by Wilson, Cal
“Jackie,” Peter said. “How long have you been here?”
Kathy stood up and emerged from the trail with her gun pointed towards Jackie, who looked shocked at the gun pointed at her.
“Who are you?” Jackie asked Kathy.
“Oh give me a break, Jackie. You know who I am. Stop lying.”
“Kathy, put the gun down,” Peter said. Kathy holstered her gun.
“Oh yes, I remember you,” Jackie said to Kathy.
“Hey, why did you let them do this to Kirk?” Kathy asked as she walked closer and put her gun back into its holster.
“You weren’t there. I tried to save him.” Tears rolled down Jackie’s cheeks. “I couldn’t do anything.”
“Jackie, I’m sorry for your loss,” Peter said. “We heard about what happened and we came to get Kirk’s body so that we could bury it. You know I was a good friend of Kirk’s and I don’t want to leave his body out here.”
“Well, good,” Jackie said. She took a deep breath. “That’s good. Thanks. I can’t stand this area but I just wanted to come by one last time. It’s not like I could bury him myself.”
Peter put down the game cart. Jackie clearly tried to avoid looking at it. Peter asked, “Jackie, who were those guys and how did they get you and Kirk?”
Jackie looked Kathy over. She looked at the ground. “What?”
“The people who brought you and Kirk and the other people here, who were they?”
“Local Muslim enforcers. More like thugs. This is the stuff they do, and it is sanctioned by the provisional government. These guys just came by our house and banged on our door and pointed their guns at us. The guy in charge ordered us to the back of that truck and they tied our hands with cords. Stuff like this has been going on a lot lately. It’s a way to keep control over the people. Violence is pretty much all they know. The animals…”
Kathy asked, “How about some names? Do you know any of their names? What did they call each other?”
“I never heard any names at all,” Jackie answered, confused.
“The guy who was in charge, the leader: what about his clothing or marks like tattoos or anything? Anything you can tell me to help me find this guy?” Kathy asked.
“Anything to help you find him?” Jackie asked angrily. “Look, all I remember is a Muslim guy, middle-eastern, so-so English, a little on the short side, wearing dark green clothes. He had brown hair and a beard. That’s about it.”
“Any jewelry, like a watch or a necklace or anything?”
“No, nothing. It’s hard to notice these things when someone has a gun pointed at you,” Jackie snapped.
“Aren’t you even slightly interested in finding the scumbag who was in charge of these thugs? Wouldn’t you like to track him down?”
“Oh, and get myself killed, too? No thanks.”
Kathy looked at Peter. “I want to find that dirt bag someday.”
Peter looked at Jackie. “Did you really take the Mark, Jackie?” Jackie nodded yes. “Do you have any idea…?”
“It was nothing. A laser tattoo that you can barely see. Who cares?”
Peter continued. “That was big, Jackie. You know what the Bible says about those who take the Mark.”
Jackie started getting defensive. “Maybe I can ask Jesus about that. He is coming, you know.”
“Well sure, that’s true,” Peter said.
“No, I mean, he’s already here. There are reports that he will be making the rounds, visiting and speaking to people. Coming to see everyone.”
“What?” Kathy asked in disbelief.
“Yes,” Jackie said. “That is the only thing that has helped me get through all this. Jesus is coming through this area. I can’t wait to see him.”
Peter took a step back and looked at Jackie like she was crazy. “Where did you hear this? Wait – it doesn’t matter. You know that is flat-out wrong, don’t you? It’s total BS.”
Jackie looked back at Kathy, then at Peter. “Jesus came here once; why couldn’t He come again? You guys wouldn’t know. You’ve been out of touch with the world. Up there, living like animals. You all should just come back down and live like normal people. It has to be pretty uncomfortable up in those hills. Just like camping, which I always hated. And when winter comes, you guys will freeze.”
“Jackie,” Kathy said, “I still can’t believe you and Kirk had the chance to come up here and you turned it down. Kirk would still be alive.”
“We’re free down here,” Jackie said.
“Oh, really free?” Kathy asked, sarcastically. “Kirk is dead and you are Marked.”
Jackie looked at Kathy. “He told me about you. The hot-headed, skinny one.”
“He’d still be alive if he stayed with me.”
“Shut up.”
Peter rolled his eyes. “Jackie,” he paused. “Can you tell us this – what is going on in the world? What is up with the government? Or is there any government?”
“That figures. You people don’t even have radios up there, do you?”
“We have a couple radios, but the news is a mix of cotton candy and sports scores. We can tell that the real news is not being reported. We know we are being lied to. We want to know what has really happened out there.” Peter nodded towards the valley below.
Jackie looked at Peter, then back at Kathy. “I guess you all haven’t heard, have you?”
“Heard what?” The sound of an approaching helicopter could be heard in the distance.
“The government has changed. Well, it’s mostly the same, except elections have been put off for a while. The Muslim legal system, Sharia, is being phased in in some areas. And they are reviewing the rights of the Constitution to see what they want to keep and what will go. It’s kind of strange but at least they got some of the police and the emergency workers to go back to work. And the local cops have set up roadblocks everywhere to try and contain things. And the power has been off but it should be back on pretty soon. Things are getting better, getting back to normal. It’s true.”
Just then a low-flying helicopter emerged from behind a nearby hill and flew directly above the roadblock on its way north. The helicopter continued north but turned around and returned above the roadblock. Kathy ducked into the trail to hide from view, then waited for Peter. Peter grabbed the game cart with the duffel bag and waved at Jackie, as she started running back down the road. Peter hurried back onto the trail, pulling the cart behind him. Kathy quickly put some brush at the opening of the trail and then followed Peter. The helicopter returned and stopped directly above the roadblock, turning around so that the occupants could get a view of the area. The helicopter blew branches, leaves and dust from the roadblock everywhere.
****
CHAPTER 8
Peter and Kathy ran back through the trail towards the camp. Peter pulled the game cart with Kirk’s body in the duffel bag in it as fast as it would go. They ran under the canopy of trees towards the clearing. As they did on their way to the road, they stayed out of the clearing and into the woods so that they would not be seen.
After entering the forest on the other side of the clearing, Peter stopped to rest. Kathy stopped behind him. The noise from the helicopter made talking impossible.
The helicopter rose and left the area, leaving the area as quiet as before. “I guess word is getting around about our roadblock,” Peter said.
“They will be back, scumbags that they are.” Kathy sounded angry. “I wish I had more than my 45 here. I could have blown that chopper from the sky.”
“That would be hard to do with just a 45. Unless, I guess, you shoot at the back rotor. Or the pilot.”
“Kirk’s killers were probably inside the chopper.”
“Sure, that could have been them.”
“It probably wasn’t just a coincidence that the chopper came back to the roadblock where those creeps killed Kirk. For several weeks the roadblock area has been totally ignored, and now it seems to be a big deal with someone out there.”<
br />
“Yeah, could be,” Peter said. Kathy looked up the trail.
“Kathy, did you notice that the helicopter was a Huey? They are pretty old, Vietnam era. I don’t know why they would use a Huey. Less high tech than the new helicopters but a lot easier to fly. That one didn’t have any mounted guns, thank God. Those Hueys can strafe pretty good. And did you see how the insignia were painted over? That was really strange. Maybe it’s some kind of a vigilante helicopter.”
“I missed that.” Kathy paused. “I still can’t get over the coincidence of the curiosity of the roadblock. Ignored for so long, now this. I really think the pilot there had something to do with Kirk’s death.”
“You still want revenge?”
“Oh yeah. At least to protect our group. The guys in that helicopter are not just out here, looking around, admiring the scenery. You know they will be coming back.”
Peter started to talk, but Kathy interrupted. “And you’re darn right I want revenge. Do I ever.” Kathy paused and lowered her voice. “I’m really tempted to leave the compound right now and try and track down the guy who killed Kirk.”
Peter tilted the game cart onto its wheels and started back up the trail. He passed up Kathy, and she followed.
“Hey, maybe I can be in front,” Kathy said. “I would rather not look at your cargo there.”
“Sure. Sorry about that.” The bottom of the duffel bag had some noticeable blood soaking through it.
Kathy passed up Peter and the two continued walking up the trail.
“Yeah, I want revenge, alright,” she muttered. “Jackie seems like she wants to just go with the flow or something; I don’t know. I don’t care. If I were married to Kirk I would be tracking down and killing whoever did this to him.”
Peter slowed down. “You need to let it go, Kathy. Do your best. At least try.”
“Not possible. I really want to kill the guy. Sure, I wasn’t his wife but I still had feelings for him. I admit it. Yes, I want to kill the guy who did this, really bad. I have never wanted to kill anyone like I do right now.”
“I’ve been there, believe me.”
“Maybe it’s different with me. Kirk and I were in love.” Kathy lowered her voice a little, and sounded cold. “I want to find the scumbag who did this and squeeze his neck. And I want to keep squeezing. I want my face to be the last thing he sees before he dies. The very last thing.”
“You have to get control of yourself, Kathy. I’m serious.”
The two walked on the trail in silence for a while.
“I understand what you’re feeling. Very angry, wanting revenge. When the killing was all around me in Iraq I read my Bible. Just pick anywhere in the Bible. God will lead you to a part of the Bible that he wants you to read. In my case, I wound up reading a lot of Philippians. Paul wrote that book when he thought he was about to be executed, and it is a happy part of the Bible. That part of the Bible really spoke to me, and it calmed me down.”
“And that worked?”
“Yes. And the killing all around me in Iraq got much worse. I kept my cool by reading the Bible and praying. It got me through.”
“Could be,” Kathy agreed. “I was reading about David the other day. Not our David, but King David. He killed a lot of people.”
“Yeah, that’s true. And killing people really changes you, take it from me. King David, and all his men were probably in shock 24/7. I’ll bet they all had PTSD. And David still wrote parts of the Bible. Pretty incredible.”
“He did it with God’s help,” Kathy said, appearing to calm down a little.
“Yes, amen, that’s the only way he could have done it. Nowadays, anyone who has been around that much killing would be curled up in a fetal position in their apartment or something. David and Sean, for example, probably won’t be sleeping for a few days. They will be messed up for a while. At least David will be. For some reason Sean seems to be handling it better.”
The two hiked further up the trail in silence. “It’s starting to get dark,” Peter said. “But we’ll make it back in time.”
“Peter, how many people did you kill in Iraq?”
“A few. I never forgot my first one, though. At first, I got shot at, and I just stood there, stunned, standing like a mannequin. I realized that the shot missed me. Then I decided to shoot back, and I followed the guy who shot at me. It was weird. It’s like my brain was sitting back, wondering what I would do next. ‘Oh, there he is,’ I said to myself. Like I was watching someone else do this; not me. An out-of-body experience. I shot the guy with a burst from my machine gun. I thought I would be glad but I was just numb.”
“That’s pretty intense.”
“And another thing. It’s been almost seven years, but if someone told me that it all just happened yesterday, I wouldn’t disagree. That’s the thing. Time has almost stood still for me since I killed the guy. It really feels like it was yesterday and it just happened. I still remember everything about it. The sounds, the smells, every detail.”
“I’ve heard about that.”
“The next few times it was a little easier. Then there was a time I killed someone and I was surprised at how little it affected me. Like it was no big deal. I actually dropped a trigger on someone and didn’t feel anything. Couldn’t care less.”
“Huh. I guess after several times of having to kill or be killed …”
“I have to stop again, Kathy. Sorry. This is heavy.” Peter stopped and put down cart with the duffel bag. He rubbed his hands. Kathy stopped and looked back at Peter.
“That’s true, Kathy, you’re right. ‘Kill or be killed.’ After my first experiences near killing, I was in shock. Now Jackie is in shock like I was. That’s what it looked like to me.”
“Yes, she wasn’t making too much sense back there. ‘Jesus is coming to town’ or something. I think there is something in the Bible about watching out for people who say stuff like that.”
“There is. Jesus said something like ‘many will come in my name, claiming to be Me, and will deceive many.’ In Jackie’s case it’s just all icing on the cake to hear that she has been deceived about Jesus coming around. It’s kind of like ‘aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?’ It doesn’t matter. She took the Mark and she is really doomed now.”
“That’s a good way of putting it. I felt kind of strange even talking to her. Not only that she was the one who broke up me and Kirk, but also that she is signed, sealed and delivered for the devil.”
“Yes, I felt it too.” Peter looked down. “I still care for the old Jackie, but she is gone now.” Peter reached for the cart. “Thanks for the rest. I can go now.”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
They followed the trail further through the forest, towards the camp.
After a few minutes of hiking in silence, Kathy said, “It was weird how it seemed like Jackie had no idea about taking the Mark. I figured that Kirk would have talked to her about it.”
“They were definitely an unevenly-yoked couple. And of the two of them, Kirk is much better off, that’s for sure. Whether Jackie knows it or not. It sounds like Kirk chose death instead of taking the Mark. Good for him.”
“I’m still trying to adjust to the idea that we are living in the End Times, and taking the Mark is even an issue at all. I never thought I would be in this situation,” Kathy said. “Only a few weeks ago things were pretty normal. Now, who knows? It all started happening pretty suddenly. Now we could actually be in danger up here. The thugs who killed Kirk could be back up here soon, trying to kill the rest of us.”
“Yep, that’s true.”
“It sure would be a lot easier if we were all raptured before all this started happening.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, the so-called ‘Pre-Tribulation Rapture,’ in which Christians get taken up before the Tribulation begins.”
“Oh yeah, I know what you are talking about,” Peter said. “I heard of that.” He looked at Kathy. “That way would hav
e been nice. You know, Christians just getting taken up into Heaven before the bad stuff starts happening here.”
“Yeah.”
“There is no real support for that belief in the Bible, but yes, it would have been nice. But it is what it is, and here we are. Any Pre-Trib people still around right now are probably getting quite a shock.”
“Yep.”
“It was just wishful thinking.”
*****
