The Dove

by Brendan Carroll

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  The last leg of the journey was exactly that… leg. The APV had coasted to a stop a few hundred yards from the nearest tumble of rocks that might have a bit of shelter or concealment to offer proving that God was certainly with them. The sun had not come up just yet and the first gray light of dawn was lightening the eastern horizon as the tiny group made their way across the last stretch of open ground. They had seen no more beasts or monsters during the night and the starlight had been almost as good as a full moon, allowing them to drive without headlights, further concealing their presence from unfriendly eyes. When the last sputter had sounded, they climbed out of the cramped confines of the vehicle, hefted as much water and food as they could carry and set off toward the rocky foothills of the mountains.

  Colonel McGuffy had told them that he expected to meet up with the Fox troops, who would help them on their journey on the lower slopes of the mountains. They had slightly misjudged the distance that the vehicles would travel on the diesel fuel that they had been able to acquire. The ziz-zagging at the start of the trip from old Babylon, brought on by the meteor storm’s damages to the terrain had used too much of their short fuel reserves, but with just a bit of grace, they would make it to the foothills and find the Colonel’s men waiting for them. The Colonel used a variety of elaborate navigational devices to take them to their appointed rendezvous point. Bari walked with Nicole behind Sophia and Mark Andrew while the soldiers brought up the rear with their weapons ready for anything that might challenge their progress. But it was Mark Andrew who challenged their progress more often than not. He was not used to walking such great distances. His feet hurt and his muscles ached and his progress was further impeded by his intense curiosity about the things they encountered from the sight of piece of broken pottery to the occasional slithering creatures that had come out in the cooler air of the night to forage. Nicole had never realized there were so many forms of life hidden in the barren wastelands. They were constantly stopping to allow him to rest or chasing after him when he saw something that demanded his attention… and theirs. In spite of his pain, he still smiled and asked for kisses from Sophia whenever Bari admonished him. He would sometimes simply sit down abruptly and pull off his boots. He was confused by the blisters that began to appear on his heels in spite of the thick socks and demanded that Sophia examine each one and put bandages on each one. The Colonel provided numerous bandages from the first aid kit and soon his feet were covered with the sticky little things. They were all mentally and physically exhausted by the time they reached the first boulders marring the flat terrain. The Colonel and one of the sergeants climbed up higher to get a bearing on their location while the rest of them took a break in the deep shadow of the rock.

  Sophia, Nicole and Bari leaned against the rock, closing their eyes while the soldiers sat about them, trying to stay awake. Mark Andrew had his boots off again, inspecting the injuries to his feet. He had wanted to climb up with the Colonel, but they had objected loudly. The Colonel had finally appeased him by allowing him to keep his sword to protect Sophia. The sword lay in front of him on the ground. He pulled on his socks and replaced his boots, before standing up again to test his handiwork. Nothing helped. He pulled off the kaffiyeh and stared out at the landscape from whence they had come. He could almost see their abandoned vehicle in the distance. They had been unable to hide it or cover their tracks.

  The Knight’s forehead crinkled into a quizzical frown as he saw a line of red lights appear on the horizon. At first, he was simply curious about this new sight, but as the light grew brighter and he recognized it as an approaching danger.

  Colonel McGuffy and his sergeant tumbled down the rock just as Mark picked up the sword and began to shake Sophia’s arm frantically. The soldiers were speaking rapidly and pointing toward the ominous red glow on the horizon.

  “What is that?!” Nicole leapt to her feet and Bari staggered up beside her.

  “The sunrise!” The Emperor rubbed at his eyes.

  “Since when does the sun rise in the north, Bari?” Nicole shook her head. Here was something else coming from New Babylon. Apparently they had left just in time.

  Sophia grabbed Mark’s arm as the ground seemed to shift or shudder slightly under them.

  “We have to go higher!” The Colonel began to give orders to his six soldiers and two sergeants. They all scrambled for their packs and ushered the stunned civilians into the rocks and up the slope as the first rumblings of the approaching firestorm reached them.

  “There’s a cave up there!” McGuffy shouted as they broke into a mad dash up the scrabbly slope, pushing, pulling and tugging each other along.

  They made for the darker blackness of the cave opening above them and almost reached it before the storm over took them. What looked like red hailstones flickering with blue fire began to rain down on them from the sky. The thunder was deafening and the pelting of the flaming pellets on the rocks, prevented any more conversation before they crashed and tumbled into the small cavern carved under an overhanging ledge of crumbling rock. The thirteen terrified travelers cowered against the rear of the cave with their hands pressed over their ears as the roar of the tiny bombs and the rumble of the accompanying thunder threatened to bring the roof down on them. Everything outside the cave that could burn was burning.

  Mark Andrew squinted at the deluge in horror. These hailstones were more like hellstones. They smelled of brimstone and sulfur. Yellow smoke mingled with red dust drifted past the mouth of the cave and soon filled it with noxious fumes. The little troop began coughing and choking.

  “Do something!” Nicole gasped and shoved on Bari’s shoulder. “Do something, you worthless imbecile!”

  Bari looked at her in astonishment and then scooted forward slightly. He yanked his backpack from his shoulder and ripped it open. The crystal skull lay wrapped in a yellow silken cloth. Coughing and choking, he pulled the thing from the bag and put it on the ground in front of him. He closed his eyes tightly and pressed his palms together in front of him. A shimmering wave of energy filled the cavern and tickled their noses, causing the hairs on their necks to stand up. The smoke appeared to reverse its crawl and was suddenly sucked back out of the cave. Mark Andrew pressed his hands against his ears and began to wail as unbearable pain assaulted his head. Sophia tried fruitlessly to help him, but as a breath of cool air issued from the cracks and crevices of the wall behind them, water began to ooze out of the rocks, the Chevalier du Morte fell forward, unconscious on his face in the sand.

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  Jozsef Daniel, or the creature Sabaoth masquerading as Jozsef Daniel, picked up the crystal skull of King Ramsay and jammed it back in the leather pouch he had taken from one of the camel soldiers. The storm had passed on toward the south, leaving behind smoking debris and dead bodies, burned beyond recognition. He had lost a quarter of his forces in the first onslaught of the storm before he had regained his senses and used the powers he controlled, along with the force of the skull to cast a protective barrier between his army and the burning chunks of rock falling from the sky. Again, he had watched for the third time as his army fled in terror, catching fire, rolling on the ground, screaming and dying, while others took shelter under burning tents, inside trucks and vehicles, crushing each other in the process before he’d had time to react. Abaddon had helped him this time, rather than running away, by producing the leather pouch and suggesting he use it against the angels, who had returned to deliver this latest attack on them.

  Everything had been fine when they had gone to bed. The sentries were doubled, the roving patrols were making their rounds on the desert, searching for the white braid and the clear night sky had been absolutely breathtaking. Jozsef had spent over an hour simply sitting under the flap of his tent, staring up at the ghostly path of the Milky Way before retiring to his bed. The little one, who had possessed this body was a great lover of the night sky and knew almost all the constellations
by heart and many of the more elusive celestial objects such as Venus and Mars and the location of the Andromeda Galaxy. The Milky Way’s great sister galaxy that was inexorably approaching on a collision course with the Milky Way.

  And he knew the location of the Crab Nebula, the remnants of an exploded star first seen in the year 1054 CE by the Chinese astronomers. He also knew that the supernova’s visible light had taken six thousand years to reach earth after it exploded. But Sabaoth knew more about this particular star remnant than Jozsef Daniel Sinclair-Ramsay had known.

  The star had actually exploded in 5000 BC, give or take a few years, but the force that had brought about the destruction of the star had begun some 2600 years earlier when a terrible force had traveled through the universe. This awful force and the resulting disturbance in the hyper-light world had been the triggering influence on a certain comet veering off course and caused it to crash into the earth. The result: the first world wide flood of this cycle.

  He also knew Yaldabaoth had caused the awesome disturbance in order to destroy the world because he had become bored with the progress of his creation on the planet. Furthermore, he knew the same god had caused another comet to strike the earth in response to the Watchers rebellion against him in the cycle before man had climbed down from the trees and up out of the caves. His own creations had turned against him in favor of mankind and had begun to teach them what they needed to know in order to protect themselves from the false gods that had ruled the earth prior to and since the first flood.

  It seemed ironic to Sabaoth that Jozsef Daniel had set such great store by this particular anomaly in the night sky.

  He considered these most recent events, wondering how he had slipped enough to let it happen in the first place. The angels and their whereabouts should have been his first priority, but he had become preoccupied with the puzzling circumstances surrounding the ruin of of Uriel. When Abaddon had awakened him in a panic, he had emerged from his tent in time to see one of Lucifer’s minions seated on one of the prancing, winged horses in the midst of the encampment blowing on a golden trumpet. At first, he had thought it ridiculous and simply an annoyance and that Lucifer had sent one of his angels to disturb their rest, but shortly after the angel had sounded and then taken flight, a burning hailstorm had commenced. Lucifer was playing rough just as Abaddon had predicted.

  Now he walked about the ruins of his encampment in a rage, kicking at this and that until he had become covered with ashes and red soot. He ordered the surviving soldiers to pack up what was still usable and prepare to move out. Apparently, he was not going to be allowed to rest. No rest. No rest. No rest would be found in Heaven or in earth. No rest. If he went back to Hubur, she would nag at him continually to release more of their kind. Bringing her here had been a mistake; he would not make another. He would dispatch her back to the beyond and take this world for himself, and then he would find rest. For now, he would have to watch the skies himself and keep the Urim and Thummin handy in case more of the cursed angels returned to plague them.

  When he saw the soldiers trying to dig graves in the hard-packed earth to bury the dead, he ordered them to stop and sent them off without another thought for the men who had died here for nothing.

  Chapter Seven of Sixteen

  And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea

  The news was slow in coming from the east, but it was very encouraging. Edgard recognized the handiwork of Lucifer without being told who or what was causing all the problems for the ‘Prophet of New Babylon’. The ‘Prophet’ was totally unaware of the gradual insurrection occurring among his Fox troops. The growing number of defectors to the west would have been most alarming, if he had been aware of it, but Colonel McGuffy had done his work quite well before leaving the ‘Holy City’ for parts unknown. Everywhere, there were members of his army-within-the-army, and the facts reported back from the western provinces and frontiers was filtered many times before it reached Jozsef Daniel’s ears. The Emperor’s army was crumbling from within and he didn’t even know it. Jozsef Daniel was still in the deserts south of old Baghdad, chasing after the Emperor and his little band of traitors, but his progress was impeded at every turn by the machinations of Lucifer and his band of warriors. The angels stayed just out of reach, appearing from nowhere, striking suddenly and then dissipating into nothingness, but the ‘Prophet’ marched on with his dwindling regiment toward the Sinai Peninsula.

  Hubur remained in New Babylon, conjuring up more and more of her creatures, sending them out to all parts of the earth to wreak havoc on the straggling remnants of mankind in what had once been Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas. She had been unable to penetrate the forces in Europe, but she was biding her time impatiently, waiting for Sabaoth to grow tired of his little crusade to the south and return to the business at hand. She had no real authority in New Persia and Jozsef Daniel’s loyal cronies were running the affairs of state in the Emperor’s absence, still under the mistaken notion that the Emperor had been abducted by hostile forces.

  Abaddon slid from his horse and approached the somewhat tattered purple and white tent occupied by his Master. Jozsef Daniel was lying in the midst of a pile of cushions, contemplating the crystal skull. He wore a black leather glove over the golden hand, taking no chances with the possible danger involved in mingling the two powerful devices.

  “Master!” Abaddon bowed low before him.

  “Abaddon.” Jozsef pushed himself up and laid the skull carefully on a cushion in front of him. “What news of the west?”

  “Adar has gone north, Your Grace.” The dark angel collapsed into a chair and pulled his hat from his head. Even his hair seemed dusty. He ran his fingers through the curly locks and shook his head. “I could not get close enough to see what he is about. He is working some devilry on the islands north of Scotland.”

  “Oh?” Jozsef frowned and checked the memories of his captives for information concerning the islands in question, finding nothing. “And what does your intuition tell you about this?”

  “These islands are known as the Orkneys, sir.” The general dragged a bottle of wine across the table and helped himself to a glass. “There are many ruins on them from ancient days. Stone constructions from the time before the flood and since.”

  “Which flood?” Jozsef frowned.

  “The second one. These things were once used for making astronomical observations. The mind of Schweikert tells me they are akin to the stones on the Salisbury plain in southern Britain.”

  “What is the significance?” Jozsef was frustrated. The time period in question was alien to him. He knew very little about anything that had occurred after the first great flood.

  “I believe that he is looking for something in the sky, but I do not know what it might be.”

  “Hmmm. Are there no other sites that might give us some hint of this activity?”

  “There are a few sites in Eastern Europe, but they are in total ruin. And there were once great stone circles in the deserts of the Sinai, but time and the encroachment of civilization has obscured them. One is said to lie below the very Temple of Solomon. It is said the location of the Temple was purposefully set over this site due to its historical significance, and that Solomon, the Wise, imported Sumerians or rather, their descendents, the Phoenicians, to build his Temple according to the old knowledge of these stone builders.”

  “That is most interesting.” Jozsef nodded and then got up. He sat down across from his servant, and Abaddon poured him a glass of the wine. “But useless to us.”

  “Quite.” Abaddon agreed. “It is very disturbing as well. I should have taken a Templar’s body, Your Grace. Perhaps one of them would have known more than the good general Schweikert. But speaking of Templars, the armies of King Ramsay of Britain and King Louis of France are converging on Rome. There is to be a great council of war, and then they will make their move against us. Perhaps we should give up this chase and r
eturn to New Babylon before they start our way. We need to bolster our forces and increase our numbers.”

  “General Kadish is taking care of that. The refugees are still pouring in from the east, running from Hubur’s little pets. They have nothing and the opportunity to serve in the army is more than they could have hoped for, wretched creatures that they are. Most of them are illiterate. Many are nothing more than criminals, but they make good soldiers.”

  “Cannon fodder, of course, Your Grace.” Abaddon agreed. “Kadish is going ahead with the reconstruction I take it?”

  “His daily dispatches are very encouraging. We will have time to join forces with him long before the Templars arrive in Turkey.”

  “I do not believe that they will go to Turkey, Your Grace. I have heard that they are leaning more toward the Sinai or perhaps Egypt as possible springboards. I had thought they would have launched some sort of mission against Jerusalem by now. Our contingency there reports all is quiet. This leads me to be very suspicious.”

  “Once we have overtaken our elusive emperor, we will pass through Jerusalem and take the Ark back to New Babylon.” Jozsef waved one hand. “I will then encourage Ruth to fill Sinai with her children. That should discourage them. We’ll force them into a bottleneck in Turkey. They will either have to come over the mountains to the north or sail into the harbors. I intend to make it impossible for them to sail into southern Turkey. When they try to cross the Straits of the Bosporus, we will have them,” he smiled and made a tight fist with his gloved hand “…unless they plan to open up the Sea of Marmara like Moses crossing the Red Sea!” Jozsef laughed. “I don’t think they can manage that.”