Hell's Paradise: Where Angels Fear to Tread

Decemember 20, 2012: 11:55 PM

It is a long, cold night in the city of Paradise. After a brutal and humid summer, it seems that winter had decided to compensate. Piles of snow can be seen anywhere from up to 6 inches, and the bitter chill of the gusty winds serve to make sure everyone stays either indoors, or snug in their winter coats. However, some have other plans.

At a small church in the middle of town, a strong, tall black woman in her early 30's with short but well-kept hair preaches to her congregation about the life of the Lord...

"...and as they say, all men — and I would also argue all woman — are created equal. And I say, this is true. All men — and woman — were created in God's image. If there were indeed so many images to allow for all of these different colors, with all of these different faces, then surely God himself is representative of all such colors and faces. We are all a part of God, much as some might have you believe otherwise. There is no such thing as 'race'; just some concoction that those who don't believe try to use to spread their foul work; the Devil's work. And thanks to the devil, countless people throughout history, in both America and beyond, were put into slavery or, perhaps have been done even worse, just because they look different than some other guy or gal. But I am not suggesting we judge those who do the Devil's work, brothers and sisters, for I doubt that they know they're even being used! No; unless it is clear that they are responsible of this out of their own violation, we— huh?"

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, another pastor holds his own congregation. He is old — in his early 60's, it would seem — but he is surprisingly fit and vital for his age. He speaks to his audience, and as he continues to hold their attention, he grins.

"...and as they say, all men are created equal. And I say, this is false. I mean, come on; how could anyone possibly be created equal? Do we all share the same faces, the same hairstyles, the same living conditions? I hate to say it, really I do, but it just ain't so! Look around you! Ya' got fat guys, skinny guys, women. Heck, if you just look out the door, you can see anyone from a black man to an asian! How are we all possibly created 'equal?' Let me tell ya', brothers, this is the devil's work! He created race in order to deceive us, in an attempt to delude us as to just who the true people of God are, and who are not. And I tell you now, it is we, the 'white folks' as some call us, who are the true people of— uh, sorry, but does anyone feel just a slight... a slight tremor? Maybe it was just me? Oops, there it goes again..."

The time is now 11:59. A middle-aged man in his mid 40's walks down the streets of Paradise. 'Paradis'; more like a living hell. He wears an old army coat on his back, and a matching hat upon his shaved head; as if he used to be part of some sort of position in the Army, but has since seen better days. He thinks back upon an earlier time. A time where he could smell the stench of battle from miles around; where he fought day in and day out, without never knowing just what he was truly fighting for. He remembers how he came back home, with an injury in his right leg. Even now, it is all he can do to hobble along with his gnarled wooden cane back home after his nightly drinking binges, just as he is doing now. And now, even though he knows that those days of old — when he was fighting for survival for what seemed a liketime — while he knows that those days were a living hell, perhaps those were still better days than this. For in those days... those days, compared to now; those days are when he truly felt alive.

He then senses something... odd; he can somehow 'sense it', just above him. He looks up and sees it, in the dark sky above. He isn't able to make it out at first, but... a crack? Yes, that's it; perhaps he is just drunk, as he has been for some time now, but he swore he could see — no, not a crack; a rent. A rent in the heavens themselves. And the rent continued to gape open, larger and larger, becoming ever grander, until finally, in the sky above, a spiraling, circular rift the color of the rainbows could be seen. It filled the streets below with a matching-colored light, in place of the moonlight of just a minute ago. But it also filled the streets with something else.

If one looked closely, one could see... something pop out of the rift above. And then another. And another. And another and another and another, until at last, veritable legions of beings — demonss, angels, and countless other such creatures and beings of myth — all either dropping or flying out of the rift above, and swarming the city below.

And what was arguably worse, no doubt to some; no power. People were attempting to check their phones, their I-pods and Androids, to tell their 'friends' about this incredible spectacle —! ...Only to find that nothing on their person so much as gave a flicker. Nor did the streetlights, for that matter. Or any lights at all. Any possible source of power was dead, and the only sources of light were now from the stars, and from the swirling rift that seemed to hover countless feet above in the sky.

So, in conclusion; angels and demons flying or dropping out of a mystifying rift in the sky above, a city — if not the entire country — finding itself without any power and thus loosing decades of advances in technology, and perhaps most importantly; millions of humans with absolutely no idea what to do in such a situation. Except, perhaps, to run.

Little did they know that there may not be a 'humanity' for that much longer...

edited 22nd Feb '14 1:21:01 PM by kkhohoho

PARADISE CITY CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE

"It's the end of days! The Rapture is upon us! Conver-"

"Shut the fuck up! Milton, just cut the religious bullshit!" Joshua's cellmate stared at him, Josh had stopped looking at him, considering he was buckass naked and kneeling in front of the cell window. great. He had shived some Gangbanger in Eastside, now here he was. Cellmates with some baby raping sack of shit.

"Penance!" Milton screamed. Joshua groaned. Why did he get all the crazy ones?

"Look on Joshua! Look! The sky itself is cracking!" Joshua groaned. "It is not! Capice? He leaned back on the top bunk before the entire section went black. All lights died, warranting a sc ream of confusion from other cells, Joshua dropped down and walked over to beside his cellmate, looking through the window.

"That some kind of a rainbow?"

"No!" Said the crazy naked old man, his eyes teary at the beauty, his tone reverent. "It's rapture...." He whispered.

Paradise City Correctional Institute

Ol' Officer Bill had just been about to start his rounds — perhaps go and harass his favorite little prisoner Joshua again; that was always a hoot — when he swore that, all of a sudden, he could barely see a thing. And then it dawned on him...

"Oh, sweet Jesus; I'm blind!"

Of course, he was not blind, but he had closed his eyes shut upon thinking so, before the little gears began to turn in his brain.

"Wait, wait, wait." He slowly opened his eyes again. Just in case there was the faintest possibility he was not blind, he reached for the flashlight at his side, and flicked the switch to turn it on. However, try as he might, the flashlight didn't seem to want to cooperate; there was no light coming from it, none whatsoever. And as far as he knew, this prison didn't have a single torch; why would a modern prisoner have such an outdated object? Blackouts? Blasphemy! And yet, when he looked around the bend, he swore he could see some light; it came from the prisoner's cells, perhaps from out of their windows. He rushed around the corner, and sure enough, there it was; light, in all the colors of the rainbow! ...But he saw something else as well.

"Holy—!"

It was a strange, black, gooey, slimey mass; seeing as there was still residue on the bars of the window, it had likely crawled in that way. It had engulfed the two prisoners inside, their hands near the bars as if they had tried to escape and failed. Their bodies, whom the guard could just barely make out, were slowly dissipating in the black ooze, and he could swear that imprints of their faces were starting to appear upon it's 'body'. And they were starting to move.

He whipped out his gun and started to unload, if only in vain; his shots merely sank into the thick ooze. He tried to run away in sheer terror, but his legs were gripped by a portion of slime vaguely resembling a hand, and he couldn't help but slowly be dragged into the abomination. The only thing he could do now... was scream.

"YYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP! SOMEBODY HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP MEEEEEEEEEE Eeeeeeeeeeee...!"

Cora rubbed her eyes as she examined her checklist. Graveyard duty was important, but there were few things more unpleasant in the shelter duty than hearing a hungry small animal start shrieking at 11:58 at night. Still, though, it was weird. She was pretty sure that the animals had all eaten, and she wasn't sure why they'd start screeching now. It didn't even sound like they were hungry.

As the clock ticked towards 11:59, more animals started making their various noises. Even the normally quiet rescues were shrieking at the top of their lungs. Cora frowned - was there a storm coming? She glanced out the window - there weren't any clouds, the sky was so bright... Cora stared in shock at the sky.

Animal Shelter

As Cora looked outside her window, angels and demons alike continued dropping out of the rift above, with some landing anywhere from miles away, to right across the street, damaging cars, lampposts, and whatever else that got in their way. But outside the window wasn't the only location where demons were dropping; if they could land right on the top of some other rooftop, as some did, than surely—

{WHUNK!}

Cora suddenly heard a large sound from above; almost as if something was atop the roof of shelter. Almost as if something had dropped...

edited 22nd Feb '14 2:41:43 PM by kkhohoho

Jacob Thorn looked down at the old woman he had just flayed and shuddered in pleasure at the sounds of her dying gurgles. She had been annoying him for ages about whether or not he was okay every time he walked by here to get to work. Maybe now she'd finally shut up.

Suddenly, the lights blinked out. He looked up in annoyance, wondering what the hell was going on. He didn't know how right he was. He stepped outside the door to start trudging back to his apartment before noticing the rift in the sky and the angels and demons falling from it. "So this is the way the world ends, huh? Might as well have fun," he exclaimed hefting the butcher's knife he had just finished using, its edges still glistening with blood and bits of flesh caught in the serrations.

PARADISE CITY CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE

"Sweet Jesus! I'm blind!" Oh, for Christ sake's! It was Old Bill, a senile old guy who should have retired about ten years ago, and who seemed to enjoy harassing Joshua, he did his best to ignore it, and focused on talking to the crazy naked guy.

"Is it just me or is something coming out of it?" He asked,

"The angels! The Devils! The Magic!" Joshua groaned. It was bad enough this guy spent his time harassing him about being jewish, now he kept screaming about being rapture.

"Look i-" there was gunshots, and the entire cell block erupted into screaming, Joshua ran to the bars, seeing through the beams of light some black...slime, swallowing old bill. "El Shaddai." He whispered in shock. "Milton! What is that?" He said, legitimately scared. before his cellmate answered him, he whirled around, gripping the bars in front of the glass window, and pulling with all his might, praying that it would give out before it got in.

edited 22nd Feb '14 3:07:10 PM by TroyandHawk

Street Across From Animal Shelter

The angels and demons continued to spew onto the unsuspecting metropolis below. Some — angels and demons, mostly — fought, engaging in bloody warefare, while some demons apparently decided that humans made for a tasty treat, and made every effort to track them down, and when they had done so—

{WHUNK!}

Jacob didn't have much time to continue watching the entire state of carnage before him, however. Something had just dropped upon the animal shelter across the street. It appeared to be some sort of red-eyed, demonic sheep, standing at a total of 10 inches. It was wide, with bulging sinews, and possessed fangs like a sabretooth tiger. And it was staring right at Jacob...

Correctional Institute

...And give in, the bars did. Somehow, Joshua was able to pull the bars straight out, but not without a considerable amount of effort on his part. Perhaps he could feel that something was... different about him, but whether he did or not, what was most important was that he now had what he had longed for all this time; escape. And all he had to do now was take it...

edited 22nd Feb '14 3:14:41 PM by kkhohoho

Joshua smiled as the bar gave away, the andrenaline making him strong, he smashed the glass with his fist, cutting up his hand, he ignored the pain for now, screaming at Milton to grab his clothes as he quickly grabbed another bar, and after some more effort, he pulled it out, falling on his back. He glanced at Milton, as he boosted him out through the window before climbing out himself, he sat down, leaning against the wall and looking up in the sky. "Put some fucking clothes on." He told Milton, he looked at his hands, the knuckles were studded with splinters of broken glass, with a grunt of pain, he picked them all out. he turned to Milton, "Can I get your undershirt?" He asked, the man nodded, handing it to him. Joshua nodded his thanks, ripping it and wrapping his hands in the fabric. "Thanks man." He stood and looked up at it. "So, what happens during the rapture?" Milton looked at him, putting his shoes on.

"T He virtuous are taken to heaven."

"And the sinners?"

"They are left to face Hell on Earth."

edited 22nd Feb '14 3:32:44 PM by TroyandHawk

I'm far too old for this. Thought Harry, yawning for the dozenth time tonight. He was tending his little magic shop, located in Paradise City Heavenly Shopping Mall. Like many store owners, he'd chosen to stay open much later than normal in the last days preceding Christmas. He was now regretting that immensely. There were a few last-minute shoppers, sure, but apparently a shirt from Hot Topic was a better last minute gift than a deck of cards, because he sure as hell hadn't seen any enter his shop. After glaring at the offending store from across the corridor, he gazed at his watch.

Almost midnight. Almost time to get some good ol' slee-

The ground rumbled. Through the skylights of the mall rainbow light began pouring in. Also the lights were off all of a sudden. He heard the young woman who worked at the Hot Topic SCREAM. And then the ceiling began to fall down as THINGS broke in.

Harry ran, faster than he could ever remember running. He could see most people had the same idea, and privately thanked God that this hadn't happened during busier hours.

Jacob glared back at the demonic beastie, but realizing the trouble he may soon be in he began to look for a means of shelter or escape. As he looked he kept the bloody knife between him and the demon across the street so as to provide a rudimentary defense. Then, realizing the thing was probably wanting food he began to slowly back up to the door he had just exited to give the demon an easier meal to focus on.

Paradise City Heavenly Shopping Mall

As Harry continued to run away from the various beasties trying to kill one and all, he happened to notice a particular shop: 'Insane Ed's Guns&Ammunition.' Seeing as there seemed to be something headed in his general direction, obtaining himself some proper armaments might be a good idea...

Harry couldn't remember if he'd ever used a gun. He supposed it didn't matter much. Mid-stride he'd stumbled slightly, as he'd realized that there were more of the THINGS outside. He ran inside, only to hear the 'click' of a gun.

"STOP YA FUCKIN' DEM- oh, if it ain't Mr. Magic. Sorry 'bout that." Ed said, lowering the shotgun. Slightly. "You seein' this shit? I swear, I ever see that pastor again I'm gonna cap him - I mean, if he's still -" He trailed off.

"So, I suppose the three day waiting period can be waived?" Said Harry, trying and failing to make light of the situation. Ed shakily nodded and handed him two pistols; this suited Harry just fine. He doubted he could stand the recoil from anything larger. With a nod to the gun nut - who still had his shotgun trained on the entrance - he hesitantly stepped out of the store.

Paradise City Heavenly Mall

As Harry and Ed readied their guns, they could hear the sounds of... something, getting closer and closer with each thundering step. They could see part of this monstrosity from inside the store; a gigantic, morbidly obese, 16'ft tall, white-skinned shirtless clown that made Chuckles from IT look like a family-friendly entertainer. However, it was still lumbering rather slowly to the store...

Across the Street From the Animal Shelter

As Jacob decidedly tried to move away from the beast's notice, a group of newcomers seemed to have different ideas. Running to the nearest block fast as they could while attempting to shoot down anything that got in their way, was a crack squad of Police, SWAT, National Guard, you name it. At this point, with everything in chaos, and all forms of power somehow lost, and with all mechanical forms of transport going with it, the police and NG had no choice but to hoof it. Leading the pack was a middle-aged, somewhat portly man who had more than enough brawn on his body to match his bulk. Dressed in a SWAT gear, he seemed to be leader of this motley crew.

"Come on, people! MOVE IT! You don't wanna' end up like Skinner, do you?! Keep moving! We gotta' take out what we can and save who we can, but you can't save nobody or do nothin' if you're dead! ''COME ON!'"

And move they did; right to the general vicinity of the shelter. And they seemed to have caught the notice of the demonic sheep...

"Skinny's dead because he took my pretzel this morning... I am so gonna miss that dumbass" thought Connor as he marched with his fellow law enforcement officers bent on stopping or containing, and so far not doing that well at either, the current situation.

It really couldn't have been just another late night on duty as, apparently, the end of all normality had decided to be a sport and pay a visit to Paradise and, being cut off from any form of communication they hoped not, the rest of the country/world.

"Screw it all, I was just about to get my late night bage-" his thoughts were cut off as he saw something horrifying, the monstrous sheep-like thing rearing back and preparing to jump at them.

"UP!" he shouted as he pointed his weapon at the monster, hoping it wasn't too late to keep it from crashing into them.

edited 22nd Feb '14 6:15:15 PM by rareitor

Jacob watched the cops arrive and the attention of the demon shift to them. He continued into the house and grabbed the old lady's corpse heaving it over his shoulder and smiling at the warm liquid spreading over the thick leather trenchcoat and fingerless gloves he wore. he hauled it outside and shouting, "HEY YOU OVERGROWN CHUNK OF MUTTON, HUNGRY? HERE'S A MEAL FOR YA," threw the old woman's corpse as far into the road as he could. Meanwhile, he ran over to the cops hoping to utilize them as fodder for the beast should it ignore the corpse whilst stowing the knife in his coat to avoid notice.

Harry took several steps backward just as Ed took a few forwards. They aimed their guns at the beast, and as one, almost as if commanded by some unheard signal, began to open fire on the beast.

"Thank you for your kindness, I'll be here all night!" said Alex tipping his hat at a small crowd in a small dingy bar. He excused himself to go for outside for a smoke. He pulled out the box he lifted off that goth chick on the bus. "Clove cigarettes, eh? well not late for new stuff" He shrugged and pulled out a small plastic lighter from his coat and lit the slightly crumpled cigarette and took a drag. He puffed out the smoke, slowly, trying to extract to feel the moment fully... even that pleasant sense of filling his craving was faded now.

He sighed, yet smiled, he struck with a gig tonight, and that made him feel great, to bring joy to others, to distract them from their lives, the tedium. He leaned against a street light when the multicolored scar began to spread across the sky. He briefly wondered if the clove was laced with something, but that was dismissed when a large hellish brute of a dog appeared down the street, along with other apparitions of the same nature. He rushed back through the alley in panic towards the dingy bar when a scene of a pack of giant skeletal rats was devouring an old homeless guy he had shared a beer with earlier. He panicked and nauseated he fled back the other way towards the streets, looking for a shelter, something to put between himself and the hellish visions he had witnessed.

Joshua made his way through the streets, mostly empty. Milton was following him around, and Josh ws wondering how bad it would be just to kill him, of course that stopped when he heard gunshots a block or so away, He broke into a full out sprint towards the sound of gunfire.

Near the Animal Shelter

The beastly, ferocious sheep leaped over to the hurled dead body. Lowering it's head, it inspected it's new potential food source, sniffing the body out and looking it over. In fact, it seemed to be so preoccupied with the body that it wasn't bothering to give the living the time of day...

Meanwhile, Joshua reached the source of the gunshots, and saw a ragtag group of law enforcement officers, as well as Jacob. Alex had managed to make his way there too, looking for shelter of any sort. And he found one, even if it was made more for animals than humans...

The beast staggered slightly from the gunfire that Harry and Ed unleashed, but despite unloading enough firepower to kill a man several times over, the beast still stood. ...That is, until the last shot hit it right in the balls. Apparently, some demons still had a pair, and as you would expect, it grabbed it's crotch tightly and madly hopped around, howling in pain. Unfortunately, that howl was bound to bring more demonic creatures, but at the same time, Harry and Ed could rush out of the shop now, if they wanted to...

edited 23rd Feb '14 6:03:35 AM by kkhohoho

The shots missed the monster when it leapt towards the corpse.

"That's convenient, thank God" Connor thought, then he noticed the approaching civilian who apparently had distracted the creature. Someone else alerted the group about the incoming civie, so he decided to intercept him before anything else leaped from nowhere and attacked.

"YOU SIR, OVER HERE!" he shouted while moving towards Jacob.

edited 23rd Feb '14 12:32:07 PM by rareitor

The two old men shot out of the store in a sprint, aiming for the mall exit as fast as possible. Harry breathed painfully deep, but kept going, drawing on adrenaline to keep himself from collapsing. Ed seemed a bit less winded, as he had the breath to curse at the monsters dotting the mall. Loudly.

"GODDAMN FUCKIN' BULLETPROOF DEMONS IN THE FUCKIN' MALL DURIN' THE FUCKIN' RAPTURE!"

"Ed," Harry wheezed, "save your breath. Swearing at them won't do anything."

"WE'RE GONNA FUCKIN' DIE AND YOU'RE TELLING ME TO CALM DOWN?!" Shouted Ed. Harry could've sworn he'd heard someone start weeping in despair.

"No, I'm telling you to, to swear internally." Harry started coughing a bit from the exertion of running. Just a little further, he reminded himself.

Cora jumped slightly in surprise as she heard the thud. She grabbed the flashlight that she always carried during night shifts - a few tries of the button didn't produce any effect, but the flashlight could take being dropped underwater, falling from the top of the shelter onto concrete, and on one memorable occasion, being used to hold an angry bulldog's mouth open. As a weapon against... whatever those things were, it was better than nothing.

As she heard the commotion outside, she rushed over to the doorway where people were gathering. It seemed that the shelter would be commandeered shortly - well, that was fine, but if any of the people on the street hurt the animals she would make them pay.

"Evening Officer," Jacob said cheerfully as he continued to run towards the police officers, "can't really say it's a good evening though..." He finally met up with the cop who'd run out to meet him and asked, "Hey, while that thing distracted we'd better get away, got a plan?"

Connor was taken aback by Jacob's attitude as he met him, but dismissed it as the crazy getting to everyone in a different manner.

"Heh, good to see there are some who can keep this calm! Don't worry, the boys'll take care of that thing, but we gotta keep on moving!" he said as he rather strongly ushered him towards the animal shelter, aiming to catch up with the lawmen group's steady advance.

"Oh and... you wouldn't happen to know what happened to that poor lady whose body is currently distracting that thing would you? Or if whatever... whoever did do it is still around?" He would take no chances at this point, if that sheep-beast moved so fast the lot of the assembled force couldn't hit it before its jump, things looked bleak if anything similar were to show up. Everything they had had to fight and shoot on the way so far was terrifying enough already.