by Len du Randt
Trevor nodded and pointed to the attendant’s forehead. ‘I see you got yours.’
‘The day after the Christian terrorists used that sting device on us,’ the attendant said proudly.
Trevor still couldn’t get used to the electronic flesh, no matter how many times he had seen it.
‘At the rate things are going, I’ll up for mine soon,’ he said.
The attendant thanked him for using their service and, a few seconds later, Trevor was on the highway again.
- - -* * *- - -
The N-Force truck had difficulty passing through the mob of people on the tiny Jerusalem street. When it finally came to a standstill, people rushed at it from all directions. They were in desperate need of fresh water, and didn’t have any more regard left in them to consider anyone else. Their main concern was their own immediate needs.
They were dying. Thousands had already died. They needed water, and in a truck just an arm’s length from them, there were hundreds of bottles of fresh water; and they were determined to get it.
‘Calm down, everyone,’ the N-Force officer shouted through a megaphone. ‘Will those with the Shield of Victor move toward the truck first; the rest make way for them and stand back.’
‘No!’ someone from within the crowd shouted. ‘We have just as much right to that water as anyone else.’
‘Do not disobey orders,’ the N-Force officer shouted back; his voice a mixture of fear and anger. ‘Please step back and allow those with the Shield to pass through.’
‘This isn’t fair!’ the man yelled. ‘You cannot force that mark on us!’
‘Sir, I will ask you one last time to—’
The N-Force officer couldn’t finish his sentence. The man rushed toward the truck with three of his friends. They started rocking the truck, and soon more men joined them. The N-Force officer realized that it would only be a matter of seconds before the truck would be pushed over to its side, and then all Hell would break loose.
‘Help me, Lord Yoshe!’ the officer shouted out in prayer.
The men kept rocking and the truck tilted on two wheels, but came back down on all four. The men pushed again.
‘Cease this madness!’ someone shouted from the truck, and a hush fell over the crowd.
The N-Force officer looked up, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw his saviour standing right next to him.
Victor extended his hand toward the officer and helped him up. He then turned to address the crowd. ‘People, this is exactly the type of behaviour that would destroy peace. It is so typical of Christians to behave like this, that it makes me sick just looking at you. Have you no regard for other humans? Have you no intention of keeping the peace?’
Some of the people hung their heads in shame; others just stared in awe. All were mesmerized by Victor’s charisma. He appeared out of nowhere, and managed to calm the riot in a matter of seconds.
‘I am sick of those disrupting the work of my hands,’ Victor said and looked at the eight men that tried to push over the truck. ‘I am sick of those who elevate themselves by tearing others down. This anarchy must stop, and you shall be a visual lesson to all that dare defy me. To defy me is to defy God Himself, for I am God!’
The men tried to retreat, but N-Force officers quickly seized them.
‘Take these men to the N-Force watch camps, and execute them. I want their skulls sent to me so that I may use them as cups from which I will drink the blood of my victims.’
No one really understood what Victor meant, but the N-Force officers complied and led the men to a riot truck that had arrived shortly after Victor entered the scene. Victor turned to the people as the truck sped off with the men.
‘For the rest of you,’ he said and scanned the hundreds of people in front of him, ‘only those with the Shield may pass through and receive water.’ He raised his hand into the air. ‘As for those without the Shield...’ he said and violently flung down his arm, ‘you will only receive wrath.’ Those without Shields instantly dropped to the ground. Dead. Less than half remained standing.
‘Let this be a warning to any who tries to defy the Empire.’
The remaining crowd cheered.
Victor turned to the N-Force officer and their eyes locked. ‘I want the heads of these dead people impaled and planted next to the main road leading into Al Jalil.
The N-Force soldier nodded and then saluted. ‘It is done as you wish, my Lord.’
‘Good,’ Victor said and waved his hands in the direction of the people standing nearby. ‘Now hand these loyal followers their water.’
‘Yes, my Lord,’ the officer said, but he was talking to no one. Victor was gone.
- - -* * *- - -
‘We have a week before Victor’s coronation as Sovereign Emperor,’ Trevor said. ‘And then Africa will officially be a part of the European Empire.’
‘The wheels have been set in motion,’ Andrew sighed. ‘The persecution is about to begin.’
‘Get off it, Andy,’ Trevor said. ‘So you were right about a few things. But us joining the Empire can only be a good thing; especially in the context of job creation and economic growth, considering that I do not have a job anymore, thanks to you.’
‘You promised me that you wouldn’t take the Shield.’
‘I also promised myself that I would never pray to Jesus, and yet, I did. People change their minds, Andy. It’s part of what life is all about.’
Andrew sighed. ‘Just wait a while longer at least, all right?’
‘I’ll wait until my life depends on it or my savings runs dry; whichever comes first,’ Trevor said, ‘and then I’m getting it.’
‘That’s good enough for now...’
There was a brief moment of uncomfortable silence between the two. Trevor decided to break it. ‘What happens if I fake the Shield?’ he asked.
‘Fake it?’
‘Yeah,’ Trevor said. ‘Let’s say that I draw one on my hand with a purple marker or something. Wouldn’t that work?’
Andrew twisted his face as he contemplated his answer. ‘It’s not the Shield in itself that’s the problem. Having the Shield is like having a highly advanced Credit Card. In fact, the Shield in itself is a brilliant piece of technology.’
‘Then what is the problem?’
‘It’s what it represents.’
‘And that is?’
‘Your total and unwavering allegiance to the Antichrist. You renounce any sovereign being other than Victor, and that includes Jesus.’
‘That’s not why I would put it on me.’
‘But that’s what it would represent. I don’t know Trev...I just wouldn’t do it if I were you.’
‘There’s a lot of things that you wouldn’t do if you were me,’ Trevor said. ‘But you’re not me. I am. You want me to die for a cause that’s not even mine. Why should I? Because I owe God something?’
Andrew didn’t answer.
‘No, Andy...God owes me! He owes me parents. He owes me a normal childhood. He owes me a brother. He owes me freedom to choose whether I would want to go through this or not.’
‘You had the choice, Trevor,’ Andrew said. His head spun, and he didn’t know what to say to calm his friend down.
‘No,’ Trevor protested. ‘I did not have a choice. It was never there! I never hurt a living thing. I lived a good life. I have even donated to charities. Isn’t that enough? What more does He want?’
‘All those things are useless unless you are washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ,’ Andrew said softly. His voice sounded faint and far, almost as if coming from another source. He prayed for wisdom.
‘Fine,’ Trevor said. ‘Use that pathetic excuse if it works for you. I have given your Jesus a fair shot. I asked Him to help me during those agonizing five months. Not once did He help me...not once!’
‘We have to go through these plagues,’ Andrew said. He just wanted to lay his head down and sleep. He realized that Trevor might have been pushed too far.
&nb
sp; ‘That’s bull,’ Trevor said. ‘In fact, I tell you what: you go through it. But by this time next week, I will have the Shield, and I will be protected from your hate filled God.’
Andrew didn’t dare say anything. Trevor stood up, took his coat, and left Andrew’s apartment without saying another word.
- - -* * *- - -
‘Kill him!’ a woman shouted through the speakers of Andrew’s television. He flinched as a rock struck a man against his head while N-Force officers escorted him down a pathway.
Kill him! The rest of the crowd repeated after her.
Andrew had never in his life thought that he would see something like this on live television. They were in the process of crucifying the first person in little over two thousand years, and they were doing so on a live global broadcast. More rocks were thrown, and the bloody man was flung down next to a wooden cross that he was to be nailed to.
‘Get on it, you dog,’ the N-Force officer spat at the man. ‘Or we will flog you until you do.’
The man slowly and painfully crawled to the cross. He was about to touch the wood when another rock thrown at him punctured his forehead, causing blood to ooze into his eyes. The crowd laughed at the man as he frantically tried to get the blood out of his eyes while trying to hold the gash in his forehead at the same time.
An N-Force officer kicked him in the stomach, and he fell down onto the ground. Other officers then grabbed the man and spread him out on top of the cross.
‘Do you wish to repent?’ the officer asked the man. ‘Are you ready to accept Lord Yoshe as your Lord, God, and Saviour?’
The man just looked away, but two officers grabbed him by the head and forced him to look at his wrist as another officer held a thick tent peg to it. He clenched down on his teeth as the officer lifted a mallet, and let out a scream as the hammer made contact with the peg.
The thick peg drove through the flesh and bone with each clang that the hammer made on its head. It finally bore into the wood of the cross. The procedure was then repeated on the other wrist, and then finally the man’s ankles were nailed together into the splintered wood.
Andrew couldn’t take it anymore. His stomach turned violently, and he knew that he might have to face the same fate sooner or later. He looked away as they raised the cross, but could hear the people cheering in the background. It was a sickening, disturbing cheer; filled of hatred and rage. He wanted to burst out into tears, but for some reason he couldn’t. He snapped off the television and walked to the telephone, then dialled his parents at their international contact number in the United States.
‘Hey dad,’ he said when his father answered. ‘How are you?’
The conversation lasted for a few minutes, with Andrew’s father explaining the rest of the crucifixion in great detail. ‘It is about time that they stopped talking and started doing something about it,’ he said smugly. ‘That aught to teach the people that you cannot mess with the Empire and get away with it.’
‘That man did nothing wrong,’ Andrew said.
‘He was a Christian terrorist, for Heaven’s sake.’
‘Christians are not terrorists,’ Andrew defended. ‘We would never harm anyone.’
There was a brief moment of silence.
‘You’re still a Christian?’ his father asked.
‘I...I am,’ Andrew answered. There was no standing down, and no turning back. There was no denying the Son.
‘Are you insane boy? Don’t you know what will happen if they find out...when they find out?’
‘I do,’ Andrew said. ‘But for me, death is only the beginning.’
‘You are a fool, Andrew Parker!’
‘We all make our own beds, Father,’ Andrew said.
‘But are you willing to sleep in it?’
‘I am,’ Andrew said with certain finality in his voice.
‘So be it then,’ his father said. ‘I will tell mom that you say goodbye.’
‘I love you, Dad...’
‘Goodbye Andrew.’
The line went dead and Andrew kept the phone to his ear for another minute before hanging up. He stumbled through the hallway to his room and fell down on his bed. He started weeping and didn’t stop until he finally fell asleep.
- - -* * *- - -
The man held his hand on the receiver and closed his eyes. He had never thought that he would have to do something like this, but he knew that it was the right thing to do. He picked up the handset and dialled a number. After a few rings, someone answered.
‘Hello?’ he asked. ‘Is this N-Force?’
The person on the other end confirmed.
‘Good,’ Trevor said. ‘I would like to report a Christian terrorist.’
- - -* * *- - -
The sirens were so sudden and loud, that most people in Jerusalem didn’t know what hit them until the spotlights were on them. Many didn’t even have time to properly dress before the N-Force officers burst into their homes.
‘What’s going on?’ the man asked as the N-Force officers entered his home and shone a spotlight on his face. He had to hold his arm out in front of his eyes to block the blinding light. ‘Who are you people?’ he asked, but the only answer he received was the butt of a machine gun to his face. He fell to the ground and felt kicks to his ribs and back.
In the background he could hear his wife and baby son screaming as they were escorted out of the house by the yelling soldiers.
The man tried to get up but was kicked again before being violently pulled up by two soldiers. They dragged him outside where other confused and vulnerable families were also gathered.
‘You have all been found guilty of treason against the Empire,’ an N-Force officer shouted into a megaphone. ‘And for that, you will all be taken to a nearby detainment camp for your hearing.’
The men and women were individually lined up and stripped of their clothing. The children and babies were forced into a separate truck and mothers could only cry as the truck sped off, transporting their children to some unknown destination.
One woman ran after the truck, but machine-gun-fire mowed her down quickly.
‘Let this be a warning to the rest of you,’ the N-Force officer warned. ‘Stay in line, or you will be executed.’
‘This is insane!’ one of the men shouted and jerked himself free from those who were holding him. ‘I refuse to be treated as a criminal for something that I didn’t—’
He never finished the sentence.
Some of the women shrieked as his lifeless body fell to the ground. The officer holstered his pistol and turned to the remaining people. ‘It was not a request,’ he said. ‘It was a command.’
He then turned to another N-Force officer and nodded. The officer disappeared behind a truck, and a few moments later came back carrying a box. He dropped the box in front of the people and intentionally spilled some of its contents.
‘Nail these horseshoes to their feet,’ the ranking officer said to his men. ‘And march them to the detainment camps.’
The officers saluted and then began executing their instructions.
- - -* * *- - -
‘I simply cannot allow our people to be treated like this,’ Timothy shouted and slammed his fist on the meeting table.
‘I understand, Alpha,’ Benny said, ‘but if we dare make a move now, it could implicate our position and the lives of the people we’re harbouring.’
Timothy calmed down and lowered his head. ‘I...I feel so useless. I just cannot stand there and watch that...that monster do this to them. They deserve a fighting chance.’
‘You are right, Timothy, but we have to keep our heads screwed on right, lest we fall prey to N-Force.’
Timothy nodded. He took his seat at the table. He was grateful that the Lord allowed someone of Benny’s calibre to join their team. The two of them had become good friends since they first met.
‘God prepared me for this role,’ he said, ‘and I will fulfil it.’
‘You will fulfil it, Alp
ha,’ Benny said, ‘but all in due time.’
‘Not yet,’ Timothy said as a plan formulated in his head. ‘But in due time...’
- - -* * *- - -
Thousands upon thousands of people streamed to the newly built Coliseum in Al Jalil. The atmosphere was festive and vibrant and roadside stalls occupied the sidewalks a few blocks in each direction. A marching band played as clowns on stilts entertained children and parents alike.
Entering the Coliseum required a quick scan of the Shield, and those without the Shield were quickly escorted to a room obscured from public view.
The structure itself was colossal: a full six storeys of seats, each storey able to contain up to ten thousand people. The seats were filled quickly, and people almost fell to their deaths when Victor himself showed up. The crowd shouted and cheered. Teenage girls cried and held their hands out toward him.
‘This is, to say the least, impressive,’ Antonio said as he escorted Victor to the podium.
‘It is,’ Victor said and waved to a group of women screaming for his attention. One fainted when he smiled at her.
A hush fell over the crowd as he stepped up to the podium. Somewhere in the distance a woman screamed, ‘I love you, Victor,’ and a few people chuckled. Victor smiled and tapped the microphone lightly to confirm the feed.
‘It is a great day for the Empire,’ he said and the people cheered. When they calmed down again, he continued: ‘Leaders from all over the world have joined us today to witness three major events in history: the merging of the African Union with the European Empire, my coronation as Sovereign Emperor, and of course, the return of the Gladiator Arena.’
The people cheered and clapped. It took a while before they calmed down again.