The Camouflaged Cross: Tales Of Christian Preppers In The End Times (Just Run Book 1) (17 page)

“I’ve never met them,” Bill said. “Here we have been living nearby for over a month and this is the first I have seen them.”

“Yeah,” Kathy agreed. “I knew they were Mormons the second they walked up. Just by what clothes they wore.”

“It’s those white, short-sleeved button-down shirts,” Wallace smiled. “I think Mormon boys come out of the womb dressed in shirts like that.” Bill and Kathy smiled.

Bill looked south. “Never thought I would see a whole town on fire like that,” Bill said, holding his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun, which was now in the southeast. “Such a huge smoke column and the town is over 30 miles away. Look at that -- it takes up such a huge part of the sky!”

“Hmm,” Kathy nodded. “Lots of people dying there.”

“Probably,” Wallace said.

The three turned into the road and started walking into the retreat property past the observation post.

“Wallace, I have another question,” Bill started. “How is it that you wear camo everywhere? I remember, back when church was still open, you were the one who was in camo, sitting way in the back of church. What was that all about?”

“Well, that was a function of my relationship with Jesus Christ.”

“What do you mean by that?” Kathy asked, confused.

“Well, the Bible is the word of God, I know that. And every single part of the Bible is put there for a reason. Not just for conversation or something. I mean really; on purpose. And several parts of the Bible are pretty explicit about what happens at the end. The End Times. It’s downright scary.”

“Yeah,” Kathy nodded. “I agree.”

“Well, after I moved back to town and got saved and started going to church, I figured that if God told us what to expect in the End Times, and, in that passage in Matthew, Jesus told Christians to ‘just flee,’ then we were being told to take it all very seriously. Deadly seriously, in fact.”

“That’s true,” Bill agreed.

“You know, if you think about it, everything else Jesus said in the Bible seemed so, I don’t know, just different. Kind of cerebral, preaching. A parable about a wayward son, telling people that his yoke was easy, forgive your enemies, ‘let your light so shine,’ that kind of thing. Everything He said was kind of parental and reassuring. One Sunday school teacher of mine used the term “salvivic.” Then, when Jesus’ disciples asked Him about the End Times, He said ‘just flee to the mountains.’ It just sounded a little out of character. ‘Just flee to the mountains’ He said. That really stuck with me.”

“I never thought about it that way.” Bill looked at Wallace with a new seriousness.

“Then Jesus followed it up with ‘I have told you in advance.’ As far as I’m concerned,” Wallace continued, “any Christian who really takes the Bible seriously needs to wear camouflage all the time, stockpile a bunch of food, guns and ammo, and be ready to go at any time. If you aren’t really alarmed at what the Bible says about the End Times and what we can expect, then you aren’t taking the Bible seriously. All of it. Sure, I wear normal clothing to client meetings or whatever, but most of the time I would wear camo, just in case. Always ready to go. Jesus said that the End Times will come at a day and hour that neither He nor the angels knew. Only God knew.”

“Yep, good point.” Bill nodded.

“And then, just to top it all off, the final book of the Bible, Revelation, says that God gives a special blessing to anyone who reads that specific book of the Bible. And of course Revelation talks about how all sorts of horrible things will happen to end humanity. Just about all at the same time. I just couldn’t see being a real Christian and not being a prepper at the same time. One goes hand in hand with the other. In fact, we’re being told to be preppers.”

“Like Noah and Joseph,” Bill suggested.

“Yeah, that’s true.”

The three of them walked further in silence for a few moments.

“OK,” Bill sounded convinced. “One more thing. I think I figured out the reason why you always sat in the back of church all the time. The Bible says ‘the last shall be first, and the first last.’ So sitting in the back of church was your way of making sure that under the Bible you will actually be first. Am I right?” Bill had the look of someone who had just solved a complicated puzzle.

“Well, no,” Wallace answered. “There was better legroom in the back of church. That’s all.”

“Oh.” Bill and Kathy nodded and the three of them continued walking up the road towards the camp.

*****

The trio continued walking on the road to the camp, with Bill and Kathy on either side of Wallace, who carried the shirt full of all the items gotten from the helicopter. Wallace looked at Bill. “So Bill, what’s your history? What were you before this all started happening?”

“I was a mechanical engineering major at the university, in my junior year.”

“And you were in this retreat group?”

“Yep, since before the church got shut down. I was in the Bible study group with Jesse and Mary. One day they invited me up here for target practice, which was a blast. I didn’t have too much experience with guns. Eventually they let me in on what was going on up here – that they were preparing for the end of the world.”

Wallace put the shirt down and grabbed one of the M4 rifles and held it with his right hand. He picked up the shirt full of items and carried it over his other shoulder.

“And your family? Your parents? What about them?”

An expression of sadness and worry came across Bill’s face. “That is the first topic in my every prayer. I know my parents were part of a retreat group in the eastern part of the state, but I haven’t heard from them. I hope and pray that they’re OK.”

Wallace looked back at Bill. “I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll be praying for your parents.”

“Thanks Wallace.”

The trio walked further in silence for a few minutes. Wallace aimed down the road with the M4 rifle. “These really are cool guns. I still can’t get over how those guys had some military-issued guns like these.”

“So, Bill,” Kathy started, “what were you doing when you heard the song on the radio? The song repeating, as a signal to drop everything and come up here?”

“Well, I had my petition for sabbatical ready to go. I am an engineer, you know. And when I heard the song on the radio playing over and over again, as we had discussed, I knew it was a signal to go to the retreat. I scanned some recent news, read parts of the Bible to confirm, and then tried to call my parents. The phone lines were all dead. So I dropped my letter in the mail and headed up here. I sent the letter just to cover my bases. If we were wrong, I wanted to be able to return to class and graduate with a decent GPA. In retrospect that was pretty unnecessary. My old campus is probably a killing field right about now.”

“Yeah, I’ve wondered what things are like back there,” Kathy said. “I finally paid off my condo, and I was early. Then I had to leave it. It’s probably in flames right now, along with the rest of the town. Oh well, my money situation was on the up-swing, so easy come easy go.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Bill smiled.

“Hey, it sounds like you guys are both doing better now. The shock and nausea you both had after the shooting and seeing those bodies back there. Look like it has subsided a little. I heard two jokes, well, almost jokes, in the last few minutes. Not bad.”

Kathy and Bill looked at each other. Kathy announced, “Well, I doubt I will sleep for a while, but having you in charge here made things a lot better.”

“Yeah, Wallace,” Bill agreed. “Thanks for taking the lead in all this.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Kathy agreed. “We couldn’t have done any of this without you. You probably saved a lot of lives today.”

“My pleasure. You guys were great back there. Just beautiful! I was blessed to be hooked up with you two.”

*****

Just then a gunshot rang out from the forest to the left of the road. Bill screamed out “Ah!” and grabbed his right temple as blood flowed down onto his face, then he fell onto the dirt road.

Wallace dropped the shirt he was carrying onto the ground and aimed the M4 towards the location of the gunshot. A middle-eastern man dressed in dark green was standing up, leaning against a tree about 50 feet away, holding a pistol. One of his legs dangled down in an unnatural angle, obviously broken.

The sun reflected the man’s smiling face as he yelled out several words in Arabic. From the evil smile on his face it was apparent that he was thrilled that his shot had hit one of the three who were walking on the road. The sun reflected and illuminated the slight-gray bar code on the man’s forehead.

The man shot his pistol a second time at Wallace, Bill and Kathy, but missed. Wallace pointed the M4 rifle and shot a quick burst of three bullets, all of which missed the man. Wallace then shot a second burst of three bullets and one bullet hit the man’s neck. The man then fell back onto the ground. Wallace ran towards the man.

Kathy rushed to Bill’s side. Bill’s hand fell off of his head and exposed the gunshot on the side of his temple. His skull was barely visible and blood oozed out. Bill passed out. “Stay with me Bill,” Kathy pleaded. Bill opened his eyes and looked at Kathy and she pressed the wound with her hand to stop the bleeding. Bill’s eyes closed again as he passed out once more.

Wallace stood directly over the man he had just shot. He shot another three bullets directly into the man’s face.

“Kathy,” Bill managed to say, as his eyes opened and focused on her.

Kathy reached into the pile of items that Wallace had dropped nearby, and she grabbed a green shirt, rolled it up and pressed it against Bill’s head. Bill passed out again. “Stay with me, Bill,” Kathy pleaded. “Don’t go.”

Wallace yelled back to Kathy, “Press on the bleeding! You have to stop the bleeding!”

“I am!” Kathy looked back at Bill. “Stay with us, Bill.” Some tears rolled down Kathy’s face.

Bill opened his eyes again, and looked at Kathy. “Why?” he was able to say. “What’re you going to do? Kathy, I’m toast. Don’t bother.”

“Don’t give up, Bill,” Kathy said. Bill passed out again.

Wallace ran back to Kathy and Bill. “Alright, let’s leave the stuff here, except for one of these rifles, and get Bill to the camp. You guys have a nurse there, right?”

“Yeah. Lois.”

Wallace stuck his left arm through the rifle strap so that he could carry the rifle he had just shot. He then picked up Bill and held him in front with his two outstretched arms. “Try to keep the pressure on his head,” he told Kathy. “Head wounds bleed a lot. We need to stop the bleeding if we can.”

“OK,” Kathy said as she pressed the rolled-up green shirt against Bill’s head.

“Come on,” Wallace said as he managed to walk quickly on the road towards the camp.

Wallace carried Bill and walked as fast as he could, while Kathy ran alongside and apply pressure to Bill’s head in hopes of stopping the bleeding.

Wallace and Kathy followed the road around a small turn to the left and came into view of the main part of the camp.

****

The camp was still a mess from the helicopter attack the night before. Several tents had been blown over, and everyone visible was either trying to set up a tent or repair something. Nerves were frayed.

Some people were crying out loud or yelling at others. Only one person, Mike, had been shot by the people in the helicopter. But Mike had been shot in the back of his upper left arm, and the bullet had gone all the way through, so there was nothing for Lois to do but stitch the wound close and give Mike some antibiotics from the fish antibiotics that had been stored by Jesse and Mary.

The first people Wallace, Kathy and Bill came across were Beth and one of her daughters. Beth was a tall, fair-skinned woman with short blond hair. She was comforting her teenage daughter, Keira, who was crying.

Keira was taking their situation pretty hard. “I can’t stand it here,” she sobbed. Beth hugged Keira as she cried. “Every morning I wake up and can’t believe I’m still here,” she cried. “I don’t want to be here. Now we’re getting shot at! What’s that about? What did we do to deserve getting shot at?”