The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle

by Len du Randt

  The Imperial Soldiers raised a demonic roar and Victor held up his hand to silence them.

  ‘They have made their choice,’ he said. ‘I want you to enter the city and slay the people hiding in there. Do not take prisoners. Decapitate them and kill the children in front of their mothers. Let their blood flow through the city streets like rivers.’

  The soldiers roared and cheered their approval.

  ‘My loyal people,’ said Victor and he raised his sword into the air. ‘Attack!’

  - - -* * *- - -

  Trevor first thought that the ground was shaking because of the heavy feet of millions upon millions of imperial soldiers charging toward Jerusalem. He soon realized that it was more than that. Much more.

  In the distance a building crumbled. Soon, the world was shaking so violently that Trevor was flung clear off his feet. A structure crumbled and fell on top of him, instantly engulfing him in darkness.

  - - -* * *- - -

  Timothy tried to keep his balance, but was violently yanked off his feet. He pulled himself up using all the strength that he could muster and his heart sank as he saw buildings crumble and collapse. The streets tore open, swallowing entire groups of people at once.

  He looked over the wall and saw that it was the whole Earth shaking and not just Jerusalem. The ground also swallowed large patches of Victor’s army; at some places even thousands at once. Timothy scurried down the watchtower ladder to see if anyone needed his assistance. He was halfway down when he realized that he had made a mistake. The Earth shook even more, and he lost his balance and fell.

  - - -* * *- - -

  The cave rumbled and large rocks fell to the ground. Ryan kept reading as much of the Bible as he could. He fell to one side and the Bible flew from his hand. He tried to regain his balance, but a large boulder fell onto—and crushed his leg. Ryan screamed out from the pain and he suddenly realized his fate.

  ‘Forgive me, Jesus!’ he shouted as the entire cave collapsed on top of him.

  - - -* * *- - -

  The Earthquake violently shook and tore at every landmass on Earth. The shockwaves caused major volcanoes to erupt. Those underneath the ocean spat out lava that instantly released massive clouds of poisonous gasses into the air. Soon, many villages, towns, and cities were engulfed in boiling lava.

  Famous landmarks—manmade or otherwise—were demolished within seconds of the quake starting. The Pyramids, Stonehenge, Mount Rushmore, and even a large section the Great Wall of China were all reduced to rubble.

  The shaking of the continents tore loose the San Andreas Fault along the North-western American Shoreline, causing entire cities to be swallowed by the ocean. The San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco areas all broke apart from the main continent and disappeared beneath the ocean. This resulted in even more tidal waves.

  Huge waves larger than skyscrapers dwarfed some of the world’s mega cities as if they were mere ant colonies. Islands such as New York, Britain, Madagascar, and Australia all disappeared within minutes. The Poles broke up and sank beneath the water too, and as the sea levels rose, most cities and inland towns and villages were flooded. Many people were still trying to regain their balance and leave their homes when the water channelled through their streets and flooded everything.

  The cities not affected by the poisonous gasses or floods were ablaze as gas stations and pipelines exploded. Nuclear power plants melted down and power outages unlike any before swept throughout the entire planet, leaving only a few grids sporadically intact.

  - - -* * *- - -

  What little remained of Al Jalil after the bombing stood tall and proud, almost as if it challenged the quake. From a distance, it appeared like an angry man, waving a fist at God. Then the ground around the city tore open and, in a matter of seconds, everything imploded as the Earth beneath the city gave way. Where the remains of a once magnificent city stood, there now was only a massive gaping hole.

  - - -* * *- - -

  After several minutes of shaking, the Earth finally calmed. Timothy was coming to. He first moved his head slightly in each direction as he checked for damage to his neck. He then moved his shoulders, arms, hips, legs, and feet. Only when he was totally sure that nothing was broken, did he try to get up. He picked up his radio and then surveyed the city in front of him. Random fires blazed and the bodies of men lay scattered in the streets. Some buildings had been reduced to nothing more than a pile of dusty rubble.

  ‘Alpha?’ a voice squawked over the radio.

  ‘This is Alpha, identify yourself.’

  ‘It’s India, sir.’

  ‘What’s the damage report, India?’

  ‘It’s bad, sir. We lost more than half our men. Some of our perimeter walls have crumbled, leaving huge gaps where the enemy can come through.’

  Timothy shivered at the thought. ‘And the women and children?’

  ‘They’re fine, sir.’

  He let out a sigh of relief.

  ‘I think you had better come here, sir.’

  ‘Why? What’s the matter?’

  ‘I would rather you see it for yourself.’

  - - -* * *- - -

  Timothy limped as fast as he could when he saw the group huddled together.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ he asked ‘India’ when he reached the men.

  The men gave way and revealed someone lying in a pool of blood.

  ‘Father?’ Timothy said and knelt down beside Malcolm. ‘What happened?’

  ‘It was a rock, sir,’ India said. ‘It cut open his head and fractured his skull.’

  ‘Tim...’ Malcolm gurgled as blood bubbled out the side of his mouth.

  ‘Don’t speak,’ Timothy said and wrapped his arms around his father. ‘Someone get a medic!’

  ‘We already called it in,’ someone whispered as sympathetically as possible.

  ‘I...I want your forgiveness...son...’ Malcolm said painfully.

  ‘Don’t speak,’ Timothy repeated. ‘Save your strength. Help is on the way.’

  ‘For...the way I treated you...’

  Tears streaked down Timothy’s face. ‘There’s nothing to forgive, Father,’ he cried as he cradled Malcolm’s head to his chest. ‘There’s nothing to forgive...’

  Malcolm coughed and blood spurted from his mouth. ‘Tell Mary...’

  ‘Don’t talk like that!’ Timothy shouted. ‘You’re going to make it!’

  Malcolm’s body went limp as he exhaled one last time. Timothy held his father tightly as he wept bitterly. The other men took a few steps back to allow Timothy one last moment with his father.

  - - -* * *- - -

  Victor stood up and dusted himself off. Antonio joined him a minute later. They both surveyed the landscape together.

  ‘Our legions suffered great damage, my Lord,’ Antonio said and pointed to the large sections where the desert sand had swallowed hundreds of thousands of men and women.

  ‘We still have over a billion capable soldiers,’ Victor said, his voice little more than a low growl. His uniform was torn and his normally perfect hair sprawled out in all directions. ‘Is that the best you can do?’ he shouted and waved his fist menacingly in the air. ‘Is that all you’ve got?’

  Antonio knew better than to interrupt Victor now.

  Victor kicked sand into the air and cursed. ‘Now I will show you what I’ve got,’ he hissed between clenched teeth. ‘First I will kill all the men, and then I will torture the women and children in unthinkable ways until each and every one of them renounces you! And after that, I will kill them too, just to spite you!’

  ‘What do you want the soldiers to do, Lord?’ Antonio asked cautiously.

  ‘I want them to attack,’ Victor said. ‘I want them to flank the fortress and surround it. Storm it from all sides at once.’

  - - -* * *- - -

  With all his effort, Trevor managed to break through the rocks that had almost buried him alive. He breathed heavily as he fought his way through, taking in as muc
h fresh air as his lungs could manage. After some digging, he recovered his radio.

  ‘Tim...’ he said and then flinched as a sharp pain stabbed at his side. He figured that he had a broken short rib. ‘Alpha, are you there?’

  There was only static.

  ‘Alpha, this is Tango. Do you copy?’

  ‘Tango,’ a voice came from the radio. ‘This is Delta. Alpha is at the Temple area. Get there if you can, and bring along as many people as you can get hold of.’

  ‘Roger that,’ Trevor said and started his painful walk towards the Temple.

  - - -* * *- - -

  ‘I want all the men to gather here,’ Timothy said.

  Twenty minutes later, every man that was still alive in the city stood at the base of the Temple steps; everyone except the scouts that had been strategically positioned on walls around the city.

  ‘Enormous casualties have fallen on our numbers as well as the enemy,’ Timothy said once he had everyone’s attention. ‘Yet the enemy remains as many as the sands of the sea.’

  ‘What are we to do?’ someone shouted from within the crowd.

  ‘I want us to lay down our weapons,’ Timothy said.

  ‘What? Have you gone mad?’ another shouted from within the crowd.

  ‘This is not our war,’ Timothy said. ‘This is between God and Satan. No amount of fighting from our side can even dent Victor’s army.’

  The crowd was silent.

  ‘We all proclaim our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,’ Timothy said. ‘Now let us display that faith. Lay down your weapons and worship.’

  Trevor was the first to throw down his gun. A few more men dropped their weapons and, before long, a stockpile of machine guns, pistols, and other weapons had been gathered up.

  Timothy began to sing a song of praise as more men dropped their weapons, and later the other men joined them in worship. Finally, everyone was singing and praying as the shouts and marching from outside the city grew louder and louder.

  - - -* * *- - -

  ‘Charge!’ Victor shouted. ‘Tear down the gates and the walls!’

  Thousands of Imperial Soldiers charged the city. It would only be a matter of minutes before they would reach the walls and the gates, and then they would flood the city.

  Dark clouds shrouded the heavens, and lightning bolts flashed in the skies from one side of the horizon to the other in rapid succession. The advancing army stopped as thunder rumbled loudly overhead.

  ‘What’s that?’ someone shouted and pointed at something in the air.

  ‘It’s a meteor or something,’ someone else shouted.

  ‘It’s definitely burning,’ someone commented, ‘but it’s no meteor.’

  Victor stared at the shape in the sky above Jerusalem. He recognized it as a cross; a massive, burning cross.

  ‘That thing must be as large as the city itself,’ Antonio whispered to himself.

  ‘Don’t stop, you fools!’ Victor shouted at his legions. ‘Charge!’

  His armies continued their advance behind their undeterred leader.

  - - -* * *- - -

  ‘They’re breaking through!’ someone shouted as Imperial Soldiers broke down walls and many climbed over with the use of ropes attached to grappling hooks. Hundreds piled through the huge gaps in the perimeter walls that had cracked open during the Earthquake.

  ‘They weren’t supposed to get this far,’ Timothy said softly as he saw the black mass on top of the walls. ‘Run for shelter!’ he shouted.

  Everyone scattered at once, most of the men heading for the houses in which their wives and children were hiding. The swarm of Imperial Soldiers were upon them before they could get there. Trevor also bolted for a house, hoping that he would be able to hide in a closet or under a bed.

  All around him men were cut down by the large swords of the Imperial Soldiers, and all he could do was run while people he knew were being killed.

  - - -* * *- - -

  Timothy ran for the weapons. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to beat Victor’s army, but that wasn’t his intention. If he could get to the stockpile, he could perhaps use the guns to buy his men enough time to get away from the Imperial Soldiers that now swarmed the city from all around.

  He finally reached the pile and picked up a machine gun. Imperial Soldiers were entering homes and slaughtering many of the women and children before setting their homes on fire. The screams and roars were enough to drive any man insane.

  ‘Die, you scum!’ Timothy shouted and unloaded a magazine on an Imperial Soldier that was about to enter a house.

  Timothy finished off three more imperial soldiers when something hard struck him from behind, sending him tumbling over forward.

  - - -* * *- - -

  Trevor was about to enter the house when the sound of gunshots drew his attention. He looked to the right and saw Timothy fire a machine gun at a nearby Imperial Soldier. One Soldier approaching Timothy from behind made Trevor’s blood freeze.

  ‘Tim!’ Trevor shouted, but it was too late. The Imperial Soldier kicked Timothy behind the head and the young man fell head over heels. Trevor started to run toward them, hoping that he could draw the beast’s attention away from his friend.

  Timothy was on his hands and knees, clearly disorientated by the blow. The Imperial Soldier raised its sword high above its head. To Trevor everything suddenly played off in slow motion. He couldn’t hear his own shouting as he ran. He could only hear his heart beat in his own ears.

  Timothy looked at Trevor, and for a moment time stood still.

  Sound returned to Trevor’s ears and, with one swift strike, the Imperial Soldier ended Timothy’s life.

  - - -* * *- - -

  Trevor wanted to run, but his legs were weak. They wouldn’t respond to his commands. The Imperial Soldier howled and then left Timothy’s body and approached Trevor. Trevor tried to run, but couldn’t. The grotesque soldier came nearer still. In a matter of seconds, the monster was upon Trevor and knocked him over with one powerful blow.

  Trevor’s head was spinning and his nose and mouth seeped blood. He spat the blood and tried to get up, but his arms failed and he sank to the ground.

  Please Lord, he prayed. Please come!

  The Imperial Soldier raised its sword high above its head.

  Please Jesus...

  A loud clap of thunder and a brilliant flash of light caught everyone’s attention. The Imperial Soldier, still holding its sword high above its head, grunted and looked skyward.

  STOP! A voice shouted from the heavens with such force that everyone in Victor’s army dropped to the ground at once. The brute fell down next to Trevor, its sword barely missing his head as it clanged on the hard ground next to him.

  ‘It’s You...’ Trevor whispered and he started weeping. ‘It really is You...’

  - - -* * *- - -

  It took a few minutes for Victor and his people to gather enough strength to move again.

  ‘Don’t just cower there,’ he growled at his army. ‘Get up and attack!’

  - - -* * *- - -

  The skies transformed from a deep purple to a dark red in a matter of seconds. Victor could see streaks of something coming down from the heavens and, a few seconds later, boulders of fire and burning sulphur crashed into the midst of his army.

  The impact of each boulder disintegrated thousands of Imperial Soldiers at once, sending many flying through the air and instantly incinerating hundreds of thousands of people.

  - - -* * *- - -

  Victor looked back in disbelief as millions of his troops were being eliminated.

  A brilliant light from above directed his attention away from the massacre and his heart stopped when he saw Him. An enormous man was slowly descending from the skies. Millions of angels flew around him, shouting and praising loudly.

  The light coming from the man illuminated the whole Earth. Other than the angels, there were millions upon millions of people coming down with Him. His eyes burned like fire, and His faci
al expression was that of an angered father.

  Leave my people! The descending man demanded with a thunderous voice. The Earth trembled slightly as his words rumbled like a raging river.

  ‘Make me,’ Victor shouted back and waved his fist defiantly in the air.

  The descending man lifted his hand, and the masses of people behind Him shot down through the air as lightning into the crowd of remaining soldiers of Victor’s army.

  Victor and Antonio could only look on helplessly as all the soldiers they had brought with them withered before their eyes. Their skins dried up and their eyeballs fell back into their sockets. Blood oozed from the empty sockets, the ears, noses, and mouths of Victor’s league of Imperial Soldiers as well as the rest of his army consisting of men, women, and children. Soon, a massive lake of blood had formed and Victor and Antonio found themselves waist deep in it. Apart from the two of them, there were no survivors.

  From nowhere, thousands of vultures descended and ripped at the flesh of the corpses drifting in the blood. The lake of blood extended even beyond the horizon.

  ‘We can still win,’ Victor said, his voice sounding desperate and unfocussed.

  ‘I’m right behind you, my Lord,’ Antonio motivated his leader, and the two of them waded through the blood toward the city.