The Camouflaged Cross: Tales Of Christian Preppers In The End Times (Just Run Book 1) (6 page)

*****

A lean, muscular, fair-skinned woman with short brown hair approached David. She looked angry. “David, is it true that someone killed Kirk?”

“Yes, Kathy, I saw --”

“Who did it?” Kathy insisted.

“Well, there were several of them, with guns.”

“Was there anyone in charge? Who was he? Or was it a she?”

“It was a ‘he,’” David answered. “They looked like Muslims. They don’t include women, except for maybe blowing themselves up once in a while. You know that.”

“Alright, what did he look like?”

“I don’t know, a middle-eastern guy, about 5-5, wearing fatigues, black hair and a beard, and he wore one of those weird scarfs they all wear.”

“Oh great,” Kathy said. “That narrows it down.”

“What, are we talking revenge here, Kathy?” Jesse asked.

“Yes,” Kathy said coldly. “I’ll kill the guy if I get a chance.”

“Look, Kathy, we leave revenge to God,” Jesse warned Kathy. “Whoever did this will be rotting in Hell soon.”

“Yeah, and I just want to help him get there,” Kathy blurted out, then walked back to her tent.

“Kathy, we’re not about revenge,” Jesse said, his voice trailing off as Kathy left. He held up his hands as if to ask what was going on.

Gloria, David’s wife, ran towards David. Gloria was short, slightly-heavy woman with dark blond hair. “David, are you OK?” David stood up and they hugged. David’s eyes teared up again. “Honey, I guess I’m not a good Christian soldier.” Peter stood up and backed away.

Peter looked back at David. “David, do you mind if I ask one more thing? What did those guys do with, you know, what was left of Kirk’s body?”

“They threw the body onto the roadblock.”

“The head too?”

“Yes.”

****

Peter looked around. The people were all talking about what had happened, and expressed shock and horror. Peter approached Jesse.

“Jesse, we have to go get the body. We have to bury Kirk. Right now the vultures out there are probably starting to eat him. I don’t want to leave him behind. He was a friend of mine.”

“Peter,” Jesse answered. “Man, I’m just the owner of this property. I’m not some kind of military commander. That’s your thing, not mine.” He paused. “This sounds crazy. Kind of dumb. But I know you guys were close. I don’t know. Do whatever you want. It’s up to you.”

Peter left the crowd and walked to Kathy’s tent, and stopped by the front flap that had been zipped close. “Knock, knock,” he announced.

Kathy said, “Who is that, Jesse? I’m OK. I’ve calmed down a little.”

“No, it’s me, Peter.”

“Come on in.” Peter opened the flap and walked into the tent. Kathy rushed to hug Peter. “They’ve killed Kirk,” she cried. “It’s still sinking in. I hate this.”

“I know. I can’t believe it.” Peter breathed heavily to keep from crying. “Stubborn guy that he was. He should have come up here.” The two stopped hugging. Kathy sat on the only chair in the tent while Peter sat on the floor.

“Oh, sorry,” Kathy looked at Peter sitting on the ground. “Here, take my seat. Or we could open up the cot.”

“No that’s OK. I’m fine.”

“What do you think happened to Jackie?”

“I heard she took the Mark.”

“Well that was a huge mistake. What else could she have done wrong?”

“We don’t know anything else, and frankly I’m not eager to ask any more details. David and Sean looked pretty shaken up. In shock, really. I saw a lot of that in the Marines.”

“I still can’t believe it. He’s gone.”

Peter folded his arms, looking serious. “Hey Kathy, I was thinking …”

“What?”

“You know the back trail I go, to drop off the entrails.”

“What do you mean? Go to the roadblock?”

“I was thinking of getting Kirk’s body so that we could bring it back here and bury it.”

“Ugh. You’re a good friend of his.”

“I’ve been around dead bodies before. More times than I care to think about.”

“I guess Jackie’s not burying the body?” Kathy sounded angry at Jackie.

“No. Apparently Jackie just took off. She just left his body there. I distinctly heard that.”

“Pretty ironic, don’t you think?” Kathy said. “Bringing up Kirk’s body and burying it on a piece of property he didn’t want to go to.”

“That’s true. Well, he never saw all this coming. Let’s face it, if you told me a few months ago what we are going through right now I would say you are crazy. No one saw it coming.”

“Yes, that’s true. It was all pretty fast. What did Jesus say in Matthew 24? ‘Just run.’ Well, here we are. We ran.”

“And here we are.” Peter stood up, started to leave the tent. “I think I will go and get his body, before the birds start feasting on him. If you can come along, that would be great. To watch my back, or if I need help with something. I would rather not go down there alone. But I can understand if you don’t want to come.”

Kathy looked at Peter, thinking it over. “Kind of like in the Old Testament, when they went and got King Saul’s body.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right. In fact, that’s exactly what it is.”

Kathy looked resolved, but said nothing.

“Just think it over, Kathy.” Peter walked out.

“Alright,” Kathy said. “I’m in. But you handle the body.”

“OK.”

“In fact I really don’t even want to see it at all. And I want to stay back from the roadblock. I hear that it smells pretty bad there. Just disgusting.”

“It’s supposed to. But that’s OK. I can handle the body.”

“When are you going?”

“Give me a few minutes. Not very long.” Peter walked out of the tent.

****

“Alright, who is at the observation post right now?” Peter asked Jesse. Peter had with him a large heavy-duty, dark green duffle bag and a game cart that enabled hunters to bring home deer that had been killed. Except this time the cart would be used to bring Kirk’s body back.

“I think right now Justin and Tracy are over there. The Happy Twins.” Justin and Tracy, twin brother and sister, had earned a reputation in the church of always being happy and telling jokes, even during stressful times. “Not that you guys are going that way, right?” Jesse asked Peter and Kathy.

“No, we’re going the back way.” Peter said. “The hiking trail. And don’t worry, we will make sure to leave it all covered up. I was just curious who was up at the observation post.”

“Oh, OK.”

“By the way,” Kathy said, “is this duffel bag and game cart all you could find to carry Kirk’s body back up here?”

“Yeah, that’s all I could find. And like I said, I will handle the body.”

“Hmm, good.” Kathy said. Kathy rested her right hand on the black nylon gun holster that was connected to her belt.

“OK, let’s go,” Peter said, turning around.

“Peter, wait a minute,” Jesse said. “We have some more entrails for you to drop off at the roadblock.”

“What, like it’s not smelly enough down there?”

“Not yet. Here,” Jesse said, handing over a heavy black plastic trash bag to Peter.

“OK, thanks. Give us about an hour and we should be back with Kirk’s body.”

Jesse started walking away. “Alright, I’ll get someone to start digging a grave, and maybe we can ask Lawson to get ready to say a few words. It’ll have to be quick.” He stopped himself and turned back. “Wait. We should say a prayer before you guys go.”

The three of them bowed their heads and held hands. Jesse began, “Heavenly Father, we thank you for the life and friendship of Kirk, and we thank you for his brave example. We ask that you bless Peter and Kathy, and hide and protect them from the evil men who killed Kirk. We ask that you make this a good excursion, keep them safe, and keep their spirits up. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

Peter and Kathy both said, “Amen.”

“Stay safe you two,” Jesse said as he gave a short wave and walked back towards to center of the compound.

“We’ll be back soon,” Peter said.

*****

Peter and Kathy began to walk into the woods, almost immediately disappearing into the dense forest. The hiking trail, more of a deer path, was covered with thick bush that was intentionally not cleared. It was hard to keep sight of the trail that they were walking on.

“Kathy, I noticed you brought your gun. Did you fill the magazine?” Peter pushed aside a few branches to walk on the trail.

“Yes, my Glock 45. I hope we don’t need it, but I want to have it just in case.”

“Just remember that a gunshot make a lot of noise. Those 45’s are very loud. But a single gun won’t protect much us from those thugs who killed Kirk.”

“That’s true, but it sounds like the guys who killed Kirk drove up here real fast. I just want to be ready in case they return.” Kathy said. “Hey, slow down.”

“Oh, sorry. I have just made this trip so much lately. It seems like,” Peter bent over as he walked so that he could walk beneath a thick tree branch that hung over the trail. “Lately it seems like I have been the garbage man around here. Not only deer entrails like these here, or that bobcat that someone killed and tried to eat a couple weeks ago, but also with just about any trash that might make the roadblock any smellier. I get sent down there to drop off whatever stinks.” Peter paused and walked slower, thinking that what he was about to say was funny. He tried to smile. “I came up with a name for this trail: ‘the Entrail Trail.’ Of course not many people think that’s very funny.”

“Probably because most normal people think entrails are gross.”

“Could be.” Peter resumed his hike. “Well I think it’s funny anyway. The entrails keep coming, and I keep bringing them down to the roadblock. And it is getting pretty smelly. In fact, smellier than we had hoped. That’s part of what makes it a great roadblock.”

“Yes, I’ve heard the smell’s pretty bad.”

“That’s for sure. The roadblock all started with a couple of tank traps, you know, those steel x’s that screw up trucks or tanks that might try to drive through.”

“Yes, I was nearby when Jesse ranted about getting overcharged for those things.”

“Yeah, that’s what I heard. $150 apiece for some pretty simple welding jobs. Jesse would have bought more but he was still paying off one of the camping sheds at the time.”

The two walked in silence for a while.

“Those tank traps weren’t very solid in the ground there. I think they were stuck there just with a couple of tent stakes, so we started throwing tree branches and trash onto it, then deer entrails and dead animals,” he paused. “And that is the roadblock we have today.”

“Well, it’s occurred to me that because that roadblock is on a cliff road, we could always just blow up the road,” Kathy said. The two followed the trail as it took a sharp turn left. “I think someone up here has a few sticks of dynamite. We could also make some more.”

“That’s kind of a big deal, but I guess it is do-able. Do you know if anyone up here has ever done something like that before?”

“Nope.”

“Well, that might be a good last resort. Of course we would also have to get the Mormons up the road to agree. The Alexes. This road leads to their place too. So we would have to powwow with them first.”

“I never knew why they are called the Alexes. Are they all named Alex or something?”

“No, but there are three or four of them named Alex, hence the group name. We just call them all Alex. It seems to fit.” Peter paused to catch his breath. “Another issue about blowing up the road: I would hate to have someone try that and hurt themselves. Or blow themselves up.”