A Abba's Apocalypse (9 page)

these Demons to come nearer. I believe my little friend possesses the power that will send the evil ones straight to Hell. The stampeding legions retreat while screaming into the dark. The holy warriors show no mercy as each evil voice begs before being blown apart. Each dazzling swipe of their superior swordsmanship shows their slashing and shedding skills. The Angels virtually conquer the evil hoard in a minute. I hear the rush of a multitude of wings and see flashes following the foe filling the stormy dark sky. Silence approaches as my Flicker lands on the last unread sign hung on a martyr’s pole. I shine my light to its message. It reads: “We wait for you!” I shudder at those words as I realize its meaning. The war for the innocent has just begun.

              All the locks and chains miraculously fall down from every martyr. A departing voice announces, “I am well pleased my son.” I turn my face towards Heaven and thank my Lord. The miracles are not yet done. I look to the lingering lady as her body bends forward. It’s as if she’s being gently plucked from the nails, slurping through her hands. She falls slowly through time into my swooping arms. It’s as if an invisible Angel hands her to me. I cradle her slumped body down to the ground, and then pluck the barbed crown from her head. I toss the crown away as the adjacent gentleman falls off and floats down to the pavement. I stand a moment in awl of what just happened. Realization slaps me with the notion that I have no idea how I’ll carry them away. Urgency tugs at me with its warning to “hurry!” I touch both bodies and pray, “Dear Jesus; I need one more miracle.”

              Warmth returns to both their bodies as the grey of their skin is colored with warm pink. Life grows in their chests and wind blows in their breaths. Lacerations covering them turn to scars, as scabs disappear before my eyes. I again thank my Lord. I grab each of their hands with mine. Wiggling eye lids

try to open, and each lip quivers like it is ready to speak. I squeeze my hands a little tighter attempting to wake them. She returns to the living first.

              “My name is Joey, and I am your friend.” She pushes her weak body up and off the ground with her left arm, and then rubs her forehead with her right. “Where am I?” she asks. “You’re with a friend who is going to help you.” I hear a moan from alongside me. He shows signs of waking, while she attempts to stand. “Sir, can you hear me?” I ask. “What’s happening?” he asks. “My name is Joey, and I am here to help you. I need you to try and get up.” He tries to stand, but his legs wobble from weakness. “Amanda, my name is Amanda” she replies; as he tries to stand. I notice her shaking and see much of her clothing is in shreds. I pull a large black trash bag from my sack and hand it to her. “You can wrap this around you to protect you from the chill.” But, it is also to cover her naked areas, which I do not say. “I’m Randal Gather, but call me Randy-that’ll be fine.” The process of salutation returns me from the supernatural surrealism back to the mundane of this world. Suddenly, my conscience reminds me that more evil will come soon. I tell the gang, “We got to go!” Amanda and Randy follow me as I think “Project T” is our closes and safest bet for tonight. Flicker leaps off and flies away. We hurry to march out of the “valley of the shadow of death” into the outer darkness. 

              I whisper to Amanda and Randy, “We need to be quick and quiet while we travel.” We navigate the alley ways keeping quiet while constantly moving. My Flicker begins singing his beautiful song several blocks ahead of us. He warms our spirits and informs me the coast is clear. Flicker stops singing as he “leap frogs” in front of us to his next location. His song begins again a few blocks ahead. He continually beckons us along our journey as we only move during his song. After traveling many blocks, I see the safe haven of “T”. It’s just about a block away.

              I tell the couple to keep their profiles hidden in the bushes. “Stay here until I wave you on.” This night

has been filled with divine providence, so I forgo the normal entering procedures of “T”. I rush to the stone and slide the

secret entrance open halfway to keep it from turning the chamber light switch on.. I hurry and jump down three steps, and then hold the stone lid in place. I wave the “okay” sign and whisper, “Come on guys.” Amanda is the first to arrive. She jumps in and stumbles down the dark stairs, unaware of their existence. I catch her fumbling body and gently nudge her down. Randy leaps in and bumps the stone lid. I fight to keep it from hitting the switch to the chamber lights. I succeed-barely! Randy feels his way down with one hand and his other rides atop Amanda’s shoulder. I give them the “shhhh” sign as I slide the entrance stone back, locking it in place. My right hand reaches the light switch and presses the system on. We stand a second allowing our eyes adjust to the light, and the security of “T”.

              We stop at the end of the steps. “It’s okay to talk now, but keep your voices low. I know you have a lot of questions. I’ll try and answer them shortly. For now, follow me.” I reveal the repentance ritual to my new brother and sister as I unlock the lower chamber’s secret. We move down the steps while I watch their faces fill with amazement. I see every brother whom remained here is asleep inside the chapel. I move past its entrance while whispering, “Let’s be quiet and let them sleep. We’ll go to the supply room.” Both their eyes seem to smile as I open the supply room door. Randy says, “Look at all this stuff. Your place is simply unbelievable.” I grab some blankets and hand them to Randy and Amanda. They quickly wrap them around their cold bare bodies. “I’ll get you some decent clothes to wear in the morning. I don’t want to move the supplies around and make noise.” I see an open box of MRE and know they’re probably starving. I hand them both a pack to eat as we each search for a spot to sit atop the stacks of supplies. I then explain what happened today. It seems neither remembers very much after they were taken away by the LD.

              Amanda tells us how she and her brother were caught. I immediately find out both of them actually lived two towns

away. They came here to relocate. It seems all hell was breaking out in her town. “Trinity” stopped food supplies from coming in, because they heard the town had a major underground Christian network. “Trinity” surrounded the town with the intent on starving everyone to death, thus eliminating the Christian problem. Even the LD was forced to starve as penitence for letting this happen. “Trinity” pressured the New California Guard to secure the town’s perimeter and shoot anyone trying to leave. “I saw people eating people!” Amanda cries. “It didn’t matter if they were even brothers of the Eternal Vestures in the Legion; they were eating anything they could. We Christians’ could not do such a thing.”

              She tells Randy and me how the Christian clan decided to escape town in small groups. Each group would sneak out of town and go in a different direction. This would increase their chances of survival. They thought finding a town with enough food for a small group was more probable than if they all stuck together. Plus, stealing food and supplies once they got to their new location would not be as noticeable. Amanda explains they got out just in time. The LD were tearing the town apart trying to catch all the Christians. They caught a few and chopped their heads off right in front of her home. Then, they got a hot metal poker and burned a mocking imitation of their brand in their dead heads. After, they stuck the heads on poles and staked them on ever major street intersections for all to see. Amanda states, “I guess these members in the Eternal Vestures in the Legion hoped ‘Trinity’ would stop tormenting them by producing dead Christians.” She says, “Trinity” showed no mercy and the affliction didn’t stop.

              The Christian clan had one last meeting at their secret gathering site. They all said their final goodbyes. Each was given equal portions of the last of the supplies before attempting to leave town. They were all given enough food to last about two days. Amanda was part of a five person group led by her brother Jimmy. “One of our group members was

caught as we were escaping town. This sweet elderly lady was just too slow to keep up. We had to run across an open field to make it to the safety of the surrounding forest. The rest of us made it before the Guard noticed her. She just couldn’t keep up.” Amanda tells how one Guard grabbed the Old lady by her hair and yanked her head so hard forward that he almost tore off her scalp. This old lady never screamed. She just stared at the forest smiling. It was like she was thanking the group for taking her along, and wishing them a safe journey. Amanda cries as she explains how this sweet lady smiled before another LD soldier wacked her head off with a sword. “Jimmy, the two others, and I made it to a town ten miles away just to find the same thing happening there.”

              Amanda tells how the animals in the forest constantly tried to attack them along the way. “Someone had to keep a continuous lookout every moment.” She goes on telling, “Not even the littlest of the animals were afraid of us. It’s like they went mad.” Amanda explains that squirrels would drop from the trees and bite them. Sparrows would occasionally swoop down at them. “I don’t know if all the animals have diseases or are starving, but I know none of them were afraid of us.” She also noticed how the forest is dying. “Half the trees had no leaves. and most of the bushes were dry and crumbling. There were a lot of dead animals along our way too.” I told Amanda about the Bible stating God would remove animal’s natural fear of man as a judgment on mankind. He would allow deceases to increase over the entire world. She did not know this.

              Jimmy and her two friends eventually found a place just outside of this town. It was some sort of farm. A rubble pile now stands where a barn once did. The house was missing its roof, and there were dead LD inside. She tells us

“The bodies were covered in sores.” They thought the fear of decease was the reason these bodies were just left alone. They came to the conclusion this might be a good place to hide. They wrapped their remains in plastic trash bags and took

them away into the forest. She stresses that they buried them real deep. They finally had a place to hide, but now they needed food. It was several days since anyone had eaten. They found a few cans of vegetables inside the house stashed way back in the cupboard. They rationed them, but they only lasted two days. During this time they realized they needed to look for more food to stay alive.

              Amanda tells how Jimmy decided he would venture out to look for food. She knew he’d have to go in town to find any. She also knew how risky this would be. Amanda refused to let her big brother go alone. She convinced him he needed to get enough supplies for everyone. He could not possibly carry that much by himself. He reluctantly agreed, because he was worried about the risk they’d be taking. That was the main reason she wanted to go also; she was worried about him more than her own welfare. Before they left on their mission, everyone one came together and prayed for blessing, thanksgiving, and protection. Amanda and Jimmy decided to travel as much as possible under cover of the forest. They would get as close as possible to downtown before coming out of the forest. Their game plan was to look for abandon houses and search for any overlooked food. They believed the darkness would offer their best protection against being detected. They figured if they left at sunset they could make it to town right after dark. They all shared a final meal of canned corn together. Finally, the two left for town as the sun was setting.

              The forest brought them by the back of deserted department store at the edge of town. Jimmy knew this place was definitely picked clean, but he hoped someone may have overlooked a can or box of food. Plus, this place was much safer to search than going in town. Jimmy saw a roof access ladder attached to the back of the building. He had Amanda wait at the edge of the forest while he checked inside. She explains, “I waited and waited for him to come back. I got worried after about an hour. I knew something bad must have

happened for him to be gone so long.” Amanda goes on to explain how anxious she became. She decided she had to go see if he needed of help.

              “I ran to the back of the store and proceeded cautiously up the ladder. I saw the open roof access lid, thinking this must be how Jimmy got inside.” She starts to cry and shake while telling what happened next. “I started down the ladder inside when I heard laughing. It was an evil laugh.” Amanda followed the laughter half way down the ladder to find Jimmy being beaten. She says one man was chocking Jimmy from behind while another one was burning Jimmy with a hot poker. He was laughing as Jimmy agonized. A third man having the brand grabbed Jimmy’s left arm and broke it. “Poor Jimmy” she cries. “They were demanding to know who else was with him. But, he kept answering ‘no one’.” Amanda grabs her head and bawls her eyes out. I hurry to shut the supply room door hoping she hasn’t woken the brethren. “They also kept asking him, ‘Where is he?’, like they were looking for someone special.”

              Jimmy and Amanda didn’t realize the store was really an LD trap for strangers. It seems the LD notice this place to be a regular stop for visiting Irreverent searching for supplies. The way Amanda describes the place, it sounds like they use it as a sort of headquarters. It also sounds like it is an Irreverent jail and torture chamber. They picked the worse time to enter the trap. This was the night following my rescue of Katie’s husband. The LD want revenge, and to put the fear of EVIL in every Irreverent heart. I figure these are the reasons they hung those innocent souls on poles.

              Amanda goes on explaining how she was caught. She heard a noise from above as a man came down the ladder she was on. She knew she had no place to run accept right into the hands of the evil enemy. She was punched and whipped without mercy. The worst part was they made Jimmy watch. They told her they could stop the pain if she would renounce

her god and freely accept the brand of “Trinity.” Amanda