by Dave Hazel
“Why do you think that is?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. Would God ever punish me by killing off people who are close to me? Cuz I think God wants to punish me for what I did last night.”
Diaz smirked and laughed a little. “Well I’m glad to see you’re concerned about your friends, but I--”
“Cuz I’m really thinking we shouldn’t do this,” he said referring to the attack planned this morning. “This way God won’t kill anyone to get back at me.”
“Okay, hold on a minute,” Diaz said with a friendly laugh. “First of all God can do whatever He wants to do, because He is God. Now, if God wanted to kill your friends do you think you can thwart the plan of God by not doing something you planned? No. If God wanted to kill your friends, anything you do or don’t do can’t prevent God from doing anything He wants to do. Now with that being said, I want you to hear me loud and clear Mykal. God would not kill off your friends to get back at you.”
“He wouldn’t?”
“No. To put it in our terms,” Diaz continued to chuckle. “If God has a beef with you, then it’s with you He is going to deal with. He will not kill off your family members, friends, relatives or whatever to get back at you because it wouldn’t be fair to the other person He would be killing to get even with you. Does that make sense? If God wanted to get back to you, He would get you,” Diaz said forcefully. “But why do you think he wants to kill one of your friends?”
“Well,” Mykal paused and gave it a few moments of thought. “I guess I’m worried about that cuz I know how much it hurt when I lost Boris, Kurt and Denny and some others you didn’t know. And I just thought if God was going to get even with me He would hurt me like that.”
“Why do you think God wants to hurt you?”
“I guess after what I did last night, when I killed those three leaders and made it look like the fourth leader did it, I just thought, well, the truth is I laughed about it and thought it was really funny and then afterward I thought, wow, would God try to get back at me?”
“So you have a guilty conscience?” Diaz said playfully and then turned serious. “Or maybe it’s conviction of sin.”
“What do you mean by conviction of sin?” Mykal asked.
“See when we do wrong we understand what a guilty conscience is. Along spiritual lines when God wants to show us we have done wrong He will use His Holy Spirit to convict us of our wrong doing. The purpose is not to beat us up and make us feel guilty or bad, the purpose is to make us realize we have done wrong against God and then we need to confess and repent of it and turn to Him. The devil likes to beat us up with guilt and condemnation to beat us down whereas God convicts us of sin to help us get it turned around to build us up. See you have to understand something Mykal, God loves you and He loves all the men here. He desires a one on one love relationship with you despite all the things you know you have done wrong, He wants you to turn your life over to Him and live for Him.”
“But I can never undo all the things I’ve done and you don’t have any idea of all the things I’ve done,” Mykal moaned as if he would never be able to make it right.
“I know that Myk, and more importantly, God knows that. And even more important than that is God knows all. He knows everything and I mean all the things you have ever done wrong. And yet,” Diaz exclaimed with an excited joy while pointing his index finger into Mykal’s chest. “He still wants to have a one on one love relationship with you.”
“But I’d never be able to make up for all I’ve done wrong,” he said and almost sounded angry. Mykal knew of many killings he did that would have to be considered murder.
“And you never will make up for all the things you’ve done wrong. Every little lie, every little thing you’ve stolen, all the people you’ve ever hurt and we could list all the things you’re worried about, but you’ll never be able to pay back for all you have done against God. But see that’s where God steps in. He knew you could never make up for all your wrong so he set up a way for your debt to be paid. Do you know what God did for you?”
“No. What did God do for me?” Mykal asked with a longing hunger to know.
“Since you couldn’t repay the debt you owe, God loved you so much that He sent His Son, His one and only Son, the Son that He loves and Who never once committed a sin, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth to die on a cross to take the penalty for your sin and the sins of everyone else in the world so that we wouldn’t have to take the punishment we rightly deserve. What God wants in return is for you to believe in what His Son did for you and to commit your life to Him. He will make the changes in your heart during the life long relationship you develop with Him. God doesn’t go ‘abracadabra hocus-pocus’ and poof,” Diaz said and tapped his own forehead as if he performed a feat of magic. “And suddenly now you become a good person who never does wrong again. He takes you as you are and changes you from the inside during the relationship with Him so that your desires will change from within and you will become more like His Son through the day by day, moment by moment experience you have with Him.
“If I was to say commit your life to God and now I gotta twist your arm every day to be like me, that’s never going to work. Because then we are making it about our good works and it can never be about what we do or don’t do. It’s all about what He does through us. He changes us from within so that it is a genuine change from you and not something forced upon you. You look at people like myself and Ski and whatever other Christians you know and you see us as different people, right?”
“Well yeah. You guys are good guys that I could never be like,” Mykal answered and knew he could never measure up to their standard of living.
“I know what you mean, but see, you’re wrong because myself and Ski and all those other Christians you know are not good. The Bible tells us only God is good. And you have to understand that God doesn’t want you to be like Ski or myself. He wants you to become like His Son Jesus. What you see in us is Jesus working in our lives and changing the old person we used to be into the person we are becoming in Him. I blow it every day Myk. My attitude sometimes stinks and God is working on me and I want to change because I know what He has in store for me.”
“You mean heaven?”
“Yeah, heaven is part of it but more importantly it’s about spending eternity with Almighty God, in His presence forever. That’s what I’m living for. At first, part of it was I didn’t want to go to hell, and then when God really opened up my eyes and showed me how much He really loves me it changed me from within. I won’t get into it, but I was kind of a bad guy before I became a believer and I’m so grateful God got my attention and I honestly think God is trying to get your attention now.
“This conversation isn’t just by chance Myk. God knew we were going to have this conversation because He is drawing you to Him. This is what we call a Divine Appointment. God set this up so you can hear the truth. I’ve told you several times that God is trying to get your attention and He has me here, and Ski in your life and whatever other Christians in your life to keep working on your heart because He doesn’t want you to perish but to come to repentance and spend eternity with him. That’s a paraphrase of a Bible verse; it is Second Peter chapter three verse nine. The second part of that verse actually reads, ‘…He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’ And that is because He loves you and desires for you to get your act together and turn to Him. And not just you but everyone. I want to share the Truth of Jesus dying on the cross with everyone I get the chance to talk to.
“If our conversation, right here and right now was a movie,” Diaz continued and gave a big smile. “I would stop and look into the camera and look right at the people watching this and say ‘hey you, pay attention to what I’m trying to say to Mykal. This is important.’ Or if this was a book someone was reading I would stop and reach out from between these pages to grab the reader by the collar and say, ‘hey you, the rea
der of this book. Pay attention to what I’m trying to say to Mykal here. This message is important for you too.’ Because I want everyone everywhere to hear the Truth,” Diaz said and started to laugh at the strange look Mykal gave him.
“But why then do I really fear someone close to me is gonna die?” Mykal asked with a soft humility.
“Like you said, you woke up from a bad dream and you feel you have a guilty conscience so you, using your human thinking believe that is a way that God would punish you. But I can tell you God does not, and I will repeat with emphasis, God does not work like that.”
“Okay. Cool. Thanks, that takes a load off my mind,” he replied with a deep relieving sigh.
“But understand Myk, God is still trying to get your attention. He’s drawing you to Him. But the thing is Mykal you never know when it’s your last chance. So you really want to think about what I’ve told you.”
“That’s what Ski has told me a few times.”
“One day you’re going to have to stop running from Him or it may be too late.”
“Too late?”
“Yes, too late. If you don’t make a decision to turn your life over to God and you die, it’s too late. I’m not trying to scare you or play games with your emotions, but once you die and are gone for good, there are no second chances. Every day that goes by, you should consider that a second chance, especially in this line of work we’re involved with. And since you brought this up I have a responsibility to tell you the truth and I will tell you the truth. God is pulling you to Him and there is an enemy, the devil, at work to try to dissuade you from doing the right thing by turning to God. The devil doesn’t want you to listen to me and the devil definitely doesn’t want you to turn to God. This right now, right here, could be your last chance to make that decision for God and then again you may live for another hundred years. But why gamble?”
“Gamble?” Mykal asked as he paused, he felt cornered. He needed time to think.
“Yes gamble. Every day people don’t have that relationship with God through His Son Jesus, you are in reality gambling with your eternity. It’s just like someone who goes to church, hears a great and powerful message on salvation, they hear the preacher’s invitation to come to the altar and they decide to put it off to think about it, and then BAM!” Diaz yelled and clapped his hands together. “They walk outside the church and get hit by a truck and it’s over. It’s too late. They blew their last chance and can’t undo the wrong decision. God wants us to come to Him now, not tomorrow. For all you know a two-step viper could be creeping up on you right now and then it’s over. Or who knows, you might choke to death on the next MRE you eat,” he added with a laugh. “And then it’s too late if you haven’t made a decision for God.”
“Even with us in this war where there is all this killing and fighting and so on?” Mykal asked.
“Yes. It’s never too late to make the right choice for God.”
Finley rushed to Diaz’s side. “Sir, I don’t mean to interrupt,” Finley disturbed them. “But the men are all ready to go.”
“Yeah, let’s go,” Mykal quickly replied. There was too much hitting him all at once. He needed time to think this through.
“Okay, let’s get going. Mykal, please, after things calm down today, get with me and I’ll gladly explain all this to you. I told you I would never pressure you, but I’ll answer any questions you have.”
“Sure. I will. I really will,” Mykal promised. He wanted to know how warriors of a violent war, in a violent world could ever be the desire of Almighty God. Why would God want a relationship with such a person as him?
“Let’s move out while it’s starting to get light out,” Diaz ordered.
2.
They had set up their vehicles on the ridge of the highest point overlooking the camp spread out before them. The enemy was anywhere from one hundred to two hundred yards away from their position on the top of the little knoll. The gray haziness of the morning showed a quiet calm in the camp. They had spread the vehicles out over a considerable distance from each other and they detached the Mk 19s from the vehicles and set them up on the ground with the M3 tripods. They set several cans of 40mm grenades beside each of the rapid fire grenade launchers so the two man team could work together to reload and fire rapidly.
The other two men of the four man fire teams stayed with the vehicle. One behind the steering wheel to drive away quickly if the need arose and the other stood in the turret to man the .50 caliber machine guns. Lieutenant Finley provided six riflemen to assist the machine gunners to help reload and change barrels of the .50 calibers if needed. In this way the driver would be able to stay behind the wheel of the vehicle should there be need to escape quickly.
In between the vehicles the men spread out. Those with M-60 machine guns had their weapons ready and their assistant available to help reload and feed the weapon. The rifle men could easily pick their targets from such a close range. The Elves declared the enemy was within bow range, though the Dwarves didn’t feel their crossbows would reach them effectively from such a distance.
The five Hawkmen were to stay with the Elves until the group began to disperse. Their job was to follow any soldiers, if any of the soldiers tried to escape, so they could be tracked down and eliminated. Their goal was to keep any soldier from returning to their base camp and announce strange warriors were in the area. Thus to prevent tighter protection on Doninka or to keep her from being moved is she was being held at Zizmon-Tarl’s castle.
Mykal watched from the hilltop and he eyed the largest of all the tents. That was the tent where he had killed the three top leaders and made it look like the fourth committed the crime. Most of the fires had gone out during the night, though new fires had been started for the early morning hours. A few men started to get up and move around. Some men moved about to feed the animals and some began preparation of meals for the large group. Mykal left it to Diaz to command the men as to when to commence firing and unleash their assault.
Suddenly there was a slight stir of commotion around the large tent. The bodies had been found, thus the lone survivor and his bloodied sword had to have been found as well. Mykal and those near him started to laugh though they didn’t really know what was taking place. In a matter of minutes there were many soldiers around the large tent. Several soldiers went in and out of the tent and it looked like numerous soldiers were placed near the front of the tent to keep others out.
Slowly the camp started to come to life as word spread that some sort of mishap had taken place and three of the top leaders were dead. Mykal laughed and wondered what the alleged killer must be thinking. The killer surely didn’t remember doing the horrific act to his fellow soldiers and leaders. And he was probably sure he didn’t do the dastardly deed though the evidence around him told a different story. He was probably panicking in his attempt to explain himself but there were no witnesses to corroborate the truth that he slept through the brutal murders.
Mykal looked at the golden ring on his middle finger and laughed about the innocent leader’s plight. Mykal realized he could destroy any of his enemies without killing them. Evil thoughts flooded his mind while the words of Captain Diaz less than an hour ago vanished from his thinking. It wasn’t that he was denying Diaz’s words of God’s love for him. He was just wrapped up in what a wonderful, protective, weapon and tool of self-defense he wore on his middle finger. ‘Let those bastards try to do me in,’ Mykal thought and his contemplations dwelt on Percy the government spook trying to control his life and Percy’s boss, the President of the United States, John J. Edmonds.
“Are you ready Myk?” Captain Diaz asked as he walked behind him.
“Yeah,” Mykal laughed. “Let’s get that leader off the hook and throw his ass into the frying pan,” he said and those around him all laughed.
Diaz’s radio man relayed Diaz’s orders into the radio and within moments all six of the Mk 19s opened fire with a steady stream of 40mm grenades being thrown through the entir
e camp. The machine guns and rifle men were told to standby until the explosive destruction of the 40mm grenades did their work.
Mykal, like all the other men on the line, watched as explosion after explosion ripped into the camp. The explosions weren’t deafening loud, but they could be heard and the plumes of smoke filled the air where they went off. That helped the Mark 19 gunners to direct their fire. Men had been obliterated, tents ripped to shreds and mass confusion ensued. The soldiers were troubled mightily by the act of one of their leaders, now, out of nowhere terror rained down from above. Loud death and terror filled the camp as several tents burst into flames. Mayhem and chaos, the likes of which had never been seen before erupted in the camp.
Mykal laughed and believed some of the soldiers probably thought the ‘gods’ were dishing out punishment. Or maybe they thought the Supreme Ruler, Zizmon-Tarl, exacted his punishment for the leader who committed his terrible crime against fellow soldiers and officers. Many grabbed their heads and looked heaven ward because there was no enemy within striking range to strike them and there were no arrows protruding from any of the bodies. Mykal also wondered if they were looking skyward to look for dragons that could be attacking from above.
The thump, thump, thumping roar of the six .50 caliber machine guns open up on the distracted camp. The large rounds ripped their victims to pieces throwing bodies in every direction. Little fires started where tents caught fire either from the explosions, the .50 caliber rounds or the tents collapsing onto the little camp fires. The shouting and yells of pain increased. The army began to notice the strangers up on the hill and shouted orders to each other. Many crumbled to the ground dead or dying. Orders were given to attack those on the hill.
Some fled in different directions to avoid the death and pain that seemed to crush the majority of the force. Like strong dedicated soldiers who had trained for war and confrontation, the majority of the surviving forces turned to counter attack the attackers. They charged up the small incline to be met with the rapid fire of the .50 caliber machine guns, several M-60 machine guns and many M-16 rifles. The Dosch brothers shot their individual rifles and the Elves picked their targets with their bow and arrows where they showed how accurate they were. Now the Dwarves were able to use their crossbows as the hundreds of soldiers were able to advance up the small hill.