Angel Fire East
Chapter One
He stands at the edge of a barren and ravaged orchard looking up
from the base of a gentle rise to where the man hangs from a wooden
cross. Iron spikes have been hammered through the man's hands and
feet, and his wrists and ankles have been lashed tightly in place so
he will not tear free. Slash wounds crisscross his broken body, and
he bleeds from a deep puncture in his side. His head droops in the
shadow of his long, lank hair, and the rise and fall of his chest as
he breathes is shallow and weak.
Behind him, serving as a poignant backdrop to the travesty of his
dying, stands the fire-blackened shell of a tiny, burned-out country
church. The cross from which the man hangs has been stripped from
the sanctuary, torn free from the metal brackets that secured it to
the wall behind the altar, and set into the earth. Patches of
polished oak glisten faintly in the gray daylight, attesting to the
importance it was once accorded in the worshipping of God.
Somewhere in the distance, back where the little town that once
supported this church lies, screams rise up against the unmistakable
sounds of butchery. ... read full excerpt from Angel Fire East ebook
