by Ben S Reeder
“Ya’ll didn’t look like the Army,” I said. “Well, not all of you.” That got a few laughs at the expense of the two men in camo jackets over their black t-shirts.
“Ya’ll sure as shit do,” Mickey said as he pointed at one of the trucks. “Them vests and your guns. I ain’t never seen a pistol like yours, but a buddy a’ mine was in the Marines, one of the fellas in his squad carried a rifle like yours. Called it some kind of marksman’s rifle.”
“Got ‘em off a couple of dead guys,” I said. As lies went, it was pretty damn good. Both of our vests actually had come from dead soldiers.
“Lotsa them around!” Mickey said, which started a whole new round of laughter.
“Damn straight,” I agreed. “Who are you guys, anyways?” I asked him.
“We’re the Disciples of the Anointed,” an even bigger man growled. Of all the men there, only he hadn’t joined in the laughter. He’d stayed by the cab of the lead truck, dressed in black from head to toe. The black button down shirt and black khakis he wore were the cleanest looking clothes I’d seen among this bunch, and while his black boots weren’t shiny, they also weren’t scuffed. The equally somber billed cap on his head seemed to be competing with his shirt and pants for the honor of the darkest shade of black possible. Light brown hair stuck out from under his cap and his broad face contorted into a grimace that made him look like he’d just eaten something sour. “The Chosen of God survived, and we’re bringing them to the Prophet to be judged. If he thinks you’re worthy, he’ll let you stay.”
“Who’s this Prophet?” I asked.
“His name used ta be Matt Hall,” Mickey said with a smile. “But when he talked ta God, he got a different name. His name’s Daniel now.” The big guy finally stepped away from his truck and stalked over to us as the sound of a diesel engine rumbled nearby. I was starting to get a bad feeling about the whole situation, not least because we were outnumbered and outgunned. The name Matt Hall was vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn’t place it. Worse yet, the men who’d captured us were starting to sound more and more like religious zealots, and that usually meant all manner of bad things. I had nothing against religion in moderation, but too much lent itself to very unpleasant things.
“Kneel,” the big guy ordered and put his hand on my shoulder. He pressed down hard, but I didn’t move. “I said-“ he started to say. When I went to one knee, he stopped, suddenly unsure of what to do.
“I heard you,” I said. Mickey and the big zealot exchanged a look, and I nodded at Amy. She copied my stance, taking one knee as a big military vehicle rolled up the street. I recognized it as a Stryker armored fighting vehicle. The eight wheeled behemoth rolled to a stop, and I got a good look at the man riding in the commander’s hatch. Blonde, square jawed and striking, he fit the bill for what you’d expect a prophet to look like if said prophet was chosen by Abercrombie & Fitch to spread the good news of perfect hair and flawless skin. He turned to face us after offering us a few seconds to gaze upon his profile. Dark sunglasses shielded us from the intensity of his eyes, or at least that was the impression he seemed to be trying to give as he looked us over. After a few moments he ducked down into the hatch and emerged from the rear of the vehicle flanked by two heavily armed men.
“Bless you for your vigilance, Caleb,” the prophet said in a gently accented voice that sounded like it belonged to a southern televangelist being played by Matthew McConaughey. The big guy nodded, and Hall turned to face me. “And the good Lord bless our meeting, Brother David. Please, stand up.”
“Have we met?” I asked as I straightened. No one had asked my name, and I hadn’t volunteered it.
“Not directly,” Hall said with a smile. “It’s by your fruits that I know you.” He put one hand around my shoulders and turned so that we were facing the Stryker.
“You’ve read my books?” I said.
“I’ve read your books, visited your website, listened to every podcast and interview you did since you put out Incident At Baqubah. The Lord opened your eyes to His message, like so many other prophets. ‘The End Times are comin,’ He said. And as Elisha said when they came into Samaria, I prayed to God to open the eyes of men that they might also see.” He gestured to the men around us and beamed at them with a broad smile that I could see dazzling in the eyes of his audience. “And the wise men did see the truth. They prepared themselves for His wrath, and when the first plague fell on the land, they heeded my call, and they came. In their numbers, they came.”
“You knew this was coming?” I said as my stomach tried to sink down to my toes. Of all the people to be a fan, I had to get a cult leader. Hall laughed and shook his head.
“No man knew the way nor the hour of the Tribulation,” he said as he led me toward the back of the Stryker. “All I knew was that we needed to be prepared. The Lord saw fit to prepare you, too. Brother Michael, continue your patrol. Caleb, come with me.” Mickey nodded and headed back for his truck while Caleb followed behind his prophet and me. We ducked into the troop area in the back and Hall gestured to the long bench along one side. I sat down and Amy planted herself beside me as Hall took his place across from us. He leaned back and crossed one foot over his knee, then gestured to Caleb at the rear hatch. The big man hit the controls and the ramp started to rise while he made his way forward.
“Nice car,” I said as I tried to relax a little.
“Very nice indeed,” he said as he eyed Amy. “Is this your daughter?”
“Yes, she is. Her name’s Amy,” I said before she could say anything. She nodded and smiled as Hall reached across the compartment and offered his hand. She put hers out and he took it in his, then bent his head over the back of her hand, his lips just grazing her knuckles.
“Pleased to meet you, darlin’,” he said, his voice deepening. “I am the Prophet Daniel. Perhaps you’re familiar with the story of my namesake?”
“He was carried off to Babylon and trained to be an adviser to the king. He was taught the ways of the Babylonians, but he kept his faith and interpreted the dreams of the king when no one else could.” As Amy spoke, Hall’s face lit up.
“Finally, a woman who’s been well trained,” he said. “She’s going to be a fine example for the other girls.”
“Other girls?” Amy and I asked in stereo.
“Oh, yes. Hundreds of men and women have answered my call. Not all of them were worthy of serving as Disciples, but all have a place among us.”
“Are we worthy?” Amy asked. Hall’s face clouded, and I saw his fist curl up, but his glance went to me and he smoothed that smile of his back into place.
“By your daddy’s efforts, you are. The Bible tells us that God helps those who help themselves, after all.” I barely kept my eyes from rolling at that. Most people believed that, but the truth was that it appeared nowhere in the Bible, instead being an ancient Greek phrase that had been made famous by Ben Franklin. As quickly as he’d turned his attention to Amy, he turned it back to me.
“Your books say you’re from Springfield. What brings you to Kansas City, Brother David?” he asked. He took his sunglasses off, and aimed his pale blue eyes at mine. Now things were getting serious.
“We were being evacuated to St. Louis, but we ended up here.” He looked at me for a moment, and then he turned the full force of his retina damaging smile on me.
“Ya’ll don’t trust me, do you?” he said with a laugh.
“I don’t know you,” I said evenly.
“We’re gonna change that, I promise you. By the time we’re done, you and I are going to be very well acquainted. I’ll lay it out for you, Dave. We saw a helicopter go down yesterday, looked military. We even heard its mini-gun goin’, too. And then here you are today. So, I gotta know, Dave…are ya’ll alone, or are there servants of Lucifer runnin’ loose in my city?”
“I’m afraid I don’t follow,” I said, though I was pretty sure I did.
“Any man who swears an oath to a flag instead of pledging their hearts to Go
d Almighty is a servant of Satan,” he said casually. “It’s my duty to give them the choice to repent and to swear themselves to the Lord in my name or die for serving false gods. Now, are there any soldiers in my city?”
“We landed on top of Truman Medical Center with a helicopter full of Marines,” I told him. “Not all of them made it out of the hospital with us. I have no idea where they are now.” He sat back again and regarded us for a moment, then nodded.
“I’m sure you’ll understand if the lack of trust goes both ways. A man doesn’t just give up the truth about his true strength, and a man alone would assure me that he had others nearby in case his host had a mind to harm him, while a man with friends nearby would want me to believe he was alone to protect his allies.” I looked away from him and blinked, trying to hide the smug look on my face. With any luck, he’d think I was giving something away.
“Believe what you want,” I said. “I’m telling the truth.”
“Time will tell. So, Amy, tell me about yourself…” For the rest of the ride, I let Amy carry the conversation. Hall’s eyes roamed up and down her body, and I balled my fist up and put my weight on my knuckles to keep from breaking his nose. She talked about nothing better than I could, from her favorite kind of dogs to horseback riding, to her Sunday School teacher’s tuna casserole. She was just covering the finer points of an incident involving a pineapple upside down cake one of the ladies at her church had brought to fellowship when the Stryker took a sharp left and then angled down.
“Where are we?” Amy asked as Hall lowered the ramp.
“New Eden,” Hall said with a smile as he led us out of the vehicle. The Stryker’s lights were shining on concrete floors and walls with yellow stripes and a stylized wheelchair. Several more vehicles, including at least two more Stykers and a handful of Humvees were parked along the wall. A few yards away two men with M4s and lanterns flanked a red door. “Home, for now.” He led us into a dimly lit stairwell and up four flights until we came out onto a carpeted floor. Long windows that went from waist height to the ceiling let in some light, showing us groups of people spread out on the floor, using desks and cubicle walls to partition off their own little slice of floor space. Hall took us to the window and looked up.
“Last I knew, Eden was more like a garden, and less like a bank,” I said. Outside, two tall buildings rose up, the one on the left engulfed in smoke and burning, the one on the right apparently untouched by the end of the world. A round structure squatted on top of it, and I could see a hotel logo on the side.
“It’s a work in progress,” Hall said. “One day I will stand atop my tower and look down on the New Eden we have created, a new paradise for the chosen of God. The Lord has shown me this in a vision. You could share in the bounty that He has promised me, Dave. A man of your talents could stand at my right hand, chronicle the history of my kingdom, and be well rewarded as my herald …provided you are pure and loyal.” Behind us, I could hear moans and low voices. More and more heads were popping up and looking at us, and not all of them looked real happy to see us.
“Pure?” Amy said.
“Yes, my dear,” Hall said as he turned away from the window. “Given your father’s books and website, I’m assured he has a strong enough spirit, but…a man can sully himself by mingling too much with lesser souls.”
“What about a woman?” I said as he moved along the window.
“Women are born as lesser souls, and they can only be redeemed by their husbands,” Hall said dismissively. “Of course, in the new world we’ll have to return to the old ways. Men will need many wives to ensure that Mankind survives.”
“And I suppose it’s an act of charity to marry a woman and ensure her salvation,” I said.
“That depends on the woman,” Hall said and laughed. “If she’s pretty enough, it’s an act of benevolence. If she isn’t, then it’s charity, and she’d better have some other talents to offer her husband.” That got a laugh from the men with us as well. Amy cast a quick glance over her shoulder at me, her eyes troubled. I smiled and gave her a wink, and she smiled wanly before turning back to Hall. My stomach turned at the gesture, but we were at their mercy for the moment and in their good graces. Until I had a way to get us out, playing along was my best choice. Best being loosely defined as the only one I had.
“We need to check you for bites,” Caleb said as a man and a woman came up. The man was in brown coveralls while the woman wore blue.
“Can we have a little privacy?” Amy asked.
“That’s a luxury we can’t afford,” Hall said. “The safety of my flock comes first and foremost.” The two new arrivals exchanged a puzzled look and I saw smiles start to spread on the faces of the men with us. Hall was lying through his teeth so he could ogle Amy. I took my shirt off and started undoing my pants. A few seconds later, every man’s eyes were glued to Amy, and I was struggling to keep my knee out of Hall’s crotch. When I kicked my shoes and socks off, I remembered the bruise on my right ankle.
“Sir?” the man in brown said with a rising note of fear in his voice. “This man has a bite on his leg.” Suddenly every eye was on me as he backed away. Guns came up as Caleb stepped in front of his prophet, and Amy pushed her way past the woman looking her over to stand in front of me.
“He’s not infected!” she said.
“He’s been bitten,” Caleb said, just a little too eagerly for my taste.
“I was gummed,” I said. “It didn’t break the skin. Besides, if your man here had any medical training and better light, he could see that it’s a three day old bruise.”
“Sister Susan, go take a look,” Hall ordered. The woman in blue stepped forward and edged her way around Amy, then knelt at my side. She pulled a penlight out of her coveralls and played the light along my ankle, then ran it up my leg.
“He’s right, sir,” Susan said as she stood and looked me over again. “It’s a bruise, there’s no scabbing or break in the skin. I’d say it happened about two or three days ago.” Hall nodded and put his hand on Caleb’s arm. The big man’s mouth twisted into a sour expression and he slowly holstered his weapon. Susan handed Amy her clothes back, and I noticed that she stood between her and most of the men while she got dressed.
Once we were dressed again, Hall directed one of the men to take our gear and store it in the armory. The men carrying our stuff split off from us there, and we walked along a glass concourse that led along the side of another building, then over a street that was blocked off by concrete barricades and overturned trailers that stretched across the road and in front of the building we were heading toward. A couple of men in black and more in brown walked along the top of the makeshift wall, each carrying a rifle. The more numerous men in brown coveralls carried civilian style rifles and no other gear. The men in black, though, wore assault vests and carried assault rifles, and both of them had a sidearm of some sort. Hall led us around a curve in the catwalk and into the lobby of a hotel. The logo over the front desk proclaimed that we were at the Kansas City Crown Westwind Hotel. Beige and brown ruled the comfortable room below us, though in the natural light it seemed less elegant and more like a well-appointed cave. The gift shop and restaurant below us were lit by old wick lanterns, and I could see more of the men in black lounging in the restaurant. Then we were leaving the lobby and being ushered into a broad terrace that was dominated by a plant-covered rocky cliff wall on one side, and a view of Union Station on the other. Two black clad men were standing at the stairways and another was standing near a table in the middle of the room. Women in blue coveralls stood in a line near the far wall, each holding a burdened tray. Hall strode across the floor without a pause, leaving us to follow him.
“Please, sit down, break bread with me,” Hall said as he took his seat at the end of the table and gestured to the seats on either side of him. “Enjoy the blessings the Lord has bestowed on His chosen.” Amy gave me a nervous glance, and I nodded at her. We sat in the chairs closest to him, and his eyes went st
raight to Amy. “You’ll never know fear or hunger again, darlin’” he said. The women came forward and set two ice filled glasses in front of us, then poured water and tea. I reached for my glass and took a long pull of the water. It had been days since I’d had cold water, or anything with ice in it. Nothing had tasted so good to me as iced water did just then.
“How did you get ice?” I asked once I pulled the glass away from my lips.
“Generators, Brother,” Hall said with a broad smile. “We liberated more than a dozen from the servants of the Devil’s lapdogs, and there are more waiting to be found all over the city. Kansas City encompasses over seven thousand square miles and is home to two million people. Or it was until a few days ago. Now a city that once housed, fed, and served two million is home to less than one percent of that number.”
“That’s still about twenty thousand people,” Amy said. “Most cities only have enough food and supplies for about three days, right?” she asked me.
“She is a bright girl,” Hall said. “Definitely your daughter.” I didn’t bother to correct him.
“She does raise a good point,” I said. “Even with the population drastically reduced, assuming your estimates are right, you still only have a year’s worth of supplies in the city itself. And most of the nonperishable food that’s already on the shelves or warehoused still won’t last more than a couple of years. What then?”
“You don’t question the prophet,” Caleb growled at me from his spot behind Hall, but the prophet just smiled and held his hand up languidly.
“No, Caleb, it’s okay. You ask some very good questions, Brother David. Questions someone has to. But you forget I’ve been to your website, I know you’ve already asked yourself those questions. I know you already have answers to them. That’s why we need each other. You have the knowledge, and I…well, I have the men and the resources to make sure that those supplies go much further. Why should we try to spread limited resources among everyone equally when the Lord has blessed only some? Don’t you see? This is God’s Holy Word being spoken to us directly. There are other groups of survivors in the city, unholy gatherings of the impure and the weak. But you had the good fortune to be led to me.” As he finished, two women in blue came to the table and set down covered platters. Steam billowed from under the covers and revealed thick steaks topped with a creamy, white sauce, baked potatoes and bowls of salad. My mouth watered so hard I felt my saliva glands cramp up at the back of my jaw when the woman set the plate in front of me.
