The Beast’s head tilted slightly to the left as he looked down at his prey, fascinated by the other man’s determination to still live despite every indication that would never be allowed to happen.
There would be no mercy for the brown-skinned interloper.
Instead, Beast strode to the side of the road where a boulder weighing nearly two hundred pounds sat. He reached down and grasped both sides of the rock and then easily lifted it off the ground and above his head while returning to where the Diablo gang member had managed to turn over onto his stomach. He was attempting to crawl away, leaving a dark-liquid trail of his own blood on the pavement behind him as he did so. Each movement of the man’s arms and legs was accompanied by a plaintive sob as he continued to beg for his life.
The Beast paused to look up at Ripper and the others while he held the boulder over his head, his dark eyes lit by an unseen fire that smoldered behind the still impassive face.
And then the rock came crashing down upon the back of Mexican biker’s head with a sickening wet crunch. The skull was obliterated, leaving little than a sponge-like remnant of its previous form that oozed out the sides of the boulder.
Having completed his task, Beast retrieved his AK-47 rifles and walked back up the hill toward Ripper’s gang just as casually as he had so recently left them. When he arrived he stared down at Ripper and issued a subtle half-smile that reminded Ripper of what a shark looks like as it circles its next meal.
“How long have I been gone?”
Serb was first to answer, his voice an awe-drenched whisper.
“Ten minutes.”
--------------------
EPISODE TWENTY-FOUR:
America is dead.
The question to you, listener, is if you intend to die along with it or remain among those of us determined to rebuild what once was.
Avoid the cities. They have become cesspools dominated by the tyranny of what is left of the federal government. They are all liars. Their only purpose is to continue to divide and then conquer.
Have you heard that Russia is now repeatedly flying nuclear-armed bomber jets just a few miles off our Atlantic coast while the Chinese navy has all but surrounded the entirety of the Hawaiian Islands? And what of the rumored negotiations with Mexico to “donate” some three million acres inside of the United States along the Texas, Arizona, and California southern borders as the first of what is to be ongoing reparation payments to the Mexican government?
What is this madness that has seemingly overtaken an entire nation?
And while the foreign vultures circle the corpse, Congress is calling for the same gun control laws that dominate the country’s urban areas be applied throughout the country. They cite what is being called the out of control violence in the rural areas as justification for disarming all those choosing to take up arms to defend themselves from the very bloodshed this government initiated. Failure to give up your guns will be deemed an act of war against our government masters and the ending of your life no more than justice being served.
The blood of hundreds of thousands already covers the hands of those now calling themselves this country’s leaders, and still they grow hungry for yet more of that blood. Small towns are being eradicated first. Larger towns and small cities will soon follow until all remaining will to resist is eliminated.
The end times are no longer simply near – THEY ARE HERE AND THEY ARE NOW.
Here is what they would see me dead for telling you. There are more of us than them. Don’t ever forget that. The possibility of thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions joining together and fighting back is what keeps these tyrants awake at night. They fear the power and might of our superior numbers.
They fear YOU.
Let them know that fear, and choke upon it.
Time is running out. Don’t doubt me on this. Time is running out for those living beyond the great cities of America. Time is running out for freedom, choice, and opportunity. You are to either join the collective in their urban prisons, or join the mass grave they have prepared for you. They are of the mindset that it must be one, or it must be the other.
This is no time to turn the other cheek. No sir, these are days when only an eye for an eye will suffice. This is do unto others before they do to you.
A long time ago, a very wise man once said that from time to time the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants. That man was Thomas Jefferson and he knew all too well the potential price one might pay to defeat an enemy of freedom.
Are you ready to pay that price, listeners? Are you prepared to fight to your dying breath?
They started the Race Wars. It is now up to all of us to end them but we can only accomplish this when everyone works together to do so. Ignore the manufactured divisions this government has created among us. The color of one’s skin should never determine the content of their character. Those of you of right mind and righteous heart know that to be true. Evil has no color and evil is what we now face.
We die alone, or we fight together.
The choice is yours…
-------------------
Lu sat on one of the age-roughened cowhide chairs inside of Silas Toms’ cabin listening wide-eyed to the conclusion of the shortwave radio program. Silas sat directly opposite Lu, his long body folded awkwardly into his own chair as both men sat staring at the suddenly silent radio.
After several seconds, Lu cleared his throat and then stood up. He had not yet become entirely comfortable around Silas who in turn appeared not to care regardless. Silas Toms would go an entire day without saying but a few words to his recently arrived guest and then repeat that reticence the next day and the day after. The big rancher didn’t do so to be rude, nor was it because he suffered shyness. It was simply his way.
“He’s using a voice modifier – making his natural voice deeper. I suppose to help hide his identity.”
Even though he remained seated Silas was almost able to stare back at the standing Lu without having to look up.
“How do you know that?”
Lu was slightly startled to have Silas asking him a direct question. He appeared confused by how to answer and then found himself sitting back down slowly as he tried to gather his thoughts so as to prevent himself from sounding like little more than a babbling fool.
“Well…I’m familiar with the technology. I studied for a short time at a technical college in Chicago before going back and working for my father full time after my mother became too ill to work. I took several digital technology courses and the sound of that voice would indicate the use of that kind of technology in order to alter it so as to allow the speaker remain anonymous. These days that kind of device, or program is pretty simple and a lot cheaper than it used to be.”
Silas folded his long-fingered hands together and placed them underneath the mass of white and grey beard that hung from his face. His deep-set eyes narrowed slightly as he considered what Lu was telling him.
“So it’s possible whoever is talking on the radio could be part of the government, right? He sure seems to know a lot about what they’re up to.”
Lu’s mouth opened and then abruptly closed as he was struck by how quickly Silas had come to a conclusion that had not yet presented itself to him. Silas Toms was a man of few words, but he had an innate intelligence that meant when he did speak it would be best to pay attention to what was being said.
“I hadn’t thought about that before but you know, I think you’re right. That would make perfect sense. I guess that also means when he says we need to prepare we should take him at his word.”
Silas closed his eyes and then grunted, the gesture making his wide shoulders tremble slightly. He abruptly stood up, paused, and then motioned for Lu to follow him outside. Before opening the front door, the rancher reached down and grabbed the very shotgun he had initially greeted Lu with days earlier. Lu had arrived to the cabin telling Silas he thought he was being followed and since then both
men continued to be vigilant of the possibility others might be out there somewhere watching them.
Lu struggled to keep up with the much longer-legged Silas as the rancher strode across the porch and then onto the dirt path that led up the hill behind the cabin and that overlooked the entirety of the long and narrow valley below. The daylight was giving way to the gloom of early evening and a biting wind was sweeping across the property, originating somewhere deep within the lands of Canada to the north.
The cold appeared to have no impact upon the stern-faced Silas Toms as his long, sinewy arms swung back and forth in unison with his legs as he moved himself upward toward the top of the hill on what appeared to Lu to be little more than a particularly steep and abandoned goat trail.
By the time Silas had reached the top of the hill a heavily breathing Lu was just halfway up the hillside. The rancher waited patiently, his six-foot-nine-inch frame resisting the push of the strengthening wind like some great, aged tree standing silent and vigilant.
Once Lu stood beside him, Silas turned without saying anything and moved toward the single grave marked by a simple, handmade wooden cross that was the final resting place of his beloved Grace. He stopped directly beside the grave and then slowly turned toward the son of a Vietnamese army officer who claimed it was a vision of Grace that led him to Silas Toms’ ranch.
“This is where my Grace is buried. You told me she was the one who brought you here.”
Lu glanced at the wooden cross and then forced himself to look directly into Silas’s eyes while he nodded his head.
“Yes, that’s right. I can’t explain it, Mr. Toms, but it was her who spoke to me in those dreams. She brought me here.”
Silas’s voice was like distant thunder moving slowly across wild, untamed lands.
“And why do you suppose that was?”
Lu shrugged his shoulders and tried not to shiver from the cold.
“I don’t know. I wish I did, but I don’t.”
Silas’s grin was devoured by the unruly beard covering his face, making it almost impossible to detect. He pointed down the hillside and beyond the cabin.
“You see that valley below us, there?”
Lu made certain to follow to where Silas was pointing. With the sun nearly set in the west, the valley was blanketed in silent shadow. Silas continued without waiting for Lu to respond.
“Since your arrival I have dreamt of that valley engulfed in fire. I could see it, feel its heat and hear the terrible sound of the flame as it scorched the earth beneath it.”
Lu wondered if Silas blamed him for bringing those terrible dreams to him. The big man seemed to know the unspoken thought almost as quickly as Lu’s mind had created it. He looked down at the former Chicago resident and shook his head.
“I don’t blame you’re being here for my lack of sleep.”
Somewhere in the inky darkness the sound of a military jet passing overhead filtered down to where Silas and Lu stood. Lu peered into the almost-night and tried to locate the source of the noise but the jet was too far away and the remaining daylight too little. His eyes then lowered once again upon the valley below as he tried to imagine it being overtaken by some terrible fire.
“Grace said there’d be more like you coming. In fact, she told me for years to get this place ready. Even before she got sick she was telling me to prepare for the darker days to come.”
Lu realized Silas Toms had said to him more in the last few minutes than he had in the last three days.
“What did you do?”
Silas’s eyes twinkled as he appeared on the verge of smiling.
“Do? She was my wife. I did what I was told to do!”
Lu pointed to the outline of the tarp-covered M1 anti-aircraft gun that loomed to the left of where he and Silas stood.
“You mean that thing?”
Silas glanced at the M1 and then shrugged.
“That’s part of it, but a long way from being all of it.”
Lu couldn’t help but be intrigued. Silas was already a mystery within an enigma to him, but now the rancher was being downright secretive.
“How did you prepare, Mr. Toms?”
Silas ran a gnarled right hand with fingers the size of tree roots down his chest-length beard as he pondered the wisdom of proceeding to share further with the increasingly curious, Lu Phan.
“Would you believe there was a time when I was a very wealthy man? It wasn’t my doing of course, but Grace’s advice. She always had a way of…seeing things more clearly than most. Certainly more clearly than I ever did.”
Lu’s curiosity was quickly transforming into impatience but he remained careful not to offend the suddenly talkative, Silas Toms.
“How did you lose all the money?”
Silas issued an amused grunt.
“Why would you assume I lost it?”
Lu began to stammer, fearing he had done what he had tried so hard not to – offend his host. Silas’s face actually formed a wide smile as he allowed his amusement over Lu’s discomfort to be fully revealed.
“I imagine I don’t give off the appearance of a wealthy man, am I right?”
Lu’s eyes went immediately to the ground as he attempted to stammer an apology that did little more than get stuck partway between his panicked mind and his seemingly marble-filled mouth.
“Well, uh, you do seem to live rather…humbly. Of course, there is no shame in that! My own family was hardly wealthy. We had to work very hard for----“
Silas loomed over Lu and once again smiled, the act creating crevice-like lines to stretch out from the corners of his eyes.
“No need to explain and no offense taken. As for my having lost that money, I didn’t lose it so much as invest it, just like Grace told me I should.”
Lu strained to see in what little light remained the hard earth and rock-strewn acres surrounding the bottom of the hillside upon which he stood, the aged, handmade cabin, and the long dirt drive that dissected the valley that was Silas Toms’ home.
It certainly didn’t appear to be a place resembling anything related to great wealth.
‘Watch this.”
Silas held up his right hand, the inside of which lightly gripped a small plastic device he had retrieved from his dust covered, torn and tattered, wool-lined jacket.
Suddenly a row of lights appeared as if by magic, illuminating the path downward back to the cabin. Lu inhaled sharply, surprised by the clarity of light. He looked up at Silas who by then had turned around to face the sheer rock wall that loomed several yards behind them.
The rancher pushed another button on the device and Lu was once again stunned to see a seven foot high by four foot wide space illuminated within the cliff side, somewhat reminiscent of what one might see during the Christmas season around the front door of a home’s entrance.
A door!
Lu’s eyes flew open even wider as he pointed toward the newly lit space.
“That’s a door, isn’t it?”
Silas said nothing, though the hint of a smile remained. Instead he made his way toward the cliff side while motioning for Lu to follow.
“Do you see it?”
Lu peered at the space inside the tiny LED lights which had been painstakingly placed inside of the multitude of carved out spaces inside the cliff rock itself. His eyes scanned the rock and then only after several seconds of gazing at the space, was he able to confirm the existence of the door.
“Yes! I was right, it’s a door!”
Silas pressed the device yet again and the rock inside of the illuminated space swung open without a sound to reveal a brightly lit cave on the other side. It was a small space, no more than twenty by twenty with a ceiling barely tall enough to accommodate Silas’s considerable height, but its small size did little to lessen Lu’s wonderment as he marveled at the time and expense creating such a place must have taken.
“Mr. Toms, this is incredible!”
By then Silas’s smile revealed itself fully from unde
rneath its bed of whiskers. For the first time in a very long time, he was happy to have the opportunity to share something with someone else.
“I like to think so as well. Come inside Lu, and see where some of that money went to that I made off the oil leases Grace suggested we sign off on all those years ago.”
The entirety of the right side wall was covered in matching, light grey assault rifles, each one already armed with a full 30-round magazine. Each was a perfect match to the others, immaculate, and appearing to have never been fired. Lu counted forty of the assault rifles.
“What are they?”
Silas scanned the multitude of rifles he had personally hung with careful precision upon the smoothed out surface of the cave wall.
American Survivalist: RACE WARS OMNIBUS: Seasons 1-5 Of An American Survivalist Series... Page 29
