The Camouflaged Cross: Tales Of Christian Preppers In The End Times (Just Run Book 1) (10 page)

“I heard. Tracy told me. And they guys who did it got away.” Wallace handed the fish to Jesse. “Were those the guys in the chopper?”

“Thanks. Oh, we don’t know. Probably.” Jesse looked at the fish. “I’ll give these fish to whoever is cooking the dinner tonight. Lately we have had a couple of Dutch ovens going with rice and beans for dinner. We can mix the fish in. That will be different.”

“Beautiful,” Wallace said.

The men and Kathy started walking back up the road towards the center of the camp.

Jesse continued. “I can show you where the shower is. It gets warm but it doesn’t keep a lot of water in the container there. So what you might need to do is wash your clothes first with the soap we have there, hang it all up to dry, and then refill the water tank and wait for it to heat up again. Then you can take your shower. We keep some shampoo, soap and cream rinse there. And a couple of towels.”

“Very impressive. Thanks.”

“And when you are done with everything, make sure to put it all back up like it was when you got there. You know, hang up the towels to dry and clean up.”

“Sure. No problem.”

Chuck added, “We also have a toilet nearby the shower.”

“Oh, OK, good.”

“Except we ran out of toilet paper the first week we were up here,” Jesse added.

“Well, next time.”

“Yes,” Jesse smiled. “Yes, next time there is an End Times, we’ll make sure to stock up on a lot more toilet paper.”

“Good idea,” Wallace smiled.

Chuck added, “We have been using travel bidets at the toilet.”

“Travel bidets?”

“Yes, one of those water-squirter things,” Jesse explained. “It was Chuck’s idea, and it was a good one. Instead of using toilet paper, which we ran out of, we use travel bidets. Like they have in Europe. They last forever, and you get used to them.”

“I’ve heard of those. And hey, if the frogs use them, they can’t be all that bad, right?”

“Yep,” Jesse agreed. “And after you clean your clothes and take a shower, maybe we can get some info from you. Like what is going on out there. What you know. I’m sure you have come across a lot of information.”

“Sure,” Wallace answered. “I can tell you what little I know.”

Jim spoke up. “Another thing, Wallace. We get a small fire going during the night, and only feed the coals at daytime. That way, there is no smoke going up that can be seen far way.”

“Smart.”

Don asked, “What is this, an AR-15?”

“Yep, I got a new camo stock. I also have a new Eotech scope, and in my backpack here I also have a PVS-14 nighttime scope. And this gun is modified so that it can be fully automatic.”

“This is a fully automatic machine gun?” Don asked.

“With the flip of a switch.”

“Cool,” Don said.

Andrew asked, “Do you have all your supplies in your backpack here?”

“Well, I have a lot here, but I have supply cache tubes buried all around this area. I probably have half a garage-full of stuff buried in different places.”

“Cache tubes?” Andrew asked.

“We have some of those here, Andrew,” Jesse interjected. “I thought you knew. They keep things pretty cold.”

“Yes, those ABS or PVC pipes that has an endcap at one end and a screw-off top on the other,” Wallace said. “You can bury them and they stay safe. I even have some food in them, and it stays good. Doesn’t go bad or anything.”

“I suppose you can even store some actual cash in one of those cache tubes,” Chuck joked. “That is, assuming the cash is still worth anything.”

“You guys are beautiful, man,” Wallace smiled.

****

“Hello, Chaplain Lawson?” Jose said through the screen door on the RV trailer.

“Hello, come on in. I’m about ready,” answered Lawson from inside. “Come on in.” Lawson had just turned 88 years old. He was a fair-skinned, gray haired man who was a little unsteady on his feet when he walked.

“Come on in, Jose,” Lawson gestured for Jose to enter.

“Thanks,” Jose said, as he opened the trailer door and walked in.

Lawson emerged from his closet in a navy blue business suit, white shirt and yellow and brown tie with crosses on it.

“Wow, you look great, Lawson. I don’t think I have seen anyone in a suit in a while.”

“It’s all for the Lord. I am a happy servant.” Lawson picked up a worn-out Bible and walked towards the door. Jose joined him and they exited the trailer. Jose helped Lawson walk towards the gravesite.

Lawson and Jose sat in chairs nearby the gravesite. Others approached the gravesite and sat in some of the chairs nearby. About 30 people sat in front of the grave site, waiting for the funeral. Several Coleman lanterns were nearby, illuminating the grave area.

Jose told Lawson, “They killed Kirk with some kind of guillotine.”

“That’s what I heard,” Lawson said. “Terrible. But Kirk is in Heaven right now.”

One of the women nearby, Mary, asked Lawson, “Lawson, where is Lois?”

“She’s coming. Won’t be long.”

The sound of a shower, nearby and up the hill could be heard. Wallace was washing his clothes from behind a wall made of wooden pallets. His black backpack, machete, boots and gun were laid on the ground nearby.

“That guy is new here,” Jose told Lawson. “I think his name is Wallace.”

“Will he be staying here?” Lawson asked.

“I don’t know. He pretty much stays by himself. He walks around the area a lot. Kind of a military guy.”

“What’s his name again?”

“Wallace.”

“Did he go to our church?”

“I heard that he came every once in a while. I don’t think he ever really joined the church but he was there a lot. You might recognize him.”

“OK.”

More people came and sat in the chairs. Peter emerged from the tent area, holding something in his arms that was wrapped in a tarp. It was Kirk’s body. Lois and Jesse walked behind Peter.

“Oh, here they come.”

Peter knelt down and placed the tarp containing Kirk’s body next to the grave, then got into the grave and lowered Kirk’s body into the grave. Peter got out of the grave and sat on one of the chairs nearby. Lois sat next to Lawson.

Lawson stood up and walked to the grave, turned and faced everyone. “Brothers and sisters, we are here to remember and celebrate the life of our brother in Christ, Kirk Bryant. I will make a few comments, we will have a reading, then we will open it up to comments and remembrances from anyone here, then we will sing “I’ll Fly Away,” and then commence with the actual burying. I have been told that Kathy and Peter will be casting the first handfuls of dirt here. Let’s go to prayer.”

****

Up the hill from the gravesite, Wallace could be seen emerging from the shower area, wearing a dark green bathrobe and some flip flops. When he saw the praying going on downhill at the funeral, Wallace stopped and bowed his head.

Andrew left the gathering and walked towards Wallace. He also stopped and bowed his head.

Lawson began the prayer. “Heavenly Father, we thank You for the life and friendship of our friend Kirk Bryant. We know that all good things come from You, and we thank You for Kirk’s friendship and love. We thank You for accepting him into Your warm embrace in Heaven, where we look forward to joining him someday. We thank You for that hope. We ask that You open our hearts to the brave example Kirk gave for the rest of us, as we know the End is near, and if it be Your will, we ask that You protect us and guide us during the hard times ahead. Amen.” Several people could be heard saying “Amen.”

Andrew walked up the hill towards Wallace. “I thought you could use some help with hanging up your laundry.”

“Oh that’s nice. Thanks,” Wallace said. “The hot water is out. When it warms back up I’ll take a shower.” He looked downhill at the funeral. “Now there’s something you don’t see anymore – a suit. Who’s that guy?” Wallace pointed down the hill at Lawson.

“Oh that’s Lawson, a former Navy chaplain,” he whispered. “After the Navy, he worked at the local veteran’s retirement home for 30 years.”

“I didn’t know that. I’ve seen him around though.” Wallace did his best to whisper, but he could be heard by some of the people at the funeral, and they looked at him.

“He was also in charge of the worship service at the nursing home in town,” Andrew said.

“The nursing home hear church?”

One of the women sitting at the funeral looked uphill to Wallace and Andrew. She put her finger to her mouth in a ‘shh’ expression. Andrew nodded back.

“Yep, that is the one,” Andrew whispered. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk for a while.”

“Yeah,” Wallace answered. The two watched the funeral going on just down the hill from them. Wallace and Andrew hung up some of Wallace’s clothing on a nearby clothesline.

“Thanks,” Wallace said.

When there was no more clothing to hang up, Wallace and Andrew sat on a couple of green plastic chairs and looked downhill at the funeral. Peter addressed everyone present, and it looked like he was choking up.

“Did you know the dead guy?” Wallace asked Andrew, doing his best to whisper.

“Yes, his name is Kirk. He used to go out with my cousin, Kathy.”

“Oh. Sorry to hear it.”

“Kathy is really angry. She wants to go out and kill whoever did this.”

“Well yeah, I can understand that.”

“I guess we haven’t talked about this, but aren’t there some police we can go to?”

Wallace smiled and looked at Andrew. “Not many of them are even on the job, and I can’t blame them. If you were a cop, would you rather go to your job or stay home and protect your family?”

Andrew looked confused. “Not that I have heard much of the outside world in a few weeks, but until this happened to Kirk and that helicopter flying by the roadblock earlier, it all seems pretty quiet out there. Just some smoke coming up, far away, but that’s it.”

“People don’t want to believe it yet, but things are really breaking down out there. I was walking by one of my buried cache tubes, you know, up in the hills overlooking town, and that Walmart…”

“The Walmart in town? That’s probably 35 miles away.”

“That’s the one.”

“Do you have a Jeep or something?”

“No,” Wallace nodded. “Too dangerous. A good hike keeps me in shape anyway.”

“So what did you see at the Walmart?”

“Well, it was being looted. There was a family coming out with stuff they paid for, with bags and all. They were wheeling out their cart to their car, and they looked really nervous. They probably didn’t even make it home.” He paused. “Then a couple trucks full of guys showed up and they went inside the store. Just grabbing stuff and walking back out of the store. Smashing stuff here and there. Then I saw one woman cop come out of the store with a few boxes of tennis shoes that she probably didn’t pay for. Some people were nagging the cop to arrest the others who were there, looting, but she wouldn’t do anything.”

“How long ago did you say this was?”

“A couple weeks ago. It was bizarre to see it all happen. A cameraman from a local news station drove up and started filming the looting, then tried to film the cop leaving the store with all the tennis shoes, and the gang just grabbed his camera and smashed it onto the ground. Then they kicked out his crew from the news van and drove off with it. The cop didn’t do a thing even though it happened right in front of her.”

“Are you telling me there is no law out there?”

“I know people don’t want to realize it, and all I can say is what I saw out there. But no, the rule of law has pretty much gone bye-bye.”