The Pale Horse

Eric B McCutcheon

Description

One man descovers a plot to bring on the end of all things. Gathering some close friends with the skills needed for the job, they will set out to stop evil men from doing something unfathomable.
Imagine The world being attacked by a man bent on world destruction, in the most insidious way imaginable, he will strike fear into every man woman and child alive.
One small group of people will try to stop it, and in doin so change the world forever. Determination and force of will can do so much, but can it stop Armageddon?
About author section: Years in the Army and a young life spent working with horses, meeting people of very type and variety, has given Eric the inspiration and desire to tell stories of all kinds. Every experience is just one more story to tell.

Sujets

• Horror
• Mystery
• Hurlements 2
• Trust
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: LifeRich Publishing
• Date de parution: 04 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781489739261
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE PALE HORSE
Eric B McCutcheon


Copyright © 2022 Eric B McCutcheon.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
LifeRich Publishing is a registered trademark of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.
 
 
LifeRich Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.liferichpublishing.com
844-686-9607
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-4897-3925-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4897-4432-6 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4897-3926-1 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022904233
 
 
 
LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 09/26/2022
Contents
Introduction
 
Act 1 The Betrayal
Act 2 The Rebirth
Act 3 Discovery
Act 4 Beginning Of The End
Act 5 Attrition
Act 6 Reckoning
Act 7 Humankin d ’s Descent
Act 8 Something Wicked
Act 9 Directly Into The Mouth Of Madness
Act 10 Where The Answers Lay Hidden
Act 11 Father, Oh, Father
Act 12

Dedicated to Laura Mielert Her character insight and inspiration has been Invaluable.

The End of Innocence
The light is often hidden by the dark.
We search for it desperately,
jumping at a shimmer, lunging at a spark.
The truth hides in the light, and it is sometimes
too much for our eyes to bare.
Yet we rush on with complete abandon,
flying where eagles dare,
tempting fate, reaching for the conclusion
that could leave us at the end of nowhere.
Yet we strain for the end of our own Innocence .
INTRODUCTION
I t was cold in Little Eagle. So close to the North Dakota border, the place caught every whimsical breeze from Canada. The woman walked along the road, bundled in as many coats and sweaters as possible. The vision had been vivid, clear, and realistic. Her old eyes held a haunted look. She was over ninety years old; she had quit counting some time ago and now had no honest idea of her actual age. Her red face was weathered and lined, and today the worry lines seemed deeper. This morning, she made her way toward the chapel; after the dream, she wanted to be somewhere full of peace. She had been awakened by her granddaughter Toni crying in the other room. The girl had been inconsolable from her own nightmares. And upon comparing the two nocturnal musings, she’d found they’d been frighteningly similar.
Toni and her siblings, Ricky and Nikki (twins), would be leaving within the hour to the big city to start a new life off the reservation; they would be saying goodbye to Standing Rock for a better, more lucrative life. Chicago was far away, and she would miss them dreadfully. And at her age, she was almost certain she would be saying a final goodbye to her grandchildren.
In her dream, the world had been swallowed by fire. In smoke, flame, and rubble, the world left behind was inhabited by the most awful things a mind could imagine—things that gnashed and clawed at anything that drew air. She kept telling herself it was only a dream and that she would shake it off. But something in her soul said otherwise. She would welcome death if it came before the realization of that terrible vision.
Now she stepped up to the chapel door, looking humbled by the snowy wind, and entered.
The reverend joined her in the back of the small chapel, taking a seat beside her. “Mary, what brings you here this early?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned about her.
She recounted the dream in detail, her eyes welling with tears as she went on. She expressed her sense that the vision had been a foreshadowing—more than just the random dream of an elderly Sioux woman. The reverend said little and held her hand as she spoke. Finally, she finished and hung her head, exhausted from telling him the tale of her nightmare vision.
“Many would tell you our beliefs and our heritage are the makings of a primitive people, and to some, that may be true. But in my own humble opinion, one person’s belief system is just as valid as another’s,” the reverend said softly. “Life will often test us in ways we do not expect or understand. I chose to follow the Christian God many years ago, and I still do to this day. That does not afford me the right to discount anyone else’s belief, though many in my position will adamantly tell those who don’t follow Christianity they’re wrong. I myself do not work in that way. Mary, this dream you told me of is truly a frightening thing. I will say my prayers for us all. And all any of us can do is keep living the best way we know how, holding our deepest beliefs to our chests and living as righteously as we possibly can. For it has been written in every system of belief that the end will come. And in every version of this end, we as a people will not have a choice in it.” The reverend sounded shaken.
After gathering herself and saying goodbye to the gentleman, Mary slipped back into the snowy morning to bid her grandchildren farewell. They would start their journey today, and she wanted to pass on a few bits of Sioux wisdom.
ACT 1
THE BETRAYAL
Five years later
I t all began at 2:30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning. Gabriel Allen’s phone rang. He was sleeping peacefully, dreaming of beaches and bikinis, and he didn’t want to answer the call. In the city of Fayetteville, North Carolina—or, more precisely, Fort Bragg—an early morning call was no reason to get excited, except that it was Wednesday morning, and his troops were probably in bed, not out drinking. He wished he could count the times he’d bailed one of his troops out of trouble. They were salt of the earth and weren’t bad for the sake of being bad. But a half gallon of tequila well upped the ante every time. Gabe rolled over and snatched for the cord to find the phone, knocking over his lamp in the process. He finally clawed his way over to the handheld device putting it to the side of his head.
“Captain Allen speaking,” Gabe said groggily.
“Allen, this is Cooper. We have a problem.”
Colonel Jim Cooper was an aging Vietnam vet who looked a bit like Sam Elliot. He had taught Gabe everything he knew about the military and life. He was more like a father than a superior officer. His early years in the army could be defined by the man Jim Cooper had been, was, and always will be. He was the true soldier, the one who didn’t take no for an answer, the one who taught Gabe what it meant to do the right thing even when doing the wrong thing seemed the only answer. Gabe instantly woke and prepared his soldier mind to take in every tidbit of information. He scratched his shaved head, rolled his feet out of the bed, and sat straight up, realizing the gravity of the situation.
“What do we have, Colonel?” Gabe said, wiping the last bit of sleep from his eyes.
“A group of ex-Russian KGB, far as we can tell; it’s uncertain at this point. They seem to be planning a large-scale attack on an American embassy in Ukraine,” the colonel said.
“When?”
“Monday morning. We need you to ready your team and intercept them in Serbia this very evening.”
“Hang on, sir. What are we really dealing with here? I have a lot on the line. As for my men, most of them are new blood. What in truth are we dealing with?”
“Yours is not to question, Allen, but to do. I know you understand the gravity of this,” Jim all but shouted at the younger officer.
“I’ll be there in ten, Colonel.”
Gabe hung up and proceeded to phone Ian Zelling, his second in command, so he could get the word to Collins, their platoon sergeant and to let him know what was coming. Ian was less than thrilled to receive Gabe’s call at that hour. He answered in typical Ian fashion, growling, “This better be good, Cap.”
“We have a situation, Ian! We have to report in ten,” Gabe instructed.
“ Ten goddamned minutes ?” Ian barked.
“It’s a serious situation, Ian,” Gabe said calmly.
“I’ll be there, Gabe. Damn it,” Ian grumbled as he hung up the phone. Gabe could hear a female voice in the background complaining about the call.
Ian Zelling and Gabe had come to the army on the same day and had been given the same duty assignments. They had volunteered for airborne school together and had endured hanging in the parachute harnesses for hours on end, leaving them both with raw crotches and sore muscles—on only to be pushed from a ragged C-130 over the Chattahoochee River. They’d both found each other in the same platoon in ranger school. That hell they’d both endured with a smile. And finally, they’d both joined Special Forces, where the stress was put on their minds more than on their bodies. They were like brothers, and at Fort Bragg, they were referred to as double trouble. The men were inseparable whether on duty or off.
Ian wiped the sleep from his eyes and ran around his messy apartment in a frenzy, preparing. His mind was a boiling mess of anger over orders and authority and the