by J. Thorn
Rick shrugged. “I don’t know. Something feels fake, odd, about this place. Like it’s not supposed to be.”
“It isn’t,” Raphael spoke softly as he entered the kitchen. “May I have a word with you? I’m gathering everyone in the living room.”
Rick said, “Sure,” and didn’t hesitate in his leaving.
Alex started to leave.
Mack waited.
“Mack?” Alex called to him.
“Go on,” Mack said. He stared at Raphael, knowing his look was saying that he needed to speak to him.
“What is it?” Raphael asked, after Rick and Alex left.
“Why are you gathering us?”
“To explain everything.”
“And you couldn’t do this explanation when you joined us? What? Did you have to think of it?”
Raphael smiled. “Rick said you would say that. But, no, I had to wait.”
“Until?”
“All of you believe.” He turned. “And don’t kid yourself, Mack. I know where your mind is.”
After he walked out, Mack stayed behind a few moments, perhaps his reluctance to admit anything. He finished his drink and then joined the others.
They were waiting for him, when he walked in the living room. All seated, with Raphael standing before them.
He simply stated that he’d begin by taking any questions.
“Mine’s not a question,” Mack said. “I just want to go on the record as saying I’m insulted right now because—”
Raphael finished his sentence, “Because you have been the leader, and now all of a sudden they are going to listen to me?”
“Yeah.” Mack nodded. “On what basis? You say you’re an angel.”
Nicole scoffed a laugh. “Mack, you saw what the arrow did. You saw nothing was left. But the road was fine.”
Mack tossed out his hands. “How do I know he didn’t invent it?”
Fr. Owens groaned. “I should have known that was coming from you. And, Raphael, you were very clear that you weren’t saying anything until all of us believe. Is this an act, Mack?”
“No.”
Raphael explained, “I didn’t mean believe as in what is what’s happening and why. I meant believing in God. Mack believes, in fact, a part of him even believes that Billy is the Second Coming.”
Mack looked up, surprised. “What?” He laughed.
“Denying, Mack?” Raphael asked. “Isn’t that why you took him fishing. Even made a comment. Just in case?”
“He caught a lot of fish.”
“He did,” Raphael said, and looked about the faces. “Mack believes in God. Mack just doesn’t believe that God had anything to do with what happened to the world. He doesn’t want to believe it. He knows ahead of time he doesn’t the like the answers. We were waiting on Nicole to believe. She believed today.”
Nicole lowered her head. “This house. This farm. It was more than I expected. Like a gift.”
“It is,” Raphael replied. “It is a gift, a rest, before you go onward. And we must. None of this will last. There are several other places like this along your journey, but you have to get to them. Each will only last until sunup. Then you must move. The Resurrected will come.”
Del asked, “What are they? Damned souls?”
Raphael shook his head. “No. In a limbo. Their time in limbo is determined by their physical being. Once you dissolve their physical being, you release their souls. And now they will come faster and stronger.” With a snap of his fingers, he turned to Rick. “Tell me why, right off the top of your head.”
“We crossed some sort of line, a border,” Rick answered. “A zone.”
Mack laughed. “And that makes sense, how?”
Raphael answered, “That’s his gift. Have you not noticed, any of you, the gifts you have.” He looked about them. “Rick has the gift of being able to tap into the Resurrected. He senses them, what they do and why. Nicole you have the gift of smelling them. You know this. Fr. Owens can spot safe zones. He spotted this farm first and will spot anywhere they have not been.”
Alex interjected, “Del can see them like he has eyes in back of his head.”
Raphael nodded. “You are the protector of the child. You have yet to be in that position to really have to protect him with your life and being, but when you do … Your gift will emerge. And Mack …”
Mack looked up.
“Mack is the only one, other than me, that can shoot an arrow and make it work. He is the warrior. He has the gift of battle and can fight like no other, withstand like no other.”
Del released an “Ah,” and nodded. “That totally makes sense, dude. That’s why you can do the shit you do.”
Mack grunted. “I always could do that.”
With a debatable groan, Alex tilted her head. “Not really.”
“What?” Mack blasted.
“I saw you in that bar fight. You got your butt beat and you’re a big guy. Nah, we’re gonna be honest. You are a lot more tough now, and I don’t think a year ago, you could run so fast.”
“You’re nuts.” Mack waved out his hand.
“Mack has always been strong,” Raphael said.
Fr. Owens asked, “So there are 144,000 marked.”
“In a sense,” Raphael answered.
“In a sense?” Mack asked. “What’s that mean?”
“It means, when the number of 144,000 was given, it was a percentage of population. Same percentage adheres, just a lot more people. Millions, tens of millions.”
Mack shook his head. “Tens of millions? Really? Where are they? I would think we would have run into them.”
“No, they are protected in cities across this world. It is a big world. They know not of how they came to be there, just that they are.”
“So we’re part of them?” Del asked.
“No. If we use the number 144,000, you can say there were 144,007. You are not part of that. You are chosen to rid this world of the Resurrected. You’re doing that now, but you’re not supposed to do that until you deliver Billy to the city. He is blessed, he is the secret to humanity, and he was Forgotten. Nothing shall live or grow until all the marked have been delivered to the city. The Resurrected are sucking life from this world. Once all marked are safe, then life will flourish and the Cleansing shall commence. Life grows again once an area is cleared. You can wait it out for the seven years or you can do as you’ve been doing. Clean the Earth.”
“Where is the city?” Del asked. “The Earth’s a big place.”
“This is one of many; the closest city for you to deliver is out West.”
Del tugged his ear. “A little more specific please?”
Raphael tossed back his head and spewed forth the answer as if Del should have known. “It’s where the canyons form and the earth is dry.”
Del bobbed his head, and spoke with a sarcastic tone, “Oh, that’s sounds like a great place to grow things. No wonder it’s dying. We’re already behind the clock on that place. It’s a desert.”
“Wait. Wait.” Mack stood. “Let me get this straight. We aren’t marked. We aren’t special enough to get in the city, we’re the cleanup crew.”
“You all are special. You have been chosen to bring the Blessed Child, the only child, to the gates.”
“They get a life-flourishing city, and we’re the cleanup crew?”
“You’re looking at this all wrong.”
“How else am I supposed to look at this? What if we don’t take Billy? If he’s so blessed, then he won’t die.”
“The millions will,” Raphael said.
“Ask me if I care.”
“I don’t need to. I know you do.”
“Do these millions have any idea what we are giving them? What we are doing?”
“No. But the Resurrected do. They thank you as their souls are released.”
“They thank the cleanup crew.”
Slightly, Raphael grew frustrated. “You are not the cleanup crew. You are Chosen. Do you no
t get it? The millions have been given a city, but you six … have inherited the Earth. The Earth, Mack. You just need to get the child to the city in the West. It sits in the desert. The arrows will help you clear paths.”
Del asked, “What is the destruction power of a single arrow? Numbers. How many Dokes can one arrow take out?”
“It is a God arrow. Whatever surrounds you. Although, as you near your destination, one may not be enough.”
“Dude, there’s only three left,” Del said. “Three? That’s gonna get us to the desert?”
Raphael shook his head. “Sadly, that probably won’t be enough. But each of you, are in a sense, an arrow. You didn’t notice before because you’d get bit, you would shoot and destroy the Resurrected. Had you just waited, you would have seen what happened in a few seconds.”
Rick questioned, “So we offer our arm, the whole horde explodes.”
“The more severe the damage to you, the more severe the explosion. Unfortunately, to have the power that is delivered by the arrow, you must die by the Resurrected. And I am told, each you will contemplate making that Sacrifice as you near the city. Some of you will.”
“Hell with that,” Mack argued. “We’ll just carry destructive power.”
Raphael stepped to him. “How many people were in this country, Mack? Close to four hundred million? Ten percent Raptured. Less than one percent saved in the city. Half the remaining killed by the Resurrected, but that still leaves hundreds of millions. How many have you killed? Where are they?”
Rick answered, “Waiting.”
Raphael nodded. “Yes. Waiting. I am sensing so much anger, Mack. Why?”
“Why?” Mack ridiculed. “I’m angry because it’s over. Life as we know it is over. Because God decided he was done? Because God decided man wasn’t good enough. If He didn’t like where we were going with life, then why give us free will. He picks and chooses who lives and dies. Who roams this Earth like an abomination? Who cleans up after him? He took my son. My son was my life. I loved him more than anything. Ask Alex … ask her, I didn’t want to live without him. I tried to die. I jumped into situations that should have killed me and some stupid instinct happened and I fight. I put a gun to my head and it didn’t fire.”
Del quickly looked at him. “When? When did you try that?”
Alex answered, “Twice. Finally, after the second time the gun didn’t go off. He stopped.”
Gently, Raphael spoke to him, “Mack, all the children, they were taken to avoid this. They are in a better place.”
“How is it better?” Mack asked with a sarcastic laugh.
“Because they know no pain, no suffering, only happiness.”
“And that’s better.”
“Yes.”
“No. Because it’s not living!” Mack blasted. “They were put on this Earth to live. To know joy, sadness, and pain. You can’t appreciate happiness without sadness. That’s not life, and my son and every other child, deserved to know all that life had for them! They weren’t saved … they were robbed. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask to be the cleanup crew or the warrior. I didn’t ask to be picked or chosen. I asked to die! I inherited the Earth? Forgive me for saying, no thank you. I don’t want it.”
On that, Mack stormed out.
He heard the voices, the mumbling, the ‘he doesn’t have a choice’ comments as he walked the long front porch. He made his way to the side porch steps and sat down, staring at the star-filled sky.
When he heard the squeak of the screen porch door, he didn’t turn around. He took a breath and prepared to ask whoever it was to leave him alone.
He didn’t expect for it to be Billy.
Billy sat down right next to Mack. “Hey.”
“Hey. I’m sorry, bud.” He grabbed Billy’s hand. “Please don’t take any of what I said against you.”
“I don’t. You took me fishing.”
Mack forced a smile.
“Mack? I know you didn’t ask for this. I’m sorry no one asked you. It wasn’t polite.”
“It’s OK,” Mack said.
“So I’ll be polite. Will you take me, Mack?”
Mack only looked at him.
“Will you take me to where I have to be? Only you can do it, Mack. Alex may be my protector, but you are my chosen. I trust you, Mack. I’m asking. Will you?”
Inhaling deeply through his nostrils, Mack lifted Billy and placed him on his lap. “Absolutely,” he said near whisper. “With my life.”
Arms wrapped tightly around the boy, Mack held him, alone on the porch. He held him in silence and stared out.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It was an odd dream for Mack because he had stopped dreaming of the past. Typically his dreams were in a vacant world, and occasionally Garret would pop in, or Sherry. But this dream he was doing something he loved to do when he had free time. He worked on his father’s old truck.
It stopped running a decade before Mack’s father died, but his father, every Sunday would work on the truck. Mack believed his father never really wanted to get it running, he used it as an excuse to have alone time.
In the dream, Mack was doing the same.
Bent under the hood, checking the spark plugs—and a hand extended a tool.
“Thanks,” Mack said, then stood up. It was Father. Not the man who was stricken fast and furiously with Alzheimer’s, but the man in his wisdom years. That tower of strength before he turned ill.
“You do good, Mack,” his father said.
“I try.”
“You succeed. Just like you will in this endeavor.”
“Yeah, well, I can’t get it to start.”
“It doesn’t need to exactly go as you envision for something to be a success, you know. I’m proud of you.”
There was something that clicked in his when his father said that. Internally within the dream, Mack became lucid. He knew he was dreaming. He looked in his father’s green eyes and they were so real. “Dad?”
“Things have changed. You made a promise. You never break you word. Time to keep that promise, Mack. No need now for anyone else to take charge. You’re it. Do it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Don’t dally, Mack.” His father stepped to him. “Wake up. You have to go. You have to go now.”
Out of the dream, Mack shot into a sitting position and woke.
“Mack?” Alex called groggily to him.
“Get dressed, Alex.” Mack felt it in his gut, something was wrong. “Get Billy. Get ready.” He flung the covers from his body, swept his legs over the bed, and stood. He paused only at the bedroom door, to look back at her. “Move. Now.”
++++
It had been so long since Del was surrounded by that much grass, he forgot how it affected his sinuses. He woke up stuffy, and the fact he drank more than usual the night before didn’t help.
His head pounded as well.
He stepped from the house, the sky wasn’t quite as blue and a light hazy fog settled among the corn. Walking to the porch railing, he snuffed back the mucus into his throat, gathered it up and prepared to spit.
Just as he projected it from his mouth—he saw.
The Doke emerging from the mist. Instinctively, he reached for the rifle, but it wasn’t there. He felt comfortable at the farm and hadn’t brought it outside with him.
That never happened.
Figuring he had time to go in the house and get it before the Doke drew too close, Del stepped back. That was when he saw.
The single Doke was just the start.
There were more, many more. Hundreds perhaps, and they all emerged from the mist.
Del spun on his heels and flew into the house.
Mack was coming down the steps, Billy on his hip, Alex, Nicole, Rick, and Fr. Owens behind.
“We got a situation,” Del said. “Not good. We have to go.”
“I figured.” Mack handed Billy to Alex, and walked to the front door.
“Where’s Raphael?” De
l asked.
“Gone.”
“Gone?” Del looked around. “Please tell me he left the arrows.”
Mack stepped on to the wraparound front porch, and the Doke mass was so thick he couldn’t see an end. Exhaling, Mack walked back in and straight through to the back of the house. He didn’t even need to step out, because once he opened the kitchen door Mack saw the situation was the same.
“You got to be shitting me.” Mack shook his head and walked back into the living room.
“How bad?” Alex asked.
“Bad. We aren’t getting out of here. Not this way.” Mack took the crossbow from Nicole. “Everyone upstairs. To the attic. Now.”
On his word, the living room window crashed and Dokes poured in.
Del fired as everyone else flew up the steps.
Mack stood on the bottom, ushering them up.
“Del, move it. Now.”
Del backed up, bumping into Mack, then raced up the stairs. Mack took a single step, and the window at the bottom of the staircase burst open and emerging through was a Doke. He lunged at Mack, seized and bit into his arm.
Hoping that Raphael was right, Mack hit the Doke in the head with the end of the crossbow, just to shake his toothy grip. Once free, Mack hurried up the stairs, but stopped at the top.
The Doke that bit him turned into a mini-bomb. He burst with a pulse of blue light that caused the floor to tremor. The explosion took out the horde that was scurrying for the stairs and bought them a few seconds time.
On the second Floor, Mack grabbed the attic hatch and pulled, the ladder lowered and he shoved Billy up there first, then Alex. After the rest had made it up, Mack climbed up.
Another bit into his leg, and Mack butted him with the crossbow as well, then single-handed, climbed the rest of the way.
He pulled the ladder up and closed the hatch.
“You’re bleeding,” Alex said. “Bad.”
“I’ll be—” the floor rocked and Mack smiled, he knew that Doke exploded. “Fine. Call it my Sacrifice.”
“There’s a lookout ledge, Mack.” Del stood by the window.
“Perfect.” Mack walked to Del, who had climbed out the open window to the ledge.
“One over here too,” Rick called from the other side of the attic.