CHAPTER 10

 

 

 

Kathy and Peter emerged from the trail with Kirk’s body in the duffel bag that was on the game cart. The bottom half of the duffel bag was soaked with blood.

 

“Oh no, here’s Peter and Kathy with Kirk’s body,” Jesse announced to the other men. The one who had the ax put it down near the wood pile and they all started walking towards Peter and Kathy. Their expressions turned to sadness and shock.

 

“Thanks for doing this you guys,” Jesse said to Peter and Kathy. Jesse made a disgusted expression on his face when he saw Kirk’s boots sticking out of the duffel bag.

 

“We’re OK, but a helicopter came and checked out the roadblock,” Peter said.

 

“Yeah, I heard the chopper. We got our guns ready, but then it left,” Jesse said. “Good thing there are no flat areas for a chopper to land around here.”

 

The crowd stopped. Peter put down the cart. “I think they are interested in us.”

 

“Probably,” Jesse agreed, “but who are they?”

 

“Whoever the thugs are who killed Kirk.”

 

“You think it’s the same guys?”

 

“Oh yeah. And somehow they got their hands on a Huey helicopter.”

 

Kathy looked back to the trail. “We actually met Jackie down there.”

 

“Really?” Jesse said. One of the other men said, “No way.”

 

Someone else asked, “Jackie, the one who took the Mark?”

 

“Yep.”

 

Jesse asked, “Did she give you any details about how they all got rounded up? Well, first things first. Let’s get Kirk’s body buried and you can tell me all about it.” Jesse turned to the men who were with him. “Jose, would you mind telling Lawson we are about ready for the funeral.”

 

“Sure,” Jose started walking further up the road.

 

“Guys, let’s bring the body to the grave up there,” Jesse said, moving the game cart, looking at the other men there.

 

“This is really sad,” said one of the other men. “Horrible,” agreed another man there.

 

“Look guys,” Jesse started, then paused and stopped moving the game cart. “Hey, this could be us someday.”

 

“Shocking,” said one of the other men there.

 

“Wait a minute,” Jesse said. “Wait a minute. ’Shocking?’ Look guys, this is not shocking.”

 

The other men there looked at Jesse. “Have we been reading the same Bible?” Jesse asked. “This is anything but shocking. I can’t believe anyone said this was shocking, or a surprise at all.”

 

“Alright, Jesse, what’s your point?” Chuck asked. “You mean, you don’t think what happened to Kirk here was shocking?”

 

“Well, no.” Jesse paused, and looked like he was trying to choose the right words. “Look, we all saw what was going on in Jerusalem. We saw it on the news. We saw the Abomination of Desolation. If that wasn’t it, I don’t know what could have been. We were warned about that in the Bible. And the Bible is either true or not. Either it is a big fraud or it really is God’s word. And if it is God’s word, then we have been warned about stuff like this.” Jesse looked at the duffel bag containing Kirk’s body. “Jesus told us to run, and not even get our coat.”

 

“He said ‘cloak,’ not ‘coat.’” Andrew interjected.

 

“Andrew, not now. I know I told everyone here to bring out the humor wherever possible, and that is funny,” Jesse paused. “Well, kind of funny. But I’m saying something important here.”

 

“OK, sorry.”

 

“No, that’s OK. I shouldn’t have said anything.” Jesse looked at the other men there. “Look, whether Jesus said ‘cloak’ or ‘coat,’ He did say to just run when you see the Abomination of Desolation. That is what we saw, so we made the call to the radio station, they did their thing, everyone heard the song, and we all met here as planned. We are now in the End Times. Get used to it. And don’t be shocked.”

 

Jesse took a breath. “And one thing about the End Times is that Christians get betrayed, turned in, tortured, and killed. Jesus said that if God didn’t end it all and rapture everyone, all Christians everywhere would end up getting killed. Jesus told us that we are to expect some pretty horrible things to happen to us, and He didn’t even try to sugar-coat it. He told us to just run.”

 

“I see,” Andrew said. “So what you’re saying is that what happened to Kirk should not be a shock.”

 

“Well, yeah. In fact, it is going to get much worse than this.” Jesse looked around the camp. “I’m starting to think that we aren’t seriously prepared for what we have ahead of us. What is straight ahead for us. We’re not even close.”

 

Jesse looked back at the duffel bag. “Well, I need to stop ranting for now, because we need to bury Kirk’s body. We can take a few minutes to do that. But then, we need to all have a serious talk about what we can expect in the future, and what we need to do to prepare for it. We all got up here safely, but the guys who did this to Kirk might be coming back and we need to be ready.”

 

“What do you mean? Like, weapons training?” Andrew asked. “Sounds kind of silly, don’t you think?”

 

“I don’t know. I mean, I’m just thinking it over right now. Give me a few minutes. Maybe a couple of hours. We will have another camp meeting on the subject. Maybe we can brainstorm.”

 

“Alright, first let’s do the funeral,” Chuck suggested. Jesse pushed the game cart towards a more wooded part of the camp, where a long hole had been dug, surrounded by some lawn chairs. Kathy and the other men followed.

 

 

 

****