The Camouflaged Cross: Tales Of Christian Preppers In The End Times (Just Run Book 1) (16 page)

“I thought he looked familiar,” Alex said, looking back at the pilot. “I think my family hired him to crop-dust our soy bean field a couple years ago.”

“Hmm,” Caleb looked at the pilot. “Isn’t he the one who took in a couple of grand-daughters?” Caleb looked at Elder Jacob.

“Yes, I think you’re right,” Elder Jacob spoke up. “His daughter died from a drug overdose, so he took in his grand-daughters. Five and seven-year-old girls. He was a good man.”

Wallace approached the pilot and reached in to unbuckle the body. He then pulled the pilot’s body out, and laid it on the ground outside the front of the helicopter, in front of the three men. Both Alex and Caleb avoided looking at the pilot’s body.

*****

Alex turned away from looking at the pilot’s body. His attention was suddenly drawn to the south. A column of smoke filled the southern sky. He started to exclaim, “Holy …!”

Elder Jacob looked at Caleb, “Hey, watch your lang –“ Elder Jacob stopped his comment as he also saw the smoke in the south. A huge black smoke cloud filled the southern sky. Despite being thirty miles away, it blacked out so much of the sky that the morning was not as bright as it would otherwise be.

“Oh no. Oh no. Look at that.”

Everyone else there looked to the south. Kathy and Bill stood up, their mouths wide open. “Oh no,” Bill said, sounding like he was trying to talk himself out of what he was seeing.

“Oh no, look at that,” Wallace said.

“Could that be a forest fire or something?” Caleb asked.

“No way,” Wallace insisted. “It’s not dry enough for a forest fire here. It just rained last week. No, that’s coming from town. And that’s not a house or two on fire. That’s half the town on fire.”

Kathy and Bill looked at each other, then back to the south. “I can’t believe this,” Kathy said. “That looks like the whole town is on fire, not just part of it. That’s a lot of people getting killed right now. Lots of people we knew.”

“I can’t believe this. Have you guys in your camp heard anything about what is going on out there?” Wallace asked Elder Jacob.

“No, not really. Nothing but what you guys might already know. Some talk of Sharia being put in place. That kind of thing. We haven’t heard much lately because the electrical grid has been really spotty lately. You know, with all the machine gun attacks on electrical substations.”

“Oh yeah, ‘Metcalfing.’” Wallace agreed. “It takes its toll. The poor-man’s EMP attack.”

“Now this,” Elder Jacob gestured to the south.

“Yeah, it looks like whoever it is is killing off everyone in the town,” Wallace asserted. “Everyone.”

“There have to be thousands dead right now,” Bill estimated. “Getting killed or already dead. I never thought I would see anything like this.”

“Bill, come in,” Jesse could be heard on the walkie-talkie in Bill’s pocket.

Bill pulled out the walkie-talkie, but with his attention still fixed on the huge smoke column in the southern sky. “Yes, Jesse, this is Bill.”

“What happened with the helicopter? Any news?”

“Yes, it crashed on the road out here and all five occupants are now dead. The pilot may have been forced by the others to fly this thing. We got Kirk’s wallet.”

“You’ll have to repeat that. My hearing is pretty bad right now.”

Bill spoke louder and slower into the walkie-talkie. “I said that all five men in the helicopter are dead. One of them had Kirk’s wallet.”

“Did you say that one of the guys in that chopper had Kirk’s wallet? Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Wow, good work! I never thought we would be killing people but, yeah, they attacked us. So, yeah. I guess stuff like this happens. We have maybe one person injured back here, but Mike looks OK.”

“Jesse, I have some bad news.”

“What, is everyone OK? How’re Kathy and Wallace?”

“They’re fine, but … look to the south.”

“What are you …” The walkie-talkie went silent.

“Jesse, I know there are some hills between you and the view we have here, but …”

Jesse came back on the walkie-talkie, and this time was somber. “No. It doesn’t matter. Oh my gosh. I can’t believe this.” Jesse paused but left the microphone button pushed. “All those people. That’s got to be the town right there. That’s the whole town, up in flames. It can’t be anything else. All those people…”

Jesse could be heard talking away from the walkie-talkie. “Mary, look at that.” A gasp could be heard. Frantic talking could be heard nearby Jesse. He finally let up the microphone button, so there was silence from his end.

“Listen, Jesse,” Bill resumed talking from his end. “We’re done here. We have a bunch of guns, knives, ammo, wallets, jewelry and stuff, and we’ll be bringing it all back to you.”

“You do that.” Jesse kept the microphone pressed again. Expressions of shock and commotion could be heard among many people at Jesse’s end. “Yes, come on back.” Jesse then sounded like he was praying. “Lord, come quickly.” Jesse then asked someone on his end, “Who’s turn is it to go to the observation post?” He went silent again.

Wallace announced to the three men standing nearby, “OK, I think we’ll be heading back.”

“What about these bodies?” Elder Jacob asked. “And this wrecked helicopter?”

“We can toss the bodies over the side,” Wallace suggested.

“Wait,” Caleb said. “Why don’t we bury the pilot’s body? Looks like he wasn’t a part of this.”

“Yeah,” Elder Jacob nodded. Elder Jacob grabbed the shirt collar of the dead pilot and dragged him further up the road a little. He looked back at Wallace. “Can we toss the helicopter over the side too?”

“Why? It might make a second road block to help protect your camp.”

“Well, we still want to use the road someday. When things settle down a little.”

Wallace and Kathy looked at each other. Wallace looked back at Elder Jacob. “You mean, you think things will get back to normal?”

“Yeah, someday. Things will blow over and get back to normal. You’ll see.”

“You know, well,” Wallace started, trying to be diplomatic, “I just don’t see that happening.” He looked to the smoke in the southern sky again, then back to Elder Jacob. “I don’t think things will
ever
get back to normal. We’re in the Last Days here. There’s no turning back.”

“I don’t agree. No offense, but you evangelicals tend to jump to conclusions. You’ll see. This will all blow over, the lights will come back on and things will get back to normal.”

“Well OK, I can toss these bodies over, but I’m not sure about the helicopter here.” Wallace tossed one of the bodies over the cliff.

Wallace walked over to another dead body. “Hey this guy had some nice boots.” Wallace took the boots off of the body. “And cargo pants. And a nice 5.11 shirt.” Wallace pulled the pants and shirt off of the dead body, leaving the man in boxer shorts and a t-shirt.

“That’s really sick,” Alex said.

“Hey, we can still use this stuff,” Wallace answered, as he put the clothing and boots into the pile and threw the second body over the cliff.

“It’s not like we can go online and order some more boots and cargo pants,” Kathy said.

“Oh, so I guess you’re feeling better now?” Wallace asked Kathy, as he approached the third body. “Some of the shock worn off?”

“A little.” Kathy looked to the south. “I still can’t believe what’s going on in town. A lot of my old friends are probably getting killed right now.”

Wallace picked up the third body.

“Won’t that cause disease or something?” Alex asked. “Just to have dead bodies out there, rotting?”

Wallace turned around to face Alex, who looked disgusted and turned away. “Not really,” Wallace said. “Unless there is a water source down there, and I know there isn’t.” He then tossed the third body over the cliff.

“So long as we stay away from the bodies,” Elder Jacob agreed.

“It’ll be OK,” Wallace said as he dragged the fourth body and pushed it over the side.

“Hey, can you guys help us with the chopper over here?” Wallace looked at the three men near the front of the helicopter. “You seriously want it out of the way, right? Off the road?”

“Yeah,” Elder Jacob answered as the three of them approached the bottom of the helicopter and started pushing on the landing skid. “These things are kind of top-heavy,” Elder Jacob pointed out as he pushed. “That’ll help.”

“Here, let me help,” Wallace stood next to Elder Jacob and pushed on the landing skid. Bill and Kathy stood up and joined the pushing of the helicopter. First, the tail section rotated over the cliff, and then everyone moved to push the front of the helicopter. Eventually the helicopter fell over the cliff, landing with a crash on some rocks below.

“Thanks guys,” Elder Jacob said to everyone as he stepped back, dusting his hands. “I think we’ll be going back now. We’ll come back for the pilot’s body later.” Elder Jacob waved at Wallace, Bill and Kathy, then turned around and started walking back up the road to the Mormon camp. The other two men waved and followed Elder Jacob back to their camp.

*****

“Guys, let’s get this stuff together and go back to Jesse.” Wallace bundled all the rifles, pistols, knives, magazines, cigarettes, wallets, clothing, and his own rifle in one of the shirts taken from the men in the helicopter, and slung it over his shoulder and looked at Bill and Kathy. “Let’s go.”

The three started walking up the road.

“Wallace, I gotta ask you,” Kathy asked, as she caught up to Wallace. “Have you ever been in the military or something? I mean, how did you know to do all this? We were in combat here.”

“Nope, I’ve never served. I’m totally arm-chair.” Wallace looked back at Bill as Bill began to follow. “It’s kind of a long story, but I can shorten it. A good friend of mine in high school joined the Army, became a Ranger. He did his time, took his honorable discharge, and then he saw the kind of money that private military contractors were offering. So he signed up with a contractor.”

“You mean like for Blackwater or something?” Bill asked.

“Not that contractor. Another one. There are many private military contractors out there, you know.”

“OK, so your friend got hired with a contractor, helping out the military. That’s what they do, right?”

“Right. Meanwhile I was in college football, a defensive lineman, getting bored. So my friend talked me into joining too. He really took me in under his wing.” Wallace paused. “I knew I liked to shoot guns, and I was kinda dumb. I guess I didn’t know any better. It seemed fun, and the pay was great.”

“So you signed up,” Bill pressed Wallace.

“Yeah. At first I was the type of guy who said, ‘hey guys, I’ll be right behind you.’ Then I got a little more involved, putting myself in the parts of the group that got shot at and returned fire, that kind of thing. Pulling triggers. For an action-junkie like me it was kind of fun. Then I got a reputation of being kind of crazy, if you can believe that.”

“No kidding,” Bill said, in mock surprise.

Wallace looked at Bill and smiled. “So that’s it. No military, just private military contacting work. It was a great job, but you never settle down and do a job like that. After a few years and some really close calls I figured I should go home and try doing something normal for a while before I get myself killed.”

“Oh, so you put up your gun for good?” Bill asked.

“Well, I still hunt. But yeah, I’m out of the private contracting business. I build homes now.”

The three of them walked together in silence for a while. When they came to the opening of the road on the left, Wallace stopped and looked to smoke rising above town in the south. “There it is, folks. Proof that we didn’t jump the gun in bugging out. I don’t care what the Mormons say.”

“What do they know?” Bill grunted.

“Mormons,” Wallace started. “Excellent preppers but distorted theology. And that’s too bad. Pretty good neighbors though. And friendly. I’ll give ‘em that.”