Great White Throne

by J. B. Simmons

  Zhang Tao leaned forward and spoke. “The devil wanted to create a different kind of life. I believe the enemy has never liked God’s creation—mankind.” He paused. “How did you stop this?”

  “ISA’s main research center was in Shanghai,” Riku said. “Naomi’s group in ISA-7 had focused their surveillance there. But I found something near my home in Kyoto. My dad was a UN scientist. He let a few things slip that made me suspicious. He talked about exciting discoveries and changing the world—given his work with neurology and coding, I figured it meant something big. I tipped off Naomi.”

  “I told the Captain,” Naomi said. “He never cared where we got our information. He assumed we’d report more freely that way. He just wanted to know, and he never ignored a lead. He called together a team. Four ISA-7 agents came by drone. Charles led us in person. We followed all the normal steps. Fake identity. Cleaning crew. Entry at night. We made it inside the underground lab without any alarm. Nothing about the lab was unusual. Stacks of hardware. Brain scanners. Coding stations. But then Charles synced with one of the stations.” Her eyes closed, wincing at the memory. “I can still see his face. The terror, the disbelief. He told us we had to destroy the place immediately.”

  “What did he see?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. That’s why I haven’t brought it up. I never knew what he saw, or what it all meant. But we did what Charles said. The Captain ordered the lab’s destruction. We set the explosives and fled. Before we could make it out the door, the place’s security was somehow triggered. I still have no idea what happened. Something severed my sync. I was ejected from the drone, and next thing we knew, Don was using Charles’s corpse against us.”

  “And that leads to what I’ve just discovered,” Riku said. “I was in the ISA data center in Tel Aviv when the solar flare hit.” He pulled a badge out of his coat pocket and smiled. “Cleaning crew, unit 23. I think it was the same kind of research center, except it was full of human brains. Androids were dissecting them, studying them, with guidance from human scientists. But these machines, they were also building organic bodies in large test tubes. They were twisting human DNA into something else. It wasn’t—I don’t know how to say it—it was … grotesque. The weight of evil is heavy in that place.”

  “What did the bodies look like?” Zhang Tao asked.

  “They were made of metal and flesh. They had different shapes. Some with legs, some with wheels. Some with arms, some with guns. The androids were installing human brains in them, with spinal cords and everything. I think the combination of coding and biology, whatever it was, I think it was superintelligence.”

  “These must be the machines fighting for Don,” I said, remembering Azazel. “They’re more than drones.”

  Riku was nodding. “They had life. They were the devil’s creation.”

  “How long has this been going on?” Zhang Tao asked.

  “A few months, but the solar flare wiped them out. I traveled as fast I could to Jerusalem, running most of the way. I followed the order’s trail of signs.”

  Zhang Tao stood slowly, stretching his legs and his back. He looked over our group. “What the devil attempts,” he said, “the Lord will undo. Where evil takes grip, God sets us free. Surely the end is at hand. Let’s pray for safety until then. Let’s pray that sinners will be saved.”

  THE GROUP TALKED until the early evening. They spoke of the past month, of others they had lost. My mind drifted. Brie’s words about Chris and Zhang Tao’s story had sparked an unexpected conviction. I suddenly knew how to use my last day, to make it the best day. I had to ask Naomi to marry me.

  My eyes settled on her. I watched her talking with her friends. I watched her face light up with love. Eventually she noticed me staring. She shrugged, smiled, frowned, made a funny face.

  “What is it?” she finally asked.

  A few others looked to her, then to me.

  “Let’s get some fresh air,” I said.

  “Why?”

  I stood and walked to her. Moses held her son in his arms. He nodded for her to go ahead. I took her hand and we went down the stairs, heading outside. I didn’t care what the others thought. I didn’t care how crazy this was going to sound. We had only a short time left to live.

  We found a small courtyard behind the apartment building. A burnt tree loomed over an empty and cracked fountain in the center. With no artificial lights around, stars flooded the night sky. The moon looked so swollen that it would burst.

  I sat beside Naomi on a concrete bench. “Romantic spot, right?”

  She smiled. “We’ve seen better. Remember that first night in DC, sitting and eating ice cream on the bench in Lafayette Park?”

  “I’ll never forget it.”

  “You’ve come a long way since then. You’re better now.”

  Better. Without my precept. Without the ISA. Without my father. I didn’t know what to say.

  “I mean it,” she continued. “That night—almost a year ago—you paraded around like a rooster trying to impress a hen.”

  “So you were impressed?”

  She shook her head, her eyes playful. “Not at all, but I was curious. You weren’t just any rooster. You were haunted.”

  “That’s the look I was going for—haunted rooster.”

  She laughed. “You told me about your dream on that bench. The first dream, with the dragon and St. Peter’s. Did you bring me out here to tell me about another dream?”

  I fumbled for the right words. I embraced the awkward. “You know how much you mean to me.” I took her hand in mine. “You stole my breath the first time I saw you. You stole my mind the first time we synced. Remember?”

  “That was after you whisked me away from DC to that fancy little inn in the country.”

  “When you were still playing games with me.”

  “Fair enough,” she said, looking down at our hands. “The games ended in Rome.”

  “You were vulnerable after Don touched you. Nothing could have pulled me closer. I think it helped me grow stronger, too. In the desert. In Montana. In Geneva. I’ve grown every step of the way. That’s the only reason I have the courage now to say this.”

  “What?” she asked, but I was already kneeling.

  She gasped, her hand covering her mouth.

  “Naomi, will you marry me?”

  Tears filled her eyes. She tilted her head back and stared up at the stars. The moon cast the long lines of her neck in silvery light.

  I was suddenly uncertain. “I know you weren’t expecting this.” I tried to explain. “I know it’s a crazy time. The world is falling apart. The dev—”

  “Stop,” she said. “Just stop.” She stood and pulled me to my feet. Her moist eyes were level with mine. “Yes.”

  “Yes?”

  “Yes.” Her lips pecked mine. “You are brilliant. We will celebrate, we will live and love. We’ll get married, tonight!”

  My heart raced. My mind still didn’t believe it. “Tonight?”

  She clasped her arms around my neck and kissed me again. Our lips parted. After a while—a minute, an eternity—she pulled back. She exhaled. “No reason to wait,” she said, smiling wide.

  We went together to tell the others. Most looked surprised, but not Brie, not Moses. They looked overjoyed, and like they expected it. Maybe I’d had that I’m-gonna-propose look on my face.

  Everyone helped make quick arrangements for a ceremony. It was not quite what I’d expected for my wedding—a burnt-out apartment building with a few dozen guests and a little washstand serving as the podium. We didn’t send invitations. We didn’t plan an after-party. But we couldn’t have been happier.

  Zhang Tao officiated. Brie was the maid of honor. Moses was the best man. Naomi and I said our vows under the glow of emergency lights. Zhang Tao announced us as man and wife.

  “What God has joined, let no man set asunder!”

  Afterwards, Naomi led the group in song. She sang, Be Thou My Vision, and the beauty of it
took me back to that first underground gathering in D.C. She’d entranced me then. I’d wanted her then. Now she was mine, and I was hers until death did us part.

  Death was the last thing on my mind as Brie led us away. “We did the best we could,” she said, opening a door several stories up in the building. The room spread the entire expanse of the building’s top floor. The walls were bombed out. The floor was cracked and charred. But starting at our feet, a line of dimly glowing candles led to a bed in the center. They’d pushed two cots together and somehow found a mattress to go on top. Sheets draped down from the high ceiling, forming a white canopy.

  “It’s beautiful,” Naomi said.

  “It’s all yours. We’ll guard the stairs and maintain the watch around the perimeter.” Brie smiled at us. “You two enjoy what still matters. If we lose love, we’ve lost the war.” Happy tears filled her eyes as she stepped back toward the door. “Goodnight, Mr. and Mrs. Goldsmith.”

  After she left, it was just my wife and me. Naomi looked down at the threadbare dress someone had given her to wear. She was quiet, suddenly shy.

  I scooped her into my arms, delighting in the feel of her.

  She laughed. “Seriously?”

  “Would you have it any other way?”

  She smiled, shaking her head. “Take me away.”

  I carried her to the bed and laid her down gently on the sheets. I bent down to kiss her, but stopped. I remembered being in a place like this before.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked.

  I searched for the right words. “I need to tell you something.”

  “You’re not a virgin?”

  “No, I mean, I am.” I rubbed a hand through my hair awkwardly. “But in Babylon …”

  “Yes?”

  “It gives you whatever you most want.”

  “You wanted me?” she asked.

  “Of course I did, and you were there.” I looked around us, at the war-torn room. “It was different. The bed faced the ocean and the sand. But you looked a lot like you do now.” I hesitated. “Perfect.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I kissed you, but it wasn’t you.” It had been Jezebel, lust in bodily form. “Thankfully, something in me resisted. That’s as far as it went.”

  “I’m glad,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “Because this is real.” She took my hand and pulled it to her waist. She kissed me lightly. “This is what God meant it to be. He created us for this.”

  Her words made Babylon vanish. Everything but her honey skin vanished. I kissed her deeply, and it was real, and it was better than I ever could’ve dreamed.

  NAOMI AND I were up late. It was the kind of night that was supposed to go on forever—the beginning of a long life together of children and growing old. It was not the kind of night that was supposed to end with the lights flicking on before dawn.

  But they did. The long fluorescent tubes along the ceiling blinked a few times, then blazed on with full yellow and buzzing light. They stretched the entire length of our empty floor. They cast our naked bodies in an unnatural glow.

  I groaned at what this meant. “Don got the power on.”

  Naomi was already scrambling out of bed. She pulled the dress over her head. “He’ll find us now. We have to get out.” She reached down for a shoe, then paused. She grinned at me. “Husband, why are you just lying there?”

  My head was still on the pillow, admiring my wife. “So what if he finds us? My life is complete.”

  “Good try, lover boy.” She threw my shirt over my face. “Don’s coming after us either way. We might as well go now. We can try to keep the attention away from here. Save a few lives.”

  “Fine,” I grunted.

  In a few minutes we were rushing down the stairs, to check in with the others. Everyone was rushing around with fear-filled, half-asleep eyes.

  Moses found us and gave Naomi her son. “Adam,” she said, smiling at him. I could have sworn he smiled back.

  “You three have to leave,” Moses said. “You’ll ride out in the same truck. Your friend, Aisha, insists she’s coming, too. We want to make it look like you were never here. As soon as the systems came back online, Brie got a message from Chris. He thinks we have about twenty minutes before Don’s drones will be on us.”

  “What about you?” Naomi asked.

  Moses pulled her into his long arms. “I’m sorry. Someone has to help protect our people. Pray for me. I’ll pray for you.” He released her and turned to me. “Protect her, son.” I nodded, and he pulled me into an engulfing hug.

  Naomi and I said a few other quick goodbyes, and then we were heading out. The truck was in the same place where it had dropped us off. Dumah was waiting behind the wheel. Gabriel was on top again. I peeked into the back and said hello to Laoth and Aisha. It was like we’d never even stopped. It was like nothing happened, even though the best night of my life had just happened.

  We drove away from the building and toward Jerusalem. We rode along the main highway through chalk hills that grew steeper, tighter, with more buildings scattered throughout. As we crested the hill overlooking the city, the sun was cresting the horizon. But it was still dark. Smoke filled the air, casting everything in a surreal haze. The city’s lights were still mostly off, except in the towers. Machines scurried up and down their sides, depositing human bodies again.

  Up ahead the truck’s headlights pointed to a tunnel. A few people watched us drive past. Their stupor seemed to have lifted. Their faces were frantic, afraid. A rock slammed into the windshield, cracking it. Other dull thuds hit the truck’s sides. Dumah’s iron grip on the steering wheel did not loosen. The tunnel gaped ahead, ready to swallow us.

  “I don’t like this.” My voice was tight.

  “We’re following your vision,” Naomi said. “And we’re buying the order some time, if the drones focus on us instead.” Naomi’s eyes were locked on the tunnel. “But it looks pitch black in there. Should we go another way?”

  God, show me the way, I prayed, but the plea rang hollow. It was eerily quiet, except for the rumbling truck engine. No word from God, no vision.

  We rolled into the tunnel. The headlights did little to keep the darkness away, but they beamed onto a crowd of people before us. They crammed one side of the tunnel to the other. There was no way through, but Dumah didn’t slow. He accelerated.

  “What are you—” I began. And then I saw the shadows. Vaporous, shadowy wings rose from their backs. “Turn back!” I shouted.

  A man in the center of the tunnel stepped forward. His eyes were black with red slits. He lifted his hand.

  Dumah slammed the breaks. Too late.

  The truck hit the demon’s hand like a wall. We jerked forward. Seatbelts caught us. Adam started to cry.

  “What’s happening?” Naomi gasped.

  “Demons—hundreds of them!”

  Dumah slammed on the gas again, pedal to the floor, but we didn’t move. The truck’s wheels spun and screeched underneath us.

  The demon opened his mouth to shout something, but Gabriel’s sword stabbed into his throat. The demon fell back. Gabriel landed on top of him and raised his sword again. He faced the crowd of demons, alone.

  They charged at him. More of the little kobolds swarmed up, swiping at his legs. The larger demons flailed at him with curved swords and whips.

  I yanked off my seatbelt and reached for the door, but Dumah stopped me with his hand gripped around my arm.

  “We have to help!” I shouted.

  He was shaking his head. He pointed forward.

  Laoth had come to Gabriel’s side. The two of them stood back to back, fending off the hordes of demons. Their swinging swords made arcs of light, but the darkness was overwhelming. A sword slashed into Laoth’s side. She stumbled.

  I looked to Dumah. “Gabriel and Laoth can’t hold. We have to do something!”

  Dumah glanced up. I followed his eyes and saw nothing but a dark ceiling above. He threw t
he truck in reverse and slammed the gas. We wheeled back so fast that I fell into the dash. Then Dumah slammed the brakes, knocking me back into the seat.

  “Wait!” I shouted.

  But he didn’t. I clicked my seatbelt just before he threw it into drive and floored it again. We barreled ahead through the tunnel.

  Rays of light suddenly beamed down before us and took form. Michael was among them. More angels had joined the fight, dividing the demons to the walls of the tunnel. The angels were outnumbered, a handful to hundreds, and not all the demons had moved by the time the truck reached the fight again. Dumah drove into the dark shapes with a smack. Bodies went flying and we broke through toward the other end of the tunnel.

  “It’s gone,” Naomi said, her shocked eyes looking in the rearview mirror. “I saw the lights, but now they’re gone. Were they angels? They’re gone!”

  I glanced in the mirror. There was no light to be seen.

  “Oh God, no,” Naomi breathed out. “What. Is. That?”

  I looked ahead. In the center of the tunnel’s opening, where the brilliant light of day shined in, a dark giant stood. His skin was scaled like Jezebel’s, and he seemed to swallow the light around him.

  Dumah’s hands clenched the wheel tighter. His foot did not relent on the pedal. But the giant raised his arm and the truck’s wheels suddenly locked. We skidded and slid to the tunnel’s opening, just feet away from him, just feet away from the morning light.

  Dumah leapt out of the driver-side door, sword in hand. He raised it high, but the giant flicked his hand into the angel like a man flicking off a fly. Dumah’s body flew to the side. He crashed into the far wall and did not rise.

  The giant stepped to the side, and a smaller man was there. He approached us, smiling.

  THE MAN STEPPED closer to our truck. “Alexi,” I muttered.

  “You know him?” Naomi asked.

  I nodded, and he was there, climbing up the step beside the open driver-side door. He leaned in. “Elijah, Naomi, we’re so glad you’ve come.” He glanced into the dark tunnel behind us, then back into the truck. “Sorry about your friends back there. President Cristo said they were a threat. We had to take them out, but no worries. I’ll drive you from here.” He sat down behind the wheel and closed the door.