2021 (43 page)

But then Andre suddenly saw people all waving at them and he fairly exploded.

‘YES
! THERE ARE
PEOPLE
THERE! AND THEY ARE ALL NOW JUST WAVING AT US!’ he shouted excitedly.

‘YES!’ shouted Stuart
as immediately they all began to just hug each other in sheer relief!

The closer they flew
towards the defence walls, the more people climbed up onto it to just cheer and wave at them!

By the time they finally reached the camp itself, there were more people still alive and waving at them happily than they could have possibly hoped for.

‘THIS I
S A
MIRACLE
!’ uttered Stuart happily as he lifted Joan clean off her feet as he then kissed her as he held her in his arms.

‘TOM DID IT! HE SAVED
EVERYONE
! I TOLD YOU, HE REALLY
WAS
THE PRAYERMAN IN THAT PAINTING!’ cried Alec happily as Jenny just smiled as she held him tightly.

‘They’re all welcoming us, like
heroes
!’ laughed Andre.

‘Well we
are
of course!’ chuckled Jack as he put a friendly arm around him, as they waved to all the people on the ground now all cheering and waving back at them.

‘This really
was
a miracle wasn’t it?’ smiled Joan as she held onto Stuart. ‘I mean, I’m not even religious, but when you look at all these people, all saved by one man just kneeling down and praying, you have to ask yourself what other explanation is there?’

‘I’m a scientist like you, Joan, but
yes, you’re right’ laughed Stuart.

When they eventually landed they we
re completely mobbed by smiling, happy people.

Quite unbelievably
and against all the odds, the seemingly invincible Migrators had been defeated!

Day Twenty Five:

31
^st
January 2021

The Aftermath

I
mmediately following the news of the Migrators defeat, celebrations had erupted all over the world.

Times Square was packe
d with people as was the Mall in London, the entire Champs Elysees in Paris and it was the same the whole world over as the people of the world all celebrated together.

In Rome meanwhile, Pope Paul VII gave a
brief special blessing to the City of Rome and all the people of the World in front of millions of gatherers.

Every newspaper
now showed pictures of the millions of Migrators, followed by long range shots of the huge mysterious white explosion that had apparently completely wiped the Migrators off the face of the Earth, leaving only a vast wasteland in its wake!

Towards the end of the day though
, more and more journalists were asking exactly how this victory had been won. Was it in fact a nuclear strike? If so, were people in danger of some nuclear fallout?

The President greeted General Iram in the Whitehouse
Oval Office and he shook his hand briskly.

‘Well done!’ he tol
d the General.

‘Thank you, Mr President’ nodded the General ‘in truth though, Mr President, all we did was just about manage to hold the Migrators back. It was a young man who came to see me who somehow managed to bring about this victory’ admitted General Iram honestly.

‘What young man?’ the President puzzled.

‘Apparently the Pope spoke to you
about him, although it’s weird as when I think of him now, I can only really recall him under the name of ‘the Prayerman’ for some reason’ the General admitted.

‘The Prayerman’ Puzzled the President ‘what sort of name i
s that? It’s true though that the Pope did speak to me about a young man he insisted could help us in some way. I guess he did just that then?’ smiled the President. ‘To be honest, General, I was so desperate by then, I was willing to try anything’ the President admitted.

‘Seriously, Sir’ began the General, but then he decided to back out from what he was about to say. ‘Damn it, you’ll think I’ve gone crazy’ the General concluded.

‘Say what you’re thinking, General’ requested the President.

‘Well, it was like he had some strange kind of power’ explained the General.

‘What ki
nd of power?’ the President puzzled as the General now began to just pace around.

‘Well I spoke to the people who went with him in the airship we’d sent into the region and they all said he just asked to be lowered down onto the ground in the centre of the Migrators. There he just got down on his knees apparently and well, basically prayed, Mr President’ the General shrugged.

General Iram saw the President’s reaction and he smiled.

‘Yeah, I told you
, you’d think I gone crazy!’ he laughed.

‘Are you sure you are not just suffering
battle fatigue, General Iram?’ asked the President.

‘No, Sir
, definitely not!’ the General replied firmly. ‘We have witness statements from everyone aboard the airship and they all say exactly the same thing’ he explained.

The President looked thoughtful for a moment.

‘You’ve got to see it from my
point of view, General, I can’t go on national television and say we were saved by one man just saying a prayer can I’ insisted the President.

‘I don’t see why not, it’s the truth
!’ smiled General Iram.

Just then
, there was a knock at the door.

‘WHO
IS IT NOW? THE ARCHANGEL GABRIEL I SUPPOSE!’ shouted the President in his frustration as the General couldn’t resist a smile.

‘COME IN!’ The President then ordered.

A smartly dressed lady walked in with a piece of paper in her hand.

‘I’m sorry to disturb you, Mr President, but we’ve
just received this urgent message from the Vatican’ she explained.

‘The Vatican?’ queried the President.

‘Well, Pope Paul VII to be
absolutely precise’ she explained.

‘Well that’s
almost
the Archangel Gabriel’ laughed General Iram as he just smiled at the President.

The President
himself gazed down at the piece of paper in his hand and he now just frowned as he shook his head.

‘What the hell is
this
supposed to be then?’ he puzzled.

He
then handed it to the General.

‘What do you make of this
, General?’ he asked him curiously.

The General studied the piece of paper and then became quite animated.

‘WHY
THAT’S
HIM
!’ he suddenly shouted. Then he realised he was being a little too loud and so he quietened down again.

‘
I’m sorry, Mr President, but that’s
him
, that’s the young man who came to see me, but what is this? Is it an artist’s impression of what happened out there or something?’ the General puzzled as he looked at the picture again.

The President now read off an email that had come with the picture.

‘Well
according to Pope Paul it’s an unknown Van Gogh painting they have in the Vatican called ‘The Prayerman 2021’ it was the last thing Van Gogh ever painted apparently’ explained the President.

‘But it
can’t
be?’ puzzled General Iram. ‘That face is the face of the young man who came to see me.’

The President just sat
down in his chair.

‘But what do I tell the
all people now? I can hardly tell them that a young guy who was in a Van Gogh painting that was painted a hundred odd years ago somehow saved us can I’ exclaimed the President as he just shrugged his shoulders.

‘You could say we blew the Migrators away using conventional weapons?’ suggested the General.

‘People might then de
mand to know why we hadn’t done that sooner and saved so many people’s lives’ responded the President. ‘Anyway, we’d already explained how all our conventional weapons didn’t work’ he insisted.

The President paused
for a moment before pressing a button on his desk.

‘Susan,
can you get me Pope Paul on the line please’ he ordered.

‘Pardon me?’ she puzzled.

‘You heard!’ he repeated
.

‘Maybe you should just tell the world the truth that it was a miracle?’ suggested General Iram with a
wry smile.

‘At this rate, General
, I might have to!’ smiled The President.

Just then the President’s phone rang.

‘OK
, put him through’ heard General Iram as he stood there listening to the President’s phone call with interest.

‘Hello, Your Holiness’ smiled the President.

The President then put the phone on ‘speaker’ so the General could over
hear their conversation.

‘I just wanted to thank you for the copy of the Van Gogh painting you sent me’ the President smiled.

‘Yes, the young man in that painting came to see me with an amazing power of prayer’ explained Pope Paul.

‘He was a Catholic then?’ queried the President.

‘No, he told me he wa
s a young man of no particular faith or religion. I knew immediately though, he had been blessed by God Almighty with the immense power of prayer’ explained the Pope.

‘God damn, this almost sounds like the
‘Second Coming’ or something?’ muttered General Iram.

‘Who is that I hear
?’ puzzled the Pope as the General now looked slightly uncomfortable that his comment had been overheard by the Pope.

‘Oh
, I’m sorry, Your Holiness, I have General Iram with me, he has just returned from the International Defence Army’s front line’ explained the President.

‘Hello, General Iram, was you fortunate enough to meet this young man?’ asked Pope Paul.

‘Yes, Sir, I was’ replied the General as the President quickly scribbled on a piece of paper ‘address him as
Your Holiness
’.

‘Then tell me, General, what did you make of this young man?’ asked Pope Paul with a tinge of curiosity in his voice.

‘Well, Your Holiness, I was about to send him away as I was so busy designing the defences, but then he just touched my hand and I just
knew
somehow’ replied the General.

‘
Knew
?’ queried the President ‘knew what?’

‘Well, Mr President, I just
knew
that he was the Prayerman’ explained General Iram looking slightly embarrassed.

‘Is the young man still alive?’ asked Pope Paul and the President looked to the General for an answer.

‘No, Your Holiness, the people who were with
him at the end said he asked to be lowered into the centre of the Migrators. Then he knelt down to pray and then….’ the General just shrugged his shoulders not knowing how to explain exactly what happened after that.

‘What happened was what
is depicted within the Van Gogh Painting’ stated the Pope.

‘
Well, yes, that’s
exactly
what they are saying!’ admitted General Iram. ‘All the people who witnessed what happened all said just that, that it was
exactly
the same as that depicted in that painting.’

The General looked at the picture of the painting again and nodded his head to the President.

‘Yes, that’s definitely
him
, Mr President.’

‘B
ut is the Van Gogh painting really genuine, Your Holiness? I mean, there couldn’t be any mistake could there?’ pondered the President.

‘We definitely believe it to be genuine, Mr President’ the Pope info
rmed him before explaining more.

‘
The painting was presented to us around the end of the Second World War as the unknown, last great painting of the Dutch artist known as Vincent Van Gogh. It was seized by the Nazis during the Second World War and was treasured by Adolf Hitler himself for a time as he believed it to carry with it occult powers’ explained the Pope.

‘That’s amazing!’ commented the President as he wanted to know more.

‘We’ve had
the painting authenticated by our own art experts here at the Vatican, but we have also had extensive tests down on samples we sent to other experts all around the world, who also declared it to be genuine. The materials and paint were carbon dated and compared to those we now know Van Gogh used when he was alive’ explained the Pope.