TAGGED: THE APOCALYPSE (20 page)

“
Impeccable timing,” Jackie said sarcastically. “Like we don’t have enough to deal with right now.”

“Well
, I’ll be…” Jeb said.

“Of course
. Welcome! Come in.” Sven ran to meet him and then turned around to wave the all clear for any other shooters he didn’t already see. “It’s cool! They’re with me.” Sven and Warren greeted each other with hand shakes and then with big hugs. Warren turned and waved in the rest of his group, led in front by Tiffany, with Samson carrying the huge wooden cross behind.

“You look well friend
.” Warren clapped him on the shoulders and looked him over.

Sven couldn’t help but notice the glow about
Warren. His blue eyes shone with a strong inner light from his dirty face and strong hands; same with Tiffany and Samson. They looked lean and strong, almost gnarled from the hardships, but their eyes were liquid pools of light and joy. “You guys look fantastic. Where have you been?”

“Here and there, roaming to and fro
upon the earth.” Warren threw back his head and laughed delightedly at his private joke.

“Introduce me to your wife.”
Warren smiled at Sven and glanced at Eve, who was standing next to Frank, or vice versa.

“Oh, this is Eve. She’s not my wife.”

“She is strong. The Lord showed her to me last night in a vision. She will stay with you through the tribulation that is to come.”

“Aren’t we already in the tribulation?”

“Ah, you’ve been reading the bible I gave to you. No, this is only the beginning. The worst is yet to come.” Samson, Tiffany and the other two hundred or so flagellates arrived. “You remember Samson.” Samson shook Sven’s hand heartily. “And Tiffany. Tiffany and Samson are married now.” Tiffany smiled and hugged Sven, then stood beside her husband.

“What about you? Are you married now?” Sven asked.

“No. I have chosen celibacy and the Lord has blessed me greatly for it. The Lord has set me apart for his purpose.” Sven only nodded. “Come, let us break bread together.”

“We can’t feed you. There are more of you than there are of us. If we feed you
, we will all starve. I’m not sure that’s what God would want,” Jackie said. “Besides, we have to clear out the infected from the tower now.

“You should wait until dusk to clear the infected from your tower. It will be much easier then
,” Warren said. “In fact, we will be glad to do it for you.”

“You have only a few spears,” Jackie said disdainfully.

“And fire,” Warren said.

“Yes, we use torches to clear the infected from the buildings. It works well.”

“You wait until dusk because if you try to clear the infected now during daylight, they have nowhere to go. They cannot go out into the light so they will fight you to the bitter end. Wait until dusk and they will simply leave through the nearest exit. Then seal the exit behind them.”

“Smart,” Sven said.

“Which segues into why we are here. We came to warn you – the great burning has begun,” Warren said dramatically. Tiffany nodded vigorously behind him. “The earth shall be tested with fire and the fire shall burn off all the dross until there is left only the purest gold.”

“What’s the great burning?” Jackie was interested.

“The military and the government have come out from their underground bunkers. They are now moving across the land, burning all the towns and every building during the day…”

“Because the infected hide in the buildings during the daylight…”

“Yes, so the military is going through with flame throwers, burning everything and killing most of the infected in the process.”

“Well, that’s great news isn’t it?” The doctor came forward earnestly.

“Hurray! Did you hear that? The government is back!” Several in the crowd shouted the news to those behind. The excitement was palpable.

“I see you bear the mark on your right hand
,” Warren said, then his eyes moved to the nurses and EMT flanking him, “and you, and you, and you. But not you,” he said to one of the nurses.

“I was in my last semester
of college. I hadn’t graduated yet,” she explained.

The doctor looked at
Warren confused for a moment, “Oh yes, the chip. All medical and first responders, firefighters and police were required to get the chip. We were the first ones. However, I don’t understand what you are seeing, there’s no mark per se.”

“Their arrival represents no danger to you,”
Warren was matter of fact, “but to those without the mark there is much danger.”

“It’s completely painless,” the doctor said. “No significant adverse
side affects have been noted…”

“But we are heroes!” Sven said. “Look at all the people who were saved. The government abandoned us.”

“We had to survive,” Jackie said.

“All true. But the government may not see it that way. You should come with us when we leave.”

“But no one survives out there,” Sven said.

“We survive out there,” Samson said in his deep baritone.

“We can show you,” Tiffany said.

“Enough heavy talk. This is a celebration,”
Warren said, raising his hands and smiling. “Let’s eat.”

“Dude! This is the best party ever!” Sven exclaimed.

“
Today, we celebrate the completion of a cycle,” Warren said. “The fourth seal is nearly completed. Who is worthy to open the fifth seal?”

“
I looked and there before me was a pale horse. It’s rider was named Death and hades followed close behind.” Samson’s voice boomed, as he read from a giant bible. “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” The flagellates stood in hushed silence. Tiffany continued, “And they cried with a loud voice, saying “How long, O Lord, holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on them who dwell on the earth?”Several lound “amens” an “ummm hmmm” and a “bless you sister” were heard.

“Time’s up!”
Warren screamed, turning red in the face.

“Amen! Preach it brother!”

“God is about to roll up the heavens like a scroll. God is going to shake the earth and everyone in it. The very stars will fall from the sky. Time as we understand it, from the human perspective, is merely an illusion. There is
no time
!” Warren had worked himself into a wild-eyed lather. “It’s all one piece, from the beginning of creation until this very moment, and stretching out until the very
end of time
.”

“Wow
.” Sven shook his head.

“
This
brothers and sisters is the unity, the oneness of all creation that Jesus himself spoke of in the gospel of John chapter 17. Just as God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit are one, we also are one. Just as we are one in God, so also is all of creation one including
time
.”

Sven began to weep. Eve wept, even Jackie
was misty eyed. Jeb and his sons nodded solemnly. Warren marveled at the power of the Lord to change hearts.

“But what of the evildoers o
f this world? Are they one, too?”

“Yes?” Someone answered uncertainly.

“
Yessssss
!!!” Warren hissed, “until God separates the wheat from the chaff, the gold from the dross, the just from the unjust. That
time
is
here
-
now
! Why does darkness rule the earth and the undead devour the living?” Warren paused and looked in every eye. Sven felt he could jump out his skin with anticipation. “Because
now
darkness reigns over the earth. Until this point in creation, all is one. The good and the evil, the just and the unjust, all mixed together. But the keeper of the olive grove, the man in charge of the vineyard, despite laboring day and night, pruning the olive trees and tending the grove, and even slathering the ground with copious quantities of fertilizer- shit!, there are no more olives.”

“No more olives?” Sven blubbered.
Warren was speaking to the deepest part of his soul and deep down he understood every word, but his mind had yet to catch up.

“Y
es!!!” Warren hissed again, a little disturbingly. “The earth is God’s vineyard and we are the fruit of that vineyard; the just; the redeemed. What happens when the vineyard bears no more fruit?”

“Burned up,” Jeb said quietly.

“What?”

“You burn it up. Start over
,” Jeb said, much louder for all to hear.

“That’s right!”
Warren screamed. “We are all one, here and now. But there’s no more fruit coming from the vineyard. God is harvesting the few olives left in his vineyard and then he’s going to burn up the rest. This vineyard is of no use to Him anymore.”

“Oh
no!” Sven cried.

“There is no such thing as time. God has chosen you, in Him, from before the creation of the world itself, yet I say to you make your choice
. Are you of this olive grove or not? The path laid out for you is hard, you shall walk through the very shadow of death. You will curse the day you were born and the mother who bore you into this cursed land of death. Choose today whom you will serve. Step forward to signify your choice.”

Sven and Eve immediately stepped forward
, then each noticed the other. Frank stood behind, shaking his head. Jeb, Mack and Tiny were next. Jackie was last.

“Today you rise to new life.”
Warren spoke to all, as he clapped Jackie on both shoulders, “It is written.”

One by one they were dunked in clean water and raised up again. Many of
the survivors came forward. The flagellates clapped and cheered loudly for each. The sun shone strongly on them, almost like before. The feast began.

“Where is all this food coming from?” Jackie asked Jeb privately. “We only gave them a single chicken.”

“Tiny has eaten four whole chickens
, all by himself. I’m working on my third,” Jeb said. “And there’s one, two, three…ten more grilling right now.”

“Our chickens are in the top of the tower behind the steel door and we haven’t cleared the lower tower of infected yet
,” Jackie said. “Do you think they got in there somehow and are feeding us our own chickens?”

“Jackster, try this weed
, bro. I don’t know where they got it, but it’s even better than the strain we’re growing.” Sven passed him a smoking pipe which Jackie puffed on and quickly nodded his head in agreement. “I need to get some clippings. The aroma; the flavor; the THC must be off the charts.”

“Who brought this wine? Did you see them carrying any wine?” Mack asked
, a little tipsy. “We haven’t dipped into my stores of home brew yet.”

“We don’t have much
, but what we have, we share freely with you,” Warren said.

“I didn’t see you bringing anything in,” Jackie said.

“Jehovah Jirah the Lord is our provider. Light the circle,” Warren ordered loudly. He hadn’t moved for at least an hour and seemed drained after preaching. Several men lit torches from the grills and then lit a large circle of remaining furnishings roughly one hundred feet in circumference, including the door to the tower. Sven realized dusk was falling, and he suddenly felt a pang of fear. Warren clapped him on the shoulder. “It is safe inside the circle. Don’t leave the circle.”

“What about the tower
? We still haven’t cleared it.” Jackie waved his right arm in a circle above his head, “Rally up!”

“We will clear the tower for you
.” Samson stepped forward with four men holding long spears and hand-held torches.

“With only spears and torches?” Jackie and Jeb were skeptical.

“Watch how we do it.” Samson and his men advanced into the lower tower without waiting for his reply. Jackie, Jeb, Mack and Tiny followed behind.

The tower was cleared before Sven realized it had even begun. He and Eve were chatting with Warren
, who was regaling them with his and the flagellates adventures all over Northern California.

“Where were you?” Jackie asked Sven.

“The tower is clear!” Jackie announced. Survivors immediately began filing back into the tower to use the bathrooms and check on their things. All that remained of the infected was the putrid smell of the dead lingering in the air.

“I didn’t hear a single shot,” Sven said.

“They didn’t attack us. The infected simply fled. Jeb and his boys are boarding up the window where they broke through, now. We’ll put a spot there to keep them away tonight.” Jackie was incredulous.

The feast continued for three days. There was always more food and more wine and more smoke. Everyone
feasted like they hadn’t eaten in a decade. They lived in a little bubble for those few days. The trouble of the world around them was forgotten like a distant memory. Several times a day, Warren would read long passages from the bible and then explain them. Warren was almost frantic in his need to teach them as much as possible before time ran out. Only Warren seemed to be aware of the time constraints present. Most listened attentively, but some scoffed and made fun behind his back. All day long the baptisms continued, as the people streamed forward to be dunked by Samson, while Tiffany prepared them on the shore and counseled them after.