5. Welcome

At first Jeep didn't understand what was going on there, where El and Michael were standing face to face. He hadn't known for sure whom the planned meeting would be with, but he had been really glad when it turned out to be Michael, because some of El's contacts had been pretty strange. From what he could remember, they had been ex-military and mercenaries and some guys who looked to him like out-and-out criminals, and when Cain was only half-grown El had started making him communicate with them too. Why? She had said that he needed to understand different people, and that he might also have need of them in future. It was a big deal for her to give such a detailed explanation instead of her usual 'It must be done'.

So Michael was quite a pleasant surprise. A huge surprise, actually, because the last time Jeep had seen him, well, firstly it had been twenty years ago, and secondly he had been rather more… angelic. Wings and other stuff, you know. But there he was, just like in the good – horrible – old days. And clearly he was the one that El was waiting for. So, what could possibly go wrong?

He looked exactly like Jeep remembered him, not changed at all. The same austere features, the same stern look, and he was in good shape, too. Hell, he was even dressed alike, only without that fancy coat. – Can you believe that, a coat in the desert, huh? – And no guns. – That's strange. I thought the guy had a thing for it. They all have, actually, as far as I've noticed. It's cool when they're on your side, otherwise it's a total disaster. – Although back then Michael had seemed much older than Jeep. Now… well, he didn't.

When six hours earlier El had woken them all up and said "We're leaving in thirty minutes, get ready", Jeep had smelled trouble, because her face had been even more cold and dispassionate than usual, and usually that meant trouble. She had ignored all questions. – Oh, yeah, when was that ever different? – The only thing she had said was: "We need to meet someone." Even Cain hadn't been able to get anything else from his beloved tutor, protector, guardian angel… whatever. – I kinda never thought before that there might be such a thing as female angels, but on the other hand I would never have thought before about the angelically-possessed people, either. Like Percy said, God rest his soul, angels are supposed to be good guys. But that doesn't mean they're all supposed to be men, I guess. –Although when he asked El about it one time, she gave him that particular look and said everything was different up there, period. As he had noticed, she didn't like to talk about that kind of stuff. If she could she would definitely have hidden what she was even from them. But it was a bit hard for someone who didn't grow any older and who had so many of those tattoos on their body. And for someone who could do certain… stuff.

Such a thing as an unexpected night-time journey wasn't actually that unusual for them, quite the opposite; they had enough of them in the last twenty years. The night when Cain was born changed the world, a lot.

xxx

The angelic-possession had been a total disaster, wiping out the vast majority of humanity. – The weakest-willed are the easiest to turn. – Great numbers of people, it seemed, had those weak wills, so it was like a plague. Luckily for Jeep, Charlie and the baby – he wasn't Cain yet, back then – they had known what was happening. They had had a traumatic but very valuable experience, and they knew enough to avoid big cities. Though they were never even near one, they heard from other survivors how frightening, how horrible it was. – They said 'madness'. – It was hard to imagine normal regular people, your friends, co-workers, neighbors perhaps, or even strangers – family, that was the worst part – suddenly turned into monsters with a yearning to kill. Because it turned out they had no other desires.

And during those two days when their small group was under siege in Paradise Falls, it was all over. The whole of civilization had gone. And what was left by the end of that first apocalyptic week? No government, no authorities and no law-enforcement, no electricity, no phones, no TV, nothing. It seemed that Chaos ruled the Earth, and in fact that was almost true. All the big cities were full of the dead bodies of humans. Those who were possessed… well, the angels had left them. As far as he knew, it had happened when Michael came back for the final battle with the other archangel – Gabriel, the murderer – but they weren't humans anymore, just empty shells, only flesh and animal instincts. Not those creepy killing machines – like nice old Gladys – but still dangerous, though. So, yeah, it was pretty much like the end of the world was nigh.

But still, there was hope. There was that radio transmission they had heard in the Paradise Falls, and there was a rescue camp they had seen from the cliff top. Apparently some military or National Guard forces had been able to set up sanctuaries for those who had managed to escape the extermination. So, it wasn't all bad, you might've said, huh? Maybe you would've thought that after such a disaster people would have had to team up, and start to try and rebuild a normal life together? Oh, you're so naïve. Welcome to the fucking real world. They did nothing like that. Well, a considerable part of them didn't.

It didn't take long, just a few days, and there they were: bands of raiders, going round small towns and lonely farms, searching for anything useful. Very well-armed raiders, with no intention of sharing the resources they found: food, clean water, medicines, weapons, and fuel, the most valuable things in this wonderful new world. They were clever enough to avoid big cities, and clever enough, too, to understand that all that useful stuff in the small towns wouldn't be waiting for them forever. And no matter how few people had survived, soon those supplies would start to run short. The military that held the so-called Safe Zones didn't have enough personnel to take control of all the territories. So the next big survival problem had nothing to do with any supernatural shit – it was humans themselves.

They knew nothing of this back then. Okay, so traveling in a pickup full of guns could make you over-confident about your safety. Not a good thing, considering they were just two civilians without any special training or survival skills, but with a newborn baby on whom depended the destiny of humanity. For a while they were okay, until, while searching for some supplies for the little one – Charlie still hadn't decided what his name would be – they ran into those fuckers. And all could have ended pretty badly, except that El had turned up.

After all these years, when it came to their safety – Cain's safety, actually, let's be honest – he trusted her completely. She clearly had some emotional issues, but she never allowed that to compromise her mission. She had never once put Cain in danger. She was always by his side, watching, guarding, never relaxing, even when it seemed reasonable to do so. She reminded Jeep of those big predatory cats – panthers – which might look calm, lazy, sleepy even, but at the very next moment could jump at you and tear you to pieces. The resemblance was almost literal, because she was one hell of a fighter, even with her bare hands. And she was never down to her bare hands. That woman had always been a fucking walking weapons-cache. She always carried enough guns with her to start a small war, or even a big one. He was ready to swear that she even took some of her favorite ones into the bath with her – the Beretta M92, because of its 15-ns cartridges – and certainly she always kept some item or other of her impressive arsenal with her while she slept, as they all did.

xxx

So, when Michael's face suddenly turned quite shocked, it hadn't alarmed Jeep. For God's sake, El always could drive people crazy, with ease; maybe she could do it with her own kind as well. But then he heard their next words.

"Gabriel…" said Michael, with a voice full of astonishment and… hope?

"Surprise surprise," she answered, in her usual neutral-ironic tone.

He couldn't believe he had heard it right. Had Michael just called her Gabriel?! That couldn't be so, right? But… all those strange things in her behavior, all those pieces he hadn't been able to put together all these years, fell into place now. She…no, he was the monster who had killed his father, the one who had got that nice brave girl – Audrey, her name was Audrey – killed, the very one who had tried so hard to kill them all, who hadn't spared even his own brother!

And when Jeep looked at the features of the girl standing right in front of him, he didn't see the woman who had spent twenty years by his side, who had saved his life far more than once. He saw a mortal enemy; he felt rage, and he wanted to take revenge.

So he aimed at her and shouted, "This is for my father, bitch!"

And then he shot.