by S E Lunsford
“Hurry it up,” said an angel who was clearly irritated with how slow the process was going. He walked over and grabbed the offending creeper, throwing it into the cage as it howled in frustration. Some of the other creepers fell to the side as it landed on them causing a chain reaction that only intensified their moans.
“Get them to shut up,” the angel growled at one of the men.
“You made them that way,” the man shot back.
Every muscle in my body tensed at how the man spoke to the angel. I could sense Becky’s did the same. Both of us held our breaths at what would come next. But, it never did. Instead, the angel just looked at the man and laughed. “Yes, we certainly did,” he said before making his way back around the pool towards us.
Darting into the foliage for cover, we pushed into the shadow filled greenery. As he got closer I recognized him as the one who seemed to run things earlier on. I held my breath as he walked past without a second glance into our hiding place.
Looking back towards Felicia I spotted her angel coming from another pathway just behind her, relief on his face as he spotted her. Felicia turned as he called out to her, and her feet began to move before the rest of her body in her haste to reach him. She fell, slamming hard into the concrete and hitting her bruised, bloodied forehead again. Pushing herself up, she put a hand to her forehead, a look of confusion crossing her face as she looked at the fresh blood on it. The blood was running into her eye, down her cheek and dripping onto the concrete as her angel ran towards her and the creepers went crazy at the smell and sight of the fresh blood. They went from moaning to screeching instantaneously, the men and angels barely containing them as her angel bent to pick her up.
A sigh of relief came out of me as held her in his arms, a look of relief and affection settling on his face as he looked down at her.
“No,” screamed Becky, as a hidden creeper leapt at the couple latching onto Felicia’s arm and biting down until blood and black saliva ran down her arm. Her body shuddered, and her eyes rolling back in her head as the virus took hold. Setting her down, her angel grabbed the creeper ripping its head from its body and throwing it as far he could, before turning back to Felicia’s jerking body, devastation etching itself on his face as he watched her.
Rage replaced the look just as fast and he spun around, throwing men to the side as he ripped through the creepers in the cage shredding them so quickly that his movements became a blur as arms, legs and heads were tossed into a sticky mound at his feet. His mouth was moving as if he was saying something, but I couldn’t quite hear what it was.
“I knew I smelled you,” came a deep voice behind us making my stomach churn in fear. The angel who has walked past us earlier, grabbed both Becky and I dragging us out into the open just as Felicia’s angel turned around. His wings were spotted with black and red blood, and his face twisted with vengeance as he looked over towards us.
“Wormwood,” he said in a low voice. “I told you. We told you, this wasn’t going to work, but you just kept on making them, just kept on going.”
“Come now,” Wormwood replied his voice oily, as we crouched on the cold cement in front of him. “You can’t tell me that you actually have feelings for this Daughter of Eve. Look at her.”
Everyone went silent as we glanced over at Felicia who had begun to sit up and moan, her eyes empty of anything that was remotely human as she looked around in order to satiate the awful hunger that now filled her.
“You did this to her,” Felicia’s angel said. “You did this, this, all of this …..,” he gestured around him letting his voice trial off.
Looking around I spotted Bob, a few other angels with him as he approached. Creepers moaned behind him, but they were already in cages. A grim expression rose in his eyes as he saw me, those same eyes filling with rage when he spotted Felicia who was starting to wobble to a standing position.
“Are you doubting me? Are you doubting who we serve?” Wormwood ground out. “Look at them,” he spat gesturing to Becky and I. “Is it any doubt that one can be exchanged for another?”
“Wormwood you go too far,” Bob called out from the edge of the light. “You know that isn’t the reality of the situation. I told you to make an antidote, but you didn’t.”
“Ah yes, Bob, if I remember correctly you did mention that, and our master told us both, or actually told you, no. So be careful how you speak against who you serve, there is no going back for you.”
Grabbing me by my hair, Wormwood yanked me up my feet stumbling to catch up until I found my footing. “This one is yours no?” He asked Bob who had taken a step forward. “They are expendable,” the roots of my hair flared with pain as he shook me. I ground my teeth together to keep from screaming. “All of you need to know that, they are always expendable. These filthy mud creatures are always expendable.”
Some of the angels didn’t look too happy to be told that, but most of them nodded in agreement. A rumble of assent working its way through them. Bob and Felicia’s angel along with a handful of others weren’t among them.
“You don’t believe that,” Bob said, his voice quietly threading itself among the others. “Or, you wouldn’t have spent so much time looking for the other one.”
My veins suddenly ran with ice at the thought of who they were talking about. It had to be Cassie. All of the odd happenings since the attack by the bioengineered all pointed to her, but how did he know about her in the first place? My thoughts scattered as he shook me again.
“Don’t I?” Wormwood asked a sharp laugh escaping his mouth.
Becky moved slightly at his feet. He kicked out sending her sprawling towards Felicia who tipped her neck to the side and took a deep breath, immediately causing black drool began to slowly makes its way down her chin. Her eyes locked onto Becky, and she began an ungainly shuffle towards the tiny woman who clutched her side and stifled a groan of pain.
Felicia’s angel grimaced, closing his eyes and turning his head at the sight of her.
“So, you see the way it is,” Wormwood said quietly, watching the other angel intently.
None of them moved as Felicia made her way over to Becky. Bob watched with pity in his eyes, as the others began to laugh.
“See what they do each other if given the chance? Their loyalties are fickle, and they think only of themselves and their own needs. All we did was turn them into what they truly are.”
The angels didn’t respond as Felicia launched herself at Becky who rolled out of the way at just the right moment to avoid getting bit, her hair getting caught in the others hands and mouth. Felicia screamed in hunger and lunged again as Becky rolled again, this time towards her. The flash of Becky’s knife came up in a glittering arc as slid into Felicia’s eye. Blood oozed out hitting Becky in the face as she pushed Felicia away even as Felicia continued to try and attack her until her body went still.
Anger radiated off of Wormwood, his teeth clicking and grinding as he looked down at Becky who was pushing herself further away from Felicia. He threw me aside as he lunged at her meeting Bob instead.
“That’s enough,” Bob said, glaring at the other angel whose face was twisted with hatred.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he said. “It will never be over until they’re gone, until the blight they’ve set in motion is gone.”
He kicked at Bob who lunged at him at the same time, their wings flapping until they were hovering over us tangled in a death grip. Wormwood managed to hit Bob in the jaw knocking him back.
Pushing myself up off the ground, I ran over to Becky who was standing shakily. I grabbed her hand turning to run in the other direction only to find myself looking at the chest of a very tall, broad angel.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked as he reached for us.
Becky pulled me to the left, and we ran towards Felicia’s angel who stood as still as a statue in the middle of the escalating fighting between the angels. They threw punches at eachother as they stood on the ground an
d in the air as some of them began to take flight. Creeper moans were getting louder by the second as they made their way to the pool apparently abandoned as the fighting increased.
There were shots in the distance. The men in uniform had all but disappeared, even as the creeper stench became cloying.
“Please,” Becky said grabbing Felicia’s angels arm as another angel took a swipe at us. “Help us.”
Shaking his head, he opened his eyes to look at us with such deep sadness and regret, I felt it go through me like a knife. “We were wrong,” he whispered. “We were all wrong, and now there’s no way to get back.”
“What are you talking about?” Becky yelled up at him. “You can still help, you can help us.”
Shaking his head no, he covered his eyes and walked away through the chaos as if it wasn’t even there. We watched him disappear between two palm trees that were now just pillars of flames where creepers had been left to burn.
Creepers flooded in trying to weave their way into the fray, looking for fresh or nearly fresh bodies to consume. The angels largely ignored them, every once in a while taking one’s head off or throwing one into another attacking angel. Their moans and screeches blended with the insults of the angels.
“Here,” I yelled grabbing Becky’s hand and dodging a nearby pair of angels as they fought. Sidestepping another pair, we headed for the building and the relative safety of having a wall on one side with the fighting on the other. If we were able to get to one of the buildings, we could figure out how to get out of the hotel complex, and maybe find another way around to get up to Sanctuary.
As we left the pool area behind us, the fight thickened as more angels came into the complex. They were joined by bioengeereds and other new creatures the angels had been working on. I shuddered at the memory of the creatures with the knife like teeth who moved so fast they couldn’t be seen and hoped we didn’t encounter any of those. The bioengineered birds shrieked from above as they caught sight of the creepers, diving down and lifting them off the ground where their fleshless limbs dangled. Their screeches could be heard as they were taken away to who knew where.
Glancing back at Becky who was following one of the hapless creatures in the air with her eyes, I saw that her face became even more drained of blood making her look almost white.
“You’re not going to faint are you?” I whispered.
She shook her head no. “I just don’t want them to drop on us.”
“Me neither,” I whispered back, watching another bioengineered disappear from view with its prey. Setting my gaze back down to earth, I spotted a door into one of the buildings not far from us. “Come on.”
Hoping that no creepers were around to see us, I sprinted for the door Becky hot on my heels. I reached for the handle, putting my hand around it just as someone else did. I pulled my hand back as if I’d been burned as Wormwood burst out into laughter next to me. I could feel his hot breath wash over my face and was faintly disappointed to find that his breath smelled like roses instead of something rank and dying.
His laughter stopped abruptly, and he reached out to grab my hand just as an arm came around my waist yanking me up. Wormwood’s furious face looked up and he spread his wings ready to come after us, when Felicia’s angel came out of nowhere and hit him in the jaw knocking him back for a moment. Shaking his head he stood up launching himself into the other angel.
“Hold on,” Bob’s voice growled near my ear as Becky and I grasped each other arms, his wings lifting us higher and higher with each steady beat.
The fight below us continued as he banked to the left turning to fly North leaving behind the angels, the creepers, the humans and the flames as we flew into the dark sky.
Chapter 11
Gripping Bob’s forearm and interlocking my arm more tightly with Becky’s, I fought to breath evenly as we flew. Becky’s arm tightened in mine making me look over to see why. Looking past her I saw other winged creatures flying behind us. They looked like dark spots of blight on the night sky. Twisting my neck, I turned to see if Bob had seen them too. His grim expression told me he had.
The steady beat of his wings increased and we flew faster, I shivered in the increasingly cold air. Becky’s arm became colder the longer we were in the air. Glancing over, I knew that if I could see anything she would look as blue as the dress she wore.
My gaze went past her to the inky blackness that stretched out to our left that could only be the Pacific Ocean. I couldn’t help but smile as I thought of all the times, my parents and I had come to the coast to visit my Aunt, making frequent trips to the beach and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk which weren’t very far from where she lived. If you were driving that is.
I could almost feel the warm sand in between my toes, and the coconut scent of sunscreen that my mom insisted that I put on and reapply when I went in the water. Sometimes she’d let me bring Cassie along too, and we’d run screaming into the waves that crashed in front of us only half listening to the screams of the people who were riding the Giant Dipper on the boardwalk way behind us.
As we got older, my parents would drive us down, then sit and have a shake or a baked potato next to the carousel as we made our way along the boardwalk smiling at boys and trying to be cool, which we weren’t in any way shape or form. A twisting in my core that had nothing to do with anything physical made me grit my teeth at the thought of my parents and my aunt and the fact that they were gone. Shoving the thought aside, I focused on where I was gripping onto Bob’s arm as we flew.
Spots of lights broke the darkness far ahead of us and Bob pushed even faster.
“It’s Sanctuary,” Becky screamed so I could hear her.
“That’s not where I thought it was,” I yelled back.
“It’s not in the City,” was her loud reply. “Below,” she yelled out, “Below the City.”
I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. I wasn’t as familiar with this part of the coast so took her word for it.
“How do you know?” I yelled.
“Know what?”
“Know where it is?” I leaned towards her so I could hear what she said a little more clearly through the wind that whistled and whipped past us.
“It’s where I came from…,” her response was cut off when we were suddenly jerked off course as Bob dipped and swerved as something narrowly missed hitting us.
“What was that?” I yelled.
Bob said something I couldn’t hear as he dipped again. This time I saw what it was, a metal object with spikes all over it came hurtling towards us missing its mark, Bob’s wing, by an inch at most. Closing my eyes, I could feel a lump of fear form in my throat making it hard to swallow. Pushing it down, I forced my eyes open only to see more of the metal spiky objects coming towards us from the ground.
Looking down, I saw there were large vehicles making their way along the highway hugging the coast below us. Flashes of light appeared then receded as they fired at us, narrowly missing us.
Craning my neck down, I looked to see if there were other angels behind us that were taking fire too. In front of a group formation of dark spots in the sky, there were two others who were dipping and diving keeping the group at the back from making too much progress.
“Look,” Becky screamed, as she gripped my arm even tighter.
The sky was beginning to turn from an inky black to a grayish blue that washed over the ocean. Dark shapes dipped in and out of the water on the horizon, as a ship came in from the south. As I watched the ship take shape in the growing light revealing turrets and guns. Part of the group of angels behind us shaved off aiming for the ships as the others redoubled their efforts to get to us.
Bob clutched us closer bending his head down so we could hear him. “Almost there,” he yelled above the wind. “When I land run.”
Becky nodded her head, sliding her hand down to clasp mine and glancing over at me a look of determination on her face. “I know where to go,” she said.
We banked to the
right, swerving over the forest before making a sharp turn to the left and dropping down, landing with a thud on a road that lead to a cement wall with large metal doors.
As I struggled to get my legs underneath me, I saw that there were men standing in turrets along the wall, guns evident in their hands even from this distance. Glancing around to get my bearings, I saw the wall became razor wire fencing a distance down on either side of the walls disappearing into the distance in either direction. In the gray light, the shapes of large buildings and houses were apparent, but there was no overhead covering to protect them. Confusion over why they didn’t have overhead protection blanketed my thoughts until I heard the moaning, the smell of creeper rot so strong as it rolled over me it made me feel like I was going to vomit.
“Come on,” Becky yelled as creepers began to make their way out of the forest. Bob pushed us forward as the ground vibrated behind us.
“Well, Bob,” came a familiar voice. “It looks like you’ve made your choice.”
I tried to stop as Becky’s grip on my hand tightened pulling me forward. I pulled back trying to unwind my fingers from hers and falling forward as she continued to run towards the door. I hit the ground hard feeling my teeth loosen in my jaw, and tasting the irony tang of blood. Rolling over, I quickly scuffled to my feet, trying to swallow the blood so the creepers didn’t get a scent of it. Glancing over I saw it was too late, they had already seen me.
Two other angels, one of them Felicia’s, landed next to Bob as he turned to face the growing group of angels landing behind Wormwood. Bob shook his head as he watched the other angel wonderingly.
“This has failed,” Bob said, his voice vibrating with the conviction of his words.
“No Bob, there is no failure here,” Wormwood replied glancing back at me before moving his eyes behind me to Becky whose small fists managed to make a firm reverbing thunk on the metal doors. “Are they worth it, these Daughters of Eve?”