by gerald hall
Once they all had that moment of grieving, Marilyn took a step back, wiped the tears from her eyes and began to speak.
“Jeff is asking that everyone not directly involved in defending the town please evacuate. Benjamin and Lissette are coming with me to meet with a vehicle convoy near Marengo. I really want the two of you to come with us while we have a chance.”
“I’m sorry, Marilyn. I know that you mean well for an old preacher like me. But, I am staying here to take care of the spiritual needs of the people who still remain in our town, Cynthia.” Joshua responded after thinking for a few moments. He then sadly smiled, quietly looking over at Cynthia as though he wanted her to go with Marilyn.
“Then I am staying too, Dear.” His wife firmly stated.
“You need to get out of here, Cynthia.” Joshua insisted.
“No, Dear. If you are staying, then so am I. I really can’t see living without you after all of these years that we have spent together anyway. Besides, who is going to protect you? In all of these years, I have never seen you ever pick up a gun. I will, at least, have my pistol if this town falls and someone tries to hurt you or me. That is the least that I can do. I know that Melanie would expect nothing less of me.” Cynthia said with tears welling up in the eyes as she thought of the recent death of her dear friend.
“I really wish that you would leave before it is too late. I’m sure that Deborah still has a place reserved for you up there on Mars. She would love for you to come live there with her.” Joshua told his wife.
“I know. But my place is still with you, no matter what. We know that the kids are all going to be safe though. That is what is most important, dear.”
Joshua looked into his wife’s eyes. They had been married now for over thirty years, so he already knew from that determined look in Cynthia’s expression that she was not about to change her mind now. He then turned back towards Marilyn.
“We really do appreciate your offer. But we’ve both decided to stay. I know that I’ve now got at least one more funeral to plan for as it is. I’m also sure that there will be a lot of our good men and women out there trying to protect us who will need our prayers and a shoulder to cry on.
You make sure to take your kids and go find a place of safety. If you get to see our kids, especially Deborah, please send them our love and our thanks too. They will understand our decision, I’m sure.” Joshua said before turning and walking back inside, leaving Cynthia still there at the door.”
“I know that you want to save us. But, I’ve already had more than twenty years on this Earth than perhaps I was supposed to have anyway.”
“What do you mean, Cynthia?” Marilyn then asked, curious about what her old friend meant.
Then Cynthia began to tell the story of how she had fallen down the stairs into the basement and broken her neck. Both women soon had tears running down their cheeks as Cynthia recounted how six-year old Deborah healed her and saved her life.
“She knew even back then that she had the ‘gift’, didn’t she?” Marilyn asked.
“Yes. But even as a child, she had this incredible wisdom on how to deal with having such power at her fingertips. She is truly a blessing. But now, it is time for me to truly let her go and stay with Joshua to help these men and women for the last time. They will need the hope that our presence will bring them during this dark hour, I know. But I also know that you and your children need to leave while you can, my dear friend. It is the right thing for you to do. Just remember what I asked you to do. OK?””
Marilyn sadly nodded her head in acceptance of her friends’ decision.
“I will. I promise.” She replied, renewed tears rolling down her face at the recognition that this was probably going to be the last time that she would ever see her friends again.
“Our prayers will be with you all. I already know that the Lord will be with you always.” Cynthia said as the three old friends embraced each other one last time before Marilyn turned and left.
A few minutes later, Marilyn returned back to her home. Benjamin and Lissette were already waiting to leave, their bicycles and trailers packed with necessary supplies.
“Are the Marcum’s not coming, Mom?”
“No. I’m afraid not. They feel that they are needed more here to provide spiritual support for those who are staying to defend this town. I have to respect their decision too.”
“Well, we are ready now to go. I saw some other people moving to the eastern side of town along with all of the children who were still here. I guess that they are going to try to get to that refugee convoy too.” Benjamin explained.
“I’m sure. I just have to get a couple more things. Then, we will all be ready to leave.” Marilyn quickly replied before rushing back into the house.
A couple of minutes later, she came out with her ‘bug-out bags’, a couple of additional bags of food and water, her sniper rifle and a couple of ammunition bandoliers. Marilyn had already been carrying a Glock 19 with the modular red dot optics in her hip holster. She then strapped all of her gear into a two-wheel trailer that was attached to her bicycle.
“Let’s get going now.” Marilyn said after throwing a large rucksack on her back, then getting onto her bicycle.
The three started riding towards the east, quickly joining up with a small caravan of men, women and children. Most of the refugees from Ashley were on foot, since there was little fuel available in town for vehicles. A few had bicycles like the Barnes though.
Marilyn and her children could have easily outrun the rest of the refugees. Not only did they have bicycles, but all three of them had electric-pedal assist motors mounted. But, they instead chose to stay with the others just in case of attack. Benjamin and Lissette both were armed with a rifle and pistol each also.
It took about five hours for the group to make it from Ashley to Marengo. Several times, the refugees had to run to the ditches to hide because of a low-flying aircraft approaching. But fortunately, they were never attacked from the air or the ground. Once there, the refugees linked up with a small convoy made up of requisitioned civilian trucks and buses. The bicycles and other personal gear were all thrown in the back of a couple of trucks while most of the people got into the buses. Two hours after Marilyn and her children arrived in Marengo, they were riding across the backroads of mid-western Ohio towards I-77 and a hoped for safe refuge from the horrors of war.
Marilyn still couldn’t help but to feel a terrible sense of guilt for leaving so many of her friends behind in Ashley. She knew in her heart that she would probably never see any of them again this side of Heaven.
Five hundred miles to the northwest near the remains of the great city of Chicago, the leader of the Pacific Caliphate was visiting to see the progress against the last resistance to his jihad.
“How is the fight against the infidels progressing, General?” Emir Suparman Asegaff asked his commander in chief of the entire Pacific Caliphate military, General Mohammed Tonga.
“We have made significant advances in many areas where the infidels have been resisting us up to recently. We had always assumed that the major population centers would be major points of resistance. We had planned on bypassing them, cutting them off from their logistics support and allowing them to die on the vine. Our group forces were to push through the more lightly populated rural areas for that purpose.
A primary point for our forces to advance through was in the central part of the State of Ohio. We ran into heavy resistance from a local militia group from a town named Ashley that was apparently very well organized and equipped. They had even acquired several shoulder-launcher antiaircraft missiles that they used to shoot down a number of our scarce ground attack aircraft. Our losses in ground forces have also been very heavy there. This small group of infidel warriors has managed to stall our entire offensive in that region.
Now, we have heard reports that there are many people beginning to rally against our forces because of the successful resistance of the people from th
is town in Ohio. It is also causing morale among our new converts to fall dramatically. They are even beginning to oppose fighting against other Americans.”
“So we must crush the resistance of this Ashley, Ohio as soon as possible. You are authorized to use any means necessary to do so.”
“I fear that we must utilize ‘special munitions’ to eradicate the infidel fighters and the people still in the town supporting them. They are just too well entrenched for our mujahedeen to overcome without suffering catastrophic losses.”
“Then do it. We must push on before we also run out of the means of waging modern technological warfare, ourselves. The scraps from the American military that we have been using recently to replace our more modern weapons are running out now too.
I also realize, because of how fiercely they have opposed us that these infidels will never accept the Prophet and submit willingly to Allah and his law. Therefore, it is better that these infidels die quickly before they cause us even more problems in the future. ”
“I will immediately issue the order, Your Excellency.” General Tonga replied without emotion.
A former California Air National Guard C-130 transport flew high western Ohio with its cargo ramp open two nights later. When it reached the vicinity of Ashley, the loadmaster of the aircraft began to shove out a series of large 55-gallon steel barrels out of the back. At the same time, a diversionary air raid by Caliphate strike aircraft was underway. It served to keep Alliance fighters away from that solitary transport while it was making its horrific strike.
Ashley’s defenders could barely hear the sound of the transport’s four turboprop engines as it flew over. But they had no idea of what was on the way down from it. A little more than a minute after the first barrel rolled down the Hercules’ cargo ramp, a series of low yield explosions began to erupt across Ashley as the barrels struck the ground and a small exploder charge in each one detonated.
No one could see the cloud of phosgene begin to slowly envelop the town because of the darkness. The first real indication of the choking agent’s presence was the actual manifestation of symptoms. Some people felt themselves choking after inhaling the gas and were unable to raise a warning before being incapacitated. Many others were asleep and never even knew what had just killed them. A few of the militia were able to react in time and put on a protective mask. But by then, it was far too late to save more than a tiny fraction of Ashley’s remaining population.
By the middle of the following morning, Caliphate forces simply drove in and secured what was left of Ashley, Ohio with hardly a shot fired. By the end of the day, there were no survivors at all within Ashley. The Caliphate then continued their push towards I-71 and the Alliance combat aircraft still operating from the improvised highway airstrips there.
The convoy that Marilyn, her children and the other refugees from Ashley finally arrived early in the morning after five days of traveling. Most of the time, they had traveled during the hours of darkness to avoid any Caliphate attack aircraft that had also been hunting down the remaining Alliance highway air strips.
They got out of the trucks, grabbed their belongings and went over to the nearest mess tent to get some hot food. Marilyn and the others had been basically eating little more than emergency food rations ever since they left their homes.
A few minutes after Marilyn got into one of the food lines, Benjamin came rushing up to her, his expression was clearly one of shock and grief.
“Have you heard what happened in Ashley after we left?” He asked his mother.
“No. No one has said anything to me about it. Did something bad happen there?”
“Yes. The jihadists bombed it with chemical weapons the night before last. There’s no one left there now. All of our friends that we left behind are dead.” Benjamin tried to say without breaking down, but could not restrain the grief-filled tears that had started to roll down his face.
Lissette walked up, also crying. She had just heard the news herself as well. The three of them simply held each other as they remembered all of the dear friends that they had just lost. But none of them had been hurt as badly as Marilyn herself as she remembered the last minutes that she got to spend with her dear friends, Joshua and Cynthia.
Joshua wanted so badly to make a difference for all of those brave men and women who had stayed at their posts and continued to fight. But he and Cynthia had been snuffed out of existence before he really had that chance.
Marilyn knew that Joshua and Cynthia were going to be together in Heaven, free of pain and fear. There were few people that Marilyn had ever known who had such strong faith and such love for their neighbors. But she still felt that profound sense of loss over their deaths, regardless. She also had one question that few people would even consider.
What would Deborah do when she found out about her adoptive parents’ deaths? Clearly she had the ability to reap a terrible vengeance if she chose to.
Chapter Thirty Six:
Deborah and Peter Sorenson’s Quarters
Hebes Chasma, Mars
August 10, 2048
“Deborah, we just received some bad news from Earth.” Peter Sorenson grimly told his wife. He did not need to say anything more before Deborah instantly knew.
“Mom and Dad are dead. I had an ominous feeling about that for the past few days already. They were killed by the Caliphate, weren’t they?”
“Yes, Dear. I’m afraid so. Actually, almost everyone in your hometown died also. The initial reports indicate that the Caliphate launched a major chemical weapons attack against Ashley in the middle of the night. They followed up with a ground attack a few hours later. All reports indicate that the Caliphate forces that went into Ashley did not take any prisoners.”
Deborah silently stood there for a few moments after hearing the news, her head bowed down and hands clasped together. Peter then feared that she would somehow summon up the power of that tremendous gift of hers to strike out in some way. But, Deborah was not even thinking about that at all. Instead, she was deeply in prayer, asking for guidance as to what to do after this atrocity.
Deborah finally looked up, tears welling silently in her eyes, but otherwise utterly calm.
“It’s alright, Peter. I know that you are a little afraid, but I’m OK.”
“I was afraid that you were going to do something to get revenge on the people who killed your Mom and Dad.” A relieved Peter answered.
“No. I could never do that, Sweetheart. There is nothing that I could do to bring them back. All that I could possibly do is cause even more death. I’ve already been a part of enough of that for several lifetimes. I don’t want to do that again. I would much rather be a part of life and of building a new world where people live in peace and freedom instead. I’m sure that is what the Lord brought me to life in order to do instead of merely to break things and kill people.”
Peter walked up to Deborah and wrapped his arms around her, his own tears beginning to roll down his cheeks as they embraced.
“We’ve lost so many friends there. But I know that it has to be worse for you because you have known them all of your life.”
“Some of them may have gotten out in time. You know that an offer was made several weeks ago by the colony here for my family still on Earth and others that we knew in Ashley for priority passage to Hebes Chasma.” Deborah noted.
“I wonder how many of them are still alive?”
“We will just have to pray and wait, Peter. That’s all that we can do for the moment. I have to hope that at least some of those people were able to get out of harm’s way before the Caliphate launched that brutal attack.”
“Maybe Arthur knows something? He’s been running flight operations between Earth and here. I’m sure that he has access to passenger manifests and things like that.”
“After he learns of what happened in Ashley, I’m sure that Arthur will pull out all of the stops to find out if anyone made it out of Ashley before the town’s people were so suddenly e
xterminated.”
“You better go tell your brother Aaron about what happened to his parents before he finds out from someone else, Deborah. It would be a lot better if the news came from you rather than some stranger.”
“I will. Just give me a couple of minutes to myself so that I can pray about what to say to my brother and about my own feelings at the moment. I’m sure that the Lord is taking care of my adoptive parents just as He is taking care of my biological parents. But something good has to come out of all of this pain. It just has to. I just don’t see God’s plan in all of this, just yet.”
“Sweetheart, you have been given this incredible gift. God is not going to let you down, not ever. We just have to keep our eyes and our hearts open. We will be alright, no matter what.”
Deborah leaned over and gently kissed her husband.
“Thank you for the faith that you have had in me, Hun. Sometimes, I think that you are the truly intelligent one. Of course, I am just thankful that you have put up with me for so long.” She said with a laugh.
At about the same time that Deborah had learned about the death of her adoptive parents, Arthur Wheeler had just flown down via his personal gravity drive shuttle Manassas from Hebes Chasma to the fifteen-kilometer diameter Class-M asteroid that most people only knew as Asteroid 1511A. The asteroid was the first of six such asteroids that had been placed in Martian orbit through the efforts of the nuclear-powered deep space probes that had been wandering through the asteroid belt for most of the past two decades.
Mars now had eight moons orbiting around it, most of them actually larger than Phobos and Deimos. The Martian colonists had examined Phobos to look into the possibility of stabilizing her orbit to prevent her ultimate destruction. But it was later determined that Phobos was simply too fragile structurally to be moved by one of the nuclear powered probes without the planet probably breaking up into thousands of pieces of dangerous orbital debris.
So instead of moving it, the larger of Mars’ two original moons was being mined for all of the minerals that she contains. At the same time, Phobos is being broken apart so that she will never be a threat to the humans now living on the Red Planet.