Angelfall

Penryn quickly uses her self-defense skills to beat Boden to the ground and kick him multiple times, but before she can kick him a final time, Obi grabs her and restrains her, assuring her she won. She glares at Raffe as Obi hauls her away, but Raffe is busy arguing that he won his bet. Obi brings her to the kitchen and gives her a bag of frozen peas for her bruises while he cleans her wounds. He explains that letting people fight—and only interfering if lives are threatened—is one of the ways they maintain overall order. If people know they won’t be rescued, they’re less likely to start foolish fights.

Penryn asks to be released, explaining the situation with her sister, but Obi refuses, citing the safety of the camp. He invites her to join and get revenge on the angels, but Penryn insists that her sister is alive and needs her help. She returns outside, where she is immediately approached by two redheaded twin boys around her age. They praise her for winning the fight and introduce themselves as Dee and Dum (not their real names but chosen nicknames for the new world). They offer her a business proposition—30% of winnings in the next fight if she promises to lose it. While briefly interested, she rejects the offer when she learns that her opponent would be a girl, Anita, and that they just want her to catfight—until they offer to help her escape. They explain that Obi simply wants them to join and doesn’t see them as a risk, and they hear and see everything that goes on at camp. Penryn asks what Raffe bet on the fight, which they tease her for, but they tell her he bet she’d last seven minutes in the ring. Penryn reluctantly agrees to stage the fight against Anita that night.

That night, Penryn bemoans her raw, swollen hands from the laundry and wishes she had accepted the yellow gloves they had offered her. She waits around for Anita to attack her, hoping it will happen sooner rather than later. Raffe and the other men on latrine duty approach and begin to take off their filthy clothes; Raffe undresses slowly, trying to avoid revealing his bandaged, wing-joint-shaped wounds. As it becomes awkward, the attractive woman from earlier saunters toward him, and Dee and Dum quickly call her out as Anita.

Realizing she can use the opportunity to both start a fight and save Raffe, Penryn throws a wet, soapy shirt at Anita, ruining her hair and makeup. She calls Anita out, and Anita looks to Raffe for help, but when he doesn’t respond, she viciously turns her attention to Penryn. She throws the shirt back and then attacks Penryn. They fight in the mud for a while; Penryn isn’t sure how to lose the fight convincingly, but before she can get too concerned, they hear gunshots and a human scream from the woods.

People begin to panic and flee, and Raffe quickly finds Penryn and asks about the wings. They escape together, although Penryn worries about the gunshots in the woods. By the time they reach the tree, however, things are eerily silent. The two spot a pile of dead soldiers with dismembered limbs and heads, with five soldiers standing, guns strangely aimed at waist height. Penryn remembers Raffe’s theory about the children and realizes that whatever this is, it isn’t natural, as even Raffe seems afraid.

The men slowly move back toward the camp, and Raffe and Penryn find the wings, which Raffe thanks her for. He tells her he’ll keep her safe and get her back into Obi’s camp, but she wants to stay with him and keep searching for Paige. Raffe warns her that his companions always meet grisly ends, and he doesn’t want the same to happen to her. He then runs off into the woods alone. Hurt and frightened, Penryn runs off into the woods after him.

Despite her terror, Penryn presses on through the dark woods. She sees a large shadow begin to move and then fan out, becoming several growling small bipedal creatures in the dark. The creatures spread around her and begin to bump her, reminding her of piranha, and then begin to grunt like humans and bite her.

Before they can bite her again, Raffe appears, sword drawn, and tells her to run; this time, she listens, although she stops a short while away to watch the fight. She realizes the enemies look like cherubs of varying sizes. They attack Raffe; Penryn throws rocks to help, but the second one hits Raffe’s back, causing him to stumble and get bitten. The cherubs begin to choke on his blood and flee, but Raffe chases them into the woods and finishes them off.

Raffe returns, covered in their black blood, and Penryn goes to hug him, which he ignores, although he asks if she is all right. He confirms that the cherubs weren’t angels, but something else entirely, and says he killed them because “they’re too close to something that shouldn’t exist” (143). They set off into the woods again; Raffe explains that he had been tracking Penryn to see her to the camp safely and is disappointed she didn’t use common sense. They trudge silently in the dark for a while but eventually reach a house and rest for the night.

Penryn dreams about the fight with Anita, but the water from the laundry quickly becomes blood, and then scorpions with wings attack the crowds, dragging Paige out of the crowd and taking her into the darkness.

The next morning, Penryn walks down the hall and finds Raffe repacking their pack. Penryn looks around the house, finding photographs and scraps of the former family that lived there, and then eats kibble for breakfast and wipes herself down in lieu of a shower. When she returns, Raffe has changed his clothing, and she admires how he looks before worrying idly about her mother’s safety.

They set off again, but before long, they hear grief-stricken crying. They approach and find two young girls hung from trees by their arms, their bodies eaten up to their chests and their expressions a clear sign that they were eaten alive. Penryn throws up. A couple cries beneath the girls, blaming themselves for having fed the girls to a man they describe as a “victim.” They completely ignore Penryn and Raffe, who back away carefully. Not far away, they find a batch of rotten eggs, another sign of Penryn’s mother. Exhausted and scared, Penryn leans against Raffe for support, but catches herself and pulls herself away.

Raffe and Penryn have an argument about what the couple was talking about and about human nature, and Raffe says that he has learned about human nature by watching TV. Penryn asks if he is married, and he grows upset, insisting that he is not human, and humans are forbidden to him. He explains the context: Angels called Watchers in the past were placed on earth and married humans against the rules, bearing bloodthirsty, monstrous children called the Nephilim and earning condemnation. Penryn decides she doesn’t want to know the punishment the human women received for falling in love with angels, and they move on in silence.

As they near San Francisco, they hear a truck and watch as it moves along a cleverly disguised path through the stalled cars, only stopping when angels are visible overhead—clearly one of Obi’s men. Raffe hides from the angels overhead, which worries Paige, as she realizes she doesn’t know how many angels there are and how many are hostile. The angels eventually disappear, and the truck moves again. Penryn presses Raffe for more information on the angels, but he offers her cat food to shut her up.