through the large bullet hole in the front, easily visible.
“And now I’m not,” said Sam, getting to his feet slowly. His chest still hurt but it was nothing like the pain the demon had inflicted on him hours earlier. Oddly, he didn’t feel angry; just slightly disappointed somehow.
“But that’s impossible,” exclaimed the smaller of the two.
He walked up to the two men and took their weapons from their uncomplaining grasps.
“Let this be a lesson to you,” said Sam. “Some people coming in here might not be what they seem. From now on, I want you to give anyone who walks in that door exactly what they want. If I hear that you’ve given them trouble — any trouble at all — I’ll come right back.”
The two men nodded dumbly.
“Now, if you’d excuse me, I have some supplies to pick out.”
Out on the street, he found the woman who had confronted him earlier slumped on the sidewalk. She didn’t respond to anything he said or did. Wordlessly, he took a few tins of food out of his new backpack and left them at her feet, trying to tell her that there was more available inside the camping store. She ignored him, or perhaps didn’t see him at all, lost inside her own private nightmare. At one point, he tried to lift her to her feet but she screamed at him and scratched him with her nails. He had no choice but to leave her where she was.
Walking home, he saw a few others in the same state, utterly confused and traumatized by what had happened. He tried to help them, offering directions to the camping store but, by and large, he got the same response as he had earlier with the woman. There was nothing else he could do for them. He would have to be leaving on his journey shortly and he couldn’t possibly take them with him. They would have to pull themselves together and get on with their lives despite their obvious suffering. It hurt him to leave them to their fate but he really did have no other choice.
At home, he tried to cook himself a meal only to find that the power had gone out. He used his portable gas cooker instead, boiling up some noodles that he ate absentmindedly from the same pot he cooked them in. He wasn’t really hungry — it just gave him something to do. It was odd to sit at the table in the darkness without Aimi’s happy banter and Hikari’s amused tolerance to fill the silence. He tried not to think about it.
He lit some candles and inventoried the food supplies he had in the house. There was quite a lot; enough for a week or two which meant he didn’t have to touch the food reserves he had for the trip to Los Angeles. The house next door was empty. He ransacked their food supplies too.
Water could be a problem. Grey, ash stained water trickled out of the tap, obviously unfit for drinking. The rain water barrel out the back was a better option. He disconnected the rain gutter leading from the roof to the barrel to avoid further contamination and made sure that it was securely covered. There was enough in the barrel for several days.
He tried the TV. Nothing but grey static. The emergency broadcast warning was looping on the radio. There was absolutely no internet connection. He was effectively cut off from the rest of the world.
Eventually, he decided to meditate. He wasn’t about to risk sleeping now that using the pentacle was out of the question. He could easily draw it around himself but then he would be trapped, with no-one to break the protective line of chalk.
That night, for the first time, the demons came.
He was taken completely by surprise. Deep in a meditative trance, they were almost in the house before he realized. He had sensed them earlier but just put it down to the lurking presence of the smiling traitor that seemed to haunt him on a regular basis.
It was the demonic screaming that awoke him to the danger he was in. His eyes sprung open in shock. Without being consciously aware of it, his swords were suddenly in his hands. He raced downstairs in time to meet their charge.
The Lemure streamed in through the open front door. There were only about ten of them and his swords went to work with a will, seemingly moving of their own accord. His training had been so intense that he cut and parried instinctively, even though a part of his mind was recoiling in terror.
It was over in seconds, his swords continuing to move even as the ashen remains of the last destroyed demon fluttered slowly to the floor. The encounter had left him completely unscathed.
He stopped and listened, his mind still not quite registering what had happened. Outside, he could still hear the demons screaming. Through the dreadful clamour, he heard something else. It was screaming but it wasn’t a demon. It was most definitely human.
He raced outside and looked both ways down Main Street. The street lights were off and there was no moon. Even though, his sharp demon eyes took in everything clearly.
At the far end of the street, two hundred feet in the distance, he could see a large pack of Lemure surrounding the woman he had tried to help earlier. They had forced her to her feet; she was struggling and screaming but it made no difference to the Lemure. Hoisting her between them, they hurried her along down the street. They were coming directly for him.
He charged at them. A dozen or so broke off from the pack and intercepted him before he could reach the group that held the woman. He fought his way through them but they were persistent. More appeared out of the shadows and soon he was being forced backwards. Over the tops of their heads, he could see the woman being carried further and further away. He renewed his attack but it was no use, as more demons appeared to replace those that had fallen. He continued to fight. Demons surrounded him but he cut them down so quickly most did not even have an opportunity to strike at him.
Suddenly, the demons broke off the attack, melting back into the shadows. Sam sucked in a large breath of air and looked around him. All the demons had gone. Of the woman, there was no sign.
He sunk down on to his knees in utter despair. He had been tasked with helping the survivors but he was worse than useless. He hadn’t been able to save even one poor woman. How was he possibly meant to defend the innocent against such overwhelming odds?
Hikari, Father Rainey and even the Archangel Gabriel were wrong. How could he save others when he had already failed so spectacularly? Not only that, but he was expected to confront and defeat the Antichrist. It was all just a bit too much to take.
With a heavy heart, he trudged back home.
11
PRESENT
“If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath.”
Revelation 14:9,10
Las Vegas had come off relatively unscathed by the Tribulation. Sure, there was some superficial damage caused by the earthquakes and a few buildings gutted by fire, but nothing like what Sam had expected.
Joshua and Grace dismounted and led the horses along the Great Basin Highway that threaded its way directly into the city. It was completely devoid of the abandoned cars that Sam had learnt to expect from most roads. It was even ash-free. Someone had obviously scraped it clear with something like a mechanical snow plough. Surprisingly, they even encountered a few moving vehicles that honked their horns at them as they passed, some of the occupants shouting abuse. Even now, foot traffic on a state highway was obviously not encouraged.
Eventually, sick of the hurled insults, they decided to get off the road and found a smaller tributary road. The sign said East Flamingo which Joshua said would take them into the heart of Vegas. There, he said, was the best chance to find transport to Los Angeles.
Sam took him at his word, knowing no better, while Grace offered no comment, having never been to Las Vegas before.
On the sidewalk, Sam was surprised to see that there were absolutely no demons around. He could sense them — just — but so far they had not made an appearance. There also seemed to be a great number of people
