by Yvi Valentin
“Let’s see what he does first. If he doesn’t do anything we’re just going to keep following him and derail his plans.”
I watched Lucifer closely to see what he was going to do next. I was scared it was going to be bad but Andy was scared enough for the both of us so I had to be the strong one this time. It felt like we spent a long time staring each other down. It reminded me of an old country western where the two people would stand there for a while before they got their guns out and attempt to shoot one another. Except neither of us had guns and I knew he wasn’t going to hurt me as long as I was needed. He flashed me a devilish smile and I knew something horrific was about to happen. Within seconds there was an explosion between us.
Chapter 21
Andy and I were frozen in shock of what just happened. There was chaos all around us. The building that blew up was a hotel and we knew there were a lot of people inside. We looked at each other and nodded in agreement as we ran inside. We needed to save as many people as we could. I had a lot of healing to do.
“Do you think you could heal people if you tried?” I asked as we ran through the burning building searching for people in need of our help.
“I’m not sure…I could try,” Andy said hesitantly.
I saw a man lying unconscious on the ground and went over to check his pulse and when I felt one, I placed my hands on his body and healed him. He woke up unsure of what was going on and I escorted him out of the building. I went back in and started the process all over again. Andy made me aware of any people I could save that he couldn’t and led them outside. We made our way up a few floors where I noticed a lot of people lying among the debris. They were scattered all over the place. It was obvious this was where the blast originated.
My heart broke as I realized there were no survivors on this floor. It was a substantial amount of deaths and I knew what that meant. Andy and I kept going, hoping to save as many people we possibly could. We soon discovered there were multiple bombs and no more survivors. I couldn’t stand knowing Lucifer had won this round.
People who looked like they were with the bomb squad entered the floor. I noticed they were carrying guns. “Andy we need to get out of here. I think they’re working for Lucifer,” I told him telepathically. Andy rushed me into an open room where we hid from the men who were without a doubt looking to kill as many people they could.
“Once they pass this room, we’re going to get out as quietly as possible,” Andy’s voice rang in my head.
It seemed to take forever for the men to walk past the room we were in. I figured they were checking the pulse of each person in the hall. The second they walked past the room, we opened the window as quickly and quietly as possible and flew out. Seconds later we were standing in front of our New Jersey home.
Once we got inside we knew we had to go tell Michael everything that happened right way. We looked around the house to see if Jen and Brian were back yet only to find them in their bed sleeping. I knew they were still with Michael and Andy and I had to get there fast. We got into our bed and got ready for the trip to critical issues. We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy thing for Michael or anyone to hear. I was definitely not looking forward to giving them the news.
We were about to walk into critical issues when the door opened. It was Brian and Jen.
“Hey, we were just about to go tell you everything,” Jen said.
“Well there’s more, come on.” I rushed through the door and straight to the conference room where Michael sat.
“Aimee, I didn’t expect to see you here,” Michael said. “Did something happen?”
“Lucifer managed to kill a lot of people,” I answered in complete horror.
“There was nothing we could do to stop him,” Andy added.
“What happened?” Brian and Jen asked in unison.
“There was an explosion in a hotel,” I started. “Multiple bombs were planted and on top of that, there were people sent in to kill any survivors.”
“We managed to save a few people, but the majority of them died,” Andy added.
“Alright, we need to come up with a new plan,” Michael said. He motioned for us to sit down and we followed his lead. “Lucifer has started the apocalypse which means a lot of other things will start happening soon.”
“Can we stop it?” Andy asked.
“It is possible, but it won’t be easy,” Michael started. “You’re going to have to act quickly if you want to put an end to all of this.”
“What do we have to do?” I asked.
“The first thing we need to do is make sure you’re safe at all times. With the apocalypse coming, Lucifer is going to try even harder to get you back,” Michael answered.
“What if he does manage to capture me?” I asked. “Is there a way I can stop him from within?”
“You can control him,” Michael said.
“He and everyone who works for him constantly keep themselves protected from being controlled,” I pointed out.
“You are going to have to tear apart their shields,” Michael replied.
“Is that even possible?” Brian asked.
“For Aimee it is,” Michael answered.
He was serious but it seemed impossible to me. None of this seemed like it could have ever been possible. I was more than ready to wake up from my nightmare. It was way too much for me to handle. I knew it was possible to have dreams within dreams but this seemed excessive. I must have been in a coma or something for all of this to be happening within a single dream. I couldn’t believe any of it was real; I didn’t want to believe it. It was far from possible. I wondered if there was a way I could wake myself up.
“Aimee, are you paying attention?” Andy asked as he shook me.
I snapped out of my thoughts. “Yeah, I have to break down shields to be able to control everyone who is protecting them self from it.”
“You missed the part about how you can do that,” Brian said.
Everyone seemed irritated with me. This was a serious situation and I wasn’t doing them any favors by questioning my sanity again. “I figured I would do it the same way I do everything else.”
Andy was amused. “Pretty much.”
“So what do we do until Lucifer manages to get his hands on me?” I asked. Everyone was shocked by my words. I knew they didn’t want to think about that being a possibility but part of me knew it was going to happen anyway. “Okay…if he manages to get his hands on me.”
“You have to stop the horsemen,” Michael said.
“How do we do that?” Jen asked.
“You have to find them first,” Michael started. “Look for the signs each of the horsemen will leave. There will be serious illnesses breaking out in cities and violent outbursts in other places. Each horseman brings something different to the world.”
“So once we find them, how do we stop them?” Andy asked.
“They each carry a different object,” Michael explained. “These objects give them their powers. You have to figure out what each horseman’s object is and take it away.”
“Is that all?” I asked. “It seems easy enough.”
“Don’t be fooled. This is harder to pull off than it seems,” Michael warned. “No one knows what the objects are, but I do know they will be heavily guarded. They wouldn’t want anything to happen to them so look out for anything the horsemen seem overly protective of. It will be an object that seems very simple and won’t stand out.”
“So all we have to do is take the object away from the horsemen and it’ll be over?” Jen asked.
“No, taking the objects away is just the first step.” Michael seemed troubled by what he was about to say next. It was a weird experience. Something seemed off about it to me but I couldn’t figure out why.
“What do we have to do after we get the objects?” I asked, unsure if I wanted to hear the answer.
“They all have to be destroyed…together.” It didn’t seem too bad. I wondered why Michael seemed so troubled a
bout the whole thing. “Once you have an object, there will be a target on your back until you give it back or destroy it. This is a very dangerous mission.”
“So we have to destroy all of the objects at the same time,” I started.
“And we have to keep the horsemen away from them long enough to destroy them,” Brian added.
“Not to mention the fact that Lucifer will be trying harder than ever to get Aimee on his side,” Andy chimed in.
“So how do we destroy these objects once we have them all?” Jen asked.
“There is a specific ritual that has to be done. You have to do exactly what I say or it will not work. It is best if I give you the ritual once you have all the objects.” Michael paused for a moment as he watched our reactions to everything he said. “I think we should meet at least once a week for updates, more often if something significant happens.” He stood up and escorted us to the exit of the department. “I will see you all next week.”
We exited critical issues and found ourselves back in our New Jersey house. Andy and I met Brian and Jen downstairs in the living room. We tried to act as if everything was normal, but it didn’t work out that way.
“How soon do you think the horsemen will come along?” Jen asked.
“I don’t know,” Brian answered.
“We should have asked Michael when we were talking to him,” Andy pointed out.
“He made it seem like it was going to start right away,” I said.
“Then we should start looking for signs now,” Andy suggested.
“How are we supposed to do that?” Brian asked.
“We could look through news headlines for anything that hints at the horsemen’s presence,” Jen recommended.
“That’s a good idea,” I announced. “Let’s get started.”
“We’ll each take one horseman,” Andy ordered. “I’ll look for Pestilence, Brian you look for War, Jen look up Famine and Aimee look for Death.”
We each grabbed a laptop and started looking for headlines that related to our assigned horseman. It was hours of silence and typing. There were rare moments where we would talk during food breaks, but for the most part the atmosphere was serious and boring.
“Have any of you found anything?” I asked while closing my laptop.
“Not a thing,” Brian and Jen said together.
Andy’s eyes were glued to the screen of his laptop. “I might have something.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“There’s been an outbreak of an unknown disease in Minnesota,” Andy answered.
“Let’s get going,” Brian suggested.
“Right now?” I couldn’t figure out why Andy was surprised by Brian’s suggestion.
“Yeah, we can’t waste any time,” Brian said.
“Shouldn’t we come up with a plan before we go over there?” Andy asked.
“What else do we need to plan?” Jen asked. “We go in and look for the horseman, find out which object he’s using, take it and run like hell.”
“Where would we find him?” Andy asked.
“We could go to the hospitals and find out what the infected people have in common. That might be our best way to find Pestilence,” I recommended.
Andy tried to suppress his hesitation towards going in without coming up with a proper plan but I could see right through it. “Alright, let’s go.”
Chapter 22
We landed in Minnesota and headed straight for the nearest hospital. I wondered how hard it was going to be to find Pestilence. This was the most important job I had been given so far. If we couldn’t find the horseman, we couldn’t go through with any of our other plans. I was scared of failing and letting everyone down.
“How are we going to get into the hospital?” I asked.
“That’s a good question,” Brian said.
“Don’t worry,” Andy replied mischievously. “I’ve got it covered.”
“How?” Jen and I asked simultaneously.
“Ever heard of a little thing called the CDC?” he asked as he pulled out CDC IDs.
“How did you get these?” I was stunned. I never would have expected Andy to have this up his sleeve.
“I figured they would come in handy considering the fact that one of the horsemen causes a massive outbreak of disease.” Andy’s smile made my heart melt.
“Do you really think we can pass off as CDC?” Jen asked.
“There’s nothing wrong with the way any of us are dressed,” Andy began. “All we have to do is act the part.”
“How do we do that?” Brian asked. “I don’t know anything about disease control or anything medical for that matter.”
“I don’t either but it’s all about attitude,” Andy said. “If you show confidence, they won’t doubt that you are who you say you are.”
We made it to the hospital and I was surprised we managed to get in to see the patients who were infected by the mysterious disease. They looked like they were barely alive. Their faces were very pale and there were dark circles around their eyes. I felt horrible to see them that way and tried not to let it get in the way of what I needed to do.
Andy turned to the doctor who was helping us. “We’re going to need the files of all the patients with the symptoms of this illness.”
“Right away,” said the woman.
“Do you think this is Pestilence?” Jen asked.
“It looks that way,” Andy responded.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to get the information we need from the files,” I added.
“I hope so, we don’t have any other leads,” Andy pointed out.
“Here are the files you requested,” said the doctor as she handed them to Andy.
“Is there a place we can go to look these over in private?” Andy asked.
“Yeah, you can use my office,” she answered.
She led us to her office and the four of us set up shop. The amount of files we had to look through was daunting. I grabbed a few and started reading as everyone else did the same. I couldn’t find any connections between the first few patients besides the illness. We all took pictures of each file so we could go over them back at the hotel. Once all the pictures were taken, we gave the files back to the doctor and went back to the hotel.
We spent most of the day and night looking through countless files and doing background checks. It was boring and tiring work but we had no other way of tracking down the horseman. During our breaks from reading we talked about the files and tried to find connections. All we learned was that everyone suffering from the disease was local.
“What if the horseman isn’t stationary?” Brian asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean what if Pestilence is going around town infecting people?” he asked.
“It would explain why we can’t find a connection between the infected people,” Andy supposed.
“So what do we do now? Walk around town and hope we come across the horseman?” I asked.
“We don’t even know what any of them look like,” Jen pointed out.
“It’s a suicide mission!” Andy shouted.
“We don’t have any other choice,” I said. “We can’t sit here and let all of those people in the hospital die.”
“What happens if one of us gets infected?” Jen asked.
“Let’s hope I’ll be able to heal you,” I replied. “But let’s keep up a shield from everything just in case.”
“We don’t know what we’re dealing with here.” Andy was scared, we all were. We all knew the danger but it slowly became real. “The horsemen are in a class of their own, we don’t know if any of our abilities will work on them or any problems they cause.”
“But it doesn’t hurt to try,” I argued. “We all know how dangerous this is, but we have to do something to save the world. We can’t just let the apocalypse come without at least trying to stop it.”
“You’re right,” Andy sighed. “Let’s go look for Pestilence.” I could tell he wa
sn’t thrilled but none of us were.
We left the hotel and started walking around town. We weren’t sure what exactly we were looking for which made our job trickier. I looked for anyone exhibiting signs of the unknown disease. I hoped it would help us find Pestilence and we would be one step closer to putting a stop to the apocalypse. We decided to stop at a diner for a lunch break.
“What do you think we should be looking for?” Jen asked.
“People who show symptoms of the disease that’s been going around,” Brian answered.
“This is brutal,” I said.
“Yeah, we still don’t have any leads,” Andy added.
I looked up to see a man walk through the door. He looked very sick, but not the same as everyone stuck in the hospital. He bumped into one of the waitresses who immediately showed the same symptoms as the patients in the hospital.
“Guys I think that’s Pestilence over there,” I whispered.
“The sick guy?” Brian asked as he turned around to look.
“Yeah, he bumped into that waitress over there and she instantly turned into that,” I answered. “We have to help her.”
Andy grabbed my arm, keeping me from going to help the woman. “What if you get infected too?”
“I can’t just let her suffer,” I argued. “Just make sure the sick guy doesn’t come near me.”
I kept an eye on Pestilence as I walked over to the waitress and focused on taking the illness away. It took a while but eventually the waitress went back to normal. I was glad it worked; it gave me hope that I could somehow keep the world from ending.
Andy grabbed my arm and practically dragged me out of the diner. “Aimee, we have to go now.”
“What happened?” I asked. “Why did we have to rush out of there?”
“Pestilence was going to infect you,” Jen answered.
“You know he’s going to follow us now, right?” I pointed out.
“Good, let him follow,” Brian challenged.
“How is that a good thing?” Andy asked in a panic.
“Because if he’s following us we can watch him and find out what object we need to steal,” Jen explained.