by Brian Godawa
“Is not this entire land full of such evil?” asked Abraham. “What makes Sodom and Gomorrah any different?”
“It is the source of the river, the hive of the hornets, the den of lions. Watchers are engaging in atrocities there that I sent the Deluge to stop. I am going down to see whether they have done according to the outcry that has come to me.”
“Would you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” challenged Abraham. “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city? Would you not spare the city for those fifty righteous, or would you kill them all? I cannot imagine you putting to death the righteous along with the wicked as if they deserved the same judgment. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
El Shaddai continued to stare out at the two departing angels, now down in the valley on their journey. “If I find fifty righteous in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
The angels were crossing the plain and getting smaller in the distance.
Abraham broke the silence again, “My lord, I am but dust and ashes speaking to the very Creator of the heavens and earth.”
“Say it, Abraham,” said El Shaddai.
“Okay, what if there are only forty five righteous people in the city? Would you destroy the whole city for lack of five?”
El Shaddai knew what Abraham was thinking. “I will not destroy Sodom if I find forty-five there. I will not destroy it if I find forty, or thirty, or even twenty righteous there.”
Abraham winced a bit and said like a humble sheep, “Lord, please do not get angry, but…”
“For the sake of ten righteous, I will not destroy the city.” El Shaddai had now grown distant in his look.
And with that, El Shaddai went walking off in a northerly direction away from Abraham and the other two angels who were already on their distant way to the southeast.
Chapter 58
Ba’al led Ashtart down the underground tunnel in a dog collar. It had been thirteen years since the battle of nine kings where Marduk had defeated Ashtart and became Ba’al, the king of the gods of Canaan. Ashtart’s plan had been set back generations with the devastation of her giant progeny throughout the land by Chedorlaomer’s forces. But with the addition of Ba’al as the Most High God of Canaan, the two of them together could do what she could not do alone. Ashtart had revitalized the original program of miscegenation of the Watchers. The rest of the pantheon of gods were fearful of the consequences of such a pursuit, since El Shaddai had already flooded the earth the first time such a course of action had been undertaken. But with the two most powerful divinities united, the pantheon could do little but sit back and see what happened.
Ba’al and Ashtart entered a special caged room they called “the pit,” where they had been pushing the envelope of their human experimentation.
“How is our little Blob?” said Ashtart. She grabbed a bucket of slop feed and threw it onto a bizarre naked monstrosity that filled the cage floor before them. The sounds of one hundred different human beings fused together into a “blob” of human flesh filled the chamber. They had been surgically and magically amalgamated into one large biomass of humanity, a human unity of oneness with a hundred different mouths, genitals, and anuses.
The nearest of the humans tried to lick the slop up to fill their grumbling bellies. Others cried out in misery.
“Oh, keep your yaps shut!” yelled Ashtart. “You should learn to share more anyway! You are all part of the whole, so learn to suppress your selfish individualism!”
It was a physical incarnation of their pursuit to eradicate distinctions in the created order. They had intermingled kinds such as human and divine, human and animal, male and female, and other chimerical hybrids. But this was the attempt to create a oneness of human beings that would elevate the collective above the individual. As individuals, they all pursued self-interest, which led to independent thinking and freedom of thought and division. But this would not do for a kingdom that sought to control the masses through dependency.
As an inseparable part of the collective, if one of them died, then that rotting corpse affected all those around them. This responsibility for one another ensured that everyone worked to keep the collective alive or suffer their own ultimate demise.
As a mass of fused beings, they had to help feed each other, keep each other healthy, clean each other’s defecation, or they would all get diseased and die. No room for selfish individuals in this mass of flesh and bone, in this blob of humanity.
But Ashtart was getting tired of this pet. She wanted more. She wanted to explore the limits of occultic possibilities. To her, there were no limits to the science of experimentation. If it could be done, it ought to be done. Humanity was a sacred shibboleth to be violated and the natural order, a creation of El Shaddai to be corrupted. She had been working on occultic spells that might make his Blob come alive as one giant creature of obedience to her, if all their minds could be melted into one mind, that mind could move with one accord as one creature. And that creature would do the bidding of Ashtart as her meat puppet.
She thought she had finally found the spell that would transform the blob into that solitary creature, but had not had the opportunity to try it out yet because she was beholden to Ba’al’s whims, both sexual and martial.
Ba’al was more interested in building his kingdom of power in Canaan. They were populating the land with the Nephilim seed through their breeding of giants having sent them out to start new clans throughout the land. The other gods of Canaan; Molech, Dagon, Asherah, and the others were helping to secure the region with varieties of cult practices to ensure that the god of this land would not be El Shaddai, but the Serpent. The five cities of the plain, headed by Sodom and Gomorrah, had been a dream come true for their scheme.
But it had been too excessive. Ashtart and Ba’al had become addicted to the forbidden union with the daughters of men. They had been warned by Mastema himself that the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah had reached heaven. Ba’al and Ashtart were just arrogant enough to count on the fact that El Shaddai would never flood the earth again. But a flood was not the only means of cleansing corruption.
Lot had eaten lunch with his family and was preparing to return to the gate for more adjudication. In fact, he could not wait to get away. His family had become intolerable for him. He had lost control of his headship years ago. The city was a hive of centralized thought that had much more control over its citizens than did individual families. His twin daughters were educated by the government of the city in order to ensure a unified way of thinking. They were but fourteen years old, and were convinced that the world revolved around their greatness. They were called “Ba’al Youth,” as were all children of the city. They had become so thoroughly indoctrinated in the religion of Ba’al and Ashtart that they would even inform on their own parents if they expressed thoughts that went against the state or the gods. Lot cringed every time he heard them singing their songs of indoctrination around the house about Ba’al’s new world. He is gonna change it, rearrange it. We are gonna change the world. Lot had lost control of them long ago. They had become little monsters out of his control.
And his two little monsters had been betrothed to young men of the city by the Ministry of Love, a government department that was responsible for taking over the matchmaking of marriages in order to ensure the continuity of the city-state. Though marriage had been spurned, even castigated, procreation was still necessary or the society would die out. Thus the Ministry of Love required all youth to engage in breeding by issuing “propagation licenses” for a period of time in order to maintain population replenishment. Of course, this was not allowed to interfere with their cult of free love with any and all beings, human, animal, or god.
Lot’s wife, Ado, did not make life any easier for him. She had been an orphan of Sodom, so from birth had been groomed to be a dependent slave upon the “good welfare” of the city. She let the children rule their lives. She let the city define her. So
dom was her true home, and the government, her true family. She had submerged her identity into the whole and found her identity as a child of Sodom.
Lot had been emasculated, as had all men of the Cities of Love. Patriarchy or male headship in the family had been stamped out long ago by reducing men to workers of the collective without individual initiative. The collective of mediocrity suppressed leaders in order to keep others from looking bad. Everyone was equal, so no one was exceptional — and therefore everyone was manageable. When the state controls the family, it becomes the true god of the people, and only one god may rule at the top: Ba’al.
Lot trudged his way to the gates of the city. He had a deadness in his eyes. He had given up. He felt helpless, a victim without the ability to make a difference. So he survived. He became a cog in the wheel of the machine of madness. He became a bureaucrat.
He made it through another mindless day with barely a memory of what he had said or done, and now, he was going to go drinking. He wanted his family to be asleep when he arrived home so he could avoid the nagging of his wife and the selfish demands of his daughters. He just wanted to sleep. He wished he could sleep the rest of his life.
But as he was preparing to leave the gates, he noticed something that woke him from his slumber. Two visitors approached the city entrance. They did not have beasts of burden, and appeared to be all alone. One was huge and both walked with a confidence he had not seen in a long while.
And when they approached him, he knew exactly who they were: Angels. They stepped up to him and he bowed low to the ground and said, “Please, turn aside to your humble servant’s house and wash your feet, and you may rise early and be on your way out of Sodom.”
Mikael said, “We will spend the night in the town square.”
Lot’s blood ran cold.
“Trust me, please, dear sir. You do not want to do that. Sodom is not a place of hospitality for strangers — or angels.”
Mikael raised his brow in curiosity. This Lot was quite observant.
The fact was that Sodom’s inhabitants had become so experienced in copulation with strange flesh, that they could smell an angel a mile away, and some had already done so in the gate. Lot looked around nervously as some of the more surly elements began to congregate nearby, observing the strangers’ interaction with Lot.
Lot did not bother to tell his visitors that in the town square were rape chairs where the citizens would take visitors, strangers, and other unwary traveling merchants, to gang rape them before sending them on their way. Their depravity had reached such depths of obscenity that normal sexuality was simply not arousing to these foul brutes. They had become like unthinking animals, creatures of malevolent instinct born to be caught and destroyed, waterless clouds driven by a storm. They kept seeking deeper and deeper thrills of the forbidden. And the ultimate forbidden experience of lustful indulgence was the pursuit of unnatural flesh, the sexual violation of an angel.
The gathering men were watching the large angel with particular desire. Yes, he would be a more difficult catch, but it made the trophy that much more thrilling and titillating to their lusts.
“Please, please,” said Lot to the visitors. “Come with me now. It is already getting dark, and this is no place to be after dark.”
Mikael said, “Okay. Lead the way elder Lot.”
Lot look surprised at him. “How did you know my name?”
Mikael said, “We are angels after all.”
Lot shrugged and led them quickly to his home in the heart of the city.
Chapter 59
Lot’s wife Ado made a meal for the angels and the entire family sat with them as they ate.
She watched them with a wary eye and said to Lot. “You know we are breaking several laws by housing these men here for the night.”
His eldest daughter, Ishtar said, “Father, we are duty bound to report this to the Ministry of Hospitality.”
“I know, I know,” said Lot. He was scrambling, trying to figure out how he could possibly get out of this mess he had gotten himself into.
Mikael watched the nervous Lot with sadness. “You have done what the Creator requires. Be strong and courageous, man of faith. El Shaddai is your strength.”
Now Gaia, the youngest daughter piped up, “Blasphemy! You two are going to be in real trouble now.”
Mikael kept his eyes on Lot. “You need to take back authority over your family, Lot.”
“How dare you!” yelped Ishtar. “Ba’al Youth are the future of this world! We are the sons and daughters of Ashtart.”
Gaia added, “King Bera loves us, and you are the son of a mongrel!”
Suddenly, Lot banged his fist on the table and yelled like he had never yelled before at his family. “Ishtar and Gaia, shut your mouths or I will shut them for you!”
Ishtar and Gaia looked with fear at their father. But they shut their mouths.
The silence was broken by a loud crash outside and a pounding on the door. Ado jumped; the girls shrieked.
Lot sighed with resignation. “They followed us.”
He looked over at Mikael and said, “This is not good, my friend. You may be angels. But these miscreants have savaged worse.”
Mikael looked at the Destroyer, who only gave a slight smirk.
Lot said, “Let me see what I can do.”
He got out of his chair and went to the door. He lifted the bar across the heavy oak door, turned and said, “Lock the door behind me.”
Ado obeyed.
Lot stepped out into the night.
All around his house were a thousand shadows of the night. Riff raff, gangs, and the darkest elements of Sodom, both young and old. They had come for flesh, angel flesh — male angel flesh.
The leader, Belus, a giant of a man, with large muscles from mining, stepped out and said, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out, Lot. It is our right by law to penetrate them!”
The crowd around the house cheered. It was true. City legislation protected the citizens to engage in sexual rapine with strangers and merchants who visited the city.
Lot yelled back, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly!”
The crowd jeered him.
Belus was offended. “I am outraged! How dare you spew your hatred and intolerance calling us ‘wicked!’ You should be hanged for such criminal hatred!”
The criminal element cheered again.
Lot was undeterred. He knew that Mikael and the big one were angels, and he still maintained his shred of faith in El Shaddai, though he was sweating now, imagining his own torture and abuse along with the angels.
He approached Belus with a conciliatory tone, “Belus, listen to me. I have two virgin daughters who have not known a man. They are of age for their sexual freedom. Please, let me bring them to you to do as you please. But do nothing to these men, for they are under my care.”
Belus was burning with anger now. He turned to the others with a prophet’s oratory. “This man, Lot, came to sojourn in our good City of Love! Now, he sits in judgment over us?”
The shadows of Sodomites came out into the firelight of the torches carried by the bolder ones. There were at least a thousand in the open square alone, and God only knew how many more still hiding in the shadows.
Lot backed up to his door.
Belus pronounced like a judge, “I say we will deal worse with you than with those angels!”
The crowd yelled again, but now, they were becoming more agitated and less in unison. Belus was igniting them, but there would come a moment where he had no more control over them, and they would simply sweep over Lot and take what they wanted.
Suddenly, a large pair of hands reached from behind the door and pulled Lot into the house.
It was the Destroyer.
Mikael stepped out front, just as some of the men had decided to move and break down the door.
A group of ten of them jogged toward Mikael and riled the crowd forward.
Mikael then held h
is hand out and a bright ball of light seemed to appear from his hand and burst outward like an arc of lightning that blinded everyone in the open square.
The ten running men tripped over each other and fell to the ground. Others rubbed their eyes trying to get their vision back. But it was not going to come back. All thousand pairs of eyes had had their retinas permanently burned out. They were groping for the doorway, but were falling all over each other trying to find their way. Fights broke out over their stumbling and they started raping and brutalizing each other.
Inside, Mikael told Lot, “Have you any other family here?”
Lot said, “Just my sons-in-law betrothed to my daughters.”
“Go out the back and get them now. We are leaving.”
Lot obeyed and left out the back door.
Ado said, “What do you mean we are leaving?”
Mikael said, “The outcry against the pentapolis and its people has become so great before El Shaddai that he has sent us to destroy it.”
Ishtar blurted out, “I am going to tell Ashtart about this! You have no right!”
Gaia shook her little fists and ranted in a tantrum. “I am not going! I am not going!”
The noise of the commotion outside became riotous. The blindness had infuriated the men, but they were taking it out on each other in a riot of rage.
Lot came back in the back door. No one was with him.
He saw his two girls in a mutual tantrum, holding their eyes shut and crying, “I am not leaving! I am not leaving!”
He walked up and slapped both of them until they stopped in fear at the gall of their father.
But he was taking charge.
Mikael asked Lot, “Where are your sons-in-law?”
Lot shrugged. “They did not believe me. They thought I was joking.”
Which was a good thing, because Lot did not care for the two juvenile delinquents. They were sycophantic Ba’al Youth who had no shred of moral integrity.
Mikael said, “Leave now, lest you be swept away with the damned in punishment.”