God School

by Scott Kinkade

  “But—”

  Freya cut him off. “Please listen, Ev. Right now, our meager group can’t possibly defeat Belial and the Nephilim. We need to get back to the Academy and tell them what’s going on?”

  “Can’t you just use telepathy?” CiCi said.

  Brandon quickly dismissed that idea. “Can’t. Those giants emit a jamming signal that interferes with telepathic connections. We can’t contact anyone until we get out of the city.”

  “So what’s the plan?” Jaysin said.

  “We get back to the hotel, we get the other students, and then we get to the airport and back on the plane,” Brandon said.

  Ev decided not to ask the very obvious question of how they were going to get across the city with all these giants running around.

  Fortunately, he didn’t have to. Brandon and Freya easily conjured a large school bus for everyone to fit inside.

  Chapter XII

  They managed to return to the hotel without incident. There was panic in the streets, but the terrified residents of Stiftung got out of the way as the bus came through.

  They parked in front of the steps that led up to the main entrance. Once inside, they discovered the lobby was deserted. “Let’s hope the elevator’s still working,” Brandon said.

  A sudden noise behind the counter told them the lobby might not have been as deserted as they originally thought. A panicked woman poked her head out and said, “Please—take whatever you want. Just leave us alone.” That was when they noticed a second woman next to her.

  “We’re not going to hurt you,” Freya said.

  “D-Do you know what’s going on out there?” the second woman said.

  “It’s a long story,” Brandon said. “For now, just keep hiding. Is the elevator still working?”

  “It should be. The rest of the power’s still on.”

  The six of them got into the elevator. As it rode up, Ev said, “Shouldn’t we have helped those two?”

  Brandon shook his head. “Until we return with reinforcements, there’s nothing we can do for them.”

  “But—”

  “What do you want us to do? Stop to help every single person in Stiftung. We’d never leave if we did that,” Brandon snapped.

  Ev lowered his head. “Sorry.”

  Brandon sighed. “No, Ev. I’m the one who should be sorry. The pressure must be getting to me. Please forgive me.”

  “It’s OK,” Freya said. “We’re allowed to get stressed out at times like this. Just as long as we don’t forget what we have to do.”

  They got off at their floor and divided up into groups to retrieve the other students. Ev knocked on one door, while Jaysin knocked on other, and so forth.

  Fortunately, all the students had wisely decided to stay in their rooms. Once the professors explained the situation to them, they all headed downstairs and piled into the bus. Brandon put the pedal to the metal and hightailed it towards the airport.

  As they drove down streets littered with debris, they couldn’t help but marvel at the destruction. Whatever Belial’s plan was, it clearly involved scaring the crap out of the citizens of this city.

  Emergency vehicles raced across chaotic intersections. It didn’t take a genius to realize there wouldn’t be nearly enough of them to save this city.

  Everyone’s attention was suddenly diverted to a rumbling behind the bus. They rushed to the school bus’ rear door. A bald Nephilim was coming up on them. Fast.

  “Everyone, get in your seats,” Freya said.

  Brandon pushed the bus as fast as it could go. The chase was now on. The absurdity of the situation became apparent as everyone remembered school buses didn’t have seat belts. Therefore, everyone was forced to tightly grip the seat in front of them. Ev thought all their knuckles would turn white before this was over.

  Brandon maneuvered the bus around various obstacles in the road. Abandoned cars, rubble, flaming piles of who knew what, smashed asphalt. He deftly avoided all of these. Unfortunately, so did the Nephilim.

  Freya opened the rear doors. “What are you doing? Brandon yelled.

  “Relieving stress,” she said, with more confidence than a person going up against a twenty-foot giant was supposed to have. And with that, she jumped out of the bus and flew at the Nephilim. She crashed with his groin, and he went down like so much dead weight. Evidently, Nephilim did indeed have reproductive organs in the same place humans had theirs.

  Another giant appeared up ahead coming from the right at the next intersection. This was a woman with raven hair. Brandon managed to maneuver the bus between her legs. They were not, however, safe by any means; the Nephilim commenced to chase them.

  “She’s gaining on us!” CiCi said, stating the obvious. Indeed, the giant would catch them in a matter of moments at the rate they were going.

  “I’m giving it all she’s got!” Brandon announced. He then muttered under his breath, “Shouldn’t have made it an ordinary bus. Should’ve given something extra under the hood.”

  The female Nephilim was now within a few feet of the bus, her hands outstretched, ready to grab them. This might be it for us, Ev thought. He then shook his head. No; there’s still too much for me to do. We can’t let it end like this.

  Suddenly, another giant appeared from around the corner up ahead. He saw the bus and immediate dove at it. What he did not see, however, was the female Nephilim already in pursuit. The two met in an explosive collision that shook the ground (and, consequently, the bus). The bus barely escaped getting squashed by them.

  Ev looked out the rear doors. “Where’s Professor Freya? I don’t see her anymore.”

  Brandon didn’t seem worried. “She’ll catch up with as soon as she gets done ‘relieving stress’.” No one bothered to mention the cause of Freya’s stress. Her star pupil had turned traitor and joined the enemy. It must have been eating up her inside. Bethos only knew the true extent of her suffering at this point.

  They took the exit onto the autoschnelle. The irony of it was not lost on Ev. The autoschnelle had no speed limits, but they had been going full speed all along.

  Another vehicle nearly collided with them as they merged onto the nationwide highway. Unlike the city streets, the autoschnelle was full of cars trying to get out of Stiftung, and who could blame them? Escape was the only thing on anyone’s mind at the moment.

  The bus raced along the highway as they fought to get back to the airport. They occasionally had to go around cars that had been totaled in accidents by desperate drivers. Other vehicles had been abandoned but looked to still be in one piece.

  “Look out!” CiCi suddenly yelled.

  Up ahead, a male Nephilim leapt from the street all the way up to the autoschnelle. He landed about a hundred feet from them with a sickening thud. The impact—along with the giant’s enormous weight—completely wrecked the overpass. The hardened concrete didn’t stand a chance, and so most of that section of road—and the Nephilim— collapsed to the street below. A number of cars, driving to their absolute limit, were hopelessly unable to stop in time, and went careening off the overpass.

  Brandon swerved the bus to line up with the area of the autoschnelle that was still intact. The students were flung from one side of the bus to the other.

  “Holy…!” Ev did not finish that sentence.

  Jaysin saw what he was looking at. “You can say that again, mate.”

  Coming in from the right was a pair of military jets.

  “Guess we should have expected that,” Brandon said. “A full military response is called for here.”

  The fighter craft let loose a volley of missiles, which found their target within moments: The Nephilim that crashed through the autoschnelle. The road behind them was lit up in a deafening roar; fire and mortar kissed the sky.

  “Can they stop the Nephilim?” CiCi asked Brandon.

  “Not a chance. Nothing less than the power of a god can stop them.”

  The students’ heads dropped in disappointment. The
y had dared to hope, and that hope had been extinguished.

  The airport exit appeared ahead. Brandon took it, and they approached the airport outskirts. There weren’t many people there. It seemed most people in Stiftung had decided it would be faster to take the autoschnelle out of the city.

  Freya flew back in through the rear of the bus. “Did you get it all out?” Brandon asked.

  She nodded vigorously. “And then some. Several Nephilim won’t be able to walk any time soon.” Ev knew that, while she appeared happy, the fact of Maya’s betrayal had to still be clouding her mind like a poison mist.

  Brandon shouted, “Hang on, everyone! We’re taking a shortcut.”

  There was a jarring thud as the bus plowed through a six-foot-tall fence onto a runway. He had evidently decided the shortest distance was indeed a straight line, because he was now cutting across the airport grounds. Several workers yelled at them, but made no attempt to stop them.

  Every available runway was clogged with planes desperate to take off and get out of Stiftung. A few close calls ensued as the bus barely avoided hitting the ones that had gotten permission to depart—or were leaving without it. Ev would normally have been scared shitless by this, but after all the insane life-threatening things he had experienced today, his adrenalin was running out. Now fatigue had begun to set in. His body was getting heavier, and he wondered if it was the same for his classmates.

  * * *

  The bus finally arrived at their plane which had been taxied off to the side of the double-sized runway and away from the departing aircraft. Everyone piled out of the bus and up ramp onto the plane.

  Brandon and Freya began firing it up. “Control Tower, this is Divine Protector 157. We are taking off.”

  “Negative, 157. You do not have permission to depart. Take your place in the queue. We will notify you when you can leave.” The man sounded stressed, and why shouldn’t he be? His entire world was falling apart around him.

  Brandon, though sympathetic, wasn’t about to wait around. “Control Tower, we are leaving. I advise you to make sure no one gets in our way. 157 out.” He shut off the radio.

  The familiar hum and throbbing of the engines came alive as the plane woke up from its slumber. Brandon buckled his seatbelt, and Freya made sure everyone else had their buckled.

  Brandon hit the throttle.

  * * *

  Ev was fell back into his seat, hopeful they would soon be out of Stiftung. Hopeful it would be a smooth flight out of the city.

  It wasn’t.

  They had to go around another plane. Their wingtips almost touched while Brandon tried to get ahead of them. The other plane’s passengers stared out of their windows with terrified eyes. Despite the intensity of the situation, Ev’s adrenalin was almost gone, and he felt like he would fall asleep at any moment.

  * * *

  They managed to outpace the other plane. They were now only moments away from a successful takeoff.

  Another Nephilim appeared at the end of the runway, her eyes locked onto the competing aircraft. She seemed to be trying to decide which one to attack. “This is bad,” Freya said.

  “Thank you for stating the obvious,” Brandon retorted.

  After what felt like minutes, the Nephilim apparently had made up its mind. She hurled herself at the other plane. Machine and monster exploded above the ground, the fire and debris nearly reaching the Divine Protector plane.

  “Mother of mercy,” Freya breathed.

  * * *

  The plane left the runway and embraced the sky. Ev was in a state of shock due to the destruction of the other plane. He couldn’t help but feel responsible for what had happened. He knew in his mind it wasn’t his fault, that they needed to get out of Stiftung if they were to save it. Still, he felt guilty that he lived while the people on that other plane died horribly.

  He not only lived, but would have to live with it for the rest of his life. It was another sin the world had forced on him. He tried not to think about the other one.

  * * *

  Anchorman Nielz Goddard sat down behind the studio desk. The stage hand began counting down. “And…three, two, one.”

  Goddard put on his game face and smiled for the camera. Any other day, that would have been effortless. However, as everyone had already discovered, this was no ordinary day. Civilization itself might be about to end. “We at TV-SDS interrupt your regularly scheduled broadcast to bring you breaking news.” TV-Sender der Stiftung, the largest station in the city. “About half an hour ago, numerous objects, which can only be described as portals, opened up in the skies over the city. Giant humanoid entities emerged from these rifts and proceeded to attack anything and everything. We are getting reports they range in size from seven and a half to nine meters in height. They also seem to be wearing either togas or some sort of long white robes. Speculation is running rampant at this time. Some believe them to be aliens, while others maintain they are angels. But what angels would go on such a rampage as we are seeing here?

  “What’s that? I’m being informed we have an eyewitness video shot by tourists vacationing in Stiftung. We are now going to show that footage.”

  The feed cut to a series of shaky, out-of-focus images. The video gradually focused in on a giant figure, perhaps three blocks down the street. Someone, possibly the cameraman, said in a terrified voice, “Bethos be damned! Are you seeing this?”

  Another person, a female, replied, “Shit, shit, shit, shit. This can’t be happening!”

  The giant seemed to want to destroy everything in sight. He stomped a car, kicked open a fire hydrant, and punched out windows in the buildings around him. Evidently his goal was simple destruction.

  “What the yur is going on here?” the cameraman wanted to know. Indeed, everyone wanted answers.

  “Let’s get out of here!” the woman said.

  “Hang on. We need to document this for future study.”

  “Screw future study! Let’s get. The yur. Out of here.”

  The man filming the spectacle must have relented, because the video ended there. Goddard continued. “We can confirm the man who shot that video is OK. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for many other Stiftung residents. Emergency crews are scrambling to put out the many fires burning around the city and rescue people trapped by the rampaging giants. Police units have engaged these behemoths, but their limited weaponry is having no effect.” The studio rumbled as an explosion was heard somewhere in the city. “I’m being told the military has sent fighter craft to combat the giants. Evidently that was the explosion we just heard.

  “We now go live to Franz Werkle, live at 14th and Manheim.”

  They cut to a middle-aged man with black hair and a wispy mustache standing in front of a wrecked building. There was rubble all around him. He had his hand to his ear piece. He waited a moment and then looked at the camera. “Nielz, I’m standing in front of what used to be the Ausgezeichnet Apartments. This was one of the first buildings destroyed by the giants upon their arrival. Seven men are confirmed to have been killed when the invaders demolished the front of the building.”

  Nielz cut in. “Franz, I’m sorry to hear that. What about the survivors? They must have seen the giants up close and personal. What have they revealed about them?”

  “Well, I spoke to one resident who was in a unit further back, away from the devastation. He ran outside and saw one of them firsthand. He told me they look exactly like humans, except for their immense size. A bit embarrassed, he also said he saw under the giant’s robes and reports it wasn’t wearing any underwear. The invaders, I’m told, are anatomically the same as us.”

  “Franz, did the giant speak to him? Has there been any communication with them?”

  “The eyewitness told me the invader spoke in a language he didn’t understand. It seemed to be a question, as there was an upper inflection in its speech.”

  Nielz cut in again. “Franz, we’re going to leave you for now. We have a guest in the studio who
may be able to shed some light on the situation. Stay safe out there.”

  “Will do, Nielz.”

  Goddard turned to the man who had sat down next to him. He had thinning gray hair and a thick brown beard with only a touch of gray. “Professor Mankamp, what are we dealing with here?”

  Professor Mankamp took a puff from his pipe. He was a very well-respected religious expert at Stiftung University. “Nielz, based on the available evidence, there can be no doubt we are dealing with angels.”

  “They certainly look angelic,” Goddard agreed. “But the fact is, they aren’t acting angelic.”

  “Ah, but you see, our current image of angels is very different from what our ancestors in the ancient past had.” He held up a book that was in every home and hotel room. “The Bibliographa tells us angels were, in fact, messengers of a vengeful god. Let me read you a chapter from Keppleonomy six, verses one through five: ‘And Bethos looked down at his creation, and he was displeased. His own sons and daughters had betrayed him. Realizing they could never be made good again, he sent his heavenly hosts to destroy them. But the angels were not easily controlled, and took many human lives before the conflict had ended. Afterwards, they were recalled home to await the day when they would be needed again’.”

  Goddard frowned. He tried to remain cool, but inside he was terrified. “Are you saying this is the Day of Judgment as prophesised in Futures chapter eight?” Like most people in Murnau, he had been brought up in a religious house, and he knew his sacred texts.

  “It would seem so, Nielz. We have angered Bethos, and he has brought His wrath down upon us.”

  Goddard’s voice began to crack. A drop of sweat ran down his head. “So what happens now?”

  Mankamp shrugged. “According to Futures, we will now enter a period of purification, where the angels will wipe away the unclean humans.”

  Goddard’s throat had now gone dry. “Who, exactly, are unclean?”

  “Everyone with heavy sins. Murderers; thieves; rapists; you get the idea.” It sounded as if the professor did not consider himself to be unclean. He seemed a little too comfortable with this whole situation.