The Seventh Seal (21 page)

The commander felt life draining from his body.  He wished
to shed the pain, to sleep and not wake up.

Sergeants drilled compassion out of the solider from the
very first hours of boot camp.  A good soldier was taught to react on instinct,
action before thought, and to achieve the objective at any cost.  All of these
ideas pushed empathy to the side.

Byron fought extensively in the hills of Afghanistan in the
1980s.  With the USSR at its peak, and in the midst of the Cold War against the
United States, he led troops through the hellish terrain.  Although he
collected many war stories, the Kremlin did not have enough firepower or
willpower to defeat the Afghan foot soldiers.  The Afghans knew the lay of the
land, they knew the local war lords, and no number of Russian tanks could
change that.

Byron took his share of Afghan women.  The only way to
instill fear in the local leadership was through inhuman celebrations, and
Byron studied the ancient masters of the Mongols.  He claimed, although the
legitimacy of that claim was in question, lineage from the great Genghis Khan. 
Once, the commander captured some Afghan rebels.  As they approached the next
village, the prisoners of war, dressed in Soviet fatigues and with explosives
strapped to their chests, would be the first ones sent into battle.

Once a village had been conquered, Byron salted the earth. 
He instructed his soldiers to round up all men between the ages of ten and
eighty.  Byron insisted on a bullet to the back of each of their heads.  Once
the women of the village finished watching the grim spectacle, the commander
let loose his soldiers.  After repeated gang rapes, the women pleaded for
death.  Before Byron set fire to the village, the heads of all those that had
been executed were stacked in a pyramid on the road leading into it.  Byron
took deranged pride in his revival of the Mongol war tactics.

From Afghanistan, the KGB offered Byron employment.  He
assassinated sympathizers to Democracy.  Whether it was Granada, the Falklands,
or Jerusalem, Byron eliminated all human targets on his docket.

He blinked again at the scene in front of him.  John’s eyes
were closed and his head turned as far away from Jana as possible.  Father had devolved
into a wild beast, his robes torn and covered with blood.  Two of the four
soldiers worked up to the precipice of violation.  The other two, after
securing her ankles, dropped their pants to their ankles and waited for a turn.

Byron lifted his nine millimeter and pulled the trigger
twice.  The deafening blast in the confined space of the basement blew out his
right eardrum.  The heads of the two men closest to Byron exploded in a burst
of pink flesh.  Their bodies fell to the floor behind Father.  Father turned to
look at Byron, but his eyes did not connect the noise with the destruction
wrought upon his men.

The man on Jana’s left reached down to grab the pistol off
his belt, now on the floor and tangled in his underwear.  The commander lodged
two bullets in his torso, the one to his chest killing him instantly.  The
flash of the muzzle and roar of the gun did not faze Byron.  His hand moved in
deathly syncopation with the cold steel.

Another shot knocked the man to Jana’s right against the
wall.  He slid down to the floor, leaving a meandering trail of hot blood on
the white wall.  The man clutched his throat as blood spurted from the gaping
wound below his Adam’s apple.  Mists of red tormented his final exhalations. 
Byron looked down at the four bloodied bodies on the floor.

For the first time since Byron fired his weapon, Father
moved.  He grabbed the tattered shoulder of his robe and wiped the blood and
gray matter from his face.  He looked at Jana, her head down and sobbing into
her chest.  Bits of flesh and fluid covered her naked breasts and pubic area. 
Jana’s head bounced up and down with every silent heave.  Father spoke first.

“You dirty piece of shit.  How dare you?”

“Step away from her,” replied Byron.

“You will hang for this.  I will make sure that you suffer
in this life and the next.”

Commander Byron kept his gun aimed at Father’s face while
the priest spoke.  Father took measured steps toward Byron until the barrel of
the gun was almost touching his blood-soaked face.

“You are nothing but a charlatan, a fake.  You claim to be a
man of God, but you are nothing more than a cold-blooded murderer like me.  I
cannot let you continue any longer.”

Father stepped up and pulled the barrel to his mouth.

“Go ahead then, you big coward.  Do it.”

Jana glanced at John, her eyes locking on his.  She closed
them tight.  John turned back to the unfolding stand off between Father and
Commander Byron.

“Where did you stray from your faith, Father?  At one time
you were a respected man of God.  What happened?”

Father laughed the deep, guttural laugh of a man on the
verge of insanity.

“You know nothing, you piece of garbage.  You have taken so
many lives that it makes me sick.  What right do you have to question my
motives?  This is not God’s will.  He did not intend to have pure evil walking
in His Garden.  The Holy Covenant came to purify, to cleanse the palace before
the King’s arrival.  I’ve spent my entire life trying to help drug dealers,
prostitutes, abusers, and murderers.  And you know what, Byron?  That’s all
over now, because God prophesized the Final Battle in Revelations.  He anointed
His church to destroy the evil that has plagued mankind for centuries.  The
Covenant has begun, and there is nothing you can do about it.  The First
Cleansing was just that: the first.  There will be more until we have brought
the Thousand Year Peace to our Lord.  He will sit upon the Seventh Throne and
rule the world of righteousness and holiness.”

“You’re a lunatic,” spat John, interrupting the conversation
between Father and Byron.  “No man of God kills innocent people in his name. 
You continue to perpetuate the same cycle of religious fanaticism that has
contaminated mankind for two thousand years.  You are a sadistic fraud.”

Father stepped away from Byron and picked up his hunting
knife.  He had raised it to John’s neck when another blast shook the room. 
Plaster and dust fell into John’s face from the hole in the wall punctured by
Byron’s warning shot.

“Back away from him, or the next one will rain your blood
down upon this floor.”

Father tossed the knife into the corner, where it clanged
off of the weapons of the dead soldiers.  The stench of burnt hair and feces
filled the room.  The smoke from the exploding gunpowder helped to mask the
wretched scent.

“I am at Death’s door,” said the commander.  “I have no
misconceptions about the price I will have to pay for my time here on earth.”

Jana opened her eyes, looking at Byron through a silent
waterfall of tears.

“I have made peace with my decisions,” he went on, “and am
willing to face the eternal consequences for them.  Have you?”

Father sneered at Byron and spat blood upon the dangling
medallions on his chest.

“I answer to a higher power than you, Commander Byron. 
There is nothing more I need to say.”

Byron aimed his weapon.

“Then die, you evil son of a bitch.”

The bullet blew a hole in Father’s abdomen and tore a ragged
handful of flesh from his back on the way out.  He fell to his knees and
brought his hands together in an attempt at prayer.  Father’s mouth moved
silently as blood poured over his bottom lip.  Byron put the barrel of the gun
to the top of Father’s head and pulled the trigger a second time.  Father’s
body crumpled to the floor at Jana’s feet.

The ringing in John’s ears prevented him from hearing the
silence.  He tasted the fear and relief in the air, and his eyes burned from
the smoke that enveloped the entire room.            

Byron stepped over the bodies and toward Jana.  John heard
two snapping noises and watched Jana’s hands fall from the holes and down to
her naked breasts.  She sat on the floor, clutching the remnants of her
clothes.

“I apologize for the pain I have inflicted upon you.  I wish
I could take back the pain and suffering I have caused throughout my life, but
I cannot.  My body is giving out on me.  I only ask that you let me leave and
find my own place to die.  But you may kill me if you wish.”

Jana rubbed her wrists, the broken one so swollen that she
could not bend it.  Commander Byron walked over to the corner of the room and
picked up Father’s knife.  He wiped it clean on his pant leg and handed it to
Jana.

“I don’t know what your future will be, but it is now in
your hands.”

“What am I supposed to do?” asked Jana.

Byron winced as he stepped over the bodies toward the
steps.  His cane would not support his life for much longer.

“What you believe you should do.  You are a creature of the
universe and you have Free Will.  Exercise it.  Those that surrender their life
to ‘faith’ risk the perversion of it.  Your world will no longer be the same,
but it is yours to make.”

Commander Byron stopped in front of John.  “Your life is
hers.  I wash my hands of it.”

Jana and John watched Commander Byron take each step.  His
knees buckled and his lungs pulled at the oxygen in the air.  His silhouette
disappeared down the driveway as the moon fought through the heavy clouds.

Neither John nor Jana said a word.  Neither one moved.  A
single gunshot echoed through the dead neighborhood, rumbling by the house like
a spring thunderstorm.

“Honey, cut me loose.”

“Why?”

John’s lower jaw fell at the same time his eyebrows peaked
on his forehead.

“More of them may be on their way here right now.  We need
to get out of this place.”

“Why, John?”

John’s body pleaded to be free from the bindings while his
mouth tried to answer her question.  He dropped his head down with a careless
shrug.

“John, do you remember the time we were alone on the lawn of
the Machek Building?”

John looked up again, nodding in confirmation.

“Do you remember what you said to me that night?”

“No, Jana I don’t.  Can’t we discuss this somewhere else?” 
The fear crept into John’s voice.

“You told me you’d always be faithful, no matter what.  You
told me you would never be tempted by someone else.  You said you’d leave me
first, because that was the honorable thing to do.”

He sighed again, looked back at the steps leading to the
driveway, then finally responded.

“Yeah, hon, I remember something like that.  What does it
have to do—”

The green glow of a cell-phone display interrupted John’s
question.  It lit Jana’s face from the chin up, giving her the look of the
possessed.  The light flickered as Jana navigated through numerous menus.  Her
eyes settled on one.  She throttled the smoky air with her phone and thrust it
at John like a weapon.  On the screen, he saw the subject line of a text
message.

wish u whr here

A grainy cell-phone picture loaded underneath the subject. 
John stared at it before Jana scrolled through a couple more, all of the same
variety, all in escalating shame.

“So this is what you’re worth?”

John straightened up and looked at the ceiling.  He exhaled
and shook his head back and forth.

“She drugged me, Jana.  It was all part of her plan to be a
spiteful, home-wrecking bitch.  And you’re letting her do it.”

Jana slapped John hard across his face and screamed at him.

“Don’t you dare shift the blame to me!”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t fucking sorry me.  You should have known better than
to let that whore put you in a compromising position.  You should have been
smarter than that.”

John shrugged as Jana continued

“I don’t care what you did.  As far as I’m concerned, these
pics say it all.  Is she still alive, John?”

He shook his head no.

“So now what?” he asked.

Jana slapped him again, this time harder.

“You really have no idea?”

Jana began to cry.  She set the knife down on an overturned
box and pulled the olive-green coat from one of the dead men on the floor.  The
sleeves swallowed her arms, so she rolled them up to the elbows.  Jana took a
handgun from one of the men and slid it inside the front of her jeans.  She
removed the belt from another to help keep her pants together without the
strategic top button.

John twisted in the bindings, his body contorting in an
attempt to break free.  Blood flooded his face while beads of perspiration
exploded on his forehead.

“Jana, I’m sorry.  I really am.  She slipped me X and I
don’t remember anything.  I have no idea what she did to me, honest.”

“I don’t care anymore, John.  Since all this shit went down,
I’ve wanted nothing more than to see your face again.  I dreamt about what I
would do and say to you if I ever got the chance.  Honestly, I was convinced I
was going to cut your dick off.”

“Jana, don’t do this.  We can get through it.”

“No John, we can’t.  You made your decisions and now you’ll
have to deal with the consequences.”

John glared at Jana and pulled as hard as he could on the
plastic zip ties keeping his wrists together.

“Let me go, Jana.  I’m tired of fighting with you.  If you
don’t believe me, and think I intentionally set out to cheat on you, fine.  If
you think I hooked up with Sarah and deliberately sent you those pics, there
ain’t nothing I can do about it.  But I’m telling you right now that I won’t
beg or plead for you, or my life.  I’ve had it with the fucking Holy Covenant
and all the bullshit that has gone down since.  I’ve had it with the constant
death and destruction.”

Jana picked up an old duffel bag that she filled with useful
items from her own pantry, the one from another time, another universe.  She
bundled the oversized coat around her waist and checked the batteries on the
flashlight.  Jana walked past John on her way to the steps that led to the
driveway.

“Know this,” said John.  “Since this shit went down, I’ve
done nothing but search for you.  You were the only thing keeping me alive.  If
you walk, we’re done forever.”

Jana slid the wedding band off her finger and placed it on
the step.  The ring created a tinny vibration as it spun to rest.

“I’m joining the Holy Covenant, John.  There isn’t any other
option.  I’m not spending my whole life running, fighting, and worrying about
the future.  I want to live.  I can bullshit whoever might be in charge.  I did
Catholic school for eight years, remember?”

John sneered.

“Go right ahead and conform yet again.  You call that
living, and I call it dying.  They’re gonna tell you what to say, think, and
do.  What kind of existence is that?  I can’t, and I won’t do it.  I’ll die
fighting if I have to.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, John.”

Jana started up the next step, but then stopped and came
back down and stood in front of John.  She felt his rapid breathing on her
cheek.

“We can build the new society, John.  We can be part of the
Covenant, the chosen few to live in the Thousand Year Peace.”

“You tell me we’re over and now you’re asking me to join you
in the Holy fucking Covenant, brainwashed and brain dead?  You should have cut
my dick off and made things easier on both of us.”

Jana shook her head and climbed up the stairs, out of the
cellar, and toward the driveway.  She stopped at the top and shouted back down
into the darkness.

“Good-bye, John.”