Talon of God

by Wesley Snipes

  “Got what?” Will demanded as Robbie hit the gas.

  Before Lauryn could answer, her phone buzzed in her pocket. The number wasn’t one she recognized, but at this point she was happy to talk to anyone who was still sane, and she wasted no time raising the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

  “It’s me.”

  The deep, familiar voice made her eyes close in happiness. “Talon!”

  “Holy crap, for real?” Robbie cried. “Talon’s still kicking after Lincoln Black?”

  “Of course,” Lauryn said proudly. “Who do you think you’re talking about?”

  By the time she finished, her brother’s eyes were wide as billiard balls, and she grinned into the phone. “I think you’ve impressed the jaded youth.”

  Talon chuckled at that, and then his voice turned serious. “Are you all right? How’s Will?”

  “Actually, we’re all doing great,” she said, looking over her shoulder at Will, who seemed to be nearing the end of his patience. “How are you? I mean, you’re clearly alive, but are you—”

  “I’m fine,” he said, and to Lauryn’s surprise, she believed him. Life as a doctor had made her very good at picking up hidden pain in people’s voices, specifically over the phone, but despite everything she’d feared, Talon really did sound just fine, and very determined. “And Lincoln is dealt with, thanks to you.” She heard the grin on his voice. “I got your present just in time.”

  Lauryn glanced up at the shadow in the sky. “Well, if there was ever a time we needed miracles, it’s now. You’ve seen the sky, right?”

  “I have,” he said grimly. “What’s your plan?”

  Lauryn blinked in surprise. “How did you know I had a plan?” She’d only just thought of it herself a few second ago.

  “Because you always have a plan.”

  His instant, confident answer was the best compliment anyone had ever given her. “I think I’ve got something that might work,” she said. “Do you remember where my dad’s church is?”

  “I do,” he said. “I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

  “We’ll meet you there, then,” Lauryn said firmly, glancing at Robbie, who nodded. “Drive safe, the streets are crazy.”

  “Same to you,” Talon replied. “Have faith, Lauryn. We’ll get through this.”

  “I know,” she said firmly. “I do. And, Talon?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m really glad you’re okay.”

  “As am I,” he said. “See you soon.”

  Lauryn smiled and cut off the call, turning to Will, who was waiting impatiently.

  “Why are we going to your dad’s and not getting out of town?”

  “Because we have to finish this,” she said firmly. “If we run, all of Chicago’s going to fall to this. But I think I’ve got a plan for how to save these people.”

  “I don’t know if there’s any saving this,” Robbie said, his voice cracking as he finished turning the car around, finally facing them toward the gate he’d busted down on the way in . . . as well as the crowd of monsters waiting beyond. “This situation’s only gotten worse since you went in. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole city was infected by now.” He shook his head. “I’m not even sure we can get back to the South Side.”

  “We have to,” she said. “Look, if there are any sane people left, they’ll be at Dad’s.”

  “How do you figure that?” Will asked.

  “Because Z3X can’t make people be monsters,” she explained. “It can only augment the sins that are already there. But my dad’s congregation is full of the most legitimately godly people I know. If anyone can resist this outbreak, it’s them.”

  “Wait, so we’re betting on the prayer circle?” Robbie said, shaking his head. “We’re dead.”

  “Just drive,” Lauryn said, placing her sword in her lap. “I’ll explain the rest once we get there. Right now, you need to drive, and I need to think.”

  “Then get in the back,” Will grumbled, moving over. “I’ll take front.”

  “And do what?” Lauryn asked, climbing out of her seat into the back.

  “Improvise,” Will said, grabbing Robbie’s tire iron off the floorboard. “The rest I’ll leave to you.”

  Lauryn blinked. “Really?” Because blind trust wasn’t an attribute she normally assigned to Will Tannenbaum. But when she gaped at him, he just shrugged.

  “This kind of thing will change a man’s perspective,” he said as he climbed into the front. “We’ll get you to church. You just make sure you know what to do when we get there.”

  That was the last thing she’d ever expected him to say, and it made Lauryn smile. Her brother, on the other hand, looked like he was going to hurl. “Just hold on tight,” he muttered, revving the engine. “It’s about to get bumpy.”

  The words were barely out of his mouth before he floored it, shooting his sports car right up the wrecked gate and over the transformed monsters lurking on the other side. For a moment, they were airborne . . . and then the car crashed back to earth, bottoming out in a shower of sparks and swerving wildly before Robbie got control again, flooring the pedal as they raced back down the street and back toward the smoke-stained skyline of Chicago.

  And overhead, the vultures screeched in delight as the phantom castle began to emerge from the clouds.

  18

  Bold as a Lion

  The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are bold as a lion.

  —Proverbs 28:1

  Getting home was even more terrifying than driving to St. Luke’s mansion had been.

  Before, the shuffling figures had just been glimpses, shadows in the dark, eerie emptiness. Now, the illusion of stillness was completely gone, and in its place, monsters openly roamed the streets.

  Even knowing they were just transformed people and not actual monsters, there was no other word that fit. Everywhere Lauryn looked, creatures with ashen skin and bloody eyes, wearing the tattered winter clothes of normal Chicago residents, roamed the city in huge hunting packs. There were no more cars, no more screams; even the sirens had gone silent. In the time between when they’d arrived at St. Luke’s and when she’d come stumbling out, the entire city had been dragged under by the spreading virus of Z3X, and as the last uncorrupted people on the streets, Lauryn, Will, and Robbie had the attention of every single one.

  “I can’t shake them!” Robbie screamed, spinning the wheel as he changed their course again and again. “They’re everywhere!”

  “They’re hunting us,” Will said, keeping his tire iron close. “Like animals.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Lauryn said, clutching her sword as she watched the black shapes chasing their car in the mirror. “Just get us to Dad’s.”

  “What do you think I’m trying to do?” Robbie yelled. “I—”

  “Robbie!”

  “What?”

  “Don’t panic,” Lauryn said, quietly now. “I swear to you we can get through this. We’re still in a car, which means we’re faster, and if any of them get close, Will and I will—”

  A jolt cut her off as something huge crashed into the car, almost running them off the road. By the time Lauryn recovered, she realized it was a man, or what was left of one. A huge boulder of a human, his skin grown over in giant plates, had bowled into the side of the car like a charging bull. He was still there, too, holding the car back with his massive hands as Robbie frantically gunned the engine, squealing the tires to no avail. Will was leaning out the window, bashing at the thing with his tire iron, but the demon man didn’t even seem to feel it as he broke the windows one by one. He was about to rip the passenger door off when Lauryn leaned out through the broken rear window and swung her golden sword at him.

  The attack was reflexive. Lauryn still had no idea what she was doing. She just flailed her weapon. But even though she hadn’t put any thought or skill into the attack, someone upstairs must still have been looking out for her, because the blow struck clean, slicing through the dem
on’s clawlike hands where they gripped the door. The moment his hold vanished, the squealing tires grabbed the pavement, and the car lurched, shooting them down the road to safety.

  “That,” Lauryn gasped, pulling her sword back inside. “I’ll do that.”

  “Right,” Will panted, looking impressed despite himself. “Good job.”

  “I swear,” Robbie muttered, gripping the wheel with both hands as he looked around at the black, nightmarish shapes in the rearview mirror, “if I live through this, I’ll go to church every day. I’ll never touch drugs again. I’ll—”

  “Robbie,” she said, her voice calm. “Just drive.”

  He closed his mouth and nodded, hunching over the wheel as he wove them down Chicago’s grid of streets toward home. When she was sure her brother wasn’t going to panic again and crash them, Lauryn turned back around, readying her sword to guard the broken windows from the next attack. Will did the same, holding his bloody tire iron like a bat as he watched the figures moving through the night, but whether by good luck or blessing, that attack was the last. Once they’d cleared downtown, they didn’t encounter another large group all the way back to Englewood. Lauryn was starting to think they’d cleared the worst of it when her brother slammed on the breaks.

  Lauryn, who had been turned around, found herself smashed against the back of the front seats. Will recovered first, scrambling back up with his tire iron ready. “What the hell was that?”

  Rather than answer, Robbie raised a trembling hand and pointed out the front.

  Clearly, Lauryn wasn’t the only one who’d had the idea to get to holy ground. The street running up to her dad’s church was a parking lot, but while normally Lauryn would have been delighted to see evidence that so many people were apparently still untransformed and able to get to safety, cars weren’t the only thing in their way.

  “Crap,” Will whispered. “That’s going to be a problem.”

  Understatement of the century, Lauryn thought grimly.

  Down the road, on the other side of the wall of cars, her father’s church was surrounded by a sea of transformed demons. Just like the ones they’d seen on the way over, these came in all shapes and sizes. Lauryn didn’t see any as big as Korigan had gotten, but several came damn close. Others were small and twisted, climbing over the abandoned cars like goblins. Big or small, they were all focused on the brightly lit church and the terrified crowd Lauryn could now clearly see inside. But despite watching the people like wolves watched sheep, not a single demon appeared to have set foot past the church steps.

  It wasn’t for lack of trying, though. A giant mass had actually piled up on the threshold, shoving and clawing at each other in a frenzy to get at their prey. But no matter how hard they pushed, they couldn’t seem to move forward. It was like the church itself was protected by an invisible barrier. Lauryn was still trying to figure out how that worked when she heard a familiar rumbling coming down the empty road behind them.

  By the time she whirled around, Talon was already climbing off his motorcycle, sword in hand as he turned to nod at Lauryn, who could only grin in relief. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you,”

  “Same to you,” Talon replied, looking pointedly at the sword in her hand. “It suits you, as I knew it would.”

  Before Lauryn could ask what he meant by that, Will cut in. “Wait,” he said, looking from Lauryn to Talon and back again. “You both have swords now?”

  Lauryn glanced down at her blade, which was lighter, golden, and obviously different from Talon’s. “You didn’t notice the difference before?”

  “I was kind of busy,” Will said, exasperated. “You know what, I don’t even care. Swords for everyone! All I want to know is can you use them on that.”

  He pointed at the wall of demons surrounding the church like a moat, and Lauryn bit her lip. “I don’t really want to,” she confessed. “Despite how they look right now, those are people. They’re just possessed.”

  “Wait, possessed?” Robbie said frantically. “I thought they were zombies?”

  “They are human,” Talon said firmly. “Or they were once.”

  “And can be again,” Lauryn reminded him. “That’s what we’re here for. We just have to figure out how to get through to the people inside.”

  “Well, they don’t seem to be able to go past the stairs,” Will observed. “Good thing, too. Those doors are basically cardboard.”

  “It’s not the doors that matter,” Talon said, moving to the front. “It’s the place. Even when they’re commanding a possessed human, no demon may set foot in the Lord’s house.”

  “Great,” Robbie said. “Any place where those things can’t go sounds like where I want to be. You guys with swords just need to cut us a path and we’re home free.”

  “I’m not attacking them!” Lauryn cried, scowling at her brother. “Weren’t you listening? Those are innocent people.” He opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off. “Mostly innocent—but they still don’t deserve to be cut down when they don’t know what they’re doing.”

  “But they’re attacking us,” her brother argued.

  “They’re victims,” Lauryn argued back. “You were like that, too, Robbie. Should we have cut you down?”

  That shut him up right quick, and Will sighed. “We have to do something,” he said quietly. “This peace won’t last forever while we make up our minds.”

  He was right. Already, a few of the demons from the rear of the pack were turning toward them. The sight of their bloody eyes was enough to make Lauryn cringe, but just as she was scrambling to think of what to do, Talon stepped in front of her, drawing his sword, which shone like fire in the night.

  “What are you doing?” she hissed. “I thought we agreed no killing!”

  “Death is not the only tool for a holy sword,” he said, giving her a wise look. “Have a little more faith in me, Lauryn. No harm shall befall the innocent.”

  Lauryn wanted to believe that, but she still didn’t see how him swinging a giant sword wasn’t going to end in a bloodbath. Before she could ask for a better explanation, though, Talon charged forward, raising his sword like a torch above his head as he crashed into the back line of the demons.

  The moment he connected, a blinding light filled the dark street. Will and Robbie turned away with pained shouts, but Lauryn felt nothing but awe. Despite the blinding light, she could see everything clearly: the motion of Talon’s body, the way his sword swept away the corruption, leaving each demon almost human looking before it hit, but not to cut. Instead, Talon’s razor-sharp blade struck each member of the crowd softly as a blade of grass and firmly as a mountain, pushing them aside to clear a path.

  “Go!”

  The command thundered, and everyone—even Robbie—obeyed. They ran as a group, following the guiding light of Talon as he moved in front of them, parting the demons like Moses parting the Red Sea all the way down the street until, at last, they reached the clear safety of the church steps.

  “Oh, thank God,” Robbie said, scrambling to the doors. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

  Lauryn felt the same, but she didn’t have time to run up. She was busy dealing with Talon, who’d doubled over as soon as they made it, his light fading as he began to pant. “Are you okay?”

  “Better,” he said, chest heaving, though his face was a joyous smile. “I haven’t been gifted with power like that in a long, long time.”

  “It was amazing,” Lauryn agreed, looking back at the demons, who were now clawing at the barrier harder than ever. “I saw it. You came close to healing them! Could you—”

  “No,” Talon said, shaking his head. “The corruption is still there. It was just pushed back when I came near because the devil runs from the light. But I would have to cut the contagion out of each one individually to cleanse them, and there are just too many.” He shook his head, still panting. “I hope whatever you’ve got in mind is enough for a city.”

  “That’s what I’m a
iming for,” Lauryn said, reaching down to help him up. “Come on.”

  By this point, Robbie had already made it to the doors and was frantically beating on them, yelling for someone to let them in. A few seconds later, the door flew open, and Miss Yolanda stormed out with a fury, pointing a shotgun and a cross straight in Robbie’s face. “Get out of here you—oh!”

  She lowered the gun at once, grabbing Robbie in a bear hug in the same motion. “Thank Jesus you’re all right!” She turned around to the crowd behind her. “It’s okay! It’s Maxwell’s children!”

  Through the open door, Lauryn saw a crowd of men, women, and children on their knees. Some she recognized as regulars from her father’s congregation. Others were strangers, but they all had objects of faith—crosses, rosaries, stars of David, copies of the Quran, whatever they could carry—clutched in their hands, and they all looked terrified.

  “What’s going on?” she asked as Miss Yolanda shuffled them inside.

  “Ain’t it obvious?” the old woman asked, resting her shotgun on her shoulder. “It’s the end of the world. Judgment Day.” She nodded at the crowd. “When it started, we all came here, and good thing. The Lord’s House kept us safe, but things outside keep getting worse.” Her eyes went to the shadow of the floating fortress in the sky outside, and she crossed herself. “We’re all praying for our souls. So glad you’re here, Lauryn. You should join us.”

  “I can’t yet,” Lauryn said, pushing away. “I need to talk to my dad. Where is he?”

  “Lying down a moment,” she said with a frown. “He’s been leading the prayers and keeping things together ever since this started. Poor man was practically dead on his feet before we could convince him to take a rest. He’s in his office.”

  Then Lauryn knew right where to go. “Thank you!” she called over her shoulder as she ran down the hall.

  “Best make it quick!” Miss Yolanda yelled after her. “Emergency broadcast just went out saying all of Chicago’s in some kind of containment zone. The National Guard will be rolling in soon as they can, but that won’t keep the devil out.” Her voice started to waver. “It’s the end of everything!”