Children of the Apocalypse Complete Trilogy

by A. L. Kessler

  Kaleb sighed. “We had to regroup after a trip to Hell. We almost lost one of our own.” He came up behind me. “We had no choice but to go into hiding while he healed.”

  “Now that you’re back, do you care to join forces?” Zachariah looked us over. “You could use someone to fill in for your fourth for now.”

  “No.” Aeron said without a moment of hesitation. “You guys do what you can to keep the demons down, but we have to complete our own missions.”

  I held a hand up. “Wait, he would be able to help.”

  “No, Sammy. You don’t want to work with an archangel if you don’t have to. He’ll want to run the team his way and won’t agree with our plan.” Aeron met Zachariah’s gaze. “No offense, you just happen to have different morals than the horsemen.”

  Zachariah shrugged. “We’re trained differently than you guys are. Other than brute strength, I can’t figure out what you guys would need me for.” He crossed his arms. “Other than releasing the seals on the horsemen.”

  “And you can’t go into Hell without Michael’s permission. Don’t worry about it, if we need you we’ll call.” Aeron shot me a glare and I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him.

  Kaleb cleared his throat. “Do you know where the nearest city is and where we might be able to scavenge some food?”

  “We’ll be happy to supply you with some food and supplies. The nearest city is actually a small town forty miles down the highway. They built their own wall without government help, but it’s run the same way. Be wary though, they don’t like strangers.”

  Of course not. During crisis, no one liked strangers. “Thank you.” My gaze wandered over the other silent angels and an ache in my heart started for my mother. She might have been fallen, but she was still my mother and I could have used her during this time.

  “Aeron and I will get the supplies, Sammy why don’t you head upstairs and keep guard. I’d hate for another demon to attack.”

  I marched up the stairs like a good little soldier and called my scythe. I didn’t really like basements because they always seemed small and damp to me. Filled with people made it worse. I went out front and sat on the front steps, cradling my scythe against me.

  Steps behind me told me someone had followed me out of the house. Zachariah sat down next to me. “Aeron thought you might want some company.”

  “So he sent you out here. It means that he doesn’t like or trust you.” I scanned the empty street. “When we left Mesa, there were still cars on the road, people walking around in medical masks, children playing in the yards. It’s so weird to see how the city has been destroyed.”

  “This is what happens when there’s no one to stop Lucile. When the horsemen disappear.”

  I looked at him. “Do you think if we had stayed and been just three we’d have been able to stop this?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know what the situation was when you left. I know that if Aeron is anything like his father, it takes a lot to make him back down. He’d rather march right into battle than face any sort of defeat. It’s what makes him reckless.”

  I looked back out at the landscape. “Sounds like Aeron.”

  “You’re not as old as them. Your father used to deny any existence of a child, but here you are.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, he didn’t know I existed for a while. It wasn’t until I went to college that I had any idea what I was.”

  “And your mother?” He asked. “I think I would have noticed if there was an angel walking around with a baby.”

  “She was Fallen. They had a one night stand because neither of them thought anything would happen.” I gestured to myself. “But here I am, thrown into a war I didn’t know existed.”

  Zachariah clapped a big hand on my shoulder. “None of us ask for our lot in life, but we get what we’re meant for. Now, you said Aeron sent me out here because he doesn’t trust me?”

  I nodded. “It’s his way of making sure I don’t have to have his back. That I stay out of his way in anything he thinks that I’ll screw up.” I closed my eyes. “I can’t blame him. I’m not as experienced as the others, I’m new to the world, I still have no idea how everything works.”

  “You’ve learned a lot in the last year though, haven’t you?”

  I nodded. “The hard way, yes.”

  “There’s your experience. You’ll grow as a warrior and you’ll learn more and more about the world you come from.” He patted my knee and I looked at him. “You want to earn Aeron’s trust, you listen to him and show him you’re willing to learn. The fact that he fights with you means that he has some trust for you.”

  “He won’t let me have his back. He always has mine. Like when we took on the demon. Yes, he was better suited for bringing it down, but I was the distraction and Kaleb was his back up. When we took on Sloth--”

  “You two took on Sloth?”

  “We did. I helped him pin Sloth to a tree with his arrows.” I smiled remembering the battle, it was one of my prouder moments.

  He laughed. “But tell me something, Little Death. Whose ideas were those attacks?”

  I paused and thought about it, I had come up with both and hoped Aeron followed my lead. “Mine.”

  “You led them both, didn’t you?”

  “I was thinking on my feet, both times I’d hoped he’d follow me and understand what I needed.” I rubbed my eyes. “In his own way that is trusting me.”

  “He trusts you as a team mate, remember that because it will be important in the end.” He stood up as the front door creaked.

  Aeron and Kaleb came out, and Kaleb tossed me a bag. “We’ve got enough supplies to last us until the next town. Let’s get going.”

  “If you need me, Little Death, just say my name and I’ll be at your side to help you.” Zachariah strolled back into the house without another word. Aeron raised a brow.

  I shrugged. “I have no idea. Let’s go though. If we’re walking to the next town, we’re going to end up being there at sundown tomorrow.” I jumped off the porch. “If we could find bikes or something, that would be amazing.”

  “Or horses.” Kaleb came to my side. “But the famine took most of them.”

  Aeron put a hand on my shoulder. “Good job with the demon earlier. I hadn’t told you that.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate it, and thanks for covering my back.” We walked out of the yard. The gate closed with a little clink and we started down the road.

  “No matter what, I always have your back.” Aeron moved ahead of me. “You’ll get there, Little Death.”

  His words made me wonder if he’d heard part of the conversation. I let it go and followed him back to the road.

  We stood on the edge of the overpass leading out of Mesa. Cars had been abandoned on the roads. Some were crunched against others. A couple of them had doors hanging open, while some were lopsided because of flat tires. Part of the overpass had been crushed in sections, leaving spider web like cracks in the asphalt and forcing chunks up into the air like mini jagged mountains.

  “What do you think happened here?” I sat down so my legs dangled off the edge of the pass.

  Aeron put his hands on his hips and turned a little to get the full view of the area. “I’m going to say a few demons. People don’t normally just leave their cars like that.”

  “Unless they ran out of gas, which they might have if everything had shut down. There’d be no way to get fuel.” Kaleb sat next to me. “Do you really think that a demon would cause them to quit driving and not head towards their destination by the most logical means? Or at least come back to get the car?”

  I looked out and saw some of the cars with smashed windows and caved in hoods. “If that demon was throwing stuff, yes, I’d abandon my car.”

  “We need to keep moving.” Aeron stepped down onto the road. “I’m hoping that word hasn’t gotten to the Sins that we’re back or they are too busy to bother with us.”

  Kaleb snorted. “I agree, let’s avoid t
hem. I don’t really want to deal with them when we can’t lock them away.”

  “Same here. Though I’d still like to get a chance to castrate Lust.” I swung my legs back to the street side of the barrier and stood.

  “I thought you didn’t believe in torture.” Aeron walked over the crest of the overpass.

  I shrugged one shoulder. “I might make an exception for him. He did, after all, help torture me.”

  “That would do it.” Kaleb spun one of his sickles around. “I’d like to get my hands on Greed and give her a piece of my mind.”

  I raised a brow and looked at him as he walked by my side. “I’ve never heard how you ended up in Hell. I didn’t realize that you’d been tortured by a Sin.”

  “It’s not something I usually talk about and it’s not something I’m going to explain now.” He quickened his stride so that he caught up with Aeron.

  I couldn’t really blame him for not wanting to talk about it. When I thought about my trip to Hell, my stomach churned and my mind threatened to throw me into a panic attack. But I couldn’t help being curious. I caught up to them, but Aeron stopped short and held his hand up in a command that I had come to learn meant stop.

  My scythe appeared in my hand in anticipation of another fight. My gaze scanned the empty streets looking for anything that might have set off Aeron’s senses. Something moved out from behind one of the crushed cars. A woman with dark hair cascading down her back, her skin a ghostly pale white, and her eyes reflecting the soul within. My senses flared at that. She was a walking dead. She had a wound or an illness that would die from if Death were still free.

  She looked at us and her eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped in a silent scream before she turned around and bolted away from us. I growled. Catching up to her from this far away wasn’t an option. Aeron would question and I wasn’t ready to share my secret. Zachariah’s voice echoed in my head about Aeron already trusting me. But maybe I just wasn’t willing to admit what I could do.

  “If she’s here there might be more.” Kaleb said. “Best to get moving. We can’t hurt them because they are innocent humans, but if they attack us they don’t really give us the option.”

  Aeron nodded. “Let’s keep moving, the quicker the better.” He motioned for us to continue forward.

  I followed them and watched the surrounding areas. I saw people hiding in the shadows behind the cars and I had a horrifying thought. “Guys, they are walking dead, but I think they saw what happened here. I think they might be the victims of this attack.”

  “Keep moving, Little Death. We can’t help them and if they fear us they are likely to attack.”

  I saw the fear cross the faces that I was able to see. The way they cringed back into the shadows, the way they never took their dead gazes off us. “I don’t think they are hostile.”

  “Do you really want to stick around to find out?” Aeron looked at me over his shoulder.

  “No, not really.” Though I did want to talk to one, but I kept up with Aeron and Kaleb. When we moved past the highway barrier there were no more walking dead. Just long dead trees and weeds that had lined the roadway. I glanced back and saw the walking dead gather in a group and walk the opposite direction that we did. They feared us, but they weren’t stupid enough to attack us.

  “Pay attention.” Kaleb turned and walked backwards. “You’re zoning again. I know that look, it’s the look before you spout off something that makes no sense to any of us.” His heel caught the back of a tree root and he fell with a thump. A small dust cloud came up from the ground with his impact.

  I grinned and stepped past him and over the root. “Maybe you should be the one paying attention.”

  Something whizzed by the top of my head. I froze with my arm out, holding my scythe. Aeron moved to the tree and pulled the knife out. “It’s our old friend.”

  Sloth. My heart skipped a beat and I turned in the direction that the knife came from. We waited, crouched in what shadows the dead trees provided. Crunching of branches came from in front of us and we all dropped into fighting stances, trying to anticipate the attack. I’d been told once that Sloth wasn’t lazy, he just took the path of least resistance when it came to his mission. The poison on his daggers were what almost killed Pete and slowed his recovery. Luckily, Kaleb was with us and had what was needed for the antidote, but I didn’t really want it to come down to that.

  Aeron motioned for us to move forward. I watched my feet, making sure to stay light on them and avoid anything that might have given our position away. My heart pounded as I forced myself to control my breathing.

  Nothing but silence followed us and there were no more flying knives. We reached a service road with an abandoned gas station on the other side. Aeron used his hand motions again and we all sprinted across the asphalt. I jumped over the curb and rushed to the door. I reached for the knob, but something hit me from the side taking me to the ground, knocking me back onto the asphalt of the parking lot. Claws dug into my shoulders and I looked up into the red eyes of a dog that rivaled me for height. A hellhound. The sharp teeth dripped with globs of slobber that vibrated as it snarled at me.

  “Gluttony’s here too!” I screamed and put the handle of my scythe between the dog and me. Its teeth screeched against the metal. I shoved the beast away and it let me up. I peddled backwards to gain my balance.

  The beast came at me again and I swung my scythe down and cut it in two. I paused, wondering if it was dead. The two sides fell to the ground and that’s all that mattered to me. The threat was now gone. I turned around and saw Gluttony staring at me. Her honey eyes burned into me.

  “You again.” She sauntered across the parking lot toward me. “I thought I would have gotten rid of you after the last time.”

  I shook my head. “I’m a bit hard to keep down. Besides, you ran away.” I twirled my scythe and slammed the end of it into the ground. “Do you really want to do this again?”

  She raised a brow. “You’ve grown in power and you’ve grown cocky.” She raised her hand and shadows started to gather on the ground. I didn’t give her a chance to finish summoning more hellhounds.

  I rushed her and brought my blade down, aiming for her wrist. She moved away and stumbled over a piece of rubble, she snapped her wrist and her whip appeared. I’d tasted the bite of the barbed weapon before. I had no wish to do it again. I jumped as she snapped the whip and it cracked right under my feet.

  I landed and pushed myself forward, trying to take out her legs. If I could take her down then I could take her head. She flipped backwards, trailing the whip behind her.

  A barb caught my pants, tearing it up the leg. She landed and smiled at me. “You’ve grown so much, Little Death.” She twirled the whip in the air, creating a figure eight with the long tail. The speed was enough to cause a small wind around her. I stepped back trying to prepare myself, but she jolted and an arrow appeared through her chest. The whip came crashing down and she turned around to face Aeron.

  I’d wondered what had kept him busy until I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. Sloth came rampaging towards me from the woods, his shaggy black hair covering his gaze and his torn and shabby clothes flowing around him.

  I jumped out of the way, rolling on the ground to break my fall. I landed in a crouch and held out my hand to summon my weapon. The scythe came to me without hesitation and I sliced at Sloth as he turned towards me. My blade caught his shirt and cut through his skin. Blood fell from his wound and he looked up so I could see the black flames in his eyes.

  Throwing knives appeared in his hand, and one after another he flicked his wrist and they came flying towards me. I dodged and flipped as much as I could to avoid them. My ankle cracked to one side as I found the uneven ground of the curb, something stung as I rolled back to my feet and waited. I could hear the sounds of Aeron fighting with Gluttony in the background and Kaleb somewhere nearby with the sound of metal clashing against metal. Sloth’s lips lifted up in a smirk.


  Sticky liquid trickled down my side and I looked down to see the slightest of cuts by my rib. I had assumed I’d hit a rock when I fell. A glance behind me revealed the glint of a throwing knife and told me otherwise. I snarled and rushed him. I brought the scythe down and the tip of the blade came across his chest. I twirled and caught him again across his stomach. Adrenaline forced my heart to pump faster as I continued my attacks. The world started to spin and I had to lean on my scythe to keep my balance. My knees shook and sweat beaded on my body, rolling down with chilling trails.

  Sloth came up and grabbed my chin. He traced one of the scars on my cheek with a blade. “Sweet dreams, Little Death.”

  The world went black as my entire body decided it wasn’t okay with holding me up.

  19

  “Sammy, Sammy, I need you to wake up.”

  I tried to force my eyes open and to my luck, they agreed. I looked up at Pete’s worried eyes and smiled. “I’m okay, just a couple small wounds.”

  “If you think a knife to the stomach is a small wound...then I’d hate to see what a big one is.” The humor felt odd coming from him. He wasn’t the type to make jokes in a serious situation, that was normally my job.

  I tilted my head to the side and my hand found a hole in my stomach. “I shouldn’t be alive.”

  “No, you’re a walking dead now. But the good news is that the archangels are on their way to free Death. We’ll save the world and you can rest in peace.” He touched my cheek and though I knew Sloth had created a new cut there, no pain flowed through me.

  The thought should have brought me comfort. I could die in peace and leave this war behind. I wouldn’t have to worry about how it all turned out. I’d leave those who were more than capable of solving the apocalypse to do such. But the thought of leaving Pete behind and breaking Ruthie’s heart kept me from that peace. She’d be assigned to a new human, one who would truly need her during this time, but we were friends. We all had each other’s backs in battles.