Chapter 10

"Have you ever seen an African Driver Ant, Morgan?" Jayde asked, as she pulled her sword free from the chest of an enemy, then did a quick 80 degree turn to parry another attack. She stood back to back with her friend, facing a mob of townsfolk who looked anything but pleased with the discovery that there were angels in their town. A young man dressed in overalls and wearing muddy work boots, tried to kick Jayde in the knee, but with fluid grace she moved fractionally to the side causing the young man to miss his objective and loose his balance. He fell heavily to the ground. Another took his place, this one armed with a four pronged gardening fork which he shoved towards the angel’s chest. Deftly parrying the blow with her sword, Jayde casually backhanded the man with her left hand, sending him spinning away back into the angery mob. She continued with her narrative.

"They have a natural ability to find the weak spots in whatever they are attacking". Her sword rose to meet another foe, an older man who was carrying a cavalry saber in a manner that indicated he knew how to use it. With a feint to the right, her sword rose and fell, cleaving the man’s scull in two.

"They have even been known to kill large mammals. Not from a series of bites, like the Red Army Ant might do hoping for some kind of anaphylactic shock, but actually most people killed by the African Driver Ants die from asphyxiation."

Jayde’s sword blocked high at incoming blow and with a grunt she pushed her opponent backwards. He tried to stay on his feet by wind milling his arms, but was unable to do so and fell to the ground, where he was quickly lost under the oncoming horde.

"Yeeeess, they actually run into the mouths of larger mammals and enter the lungs killing the mammal by starving them of oxygen."

Morgan grimaced, wings swinging in an arc as he held off three men. "Stuff the entomology lesson and put a little effort into what we are doing here. Put that brain to work and find out why we got here and exactly where here is!" He was exasperated with both the situation and his friend’s odd sense of conversation. He ripped his sword across the chests of his aggressors, easily getting through their defense. A streak of blood hit him across the face and he shook his head impatiently to clear his vision. He looked around at the mass of enemy that were about to engulf them. Although the tiny town of Six Deep, Montana only had a population of 3,432, it seemed as if the entire town was now descending on them.

"You never have appreciated my conversational wit," Jayde stated with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well, it’s not helping the situation!" Morgan barked back, catching a glimpse of Jayde as he swung half way around to block a pitchfork which was aimed at her back. He noted that Jayde’s face was alight with laughter at her own morbid humor. This only further aggravated Morgan, whose arms were beginning to ache. Jayde’s attempt at jesting was beginning to annoy him.

Both angels were covered in blood, which streaked down their gold chest protectors and onto their Roman styled, leather skirts. Morgan’s dark brown hair was plastered to his scalp from sweat and blood. His bluish green eyes were heavy lidded, as he pushed himself to the end of his reserves. Jayde’s long black hair was also wet with sweat. Although pulled back into a ponytail, several strands had escaped and were sticking to her checks and neck. Despite the smile on her face, her face was lined with fatigue, but her deep brown eyes remained focused.

They had walked into town a short while earlier, intent on finding out where they were and, if possible, why they were where they were. The town had appeared deserted and in what could have not been better scripted by an old west movie producer, the two had walked to the center of town before they found themselves suddenly surrounded by what appeared to be the entire town population. Both Angels had begun to speak calmly and warmly, emoting friendship and peace to the crowd in an effort to sooth the anger they could feel flowing from the mob, but it was to no avail. Without warning the horde had rushed the two angels forcing them to defend themselves.

A large man in his late teens, who could have been a poster image for USMC, dove at Morgan. The angel tried to leap away from the attacker, however, he was a fraction too slow. The weight of the man impacted Morgan and the two fell haphazardly to the ground. Jayde spun on her heels and drove her sword into the man’s back killing him instantly. She then helped Morgan to his feet while beginning her next sentence,

"You see the problem is that your balance is in your shoulders. As a woman, my balance is in my hips."

"Shut up." Morgan said dryly

"Notice how I can easily move out of the way when they dive at me." As if on cue she nimbly moved away from a lunging attacker.

"You are not allowed to speak to me anymore" Morgan snarled, while entering back into the fray.

"Ah yes, but if you would just listen for a moment I could show you why you are inferior." Jayde responded with full eye batting, to increase the level of sarcasm. "I know it’s difficult for you men to understand why we women are so superior, but I am willing to sit at length….." Her sentence was interrupted as she put down another opponent, "...and explain it." Jayde laughed out loud.

"You know what your problem is Jayde…." Morgan said in a sharp tone, which changed to gentle chiding as he finished his sentence, "you will never be as pretty as me and that makes you crazy."

The battle continued, bodies now littering the ground around the two angels, but still their aggressors came on. They began to turn in unison, slowly moving backwards toward a small alley, keeping the crowd in front of them. They moved ten feet into the alley before standing their ground, using the narrowness of the passageway to control the number of people who were attacking them.

There was a crack of gunfire and the whine of a bullet ricocheting off the brick wall beside them. Jayde looked up. At the back of the crowd and slightly to the left of the alley entranceway stood a man holding a large pistol which was pointed in her general direction. He was waving the gun around, taking little care to aim and rapidly pulling the trigger, the bullets flying every which way. Several people in the crowd screams, then disappeared in the mass of bodies. The gunman’s face was twisted with rage, his focus on killing the angels. One of the indiscriminately fired bullets ripped open the head of man in front of Morgan, splattering grey brain matter over everyone nearby.

"Good Lord!" Morgan exclaimed. "These humans don’t care who they kill!"

"Why don’t we just fly out of here?" Jayde asked.

"No, something is wrong here. We must finish this. I can feel it. Don’t ask me why but I can feel it. We need to stop this crowd." Several more bullets whizzed by his head before he heard the blessed dry sound of the hammer falling on an empty chamber.

"Or we might just be torn limb from limb by these children," he added grimly, looking toward the crowd to target the man with the gun.

"I was afraid you were going to say that. But I understand. Something is wrong with these humans and, as much as I hate to admit when you’re right, I feel we need to be here."

Jayde whipped her wing at foot level putting the rank of men in front of her to the ground. As she recovered a large man wearing a football jersey jumped over those who had been knocked down. His movement showed that the shirt he was wearing had probably been earned, not just purchased. He lowered himself as he approached, his eyes focused on his target. Jayde caught a glimpse of a knife in his right hand.

"Move you hips!" Morgan yelled to her, as he pushed forward into the crowd trying to close this distance between himself and the man with the gun.

The attack had come so fast Jayde did not have time to prepare herself. She was caught flat footed and her wings in no position to give her lift. She did the only thing she could and prepared for the impact. The large man slammed into her, knocking her to the ground and taking all the air from her lungs. As they hit the ground their bodies sprawled apart. Momentarily disoriented, Jayde lost her concentration and her flaming sword disappeared. Mr. Football rose to his knees and leaned over her, stabbing ferociously at the gaps in her chest armor, scoring two successful hits under her left armpit. Jayde snarled in pain and wrapped both arms around the large attacker, holding her right hand just under his shoulder blades. Like Dracula coming out of his coffin, she used her wings and lifted them upright, then with two flaps she rose above the buildings, hovering. She stared directly into his hate filled eyes.

"I condemn you" she said in a whisper. Lightning flashed from the almost cloudless sky and struck her hand. His body bucked. She continued to stare into his eyes, seeing the look of anger fade and his eyes dull. His face now held the look of the condemned, the look of someone who knows his fate, the look of a man who knows he has been killed, but his body has yet to fully complete its passing. She slowly dropped her arms and he slipped slowly off her sword, hitting the ground with a solid thunk.

Morgan had finally managed to reach the gun wielding assailant. The man was standing to one side of the crowd, who were trying to avoid him. He was reloading his gun, but his fingers fumbled with the bullets, letting several drop to the ground. Morgan wasted no time in dispatching him. He had depleted a lot of energy to reach the man, hacking his way through the crowd, who had fallen back once he reached his objective. Now they swarmed him from all sides. His footing gave way and the weight of the people grabbing at him took him to the ground. Calling upon all his remaining strength, forcing his wings outward and his legs up, Morgan threw the bodies from him, launching some directly into the air. With his sword in hand he spun slowly in a circle keeping the temporarily stunned crowd at bay, while drawing in deep breaths of air in an attempt to recover. Although he was physically spent he had resigned himself to this fight. If needed he was willing to end his life in this battle. For the first time in a very long time, Morgan felt he was doing His work. It felt good, it felt right.

Jayde found herself momentarily alone. When she had taken to the air the crowd around her had turned towards Morgan. From her high vantage point she could see that Morgan was surrounded and about to be overrun. Although in tremendous pain, she hurtled forward and down, to plow into the crowd swinging her sword in broad, wide strokes, fighting her way to her brother in arms. The two stood back to back slowly spinning as the mob filled in its ranks to make sure no one would escape.

"I think we are a bit out numbered here, Jayde." Morgan said, gasping for air.

"Yeah, but the company isn’t bad." Jayde retorted.

"I must admit its nice fighting with someone who is almost as pretty as me." Morgan said with a smile in his voice as he steadied his breathing.

"Very true…and I am glad to be fighting with someone who is almost as manly as I." Jayde responded, her laughter ringing out.

The two angels crouched, waiting for the crowd to attack, their bodies tense prepared to fight as long as they were able. The crowd rushed and the angels raised their weapons.

The Crown Vic came to a shuddering stop about 30 feet from the confrontation. They could see the two angels, both elevated about a foot above the ground, their swords in constant motion as they beat back and felled their opponents. Rook and Alexander exited the vehicle so fast they blurred and approached the crowd from the rear, their swords already called upon. Alexander slowed and stopped before reaching the mob, then walked forward speaking in a loud, yet soothing voice, "Enough children, stop or you shall face His wrath." After a moment with no response, he glanced over to Rook with a look of confusion.

"In His name I command you to stop!" Rook yelled, the power in his voice echoing like thunder around the square. With no response from the crowd the two Angels abandoned walking and ran the last few feet.

"Enough talk." Rook bellowed as he cleaved into the swarm.

Carpenter, still in the Vic, didn’t hesitate. He slammed his foot down on the gas pedal and drove directly toward the crowd, the vehicle straining to pick up speed.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jessica yelled fumbling to rehook her seat belt, which she had just undone.

Carpenter did not respond but braced himself for impact.

"Stop!" Jessica yelled, as the bent, mint, chocolate chip weapon flew into the crowd, "you are not in charge here." Bodies pitched in all directions. The car skidded to a stop with the front wheels kept aloft by the carnage it had just caused.

Carpenter immediately grabbed the shotgun and jumped from the car, firing into the closest bodies.

Louis looked at Carpenter in horror, stunned by the impact and the violence of Carpenter’s act. "What the heck are you doing! You’re a man of God!" he cried, fumbling with his seatbelt in an effort to leave the vehicle and take the shotgun from his superior.

"That is correct, Louis, and those are Angels" Carpenter said calmly, while pointing the shotgun toward the battling Angels. "I am a man of God and currently HIS servants are fighting for their lives. Turn the other cheek does not seem to apply here."

Shaking off the impact, Jessica stood up through the recently made sunroof, pulled her pistol and began to engage targets. "When this is over, you and I are really gonna talk about who is charge, Captain!" she growled at Carpenter.

"Yes ma’am" Carpenter said as he racked another round into his shotgun and fired, hitting several people. He began to fight his way toward a gas station that was engulfed with people on the west side of the square.

Jessica noticed a gun shop on the other side of the square. She yelled at Carpenter, "This way, lets move!" She began to fight her way over to the shop.

Louis had thought better of his attempted to stop Carpenter and crouched down to the floor boards of the battered Vic, putting his hands over his head.

Jessica reached her intended target first, the front doors were already open and the store appeared to have been ransacked. She ran inside and, although the store was in disarray, many of the items still remained. She span around taking inventory of what was left then as she face the front she noticed four men running toward the store. She dropped to one knee and took aim through the open doorway. "Halt, or I will fire," She yelled, but they ignored her, pushing through the doorway, their eyes wild. She downed them efficiently in quick succession. She took a moment to make sure no one else was bearing down on her and then went back to her mental inventory. After a short moment of thought she grabbed two cans of black gun powder and dropped them into a trash bag. She began dumping boxes of ammo into the bag.

Carpenter reached the gas station and immediately took a hose from the pump, he flipped it to the "on" position and spun around aiming at the closest person he could find. Several of the citizens had turned from the angels to meet this new threat. They stopped abruptly as Carpenter, with a smirk on his face, aimed the nozzle in their direction and raised the shotgun in his free hand. He squeezed the gas pump trigger only to have it click against the back of the handle. He stared at the pump handle in disbelief. The approaching men began to grin, moving forward in a rush ignoring the shotgun. He steadied the gun against his hip and fired which effectively took out his attackers. He quickly rummaged through his pants to retrieved his credit card from his wallet, feeling like one of the three stooges. As he did so, he occasionally had to load a round into his shotgun after shooting at those who were trying to reach him. Finally finding his wallet he rapidly flipped it open and took out his government credit card. Instinctively he pressed the 89 unleaded button and spun around spraying all those within range with gasoline. While continuing to pump gasoline onto the crowd he put the shotgun under his arm, holding to his side, then took out his zippo lighter and, in one smooth motion, lit it and held it to the stream of gas. The gas exploded into flame, shooting out and into the crowd. Screams and howls erupted as people caught fire.

Jessica ran outside with her homemade trash bag grenade. She throw the bag into the thickest area of people, drew her weapon and began to take shots at the bag. On her fourth shot the bag erupted, flinging shrapnel in all directions.

The two simultaneous attacks thinned out the crowd to a manageable level. The four Angels quickly finished off the few people who were left standing.

The survivors stood in a small group in the sudden silence, wary glances scanning the surrounding area for any other danger. There was a noise from the Crown Vic and four swords and two guns rose as six pairs of eyes swiveled in that direction.

Louis’s head appeared in the open doorway as he pulled himself up and stepped out of the car. His gaze swept the area, his emotions so stunned by the devastation that his face was blank. He took several steps closer to the group, stopping about 12 feet away, slowly shaking his head. "Wha…..how are we…this is so….."

"My sentiments exactly kid" Carpenter said as he sat down to rest.