As a regular thing when we had free time in the evenings, usually after dinner, a group of us would get together in the recreation room to play cards. Stone had dragged me into his poker game about a month previously, and now it was something I looked forward to. Sitting around the smoky table with several Changed and soldiers alike, here we got to relax from the stress and monotony.

“I just don’t believe they are angels,” Ramirez said, around his cigarette. The crucifix he still wore shone in the dim light. Ramirez arrived at the camp with a ragged mop of black hair. I still couldn’t reconcile his initial wild appearance with the buzzed boy across from me.

“Why not?” Alec asked, picking up his cards.

Ramirez said, “Because God wouldn’t do that. God is love.” He finished dealing.

“Really?” I asked. I had heard this argument amongst the soldiers many, many times. The arguments for and against were so old. However, I could not help but get involved when I heard them.

Looking at me like I was an imbecile, he turned back to Stone and said, “Of course. Wasn’t that how you were raised, Corporal Stone?”

“Oh no, don’t pull me into this. How I was raised has nothing to do with anything,” Stone said, hiding his face behind his hand of cards.

“I thought all you Southern boys were good Baptists,” I teased.

Eyeing me over his cards, he said, “Methodist, actually. Not that it matters.”

“How can it not?” Ramirez asked.

Stone looked at all of us before sighing and lowering his cards. “Because it doesn’t matter if they’re angels or aliens. As long as they are hurting people, if my CO tells me to shoot one in the face, that’s what I’m going to do.”

“You can’t argue with dedication like that,” Kemi said, snickering.

“So if they are angels,” I said, returning to Ramirez, “Are you going to pull the trigger?”

“They aren’t angels!” he said, his voice getting higher. “Can we just play?”

“No, no,” Alec said, “I want to hear about why angels can’t possibly be killers.”

“Have you read the Bible?” Ramirez asked.

“Yes, actually,” Alec smirked. “Have you?”

Before it got too hot, I jumped in, “It’s been part of our training, as the Changed I mean, we have had to read all the major religious texts with angels and angel-like figures.”

“Then how are we having this conversation? God wants to save man, not kill us like this.”

“Oh, here we go,” Stone said, tossing down his cards.

“Saying, for just a moment, that I accept the premise that anything in your book is true,” Alec said, “which I really do not, by the way, then yeah, I agree with you: how are we having this conversation? I mean, you’ve read the Old Testament, right? Revelations?”

Ramirez frowned. “Yeah, so what.”

“So what?” I asked, incredulous. “How often did God visit terrible wrath on the world in the Old Testament? I mean, Sodom and Gomorrah? The Flood? Any of those things ring a bell? That’s pretty damn destructive.”

Shaking his head, Ramirez said, “Man, you guys just don’t get it. Jesus wiped all that stuff away. The New Testament is the only thing that matters.”

Alec and I rolled our eyes at each other.

“Besides, if they are angels, there ain’t shit we can do to stop them, so we might as well kiss our asses goodbye,” Ramirez said.

Alec made a buzzer sound, “Wrong again! But thank you for playing.”

“What are you talking about?” Ramirez asked.

“Jacob wrestled an angel to a standstill,” I said.

Ramirez looked skeptical. “Seriously?”

“Shit man,” Alec said, “It’s your religion. You should know this stuff.”

Johnson, who had uncharacteristically remained out of the squabble until now leaned forward. “So, what are you Alec, some kind of agnostic?”

“Atheist,” he replied.

Based on the look on Ramirez’s face, you would have thought that Alec had said he liked to eat babies.

“What?” I asked. “What’s wrong with that?”

“I don’t know man,” Ramirez said, “How can you not believe in anything?”

Alec pinched his forehead. “This is something I hate about this country: how everything is always about religion. Even now, when religion might very well be trying to destroy all of us, you people still want to cling to it. What is wrong with you?”

A light went on in Ramirez’s eyes. He pointed at Alec, “If you don’t believe in anything, how can you believe these things are angels?” He slapped his hand down on the table, congratulating himself for his feat of logical debate.

Grinning widely, Alec leaned forward, “I never said I believed they were angels.”

Johnson and Ramirez gaped at each other in this sudden reversal. “No, no way man. You’ve just been saying they were angels.”

I laughed. Alec liked to play this game, and it was fun to watch. Sometimes. Of course, it was a bit annoying that they seemed to forget about me. “No,” I said, “He didn’t. Alec and I merely pointed out that there is nothing precluding them from being Biblical angels. That God certainly is bloodthirsty enough.”

Johnson turned and asked me, “So what, are you an atheist too, Delaney?”

I did not like how he spat that word out, like it was something vile. The truth was I did not have an answer to that. I did not know what I believed in. Whether it was God or aliens, there was something much bigger than us in the universe and I did not like thinking about that too much. Deep thoughts were often the fodder for mockery, so I certainly was not going to share my doubts. Instead, I smirked at him. “No, I think I’ll take a hint from the good Corporal,” I said, indicating Stone. “My beliefs don’t matter. Whatever these things are, I am going to kill them.”

“Now that,” Stone said, “Is something I can get behind. Now, damn it, you guys, let’s play some cards.”

“You heard the Corporal,” Kemi said, “I came to win some money off you, not listen to you debate till I fell asleep.”

Any hard feelings there may have been were put aside for the more practical concern of making money. The hands flew fast and furious. We joked, we laughed and we took each other’s money. Watching everyone play, everyone joke and fool around, made me feel warm in my heart.

Until Sergeant Lorenzo stormed into our room. “Corporal Stone,” he burst out in that loud voice of his.

Stone jerked up from the cards. “Yes Sergeant?”

“Get your people ready soldier and meet in the briefing room in fifteen minutes,” he said, ignoring all of us. For our part, we did everything we could to disappear except for Johnson, possibly due to some lack of common sense or intellect. “Awww, what is it, Sergeant? We’re off duty.”

The Sergeant’s head turned and, if it was possible I would say it did so independent of his neck. “What is it, soldier?” he asked, pinning Johnson to the seat with his gaze.

My stomach sank beneath the weight of dread I felt. There could be only one thing that he would say next.

“Why,” he continued, “We have a lead on an attack. In other words, boys and girls,” he flashed us his most disturbing and toothy grin, “We’re going to kill an angel!”