He was just about to say something when the junipers gave way to a great blackened clearing. A huge shape almost completely filled it. Burnt and broken trees lined each side of the clearing, and ash disguised parts of it, but it was instantly recognisable as an aircraft. A huge aircraft. Probably a 747 or 737 that had been travelling coast-to-coast.
Sam moved to stand at Gabriel’s shoulder. “What happened here?” he asked in an awed whisper.
She replied in her beautiful, musical voice, watching him carefully. “What do you think happened?”
Sam knew. The Rapture. The Rapture had taken the pilot and without the pilot, well, of course the plane had crashed. Sam nodded and moved towards the wreckage. Mounds that could only be bodies lay here and there around the shattered plane. Some had been uncovered and on closer inspection, looked like they had been gnawed on. Perhaps the coyote and cougars could survive after all.
Sam felt his stomach turn. He moved away from the corpses and crept gingerly amongst the wreckage. In the smashed shell of the plane, some of the bodies were still strapped in their seats. Most had been burnt beyond recognition. Any thoughts of finding food were dashed. Feeling nauseous, he backed out and rejoined Gabriel who had moved closer to the plane.
“Perhaps this is a good time to have a break,” said Gabriel.
Sam nodded in agreement. “But not …”
“Here. Yes, I know. We’ll move further away.”
“We should bury the bodies,” he said.
Gabriel shook her head. “We haven’t got time. There are two hundred and sixty seven bodies here. Do you know how long that would take?”
Sam shook his head, wondering how Gabriel knew exactly how many bodies there were.
She led him away from the crash site. They found a smaller clearing nearby and Sam set his pack down with an audible sigh. He took his sneakers off and began to massage his feet.
“You must be hungry,” said Gabriel.
“I was,” replied Sam. “My appetite just disappeared.”
“You have to eat,” said Gabriel. “We’ve still got a long way to go and you’ll need the energy.” She picked up his pack and began rummaging around, pulling out some tins and his cooking gear.
Sam sat down on a rock and put his sneakers back on. He watched as Gabriel prepared his lunch. Despite himself, he watched fascinated at the ease of her movements. She moved like a dancer — no, not a dancer. Something infinitely more graceful and smoother and somehow more animal like. She was very efficient too, almost like she had done this before.
“Where did you learn to use a gas cooker?” he asked, surprising himself with his bluntness. “And couldn’t you just, you know, use magic or something?” He wriggled his fingers dramatically.
Gabriel smiled and shrugged without taking her eyes off what she was doing. “I’ve been around for a long, long time. Thousands of years, in fact. Don’t you think I would’ve spent at least some of that time here on earth amongst you humans? And as for magic, as you call it — I could use it but doing it this way makes me feel more in touch.”
Sam couldn’t argue with the logic.
Gabriel handed him a tin of beans and a spoon. “Careful,” she said. “It’s hot.”
It was indeed hot — hot enough to burn his fingers, but he didn’t much mind. Heat had very little effect on him. He started eating and realized that his appetite had returned with a fury. As he began to shovel the beans into his mouth, Gabriel looked on, her mouth crooked into a tiny lop-sided smile.
“Aren’t you hungry?” he managed to ask in between mouthfuls.
Gabriel shook her head. “I don’t eat.”
Sam shrugged and continued eating.
“What was it like?” he asked when his mouth was no longer full. “I mean, long ago.”
“Not too different to now,” she said. “I watched when Noah loaded up the Ark. I watched what became of those who were left behind. The misery, the anger, the terror. Some things don’t change. Take these times for instance. Humans knew He would return at some point — in fact, some of you even tried to predict his return — and yet most did nothing about it. Carried on living their lives, murdering, stealing, cheating. Fighting wars, killing innocents. He tried to warn you. Think about the amount of natural disasters that have occurred in the last few years. Earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, flooding, plague and pestilence. Animals mysteriously dying in their thousands. No-one paid any attention, and now look what’s happened to them.”
Sam set his empty tin of beans down carefully beside him. “Yes, but many of these people,” he said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the plane wreckage, “were innocent. Did they really deserve this?”
“Why is it that I always end up having these conversations?” Gabriel sighed. “The answer is yes and no. Yes, they deserved it because they didn’t believe in Our Lord. And no, they didn’t because they were innocent of sin. They made their choice, however. God has a plan for all of us — including the innocent. Don’t worry unduly about them. Their souls are safe.”
“And what about that family at the airport? Did they deserve to get taken by those demons?”He stormed to his feet, suddenly feeling angry and a little helpless. Despite his efforts, Sam still felt like he hadn’t done enough to save them.
Gabriel looked him squarely in the eye. “Yes, they did. None of them were innocents. They were guilty of many sins.”
“Even the children?” Sam cried.
Gabriel nodded. “Yes, even the children. You talk of things of which you have no knowledge.”
“At least I care,” he shouted back. “Which is more than I can say for you!”
With that, he stalked off. Part of him realized he was being childish, but he didn’t care. He walked for a while through the silent ash, kicking at it and watching the flurries slowly drift and subside.
The annoying thing was that Gabriel was probably right. How would he know who was innocent and who wasn’t? It just seemed a little unfair. Like his situation. How unfair was it that he had been left behind while Hikari and Aimi got to go to paradise? Was it his fault that his mother had been seduced by a demon? He realized then that he wasn’t angry with Gabriel. How could he be angry with an Archangel, a being that had been around for thousands of years and had seen the best and worst that humanity could offer? A being that knew far more about everything than he did.
He felt his anger subside. Eventually he made his way back to the clearing to find Gabriel waiting for him. His pack was on her shoulder.
“Sorry,” he said meekly, unable to meet her eyes.
“Apology accepted. Everyone makes mistakes. You are part-human after all.” Smiling, she handed him his pack. “You should get going. You’ve got a long way to go before nightfall.”
“What? You’re not coming with me?”
Gabriel shook her head. Despite the gloom, Sam noticed the way her hair seemed to glow as she moved her head side to side, as if it was absorbing and reflecting what light there was in the sky.
“No. Do you think you’re the only one I have to help while I’m here? Satan has many plans afoot and you are a part of only one of them.”
When she saw his face fall, she patted his shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry. You’ll see me again.”
“When?” he asked, embarrassed to find that his voice was quavering.
“Soon,” she replied mysteriously. “Now, you need to do something for me.”
“What?” he replied, convinced that he was starting to sound like a moron.
“Are you familiar with Black Ridge?”When he nodded, she continued. “In case you get lost or your memory fails you, it’s in that direction,” she said, pointing to the west. “There’s a large group of humans holed up in some canyons around there. They’ve managed to hold off the demons until now but that won’t last much longer. I need you to help them.”
“Why?” he asked. “I thought you didn’t want to help non-believers.”
“While that’s true, there ar
e a large number of innocents amongst them. They do not deserve to be taken to Hell, because that is where they will go if they are captured. He will not allow that. You are His instrument here and my job was merely to point you in the right direction. You need to get there before they do. I know it won’t be easy — they are unlikely to trust you but you must do your best. I know you will.” She winked at him and spread her wings. It was like the sun had just come out. The glow bathed him in warmth and made him feel stronger. Suddenly his feet didn’t ache any more.
Gabriel bent her knees slightly and launched herself gracefully into the air.
“What about the Antichrist?” he yelled after her.
Her voice floated back at him. “All in good time.”
Sam watched her go until she was just a tiny speck in the sky, feeling vaguely jealous that he didn’t have wings. It would make life a lot easier. Putting his pack around his shoulders, he set off in the direction of Black Ridge. According to his calculations, it was still thirty miles away and there was only about four hours left of daylight. He would have to hurry.
With a resigned sigh, he began to jog.
It was almost nightfall when he got to Black Ridge. He knew he should’ve been exhausted but whatever Gabriel had done to him made him feel like he’d just completed a short sprint. He was slightly out of breath but that was about it. Even his feet didn’t hurt anymore.
He found the cave complex just as the red moon broke through the dark clouds above. He’d been to these caves twice before and even explored them, so he knew them relatively well and had a pretty good idea where the survivors would be.
The main entrance was heavily defended. They had built a ten foot palisade out of thick trunks, with sharpened points at the top. A fighting platform ran around it, giving the dozen guards or so that he could see a clear view of the surrounding countryside. The space directly in front of the palisade had been cleared of all vegetation, creating a killing ground. Two arc lights were mounted on long posts, and Sam could hear the tell-tale whine of a generator.
They were well organized, that was for sure. Sam completed a quick circuit and found that all the other entrances to the caves were securely boarded up. The only way demons could enter was through this main entrance. They must also have discovered the demons vulnerability to iron. There was no other way they could have lasted so long.
Although they couldn’t spot him where he sheltered behind a dying juniper, he could see them clearly. A number of the guards carried guns. There was even a heavy machine gun mounted on a tripod with a nervous-looking man attending it. He wondered how effective they would be against demons.
He was about to get a closer look when it was like the sun exploded in his eyes. Someone had switched the arc lights on. He shielded his eyes with his arm and melted even further back into the trees.
Gabriel had said they couldn’t last much longer but he failed to see why. Possibly because they were going to run out of food? That didn’t make any sense. One day wouldn’t make much difference and the survivors he’d seen, while thin and gaunt, certainly didn’t seem to be in any danger of spontaneously dying of hunger. There was something else going on here. What hadn’t Gabriel told him?
He supposed he’d soon find out. It was full night now and the demons couldn’t be far away. In fact, he could just about sense something coming out of the east. It was like an itch he couldn’t scratch. Their presence wasn’t strong as yet, but it was getting stronger.
They were coming from the direction of Bryce Valley City. He knew it was over there from studying maps when he was planning his training runs. It wouldn’t do to blunder into a strange city unexpectedly. The city was several miles away, so the demons would presumably take some time to cover the distance. He’d seen them move though, and while not quite as fast as him, they could eat up the miles at a fearsome rate.
He slid even further into the trees, taking out his swords and examining them in a patch of moon light. They were beautiful things. He never got tired of looking at them. Recent action had done little or no damage to them, but he could see one tiny nick in the katana.
Careful not to actually touch the blade itself, he pulled his whetstone out of a pocket and began systematically to sharpen it. The rhythmic scraping sound was oddly comforting and he moved on to the wakizashi without being consciously aware of it.
As he worked, he found himself wondering why exactly the demons had to travel from one place to the next. Surely, when they arrived on Earth, they had travelled directly from the Abyss. Why couldn’t they just appear wherever they liked? It was something he’d thought about when he was in Jacob’s Ladder. The demons always seemed to come from somewhere — they just didn’t materialise in front of him. If they had, he would’ve been hard pressed to stay alive as long as he had. It was something he planned to ask Gabriel the next time he saw her — if there was, in fact, going to be a next time.
The demons were getting closer, a huge, surging mass of them — much larger than the band that had attacked him at the airport. There were other demons with them too. He felt the surging hot rage that was the Astaroth. And something else. Something he had never encountered before.
It was important to keep the mind and hands occupied so as not to lose one’s nerve. Lately, he mused, he’d become very good at waiting but it was still good to keep busy and not let the mind dwell on things that hadn’t even happened yet. The waiting or expectation before a battle, he had read, was meant to be the worst. Soldiers would often scare themselves imagining what the enemy was like even before they had encountered them. He’d seen the enemy though and they weren’t so scary anymore.
He let out a long intake of breath and shrugged, setting to work with a will. When the demons arrived, he’d be ready for them with the sharpest blades known to human — or demon — kind. It was the sort of greeting he was almost looking forward to.
He met the first wave well in advance of the killing ground. Sam thought that was wise given that the survivors all seemed to be armed with guns. Surely they must have somehow loaded the guns with iron shells and he wasn’t about to take the risk of getting hit. In the darkness, he could easily be mistaken for something else.
A score or so Lemure broke off from the main pack and charged towards him, screaming, as the rest continued towards the cave complex. This in itself was odd. Normally the demons would throw themselves at him in great numbers. In this instance, the prize of the humans was obviously greater.
His swords were already out and he sliced through at least five with his first pass, his blades whirling in a concerted blur too fast for the human eye to follow. He pivoted and met them again, continuing to duck and weave as the Lemure swung and clawed at his body. His swords wove in intricate patterns and forms honed by continuous practice. Demon after demon fell before him. He felt minor wounds being inflicted but he ignored them. Above him he heard at least two Astaroth roar impotently, the closely-packed trees making it impossible for them to land. Behind him in the forest, he heard the first of the guns open up.
The last of the Lemure fell under his blades and disappeared. He stopped and listened. Something else was coming towards him. Something big. Even over the roar and screams and bark of gunfire, Sam could hear trees splintering and crashing to the ground. He edged back behind the cover of a tree and watched.
From the darkness emerged demons he had never seen before, not even in Hikari’s tome of Demonology — massive beasts that smashed aside trees as if they were twigs. Larger than the Astaroth, they were heavily built with tree trunk legs. Like the Astaroth, they had four arms, each one as big as a grown man. Huge curling ram horns adorned their black, goat-like faces. On their backs were large wicker baskets, and each one carried a heavy stone mallet.
He edged back even further behind his sheltering tree but he needn’t have worried. They were not interested in him. In fact, they didn’t even spare him a glance as they stomped past. One came so close that one of its great muscled arms brushed ag
ainst his tree. The tree shuddered and almost fell, raining ash all over him. He counted three of them, and as they passed, he stepped out from his concealment and stared at their backs. At first he thought that their skin was black but now seeing them closer up, he realized it was black armour. Similar to the Astaroth but clearly much thicker. Thicker, presumably, to stop bullets.
Sam raced around behind them, careful to avoid their path. In the clearing, the battle was in full swing. As he suspected, the survivors had armed themselves with iron shells. The roar of gunfire was deafening as whole swathes of Lemure were taken out by the deadly hail. The arc lights were causing great confusion in their ranks. As soon as the Lemure dashed out from the sheltering darkness of the tree line and met the blazing light, they looked disorientated. Demon after demon fell before the withering fire. The killing ground was working; it looked like the humans were holding for now.
All that changed in a moment. The Lemure fell back and with a crash of falling trees, the horned demons emerged into the light. Even from this distance, Sam could see the nictitating membrane on their great red eyes. As soon as the arc light fell upon them, the protective membrane slammed shut. Of course, that made them almost blind. One charged, shaking the ground as it moved, shells sparking and bouncing off its armour. It missed the palisade completely, blundering into a rock wall with a thunderous collision, sending fragments of rock raining down on the clearing.
It fell to the ground, stunned, as bullets tore into its unprotected flanks. The other two charged. Sam heard the heavy machine gun open up. He could actually see the dents from the bullet impacts, but other than that, the horned demons weren’t even slowed. One almost missed the palisade like its unfortunate comrade but at the last second it swerved, clipping the side of the defensive barrier immediately next to one of the mounted arc lights. The light toppled, smashing to the ground. Suddenly, half the killing ground was in shadow.
The last horned demon hit the palisade square on, the great sharpened tree trunks splintering under its huge bulk. As three men on the fighting platform fell screaming to the ground, the horned demon scooped them up and flung them into the wicker basket on its back.
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