Eve's dad made his way past the fallen trees and destroyed farm equipment parked outside between the sheds. As he did, the double doors of the shed where the teenagers were flew open.

"Let her go!" Richie Paulsson's brother said, taking a point-blank rifle shot at the man.

With inhuman speed, the man dodged a bullet meant for the space between his eyes. But for other shots that were sent his way, he was not so lucky. He took a face full of birdshot from the next person to fire, giving him a wound that was painful yet superficial. The next shot did worse damage. A deer slug shattered the elbow of the arm he was using to drag his daughter, and her unconscious body fell to the ground.

The firefight raged for just a few seconds before the bats descended. The carnage was now intense on both sides of the fight. A second round of birdshot struck Eve's dad in the chest, causing him to reel. After that, the partygoers began to fare worse. The bats chewed their limbs and faces off with stark efficiency. Most shots now were fired at the bats, or randomly into the air, and the scales of battle tipped in favor of the man.

Then, taking careful aim, Richie's brother blew off the crippled arm of Eve's dad, clean away at the elbow. With a bellow that shook the dust from the Earth, he screamed. As if the jet stream had descended on a polar clipper, everything—people, bats, weapons, even the farm equipment and fallen trees—fell victim to a fierce wind. In the moment of silence that followed it all crashing back to the ground, one word came from the man's twisted lips, borne on the wind itself.

"Enough!"

The few people left with their limbs still attached were no more able to carry on the fight than those struggling to stay alive without them. The man's gaze panned his adversaries, daring one to move.

"Give me what I want and I'll leave you alone!" he yelled. "I've come to save you miserable fools from this useless slut! She exists for one purpose, and one purpose only—to birth Satan himself!"

He menaced those with enough bravery left to think they should challenge him. "Do any of you wish to die? All of you? Everyone in the world? If not, then this bitch must never bear a child! Or she shall calve a son, and he'll be called the Antichrist!"

He gave them his most viscious sneer, with teeth as long and spindly as the fingernails on his one good hand. "Which of you wishes to see Armageddon? The spawn of this whore shall bring it!" He turned, pained and limping, to retrieve Eve's lifeless body. "I am taking her with me, to save your stupid world. Now leave me be, or die."

The man labored to again drag Eve along the ground by her face, struggling with her weight. He barely had time to react as, from the shed where he had come, what at first appeared to be no more than a blur charged at him with speed. He didn't realize who was holding the pitchfork until it pierced his abdomen below his ribs.

Adam forced Eve's dad to back up until he was pinned against the shed where the teenagers were. Though the man stood over seven feet tall, Adam was less than one foot shorter and still had two good arms. The man could do little more than shriek in pain as Adam drove his weapon home.

He raised the man up to his toes, scraping him along the steel siding of the shed. As Eve's dad gasped for breath, Adam turned and faced away, now holding the handle of the pitchfork over his head. After bracing, and with a huge grunt, Adam went into a squat. Just before falling flat on his face, he flung the man over his shoulder and drove his head into the ground. A sickening crunch meant that the man's neck didn't survive the impact. Adam stood back up and worked the tines of the pitchfork further into the man's body, until the ground around them cracked. A endless chasm opened and Eve's dad plummeted in, disappearing into the dark, with Adam soon to follow.

Adam released the pitchfork and let it fall into the hole, but to no avail. Within seconds, he found himself below the surface, clinging to the walls of the chasm. He tried to find footholds and handholds to use to climb back to safety, but the more he fought to escape his demise, the more the earth gave way. At a point when hope seemed to be lost, a familiar hand grabbed his wrist.

He looked up, and into the bloodied face of the most beautiful woman in the world.

"Hang on, Crow!" Eve called down to the man she loved. "I got you!"

* * * * * * * * * *

"Breathe, Eve," Adam instructed. "Like this. In, and then blow out. In, and blow out."

"Just one more push," the obstetrician said.

"Okay, Pumpkin. Take a deep breath… and push!"

The cry of a newborn baby pierced the room. "Is it okay?" Eve asked as soon as she was able, sounding breathless and weak. "Is everything okay?"

Adam patted her hand reassuringly. He was having a hard time deciding which person to smile at first. So as he played with his wife's wedding ring, he gazed upon their baby.

"Everything is fine, Love. You did great." He continued to play with her wedding ring, clinking it against his own.

Eve gasped with exhaustion, throwing her head back onto her pillow. "Huh," she managed to say. "How about that?"

"Happy birthday, Pumpkin," her husband said next. "What are the odds, hey? Giving birth to our child on the same day as your own birthday?"

"Yeah," Eve squeaked. She tried to laugh, but couldn't. "That'll save on cakes, hey?"

With effort, she raised her head, squeezing Adam's hand as hard as she could.

"Can we name her Autumn?" she asked into his eyes.

Adam kissed his wife on the forehead and made her lie back down. "Yes, Pumpkin. We can. Autumn is the perfect name for our daughter."