Saul Hated God - posted Dec 18th

Saul Hated God (working title)
By Patrick Smith

This short fiction is set in the cyberpunk world of Interface Zero, 2088. Specifically, in the Christian Coalition States that cover what was once the Southern US.

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Colonel Saul hated God.

He was a Christian, and a good one. That meant serving God's will and His representatives on earth. But Saul hated . . . could not forgive God for the things he had been made to do.

And so, as his men rolled into the Appalachian farm house - a warren of the filthy subhuman dirt farmers - Saul was staring at the sky.

They had been wandering around these God cursed mountains for weeks, trying to hunt down that devil bitch and her coven - rebels against the Lord's Coalition of Christian States. Beneath the pissy, crappy sky, they had tracked her and lost her again and again.

He had finally set his men to questioning civilians. She was getting aid and support from somewhere. HQ Intelligence had merely nodded and the next day a dispatch was broadcast saying spy satellites had compromised atmospheric scrambling, and to do no ungodly act beneath a clear sky.

Colonel Saul studied the sky - a storm front was roiling to the west while to the east it was a deep, unmarred blue.

The dirty grubbers didn't even have the decency to resist. There was some shouting - a boy had run out with a squirrel gun and his men had had to put the child down. Other than that and the wailing, they quietly allowed themselves to be herded in doors to await the Inquisitor.

Inquisitor Jones marched up the ridge to where Saul stood, surveying the farm house and his men. He waited for a while, then coughed politely.

"Report."

"The people," Jones managed to put infinite contempt in to that word, "have not seen her, nor heard of her, nor offered her any aid." Jones did not add that they were not lying - Saul knew they would have been incapable of decieving an Inquisitor.

"Would they? If she appeared, would they help her?"

"Oh, yes, Colonel. Without question."

Saul watched the storm clouds slide across the sky.

"Burn it. No survivors."

Jones left in silence. Saul was glad, he didn't want to hear the joy in his Inquisitor's voice.

Colonel Saul hated God.