Where Freedom Reigns

Chapter 95

Near Fort Wallace, Kansas 

Brigadier General Jake Kincaid stood alone on the prairie watching Private Annett walk away into the growing darkness. Suddenly, the wind ceased its relentless howling, and a deathly silence enveloped him. He stopped in his tracks and looked around. The Humvee was nowhere to be seen, nor was there any sign of the maze of men and machines that lay somewhere beyond his gaze. He was alone, totally alone, on a gentle hillock with nothing but sodden fields and storm-tossed sky stretching in every direction as far as his eyes could see. Then with an ominous rumble, the turbulent clouds parted, and a shaft of sunlight slashed down through the gloom. It cast an overpowering brilliance upon a single piece of ground and thrust the surroundings into an abysmal darkness. Jake threw his hand up in front of his eyes to shield them, and as they adjusted to the light, he lowered it. What he saw would change everything. 

In the center of the circle of light stood an enormous red horse with rippling muscles and huge hooves, the right front one of which pawed and pounded the trembling earth. A dark rider, dressed in a long, black cape, sat on its back, and in his right hand was a great sword, which he held low and to the side. Kincaid was transfixed. He couldn't move or catch his breath. He just stood there, staring at the rider, whose face was hidden by the black hood that shrouded his head. Finally, he was able to regain his composure, and he shouted out against the night, "Who are you?" 

The dark rider remained silent but slowly raised the sword, and with a motion that was unmistakable in its intent, he thrust it out in a salute to the general. Then, through the utter stillness, the rider spoke to him in a deep and powerful voice:

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye  

shall see him, and they also which pierced him; 

and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because  

of him. Even so. Amen.  

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning 

and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which  

was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

The dark rider paused, and his voice echoed across the stillness of the land like thunder, rumbling away into the darkness. Then without saying anything more, horse and rider stepped out of the light and disappeared, and the shaft of light receded into the clouds, and it began to rain more harshly than before; the wind rose; and the storm retook the land. Jake stood there frozen, locked in the moment, unmoving, barely breathing, not knowing whether he was dreaming or about to die. He had recognized the dark rider's words. They were from Revelation and another verse from it flooded into his mind.

And there went out another horse that was red:  

and power was given to him that sat thereon to  

take peace from the earth, and that they should  

kill one another: and there was given unto him  

a great sword. 

And then, it came upon him all at once. Sarah was right. Angels walk among us. At long last, Jake Kincaid was at peace with himself and his small, but not insignificant place in American history. Up until that moment, he had suffered through a terrible inner turmoil, one created by the prospect of having to take American lives. It had tormented his soul as he prepared his regiment for battle. But now, suddenly, all those fears and worries melted away. He was filled with a clear sense of purpose that arose from the sure and certain knowledge of what he had to do. He and those whom he led were no longer simply men and women in uniform watching from the sidelines, while politicians tried in vain to save the dying Republic. Rather, they were once and again warriors, empowered by God Himself with a divine mission: a mission which was to destroy those who would destroy America. To destroy evil itself. And nothing save death itself would stand in their way.