2021 (35 page)

‘Can you take us to San Diego?’ asked Tom as he talked to
the man through his apparently smashed passenger window.

‘You must be joking kid, have you seen those Migrator things
in the news? They’re all heading in this way’ he warned.

‘I’ll pay you d
ollars!’ replied Tom holding up the large wad of dollar notes one of the Vatican men had given him.

Upon seeing the d
ollar notes the man’s face suddenly lit up.

‘I’ll sell you my truck?’ the man now suggested.

‘How much?’ asked Tom.

‘I don’t know kid, how much have you
there?’ smiled the man.

Tom quickly counted up his wad of money.

‘I’ve fifteen hundred dollars’ Tom told him.

‘Done!’ replied the man ‘here are the keys
, kid, it’s all yours’ and he pushed the keys to the truck into Tom’s hand, grabbed the money and then quickly climbed out, grabbed a bag off the back and then just ran for it!

Then just as Tom started up the truck and Alec climbed in next to him
, the man suddenly poked his head through the passenger window and made them both jump!

‘
Sorry, kid!’ apologised the man ‘I just felt a little guilty’ he smiled. ‘I just wanted to wish you both good luck, because if you’re heading that way, you’re really gonna need it!’ he told them both before he quickly disappeared again.

‘Bloody hell
, Tom, what on earth are we even doing here? We don’t even know where we’re going’ complained Alec.

‘I do!’ smiled Tom as he began to grind in
the truck’s first gear.

‘How exactly
do you know where you’re going then? You’ve never even been to America before, let alone bloody Mexico?’ puzzled Alec.

‘I just
do
’ shrugged Tom as he began to drive off through the crowds of people all now heading towards the airport.

‘Don’t stop for anything or anyone!’ warned Alec.

‘Don’t worry, I don’t intend
to’ smiled Tom as he quickly sped away.

A little way up the road Alec seemed to be looking
over at the truck’s gauges.

‘Did you
give the man all your money?’ Alec asked curiously.

‘Yes, why?’ puzzled Tom.

‘For a bloke who works all day as a mechanic, you sure bought us a pile of crap for that kind of money!’

‘It’s not that bad’ smiled Tom ‘ma
ybe a little rustic’ he laughed.

‘Rustic?’ laughed Alec ‘more like
rust hea
p and you obviously haven’t even noticed
this
’ stated Alec pointing down at one of the gauges ‘the bugger has even left us almost out of petrol!’

‘Oh yeah, sod it!’ cursed Tom.

Around ten miles further however, they discovered an old fashioned looking petrol station
, but it looked all locked up and completely deserted.

‘M
aybe the pump still works?’ shrugged Alec so he tried it.

Fortunately
it did, so he filled the tank right up.

‘That was handy!
’ Alec smiled as he got back into the truck again. ‘I guess money didn’t matter to the owner as much as getting away from here’ he laughed. ‘Mind you, doesn’t that make you a little nervous about us being here?’ pondered Alec.

‘
Not really’ smiled Tom. ‘Let’s get going now, Alec, we’ve no time to lose’ Tom told him.

They managed to drive for
miles like this, every now and again finding completely deserted shops and petrol stations and gradually there seemed fewer and fewer people still around.

‘Christ this is creepy, Tom, it’s like one of those films you see when it’s the end of the world and there is no one left
still alive’ commented Alec.

Just around the corner however, they found some people and a very
rough looking bunch they were.

They had blocked the road and one man was brandishing a large handgun and now pointing it straight at them!

‘Oh Christ, Tom’ commented Alec i
n panic ‘this doesn’t look good.’

The man with the gun moved around to Tom’s side.

‘GET OUT! WE’RE TAKING Y
OUR TRUCK!’ he ordered.

‘No!’ replied Tom defiantly.

‘No?’ uttered Alec now beginning to
panic ‘just let him have the keys for Christ’s sake!’

‘No!’ Tom uttered
again.

‘No? Tom, are you
crazy
? Just give the man the bloody keys to the truck, before he kills us both!’ uttered Alec now giving Tom an incredulously glance.

‘He is right! I WILL kill you both if you do not do as I ask!’ the man told Tom forcefully and with that he wrenched open the driver’s door and tried to violently pull Tom out of the truck!

The moment he touched Tom though, the man just froze.

He t
hen just fell back as he instantly dropped the gun as he began to grab his head as he started to just scream in terror!

Soon all his gang were doing the same as Alec just sat there looking
quite terrified himself!

‘Right, this is scary!’ he muttered.

‘MAKE IT
STOP! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!’ the men were now all pleading.

‘ALL RIGHT!’ shouted Tom ‘BUT REMEMBER, THIS FATE IS AWAITING YOU IF YOU DO NOT CHANGE YOUR WAYS!’

With that
, all the men stopped screaming, but they all looked very fearful now and quickly all removed their hats and bowed their heads as they now allowed Tom to just drive on passed them.

‘What the hell was
that
all about?’ queried Alec now looking completely astounded.

‘I’ve just realised who I am, Alec’ Tom smiled as he looked over towards him.

Alec just threw up his arms.

‘I give up! Who the hell are you then?
I thought you were my old mate Tom, but apparently I’m with this madman driving me in around in the back of the beyond!’

‘I’m the Prayerman’ smiled Tom calmly.

‘You’re the Prayerman?’
puzzled Alec ‘what the hell is
that
supposed to
mean?’ but Tom just kept on driving as he smiled away to himself.

‘But hang on!
How did you make those guys almost shit themselves? I mean, that scared the hell out of
me
and I was just watching?’ puzzled Alec.

‘I showed them what may become of them when they die
if they fail to change their ways that’s all’ answered Tom casually.

‘
That’s all? But how exactly could you do that anyway?’ puzzled Alec.

‘I don’t know, Alec, I think it was through him touching me’ pondered Tom as
he thought it over.

‘B
ut you only touched one of them or at least, he touched you?’ questioned Alec.

‘Don’t ask me ho
w it worked, Alec, I’m just grateful that it did’ smiled Tom.

‘So am I’ nodded Alec
as he thought about it some more ‘I mean, did you see the state of that bloke’s teeth? Blimey, they were scary on their own’ commented Alec as Tom just smiled and then burst out laughing.

‘Oh I thought you was scared of his gun, no, not you, you were just scared of his teeth!’ chuckled Tom as he drove along.

‘Well
you must admit they were bad’ commented Alec quietly.

‘Maybe we should have asked him to give the Migrators a love bite?’ smiled Tom.

‘They’d run the other way!’ laughed Alec.

After they had been driv
ing a while Tom noticed Alec looked deep in thought.

‘What’s up?’ he asked
.

‘Oh,
I was just thinking, remind me never to even bump into you ever again. You’re just weird you are’ commented Alec as he deliberately kept his distance and then after a while they both just burst out laughing again.

‘Is this all to do with the C
atholic Church, Tom, I mean, they’re always threatening me with hell fire and stuff? I think I’ve already paid a down payment on a small plot there according to Father Mathews’ suggested Alec.

‘No, it’s nothing to do with any
particular church’ replied Tom.

‘Then why did we go to see the Pope?’ puzzled Alec.

‘Because he had the painting, you know the unknown l
ast painting by Vincent Van Gogh’ answered Tom as he continued to drive the truck. ‘It could as easily been another religion or no religion, it just happened that The Vatican had the painting’ explained Tom.

‘Well
none of this makes any sense to me’ pondered Alec.

‘It doesn’t
make much sense to me either to be honest’ nodded Tom.

‘Then why the bloody hell are we
even here?’ puzzled Alec.

‘I
keep telling you, it’s a holiday’ Tom smiled as he tried not to laugh as Alec now just stared back at him.

‘A bloody holiday?’
puzzled Alec ‘I can’t wait to see where we’re going next year then’ he complained as Tom just looked over at him and couldn’t help laughing.

They now reached an area w
ith increasing crowds and began to witness the huge lines of defences running as far as the eye could see.

‘Blimey, Tom, will you look
at
that
!’ commented Alec in amazement.

‘DRIVE THAT WAY! KEEP MOVING WILL YOU!’ ordered a soldier directing Tom where to drive.

Tom though
, pulled up the truck next to him instead.

‘WHAT ARE DOING? I SAID KEEP MOVING
!’ ordered the soldier again.

‘I
urgently need to speak to the person in charge’ Tom told him.

‘Take up minor matters
with the Red Cross. Their station is over there’ ordered the soldier.

Tom now turned round to Alec.

‘I’ll ask
where we have to go when we’re further inside’ he conceded as he just drove on again.

Inside the Red Cross station
that was basically a large marquee, set up to treat any number of wounded soldiers they might eventually have on the site, Tom made more enquiries.

‘Hi, I wonder if you know w
ho is in charge here?’ he asked a nurse politely.

‘In charge of t
he Red Cross Centre?’ the nurse asked.

‘No, I mean, in charge of the whole thing
?’ Tom asked again.

‘Well, that’s
General Iram’ replied the nurse looking puzzled ‘but you’ll never get to see him he’s way too busy.’

‘Oh, h
e is, is he? Well we’ll see about that’ smiled Tom. ‘Where can I find him?’ he then asked.

‘He’s way over
there somewhere, but I tell you, you’ll never get to see him, he has an entire international army to organise now’ she insisted.

‘Come on, Alec, we’ve got to
go and see this General Iram’ Tom smiled.

‘
Tom, have you gone completely nuts? He’s hardly going to see
us
is he? If we had any sense we’d be turning this truck around and going straight back home again’ insisted Alec as he just stared back at the huge defence walls and crude looking weapons mounted in different lines upon them.

‘Na, I just get the feeling somehow that I s
hould be here’ smiled Tom as Alec just shook his head at him.

‘I sometimes think I don’t know you at all’ moaned Alec.

Tom though just looked very deep in thought now.

‘You know what it’s like when you wake up from a dream and you can’t quite remember it, well it’s like that, Alec’ Tom explained.

‘A Dream?
’ commented Alec in dismay ‘looking around here it looks more like a nightmare! Tom, let’s just go home I’ve had enough of this game now’ insisted Alec.

‘No, I’m going to see this General
Iram they have in charge here’ insisted Tom as he then just drove off again.

A little way ahead they came across a whole series of army checkpoint
s where they were instantly halted.

‘Whoa! Son, this is a restricted area, what
’s your business here?’ the soldier asked.

‘I’m looking for the man in charge’ Tom explained and before the man could say ‘no’ Tom just lifted up his hand.

‘OK
, I’ll get on the radio’ the soldier suddenly nodded.

He then got through to his sergeant.

‘H
e’s here!’ he told him.

‘He’s here?’ puzzled the s
ergeant ‘who’s here?’

‘The man we are waiting for’ replied the soldier.

‘What are you talking about, man, have you been dri
nking or something?’ replied his sergeant angrily.

With that though
, the soldier on the checkpoint just raised the barrier and let Tom through, as did the next soldier, and the next.

‘Blimey!’ laughed
Alec ‘these aren’t the droids we’re looking for, move along!’ he chuckled away.

‘Not quite
that’ smiled Tom ‘but close!’ he laughed.

‘How the hell are you doing
all this stuff?’ marvelled Alec as he just stared at him.

‘I don’t quite know, Alec’ smiled Tom
‘I just seem able to do this now, somehow?’

Arriving at a complete dead end
, Tom pulled up the truck just as an army officer opened the door for Tom to get out.

‘The General is this way’ he informed Tom politely.

‘What is this? We’re being treated like royalty
’ Alec just laughed as they followed the army officer as he led the way.

General Iram was just pouring over a collection of maps he had in front of him laid out all over a large table. He looked up at
the army officer as he led the two teenage boys inside.