I shouted, again, for everyone to ceasefire. The bullets from our side pattered to a stop and, after a moment, so did theirs. Kemi froze, but I could see the determination in her eyes. She was ready to shoot the first person that tried to take another shot out of the house.

Something was going on: a rage was building inside me. I was telling them to stop, but I didn’t want them to. I wanted to kick that fucking door in and start shooting them myself. My pistol was in my hand. When did I draw it?

Then I looked down at August and really looked at him. He did not look good, he looked pale and in pain. “Are you hit?” I asked.

August did not say anything, he just looked down. Shifting off his body, I looked and saw a stain-like night spreading across the grey fibers of his suit. He was not wearing body armor, why the fuck wasn’t he wearing a vest? Oh god, I had to get him back to the cars. Did we have a medic?

“Inside the house,” I cried out, “Let us withdraw.”

“Why should we?” a voice called back. “This is our land, you ain’t got no business here! You already shot up Jacob.”

He fired first, you inbred hick I bit back. “We both have wounded. Let us withdraw and nobody else has to get hurt.”

“You’re right on the porch, I can hear you,” the voice called back. “We can take you and your friends right now.”

“That’d be a bad idea. I have ten men in the trees who will light up this house if anyone so much as points a weapon out a window. Don’t be stupid, just let us pull back and we can figure something out. You can give your friend… Jacob, right? You can give Jacob some help.”

They did not say anything I could hear for a few minutes. “Hang on, August,” I whispered, “I’ll get you out of here.”

He swallowed hard. Sweat covered his face. “I didn’t know this would hurt so much,” he whispered back.

“You’ll heal, you’ll be Ok.”

August shook his head a little from side to side. “Not to alarm you, but while we heal, it’s nothing like you. I need a doctor.”

“Fuck August, why weren’t you wearing a vest?” I demanded, tears blurring my sight.

“Thought,” he said, a cough interrupting him, “It would look aggressive. Didn’t want to alarm anyone.”

“Well you are alarming me, damn it.” I pressed my palm against the wound on his side. He grimaced but did not say anything.

“What are we going to do?” he asked.

“If they don’t agree to let us go, I’m going to make a run for it and I’ll drag your sorry ass with me,” I whispered in his ear.

“I’ll slow you down. Just get away. Come back for me after,” he gasped back.

“Oh fuck that, August, we are not leaving you. Besides, I’m strong enough to carry you and run full speed. What are you, a hundred pounds soaking wet?” I asked, choking on my own joke.

Inside the house, I could hear the sound of heated debate, but they were too far from the window to really make out what was being said. The gist was clear though; someone did not want us leaving this porch. They knew that if we were out of the way, there would be nothing stopping us from cutting this place to ribbons.

The main question was why did they think we would?

They obviously believed we were some bad mojo, but why? Why did they shoot first?

“What’s it going to be?” I yelled back to the window, trying to figure out my best trajectory of escape.

There was a pause, then the voice returned. “One of you stays, as a hostage and we’ll let the rest of you go and take the wounded.”

Kemi looked at me and shook her head slowly from side to side. Marcus made the same gesture. Handing them a hostage would just continue the situation and leave us in a bad way. Fuck, we didn’t have a negotiator, well, except the Seers, but I seriously doubted they were trained for situations like this.

“Why are you shooting at us?” I yelled back. “We aren’t here to fight with you.”

“Why’d you bring all the guns then?” he shouted.

Touché.

“We know you are in league with the fascists running the so-called government! We know you fight against the will of God and his messengers. We won’t surrender to you!”

Spare me from zealots and nut-jobs. My life is afloat with them. At this point, I wanted Stone to cut this shack in half. Fuck these people.

“Tell you what,” I said, “You let us walk away and then we get in our cars and leave. We came to offer you a chance to join us. I can see now that that isn’t going to happen. We don’t want any more trouble. We’ll just leave and then you people can stay or go, whatever you want. I don’t care.”

There was a mirthless chuckle. “You say that, but why should we trust you? You’re with the government.”

Ok, that was a reasonable remark. I didn’t trust us, but I was not going to share that with him.

Nobody was dead yet, at least I did not think that they were. I could still pull this out if I figured out a way through the quagmire.

“Trust me, my guys could easily shoot over us and fill this shack with so many holes there is no way we’d miss any of you. We thought you were like us, and we wanted to teach you what we’ve learned. Can’t you feel it? Didn’t you feel it when we approached? We’re the same. We shouldn’t be fighting each other.”

There was another pause. August looked paler and was shivering. I was still holding tightly to his wound, but blood oozed between my fingers. If they did not work with me, I was going to start shooting them.

“How about this,” the voice countered. “Some of us leave out the back while you stay. When they are away, we’ll let you go back. If you are telling the truth, they’ll make it fine and then we’ll go our separate ways.”

“Fine,” I shouted, “Fine, just go. Quickly. The man you shot needs medical attention right now.” I turned towards the darkness where I knew everyone else was watching. “Everyone hold your fire. I repeat, do not fire unless fired upon.” I turned back to the window. “How’s that?”

“Good enough,” he said. A few moments later I heard a screen door swing open behind the church on rusty hinges. People fled, their feet crunching branches and leaves in the darkness. I could not see them. I wanted to know what this guy looked like.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Samuel,” he shouted back. “What’s yours?”

“Peri,” I said. “Pleased to meet you,” I lied. “Now, have you had enough time for your friends to get out of here?”

“Not yet. Give it five minutes.”

“Fuck off,” I shouted. “Your people are away, nobody is being shot at. Let me get my friend to some medical help.”

“No.”

Oh, this guy was yanking my chain. How patient did he think I was?

“That’s not going to work, Samuel,” I said. “You have to give me something.”

“Way I see it,” he said back, “You want it worse than we do. We know we are on the side of the right and just. Kill us and our place in heaven is assured.”

Shit, shit, shit. Spare me your insanity.

“Tell that to the second angel you meet, when they’re trying to pull your intestines out through your teeth. I promise you’ll sing a different tune then. These things aren’t our friends. They don’t want to make any alliances with any of us. They don’t even want to communicate with us.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, sinner. They have spoken to us, chosen us for our holy mission.”

What the hell? Even August perked up a bit at that, giving me a pained, questioning look.

“Whatever message got through your tinfoil hat, I promise you, it was not from an angel,” I shouted, though I was not entirely sure. No angel was reported to have communicated with anyone yet.

“That’s what a non-believer would think,” he called back.

Ok, I was done. Evan wanted me to walk the middle road, but I was done with that. I pulled a flash-bang from my belt. “Last chance, Sam,” I said.

“Four minutes.”

“I don’t have four minutes,” I said.

“Too bad, you’ll just have to wait.”

I held the stun grenade up so Marcus could see it and indicated the other window. He pulled one off his belt and yanked the pin. I did the same. Kemi holstered one of her pistols and drew another flash-bang. Holding up three, bloody fingers, I pulled them back one at a time, till I was just holding a fist in the air.

“No,” I said as I threw the grenade through the window, “Too bad for you.”