She remembered the nightmarish evening in Nashville when it all came to an end in a wash of police interceptor lights. She felt sadness and urgency, anger and despair. She could never again live without her family. She would die. It was as simple as that.
Maria, Todd, and the Fasbenders were huddled together around the kitchen table Maria had found in the lobby of a deserted motel. It was round and heavy, supported by a single beefy three toed column. She insisted it had potential, had stained it blond to match the couch and love seat and painstakingly mounted quarter sized brass buttons around its thick perimeter. She had rummaged the buttons from old high school band uniforms left to rot in an ancient storage shed. The end effect was stunning, bringing compliments and accolades from all who saw it.
"We have to get out of here," Todd said, placing his steaming coffee cup back down on the table, "The Vinces know we’re here and it’s only a matter of time. We have to leave now."
He turned and looked at Maria. She smiled a soft smile and nodded. Her eyes drifted away and focused on her photo album leaning against the log wall between the couch and loveseat. An old computer, digital camera, and tiny generator had been left behind.
Maria had spent many dark nights under a single 40 watt light bulb, printing, cutting and pasting a scrapbook together. She had meticulously arranged her memories on colorful commercial scrapbook pages she had carried home from Park City: moments in the lives of Maria, Todd, baby Josh and their beloved friends.
She glanced down the hall towards the bedroom where she and Todd had made sweet love together, bringing completeness and permanence to a love so deep it was wholly beyond her understanding. She could no longer hold back the tears.
"Oh sweetheart," Gladys said softly. She rolled her hand over Maria’s black hair and reached for the baby.
Maria sniffed and handed him over to her. "I don’t want to leave. This is our home. We worked so hard."
"Well, then don’t," Louis said. "We’ve completely scoured the mountain, and no one is up there. No one has seen or noticed anything even slightly out of the ordinary."
Todd sighed and shook his head. "Louis, all due respect, my friend, but these folks are powerful—"
"More powerful than the Mums?"
"What do the Mums have to do with this?" Todd said.
Louis leaned back in his chair. "This is Mums territory. No one comes or goes without the Mums' notice and approval."
"But, why would the Mormon militia give a flip about Maria and me? We’re not Mormons."
“They care because my better half is the only bona fide MD anywhere near here, and she insists on leaving with you two should you choose to go."
Maria turned towards Gladys. "You’d go with us?"
Gladys shrugged. "Well, someone has to keep an eye on you."
"You’re missing the point here," Louis said. "The Mums are reinstituting their Brigham Young University. They want a medical school. They want Gladys very badly and… they’ve made it clear a physicist with a Nobel under his belt would be welcome also."
"You’ve talked to the Mums?" Todd said. "When? Why did you do that?"
"It seemed like the logical thing to do. You two were even more paranoid than usual, and Gladys and I wanted to fix it."
Maria pulled back, glanced at Todd and returned her attention to Louis. "I’ve heard stories about the Mums. I heard they’re terrifying. That’s why this place wasn’t cleaned out before the day. Everyone was afraid of them."
“Their enemies are afraid of them. But they’re wonderful people, strong and upright. I talked to the president.”
Maria’s chin dropped. "You talked to President Hatfield? How did you get in to talk to him?"
Louis glowered at her indignantly. "Well, I am Louis Fasbender. I still have a few chops."
"But, President Hatfield is the closest thing we have to a president…of the United States I mean."
"Very interesting man," Louis said, pulling his eyebrows together stoically. "Did you know he was a very high ranking officer in the military? Something called a commander, I believe, involved in something called The Navy Seals.
"He and his entire group were left to fend for themselves just before the day. He, being a Mormon , took up the fight here in Utah. From there, well you know the rest."
"So," Todd said, "he was like a local war hero?”
"Exactly."
Todd snorted. "Hmm…I guess that makes him a prophet, Seer and Revelator?"
"No, no, apparently it doesn’t work that way. Due to attrition, Hatfield was given a place on their quorum of the twelve Apostles. The existing President died and he was…I suppose, elected."
"Still," Todd said, "the idea of an American theocracy scares the hell out of me, to be honest."
"You and I think a lot alike," Louis said poking his finger into Todd’s chest. "That’s why you’re so intelligent. I just so happened to have had this very conversation with the president."
"You told the commander and chief of the Mums you didn’t like the idea of a theocracy?"
"He explained it all to me," Louis said, ignoring Todd’s question. "Apparently they have a prophesy, these Mormons: a prediction of a time when the American Constitution would be in such peril that the Elders of Zion would step in and save the day, as it were—the Mormons, of course, being the Elders of Zion."
Todd slowly shook his head…. "And?"
"Well, don’t you see? The American Constitution doesn’t allow for a theocracy. Right now they are under a self-imposed state of martial law, but the president assures me that the Constitution will be reinstated exactly as intended. Says they have to…says it’s a commandment."
"I thought the president of the Mormon Church had to be old," Maria said.
"Joseph Smith wasn’t old, nor was Brigham Young."
Maria shrugged and reached for her coffee cup."I’m still not sure who those people are."
"They were past presidents. But, be that as it may, the Mums assured me that there has been no unusual activity around here of late. One man was on the mountain the day Maria saw him, but he left and is currently traveling east towards DC. It’s only logical that if he was keen on finding you, he wouldn’t have been up there on the mountain yelling. He would have attempted to covertly track you."
"You didn’t tell the mums about the Vinces, did you?" Todd said.
Louis pulled his eyebrows together. "No Todd, I didn’t. After all, I’m not completely dim. I simply told them we had been vandalized and robbed. They were most happy to help… wonderful people."
"Louis," Todd said, grinning slightly, "you’re becoming a Mormon."
"Maybe. "
"So, am I hearing you right?" Maria said, looking at Todd. "We can stay?"
Todd leaned forward in his chair. "Now hold up. That dude on the mountain, he knew about Joshua. He told Vicki—"
"Honestly, Todd," Louis said, "I think we overreacted." Louis turned and faced Maria. "Tell us again exactly what Vicki said."
Maria glanced at Todd and back at Louis. "Well, let’s see…she said that…Josh was Jesus."
"No-no," Louis said holding up his hand. "Tell us exactly what she said…word for word."
Maria looked past Louis at the wall. "Uh, I told her she could come back and see Josh in the morning. I was trying to keep her peaceful, and she said she would come back the next morning and see Jesus. She said it just like that, and then… when I asked her why she called Josh “Jesus” she just said, he is… he is Jesus, and that’s when she said the people on the mountain told her."
"The people on the mountain? Is that what she said?"
"Yes."
"Well, you see," Louis said, throwing his hands up, "there was only one man on the mountain and on a day Vicki was completely incapacitated. Did she say anything else?"
Maria turned her gaze towards Louis. "Well, she did say… oh she just rambled after that."
"Think about this, kids," Louis said. "This is all simply coincidental. Under any other
circumstance this whole thing would have been dismissed as the ravings of a very sick woman. She’s a delusional woman who had obviously been fixating on your baby; a baby who in her mind was… baby Jesus; probably one of the most common delusions of all. I think we all simply panicked."
Todd rocked back in his chair and looked into the distance. "You’re absolutely right, Louis. We’ve overreacted."
"We’re staying?" Maria said, wide eyed.
Todd smiled at her."We’re staying."
Maria leapt from her chair and jumped into Todd’s arms, nearly toppling him to the floor.
~~~
Lylya and Kheda had been traveling nonstop for two days. They had been moving with the sea of refugees since they'd left Grozny, walking towards Ingushetia. Twice, Russian helicopters had swooped down out of the sky strafing and firing Katyusha rockets into the unending procession. Like wildebeests at a Serengeti watering hole, people scattered and died, regrouped, and moved on.
The children had no provisions of their own, but that night a group of travelers grudgingly allowed them to sit near their fire. Lylya listened silently as they talked.
"It was Basayev," one of them said. "He and his Wahhabites took a Russian school. They killed children. They behead women and men in front of cameras and send their films out for the world to see. That is what the world sees of us. That is why the Russians are killing us."
"We didn't behead anyone," another said."We didn’t kill children. What of our children? They kill our children by the thousands like rats in the streets."
"It’s in God’s hands now," another one said. "Only Allah cares about children dying in Chechnya."
"Why?" Kheda said, surprising everyone.
One of the men sitting at the fire turned and glowered at her. "It is not for little girls to ask questions of men!"
Kheda’s eyes dropped to the ground.
He pondered the child a moment and turned back looking into the fire. "Even so… I will tell you." He was silent for a time before continuing. "When Godless Russia disintegrated, it released many of its nations. The people of Chechnya wanted the same, to be free as it was in the old days. But Chechnya is rich with oil, so the Cossacks decided not to let us go. Basayev and his Wahhabites stood against them. So they kill us."
"But," Kheda said stammering, her eyes wide with fury, "how could one people simply kill another?"
"He told you, child," another man sitting at the fire said. "Chechnya dies because no one cares."
~~~
The night went forward. The fire was soon abandoned to flicker and die.
Lylya and Kheda found a patch of grass for bedding. They huddled together for warmth, but sleep evaded Lylya as she lay looking up into the stars. ‘Chechnya dies because no one cares,’ she had heard the man say… 'No one cares.'
She closed her eyes many times to pray throughout the night. Always one simple word, one simple question…
Why?
She would ask her question and stare up at the stars for a sign, for an answer. None came.
The morning finally arrived and the exhausted swarm continued shuffling ever forward in bovine compliance. Lylya and Kheda followed along, ever searching for scraps of food dropped or discarded along the way.
Occasionally they would spot a small flock of birds. They would chase them away and take their places picking at the ground for seeds.
Five miles earlier, they had reached the village of Chiri-yurt, and had been summarily turned away. But now, something had changed. Something was happening just ahead, a commotion. People were yelling and clumping together.
Lylya and Kheda ran hand in hand till they flanked the milling crowd. Kheda found an old fence post and climbed to the top in an attempt to get a glimpse of what was happening. If the Russians were strafing the crowd again they would have warning and could still run for the trees.
"They’re fighting… and running," Kheda called down to Lylya.
"Why?" Lylya yelled back. "Who is fighting?"
"The people," Kheda answered. She released her spindly legs, hung for a moment and dropped down from the top of the fence post.
"There is food!" someone in the crowd shouted. "They are giving out food from trucks!"
The crowd lunged forward. Lylya and Kheda found themselves caught up in the frenzy. They could see people running from the road towards a massive fenced building just beyond the tree line. They followed the horde and soon were able to see several trucks surrounded by a vast, anarchic mob of screaming people.
Lylya pulled Kheda to a stop. "Look!" she cried out over the turmoil, "Cossacks!" She pointed at the Russian soldiers standing in the bed of the trucks passing out boxes of food.
Kheda slowed to a stop and stood breathlessly staring at the soldiers.
Gunfire erupted. People scattered.
"It is a trick!" Kheda yelled. "They plan to kill us all!"
Kheda and Lylya began wildly running away from the trucks. Within moments they noticed the crowd had stopped fleeing and, to the children’s amazement, began returning to the trucks, their arms reaching, begging for food.
The soldiers had fired into the air, apparently in an attempt to control the crowd. They were now yelling, checking papers and leisurely passing out boxes of food to the starving masses. Lylya and Kheda crept forward until they were finally within earshot of the soldiers.
"You must have a G-4 stamp!" they squawked, their Godless Cossack accent sounding like demented parrots. "A G-4 stamp entitles you to three cans of milk and a can of processed meat; one box for each person!"
"It is a trick," Kheda said. "Can’t they see that?"
Lylya reached and gripped Kheda’s coat. "Maybe the world has discovered their evil. Maybe the world is forcing them not to kill us all."
Kheda turned and glared at Lylya, her lips pulled into a snarl. "Maybe they have decided to gather us up and eat us like chickens."
Lylya’s eyes swept the crowd and returned to Kheda. "They are not shooting anyone; maybe we can get some meat. We need meat. We cannot live on grass and twigs. We need strength."
She released Kheda’s coat and began slowly moving forward towards the soldiers, pulling Kheda by the hand. Within moments they were in the midst of the riotous crowd surrounding the truck.
Both girls pushed forwards, their arms reaching. They were being pummeled about, still they reached. Longer arms, belonging to stronger people, repeatedly knocked their hands away. They shouted and shoved hoping to open a clearing, hoping to get the Cossack’s attention.
Suddenly Lylya was lifted high above the crowd. She looked down. A kind man was holding her up, helping her.
One of the ugly Cossacks looked down at her, pushed his hand out and bellowed over the crowd. "G4 stamp!”
Lylya stared back at him. "What?"
"A G4!" the soldier yelled back, "you must have a…"
A hand appeared and waved a piece of paper at the Cossack. Lylya glanced down. The man who was holding her up was cradling her with one arm and offering the piece of paper to the Cossack with the other.
The Cossack snatched the paper up, reached and put a package in her hand. The crowd pushed her, trying to wrestle the package out of her hands but the man holding her up was able to pull her away.
He sat her down next to Kheda. "Hold on tight to the food!" he yelled. "Hold it close to your belly! Don’t let anyone take it away from you!"
Lylya immediately fixated on his beautiful blue eyes. His smile was ingenuous and warm. He didn’t seem panicked like the others. He was tall and unkempt like the others, but she somehow knew he wasn’t like the others.
He left Lylya and hoisted Kheda onto his shoulders. Soon Kheda was holding a package just like Lylya’s. The man gently lowered her to the ground.
"Thank you kind sir!" Kheda called out.
The man knelt next to the two children. He gently hugged them both. "God is with you," he said.
He slowly stood, turned and moved away. Before he stepped into the bickeri
ng crowd he faded and disappeared like a winter breath.
Lylya’s mouth dropped. She turned and stared into Kheda’s eyes. Kheda was staring back.
"An angel! He must have been an angel!" Tears rolled down Lylya’s cheeks. "God is with us! The angel said God is with us. He has answered my prayers!"
"You!" one of the soldiers yelled from the truck. "You with the pretty eyes!"
Lylya looked up.
"You two little girls, come here!"
Lylya and Kheda turned to run but were quickly blocked by a soldier who had moved into the crowd. He pushed them forward towards the truck. A Cossack on the truck, someone obviously in charge, pointed towards a car parked nearby. The soldier shoved the two little girls towards it, opened the door and pushed them in.
~~~
Lylya and Kheda had been in automobiles before, but not like this. This was big and warm and the seats faced each other. The walls were covered with clean new upholstery. A portly man in a Russian officer’s uniform was sitting across from them smiling. Lylya tried not to look at the Cossack. She had no idea what he could possibly want with them, but it couldn’t be good. Kheda was defiantly staring at the man.
Lylya glanced at her and poked her in the side. "Stop it," she whispered.
Kheda slowly pulled her eyes away.
The Cossack pointed at the packages each girl was grasping in their laps and smiled cheerfully. "Eat…you must be starving."
The girls looked down at the packages and dropped their eyes to the floor.
"Go on," the Cossack said. "It’s good."
They sat in silence for a time. Finally the Cossack laughed and reached for Kheda’s package. Kheda recoiled and pulled the package closer to her. The Cossack laughed again and gently motioned for her to turn the package over to him. "I promise I won’t take it away from you. I was simply going to show you what you have there."
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