Apollyon's Saint The Unraveling

by Zachary Koukol

fire. After only a few yards he dropped motionless and continued to burn. The men inside the napalm strike were now nothing more than tender, their flesh melted with their gear as they laid motionless

  Gabriel walked through the flames and could see the horror on the faces of the soldiers in the camp. They were filled with rage and hate that they would carry with them through their whole lives. Their friends, comrades, and brothers were being ripped from the world in the most violent and meaningless fashion known to mankind, just a casualty of war.

  Gabriel made it to the edge of the blaze and just as he did he felt the shock and was now in another moment from Mitch's horrifying past. They were landing at an airport back in the states. From outside the window Gabriel could see a large crowd waiting to welcome the war hero's home. The men grabbed their packs and lined up to exit the plane. Gabriel walked right behind Mitch as he stepped on American soil for the first time in far to long.

  His mission was complete, most people would say failed. Many of his men were sent home in closed caskets. But Gabriel knew that there was no man who could have done a better job with the impossible task Mitch was forced to face. No medal's or congratulations were waiting from him, just the nightmares, and the thought that some of his men were returning home as he was to start their lives once again.

  Standing behind Mitch, Gabriel felt so unworthy of the life he was given. Before he grabbed Mitch's arm he was still a self-centered child who could not face adversity in life. Instead he always looked for a way to avoid his problems. But the man in front of him walked with that same sureness and courage that he did throughout the war.

  Before Mitch was a bright new world and as he stepped off the plane he finally had a chance to see it. As they walked down the steps and onto the airfield many of the soldiers family ran to them and embraced them. But Mitch just smiled and walked through the crowd and into the airport.

  Once inside Gabriel could see armed guards holding back a crowd of people from getting inside. Mitch went over to a pay phone and called for a cab. Once he was done he hung up the phone and walked out the doors to where the guards were keeping the world out.

  “FUCK YOU BABY KILLER!” a man shouted from the crowd. Mitch now dropped his head down and tried to walk past one of the guards. “Wait, sir you might want to wait inside” One of the guards told Mitch. “I was just going to wait for my cab” Mitch told the guard.

  “We will direct him around back, just wait inside please” The guard said. Mitch turned around to go back inside. One of the men in the crowd threw a bottle that flew right past his head and smashed into the door. “Take that you pig!” the man shouted. The mob now pushed forward and the guards were struggling to hold them back.

  Mitch went back inside the airport. The confident stride was now gone, something Gabriel never even seen in Mitch during combat. He held his head low to the floor and took a seat on the floor in the airport. Mitch sighed and struggled to fight back his anger. He had hoped once back home the war would be over. But it was clear that he had many more battles yet to face.

  Gabriel sat down next to Mitch and just as he did he was tossed back into present time and in his hand was on the arm of the old war hero. Gabriel let go of his arm “I..I'm sorry Mitch” Gabriel said as he ran for the bathroom. Once inside one of the stalls Gabriel threw up his whiskey. He was crying to the toilet and it was not because he was drunk, but because such a glorious leader of men had to live with those horrors.

  Mitch should be given the highest honor's in our nation but instead people just viewed him as one of Marlov's delusional old drunks. No one in society could even handle the nightmares of war let alone seeing it in first person. Gabriel finished throwing up and wiped the tears from his face. He headed back out to the bar and sat down next to the man.

  Ashley pretended she did not even notice that he was gone but Gabriel knew better. “Its been, well a very long time since someone called me Mitch, do I know you son?” Mitch asked. “Um no sir, I just heard someone call you that in passing once” Gabriel said. “Can't be, everyone in Axal knows me as Michael, Mitch was a nickname given to me back in the war” Mitch said.

  “Oh well maybe I was mistaken and it was just a coincidence, I'm sorry Michael” Gabriel said trying not to seem out of the ordinary. “No, it's okay just been many years since I heard that. I actually miss the name now but tried to forget it” Mitch said. “Hey can I buy you a drink?” Gabriel asked. “I must refuse, the miss is at home and well I’m already going to be in trouble!” Mitch said as he got up from his chair.

  “Well you have a good night, sir” Gabriel said fighting back tears. “And to you as well” Mitch replied as he walked off with a limp. Gabriel had met few good men amongst Axal let alone a leader of good men. Now more than ever he wished that whiskey would have stayed in him long enough to get a buzz going.

  Wishing he could drowned the images in his head from Vietnam, Gabriel could only sit at the bar and stare into the souls of the drunks in Axal. The bar was filling up now with darkness falling over the little mountain town. Men tired from a hard days work looking to drink off the thoughts of their shitty boss and difficult lives.

  Thinking back to what Apollyon and David said, Gabriel now realized after seeing the earths darkest moments that all mankind deserved a chance at their trial of faith. No matter how corrupt, wicked, self-centered or destructive the world was, it deserved a chance. Gabriel knew that even though he held the fate of the world in his hand, so did every person on the planet.

  Would they choose to simply consume the earth's resources and reproduce more consumers like a vicious virus. Or would they end their ancestors line of sin and wickedness and find a way to save their planet. Some would simply be content with destruction and go on living life as mindless consumers. That is what Apollyon wanted for his legion, people too blind to care that just by living their normal life, they were destroying the hopes of others.

  With how rapidly mankind was reproducing the population in one hundred years would be more than 3 times the close to 7 billion it is. Gabriel only had to resist from sinning and the world would most likely meet its own doom in the coming centuries. Now he sat in the bar imagining how it would be. Another ruler born only from the depths of Apollyon's hell who would send off a nuclear apocalypse.

  Gabriel found it ironic that the very thing Apollyon wanted from the dawn of Adam, could be his undoing. With man gone his legion would fester in the depths of hell. No lives to torture or turn to ruin. No more beautiful chaos from men such as Daniel who Apollyon seemed so fond of. What would be left without man, just a heaven he was cast from. The hell he created that is made of sinners but deprives the man of free will to do so.

  What fun is there in the expected, Apollyon expected sin from those in hell, but those on earth were free to choose besides those who suffered the sin of their forefathers. Apollyon would almost cease to exist without the man he hated since their creation. He was winning his war with god. But even if he somehow proves god wrong it would be as if a suicidal proved he could take his life.

  So was Gabriel's purpose to turn from temptation so Apollyon could win, or so mankind could have a chance to change their impending doom. Gabriel knew what Apollyon wanted from him but what was it the god he did not know wanted. The only way Gabriel knew god existed was because Apollyon did. Why couldn’t god just show him the way.

  Everyday some man was reborn with the enlightenment of god and found new meaning in their life. Though according to Apollyon Gabriel was the last man on earth not destined for hell. So they all simply had blind faith that god was with them, while Apollyon led them to his hell. Gabriel's mind was running in circles, the same ones scholars in religion and atheism went over for centuries.

  Looking around the bar Gabriel saw the destroyer Apollyon in his fine clothes made for a king of suffering. He was sitting at a table and with him was a beautiful young woman. She was meatier than most women, built in closer resemblance to a man. She had on a dark lin
en robe and straight red hair. In front of her on a plate was an apple with a bite mark in it.

  Apollyon motioned for Gabriel to join them. Gabriel got up from his bar stool and walked over to the table. As he walked he looked around the room at the people in the bar. It was as though Apollyon and Gabriel no longer were within the realms of the living.

  Apollyon got up from his chair and pulled it out for Gabriel.“Sit Gabriel, I want you to meet someone” Apollyon said. Gabriel sat down in the chair and he locked eye's with the woman. Her eye's were almost enchanting and Gabriel could not look away. Gabriel was mesmerized by the woman, it was like everyone in the room just faded.

  “Gabriel, I want you to meet the mother of all living. Or so many call her, she was the very first that I breathed the choice of life with free will into. Her name is Eve, the original sinner. Without her the world would know nothing of pain, suffering, or me” Apollyon said.

  Gabriel could hear the words from Apollyon but he was still in the seductive grasp of the original sinner. “Hahaha, so weak your kind is to her ways Gabriel. Even you cannot break from the eye of temptation. You sit here amongst drunken demons seeking wisdom of god, so here it is. Take her hand and I