by Wilson, Cal
Sean got out of the post and walked towards the dirt road above. “Can you walk?”
“I’ll try.” David turned off the walkie-talkie and put it back into the post.
David stood up, and a clear wet mark was visible on the front of his jeans. He looked down. “And I wet myself.” He sat back down.
“I almost threw up, so don’t feel bad,” Sean tried to reassure David. “Let’s see if we can get back.”
David stood back up and walked with Sean to the dirt road behind their post. David looked back at the roadblock. “I’m just … speechless. This is a nightmare.”
They walked in silence about another hundred yards towards the camp. “Sean, have you ever seen a person get killed? That was a totally new thing for me. A few years ago I was sitting at my mom’s hospital bedside when she died, but that was different. She was sedated and I knew that it was going to happen. She was in pain and I was actually relieved when she died. But this was different. I have never seen a violent death like that. Anytime I watched the news and a film was shown on someone killing someone else, like all the Muslim killings you see nowadays, I would look away. I can’t stand that stuff. I never thought I would ever see someone get killed right in front of me. Have you?”
“Never have. I knew I would eventually have to see that. I was thinking of joining the military, and that was something I figured I would eventually have to see.”
“I have to sit down, Sean. I’m sorry,” David said. “I guess I’m shallow breathing.” The two sat down on the road. Sean sat up while David laid down flat on the road with his knees up.
“I still cannot believe what we saw,” David said. “I’m just numb.” He paused. “I think this is why some soldiers come back from war as basket cases. With PTSD and all.”
“If it will help, you can just talk about it.”
“You’re a good kid, Sean. Thanks.” David’s eyes moistened. He wiped the tears away. “What about you? How are you taking this?”
Sean paused. “It’s a lot to take in, that’s for sure. I guess I keep thinking about how we are going to die someday, and let’s face it, that was pretty quick. It could have been a lot worse.”
“Well I guess that’s true. The actual death itself was fast.”
“Did you know Jackie?”
“Yes. We invited Kirk and Jackie both to join us up here if and when the end came. They don’t live too far from here. Kirk thought we were being silly. They could barely stop laughing at us. They said ‘we are also Christians, and we believe the Bible like you guys, but think about what you are saying. Kind of tin foil hat stuff, don’t you think?’”
“And now she has taken the Mark.”
“Yes, and that is something I would never have believed. Jackie taking the Mark was even more of a shock than Kirk getting killed. She really, really blew it.” David looked at Sean, and sounded like a teacher. “Taking the Mark is a horrible, horrible thing to do. A big mistake. There is no turning back for Jackie.”
“I know.”
“This is horrible. Whenever a Christian friend I knew died, I would always tell myself that I knew someone in heaven, right there with Jesus. Forever. Well, with Jackie, I can now say I know someone who is on their way to Hell. And nothing can ever change that. I know that is harsh thing to say, Sean, but it is true. It is right there in the Bible. Don’t even think of ever taking the Mark.”
David stood up. “I think I can go now.” Sean got up.
Sean said, “I think Kirk and Jackie have several friends up here.”
“Yes, Peter used to work with Kirk, and Kathy used to date Kirk. That’s what I heard.”
Sean stopped and looked at David.
“I mean Kathy used to date Kirk before Kirk married Jackie. I know it’s a little hard to keep straight.”
“Oh, I see.”
The two followed the dirt road uphill, out of sight of the observation post.
****
CHAPTER 4
The main compound was surrounded by tall pine trees, with a smoldering campfire in the middle. The woods around the center of the compound were populated with sheds and camping tents, with cars and RV’s parked outside a perimeter. Lawn chairs sprinkled the whole area. The property owners, Jesse and Mary, had a cabin to the west and uphill from the main camp. David and his wife Gloria had a cabin to the north and uphill from the camp. Behind David and Gloria’s cabin, tucked amongst some more hills, was an RV trailer in which Lawson, a retired Navy chaplain, and Lois, his wife and former nursing instructor, lived.
Nearby the fire were six men in their 30’s and 40’s, taking turns chopping and splitting wood with a single ax. All wore jeans and different colored flannel shirts.
It was Jesse’s turn. Jesse was an olive-skinned man in his 40’s, with dark hair and a short beard. He wore some jeans and a red plaid flannel shirt. As the ax was handed to him, he looked downhill on the driveway and saw David and Sean slowly walking towards the compound. David’s wet mark on his pants could be easily seen.
One of the other men also saw David and smirked. Before he could say anything, Jesse said “David, are you OK?” Jesse looked concerned, then he looked at Sean.
Jesse put down the ax and walked towards David, meeting him half-way. “David, if you need one of those adult diapers we have a ton of them in the container over there. Unless…”
David got closer. “That’s not it, Jesse.” The other men looked at David. One of them men said “David, what happened? Are you alright?”
“Not really,” David said as he walked towards the men and sat in a nearby chair. Sean stood next to him. “As you can see for yourself, I pissed myself.”
Jesse asked him, “So? What happened down there? Your replacements are there, right?” Jesse looked to the other men there. “Someone go get Gloria.” One of the men ran off.
Sean answered, “They should be there by now, but we had to leave. We just saw, uh…” Sean couldn’t finish. He looked down.
Jesse pulled up another chair. “Here, Sean, have a seat. Both of you guys look pretty bad. What happened?”
David tried, “We just saw Kirk,” he paused, his eyes teared up and he stopped talking.
Jesse said, “Yes, Kirk, the guy who lives down the road? What did you see, David?”
“We saw … there were a lot of guns.” David couldn’t finish. He looked into the distance and tried to stop tearing up.
Sean said, “Kirk got beheaded, and it happened right in front of us.” The men shuddered. One man, Peter, a shorter man wearing a dark green shirt, stepped close to David, went to one knee and leaned against the armrest on David’s chair. “What?”
“David, can you tell us what happened? How… ?” Peter asked.
David took a deep breath. “Remember how we were talking about the proposal to force everyone to take some kind of mark on their forehead that was mostly invisible except to machines? Some kind of bar code?”
Jesse answered, “Yes, we had heard that but I didn’t think the proposal had passed. Just a lot of talk, so far as I heard. And I know that,” Jesse paused and looked at the other men, “the Mark is something we Christians are just not supposed to take. Not ever.”
Sean spoke up. “Well, they brought up some people in a pick-up truck and pointed guns at them and tried to make them all take the Mark.”
“Who are you talking about, Sean?” Jesse asked.
“It looked like a bunch of Muslim men in trucks,” David said. One of the men nearby hurriedly walked towards one of the tents. “They came to the roadblock and had some kind of machine that would imprint the Mark on people, and one by one, the men forced everyone there to receive it.”
“Wait a minute,” another man, Andrew, said. Andrew was a thin man with black hair, looking older than his 25 years. “Some machine that would put the Mark on people’s foreheads?”
“Apparently,” David answered. He looked at Andrew and took a deep breath. “I guess you never heard the news about the proposal to get
everyone to take a mark of some kind on their foreheads, so that the government could keep track of everyone?”
Jesse said, “Yeah, that was a crazy idea. Obviously satanic. But what was so strange about it was that no one in the government seemed to know how bad an idea it was.” Jesse looked back at David. “So I guess it’s here, and they brought some people up to the road block to take the Mark right in front of you guys.”
David paused and inhaled. “Yeah, and one by one, all the people there all took the Mark, including Jackie,” he paused again.
Peter leaned forward, “Wait! Jackie took the Mark? Are you sure?”
“Yes. It happened,” David sighed. “I saw Jackie take the Mark. No doubt about it.”
Both Jesse and Peter looked at each other, shocked. The other men there tensed up. One said quietly, “No…”
“Jackie …?” Peter tried to confirm.
“She did it right in front of us. Right there.”
“And then they beheaded Kirk?”
“They just killed him,” David answered without emotion. “They beheaded him. Right in front of us. They beheaded Kirk.”
Several slight gasps could be heard. No one said anything. Peter stood up and turned around as he put his hand on his mouth.
Several women and one man left a tent nearby and approached David. One of the women asked, “David, are you OK? What happened?”
Jesse interjected, “Some men drove up to the roadblock and killed Kirk.”
“Kirk the neighbor?”
“Yes.”
The small crowd grew confused and shocked, and started asking the same questions again.
“Look, guys, Sean and I were there at the observation post and we saw a group of trucks drive up and stop. It looked like a bunch of Muslim men got out with guns and started forcing everyone they brought with them to take what they called the Mark of Allegiance.”
Jesse started pacing nearby.
“How did the …?”
“They had a machine on the back of one of their trucks,” David continued. “Some kind of machine that would put the Mark on people’s foreheads and match it up with their thumbprint. Everyone there but Kirk took it. Jackie included. By the way… – “
One of the women interrupted David. “Excuse me David, but did you say that Jackie took the Mark?”
“Yes, I saw it with my own eyes.” Gasps could be heard from the women. David continued, “And they killed Kirk because he wouldn’t take the Mark. They beheaded him.”
“I can’t believe it. That is horrible,” Peter said. “I just can’t believe it. Where is Jackie now?”
“She walked back with everyone else,” David said. “You know, I didn’t sign up for this.”
Jesse re-approached David, looking angry. “You didn’t sign up for this? What a stupid thing to say! Of course you didn’t sign up for this! None of us signed up for this!”
One of the men snapped at Jesse. “Give him a break. He just saw Kirk get killed.”
“Hey Jesse, back off,” David said. “You weren’t there.”
“A dumb comment,” Jesse said, shaking his head. “Really, really dumb.”
“Give it a rest, Jesse,” Peter said, almost sounding angry.
“OK, OK, sorry.”
Peter looked at David. “David, did the men take Kirk’s body? He was a friend of mine. I worked with him in his shop a few years ago before I enlisted.”
*****
A lean, muscular, fair-skinned woman with short brown hair approached David. She looked angry. “David, is it true that someone killed Kirk?”
“Yes, Kathy, I saw --”
“Who did it?” Kathy insisted.
“Well, there were several of them, with guns.”
“Was there anyone in charge? Who was he? Or was it a she?”
“It was a ‘he,’” David answered. “They looked like Muslims. They don’t include women, except for maybe blowing themselves up once in a while. You know that.”
“Alright, what did he look like?”
“I don’t know, a middle-eastern guy, about 5-5, wearing fatigues, black hair and a beard, and he wore one of those weird scarfs they all wear.”
“Oh great,” Kathy said. “That narrows it down.”
“What, are we talking revenge here, Kathy?” Jesse asked.
“Yes,” Kathy said coldly. “I’ll kill the guy if I get a chance.”
“Look, Kathy, we leave revenge to God,” Jesse warned Kathy. “Whoever did this will be rotting in Hell soon.”
“Yeah, and I just want to help him get there,” Kathy blurted out, then walked back to her tent.
“Kathy, we’re not about revenge,” Jesse said, his voice trailing off as Kathy left. He held up his hands as if to ask what was going on.
Gloria, David’s wife, ran towards David. Gloria was short, slightly-heavy woman with dark blond hair. “David, are you OK?” David stood up and they hugged. David’s eyes teared up again. “Honey, I guess I’m not a good Christian soldier.” Peter stood up and backed away.
Peter looked back at David. “David, do you mind if I ask one more thing? What did those guys do with, you know, what was left of Kirk’s body?”
“They threw the body onto the roadblock.”
“The head too?”
“Yes.”
****
CHAPTER 5
Peter looked around. The people were all talking about what had happened, and expressed shock and horror. Peter approached Jesse.
“Jesse, we have to go get the body. We have to bury Kirk. Right now the vultures out there are probably starting to eat him. I don’t want to leave him behind. He was a friend of mine.”
“Peter,” Jesse answered. “Man, I’m just the owner of this property. I’m not some kind of military commander. That’s your thing, not mine.” He paused. “This sounds crazy. Kind of dumb. But I know you guys were close. I don’t know. Do whatever you want. It’s up to you.”
Peter left the crowd and walked to Kathy’s tent, and stopped by the front flap that had been zipped close. “Knock, knock,” he announced.
Kathy said, “Who is that, Jesse? I’m OK. I’ve calmed down a little.”
“No, it’s me, Peter.”
“Come on in.” Peter opened the flap and walked into the tent. Kathy rushed to hug Peter. “They’ve killed Kirk,” she cried. “It’s still sinking in. I hate this.”
“I know. I can’t believe it.” Peter breathed heavily to keep from crying. “Stubborn guy that he was. He should have come up here.” The two stopped hugging. Kathy sat on the only chair in the tent while Peter sat on the floor.
“Oh, sorry,” Kathy looked at Peter sitting on the ground. “Here, take my seat. Or we could open up the cot.”
“No that’s OK. I’m fine.”
“What do you think happened to Jackie?”
“I heard she took the Mark.”
“Well that was a huge mistake. What else could she have done wrong?”
“We don’t know anything else, and frankly I’m not eager to ask any more details. David and Sean looked pretty shaken up. In shock, really. I saw a lot of that in the Marines.”
“I still can’t believe it. He’s gone.”
Peter folded his arms, looking serious. “Hey Kathy, I was thinking …”
“What?”
“You know the back trail I go, to drop off the entrails.”
“What do you mean? Go to the roadblock?”
“I was thinking of getting Kirk’s body so that we could bring it back here and bury it.”
“Ugh. You’re a good friend of his.”
“I’ve been around dead bodies before. More times than I care to think about.”
“I guess Jackie’s not burying the body?” Kathy sounded angry at Jackie.
“No. Apparently Jackie just took off. She just left his body there. I distinctly heard that.”
“Pretty ironic, don’t you think?” Kathy said. “Bringing up Kirk’s body and burying it on a p
iece of property he didn’t want to go to.”
“That’s true. Well, he never saw all this coming. Let’s face it, if you told me a few months ago what we are going through right now I would say you are crazy. No one saw it coming.”
“Yes, that’s true. It was all pretty fast. What did Jesus say in Matthew 24? ‘Just run.’ Well, here we are. We ran.”
