Armageddon?

“Tango Zulu, sit rep.”

Crisp on point, night-vision goggles strapped around her face, regulation knife gripped in one hand, a chunk of stone in her other, reached up with her knife hand to key her throat mike. “Alpha Bravo, have taken heavy fire, five dead, need extraction, over.”

“Negative Tango Zulu, you have The Ball.”

Ice slid down Crisp’s spine, she keyed her mike, “Alpha Bravo?”

“Vaya con Dios, Tango Zulu.”

“Well, fuck.” Suntan groused from rear guard, “I told you that bitch of a soothsayer had it in for us.”

“That’s enough Suntan. You heard Command, we’re it, and we’re not going to let the world go to Hell on our watch. Serafina, which way?”

Serafina held the shallow dish of water steady in her gloved fingers, a glow stick underneath it illuminated the movement of the drop of blood that had dictated their progress.

Into the sewers, down, beyond the modern city’s roots into a place forgotten by time, buildings smothered by earth, stone and bones, covered in moss that spread like contagion, stalactite fangs, grown so long they skewered the ancient buildings.

The blood drop skittered across the disc its tail pointing between partially collapsed buildings ahead. “We need to get through that gap.”

“You heard them, we’re it, close the gate to Hell or join all the motherfuckers trying to escape their sentence and take the world down with them. Let’s move.” Crisp, hefted her rock and knife as she started into the darkness, searching the green grey outlines shown by her goggles for threats.

Grim faced, Serafina followed, the disc of water held close to her body for protection. Suntan watched shadows coalesce in the wake of the weak light of the glow stick, TASER held ready.

The team emerged from the gap between the slumped buildings into a huge cavern. Crisp, stepped out on to a cobbled surface, surveyed the green scape, empty. She reached up and pulled her goggles onto her forehead as Serafina and Suntan stepped up behind her.

“Suntan, check the motion sensors.” Crisp ordered.

“On it.” Suntan swung a black box, on a strap, up from his hip and swept it across the black abyss of the cavern behind them, his eyes fixed to the readout screen.

“What now?” Crisp turned to Serafina.

The blood drop had drifted into the centre of the shallow dish. Serafina turned in a slow circle, careful not to catch her boot on a raised cobble. The blood remained dormant.

Serafina dropped the glow stick, brought the dish to her lips, she whispered the prayer the soothsayer had made her memorize. Nothing.

Suntan brushed past, holding the motion sensor in front of him. “Clear behind.”

At Serafina’s feet the glow stick dimmed, as the cobblestone seemed to absorb its meagre light. The glow stick flickered like a dying moth; died.

Serafina stared at the cobble, weak light radiated from inside it, as she watched a word drifted to the surface of the stone, F-i-d-e-l-i-t-y.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Crisp asked.

Serafina knelt, swept her free hand over the raised stone, her eyes flicking between the glowing word and the drop of blood at the center of the dish, in response to her touch the surface of the stone trembled.

“Do you still have your torch?” she asked.

Crisp unsnapped it from her thigh holster and held it out to Serafina who relaxed back on to her haunches, careful not to let the drop of blood spill, as she played the torch over the cobbles at her feet.

The cobbles drank the light, more words floated to the surface of the newly illuminated stones. Charity. Tolerance. Mindfulness.

Around Crisp and Serafina the cobbles began to burn with light, their words leaving blurred afterimages.

Crisp threw her hand up to shield her eyes. “What is happening?”

Serafina dropped the torch as she rose, the shallow bowl held in both hands. The torch spun, light scattered into the cobbles, a path coalesced leading towards Suntan.

“We’ve found it.” Serafina breathed as the light settled and streamed under Suntan’s boots.

“Found what?” Crisp snapped.

“The path to Hell.”

The light splashed against the foot of huge gates and died.

“Oh Shit! We have movement.” Suntan’s panic, cut Crisps train of thought, as it panted in through her ear buds.

“Keep it together Suntan.” Crisp snapped as she turned, “How many?”

“One hundred, thousands –” Suntan fired the TASER into the mass of lesser devils, that roiled from a crack that appeared between the gates.

Crisp watched in horror, as he disappeared under their weight. “Get into the city!”

She spun back.

The dish raised to her lips; Serafina drank.

“No!” Crisp lunged forward, but froze when she clocked a horde of unconsecrated dead shambling towards them, the leading apparitions’ members of her own team.

Terror threatened to overwhelm her years of training.

Serafina dropped the dish.

The glass shattered on the glowing stones.

Serafina’s eyes blazed, she threw her head back, her mouth opened in a scream that spilled light instead of sound. The back of her uniform sizzled open, three pairs of burning wings unfolded behind her. She reached over her shoulder and drew a flaming sword from the scabbard that appeared along the length of her spine.

Serafina, looked at Crisp and smiled. Peace drowned her screaming terror.

“You still have the seal?” Serafina’s voice sounded in her mind.

Crisp nodded.

“Those gates aren’t going to close themselves.” Serafina flashed her a feral smile, and snapped her wings; a wave of radiant fire evaporated the descending horde.

Crisp slipped her hand into her utility-vest and wrapped her fingers around an embossed metal saucer.

Serafina leapt into the boiling dark, sword carving incandescent swathes, lesser devils fell, their flesh smoking, a bestial roar drowned all sound, enormous claw tips wedged into the crack.

“Who wants to live forever anyway?” Crisp, gripped her knife in her other hand and sprinted in Serafina’s wake.