by P. J. Day
Adam quickly turned around. It was the first time seeing his brother in the flesh. Of course, he would choose the form of youthful persuasion. If one were to try to change the world, what better way to do it, than with the face of a fresh, nonthreatening hero? “Brother?” he asked.
“Lelantos?” asked Logan, as both Seraphs squared their bodies at Logan, their wings tapered back in an offensive posture.
“What is your plan, demigod?” asked the Seraph. “You lost the war. Why are you attempting to subvert the Prophecy?”
Logan cocked back both his hands, producing a cyclone of bubbling particles in his palms. “This fight isn’t with the humans. Let them go.”
“Theolodus, come home with me, brother. Jrue, your Lord, doesn’t want war. We can’t afford another war,” said Adam.
“And retreat like cowards, again?” said Logan. “Pit is a rotting husk. It’s nothing but a holding cell for our kind.”
“Why are you doing this, Theolodus? You have everything you want in Pit. Power, protection, glory, respect. Why throw that all away, and what exactly is it you’re doing on Earth? These humans are selfish, petty, sorrowful creatures. Let them go. They’re no longer relevant to our existence.”
The Seraph interrupted their candor. “You leave us no choice but to eliminate you, demigod. The severe interruption you have caused has already weakened the return of his one true son.”
“Theolodus, return with me now,” pleaded Adam.
Logan pulled back his hands and thrust them forward, launching a tremendous pulse of energy slightly above the Seraph’s misshapen head, anticipating its instinctual need to ascend when attacked. The burst of energy slammed into the Seraph’s chest, catapulting the creature toward the back of the cavern. Its painful shriek blasted Matt and Keelen’s eardrums, sending them to the ground in agony.
Adhering to his familial code of honor, Adam’s rotund body boiled into an aura of flame, and blasted the other Seraph with a burst of fire, which the agile creature immediately dodged as it stayed low to the ground.
The Seraph gripped a large piece of concrete below its forelimbs and used it to torpedo itself toward Adam with maximum velocity. The Seraph struck Adam and pinned him against the wall with one of its large talons. Realizing their mortal futility, Keelen and Matt dispersed and hid in the darkness beyond one of the arches in the cavern.
Adam used all his strength to push off the Seraph’s claw, keeping it from stabbing him in the belly. Logan leaped and landed on top of the Seraph’s back and pounded the creature with closed fists. The creature relented and turned around, swiping Logan with its claw. The claw grazed Logan’s chest, ripping his T-shirt and skin.
While the Seraph’s attention focused on Logan, Adam quickly used both his hands to remove himself from the Seraph’s grip and conjured a flaming leash, which he lassoed around the beast’s throat. Adam yanked on the leash, constricting the Seraph’s windpipe.
In desperation, the Seraph swiped its talon backward, its flailing strikes grazing Adam’s skin, as he rode on its back in an act of bizarre celestial rodeo.
Realizing that Adam was out of reach, the Serpah began striking at Logan again; this time, its claw tore through Logan’s bicep. Logan flinched in pain. He stepped back and favored his immobilized arm. He then lunged at the Seraph and pulled at the creature’s hood with his other arm, exposing its gray face and grotesquely contoured head to the elements. It unleashed an ungodly scream, as the delicate, thin membrane, surrounding the back of its head, boiled and bubbled.
As the Seraph fell to the ground, Adam noticed the ominous and twinkling swirl of a black hole through the translucent skin behind its head. “Why did you do that?” yelled Adam, who was still tightening the fiery noose, while trying not to fall off the creature’s back.
“He’s burning, that’s why!” yelled Logan, staggering away from the writhing demon.
“He’s going to try to swipe at its own head. He’s gonna try to suck us back to Caeli with him.”
The thin cutaneous layer on the back of the Seraph’s head oozed as if it was being dipped in acid. Its pangs of agony reverberated throughout the cavern like a bullhorn.
Adam yelled at Logan, “Here, get behind me and hold the leash.”
Logan wrapped his legs behind Adam’s as he mounted the Seraph’s back. Adam handed the fiery reins to his brother, who used the entire strength of one arm to continue choking the Seraph.
Adam then connected both palms of his hands and stretched out his arms, producing a gleaming, blazing ax made of harnessed elemental combustion. He dismounted the Seraph, gripped the glowing ax and lifted it over his head with his thick, stocky arms. The burning blade of the ax snapped downward with extraordinary force, slicing through the Seraph’s nape. Its vibrant struggle ceased as soon as its head disconnected from its thick, gray neck. Logan fell backward off the Seraph’s back, as the flaming leash dislodged from the top of the creature’s headless neck.
As Logan and Adam composed themselves from their exertion, Matt and Keelen remained hidden behind a pile of rubble. “We have to get out of this godforsaken hell-hole,” said Matt.
“There are pockets of darkness everywhere I look. We need to pick one of these tunnels and hope they lead somewhere,” said Keelen.
Matt scanned the cavern, contemplating which direction to take. He saw the other Seraph struggling to gain its balance. It was disoriented and concussed from getting slammed against the craggy wall. “That’s where Logan came from, the exit’s gotta be that way,” said Matt.
“We’re not going in the direction of that creature, are we?” warned Keelen.
“It looks hurt...come on.”
Matt stood up and grabbed Keelen by the hand as they both raced toward what they thought was the exit. The Seraph wobbled upright and shrieked at Matt and Keelen as they approached, only to fall to the ground again. With mustered courage, Matt walked up to the groggy winged beast. He stared at it as if it were a dying dog that had been struck by traffic, in desperate need of mercy and a quick death.
As Adam lifted Logan from the ground, he noticed Matt pointing the pistol at the Seraph.
Logan rushed toward where Matt was standing and yelled, “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot its head!”
“I got this,” Matt replied loudly, maintaining focus on the downed creature.
Keelen yanked Matt by the arm upon seeing Logan’s worried stare.
The loud bang of the gunshot crackled throughout the cavern like a quick clap of thunder. As soon as it was struck in the head, the Serpah’s body immediately limped. Matt stood over the lifeless monster victoriously. But it was short-lived, as the ground beneath the Seraph began to crumble, crack, and collapse. The Seraph’s torso crumpled on itself as it were made of paper, and retracted toward its bleeding head.
“What the hell is going on?” Matt asked out loud.
“Run away from its body, dammit!” yelled Logan.
Keelen kicked her legs as high as she could and bolted toward Logan. Matt stayed back for a split second, succumbing to a moment of instinctive curiosity, and stared at the miniature swirling of matter that commenced around the dead Seraph.
Keelen reached Logan’s arms at the center of the chasm. Large pieces of concrete began lifting off the ground as if they were made of cotton, floating themselves toward the corpse.
The air beneath Logan’s legs and feet fizzed and whirled. While he embraced Keelen in his arms, Logan gazed up toward the large hole above him. Like a blurred specter, he ascended rapidly through the chasm, using bursts of atomic manipulation. As a demigod, Logan was immune to the radiation he exerted, but for Keelen, exposure was dangerous. He expended himself completely, making sure he lifted Keelen to safety as quickly as he could.
Adam waited behind for Matt, who looked as if he was running in place, as his legs were pulled by the force of the miniature black hole. Hesitating at first, Adam lunged and reached for Matt. He held onto his muscular arms and used his immense weight as an
anchor against the powerful, invisible force of energy.
“My arms, you’re ripping them off,” yelled Matt, as the sound of smashing concrete, whirling dust, and twisting metal surrounded them.
Adam didn’t break eye contact with Matt as he pulled him closer, eventually grappling his torso. Using the powers of incendiary propulsion, Adam climbed up through the chasm, albeit slower than Logan, with Matt in his arms. Steel, chairs, concession stands, and lighting fixtures flew down from above, almost hitting them as they ascended.
They eventually reached the opening where the center ring used to be, as pieces and chunks of the arena collapsed on themselves caused by a downward gravitational cyclone.
Right below the arena’s domed ceiling, Logan used one of his matter-induced charges to blow a large opening in the roof. Keelen looked down and saw Adam carrying Matt upward in his arms.
Large metallic rafters which hung two large banners, one of Matt’s face, the other of Cesar’s, began tearing away from the ceiling, pulled downward by the force. The one with Cesar’s smirking visage slipped off from its thick, metallic, pipe fixture and struck Adam and Matt, covering them entirely. Adam lost all sense of direction, immediately halting his ascension, sending both of them plunging through the air, wrapped inside the tarpaulin.
Keelen reached down through Logan’s grasp and screamed Matt’s name, as she witnessed both of them tumble downward into the swirling abyss. Logan was able to glide to the top of a multistory storage building across the street from the arena. As they both stood on the roof watching the Grand Olympic Hall implode inward, Keelen leaned out from the edge of the roof and cried hysterically for Matt. Logan pulled her back by her waist, making sure she didn’t accidentally fall off the ledge due to her frenzied state.
Adam felt the immense force pulling him downward. He had no choice but to burn his way through the tarp that had enveloped him, knowing that doing so could potentially scald Matt who was in his arms.
“I’m sorry if it gets too hot,” he yelled.
Adam’s body simmered, and Matt began to squirm. The banner started melting away, but the heat was too much for Matt to take. In a natural fight for survival, Matt fought himself away from Adam’s seething grasp. Adam made one last attempt to reach for Matt, as the last bits and pieces of the banner flew down by the wayside, but the power and energy from the black hole pulled Matt’s flightless body downward, in a fantastical display of gravitational force. Matt’s blue eyes remained stoic as he plunged into the unknown, his forlorn stare etching straight into Adam’s divine memory.
Adam commenced his ascension, using all of his godly strength to fight through the insurmountable haul. As he looked above, the starlit sky opened up to him. The entire roof of the arena had collapsed. Adam pulled back his lips and strained his upper body, as he struggled to climb the last few meters in the air, where the pull of the black hole could no longer reach. Adam made eye contact with his brother on the roof of the storage building. Logan caught Adam by his forearm and pulled him in.
The entire Grand Olympic Hall, and the square block it rested on, sidewalks and all, was sucked down into the black hole.
Keelen wailed, flailing away from Logan’s grasp and his attempts to calm and soothe her.
“Where did he go? Where did Matt go?” she bawled, slamming her fists on Adam’s jutting stomach as Logan held her tightly in his arms.
Logan grabbed Keelen by her arm and jerked her toward his chest. “We need to go,” he said. “Compose yourself.”
“Where’s Matt?” she yelled. “Who are you, Logan?”
Suddenly, both men’s attention veered away from Keelen and focused instead on a swirling black cloud of starlings, two miles long, approaching from the east. The cackle of other birds; ducks, crows, and gulls followed close behind.
The aviary swarm headed westward—fleeing from a happening that had interrupted Gaia’s whirling routine.
Adam and Logan gazed beyond the city’s skyline and toward the star-pocked horizon. A dust cloud hovered above the tallest peak outlining the tanned shadows of the San Gabriel Mountains. A seismic ripple seemed to vibrate the cordillera, eerily kicking brown scud up into the night air.
“What do you suppose that is?” Adam asked Logan.
Mount San Antonio,” Logan replied. “He who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.”
“Excuse me?” said Adam, as he stood on the rooftop, dumbfounded, the bottom of his pants’ legs shredded like ribbons and blackened with combustive residue.
“It’s begun, my brother,” Logan said. “Caeli has set its eyes on earth. Adonai is peering in through the heavens—the harvest has begun.”
Adam neared the edge of the 20 story-tall storage building. He gazed down at the traffic below. Motorists and pedestrians moseyed along in their daily routines, unaware that within hours, mankind’s extinction was near, and for some…for the very, very few…salvation.
Chapter Thirty-three:
Reborn
Paolo knelt over Cindy’s lifeless body and administered CPR. “Come on,” he said, thrusting his hands on Cindy’s chest with despair. “Breathe...give me a breath, goddammit.”
Her heart had stopped beating ten minutes ago. Paolo was alone in the cavern with the smoky glass box and spooky spires of white flame. The only time he stopped the compressions on Cindy’s chest was when the tremor, that had collapsed the Grand Olympic Hall shook the city. Luckily, only pebbles and dust had fallen from the ceiling inside the cavern.
Paolo whipped his head and glanced over his shoulder as the sound of footsteps startled him.
“Who are you?” asked the youthful, male voice.
“Mr. Labeouf,” replied Paolo, who was both surprised and terrified that the actor found him and Cindy underneath his home. “I...I’m Professor Rivers, linguistics department, USC.”
“Who’s she?” Shia asked calmly, as he approached Paolo with slow, measured steps.
“This is my partner, Cindy. Please call an ambulance. She’s not breathing. Please help,” pleaded Paolo.
Shia crouched and grabbed Cindy’s wrist, checking for a pulse. He turned toward the professor. “You think I’m gonna call an ambulance? Really? Oh hey, we received a call for an injured girl and we discovered a scene out of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in Shia Labeouf’s basement. No...not gonna happen.”
“But she’s dying.”
“I don’t care. How the hell did you manage to find out about this anyway?”
“Please, sir,” Paolo begged. “I know we shouldn’t have trespassed...”
“...I’m not a doctor. There is nothing I can do,” Shia said, dryly. “Now I need to figure out what I’m gonna do with you.”
“Let me take Cindy to a hospital.”
“Seriously, I can’t have you going back to the world, letting everyone know about all this.”
Shia stood up and inspected the glass box. He checked for cracks or a breach. Paolo remained on the ground, still trying to pump blood through Cindy’s heart. “How could you be so selfish?” asked Paolo.
Shia looked down at the professor. “Who isn’t?”
“What are you getting out of this?” asked Paolo, in a strained voice.
“Are you kidding me? I got a great deal. Fame, women, money, fast cars, and I’m going to a wonderful place after the Earth is wiped clean. I can’t say the same for you or your friend. It sucks, it’s not fair, but if you were in my position, wouldn’t you do the same? Come on, be honest.”
Paolo drew his eyes to the side in reflection and remained silent, while still trying to will Cindy back to life.
“There are probably only a few hours left. How about you leave your friend here, and you come up with me? We’ll have a couple of beers, reflect on a life well spent, and just wait. Wait for the earth to open up and swallow the entire city in spectacular fashion. It will be like a summer blockbuster, but real, none of that CGI bullshit.”
Sweat
ing and panting, Paolo ceased his attempts at resuscitation and just sat back on the floor in surrender. He lifted his glasses, squeezed his eyelids and began sobbing.
Shia stood over Paolo, looking on solemnly. He bit his lower lip. A spark of empathy could be seen in his stilled eyes. “Hey, man, I’m sorry, all right? I had no choice.”
Paolo looked up with his cheeks flushed. “What do you mean you had no choice?”
“So, you’re a professor?” Shia asked, leaning against the glass box. “Is that something you always wanted to be?”
Paolo paused. He wiped the tears from his eyes took a deep breath and responded, while still looking at the ground. “What?”
“How’d you end up becoming a professor?”
Paolo relented. “Well, my father made it clear that after high school I was to go to college.”
“Why?”
“Why?” Paolo asked, looking up, with his lips still quivering over Cindy’s fate. “I don’t know, because he wanted what was best for me?”
“But this is what you wanted to do, right? Your boyhood dream was to become a professor...a professor of what, again?”
“...linguistics.”
“So, you grew up with the dream of becoming a linguistics professor...”
“...no,” Paolo interrupted, as he cleared his nose. “I wanted to grow up to be a professional baseball player. I wanted to play for the Dodgers. I was a lefty. I wanted to be Koufax...which my father didn’t approve of because Koufax was a Jew, but that’s who I wanted to be.”
“So, your father, who wanted what was best for you, demanded that you go to college and not follow your dream?”
Paolo nodded as he gazed down at Cindy, helplessly. “I...I guess.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Shia said, with a sly grin. “I didn’t have the opportunities you had. I didn’t have anyone pushing me. If you failed, I’m pretty sure your father and mother would’ve probably still supported you one way or another, financially. I didn’t have that option. I didn’t have anyone watching my back, which is why I took the deal. Do you understand now?”
