A Pale Horse

The religious wars have begun and everyone, especially gays and intellectuals, get caught up in the sweep as opposing armies with logos on their guns such as Jesus Saves, Allah is Great and the simple six pointed star of Israel, scour the land looking for non-believers to capture. It’s as if the Cold War and Holocaust have mated to produce a bastard child, more evil and better armed than its parents, egged on by morally bankrupt politicians and talk show hosts spewing malevolent evil through vitriolic rhetoric personified by their favorite credo, “Hatred is Good.” A small group of unlikely survivors have banded together and tramp through the forest looking for safety. After months of freezing and near starvation, they stumble upon a Christian outpost flying the Crusader’s Cross, inhabited by a religiously fanatical husband and wife, who have taken scalps and brag about their kills with a frightening boastful joy, like hunters who have just bagged a deer. The inevitable Big Battle between the three religions ensues and the survivors hide in an old underground missile silo emerging after two years of living like mole people. The survivors have always understood that none of it ever had anything to do with God or religion and wonder if it’s ever possible to create a world without corrupting power. It’s what happens when people forget the lessons of tolerance and become obsessed with power.