One bumpy and hectic journey later, Mike found himself blinking in the day light, squinting on top the building's roof. He stopped to regain his breath, then hesitantly followed his guide across the roof's edge, where a considerable drop yawned out in front of them, the sprawling campus stretched out before them.
"So… this is a school?" he asked. He was beginning to find that stating the obvious, while seriously making him feel like an idiot, seemed to be the only safe thing to say in these situations.
"Apparently. Weirdest afterlife I've ever heard of. Honestly, I went through high school once before, and I can't say I'm glad that I had to come back," she explained, tossing Mike a drink.
"So, you remember your life before coming here?"
"Of course, most of us do. However, you case has happened before. It generally occurs when someone suffered brute trauma in their death, possibly to the head."
She took a sip from her fizzing beverage. "It should go away though… eventually."
He nodded hopefully, gazing out over the vista before him with uncontainable awe. The school was beautiful, trees, gardens, and flowers blossomed along every path. The courtyards and walkways were patched with earthy red bricks, and simple patterns.
Directly below them, a gym class was struggling on the track, jogging, jumping, and chatting as the gym teacher blew a whistle frantically. Seemed like a normal class to him.
"If they're only a few humans here, who's everyone else?" he asked, blinking at her.
She slurped at him reflectively. "They're NPC's. We usually ignore them."
He gaped at her, for some reason, he immediately knew what an NPC was. "Non-Player Characters?" he asked, doubtful. "But, that's a video game term! These are people!"
"Well, yes, and no. They certainly are human, in most ways," she explained, gesturing down vaguely.
"If you talk to one, do they always give the same reply?"
"Ha! No, they're not that crude. They're normal people, normal school children. For example, if you suddenly walk up and kiss a girl, one of two things will happen."
Winnie eyed Mike. "Depending on the girl, she'll either blush and run away, or smack you to pieces. "
He coughed. "Oh. I see. So, they're very realistic."
"However, if you pointed a gun at one, things would mess up," Winnie continued. "Normalhigh schoolers don't deal with violence; it's not part of the pattern. The NPC wouldn't know how to react, if you threatened one, it just become confused." She hesitated. "Uh, not like I've threatened many, of course. They're kinda like animals. They're not real, so we ignore them, but they are still technically human, so we can't hurt them."
Mike nodded, leaning against the roof's rail. "I think I get it. Is Angel an NPC as well?"
Winnie's expression darkened. She drummed her fingers on the rail. "We don't know. Even NPC's show more emotion, more humanity than her. She certainly acts like a normal student. She's Student Body President, the most perfect, responsible student imaginable. The difference is, as an angel, she has gifts from God, apparently to help her rule this world. Listen now, this is important. You must not take this school seriously. Don't go to class; join a club, or any of that. Anyone who gives in, and goes along with Angel, is obliterated. They just… disappear."
Mike swallowed, his breathing quickening as he remembered the feel of her blade sliding through his chest. "Is she always… so violent?"
Winnie threw the can over the edge in a gesture of contempt.
"She's God's Angel. It's her job to make sure that we follow the rules, or in this case, the school rules. And yes, she does what is necessary to enforce the rules. She has guard skills, techniques that allow her to bend the reality of this world."
She raised her eyebrows at Mike. "If she catches you, it's curtains. She's wicked fast and deadly with her blade. When she closes in, she cuts off all the escape routes, and then… you don't want to know what happens next. It isn't pretty."
Mike nodded quickly. "Ok, I'll take your word for it. Just one last question, promise."
A cloud passed over the sun, sending nuanced shadow racing across the rooftop. Mike shifted on his feet, trying to maintain his balance.
"It's about God. Is he real? And, why are you all fighting against him?"
Winifred went still. "Oh yeah. He's out there, though he hasn't found any of us worthy to actually come and show his face. He's just left us in this little world he's cooked up."
Her mouth tightened. "As for our reasons for fighting, it's different for all of us. If you ever really get curious enough to care, you can ask, I guess. But whatever the reason, the result is the same.
"We aren't going to let him rule us. In this world, no one can tell us how to live, and how to die. Someday, we'll defeat Angel. And then… this world will be all to ourselves."
At this Winnie chuckled, with the tone of someone who has had a lot of time to think.
All right, Michael thought to himself, quietly watching the gym class below them head back inside. I'm even more confused then I was before. This world is fantastically unreal. Avenging Angels, humans who are only partly human. Right. The best course of action, in this shaky scenario, is to simply play it slow, he reasoned to himself.
I don't know yet what to make of this. I definitely don't know if I really want to go along with these people, they all do seem like lunatics. Pretty nice lunatics, though. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
Soon, Mike found himself once more in the "Headquarters," the others all filtering in from wherever they had been goofing off at. From the abundant mustard stains over Emmanuel and Luke's uniforms, Mike surmised that somewhere out there was a working cafeteria.
"Thank goodness," he murmured, plopping down on a couch in the middle of the room as Winifred went up to fiddle with something at the desk. "I feel incredibly hungry… Why would I be hungry if I'm dead?"
"It's weird, yeah," Harry yawned from beside him, already in full sprawl over the cushions. "We have to sleep, as well. To be honest, not much has changed. It's not like we have superpowers or anything."He frowned. "Unfortunately. Personally, I'd have loved x-ray vision, but…"
"I'd have loved to fly," Luke said wistfully, coming up behind them. "And I don't know… Winifred's been here so long, when she fights, sometimes it seems like she is superhuman, she-"
A rippling shot rang out, causing Mike to jump a whole foot in the air. While the others stood around unconcerned, he whirled to the front of the room. Winnie was regarding a smoking pistol thoughtfully.
"Here," she said, offering it to him. "Even complete amateurs like you should be able to handle something simple like this. If you're going to be of any use to the combat division, you need to get practicing though."
Mike took it as one would accept the offer of a sleeping cobra. He hated guns.
"You got that look, Fred." Emmanuel observed huskily, eyebrows bouncing. "What's tonight's plan?"
"Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games," TK hummed, twirling by the window. Hannah stepped out of his way nimbly, her scarf fluttering.
In response to the question, Winnie went and flicked off the lights. In the sudden twilight darkness, she pulled down a projector screen behind the desk, and flicked on a small projector (presumably liberated from a classroom).
Behind her, a revolving image of the logo from the uniforms, a clenched fist above the words 'Rebels against God," spun. Fred took her position in front of the screen, fingers steepled dramatically.
"Tonight's activity… will be a mission!" she announced.
Wow, Mike thought. They've put a lot into this little war.
"The mission will be simple, one you've all done before, to help the amateur."
Richie the fifth slapped Mike on the back companionably. Mike spent the next minute recovering, and could barely hear what Fred said next.
"Tonight, we will proceed with… Operation Tornado!"