by V J J Dunn
Allie snorted to herself over that phrase; it had been one of Reg’s favorites, back in the Old Age. Back then, he was a big Texan who called it like it was. Allie had met him the day nearly his entire family had been killed by Neos — the human version of Lucifer’s army. He’d been like the father she’d never had, and in fact, he’d given her away during her wedding to Jaden.
Nick was Reg’s grandson.
She shook her head when her thoughts went back to the man she relied on in so many ways. He was her second in command, but he was also a friend, even though he had a tendency to be grouchy and hard. But they had a good relationship, she thought. Maybe an awkward and strange one, but a relationship nonetheless.
Not a romantic one though, although that “not quite a kiss, but maybe it could have been” back in the Hall left her questioning that. But she wasn’t even sure if she could have that type of relationship.
But then, Robin and Ed were married. So were Li Wei and Abedi. And several dozen other Remnant couples.
The problem was, she was their leader. In charge of all two hundred plus Remnants. It just didn’t seem right for her to be considering that kind of relationship with one of her… underlings.
Of course, Nick was directly below her. Second in charge. It wasn’t like he was—
“Wait up!”
Allie was startled out of her thoughts by none other than the object of her thoughts. She bit back the groan that threatened to escape as Nick trotted up next to her. He was the reason she’d left the Hall, to get away from him and her confusing feelings. Yet, here he was. She sighed heavily.
Nothing ever went her way.
“Sup?” she asked him, feigning a casual attitude she definitely wasn’t feeling. Nick glanced at her, then looked straight ahead and didn’t say anything. He swallowed a few times and had a mouth twitch that she’d never seen before. If she didn’t know it was insane, she’d swear the guy was nervous.
She wasn’t sure Nervous Nick was someone she wanted to know. Tough Nick, Rough Nick, Ultra-Focused Nick and even Super Grouchy Nick… those were guys she was familiar with, guys she could count on. Nervous Nick was making her… nervous.
“Uh, well, I actually had gone to the Hall to, um, find you,” he said. “I went to your quarters and you weren’t there, and you weren’t with Abba, so…”
Allie waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t.
“And?” she prompted as she stopped walking and turned to him. Nick continued walking for a bit before he realized she’d stopped, then he turned and walked back to her.
He reached up and ran a hand over the back of his neck as he looked everywhere and anywhere but at her. Yeah, he’s nervous. What the heck?
“Well, I was hoping that, uh, during our break, that we could, you know, like, uh, see each other…” he huffed out the last bit, like he was frustrated.
Or embarrassed.
“You mean, you want to go on a date, Chachi?” she squealed as she clasped her hands to her chest, then laughed. Nick looked at her like she’d lost her mind.
Allie was probably the only one in the Millennium Period who had a love of Old Age seventies television shows and movies. Her jokes and references were usually lost on people.
“Never mind,” she muttered and realized that her attempt at humor wasn’t helping Nick’s nerves. Or hers. She took a deep breath and let it out on a heavy exhale, then made a decision she hoped was the right one.
“I would like to ‘see you’,” she told him, using air quotes that were also lost on him. If they were going to try being a couple, she was going to have to school Nick on Old Age… everything.
“I’m, uh, not sure how it’ll work and all, and we should probably talk to Abba first…”
“I already did,” Nick admitted, his cheeks darkening as he glanced at her. “He said it was, quote, ‘About time’.” He chuckled at that and Allie laughed too.
She had never dated in the Old Age — she and Jaden had gotten together simply because they’d been thrown together while trying to survive — and she had no idea what people did in the new times.
“Well, okay, then. Um, so what? Do we just eat meals together in the Hall? Maybe hang out at each other’s quarters after hours? Do we hold hands during practice?” She laughed at that last part, because it was a ridiculous image in her mind.
Nick laughed with her and looked even more embarrassed. “I, uh, don’t know,” he hedged. “But all that sounds good to me. Except maybe the holding hands during practice part. That would make swinging a sword awkward.”
Allie laughed as her own cheeks heated again. The whole conversation was extremely awkward. And while she’d been secretly panting after Nick for hundreds of years and the idea of “seeing him” was very appealing, she was suddenly wishing they could just go back to the way things had been — her being bossy, him being grouchy… and ignoring her attraction to him.
But apparently that attraction went both ways, which shocked the socks off her. She had no idea Nick was interested in her that way. The angels had teased her about it, mostly Zad and Metatron, but she’d ignored them, thinking they were just being jerks. But it seemed maybe they were right.
They walked silently through the Gardens, each lost in their own thoughts. Allie loved the Gardens, with the thick ground cover, towering trees that provided a dense canopy for shade, flowering bushes dispensing rich perfumes into the air and especially all the animals. Now that they were in the “new and improved age,” those that once were predators were now docile… and even loved to be petted.
As if sensing her thoughts, a grizzly bear lumbered out of a wooded area and ambled over to them. Nick laughed and scratched him behind the ears while the bear leaned on Allie, trapping her against a tree.
“Oof, big guy, you’re a little heavy,” she wheezed, the understatement of the Millennium, since he was almost ten times her body weight. The bear immediately shifted his weight back and gave her an apologetic look. He then sat down and rolled over onto his back, putting his legs up in the air.
Allie laughed and rubbed his belly. “No harm done, sweetie.”
She scratched the bear until he dozed off, then they continued on their walk, again without speaking. After a few minutes, Allie turned to Nick.
“So, have you been as bored as I have this past week?”
He snorted out a laugh. “Yeah. How much longer do we have to torture ourselves with this ‘vacay’ thing?”
Allie smirked at him. “I’m thinking we’ll call it off after tomorrow.” Although, now that she and Nick were going to — whatever it was they were going to do with this new relationship thing — it would be nice to have some more down time with him.
But, honestly, more than anything else, Allie was wishing for a fight.
That thought had barely formed when she got her wish.
Chapter 2
H EAD TO CHENGDU.”
Abba’s voice in her head startled Allie and she jumped. Nick, too, startled and they looked at each other, grinning. Finally, a reprieve from the boredom. By unspoken agreement, they transferred back to the Hall.
The rest of the team was assembled in the Hall, awaiting orders. Allie loved that about the Remnants; they always knew exactly what to do. Of course, they’d had a thousand years of training for moments like these.
She was surprised that the team was already being called out. Abba had told — aka, ordered — Allie to give the team a rest, because, as He said, “Lucifer won’t be causing trouble immediately. He needs time to get established once again.”
Apparently, a week was all the douche needed to cause problems.
Of course, he’d had a head start with a good number of demons sneaking out of The Pit early. Even though the Remnants and angel warriors had sent quite a few demon escapees back to the bowels of the earth, Allie knew there were still a lot roaming free before The Releasing. They had probably been quietly gathering human enforcements and not causing any noticeable problems so they could r
emain free.
The team waited for the angel warriors to show, and it was just a blink of time before the huge winged men appeared before them. Allie was always thankful when the angels fought with them.
Without speaking, they all transferred to Chengdu as one.
The city had once been one of the most populated cities in the world, but after the Tribulation, the population had dropped to almost nothing. During the Millennium Period, though, the human numbers had shot back up, but the beauty of the place had never been regained.
In fact, it was now rather ugly, just like every other city in the Outer Zone.
Allie knew it wasn’t the haphazard architecture or the lack of flora and fauna that made the Zone cities ugly; it was the dreariness, the sinfulness, the depressive atmosphere, that made them so hideous.
The Remnants were Abba’s law enforcement, the “special force” that meted out justice during the Millennium, which was supposed to be a time of peace. Whenever sin occurred, the Remnants were on the spot, doling out the punishment that fit the crime.
Very few sins occurred in The City or the Paradise Gardens, where people lived close to Abba and His light. But the farther out you went, first to the Inner Circle and then the Outer Zone, the more prevalent sin and degradation became.
And was it ever prevalent in Chengdu.
The Remnants had had problems before The Releasing with riots in some Zone cities, but nothing like what was going on before them in Chengdu. It was complete and utter chaos.
“Whatever you do, do not open your senses now,” Metatron, the largest of the angels and Abba’s own Celestial Scribe, murmured to Allie as the group stood dumbstruck on a hill above the city. The huge angel was always telling her she needed to trust her senses more, so it said something now when he was telling her specifically not to open them.
She didn’t need to be told, though. Anyone with eyes could see this was not a time that you’d want to feel what others were feeling, to know what they were thinking.
Horrified screams drifted up to them and several of the Remnants cringed. The voices were definitely female and there was no doubt as to what might be happening to them. Male shouts also filled the air, along with the distinct roar of the demons.
Smoke filled the sky and Allie glanced up at Metatron. “You gonna use that rain thingy on this?” she asked him. The angel smirked down at her.
“It is not a ‘rain thingy’. The power is called ‘Cloud Burst’.”
Allie rolled her eyes. “Whatev, Wet-atron. Just thinking this is a good time to let it pour.”
He sighed and gave her his usual scowl whenever she used one of her ridiculous nicknames for him. Allie couldn’t help it — she loved teasing him. She only did it because he always got so bent out of shape over it. He and Zad were her favorite angels, and Allie might even secretly like Metatron a tiny bit more. Not that she’d ever admit that.
Metatron stepped away from the others, unsheathed his huge sword, then spread his arms out to the side. He then pulled his arms together, like he was scooping bubbles up in a bathtub. Allie glanced up and saw the clouds rushing in over the city as he did so. Metatron’s Cloud Burst thing was probably the coolest thing she’d ever seen.
When the clouds gathered together to form one massive cloud over the city — which shockingly took just a few moments — Metatron then brought his hands together over his head, pointed his sword at the cloud and shot a lightning bolt into it. That caused a chain reaction of lightning bright bolts of light zapping across the city-sized cloud.
And then the rain poured down.
Thankfully, the cloud hovered just over the city and not on the hill where they stood. Allie hated getting wet, especially when she was wearing her uniform.
Before, when Metatron made it rain on the rioting, burning city of São Paulo, the chaos ceased with the fires. This time, however, not only did the chaos continue, it seemed to increase.
Even the angels looked confused over it. And concerned. Needless to say, that did not give Allie the warm and fuzzies.
She sighed heavily. “Well, guess we need to get down there and see what’s going on,” she told the team. “Don’t forget that your lightning bolts won’t work with the angels around, so it’s all swordplay from here on out. Same as before — A Team, take the west end, B the east, C the north. My team, south.”
“Yeah, that last one went without saying,” Nick drawled and Allie pursed her lips, screwing them to the side. She hoped her look conveyed what she was thinking of him at that moment. Probably not, since he laughed.
She turned her back to him. “We’ll make this standard ops from here on out, so I won’t have to repeat myself, okay?” The team murmured agreement.
“Alright, let’s get going.”
The teams transferred in the directions they were given. Allie and her team were immediately bombarded by the fact that the chaos was much worse “on the ground” than it had been up on the hill. Women were being assaulted by demons everywhere they looked; children were cowering and hiding, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible; some men were trying to help the women, while others were cowardly joining the children.
Allie was starting to regret dividing the teams the way she had — hers was half the size of the other teams, only because she had the angels with her. Per Abba’s orders, Zad and Metatron were to stay with Allie at all times after The Releasing.
And it was all her fault.
Before he was released, Lucifer had put a bounty on Allie’s head, thanks to her smart mouth taunting him as he hung chained in the Pit. So far, none of the demons that had prematurely escaped The Pit seemed capable of cashing in on it.
But now, now that Lucifer was freed, Abba wasn’t taking any chances with Allie’s safety.
While she had a love-hate thing going on with having the two at her side nearly all the time, Allie had made Zad and Metatron promise that they’d let her be in charge. “I’m still gonna call the shots,” she’d told them when they’d left the Throne Room after Abba had given His orders. “The Remnants are used to me being in charge and they expect orders to come from me.”
“Well yeah, you are the ‘take-over queen’,” Zad had joked. Allie had growled at him, even if it was true.
While she was somewhat resentful of the need for the angels’ backup, at the moment she was wishing she’d had more of them… along with a boatload more Remnants. There was just so much going on in the city, it was difficult to decide what to take care of first.
The angels hovered behind her as she tried to make a decision over which disaster needed the most attention. She decided that the rest of D Team should start taking care of the assaults that were going on, and she and the angels would look for Sherone, the demon she was pretty sure was responsible for the rapes. Before she could bark out her orders, though, Metatron spoke.
“Karl, Abedi, Sol and Kate, you take that large building there and get the demons off those women,” he ordered as he pointed at a ramshackle red brick building, “Josef, Trudi, Erech and Lonz, that building over there. The rest of you, follow us.”
As Allie stood there with her mouth hanging open at the audacity of the guy — yeah, he was the Celestial Scribe and one of Abba’s closest angels, but still — Zad walked up to her and put his finger under her chin and pushed up gently.
“Take-over queen, meet your king.” He smirked at her, then had the nerve to whack her on the behind with his sword as he hurried to catch up to Metatron.
Aw, hel… heck no! Allie thought as she hurried to catch up to the two Heavenly Host jerks.
“Hey, what’s up with that?” she asked Metatron as she poked him in the back with her finger. She wanted to use her sword, but she refrained.
The big jerk just shrugged. “You were hesitating, so I took action. There was no time for contemplating your options.”
Allie thought that he was probably right, and she had hesitated for a few seconds while she thought about what all was going on, but still…
“You promised me you wouldn’t try to take over!” she yelled at him as she ran to keep pace with the angels’ long legs. They were still in their “normal” form somewhat, but larger than if they were in The City. They were probably close one story tall now, but Allie knew they were capable of growing much, much larger.
“I didn’t try… I did,” he quipped, then sighed at her expression. “I’m not ‘taking over’, human,” he said as he glanced down at her. “I have just made the most logical decision since you seemed incapable of doing so.”
“Grrrr!” Allie growled at him, because she seemed incapable of speaking at that moment. A very strong desire to kidney punch him came over her, but she figured angels probably didn’t have kidneys. Plus, she would need to stand on something just to reach his kidneys now.
She didn’t have time to gripe any longer, because she saw that Metatron was leading them to a fountain in the center of what appeared to be a housing area. It wasn’t a decorative fountain, though, not like the fancy marble and gold sculptures that were in The City, but looked to be more utilitarian, like it was used for the city’s water supply.
Zad confirmed her thoughts. “They’re trying to poison the water,” he said as he pointed toward a handful of demons who were dumping jugs of what looked to be a noxious substance in the pool.
“That’s a wellspring from the Living Waters, which moves underground in this area,” Metatron explained. “If they poison it, it will likely infect all the other water. It might even reach the Paradise Gardens and The City.”
Allie frowned. Before she could ask, Zad further explained. “The water flows in a continuous circle around the earth. Near the Gardens and City, it’s above ground; out here, underground and harder to access. But it’s all connected.”
Great. She turned back toward the fountain, but before she could even pull her sword from the scabbard strapped to her back, the angels shot lightning bolts at the demons, who gurgled with this awful strangling sound before they dissolved into an inky, smoky substance that oozed into the ground.