Gabriel's Armada

Chapter 16: Standby

“God Almighty!” Zachariah exclaimed, rubbing his scalp, “what do we do?”

Dina could not reply. She was too busy controlling the anger that bubbled restlessly in her like a cauldron. She was angry at whoever this Gabriella person was, and at herself for having been caught unawares like a naïve rookie. She was the General leading the Hosts for crying out loud, she should have envisioned this scenario.

“God!” Zachariah bellowed, snapping Dina out of her internal scolding.

“Zachariah, calm yourself,” Dina snapped.

“How? How do you expect me to do that when we just received news that the chosen one is in cahoots with Beelzebub?” Zachariah asked, his eyes wide with shock.

Dina dropped the odious piece of paper on Zachariah's table and walked to where he stood.

“Don't you believe that for one second. The chosen one is Gabriel, and he is here with us.” Dina assured.

“And you're sure how? The boy's grades are nothing to write home about.” Zachariah protested.

“Where is your faith, Zachariah?” Dina scolded, folding her arms beneath her chest, “Did you really think that our heavenly father would send us an imposter?”

“What's this? I remember you telling me you didn't think that Gabriel was really the one.” Zachariah mumbled.

Dina shook her head, “Yes, and it was foolish of me to doubt Gabriel. I was just starting from losing Ariel and it made me say those things. Thank God you didn't listen to me.”

Zachariah sighed, “Maybe I should have?”

Dina clamped a slender hand on his beefy shoulders, “No, Gabriel is the one. Trust me.”

“Even if this Gabriella is an imposter? She's a very good one. I mean, she decimated Ramiel.” Zachariah pointed out.

“I'm pretty sure she had help from a skilled warrior.” Dina replied.

“What do we do about our dead soldiers? Do we have to tell the people? I say we keep it a secret,” Zachariah prattled, like he did whenever he was anxious.

“We have to tell the people, there's no question about that,” Dina disagreed.

“Why? If we tell them, it'll cause the civilians to panic and it'll cause our soldiers to lose their morale.” Zachariah predicted.

“We have to tell them because if we don't, they'll still hear it from other sources and will start to distrust us for keeping news of this magnitude from them. Even if they don't hear the news, they'll still put two and two together.” Dina argued.

Zachariah buried his face in his hands and heaved a sigh. After a minute, he looked up at Dina and smiled sadly, “You're right, Dina. What would I do without you?”

Dina smiled and patted his back, “Let's not find out. Now come, the people await our address.”

* * *

Gabriel scratched his jaw as he stared to the old peeling ceiling of his room from his bed and sighed. He was skipping classes again, but he didn't care, they were wasting his potential by making him sit cooped up in a classroom all day with children.

That was a lie, he thought, standing up. He cared and felt a little guilty he was missing classes, but he had bigger things on his mind.

“I can't believe I was so rude to Thaddeus,” Gabriel said slowly, remembering everything that had between them before Thaddeus had left.

Gabriel admitted that he had been sad, angry and hurt that he hasn't been included in Ramiel and he had transferred his aggression to innocent Thaddeus.

Standing up, Gabriel vowed, “When next I see Thaddeus, I'll make sure to apologise to him.”

Immediately he said the words, he felt less guilty. Yes, normally he'd balk at apologizing. Sinators never apologized, even when they were wrong.

But he terribly missed Thaddeus although they never saw much of each other and decided to stop treating Thaddeus like he was dirt beneath his feet.

Gabriel grabbed a scroll and left his dormitory, making his way to the classroom block when he saw students gathered I'm groups, whispering worriedly,

“. . .Yes, I heard they recovered seven bodies.”

“. . .I wonder who they were.”

“. . .Ramiel? I don't think so.”

“. . .I saw them lugging the stretchers.”

Gabriel frowned in confusion as he tried to understand what was going on. When nothing made sense to him, he called a boy with buckteeth,

“Hey you, do you know what is going on?”

The boy shrugged and replied, “Some warriors just returned with some bodies.”

Gabriel felt his heart lurch for no reason, “Do you know whose bodies?”

The boy shook his head.

Gabriel sent him away with thanking him and placed his hand over his heart. His heartbeat had increased.

Gabriel made a U-turn from class and walked sharply to General Dina's office. If there was anyone who was in the know, it would be her. He wouldn't leave her office until he'd gotten the information he wanted, he resolved.

On his way, he heard an announcement that sounded like it was coming from a bull horn,

“All citizens of Teres, both soldiers and civilians alike should gather at the town square. Chief Zachariah and General Dina have an important announcement to make.”

Gabriel paused and listened as the announcement was repeated a second and then a third time before he joined the throng of staff and students of the academy to leave the premises and crowd the little town square.

Already, the antsy townspeople were whispering nervously, wondering what they were summoned over.

Gabriel made his way to the front of the crowd, ignoring the disgruntled people he'd shoved out of his way. He stopped when he saw Dina and Zachariah on a crudely made wooden stage. Although the duo looked unruffled, Gabriel noted a tinge of fear in the way Zachariah's eyes roamed the crowd quickly, and deep sadness in Dina's brilliant eyes.

In that moment, Gabriel truly wondered what sort trouble they were all in.

Zachariah and Dina exchanged glances and nodded before Zachariah held up his palm, and the crowd went silent.

Clearing his throat, he took a step forward and began, “My brothers and sisters, General Dina and I have called you here today with heavy hearts.”

His preamble served to reignite the nervous murmuring of the crowd. Gabriel wished Zachariah would stop beating about the bush and go to the point. His heart was beating at an abnormally high rate now.

“We have lost Ramiel.” Zachariah finally said, as blunt as ever. In that moment, Gabriel felt the world spin. No, he thought with disbelief, regretting the fact that Thaddeus was gone.

The murmurs from the crowd morphed to cries of disappointment and despair from the crowd.

“How did this happen?” An old angel next to Gabriel asked angrily.

“We don't know how exactly,” Dina answered, “but we think they were ambushed by demons.”

“Why is this happening to us?” a woman asked tearfully with her hands in the air, “What have we done that you have forsaken us?”

“God has not forsaken us,” a young boy, probably her son replied cheerfully, “he gave us Gabriel.”

As all eyes turned on Gabriel, he swallowed audibly. How had this become about him? This was about Thaddeus' death. He cleaned the tears rolling down his cheek.

“We have the chosen one yet for some reason, you're keeping him on standby as many of us get killed!” a voice from the back yelled angrily.

Dina held her hands out placatingly, “We are going to mourn our brothers and sisters as is our custom.”

“We wouldn't have to mourn them if you sent the chosen one with them!” the voice retorted and various people supported the voice.

Gabriel wanted the ground to open up and swallow him. These people had no idea that his fighting skills were negligible, and he didn't want to get ambushed by demons and die.

The voice continued, “in fact, if the chosen one is not going to be utilized, then what's the point? We may as well take our lives!