Chapter 36

"Manuel," the gang leader said, introducing himself to Audrey. "Carnale of the local chapter of Surenos 13."

Every movement the gang leader, and most members of the gang, was exaggerated to convey more than what was being said verbally. The words Manuel spoke were in perfect English, but his speech patterns had a cadence similar to Spanish. Gang tattoos were scratched all over Manuel's body, from the three dots on his fingers, to the Spanish words tattooed across his wrists, to the writing she could see above the collar of his shirt on his neck. They were alike, she and Manuel. Both had permanently written, for all the world to see, exactly who and what they were on their skin.

"Audrey," Audrey introduced herself. "And this is Gunn, the Reverend, Lena, and Gabriel."

"We heard rumors," Manuel said, glancing back at Gabriel. "My brother insisted this is all part of the rapture, but we did not believe him. It didn't seem very … rapturous … to us."

"Not the rapture," Audrey said. "But an extermination. Extermination without the possibility of salvation. Humanity is only still here because the Archangel Michael convinced the Father to give us more time."

"How many angels you got hangin' around you, lady?" Manuel asked, shooting Gabriel another glance. Although the young man had a tough stance, she could see the fear in his eyes. The other gang members walked circling around them, acting tough, but none dared draw close to Gabriel. Or Gunn, for that matter. Gunn was nothing to sneeze at.

"At the moment," Audrey said. "Just one."

They wound their way through a labyrinth of side streets and back alleys that she sensed was not necessary, but designed to confuse the location of their headquarters should they decide to come back later with reinforcements. The neighborhood went downhill as they entered some abandoned warehouses, gutted and burned. The headquarters bore the external marks of fire, but as soon as they got inside, it became obvious the gang headquarters itself had been untouched by the heavenly host.

The building was filthy, dilapidated, and run down, but Earthly fires had been quickly put out using earthly means and no darkened stains marred the floor where people had died. The gang members who had followed Manuel out into the street had been mostly young men, but inside the gang headquarters were hundreds more people, overwhelmingly young women and even younger children. This was more than a simple gang hideout.

"You live here?" Audrey asked.

"We do now," Manuel said. "But for most of us, the Surenos was our family, anyhow. The apocalypse just made if official."

"How old are you, Manuel?" Audrey asked.

"Twenty-two," Manuel said. "I'm the leader now."

"Now?" Audrey asked.

"We had lots of gang members in the barrios," Manuel said. "The neighborhoods. Most of the bro's get sent up to Pen for one thing or another and end up getting conscripted by the Mexican Mafia once they get out. Hanging out with the initiates was beneath the Mexican Mafiosos, so none was here when the apocalypse hit us. None survived."

Audrey knew from speaking with the Reverend that the Mexican Mafia was a multinational crime syndicate straddling both sides of the US-Mexico border, similar to the Italian mafia, which recruited from 'feeder gangs' such as the Surenos to smuggle things over the border, deal drugs, cook up methamphetamines, and 'take out' any threat to their criminal enterprise. To an impoverished kid growing up in a poor neighborhood with no hope, a trip to the state penitentiary and graduation to a larger umbrella gang such as the Mexican Mafia was a badge of honor. The Reverend had spent a great deal of time counseling young adults in the Las Vegas prison system, urging them to break the cycle.

"Where are all these children's parents?" Audrey asked, noticing how many young children were present. She knew gangs recruited young, but not this young.

"Dead," Manuel said, his eyes becoming distant and haunted the way everyone they encountered did when remembering the night the world had ended. "The people went nuts. Most of us Surenos, we don't have nothing to go home for anyways, so most of us not there when it happen. We just in here minding our own business, hanging out, when we start hearing gunshots and screaming outside. At first we think it's a raid or something, or a driveby by one of the west side gangs, but when we get outside it's like church ladies or something all freaked out screaming we was sinners. And then this dude's arms got long and started climbing up the wall."

"But nobody inside this building was possessed?" Audrey asked.

"Nobody," Manuel said. "A lot of us got families. We ain't close to them or nothing, but they're family. You know? So a lot of us run home to make sure our families is allright and find out the same things happening at home. Our parents and brothers and such get all freaky, trying to bite us like they was dogs or something."

"Where was your brother at the time?" Audrey asked.

"He was here," Manuel said. "Mama'd get all pissed off when Jose' would follow me down here an tryin hang out with us. Didn't like us … using him … Jose's a good boy. Don't bother nobody. He's a little … different."

"Different?" Audrey asked. "Like in … religious or something. Like the Reverend?" She glanced back at the Reverend, who appeared to be intently interested in speaking to several very young children playing in the gang headquarters and speaking to them in fluent Spanish.

"No," Manuel said. "Different as in … different. You'll see."

He led them through the gaping cavern of a warehouse, up a rickety set of steps, and into some sort of office positioned to overlook the warehouse below. Inside were dozens of computer monitors and servers. All up and running. It appeared every ounce of electricity the Surenos had was being routed up into this room.

"Jose'?" Manuel called, his voice suddenly cautious and gentle. "You've got some friends come to visit you. You okay with that?" Jose' was not visible, but Audrey could detect somebody standing behind a metal shelf loaded with computer parts.

"Friends," Jose' muttered, his voice nervous and twitchy. "I got friends. I like friends. Manuel going to bring me some new friends. Friends. Friends are good."

A painfully thin young Hispanic man stepped out from behind the shelving, one hand lifted in the air trembling as though waving 'hi,' the other hand facing down and twitching as though he were shooing away a dog jumping up on his leg. Although the young man stepped cautiously closer, he held his body somewhat sideways, as though making physical contact would be painful for him.

"This is Audrey, Jose'," Manuel said. "She's come a long way to meet you. She's come to talk to you about those dreams you keep having."

"The Rapture is here," Jose' said, rocking slightly and speaking in a singsong voice, his eyes wild and out of focus. "The Savior is here. He's a coming. He's coming to save us all."

"Schizophrenic," Manuel whispered to her. "Or autism. Or maybe obsessive-compulsive disorder. Mama ain't never got no health insurance, so we'd go to a different quack doctor at the low income clinics every few months to get medicine to keep the craziness at bay and they'd give him a different label every time."

For the first time, Audrey looked around the darkened room at something other than the bright lights of the dozen or so computer screens that were all lit up and noticed the papers that were pinned to the walls all over the room. Her eyes widened with surprise.

"Gabriel," she whispered, pointing to the symbols scratched onto the paper. They were symbols she recognized. They were the same types of symbols which were tattooed all over her body.

"I see," Gabriel said.

"We ain't been able to get no reliable medicine for him since the apocalypse," Manuel said, regret tingeing his voice. "We cleaned out all the free local barrio clinics, but the big hospital is over in West Side territory. Jose's not so bad when he takes his medicine. You'd almost not know he was sick or nothing. He's the smartest kid in the entire barrio."

"Signs," Jose' said, coming up to Audrey and then backing away. "Signs. She's got the signs. She's got the signs sent by the Savior."

"That's correct, Jose'," Audrey said, swallowing her apprehension and doing her best to address their latest disciple like he was a normal human being instead of a schizophrenic. "I've got the signs. Do you want to tell your brother what they say?"

"Prophet," Jose' said. "You are a Prophet of the Lord."

"That's right, Jose'," Audrey said, heaving a small sign of relief. Had they gotten here and Manuel's brother been unable to recognize the signs, she worried what the gang would have done to them. "What else are you able to read?"

"The angel protects you," Jose' said, his eyes slightly in and out of focus as he wrapped his arms around his thin chest and rocked back and forth. "It says it was your hands that welcomed the Savior into the world. It says it was your voice the Saviors' ears first heard. It says you have the gift of truthful blasphemy."

"You said you think the reason we're all still here is because Jose' somehow … protected … us all?" Manuel asked, his eyes widening as it became apparent the rantings his mentally ill brother had been spouting for the past year and a half had some basis in reality.

"The heavenly host are the lowest order of angels," Audrey said. "They were created by the Father to torment souls condemned to Sheol and compel the damned to repeat their crimes over and over and over again. The Father grew angry at us and unleashed them upon the Earth. But for some reason, some people are immune to them, while other people drive them away. We're not sure why … yet."

"The Chosen must rally to the Savior," Jose' said. "The Chosen must not let the Grigori trick the Father a second time."

"What do you know of the Father?" Gabriel asked, his feathers twitching with interest as his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"The Father was lied to," Jose' said, starting to rock back and forth and become very agitated. "The Father is angry. The Father is very … sad."

"Why is the Father sad?" Audrey asked gently.

"The Mother is angry at him," Jose' said. "Angry. Angry angry angry. The Father is angry because the Mother is angry and won't come back to him. Angry angry angry. Angry angry angry Ahhhhhh!"

Audrey jumped back as Jose' screeched and then ran to a cluttered desk, pulled out a stack of papers, and started throwing them in the air.

"Angry! Angry angry angry! The Father is very angry!" Jose' chanted.

"Jose'," Manuel coaxed. "It's okay. It's okay. Nobody is angry at you. Everything's going to be okay."

"Angry angry angry," Jose' continued to chant, his voice getting louder. "Angry angry angry. The Father is very angry." The young man sat down on the floor, clutching the papers to his chest as he rocked back and forth, and started shuffling through the papers, chanting 'angry angry angry' as he did so. Every single one of the papers contained the same heavenly symbol. Rage.

"Audrey," Gabriel said, nodding his head towards the symbols scribbled on the papers.

"I see," Audrey said.

"I think you all better go back downstairs for a while," Manuel said. "Let me get him all calmed down and stuff and then we'll talk."

Audrey nodded at Gabriel. They backed their way down the rickety steps to where the Reverend sat, surrounded by a gaggle of very young Hispanic-looking children while Lena entertained a group of pre-teen girls. Gunn silently stood sentry, carefully watching the 'colored' (color wearing) gang members who filtered in and out of the gang headquarters, giving them a curious glance, but otherwise leaving them alone.

"Not what I expected," Audrey said when they got to the foot of the stairs.

"John the Baptist suffered from a similar affliction," Gabriel said matter-of-factly. "He even has the same name."

"John?" Audrey asked.

"Jose' is Spanish for John," Gabriel said, a hint of bemusement in his voice. "Didn't that Dominican nun Sunday school teacher of yours teach you that?"

The slightest hint of a smirk tugged at one corner of his mouth, his unearthly ice-blue eyes sparkling with mirth. He was beautiful when he smiled. Ever since they had spent time in the town of Alamosa, Gabriel had lost some of his habitual seriousness and begun to embrace life as a mortal creature. Finding Gunn and his biker brothers-in-arms had been good for Gabriel. It had provided something he must have sorely missed. He was even being a bit more flexible about embracing new experiences, such as beer or touching her flesh for a reason other than to protect her. He reached up to do so now, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes and tucking it behind her ear for her, his fingers lingering on the flesh where her hair met her bare neck.

"We can't drag some poor crazy kid across the country with us while we piece together whatever it is the Savior needs," Audrey said apprehensively. "You saw what happened when we simply asked him a simple question. If we take him away from his comfort zone, he's going to go nuts."

"John the Baptist did," Gabriel said. "And they didn't have modern medications back then to keep the rantings down to a minimum."

"Wait a minute…" Audrey asked, questions that had gone unanswered as a child suddenly making sense. "Are you saying that John the Baptist was … insane?"

"Madder than a March hare," Gabriel said, the smirk upticking further into a full-blown smile. "He was a genius. An absolutely brilliant preacher. Baptised and coverted thousands of people to Christianity. But he was nuts."

"But…" Audrey asked, her voice trailing off. Talk about truthful blasphemy!

"Let's just wait and see what happens with the brother," Gabriel suggested, his voice becoming deeper as his smile disappeared and his eyes became serious, darkening from ice-blue to cerulean.

Audrey realized his hand had lingered where he had tucked the strand of wayward hair behind her ear, radiating warmth down into her neck. Ever since Alamosa, Gabriel had been crossing a lot of lines and breaking a lot of barriers that he had previously considered forbidden, but there was still one line Gabriel would not cross. It had begun to dawn upon her that it was a line she very much wished he would cross, the Father be damned!

'Do not tempt him unless you are capable of loving him as much as he loves you,' the Reverend had said to her after she'd surprised Gabriel by kissing him. 'He fears the Father will punish –you.-'

Was she even capable of the devotion Gabriel had shown to her? Was she willing to suffer eternal damnation to be with him? Was she willing to make him suffer eternal damnation? Each night, she dreamed of his death. When it finally happened, whether or not they ever consummated whatever this thing was that they had between them, losing him was going to cause her great sorrow.

'We will be reunited in heaven,' he said each night in the vision with his dying breath. "My love…'

She looked down, suddenly ashamed. Who was she to have earned the love of such a beautiful, heavenly creature? Nobody. Just a mouthy kid from Los Angeles. She didn't blame the Father for getting pissed off when his children went slumming with humans like her. The Father is angry. Of course the Father was angry. Gabriel deserved better. A single tear suddenly escaped the corner of one eye and trailed down her cheek.

"Audrey?" Gabriel asked, his expression puzzled. "What's wrong?"

She threw herself into his arms, burying her face into his chest, and pressed her ear against his heart, listening to the reassuring sound of his heartbeat.

"Nothing," she murmured, his shirt muffling her words. "It just wasn't what I expected…"