Alexia clenched in her seat. “We should jump off before we crash! I will cast a spell to secure our fall!”

John glanced up toward her and nodded. “Alright! Let’s bailout now!”

The girls unclipped their harnesses as John got up. He grabbed onto the edge of the door while the aircraft still spun downward.

"What the hell are you doing?" The pilot shouted, yanking on the flight stick.

John gazed at him. "We're getting off! Good luck!"

He turned toward the door and jumped out. Through the air, he dived head first as a glowing purple sphere expanded around him, slowing down his fall.

He landed on his feet, and the sphere popped like a bubble. Behind him, the girls landed inside their purple bubbles. Alexia lowered her arms, and the shields vanished.

John heard an explosion and looked up. The troop carrier crashed into a building on the right side. Flames and smoke escaped from the crash.

Since John didn't see the pilot jump, he assumed the pilot didn't make it. He gave up his life to bring John’s squad into the city. But they still have a few miles to reach Central Park.

"Look out!" Alexia projected her shield around John before a blast struck him.

Down the street, a Dreadnought rose from across the street toward the squad. However, he marched on four mechanical legs with two cannons on his shoulders. No horns, but he has three red eyes on his metal plate over his lipless mouth where his fangs snarled beneath his gums.

"Is that a Dreadnought?" Lena asked.

"A Skykiller Dreadnought," Tiara explained. "It focuses on shooting down enemy vessels in the sky."

"So that is how they are shooting fireballs at us," said Kara.

The Skykiller halted, glaring at John’s squad. He lowered his cannons toward the agents.

"Take cover!" John dropped behind a car. Two fireballs flew over him and the girls.

Behind them, the balls hit a fire truck and exploded. None of the flames reached the squad.

"Does it have the same weak spot?" John shouted.

Tiara peeked over the car hood, glaring at the demon. "Yes, if you can sneak up upon him."

"Good. I need you to attract his attention while Lena blows his back."

Lena glanced toward him. "Same tactic?"

"The best tactic to kill that thing quickly."

The zombie girl shrugged. "Okay."

John turned toward Tiara. "Ready?"

Tiara nodded and jumped into the air from her cover. She hovered over the street as the Skykiller turned toward her attention.

Lena sprinted past the demonic machine while he blasted his cannons at Tiara, missing her. Lena jumped onto a car behind the demon and aimed her grenade launcher. "Sayonara, bitch!"

She shot one grenade toward the demon. It exploded, blowing half of its back off.

The Skykiller lowered his cannons and collapsed to the ground. John approached the demon's head and kicked his metal plate. The thing didn’t move except his tongue struck out across the concrete.

“Good work, Lena,” John smirked. “We better move before another Skykiller finds us.”

All the girls nodded to him.

*****

Down the street, the squad stopped in front of a fallen building. Since they couldn't climb over it, it seemed like they couldn't go further. Fortunately, there was a clear alleyway next to the debris.

The squad took the alley route, sprinting about three blocks between the tall buildings. In the end, they stopped toward a gateway to a cemetery.

Tall tombstones stood around the walkways like trees. Some were crosses and others were angels. John believed angels existed, but he never saw one. Maybe they didn't care about demons killing innocent humans.

A few crypt houses stood in each corner with crosses on top. Light shimmered from the surrounding buildings, giving the tombstones some light. Although the cemetery has an exit for the squad to reach the other side, anything could hide in the graves to ambush unexpected victims.

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"Do we have to go through here?" Lena asked. "This place is giving me the creeps."

John raised his blue eyes toward her. He was surprised that Lena said that. She never got the creeps when she had a mission to complete. But she never entered a graveyard before. Do zombies fear graves?

"It is the only way," he stated. "Are you afraid of graves?"

"No….. Just a feeling I have," she trembled.

Maybe she was buried in a grave before she became a zombie. Being buried in a coffin can cause claustrophobia by a slick imagination. Whether Lena remembered or not.

"Can you move on through there?" John asked respectfully.

Lena nodded with her lips pursed.

John grinned and stepped through the gate. Before he entered the cemetery, he switched his x-ray vision on, glancing around the gravestones. No movement appeared behind the stones. That meant the entire cemetery should be clear.

John proceeded into the cemetery as the girls followed him. He kept glancing at the graves, just in case.

"What is sayonara?" Tiara asked.

Lena turned toward her. "Huh?"

"Sayonara."

"Oh, it's Japanese for goodbye. I learned that from a cartoon show."

"I am unfamiliar."

Lena giggled. "There is a lot you will be unfamiliar within our dimension."

John thought about what they will do with Tiara after they save the Earth. She definitely has no interest in hell, and she turned loyal to John. But as a demon, nobody will accept her in public. She's better off staying with him at the SPD station. She will fit right in with the freaks who dedicate themselves to protecting the human colonies.

"I would be happy to learn everything about your realm," said Tiara.

John smirked. He would gladly show Tiara around the colonies for entertainment. Afterall, a beautiful creature should never get locked in the basement forever. And There were plenty of places John's squad could go that would accept them.

John stopped when something chuckled from above. He glanced up and saw tiny creatures flying down from the building. They looked like red infants with bat wings, short horns, and razor sharp teeth, chattering as they laughed. Their eyes glowed yellow and none of them wore any clothing.

"What the hell are those?" John shouted.

One of them landed on a grave and leapt toward him. He swung his metal fist into the laughing demon, knocking it to the ground.

"They're Imps!" Tiara formed a fireball and tossed it toward a demon. The thing exploded like a water balloon, full of blood. "Pesky little shits! If they bite you, their poison will instantly kill you."

"I doubt that." John grabbed an Imp and slammed its head into the ground. Its brains splattered between his metal fingers.

The other Imps swarmed around the squad. They hissed and laughed as they swung their claws around.

Alexia projected a purple shield around herself. One flock of Imps charged her, but her shield bounced them away.

Kara leapt over a gravestone and took cover. She aimed her sniper rifle over the stone, shooting down each Imp, one by one. She never missed.

A few Imps landed on Lena, biting her shoulders. She screamed, but she slapped each Imp off her white flesh. Poison doesn't affect zombies as long as it doesn't damage their brains.

John morphed his left arm and fired his mini-gun at the flock in the air. More swirled down from another building.

"They keep coming!" He shouted.

Tiara pointed her open palms up, blasting flames at the flock. Burning bodies landed around her. "Then let's get out of here!"

John grabbed two Imps and smashed their skulls together, exploding their heads. Crashing demonic creatures felt fun, but there were too many to exterminate.

He dropped the small headless corpses and sprinted down the cemetery path. After running past a dozen graves, he spotted a tall crypt house, surrounded by angel statues. A giant gryphon gargoyle sat on top, and the stone house had no windows. It looked perfect to hide in from a flock of little monsters.

"Take cover in there!" John reached the crypt and pulled the doors open.

While the girls rushed past him, he unloaded his mini-gun on the flying demon swarm. All of them rained blood across the tombstones.

"Close it!" Lena shouted.

John ran into the crypt and closed the double door. The doors rocked with taps and scratching noises on the other side.

Lena sighed. “That was close.”

John turned toward her. “Are you alright?”

The zombie girl rubbed her shoulders. “I’m fine….. I’m just a little fuzzy.”

Tiara observed Lena. “You have bite marks all over your skin. How are you still breathing?”

Lena grinned. “I’m undead. Nothing can hurt me unless my brain gets smooched. Heeheehee.”

Kara glanced around. “So what do we do now? Do we stay in here or step outside after those things leave? Because I am not a fan of coffins.”

A chuckle left John’s mouth as he gazed around. Ancient coffins hung on the walls and four rested around a stairway at the center. The stairway goes to the lower floor where more coffins were left. Due to the cobwebs and dust all over the concrete gothic features, nobody might have used the crypt for a long time. The doors still shook as the Imps screeched outside.

"We cannot wait for those damn things to leave," said John. "Let's find another way out."

Alexia glanced at the stairway. "Down there? I doubt that. All crypts are confined."

"If there isn't a second exit, then we'll head back out." John walked down the stairway into the darkness. He activated his night vision to see clearly.

The bottom chamber has more coffins stacked along the walls and inside the walls. Bigger cobwebs hung across the ceiling although no spiders crawled around.

John switched his night vision to x-ray. He glanced around until he stopped toward the right corner.

A long small crack stretched across the corner with a small tunnel behind it. The passage goes straight toward a bigger tunnel, which could be the sewer.

John smirked. "I found another way out."

"Where?" Tiara asked.

John switched back to night vision and pointed his metal claw toward the fracture. “There is a hidden passage to the sewer system. It shouldn’t be hard for me to break it open.”

Alexia formed a purple energy ball above her palm and tossed it toward the crack. The corner exploded, leaving the tunnel open after the smoke cleared.

She brushed her hands and smiled. “Done already.”

John chuckled.