists and ankles. Her thigh was bleeding but it was a clean, sharp wound and Mr Leggett had only just started to cut.

“Come on,” Josh told her, and helped her off the operating trolley. He reached down and grabbed the sheet which had covered her and said, “Here – wrap yourself in this.”

Two more Hooded Men had drawn their swords and were climbing down from the tiers, but Abraxas rushed at them, barking wildly, and all they could do was circle around, cautiously prodding at him.