Into the Apocalypse

by William Dunaway

  Christ himself said to follow my father’s commandments which includes keeping his Sabbath holy but over the years we’ve watered it down so much, many of us don’t go to church.

  Why does the left, and many in society want to eliminate God? It’s simple. Human nature wants to do what it wants to do when it wants to do it, and they don’t want to answer to anyone. If there is an Almighty God, then that means humanity is going to have to answer for their choices and actions. Some answer now but most will answer later. The idea of having to answer for your choices in life scares the hell out of people because you won’t have some attorney finding some technicality to get out of your crime. It will be you, standing before God, which by the way knows exactly what you did and why you did it and he can look into your heart and even know your thoughts.

  The idea of having to pay for our personal decisions is unbearable to most. So human nature wants to eliminate that possibility. They convince themselves, by using human standards, that the existence of an all-powerful being is a myth, a fairy tale or a way for groups to control one another. So they rebel and refuse to believe and then they teach their children to think the same way. Then when the children go to high school, the left insists that the separation of church and state does not allow an acknowledgment of God, so they continue to be taught that God does not exist. Finally, if and when they go to college, they’re lost as most of our college professors are so far left, and if you don’t swallow the line of the left hook line and sinker, they’ll give you a failing grade.

  Also, a lot of our laws are based on the law of God. Eliminate that, and then humanity has fewer laws they have to follow.

  It’s an organized effort. Before the EMP was set off, think how police officers were being ambushed and many of our government leaders like Prescott didn’t seem to care. He didn’t stand up before the nation and condemn it, all he talked about was we all needed to learn how to accept cultural differences, as though killing police officers was allowed in some cultures.

  So heavy restrictions were put on police officers where they either weren’t allowed to enforce many laws, or the police officer just got to the point where it just wasn’t worth trying any longer.

  That’s the key, they want to do what they want, when they want it, and not have to answer to anyone. So eliminate the laws, take away power from law enforcement agencies and declare that you’re backward and uneducated if you believe in God.

  But now that all of this has happened and people are starving to death, and it is the start of when humanity is having to pay the price for those decisions, I guarantee that many of those same people that are still alive are begging God to forgive them. One thing we all have to think about though is the Bible says there will come the point where God will cut us off and that he will not hear those prayers.

  After thinking about all of this, a great feeling of guilt came over me for what I was planning. This wasn’t only justice that I was looking for but revenge. I wanted Orville Lebowski to suffer. How is this any different than what I just thought about?

  Is Orville guilty? Yes. Does he need to pay? Yes. In modern society, we’d call the police, and he’d be arrested, and if he was convicted, he would spend the rest of his life in jail. Of course, in today’s age, there’d be a group of bleeding heart liberals that would say that he should be let off due to the circumstances, that he was just trying to feed himself and his friends.

  Then I remembered that right now, there is no law enforcement that we know of. Right now, we have to act in our own defense. My mind kept going back and forth. If I were strictly protecting my family and friends, there would be no doubt in my mind, but I have a true hatred for this man. How much of this is due to that?

  I drifted for a while and started to dose. As I slept, I started dreaming about how this all started; how Blake and I had to rescue Kim, then the story that Mike told about Jerome Jackson and how many lives he was responsible for taking. Then I saw Orville, Avery and his sons in our yard demanding that we turn over our food to them “for their greater good.” Finally, I saw Carmen laying on the portable hospital bed, with her sweet smile and a few hours later she was dead.

  I jerked up, gasping for air, taking a moment to realize where I was.

  “Orville and Avery have to be eliminated. He’s a threat to my family, friends and our neighbors,….. and he has to suffer for what he’s done.”

  ****

  While Mike was listening to the radio, his mind kept drifting to what Mia had told him and it finally got to the point he lost interest in the news.

  “What exactly did dad say?” Mike asked.

  “He said he was working on a way to get back to normal.”

  He sat there for a moment and then got up and went to talk to Tag.

  He knocked on the door several times and finally, Tag yelled, “WHAT?” and came to the door.

  “Oh, sorry Mike, what’s up? Everything ok?”

  “I hope so. Sorry to bother you but you were listening to dad talk to Santiago. Did he say anything that would cause dad to do anything stupid?”

  Tag stood there rubbing his face, “What do you mean stupid?”

  “I don’t know, any information about Orville or anything?”

  Tag started rubbing the back of his head, “Santiago did say that everyone thought Lebowski and that Avery dude went up to a house about a mile north of Pine City. But I thought he told everyone that.”

  “Damn it!”

  “What the hell’s going on?”

  “I don’t know. Sorry to wake you.” Then turned to walk back to the house.

  Tag immediately started getting dressed and grabbing his gear.

  Mike walked back into the house, grabbed a flashlight and lightly knocked on our bedroom door. No answer. He slowly opened the door and he shined the light over the bed, just enough to see if I was there and then he slowly closed the door and thought to himself, “Son of a bitch! He’s going after him alone.”

  He ran out to the living room and started grabbing his gear and his .308.

  Mia jumped up, “What’s going on?”

  “I think dad is going after Lebowski, ALONE!”

  “Oh no!”

  She started heading to our bedroom to wake up Kim, but Mike stopped her and asked, “What are you doing?”

  “I need to let Kim know.”

  Mike looked at her with a stern look, “NO! We don’t want to worry her.”

  Mia started to ask, “But what….”

  Mike interrupted her, “Go ask Tag to come in here.”

  She stood there in a daze for a moment until she heard Mike in a very stern voice command, “GO!” which seemed to wake her up and she ran out the door.

  Tag came in about that time, “Alright, what’s going on?”

  “Dad isn’t here. I’m sure he went after Orville.”

  Tag stared for a minute then replied, “Let me grab everyone.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea. You know he’s set up somewhere, probably watching the house. If we go up there in strength, it could expose him. We don’t know where he’s at or if Lebowski is even at that house. Paul and I’ll go. If we need you, we’ll call you on the radio.”

  “I don’t know, Mike. We need to talk about this.”

  Just about that time Mo came in with Mia and asked, “Ok, what are we planning?” Very quickly, Wit and Red came in as well.

  Mike thought to himself, “Great. Now we have to have a debate.” but then said aloud, “Dad isn’t here. I’m convinced that he’s going after Lebowski.”

  “You mean kill him.” Wit remarked

  Mo said, “Well, whatever he plans, we need to think about the best way to handle it.”

  Tag jumped in, “I thought we should go up in force but Mike has a different viewpoint, and it makes sense with one exception.”

  Everyone looked at Mike, anticipating his idea. Just as he was ready to speak, Brandy came out of her bedroom and could tell something was up but didn’t ask
any questions.

  “I know dad’s tactics. He’s going to find a place to observe the house for a while and then probably closer to daylight he’ll move in. If we go up there in force, that’ll increase the chance of him being discovered. So what I suggest is let me go up and set up in case he runs into trouble.”

  Red commented, “The only problem is, what if there are more with Lebowski than we know about. No telling how many he has with him.”

  Tag then spoke up, “Well, I can tell you what Santiago said. He basically made it sound like the Pine City crowd ran him out of town. A woman got shot in the process but they went ahead and rushed him, and Orville and Avery ran off. Apparently, this house was taken over by his kids, and it was their little Shangri-La that they thought no one knew about but apparently, Lebowski knew all about it.”

  “Where’s this house at?” Mo questioned.

  “Santiago said it was the first house to the north of Pine City on some gravel road about a mile up,” Tag responded.

  “I know the road. As far as I remember it's mainly pasture land on both sides of the house and then a few hundred yards back there is a timberline, basically on both sides.” Mike remarked.

  Mo thought for a moment, “Ok, I think both ideas have a valid point, so we need to do something in between. Mike, you and Wit go together. You can find a point that fits your needs and Wit can set up in the timberline with the SAW. Tag, you stay here for security. The rest of us will gear up, just in case.”

  Tag gave a disapproving look, but it was because he didn’t want to stay at the house but he agreed.

  Mia spoke up, “We have to let Kim know what’s going on.”

  Mo agreed, “Why don’t you wake her up and tell her.”

  Just then Kim’s voice spoke up as she walked from the hallway, “You don’t have to. You forget Vince has a perimeter alarm receiver in our bedroom. It went off every time someone crossed the driveway. I take it Vince went after those scum?” She asked firmly, but you could see the worry on her face.

  Mia went over and hugged Kim.

  “I’m alright. This doesn’t surprise me.” She walked up to the group, “I want you guys to do two things. Make sure Vince makes it back ok and secondly, make sure we don’t have to worry about Lebowski again.”

  “What about Paul? Should we let him know?” Mia asked.

  Tag spoke up, “Listen, I love Paul to pieces, but if he finds out, he’s going to want to go, and he doesn’t have the training for this.”

  Kim replied, “Tag’s right. It would be best to tell him after the fact. If you tell him now, he’ll want to go.”

  Mo finally ordered, “Alright then, it’s 3:45. Sunrise is around 6:00. We need to gear up and get going. Mike, you take point, and Wit, you’re behind Mike. We’ll cross right across the soybean field.”

  Everyone scrambled to gather their gear. Mike was just getting ready to walk out, and Brandy came up to him, “Hey, be careful,” and gave Mike a kiss on the cheek. Mike stood there stunned for a moment and then said, “We’ll be alright.”

  ****

  I looked at my watch and saw that it was 3:45. I knew I had to find a place next to the house and I just prayed there wasn’t a dog at the house.

  “Knowing that son of a bitch though, if there was, he probably killed it.”

  I rolled over and felt the pain starting in my shoulders. When I left my adrenaline was flowing, but now I was feeling the earlier weight of my bag. I should’ve emptied most of the equipment from my bag including my Henry AR-7 survival rifle. I do love it though. It is a .22 long rifle that disassembles and everything fits into the stock. If someone didn’t know what it was, they’d think I was carrying around a stock of some rifle. The cool thing about it is, it floats. You could drop it in a river, and it would just float down the river until you retrieved it. It’s perfect if you needed a weapon to hunt food with if you ever got stuck out in the boonies. But I sure didn’t need it or 90% of what I was carrying in the bag.

  I thought I’d grab something to eat before I made my move, so I grabbed an MRE Entree and its heater. I’ve eaten more unheated MREs than heated ones but I had time to burn. I added about 2 inches of water in the bottom of the bag and added the entrée and within ten minutes, I had hot beef stew. Whoever invented this was a genius. The chemical reaction of the water against the material at the bottom of the bag heats the water, which in turn heats the entree. Not the best beef stew in the world but better than most people say. There is a selection of entrees in every case of MRE’s. Some, I don’t even know how to pronounce. Of course, even with the varieties, there were times when we had to eat MRE’s in the field for a couple of weeks, and after that long, you’d almost rather hunt for your food.

  “Awe, the good ole days.”

  After I had eaten, I swallowed one of the pain pills that I had in my pocket and gave it about 30 minutes to kick in.

  ****

  Mike stopped on the gravel road that ran east and west out of Pine City. He signaled for everyone to come up.

  “Ok, we’re about 300 yards to the east of the gravel road that runs north out of Pine City. The house is about half of a mile north and sitting on the west side of the road. There’s nothing between here and there except for this pasture and this wood line, and it’s about like this on both sides of the road. I’ve been thinking, the way this lays out, I think we should all work the wood line and then when we get even with the house, you guys can set up at the wood line, and I’ll try to find a place closer in where I can set up. That way if this turns ugly, you guys can respond a lot quicker, and with the layout of the land, Wit can cover the entire area with the SAW.”

  Mo thought for a moment while scoping the area, “Ok, let's go and remember everybody, noise discipline.”

  They started crossing the barbed wire fence and entered the woods and slowly started walking north about ten yards inside the timberline.

  ****

  Angela stayed in their bus to stay with Lulu, but after a while, she couldn’t take it any longer. She had to find out what was going on. So she picked up Lulu and carried her over to the house. When she walked in, she whispered, “Where can I put Lulu down?”

  Brandy whispered back, “Put her in my bed.”

  After doing so, Kim, Brandy, Mia, and Angela got together to have some coffee. All of them had learned to like it, even though Kim couldn’t stand it in the past.

  Tag was going nuts not knowing what was happening, so he went out to the platform in the front yard to watch the area and to listen for any gunshots from the direction he knew all the guys were at.

  Shortly after 5:00 a.m., Paul came walking up the road, as he had been relieved from his shift at the West roadblock. As soon as he reached the platform, Tag filled him in on what was going on. Paul was worried, of course, but he had faith in my skills, and he had learned that all the guys knew what they were doing. After talking with Tag for a while, he went inside.

  Upon entering, Kim approached him and started to tell him what was going on. Paul told her that Tag had filled him in and then tried comforting Kim by reminding her that I knew what I was doing and if the guys were up there with me, he honestly felt that everything would be ok.

  Afterward, Mia came up to Paul and told him thank you for what he said to Kim, as even though Kim was handling it better than expected, hearing more encouragement seemed to keep her calm.

  After they talked a while, Paul finally asked something that he had wanted to ask Mia since he arrived.

  “Mia, I have to ask you, how did you become such close friends with dad and Kim? I mean it just doesn’t fit.”

  “What do you mean, doesn’t fit?”

  “You know what I mean. I show up and find someone I loved watching on one of my favorite television shows, sitting in my dad’s house, and it turns out that you’ve been friends for over four years. How did it all happen?”

  Mia smiled and told the story how all of us were playing craps together in Las Vegas.


  “Have you ever played craps with your dad and Kim?”

  “No. Well, only at home. When they were hitting the casinos a lot, I was living in Oklahoma.”

  “Well, your dad is a different person in Las Vegas or even at a casino. He’s outgoing to everyone at the table and he gets to know the dealers the best he can. Heck, he even places bets for the dealers and keeps it in play so that they can make pretty good tips from him when a table is hot. You know how your dad doesn’t like large groups of people or even meeting new people? Well, he’s not that way when he’s gambling. I guess it’s his time to let his hair down.”

  Anyway, once the table got cold, they decided to go play slots, and I was having such a good time with them, I decided to go with them.

  I remember how Kim was all depressed as she wasn’t winning anything on the slots, so your dad had her play dollar slots, which she doesn’t like doing cause it would scare her playing two dollars per spin, but when she hit a big jackpot, she went crazy. She was just a blast to be around. So, we hung out almost the entire trip.

  The next time I saw them is when I told them I was an actress. Your dad wasn’t impressed at all. He thought it was kind of cool, but his reaction was unlike any I had seen in a long time.

  I think that’s one of the reasons I liked him so much because most people fall all over themselves when they find out you’re a celebrity of any type.

  You know, that’s why I love both your dad and Kim so much. They don’t act like everyone else does. Neither one tries to “keep up with the Jones,” if you know what I mean, and they always try to do the right thing. Anyway, we had a blast every time we saw each other, so it went from there.”

  Paul sat there with a smile on his face, just shaking his head in disbelief.

  “I’m sorry, you're just so hot, I..…..”