“What did he say, Rev?” Rueben asked Cornelius.
“He said, ‘Make an example of them. Show them what accompanies failure,’” Cornelius answered.
Rueben smirked at Cornelius and turned to face the accused. Denver’s answer was satisfying. Rueben had an iron fist, but he could not act without authorization from Denver.
“Where’s the night watch commander?” Rueben sounded off.
“Here!” a man said, stepping into the inner circle with him.
Rueben took one look at the man and pulled his handkerchief out to cover his nose. “Cody, I expected more from you,” he said with a soft voice. It was a personal conversation between the two men. The handkerchief was a problem for Cody and a holy relic of sorts for Rueben. Rueben had a fixed delusion that weakness was contagious. Every time he was near a person he saw as weak, incompetent, disloyal, etc., he would pull his hanky out and cover his nose and mouth with it. In Rueben’s mind, this act saved him from catching what he called the poison.
Cody knew Rueben held the leadership accountable for their mistakes. It was this fact that scared him. He had no rebuttal to give in his own defense.
Rueben circled Cody with his pistol in hand. Every ear was open to what Rueben had to say. “Everyone here knows that Denver does not tolerate incompetence.” The handkerchief was tightly covering his nose and mouth, but his voice was raised loud enough to carry his message to every listener who had an ear to hear with. Even if they didn’t, it wasn’t his words that spread the message he wanted them to receive. It was his actions.
The crowd stood silently and watched to see what Rueben would do next. When he made his third circle around Cody, he stopped behind him and raised his pistol to the back of his head. He pulled the trigger, letting loose an explosion of energy from the tip of his firearm. The men standing to the front of Cody were instantly covered in red droplets of blood and brain matter. Cody’s body fell to the ground.
“Feed him to the hogs,” Rueben said, handing his pistol to Cornelius.
Cornelius reached into his pocket and pulled out a replacement bullet. He ejected the magazine and inserted the round. It was a manner of control for Rueben. Everybody saw it, so they knew who was in charge. Cornelius returned Rueben’s pistol about the time two men were dragging Cody’s body out of the Red Circle gathering.
“That was merciful,” Rueben sounded off, pointing to Cody’s lifeless body as it went. “I don’t have to show you mercy. Each of you has a belly full of food and water. The world outside the Enclave is burning. The masses are starving. The fruits of my success are shared with you, and you eat good because of it; but when you fail, I fail – and when I fail, then the fruits of my failure are also shared with you. Each of you made an agreement when I saved you from certain death. Each of you chose to follow me, and the prerequisites were minimal. These are the terms of our agreement. Let me remind each of you that you all solemnly swore within the Red Circle to be one with the Enclave. Blood in, blood out.”
Before dismissing the men, Rueben looked around at the Red Circle and added one final remark. “Whoever was on night watch at the time of Marcus’s escape, to you I say this – your failure was paid in full by the spilling of Cody’s blood. Do not fail again. Sin requires a sacrifice – let’s tighten things up. A new night watch commander will be appointed this evening. I expect better next time. This Red Circle gathering is concluded.”
The men left the circle, parting ways. Rueben, his three guards, and Cornelius remained. Looking about to make sure there were no other persons present, Rueben said, “Has either of the two trackers reported back with any findings?”
“Not yet. I set him out to keep watch just like you commanded. It was smart to believe that something was amiss. They came for him, just like you said they would. My guess is that soon we’ll be hearing back from him that he’s located the people responsible for five missing men and how Marcus is connected to them.”
“Good. For your sake, you’d better pray for a positive outcome.”
The one-liner was a calm and direct threat to Cornelius’s life. Rueben made sure that his eyes were connected to Cornelius’s when he said it. He pushed past Cornelius and headed toward the ranch house. His three guards followed behind, also pushing by Cornelius.
Cornelius walked to a shady spot over by the barn. There was something about that spot that seemed to draw in the cooler air. It smelled like cattle, but was still better than baking in the sun. Byron was there, too. Seeing Byron with his wife and two children triggered him in some way that made him mad at Rueben. Cornelius looked around. There were too many people to say anything to Byron about the coming cleanse, but the need to express himself after the treatment he’d received from Rueben was irresistible.
“Byron,” he said, walking up to him.
“Hey, man. That was crazy, huh?”
“Huh? Oh, you mean the way Cody was killed and dragged off as hog food?”
“Yeah. I’m glad my wife and daughters didn’t have to see that.”
“Um, about that… I think we need to have a talk about them.”
“About my wife and daughters? Why do you say that?”
“Take a look around, Byron.”
Byron did just as Cornelius asked. Nothing was out of the ordinary. “What, pray tell, am I looking for?”
Cornelius looked toward the ranch house. He saw no sign of Rueben, so he went back to work on Byron. “Look, I’ve said and done horrible things, but women and children shouldn’t be exposed to any of this.”
“I know, right! Thank God the women and children aren’t allowed to be a part of the Red Circle gatherings.”
“Byron, there are no women and children.”
What Byron heard was something he’d noticed several times over, but dismissed as happenstance. “Yeah, why is that?”
“Because they have no part to play in all of this. They’re mouths to feed and nothing more. They’re kept around when the steaks are plentiful, maybe used as bartering chips when needed, but for the most part –” Cornelius stopped talking when he saw Rueben looking out the window of the master bedroom of the ranch house. “Never mind. I just thought you should know,” he said before walking off and leaving Byron alone with no answers.
***
Rueben closed the window curtain and continued his talk with Denver as he watched Cornelius through the translucent curtains. “Cornelius is too shady. I don’t trust him.”
“What’s not to trust? He carries out your every command. You treat him like a dog, and still he comes to you.”
“I don’t know. There’s something suspicious about him. It’s like he’s talking about me behind my back. Even now, as I address the matter, he seems nervous that I’ve caught him doing something he ought not be doing.”
“You’re just being paranoid. Cool your jets and think on the things I’ve told you. Until he actually betrays us, there’s no reason to suspect him. He’s a godly man, and you know as well as I do, we need God on our side.”
“Where was God when we were being held against our will at Three Springs Maximum Security Forensic Center?”
“Don’t raise your voice to me! I know all too well what we went through at that wretched place. He held us together and brought us through. Think back. Remember as I have.”
Three Springs Maximum Security Forensic Center
Three Springs, Georgia – Two years earlier
9:00 p.m.
“Reisner,” a security guard called out.
Reisner walked out of his room and up to where the guard was standing. There was a nurse at the door, wearing an all-white uniform. He approached her and stood next to another security guard, who was there for her protection.
“It’s time for your meds, Reisner,” the lady nurse said. Her voice was soft and her eyes were piercing. When he didn’t answer, she said, “You are Rueben, aren’t you?”
Rueben stood in front of the two staff members while they each confirmed his identity, even t
hough he refused to confirm his own ID. She looked down at her medical record book and saw Rueben Reisner’s photograph and his list of medications. She looked up at his face and confirmed it was him. Rueben looked suspiciously at the security guard standing next to her.
“Good morning, Rueben,” the guard said, taking a jab at his mentality.
“I told you not to call me that!”
The guard smirked. “Take your pills or you’ll regret waking up this morning.”
The first security guard heard the second’s threat to patient Reisner. “Is there a problem?” he asked, walking up to join the first.
“No, Reisner here thinks he can talk smack. I told him to take his pills. If he doesn’t, we’ll strap him to the restraint bed and give them through a needle.”
“Well, actually, these meds don’t come injectable,” the nurse said.
“No matter. We will make good on our part,” the first security guard said. “Now take ’em.”
Rueben looked down at the meds and saw a syringe.
“You’d better leave,” the first security guard told the nurse, having seen Rueben eyeballing the syringe. The nurse left, and the two security guards grabbed Rueben. He immediately pulled away from the grasp of the smaller weaker second guard and turned around to punch the guard who was originally next to the nurse. He hit him square in the jaw, but the second guard was already pushing the emergency duress button that each of them were required to wear. Once pushed, the alarm sent a signal to the hospital’s central control room that told the staff there was an emergency situation on that security guard’s assigned unit.
The second guard grabbed Rueben in a bear hug. The nurse was scrambling to get out the door when the first security guard regained his composure. He grabbed Rueben by the back of the head and forced him down onto the floor. With the other security guard’s weight on his back, it wasn’t that difficult to get him down. They each started punching Rueben with hammer fists in an attempt to subdue him. He was very strong and easily overpowering the two men. If not for the several other guards who responded to the alarm, he might very well have killed them.
Once the others were on hand, they carried him to a room, where they began strapping him down to a bed. Several guards held his body down while others worked feverishly to secure his ankles. The whole time, Rueben was screaming for Denver and saying, “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,” but Denver never came – not until the Pulse. Rueben’s wrists were still unsecured when the lights suddenly went out.
“What’s going on?” someone yelled. It was pitch black. Blacker than that even. The security room where they worked to restrain Rueben was deep within the mental facility. There were no windows, only doors that led to other rooms with no windows. It was a deep, heavy, smothering darkness.
“He’s got my –” one person started to say, then was suddenly silenced.
There was a gurgling sound.
“Argh,” another person screamed.
“What’s going on? What’s happening?” various staff were heard yelling. Several more screams, yells for help, and wincing sounds were made by staff.
“Let’s get out of here,” Rueben heard Denver’s voice saying in the darkness. “Your legs are loose. Never mind the staff. They’re weak, but we’re strong.”
“I can’t see a thing,” Rueben said to Denver in the darkness.
“We’re going to have to feel our way through the darkness to the light. Remember this moment, Rueben. There will be times in your life when you think you have no light to guide you, but if you look deep enough, in the right spots, you’ll see your way out.” Denver was the smart one who would speak simple and encouraging words to live by. Rueben ate it up. He respected Denver’s intelligence, strength, and patience. “Mind your step so that you don’t trip over the staff,” Denver said.
It wasn’t the staff Rueben was tripping on, but it was their warm blood on the newly waxed floors. It was slippery and Rueben needed to maintain three points of contact as he maneuvered through the area.
Bodies lined the walls of the room as he made his way through the door that the staff had left open as they came running in to assist.
There wasn’t a ton of staff at Three Springs, but when they spoke, he recognized the voice and avoided them. Every once in a while, he would feel that he was alone, so he’d call out to Denver, “Denver, are you here?”
“Of course I’m here. Stay on task. Head for the exit.”
As Rueben made his way through the halls, the darkness became less and less prevalent. Light from the front door began to saturate the facility’s corridors. When he was able to see, he looked around, but couldn’t find Denver. Seeing several employees of the facility congregating near the exit, he worried that he might be detected. They were standing in groups, talking about the power outage and other weird things that had happened the moment the lights went out. None of their cell phones were working. Even their cars would not start. Everything that had a circuit board, every single electronic device, including digital watches and battery-operated clocks and devices, stopped working at the same time.
“I heard about this. China, Korea, Russia, the UK and the US were all arguing about electromagnetic pulse weapons on the news last night. I figured it would never happen; now it seems that I was wrong.”
Rueben began to panic. He looked around again, not seeing Denver. He held his shirt up over his face to cover his nose and mouth, paranoid that he might breathe in the deadly poison. He walked right on out the door like that. Nobody questioned him. Nobody stopped him. He was free.
Rueben joined the crowd of people who were walking up the highway. There were several cars parked along the way, but none of them were working. Occasionally, he would see an older model vehicle driving down the road.
Eventually, Rueben reached a gas station. Standing in the doorway was an employee of the facility. “I’m sorry, we’re closed,” he said, forbidding him access.
“I just need to use your restroom.”
“I’m sorry, but the manager gave me explicit orders not to let anybody in until the power comes back on.”
Rueben looked around. When he was content that there were no witnesses, he grabbed the man by the throat and pushed him into the store. There was a struggle, but Rueben’s hands were tightly in place as he choked the man to death from the low-mounted position. Rueben held his breath for the entire duration of the struggle, taking only small gasps of air to survive. He was fearful that the man’s weakness would transfer to him through his breath. The deadly poison surrounded his victim. He was oozing with it. Once the man was lifeless, Rueben stood up and let out a powerful exhale and gasped for his own air. He grabbed a handkerchief from a sell stand and used it to cover his nose and mouth. He entered the bathroom, where he looked in the mirror.
“Well done,” the man in the mirror told him. “I told you to stay on task, and you stayed on task. I told you to feel your way through the darkness, and you felt your way to freedom. Now look at you shine. You and I can be a beacon of light for all who are lost in darkness, but only in due time. Look around you.”
Rueben ran outside to look at all the weak people walking down the street. Men, women, children – all weak. He ran back to the bathroom, where the man in the mirror continued to speak to him. “There’s too many, Rueben. Too many to care for; too many to feed. In time, their numbers will dwindle. There’s going to be a die-off and, like sheep that can’t survive without their shepherd, they will fall prey to men like you. Together we can make logic out of the mayhem.”
Enclave Camp – Two years later
“I remember,” Rueben said, turning to face his dual personality, Denver, in the mirror.
“I never gave you a reason to trust me, but you have. Trust Cornelius until he gives you a reason not to.”
“You’re probably right,” Rueben said, turning back to look through the window at Cornelius. “I need a reason not to trust him,” he whispered. His intention was sure – betray
Denver by killing Cornelius. But how? Denver always knew what Rueben was up to. It would prove to be a difficult thing for Rueben to get away with secretly betraying him. Cornelius was up to something. Rueben could sense it and was confident of that. Denver would never question Rueben’s judgment if the evidence was credible.
I’ll set the trap, and when the Rev takes the bait, I’ll know he’s a traitor, he thought.
Mitchell Homestead
“So when are you going to look at the car?” Carissa asked Darrick.
His mouth was full of eggs when he was asked the question. “I gave it some thought, and I think it would be the safest route for you.”
“For me?” she said, looking across the table at Tonya. Darrick was standing against the kitchen sink. The table was too small to seat the whole house. Elder Mitchell was in the front room with a tray over his lap. Tonya, Carissa, and Andy were sitting at the small round table. “What do you mean, for me?”
“I’m not going anywhere. If you think it’s too dangerous to stay here, then by all means, I’ll fix the car and you can leave. I’m staying to defend this place.”
Tonya was upset at his answer. “That doesn’t even make sense. If the car works, let’s leave. Think of Andy’s safety. Think of my safety.”
Darrick knew they were right. In his heart, he knew the safest move would be to pack up and leave. In his mind, he had another idea – to eradicate the Omen.
“They killed Jimmie. They killed the Berts and tried to kill us. They took Andy hostage and raped and tortured –”
“We’re tired of hearing you defend Kara, Darrick,” Tonya interrupted. Both Darrick and Carissa gave a sour look to Tonya over her abrupt and insensitive remark.
After The Pulse (Book 1): Homestead Page 14
