Judgment (2 page)

              “Lust.”

              “Greed.”

              Just two common words that now carried chilling meaning. The angel closed her eyes, and I saw Jim’s body begin to glow. It was a fiery sort of red color, like the coals in a barbeque grill. The smell of burning flesh filled the room, and a second later he turned to ash like an instantaneous cremation. I saw no wispy glowing smoke rise from him like I had seen on the TV. He was just gone, a pile of ash on the floor, bits of him blowing out the 52nd story window.

              The angel turned to me, her eyes met mine, and she began to walk toward me, her great wings retracting behind her as she moved further into the room. I was mesmerized, somehow feeling her eyes searching inside me. I heard the sound of the glass crunching under her bare feet as she moved around the desk. Despite the sharp edges of the broken shards, there were no cuts, no blood. She seemed to not even notice.

              A gust of wind pushed into the room, blowing some of Jim's ashes into my face. I heard a woman scream outside the office, and it sounded like Jennifer. It was enough to clear my head, and I turned and ran from the room.

              The rest of the office was now in chaos. A strong breeze, breeching in through broken windows, filled the air with flying papers and ashes that now seemed to be everywhere. People were running this way and that, some not knowing what they were running from, most not knowing where they were running to. A line was forming at the stairwell exit door, and a mob waited near the elevators, several people frantically pounding on the call buttons.

              In the office next to mine, I saw a pile of ash upon the floor. The window was shattered, and through it I could see the building across the street. It was not quite as high as ours, allowing me to see its roof from our floor, and people were pouring out onto the rooftop from a stairwell door. Looking down I could see broken windows on several floors, with angels flying in and out of the building like bees working a hive.

              Glancing back to the roof, a couple of men were pressing their shoulders against the door of the stairwell they had just come up. A dozen other people had run to the edges of the rooftop, looking down with nowhere to go except the street fifty stories below.

              The two men were struggling at the door, pressing their weight against it. Something on the other side was pushing its way up. Suddenly an angel flew down from above and grabbed a woman off the roof like a hawk grabs an unsuspecting mouse from a field. The people panicked and scattered to different corners, desperate for somewhere to hide. Another angel flew in, so fast the next person was gone in a blink of an eye. Suddenly the stairwell door burst open, causing the two men to fall backwards. An angel walked out from through the doorway, looked around for a moment, then picked up one of the men and forcibly embraced him.

              Seconds later the wind scattered the ash from within its wings, and the angel began walking the rooftop. It grabbed a woman who had frozen with fear, and a man attacked it trying to help her. After being punched several times, the angel suddenly spread a wing outward in a quick sweeping motion, knocking the man off his feet like he was a rag doll. A moment later the woman was gone, a light wispy trail of smoke rising upward from where she had just stood. Seemingly defying the push of the wind, the smoke rose straight skyward until it disappeared into the heavens, driven by some unseen force.

              The angel was walking the rooftop again, and the people ran like mice from a cat. A second angel flew in and landed beside the first, and a terrified couple became trapped near the corner of the building. As the angel approached I saw the man panic and jump.

              My eyes followed his body down until he was just a dark speck on the sidewalk below. Glancing back to the roof, I watched the woman jump next; the fifty stories dive the only escape from the angel’s grasp. The fall seemed to last forever, until she landed with a grotesque thud in the street. I couldn’t actually hear it, but I knew it had to be there.

              The sound of screaming behind me drew my attention back to my own building, and I turned to see an angel walking past me just outside the office door. I froze for a moment, but not wanting to get trapped in the room with a fifty two story leap as my only way out, I quickly moved to the door. I saw the back of the angel following two people into the next office, his wings temporarily catching on the door frame. A large white feather fell to the floor as he passed through. I heard the man yell briefly, then fall silent. The woman sobbed hysterically, and then she began to beg, until she too fell silent. A moment later their ashes blew out through the doorway.

              Turning towards the elevator, I saw its doors slide open, and several people rushed in. I ran for it, reaching the doors just in time to shove my arm in and stop them from closing. They parted again, the occupants cursing me for holding them up. One woman was yelling at me in Spanish, while a tall thin man grabbed my arm and pulled me in. Another was frantically pressing the ‘close doors’ button.

              “Adam!”  Jennifer’s voice came from the back, crammed behind a dozen people. Despite the protests and resistance, I shoved my way back to her as the doors closed and the elevator began to move.

              “You okay?”

              As soon as I said it, I could already see she wasn’t. She was panicked like everyone else. She had that look on her face like someone in a deep sleep suddenly startled awake by a loud bang. She was full of confusion and fear, but she put on a brave façade. I wanted to hold her, but I just sort of nodded and looked around the elevator car.

              Looking up, I could see the little floor numbers tick by;

              47, 46, 45.

             
We’re going down. Thank God
. 
I want no part of the roof.

              The same people that had been yelling and screaming on the office floor were now deathly silent in the elevator car. No one knew what awaited us when the car stopped and the doors opened.

              Thank God? Somehow that doesn’t seem right anymore.

              Suddenly a single voice was heard, faintly. A woman praying, reciting familiar words; “Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…” She continued on, verbalizing the entire passage. Halfway through, two other people joined in with her. Another man made the cross symbol, touching his forehead, chest and shoulders, then he kissed some charm he had hanging around his neck. Several other people were furiously assaulting their phones; texting, dialing, desperately trying to get a signal to the outside. The elevator continued down, but no one knew into what.

              Without warning the elevator slowed and then stopped, an electronic ding sound warning us that the doors were about to open on the 23
rd
floor.

              Oh shit, here we go
.

              The doors slid open, and the people in front pushed towards the back, crushing Jennifer and I against the back wall. I felt her grab my hand. A strong wind was blowing past the elevator doors, the smell of the Hudson and a torrent of papers and ash going with it. People were screaming in the distance. Suddenly a woman appeared in the doorway with a small child, screaming and pushing the kid into the elevator.

              Several people reached out to grab the woman, until a large white wing came into view. The woman was suddenly jerked back from the door, pulled by an angel. The people in the front were able to pull the child inside as her mother disappeared. A man in the car was desperately pressing the ‘close doors’ button. The praying woman prayed louder. The child cried out for her mother as the elevator doors closed. The car began to descend again.

              22. 21. 20.

              Thank fucking God. Get us out of here. Please.

              Jennifer squeezed my hand tighter. I smelled urine. Someone had pissed themselves. The praying woman was now reciting at the top of her voice, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done…” A man yelled at her to shut up. Another woman was crying into her cell phone in Spanish.

              4. 3. 2.

              Here we go.

              Jennifer was crushing my hand.

              1.

             
Oh my God…

              The doors opened straight into Hell. The lobby was an unimaginable nightmare. People were running, people were hiding, but mostly, people were dying. Angels were everywhere; some holding people in their grasp, others looking for the next human to judge. Piles of ash were all over the floor. Several people in the elevator froze, afraid to exit the car. Others ran out, racing for the doors to the street.

              “C’mon, we can’t stay here,” I urged Jennifer, and pulling her by the hand I led her out of the elevator. We followed the perimeter edge of the lobby, avoiding most of the chaos. More than once I almost slipped on the ash, which slid like oil on the marble tiles. As we ran Jennifer intentionally slipped out of her high heels, her bare feet now slapping against the tile.

              Ahead of us were the two revolving glass doors that led out to the street. They had become deathtraps. Too many people had swarmed in, pushing against each other, and angels had surrounded them. Like an automatic feeder, trapped people were pulled one by one from the glass compartments, judged, and turned to dust. Several people were looking at us from inside the glass wheel, banging on it, yelling out for help as the wheel slowly turned, bringing them closer and closer to their fate.

              I suddenly felt trapped. There was nowhere to go except back to the elevator or into the revolving wheel of judgment. Across the lobby, behind the security guard’s desk, a janitor was fumbling with keys trying to unlock a door. Several people were piled up behind him, urging him to hurry.

              The door opened, and the janitor held it while the people behind him shoved in. “C’mon!” I screamed as I pulled Jennifer across the lobby and around the security desk. The janitor was just about to close the door when he saw us.

              Wait, wait, wait!
 

              For a split second I could tell he was going to slam the door shut anyway, but a moment of soul searching caused him to wait. “Thank you,” I blurted as I dragged Jennifer through the doorway.

              We entered a long hallway that appeared to be a maintenance tunnel. Behind me I heard a woman scream.  Turning, I saw the praying woman from the elevator. An angel had grabbed her just as she followed us through the doorway. I could see the angel’s hands pulling on her, one around her waist and the other on her face. I could see his wings wedging into the doorway as she struggled against him, pulling, screaming, trying to get into the hallway with us as the angel pulled her back into the lobby. Before I could react the janitor tried to slam the door shut. The door hit the woman in the face and then caught her arm as it closed. It slammed hard against her elbow, and I could see a small portion of a wing caught in the door near the hinges. Pressing against the door with his shoulder, the man released it suddenly and then slammed it hard again.

              During the momentary release the woman’s arm began to pull out into the lobby, but the door caught her fingers in the second slam. One of her fingertips was pinched off and fell to the floor in the hallway. Several small white pieces of feather floated to the floor, landing not far from the bloody fingertip. I could hear the woman screaming on the other side of the door for several seconds, until she suddenly went quiet. Several panicked people were still yelling in the hallway behind me as the janitor locked it and began pushing all of us down the corridor. Behind us I could hear the screams of the judged from the lobby, and something pushing hard against the door.

Chapter 2

Vengeance Is Mine, Sayeth The Lord

"Behold, I am coming quickly, to render to every man

according to what he has done.”

~Revelation 22:12

              The next room was a maintenance office and storage area. The large room, lined with work benches and shelves along most of the walls, smelled of paint and oil. An old crappy TV sat on a desk in the far corner. Six of us had piled into the room, the sounds of the chaos in the lobby following behind us.

              “What the hell is going on?” asked one particularly panicked man I had never seen before. It was a big building and I generally only knew the people in my particular office. Several responses came, everything from a terrorist attack to the end of days. A sudden debate about religion broke out while the janitor slammed his fist on the top of the TV as if that would speed up its coming on.

              Some static and channel surfing suddenly gave way to the unpleasant yet familiar tone of the Emergency Broadcast System. No face came on the screen, no voice through the speakers. Just the constant droning of that annoying tone as words began scrolling across the screen.

             
“This is the National Emergency Broadcast System. The Department of Homeland Security has issued the following statement; the nation is currently experiencing widespread acts of civil disobedience involving unknown persons. It is advised that all citizens remain indoors. Do not venture outside; do not open your door for anyone you do not know. The US Government, along with the National Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, and FEMA are in the process of establishing martial law for the safety and security of all citizens. Please respect the commands of any government official or representative you may encounter. First responders such as police, fireman, and paramedics are urged to use caution and restraint until assistance arrives in your area. Please stay tuned to your local television and radio stations for further information.”

              The panicked man was the first to speak again. “Civil disobedience? Are they fucking kidding me? Did you see those things? Did you see what they do to people?” No one answered him. At the far side of the room a man was searching the workbenches, apparently looking for a weapon. He was of the more rugged sort, with a permanent five-o’clock shadow and a muscular build that his business suit couldn’t hide. The janitor objected to his rummaging. “Hey, don’t be touchin’ that stuff.”

              “Really man? You really think this is your building anymore? You see what the hell is going on out there? If you were smart you’d arm yourself too. No winged freak is gonna kill me today.” The janitor seemed to consider those words for a moment, and then he joined the man in searching for anything that would make a good weapon. I saw the gruff man grab a large pipe wrench, while the janitor settled for a hammer. Loud noises from the bolted lobby door up the hallway reminded all of us how badly we wanted to be away from there.

              Approaching the janitor, I saw his name embroidered on his work shirt. “Hey…Reggie, right?” He looked at me strangely for a moment, as if trying to figure out if he recognized me or not.

              “Yeah.”

              “I’m Adam. I work up on 52. Listen, where does this hallway go? Can we get out of here without going back to the lobby?”

              It took him a second to answer as he shoved the hammer into his belt before speaking. “The loading dock, where all the deliveries come in. It opens up to the alley behind 8
th
street. But you don’t wanna go out there man.”

              The rugged guy with the pipe wrench spoke up suddenly. “Well I ain’t fucking staying in here. How long before one of those freaks comes through that door, or finds another way in here. I’m getting the hell away from here.”

              Reggie was stressed, agitated, the sweat from his brow looking like beads of silver against his dark skin, but he spoke calmly. “You can do what you want man, but I’m telling you, this shit started out there. I saw it. Those flying people are all over out there.”

              The only other woman in the room besides Jennifer moved closer to us. “What did you see out there? Where did they come from?”

              Reggie looked at her like he knew she wouldn’t believe him, so he didn’t want to say it, but he said it anyway. “Right outta the damn sky. They all just started dropping out of the clouds. Flying around like birds or sumthin’. It’s crazy.”

              “It’s God,” answered the woman. “This is Revelations. It’s the end times. Judgment Day.”

              The guy with the wrench wasn’t buying it. “That’s bullshit. These are some out of control activists or some bullshit. It’s a stunt. They’re just assholes.”

              “People don’t fly,” answered the woman. “I saw them from the 20
th
floor. They were hovering outside the windows, and then they started breaking them in.”

              Reggie spoke more loudly, more firmly. “They’re killin’ people out there man.”

              The smaller, panicked man spoke up. “Didn’t you see what they were doing to people, Joe? By the revolving doors? They were grabbing them, and burning them up somehow, turning people into dust.”

              Joe hoisted the heavy wrench up against his shoulder. “I don’t know who or what the hell they are. But I’m not waiting around in here for them to break in and find us.”

              Screams from the lobby and thumps on the door echoed down the hallway. The pounding and creaking of the door was the most disturbing. The angels wanted in, we just wanted out, and needed the back door. Jennifer grabbed my arm. “He’s right, Adam. I don’t want to stay here,” she urged. “There must be cops outside. We can find some help.”

              Joe spoke to the smaller, panicked man. “C’mon Steve, find something over there you can crack a skull with, and let’s get the hell out of here.”

              Steve didn’t look like the fighting type, but he did as instructed, coming back from the workbench with a piece of pipe. The look on his face clearly said using it was the last thing he wanted to do. Joe motioned to Reggie. “How do we get to this loading dock? Is it open?”

              I spoke before Reggie could answer. “Hold on. We should stick together.”

              “Adam, right?” said Joe, now pointing the wrench at me. “You want to stick together? Then you’re gonna have to follow me, cause I’m fucking leaving.”

              “That’s fine. But let’s just stick together.”

              Asshole.

              I looked to Jennifer, whose nod said ‘yes, let’s go’. Then I turned to the other woman, the God believer. “What’s your name?”

              “Margie.”

              “Okay Margie. You’re going to stick with us? We’ll all leave together?”

              She hesitated for a moment. “Yeah.”

              Reggie was the lone standout. “I’m not going. I’m stayin’ right here ‘til the cops come.” He walked over to the TV and started flipping channels.

              “Where’s the loading dock?” Joe insisted. “Can we get out there or not? Is it locked?”

              Reggie turned and held up the magnetic badge clipped to his shirt. “You need the key card.”

              “Alright, then give it to me.”

              Reggie moved towards Joe. He was big man, aging now, but clearly not someone you just pushed around. “If you want to go, I’ll let you out. But I’m locking it behind you and I’m stayin’ here. Don’t be askin’ me to let you back in. You understand?”

              “Yeah, I got it. Just get us out.”

              Reggie walked past me and into the hallway. “Y’all crazy.”

              We followed him down the corridor, the opposite way from the lobby door. Through another door unlocked with the key card, and then down another long hallway we went, all the while listening to the screams seeping in from the lobby door behind us. We were moving through the underbelly of the building, passing rooms with machinery and water pumps and storage. The sounds of the chaos in the lobby slowly faded away behind us. Through another locked door we entered a large garage area with two metal roll-up doors. As soon as we entered we could hear the noise coming from outside beyond the garage doors; sounds of chaos, screams, police sirens and gunfire.

              Reggie turned and looked at us. “What’cha all gonna do out there? Huh?”

              Joe apparently dubbed himself the spokesman for the group. “There’s cops out there. Probably medics. There’s help. There ain’t shit in here but people dying.”

              Reggie spoke directly to Jennifer. “You, pretty girl. You sure you want to go outside?” Jennifer nodded, still clinging to my arm as she had the entire walk through the hallways. Reggie shook his head as he approached the card reader on the wall near the door controls. “Y’all crazy.”

              An electronic beep sounded as he swiped his badge, and with the press of a button an old noisy motor came alive up near the ceiling. One of the garage doors began to rise, slowly revealing the scene outside. The noises of chaos grew louder as we watched feet running by, then knees, then hips as the door continued upward. A dog wandered by, stopped for a moment to stare at us, and then ran off startled at the sound of nearby gunfire. A police car raced by as the garage door came to a stop at full open.

              Joe was the first one out. Cautiously he stepped out into the alley, gripping his wrench at the ready. Several people ran by him, paying no attention to him. He looked up and down the alley, then turned and motioned for us to follow. “8
th
street’s to the right, at the end of the alley,” Reggie called out. “But y’all crazy.”

              As I stepped out with Jennifer in tow, we were bombarded with the sounds of madness. Screams and gunshots echoed off the walls of the buildings all around us. Police sirens wailed in the distance. I saw an ambulance and a fire truck race along 8
th
street, quickly speeding by the end of the alley. Several more people ran past us as behind us I heard the garage door begin to close.

I turned to look as the door came down, just in time to see naked feet moving along the floor towards Reggie. I heard him yell out. “Hey..hey..hey! Get the….” and then silence as the bottom of the closing door met the pavement.

              Jennifer was tugging furiously on my arm. “C’mon Adam. C’mon!” The group was moving quickly down the alley, halfway to 8
th
street already, Joe in the lead. “Let’s go!” Jennifer urged.

              “Yeah.” I thought a second about the fate of Reggie, and then took off running down the alley pulling Jennifer behind me. Dust and ash were everywhere, kicking up under our feet and blowing down the alley. Suddenly a shadow passed over us, moving fast. I felt a breeze against the back of my neck, the sound of wings passing very near. An angel flew right passed us, about ten feet above, straight through the alley. It went right past the others and they scattered in a panic to both sides as the angel flew out onto 8
th
street. Jennifer and I just kept running, as fast as we could, until we were squatting down against the wall beside the others.

              “We have to get out of the open, find somewhere to hide,” I urged.

              Suddenly two more angels flew right over our heads, completely ignoring us and landing near a crowd out on the other side of the street. In an odd way I realized there was safety in numbers. Like lions attacking a herd of zebras, the angels could only target so many while the rest ran away. That’s what we needed to do. Blend into a crowd, while running the hell away.

              “C’mon, we’ll find somewhere,” I said as I began moving towards 8
th
street. The others followed, and we all stepped out into a nightmare.

              Once out of the alley, the full scope of the chaos hit us. Thousands of people were in the streets, running every which way in panic. They were pushing and shoving each other, trying to get away, trying to hide. Cars jammed the intersections, many crashing into each other, causing blockages so that even if you had a car you weren’t going anywhere. Ash was everywhere, blowing in the breeze, and with every minute it seemed to be intensifying. Angels filled the sky like hawks, and intermixed through the terrified crowds of New Yorkers, we could see them walking the streets grabbing people at random.