The stupidest angel: a heartwarming tale of Christmas terror

which Tuck had just dived, moaning and trying to get purchase on the windowsill with their skeletal hands to climb in.

    "Shoot them!" Tuck screamed from the floor. "Shoot those fucking things, Theo!"

    Theo shrugged, shook his head. No gun.

    Something flashed by Theo and he spun to see Gabe Fenton running hell-bent-for-leather at the window, holding before him a long stainless-steel pan full of lasagna, evidently intent upon diving through the window in a pastafarian act of self-sacrifice. Theo caught the biologist by the collar, stopping him like a running dog at the end of his leash. His arms and legs flew out before him and he managed to hang on to the pan, but nearly eight pounds of steaming cheesy goodness sailed on through the window, scorching the attackers and Pollocking the wall around the window with red sauce.

    "That's it, throw snacks at them, that'll slow them up," shouted Tuck. "Fire a salvo of garlic bread next!"

    Gabe regained his feet and jumped right up in Theo's face, or he would have if he had been a foot or so taller. "I was trying to save us," he said sternly to Theo's sternum.

    Before Theo could answer, Ignacio Nunez and Ben Miller, a tall, ex-track star in his early thirties, called for them to clear the way. The two men were coming to the broken window with another of the buffet tables. Gabe and Theo helped Ben hold the table against the wall while Nacho nailed the table to the wall. "I found some tools in the basement," Nacho said between hammer blows. Animated dead fingernails clawed at the tabletop as they worked.

    "I hate cheese!" screamed the corpse, who had enough equipment to still scream. "It binds me up."

    The rest of the undead mob began pounding on the walls around them.

    "I need to think," Theo said. "I just need a second to think."
    * * *
    Lena was dressing Tucker Case's wounds with gauze and antibiotic ointment from the chapel's first-aid kit. The burns on his legs and torso were superficial, most of the alcohol fire having been put out by the rain before it could penetrate his clothing, and while his leather bomber jacket had protected him somewhat from his dive through the window, there was a deep cut on his forehead and another on his thigh. One of the bullets that Dale had fired through the table had grazed Tuck's ribs, leaving a gash four inches long and a half inch wide.
    "That was the bravest thing I've ever seen," Lena said.

    "You know, I'm a pilot," said Tuck, like he did this sort of thing every day. "I couldn't let them hurt you."

    "Really?" Lena said, pausing for a moment to look into his eyes. "I'm sorry I was – you were – "

    "Actually, you probably couldn't tell, but that thing with the table? Just a really badly executed escape attempt."

    Tuck winced as she fastened the bandage over his ribs with some tape.

    "You're going to need stitches," Lena said. "Any place I missed?"

    Tuck held up his right hand – there were tooth marks on the back of it welling up with blood.

    "Oh my God!" Lena said.

    "You're going to have to cut his head off," said Joshua Barker, who was standing by watching.

    "Whose?" Tuck said. "The guy in the Santa suit, right?"

    "No, I mean your head," said Josh. "They're going to have to cut off your head or you'll turn into one of them."

    Most everyone in the chapel had stopped what they were doing and gathered around Tuck and Lena, seemingly grateful for a point of focus. The pounding on the walls had ceased, and with the exception of the occasional rattling of the door handles, there was only the sound of the wind and rain. The Lonesome Christmas crowd was stunned.

    "Go away, kid," said Tuck. "This is no time to be a kid."

    "What should we use?" asked Mavis Sand. "This okay, kid?" She held a serrated knife that they'd been using to cut garlic bread.

    "That is not acceptable," Tuck said.

    "If you don't cut his head off," said Joshua, "he'll turn into one of them and let them in."

    "What an imagination this kid has," said Tuck, flashing a grin from face to face, looking for an ally. "It's Christmas! Ah, Christmas, the time when all good people go about not decapitating each other."

    Theo Crowe came out of the back room, where he'd been looking for something they could use as a weapon. "Phone lines are down. We'll lose power any minute. Is anyone's cell phone working?"

    No one answered. They were all looking at Tuck and Lena.

    "We're going to cut off his head, Theo," Mavis said, holding out the bread knife, handle