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Modern Day Devils - Chapter 24
By Snake - Mark
“Mark…” Jon looked over to Mark and noticed his somewhat dazed state. “What is it?”
Mark didn’t seem to hear his friend calling to him, for his eyes closed as he drew in a long breath of air. Jon’s eyebrows raised as he approached his friend slowly, the other inhabitants of the room watching him.
“Mark, are you okay?” Jon asked again, his voice a bit hush.
Still, Mark did not answer. Sighing deeply, Jon outstretched his arm and gently tapped Mark’s shoulder. Mark gasped, his head snapping towards Jon.
“We have to get you guys out of here.” Mark spoke as if he were out of breath.
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Mark moved up the stairway quickly, the rest of the group following close behind him. Directly behind Mark was Alyssa, her shotgun drawn at her side. Alyssa always tried to stay as close to Mark as possible, for he gave her a sense of comfort.
“What’s going on, Mark, why are we bringing them into the open?” Alyssa asked, her voice a whisper that only Mark could hear.
“It’s a death trap down there.” Mark pushed himself onto the first floor, his head jerking back and forth as he checked out the hallway before entering it. “They’ll survive longer if they stay with us.”
“Stay with us? Mark, we’re about to fight a war and you think they’ll be safer with us?” Alyssa looked behind her briefly to see everyone else follow. Jared and Romeo seemed to be locked in conversation with Mark’s friend, Chris; the two lovers held each others hand as they moved through the school; and Denis took up the rear, his mind seemingly on nothing else but the situation at hand.
“We’re not fighting.” Mark stopped in his place and turned around to face Alyssa.
“What do you mean? We’re here to fight in this war.”
“We have to find a way into hell. To fight in the midst of the war would be complete suicide… their numbers far surpass ours.”
“Hey, what’s the hold up?” Chris called up to Mark.
Mark turned back around, ignoring Chris’ comment, and continued his explanation. “If we can get into hell, we can take Satan on and kill him. Without a leader, the demonic army will crumble and be crushed by the angels.”
“And what of the angel army?”
“We have two options.” Mark turned down the main hallway and slowed down his pace as he came to the school’s exit. “We can either split up, three of us go to defeat Satan, and the remaining two can find a way into heaven and take on God.” Mark paused as his hand pushed at the main door. “Or we can take out both leaders one at a time, five on one.”
“What’s the catch?”
“With the first option, we may be considerably weakened if we split up; and with the second option, we’ll be leaving a large window of opportunity for the armies to devastate our homeland.”
Alyssa sighed. “Which may leave us nothing to save.”
Mark nodded and slowly inched his way outside of the school. When he hit fresh air, an unwelcoming feeling washed over him. When he was fully outside, he moved aside to allow the others room.
“We’re going to have to split up for now.” Mark turned to the others. “Denis… you up for another babysitting job?”
Denis looked over to Mark and rolled his eyes. “I think I’d like to see some action, man.”
Mark smiled and nodded towards Jared. “I need you to get the survivors to somewhere safe.”
Jared’s eyebrows rose up. “Any place in mind?”
“The town square.” Jon spoke up. “There’s some sort of shelter down there.”
“Good enough. Romeo and Denis, you guys will search out other survivors. If you find any, bring them to the square.” Mark turned towards Alyssa, his eyes giving her a sorrowful look. “Someone needs to make sure the square stays clear while survivors are being brought in, and I can’t do it alone.”
Without saying a word or changing her expression, Alyssa nodded.
“Good. Jared, take the car and pile as many people as you can in it.” Mark looked over to Jon. “How’d you guys get here?”
Jon pointed towards the minibus parked sideways in the school parking lot. “That got most of us here; we can all pile in though.”
Nodding, Mark turned back to Jared. “Fuck the car. I want you to stay overhead and make sure nothing goes near those vehicles, understand?”
Nodding, Jared immediately moved towards the mini bus. Several of the surviving civilians followed Jared while Andria, Chris, and Jon stayed behind.
“We want to help.” Andria moved to Mark.
Mark shook his head, and when he stopped his eyes fell upon Andria’s. “You and Jon take care of each other; us five will worry about the rest of humanity.” Mark glared over to Chris who stood silently staring into the sky. “I bet you once thought heaven would be beautiful.”
Chris nodded, a frown coming across his face. “It’s all rather disappointing. Everything I thought I knew about my religion was all… sugar coated bullshit.”
Mark smiled a small smile. “I told you not to believe all that crap you read.”
“Mark, we better get a move on.” Romeo tapped Mark’s shoulder and pointed down the road from the school.
At the end of the road, where the diner full of hellhounds was, a battle had broken out between a squadron of angels and a small group of hellhounds. The angel’s defended themselves with their small daggers as the hellhound lunged at them, their front paws leading their attack.
“Alyssa, you up for a fight?” Mark turned away from the battle scene and nudged the female hybrid.
“I am…” Alyssa spoke dryly, her voice trailing off.
“Alyssa and I will clear that roadway. Jared, when you see it’s clear, take flight and cover those people. Romeo and Denis, find as many people as you can and bring them back here.” Mark swung his sword at his side and smiled brightly, as if the some part of him was happy about the war. “Best of luck to you all.”
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Mark arched his back as his wings spread out behind him, a small groan escaping his dried and cracked lips. His attention was on Alyssa, who was in the midst of cracking every bone she possibly could. Her wings were already spread and her shotgun was held tightly in her hand.
“Do you have a preference?” Mark dug his sword into the ground, then lifted it and pointed the tip at his battling enemies as if he were taking aim.
Alyssa smirked. “I’ll take the hounds.”
A sigh escaped Mark, though he still wore a slight smile on his face. “You took the fun ones.”
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Andarial, the leader of the small angel patrol squadron, dug his dagger out of the hellhound he had just slain. Around him, three of his combatants quarreled with the remaining two hellhounds. The entire squadron, minus himself, was made up of rookies; recruited as warriors when word of the war reached the Almighty’s ears.
The second in command of Andarial’s squad, Kendra, fought. Ashton, definitely a newcomer if he had ever seen one, was most definitely engaged in his first fight of his angel life. Drakon, aside from his squad leader, was the first to take down one of the hellhounds on his own. His style seemed a bit sloppy at first, but Andarial came to approve of Drakon’s skill; if it weren’t for seniority, Kendra would have been replaced by Drakon in an instant.
Wanting to see what his unit was made of, Andarial took a seat on top of the dead hellhound’s body and watched the small fight unfold in front of him.
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Mark floated quietly to the ground behind the seated angel. Confusion struck him as he tried to wonder why the angel was remaining passive from the fight, angel’s only had a will to fight and win. Mark shook off his confusion as he hit the ground, his eyes immediately going to the sky.
Alyssa stayed afloat above Mark, awaiting her signal to draw away the hellhounds. She nodded down to Mark and gave him a thumb up, signaling him that she was ready. Mark held up one finger, than returned his attention to the angel in front of him.
Mark moved slowly on the asphalt as he approached his prey, which seemed to be completely distracted by the battle in front of him. Lifting his right arm, the sword was raised over his head, ready to strike down upon the flesh of the enemy.
“Andarial!”
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Andarial’s head jerked straight up at the sound of Drakon’s voice calling his name, and instantly he sensed it. To avoid the blow that was about to be dealt to him, Andarial rolled off of the dead beast’s body and pushed off of his own shoulder and onto his feet. His two daggers, one stained with the blood of a demon, were held away from his body on each side.
“Hybrid!” Andarial’s voice growled, startling both angel and demon nearby.
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The angel’s turned their complete attention towards Mark; the hellhound’s doing the same. The grip Mark had around his blade tightened as he took a defensive stance.
“We’re fucking priority…” Mark spoke to himself as he lifted his free hand above his head.
Mark’s hand began to glow a fiery read as a minimal amount of flames began to spark up at his wrist. Quickly, he waved his hand in the air and brought it back down in front of his face. A grin crossed Mark’s lips as he watched his own hand grow engulfed in a large ball of fire.
“Go!” Mark growled as loud as he could as he pounded his burning fist in the ground.
Starting at his hand, a long stream of fire streaked in a straight line across the concrete, causing the angel that Mark should have already killed to dive out of the way. The stream of fire flowed to between the group of angels and demons and stopped. A small flame burnt in the middle of the group for a brief moment before it erupted, sending fire to spray in all directions.
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As she flew to her position overhead, Alyssa watched as the explosion of fire caused the small group of angel’s to scatter, but seemed to have no effect on the demon dogs. With a large grin on her face, Alyssa stopped herself over the hellhounds and let herself float slowly to the ground. Alyssa made a fist with her right hand and closed her eyes. Starting at her fingertips, a strong light began to engulf her hand until everything up to her wrist was shrouded in the white aura.
The wings that had kept her from free falling to the ground folded up quickly behind her and her slow drop changed into a quick decent. When she hit the ground, small bits of concrete flew around at her feet; the small rumble of her hitting the ground caused the hellhounds to turn their attention away from Mark and towards her.
The hellhound to the left growled and reared back onto its hind legs as it prepared to pounce onto Alyssa while the one to the right started to sidestep, attempting to bring itself around to her back. Unsure of which to keep her eyes on, Alyssa flicked her vision between the two beasts.
Alyssa brought the barrel of her shotgun to her glowing hand and touched the metal gently, the barrel of the gun taking on the same glow as her hand. Knowing that she should make the first move, Alyssa took a sudden step forward, which startled the beast that was about to pounce.
Snarling, the hellhound leaped at Alyssa, but not before she could get herself back into the air. Not wanting to land back down onto the hellhound, Alyssa kicked forward, one foot connecting with the nose of the beast and sending her into a mid-air back flip. The moment she hit the ground, Alyssa crouched and pumped off a shot from her glowing shotgun.
A burst of light shot out from the gun’s barrel and slammed into the skull of the attacking hellhound. The beast’s skull exploded on contact with the holy projectile. The hellhound that had been attempting to attack Alyssa from behind snapped its attention towards its dismembered colleague. The beast let off a low rumble before snapping its drooling jaws at Alyssa.
Alyssa touched the barrel of the shotgun with her glowing hand again, the metal once again taking on the glow of her hand. She closed on eye and held her left arm out in front of her, horizontal to the rest of her body. Propping the shotgun onto her arm, she took steady aim at the beast as it started to approach her, its growls growing louder the closer it got. Without a word or noise, Alyssa pulled the trigger, the gun recoiling in her hand.
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Mark laughed to himself as the second hellhound’s head exploded into a burst of light. While Alyssa had confronted the hellhounds, Mark had charged the angel, Andarial. The two were engulfed in a quick one on one battle before one of the other angels had joined his leader’s side. Mark grinned at the challenge and did nothing to avoid the two on one conflict.
“Why not just give up now and save yourself the pain of death.” Mark’s voice seemed scratchy as he spoke, his sword deflecting an attack made by Andarial’s aid.
Mark pushed his sword away from him, causing the white form of the angel to stumble backward. Before the angel could straighten itself out, Mark shot out another fireball. The ball of flames struck the angel’s chest and sent it to the ground onto its back. Mark smiled sadistically as he pictured the demonic fire eating way at the angel’s flesh.
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After defeating the two hellhounds, Alyssa had noticed that Mark was about to take on Mark was about to take on four angels on his own and quickly reacted. Before two of the three angels Mark had knocked to the ground could join the battle with their leader, Alyssa had cut them off.
“Foolish girl.” One of the angels spoke. “I want her head, Kendra.”
“Then I get the rest of her.” The other angel replied as it clanged its two daggers together.
“Would you two shut the fuck up and fight!” Alyssa snapped as she lifted her shotgun and aimed it at the head of Kendra.
Before her finger could pull the trigger, Ashton threw on of his daggers at the girl’s wrist, the blade slicing across the side of her hand. Alyssa recoiled her hand; her finger’s releasing their grip around the shotgun.
Kendra took a step towards Alyssa as she reached down to grab for her weapon. Before she could get her hand on it, though, the angel lunged forward and swiped his blade at her hand.
The dagger connected with the palm of Alyssa’s hand; this time she did not recoil. Instead, Alyssa closed her hand tight around the sharp edges of the dagger. A fiery glow flashed across her eyes just before a stream of fire moved down the blade of the dagger, over the handle, and onto the angel that held the weapon.
Kendra dropped the dagger immediately, but it was too late; the demonic flame had already made contact with his skin. The angel’s body was soon engulfed by the parasitic fire.
As the angel struck the ground, Alyssa stood and stared into the eyes of the remaining angel. The angel stared back, its fingers playing over the handle of its weapon. Alyssa held the dagger she had acquired in front of her and kept a hand hidden behind her back.
“Your move.” Alyssa winked.
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Ashton let out a cry of anger as he charged his opponent, his dagger held out in front of him. As he grew closer to the girl, he came to notice a red glow coming from behind her back. Ignoring it out of anger, he continued his charge.
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When she felt the angel had come close enough, Alyssa shifted her position and revealed her hidden hand. Engulfed entirely in the hellish fire was Alyssa’s shotgun, her finger already pressing on the trigger. Before her attacker could take another step, she pulled the trigger, an eruption of fire shooting out from the gun and striking her opponent’s stomach. In the mess of the impact, the angel split in two, its lower half sliding across the concrete while its upper half soared over Alyssa’s head.
Alyssa blinked and lowered her shotgun. “Well, I wasn’t expecting that.”
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“Look’s like you’re out of angels, dipshit.” Mark swung his blade at Andarial’s gut and missed.
“I won’t need them to kill you!”
Andarial took advantage of Mark’s miss and jabbed his dagger forward. The tip came mere inches away from Mark’s chest before the hybrid hopped back and swatted the rather long blade of the dagger away.
Andarial stumbled to the side as the effect of his failed attack. He regained his balance and posture and eyed Mark up. His opponent seemed to be eyeing him up as well, for the only thing on him that moved were his eyes.
“Your strike.” Andarial spoke softly.
Mark shrugged and kicked off of his left leg, breaking off into a run. He charged, his sword held out in front of him and his head held high.
Andarial laughed at his opponent’s idiocy and prepared to dodge the attack and jam his dagger into Mark’s back. He watched intently as Mark grew closer and closer, until it was time to move.
Mark was not surprised when Andarial jumped to the side, for it was what he had planned to happen. When Andarial lunged to dig his dagger into Mark’s back, Mark ducked to the ground and performed a shoulder roll. At the end of his roll, Mark was facing his attacker again and his sword was aimed at the angel’s chest.
Andarial did not react quick enough to stop himself from running into the sword that stared at his heart. A gasp escaped him as the blade pierced his skin and was pushed further into his chest by the hybrid. Andarial’s blank eyes closed, the white eyelids forever covering the whiter orbs of his eyes.
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Alyssa approached Mark, blood dripping slowly from her hand. She looked down at the fallen angel, and then back up at Mark.
“You kept him in one piece.” Alyssa commented, her eyes moving back up to Mark.
Mark twirled his sword at his side before sending it back to the nothingness from where it came. “He fought well.” Mark paused and then turned back to his fallen enemy. “He deserved a clean death.”
“You don’t enjoy this, do you?” Alyssa tilted her head, her eyes staring into Mark’s.
“A part of me does; but that’s the part we all have to keep from taking over completely.”
“We should make sure they start moving now.” Alyssa pointed down the road to the school.
Mark nodded and started his way to the school, Alyssa following closely.
© Copyright 2004 Mark LoProto. All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.
1/13/2004 9:48:23 PM
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