Great White Throne (23 page)

Zhang Tao officiated. Brie was the maid of honor. Moses was the best man. Naomi and I said our vows under the glow of emergency lights. Zhang Tao announced us as man and wife.
 

“What God has joined, let no man set asunder!”

Afterwards, Naomi led the group in song. She sang,
Be Thou My Vision
, and the beauty of it took me back to that first underground gathering in D.C. She’d entranced me then. I’d wanted her then. Now she was mine, and I was hers until death did us part.

Death was the last thing on my mind as Brie led us away. “We did the best we could,” she said, opening a door several stories up in the building. The room spread the entire expanse of the building’s top floor. The walls were bombed out. The floor was cracked and charred. But starting at our feet, a line of dimly glowing candles led to a bed in the center. They’d pushed two cots together and somehow found a mattress to go on top. Sheets draped down from the high ceiling, forming a white canopy.

“It’s beautiful,” Naomi said.

“It’s all yours. We’ll guard the stairs and maintain the watch around the perimeter.” Brie smiled at us. “You two enjoy what still matters. If we lose love, we’ve lost the war.” Happy tears filled her eyes as she stepped back toward the door. “Goodnight, Mr. and Mrs. Goldsmith.”

After she left, it was just my wife and me. Naomi looked down at the threadbare dress someone had given her to wear. She was quiet, suddenly shy.
 

I scooped her into my arms, delighting in the feel of her.

She laughed. “Seriously?”

“Would you have it any other way?”

She smiled, shaking her head. “Take me away.”

I carried her to the bed and laid her down gently on the sheets. I bent down to kiss her, but stopped. I remembered being in a place like this before.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

I searched for the right words. “I need to tell you something.”

“You’re not a virgin?”

“No, I mean, I am.” I rubbed a hand through my hair awkwardly. “But in Babylon …”

“Yes?”

“It gives you whatever you most want.”

“You wanted me?” she asked.

“Of course I did, and you were there.” I looked around us, at the war-torn room. “It was different. The bed faced the ocean and the sand. But you looked a lot like you do now.” I hesitated. “Perfect.”

“What did you do?”

“I kissed you, but it wasn’t you.” It had been Jezebel, lust in bodily form. “Thankfully, something in me resisted. That’s as far as it went.”

“I’m glad,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because this is real.” She took my hand and pulled it to her waist. She kissed me lightly. “This is what God meant it to be. He created us for this.”

Her words made Babylon vanish. Everything but her honey skin vanished. I kissed her deeply, and it was real, and it was better than I ever could’ve dreamed.

NAOMI AND I were up late. It was the kind of night that was supposed to go on forever—the beginning of a long life together of children and growing old. It was not the kind of night that was supposed to end with the lights flicking on before dawn.

But they did. The long fluorescent tubes along the ceiling blinked a few times, then blazed on with full yellow and buzzing light. They stretched the entire length of our empty floor. They cast our naked bodies in an unnatural glow.
 

I groaned at what this meant. “Don got the power on.”

Naomi was already scrambling out of bed. She pulled the dress over her head. “He’ll find us now. We have to get out.” She reached down for a shoe, then paused. She grinned at me. “Husband, why are you just lying there?”

My head was still on the pillow, admiring my wife. “So what if he finds us? My life is complete.”

“Good try, lover boy.” She threw my shirt over my face. “Don’s coming after us either way. We might as well go now. We can try to keep the attention away from here. Save a few lives.”

“Fine,” I grunted.

In a few minutes we were rushing down the stairs, to check in with the others. Everyone was rushing around with fear-filled, half-asleep eyes.
 

Moses found us and gave Naomi her son. “Adam,” she said, smiling at him. I could have sworn he smiled back.

“You three have to leave,” Moses said. “You’ll ride out in the same truck. Your friend, Aisha, insists she’s coming, too. We want to make it look like you were never here. As soon as the systems came back online, Brie got a message from Chris. He thinks we have about twenty minutes before Don’s drones will be on us.”

“What about you?” Naomi asked.

Moses pulled her into his long arms. “I’m sorry. Someone has to help protect our people. Pray for me. I’ll pray for you.” He released her and turned to me. “Protect her, son.” I nodded, and he pulled me into an engulfing hug.
 

Naomi and I said a few other quick goodbyes, and then we were heading out. The truck was in the same place where it had dropped us off. Dumah was waiting behind the wheel. Gabriel was on top again. I peeked into the back and said hello to Laoth and Aisha. It was like we’d never even stopped. It was like nothing happened, even though the best night of my life had just happened.

We drove away from the building and toward Jerusalem. We rode along the main highway through chalk hills that grew steeper, tighter, with more buildings scattered throughout. As we crested the hill overlooking the city, the sun was cresting the horizon. But it was still dark. Smoke filled the air, casting everything in a surreal haze. The city’s lights were still mostly off, except in the towers. Machines scurried up and down their sides, depositing human bodies again.

Up ahead the truck’s headlights pointed to a tunnel. A few people watched us drive past. Their stupor seemed to have lifted. Their faces were frantic, afraid. A rock slammed into the windshield, cracking it. Other dull thuds hit the truck’s sides. Dumah’s iron grip on the steering wheel did not loosen. The tunnel gaped ahead, ready to swallow us.
 

“I don’t like this.” My voice was tight.

“We’re following your vision,” Naomi said. “And we’re buying the order some time, if the drones focus on us instead.” Naomi’s eyes were locked on the tunnel. “But it looks pitch black in there. Should we go another way?”

God, show me the way
, I prayed, but the plea rang hollow. It was eerily quiet, except for the rumbling truck engine. No word from God, no vision.
 

We rolled into the tunnel. The headlights did little to keep the darkness away, but they beamed onto a crowd of people before us. They crammed one side of the tunnel to the other. There was no way through, but Dumah didn’t slow. He accelerated.

“What are you—” I began. And then I saw the shadows. Vaporous, shadowy wings rose from their backs. “Turn back!” I shouted.

A man in the center of the tunnel stepped forward. His eyes were black with red slits. He lifted his hand.
 

Dumah slammed the breaks. Too late.

The truck hit the demon’s hand like a wall. We jerked forward. Seatbelts caught us. Adam started to cry.
 

“What’s happening?” Naomi gasped.

“Demons—hundreds of them!”
 

Dumah slammed on the gas again, pedal to the floor, but we didn’t move. The truck’s wheels spun and screeched underneath us.

The demon opened his mouth to shout something, but Gabriel’s sword stabbed into his throat. The demon fell back. Gabriel landed on top of him and raised his sword again. He faced the crowd of demons, alone.
 

They charged at him. More of the little kobolds swarmed up, swiping at his legs. The larger demons flailed at him with curved swords and whips.

I yanked off my seatbelt and reached for the door, but Dumah stopped me with his hand gripped around my arm.
 

“We have to help!” I shouted.

He was shaking his head. He pointed forward.
 

Laoth had come to Gabriel’s side. The two of them stood back to back, fending off the hordes of demons. Their swinging swords made arcs of light, but the darkness was overwhelming. A sword slashed into Laoth’s side. She stumbled.

I looked to Dumah. “Gabriel and Laoth can’t hold. We have to do something!”

Dumah glanced up. I followed his eyes and saw nothing but a dark ceiling above. He threw the truck in reverse and slammed the gas. We wheeled back so fast that I fell into the dash. Then Dumah slammed the brakes, knocking me back into the seat.
 

“Wait!” I shouted.

But he didn’t. I clicked my seatbelt just before he threw it into drive and floored it again. We barreled ahead through the tunnel.

Rays of light suddenly beamed down before us and took form. Michael was among them. More angels had joined the fight, dividing the demons to the walls of the tunnel. The angels were outnumbered, a handful to hundreds, and not all the demons had moved by the time the truck reached the fight again. Dumah drove into the dark shapes with a 
smack
. Bodies went flying and we broke through toward the other end of the tunnel.

“It’s gone,” Naomi said, her shocked eyes looking in the rearview mirror. “I saw the lights, but now they’re gone. Were they angels? They’re gone!”

I glanced in the mirror. There was no light to be seen.
 

“Oh God, no,” Naomi breathed out. “What. Is. That?”

I looked ahead. In the center of the tunnel’s opening, where the brilliant light of day shined in, a dark giant stood. His skin was scaled like Jezebel’s, and he seemed to swallow the light around him.
 

Dumah’s hands clenched the wheel tighter. His foot did not relent on the pedal. But the giant raised his arm and the truck’s wheels suddenly locked. We skidded and slid to the tunnel’s opening, just feet away from him, just feet away from the morning light.

Dumah leapt out of the driver-side door, sword in hand. He raised it high, but the giant flicked his hand into the angel like a man flicking off a fly. Dumah’s body flew to the side. He crashed into the far wall and did not rise.

The giant stepped to the side, and a smaller man was there. He approached us, smiling.

THE MAN STEPPED closer to our truck. “Alexi,” I muttered.