The Dying Time (Book 2): After The Dying Time

by Raymond Dean White

  Chapter 51: The Reckoning

  A pair of litter bearers appeared and Jim turned Michael over to them, saying softly, as if to himself, “He’s alive.”

  Suddenly Jim leapt to his feet and bellowed, “He’s alive!”

  Men up and down the line took up the cry.

  Jim jumped up on top of the bunker, shook his fist at the advancing enemy soldiers and cupped his hands around his mouth, screaming, “Did you hear that, you back-shooting sons of bitches? He’s alive!”

  Such was the power of Jim’s professionally trained voice that his words projected over the sound of the gunfire. The enemy advance stumbled briefly, but then, urged on by their officers, the King’s army resumed its relentless charge.

  Behind Jim, a series of red flares shot up into the sky. In the middle of the line, Adam Young’s trumpeter began blowing retreat. On either side of the river, Allied troops began a fighting retreat along the top of the bunker and up the nearest slopes toward high ground.

  The King’s army, sensing the end was near, surged forward.

  In Lake Zion, John’s flanking force was now close enough to hear gunshots echoing from the fighting. Sails dropped and outboards revved as they raced to close the back door on the Allies.

  The Allied evacuation along the top of the bunker was only half over when Earl Baker slammed home the plunger on his detonator. A series of muffled blasts sounded from the depths of the twenty-four shafts the men had so laboriously dug. Clouds of dust billowed into the air from the mouths of the shafts.

  Nothing happened.

  On both sides of the river Allied troops stopped in their tracks, stricken with disbelief.

  Earl Baker ran along the top of the bunker waving his arms to attract attention.

  “Move your asses, you fools!” He was screaming at the top of his lungs. Didn’t they know something like this took a little time to develop?

  “Run! Run! Run!” he yelled and proceeded to lead by example.

  The men came out of their paralysis and dashed for higher ground.

  The earth beneath their feet shuddered. Slowly, inexorably, the massive landslide that damned Lake Zion began to move.

  The King’s army in the canyon below halted, confused, then stampeded in panic.

  Above them, a monstrous landslide that had been an earthen dam shifted and groaned. At the base of the slide, jets of water sprung forth as if by magic. But these sprays of water were under pressure so intense they shot across the canyon and carved deep into the rock on the far side. Anything less resistant than rock, such as flesh, was simply vaporized by the force of the water.

  Men toward the back of the King’s army, who either hadn’t realized their peril or the reason for the panic, suddenly saw the light. They dropped their arms, shucked their packs and added their masses to the terror and confusion that reigned in the narrow canyon bottom. They trampled each other into pulp in their haste to climb the cliffs. General Marsh turned his APC around and fled in horror, running down many of his own troops in his mindless desire to escape.

  Cracks appeared in the dam, widening rapidly under the destructive force of the water into huge rents. Boulders the size of large houses slid down into the monstrous jets of water and were either carved up or blasted down the canyon with such force they ricocheted for miles--enormous bowling balls that flattened everything in their path. The gigantic mass of dirt and rock was collapsing inward and consuming itself.

  Out in the Lake John’s armada felt itself gripped by an fierce current. The soldiers were puzzled but not alarmed, after all, the current was taking them where they wanted to go.

  Up on the south rim, Adam Young, Jim Cantrell and Earl Baker stared in disbelief. On the north rim, Captain Parsons and Susan Redfeather stopped shooting at Prince John’s Rangers and gaped.

  With a titanic roar, louder than a thousand freight trains, the dam bulged outward and gave way. For the briefest instant, men in the canyon bottom could look upwards at a wall of water several hundred feet high as it surged through the gap. Then it crashed into them with insane fury, tearing, crushing, rending and shearing them apart.

  The force of the flood was so savage the water undercut the sides of the canyon, eroding them away like a high pressure hose blasts away an anthill, forcing the Allies and those few Rangers left alive, to flee away from the rims.

  Millions of gallons of water raged through the narrow gap, widening it with each passing second, crashing and thundering down the canyon, smashing from wall to wall in a horrifying spectacle of nature unleashed. The sheer power of the foaming, churning water was awesome. It carved into the walls, gouging out millions of tons of rock and soil, grinding it all to sand and altering forever the shape of Provo Canyon. From a dark, narrow, somewhat forbidding place, it was transformed into an open valley more than a mile wide at its mouth.

  The King’s Army simply ceased to exist. With awe-inspiring elemental force, the water swept over and mangled or dashed to death those unfortunates in its path. The APC bounced from boulder to boulder, wall to wall, like a pinball. Long before it was crushed and torn apart, the jelly-like mass of flesh inside had ceased to resemble General Marsh. Fingers of water plucked climbers from the walls and sucked them down into death. Only the lucky ones lived long enough to drown. John’s flanking force, caught in the irresistible current was flushed down Provo Canyon like a cockroach down a toilet.

  No one would ever know how many men died in the cataclysm the Allies unleashed. The ravening water stripped flesh from bones and ground the bones to microscopic bits. Nothing was left. Even the Allies were stunned at the cost of their victory. Hardened warriors wept at the death of men who moments before had been trying to kill them.

  The floodwaters raged out of the canyon, killing King’s men as far south as Payson. The waters poured through the ever-widening gap for days as the great lake emptied until, finally, it found its new balance as a river drainage. The force of the water cut a new river course erupting over The Fault and cascading for more than a mile before hitting the Gulf.

  On the north side of Provo canyon, Captain Parsons and Susan Redfeather accepted the surrender of the remaining Rangers.

  On the south side of the waters, two thousand strangely subdued Allied soldiers formed into companies and battalions and set up camps. For the first time in a week, they could sleep the death-like sleep of those who have given their all.

  The following morning, the grim-visaged men and women turned toward Nephi. It was time to finish cleaning house. Among them Jim Cantrell, Daniel Windwalker, Dan Osaka and Lady Di formed a special unit whose task was to rescue Sara Garcia.

  They had only been heading south for a few hours when they encountered Raymond Stormcloud, Sara Garcia and most of Dan Osaka’s in-laws. Jim and Sara hugged until their arms ached. Then they, along with Dan and his in-laws, headed back north. Lady Di, Daniel Windwalker and Raymond Stormcloud accompanied Adam Young and the rest of the men onward to Nephi.

  *

  In Nephi, panic reigned supreme. Slaves revolted and took to the mountains. An orderly evacuation was out of the question. People simply fled for the docks. Jamal Rashid barely stopped to grab the tapes he’d found in the Inquisitorium when Merriman’s half-eaten remains were discovered.

  On the ships, sailors who had been offloading armaments suddenly found themselves cramming the ruling class in with those soldiers fortunate enough to have survived.

  *

  When the Allies arrived two days later, Nephi was a ghost town. Huge stockpiles of food, medical supplies, arms and ammunition lay abandoned at the docks. The sole remaining soldier on hand to greet them was Captain Allen Hoffman, who had been left behind when his jailers ran away. In their haste to flee, the pitiful remnants of the King’s Army hadn’t even shut off the lights.

  There was no sign of the Troubled Land Band until Raymond led Daniel and Adam to the Lachelles’ apartment, where a swiftly scrawled note from Denise was found addressed, “To Adam Young, or current comm
ander of the Allied Forces...even though our side has won, we in the band feel we will be more valuable in California, where we can keep an eye on the King. Jacques warns you in the strongest possible terms not to assume the man is defeated. He is a fanatic and will surely desire vengeance for the deaths of his sons and the loss of his army. When we have settled in, we will send a courier with details of how we can be contacted.”

  Stunned Allied soldiers gathered on the docks of Nephi and stared out to sea, unable to believe it was over.

  *

  The ISS

  “So, nothing? Not a word?” General Alice Anderson, commander of Project Genesis looked over Ludmilla Gargarin’s shoulder at the computer display. Perhaps it’s for the best, she thought. If they don’t have satellite uplink capabilities we won’t be tempted to talk to them.

  “Nothing,” Ludmilla said. “Transmissions stopped just before that big flood in Utah wiped out the invading army.”

  Ludmilla shook her head, adding, “I still can’t believe that was deliberate.”

  The General gave her a half grin and said, “Believe it. Elena saw the whole thing from the observatory scope and she said the defenders evacuated their positions just before they blew the dam. The flood probably took out their radio station. It certainly wrecked everything else.”

  Christine Jorgensen, who had been sitting quietly, thinking about the struggles of the people on Earth, nodded and said, “Hard to believe they would sacrifice everything--their towns, farms, so many lives...” her voice faded.

  “Would you want to live under that obscene King’s rule?” Ludmilla asked. The question was purely rhetorical.

  *

  Luna City

  Little Angela Kent knocked on the door to Yuri’s bedroom and waited, shifting from foot to foot until he grunted permission to enter. She slipped inside and found him hunched over his computer focused on his Call of Duty first person shooter game.

  “Hey!” He yelled as she snatched off his headset and killed the feed. “What do you think you’re doing? I was just about to set a new pointstreaks record.”

  She quirked a smile at him and waited for him to notice she was dressed in her pink shorts and top. Her smile grew wider as she saw his pupils dilate. He’d noticed. Good.

  She gave her head a practiced toss and her long blonde curls danced in the light gravity.

  He’d known her all his life, but for the first time Yuri noticed how pretty she was--how her deep blue eyes sparkled when she smiled at him.

  He stood up and cleared his throat. Why did his shirt collar feel so tight?

  “Are you coming to the concert tonight?” Angela asked.

  “What concert?”

  “You goof,” she said playfully slugging his shoulder. “The Loonie Tunes are performing tonight. It’s a celebration for restoring full power.”

  *

  The mess hall had been rearranged so the seating half-circled a stage, leaving a small area for those who wanted to dance. Linette Laverne, less than two months after having her foot amputated, rolled up in a small electric golf cart, parked it, then limped up onto the stage and took her normal seat. She was glad she wouldn’t have to stand during the performance.

  “How’s the new foot?” Pauolo Guzman asked as he hopped up onto the stage and unhooked his guitar case. Pauolo fit the bill of small, dark and handsome perfectly.

  She flexed it at him. In a high top tennis shoe you couldn’t even see it. “Great, considering it came from your machine shop.”

  “Seriously,” he said, as she unpacked her clarinet. “You up for this?”

  “Pauolo, I suited up and went outside yesterday. If I can get back up on that horse...” She gave a Gallic shrug, then put on her exaggerated French accent and said, “W’en ‘ave I evair not been ready for ze fun, oui?”

  He chuckled and gave her shoulder a squeeze, then leaned down and kissed her cheek.

  Ten minutes later the rest of the Loonie Tunes band arrived.

  Commander Clark Kent with his bass guitar, Captain Henri Dupree with his keyboard, Heinz Obermann and Connie Cho with their violins, Leila Yoruba with her jury rigged drums, Isabella Cortez with her classical guitar and Olivia de Garza with her superb soprano, though every member of the band contributed vocals.

  An hour of set up and tuning passed by which time the crowd had gathered.

  Clark stepped up to a microphone and said, “We’d like to open with an old favorite from The Troubled Land Band called ‘Constitutional Erosion.’”

  Herein lies the problem

  Folks forget the past

  and lessons learned so long ago

  simply do not last

  Cause our minds are on the present

  and the future’s bearing down

  and the wisdom of The Founders

  is nowhere to be found

  We’re led by fools and lackeys

  Cheats and liars get our votes

  The press is run by patsy’s

  and the truth is seldom spoke

  Big business buys our government

  Deep pockets pave the way

  Constitutional Erosion

  is the order of the day

  Down in the audience Yuri leaned over and whispered in Angela’s ear, “Wow, those Troubled Land Band guys sure were skeptics.”

  Angela nodded and said, “Well, according to my mom they had reason to be. Listen to them.”

  “You’ve heard this song before?”

  “Shhh!”

  Bankers steal our houses

  while they grow too big to fail

  Our jobs are sent to China

  and our dreams are sent to hell

  Our schools teach propaganda

  raise our children’s self esteem

  But since kids learn by failing

  they aren’t learning anything

  They give our homes to Walmart

  using eminent domain

  It’s for the public good they say

  but who believes that claim

  They hand out corporate welfare

  on the backbones of the poor

  The middle class is failing

  Still the government wants more

  After several more verses Yuri whispered, “I’m glad we don’t live there.” Angela found his hand and gave it a squeeze.

  At a different table, seated with her son, Tommy, General Alice Anderson wondered if the song was a not so subtle dig at her leadership. She shook her head. God, she was getting paranoid.

  The Loonie Tunes shifted to timeless songs by the Moody Blues and the Eagles before moving to Country hits by Lady Antebellum and Alan Jackson, then Pop hits by MaDonna and Beyonce.

  Three hours later the celebration wound down. Pauolo gave Linette a hand down from the stage, seated her in her golf cart, then hopped in to accompany her back to her quarters. Their plan included baby making even though it was against the rules.

  Chapter 52: The Aftermath

  On a ship bound for California, Private Greyson told and re-told the story of his revelation to an ever-increasing number of believers. His manner of speech and the fervor of his delivery as he described how God had sent a black angel of death to warn the righteous of impending doom swayed the hearts and minds of many King’s Army survivors to his Peace Cult.

  Of course, Greyson had now managed to convince himself the angel had spoken to him, revealing that God was about to open the gates of hell and send a Great Flood to scour the King’s Army from the Earth. His message, offered as it was with evangelical intensity, was all the more effective because of his gaunt body and wide-eyed stare. Greyson claimed to have been touched by God and there was nothing in his appearance or demeanor to belie his statement. The fact that the few officers on the ship ignored the “sedition” he was spouting only increased his credibility.

  Such was the mood of the men on the boat that not even Jamal Rashid dared speak against Greyson and his acolytes. He took names though; placing them inside his shirt next to the
tapes of Sara Garcia’s interrogation, taking great care that no one saw those precious reels. Only the King would know.

  *

  Back in Deseret, Sara Garcia performed a successful surgical procedure on Ellen Whitebear’s spine to relieve the pressure. Over the course of the next few weeks, Ellen regained feeling in her legs and feet, as well as the ability to walk. Now she could, once again, concentrate on rebuilding.

  As for Michael, he needed only a transfusion and time to recover completely. The bullet had gone cleanly through his chest, above his heart and below his shoulder, narrowly missing a lung, leaving yet another puckered scar on his body.

  In the months that followed, the Mormons relocated in and around Nephi, where the provisions so generously abandoned by the King’s Army kept them through the ensuing winter. They had to relocate somewhere. Nothing was left of Provo and Orem. The Flood, as they called it, had stripped the land to bedrock.

  Chris Herrera married Daniel Windwalker and joined his tribe. Thus the Cheyenne gained a valiant warrior to replace the loss of Mitchell Stonehand.

  Susan Redfeather’s grief at the loss of Walt Beeman hardened her heart against Raymond Stormcloud’s less-than-well-timed advances. Raymond, hurt at first by the depth of her feelings for Walt, soon realized he would have to bide his time.

  Faith Gilcrest began hanging around the newly promoted Major Parsons. Soon rumors were flying around Deseret that there would be another wedding.

  *

  The following Spring found Michael on the deck of his home performing his morning Tai-Chi exercises. As his body flowed through the graceful movements, his eyes wandered over the Valley of the Freeholds. In some of the fields winter wheat and cool season vegetables were greening up, while in others cover crops were being plowed under. In the greenhouses, warm weather crops were being planted. A rooster crowed from his chicken coop which reminded Michael to gather eggs before going back inside.