Where Freedom Reigns

Chapter 102

The Sixth Day

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice  

from the four horns of the golden altar which is  

before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had  

the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are  

bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four  

angels were loosened which were prepared for an  

hour, and a day, and a year, for to slay the third  

part of men.

Revelation 9:13-15

 

Black Mesa, Idaho - 0400 Hours MT

During the First Civil War, the bodies of soldiers wearing either blue or gray were often left behind when the battle ended. They lay for months and sometimes years, slowly rotting under the summer sun or freezing solid in the winter. In some cases, they remained there until another battle was fought on that same battlefield; as yet more young men took their places beside others who would never grow old. That macabre practice had ended with the war itself at Appomattox Court House. Throughout the twentieth century, soldiers went into harm's way knowing that their comrades would not leave them behind. This only compounded the tragedy of war since many soldiers died attempting to retrieve the bodies of fallen comrades. This last great act of respect ended in WWT, when North Korea used nuclear weapons against the allied forces. This was for two reasons: first, because the thousands of soldiers at ground zero literally vanished from the earth without a trace; and second, because the deadly radioactivity, meant that even those whose bodies did not vaporize had their mortal remains retrieved not by their comrades, but by mechanical robots. It was a final act of indignity unbefitting their supreme sacrifice.  

So it was that at dawn on the day after the bomb dropped in Idaho, remote-controlled mechanical beasts would move out across the vast wasteland of Black Mesa to reap the grim harvest of war. But that was still several hours away, and in the ghostly glow of a full moon that hung above the desolate plain, two horsemen appeared, riding enormous white stallions with rippling muscles and flying manes. Both riders wore long, flowing black robes, the folds of which rose up and down, seemingly in slow motion with each stride of their mounts. They galloped toward each other along one side of the gaping wound in the earth but just when it seemed that they would collide, they reined in their mounts and stopped, facing each other on the rim of the abyss. The hole beside them was so deep and black that the muted rays of moonlight could not find its bottom, and it looked like a mineshaft straight to hell. 

The first to speak was the rider who had approached from the north. He threw back his hood, revealing the face of evil. He spoke in sharp, short, angry tones. "I warned you, Michael, this time would be different." 

The other rider, who had come from the south, also pushed back his hood. When he spoke, even the wind was hushed, as if to hear his every word. "Indeed, Chadrian, you have done much to harm these people during the measure of time they call a year." 

"The Fifth Trumpet has sounded; the empire of evil is at hand. I have unleashed convulsions upon the earth and on the mightiest civilization that has ever existed upon it; their misery is extreme. When the pathetic little star they call the sun rises once again above the horizon, the Sixth Trumpet will sound and they will be no more." 

"Humans will die but not so humanity." 

"Your obedience to your Master blinds you. Look, look!" He gestured toward the yawning chasm. "The gates of hell are open. Are you not afraid?"