Battle Angel (Immortal City 3)

Spurred by this restless energy, Maddy knew she couldn’t just sit in her uncle’s house, waiting. For what, she could not say.

Nonaction is complicity. Maddy forced herself to go outside, to do something. To get out of her own mind and feelings. Anything would be more productive than wallowing. On her way out the door, Kevin insisted on coming with her.

• • •

Aside from the occasional emergency siren, Angel City was eerily silent. Kevin and Maddy decided to check on the neighbors. Some had managed to evacuate via the chaotic freeways before the mandatory curfew was put into place, but others were left with no other choice but to hole up in their houses with as much food and water as possible, and hope for the best. Not everyone believed the demon sinkhole actually posed a threat, and some stubborn folks simply didn’t want to leave their homes behind, but for the most part, and for most people, there was just no way out.

A hush of expectation hung over the city. The atmosphere was strangely calm, almost like a holiday, Maddy thought to herself. Except on a holiday, tactical fighter jets didn’t scream in the sky on their hourly demon patrols.

After talking to some of their remaining neighbors, Maddy and Kevin reached the house at the end of the block, where the old woman they’d known for years still lived. They knocked on the door.

It cracked open and an old lady with a head of white hair peered suspiciously out the small opening. Two small dogs yipped at her feet.

“Mrs. Dawkins?” Maddy said. “It’s Maddy. Maddy Montgomery, from down the street.”

“Who are you?” the woman said. “You’re not going to make me leave my home!”

“I’m not here to take you out of your house, Mrs. Dawkins. I’m Maddy. Remember? I used to help you pull weeds?”

The suspicious lines around the old woman’s face softened. Just a bit.

“They’ll have to pull my cold, dead body out of here before I leave my house and my babies behind!” The two lap dogs yipped even louder at this, as if agreeing with their batty owner. Behind Mrs. Dawkins, coming from the living room, Maddy could hear the TV news loudly blaring updates about the demon attack.

“Well, please, just stay inside. If anything should happen . . .” Kevin said, then stopped himself. “Well, it’s just best to stay inside. I’ll check on you later to make sure you’re okay.”

Mrs. Dawkins opened the door slightly more to look Kevin up and down. “Thank you,” she said, then closed the door. The barking dogs and the loud TV faded as Maddy and Kevin walked down the street.

“Let’s go back to the house,” Maddy said. “I want to see if I can get in touch with the authorities. They’re going to need me, Kevin. I just know it.”

“I had a feeling you’d say something like that. I’m going to be worried about you, kiddo,” Kevin said, squeezing her shoulder. Before they knew it, they were back at the house.

“I have no choice, Kevin,” Maddy said. “I need to do something.”

“I know. I know you do,” he said. “It’s just . . . it’s so hard to watch you go out, to step right into something I can’t even imagine. It’s selfish of me, I know. But I always want to protect you.”

Maddy felt strange as she and Kevin walked into the house. Her mind was racing, and she realized she hadn’t eaten anything all day. This was no good; she needed to stay sharp. She was going to force herself to at least drink some juice.

Each step she took toward the kitchen seemed so real, so clear, yet somehow distant, as if she were floating above, watching someone else do it.

“Kevin, is there any apple juice left?” Maddy asked. Her tongue felt thick in her mouth, and the voice sounded far off. Her feet felt controlled by a puppeteer as she watched them stepping off the carpet and onto the scuffed linoleum of the old kitchen.

Kevin walked into the kitchen and passed in front of Maddy. Her eyes followed him slowly, and it almost seemed like there were blurry streams of light trailing him as he walked by.

He opened the fridge and looked inside. “We sure do have some apple juice. You want a big or little glass?”

“Little.”

Kevin pulled a cup down from the cupboard and began filling it as Maddy cast her eyes toward the window and looked to the city. She thought of her Protections, almost all of whom had probably been able to leave the city. The most fortunate ones always were able to get out and save themselves first. Either way, she couldn’t feel their frequencies anymore. The Global Angel Commission, the organization in charge of handling “the Angel question,” had banned Angel activities, and with the Angels now nowhere to be found, they knew no one was going to protect them now. Those who had the money to escape were taking no chances, fleeing however they could, whether by private jet, helicopter, or even hired boat. As usual, the people who couldn’t afford those luxuries were left behind to protect themselves against the unknown.

Maddy just stood there as Kevin put the juice away, her hands held tensely against her chest, when suddenly something struck her like a thunderbolt. Nausea spread from her stomach through her limbs. She was definitely not okay.

“Kevin, I don’t feel so good.”

He turned around, and, seeing her ghostly face, he put the glass of juice down on the counter.

“Maddy? Maddy!”

Maddy felt the ground disappear underneath her. She was falling, falling into nothingness. There was no bottom. There would be no end. At once, a maelstrom of fire and smoke exploded before her eyes. And there was blood. She couldn’t see it, but she knew she sensed the smell of blood. Out of the flames emerged two eyes, then almost what looked like limbs as she kept falling, each one on fire and boiling with dark smoke. A Dark One. The thing seemed to grin at her.