Radicle (Terminal trilogy #2, can stand alone)

34: The siege

"There. So that takes care of that." Glenn seemed pretty proud of herself. "This will convince people fine. He even looks guilty, all blustery and red-faced."

"What do we do with him now?" Stacy asked with a measured tone of voice.

"Uh. Michael will be back eventually."

"We don't exactly want Michael prancing around Hell though. Why don't we just tie him up near the entrance? It'll save us from having to deal with him again." Glenn suggested.

"It'll also let him return to Heaven sooner." Lane reminded.

"We'll be done by then, right?" Asked Glenn, and I realized for the first time that, utterly unseen to me, the army of Hell had likely already departed to begin their assault. Maybe the attack was even underway. But it wasn't like they had days to plan this out- especially now that Michael and his brothers were at risk to appear any moment.

It was kind of disappointing to be missing all the action though. Glenn had resigned herself to be my personal escort, and she picked me up to lead me out of Hell. I would like to add an 'again' here, but it seems to go without saying at this point.

Glenn was sort of angry at me, but I was under the impression she was mostly seeking a reaction. Whenever we passed rubble being cleared away or injured people on stretchers, she'd turn over and watch my face. I didn't know what to say or how to look.

The alternate elevator- the one with only three buttons- was mostly being used to transport people out of Wrath, but Glenn managed to secure us a ride. A silent one, of course. Sometimes she'd check her phone, but after a few minutes she stopped.

She left me on the present Earth's hellmouth, still in handcuffs. But she tied up my legs as well before leaving.

I wasn't actually stuck to anything though, just mostly immobile. I could roll and scoot myself around without much effort, and so I begun my journey.

Well, it didn't really feel like a journey. It felt a bit humiliating actually. I could barely move, I kept hitting rocks under the leaves, and I'm sure I looked ridiculous.

But I managed to roll for quite a while anyways. My feet were bound with simple rope, and I managed to find myself a solid enough rock to loosen it with. Once I freed my legs, I stopped feeling so silly and got to simply walking my way towards Heaven.

My motivation was unclear even to me. But I guess I just wanted to see Heaven fight off Hell one last time. Michael would find me eventually anyways, so it's not like I really had to worry there.

I heard the gunfire before I saw the guns, as typical. And when I did come in sight of Heaven, it was nothing too surprising- though certainly shocking to the part of me that still called its walls home.

There were a lot of demons- like, tons. They were everywhere. Most of the angels seemed content to stay inside, or else try to elongate their blades and strike from the walls. A number of soldier angels had gone past the gates: willing to die in a blood-soaked blaze of glory, they leapt from kill to kill like acrobats.

And the demons had a lot of guns. And a good few, I saw, had found blades as well- and didn't see much repulsive about cutting some skin off an angel if it meant they got to wield a much stronger weapon.

The demons had swarmed on all sides, leaving me little way in, especially in handcuffs. And while a good number of the soldiers here probably had yet to be informed what had happened in Hell today, they still probably wouldn't trust me on principle alone.

I stuck to the woods with caution, aware of several skirmishes happening inside them, and made my way to the back of Heaven. Here there were very few demons, and the three angels on the walls were fast to take them down.