Children of the Apocalypse Complete Trilogy

by A. L. Kessler

  “Now.” Aeron called and I rolled to the ground. The arrow flew above me piercing Sloth’s chest and embedding itself into the tree. Sloth snarled and reached to pull the arrow out. Aeron let loose another one, pinning Sloth’s hand to the tree followed by another one. The thunk of the arrow piercing the wood and the splintering of the wood sounded through the forest.

  “That’ll hold him for a bit. Let’s go.” Aeron let his bow disappear and I used my scythe to help me off the ground. He met me halfway to the car and wrapped his arm around my waist to help me take the weight off of my leg. “Impressive, I’m surprised you aren’t passed out from the pain.”

  I took a deep breath. “That’s still an option when we drive back.”

  He helped me get in the passenger side of the seat and shut the door. Ruthie came out with a limping Kaleb and they got situated. Sloth snarled as he tugged on the arrows. “This isn’t the end. I will take your head from your body.”

  Aeron started the car. “But you’ll have to recover first.” He backed up fast enough to make the tires squeal as we left the City on Fire.

  The charred trees gave way to rotten trees. I closed my eyes as pain climbed up my leg and through my shoulder. The type of pain that churned my stomach and made me want to just chop the limb off. “How’s Pete doing back there?”

  “We need to get him the antidote. I have the stuff back at the hotel, but he’s pretty far gone. If Death was here we would have lost him by now.” Kaleb said.

  I closed my eyes. “We located all the seals. All we need now is an archangel to get in there and release them.”

  “I feel like that is going to be easier said than done.”

  I glanced back at Ruthie, wedged between Pete and Kaleb. She met my gaze. “We need to get back, regroup and get patched up. My suggestion is we spend some time in Death’s realm to make sure we can’t be attacked while we’re healing up.”

  “I agree.” I didn’t want to be there with the reminder of my failure to my dad, but it was at least safe. “But what about the apocalypse?”

  “It’s not in full force yet, so evil isn’t completely running amok.” She leaned her head back. “There is only so much we can do if that’s the case.”

  I closed my eyes. “It’s our job to fix this. We’re not going to be able to do that from Death’s realm.”

  “I’m not talking about hiding. I’m talking about healing. You can barely use your leg and Pete is poisoned. Kaleb has a shattered knee. Like I said, regroup and heal.”

  “Okay. We’ll do that while you speak to the angels.”

  Aeron pulled the car into the hotel parking lot. “Let’s go get the antidote made and we’ll go from there. We have to do our checkout and at least get our stuff out of the room.”

  I slowly got out of the car. Ruthie and Aeron pulled Pete out. His color had disappeared from his face. Sweat dripped down his brow and he groaned at the movements. I never thought I’d be grateful for Death being gone.

  Kaleb and I limped along next to each other. “Good job in hell.”

  I snorted. “It would have been better if I could have actually killed or maimed one of the Sins.”

  “They're immortal, they can’t be destroyed.” That would have been nice to know before. “If only it was the same way for us. But they are powered by the emotions that weave through the world. The more people who fall to their temptations the stronger they get.”

  I paused and looked at him. “Can they be locked away? Like the horsemen?”

  “I don’t know. Lucile controls them, so we’d need someone like an archangel or maybe one of the actual horsemen and maybe they could be locked away.” He smiled. “I never thought of that. It’d also cut down on this happening in another few years.”

  “Good, because I don’t think I could handle doing this again in a few years.” I limped to the hotel and into the empty lobby. The receptionist gave us wide eyes and reached for the phone, but then stopped when Kaleb held his hand up as if to say that we were fine. Ruthie and Aeron were already down the hall where our room was.

  Kaleb and I limped along together in silence. Exhaustion crept through my body with the pain, my eyes wanted to close and claim me to the darkness, but I needed to make it to the bed first.

  16

  I lay back on the bed and sighed. “I can’t feel my toes.”

  “I’ll mix up the antidote for Pete, Aeron, patch her leg, and then we’ll worry about my knee.” Kaleb moved towards his suitcase. “I’m glad I thought to bring the stuff with me.”

  I closed my eyes as Aeron moved the shreds of my pants away. “You’re going to have to stay off this for at least a week, if not longer. I think Ruthie was wise in wanting us to go to Death’s realm for awhile.”

  “No kidding.” I ground out. The lights flickered and I shot up in the bed. “What the hell was that?”

  Darkness surrounded us and I looked around the room, waiting for my eyes to adjust. Aeron threw open the curtains and looked over the darkened city. “I think the power is out.”

  Ruthie reached for her phone and tapped the screen a few times. “Looks like something happened all across the country. It’ll just be a matter of time before we lose everything else.” She met my gaze.

  And with that thought, I knew the apocalypse was officially happening.

  Death on the Horizon

  Children of the Apocalypse Book 2

  Death on the Horizon

  Children of the Apocalypse

  Book Two

  A.L. Kessler

  17

  Steam floated up from my cup of tea, the warmth of the ceramic almost enough to burn my hand. I watched the light brown liquid slosh as I sat down. It’d been almost a month since the last time we’d gone to the human world. The apocalypse had truly happened when the humans decided to shut down the world’s electricity and take matters into their own hands. We, the children of the Apocalypse, were hiding and licking our wounds until we could figure out what else we could do about the tragedy unfolding on Earth. With the four horsemen locked away in Hell and no true way of freeing them until we could convince the archangels to help us, we were feeling a bit helpless.

  A month since Pete, the son of Pestilence, had been poisoned. He lay in a bed further back in the house. Silence surrounded us in Death’s realm. Ruthie, my guardian angel, had gone with Kaleb to see what the state of the world was now. Kaleb, son of Famine, felt the need to scout things out before we went back and no one was willing to argue. We knew the human world was at each other’s throats because of famine. If they weren’t affected by the plague, they were starving. War overran the world in the last month.

  I hung my head down and watched my tea swirl. Death was absent since the horseman, my father, was locked away. People who were halfway between the world of the living and the world of the dead wandered the Earth without any relief from their suffering. I didn’t know how to fix it because I didn’t hold the same abilities he did.

  “What’s on your mind, Little Death?” Aeron, the son of War, sat down in front of me.

  I looked up. My given name was Sammy, but since one of the Seven Deadly Sins had started calling me Little Death, the nickname stuck. “Just thinking about the amount of recovery we’ve had to do. Pete still isn’t up to fighting, but we can’t afford to wait much longer. There won’t be anything left to save if we let the humans continue to live in this apocalypse.”

  “Pete will recover, give it time. He was hit by three of Sloth’s knives.” Aeron’s blond hair had grown a little over the month. Gone was the carefully cut and spiked hair and here to stay was the shaggy look. His gray eyes met my gaze. Now I could see the swirl of grays and whites that weren’t there before, not until my abilities came out. It was how I knew what he was. The storm of War was clear in his eyes now. “We’ll get back out there. Ruthie and Kaleb have an idea on how we can lessen the damage, but we have to talk to the archangels and see if it’s doable.”

  “Locking the Sins away.” I s
wirled my tea. “And how do we expect to accomplish that? We don’t have that ability.” It had been my idea but every time we tried to work it out, we came to the same dead end. There was no way it was doable without an archangel or a horseman.

  “They are planning on talking to the angels about freeing one of the horsemen in hopes that will help us.” He leaned back in the chair. “It would be a better option than us going back to Hell alone.”

  I rolled my shoulder and remembered what had happened when I’d gone up against Envy while Ruthie fought Pride. It wasn’t a pretty picture. I’d taken a bolt to my shoulder and one to my calf. The calf still gave me problems if I didn’t remember to stretch it out in the morning. The Seven Deadly Sins were not a force I wanted to face again. “What’s the effect on the apocalypse if we do that?”

  “It’s an indirect way of dealing with it. The emotions they cause will lessen and help the humans think clearer.” He tapped his knuckles against the table.

  Pete came limping out of the back room and sat down next to me. “That will help, they can pull out of this. Death is in Lucile’s chamber. Do we still think releasing him first will be the best?”

  “That choice is up to the angels, assuming they help.” Aeron poured a cup of tea out of the white pot sitting in the middle of the table. He handed it to Pete. “Drink up.”

  “I just woke up, I don’t want tea to make me sleep again.”

  I smiled. “It’s not sleepy tea, it’s just black tea. Nothing special in it today.” I’d been going through what was left of my father’s tea stash and trying any of them that were supposed to promote healing, but most of them also made Pete sleepy. The sleep helped with his healing, but he felt he missed everything while he was sleeping.

  The door flung open, slamming against the wall. We jumped up, ready to defend against whatever might have thrown the door open in such a manner. Ruthie came in with her hands on her hips. “We have to go back.”

  Her face had an angry red tint to it, her long black hair had been pulled away from her face. In this realm her wings flowed from her back and brushed against the floor. “It’s horrible down there.”

  Kaleb pushed past her, his glasses perched on his nose. His hair curled around his ears and hung almost in his eyes. “She’s right, we need to move fast. People are starting to be rounded up if they are the walking dead. I don’t know what for, but it’s being done by the government. There are major cities that have erected walls between them and they are only letting certain people in their walls.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “What is it with humans and building walls?”

  “All the movies and books were right about that. If you don’t understand it, you keep it out. You do that by building walls.” Pete leaned forward and took a cube of sugar from the bowl. “There’s nothing we can really do. We’ll be back down there as soon as it’s time to start hunting down the Sins.”

  Ruthie leaned against the wall. “Pete and I will go talk to the archangels then. Aeron, Kaleb and Sammy will all go to the human world and start taking care of the demons and other things that are popping up.”

  “And if we run into a Sin?” I set my teacup down. “I don’t really want to think about going up against all of them.”

  “They won’t be together. The apocalypse is too wide spread. We’ll start back at Mesa and work our way across the country.” Aeron stood. “That gives us familiar surroundings at least.”

  I leaned back in my chair. “Oh yay, walking across the country fighting demons, it’s what I always wanted.” I pulled at a longer strand of my hair. Gone was my pixie cut, it’d grown into something resembling a mop. I’d been tempted to cut it myself, but I feared that it would only look worse. Shaving my head had crossed my mind at one point as well, but I doubt that I’d be comfortable with that.

  “Your sarcasm isn’t appreciated here.” Aeron’s gaze snapped to me. “So if you don’t want to do this, find another hole to crawl into.”

  I bit my tongue before I said something I couldn’t take back. Pete put a hand on mine and I knew he was reminding me to calm down. I leaned back in my chair. “I’ll try harder.”

  Kaleb turned to Ruthie. “We split up tonight. We’ll be fine. I’ll make sure to take care of Sammy for you and make sure that she stays out of trouble.”

  “Anything happens to her, I’ll make sure that the higher ups know that I left you in charge.” Ruthie poked him in the chest and then turned to me. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  I met her gaze. “I’ll try, but I can’t promise.”

  “Do what you have to do to survive, but that’s it. Okay?”

  I stood and gave her a hug. “I’ll be alive when you get back.”

  “Of course you will, because you aren’t able to die. Not until we get Death out.” She sighed. “Remember, decapitating the demons will make it so they can’t function. They’ll die when Death is released, it’s cruel, but at least they won’t be able to come after you again.”

  I nodded. I didn’t want to leave anyone in any amount of pain, but it couldn’t be avoided at this point. “Come back with good answers, please.”

  “I’ll try my best.” She looked to Pete. “Come on, let’s do this. It could take us a while.”

  Pete stood. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He hugged me and shook hands with Aeron and Kaleb. “We’re a team, so don’t do anything heroic without me.”

  I didn’t want him to leave, but he was the only one that could go with Ruthie. If they could tackle two Archangels at once it’d be better. Ruthie put her hand on Pete’s shoulder and they disappeared.

  “Since we found out that we don’t need a sacrifice to get in and out of Hell until Death is released, the journey of the Archangel should be easier.” Kaleb pushed away from the wall. “Until then, we do what we can on Earth.”

  I crossed my arms and nodded. “Let’s go then. We’ll want to have time to get settled in either a city or in a camp of some sort.”

  We all took a deep breath and the world around us disappeared. The stone house melted away only to be replaced by the ruins of a city.

  The crumbling buildings barely resembled the dorm rooms that I had spent most of my first semester of college in. Steel beams were empty of the drywall and pipes they should have held. Chunks of concrete gathered around the base of the buildings. I raised a brow and turned to look at where classes had been held. The dining hall was completely flattened, but most of the main campus buildings were still standing.

  “Looks like we missed one hell of a party.” I looked to Aeron who held his hand out to summon his bow. He pulled the bow over his shoulder and across his chest. Kaleb summoned his sickles and hung them on his belt.

  “We need to be ready for anything, it doesn’t seem our barriers are working anymore.”

  I summoned my scythe. “Great, so people are going to see that we’re armed and either attack us or run from us.” I kicked a chunk of building with my booted foot. “Let’s go take a look and see what there is to see. Enough of the science building is still standing. We might be able to set that up as home base for now.”

  “We need to get an emergency radio to see if anyone is still broadcasting. Food and supplies would be nice too.”

  I started towards the rubble of the dining hall. I climbed over fallen beams and concrete barriers that seemed to have been left by those who last holed up here. “Canned food doesn’t expire, right?”

  “In theory.” Kaleb followed me. Aeron climbed onto a square of concrete. He put his hands on his hips as his gaze went over the land.

  “I think anything here has probably been picked clean. I don’t know what’s been leveling the buildings, because I didn’t think they’d gone to physical war yet.”

  I shook my head. “Ruthie said that they’d been rounding people up. This kind of damage can be done in resistance and defense.”

  “Once we figure it out, we’ll head to the nearest city, that’s what is most likely to attract the Sins. For now
, let’s find some food and supplies and make camp in the school.” Kaleb called over his shoulder. “I don’t want to find out what comes out at night.”

  I looked at the sun already sinking behind the horizon, casting long shadows over the ground. “I agree. I’d rather not fight in the dark if I don’t have to.”

  “No one does. It’s common to think demons don’t come out during the day, but we all know they will attack at any time.” Kaleb waited for me to catch up to him. Aeron’s heavy footsteps came up behind us.

  “It’s the humans we have to worry about at night. In the cover of the dark, they may think we’re easy targets.” He came up behind me. “Especially if they travel in larger groups. They may think that we’re easy to take out.”

  I didn’t want to imagine having to fight against a pack of humans, because all they were doing was trying to survive. Of course, if they were walking dead then it wouldn’t matter. They’d be gone as soon as Death was free. Logic told me that the chances were the archangels wouldn’t free Death first. Even if his freedom meant that a big part of the apocalypse would fix itself. No one wanted to go into Lucile’s chambers. It wasn’t worth the risk. My guess was that they’d choose to free War or Pestilence first. Either one would help with the problems and they’d be able to help us trap the Sins and free the other horsemen.

  I climbed what was left of the wall for the dining room and made my way through the crushed tables and chairs, the destroyed conveyor belt that used to take the trays back to the kitchen. Water damage from the broken pipes covered the floor. Long gone was the actual water and just a trail of dirt and grime from the flow remained. I paused at the crooked shelves that made up the pantry of the stock room. Dented cans had rolled to the edge of a tilted shelf, the weight threatening to crack the rest of the board they lay on.