to run to when you were stuck on an island surrounded by the Pacific. No, not even the Pacific exists anymore. From the map, I gathered this body of water was called Bleu Abysse, and it spanned the entire planet. The closest land, miles and miles away, also belonged to the Court of Command, and, judging by the white landscape color on the map, it was frozen.
Dreaming about escape made me detach from the now, so when gray fog rose from the asphalt, I startled. Deep in the town, we marched on a narrow street that smelled of piss and vomit. Neither of those explained the fog. No fog looked like this, unless it did in this world. I glanced at the man next to me for some acknowledgment that this was weird, but he stared ahead as if this was perfectly normal. The fog rose higher, and the smell in the air changed. I inhaled the scent of cookie dough. Above, an angel screamed. His body hit the asphalt. Mangled, wings torn, he stared into the sky.
And we didn’t stop.
We stomped over him.
As if we had no feelings.
As if we were puppets on strings.
My squad started chanting what sounded like a prayer, one unlike any other. I might never have attended church, but I was raised Christian and had read the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. This language, mangled and torn when coming out of a human’s throat, sounded like one Michael used when speaking to other angels. The squad sang in unison, as if they had one voice. Abruptly, they halted. Everyone unsheathed their blades.
Angels above us shrieked, but I couldn’t see a thing because of the fog, no longer gray but much darker. Inhaling the smell of baked cookies, I took the knife from my back pocket and crouched when everyone else crouched.
The fog cleared. Just like that, it was gone. A street filled with other people appeared before us. They held up weapons, namely household knives, screwdrivers, and scissors. The people from their front line split from the rest and started crawling up the buildings. I gaped. People, and I meant humans, crawled on the walls like spiders, their movements jerky and unnatural, then they rushed down the line of the townhomes.
The soldiers in the back shouted.
One of the crazies landed on the man next to me. I screamed and turned, trying to run, but tripped over a pair of wrestling people. Stumbling away, I fell against a soldier who dropped to the ground, blood pouring from his nose. People fought everywhere. Blood spilled on the walls.
The knife dropped out of my hand, and I stared at the chaos around me, the bodies of regular people crawling over the townhomes, something they could never do in the world I remembered. Did they remember? Like me? Were those people what became of the ones Michael hadn’t killed? Was this what Lucifer’s possession looked like? No, it couldn’t be.
A woman stepped in front of me. Her eyes weren’t vacant. They were filled with…with desire, passion, determination. She’d kill me or die trying.
The woman lunged and knocked me down. The back of my head hit the pavement, and stars played over my eyes. I tried rolling away. She bared her teeth. Her blonde, blood-matted hair curtained her face, and she stabbed me with a screwdriver. Pain exploded near my collarbone, and I screamed at the top of my lungs. She withdrew the weapon, aimed it again. I put my hand up to shield my face.
She pierced my palm.
I jerked my hand back.
My God, I would die today.
She poised to strike again, and I grabbed her wrist. She pressed down with all her might, climbing on top of me so she could hold me down. I pushed back, regretting I’d dropped my knife. She pressed harder, and I knew I couldn’t hold her back much longer. I jerked right, and she stabbed the pavement, nicking my cheek. Using the energy of her movement, I flipped us over and held her hand, trying to pry the sharp tool away from her.
Under me, she bucked and threw me off.
I scrambled to my feet, tripped over something on the street, but managed to keep moving.
Jesus, the fog rose again, biting into my eyes, and the cookie-dough smell made my belly rise. I could barely see anything.
She wore a dark gray apron over black clothes.
We wore white.
She blended in.
I stood out.
She charged, not like a normal person, but executing a massive leap no