The sound of approaching cars became louder, echoing from the rocky walls of the canyon. Dusty whirlwinds rose above the asphalt, blurred by the mirages of heat. The sun was already tending to sunset, painting the sky in blood-red tones, which broke through the dense cloud of flies.
Alexander stood by the window, looking into the horizon. The first silhouettes appeared on the road - dark dots quickly approaching the snack bar. One car, the second, the third... Ten cars of different brands and years of manufacture, but united by one - they all drove with the same dedication of predators who sensed the prey.
- How many are there? - Kyle asked, checking the machine shop for the tenth time in the last half an hour.
- Ten cars, - Alexander replied, not breaking away from the window. - Three or four passengers in each. So, about forty opponents.
Jeep whistled:
- Fuck. We don't have enough ammunition for everyone.
- Enough if you shoot accurately, - Mikhail objected, reloading his shotgun. - Angels in human bodies are no more tenacious than ordinary people. Break through your heads and there will be no problems.
Charlie was sitting in the corner, clutching the gun that the archangel gave her. The face is pale, my hands are shaking. Pregnancy made itself felt - the girl was in the last months, the belly was already quite big.
"I... I can't shoot," she whispered.
- You'll learn, - Mikhail replied harshly. - Or you'll die.
- Don't scare her, - Alexander pulled him away. - Charlie, just aim and pull the trigger. In case of danger.
From the outside, the cars began to slow down, lining up in a semicircle in front of the entrance to the snack bar. The engines stalled almost simultaneously, and ominous silence reigned. Even the hum of flies died down, as if nature itself held its breath before the upcoming slaughterhouse.
"Paradise Falls Diner" was a typical roadside diner of the sixties - a one-story red brick building with large panoramic windows and a neon sign. A flat roof to which a fire escape led from the side of the building. Around is a sun-scorched desert with rare wormwood bushes and cacti. The nearest city is a hundred miles away, the nearest house is twenty. An ideal place for an ambush.
Alexander moved away from the window and turned to the others:
- Mikhail, protect Charlie. The rest - take positions on the roof and cover me with fire.
- Where are you going? - the archangel frowned.
- To show off a little, - Alexander grinned, heading for the door.
- Are you fucking crazy? - Kyle didn't believe it. - There are forty angels!
- But I'm alone, - Alexander answered philosophically. - It's easier for me to maneuver.
He moved away the table that barricaded the entrance and stepped outside.
The heat hit in the face like a slap. The air trembled over the red-hot asphalt, creating bizarre mirages. The smell of dust, exhaust gases and something else - sweet, sickening. The smell of decomposition and death, which stretched from cars with possessed.
Alexander slowly reached the middle of the playground in front of the snack bar and stopped. I took the Space Turner out from under his coat. The sword shone in the rays of the setting sun, its gray-black camouflage pattern seemed to come to life, shimmering with shadows.
Ready for battle, master? - asked the sword.
"I'm more than ready," Alexander whispered.
The car doors began to open. The first to come out was a man in his forties in a work overalls. It looked normal - medium height, bald spots, beer belly. But the eyes... There was nothing human in my eyes. Only cold, ruthless rage.
The others followed him. A woman in an office suit with loose hair. A teenager in a school uniform with a disfigured face. An elderly man in pajamas, covered in dried blood. A housewife in an apron holding a kitchen knife in her hand.
They all looked like ordinary people, but they moved unnaturally. Too sharp, too angular, like puppets in the hands of an inept puppeteer. And in everyone's eyes there was the same inhuman fire.
- Servant of the Devil, - said the man in overalls in a voice in which the echoes of the heavenly pipes were heard. - Give us the child, and your death will be quick.
- Fuck you, please. - Alexander replied politely.
The angels looked at each other and at the same time rushed into the attack.
Forty possessed people rushed at him from all sides, lifting clouds of dust. Someone was holding a weapon - knives, hammers, even pistols. But the majority counted on bare hands and inhuman strength.
Alexander didn't wait. He ran to meet them himself, holding a sword with both hands.
A teenager in a school uniform was the first to get to him. He jumped, aiming his claws at his throat. Alexander sat down and cut his sword from the bottom up. The blade entered the angel's body under the ribs and came out over the shoulder, cutting it in half.
Two halves of the teenager fell on different sides of Alexander, watering the sand with a luminous substance.
But there was no time for a break. The housewife with the knife has already brought her hand for the blow. Alexander intercepted her wrist, turned around and stuck a sword in the woman's back. The blade flew out, appearing from the chest.
- Come on! - he shouted, releasing the accumulated energy.
Electricity broke out of his free hand with a powerful discharge, hitting three angels at once. They sneered in inhuman voices and collapsed to the ground, smoking and twitching in convulsions.
Automatic queues hit from the roof of the snack bar. Kyle and Jeep took positions at the edges of the building, aiming fire at the possessed. Bullets dug into the bodies of angels, but not all hits were fatal. The wounded angels continued to advance, ignoring the pain.
- Shoot in the heads! - Jeep shouted. - Only in the heads!
Alexander rolled aside, dodging the blow of the man with a hammer. A heavy tool hit the ground where its head was a second ago, leaving a deep dent in the hard ground.
"Strong bastards," Alexander said to himself, striking back with a sword.
The blade cut off the angel's hand up to the elbow. He didn't even flinch - he grabbed the hammer with the remaining hand and swung again. Alexander was forced to jump back.
But another opponent was already waiting behind - a woman in an office suit with a gun. She shot at close range. Alexander instinctively jerked to the side, but the bullet still hit his shoulder, leaving a painful furrow.
- Bitch! - he cursed and fired lightning right in the woman's face.
The discharge hit the target exactly. The angel's head exploded with a fountain of light and splashes, the body collapsed as if mowed.
But there were more and more of them. How much has he already killed? Ten? Fifteen? And they all climbed and climbed, as if twice as many angels came out of the cars as could fit.
Alexander was spinning in a deadly dance, the sword in his hands turned into a silver lightning. Chopped, stabbed, cut - the blade passed through the flesh and bones as if through oil. The Space Breaker justified his name, tearing apart everything he touched.
At the same time, he used electricity, striking angels with discharges. Lightning broke out of his hands, illuminating the battlefield with flashes of blue light. The smell of ozone was mixed with the smell of blood and burning.
- To the left! - Kyle shouted from above. - There are two of you!
Alexander turned around and saw a man in pajamas and another woman approaching from behind. I threw lightning at them, but the discharge struck only one. The woman continued the offensive.
She had a big kitchen axe in her hands, the blade shone in the rays of the sunset. She swung, aiming at Alexander's neck. He blocked the blow with a sword, but the angel's power was inhuman. The axe pushed the protection, the blade stopped an inch from the throat.
"Sucky," Alexander thought, straining all his strength to contain the onslaught.
He was saved by a shot from the roof. Jeep's bullet hit the woman exactly in the temple, her head leaned back. The angel collapsed, releasing the axe from his hands.
- Thank you! - Alexander shouted, continuing to chop the enemies around him.
The battle turned into a bloody meat grinder. The earth around the diner was dotted with corpses of the possessed, the glowing substance of angels mixed with ordinary human blood, forming creepy streaks.
Alexander is tired. His abilities required a lot of energy, and hand-to-hand combat with dozens of opponents exhausted even his improved body. Movements have become slower, blows are not so accurate.
The angel in the jumpsuit, who first addressed him, was still alive. He waited for Alexander to get exhausted, and then attacked.
A punch into the solar plexus. Alexander bent down, losing his breath. The second blow is in the jaw. The world floated before my eyes.
- You fought pretty well, demon, - said the angel, lifting Alexander by the throat. - But we are angels, we have always been stronger.
Fingers squeezed, blocking the breath. Alexander tried to break out, but he lacked strength.
And then a shotgun shot from the roof thundered. Howard, despite his age, accurately hit the angel in the head. The cartridge took down half of the skull, forcing the monster to unclench his fingers.
Alexander fell to his knees, grabbing the air with his mouth. But he immediately got up and finished the angel with a sword blow to his heart.
There was silence around. The last possessed was dead.
Alexander looked around the battlefield. Forty corpses in different poses, a pool of blood and a luminous substance, scattered weapons. His own clothes were torn in several places, blood oozed from the wounds, but nothing serious.
"Not bad for a warm-up," he thought with gloomy satisfaction.
- Alex! - Charlie shouted from above. - Are you okay?
He raised his head and waved his hand:
- Everything is fine! You can go down!
The heroes began to get off the roof on the fire escape. Kyle was the first to run up to Alexander:
- You fucking thressed them! How did you do it?
"Experience," Alexander answered briefly, wiping his sword on the clothes of the killed angel.
Mikhail came last, carefully examining the corpses:
- Impressive. But it was only reconnaissance.
- What? - Jeep didn't understand.
- They tested our strength, - the archangel explained. - The real attack will be at night. And there will be ten times more opponents.
- Ten times?! - Sandra paled. - But we can't stand it!
- We'll stand it, - Alexander said confidently. - If we act smartly.
They returned to the diner and locked themselves from the inside. The sun has already set, the desert has plunged into the twilight. Somewhere in the distance, coyotes howled, but their voices were lost in the sinister hum of flies above their heads.
Charlie sat down at the table, pressing his hands to his stomach:
- The child is pushing hard. He feels the danger.
- Will he be born soon? - Mikhail asked.
- In a few days, - the girl replied. - Maybe earlier. Stress speeds up the process.
- It doesn't suck, - Kyle muttered. - Childbirth during the siege is not what I planned for today.
Howard and Sandra settled in the corner, talking quietly with each other. The elderly couple held on firmly, but fatigue made itself felt.
- What are we going to do? - asked Jeep, checking the cartridges.
- Wait, - Mikhail replied. - And get ready. At night they will come in full force.
- And how many of them can there be? - Alexander asked, although he knew the answer approximately.
- Hundreds, - the archangel answered gloomily. - Maybe thousands. It depends on how many people they managed to capture.
There was a heavy silence. Everyone was thinking about the upcoming battle.
- How do you know what's going on? - Charlie suddenly asked, turning to Alexander. - You talked about angels even before Mikhail appeared.
Alexander thought about it. What should I tell him? The truth? Or come up with a plausible lie?
- I have... special sources of information, - he answered evasively. - I can't tell the details.
- Devil's Mark, - Mikhail reminded. - He can really know about Heaven's plans.
- Exactly, - Alexander picked up. - The devil is not interested in the destruction of humanity. He needs souls to seduce.
The logic was iron. Everyone believed.
Time dragged on slowly. Kyle and Jeep took turns on duty at the windows, looking for signs of the enemy's approach. Howard and Sandra were dozing off, leaning against each other. Charlie tried to fall asleep, but the child did not give rest.
Alexander was sitting in the corner, thinking about upcoming events. According to the plot of the film, the ice cream maker's attack should be next. Then there was a massive assault. And in the final - the appearance of Gabriel.
"We need to hold out until dawn," he thought. "And then... we'll see."
When midnight came, he got up and approached Mikhail:
- Let's go to the roof. We need to look around.
The archangel nodded. They went out through the service door and climbed the fire escape to the flat roof of the snack bar.
It was a starry night. The Milky Way stretched across the sky in a bright stripe. But the cloud of flies did not go anywhere - the black mass was still hanging above the ground, overshadowing some of the stars.
"It's beautiful," said Alexander, looking up.
- Yes, - Mikhail agreed. - It's a pity that this could be the last night for humanity.
- There won't be the last one, - Alexander objected. - We won't let them win.
The archangel looked at him with curiosity:
- Where does such confidence come from?
"Vera," Alexander simply replied.
They stood in silence, looking into the darkness of the desert. Somewhere in the distance, the lights were flickering - maybe the headlights of cars, or maybe the bonfires of refugees.
- Mikhail, - Alexander spoke. - What will happen if the child is born after all?
- Everything will change, - the archangel replied. - He will show people a new way. Humanity will get a second chance.
- Will God allow it?
- I don't know, - Mikhail honestly admitted. - Maybe Father will change his mind. Perhaps he will understand that he was wrong.
- What if not?
- Then there will be a war, - the archangel replied gloomily. - War between Heaven and those who protect humanity.
Alexander nodded. It wasn't shown in the movie, but the logic was clear.
Suddenly, the light flashed in the distance. A lonely headlight slowly approaching on the road.
- See? - Alexander showed.
- I see, - Mikhail tensed up. - One car. Strange.
They went downstairs and warned the others. Everyone took positions by the windows, looking into the darkness.
The car was approaching slowly, as if slowly. It was an old van with a flashing neon sign "Ice Cream" on the roof. A children's melody was hearing from the speakers - cheerful and at the same time creepy in the silence of the night.
- Ice cream maker? - Kyle was surprised. - At this time?
Alexander tensed up. He remembered this scene from the movie perfectly. One of the brightest and most frightening.
"The real fun begins," he thought.
The van stopped right in front of the entrance to the snack bar. The music died down. The door opened with a creak, and a man came out.
A tall, thin man in his forties in a white ice cream maker uniform. The face is ordinary, unremarkable. But something in his posture, in the way he stood and looked at the snack bar, made me shiver.
- Hi! - he shouted in a cheerful voice. - Does anyone want ice cream?
No one answered.
- Come on! - the ice cream maker continued. - I have ice cream, eskimo, fruit ice! Everything is very tasty!
His voice began to change. From cheerful and friendly, he turned into something else. Deeper, with non-human overtones.
- Come out," he said, and now the command was heard in the voice. - Come out, and I'll give you ice cream. Cold, sweet ice cream.
- Don't answer, - Mikhail whispered. - It's not human.
The ice cream maker stood a little longer, and then began to change.
His arms began to lengthen. Fingers stretched out, turning into claws. The legs also deformed, becoming longer and thinner. The back bent, forcing the man to go down on all fours.
A few seconds later, there was no longer a man in front of the diner, but a spider-like monster with a human head. The limbs were almost two meters long, the claws were scraped on the asphalt.
"That's shit," Jeep whispered.
The monster suddenly howled in an inhuman voice and rushed to the snack bar. He moved incredibly fast, going through his long limbs like a real spider.
Alexander didn't wait. He rushed to the door, snatching his sword on the go.
- The rest stay here! - he shouted.
He jumped out just when the monster reached the walls of the building. The creature pushed off the ground with all four limbs, soaring into the air. The jump was of incredible power - the monster flew directly at Alexander, aiming its claws at the throat.
But Alexander was ready. In the air, he turned his sword and with one precise movement took off the head of the creature.
The decapitated body collapsed to the ground, twitching in near-death convulsions. A glowing substance whipped from the cut of the neck.
Alexander landed on his feet and turned to the snack bar. He raised his thumb up:
- Everything is fine!
But the joy was premature.
In the distance, on the horizon, a new light appeared. Not a lonely headlight, like an ice cream maker's. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of lights. A whole caravan of cars was moving along the road to the snack bar.
Alexander took a closer look. The headlights stretched to the horizon, like a glowing river in the night desert. Cars of different types - cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles. They all went with the same purpose.
"So the real mess has begun," he thought gloomily.
The hardest test of the night was approaching them.