vegetation. But what got him was the absence of any sound. He was used to it in the town but the contrast between now and the last time he had ventured into these mountains was huge. Previously, the forest had rung with the sound of various native birds. He had glimpsed peregrine falcons and even the occasional bald eagle. The forest was normally full of mule deer, bighorn sheep, and the odd coyote which preyed on the numerous cottontail rabbits. Once, he had even seen an elk.
Two trips previously, he had run into a cougar during the night. The great predator had eyed him as if sizing him up as a potential meal. Sam hadn’t moved as the giant cat stalked towards him. As it got nearer, they locked gazes. The cat froze, immobile but for one shaking paw. Then, it simply darted away. Sam remembered the look on the cat’s face well. Fear. To him, it had appeared terrified.
There were no cougars now, though. In fact, Sam hadn’t seen any animals. The Rapture and subsequent Tribulation had hit them hard. With the ash covering the vegetation, their food sources must be almost depleted. A thought struck him that if animals were struggling to survive, how could humans do much better? Of course, there was tinned and preserved food but how long would that last? The Tribulation was meant to last for seven years. The remaining humans were going to have to think of other food sources if they were to survive.
Sam’s stomach rumbled. He realized he hadn’t eaten for over twenty four hours. He was famished. How much longer would Gabriel force him to keep moving?
He was just about to say something when the junipers gave way to a great blackened clearing. A huge shape almost completely filled it. Burnt and broken trees lined each side of the clearing, and ash disguised parts of it, but it was instantly recognisable as an aircraft. A huge aircraft. Probably a 747 or 737 that had been travelling coast- to-coast.
Sam moved to stand at Gabriel’s shoulder. “What happened here?” he asked in an awed whisper.
She replied in her beautiful, musical voice, watching him carefully. “What do you think happened?”
Sam knew. The Rapture. The Rapture had taken the pilot and without the pilot, well, of course the plane had crashed. Sam nodded and moved towards the wreckage. Mounds that could only be bodies lay here and there around the shattered plane. Some had been uncovered and on closer inspection, looked like they had been gnawed on. Perhaps the coyote and cougars could survive after all.
Sam felt his stomach turn. He moved away from the corpses and crept gingerly amongst the wreckage. In the smashed shell of the plane, some of the bodies were still strapped in their seats. Most had been burnt beyond recognition. Any thoughts of finding food were dashed. Feeling nauseous, he backed out and rejoined Gabriel who had moved closer to the plane.
“Perhaps this is a good time to have a break,” said Gabriel.
Sam nodded in agreement. “But not …”
“Here. Yes, I know. We’ll move further away.”
“We should bury the bodies,” he said.
Gabriel shook her head. “We haven’t got time. There are two hundred and sixty seven bodies here. Do you know how long that would take?”
Sam shook his head, wondering how Gabriel knew exactly how many bodies there were.
She led him away from the crash site. They found a smaller clearing nearby and Sam set his pack down with an audible sigh. He took his sneakers off and began to massage his feet.
“You must be hungry,” said Gabriel.
“I was,” replied Sam. “My appetite just disappeared.”
“You have to eat,” said Gabriel. “We’ve still got a long way to go and you’ll need the energy.” She picked up his pack and began rummaging around, pulling out some tins and his cooking gear.
Sam sat down on a rock and put his sneakers back on. He watched as Gabriel prepared his lunch. Despite himself, he watched fascinated at the ease of her movements. She moved like a dancer — no, not a dancer. Something infinitely more graceful and smoother and somehow more animal like. She was very efficient too, almost like she had done this before.
“Where did you learn to use a gas cooker?” he asked, surprising himself with his bluntness. “And couldn’t you just, you know, use magic or something?” He wriggled his fingers dramatically.
Gabriel smiled and shrugged without taking her eyes off what she was doing. “I’ve been around for a long, long time. Thousands of years, in fact. Don’t you think I would’ve spent at least some of that time here on earth amongst you humans? And as for magic, as you call it — I could use it but doing it this way makes me feel more in touch.”
Sam couldn’t argue with the logic.
Gabriel handed him a tin of beans and a spoon. “Careful,” she said. “It’s hot.”
It was indeed hot — hot enough to burn his fingers, but he didn’t much mind. Heat had very little effect on him. He started eating and realized that his appetite had returned with a fury. As he began to shovel the beans into his mouth, Gabriel looked on, her mouth crooked into a tiny lop-sided smile.
“Aren’t you hungry?” he managed to ask in between mouthfuls.
Gabriel shook her head. “I don’t eat.”
Sam shrugged and continued eating.
“What was it like?” he asked when his mouth was no longer full. “I mean, long ago.”
“Not too different to now,” she said. “I watched when Noah loaded up the Ark. I watched what became of those who were left behind. The misery, the anger, the terror. Some things don’t change. Take these times for instance. Humans knew He would return at some point — in fact, some of you even tried to predict his return — and yet most did nothing about it. Carried on living their lives, murdering, stealing, cheating. Fighting wars, killing innocents. He tried to warn you. Think about the amount of natural disasters that have occurred in the last few years. Earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, flooding, plague and pestilence. Animals mysteriously dying in their thousands. No-one paid any attention, and now look what’s happened to them.”
Sam set his empty tin of beans down carefully beside him. “Yes, but many of these people,” he said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the plane wreckage, “were innocent. Did they really deserve this?”
“Why is it that I always end up having these conversations?” Gabriel sighed. “The answer is yes and no. Yes, they deserved it because they didn’t believe in Our Lord. And no, they didn’t because they were innocent of sin. They made their choice, however. God has a plan for all of us — including the innocent. Don’t worry unduly about them. Their souls are safe.”
“And what about that family at the airport? Did they deserve to get taken by those demons?”He stormed to his feet, suddenly feeling angry and a little helpless. Despite his efforts, Sam still felt like he hadn’t done enough to save them.
Gabriel looked him squarely in the eye. “Yes, they did. None of them were innocents. They were guilty of many sins.”
“Even the children?” Sam cried.
Gabriel nodded. “Yes, even the children. You talk of things of which you have no knowledge.”
“At least I care,” he shouted back. “Which is more than I can say for you!”
With that, he stalked off. Part of him realized he was being childish, but he didn’t care. He walked for a while through the silent ash, kicking at it and watching the flurries slowly drift and subside.
The annoying thing was that Gabriel was probably right. How would he know who was innocent and who wasn’t? It just seemed a little unfair. Like his situation. How unfair was it that he had been left behind while Hikari and Aimi got to go to paradise? Was it his fault that his mother had been seduced by a demon? He realized then that he wasn’t angry with Gabriel. How could he be angry with an Archangel, a being that had been around for thousands of years and had seen the best and worst that humanity could offer? A being that knew far more about everything than he did.
He felt his anger subside. Eventually he made his way back to the clearing to find Gabriel waiting for him. His pack was on her shoulder.
“Sorry,” he said meekly, unable to meet her eyes.
“Apology accepted. Everyone makes mistakes. You are part-human after all.” Smiling, she handed him his pack. “You should get going. You’ve got a long way to go before nightfall.”
“What? You’re not coming with me?”
Gabriel shook her head. Despite the gloom, Sam noticed the way her hair seemed to glow as she moved her head side to side, as if it was absorbing and reflecting what light there was in the sky.
