Free The Seventh Seal by J. Thorn Page A

getting worried, so I went out to my truck.  I
turned the key and pushed the on button on the radio.  At first I thought one
of the kids had messed with the tuner, but every one of my presets generated
the same white noise, as if the stations had disappeared.”
    Alex shifted in his seat again and stopped.
    “Go ahead, I’m listening,” said John.
    “Gimme a second.”
    John squirmed and looked out the window, trying to give Alex
time to pull it together.
    “The lights in our house and in every house on the street
went out.  At almost the same time, I heard bulldozers coming down the road. 
They weren’t bulldozers, but those damn Humvees sounded like it.  At the far
end of our street, I saw soldiers jumping out.  Within seconds, their guns erupted
with flashes of fire followed by loud cracks.  I heard screams and knew heavy
shit was going down.
    “I stepped out of the truck at the exact same moment a jeep
stopped in front of my house.  Someone yelled ‘freeze’ and I did.  I have no
idea why.  The next thing I knew I was facedown in a pile of wet leaves off the
edge of my driveway.  A knee or club was pushing down in the middle of my back
and I had trouble breathing.  Someone had ripped my wallet out and I could hear
them talking about my business cards I kept in there.  Another voice said
something about being ‘useful to Father’, but I couldn’t really hear the whole
conversation.  They zip-tied my hands and feet, and lifted me by my arms.  I
saw three soldiers knocking in the front door.  I…I heard Julie screaming.  I
could see the terror on my kids’ faces in the window.  There were more bursts
like firecrackers, more blasts of light, and then my house was silent.  I
refused to believe what had happened.  A soldier barked into a two-way radio
and another military vehicle pulled up.  It looked like an old-fashioned paddy
wagon, and functioned like one too.  A driver got out, walked around to the
back, and opened the two doors.  Another soldier helped the one on the radio to
toss me into the back of the van.  My nose bounced off the wheel well, knocking
me out cold.  When I woke up, I was flat on a gurney and surrounded by priests
in black shirts and white collars.  I thought for sure I was in Hell, being
tortured by priests for abandoning my Catholic upbringing.”
    John stopped the truck a half mile from the State Road
exit.  He placed a hand on Alex’s shoulder and pushed the vision of his own
wife from his mind.
    “I’m sorry, Alex.”
    “So am I, John.”
    “Take your time and say your piece.  I want to hear you out,
but I also need you in a proper frame of mind.  We could meet trouble once we
get off the highway and you need to be focused.”
    “There isn’t much more to tell.  I had been spared and
detained because I was not part of the established medical community.  I’m a
vet.  I think they killed most of the doctors because they linked them all to
abortion.  How sick is that?  Go ahead and ask me what you want to ask me.”
    “Your wife, your kids?”
    “I’m pretty sure they’re gone.  I’d like to get back to
Chesterland to find out, but it’s not worth the risk.  Once they realize we’re
not at my Shaker office, and that John the Revelator is gone, that house will
be one of the first places they check.”
    John sat in silence.  The truck idled, begging for another
run at a pile of twisted metal when Alex spoke.
    “Your wife?”
    “No,” was all John could bring himself to say.
    “What the fuck do you think is going on, man?  I would not
have been surprised if Al Queda, or the Iranians, or even the fucking Russians
pulled shit like this.  I would not have been surprised if a warhead had
detonated over DC.  But this… this shit is unreal.  These are our own troops,
goddamn it!”
    John shook his head and massaged the lumpy steering wheel
with his hands.  His voice rose.
    “Somebody, somewhere high in the ranks snapped.  Hitler