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

by Wilson, Cal

  “Yeah, I know, you’re right. But the last time I was at that car, someone cranked up the old music and Justin jumped in and acted like he was playing the drums. It was pretty funny.”

  “Yes,” David said, “Justin was the drummer in some band in high school, or at least that is what I heard. There are some pretty funny photos of him out there, trying to act like John Bonham. But who knows, we’ll probably never see those photos again. They would have been great blackmail material.”

  Sean smiled. “John Bonham?”

  “Drummer for Led Zeppelin,” David answered. There was a pause.

  “Oh, I see.”

  *****

  “But back to what I miss,” David said. “I guess there is more to it than drinking wine and eating cheese, although I miss that too.”

  “What, were there all-you-can drink wine bars or something?”

  David smiled, then looked serious. “No, it’s not that. I just miss the detachment of it all.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, we would go to church, back when church was open, and we would hear a sermon on the Book of Daniel or Matthew or Revelation, or other books of the Bible. And I never really,” David paused, as if looking for the right words. “I never really thought it would apply to me.” Sean nodded slightly, in agreement.

  “We would read Matthew 24, and the whole book of Revelation, and I never thought I would be around to see all that stuff happen. I always thought it would be something that would happen to my grandkids or their grandkids, or,” David paused. “What I was reading was pretty scary, you know, Christians getting killed off, and I just wasn’t scared. I believe the Bible, of course. I just never thought I would be here when it all happened. For me it was so hypothetical.”

  “Kind of like ‘ignorance is bliss.’ Or taking the blue pill.”

  “Yeah, I guess. I was just so … I guess I was at peace, that there was just too much between our world and the times described in the Bible. I just thought there was so much that had to happen before you could look into the Bible and notice that the End Times were right here. I miss that sense of peace. That sense of ‘it won’t happen to me.’ The sense that I didn’t really need to worry about it. Of course it is good to know, and the book of Revelation says a special blessing will be given to those who read the book…”

  David continued. “Now I feel pretty stupid. Just look how fast everything changed. I always thought that there was way too much that needed to change before we got to the stuff that happens in Matthew 24 and Revelation. But it seems just like, ‘poof,’ everything got into position and here we are. The gay marriage thing, for example. Only a few years ago, gay marriage was just a joke. Even gays didn’t take it seriously. Nowadays whenever someone opposes gay marriage they lose their job and practically get run out of town on a rail. And in some places, if you are a heterosexual man and woman, you are not even allowed to get married. I remember thinking, ‘Boy that was fast.’”

  David looked at Sean. “Oh, I’m sorry. Your parents probably don’t want you talking about those things. I keep forgetting that you’re fifteen years old.”

  “It’s OK. My parents have told me all about it.”

  “Well, the point is, that the days of thinking this will apply to others is long gone. Long gone. And I was ignoring all the clues. I was busy with my job, keeping up to date with the company’s new product line, new ways to speed up financing, that kind of thing.”

  “I never knew what kind of job you had,” Sean said.

  “I was a sales rep for a dental equipment company. For this whole tri-state region. And I was a good sales rep, too. I would visit dentists’ offices and either try to get them to buy new equipment or update their old equipment.”

  “You mean like drills and stuff?”

  “Yeah, but it was a lot more than that. And for those who wanted to buy, I would line up financing. It all kept me pretty busy.” David paused. “And I was ignoring all the clues that were right there in the news. Right in front of me. In front of us all. Sure, I knew there were bad things going on in the world, and there was some talk of the new government requiring people to get some kind of faint bar code on their foreheads. Sharia put in place in certain parts of the country. Stuff like that. But I still thought the End Times were far, far off. Nothing to do with me. I guess that’s it for me. That’s what I really miss.”

  “After my dad got laid off we lost our cable TV, so I was also ignoring the news. We couldn’t watch it at our house. In fact, we were about to lose our house.”

  David shifted in his seat. “Your family was never going to lose your house. I know it never came to that, but several of us from church were going to pitch in and bring your family current with your mortgage. We weren’t really looking forward to it. At least I wasn’t. I admit that. But you guys were not going to lose your house.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. A little, too-late-to-matter reassurance for you there.” David smiled. “Who knows what is going on at your house nowadays? In fact, who knows what is going on in the world nowadays?” David looked out into the valley, then back to Sean. “But the point is, if this all wasn’t happening, you and your family would still be in your house.”

  “That’s really nice of you guys.”

  “That’s what a church does.” David looked into the valley below. “Give the glory to God.”

  *****

  David continued, “What finally woke me up was when I read about the Nobel Peace Prize.”

  “I missed it,” Sean said. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you know what the Nobel Prize is, right?”

  “Sure, I’ve studied that.”

  “Well, one of the Nobel Prizes is for promoting peace in the world. It is called the Nobel Peace Prize. This one was a totally outside-the-Bible clue for me. Like God was banging me on the head, trying to get me to notice some clues of the End Times coming. They just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the religion of Islam. All those terrorists who kill people, and in fact Muslims have been killing and enslaving people for hundreds of years, but they insist that they are one big ‘religion of peace.’ They finally got the Nobel Prize committee to buy it. I just couldn’t believe it. It totally floored me.”

  “Yes, my parents talked about that.”

  “I know, the Nobel Peace Prize started getting a little tarnished through the years. In the 90’s once it was awarded to Arafat, who showed up to accept the prize and his check, in between killing people.”

  “You get money when you win the Nobel Prize?” Sean asked.

  “That’s what I hear. And then a few years later the prize was given to Al Gore because of his yammering on about global warming.”

  “Oh yeah, that was a joke.”

  “But the Nobel Peace Prize always had some legitimacy. Something to make you take it seriously. And then they went and awarded it to Islam. And not any one or two Muslims, or to a group of them, or a country or anything. They awarded it to the whole religion.” David paused. “That is when I sat up and took notice that things in the world were starting to get really screwed up. The Bible says that ‘truth gets traded for lies’ and ‘the wise become fools,’ and that’s what happened. At first I couldn’t understand how people could be so stupid. Could people even hear themselves talk? But the Apostle Paul wrote that God will send a strong delusion. And I got news for you, if God allows you to be deluded, you are going to be deluded. That’s all there is to it. So that has to explain all the stupidity out there, beginning with the Nobel Peace Prize getting awarded to Islam.”

  “Still, that was pretty strange.”

  “Very strange. Meanwhile, a little over a month ago I headed south on a business trip. I lined up about twenty-five dentist office visits to talk about the company’s new line. It was a pretty long trip, but the buying had slowed down and I felt I had to do it. The dentists I visited kept telling me ‘Not now. We might expand when things settle down a little.’ All I k
new was that there was some giant peace conference going on in Jerusalem. I guess the dentists and their office managers were more aware of what was going on in the world than I was.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “Well, without a single sale – not a single one! -- I checked back at the corporate office and they just told me to end the trip; just come back. And on the long drive home, I started looking for local Christian radio stations to listen to. I always do that when I go on a road trip. These stations were totally normal during the trip down, but on my way back… I started noticing that several of them were playing some strange songs, and repeating them, like on an endless loop. Just like our local station, K-Heaven, was supposed to do when Jesse and the others felt that it was time to drop everything and come up here.”

  “What do you mean by strange songs?”

  “Well, I knew of the usual Christian radio stations that would play worship songs, by groups like Casting Crowns or Steven Curtis Chapman, or replay a sermon or something. But they were playing songs like the old Rolling Stones song, ‘Gimme Shelter,’ and it was on an endless loop. The song would just keep playing over and over. Like someone in charge at that station had just turned it on, pushed some buttons at the station to just keep playing that same song, and the people working there just left. Some other Christian radio stations played songs like ‘Run Away’ by Real McCoy, that bathroom song, and --”

  “Wait, did you say ‘bathroom song?’”

  “Well that’s what I call it. It’s the Credence Clearwater song, ‘There’s A Bad Moon Rising.’ The words of the song sound like someone is saying that there is a ‘bathroom on the right.’ You know, one of those songs with lyrics that everyone mistakes for something totally silly.”

  “That is pretty silly.”

  “It’s a song from the 60’s, but a friend of mine saw the lead singer from Credence in a concert of his own a few years ago. True story: during a break in the concert, someone asked the singer where the bathroom was, and he said ‘Oh, it’s on the right.’”

  “Really? That’s pretty funny. You’d think he would get mad at a disaster song being morphed into a song about, you know, the location of a bathroom. So what about the other Christian radio stations you heard? What were they playing?”

  “Well, not all Christian radio stations, but I’d say almost half of them were playing these strange songs on endless loops. It got to be kind of a game to look around the radio dial, where I knew Christian radio stations were, to see if any were playing songs that were bizarre. For example, instead of the latest Toby Mac song, one radio station played the David Bowie song ‘This Is Not America’ on an endless loop. Another station was scheduled to replay a Voddie Baucham sermon at a certain time, and in fact I was looking forward to it. Instead, when I turned to that station, all I heard was the old Pink Floyd song ‘Run Like Hell.’ Over and over.”

  “Didn’t we have some agreement with our local station, K-Heaven, to do the same thing?”

  “Well, yeah, but for some reason I just figured our group was the only one. I thought it was a secret. Several of us… not me, but others, had talked our local radio station into just playing the song, ‘We’ll Meet Again,’ when it was truly time to leave our houses and come here to the compound. That is what I was hearing all along my drive home on that trip. Apparently other Christian prepper groups in other areas had the same idea. Well, let’s face it: that is a pretty good way to get the word out to our people, that it is time to go.”

  Sean looked confused. “I remember hearing that song. Where did it come from?”

  “It was played at the end of the 1960’s movie, Dr. Strangelove.”

  “Can’t say I have ever heard of that movie.”

  “It was way before your time. Well, mine too. It was actually a dark comedy about nuclear bombs blowing up the world. At the end of the movie as the world gets totally nuked, the song that is played is ‘We’ll Meet Again.’ It wasn’t my first choice, but the local guys decided that would be a good endless loop song to play to notify everyone that it was time to leave and come up here.”

  “The Matthew 24 call to ‘just run.’”

  “Exactly. Don’t even get your coat, although I know a lot of coats made it up here. Maybe the ‘don’t even get your coat’ language in Matthew 24 was a metaphor.”

  “Well, I remember hearing that song. It’s actually a nice song. Our radio was playing in the kitchen. That song came on, and at the end of the song it would start again. And then again. I thought something was wrong at the radio station. My dad walked into the kitchen, and when he heard the song, he just grew pale. I mean, he actually looked like he was in shock. He made sure that it was K-Heaven playing it, and then he looked really nervous. He called my mom in, and they hugged each other, then they sat down on the floor in the kitchen. Just listening. My mom started to cry a little. I asked them if they were OK, and they said yes and just sat there for a while. Just listening. They pulled out a Bible and read some. Not saying a word. They wouldn’t even sit in chairs. They just sat on the floor there. Sitting on the floor -- that is what tipped me off that something big was going on.”

  “What did your family do next?”

  “I’d say they just sat there and listened to the song play about seven or eight times, while they read the Bible. Then they got up and started packing our Jeep. They got my sister and then we drove here. Not much talking on the drive up here either. It was a really strange day. Once we were out of town they told my sister and me what was up. They told us that we were moving up here. For good.”

  “Yes. That song was the signal for local Christian prepper groups that people who were paying attention, unlike me, had decided that the world had reached the point of no return. The Abomination. Time to pack up and leave, and come to the compound here. We all thought we were being clever but apparently several other Christian prepper groups out there had the same idea. And I was hearing it all on my drive home on that business trip.”

  “What other songs did you hear?”

  “Some songs were more obvious than others. There was the old John Mellencamp song ‘Crumblin’ Down.’ Oh yes, I almost forgot. One station just had an air raid siren playing non-stop. Come to think of it, that was pretty obvious. And there was one song that, let’s face it, was really obvious: REM’s ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It.’ When we chose the song for our local station, well, I wasn’t there, but the idea was to have it a little concealed; not so obvious. We didn’t want to just come right out and say ‘Hey everyone, the End Times are here. We’re leaving now!’”

  There was a pause. They both looked down onto the road outside. Sean said, “We might have another hour before our replacements come. What time do you have?”

  “Oh, that’s another thing. I don’t have a watch anymore. I sold my watch during that drive home.”

  “Why’d you do that?”

  “Well, I mentioned I was driving home and hearing all this strange music, on endless loops. I was also starting to notice that whenever I came upon a gas station, there were really long lines. I mean, lines that went on and on. As far as you could see. As I got a little closer home, instead of lines at the gas stations I started noticing fires at the gas stations. Billowing smoke that I could see from miles away! And no firemen or police! Just a big fire, people driving away, sometimes fighting, and no firemen or cops. It was totally bizarre. I guess the refineries getting bombed meant that gasoline became pretty scarce, pretty quickly. There were many gas stations like that. You could look across the horizon and see many of these gas stations on fire, sending smoke up. Like a bunch of black fingers reaching into the sky.”

  “Kind of like that one over there,” Sean said, and pointed off to the smoke far away to the east.

  “Yes, but on my drive home there were many of them.”

  “That sounds pretty scary. So how’d that cause you to sell your watch?”

  “Well, I noticed my own gas supply was getting low. So I t
urned off the highway onto a pretty deserted road. Just taking a chance. And I found a small gas station that was closed, and a mobile home was right behind it. I figured that’s where the owners lived. I knocked on the door and asked for some gas. They said ‘No, get lost.’ So I offered them my Breitling watch for a fill-up of gas. Gloria paid $4,500 for that watch a few anniversaries ago, and I just handed it over for a tank full of gas.”

  “At least you got home.”

  “Yes. I made it home OK. And I keep looking over at my wrist to see the time, but my watch is gone. Oh well, I can always ask the time on these walkie-talkies.”

  ****

  CHAPTER 2

  Some trucks could be heard driving nearby, and they were getting closer. Sean and David looked down onto the road. David said, “These might be some late stragglers, come to join the group.”