by Ely Page
Dylan looked up at the crow’s nest to get the direction the army was coming from; he then ran to the observation platform to get a better look.
“They are coming from the north,” Dylan said to Rich. “The opposite side of the last battle.”
Rich looked through his binoculars. “They must be trying to make things more difficult for us, knowing that we have only one way in and out,” Rich gave his opinion.
“I think I will have a few archers set up on the platforms to keep an eye on the wounded as they flank back around the walls to the gate,” Dylan told Rich. It was the only thing that would change from the last battle.
Rodan joined Dylan and Rich on the platform. He took one look out and turned to face Dylan.
“I see nothing but wambei. Still no demons, incubi, or succubi. The battle in Heaven is going strong. Lucifer can’t afford to send his best here to fight and destroy us, he needs all he can at the gates.” Rodan almost sounded cheerful at the fact that only wambei were attacking.
Dylan led the rest of the army out of the gate. He took the left flank, which would go around the stables, and put Porter in charge of the right flank. They would meet up at the north side of the wall and attack from there.
The two groups quietly rounded the city walls, meeting together at the opposite side of the gate. As Dylan and Porter met up, Rodan stood inside the wall on a platform right above them.
“What do you think?” Dylan asked Porter.
“I think,” Porter spit on the ground, “we are going to kick some gross, dead ass.”
Dylan looked up at Rodan to get his take on the approaching wambei.
“They look weak. Lucifer’s forces are spread too thin,” Rodan said. giving a reassuring nod to Dylan and Porter.
“Let’s do this!” Dylan said loud enough for people near him to hear.
The battle started and it was no contest, as everyone one from Hope’s army put a sword through the necks of the wambei.
The battle only lasted half an hour. The wambei were all dead; the humans hadn’t suffered even a single scratch. For some reason, the ease of the victory left a large pit in Dylan’s stomach. He didn’t trust how easy the fight had been.
There was a celebration in the town park that night. Joy rang through Hope’s walls. Dylan put on a face of happiness, hiding how he truly felt inside until Rodan approached him.
“I know what you are feeling inside, Dylan. I feel the same way. I believe that there is a much darker storm coming.”
“At first I thought it was some kind of ploy,” Dylan said, walking away from the noise of the party. “But then I quickly realized that was all they had. I couldn’t believe it.” Dylan looked down at his feet as the two men walked. When he looked up, he could not believe where he was.
Suddenly they were underground in a giant cave. Directly in front of them were two humongous, tarnished golden doors. Etched into the surface of the left door was a man who looked to be drowning in high waves. He was reaching out for help, but an angel had his foot on top of the man’s head, trying to push him under water. On the door to the right was the face of a man who looked normal and unassuming, but the longer Dylan looked at the face, it seemed to change without any obvious movements. The face began to look uglier and to grow horns and evil, piercing eyes.
Rodan pushed Dylan enough to get him to stop staring at the face.
“Are we at the gates of Hell?” Dylan asked.
Rodan looked at Dylan with his brows raised. “Precisely!” he spoke with a tone that worried Dylan a little bit.
“What was that?” Dylan asked, coming out of the fog that engulfed his mind.
“That,” Rodan said, moving Dylan to the side of the cave where they could look directly at the massive doors, “was the face of Lucifer as he transitioned from the morning star to Satan.”
As Rodan looked back to see the face on the door, it returned to the original look of the fallen angel’s face.
“Why are we here? And how did we get here?” asked Dylan as he looked around, trying to see where they’d come from but falling short of seeing the other side of the cave.
“I cannot explain how we got here. However, I can tell you that I chose to come here to see for myself and for you what is going on in the depths of despair.” Rodan started to walk back toward the gate. “Come with me, but stay behind me and do not look at any statue in the eye, or you may be trapped here for eternity.”
That made Dylan feel all warm and fuzzy inside as he followed Rodan into Hell. The gate opened with ease, as all Rodan had to do was put his hand on the drowning man on the left door.
“Who is that man drowning?” Dylan asked curiously.
“The first man, Adam, and that angel is Lucifer. That is how he felt about God creating man.”
Rodan walked in through the door, and Dylan followed close behind. At first there was nothingness; they were walking through a void. All of the sudden, a deep, evil howl came from in front of them. Dylan froze in his tracks; Rodan continued on.
“What was that?” Dylan asked as he caught back up to Rodan.
“The hounds of Hell.”
They kept walking until a red glow appeared ahead of them. Dylan felt like they had been walking for a long time, and with each step it felt like the cave got hotter.
“Has anybody seen Dylan?” Leah asked people as she saw them.
The celebration was winding down and Leah wanted to go home, but she couldn’t find her husband anywhere.
“Do you know where Dylan is?” Leah asked Rich, obviously worried by that time.
“I think I saw him and Rodan go off that way.” Rich pointed toward the elevator. “Yeah, they looked like they were in deep conversation.”
Leah should have known he was with Rodan. “Thanks.” She checked the double stroller to see that John and Frankie were still asleep. She started to walk home. It could be hours before Dylan came home.
“Have you ever heard of Dante’s Inferno?” Rodan asked Dylan as they walked further into Hell.
“No, I don’t think I ever have,” responded Dylan with an inquisitive look on his face. He kept half a pace behind Rodan.
“Well, Hell is quite similar to the story. See, Dante described nine layers of Hell, and each layer is more heinous than the last. The thing about Hell that you may not know is Lucifer cannot free those who were sent here by God for eternal damnation. Those lost souls cannot fight for him; they must remain here.”
What Rodan said began weighing heavily on Dylan’s mind. It seemed more complex than anything he could understand.
“We are not going in very far.” Rodan paused for a moment as he looked around. “The further we go in, the harder it is to get out.”
As they continued on their journey just beyond the gates of hell, they began to hear ear splitting and blood curdling screams. It was at the point when they first came upon obvious places of torture that Dylan had enough. “That over there,” Rodan nodded to their right where Dylan was already looking. “It is an acid bath, someone’s poor soul, still in the appearance of their human body is torture in that bath every single day for eternity.” Dylan was distraught by such evil. Rodan continued. “The body is slowly dipped into the bath feet first until there is nothing left and then it happens all over the next day.
“Can we get out of here now, I think I have seen enough.” Dylan pleaded with Rodan.
“The demons that inflict the torture must off fighting somewhere.” A loud scream interrupted Rodan. “But apparently not all of them.”
Leah laid Frankie and John down in their cribs. She tried to lay down herself, but was too restless to fall asleep. She took a bath, hoping that it would relax her. It did—but her relaxation only lasted as long as the bath did.
Rodan and Dylan returned to the tunnels under Hope. Dylan had been to Hell, and it looked as if he would
live to tell about it, even though he never wanted relive the tortures and screams of that place.
“I am glad that we learned much about our enemy after that field trip down the hall,” Rodan said, sitting on the old wooden chair in his room.
“I was shocked to discover why it is that wambei seem to always march here from far away,” Dylan said, sitting on the other chair in the room.
“It makes sense now that I look back at it.” Rodan shifted slightly in his chair. “They come from major population centers, cities. There has always been lots of hate and immoral activity in cities. They’re the perfect place for the army of Hell to form.”
Chapter 14
Relative calm came over Hope as winter settled in. The newcomers all easily became part of the community, taking jobs where they could. In a bit of a surprise, Greg asked Laura to marry him. Even though she was still reeling from the loss of Jason, she said yes. She wanted a father for her unborn child, and she thought that Emily would make a great sister.
On December 1, Jim wed Greg and a now-showing Laura. Greg was the last of the original tribe members to get married, and he didn’t take it lightly. He kept it to himself, but the reason it took him so long to get married was not because there wasn’t anybody for him; it was because he still dreamed of his first wife and how he wished he was a better person when the old world ended. But with the help of his adopted daughter Emily, he finally realized that it was time to let go of the past and to think of the future.
There were a lot of babies born in the winter months, which kept a pregnant Chris, a pregnant Hanna, and a pregnant Sarah very busy.
The rest of the winter and most of the spring went by without much excitement. There was, however, one death that took everyone by surprise. Dave, who was a part of Frank’s tribe and had lost part of his arm in the wild dog attack while trying to help Barry many years ago, suffered a heart attack in his sleep. He was a peaceful man, and as Jim said in his eulogy, “He died at rest and now will be at eternal peace.”
“They’re coming,” Rodan said after Dylan answered his door at three in the morning.
Rodan came to Dylan’s house as soon as he felt movement and got the sign from Heaven that Hell’s forces were on their way for the fourth battle. Dylan moved aside to allow Rodan in the house.
“How soon?” Dylan asked, going into the kitchen to get something to drink. “Milk, water, apple juice?” he asked Rodan, opening the fridge.
Rodan waved him off. “They will be here by nightfall.” His response was as grim as ever.
“There’s something different about this attack, isn’t there?” Dylan could tell by Rodan’s demeanor that something had changed.
“There will be something stronger with them this time. A fallen angel from the first battle and exodus of Heaven will lead the wambei, someone who has been with Satan since the beginning.”
That did scare Dylan, almost enough for him to have to change his shorts. “We can take him, right?” Dylan sounded unsure.
“Whoever it is will be much stronger than me,” Rodan said, walking out of the house.
Dylan realized that he would be up for the rest of the day, so he got dressed and went to the academy.
Dylan put out the alert as soon as the sun started to rise. Porter was the first to arrive at the old school’s outdoor basketball court. Dylan looked at Porter and grinned.
“When did Rambo get here?” he said, referring to the way Porter had dressed.
“C’mon, admit it.” Porter waved his hands up and down his body like he was on display. “I look good.”
Xavier was the next to arrive. He walked in and was all business, quickly getting to his sword and grabbing his secondary blade before he even acknowledged Dylan and Porter.
“It’s a good day to die,” he said to the two men, and then he went to the gym to practice his moves.
Porter and Dylan looked at each other the same way, eyes wide open at Xavier’s comment.
“Isn’t that line from a movie?” Porter asked Dylan.
“Now that you say it, I think so.
As all of Hope’s battle-ready citizens gathered and prepared themselves on the old basketball court, the crow’s nest signaled that something was approaching. The weather had changed, as it did before every battle—but this time the sky turned a beautiful orange, almost like a sunset.
“OK, everyone.” Dylan got everyone’s attention by standing up on a bench. “We stand together. We stand for our children. We stand for Hope. We stand for faith. And most importantly, we must stand for God. Let’s pray.”
Dylan and everyone else kneeled down as Jim took Dylan’s place and gave a prayer.
“Dear Heavenly Father, forgive us for our sins that we have done and that you have undone. Guide us so that we may know your glory; protect us so that we may continue to serve you on Earth; bless us for we will do what must be done in your honor. Amen.”
When Jim was done, he handed his Bible to his wife, gave her a kiss, and picked up his sword. Dylan got back up on the bench and looked at everyone one last time.
“Let’s go do this, for His glory,” he said.
“For His glory!” everyone responded.
Dylan walked out to the street, and the army followed him to the gate.
Dylan, alongside Rodan, was the first to exit the gate. They made it onto the old highway and turned the corner at the old gas station. In the distance, they saw what was coming for their lives from the east.
“What on Earth is that?” said Greg as the evil army approached, led by a massive being. Its head looked like a bull, and its wings looked like those of a giant eagle.
“That, my friend, is Hagenti, a fallen angel who joined Lucifer in the first battle for heaven many millennia ago,” said Rodan.
Some in the army showed fear; others, like Dylan, Porter, and Xavier, maintained a fierce façade as they looked upon the dark angel, disgusted that he chose to betray God for his own glory.
“Spread out into a two-deep line and hold until I give the go ahead!” Dylan ordered.
His orders made it across the line and everybody moved accordingly.
“What is going on? Did they stop?” Jim asked Rodan.
It looked like the wambei and their leader, Hagenti, had stopped in their tracks about one hundred fifty yards from the Hope line. Hell’s troops just stood there as Hagenti stared Rodan down. The wambei looked like hyperactive puppies waiting to get released from their cages.
In a shocking move that no one saw coming, Hagenti grabbed the wambei closest to him and bit off its head. He then threw the body the length of a football field to Rodan’s feet.
“That was disturbing on so many levels,” Greg said as everyone looked down at the twitching, headless body. Greg’s was the only reaction anyone had time for, as a dangerously eerie howl came from the winged demon. It was the order to attack, and the wambei advanced rapidly toward the humans.
“Hold firm,” Dylan shouted as the ground began to shake with violent force. He was doing his best to keep himself in check; he wanted to run at them just as fast as they were running toward him.
Finally, when Dylan could see the wambei’s facial and blood dripping from Hagenti’s chin, he gave his order. “Two by two, attack!”
It was clear to everyone that the human army was outnumbered, but that didn’t bother any of them as they all ran toward the wambei in step with Dylan himself.
“I may need your help with Hagenti,” Rodan said to Dylan. “Like before, if we take out the leader, the rest will lose direction.”
Like in the other battles, things got messy and disorganized, but having the newcomers from Europe, especially Xavier, helped tremendously. Xavier proved his toughness right away. It showed in how he led his group all the way from Europe—he wanted to live, and he wanted to win, and he wasn’t going to let some mindless servant
of Satan kill him.
Rodan, Dylan, and Jim were in battle with Hagenti. The three-on-one fight was more lopsided than anyone would have thought. Hagenti was toying with the three men. He almost seemed bored with the fight, and at one point reached out with his tail and grabbed a young man named Leo, then slammed him to the ground, crushing him, all while keeping Rodan, Dylan, and Jim at bay.
Things were looking bad. The bodies of the humans started to build up. That’s when Dylan had an idea. He snuck out of the stalled fight with the demon and found Porter, who looked like he was having too much fun.
“Porter, can I borrow your baby? You know, the one I got for myself and you took over?”
Porter looked at the strap that was holding the Barrett on his shoulder. “Only if you promise to bring her back without a scratch.” Porter seemed like he was giving up one of his real children to a complete stranger.
Dylan grabbed the massive gun, and Porter pulled the strap over his head.
“Not a scratch, and be gentle. I just oiled her up, and she only has ten rounds left in the whole town,” Porter said.
Dylan thought he was going to cry, but before Porter shed a tear, he turned and cut the head of a wambei that got too close clean off.
Dylan made it back to Hagenti, and just in time too. It seemed the demon was about ready to kill Rodan and Jim.
“Hey, ugly, look over here!” Dylan shouted after he set the Barrett on its foldable stand and positioned himself to shoot right at Hagenti.
Rodan and Jim noticed what Dylan was doing and managed to escape Hagenti’s grasp just as Dylan squeezed the trigger not once, but twice. One of the massive bullets got Hagenti in the eye, and the other went straight through the demon’s throat. The beast tried to scream out, but all that came was a gurgling of black, tarry substance that must have been demon blood.
Hagenti fell to the ground with a thud, and the wambei’s organized fighting turned to chaos immediately. Most of them started to attack each other, ripping limps off of bodies at a rapid rate.