Sent Rising (Dove Strong)

by Erin Lorence

  His sister jetted up. “Something good’s on?” She rocketed past, into the evening sunshine. A second later, her front door slammed.

  I shuffled my feet back and forth against the van’s worn floor. I hadn’t gone into his house since a year ago with Melody.

  “I promise, Dove. This is worth breaking your do-not-enter rule. Grandma says for you to come. She’s done being mad at us.”

  I entered the crazy, cluttered room from my memory. Jezebel sprawled on the fuzzy floor in front of the lit-up screen as if she’d collapsed.

  Her grandma chucked a square red pillow at her bare legs. “Get up, girl. You run away from me in the morning, then you don’t get TV in the evening.”

  “But...I’m so tired.” The girl slowly raised an arm and massaged the scar peeking from the neck of her shirt. “My chest feels...I don’t know. Funny. I’ll just lie here. And rest.”

  “Wolfe, go get your sister some juice.”

  “But, Grandma! She’s faking.”

  “Are you arguing with me?” The woman raised another red pillow in a threat.

  He dashed from the room but returned in ten seconds with a cup of something pink. “Here, faker. Now shut up about your heart so we can hear. It’ll be on any sec—”

  “It’s Dove! Dove, you’re on TV again!” Jezebel bounced up and motioned at the screen with her cup. The beverage inside sloshed over the sides.

  I swallowed and closed my eyes. Even so, I could still hear what was happening on the TV. Lobo asked a question in that deep voice of his. I heard my own voice answer again, saying too much about my dad. This interview was worse than I remembered. Tears gushed like a waterfall down my on-screen face. I couldn’t take it anymore. I slipped out the front exit.

  Wolfe joined me on the concrete steps. He patted my head. “You really get worked up about that stuff, don’t you? About people’s souls...and hell.”

  I shrugged. A year and a half ago, living at home and having never spoken with a nonbeliever, I hadn’t cared. But now...

  “I’ve got a secret to tell you.”

  I clenched my hands between my knees. He’s accepted Christ.

  “My grandma has become fanatical. Get it? She’s a Christian.” His shoulders shook.

  Mine fell. Then I opened my mouth and forced words from my throat. “How...how do you know?”

  He grinned. “She stole the Bible I bought a couple months back—the reason I held onto that other one I found in the van. I thought Jezzy had taken mine, but I found my stolen property in Grandma’s lucky bag with the pieces to my Jeep. And this afternoon, I caught her on her knees, talking to Jesus. She said she was looking for a poker chip she’d dropped, but I heard her.”

  “Uh...wow.”

  “Hey, look at me, Dove.”

  I did. His face was close to mine. His dark brows were raised, laugh lines gone. “Those answers you gave on TV tonight are going to make a lot of people think about Christians in a totally different way—in the way my grandma thinks about you.”

  I shrugged. “Then it was worth it, I guess. But it was weird how they showed my interview so fast. In the spring if took weeks for Lobo’s people to show my first Fanatic Surviving episode on TV—except for those first few clips.”

  He shuffled his feet.

  “Spit it out, Wolfe. What?”

  “They broadcast your interview tonight on a different station. On Terrorist Watch. It’s this twenty-four-hour news station that reveals up-to-date footage and alerts on fanatical sightings and attacks.”

  “Oh. Did Terrorist Watch mention the three camps...or Black Butte?”

  He shook his head. “Only reported sightings of Christian terrorists from Washington, California, and Idaho. Your people have been spotted traveling to Oregon. But that’s it. Nothing specific about where they’re settling or why they’re here.”

  “Good.”

  His hands, resting on his kneecaps, balled into fists. “But you’re not a terrorist. They shouldn’t have put your interview on that station.”

  “I’m not mad.” I stood. On the horizon, the midnight mass of Black Butte blended in with the darkening sky. Toward its bottom, a spot of light appeared. And another.

  It’s time. Have faith.

  Relief and excitement rippled over me. With a vision of the long cement building before my eyes, I sprang up and jogged to the van. My hurrying feet picked through the Saint Jonah’s clutter and then dropped onto the driveway.

  “Whoa, why are you wearing your pack? You can’t leave, Dove. Your place in the cow field is gone.”

  I blinked, and my mom’s imagined face faded, replaced by Wolfe’s real-life frown. A knot twisted my gut, and I reached my arms out. Then I wrapped them around my torso.

  “Bye, Wolfegang. I don’t know when I’ll get back.” If ever. But I’ll try to get back. I will.

  A door creaked and slammed. Jezebel wandered down the front steps. “Oh—Dove’s going? Where are we taking her this time?”

  She skipped to the Jeep and flopped in the back next to a sleeping Joshua.

  Wolfe gripped my hand. “That’s right. Wherever you’re going, we’re driving you. So, it’s not good-bye. Ha!”

  I glanced at the hill’s silhouette on the horizon where more lights pricked. At least a two-hour journey there...if I walked.

  Without breaking his grasp, I climbed inside the Jeep.

  44

  Wolfe stopped his whistling but continued to drive. “You promise you’ll stay inside on the seat once we get wherever we’re going. Right, brat? Brat?”

  “She’s asleep.” I aimed my thumb to the right. “Turn here and follow the highway.”

  “Sure. So, let my inferior brain catch up. Your Rahab radio station announced a prayer rally on Black Butte at sundown on August first...and you think instead of a prayer rally, these visiting Christians are going to meet to do something more, uh, active?”

  “Like create a hostage situation or attack nonbelievers. Yes.”

  “OK. But your math is off. August First is still two days away. Couldn’t you wait to join them?”

  “No. I’m leaving with Lobo to survive again.”

  “What? You’re letting him take you to a snake-filled—”

  “Don’t worry about it. Anyway, the main reason I’m not waiting is because God wants me at this certain place tonight. And when He says for me to go—”

  “You go. Fine, I understand. But you do realize the engine you hear behind us is Diamond’s? She’s trailing us again.”

  I squinted at the golden circle of light ten yards back. “Why is she following? She knows how to find my brother without my help.”

  “And the vehicle behind her is Lobo’s.”

  “No.” I craned around. “No way.”

  He laughed at my reaction to this rotten news. “I’m guessing that Diamond called Jessica, who told Lobo—”

  “Jessica’s back there, too?”

  “Yep. Probably hitching a ride with Lobo.”

  My eyes narrowed. “How do you know this—that he’s driving behind Diamond?”

  “I recognize their vehicles. Paying attention is part of being an expert driver.”

  I slumped. “Is your grandma chasing us again, too? If she is, I think we’d better pull over and let her ride this time.”

  He let out a nicer laugh. “No angry senior citizen...at least not yet.”

  I let my head fall back against the seat.

  “Want me to turn us around and go back?” Hope energized his voice. “You’ll wait until tomorrow morning?”

  I sat up straighter. “No. You can drop me in the woods as soon as we get into a dark stretch. I’ll slip out, you head home, and everybody will follow you back to Sisters.”

  “No. I’m coming with you...to that abandoned employees’ building where Rebecca got snatched. That’s where you’re headed, isn’t it?”

  I met his eyes and nodded.

  “You know, when you told me your missing family—that all the miss
ing believers in our area—were stuck in there, I laughed. But now, I think you’re right.”

  He steered into the ditch and killed the Jeep’s power. “That flashing light up ahead means a road block. The block’s a usual precaution the government takes each year during their retreat. But we’re still about three miles from the village. You’re sure you don’t want to wait until morning?”

  I stepped onto the asphalt then darted out of the way. Diamond roared to a stop.

  “Get yourselves back on that ripped seat and drive home. Now.”

  I stepped closer to her raised fists. “Why?”

  “Just do it!”

  Another engine purred to a stop. I squinted into the blinding glare of headlights. Doors slammed.

  “Oh, let her go hike in the fresh night air, Cousin Diamond.” Lobo emerged dressed in the dirt-stained outfit from our last hike. “Myself, I’m eager to meet this dangerous commander in the hills that Dove’s brother says she must be kept away from. I say we continue our journey with our terrorista and see him for ourselves. And this time, I bring my camera. Just in case.”

  Diamond scowled into the car’s lights. “Jessica, you big-mouthed traitor! You told Lobo about him? You blabbed about why I’m here?”

  Wolfe threw his hands up. “Will someone please explain—”

  “Diamond’s here to stop me from hiking near Black Butte tonight. My brother must’ve asked her to keep me away.” I squinted at her. “Gilead asked you to do this thing to keep me safe...and you’re doing it. Wow.”

  “Wow,” Wolfe echoed. “Diamond, you must really like Gilead after all.”

  “Keep talking, and you’ll find out what a coma feels like—hey, who’s there?”

  The upper half of a girl’s body in a shaggy animal skin tunic poked through the shaking foliage next to the road. Her hair coils were lopsided and littered with forest debris. “Yikes. Wrong way.”

  “Wait,” I called in Amhebran. “There are others in the woods tonight, too. I saw their torches and flashlights a couple minutes ago. Where are you all going?”

  Her pale face reappeared, and her scrunched eyes flickered around the group until they rested on me. She replied in English, “You’re Dove.”

  “And you’re a believer,” I said in the same language. “Are you lost, looking for a campsite?”

  “No, I’m lost, trying to find the meeting spot. A messenger arrived at camp tonight and said our commander has news about our missing families. He has a plan for their return, which he’ll tell us at midnight when we all meet together. A lady in the next tent said she knew how to find the place he described, but I lost her and the rest of my group. It’s really dark tonight.”

  It was as though my mouth was full of dust, and my tongue clung to the roof of it. Tonight, Reed Bender was uniting Christians from the local camps, no doubt to carry out a plan that would put into use all the combat training of the past week.

  Is that why God directed me into these hills? To stop him...somehow?

  Wolfe ripped his shirt out of Diamond’s grasp and approached the bushes. “Did the messenger mention a lake or golf course? Or a building?”

  “He spoke of a grassy clearing next to a lake. A spot wide enough for all of us to gather.”

  Wolfe jerked his thumb. “Head west. That way.”

  “Shalom.” The foliage rustled back together.

  I unstuck my tongue. “Diamond, Gilead doesn’t want you to cripple me. And he knows unless you do, you can’t stop me from meeting with the other believers tonight.”

  My eyes narrowed at the familiar silhouettes in the bright lights. “All of you leave. You heard that girl—hundreds of Christians are meeting at midnight. These are the same people who’ve been holding target practices all week. And their leader, Reed, is most likely planning some sort of terrorist attack that you can’t stop. Maybe I can’t either, but since these are my people, I’m going to try.”

  Wolfe grinned down at me. “Well, then I get to come with you.”

  “Unclog your ears. It’s not safe for you.”

  He gripped my shoulders and bent his forehead to mine. “No, Dove. You’re the one not listening. I’ll tag along with you because these are my people, too. Don’t you get it? I’m a Christian.”

  45

  He pulled back as if to better see my expression. Then he chuckled and hugged my stiff frame to his chest. “I made the decision in Brooke’s van, on the way home from California. I accepted Jesus as my Savior then, which means tonight I get to come with you. But the rest of you...scram. Only us radicals are allowed in these woods right now.”

  “Then I get to go too!” Jezebel popped up from the backseat. “I became a Christian before you did, Woof. So I get to walk next to Dove on our hike. You can follow behind us.”

  Wolfe’s torso quivered with laughter. I moved to rest against the dented door, a more solid support, and watched Jezebel climb onto the pavement.

  Lobo chuckled. “Looks like we’re all hiking these woods tonight.”

  “Don’t tell me,” Wolfe said. “You’ve gone radical too?”

  Lobo winked. “What do you think about that, terrorista?”

  I lifted my hand and pressed it against my throat where the ache nearly choked me. “I think you don’t understand that to become a Christian—”

  “Dove,” Wolfe said, “do you really think anybody who spends more than a day with you can possibly not understand salvation? Are you that brainless?”

  I bit the inside of my cheek to keep control. Wolfe, Jezebel, and Lobo—the three lost souls I’d prayed for most—chose an eternity with God...and to spend forever with me?

  Ridiculous, unwanted tears spilled onto my cheeks. “But...you sin...and then—”

  “I know about Jesus Christ, Dove,” Lobo interrupted my excited stammer with his calm voice. “And I choose Him.”

  Wolfe extended a fist. “Does that mean Dove doesn’t have to do anymore Fanatic Surviving stuff? Since you’re a fanatic now?”

  Lobo accepted the knuckle bump. “Oh no, she still gets to battle werewolves and leeches...and no, you cannot take her place. The world wants to watch a fierce, fanatical blonde struggle. Not a skinny, love-sick muchacho who laughs too much.”

  Jezebel let go of my hand and elbowed them both aside. “OK people. Head count. Who else has joined Jesus’s team and is coming with us tonight? Jessica? Diamond, what about you?”

  “C’mon, Jesse.” Diamond straddled her motorcycle. “It’s time for us to leave.”

  “No. I’m staying.”

  Jezebel clapped her hands. “Yay! Another one has joined Jesus’s team.”

  Diamond gestured at her motorcycle. “Like I said. Let’s go.”

  Jessica shook her head. “No, Diamond. I’m staying.”

  “Fine. Join the freaks.” Diamond kicked on her engine and sped away.

  Lobo murmured something to Jessica I couldn’t hear, and then he began strapping clumsy bags of gear over their dark clothes.

  Jezebel tugged the hem of her brother’s shirt. “Diamond was crying, Woof. I saw. It was weird.”

  “Yeah, she made a dumb choice, brat. Speaking of, we shouldn’t have brought Josh along. He’ll panic if he wakes up alone next to the road. You’ll have to stay with him.”

  She stamped her foot.

  Josh answered sleepily from the backseat. “No need. I’m awake. And I’m already a Jesus freak so...guess I’m coming too.”

  Lobo switched off his car’s lights. “Shh.”

  Firelight flickered on the other side of the road’s bushes.

  “Not enough bullets...” The Amhebran comment faded as the torch-bearing Christians hiked away from the road.

  I leaped into the ditch to begin my hike toward Black Butte, the meeting spot, and quite possibly Commander Reed, who was in charge of bullets and wished me dead. And who, no doubt, would be expecting me.

  46

  A ripple of laughter drifted to me from somewhere up ahead in the trees. I lifted
my arm for silence, but the night was too thick for hand signals.

  “Shut up,” I whispered.

  My request put an end to the conversation about a new smell-producing camera. Jezebel and Josh quit humming “Jesus Loves Me” through their noses.

  The chortle echoed again, louder now.

  “Creepy,” Wolfe whispered.

  I frowned. “You all stay here while I go on ahead.”

  Someone in our group grabbed my shirttail—probably Jessica since she tended to cling—and the muffled footfall of everyone’s shoes sounded behind me as we made our way over the pine needles. I halted in what seemed to be a small clearing. An indistinct figure crouched in the darkness.

  A sudden shaft of light flashed on and revealed Chaff. He knelt, a wide grin peeping through his head-to-toe wilderness camouflage—a layer of dirt, dead evergreen needles, and twigs. A stunted bush perched on top of his wheat-color hair.

  I swung around, bumping into Jessica at my back. “Turn the flashlight off.”

  “Sensible, but she should keep it on.” Chaff aimed a dirt-stained finger at a hole in the ground. “You don’t want to fall into my boobytrap...like he did.”

  My feet edged closer to Chaff and the crumbling ground surrounding a man-sized hole. I craned around the brambles poking up from his shoulder. In the faint light, Zechariah Brae’s wild eyes stared up from the bottom of the deep pit.

  “Zech! Chaff, why is Zech in a hole?”

  “Because he’s a liar, and I’m fed up with it. I want the truth.”

  I shook my head. “You can’t go around putting people in pits just to find out—”

  “Wrong, wrong, wrong, Dove. Since catching him in this trap, I’ve discovered my sister’s real location. I’ve gotten him to tell me the truth—that Commander Reed Bender and a group of his followers are behind all the Christians’ disappearances. Can you believe that Reed obtained Heathen uniforms and vehicles, and his followers used them to round up the Sents’ families? From all over the Pacific Coast?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Believe it. He’s done fooling us all into believing that others are behind their disappearances. This whole time he and his group have been holding them captive.”