Andria was the last to leave Denis behind, and she felt no sense of remorse. In any normal situation, she would have hesitated to leave him behind in the predicament he was in; but this was far from any normal situation.

“Keep going until you reach the high school; then get your ass inside!” Andria hollered up to those that led the franticly running group.

Nobody responded, and they hadn’t needed to, for only a fool would run passed perfectly good shelter from any disaster.

As Andria ran, she kept a close eye on the woods that lined the side of the road. Deep in the darkness of the mass of foliage, her mind kept registering two blinking red small circles, both of side by side and following her. On occasion, the dots would disappear, only to reappear again shortly after. Growing fearful of what the two red orbs may turn out to be, Andria began to run faster.

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Denis stepped up to the bullet-ridden body of the attacking hellhound. His eyes stared down at the dying beast, a strange look of pleasure growing over the look of mayhem that had inhabited his eyes. Slowly, he raised one of his pistols and aimed it at the top of the beast’s head. Just as he was about to pull the trigger back, he tilted his head and smiled a twisted smile, his eye staring directly into the eye of the beast.

“You don’t deserve that.” He spoke softly, then lifted his left foot and brought it down hard and quick on the hellhound’s skull.

The sound of bone crunching and blood splattering filled Denis’ ears. The smile across his lips slowly faded as he lifted his foot out of the mess of blood, brain, and bone. Denis kicked off some of the goop on his shoe and turned his attention to the open environment behind him. His twisted smile faded as he watched the running group of five steer towards the high school’s parking lot.

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As Andria was about to make a turn into the school parking lot, a loud rustle in the woods behind her caused her to grow startled and trip over her own foot. She grunted as she hit the pavement, her shoulder jolting up into her neck. Andria sat still for a moment, her ankle aching. Twisting her ankle, she felt it crack and the pain subsided slightly. Shaking her head and cracking her neck, she tried to push herself back up to her feet. When she straightened herself, the rustling came about again. Andria froze, her eyes off into the woods. For a split second, she could see two orbs shining through a break in the foliage; but just as quick as she saw them, they disappeared into the blackness of the woods.

“Hey girl, come on!” The diner manager hollered back to Andria before he made his way into the high school parking lot, veering through the mass of incorrectly parked vehicles.

Andria looked towards the high school and saw the last of the patrons make their way into the school. She looked around briefly at the parking lot and sighed slightly when she saw the mini-bus David had commandeered parked in the middle of the lot closest to the road.

Just as Andria was about to start moving towards the school again, a low growl emitted from behind her. She froze in her place and closed her eyes tight, but she was still for only a moment, for a heavy weight slammed against her back, knocking her forward and pinning her to the ground.

Andria let out a screech of terror, half expecting the sharp talons of a hellhound to start digging into her skin, but she felt nothing of the sort. Her scream was stifled as a human hand slapped itself across her mouth and held her lips together. When she couldn’t scream, she wiggled underneath the weight of whatever was on top of her, but her struggles grew to be unsuccessful.

“Shut up and lay still.” An unfamiliar male voice whispered softly and calm. “I’d hate to have to kill you before I found out what I need… what we need.”

Feeling that Andria had stopped her struggle, the man removes his hand from her mouth. “Good girl. Now tell me… where is he?”

Andria felt a tear start to drip down her cheek, but she quickly shook her head and fought her tears, doing her best to act strong. “Where is who?”

The sound of metal quickly scraping against a hardtop surface filled Andria’s ears, and following briefly was the feel of cold steel against her neck. “Don’t be smart with me bitch. Where is the one that started this resistance?”

Andria’s mind flashed to thoughts of Mark, where she expected to feel safe, but instead felt abandoned. “I don’t know. He left us here to fend for ourselves.”

The sharp metal moved away from her neck and the weight shifted off of her. Just as she thought her attacker was done with her, she felt herself being lifted from the ground roughly.

“Stand up.” The voice that was just a whisper before seemed angry now.

Andria stood, her back facing the attacker. She no longer felt the urge to cry, and no longer feared death. It was almost as if she had planned to go out like this.

“Turn around.” The angry voice demanded.

Andria turned slowly and her eyes widened as they fell across a familiar face. “Dad?”

The form of her father lifted the sword that he held in his hands, holding it parallel to her neck. “Another human death adds one more Minion to his army.”

Moving the blade a bit further from her neck, Mr. Lee smiled devilishly. “Goodbye daughter.” The sharp edge of the blade began to move quickly towards Andria’s neck.

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The metal of the sword, just as it was about to dig into the soft flesh of the teenage girl, clanked and bounced off of an unseen barrier. The Minion swung the blade again, this time aiming at the girl’s heart. Much to the beast’s dismay, though, the blade bounced back once again.

“No! This one is ours!” The replica of Andria’s father hollered out to what seemed to be emptiness.

“You cretins are such fools! What makes you think one more to your army will help you win?” A voice seemed to be spoken by the air.

“Apparently it’ll make a difference if you feel the need to interfere with the death of one.”

“We just hate to see the life wasted on your pathetic… worthless world.”

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Andria’s eyebrows quirked as she listened to the conversation between the demonic version of her father and the unseen opponent. Feeling nothing holding her back, Andria ducked down slowly and moved off to the side. When she faced where she was standing, she saw that there had been absolutely nothing behind her; or rather nothing that she could have seen.

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“You angels are cowardly! Always hiding… even in battle.” The Minion’s voice crackled, veering away from sounding like Andria’s father, sounding raspier and angrier.

The area in front of the Minion started to distort as the shape of an average sized man filled up the empty space. When the Angel was fully visible, the white aura surrounding it seemed to burn the eyes of the Minion.
Rubbing at its eyes briefly, the Minion growled and lost all audio semblance of Mr. Lee. “We will win this war!”

The Angel clenched its fists, one wrapped tightly around the butt of a dagger, the other grasping nothing but air. “We’ll see what the end brings us.” The Angel laughed lightly, it’s empty fist opening slightly, allowing the handle of a sword to form where nothingness had once been.

The Minion leaned forward, a roar emitting from the deepest regions of the beast. As it roared, its back cracked and its skin and clothes split as two massive wings pushed from their folded positions.

The Angel, to match the Minion, let out a war cry, its own wings ripping through the white flesh of its back and spreading gloriously. “Time to die Hellspawn!”

The two unearthly beings raised their weaponry to the sky, and just as they were about to attack one another, two gunshots roared over their cries.

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From her crawling/escaping state, Andria twisted her head to look behind her. A slight smile crossed her lips as she saw the two beings on the ground, motionless, and Denis standing proud with his pistols aimed out in front of him.