18: LAST_CALL

The creature had no more mouth to speak with. It could only growl or scream. It was no longer a ghost. It was a demon, wearing the skin of someone who had once been so vibrantly alive. That evil, twisted version of a cherished memory lurched forward, with its putrid lips puckered. Adelaide hesitated, for a moment, debating that she may accept its evil kiss for the sake of sharing a final moment with Jisako before she died.

She pulled back to her senses, and struck at it, refusing to give her soul over. The creature stared her down, its eyes narrowing at her act. Adelaide staggered back from it. It turned its attention to Rainmaker. It brought a hand to his face and growled. A nasty growl. A growl which spoke of hatred and accusation, pulling the sound of beasts which must have alike feasted on parts of it left behind. But it growled with a special hatred at the both of them.

Rainmaker withered away from it. Shame on his face. The creature leaned forward, until he could not wither any further. Adelaide stared and didn't move to defend him, same as he had not moved to defend her when Jisako had been strangling her. Discarded bits of flesh squelched under the creature's feet every time it stepped forward.

Finally, it pulled away from Rainmaker. Adelaide stared at it, her eyes burning. She wanted to remember what it had been for its sweet grace. But there was neither sweetness, nor grace in the creature any longer. It brought a hand onto the boy's shoulder, before breaking it. He screamed, and in his panic, he could not stop screaming Adelaide's name.

Other demons came rushing in. They charged– claws and punches and lunges and teeth tore through. Jisako, the demon, smiled at the both of them.

They were mauled, and when they attempted to escape only pulled back in again. Adelaide lost an eye, somewhere in the fight, and soon went most of her nails, as she lost them trying to claw at things. Pieces of skin flew off. She forced the cross into the face of her former bride, and its screams seemed to catch the attention of all the demons. The both of them scuttled away, like struck mice.

Adelaide gripped Rainmaker's hand, tight as could be, and ran with him. She pulled him along with her bleeding hands and they ran out into the street. But the streets too were filled with demons. And the sun had fallen– so now the moon made itself appear, and it was faint in the dark sky. They were well and truly exposed, whether they liked it or not. And they could not see their enemy, which would however see them if they weren't careful.

They moved slowly. Creeping inch to inch and foot to foot. Until they had gone at least far enough to not be right at the gate of the demon's hotel. The pair of them staggered. Their bodies were broken now and there were no other people here to save the day or even help in the slightest.

The pair of them dragged themselves back to that radiostore. The radiostore was wrecked. Things tossed all around, and not a single thing around in the store was left intact. The last vestige of untainted humanity was still ruined now, both by a demon and itself. She stared at the destruction before giving up on it. She sat down, with a long, heavy sigh, and lost herself to thinking of conflicting things.

Jisako, the sweetest of them all in most ways, had pulled her to safety. Covered her wound. Perhaps in a rather grotesque way, but still, covered it. Why be so kind as to offer grace from the land of the dead, only to deny herself, and become a demon? Adelaide stared, her eyes unable to turn away or blink at the sight of this Jisako, who was nothing like the wife Adelaide had so well known. Adelaide's neck burned again. The new cross and the old chain both burned against her neck– blindingly hot.

The scent of burning meat filled her nostrils. A dulled smell for her. Her nose had been damaged, and nothing smelled right. Her neck had been burned so many times now that it didn't hurt anymore. The nerves fried. She looked at Rainmaker. "Disaster," she mumbled. "What should we do?" she asked. Though it was an empty question. She doubted he had an answer.

"We need something big," he noted. Rainmaker hunched over, reaching to touch his leg. His pants were thick and it was hard to tell, but Adelaide had no doubt it must've been swollen. Though she wasn't entirely sure what had caused it. The insect creature, or Jisako's demon, or any other thing they'd been attacked by back there.

She considered berating him for the lack of meaningful words, but she decided to allow him lenience. For the sake of making him truly believe in her false apology. "Right. But big… What big thing could we do?" she wondered, in a voice which was so strained in its sweetness, it made its own credibility thin.

Rainmaker laid himself down on the remnants of the floor. They had no idea whether the demon would return, and frankly they did not care if it did. They had forgotten about it, and wanted to keep it forgotten about. "I have no idea," he admitted. "A single gun wouldn't be enough, would it?"

"It wouldn't be, no," Adelaide responded, her tone dark and dry. "And we wouldn't have enough bullets. How many are there left, anyway?"

"Not enough."

"Thought so." A part of her wondered if Rainmaker was lying and had discarded bullets, so that he wouldn't be put through the trauma of having to use the same gun that had killed his brother. "I wish I was more creative." There was no place for creativity in a nuclear world, though, and she'd never developed it.

"If I was rich I'd say to drop a nuke on it," Rainmaker replied. Adelaide leaned in– she thought she heard an attempt at humour in his voice. It was good. He was trying to adapt.

"Dropping a nuke would be a nice way to handle the problem," she answered, with a snort. Her mind wandered to Forrest. And then to the radio– and her eyes fell again on Rainmaker. He looked back at her, clearly unsure what she was looking at. His eyes in fact widened the slightest bit. Innocent eyes, despite it all. "Radio boy," she mumbled.

"Radio boy…?"

"Fuck, I had an idea."

"Any idea's better than no ideas," Rainmaker encouraged.

Adelaide stared at him. The boy's history with radios. Forrest and the radio she'd lugged for so long. The tower, and the parts scattered around them.

Her eyes widened, and her brows furrowed. Something stirred in her gut– and she realized how stupid she'd been about the information. Adelaide dragged herself forward, and observed him with more fire in her gaze.

"Can you look at the parts here and judge their salvageability? Could you repair a radio tower?"

Rainmaker looked at her with a true animal nervousness. She was a madwoman. A fox. He was a fretful rabbit. He nodded slowly. Adelaide stood up, invigorated with an energy she didn't actually possess.

"I have an idea. Scan through here. And we'll set out under cover of darkness and rubble." She spoke breathlessly, gasping between her words and staring into the boy's eyes.

#

Their journey was a shambling one. And when Rainmaker began his work on the radio tower, Adelaide had no idea whether what she wanted could be accomplished. Just the faintest hope. And she had no idea whether Forrest would answer a stranger's broadcast from a random city. She had no idea, just the faintest of hopes.

Adelaide held the gun– watching over the side of the tower for whether anything was coming. Thankfully, nothing had spotted them yet– though she wasn't sure how long that would last for. The work was noisy– even despite Rainmaker's best attempts to be quiet. What they had salvaged from the radio store, were still just parts. And the tools they'd brought over from there weren't really of any notable quality.

Adelaide lowered herself, narrowing her eyes and watching for anything. It was hard. Nothing could be spotted in the dark with her weak eye. Her single remaining eye was no longer going to be very helpful for her. She was at one point told, by her dearest Jisako, in the form of the living, that there was a cult in which people would poke out their eyes for the sake of only being able to look at the one they were loyal to. She had followed it up by saying how she'd of course never seen it in person.

Adelaide wondered about that now. What was your family really?

She held the gun with a firm grip, and kept her eyes sharp for any potential danger. The gun was heavy in her hand. She looked at it again, and opted to scratch a cross into the barrel. She had no idea if it would be more effective against the demons if she did that.

Rainmaker stood up behind her. "It's unfixable," he said. "There's parts missing that weren't at the store," he said, frowning. "Too much's been damaged on the radio tower to make a long distance call," he noted. "We can't use it. There's a critical part– and, well, I repaired what I could but…"

"What parts do you need?" Adelaide asked, frowning. "If I brought you the radio I used to have, could you fix what we have here?" she asked, leaning forward.

Rainmaker backed up somewhat, nervous. "There's– Well, what was it made for?"

"Long distance relay. Do you need it?"

"I don't know. We'd have to see," he said.

"I can get it."

"But didn't you drop it pretty far back?"

"I'll bring the last of my strength," she said, shaking her head. "And– and well, I'll get it."

"But it might not have the right parts," Rainmaker noted. "Well– then, right then– it was by the tree? I can get it. I can sneak through and get it with you."

Adelaide looked at him, before shaking her head as adamantly as she could manage. "No, it's– We're both weak. One is faster."

Rainmaker hesitated, pulling back, and resting his hand on the railing she'd been leaning over. "Is this sacrifice from you?"

"Maybe it is," Adelaide replied, frowning at him. "There's only so much I can do to repent for the things I've done, but at least I can do something like this. Simple– help the place, getting the last piece we need." She looked at him, sighing. "I'll get it. We can make a line to the orbitals with it– make it louder with the tower."

"Why can't we just use the thing itself?"

"I tried. Forrest wouldn't answer," Adelaide replied. "Every relay has its ID– he'd know the ID on that old thing. He gave it to me and he knew to answer from it for a reason."

Rainmaker frowned only more. He peered over the edge. Neither of them could raise their voices, for risk of unwanted attention, so he was left only growing softer in his speech. "I can go. I did the worse thing between us."

"No. Jisako was my bride. Now she is my nemesis. I must face her as she is."

"Adelaide… You're Jisako's wife." Rainmaker asked. "You know who killed her."

"Maury Moytoy."

"I'm Kirno Moytoy. And– he was Jorahai. He got plastic surgery and ran off. And I…" Rainmaker turned his head, glancing out at the ocean of darkness below. "I helped hide the body. I was scared– I saw what he did. I loved him– I hate it, I still love him– and I didn't know what he'd do to me so I… I was… He told me to cut off the head to make it unidentifiable and–..." Rainmaker trailed off, before looking at her, his lips pressed into a thin line.

Demons began nearing the tower in the corner of Adelaide's vision. They'd come rushing right on up if the pair of them started making too much of a scene. She turned, and stared Rainmaker in the eye. "We will both be annihilated by the blast of whatever comes. Consider that your redemption."

She headed downward after that– climbing down off the side with what little strength remained inside her. She gripped the metal bars as tight as she could, urging her hands to work long enough to allow her down. When her feet touched the rubble laden ground, she had no time for celebration.

#

It was far. And the journey backward wasn't pleasant. Though– at the very least Adelaide could be relieved they were still at Ground Zero– just on the outer rings of it, and that there weren't enough people left for the thing to have been stolen. She ran as far as she could– lungs burning, vaulting herself over rubble. She had to move quickly. And they'd been moving ever so slowly around this area.

Her head pounded and her lungs burned. She was cut on the jagged edges of debris and injured whenever she was thrown to the ground, by things shifting under her feet or her own carelessness. The wind ripped at her eyes and her hair– it left sand and dust across her face, which congealed into globs of mud in her mouth. She spat on the ground as she ran.

The poison in the air was driving her mad. Dark spots danced in her vision and she was once again at the mercy of the winds. The rain came down on her too. Poisonous, foul, and odorous. Water that only the stupid would drink. So she drank it. For whatever sickness it would bring later, when she had done that which she needed to do, it would give her some energy in the now.

Adelaide ran past buildings they'd seen– things that they'd moved past slower than usual, being careful with the rubble and making attempts at being thorough with the demons which haunted the land.

It was a straight shot to the tree– and she ran through the night. The moon was beginning its descent west as she grew closer to the tree– but the sun had not yet risen. At its base sat Nuna and Aiya's remains, which she was almost shocked to see laying so casually on the ground. But she had no time to think on it.

She gasped and attempted to collect some breath, before ultimately just grabbing onto the tree.

The answers came to her then. The briefcase in sight, exactly where she'd dropped it before. She felt her face grow red, an excitement shining in her eye. The redness of joy, which she hadn't had on her face in so long. Adelaide leapt at the briefcase, grabbing onto it with a brilliant fervour inside.

Her neck burned violently– a demon somewhere so close, her cross and the old chain were practically on fire. She looked around wildly. Nothing. The cross was burning against her neck, and she realized finally now.

"Jisako… I've become a demon in my hunt for you," she uttered. "...We must all die."

The weight of the briefcase dragged her down, but she pushed herself. She'd been an exorcist for decades. And the weight of a case, weighing on her arm, as she ran through the darkness of the setting moon. Same as she had when she was a child, and running from home. Adelaide glanced behind her– but nothing rose from the ground.

The cross burned holes into her skin, but she kept running.

#

The relay crackled to life. Rainmaker had added the parts from the briefcase Adelaide had brought, and now, they had been in wait. The sun still had yet to make its appearance, but things were getting brighter. It would be too easy to see them now. The pair of them sat, hunched over on the sound of the radio.

Adelaide sat on her knees, her palms digging into the floor near the radio speaker, her head turned downward, waiting for the sound to speak to the both of them. And finally, a voice came through. A familiar, tired, and far from her voice that she had been so sure she could never hear again. "Orbital station 0355, please state your name and purpose of this connection attempt."

"Forrest…!" Adelaide choked out. "Forrest– it's you. I need– I need something. A favour," she said.

"Adelaide?"

"Yes, yes it's me!" she said. "We– I– please, stay long enough to let me speak to you," she said. "It's important. Please, it's so important."

She waited, for a long moment, wondering if he would say anything, or if he would cut her off at the mere sound of her voice. "What do you need from me?" he asked. His voice was clearly unsure. "A ship?" he wondered, in an almost hopeful tone.

Adelaide laughed dryly. "Sort of," she said.

"Sort of?"

"I need you to… There's a lot of demons in this area," Adelaide said. "Jisako's become one of them. This whole place has gone to hell. I need you to nuke this place. I– I swear, there's a bunker here. I'll run to the bunker, and I'll catch the ship that dropped the nuke," Adelaide insisted. "But please. We need to destroy this place."

Neither she nor Rainmaker intended to survive the blast. And she had no idea where the shelters would've been around here– if there were people in them, was also a thing she didn't know. Forrest's voice was filled with hesitation. "You want me to order a nuclear strike on– on a place that's already been struck? Your signal– I swear, my monitors must be broken. They're telling me you're at–..."

"Yes, we fixed a radio tower there– me and this young man I found on the way. It's a long story."

"And you think a strike will fix the issue."

"I do," she said.

"And you'll hitch a ride with whoever comes to drop it after the blast passes over?" he wondered. "Do you even have much strength left in you?"

Adelaide laughed a bit. "I'm still speaking, aren't I? It's fine. I've run a long way. A lot's happened," she insisted. "I can do it. Consider it my last promise to you before we meet again," she insisted, looking at the radio with pleading eyes, as though Forrest could somehow magically see her through the relay. Her arms grew weak under her weight and she forced herself to sit upright, lest she fall.

"Fine then. You'll have half an hour to get to a shelter," Forrest said. "After that, it will be dropped."

"Thank you."

"I'm going to be in big trouble for this," Forrest grumbled.

"Thank you, I mean it," Adelaide insisted, smiling. "We'll get going. Thank you so much."

Forrest sighed. "It'll be good to see you again, in person," Forrest said, his voice softer now.

Adelaide felt a pang in her chest, and the cross burned even deeper into her flesh– burning into the layers of yellow fat under the skin. She twitched somewhat. It was more painful than she was expecting. And the smell was deeply unpleasant. It seemed the cross and the old chain were burning at her sins, now that she was a devil herself. They were burning through her faster too. But she couldn't discard it.

"Of course. You too. Life must be so very worth living for the alive," she murmured, as she cut the relay, and turned her gaze to Rainmaker. "Should we head to the hotel?" she asked. "Lure her out of her false fortress?" she asked.

Rainmaker hesitated, before nodding. "Yeah. Yeah, we should get going. Worse if she survives the blast."

Adelaide nodded to him, and helped him down the side of the tower. It was about the first time she'd felt genuinely sorry for using him, dragging him along and trapping him in her own horrors, after he'd already been dragged through so much mud before the nukes dropped. It was a sentimentality she didn't have the time to speak much for, but it was a thought which rang prescient and heavy in her mind.

I'll do my best to be kinder if there was a place after death, Adelaide decided.

They walked side by side as the sun peeked over the east horizon, red through the dust and smoke. There were fires burning in the distance, from demons who had decided to begin making the Earth they now inhabited, more like the world which they had left behind in the inferno.

The spider-legged demon which had pushed them toward the hotel building before, now sat atop it. The pair of them moved slowly, and deep into the scrap, to avoid its arachnid gaze. They reached the building and crept their way inside slowly. The area seemed to become strange and off kilter inside. And Jisako's demon was seated on the ground, not facing them, and seemingly entirely unaware of their arrival.

Adelaide looked at it. "You want to kill us?" she called.

Rainmaker whistled. A loud, sharp sound, which pierced through the air, and hurt even Adelaide's ears from its volume. Adelaide staggered, before preparing herself, stanced to fight, even with her broken, poisoned, sickly body. And Rainmaker did the same.

The creature rose at the probing rather quickly. It growled strange sounds and sang cursed notes as it turned around, bones snapping and falling off.

It had been eating the remnants of a person, and it looked at them with more hunger than malice. It looked at Adelaide with confusion. It moved toward Rainmaker— the more easily understood of the both of them. Human, and edible.

Rainmaker took its attention and ran— shooting out of the building like a stray bullet. The beast chased after him. Ripping through the door and darting into the outside world. Charging outward— and it looked up, seeing a darkening thing falling from the sky.