The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle (96 page)

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Timothy observed the landscape as
Ryan pushed the Jeep to its limit. ‘Where are we going?’ he asked.

‘To Base Camp One,’ Ryan answered, trying to avoid eye
contact.

‘No, we’re not,’ Timothy said. ‘There are no mountains
near Base Camp One, and besides, the camp is to the east, not south.’

‘You know your terrain well,’ Ryan said.

‘I have to,’ Timothy replied. ‘It’s the difference
between life and death.’

Ryan didn’t say anything.

‘So,’ Timothy said after a minute of silence. ‘As I was
asking; where are we going?’

Ryan stopped the Jeep and jumped out. He walked around
and pulled Timothy out as well.

‘Are you going to kill me?’

Ryan didn’t answer. He reached behind his back and
pulled out a set of keys from his back pocket. He unlocked the cuffs, and they
fell on the soft sand beneath them.

Timothy rubbed his wrists. ‘You don’t have a Shield,’
he observed.

‘I don’t need one,’ Ryan said. ‘I am too high up in the
food chain to have to worry about it. Victor thinks that he has my unquestioned
loyalty.’

‘He doesn’t?’ Timothy asked.

‘He did at one point,’ Ryan answered truthfully. ‘But
after the slaughter in Canada, I have come to view things from another
perspective.’

‘So you will join us?’

‘No,’ Ryan said. ‘I think that what you’re doing is
noble, but I cannot join you. I do, however, have one request.’

‘What is it?’ Timothy asked.

‘I want you to pray and ask your Jesus to protect me
from the wrath of Victor. I want Him to hide me from that monster.’

‘You can come to Jerusalem with me,’ Timothy said. ‘You
will be safe there.’

‘No,’ Ryan said. ‘This is something I have to do on my
own.’

‘I understand,’ Timothy said. He pushed his hand into
his shirt and produced a small pocket New Testament. ‘They didn’t take this
from me,’ he said. ‘They said that it was evidence or something.’

Ryan took the Bible and rubbed his fingers over it as
if it was priceless. ‘Haven’t seen one of these in a long, long time,’ he said.
‘Thank you.’

Timothy nodded.

‘Victor’s army marches tomorrow,’ Ryan said. ‘He has
about two hundred million of those demonic soldiers, and two and a half billion
human followers. They will trample every city in their way and should reach
Jerusalem in about two months. You must leave, now. Take the Jeep.’

‘Where will you go?’ Timothy asked. ‘What will you do?’

‘Don’t worry about me,’ Ryan said. ‘I have my ways and
means. But please, you must leave now before they catch up with you.’

Timothy shook Ryan’s hand and as he sped off, he could
only pray as the man in the rear-view mirror got smaller and smaller.
Thank
you, Lord,
Timothy prayed after the man had disappeared from view.
Please
forgive that man of his past sins and bring him to salvation. Also protect him
from Victor’s wrath. I trust that you will do what is good for your purpose.
Thank you, once again, Jesus. Amen.

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The dream was vivid. Trevor could
see every detail of the angel’s face. The light around the angel was soft, yet
brilliant at the same time.

‘Am I dead?’ Trevor asked, hoping that he was.

‘Stand up, Trevor,’ the angel said, his voice leaving
just a hint of an echo. ‘It is almost time for the final trumpet to blow.’

Trevor stood up and looked around. He was still in his
makeshift prison cell, but the door was open. The angel illuminated the way as
he walked in front of Trevor and left through the door. Trevor noticed the body
of an N-Force guard lying on the floor.

‘Is he...?’

‘They all are,’ the angel answered as if knowing
exactly what Trevor wanted to ask. The seven other men and women who refused to
take the Shield joined Trevor and the angel, each with their own angel guiding
them through the corridors. A few minutes later, they were standing on the
street outside the old school building, and in an instant the angels were gone.

‘This isn’t a dream?’ Trevor asked as he looked around.

‘I don’t think so,’ a woman said. ‘I also thought it
was one.’

‘What do we do now?’ a man asked.

‘I’m not sure,’ Trevor said. ‘This kind of thing
doesn’t happen every day.’

‘Maybe we could flee,’ the woman suggested.

‘No,’ Trevor said. ‘I don’t think that—’

A brilliant flash of light engulfed the eight, and in
an instant, they were surrounded by other people.

‘Here are more,’ a man shouted to someone in the
distance. ‘They’re popping up from all over the world.’

‘Are we in Heaven?’ Trevor asked.

Some of the men that surrounded them laughed.

‘Not at all, my brother,’ a man with a huge beard said.
‘You are in the safest place in the world.’

‘And where’s that?’

The man’s eyes widened as broadly as his smile. ‘Why,
Jerusalem of course!’

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‘What do you mean
they are gone
?’
Victor shouted at the Imperial General.

‘He said that he was taking the prisoner to Base Camp
One,’ the General said.

‘And you let him go without consulting me first?’

‘He bears your authority, my Lord.’

‘He does
not
bear my authority,’ Victor
screamed. ‘
No one
does!
’

Victor made one swift movement with his hand, and an
invisible force flung the demonic General through the room and sent it crashing
into the wall.

‘Victory was at hand,’ Victor growled; the irises in
his eyes glowing bright red. ‘And you let them escape.’

The General only groaned. Victor lifted his hands and the
General was flung up in the air and smashed into the roof. Victor then dropped
his hands, and the General plummeted to the ground.

‘I will show you how I deal with such treachery.’

‘My Lord...’

With one final motion of Victor’s hand, the General’s
neck snapped and the limp body fell forward.

All the Imperial Soldiers had gathered outside the
room. When Victor came out, his eyes scanned over them. ‘Your General has been
dismissed,’ he shouted. ‘I want you all to return to Base Camp One for the
final preparations. Tomorrow we march for Jerusalem!’

The Earth shook as the Imperial Soldiers all roared and
stomped their feet into the ground.

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‘Jerusalem?’ Trevor asked again.
The bearded man laughed.

‘Trust me, son,’ the man said. ‘There’s no other place
on Earth that you would rather want to be right now.’

‘Malcolm?’ a woman asked.

The bearded man turned. ‘Mary?’

Tears flowed as they embraced one another.

‘I thought that I was never going to see you again.’ he
said.

‘I missed you so much,’ Mary responded.

Trevor became aware of the pain again and sat down
against the wall.

‘How many of you made it?’

‘Seventy in total,’ Mary said. ‘Kassim, Nasreen, and
their daughters are safe, too.’

‘Thank you, Jesus,’ the man exclaimed. ‘I will greet my
friends later. First, I want to spend some time alone with my wife.’

He looked at Trevor. ‘Are you okay, son?’

‘I...I’m fine,’ Trevor said. Then everything went
black.

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‘Get this man to a sick bay,’
Malcolm shouted. Two men with a stretcher ran up and lifted the limp Trevor
onto it. They then loaded him into an ambulance with four others before
speeding off to the nearest sick bay.

‘I’m so glad to see you, my love,’ Malcolm said when
the remaining people who were still able to walk by themselves were escorted to
the nearest sick bay.

‘The Lord is good,’ Mary said and the two of them
embraced again.

‘Mother?’ a voice asked from somewhere behind Malcolm.

Mary’s eyes widened. ‘Timothy?’

Malcolm spun around. ‘
Tim!
’ he shouted and
pulled his son into a powerful embrace. The three of them clung together for a
moment in silent thankfulness.

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‘They killed them all?’ Malcolm
asked after he and Timothy had secluded themselves in one of the offices at the
Jerusalem Headquarters.

‘Every single one,’ Timothy said. ‘We only managed to
take out about four of them in total.’

‘How many were there?’

‘Thousands,’ Timothy said.

‘This is bad,’ Malcolm said and whistled through his
teeth.

‘It gets worse.’

‘Worse?’

Timothy nodded. ‘According to the guy that rescued me,
Victor has about two hundred million of these Imperial Soldiers.’

‘Two million?’ Malcolm asked, thinking that he might
have heard wrong.

‘No, father,’ Timothy said. ‘Two
hundred
million.’

Malcolm scratched his beard. ‘They outnumber us a
thousand to one.’

‘Even more than that, Father.’

‘How so?’

‘Those are only the Imperial Soldiers. There are still
the two and a half
billion
human followers. Men, women, and even
children.’

Malcolm sat down and took a deep breath. ‘How long
before they reach us?’

Timothy bit his lip. ‘They will be outside our city in
about two months from now.’

‘Should we move the people?’ Malcolm asked.

‘No,’ Timothy said. ‘We have to go the distance with
this one. We have to stay and fight.’

‘At least we will be fighting side-by-side,’ Malcolm
said. Tears brimmed in his eyes as he thought about how close he had come to
losing Timothy again. ‘I’m...I’m proud of you, Tim,’ Malcolm said.

‘Thanks, Dad,’ Timothy said.

The two of them stood there for a moment. There was
still a lot of work that needed to be done, but just for that one brief moment
nothing really mattered. Elijah and his companion had accomplished their task.
The heart of the father and son had been reunited. It was a strong bond that
could never again be broken.

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‘We have come to the pinnacle of
our mission,’ Victor shouted into the microphone.

Masses of people and Imperial Soldiers cheered and
roared and stomped their feet in approval. Victor waited for the noise to subside.

‘We have cornered the enemy and have cut them off from
the outside world!’

More stomps and cheers.

‘This is the day that we have been waiting for! This is
the moment that will go down in history! Peace is finally within our grasp!’

The response was overwhelming. Millions upon millions
cheered.

‘We will take the city intact,’ Victor boomed. ‘I want
them to see how futile their belief in a dead God is. I want them to suffer a
slow and agonizing death.’ Victor looked over the sea of followers before concluding,
‘
Today
,
we take back our planet!
’

The people cheered and shouted and, as if rejuvenated,
charged forward again. Their feet stomped into the ground, sending vibrations
to even as far as Jerusalem itself.

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Dear Norm,

I’m not writing this because I
think that there’s a chance that you would ever read this letter. I guess I’m
writing it to make things right with you and to set my own mind at ease.

What I am about to tell you is
not easy, but it is something that I feel is necessary to say. Here goes: You
were right, and I was wrong.

There, I said it!

You were right about the Rapture
before it even happened. You were right about Jesus being the only way to
salvation. You were right about the Antichrist and his seven year reign of
terror.

I am glad that you missed it,
but I also hope that you could see the whole thing from where you are now. It
has been quite a ride, I’ll tell you that.