The Camouflaged Cross: Tales Of Christian Preppers In The End Times (Just Run Book 1) (20 page)

“Oh,” Wallace paused. “Well, there’s another thing I wanted to bring up. I noticed you have one good observation post, but it might be time for a second one, a little further to the north. Looking over that footpath that comes down to the road on the other side of the roadblock.”

“Oh, I thought no one knew of that,” Jesse said.

“I did a recon of your place here, and of the Mormon place up the road before I came here, and that is when I saw it. It’s a good trail, and it is pretty well-hidden. But it needs its own observation post, just like the other,” Wallace said. “I think there is a bend in the hill near the road that make the opening to that path not visible from the current observation post.”

“We will probably need more walkie-talkies at some point,” Jesse answered. “But yeah, we need to work on that.”

Wallace continued. “And speaking of leadership, I figure Jesse is in charge here, but leadership and chain of command is also an issue. So whoever is in charge, like Jesse, needs to have a second and third in charge. That way there will always be someone in charge up here.”

Jesse stood up. “Well, I consider you all my friends but if I were to say a second and third in charge here, I would have to say Mary and David, the two who have been with me on this retreat property project since the beginning.”

“Not to mention the fact that Mary is your wife,” Jose pointed out and smiled.

“Well, yeah.” Jesse sat back down. “Sorry, Wallace, go ahead.”

Wallace smiled, and continued. “It sounds like first aid and medical care is handled by Lois here, and she should keep everyone updated on medical supplies, which never seem to last as long as you think they will.”

“OK,” Lois, who was sitting next to Lawson, said. “I could do that. But everyone needs to keep in mind that I am only a nurse, not a surgeon. I can bandage wounds and give stitches, and maybe give some advice here and there, but for serious issues, we will probably need a surgeon up here. Someone who can actually operate. And that is something that as a group we don’t have covered.”

“Well, Lois,” Wallace answered. “If you could just keep up to date on what medical supplies there are up here and tell everyone when shortages come up. If anyone leaves the property, you will need to give them a list of supplies that are needed, and maybe you can get what you think everyone needs here.”

Wallace looked at the group. “Similar thing for food and water. I hear that Jose is in charge of food, right?”

“Yep, that’s me,” Jose nodded.

“Could you also be in charge of water?”

“Sure.”

“And when I say ‘be in charge of it’ I mean keep track of the supplies, figure out how much you have and how long it will last, and report back to the group on any concerns you have. Shortages, that kind of thing.”

“OK.”

“Another thing: it looks like your group has begun to accumulating some weapons, and someone should be in charge of keeping track of all the weapons and ammo here. And cleaning the weapons and making sure they don’t jam. Stuff like that.”

Everyone looked at Peter. “Look, you guys, I’ve handled many guns, but trading in my M-16 at the Marine version of the ‘Golden Conex’ is the closest I ever came to cleaning a gun and making sure it won’t jam. I think what Wallace is talking about is a gunsmith or something.”

“Yeah, actually I am. And if you don’t have a gunsmith here, maybe you guys can educate yourselves on guns and gunsmithing. Cleaning guns after you use them, and making sure they’re good to go. Field strip them. Do you have any books up here on gunsmithing?”

“Not really,” Jesse answered, looking down.

“Well, maybe everyone can pray on this,” Wallace suggested.

“Yeah.” Jesse nodded.

“OK, there is another important issue that need to be covered, and I know that it won’t be popular but I will just say it. Someone needs to get everyone here in shape. Physically. That way you will be ready and able to fight back when you need to.”

“What do you mean, like push-ups or something?” Keira spoke up.

“Oh, that’s the start of it. Push-ups, sit-ups, running, patrol formations, hand communications, being cohesive military units –“

“Wallace, thanks,” Beth said, “but I’m not sure that will work. We have some eighty-somethings here, and some of us here are bona fide soccer moms.”

“Well, the eighty-somethings I would give a pass to, but for everyone else … like I said, right now you are a military unit, whether you realize it or not.”

Sean answered, “I could do it.”

“Well, yeah, Sean,” Beth said. “You were about to go into the military anyway. The rest of us, come on. Sit-ups?” Several other nodded in agreement. “Wallace, I appreciate your speaking here, but really…”

Wallace looked at Beth. “Sorry, what is your name?”

“Beth.”

“OK, Beth, you would be surprised at how short it would take to train yourself to be a pretty good soldier.”

“He’s right,” Peter agreed. “I’ve seen it.”

“This is just not realistic,” someone from the back answered. Many nodded in agreement.

“Look you guys, you wanted me to give you some survival tips, so here they are. If you don’t want to listen to me, fine.” Wallace sounded frustrated.

Jesse stood up. “Hey, if Wallace says it needs to be done, it needs to be done. He knows this stuff. Do you want to survive or not? Live with it, people.”

“Yeah but,” Jim started to object.

“Hey, someday the enemy will come again,” Wallace spoke out above the murmuring from the crowd. “You guys need to get ready. Exercising, military training, all of it. If you aren’t ready, you die. That’s all.”

*****

Wallace focused his attention far behind the group. “Excuse me, everyone, is he with your group here?” Some of the talking died down. “I don’t know this guy. Is he part of your group? Who is he?”

Jesse stood up and looked behind him, where Wallace was looking. “No,” he said. “I don’t know him.”

“Who is this guy?” Wallace asked again. Several others stood up and looked behind them. A man with short black hair and dressed in dark green military clothing, with a machine gun strapped around his side, emerged from the forest. After hacking away at the few remaining bushes in his way with a machete, he put his machete back in its sheath at his side, and walked closer to the group. The man looked very tired and dirty.

The man walked closer to the group. Wallace pulled out a pistol and pointed it straight up, ready to use if needed, which startled some in the group. David and Mary stood up on either side of Jesse.

“Who are you?” Wallace called out to the man.

“First Sergeant Black, of the 303
rd
Training Unit from Fort Leonard Wood.”

“What are you doing here?” Wallace asked him.

“I’m a deserter,” the man answered, already out of breath. “I had a dream, and it was horrible. So much killing and screaming. I deserted my unit.” The man fell to his knees, took off his rifle and backpack, and threw them to the ground in front of him.

Jesse approached him. “Why did you come here?”

“You were in my dream too,” the man answered. “I saw you,” he said as he looked closely at Jesse. “That part of the dream was good. After I saw all the killing in my dream, I saw your face. I was told to come here.”

Jesse looked around the group. “Lois? What do you see? He looks kind of dehydrated to me.”

“Yes, he looks very dehydrated,” Lois answered. “And very tired. If we had a hospital, I would admit him and hook him up to an IV drip.”

David spoke up. “Does he have the Mark? Someone check him.”

“No,” the man answered. “Taking the Mark is still optional in the Army, but I knew it was wrong. So I never took it. Here, look at my forehead, and my right hand. The Mark is not there; never will be.” The man held out his hand.

Wallace put down his gun.

“OK, Sergeant Black” Jesse asked again, “what’s your first name?”

“I’m a deserter.”

“OK, yes, I know. You said that. But what is your first name?”

“Josh.”

“What did you do for the Army before you deserted your unit and came here?”

“The Army rotates assignments,” Peter said.

“Right,” Josh answered, still out of breath. “My last assignment was drill sergeant.”

Mary looked at Jesse. “A drill sergeant,” she repeated.

People started to sit down.

“Could someone please get Josh here some water, mixed with salt and honey?” Jesse called out. “Looks like he needs some electrolytes.”

“OK,” Jim said and left with Jose.

“Thanks,” Josh said. “I’ve been on the run for four days. My canteen and camelbak ran out two days ago, so I’m pretty dry. And I didn’t bring any water filters or anything.”

“You’ve been on the run for four days?” Peter asked.

“Yes, it was the worst dream I’ve ever had. Much worse than a nightmare. And it was so real, that’s the thing. It felt totally real. Killing all around me, screaming. Screaming that was so loud, I was deaf for almost a day. The dream told me to leave. Now. And come here, and, like I said, I saw your face, sir. So I grabbed my stuff and ran. I didn’t stop running for about four hours.”

“And this dream left you without hearing?” Jesse asked. People pulled up chairs to hear the debriefing.

“I know it sounds crazy. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but yes, the dream left me without hearing for a few hours. And I thought I had really heard it. All the screaming. It was horrible.”

“Here, have a seat,” David offered one of the chairs.

“Thanks.” Josh got off the ground and sat in the chair.

“What have you been doing for four days?” Jesse asked.

“I hiked here, off-road. The dream just pointed me in this direction and I ran. And when I got tired, I just walked. There are some very dense forests to the north of here. I haven’t eaten since I left.”

“That must’ve been some dream,” Mary said.

Josh looked at Mary. “You have no idea.”

“Well, I’m sorry. You look pretty tired,” David pointed out.

“He also needs a shower,” Keira pointed out.

Josh looked at Keira. “Yep, I admit it, I probably smell pretty bad.” The mood of the group improved a bit.

Peter inspected Josh’s gun on the ground. “Looks like this gun has been fired recently.”

“It really is all bad out there,” Josh began. “All of it. I never thought our country, our world would go down the tubes like this. I read the Bible, and I know all this was predicted, but here we are. It’s horrible out there.” Josh paused and caught his breath.

“When did you shoot your gun?” Peter asked.

“A couple nights ago, I found a place to sleep for the night, or to try and sleep. It was near an electronic substation.”

“Electronic …?” Chuck asked.

“Well, I’m not an electrician,” Josh explained, “but, as I understand it, electricity travels a lot better when it is very high voltage. Then the electricity lines come into a substation where the electricity is transformed so that it can then go to individual houses and be used at lower voltage. It takes really big transformers to do that. So that is what is done at all these electronic substations, all around the country. And they are all totally unguarded.”

“Oh.”

“Well, I found a place to sleep for the night, and there was nothing around except for this substation. It was pretty desolate there, and I thought it was a safe place to try and sleep for the night. Next thing you know, I get woken up by a bunch of guys shooting up the substation with AK-47’s. They couldn’t care less about me.”

“Oh, you’re talking about Metcalfing,” Wallace said.

“Yeah, I’ve heard the term,” Josh agreed. “They just shot up the substation to cut off the electricity to the town nearby.”

“You say these guys didn’t care about you?” Peter asked.