Chapter IV

Jake

Pond Household

11:00 PM

Jake sat back on the couch, unzipping his armor vest, and sighed with relief as he lifted its heavy weight from his shoulders. He settled it across his lap, and his bare fingers traced over the armor, examining its pitted and occasionally sorely dented surface for cracks, or other stress points. In several patches on his chest plates, the paint was chipped and peeling, and around the edges of the plates, especially the bolted-on trauma plates, the paint had been scraped away down to bare metal. Once I get back to barracks, Jake thought to himself, I’m overdue for a new paint-job. He settled his plates down on the floor with a gentle clatter, next to his battle-worn helmet and his sheathed katana, and looked up to see Will leaning against the wall, politely waiting for him to notice.

            “Got a minute mate?” he asked sternly, and Jake could see him fiddling with the pommel of his Tesla-cutlass. Jake nodded, and gestured at the unfolded Dutch-bed before him, and Will sat down, testing his weight gingerly before fully settling down with a gentle squeak of the mattress’ springs. Will paused a few moments, before speaking.

            “Jake, lad, we’ve been mates for ages, aye?” Jake raised a single eyebrow quizzically, but otherwise remained emotionless and calm. “Aye Will, ever since Western Heights.”

            “And I haven’t led my team astray as its captain, aye? I haven’t led the Guardian Remnant into destruction?” Jake shook his head somberly, his mask of placidity dropped in place of his ravenous curiosity. “No, Will, you’ve done good by us all. But what’s this all about?” Will sighed, and held his face in his hands briefly, before looking back up at Jake, a grim expression on his hollow-cheeked face.

            “Mate… you disobeyed orders out there. Direct orders. If you had kept to the plan, Jenny would still have gotten out alright, and the battle would have been a lot quicker. Care to explain yourself?” Jake was tempted to sigh in frustration himself, but knew it would only make things worse.

            “Will… Chief… you were there, when David died, as was I. Before he fell, when we were bunkered down behind the final barricade, he made me promise to look after his family, and keep them safe from danger. A promise. And for years, I watched over her, and became like a big brother to her, and she became like a sister to me. You would do the same as I would, if it would help the ones you loved, I know you would. Because you did.” The glare Will gave Jake at that moment could have melted lead, but Jake was unfazed, and continued.

            “What happened with your apprentice, it wasn’t your fault. She chose her own path. You rescued her, you trained her, and you essentially adopted her, I get it. But what happened afterwards, after the purge, after the fall… it wasn’t your-”

            “Damn well it is my fault,” Will snarled, pushing himself to his feet. “She was my responsibility. If I had paid more attention to what she was up to in her off hours, or was more loving, or taught her better, that wouldn’t have happened. The Order would still stand, the Citadel wouldn’t have fallen, and I wouldn’t have lost her to-”

            “All that has happened, for good or ill, has gone through God first. He knows what’s going on. You know that. Even if she hadn’t fallen, Blair still would have seduced away some other apprentice. Have faith, and stand strong, as you always have. We need our leader,” Jake said softly, staring Will down, and got to his feet. He barely reached Will’s shoulder, even with his curly ‘fro, but Will paused at this, and nodded gently, the fire in his eyes burning down to mere resigned grief, but with a flicker of hope lit behind it.

            “Save whom ya can,” he started, clasping Jake’s forearm with a firm grip. Jake smiled wryly, and grasped Will’s forearm back.

            “And give no one back,” Jake finished, and a wry, weary grin slipped across Will’s face.  He released his grip on Jake, and shoved him back onto the couch, not unkindly.

            “Get some rest, mate. I’ll take first watch. After this bust, Olly will be in tears of joy at having artifacts reclaimed, even if they’re just Wraith gaunts.” Jake grinned wryly, imagining the reaction of the Guardian Remnant’s resident archivist, back in Stormhaven.

            “Either way, once we get back there we’re in for a good reception. It’s been a year since we last checked in. G’night, Will.”

            “G’night Jake. Rest well, while ya can.” Jake smiled, and loosened his thigh plates before pulling up the covers on his makeshift bed, while Will wandered off into the darkness of the house. God have mercy upon anything that surprises him, Jake thought, before slipping off into the blissful embrace of sleep.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Western Heights High School

Frederick, Maryland

5 years ago

            Jake sat quietly in the middle rows of his classroom, twiddling with his pencil as Mr. Gardner chattered on. Around him, his classmates were alternately texting under their desks, doodling on their notebooks, playing “Angry Birds” on their iPads, and in a few rare cases, actually paying attention and taking notes. Beside him, his hair pulled back in a neat ponytail, was Will. He was dressed in an old leather jacket, a well-worn pair of jeans, and a tattered pair of work boots; his face was fresh and clean-shaven, and his steady storm-blue eyes were fixed on the teacher, as he wrote out lecture notes on the board. His pencil flew all over his notepad, using up every available space to fill in notes in spiraling, interweaving confusing knots of information.

Jake smirked; between the two of them, they were an interesting mix. Will had just recently enrolled with the school a few months back, but already they were the best of friends; particularly after Will busted him out of the corner from the Kenzie gang. Will was a serious and studious giant, yet had a dry sense of humor. Jake, while a few heads shorter than him, was already renown in school as the jokester, and was far too twitchy to stay still long enough to pay attention in class.

In front of the classroom, Mr. Gardner began sketching out a rough diagram of a basic post-Civil-War-era garrison. He was bald as an egg, and was slightly pear-shaped, but that didn’t stop his seemingly endless enthusiasm as he taught, seeming to expect his class to be just as excited about the history of the westward expansion as he was. His small, rimless glasses perched on his beaky, hooked nose. His beaming hazel eyes gleamed happily as he turned and asked a question or two to the class from time to time. Most of the time, however, Will or some of the other serious students were the only ones to answer them.

Suddenly, a long, drawn-out howl pierced the bubble of tranquility and boredom. As it died down, it picked up in force again, and a delicate, feminine pre-recorded voice simpered out of the loudspeakers. “Emergency. Emergency. Please exit the building.” The class bustled out of their seats, milling around in a clump, before Mr. Gardner finally managed to make himself heard over the emergency message and the siren.

“Alright, settle down, settle down! Just grab your supplies, and head outside. You all should know the drill by now,” he bellowed. Jake’s heart was beating rapidly, but when he looked at Will, he was simply sitting there, a faint smile on his face, as though the alarm was simply signaling the end of school; Jake smiled slightly, encouraged by Will’s calmness. Eventually, the class settled down enough to gather what they brought to class, and organized into a slightly less chaotic mob that could be plausibly defined as a line. Jake and Will slipped into the tail-end of the line, and before they reached the door, Will spoke.

“Whatever you do Jake, no matter what happens, don’t follow me.” Jake looked back at Will, a question on his lips, but as they passed through the doors, Will wasn’t there any more. Jake looked around, trying to keep calm, and saw him thundering down the hallway, rapidly filling with smoke. This was no simple fire drill; the school was really on fire. Mr. Gardner cautiously led the unruly line in the opposite direction, the class now slightly unsettled by the smoke, and when Mr. Gardner wasn’t looking, Jake sighed irritably and sprinted after Will, down the smoky hallway.

As Jake chased after Will through the twisting maze of hallways, the smoke growing thicker and more noxious, a tall, bulkily armored figure loomed out of the smoke ahead, and thumped after Will. Jake tried to call out, to warn Will, but his lungs were quickly filled with smoke and floating ash, which sent him to his knees coughing and hacking. The figure caught up with Will, and to Jake’s surprise, he simply nodded acknowledgingly, and the two ran on. By the time Jake caught up to where he last saw them, there was no sign of them, but yet another empty hallway, and the open gymnasium doors, wreathed in blazing flame, belching out thick black smoke. Jake stood before the burning doors, and time seemed to slow down, tinges of fear oozing through his veins like molasses.

Jake stood there, locked in place and staring at the crackling fire as it crept up the walls and began licking at the ceiling tiles, when he suddenly found he wasn’t alone. Around the corner came skittering a young freshman girl, her long blonde hair fluttering behind her like a ragged cape. Jake’s eyes widened in recognition, and as she reached where Jake was standing, Jake stepped out, and stopped her in her tracks.

“Hang on a sec. You’re Cassie, right? Will’s little friend?” Cass nodded her head enthusiastically, her piercing green eyes begging him to either stand aside, or be trampled. She looked like any other freshman, dressed in skinny jeans, with a band t-shirt that was slightly too big for her, but Jake had seen how she and Will had torn apart a gang on the way home from school bare-handed. She certainly was different from others her age, and somehow, Will didn’t mind the company of a short, giggly, and occasionally violent 14 year old tagging along. Also, for some reason that Will had failed to divulge to him thus far, Cass was very fond of calling him “daddy”, and for his part, Will seemed to be fond of his young companion as well.

“Jake, please, let me go. Daddy’s in there, and he needs backup. And you know how grumpy he gets when he has to do things solo,” she said sternly, glaring up at him grimly. Without waiting for his reaction, she pulled herself from his grip and with a running leap, hurtled over the barricade of flames, her hair flaring out behind her, and vanished from sight. Jake shrugged, bolstered his faltering courage, and before he could make an excuse to get out of it, he sprinted after Cass, and tumbled through the flames, before crashing to the hard cement floor with a thud. When he got to his feet, he froze in horror, his eyes wide in shock. “Oh… blast…”

The gymnasium, once a hospital-white cinderblock building, now looked like it was from a P.E. teacher’s nightmares. Scorched racks of half-melted basketballs lay in pieces on the floor. Far above him, the climbing ropes were now aflame, creeping towards the rafters with ominous intent. Shards of the weight-lifting equipment lay everywhere on the floor, and at each end of the gymnasium, the basketball hoops were ablaze, like twin rings of fire. These, unfortunately, were only the normal aspects of the room.

In the center of the room, a pentagram was etched into the cement floor; it too was on fire, crackling merrily, as though cheered by the wanton destruction around it. At each of its points, there were rather large piles of ash and burned clothes; Jake didn’t even want to know what happened there. And spread out all around the room, spiraling restlessly in the air, were lean, vaguely human-shaped figures, but made entirely of white-hot flame. There were about 30 in all, surrounding the pentagram, and as Jake watched, the pentagram flared briefly, and one more slipped from the void to join its brethren. One seemed to turn its head towards Jake, and he felt a cold chill come over him, his legs giving way beneath him, as waves of fear and uncontrolled hatred and destruction washed over him.

Submit, a seductive whisper slipped through his mind. There is no hope left for you. Run away, little boy, or be prepared to face the consequences. Jake tried to crawl back, anything to get away from the painful, invasive presence of the creature, but his energy was drained from him. Suddenly, two unexpected things happened; he felt a pair of strong, firm hands lifting him to his feet, and he noticed Will and Cass standing just beyond the blazing pentagram, back to back. Jake looked up, and saw his grimy, scared-looking face reflected back at him from the T-slit visor of a battered and scratched up Spartan-like helmet, painted bone-white, with a peeling navy-blue stripe down the center.

“Don’t you worry now,” a deep, filtered voice said behind the helmet, as though he knew what Jake was thinking. “That boy’s gonna be fine.” Jake nodded weakly, looking back at Will and Cass, who seemed to be entirely fine with the fiery demons surrounding them, looking as casual as though they were simply in a mildly uncomfortably hot mall.

“But they’re outnumbered! They’re gonna get themselves killed!” Jake squeaked. The armored man chuckled gently, amused by Jake’s ignorance. “Maybe so, boyo, but he’s gonna pull an Elisha. You’ll see.” Jake’s mind flickered, as it picked up on the name, but he struggled to connect the name. The torrent of demons swirled faster and faster around the room, the pentagram at their center. Will looked back at Jake and his unknown supporter, and nodded knowingly, before dropping to his knees, and Cass mirrored him.

“O Lord, we pray you, open his eyes so he may see,” they prayed aloud in unison. As the last word left their mouths, the room exploded into light, bright enough to outshine the sun. Jake turned his face away from the blinding, powerful light, and when the glare subsided, Will and Cass were the least of Jake’s concerns. Flooding the room, dressed head-to-toe in pristine white armor, were more than 60 glowing figures, neither male nor female, but beautiful and powerful, and seemed as timeless and ancient as the earth, and they wielded scintillating silver blades, leveled at the demonic whirlwind around them.

Jake went limp in awe, staring up at the host of heavenly figures arrayed before him. “So… they’re on our side, right?” The figure behind him laughed, and hauled him to his feet again, still laughing.

“Yes boy, they’re on our side. They just happen to be a fraction of Heaven's Angelic legions.”