by Sarah Lotz
After I heard Pastor Len’s show and read that website, I don’t think I slept for three days. I could feel something growing inside me. Course, Pastor Len told me later it was the Holy Spirit.
I sent him an email, saying how I’d been real impressed by what he was saying. I didn’t think there was much of a chance I’d hear back from him. But I’m damned if he didn’t send me a message within the hour. And a personal one, not one of those automated messages lots of people use. I know it off by heart. Must’ve read it a million times: ‘Monty, I sure appreciate you contacting me. Your faith and honesty proves that I am on the right path, the path to saving more good folks just like yourself.’
I waited till my day off, then I drove through the night, straight to Sannah County and Pastor Len’s church. Waited in line to get saved. Had to have been fifty people that day and there was a real festive atmosphere. We all knew we were doing the right thing. When I introduced myself to Pastor Len as he came along the line, thanking us for coming to his church, I never thought he would recall who I was, but he knew me straight off. ‘You’re the fella who wrote me from Kendrick!’ he said.
The way he explained things so clear, I realised that I’d been blind for years. It broke my ma’s heart that I turned my back on the church when I was younger, and I wished that she could have lived long enough to see that I went back to Jesus’ fold. How can I not have seen we were heading for the End of Days? How can the Lord not have been priming to bring down His judgement on us after what was going on in the world? The more I looked into it, the more it made my head spin. Do you know that children in America are made, made to read the Koran in schools? But not the Bible, no ma’am. Intelligent Design is banned, but not the handbook of the infidels? Then there’s the gays and the baby murderers and the liberals conspiring to turn America into a godless nation. Dr Theodore Lund was right about that, even if he did turn his back on Pastor Len’s truth afterwards. Turned out that Dr Lund just wanted all the glory that came from Pamela’s message for himself. He wasn’t dedicated to saving souls; not like Pastor Len was.
EM: When did you decide to move to Sannah County?
MS: After I was saved, I came home and wrote Pastor Len almost every day for a few weeks. I felt a calling to move closer to his church round about early March and become one of his Messengers. It wasn’t a hard decision, the Lord was nudging me in that direction. When Pastor Len invited me to move to the ranch, I didn’t think twice. Jacked in my job, sold my truck and hitched all the way to Sannah County. He needed me as his good right hand.
EM: Do you have a history of violence?
MS: Not really, ma’am. Just the odd schoolyard fight, couple of bust-ups back when I used to drink. Not saying I was squeaky clean, but I was never a violent individual. Never ran into any trouble with the law.
EM: Where did the weapon you used to shoot Bobby Small come from?
MS: That particular gun belonged to Jim Donald. Wasn’t the one he used on himself, but one he’d given to us for safe-keeping. But I knew how to shoot. My father taught me how to use a gun before he cut out and left me and my ma, back when I was twelve.
EM: Did you know Jim Donald?
MS: Not well, ma’am. I met him once or twice. Pastor Len said he was struggling to come to terms with the death of his wife. Pastor Len did what he could to help him, but you could see Jim was real cut up about that. He was a real martyr, just like Pamela. He saw the truth about the destruction the horsemen had wrought on the world, and how they’d murdered those innocents on the planes.
EM: Did Pastor Len instruct you to travel to New York to kill Bobby Small?
MS: I did what anyone who cares about saving souls would have done. I was acting as God’s soldier, doing what I could to eradicate the threat and give people more time to be saved before the Rapture. If we can stop the signs in their tracks, halt the horsemen’s work, then we have more time to spread Jesus’ message and bring more people into the fold. Now that they’ve found that fourth horseman, now that fire and brimstone is falling upon the earth with all those natural disasters–the floods in the Philippines and Europe, and those tsunami warnings in Asia–we don’t have long.
EM: But if you believe that the four horsemen are God’s messengers, weren’t you concerned that by attempting to murder Bobby Small you would be punished by God?
MS: Now wait just one minute, ma’am. No one’s talking about murder. When the Antichrist comes, when that sixth seal is broken, there’s no going back. There’s no guarantee that you’ll get a second chance during the Tribulation. I am on God’s side; He knows that Pastor Len and the Pamelists are working hard to bring more people into his fold. And those children were unnatural. Everyone could see that. After a while they started using their power and flaunting it. They may have started off as God’s messengers, but I firmly believe what Jim told us–that they became tools of the Antichrist in the end.
EM: Did Pastor Len Vorhees instruct you to shoot Bobby?
MS: I can’t answer that, ma’am.
EM: Many people believe that you acted under Pastor Len Vorhees’s influence and that he should be as accountable as you.
MS: Jesus was punished for spreading God’s truth. It doesn’t matter to me what they say. I’ll be in Jesus’ arms soon. They can lock me up, they can put me in the chair, it’s all the same to me. And maybe it’s all part of Jesus’ plan. I’m locked in here with sinners, and here’s my chance to save as many of them as I can.
PART NINE
SURVIVORS
MAY–JUNE
In the weeks since Ryu first appeared on the 2-chan forum, the speculation over whether his princess was actually Hiro Yanagida’s cousin grew to fever pitch. Ryu eventually returned to the forum under his Orz Man avatar.
NAME: ORZ MAN POST DATE: 2012/05/01 21:22:22.30
Hi guys. Don’t know if any of u who were on the thread I started a while back are online. Blown away by the way u guys have jumped on my story.
Just wanted to say thanks again.
NAME: ANONYMOUS23
Orz! Cool to have u back. So????? Did it work??? Did u get yr princess?
NAME: ORZ MAN
Simple answer: Yes. We r now together.
[This is followed by at least a hundred variations on ‘w00t’, and ‘u r such a Bad Ass Mutherfucker/Boss/Man/The Dude’ etc. Ryu goes on to explain how he sprayed an ORZ symbol outside Chiyoko’s house to get her attention, much to the Netizens’ glee.]
NAME: ANONYMOUS557
Orz. Got to know. Is the princess Android Boy’s cousin?
NAME: ORZ MAN
I was waiting for you to ask me that… I’ve been following some of the threads. I can’t confirm for obvious reasons.
NAME: ANONYMOUS890
Orz, u met Android Boy yet?
NAME: ORZ MAN
See above. _|7O
NAME: ANONYMOUS330
How hot is the princess, dude?
NAME: ORZ MAN
How to answer this and be honest…
When I first saw her… She wasn’t the person I thought she was. But somehow, that didn’t matter.
NAME: ANONYMOUS765
So she’s the fat chick who was at the memorial service and not the one who looks like Hazuki? Bummer, dude.
NAME: ANONYMOUS111
Welcome back, Orz. Ignore 765
NAME: ANONYMOUS762
Dude, get to the good bits. Have you done her yet????
NAME: ANONYMOUS111
Don’t be crude. Let Orz Man speak
NAME: ORZ MAN
I’m going to sound soppy here, but guys, being with her has changed my life.
Even though she is a princess, we have more in common than I thought possible. She has also had a hard time in the past like me. We have the same views on everything: society, music, gaming, even politics. Yeah, we have heavy conversations sometimes!
Even started telling her stuff I haven’t told anyone before.
She helped me find a job at a Lawsons
outlet, so I now have some money coming in (not much, but enough to keep me from starving).
This is going to sound lame… but sometimes I have this dream that we are married and living together in an apartment and we never have to go out.
NAME: ANONYMOUS200
Aw. Yr making me jealous here, Orz.
NAME: ANONYMOUS201
Sounds like lurve.
NAME: ANONYMOUS7889
Come on, Orz Man, tell us about Hiro. Have you met his surrabot yet?
NAME: ANONYMOUS1211
What does he think about the Cult of Hiro?
NAME: ORZ MAN
Guys, no offence, but this is a public message board and I can’t talk about this in detail. The princess will freak out if anything I said got into the magazines.
NAME: ANONYMOUS111
U can trust us, Orz, but see yr point.
NAME: ORZ MAN
Let’s just say that a certain person is soothing to be around. Not like anyone I have ever met.
That is all I am going to say.
NAME: ANONYMOUS764
How often do you see the princess?
NAME: ORZ MAN
Almost every night. Her parents are kind of strict, and they wouldn’t approve of her seeing someone like me so we have to sneak around.
There’s a small children’s playground opposite her house and I wait there for her. There’s an apartment block next to it, so sometimes I feel like I’m being watched, but I can stand it.
NAME: ANONYMOUS665
Orz smokes another cigarette, waiting for his princess to come out and join him. He knows he looks cool. Maybe tonight will be the night. Some of the neighbours look out of their windows at him but he knows they won’t mess with him. He flexes his muscles and they disappear.
NAME: ANONYMOUS9883
The ice princess runs out of the door wearing nothing but a short dress that is see thru…
NAME: ANONYMOUS210
The princess falls into his arms and she doesn’t care who is watching her…
[The thread is disrupted by graphic descriptions of a sexual nature]
NAME: ORZ MAN
*blushes*
Can u imagine if she ever read that?
NAME: ANONYMOUS45
Dude, tell us that you did it with her for reals.
NAME: ORZ MAN
I got to go. She’s waiting for me.
NAME: ANONYMOUS887
Orz, don’t leave us out of it. We’re there with u every step of the way. A geek getting a princess? How often does that happen outside of galge?
NAME: ANONYMOUS2008
Yeah Orz u owe it to us to let us know how the story goes.
NAME: ORZ MAN
I know. Knowing u guys are there for us makes all the difference even if you are deranged sex fiends.
It’s good to know we r not alone.
I spoke to graphic artist and Greenpoint resident Neil Mellancamp via Skype in June 2012.
After all those whackos started showing up, no one in the neighbourhood came right out and said they wished Lillian and Bobby would move somewhere else, but you could see most of us were thinking it.
I live a few blocks from Lillian’s place, on the other side of McCarren Park, and the neighbourhood became a circus pretty much day one after they found out where Bobby lived. Whole area was buzzing. First there were the reporters and the guys who wanted a soundbite for one of their blogs or tweets or whatever: ‘What’s it like living so close to the miracle child?’ etc., etc. I always told them to go fuck themselves, although there were lots of guys in the neighbourhood who saw this as a chance for their fifteen minutes. Assholes. Then came the UFO crowd. They were totally mondo bizarro, but you could tell most of them were harmless. They’d hang out outside Bobby’s building shouting shit like, ‘I wanna go with you, Bobby!’ but the cops cleared them out. They weren’t as tenacious as the religious whack-jobs. Those ones came in waves. There were freaking scores of the fuckers when the news broke about Lillian’s husband, a whole contingent who wanted Bobby to heal them–looked to me like they’d hired themselves a bus and driven down especially from Nutsville Carolina or wherever. ‘Bobby! Bobby!’ you could hear them shout, even after it got dark. ‘I got cancer, touch me and heal me.’ Those weren’t anywhere near as bad as the nasty ones, who’d hang around the park and harass people. ‘God hates fags,’ they’d shout, but what that had to do with a six-year-old is anyone’s guess. There were others that looked like they’d fallen straight out of a comic strip: ‘The End is Near,’ and ‘Have YOU been saved?’ on their T-shirts and placards. Soon it felt like I couldn’t step outside the apartment without running into one of them. You know the neighbourhood, right? It’s a mix, like a lot of Brooklyn, you got your arty crowd, hipsters, Hasidics, lots of guys from the Dominican Republic, but the nut-jobs stood out a mile.
Don’t get me wrong, much as it all got old really quickly, I felt sorry for Lillian. Most of us did. My girlfriend reported a couple of the nastier ones for hate speech, but what could the cops do? Those freaks didn’t care if they were arrested. They wanted to be martyrs.
That morning, I was heading to work, and for some reason, I decided to take the L train rather than the bus, which meant I had to walk through the park and on past Lillian’s building. In the early mornings, a lot of what my girlfriend calls the ‘hipster dad gang’ jog through the park while pushing their baby buggies, but the guy I saw hanging around the benches near the sports centre was definitely not a stay-at-home dad who dabbled in pop-up restauranteuring or whatever in his spare time. This dude was just sitting there, but I could tell something was off with him, and not just because of how he was dressed. It was a warm morning–not hot and humid like it sometimes gets–but muggy, and this guy was dressed for winter, long black army-style trenchcoat, a black beanie hat. I nodded at him as I passed by, but he looked straight through me. I tried to shrug it off, but when I reached Lorimer I just got this feeling that I should hang around, check what he was doing in the neighbourhood. For all I knew, he could just be some poor homeless guy or whatever, but something told me to be sure. I looked around for the cops that were sometimes parked outside Lillian’s building, but I couldn’t see them. I’m not a spiritual person or anything, but this voice inside me said, Neil, go get yourself a coffee, check the dude out, and then head to work. So that’s what I did. I grabbed a large black Americano from Orgasmic Organic and started on back to the park.
When I got back to Lillian’s street, I could see the creepy dude heading towards me, walking really slowly. That feeling came back, and I knew there was something seriously wrong with him. The street wasn’t empty, there were lots of people heading out to work, but I focussed on him and sped up my pace. The door to Lillian’s apartment opened, and an old woman with dyed red hair and a kid in a baseball cap stepped out onto the pavement. I knew it was them straight away. Whoever thought up that disguise didn’t use their imagination.
‘Watch out!’ I screamed. The next bit happened fast, but also like in slow motion, if that makes sense. The creepy guy pulled out a gun–I don’t know guns so I couldn’t have told you what it was–and just started crossing the road, ignoring the traffic. I didn’t think twice. I ran straight for him, flipped the lid off the top of my coffee, and threw it right at the fucker. Right in his face. He still got a shot off, but it went wide, hit a Chevrolet that was parked in the street.
Everyone was screaming and yelling, ‘Get down, get the fuck down!’
Next thing I know, this dude came out of nowhere–found out later he was an off-duty cop who’d just gotten off work–and shouted at the gunman to ‘drop his fucking weapon’. The freaky dude did as he said, but by then you could see he wasn’t a threat. He was blubbering and rubbing at his eyes and face. That coffee was hot and his skin was bright red. He dropped to his knees in the middle of the road and the cop kicked his gun away and got straight on his radio.
I ran over to Lillian and Bobby. Lillian’s face was ashen,
and I was scared she was going to have a heart attack or a stroke or something. But Bobby, I don’t know if it was the shock or whatever, but he’d started giggling. Lillian grabbed his hand and pulled him inside. Seemed like seconds later the street was full of police cars. That freaky dude was hauled to his feet and taken away. I hope the fucker rots in hell.
That cop called me later, said I was a hero. Mayor’s office said I was looking at a civilian medal for bravery. But I did what anyone would’ve done, you know?
I didn’t see Lillian and Bobby around the neighbourhood after that. They went to that safe house, right? That’s what the old lady who lived in their building said. Lillian sent me this really cool email, saying as how she’ll never forget what I did that day. I teared up when I read it. The next time I saw them was on the news.