by Justin Price
They continued through the terminal until they reached the end and saw Lexi standing there with her face buried in her phone. They could have easily walked right past her. The two of them walked up to her and stared at her for a few seconds before she realized what was going on.
“Oh… oh… hi!” she said a bit startled. “I am so glad to see you!” she said as she wrapped her arms around Abbie. “You guys were ahead of schedule. Did you have a good flight?”
“Yea, it wasn’t bad. It was a pretty short flight”, said Abbie.
“Here let me help you with some of your luggage here Ms. Clark.”
“Oh Lexi…you have known me for years. You know you can call me Susan right?”
“Right”, she said sheepishly.
They walked across the airport and down to the parking lot where Lexi’s car was waiting. They stuffed all of the luggage into the trunk and got in to drive to their quiet suburb just north of town. Abbie was just thankful that their drive would only be twenty minutes.
It was obvious that it was going to be a quiet and awkward ride. Nobody really knew what to say and in light of the recent events and trauma that Abbie had suffered, anything else than the elephant in the room would seem too trivial to talk about.
Things were a little bit awkward anyway ever since Lexi left Abbie and Jenna in Nashville. They didn’t leave on bad terms, but she had given up on the pact they made to stay together and never quit until they succeeded in what they set out to do. Lexi had felt a little bit guilty about it, but after Jenna was murdered, that feeling was amplified by a hundred.
Lexi couldn’t help but wonder if the outcome would have been different had she stayed. Maybe that psychopath wouldn’t have messed with three girls at once. Maybe she could have stepped in and evened the odds more. She even wondered a couple of times if she would have been the one to die instead of Jenna, so she was struggling with survivor’s guilt even though she wasn’t even there to witness the brutal killing.
As they all tried to mentally prepare themselves for the funeral the next day, Lexi could hear the muffled sobs of Abbie in the back seat. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw her and her mother both crying and holding one another. Finally, it was all too much for Lexi to handle. She started crying silently, trying not to draw attention to herself.
They all knew that this was going to be a very difficult couple of days and none of them looked forward to seeing Jenna’s family and looking them in the eye. They entered their familiar neighborhood where all three of the girls had practically grown up together. They all dried their tears and prepared to get out of the car as they pulled into the driveway.
They all walked into the house and found several friends and family waiting on them. They all wanted to be helpful and be there for Abbie, but this was her worst nightmare right now. The last thing she wanted was to be around people that would draw attention to her fragile state of mind. They all greeted her with hugs and kind words, but she was being smothered quickly.
“Hey everyone. Thank you all for coming”, she said as tactfully as she could. “I am just really tired right now, so I am going to go upstairs and rest awhile.”
They all looked at her with understanding but with a hint of disappointment. After all, they had been waiting to see her and it wasn’t often that they got that chance.
Abbie turned and walked upstairs in the midst of absolute silence. She walked into her old room that had been converted into a guest room. She just slipped off her shoes and collapsed onto the bed. As she laid there staring at the ceiling, she just felt like crying, but she had no more tears left to shed. She eventually drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
She didn’t wake up until the next morning. The clock read 8:07am. She sat up in bed panicking because she realized she had been sleeping for fifteen hours. She hadn’t slept that long since she was sick with the flu as a child. She felt more energy than she had felt since the incident. She slipped out of bed and flew down the stairs into the living room.
“Mom?”
“In here dear”, came her mom’s voice from the kitchen.
She walked in to find her mom making a big breakfast. Bacon and eggs were frying, biscuits were in the oven, and she was mixing gravy.
Sue said, “It’s time that you have a proper home cooked breakfast. We will need it to make it through this day.”
Abbie quickly came to the realization that this was the day of Jenna’s funeral. She had really been dreading it and would just not go if she could. It was so much to face so soon. But, she felt like she would be in some way letting Jenna down if she didn’t go.
“I am honestly just ready to get this over with”, Abbie said.
“Oh, I know hon. We will get through it together though. This too shall pass.”
“Yea… just not soon enough”, she said as she sat down at the kitchen table. “Hey mom. I have a question for you.”
“Sure, what’s on your mind?”
“Well, when I was in the hospital, I had a dream of a man…a king actually. He was very different… In fact, he claimed to be God. He said that his name was “I AM”. Does this make any sense or mean anything to you? I mean… I remember as a kid that great grandma Robertson would talk about God and stuff…”
Sue turned around a looked at her daughter in the eyes. “Abbie, I need you to promise me that you will not repeat any of this to anyone else…I mean ANYONE.”
“Okay…. What?”
“You know that talking about God, especially the ones that the Christians and Jews used to worship in my grandma’s days is strictly forbidden in our society. There is nothing good that will come of it.”
“Yea mom, I know that. I just…”
Sue held her hand up to stop her. “With that being said, I do have something in my possession that would explain a lot of things. It was passed down in our family starting with my great grandmother, which would be your great great grandmother. Its hidden where it cannot be easily found and I rarely even look at it. If the authorities knew that I have it, then I would be put into a prison camp for the rest of my life.”
“What is it?”
“Follow me.”
They walked over to the basement door that stood at the far side of the kitchen. Sue flipped the light on and they both walked downstairs into the cold basement. All of the walls were made of brick and cement. They walked to the far corner and they both stood staring at the wall.
Sue counted with her finger seven bricks down and seven bricks to the right. She placed her finger over the brick in the middle and pushed in on it slightly. It popped out and revealed a steel compartment where an old book sat. Sue pulled it out and handed it to Abbie.
“Listen… before you read any of this you need to know a few things. Don’t ever take it out of this basement and don’t leave it laying out. Always put it back right here where it goes. Also, I don’t know if this book contains the truth about life and death or God. I have read only a couple of sections out of it and I have tried not to make a commitment to it out of fear of what could happen to me. Be cautioned Abbie… If you read this book and you find that this is your truth then please, I beg you, don’t make it public. I can’t bear the thought of losing you or being responsible for such a thing.”
“Okay mom. You can trust me with it.”
“Good. Now let’s put it back for now. We need to eat and get ready for the funeral.”
The two of them went back upstairs and had breakfast. They talked about old times and reminisced about what it was like when Abbie was growing up. Anything to get their minds off of everything that was going on was welcome.
Finally, the time had come to go to the funeral. They got in the car and drove about ten minutes to the funeral home where the director and his staff were directing the parking. “Will you be going to the cemetery with us today?” asked the funeral director.
“Yes we will.”
“Alright. Go ahead and pull to the left over here for the procession.”
The two of them walked in through the front door and an assistant greeted them and ushered them in. When they came in, they noticed a few couches and chairs and a large screen to the right playing a slideshow of Jenna’s life. They sat down and watched it for a few minutes.
All that Abbie could think of in that moment was that Jenna’s life was cut too short. This video should have been playing seventy years from now with pictures of her and her husband, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Her life should not have ended in a dark, dirty alley at the hands of a perverted criminal. She should have had the privilege to die at home, warm in her bed and surrounded by loving family. This wasn’t fair.
Abbie finally worked up enough courage to get up and walk over to sign the guest book. As she signed her name, she choked back tears and tried to mentally leave the moment and go somewhere else in her mind. ‘It’s the only way I am going to make it through this’, she thought.
They both walked arm in arm as they entered the room where the body of her best friend lay. As she came around the corner, all she could see was the foot of the casket and the backs of mourners as they passed by to briefly visit with the family.
Abbie and her mom got in line to walk to the casket. As they slowly progressed forward, they noticed that many people were looking at them and whispering to one another. They both just looked down and kept moving. People were going to talk. Everyone knew who she was and that she was with Jenna when she died. That was just going to be part of life for awhile.
As they approached the casket, Abbie realized that it was closed. She felt a sense of relief come over her that she didn’t have to see her friend like that. This did mean that the wound in her head from the high caliber pistol was as bad as it looked when she saw her right before she passed out. It was something she didn’t want to think too much about, but it was better than seeing her made up to look like someone that didn’t look like her.
They passed by the casket and walked up to Jenna’s mother, father, and little brother. When Abbie and Jenna’s mom saw each other, they both burst into tears. They no doubt had been thinking about this moment for the last couple of days.
Through the sobs, Abbie said, “I’m so sorry.”
“I am glad you are here Abbie.”
“I am so sorry that I couldn’t help her.”
“Abbie Clark… you have no reason to be sorry. It was nothing you could have helped. We could have easily been having two funerals today. I am just glad that you are okay. You were like one of our own. You were basically Jenna’s sister.”
Abbie forced a smile and hugged her tight. Jenna’s mom whispered in her ear…”Did she suffer?”
“No”, she whispered hoarsely. “It was instant.”
“Good. Thank you so much Abbie.”
They finished up and she hugged her dad and brother who were trying to look strong, but completely broke down when they saw her. The part that she had been dreading the most was over and she could relax a little.
The service began. There were kind words, memories, and sad songs shared. There were plenty of tears, but through the tears came a sense of closure. They rode in the procession and said their final goodbyes at the cemetery as rain was pouring down. They all huddled under the tent to stay dry. The funeral director concluded the service within a few minutes and it was all over. A new chapter in Abbie’s life was about to begin.
“Are we ready to go men?” asked David.
“Let’s roll”, said John.
There were three other men going with them to aid in the recon mission. There was still a small chance that they could find Maggie at home, but everything pointed to her being taken into custody by the United States government.
The five men walked into a room where a stockpile of weapons and ammunition were held.
“Take what you need guys”, said David. “We are going to need to be well armed in case we have to defend ourselves or take Maggie by force.”
The five men took whatever they could comfortably carry. John took a semi-automatic rifle with five full magazines and a .45 caliber pistol as a sidearm. In addition to this, he took two hand grenades in case they needed to take out more than one or two guys.
They all grabbed bullet proof vests and put them on and headed out the door. The names of the three men accompanying John and David were Chaim, DeShawn, and Bo. They were a very diverse, but qualified group of individuals.
Chaim served in the Israeli army for five years before becoming a believer and moving to the U.S. to help the resistance. He was considered a Messianic Jew, which was a rarity now since Judaism and Christianity had both been nearly wiped out.
DeShawn was an African American man who looked like he could break a man’s leg with his bare hands. He was an All-American collegiate football player for the Army until they went to war in the Middle East to fight Islam. He came back after a tour there and disappeared. He lived off the grid for a full year before finding Christ and joining up with the resistance.
Bo was a redneck in every sense of the word. He was from Alabama. An avid outdoorsman who loved to hunt just about anything that moved. He was considered one of the best trappers in the south. He could track down any animal. After high school, he volunteered to become a Marine. He was highly trained and a member of an elite group who secured the borders in the Mediterranean.
John and David were both Navy Seals. John held the record for the most kills by any Seal in history. David was one of the first in the military to come home and join an underground militia group. The redheaded man of Irish descent quickly became the leader of the New England division. They had three locations and one-thousand active members.
The men opened the steel door and walked past the armed guard to head down the three mile long tunnel to the outside world. As they walked along, they laughed and joked around like this was routine. They all knew the danger associated with even going into the outside world, let alone encountering the government.
As they finally came to the exit of the tunnel that they were going to use, the chatter stopped and a seriousness came over each of them. “Let’s pray”, said David. “Father God, we pray that you watch over us tonight as we walk amongst the world and its system. I pray that you will keep us hidden from the sight of those who would do us harm and guide our hands so that we do not bring harm to innocent people. Forgive us of our failures and cover us with the blood of your Son, Jesus Christ. In His Name we pray. Amen.”
The five men began to climb the twenty foot metal ladder that led straight up to the old abandoned building. David was in the lead and he slowly pushed up on the secret door behind the bar and peered through the crack. He could still see the blood stain and the police tape in the corner where he had shot the officer a few days prior.
There was no one in sight, but they would need to move quickly and quietly in case there were authorities in the area still searching for them. David crawled out from behind the old dusty bar and looked around again. He motioned with his hand for the rest of them to come out and stay low.
One by one, they exited the trap door and crouched low as they walked across the old dusty wood floor. The sound of boards creaking under foot brought their heart rates up with each step. The sight of lights creeping across the wall stopped them all in their tracks. The sound of a car turning the corner and then fading in the distance made them breathe a collective sigh of relief.
They all huddled closely by the front door as David whispered further orders. “Okay everyone. I need you all to stay low to the ground and follow me. We have to walk three blocks to get to the van. It’s parked inside an old abandoned car repair shop. Watch both sides and have your weapons ready. Let’s go…”
The men slowly opened the door and looked around. There was nobody in sight in the old desolate neighbor
hood. Every building had been abandoned for at least ten years and were boarded up. Vehicles rarely drove through the area at this time of night.
They all kept their heads down with rifles in hand in a “V” formation. They crossed the street and went down an alley to stay away from the main road. As they walked out the other side, David and John noticed a man standing in the shadows in the next alley. They didn’t want to bring attention to themselves, but to make progress, they were going to have to.
David used hand signals for the other men to keep an eye on the stranger and approach him as if he were a threat. The men quickly moved forward with their guns pointed at the man. They closed in on him and he turned their way and put his hands up startled.
“Please don’t shoot!” said the man.
“Shhhh!” David said as he covered the stranger’s mouth with his hand. “We aren’t going to hurt you. We need to pass through here to get where we are going. You never saw us. Understand?”
The old hobo shook his head in affirmation and the men continued down the alley towards the old van. After walking another block, they turned briefly to the right and came to the old garage. They went to a side door and David pulled a key out of his front pocket and put it in the door.
The door squeaked open and the men went in and found an old black van parked in the old repair garage. They opened the sliding doors on each side and the three men accompanying John and David got in the back with David driving and John in the passenger seat. The van took a few moments to crank and start up and David reached up to the visor to push the button for the garage door opener.
They drove the van out of the garage and shut the door behind them. The men were all free to talk again. “Well that was nerve racking”, said Chaim.
“You’re not kidding pal”, said Bo.
“I think I have to pee”, said DeShawn.