Battle for the Known Unknown Ch. 15

Several of the odd-shaped but swift robots were destroyed by the Holy Crusaders' powerful guns, but more than enough survived such attacks to disable their assailants. This they did not by killing the valiant crusaders, but simply by immobilising them. One by one, the crusaders fell to the ground either smothered in viscous liquids or put out of action as their suits became rigid and unresponsive.

The blasts from Isaac's own gun were deflected by an approaching robot that resembled more a wraith than a machine. He discovered that he couldn't get his suit to move however much he struggled. He was rigid and helpless, one foot still raised above the ground and an arm outstretched. His heavy gun slipped from his arms and dropped harmlessly to the ground. He was totally incapable of picking it up or, indeed, of making any movement at all.

Then, to add insult to injury, when the entire crusading force was paralysed, Isaac was engulfed in a blue cloud of dust which swept his military suit and weaponry clean from his body. They completely vanished and Isaac slumped naked and hairless onto the lawn. He was now no longer in what he'd momentarily imagined to be Heaven. He was as naked and helpless as a penitent soul on entering Hell.

Isaac focused his gaze on the grass in which his nose was buried. He was as ashamed of his nakedness as Adam and Eve were on the day of their Disobedience. Although he could blink, breathe and even talk, he was still unable to move his body.

Isaac wondered whether there were texts in the Gospels that described his predicament. Most verses that came to mind described the fate not of the virtuous but of the vicious and damned. It was said in Chapter Thirty-two Verse Twenty-four of The Fifth Book of Moses: Called Deuteronomy "They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust." However, it was also said in Chapter Five Verse Twenty-two of The Book of Job: "At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth."

This verse gave Isaac a few crumbs of comfort as he slumped in wait for many more hours than the minutes it took for the invasion to be thwarted and awaited the punishment that he was certain the atheist devils would visit him. He was certain that the godless would punish him with more cruelty than even the guardians of faith could contemplate. Unlike him, they didn't fear divine retribution if they were judged to have taken pleasure in meting out punishment. Their inhumanity wasn't constrained by fear of Eternal and Merciless Divine Justice. What torment would they unleash on him?

Sadistic punishment was precisely what Isaac expected, as did all his vanquished comrades. For what other purpose than malevolent cruelty could their lives have been so far spared?