Army of God

by Dennis Bailey

  As the new commander, he couldn’t even bask in the glory of his dual promotion, not with the prospect of having to tolerate his companion’s perversions. Thoughts of pity entered his mind, compassion for a village full of women he hadn’t even seen. He tried to drown them out by thinking again of Elisheva.

  Chapter 6

  Shechem entered his house a month later in the afternoon to find his two daughters, Channah and Naomi, conversing with their mother in the main living area. Channah, the older, was the exact likeness of her mother, but Naomi had her father’s aquiline nose, mouth, and a head of curly hair. They ran to greet him, just as they’d done every day when they were children, leaning into his arms and kissing him on either cheek.

  “What brings you by?” he said.

  “Just picking up a few things we left stored here all these years,” Naomi said.

  “Do you need some help?”

  “No, thank you. We have everything packed on camels outside.”

  His daughters had married twin brothers sixteen and eleven years ago, living with them at their parents’ house on the east side of the city. But the men had recently inherited a large section of land 160 furlongs south of the Eden River and were preparing to move their families there. “So, I guess this is it, huh?” Shechem said. “Ready to make your fortunes raising livestock?”

  “Or crops,” Channah said.

  “Well, from what I’ve seen of that piece of land you’re getting, you could do either. Or both.”

  “Who knows, we may even plant a vineyard.”

  Shechem smacked his lips. “Do that, and you can expect regular visits from me.”

  Both girls smiled, but Claudia just rolled her eyes.

  “Oh, I almost forgot. Congratulations on your promotion, Father,” Naomi said. “I understand you’ll be leaving soon on your first campaign.”

  “First thing tomorrow,” he said.

  “How exciting,” Channah said, the hazel beneath her eyelids glistening. “Part of me is sorry we won’t be here to see the walls go up. They should be magnificent.”

  “They will if I can get the men I need to help build them.”

  Channah reached for his hand. “You will, Father. I have faith in you.”

  “Me, too,” Naomi said.

  He hugged and kissed his daughters again before they departed then took a seat next to a window in their dining area.

  “How long will you be gone?” Claudia said, placing a plate of bread, cucumbers, and corn before him.

  He wished she’d asked out of a legitimate concern for him, but he suspected a more selfish reason. “It depends. Malluch wants a thousand more men to put to work on the walls. Three to five days, I suspect. Maybe a week.”

  “Please tell me you’re taking that malodorous pervert with you?”

  “Bohar?”

  “Who else?”

  “You have nothing to fear from Bohar.”

  She crossed her arms and pursed her lips, her shoulders shivering. “He’s forever leering at me.”

  “He leers at every woman. But in your case, I imagine it’s because of your exquisite beauty.”

  “That’s not much consolation for being eyed like you’re some animal’s next meal.”

  “An interesting comparison, my dear, and not the least bit inaccurate. Bohar is an animal. But as I said, you have nothing to fear. I am second to Malluch in authority and Commander of the Army.” Claudia uncrossed her arms while Shechem paused to pour a cup of wine. “An animal? Yes. But an animal that knows its place.”

  “I hope so.”

  “To answer your question: Yes, Bohar is going with us.”

  “Good.” Without another word, Claudia walked to another part of the house, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

  His attention was drawn to the window, where outside a boy and a girl about ten years old chased each other in the street. He left his plate to watch the children. In a moment, his mind returned to a place two hundred years ago.

  “All right, Elisheva, I give up. Where are you?” Shechem had said.

  He and Elisheva had been playing a game of fox and rabbit by the river when she managed to disappear. Elisheva was fast for a girl of ten, faster than many of the boys her age. But so was he, and it puzzled him how she managed to elude him. He searched nearly one hundred cubits up and down the river bank, along with two adjacent fields and several patches of brush and trees. “Elisheva. Come on. It’s my turn to be the rabbit.”

  As he continued along the bank, she popped up from behind an outcropping of rocks at the river’s edge. “Hey, fox, over here!” she said, just before slipping and dropping out of sight behind the rock to the sound of splashing water.

  When she appeared from behind the rocks, arms flailing against a current dragging her downstream fed by three days of hard rains, his surprise turned to horror.

  But Shechem was not only a fast runner, he was also a good swimmer. He bolted along the river’s edge as fast as he could, passing Elisheva in the water.

  He knew better than to try to swim against the current. When he reached a sufficient distance past her position, he waded into the river, but stayed out of the water’s main flow until she was upon him. When she passed, he dove into the torrent, reaching the place where she should have been in three strong swimming strokes. He raised his head to locate her, but she’d disappeared.

  He treaded water in the middle of the river for what seemed a long time, scanning in front and behind for signs of her. He wheeled to the sound of splashing and a cry for help downstream. Elisheva could barely keep her head above water, thrashing her arms twenty cubits in front of him. He swam hard for her, arriving within two cubits in a matter of moments.

  When he reached for her, she dropped out of sight into the rushing water.

  He dove beneath the murky waters, but he couldn’t see a handbreadth in front of him. He swung his arms wildly in the blind hope of locating some part of her to grab. When he couldn’t find her, he returned to the surface.

  He rode the current downstream, but he hadn’t seen Elisheva in nearly eighteen parts. He didn’t know how long she could stay under. Just before diving below again, he caught sight of three small fingers breaking the surface off to his right. Alarm raced through him.

  Dead ahead, a small island of rocks jutted out of the river. Only she wouldn’t be able to see them from underwater, and she was headed straight for them.

  Nearing exhaustion, Shechem pumped his arms against the water with all he had left in pursuit of the floating hand. Two parts later, Elisheva’s body brushed beneath him and he reached to pull her head above the surface. She grabbed him around his neck, coughing and spitting water in his face. “Where did you come from?” Before he could answer, her eyes grew wide. “Look out!”

  He snapped around in time to deflect them both safely around the rocks.

  “Put your arms around my neck.” Shechem swam with the current while angling toward the river bank. Eighteen parts later, they reached the shore, coughing and gasping for air. His lungs ached from trying to get air back into them, and an uncomfortable fullness invaded his stomach from all the water he’d swallowed. When he finally caught his breath, he turned to Elisheva, whose chest continued to rise and fall like a stick bobbing in the water.

  “You all right?” he said.

  She continued to cough. “You saved me.”

  He spit a small splash of water. “I nearly got us both killed on that rock.”

  “I fell in. You jumped in after me. I call that saving.”

  “Well, maybe. I was just trying to help.”

  “No way. You saw me out there.” Blood oozed from a scrape to his knuckles. “You’ve cut your hand.”

  It hurt bad, but he wasn’t about to let her know it. “It’s nothing. I just caught it out there on the rock.”

  With the panic of their ordeal subsiding, he had time to consider the consequences. “How about we don’t tell our parents about this? I’ll be punished for sure i
f they find out I let you fall in the river.”

  “But you didn’t let me fall in. That was my own clumsiness.”

  “It won’t make any difference. They’ll blame me just the same.”

  “Agreed. I don’t want to get into trouble either.”

  “One last thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Next time, it’s my turn to be the rabbit.”

  Elisheva smiled, then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

  Outside, a child’s playful scream brought Shechem back to the present, his fingers touching the spot on his cheek where Elisheva had kissed him. He sensed his wife’s presence directly behind him.

  “Aren’t you hungry?” she said.

  “What?” He turned from the window. “Yes, I am.” He reached to kiss her on the mouth, only to have her turn so his offer of warmth landed on her cheek. He returned to his plate, hoping for one last opportunity to engender her affections. “Join me?” he said, raising his wine cup toward her.

  “Not tonight.”

  Not tonight. Not any night. He was glad he was leaving for the northern villages in the morning.

  Chapter 7

  Pride swelled in Shechem at the sights and sounds of his first conquest while surveying the devastation in the northwest city of Jared. Dozens of bodies dotted the streets, and the clanging of metal craftsman’s hammers rose above the crackling fire of houses set ablaze. Eight hundred men stood waiting in line to be shackled, surrounded by the imposing presence of Eden’s newborn cavalry. Malluch would be pleased.

  Shechem regretted the loss of those who’d chosen death over enslavement—not out of any sense of compassion, but because their foolishness had denied Eden a valuable resource. He twisted atop his mount to the sound of a woman screaming inside a nearby house, then back to one of his soldiers. “Where’s Bohar?”

  “I believe he is at the far end of the city, sir,” the soldier said.

  Shechem rode away down the street, meandering around the bodies in his path. As he came to one house, a woman being chased by a soldier ran out the door in front of him, startling his horse. “Pardon me, sir.” The soldier saluted and dragged the woman back inside by her hair. Seventy-five cubits farther, another soldier carried two hysterical women, one over each shoulder, into a nearby cornfield.

  At a house near the end of the street, the deafening cries of a man and a woman told the commander he’d located his quarry. Bohar’s snorting horse hitched to a rock outside confirmed it.

  Inside, four soldiers restrained a large man bound with rope, forcing him to view the scene in front of him. In an opposite corner, Bohar ravaged the man’s wife. Several cubits away, his two naked daughters lay unmoving on the floor, blood pooling from wounds to their throats. Each time the man tried to turn away, the soldiers took turns striking the man in the head and stomach.

  Shechem swore. He pulled his sword and moved to the bound man. “Hold him up.” The soldiers hoisted the man and he thrust him through the heart, silencing his cries.

  He strode deliberately to the corner where the assault on the woman continued, struggling to push from his mind his first inclination—to take advantage of Bohar’s exposed back. Instead, he pulled him off the woman, and plunged his sword into her torso.

  “What are you doing?” he said. “I wasn’t finished.”

  “We didn’t come here for this.”

  “I did.” Red marks modeled Bohar’s throat.

  “We’re here to secure the men, not torment the women.”

  “What torment. She was in ecstasy.”

  “Yes, I could see that.” Shechem stared at the marks on his neck. “What happened?”

  “Ah, I was just being friendly to the man’s daughter and he up and charges me. Lifted me off my feet. If it weren’t for your men beating him off, I don’t know what would’ve happened.”

  He would have wrung your worthless neck. Shechem fought to keep from smiling. “So why the show?”

  “I decided to teach him a lesson.”

  “Some lesson. He’s dead.”

  “You did that.”

  “Like he would have been much good to us after what you did to his family.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  It means we need men, strong men, to build the walls of Eden.”

  “Yes.”

  “Look at him.” Blood seeped from the wound of the lifeless man with the barrelled chest crumbled on the floor. “He’s huge. He could’ve done the work of three men.”

  “So, I’ll find you another three men.”

  Shechem knew better than to argue with that logic. But he wasn’t about to allow Bohar’s proclivities to interfere with their objective of acquiring a slave force either. “I’d be content just to get out of here with the ones we have.” He looked at the bodies of the three naked women on the floor, then at Bohar. “So if you think you’ve satisfied your appetite for one day, maybe you’d like to give us a hand with the prisoners outside?”

  As they headed out, Bohar stopped short of the doorway, wincing to touch the wound on his neck. He moved back into the room and loomed over the dead man’s body. A deep rasping sound filled the room, and he reached deep to pull phlegm from the bowels of his injured throat. He spit on the man, then kicked him in the face.

  Shechem shook his head “Feel better?”

  “Better than him.”

  Chapter 8

  In the 500th year of Noah . . .

  A soft but steady breeze arose to accompany Noah while he walked among the sheep bleating in the fields at twilight. He loved this time of the year, as the hot southeast winds of summer gave way to more refreshing gusts from the north.

  Over a year had passed since their flight from Eden, and other than their narrow escape six months ago, there’d been no further sign of Malluch’s soldiers.

  With the sun crawling below the horizon, he strained to make out a faint sound mingled with the wind rushing past his ears—a sound like many waters. For a moment, he thought he might be hallucinating. The air seemed to whisper his name.

  “Noah.”

  He whirled around.

  “Noah,” the voice repeated stronger.

  He’d spent too many years walking in the Spirit not to recognize the sound of his Master’s voice. Dropping to his knees, he raised his face and arms to the sky. “Here, Lord.”

  “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”

  Tears welled his eyes. He bowed his head to the earth.

  “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch,” the Lord said. “And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish My covenant with you.”

  Noah raised his head and gazed heavenward.

  “And you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.”

  When the Lord finished speaking, the wind subsided to a great calm. In spite of the warm outside temperature, Noah’s body shivered as if naked in the cold. His heart raced. He attempted to process the magnitude of the Lord’s proclamation. While he’d se
en the evil the Lord spoke of, he could not fathom the destruction of the earth. He fell prostrate on the ground, arms reaching above his head to pull grass in either hand. “Lord, is there nothing that can quench the fire of Your fierce anger?”

  For the next hour, Noah wept bitterly—and prayed for all mankind. Though the Lord concealed the timing of the coming flood, He made known His intent to take Lamech beforehand. Thank You, oh Lord, that in the midst of Your wrath, there is mercy for Your servant, my father.

  He remained on his face well into the darkness, the silence replaced by the sound of chirping crickets, until out of his own mouth—“Shiphrah!”

  He rose quickly to his knees, recounting the Lord’s words “—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.”

  “Oh, Lord. Not Shiphrah. Woe is me that I should have to bear Your sentence upon her.”

  Chapter 9

  Shechem ceased rubbing the small of his back when Enoch’s fifteen-cubit-high walls came into view. For a moment, he even forgot how much his rear hurt at being stuck on the back of a camel the last ten days. He, Malluch, and Bohar had led a trade caravan on the long ride east from Eden, and the sight of those fortifications signaled more than an end to their journey. This was only his third visit to the great city, but he’d experienced enough to know what Malluch had said was true. Enoch was home to the world’s finest wine, weapons, and women. And those walls . . . they served as an invitation to good times waiting within.

  In the distance, wood, stone, and bronze images of beasts peered down at them from the highest hills lining either side of their approach route. A light wind brought the scent of a burning incense of galbanum and frankincense to the travelers’ noses. Vineyards covered hillsides, outnumbering plantations of food crops ten to one.

  Today’s journey had a special purpose—above the mere acquisition of additional weapons needed to outfit Eden’s newly formed army. Ramalech, a prince of Enoch, was holding a celebration in honor of Malluch’s rise to power in Eden. Their alliance, formed many years before, resulted in the initiation of trade between the two cities. Now, as the caravans passed through the city’s massive iron gates, Shechem could almost taste the wine that would soon cross his tongue.