Paul instantly went into the slow state as he was jerked from the plane. He looked down at the ground and realized it was still moving, even in the slow state.

“The ground is still moving and I don’t know what to do,” Paul said maintaining as much calm as he could.

“You need to hit the ground running,” Madam A shouted.”It is going to feel like you are running with a heavy pack on your back.”

Paul hit the ground and started running as fast as he could make his legs move. The moment his foot made contact with the ground, he realized that he underestimated the sense of weight Madam A had referred to. He almost collapsed but managed to keep his feet, mostly due to his career as a football player. He felt time pulling him back into the real speed of the world. It didn’t take too long before he realized he was still moving faster than he wanted to be going. As real-time hit him, he tripped and went head over heals three full times before coming to rest with his face on the ground.

“Oh yea, you need to make sure you slow to a reasonable pace as the slow state dissipates,” Madam A said apologetically.

Paul stood and brushed the sand off as best he could. His hands were bleeding and had bits of sand stuck in the bloodied spots. His back and chest were on fire and he moved gently to avoid letting his pants touch his knees.

“That was a rough landing, but I think my bigger concern is why we jumped from a moving plane,” Paul shot at Madam A with a look to match the frustration in his voice.

“We have been tracking the movements of the man who hit you in your car. We are pretty sure that he was acting under orders from one of the leaders of the Shedim. That means he was trying to get to you before we could talk to you,” Madam A said expecting Paul to understand.

“That still didn’t answer my question of why we had to jump from a moving plane,” Paul said intrigued by what Madam A had just said about the man in the car.

“He was not being taken willingly, Malak took him, in demon form and everything. Malak is a messenger of evil but also one of the most ruthless of all the demons. Even the demons have rules, and not being seen by most humans is one of them. They plan to kill him and we are going to rescue him,” Madam A said matter of factly.

“No, there is no chance I am going to be a part of helping the man responsible for almost killing me in a car wreck,” Paul said crossing his arms waiting for Madam A to argue with him.

“Well, I am not going to make you go and rescue him but I am going to be going with or without you. The demons do not just shoot their victims, they torture them as much mentally as they do physically.” Madam A said as tears began to well up in her eyes. “The other fact of the matter is that everyone of one of the members of Photenós at one point was used by the Shadim to do something evil. Well, every member but you and me that is.”.

“Agent 2’s face, that happened to him because the Shadim punished him for making a mistake?” Paul asked realizing that he was moved with compassion for the man they were about to rescue.

“Yes, Agent 2 was the man that shot and killed my best friend. His mission was to kill me, but he thought my friend was me. After my friend was killed I tracked him to an abandoned house. When I got to him, there was a demon torturing him. I couldn’t stand watching him be tortured, so I rescued him,” Madam A finished and started walking to a nearby road.

Paul watched her as she strode with purpose towards the road. Inside he was fighting the urge to turn and walk the other way. After a good thirty seconds of trying to decide what to do, Paul unfolded his arms and ran to catch up with Madam A.

“You decided to come help after all?” Madam A asked without a hint of surprise in her voice.

“I am not sure I want to help, but I don’t have much choice. I have no Idea where I am, nor do I have a way to get back to my family without you,” Paul said doing his best to cover up the truth. The truth was that he had decided that he could not let a man die a terrible death no matter what he had done.

“You will be returned to your family as soon as we are done with this mission,” Madam A said, ” first we need to find someone to talk to.”

As if in response to Madam A’s comment a truck came racing towards them with a great trail of dust billowing up behind it. Paul thought the truck must be a good two miles out yet and probably had no idea that there were people out in this desert. He realized that he didn’t even know if they were still in the United States.

“Where are we Madam A?” Paul asked the simple question hoping for a straight answer.

“We are in the Chihuahuan desert,” Madam A said hurriedly as the trucked neared them.

Madam A began to wave her hand in the air as if swatting at invisible bugs. Paul knew she was trying to flag the truck down, but he figured with that crazy waving she probably would scare them away.

“Stop, you look like a crazy person waving your hand about like that,” Paul said reaching up and pulling her arms down. “Try getting them by doing this.” Paul finished as he put his arm up and waved gently like he was calling in a taxi. The truck stopped and out of the passenger side hopped Cromwell.

“You guys look like you could use a ride, why don’t you hop in,” Cromwell said cheerily as he held the door open for Madam A.

Cromwell climbed up the side of the truck, using the wheel as a step, and offered his hand to Paul. Paul took it and sat across from Cromwell on a bench that was built on the side of the truck bed.

It took about twenty minutes to get to a tiny little town that seemed to just pop right out of the sand as they got close to it. There were a gas station and a post office next to each other on the outside edge of town. After the post office was a small restaurant and some houses. The town could have been out of one of those old west movies Paul’s grandfather used to watch, dirt roads through town and all.

Paul almost slid off the bench as the truck came to an abrupt stop at the gas station. Out of the drivers side of the truck, a young woman that was about twenty jumped out. Paul noticed that she was in work clothes and had grease all over her. She looked as though she had been working on old cars all day.

“I will take a look at your plane in the morning, In the mean time I will try to find a place for you all to stay for the night.” The young girl said as she headed for the gas station.

“We can all find a place on the plane, besides we may be out late tonight.” Madam A called after her.

“If that is what you want to do, that is fine by me, just be careful out there. There are rumors going around town of some creature flying around. One person even said the creature was carrying a man,” The young woman said with thick sarcasm in her voice. “All these ghost stories are hogwash if you ask me.”

Paul wasn’t sure he believed these ghost stories either. It had only been a day since he was taken from his car and he was trying to gather his sense of what was real.

“Thank you for your help with everything; is the diner down the road open for food right now?” Madam A asked politely.

“Miss Angie keeps that place open for the ranchers to come and grab a bite. It is open sun-up until Ten each night. Tell her Tosha sent you, she is skeptical about strangers these days.” The girl said seemingly excited that they were interested in the little diner.

Paul and the strange group he was keeping company with headed towards the diner to eat. As they neared the front of the small diner a truck came flying down the street. The truck slid sideways, throwing up a giant dust cloud as it came to a stop at the diner.

A man in his late forties jumped out of the truck in a hurry. He ran into the diner not seeming to notice the group of strangers watching the commotion.

Paul, Madam A, and Cromwell hurried into the diner to see what all the commotion was about.

Upon entering the diner, Paul noticed that Agent 2 and Hans were already at a table in the back corner. They were looking wide-eyed at the man that had just run into the diner. Paul was surprised to see the number of people in the diner as he mad his way in the door.

“I was out by the old church when I heard the screams for help. I ran inside and saw a.. a demon torturing a man,” The man said trembling as he spoke.

There was a buzz of questions and conversation that filled the diner as the man finished speaking. Madam A was in deep thought and looked as though she had a plan brewing in her head.

“Please quiet down everyone!” Madam A shouted as she climbed up onto a nearby table. “I have a plan, please settle down so we can discuss it with you.”

The entire diner went completely silent in an instant. It was quite a scene with Madam A on a table in the middle of the room, all the people just staring at her like she was mad.

Madam A pushed her thick blue framed glasses up her nose as she before she said, “We are here for this very reason, to go and rescue the man held captive by this demon.”

Paul looked around the room at the group of hard working desert dwellers and almost laughed at their complete shock at what was going on.

“We are going to go out and take care of this, you shouldn’t have to worry about it ever again,” Madam A finished awkwardly.

An older lady behind the counter said, “I don’t care what you do, but you better get off my table right now.”

Madam A nodded her head as she slid down the table, ” Yes miss Angie, I am sorry for standing on your furniture.” Madam A looked genuinely sorry for her action and added as an afterthought, “Tosha sent us your way, we just didn’t expect to find this commotion.”

The next few minutes were filled with tons of questions being hurled at Madam A about who she was and why she was here. Paul and the others sat in the corner booth watching as madam A did her best to explain who they all were. In the end, the town’s people decided that they were not going to have anything to do with any missions to go rescue the man. Most of the people in the diner figured the man who brought the news had been hallucinating due to the heat, that man even thought that was maybe the case. Madam A motioned to the others to follower her. They all did so somewhat begrudgingly due to wanting to sit and eat a bit of food.

Once outside Madam A said, “Paul, you and Hans go to the gas station and try to find Tosha. We are going to go back into the diner and gather some information on where this abandoned church is located.”

” Yes mam, are we going to need a ride out there?” Hans said eager to please Madam A.

“Yes, that is why I am sending you out that way Hans,” Madam A said with a chuckle.

Paul and Hans got to the gas station just in time to find Tosha locking up for the light.

“Tosha, can we get a ride to the old church building?” Paul asked as they were still a ways off, so as to not startle her.

Tosha looked up with a smile and said,”First thing in the morning, I would be glad to take you out there. The old church is not a place I care to go in the dark. I would say it will take a good fifteen minutes to get there and we only have about that much good light left.”

“We really need to get out there, right now, a man’s life is in danger,” Hans threw out hoping to change her mind.

“Who’s life is in danger?” Tosha said quickly out of concern.

Hans quickly responded, “It isn’t anyone you know, It is a man that was brought out here by-”

“He was brought out here by a friend to visit the old run down church. He broke a leg and Madam A has medical training,” Paul lied to not sound as crazy as Hans was about to sound.

“Oh, well let’s get the truck and get going,” Tosha said as she started running towards the truck.

“Paul, we don’t lie to get people to do what we want them to do, that is wrong,” Hans said with a concerned look on his face.

“You think she would have helped us if she knew we were going to fight a demon to save a man being tortured?” Paul shot back at Hans.

Madam A and the rest of the crew showed up right as Tosha pulled up with the truck.

“Everyone pile in, let’s get rolling,” Tosha said with urgency in her voice.

Everyone piled in the back but Madam A, she rode in the front with Tosha. It was a bumpy fifteen minutes in the back of the truck as they drove a hardly visible road into the desert. Just as the light started to fade a small building on a hill appeared along the horizon.

As they got close to the broken down stucco building, Paul noticed a fire burning inside the old ruins. The Cross on the top of the church was silhouetted against the orange sky as they came to a halt.

Everyone piled out faster than they had piled in and paul could feel his heart beating fast in anticipation of whatever was going to happen.

“Paul, you and I will go first,” Madam A whispered as she moved past him.

Paul followed close behind her, ready for anything at this point. As they got close enough to see through the window, A human like form appeared in the window. Though human in form, this demon had scales that glowed blue, and eyes of bright green.

Paul entered the slow state immediately and wanted to run away, but Madam A stopped him by saying, “Do not run, that demon can move almost as fast as we can.”

“You are right…” the demon said walking out of the doorway under the cross. “I am almost as fast as you. I may not be able to catch you Adlersflügel, but you have arrived too late.”

The demon raised a limp body full of burns every but his face. He seemed to be breathing but was obviously unconscious. Paul recognized the man as the one who crashed into him.

“Nooooo!” Madam A shouted as she shot forward in a blur towards the demon.

Madam A was indeed too slow as the demon spread his black wings and launched into the air. In a matter of a few tenths of a second, the demon was disappearing over the horizon with his victim.

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, there will be more to come later today. Another chapter and maybe a bonus chapter if there is interest?