Astrong wind blasted over Thomas, stirring the sand at his feet and rustling through his hair. Darkness settled thick on the beach with only a half-moon and a few visible stars to offer their light. Even so, the shadows from his home seemed to have followed him, moving about him in mists of black even darker than the sky.
Demons, Tori had called them. She saw them everywhere. Or so she said.
He rubbed his eyes. He was just imagining things.
Yet, memories of their journey refused to vacate his mind. If Lucifer was Aali in the flesh, and he was ruling the world, why was there so much misery, pain, disease, and famine? Even people in the NWU housing centers barely survived. Sure, they had food, but what quality? Fake meat, lab-created vegetables? Whatever they ate, it couldn’t be very healthy since everyone looked sickly. They owned nothing of their own. They took no pride in their work, if they even had jobs, and most of them lay around self-medicated, living in a virtual world. Was this the utopia Aali had promised?
Free food, medicine and housing for all. That’s what he’d said. Thomas snorted. And that’s exactly what he’d given them. Yet, most people, along with Thomas, had a different picture in their minds.
The cities and small towns they’d passed through were nothing but wastelands, the citizens wandering around in squalor, filth and disease. Most looked like freakish zombies. Many were violent. Even the farmland was either abandoned or burned up by one of the recent meteors.
And yet, the rich and powerful lived in luxury with plenty of healthy good food, fancy homes, and cars. Sounded more like communism to him than the social and economic equality the NWU touted.
Then there was this tattoo of Aali’s, theMark. If Aali was all about freedom, why were people killed for not taking it? Many were worse than killed, but tortured and crucified in a monstrous death. Why so brutal? A shudder ran through him even now as the scene of those people hanging on crosses blazed in his mind. Sure, the Mark was supposed to eradicate disease and make everyone immortal, but why not just allow those who didn’t take it to live out their lives and die naturally? Why the rush to execute them?
Aali wants the best for everyone. He must get rid of those who keep humanity from evolving into the gods he has proclaimed they can be.
Again, the voices. Not from Thomas. Odd. True, Aali had told everyone that humans could become gods of their own. Sounded wonderful. Immortality. No more sickness or disease. Think of what the human race could accomplish!
But what about the Deviants? He’d been told they were crazy, mentally unstable, backward, ignorant, authoritarian, determined to stop humanity from evolving. Yet Thomas had found the opposite to be true. Tori, Brianna, and Sara had treated him with nothing but kindness. Even though he didn’t believe as they did, they’d welcomed him, befriended him, cared for him. And the God they served was just like them. Everything He did, the miracles, the food He provided, the protection from disasters, how He’d raised little Callie from the dead—everything He did was for their good.
In fact, if Aaron really was working for Lucifer, everything he threw at them—the drones, the tsunami, the tornado, and finally the cliff—had been defeated by the name of Jesus. Even the cliff. Thomas chuckled, remembering how they had walked out onto nothing but air.
Then there were the glimpses of huge bright beings with swords. Thomas could not deny he’d seen them on more than one occasion.
Tori and little Carla had said they were angels.
Carla. What a sweet, beautiful child, full of such light and love. He missed her, missed the feel of her tiny hand slipping in his.
Whatever the shimmering beings were, they had protected them. Just like the Bible said.
They are wicked! They seek to deceive you to not believe in Lucifer! It is he who cares for you, who wishes to prosper you and grant you freedom and happiness.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, and Thomas dropped his head in his hands, willing the voices to stop. But they continued, nonetheless.
If you choose the false god you will die. You will lose everything.
If you choose Me, you will find life, and find it more abundantly.
Thomas lifted his head. The second voice was different from the others, clearer, more pure, filled with hope.God? Hadn’t Calan told him to call out to God, to ask Him to reveal Himself?
???
“NO!” the largest demon, the one with the goat horns and red flaming eyes, screamed. “Circle him! Whisper more lies,” he commanded the other vile spirits.
“Not so fast!” Arithem moved to stand between the horde and Thomas. “He has called the Almighty.”
One of the smaller demons, a squat, slimy creature, hissed at Arithem. “He has but said the name, naught more.”
Thomas bowed his head. “God, if you’re real…if you are the true God, please reveal Yourself to me.”
“Ah ha!” Raising his blade in the air, Arithem brought it down upon the dark ones, slashing this way and that. The weaker ones turned into dust immediately. The stronger ones came at Arithem with all manner of crude weapons. One struck him in the thigh. Pain radiated up his side.
A long knife came out of nowhere and hacked the demon. Anisian appeared beside him. “The Commander said you needed help.”
Arithem smiled. “Indeed.”
Together the mighty warrior angels battled their opponents, stabbing, striking, punching and kicking them. The demons put up a fight. More collapsed into a heap of dark ash. Finally, the few who remained ran away, uttering hideous blasphemies as they went.
