The briefing room was packed to near capacity as even more people than normal filled the limited space. Everyone present had grim expressions as well, which was to be expected considering the news that I’d been given when I got home from my date last night.

Colonel Roberts stood at the front of the room, stating, “Most of you have already heard the rumors about the second DSU.” There were nods and murmurs from around the room, which he let go for several seconds before adding, “The rumors are true.”

“Damn,” Dani whispered.

“Three days ago,” Colonel Roberts announced, “there was an outbreak with five people who were infected with the demon strain. The symptoms were recognized in time and these people were placed in quarantine before any of them went demon. There had been no demon sightings in the area before this so the second DSU went in and found that the cause of these infections was a baby demon that had recently hatched.”

There were more whispers and murmurs from around the room. Rebecca scowled, muttering, “Not good.”

“Investigations found that the demon egg had arrived there destination in the back of a shipping truck,” Colonel Roberts continued. “They determined the trucks route and identified where the truck must have picked up the egg.”

The screen behind Colonel Roberts showed pictures of the now dead baby demon, which had only been a little bigger than a cat. Then it showed pictures of the truck, including the shell of a hatched demon egg that had been found in the back.

“The investigators backtracked the egg as far as they could,” Colonel Roberts told us with a grim expression. “And then cross referenced that with the paths that the previous eggs had taken.” He paused for a moment before announcing, “They determined where these eggs were coming from.”

At that, the screen behind the colonel changed and showed a map that traced where the demon packs and eggs were known to have traveled. As I saw the paths on the map, I could tell that they appeared to have started out in the same area and were spreading out from there. One part of the map had a red circle drawn around it.

“Hell Town,” Rebecca blurted out with a look of horror.

“Hell Town?” I asked in confusion.

“Fuck,” Dani spat out with an expression that was identical to the one Rebecca possessed. Nicole nodded agreement, looking shaken as well.

Colonel Roberts looked at me for a moment and then looked around the room. It was obvious that several people knew what this map meant, but just as clear that I wasn’t the only one without a clue.

“Eight years ago,” Colonel Roberts stated, “the first ever demon outbreak occurred in the Harkon Research Facility. After the outbreak was over, the survivors were taken to the nearby town of Deacon Falls for medical attention. At the time, no one knew about the demon strain or understood that it was contagious.”

“Oh shit,” I gasped in sudden understanding.

Colonel Roberts continued his briefing, though I could already see where it was going. “Mere days after the outbreak at the Harkon Facility, the second outbreak occurred. Within days, the entire town was either dead or infected.”

Then Colonel Roberts looked straight at me and my sisters, his expression dark. I looked at Rebecca and knew that there was more to the story than he’d told so far. After all, my sisters had also been survivors from the outbreak at that facility.

“At this time,” Colonel Roberts added, “four civilians had been put in quarantine just outside of Deacon Falls. One was known to carry an alternate version of the harkon virus while the other three had been infected with it.” He paused to look at me and my sisters again and then said, “When my strike force arrived on the scene, we found the angels already engaged with fighting a demon.”

“You never said anything,” I whispered to my sisters.

“I didn’t want to remember it,” Rebecca whispered back. “None of us did.”

“In the end,” Colonel Roberts stated, “we dropped a bomb on the town and made sure there wasn’t anything left alive. Afterwards, the area was renamed Hell Town and kept quiet from the media.”

“And this is where the eggs are coming from?” Rebecca asked in a cold tone.

“The second DSU believed this to be the case,” Colonel Roberts agreed. “They wanted to be the ones to neutralize the demon queen so went in full force yesterday afternoon. They were met by a large number of demons who wiped out their ground forces.”

It was Captain Brooks who said, “Sir… You said Hell Town had been cleaned of demons…”

“We’ve been going over that since finding out the second was destroyed,” Colonel Roberts answered, sounding tired. “Obviously at least one demon or infected person survived our cleansing. Perhaps they were hiding in a basement or had left the town itself. What we do know is that there are now an unknown number of demons in that area, enough to take down two dozen heavily armed soldiers in a very short time.”

“And what are we to do?” Rebecca asked with a deep scowl. “It wouldn’t be smart to just walk right into this.”

“The Air Force is going to bomb the area,” Colonel Roberts explained. “Afterwards, we’ll go in to clean up any leftovers and verify the queen demon is dead.”

After this, there was little new information, just details on the plan to wipe out Hell Town and then invade. I listened intently, though I also dreaded the idea of going to the place where so much death had already occurred.

When the briefing had ended, Rebecca muttered, “Roberts didn’t say anything about the ban…”

“What do you mean?” Nicole asked.

“After finding out about the second last night,” Rebecca explained, “I checked some news sites online. No one came right out and said anything, but there are enough hints for me to read between the lines.”

“Spit it out already,” Dani snapped in annoyance.

Rebecca was silent for a moment, then said, “Almost immediately after the second was destroyed, the president had an emergency meeting with his cabinet and some influential political leaders. A short time after this, there were meetings with the ambassadors of multiple other countries.” She paused for a moment before adding, “I’m confident that they’re on the verge of creating an exception to the ban so we’ll be able to start searching for a vaccine.”

“About time,” I muttered.

“That should make Merrit happy,” Nicole said with a weak chuckle.

“Us to,” Dani added. “I mean, if they allow research for a cure, then that asshole will probably be reassigned to some research facility and we can get a new doctor.”

I nodded at that, knowing that a change in the law would definitely be a good thing, not to mention well overdue. But as Rebecca had previously pointed out, it would probably be several years before we really benefitted from it.

“What about Hell Town?” I asked, looking to my sisters. “What exactly happened there?”

“It was pretty much what Roberts said,” Nicole told me with a scowl. “Just…worse.”

“After the…incident,” Rebecca said carefully, “I insisted that we be quarantined…” She gestured to Nicole and Dani, giving a wry smile. “I knew that I was contagious and they’d been exposed…”

“It was…difficult,” Dani said carefully.

I stared at Dani for a moment and nodded in full understanding. I knew that she would have been changing without even really knowing what was going on or what to expect. I could only imagine how much more traumatic my change would have been if my sisters hadn’t been there to ease it.

“We’d barely finished changing when demons started attacking,” Nicole added. “We were…terrified, but we didn’t have any choice but to fight or die…”

“It was the first time we ever fought demons,” Rebecca told me with a grimace. “And we learned that we were pretty good at it. When Roberts showed up with a bunch of soldiers to try controlling things, we helped them out. Afterwards, we realized just how dangerous these demon infections were and agreed to help fight them.”

Dani shook her head, then quietly added, “It was horrible. The whole town was wiped out. There were kids…” She paused at that, looking pained and even haunted. “I still have nightmares about that shit.”

“We all do,” Rebecca responded with a grimace.

I looked at each of my sisters and gulped. “And that’s where we’re going?”

“I never thought I’d go back there again,” Rebecca answered with a nod. “And it’s one of the last places I ever wanted to see again.”

“Beside the facility,” Nicole added, to which Dani and Rebecca nodded agreement.

“I guess we should get ready,” Dani said with a sigh. “We’re going to hell.”