Children of a Lesser God

The building was empty except for the fresh blood and warm bodies that littered the ground.

Even once they got outside to the gated area, there was no one there. Looking around, Laz and Ruby had a bad feeling. Before they could even say a word to each other, Ruby's phone went off and she answered it while walking away from Laz. From the interior of the building, Helen, Jennia, the sisters, Remi, Damien, and all the others emerged from the building, followed closely by Dwayne.

"What is it?" Dwayne asked.

"Just to double check this. You for sure heard this from Tommy? Even over the gun fire and people screaming?" Laz wanted to know, turning back to the confused Dwayne.

"Well yeah. I be figuring he would be the one to listen to after all...."

"You're right... but damn I wish you had been mistaken." Laz said as Helen, Jennia, Remi and even Dwayne's phones went off at the same time. It seemed like the only person not getting a call was Laz.

'Oh wait... I don't have a working phone again....' He thought, remembering he had destroyed another one.

'Honestly though... do they make cases for this kind of activity? I mean... their phones all survived. Maybe if I get one of those military grade ones...' Laz pondered to himself.

"Baby... About how many of those things got through?" Ruby asked, turning her head over.

"Uh... well... if I didn't miss any... I would say around one hundred?"

"Oh fuck..." Although Ruby's phone wasn't on speaker, it was still loud enough to hear the voice on the other end.

Laz felt like the voice belonged to someone he knew and was about to ask, but Ruby had turned her head again and was talking.

"This is crazy."

"Remi doesn't care. But the man next to me suggests that everyone gets away fast. Him...?" Remi looked over at Damien. In truth, they were the only two who survived from the council group.

"Damien mam. Just tell them Damien said to run." Damien had been listening and knew that they had called Remi since Laz didn't have a phone and Damien's opinion didn't matter.

"Ok right. K. Lazzy?" Remi called over, getting Laz's attention.

"Yeah?"

"The Julia person says... um... something about flying shit...?"

"Julia said the shit hit the fan. She will contact everyone to get away asap and was taking someone named Abraham with her. Your stuff will be packed and waiting at the apartment so you can take it and run. She will contact us once she arranges a place to stay," Damien finished Remi's words for her, having actually paid attention to what had been said.

Laz was relieved but couldn't help but ask,

"How bad is it?".

"From her words... the entire city is blowing up and there are broadcasts already from the Children of God that the heathens had unleashed these beasts upon the world. Apparently there is a video of Dwayne coming through the gate, yelling 'they are coming' before getting blown into swiss cheese followed by the cockroaches entrance."

"Apparently the big one destroyed almost all of the defenses before the others even got through. It was pure luck that the two that were killed were killed. After that they chased after the people who were fleeing with the new ones just following the blood trails," Helen said hanging up her phone.

"How did I look?" Dwayne asked, picking up on the fact that a video he was in was going viral.

"Like a dead cat spit up a half digested mouse," Jennia said, hanging up her phone.

"How could a dead cat spit up a digested mouse if it was dead?" Dwayne asked, insulted.

"Someone stepped on it. Anyway, we have to go now. Everyone, prepare to move," Jennia ordered her people.

"On me all. Let's go," Helen gathered up her remaining followers and quickly took off as well.

The only ones left were the Ivy's, Ruby, Laz, Remi and Damien.

"What do we do now boss?" Damien asked, looking at Laz.

"Get together who you can and get the hell out of the city. Wait for the call from Julia and meet up with her or go underground."

"Remi doesn't know what that means," Remi said with a confused look in her eye.

"It means you should go someplace quiet and hide out. Don't go on social media, don't got anywhere near a government building or any place that might have cameras. Don't get your id checked anywhere. Make sure to use a car that can't be connected to either of you. And don't contact anyone until you hear from Julia. And I mean anyone," Ruby answered for Laz.

Remi and Damien looked at each other before nodding to Laz and heading off.

Laz couldn't help but look at them weirdly.

"They seem to be much closer now," Laz commented, remembering when Damien used to just be Remi's errand boy.

"Almost dying will do that to you. Besides, everyone needs someone they can trust their back to," Ruby mused.

"Good point. What about you girls?" Laz asked the sisters.

"We are going to follow you for now," they did their freaky thing and responded in unison.

"But I can't..."

"Baby. I have to get going to. Since I'm the closest of us sisters, I have to get to our branch office and get things set up to move. From what big sis says, they are moving in more and more troops and not just national guards either. What are you going to do?"

"I uh..."

:WE NEED TO TALK," Laz felt a bolt of lightning hit his brain as the strong thoughts of a females voice entered his head. Laz felt like he hadn't heard from her in a while.

"I need to go meet with someone," Laz said, hesitantly.

"Meet with someone? Who?" Ruby asked.

Laz didn't respond directly and just pointed to where the tattoo would have been on his chest if her wasn't wearing clothes. This was enough for Ruby to understand that he didn't want it shared with the sisters since he didn't trust them with this.

"Ah. Ok. I'll call you in a.... oh right. No phone." Ruby said, looking a bit frustrated at his inability to stay in touch with people.

"Call us. We will be close,"

"You know that really is kind of spooky," Ruby said, looking at the girls. But she didn't press the issue. She just nodded. As soon as she had, a car that was speeding down the drive pulled in, driving over the already smashed gate and coming to a stop next to Ruby.

"I won't be long baby. Don't do anything crazy, ok?"

"I don't cause that much trouble, do I?" Laz said shaking his head.

"Yes. Yes you do," Ruby said, giving him a quick kiss and dashing off.

Now Laz was left alone with the four girls and he couldn't help but ask,

"Why do you want to follow me?"

"You can help us."

"Help you?"

"Yes. Mistress said your blood is capable of healing our bodies."

"Uhh..." Laz was confused.

"What are you going to do now?" The conversation was being led by just one of the sisters, remembering that Laz was creeped out that they all said the same thing at the same time.

"I... uh... Well... I need some place to sleep?" Laz said, not quite sure. Although A'ruya had said she needed to talk to him, he only knew how to meet her in his dreams. This wasn't in fact the case because of his link with her, she could actually drag him to her right away. But since she knew he wasn't alone or in a safe place at the moment, she didn't do that.

"Come then. You can come with us and we will keep you safe," said Death Ivy.

"Alright then," Laz had questions he wanted to ask after they told him they needed his blood, but this didn't seem like the time. They needed to get out of here quick if the army was going to be storming the place while at the same time, Laz didn't want to keep his homicidal protector waiting.

As such, the girls ended up running, followed closely by Laz. They could have gotten a driver from the restaurant to come get them, but that would have taken longer and they needed to leave. Besides which, considering their strength, they could almost run as fast as a car could go in the city streets and they wouldn't have to worry about traffic.

As they went along, Laz noticed that the streets really were empty while there were several spots of destruction along the way. Not only that, but there were also times when they heard the distance roar of gun fire mixed with the occasional large boom indicting explosions going off.

The city had broken down into a war zone.

Along the way they didn't encounter any of the cockroach like creatures, but they did pass by convos of troops and even a few tanks, setting up check points at big intersections. They were careful to avoid detection when they noticed that each check point ended up having at least one chosen near by.

Although the detours took additional time, they still ended up at the sister's residence within an hour.

Looking at it from the street, Laz didn't know what to make of it. From the outside, it kind of looked like an old brick factory that had been abandoned for a long time. There was plenty of weed choking the grounds that were surrounded by a chain linked fence topped in barbed wire. The only thing that made it look like the building wasn't abandoned was that none of the windows appeared busted out, all the doors were in place and there was no graffiti visible anywhere.

There was a gate that could be remotely opened or closed, but the girls took Laz around to the back while staying away from the main street, jumped the fence and went in through a back door. For the first time since he had met them, they girls seemed to calm down once the locks were in place on the door.

The entire first floor was taken up by a large gym like area with a rock climbing wall, various machines and mats and several different ropes and contraptions hanging from the ceiling. Most of these looked normal, but a few of them did not. Like the chains that had bloody hooks or the wooden cross that had different colored smears on the wood and restraints.

"This is the first time we've ever brought someone home... willingly" Death Ivy said, blushing.

"Willingly... wait..." Laz got a picture in his mind.

"Normally if someone else besides us sees the inside of this place, they would never walk out of here alive," Pestilence Ivy responded.

"Ah. Well then I guess I am a lucky guy. I mean unless your not going to let me leave this place alive..." Laz joked causing the girls to giggle a little and blush some more.

"He can use my bed," Famine Ivy, the one that he had probably spent the most time with said.

"No. He can use my bed. You haven't changed your sheets in a few weeks," War Ivy shot back.

"And you have so many random weapons spread around your room he might die just trying to get into your bed,"

"I have the biggest bed," Pestilence said, volunteering hers.

"That thing is rock hard. At least mine is soft," Death argued back.

"Soft and small like a coffin," Pestilence retorted.

As Laz stood there watching, he couldn't help but laugh, causing the girls to quiet down and look at him.

"I've never seen you all argue before. This is quite different," Laz said while laughing.

"We are home. Here we can be us, we are safe," Death explained.

"Out there... we only have each other so we can't let our thoughts stray for even a moment," Famine added.

"It makes perfect sense. Anyway, do you have a spare bed room?" Laz asked, not wanting to be the guy to make them fight.

"Spare...?"

"We do have the one room..."

"But it's not really a..."

"But we can use that for this. It's what we have been waiting for,"

"Yes. Yes. Perfect."

"It's settled then."

"We should probably change the bedding though...."

"Already did. Made sure it was ready for use..."

"Uh... so there is a spare room? Laz broke into the conversation.

"Yes. We shall take you to it."

"Hold on. One through four," Death said, stopping everyone.

"Good. Ready?"

The girls stood facing each other while Laz looked on.

"Ready. And. Shoot"

They were playing rock, paper, scissors.

Each round, someone would lose and step out, a depressed look in her face.

In the end, Death lost first.

Pestilence second.

War third.

This left Laz standing with Famine while the other girls raced off. Laz had no idea what they were doing while Famine smile a soul stirring smile and led Laz away.

They approached a large metal door and Famine took down a key that was hanging by a hook a ways away from the door. After entering the large key into the metal door, Famine finally turned it and swung the door open.

Laz couldn't help but be amazed when he walking in.

The entire room was covered in red velvet and red silk. There were tons of various tools made from leather hanging from the walls while in several areas there were straps, restraints and harnesses everywhere. And that was just what he could see at a glance.

Laz seriously felt like he had entered a sex dungeon.

"This is our play room." Famine said with pride.

"Your play room?"

"Well. It would be. But as we said, no one who ever comes in here leaves alive so it's always business. But this room we girls made thinking one day we could take our boyfriends in here and have some fun... So it's like out dream room. You know, for when we're better," Famine said, a mixture of shy and proud to be the first one of the sisters to bring a man to this room.

"I see." And Laz did. He also notice a massive, wooden framed bed along on of the walls. This thing looked like it would comfortably fit ten people without a problem.

"You can sleep here if you would like. No one will come bother you," Famine said. Although she didn't understand why Laz said he needed to meet with but decided to take a nap first. But since he said it, she would help him.

Laz couldn't help but thank her while he moved over to the bed. Famine wished him a good rest and then went back out the door, putting the locks back into place on her way out.

"I wonder if I should be worried?" Laz thought briefly before shaking his head. Considering his strength, he could easily bust his way out of the door if he desired. Therefore there was nothing to do about it now.

Taking off his borrowed uniform, Laz laid down on the bed of soft red silks and quickly dozed off, only to find himself face to face with the goddess demon of his dreams.

"I want to know what happened. From the beginning to the end," A'ruya ordered him.

Laz couldn't help but wonder if she was mad... or if there was something else going on in her mind.