Sodom, Fire and Brimstone P. 2

00:00:00 Speaker 1: Previously on The Chosen People. 00:00:03 Speaker 3: The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense. The victims of this terrible wickedness plead for justice. The sin of both Sodom and Gomorrah is extremely serious. 00:00:17 Speaker 4: Yes, my lord. Your judgment will be carried out according. 00:00:21 Speaker 2: To your will. My lords, be welcome to the city of Sodom, the pride of the great cities of the plain! 00:00:30 Speaker 3: Please, allow me. 00:00:31 Speaker 1: To be your host while you stay here in these walls. Lot was so unattuned to the presence of God that he hadn't noticed what Abraham noticed. He did not recognize the divinity veiled behind their handsome faces, or the authority vibrating from their voices as they spoke. 00:00:50 Speaker 5: Lot! 00:00:51 Speaker 4: Who is it you're hosting in there? Who are those pretty men you're keeping all to yourself? 00:00:58 Speaker 1: The wood of the door was immediately met with the dull thunk of the blade of a dagger, followed by two pairs of fists. Just then, Lot felt a pair of strong, sure hands grasp his shoulders and hurl him aside. A blinding light illuminated the street behind the door. 00:01:16 Speaker 3: The light that refracted. 00:01:17 Speaker 1: Through the doorframe and the front windows was brighter than even the sun at its zenith.' Ah! 00:01:23 Speaker 2: I've been blinded! Can you see anything? 00:01:28 Speaker 4: Where is the door? What did you do to us? 00:01:32 Speaker 2: What foreign sorcery is this? 00:01:36 Speaker 4: The evil and vile atrocities have caused a great outcry against its people. 00:01:42 Speaker 2: It has become so great before the God Almighty that he has sent us to destroy it. 00:01:49 Speaker 1: Despite all Lot had seen earlier that night with the mob and the blinding light, and even all the acts of Abraham's God in the years since they left Haran, he hesitated. The visitors watched his silent calculation, and, as if in response, they swooped upon him, grabbing his hands and dragging him from the threshold of their home into the streets of the city. 00:02:15 Speaker 4: You need to leave now. Take your wife and your daughters, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city. Get up, keep moving. 00:02:42 Speaker 2: Don't stop, and don't look back. 00:02:46 Speaker 1: Lot stumbled, his knees stinging as it met sharp gravel along the streets out of the city. The two messengers were still forcibly dragging Lot and his stunned family, pulling them up when they fumbled and spurring them on with words and hands toward the distant gates of Sodom. As they fled, Lot's eyes caught sight of the crumbling stone structures. delicate, vicious spider webbing beneath his feet. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, but the vision remained, a harbinger of the city's imminent doom. His youngest daughter, Milka, tripped on a step, her satchel spilling its precious contents, clothing, heirlooms, trinkets, tumbling down the roughly carved steps. Her cry for help went unanswered, the messenger hauling her along with a single-minded determination. Lot turned to protest, but a stern look silenced him. There would be no slowing down, no stopping. A grumbling far beneath his feet convinced Lot to surrender any thought of a second appeal. The great upheaval caused Lot to stumble again, and his messenger tightened his grip on his elbow and doubled their pace. In the distance, frightened voices began to cry out, and the sounds of panic began to rise. 00:04:08 Speaker 4: From every valley, corner, and courtyard. 00:04:11 Speaker 1: City guards poured through the streets, doors rattled in their frames, and the very stones shook and fractured underfoot. 00:04:20 Speaker 4: Look! 00:04:21 Speaker 5: It's like the asphalt pits out of the valley! Ha ha ha! 00:04:26 Speaker 1: Like the ones that claimed the lives of so many during the invasion! Ha ha ha! Lot's eyes widened at the sight of substantial cracks forming in the road. The earth groaned and the rocks sank into the thick, sulfuric slime beneath. He remembered the Sidim Valley, where King Kedileum's men had been swallowed by the treacherous brimstone pits. Almost impossible to detect, the acrid mud held you fast as you sank beneath its toxic depths. The pits drew in surrounding debris, so unless you knew what to look for, you could find yourself caught in its orbit before aid could arrive. The oozing slime was incredibly flammable, as the frequency of summer wildfires out in the plains had taught them. Lot had always assumed that the safety of the stone city would protect them, but apparently, the danger had lurked beneath the foundation of the city all night. Chaos reigned around them. Looters roamed the streets, arms laden with stolen goods, while others turned to drink and debauchery, embracing the uncertainty with reckless abandon. Bloody daggers flashed in the hands of ne'er-do-wells, and lynchings took place in shadowed courtyards. The city, in moments, had descended into anarchy, its veneer of civilization stripped away to reveal the rotting core beneath. How could such repulsions have erupted so swiftly? Had Lot been blind to the simmering of these abominations? It was as if scales were falling from his eyes as he finally viewed the horrors of the place he had come to call home, off its leash at last. In one alleyway, Lot spied a truly gruesome scene. It appeared that the blind Durak and his lackeys somehow found Shovar, Lot's friend, whom he had just defended mere hours earlier. They were brutally delivering their version of justice. He had been stripped naked, and his face had been beaten to a pulp, almost beyond recognition, and he limply hung between Durak and Kovim as Turban further shamed him right in the very street. Lot's stomach turned, and bile rose from the back of his throat as this horrific spectacle played out. He knew this would have been his own fate if the messengers had not intervened. The crumpled body of a city guard laid off to the side. It appeared there would be no rescue for poor Shoah. Lot didn't look over to see whether his wife and daughters had seen. The two messengers deftly navigated Lot and his family around the deteriorating ground. They had an almost sterile efficiency in moving them through the violence exploding around them that left Lot feeling unnerved. He couldn't bring himself to look up again until they reached the city gates. 00:07:27 Speaker 4: What we said we would do, we have done. You have been delivered safely outside the city. Now you must run for your lives. Run to the mountains, or you will be swept away by the destruction that is about to befall the city. 00:07:44 Speaker 2: Remember, don't stop anywhere on the plane. You must keep going, and don't look back. 00:07:51 Speaker 1: With that final warning, the messenger, who had been holding him fast throughout their journey, gave Lot a firm push through the now abandoned city gate. The moment his feet passed the threshold, a different sort of panic washed over Lot. His chest felt constricted. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't bring himself to be that exposed, that out in the open. The terror seized his body. His thoughts raced, and his breathing came in and out in shallow puffs. Was he dying? Why couldn't he breathe? Lot had next to nothing between his pack and those carried by his family, but at that moment, he would have given it all to make this sensation, this waking nightmare, stop. Something snapped inside of Lot's mind. Sheer self-preservation, instinct, and desperation disappeared. bore in him an idea. Wildly, Lot squinted into the night before them. Yes, there, in the foothills, just as. 00:08:57 Speaker 3: He remembered it. 00:08:59 Speaker 5: Wait! 00:09:00 Speaker 4: My lords, please! 00:09:01 Speaker 1: I beg you! 00:09:03 Speaker 5: Whatever favor I have in your eyes, even if it's on account of my uncle Abraham, I beg you! 00:09:10 Speaker 3: I can't run to the mountains. 00:09:12 Speaker 1: I can't live in the mountains. 00:09:13 Speaker 2: I can't. 00:09:14 Speaker 5: I can't. 00:09:17 Speaker 1: Oh, disaster. 00:09:21 Speaker 3: Disaster will overtake me and I'll die. You just saved my life. But now you're going to leave me to go to my death. 00:09:29 Speaker 1: Please show me this kindness. 00:09:33 Speaker 3: I cannot be without the walls. 00:09:36 Speaker 5: The stone at my back. 00:09:38 Speaker 1: I need it. 00:09:39 Speaker 2: I need the stones. 00:09:40 Speaker 3: I need the stones between me and my enemies. 00:09:46 Speaker 5: Father, what are you saying? 00:09:50 Speaker 2: What? 00:09:51 Speaker 4: What, Kasaya? 00:09:53 Speaker 3: Oh, yes, yes. 00:09:54 Speaker 2: Please, please look. 00:09:56 Speaker 3: There's this small town up ahead on the plain. 00:09:59 Speaker 5: It used to be a part of the City of the Plains Alliance. 00:10:03 Speaker 2: Bella, it was called. 00:10:05 Speaker 1: A small place that's close enough for me to flee to. 00:10:08 Speaker 2: Allow me the. 00:10:09 Speaker 1: Chance to get behind its walls before. 00:10:11 Speaker 4: You bring on the destruction. 00:10:13 Speaker 5: Please take pity on us, my lords. What my father means to say is don't strip him of any chance to earn a livelihood. 00:10:22 Speaker 4: Surely this small place can be saved? 00:10:26 Speaker 5: Yes, this would surely be better than us living in the mountains. How would we survive there? 00:10:32 Speaker 1: Please listen to my daughters and my wife. 00:10:35 Speaker 2: Let us run to this small town. 00:10:38 Speaker 1: Every breath was still a battle, and Lot felt as if a great beast was perched upon his chest as he watched the two otherworldly men consider his family's petition. The first seemed unmoved. but after what felt like an eternity to Lot's anxiety, the second finally turned to them after receiving an almost imperceptible nod from the first. 00:11:01 Speaker 2: We will grant you your request. We will not destroy the small town you mentioned, but you must go now. Remember what we told you. Don't look back, and don't stop. 00:11:15 Speaker 4: Now go. We cannot complete our task until you get there. 00:11:21 Speaker 1: Without waiting for the first man to have a chance to change his mind, Lot took off without a second look back at the two men. As the sun steadily climbed into the sky, it assaulted the sky above Sodom with its crimson glow. If they had not descended into seething chaos and villainy, the inhabitants would have found it ominous and foreboding. But so intent on their evil deeds, they also failed to see the gathering clouds creeping over the plains like a sly predator stalking its oblivious prey. Swirling in the depths of the clouds was a crackling, fiery lightning. The pent-up energy of the storm loomed high above Sodom, the disciplined breath before a mighty war cry. At some unseen signal, the first wave of lightning struck the ground below. The strikes ignited the exposed brimstone, causing it to melt immediately and catch fire. The dull, yellow, acrid mud beneath the surface of Sodom turned blood red as flame lit sulfur. One deposit of inflamed sulfur quickly met the others and spread like cracks on ice, spider webbing throughout the entire city. A ghostly blue flame sprang up and encased the burning ooze of melted sulfur, consuming everything, stone, wood and flesh in its path. Animal and man alike went screaming to their fiery deaths. Some evil doors did wipe them out from their foul leaves before the fire and ore consumed them. Others hid in cellars or ran to roofs in vain. No one and nothing escaped the flames of judgment. The lightning strikes intensified, a harrowing force of nature and judgment. It was as if thick tongues of flame were licking the city of Sodom. The bright white inferno of life from above met the blue flames from below, and all that was called to life was melted into the molten mess that writhed beneath that blue purifying fire. The flames dancing atop the melted sulphur were like the sea. The wind whipped the fire into waves that rippled over the landscape and lapped at charred bones and singed buildings. The smell of the acrid fumes burned their eyes and lungs, leaving their minds intact just long enough to feel the tortuous poison overcoming them. Plumes of thick black smoke sprang into the air and could be seen for miles and miles, heralding the sickening smell of a lot of eggs that would haunt the land for weeks and months to come. Obeying the commands of the mysterious men, they did not look back to the streets of Sodom. Lot's wife kept her head from turning, averting her eyes from the destruction falling behind them. It was when they reached the outskirts of the small town of Bella that the agonizing screaming and inhuman shrieking of thousands of men and beasts being burned alive began. Even at a distance, their anguished chorus made the hair on the back of her arms rise, and she covered her ears to block it out, but to no avail. And nothing could block out the boom of thunder and crackling lightning that plummeted out of the sky. It was then that the smell affronted their senses. Edith's eyes watered instantly, and she gagged at the nauseating, rancid smell of sulfur, smoke, and burnt flesh. She pulled her hands from her ears to cover her mouth and nose, but the smell was everywhere. It seeped into her skin, clothes, and hair. She felt she may never be clean again. The clouds over the city cast dark shadows before them, and they were outlined by a bright white light every time the lightning illuminated the sky. They reached the pitiful town walls that were the once respectable town of Bela, and the horrified faces of the townsfolk told them just how harrowing the sight behind them truly was. Milka attempted to turn and look behind them now that they were nearing the city gate, but Lot roughly turned her head back to the ground before them. 00:16:01 Speaker 5: Leave her alone! She just wants to see what happened. Aren't we far enough away now? 00:16:07 Speaker 1: Edith started to turn around herself when Lot lunged for her and took her face in his hands. 00:16:13 Speaker 5: Edith, no! 00:16:14 Speaker 3: You heard what they said! 00:16:16 Speaker 2: Don't look! 00:16:17 Speaker 4: We can only go forward now! 00:16:19 Speaker 5: We have to get beyond the walls of the city to safety! 00:16:22 Speaker 1: Edith tore his hands away from her face and shoved him hard in the chest. 00:16:28 Speaker 5: The walls of the city? You call this a city? How are we to live? 00:16:35 Speaker 1: Look at these people. 00:16:37 Speaker 5: You would have us live in squalor and poverty among these country bumpkins? 00:16:43 Speaker 3: Edith, Edith, you begged these men to send us here. Same as me. What are you saying? 00:16:49 Speaker 5: I can't. Edith. I can't do this, Lot. I cannot follow you again. We've already lost so much. We crawled our way back. I can't do it again. Mother, please. We'll find a way to survive. I promise. We'll find a way together. What do you know of it? I've handed you everything. I got you a husband, secured your future, and gave you stability. You would have nothing without me. 00:17:21 Speaker 1: Mother! 00:17:27 Speaker 5: Follow your sister. Heed her. She's the best chance you have. See if she can provide for you as I have. 00:17:36 Speaker 1: To Lot's horror, his wife kissed their younger daughter on the forehead and squeezed the eldest's hand before turning around to face the destruction of Sodom. She drew herself up to her full height, squared her shoulders, and began walking in the direction of the smouldering ruins. 00:17:58 Speaker 5: Edith! Edith! Edith! Wait! 00:18:05 Speaker 4: Turn around! 00:18:06 Speaker 3: What are you doing? 00:18:08 Speaker 5: Where are you going? 00:18:09 Speaker 4: Edith! Mother! No! No! 00:18:14 Speaker 1: Lot threw his arms protectively around his screaming and stunned daughters to keep them from following her. He hauled them forward through the final steps that led through the city gate, and together they all collapsed at the threshold. The guards had long since abandoned their posts to gape open mouths at the terrible judgment raining down on Sodom and the surrounding plain. Lot's young daughters then broke from his grip and ran to roughly human embrasures in the stone wall to peer out. Lot shakily found his feet and followed them to the dreary lookout to see what fate had befallen his wife. She was no more than a hundred paces away, but thick smoke polluted the air and she was soon no more than an outline. The girls whimpered and continued to shout her name in vain. 00:19:08 Speaker 4: Suddenly. 00:19:09 Speaker 1: The wind shifted, and she was in full view from the wall. She gazed upward as if in provocative protest, arms outstretched, and her screen was cut short, and she stood still as a pillar. But then her body fell. No, it did not fall. It began to crumble. To Lot's revulsion, the outline of her very body was falling in on itself, and dissolving into what appeared to be salt. The wind carried larger and larger chunks until there was a small pile where she once stood, petrified his daughter's screaming, their eyes wide in horror. Time stood still as the three of them watched a smoky gust carry the rest of her away on a fell wind. His daughter's keening cries filled Lot's ears, driving him to his knees. He couldn't bear to watch his city burn again. About thirty miles away, Abraham was walking his territory, walking stick in hand, surveying the land as he did each day. A dark spot in the sky drew his attention, and he turned off his path to climb the gentle slope of a nearby oak tree grove to get a better vantage point Squinting in the bright sun of midday, he saw plumes of thick black smoke steadily overtaking the horizon. Even from this great distance, he could see the blurry haze of angry red flames, and their outline wavered as their heat rose. Sodom. Its judgment had come at last, just as his God had promised. Though he knew this apocalypse was coming, he still stood in terrible awe at the magnitude of the destruction. It was final, definitive. Generations from now would speak in hushed tones of Sodom's fate, and even further into the future, there would be debate as to where it actually stood. He trembled at the power and might of his God, capable of wiping an entire population off the face of the earth and obliterating its very history. Even as sick astonishment washed over him, he again felt that comforting presence in the back of his mind. He knew this was going to happen, knew it needed to happen, and he also knew with absolute certainty that a lot was safe. This Pray.com production is only made possible by our dedicated team of creative talents. Steve Katina, Max Bard, Zach Schellevager and Ben Gammon are the executive producers of The Chosen People, narrated by Paul Coltofianu. Characters are voiced by Jonathan Cotton, Aaron Salvato, Sarah Seltz, Mike Reagan, Stephen Ringwald, Sylvia Zaradok, Thomas Copeland Jr., Rosanna Pilcher, and Mitch Lashinsky. Music by Andrew Morgan Smith. Written by Aaron Salvato, Brie Rosely, and Chris Baig. You can hear more Prey.com productions on the Prey.com app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. If you enjoyed The Chosen People, please rate and leave a review.