Chapter 4: A Flicker in the Darkness

We lived in the subway station for a week. When Mac’s injuries were almost healed, he asked to rejoin the fight, but his commander, worried about his arm, put him on station duty.

He grumbled, but did his job—breaking up fights, handing out supplies, keeping folks calm. I helped where I could, fetching water, bandages, listening to stories.

We were the same age, got along well, so we became close.

We played cards to pass the time, swapped jokes, and shared stories about our families. Sometimes we played poker for peanut butter crackers. In the dark, friendship felt like the last defense against despair.

Mac shared some news: the angels here were almost wiped out, but New York was still a war zone. The angels had taken over the Empire State Building and the skyscrapers nearby. Since those were ours, the army didn’t want to level the city, so things were stuck.

He frowned, voice low. "They’re holed up in Manhattan. Army doesn’t want to flatten the city—too much history, too many folks still hiding."

But rumor was, the Army Research Lab had a new weapon in the works, being tested now. Once it proved out, we could crank it out by the thousands.

The rumor mill was in overdrive—some folks said it was a new missile, others swore it was Area 51 tech. I just hoped it worked. Hope was in short supply.

At the same time, there was more good news.

Mac’s eyes lit up. "Heard the Turks are fighting back. Not all bad news, right?"

Turkey, a non-Christian country and second in NATO, had launched a surprise attack on the angels in Greece.

News showed Turkish tanks rolling across the border, soldiers firing at angels in the ruins of Athens. For once, the world seemed united against a common enemy.

Then, more than fifty Islamic countries—including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan—issued a joint statement. They’d form the Islamic United Army, headquartered in Istanbul, and march to Europe to save the Europeans!

For the first time in days, people in the subway smiled. A little hope, fragile as it was, flickered in the darkness. Maybe, just maybe, humanity wasn’t finished yet.