"Not as far as we can see to the south, but you never know," I said, shrugging.
"No dreaming tonight," Zach said, pulling on his jacket and then helmet, patting me on the shoulder as he ran for the door.
I suppose I was supposed to feel relieved about that. I set the helmet and jacket down on a bench, debating briefly if I could risk it before taking off the cowl and gloves too. It was better to stay prepared, but I wouldn't do anyone any favors if I overheated in the middle of a second round of hellfire.
Will Norton, an old Boston city planner and current head of our community security, met me at the door of the office, a bottle of water in his outstretched hand. I guzzled it down gratefully, stepping inside and heading for the screens.
Bethel had a limited amount of power to work with, mainly from a windmill farm nearby. A lot of the remaining human communities we knew of were nomads, traveling north into Canada, trying to out-run hellions. The good news for us was that our choice to remain stable left a decent amount of resources to work with that the nomads had overlooked, solar panels and security cameras and computers we could rewire for our limited uses.
"Kinda typical," Will said, shrugging a shoulder. "You know, for hellfire."
I nodded, but kept watching. We'd learned a lot since the Rising, but Hell wasn't one for being predictable. "How’re the safe houses?"
"Kais is just finishing up with the last one," Will said, sliding back into his chair and slipping his glasses back down to his nose.
He tapped a series of keys, pulling up the images of the schoolhouse, the police station, the library, the church—all the buildings where people could wait out the latest disaster. The school library and church were all on the southern end of town. I'd just finished clearing the way back from the school, which also served as the growhouse for our food, and protected us from events like the one taking place now. Kais and a few of our volunteers were gathered around the police station, managing the fires there and at the diner.
"And the gate?" I asked.
"Untouched," Will said, but he pulled the visual up for me.
We'd built our gate out of crucifixes when we'd realized it really was effective against the Hellion races. The wooden posts surrounded all of Bethel now, six square blocks of our small town. It wasn’t quite the picturesque little village it must’ve been before the Rising, but it was the safest place we’d found to offer our flock. Hellfire didn't touch the gate, although it didn't prevent the hellfire from raining down within our boundaries, and no hellion could cross. Most wouldn’t even come within a few feet.
On the screen, the ground outside the gate was smoking, a few little fires still burning on what was left of the grass.
"Nothing coming for us yet," Will said, changing the screens to the cameras pointed out to the world.
Except there was something coming.
"Fuck, what is that?" Will breathed, sitting up in his chair. I leaned forward, squinting at the image. It was only a shadow, and a significantly smaller one than we usually saw coming for us. I held my breath at its approach, a softly sinuous quality to its movements.
Twin pin pricks of light appeared at the top of the shadow and my gut dropped.
"Shit. Is that…is that a woman?" Will asked. "Is there a woman out there?!"
She was burning, flames licking up the legs of a dress, dangling at the ends of her hair, still clinging to the tips of softly twisting horns on top of her head.
"No woman survives hellfire, Will. I'm going back out. Send Kais or Zach," I said, running for the door. "Only Kais or Zach, you got me?"
"Gotcha, Father," Will answered as I stuffed myself back into the fire suit, wincing at the title.
So she was a trap after all, I thought, even though I hadn't really seen her face. But those little pinpricks of light. It was her.
My dream girl.
The hellfire was north past the fire station now and I ran with my helmet off. I wanted to see her face. Look her in the eye for real. She had to be an illusion. If hell was smart, they'd have made all their creatures look like her.
The opening of the gate was two blocks south and I was panting by the time I reached it,