The Camouflaged Cross: Tales Of Christian Preppers In The End Times (Just Run Book 1) (9 page)

“Yep, that’s true.”

“It sure would be a lot easier if we were all raptured before all this started happening.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, the so-called ‘Pre-Tribulation Rapture,’ in which Christians get taken up before the Tribulation begins.”

“Oh yeah, I know what you are talking about,” Peter said. “I heard of that.” He looked at Kathy. “That way would have been nice. You know, Christians just getting taken up into Heaven before the bad stuff starts happening here.”

“Yeah.”

“There is no real support for that belief in the Bible, but yes, it would have been nice. But it is what it is, and here we are. Any Pre-Trib people still around right now are probably getting quite a shock.”

“Yep.”

“It was just wishful thinking.”

*****

The two hiked some more in silence for a while. “I’m just not used to being this close to dying,” Kathy looked back at Peter. “That really changes things.”

“Well, I have come to terms with it.”

“Yeah, that’s probably the way to handle it. Just accept it.”

“No, I mean… well, I wasn’t going to say anything, but I could have something wrong with me right now. Either some kind of stomach disease or gallstones, or who knows. I don’t know, but I have been having these sharp pains in my stomach area. Kind of on the side over here.” He gestured to his right side. “I went to see Lois, you know, the nurse, and she said I might have something serious.”

“No way.” Kathy stopped and turned around.

“Yes.”

“Stop it. Lois just told you that and left it at that?”

“Well, Lois is a nurse, and in fact she used to teach nursing. She knows this stuff. But it’s not like we have a surgeon out here. That would be nice, but that’s just the way it is. And I would rather know what is wrong with me, and Lois told me what she thinks. That’s all.”

“How can you say that and, well, it sounds like you don’t really care? Aren’t you concerned?”

“Of course I am. But the thing is, I am totally at peace with it. I may be dying of something, and I am OK. Sure, I worry about the pain. If this is some kind of cancer, I have heard cancer can be a painful death. But we are all mortal. We will all die of something. And for those who don’t die, their time here is limited anyway.”

Kathy resumed her hike. “Well, that’s terrible. I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll pray for you.”

“Thanks.”

“Are there any pain killer pills up here?”

“Lois said she might have some morphine. That would be nice. And I guess anything is possible. Hey, watch the root sticking up. It’s straight ahead. But look,” Peter paused to catch his breath. “If you believe, as I do, that we really are in the End Times, I mean really believe it, then the clock is ticking for all of us. Even if I have something serious, I could still outlive everyone here.” He paused. “Or we could all be raptured and it doesn’t matter.”

****

Jesse and a couple of the men had returned to chopping and splitting wood. Several other men were standing nearby, holding rifles. “Jesse, come in,” could be heard over the walkie-talkie in his pocket. Jesse reached in his pocket and pulled out the walkie-talkie.

He pressed the microphone button. “Yes, Tracy. What’s up?”

“We have a hiker here. It’s Wallace. And he wants to come up to the camp and donate the fish he just caught in the lake.”

“The lake? Are you kidding? That must be 15 miles from here.”

“No, I’m serious. I’m looking at Wallace right now, and the fish he caught. He has some good fish. One of them looks like a 10-pounder.”

“12!” Wallace could be heard correcting Tracy, then he chuckled. “Check that. One of the fish looks like it weighs at least 12 pounds.”

“And he wants to donate them to us?”

“Yes, he says he will donate the fish to us if he could use our shower and clean his clothes.” Tracy paused. “He could also use a shower; I can vouch for that.”

“Oh, I’m dying here! You’re a riot!” Wallace could be heard saying to Tracy.

“OK Tracy, send him up,” Jesse said.

“Alright, but you might not see him. He is dressed in camo and he blends in pretty good.” Wallace could be heard behind Tracy, laughing.

Jesse put the walkie-talkie back into his pocket. “Just what we need up here,” he said to himself. “A character.”

Wallace was a giant man, almost six and a half feet tall, weighing more than 270 pounds. He had a ruddy complexion, slight beard and mustache, and wore full camouflaged clothing and a green floppy hat. He carried a big, black backpack. A long, black nylon carrying case hung from his belt, containing a machete. One hand rested on an AR-15 rifle, which was hung over one shoulder, and his other hand carried seven recently-caught trout.

“Thanks Tracy,” he bellowed. Wallace was the type of guy who could not keep his voice down. Everything he said sounded like he was yelling. He headed up the road towards the central part of the camp.

****

Kathy and Peter emerged from the trail with Kirk’s body in the duffel bag that was on the game cart. The bottom half of the duffel bag was soaked with blood.

“Oh no, here’s Peter and Kathy with Kirk’s body,” Jesse announced to the other men. The one who had the ax put it down near the wood pile and they all started walking towards Peter and Kathy. Their expressions turned to sadness and shock.

“Thanks for doing this you guys,” Jesse said to Peter and Kathy. Jesse made a disgusted expression on his face when he saw Kirk’s boots sticking out of the duffel bag.

“We’re OK, but a helicopter came and checked out the roadblock,” Peter said.

“Yeah, I heard the chopper. We got our guns ready, but then it left,” Jesse said. “Good thing there are no flat areas for a chopper to land around here.”

The crowd stopped. Peter put down the cart. “I think they are interested in us.”

“Probably,” Jesse agreed, “but who are they?”

“Whoever the thugs are who killed Kirk.”

“You think it’s the same guys?”

“Oh yeah. And somehow they got their hands on a Huey helicopter.”

Kathy looked back to the trail. “We actually met Jackie down there.”

“Really?” Jesse said. One of the other men said, “No way.”

Someone else asked, “Jackie, the one who took the Mark?”

“Yep.”

Jesse asked, “Did she give you any details about how they all got rounded up? Well, first things first. Let’s get Kirk’s body buried and you can tell me all about it.” Jesse turned to the men who were with him. “Jose, would you mind telling Lawson we are about ready for the funeral.”

“Sure,” Jose started walking further up the road.

“Guys, let’s bring the body to the grave up there,” Jesse said, moving the game cart, looking at the other men there.

“This is really sad,” said one of the other men. “Horrible,” agreed another man there.

“Look guys,” Jesse started, then paused and stopped moving the game cart. “Hey, this could be us someday.”

“Shocking,” said one of the other men there.

“Wait a minute,” Jesse said. “Wait a minute. ’Shocking?’ Look guys, this is not shocking.”

The other men there looked at Jesse. “Have we been reading the same Bible?” Jesse asked. “This is anything but shocking. I can’t believe anyone said this was shocking, or a surprise at all.”

“Alright, Jesse, what’s your point?” Chuck asked. “You mean, you don’t think what happened to Kirk here was shocking?”

“Well, no.” Jesse paused, and looked like he was trying to choose the right words. “Look, we all saw what was going on in Jerusalem. We saw it on the news. We saw the Abomination of Desolation. If that wasn’t it, I don’t know what could have been. We were warned about that in the Bible. And the Bible is either true or not. Either it is a big fraud or it really is God’s word. And if it is God’s word, then we have been warned about stuff like this.” Jesse looked at the duffel bag containing Kirk’s body. “Jesus told us to run, and not even get our coat.”

“He said ‘cloak,’ not ‘coat.’” Andrew interjected.

“Andrew, not now. I know I told everyone here to bring out the humor wherever possible, and that is funny,” Jesse paused. “Well, kind of funny. But I’m saying something important here.”

“OK, sorry.”

“No, that’s OK. I shouldn’t have said anything.” Jesse looked at the other men there. “Look, whether Jesus said ‘cloak’ or ‘coat,’ He did say to just run when you see the Abomination of Desolation. That is what we saw, so we made the call to the radio station, they did their thing, everyone heard the song, and we all met here as planned. We are now in the End Times. Get used to it. And don’t be shocked.”

Jesse took a breath. “And one thing about the End Times is that Christians get betrayed, turned in, tortured, and killed. Jesus said that if God didn’t end it all and rapture everyone, all Christians everywhere would end up getting killed. Jesus told us that we are to expect some pretty horrible things to happen to us, and He didn’t even try to sugar-coat it. He told us to just run.”

“I see,” Andrew said. “So what you’re saying is that what happened to Kirk should not be a shock.”

“Well, yeah. In fact, it is going to get much worse than this.” Jesse looked around the camp. “I’m starting to think that we aren’t seriously prepared for what we have ahead of us. What is straight ahead for us. We’re not even close.”

Jesse looked back at the duffel bag. “Well, I need to stop ranting for now, because we need to bury Kirk’s body. We can take a few minutes to do that. But then, we need to all have a serious talk about what we can expect in the future, and what we need to do to prepare for it. We all got up here safely, but the guys who did this to Kirk might be coming back and we need to be ready.”

“What do you mean? Like, weapons training?” Andrew asked. “Sounds kind of silly, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I’m just thinking it over right now. Give me a few minutes. Maybe a couple of hours. We will have another camp meeting on the subject. Maybe we can brainstorm.”

“Alright, first let’s do the funeral,” Chuck suggested. Jesse pushed the game cart towards a more wooded part of the camp, where a long hole had been dug, surrounded by some lawn chairs. Kathy and the other men followed.

****

Jesse looked behind him, down the road, in the direction of the observation post. “This must be Wallace.” Jesse turned to Peter. “Peter, can you take the cart please?”

“Sure,” Peter answered, and took the game cart and wheeled it in the direction of the grave.

Jesse walked towards Wallace, and reached out his hand to shake Wallace’s hand. “Hi, I’m Jesse.”

“I hear you’re the platoon leader here,” Wallace shook Jesse’s hand. “Wallace Sturges. Nice to meet you.”

“Well, my wife and I own the property here. I’m just a benevolent dictator.”

“OK.”

“Nice to meet you too. Hey, I remember you from church.” Jesse introduced everyone. “Here’s Andrew, Jim, DJ, Don, Chuck, and Kathy.” Everyone shook hands. “Hi,” Kathy said.

Jim said, “Hey, I remember you from church. You sat in the back row.”

“Yep, that was me. Lots of good legroom back there.”

Jesse looked at the fish Wallace was carrying. “Oh, I hear you caught these at the lake, then hiked 15 miles to get here. How did you get through the roadblock?”

“I never came across it. I stay off all roads. Strictly an off-road kind of guy,” Wallace smiled.

“Incredible,” Chuck marveled.

“Well, make yourself at home, Wallace. We’re going to have a funeral pretty soon. A friend of ours got killed.”