The Camouflaged Cross: Tales Of Christian Preppers In The End Times (Just Run Book 1) (11 page)

“There hasn’t been too much talk about what we are going to do about Kirk, but …”

Wallace interrupted. “Well, it’s not like you can just call the police. They might just laugh at you, if they even pick up the phone at all.” Wallace paused. “You know, whoever did that will be back. That’s how bullies work.”

Andrew nodded ‘no,’ as he and Wallace watched the funeral continue. Kathy stood up in front of the crowd, and addressed everyone. She sounded angry.

“Who is that?” Wallace whispered to Andrew.

“That’s my cousin, Kathy. I thought you met her. She used to go out with Kirk. I mean, before he married someone else. She’s pretty angry.”

“Yeah, I would be.”

Kathy pointed to the rolled up tarp that contained Kirk’s body, and then she pointed up, making a point. She was vowing to do something.

“Apparently Kirk was killed by a group of local thugs,” Andrew whispered.

“Yeah, I think I have seen them around.”

“Really?”

“Well, there are many like them. Muslims I think. A few weeks ago there was a rally in front of the police department, to try and get the cops to do something about everything that was going on in the city. The cops were all gone anyway, so it was a dumb idea. The chief of police had already committed suicide and –“

“Come again?” Andrew interrupted. “Did you say the chief of police committed suicide?”

“Yeah. Shot himself and left a note.”

“OK, so what happened at the rally in front of the police station?” Andrew asked.

“Well, a bunch of these thugs showed up and started beating everyone. Like they were having fun or something. Then five of them just grabbed the main guy who was calling for law and order, right near his podium, and they just pulled his clothes off and laughed at him. Some of the other thugs went through the crowd beating people. Some people tried to fight back but most just ran away.”

“What did you do?”

“Well, that’s how I got my AK-47. Not that I have much ammo for it. I’m an AR man myself,” he pointed at his gun. “But I won’t turn down an AK-47. Anyway, I was nearby and one of those thugs came after me with his gun. I figured that if I shot him the others would hear it and shoot me, or I could run and one of them would follow me. So that’s what I did.”

“What happened?”

“I ran. The guy followed me. I guess I look like I have a lot of stuff they could take, and he was probably right. Anyway I ran down an ally, and I knew the guy was following me. I hid behind a dumpster, and when he ran by I got him with a whack of my machete, which is a lot quieter than shooting him. After he died I tried to check his ID or something but all I found on him was a bunch knives, watches, cell phones, and wallets filled with cash. If money had still been worth anything, the guy would have been pretty rich. I took the watches, wallets, his knives and his gun.”

“Oh I remember cell phones.”

“They’re totally worthless. The networks will never come back up.”

Andrew looked back at Wallace. “Alright, so you killed the guy?”

“Yeah. And let me tell you about the knives I took off of him. Every one of those knives was bloody. That guy had been killing a lot of people. But yeah, it was either him or me. And he didn’t need that gun or those knives. I took his extra magazines too.”

“You got him with your machete?”

“I got one good solid whack into the guy’s neck as he ran by me. He was there on the ground, flopping around with blood pouring out. So I chopped his neck again. I could tell that he was trying to yell for his friends but he was totally quiet. I guess I cut his vocal cords. He stopped flopping around in a few seconds.”

“You didn’t want to just call the cops on the guy?”

“Hey, the police station was a block away, and there was a riot going on right in front of it. The cops weren’t anywhere to be found.” Wallace looked at Andrew. “This is the natural state of things, my friend. It’s a fallen world. Has been since Eve bit the apple.”

The two looked down at the funeral. David stood in front of everyone and gestured. He pointed in the direction of the observation post and then down towards the roadblock. He appeared to be explaining how Kirk was brave to the very end. David looked at the rolled up tarp and then bowed his head. Everyone joined in a prayer.

“So what are you saying?” Andrew whispered to Wallace. “This is how things normally are? Sorry but we are going to have to agree to disagree on that one.”

“The Bible said that after Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden, the world became ‘all evil, all the time.’ So God wiped the slate clean with the flood, and started all over. But everyone’s sin nature took over again, just like before. Jesus came down here and said He was ‘not of this world.’ It’s a totally evil, decadent world out there. That’s a fact.”

“Hmm.”

“And now we are at the End. God is about to take out the trash.”

“Never thought I would miss the rule of law, the state…”

“Hey, any government was just a bunch of gangsters. Our government just looked the most legit, but it wasn’t run by a bunch of angels, let me tell you. The taxes we paid went towards killing babies, and it was propping up Muslim governments that wanted to take out Israel. All that is just the tip of the iceberg. Now what is left of the government is setting up Sharia right here. Our government was always just a real fraud. A force for evil with a smiley face. Good riddance.”

“Well, sure, you can disagree with the government, and I had heard about the abortion stuff, but I don’t think things are ‘natural’ now. Like this is the ‘natural way,’ as you say.”

“There was always a thin veneer of civility in the world, and now that veneer is gone.” Wallace smiled. “The Bible says that lawlessness will increase – hey, we are way beyond that point right now. We are in the End Times here, and it is looking pretty good if you ask me.”

“You make it sound like this is something to be happy about. There is nothing in the Bible that says we are supposed to be happy when the End Times come.”

“True, but there is also nothing in the Bible that says we are supposed to be miserable and depressed when it happens either. Don’t be a weanie. The prophet Daniel wrote that in the End, people who know God will be strong and carry out great exploits. I’m going to make the best of this.” Wallace looked at Andrew. “You should too.”

“I’m not a weanie,” Andrew said.

“Well no, not you. I mean all Christians in general. Grab this bull by the horns. It’s beautiful.”

****

The people at the funeral started to sing the song “I’ll Fly Away.”

“Oh, I like that song,” Wallace said to Andrew. “One thing I miss about church being open is hearing all those classic hymns.”

“Yeah, same here.”

“Hey Andrew,” Wallace looked back at the pallets that made up the shower. “I noticed there is a shaver and shaving cream in the shower. Would it be Ok if I use them?”

“Sure, but we aren’t supposed to shave more than once a week. We are trying to conserve those shavers.”

“Oh, I won’t be here more than a week anyway.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“I didn’t see a mirror in there, but it is dark anyway.” Wallace looked back towards the shower. “I’ll just try to shave myself in the dark.”

“There is a mirror in there. I just used it the other day. It might have fallen behind the pallets back there.”

“Thanks. I think the water in the container is warm enough now, so I’ll go start my shower.”

Wallace got up and walked back into the shower, turned on the water, disrobed and entered the shower. Andrew walked downhill to the funeral. He sat next to Jesse, towards the back of the group.

*****

“Is Wallace OK up there?” Jesse asked Andrew, loud enough to be heard above the crowd singing.

“Yeah, he’s OK. But I think he has a screw loose.”

“We’re talking about Wallace, right? The guy who goes to church wearing full camo, and you’re surprised to learn that he has a screw loose?” Jesse asked, sarcastically.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you all of a sudden?”

“Oh, sorry. David just told us all the details of how Kirk got killed. Pretty chilling. I know, ‘what did you expect?’ but still.”

The song came to an end.

“Yes,” Andrew said, and lowered his voice now that the song was over. “That was horrible.”

“And to think it just happened right out in front of our property. It feels different here all of a sudden.”

Lawson stood in front of the crowd and invited Kathy and Peter to come forward. “We don’t have pall-bearers here,” he said. “So I thought we would have Kathy and Peter, Kirk’s closest friends here, cast the first dirt to bury Kirk’s body.” Kathy and Peter bent over to the pile of dirt next to the grave and grabbed some dirt. Everyone else lined up to grab more handfuls of dirt, and throw the dirt onto the grave.

When everyone had cast some dirt into the grave, Chuck took a shovel and started moving the rest of the dirt pile into the grave. Jesse walked to the front of the grave and addressed everyone while they were still there, standing.

“Hey guys, everyone,” he began. “I heard that dinner is ready, and like always, keep your dinner covered up so that it is pretty clean. I know the roadblock is almost a mile away, but the flies can go a long way. We don’t want diseases spread here if we can help it.”

“Yes, the dinner’s ready, and we got Wallace’s fish mixed in with it,” someone from the back of the crowd said. Everyone started walking to the campfire area.

“But before everyone goes,” Jesse continued, “I just wanted to say that we’re going to have a full camp meeting tomorrow afternoon sometime. We need to discuss some things. The guys who killed Kirk might be back, and that might have been them in the helicopter that showed up at the road block earlier. So be thinking about preparedness. I mean, camouflage and weapons. Stuff like that.”

“What are you talking about?” one of the teenagers present asked. Mary walked to the front and stood next to Jesse.

“I don’t know,” Jesse looked around at the crowd. “Those guys who did this to Kirk might come back for the rest of us. I just think we need to at least have some plans of what to do.”

Mary spoke up. “I think we were talking earlier about clothing dye. We have a lot of whites and pastels up here. That would be easy to see from the valley.”

“What do you mean, dye our clothing?” another woman asked.

“Yes,” Mary said. “That is why we stored so much Rit dye. We have a lot of it in the shipping container over there. Not right now, but over the next few days.”

“Yes,” Jesse said. “We need to talk about stuff like this, blending in, and weapons. Everything.”

“What about the stuff that won’t dye?” someone asked. “Some of our coats are polyester fleece, and I don’t think that stuff will dye. Are we just supposed to throw it away?”

“No,” Jesse said. “I don’t know. Maybe mark it up with charcoal if it can’t be dyed. But however it is done, we just need to blend in a little better. And for anyone who goes out near the roadblock, we need to make sure they wear dark green or black.” Jesse looked uphill, towards the shower. “We have a visitor, Wallace, who might give us some pointers. He was in the city only a couple weeks ago.”

“He might be able to tell us more about the thugs in town and maybe the guys who killed Kirk,” Andrew said.

“Well, we will talk about it all at the meeting tomorrow,” Jesse said. “We also have a bright red Cadillac up the hill. I know it’s way back there, and that’s another thing that really stands out.” He looked towards DJ, who wore a silver cross necklace on the outside of his shirt. “And maybe people can hide their jewelry or color it so that it doesn’t reflect sunlight and give someone away.”

“Camouflage our jewelry?” DJ asked.

“Well, yeah.”

“Like a ‘camouflaged cross?’” DJ asked, looking down at his cross necklace.

“Yes,” Jesse answered. “I like that. Yes. A ‘camouflaged cross.’ I think you’re onto something there, DJ.” Jesse looked at DJ and nodded.