Where Art Thou

Where Art Thou?

#

With a heavy exhalation from the filters of his faceplate, Protectorate Shocker pulled the upright Blast Rifle from the muddy soil and disengaged the bayonet with a voice command. The black and blue armored angelic human soldier glanced at the horizon, his green eyes glowed behind blue eye lenses in a rhythmic interval. None of his human companions could decipher the emotions behind the stoic youthful warrior. What they see as a young adult was actually a decades old guardian of humanity fighting in the shadows before they even crawled out of their mothers' wombs. And to be in his presence was both blessing and fear-inducing.

He have killed nightmares that none of their frail minds would dare conjure.

And behind him stood few of his brothers in colored Praetorian Battle Gears. Each one a hero in their own right, and to meet them as enemies in the no-man's land was a death warrant. Their human companions were grizzled veterans against the dark forces that plagued their realm, but none can surpass the Protectorates in experience and wisdom.

Shocker stood above the green hill with Protectorate Rapier approaching from behind. The white and emerald Protectorate halted behind him, observing the silence of the environment. Below them, two squads from the British Black Squadron SAS executed marching drills in a repeatitive manner. Both nigh-immortals studied them with an expressionless awe at the endurance of their human spirit. They have lost a lot, including their homes and brothers. Still, they are fighting with weapons in their hands despite being covered with the blood of their compatriots.

Shocker gripped the handle of his wepaon tight, inhaling deeply. The battle had taken a toll on them. To put their minds off from the devastation, their sergeant had them occupied and also to keep them sharp. It was what the Protectorates marvelled at: humanity; its brittleness and also its unbreakable strength. It was the most precious thing that they have lost when they have "transitioned".

But Shocker never envied them for still having it.

Beyond, he gazed at the city that was currently being under attacked by Demons. He had orders to standby, but the radio transmissions from their subordinates that have belonged to the inferior castes of Protectorates were not promising. Shocker disdained the "new additions" to their Regiment for being weak. He derailed his train of thoughts and broke the ice with his "brother".

"I cannot wait no longer." He said. Rapier inched beside him.

"You're going to defy the Archangel?" Rapier asked, her voice was soothing to the soul despite the mechanical amalgamation of their voice filtration unit that made a Protectorate's voice hideous and ugly to induce fear.

"Yes, 'brother'." He replied. "Our subordinates cannot get the job done. Let the Demons think that they are already winning." He grinned. "Heaven hasn't played the ace up Her sleeve yet."

"So, you will disobey after all?" She asked.

"Are you willing?" Shocker glanced at her for a minute. "Scramble our brothers and the mortals below us. We will march inside the city gates."

#

The moment they stepped inside the city's borders, they started running. Pink walls that made up the houses of the city's inhabitants, as well as the archways that stood upon the flagstoned ground populated his vision. His enhanced eyesights could pick up even the most tiniest of details; from the hanging plants in orange pots by the balcony windows to the hovering squadron of birds above, as well as the slamming of the rosary's cross around his waist that they wore like a belt, and even the glint of the golden crucifix attached to a Protectorate's right shoulder guard.

The information was bombarding his senses, as if hundreds of sensations were crammed down into his head. But his mind processed each one completely and filtered only the most useful and discarded the rest. For a mortal, they would have gone insane.

But for a Protectorate, it was normal as breathing. The way how Protectorates see the world was strangely surrealistic and slow to say the least. It explained why their reactions were almost imperceptible to the human eye.

And Shocker grunted in irritation as he realized that they were meters away from their mortal counterparts. He slowed down to a jog while the rest of the five-man Protectorate Team went ahead. He glanced behind and saw their body languages indicating exhaustion already. They were not showing it, but Shocker could hear their quick heartbeats.

He waited for them; humans are always keen to try and try especially if a preset goal was present. For Shocker, he respected them for it. They are weak, but they have shown to everyone how good they are, and despite giving near pathetic results, they never disappointed. At least for him.

"Bloody hell," the leading Black Squadron trooper exclaimed. "Oy, wait for us, will you?"

"You dare instruct a command on me?" Shocker asked, but his tone was calm.

"We're not useless, sir." He replied. "And we could read through actions if one doesn't fancy us around."

Shocker grinned as he jogged beside him.

"What's your name, soldier?"

"Parker," the trooper replied. "Sergeant Parker."

"Then keep up with me, Sergeant Parker." Shocker said as he went ahead, earning an irritated moan from the soldier.

"Hey, the tosser's challenging us! Keep up the bloody pace!" Parker yelled at his fellow soldiers.

Shocker laughed; he missed the sensation of being a human. Perhaps this was the reason why they fight for them. Perhaps this was what the Father had seen in them. Just like their world, they are full of emotions. He couldn't--

"Contact at twelve o'clock, brother!" A voice yelled from his helmet earpiece.

Beyond was a group of quadruped arachnid entities with humanoid upper torsos. Each head possessed six horns with inversed faces where their grinning mouths were located on their foreheads while the eyes just above the chins. The brown-colored Demons had coagulated scars on their chests that looked to be reversed pentagrams.

Shocker felt rage at the sight of them. He paused; the group behind him immediately assumed a firing stance and opened up on the Demons. Shocker's Blast Rifle spoke, its muzzle flash illuminated the entire street in bluish hue while the sound of his weapon was terribly noisy; a mix of a passing hurricane and a lion's roar. The effect on his targeted Demon was devastating; he painted its chest with blue burning spheres and turned its chest instantly into a melted cauterized mess. The dying screams of the Demon echoed across the block.

Sergeant Parker inched beside Shocker, as the latter took down his second target. Parker genuflected beside him and killed a Demon with a neck shot. Behind the round green lenses of his gas mask, he glanced. Shocker could tell that the Black Squadron trooper was being funny.

"Are you challenging me, mortal?" Shocker asked, amused.

"Sure, grandpops. That's my fourth already."

"Amateur." Shocker replied as he set his weapon to its highest setting and fired at three Demons simultaneously as it dispensed a streak of light. The trio went down with a smoking hole in the chest. "Beat that."

Parker simply grinned as he seeked for more targets to kill.

His brothers that have scattered had fired upon the incoming group; some had engaged them in melee while others kept their distance and dispatched them from there. Shocker was confident that the Demons won't get through his brothers when one of the windows above fragmented to pieces and a grey armored Demon in a horned helmet peeked out with a scoped infernal weaponry.

It fired without warning. Shocker watched in horror as the burning round assailed the air. The distance between it and him was too far for him to catch. It was directed at Parker, who received the round in the breastbone. Shocker turned at his ally, Parker's death reflected against the surface of his eye lenses. The SAS trooper was already dead before he hit the ground.

He whirled with his weapon raised and returned fire. Half of the frail Demon's body disappeared under a beam of light from his rifle. He set his weapon to its lowest setting as he sensed movement behind the door to his left. He pulled out his combat blade the size of a small machete and, with an abrupt charge, sent the first Demon coming out onto the ground and repeatedly hacked its helmeted face apart. Blood and ichor sprayed on the ground and onto the faceplate of the holy warrior. Shocker felt another movement, followed by a nudge to his ribs when a round went through from the second Demon beyond.

It opened fire for a second time and hit him in the neck. Shocker raised his left hand and released a streak of lightning that fried the Demon beyond recognition. As he stood up, blood dripped from his closing wounds, followed by the infernal rounds falling to the ground. He was restored back to health in an instant.

But his new friend, Parker, is not.

His subordinates turned to an alley and fired at an unseen target. More of them fell under devastating fire. Shocker pulled a spherical object attached from his metallic belt: a magnetic grenade. He ran his thumb across the vertical slot, earning a beep from the ordnance, and tossed it at the direction where the Black Squadron troopers are firing. Beyond, a gigantic serpentine entity whose body was seemed to have been constructed out of darkness moved in a slithering movement; its head was a bleached skull of a stag with red glowing eye balls set within its empty eye sockets, staring at the Black Squadron troopers with murderous intent.

A sharp explosion could be heard and the threat was dealt with when it toppled to the side with a vertical crack on the head.

However, the group was reduced 1/4 of their size. He glanced at the dead, bathing in a pool of blood. He saw one of them crying over his friend, but Shocker paid him no heed.

He glanced ahead and saw that the attacking Demons were extinguished. Shocker approached his blood covered brothers. Not a single casualty.

"Forward," he quietly said, prompting the others to mechanically move.

Out of pity, Shocker jogged alongside the mortals as they traversed across the street, towards the archaic city square. Beyond, the devastation was apparent as a large house beyond crumbled into dust, revealing its interior within. The benches were perforated with bullet holes and the green bushes around were withered at the presence of the Demons. The fountain in the middle of the square was defiled with black liquid and the statue of a cherubim atop it was decapitated.

Around them were dead people. Shocker grunted as the death echoes came at him in a sudden. His brothers froze from where they stood, their fingers twitched as they were also subjected in the same sensation. Behind him, the humans simply fell on their knees and cried. Their emotions had reached a climax that they could not ignore.

In his mind, memories, aspirations and dreams were sucked to nothingness--possibilities and life fading like dying stars in the void. He saw, like pictures discarded from an old album burning away into the abyss, love stories that will never happen, infants that will never grow as they die from their mother's womb, notable people in the future's history that will never came to be. Shocker felt a deathly touch from the inside of his cranium to the side of his face, as if the Grim Reaper was caressing his face. It felt like a static with a hint of coldness.

But of course, the Grim Reaper wasn't there, out of respect both to an Archangel of Death and the Protectorates themselves.

Shocker approached a scorched doll on the ground. He knelt beside it and picked it up. This one belonged to a child, whose memory was only filled by the strawberries in their garden. Such innocence was sweet and precious, and yet some bastards withdrew it from her in the most brutal of way as possible.

He stood up as he attached the Blast Rifle on his back. His brothers have recovered from the echoes and began to secure the perimeter with sweeps of their rifles. Shocker ignored them as he walked towards the fountain, at a dead Mark II Protectorate lying on the ground. He and his brothers were of the Mark I Caste, the most deadliest in the Regiment, their lethality compensating for their very small numbers, which only amounted to a thousand, as opposed to these "mass-produced defects".

He knelt beside the white and black armored figure and was about to probe his mind with a touch to the forehead when his hand reached for his wrist in a weak grip.

"I'm s-still alive, brother." He said.

To hear the word "brother" from his dying throat was a sore to hear.

"What happened here?"

"The Archangels..." he paused.

"What about them?"

"The Archangels had found it. They have found Eden."

"What do you mean?" Shocker frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Eden--" he detached a cylindrical transparent tank to him, containing light brown sand. "Dusts of Eden..." he offered it to him. "Perhaps we could find God and ask His help."

"Doesn't He give it now?" Shocker inquired, supressing the urge to shake the Protectorate violently.

"Are you blind? The angelic legions originally stationed here was losing. They a-are d-dying, brother! W-we are losing t-this war." He coughed a lungful of blood. "We are losing. And no one from Heaven was replenishing t-the Malakhim."

Shocker snatched the tank from his hand and glanced at it.

"What do the Demons want with Eden or God?"

"They want to invade Heaven." The Protectorate replied. "A-and take over. They want to use it as a portal." He looked at Shocker. "Please, keep it safe. Do not let them find it." He coughed. "Many have died trying to p-protect i-it."

"I will," Shocker said.

"Please, kill me." The Protectorate pleaded. "I'm not joining the Father in Heaven as long as my shattered suit continually heal me while damaging it in the process."

Shocker attached the Dust of Eden to his belt and withdrew his Ray Pistol. Despite their inferiority, Shocker does not find fratricide feasible. He swallowed dryly as he takes aim. The Protectorate nodded.

"Forgive me, brother." The dying Protectorate said.

"I forgive you." Shocker found himself speaking as he opened fire. A lump formed in his throat. He placed the Ray Pistol back to his thigh and realized that he still held the doll in his other hand. Shocker looked at it for a long time before tying the doll's hair around the beads of his rosary, keeping it hanging.

"Sparkplug," he called to a Protectorate whose Battle Gear's color matched with his. "Stay here and call for evac. Make sure the humans are safe." He faced them. "Rapier, Razorblade, Nighthound, we'll head east."

"Where?" Razorblade inquired.

"God." Shocker replied.

#

They walked across the desert.

Their tattered cloaks fluttered against the wind as they rose a slope, walking past a thin screen of sand carried off by the breeze. The morning sun burned bright in the blue sky, prompting the thermal pads within their empyrean armors to lower the temperature and cool off their bodies. Shocker led the small group; his left armored hand touched the doll unconsciously. A stream of memories consisting of plants, butterflies and strawberries bombarded his mind. Suddenly, a faint image of a woman also appeared. A new image, he realized.

He assumed it to be the owner's mother. For a second, Shocker paused and glanced at the blue skies above. Before his conscription, he was a human no more than ten. Like this child, his family was massacred by monsters; he could recall it clearly in his mind as if it had happened yesterday. He remembered how he came back from the family barn in Alabama after an afternoon of labor when he found his siblings brutally murdered. How his father became a prey...

...and how his mother received a sacrilegious death at the hands of the supernatural.

He longed for his mother, as well as his family, his father whom he never reconciled with, his siblings that failed to live their destinies in front of them, and his life that was snatched from him in a blink of an eye. He will never forget that night in 1953, his hands clenched tightly.

His reminiscing had halted the group; all eyes turned to him as they wondered what's going on with him.

"Brother, are you alright?" Rapier asked.

"I'm fine." Shocker said.

"With all due respect, Tribune-Commander." Razorblade asked. "What makes you think that God was located in this desert? The Father never left his throne. We could have visited him."

"Have you left your brain back home?" Shocker asked. "How will go through Saint Peter's gate when the guy always turned you away and threatened to sic his rooster at you every time you come near it?"

"Of course," Razorblade realized. "We're not dead yet...physically."

"Exactly." Shocker said. "And only the Saints, Judges and the Martyrs will know where God is but even them and the Nine Heavenly Choir are not divulging it to us."

"But how?" Rapier said. Shocker pointed at the small cylindrical storage tank on his belt.

"Dust of Eden." Shocker said. "Now, forward before I kick your arses for insubordination."

"Yes, sir." They replied and continued on.

They wandered for hours and hours until the sun sinks in the horizon, revealing twinkling stars above. Shocker remembered the tale of the Exodus when the Israelites, under the guidance of Moses and Aaron, walked the very same desert to escape the Egyptians. He wondered if they also see the same panoramic view. The dying rays of the sun had painted the desert in golden glow. It was beautiful.

They continued on, until night finally came. The moon shone above, and the desert appeared like it was consisting of blue dust. Some says that the particulates possessed that hue at the absence of light due to the effects of the today's futuristic weapons of mass destructions. While there never had any global-scale thermonuclear wars waged, the confrontation of the violent Mid-East Conflict of the 2030's, approximately thirty years ago, had saw the use of multiple cruel weapons involving chemicals and other forbidden objects.

They continued further until the break of day as the sun rose and provided light to the midnight sky, painting it in red. They continued on; Shocker and his group was determined to make it to their destination.

Until the dust within the sand glows. Shocker held a fist up, halting the team. Beyond was seemed to be an old ruins, enclaved by large marble walls, old rusty gate and withered pastures. How there were plants beyond, Shocker did not know. Glancing behind, he yelled an order.

"Stay here, brothers." He proceeded towards the gate and attempted to touch it. However, his hand simply passed through as if it wasn't there. Without hesitation, Shocker walked inside while his brothers waited outside with weapons raised.

Beyond, a path full of withered grass stretched from the entrance. He took a step forward, his armored sole crushing the plants beneath. This was Eden, or what is left of it. Shocker knew that this was not 'truly' Eden, but part of it. He could feel it in his heart as if there was a connection between him and this place.

He wandered his gaze around; hedge consisting of brown plants and dying trees that produced nothing but black fruits were scattered around in disarray, as if God had enough and just strewn everything everywhere. Shocker decided to walk forward, coming across a monolith in the northeast that shouldn't be standing there. From its peak, a gush of black water bursts forth. Large white fishes the size of lions swam from the falling liquid, but disappeared when it reached the ground, which never seemed to have flooded. To the left was a tiny raven with half of its body was nothing but skeletal remains.

What happened here?

He walked forward and entered a pavilion with four ionic pillars that supporting the flat rooftop. Shocker could see that one of the pillars was constricted by a scuplture of a serpent, its head looking at him. Shocker could sense no life from within it and for sure, it wouldn't have in the next few minutes. He continued on, traversing a path that led to a slab of stone with scorched marks from the surface. A quick analyzation of the blackened material had told him that this was made out of wood that dated back before the formation of the first civilization.

Shocker looked up, at the sky above the altar. Strangely enough, the sky when viewed within the altar grounds was different. A black swirling hole that revealed nothing but midnight full of stars could be seen above in the middle of the breaking dawn. In the center of the midnight was a bright star that burned like supernova. It was too far and distant.

Shocker glanced down.

"Father, where art thou?" He asked. "Where are you, Father?" He repeated for the second time. "The world has gone to madness. There were rumors of the Angels dying. We are outnumbered. We are losing a foothold." He let out a sigh. "We are failing You, Lord."

But no response. His eyes went to the doll hanging in his rosary. He untied it, mind bombarded with innocent memories, which caused his eyes to be foggy as tears formed involuntarily.

He glanced at the doll and stared up.

"Aren't You going to respond? We are losing, God! We need you!" He yelled. "I have seen men, women and children, most of which are innocent. They are dead, God!" He recalled the bitter memories of decade-long wars that he participated into, which included the civilian casualties. He also remembered the dead Protectorates who have served under him, the mortals, Parker, and then the child. "They are dead! Where were You when we needed You?!"

His knees hit the ground as tears flowed from his eyes freely. His headgear disengaged and parted open, revealing a youthful face outlined in blonde hair. His tearful green eyes glowed rhytmically.

"We need You. I need you." He said, tossing the doll aside. "Haven't we suffered enough?" He asked. "Haven't I seen enough?" He asked for a second time. "Haven't I lost enough? Why?" He hung his head low. "Why? It doesn't seemed to make sense anymore. What was the point of all of these?"

For minutes, he let his tears stain the altar grounds. His eyes went to the soot-stained doll and retrieved it. He tied it onto the rosary again and stood up, tears drying up. He engaged his headgear and walked out of Eden. He passed through the gate and rejoined his brothers.

"Have you found--" Shocker walked past Razorblade, ignoring him. He was already moving ahead, prompting his team to follow him.

And as if a reply from the encounter, a light glowed from the early morning sun. It was so bright that it caught their attentions. They looked up to see a meteor shower streaking across the atmosphere. Upon closer inspection, the light were actually winged and armored humanoid beings armed with swords and Blast Rifles.

Angels.

Shocker couldn't help but to smile as the lights travelled across the sky, disappearing when they arrived at their destination. His prayer was heard.

[END]