“Hey, what’s going on out here?” asked a man from up the road, walking towards the helicopter. Wallace, Bill and Kathy looked up the road to the west and saw three men walking towards them. The men were all fair-skinned and wore dark pants and white, button-down short-sleeved shirts. Two of the men looked to be in their 30’s, and one of them held a shotgun over slung his shoulder, pointing up. The younger men stood on either side of an older, distinguished-looking man, who looked to be in his 60’s. They had come from the Mormon camp up the road.
“Oh hi, Elder Jacob, I remember you,” Wallace greeted the man in the middle. Wallace looked back at the bodies on the ground. “These guys came to kill us, shooting at us from this helicopter, so we shot it down. Now we’re getting their stuff. They won’t need it.”
“We think they killed also Kirk, you know, Kirk and Jackie, who lived down the road,” Bill said.
“Are those guys dead?” the unarmed younger man asked, looking at the dead bodies Wallace had thrown out of the helicopter. He looked disgusted and put his hand to his mouth.
“Yep,” Wallace answered. “You guys are lucky they didn’t come to your camp.”
“We heard about Kirk,” the other young man said. “That was horrible.”
Bill answered, “Yeah, they chopped his head off. Right out in front of the roadblock out here.”
Kathy turned to Bill. “No need to provide that much detail, Bill.”
The three men shuddered. “No, we heard all about it. That was horrible,” one of the younger men said. “Something about taking the Mark on your forehead.”
“We’re all supposed to take the Mark,” Kathy answered. “It’s a new law.”
Elder Jacob looked at the man to his left. “Looks like those guys all have the Mark on their foreheads. Look at that one.” He pointed.
“Yeah, I see it.”
The other younger man who held the shotgun put his hand in front of his mouth. “Not used to being around dead bodies.” He looked at one of the dead men on the ground. “Yeah, I can see the Mark on that guy’s forehead. A little, gray bar code or something.”
The other younger man began, “Kirk has a couple of friends in our group.” He paused. “Well, he ‘had’ friends in our group.”
“We buried his body a few hours ago,” Kathy said. “Just last night. Next thing you know, this helicopter shows up at our camp and starts shooting at us.”
The three men stood a few feet away from the front of the helicopter. “Hey, I think I know that guy,” Elder Jacob said as he looked at the dead helicopter pilot. The younger man who had thrown up joined the other two in front of the helicopter.
“Yes, I think I know him,” Jacob said, tilting his head to the right as he studied the pilot. The other two men looked at the pilot and leaned their heads to the right as well.
“I figure these guys forced the pilot here to fly this thing,” Wallace ventured. “They are definitely not friends or anything. Look,” Wallace lifted the pilot’s head up so that the others could see the pilot’s face and forehead. The pilot’s eyes were slightly open, looking down. “The pilot doesn’t have the Mark on his forehead.”
“Yeah, you may be right,” Jacob said as he looked at Wallace. He held out his hand to shake Wallace’s hand. “Good to see you again. I’m sorry, what was your name again?”
“Wallace. Hi. Good to see you again.” Wallace appeared to quickly wipe his right hand on his pants, then reached out his hand and shook hands with Elder Jacob. “My name is Wallace, and my friends here are Bill and Kathy.” Bill and Kathy stayed seated and waved at the others.
“Meet Alex and Caleb,” Wallace shook hands with Alex, the one with the shotgun, and Caleb. The others waved at each other.
Elder Jacob looked back at the pilot. “Yes, I think the pilot had a crop-dusting business. He had several planes and he bought this helicopter at some Army surplus auction. He had a lot of fun with it. I don’t think he ever thought it would be used to try and kill anyone. That’s too bad. Tragic.”
“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.”
“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.
****