Judgment Day (47 page)

CHAPTER 97 JUST CAUSE

My reverence for human life is inversely proportional to the environmental damage caused by human civilization.

—TOBIAS STOOP, FOUNDER OF THE EARTH'S AVENGERS

T
obias Stoop left the Aladdin with murder in his heart. Seeing the environmental damage the cult was doing to a virgin planet boiled his blood. Clearing the forests not only killed trees that were centuries old, but also untold number of species that depended on those trees. Birds with restricted nesting needs, like Earth's spotted owl, could be wiped out on planet America just like the passenger pigeon, the dodo bird, and a thousand other species on planet Earth. It was as if the Fellowship colonists had learned nothing from the ecological rape of the mother world. The ravaging of the new planet had just begun, but with modern equipment—chain saws and bulldozers—they would match the damage the pioneers did to North America in a fraction of the time. Worst of all, they filmed their atrocities and used the revenue from ticket sales to expand the ecological holocaust under way on planet America. Every person who paid for a seat was an enabler and shared the responsibility.

Four blocks from the theater he paused by a van, making sure no one was watching. A quick nod of his head and the side door slid open, Tobias jumping in. The van was moving almost immediately. Janine was there, his latest lover. He took Janine when his last lover balked at escalating the battle against the cult. Seven members of his Earth's Avengers left with her, but he quickly replaced them with committed allies.

"They're clear-cutting the forests and domesticating native animals,"

Tobias reported.

The four men and two women in the van exclaimed in anger, now resolved to do whatever Tobias asked.

Tapping on the wooden crates in the van he said, "Those cultists are like a wildfire that keeps on burning until it runs out of fuel. Money is what is fueling that fire. It's time to cut off the supply."

Totally committed to protecting the ecosystem, they were ready to make the human sacrifices necessary for the greater good.

They split up in a parking lot, half switching to another van, lugging one of the wooden crates with them. Janine took charge of the second van, Tobias remaining in the first. The vans were nondescript, purchased secondhand by sympathizers who sold them to friends, who sold them to different dealers, where they were purchased again. With duplicate keys to the vans, Tobias and his friends had then stolen them from their suburban owners and would abandon them after they were done. Janine's van turned down the alley, giving their position by walkie-talkie to Tobias, who was now across the street from the theater. Wedges and hammers in their gloved hands, their faces covered by ski masks, they stopped behind the theater, hurrying to the exits and driving shims under the doors. When the doors were firmly wedged, Janine radioed Tobias they were ready.

Tobias and his people pulled their ski masks down, then the driver pulled away from the curb, drove a short distance, and then did a U-turn, driving just past the theater entrance. Then he stopped, put it in reverse, and backed up onto the curb, stopping just short of the glass doors at the entrance. The back doors flew open and two jumped out pulling the theater doors wide. Tobias and the rest grabbed glass jugs of gasoline, lighting the rags stuffed in the tops, and ran into the lobby.

A half-dozen people were in line at the snack bar when the ecoterrorists rushed in. Confused and afraid, the theater patrons backed up against the counter.

Tobias lobbed his first gasoline bomb toward the auditorium doors, the glass jug shattering, its flammable contents creating a wall of flame in front of the doors. His second jug went toward the stairs, breaking at the base, adding to the conflagration. Most of the customers at the snack bar bolted for the doors behind Tobias, but a small boy stood alone, abandoned by an

older sibling, wide-eyed, fingers in his mouth, eyes streaming tears. A woman escaping through the door turned back, seeing the boy, and raced to him just as a jug of gasoline flew over the snack bar. A teenage boy and girl behind the counter ducked when the jug sailed their way, smashing into a popcorn machine and exploding in flame. Running below the counter the woman took the boy by the hand and escaped out the door. Then the teenage girl sprinted from behind the counter, her body engulfed in flames. She collapsed a few feet away, writhing on the lobby floor in a vain attempt to put out the flames.

Jugs of gasoline were flung in every direction, the great wall genie doused and engulfed in the cleansing fire, the dowdy interior being purified by the all-consuming flames. Retreating to the doors, Tobias and his people pulled the rest of their jugs from the van, flinging them into the lobby. Driving away, they radioed Janine and her team went into action.

Both of the rear emergency exits were already secured, but as a finishing touch Janine and the others set the doors on fire with jugs of gasoline, then they raced from the alley, slowing when they reached the street, carefully blending into traffic.

CHAPTER 98 FIRE

Many complicated devices have been designed to inflict agony. Although the simple methods are still the best. Fire, for example, terrifies everyone except the rare pyromaniac. However, apply a flame to a few square inches of a pyromaniac's skin, and the pyromaniac quickly comes around to the common point of view.

—
THE ART OF TORTURE
, COLIN MILLS

G
randma Jones was enthralled by the snapshots of life projected

onto the Aladdin's stained and patched screen. It was a rural life, composed mostly of working the land, harvesting crops, preserving food, and tending to animals. It was a simple life, and her heart longed to be part of it. She was watching two small Fellowship girls gathering eggs laid by alien hens when she heard the first person scream. The crowd panicked before Grandma Jones even smelled the smoke.

Instinct got Grandma Jones to her feet and into the aisle, the rush of the terrified crowd pushing her along. The nearest exit was through a curtained arch at the front of the theater, and she was pushed through the arch just before the crush of terrified people jammed up in the opening. Someone fell, the others tripping over them, and then stacking on top. There was a small alcove on the other side of the curtain where Grandma Jones had been fighting to get to the door, Grandma Jones was pressed against the wall of the alcove. She looked back to the arch, the curtains now torn down, the opening packed nearly to the top with bodies. Through the small remaining space at the top of the arch she saw flames suddenly spread across the ceiling of the theater. A sudden gush of black smoke accompanied the flame and the air became unbreathable. Now coughing mixed with screams and cries, the cacophony softening as those in the back of the theater passed out from smoke inhalation and those who had fallen in the doorway were crushed to death.

A dozen panicky people were jammed in that small space with Grandma Jones, the men still fighting each other to get the exit open. Smoke poured in from the theater and she slid to her knees, arms and legs battering her. Several men were overcome with coughing spasms, lungs filled with toxic fumes. As men weakened they were pushed aside, creating space for others who organized now, three men hammering the door with their shoulders. Suddenly the door gave and the men tumbled out into flames. All three men caught fire, two got up running away, hair and clothes on fire. The third man died where he lay rolling back and forth in a hopeless effort to extinguish the flames.

The rest shrank back, the door frame on fire and threatening to spread into their enclosure. With the theater now vented, hot dense smoke flowed through the alcove to the cool air of the alley beyond. Now the flames raced toward the hopelessly blocked doors, people dying by the dozens. As the conflagration heated up and flames burst through the roof, the airflow reversed, the cool outer air being sucked into the building. The flames in the doorway flickered, dying down. Those trapped with Grandma Jones saw their chance and ran through the doorway, across the body of the fallen man. Like frightened deer they leapt through the flames, jumping to safety, falling on the other side and rolling to put out flames. The flames around the door flickered back to life again and a woman stumbled going over the body, falling sideways against the frame, her clothes catching fire. She fell back into the alcove, stampeding those remaining, and they fled through the door over her body, ignoring the flames around the opening—most of those rushing through were on fire when they reached the other side.

Grandma Jones could not ignore the agony of the burning woman and she crawled to her, throwing her coat on the fallen woman and beating out the flames. The woman died under Grandma Jones worn coat, her face nothing but blackened skin, her hair burned to the scalp.

Grandma Jones could hear no screaming in the theater behind her now, the roar of the fire so loud it drowned all sounds except the pounding of her heart in her chest. The stack of bodies blocking the theater side was smoldering, threatening to burst into flames. The heat was unbearable, the air unbreathable—she was dying. Coughing, she crawled toward the flaming exit knowing she didn't have the strength to stand, let alone the speed to get through the flames without catching fire. Given the choices she decided to die of smoke inhalation. Face pressed to the floor, she sucked in a hot lungful of air, using it to whisper a prayer to God, asking for forgiveness of her sins and that Jesus take her home quickly.

A blast of cold hit her in the face—was this what it was like to burn to death? Your senses confused? Another blast—it was wet and wonderful. Through tearing eyes she could see water shooting through the opening. Flames around the door were extinguished, and she crawled forward. The water pressure increased and she was pounded by a hard stream. Careful to keep her head down so she wouldn't drown she reached the opening, crawling over the burned man. A blast of water hit her again, driving her to the ground. Suddenly she was grabbed by the arms and pulled through the opening into the clear air on the other side. Coughing, eyes blinded by tears, she was picked up and carried over the shoulder of a man, then gently put down. Covered by a blanket, she was given oxygen. Someone irrigated her eyes and when she could see again there was a face—a white face. Pulling the oxygen mask away he said, "Are you all right?" When she nodded he said, "There are others that need the oxygen, but if you feel dizzy, give a yell!"

She was in a row of survivors across the street from the burning theater. Fire engines were everywhere, the street filled with hose spaghetti. Flames were shooting twenty feet into the air from the roof of the building—the Aladdin would be a total loss. Looking left and right she could see only two dozen survivors. There had been hundreds of people in the theater.

The roof fell in, sending a shower of sparks into the sky. Lifted by the heat of the fire, glowing embers floated ever upward as if on the way to heaven—no, not to heaven—into the heavens, and that's where her people were to go. God had spared her from the flames to make it possible and now she had to fulfill her dream. To do that she needed Mark Shepherd, but he had traveled to the stars and not returned. God would bring him back, of that she was sure, and then they would meet.

CHAPTER 99 MARKER

Dreams are the most common means of communicating with spiritual beings. Occasionally, a god will write on the wall or carve instructions in stone, but for the most part there is never any concrete evidence that the revelation came from anywhere but the messenger's imagination.

—
A HISTORY OF GOOD AND EVIL
, ROBERT WINSTON, PH.D.

L
ike Earth's moon, planet America's moon was pockmarked by meteorites, but unlike Earth's moon it also had deep crescent-shaped crevices that cut nearly to its core. Geologists on Earth would have coveted the opportunity to study the crevices, to understand the cosmic force that created them, but members of the Fellowship weren't explorers, they were settlers. One look at the topography of the moon and Ira simply said, "Interesting, now where's that hand?"

The first eighteen months on the planet had been all work, and Mark had kept his focus on meeting the basic needs of his people: housing, sanitation, food. Only when he was certain that the fledgling colony was firmly established did he give in to Micah's persistent request that he visit America's moon.

Micah took them to the dark side, coming up on the rock formation from above and behind. Like the formation on Pluto, under the shuttle's lights, a pointing finger could be distinguished on the pockmarked surface. Passing over the formation, Micah brought the shuttle around, coming back at it lower. Now it looked like an elongated pile of rocks. Only when they came from high and behind the hand, as Micah and his crew had the first time, did it look like a pointing finger.

"What do you think?" Micah asked.

"It's a rock formation," Mark said.

"It's a hand," Floyd exclaimed. "It's a sign from God."

"It may be, Floyd," Mark said, "but it's also a rock formation. I'm not saying it's not created by design, I'm just not sure."

"The coincidences keep piling up," Floyd said.

"We followed the hand on Pluto and found America," Ira said. "It makes me wonder what we might find if we follow this hand."

"What could we find if we headed in any direction?" Mark asked. "There's a universe of stars and planets out there."

"But nothing is pointing to them," Micah said.

Increasingly, Mark the leader felt like a follower. His flock of sheep were becoming rams, less willing to be led.

"Who will go?" Mark asked, giving in.

"I will," Micah volunteered.

"You've been away from your family too much, Micah."

"Shelly and I talked it over and she supports me. Junior too. Besides, we push the speed envelope with each passage. We can cover twice the distance in half the time of the initial voyage of
Genesis."

"Is there anything nearby in the direction the finger is pointing?"

"We noted the time and position at discovery," Micah said. "There are several possible stars along the line of the point."

"Thousands, if you follow that path infinitely," Mark pointed out. "All right, see where it leads you, but don't take chances. Come back to us."

"I have reason to come back. Shelly's pregnant again."