Ryan--Space Missionary--Part II

[ZiSunka]

Ryan was a long way from that day on the hilltop when they danced to the Lord and celebrated their new brother Osher.

Now he didn't even have any idea where Osher or Tibbins were. He assumed that they had gone back to their old neighborhoods and their old lives. They would blend into the Darkhellian landscape better than he would, because they were native Darkhellians. They might even go on evangeilizing for the Lord. Ryan just had no way of contacting them or even the motivation to contact them. In three more minutes, he would be dialing the vis-box and going home.

Any others from the team who were able should have been at the PTV station by now, but Ryan couldn't see any of them. They must not be in situations where they could safely get to the station. It looked like Ryan would be alone.

He noticed that the vis-box was busy. He hoped the person would get off their call by the time he needed it. It wasn't a problem if his was later than noon, but his anxiety was so high that he thought he'd pass out if he had to wait any longer.

The seconds ticked by, and Ryan tried to relax and look at the vis-paper, looking for anything about Winston or the other team members, so he could tell the mission what had happened to them.

Finally, the caller left the viz-box and Ryan stood up and walked quickly but casually to it and activated the privacy door.

The emergency number he had been given was long, and his fingers jittered as he tried to touch the number pad. He finally gave up and activated the voice-dial feature of the vis-box and said the number in as clear a voice as he could.

The vis-box'screen came alive and Ryan saw the face of the angel who was going to rescue him.

It was Fern.

 

[ZiSunka]

"Ryan! What's wrong?" Fern gasped. "Why did you call the emergency number?"

"We've been found," Ryan answered. And suddenly he couldn't hold his tears back another moment. In the privacy of the vis-box, Ryan sobbed and fell to his knees, not to pray but because his body couldn't hold itself up.

 

[ZiSunka]

"Ryan, get up!" Fern said. "Pull yourself together and tell me what happened!"

Ryan still couldn't answer.

"Where is everyone else? Are you the only one left?" Fern demanded.

Ryan still sobbed helplessly. All he could do is hold up the vis-paper, and hope she would understand.

Suddenly there was a loud boom outside the vis-box. It startled Ryan out of his weeping. He sat up and looked toward the vis-box door. The force field was up and powered, so he couldn't see through it, and most noises couldn't penetrate it (personal privacy was the most important feature of the vis-box industry). But this boom was so loud, it echoed inside the vis-box.

"Ryan, what was THAT?" Fern sounded scared.

"I don't know," he finally was able to whisper. "I can't imagine."

He looked down at the vis-paper in the floor. A special bulletin was just coming on DNN. Ryan held it up to the viscreen to let Fern see and hear, too.

 

[ZiSunka]

"This just in," the news reader said in Low Darkhellian.

"Ryan--" Fern said.

"Shh." Ryan said. "I can't hear if you talk."

"Ryan, I--" she said again.

"Shhhhh!" he said again, sharply. Why was she interupting, Ryan thought, becoming annoyed. Why couldn't she wait for the news reader to be finished.

The news reader continued, "It appears that there has been an explosion at the PTV station in Deathwish, right outside the main gate, where thousands of people were waiting for their flights, and where thousands of others were disembarking. The main gate has been destroyed as well as the customs office, the parcel delivery area, the baggage sorting area, the main ramp and the cafe. It is not known how many casualties or injuries there might be, as fire is consuming the station rapidly, and rescue personnel are unable to enter. All off-duty rescue personnel are to return to their stations immediately for assignment."

Ryan's head swam with fear. This vis-box was only a few hundred feet from the cafe, and the fire was rapidly spreading. He had to get out of the station now.

He hit the exit button on the vis-box, but the force field wouldn't go down. He was stuck in the box!

Ryan heard Fern's voice from the viscreen, panicked and fearful. "Ryan, I don't speak Darkhellian! I couldn't understand anything the news reader was saying! What's going on??!"

"Bomb. Fire." was all Ryan could say before the force field went down and he ran out of the box and into the street.

The air was black and acrid, but Ryan did not stop running until he was half a mile away. He had to stop to catch his breath. The combination of smoke and panic had robbed him of his stamina. He doubled over, wheezing and puffing.

When he finally could stand upright, he was standing in front of the Deathwish prison, where Winston was being held. Despite what was going on all around him, Ryan could understand God's purpose. Ryan sat down and waited, knowing that he was here for some reason.

In about 5 minutes, a bomb went off inside the prison, too.

The doors flung open as the police and guards ran from the building in panic, even though Ryan couldn't see and fire or smoke.

When no more people came out, Ryan went in, and was shocked at what he saw.

Just about every fifth cell stood wide open, their doors torn from their hinges, but the hall was empty. Ryan thought the prisoners must have escaped with the police and guards, although every person Ryan saw exiting was wearing a uniform. Ryan went to the first cell and looked in.

There was Winston, and a group of fellow prisoners, sitting on the floor singing a hymn!

 

[Hishandmaiden]

Ryan felt a deep sense of guilt, for fearing for his life while Winston and the others are praising the lord, even in times of their crisis. But there is no time to lose.
He got to find a way to save them. He only wondered how.

 

[ZiSunka]

"Hi Ryan!" Winston said when he noticed Ryan standing at the cell door. Then, "Well, boys, let's get our stuff and get of here. Ryan, these guys are going to need Bible chips, when you get a moment."

"Bible chips?" Ryan answered, puzzled by Winston's calmness. "Winston, they probably confiscated all our stuff when they raided the mission."

"That's why we have to go down to the evidence room to get it." Winston replied. "We've got eight strong guys here to help, so we ought to be able to take everything. But we've got to hurry. It won't be long before they realize the place isn't on fire and they'll come back."

Ryan stood aside while the nine of them stood up and exited the cell. As they walked down the corridor, Ryan could see that exactly nine cells had been opened. The emergency force fields had activated on all the other cell doors, and the other prisoners were still trapped behind them.

The tallest of the escapees said, "It looks like Krell (Low Darkhellian for Creep), didn't get sprung."

Winston replied, "We'll have to trust that the Lord knew what He was doing when He didn't open Krell's cell. Either he wasn't really a believer, or the Lord wants him to stay here."

"Believer?" Ryan exclaimed. "Were there so many other believers in there with you, Winston?"

"There weren't any I know of, except these men who came to faith last night, and Krell," Winston replied as they made their way out of the cell block.

"Then what...who...how...?" Ryan answered.

"I was placed on the worst cell block, with the men who had no reason to live, who were condemned anyway. The guards are afraid of that cell block, so they didn't come back to bother us much. We could yell from cell to cell, and I yeled the Good News to everyone. These men, and Krell, responded and believed. When the doors sprung open, their doors, and only their doors sprung open, and the force fields failed to come online. The men gathered in my cell, looking for answers to what had happened, and the first thing we did was give thanks that we weren't killed in the explosion. Then when we realized that the building was not on fire, we prayed for a way out. While we were waiting, I taught them a hymn. That's what we were doing when you showed up, Ryan. God sent you to show us that it was safe and that there was a way out of the building. I'm thinking the evidence room door was sprung, too, and that we'll get all our stuff back."

They got to the basement, and all the doors and safes were wide open, and all their stuff was together, along with a case of Bible chips confiscated from one of the other missions. They each shouldered one of the large packs and went out through the front door, with no one around to notice them.

On the way back to Misery Field, Winston introduced Ryan to his new brothers-in-Christ.

"This is Freko, the firstborn of your new brothers. His name means Freak." Ryan nodded in Freko's direction.

"This is Lapavv (Unnecessary Amputation, his name meant), Crikid (Crackhead), Ham'rd (Drunken), Riven (Shredded), Canimort (Dead Dog), C'rion (Dead Body), and Bidenpok (Body Bag). I was hoping that P'orb (Poke in the Eye) would have responded in time, but he didn't. He was close, though, and maybe he'll change his mind when he sees we were freed."

The group walked back to Misery Field, hoping to catch up with some of the others. Ryan told Winston that he had been the only one at the vis-box to make the emergency call. And he told him about the reports that his wife Panda and Luce had been caught in the act of adultery and had been freed as non-Christians. Winston laughed, and Ryan asked him, "How can you laugh, Winston? It's not at all funny to be caught in adultery!"

Winston smiled and said, "They weren't caught in adultery, Ryan. I was in the room with them when the police broke in. Luce wasn't making love to my wife, he was giving her a sonogram scan. We're having a baby!"

 

[ZiSunka]

Ryan wished he could share in Winston's joy, but something didn't feel quite right to him. Something was badly out of whack, and it was pinching in the pit of Ryan's stomach. He didn't say anything to Winston, though, since he didn't know what to say.

When Ryan realized they were headed back to Misery Field, he stopped Winston.

"We can't go back there, Winston. We can't just go back about our lives like nothing happened. The place is probably crawling with cops, still. And everyone's gone away. I was the only one at the emergency call. Nobody else showed up, even though we all knew what to do."

Ryan was very concerned. And the fact that they were the only people in the streets creeped Ryan out. Where was everyone? There was no traffic, no pedestrians, no noise on these downtown streets that usually hummed with activity 24 hours a day. A chill ran through Ryan.

Winston said nothing for a moment. He clearly wanted to go back to life-as-usual, pretending that the raid never happened and that everything was normal. Finally he mocked Ryan, "Where do you think we should go Ryan? Back to Earth?"

That hurt Ryan. Why was Winston being a jerk all of a sudden?

Ryan turned away so the group couldn't see that Winston's words had stung him.

Then he said, "Winston, we need to get to a viscreen and see what's going on. There might be some news about the others that could help us know what to do."

Killing Field was the next community along the way, so they stopped at the center and sat in front of the big viscreen. What they saw was astonishing.

All of Darkhell was at war.

The explosion at the PTV station had been the first attack, and many more had ensued, all over Deathwish, and all over the world.

Things were burning in Crippler and Raven's Grave and all the other Darkhellian cities.

Hundreds of thousands were confirmed dead, with hundreds of thousands more missing.

It was a battle of the impoverished southern hemisphere against the richer northern hemisphere. It was a struggle for greater distribution of wealth and resources.

Apparently, the attacking Southerners didn't know how impoverished Deathwish really was. They must not realize that the wealth was owned by a few, and that most people here were in need as well.

All hell had broken loose, and Ryan did't know what to do. There was no chance of going home now, since the PTV station had been totally destroyed. There was no passage onto or off the planet.

Deathwish was now the target of lazer attacks, which were silent and sudden and deadly. It was dangerous to be out in the open, since the lazers would vaporize human flesh on contact.

That explained where everyone was. They were all taking cover, trying to save their own lives.

Ryan looked at the others sitting by the viscreen. Winston was sleeping, exhausted from the events of the last 24 hours. The other men were watching the screen in horror and awe. With the massive loss of life, it was likely that some of them had lost loved ones, or had loved ones who got injured. They didn't know what to do, whether to seek shelter or to try to go home.

In the end, Ryan found an empty storefront for them all to hide in. They broke a window in the front and went to the storeroom, where there were no windows for the deadly lazers to reach them. They had to carry Winston, who was still asleep.

Suddenly, Ryan felt like praying again.

 

[ZiSunka]

The ten of them had been in the storeroom for two days with no food, and little water.

The shelves in the storeroom were empty, all the food packages had either been carried away or were empty. It rained on the first night, and they were able to divert the downspout to provide them with a few jugs full of water. But the jugs were now nearly empty and from the way the building was heating up, Ryan could tell that it was sunny outside. They would have to leave the safety of the storeroom soon.

Ryan wished he had someway to look at the viscreen to see what was going on out there. The lazer attacks might already be over, or they might be in danger of nuclear weapons now, and this little storeroom would offer no shelter from that. He needed a vis-paper or a vis-pad or something that could show him the news.

Ryan left the gang of men and went to the front of the store, near the big windows, to see out. He knew it was dangerous if the lazer attacks were still going on, but he needed to find out the news, and he needed a little space to himself to think, to pray, and to just have some peace.
It was difficult for Ryan to be so close to men who so recently had broken out of prison. Their language was still coarse and their thoughts didn't conform to Christ. He liked them, and he was glad they were his new brothers, but there was a point when they were all a little too much. Winston was strangely silent, as if he were near-catatonic. Ryan didn't understand what was going on with Winston, but it frightened him.

Ryan spotted a vis-paper dispenser about three blocks away from the store. As long as they hadn't been turned on yet, their batteries would still be good, even if they had been delivered to the dispenser a week ago or more. But off in the distance, Ryan could see lazer beams scrafing and scortching the earth. Running the six-block round trip would be a great risk to Ryan, and he wasn't sure he was ready to die.

Ryan sat in the corner farthest from the large windows and prayed for help and direction. Then he went back to the storeroom to wait.

As soon as he got in the room, he started looking through the packs that they had brought with them. When he found the one he wanted, he removed a box and a thing that looked like a gun and turned to the new Christians and said, "Okay, let's get you all Bible chips."

Ryan implanted a chip in the left middle finger of each man, and then showed them how to use them. Then Ryan started teaching the men the Word of God.

An hour later, they were all startled by a crash at the back door of the store. They crept out of the storeroom and peered around the corner toward the door. The door had been shattered into splinters.

And crawling through the doorway was...

 

[ZiSunka]

Andra and Faith were hiding in a basement of a burned out house in Misery Field. They had been hiding there with the mission's cooks and five other new believers since the raid, three days before.

The cooks had the presence of mind to bring a pack full of food with them. They had heard the racket at the clinic's front door and realized immediately what was happening. The packs had already been stuffed with prepared food to be taken to Osher and Tibbins, who were evangelizing at the park, so there was food and water for many days for Andra's small group of refugees.

Their biggest fear wasn't hunger, it was rain. The burned out house was unsteady and beams of light penetrated it everywhere. If it started to rain, the basement might fill with water and collapse upon them.

Then, when the lazer attacks started, they had a new, added fear. The holes that allowed the sunlight through also allowed the lazer beams through.

They crouched, crowded, into the small space between the stairs, the wall and the chimney, in the darkest part of the basement, and prayed that they would be sufficiently covered.

But in the third wave of attacks, not all of them were able to reach the sheltered area fast enough, and one of the young women was burned badly and an teenage boy lost a leg. Andra didn't have any medicine or equipment with her, though, and the woman and the boy were in great pain and doing badly. Andra wished to God that she had been able to get any of the emergencies packs before she was rushed out the back door, but she was helpless in the wave of people fleeing the mission. Without pain killers and anti-infectants, her wounded friends were certain to die a slow and painful death. They were already suffering almost beyond their ability to bear.

When the latest attack was over, Andra found a private corner and went into prayer. "Please God, we need my medical kit right away. Preppral (Son of the King) and Seesha (Sunshine) are suffering more than humans can bear. Please either send us medicine, or supernaturally ease their pain. Lord, we have no hope but in You."

When Andra looked in on the wounded pair, they were sleeping peacefully. But time was not on their side. Darkhellian germs were known to kill people with just a scratch. Preppral and Seesha were still in mortal danger.

Faith was leading the other refugees in prayer for Preppral and Seesha, too. They were taking turns searching their Bible chips for passages about healing and refuge and rescue, and reciting them to the group. The excercise was keeping their spirits up, enough to keep them from pure despair, anyway.

Andra motioned for Faith to meet her in the corner, where the group couldn't hear.

"Faith, we have to find a safer refuge, and we have to get medicine for the wounded. We have to do it right away, before the next attack, before anyone else gets wounded." she said.

Faith frowned and said, "I'll go look for a better place. I'll take Teemel (Grateful) and Hesaw (Rescued). We'll be back as soon as I find somewhere, hopefully before the next attack."

The group had prayer for Faith, Teemel, Hesaw and their mission to find shelter. They left, and Andra took up leading the Bible reading.

 

[Hishandmaiden]

Very good. But I don't know how to continue on.

 

[ZiSunka]

Panda and Luce were seeking shelter from the lazer attacks, too.

After they had been freed, they went directly to the PTV station, so they could meet any of the other missionaries who had escaped. They spent the night in a shed outside the maintenance area. When morning came, they went inside the station to clean up and get something to eat. Luce happened to have some Darkhellian money with him--the offering of one of the new believers.

They had just finished eating and were getting up to go to the vis-box when the force of the explosion knocked them to the ground. It was a good thing it did, because a fireball blew right above them an instant later. If they had been standing, they would have been incinerated.

As soon as they looked up, they could see all the wounded and dying people, not just in the cafe, but at the main gate as well. They ran into the bombed out area and began to minister to the wounded, doing triage as best they could. Several people died in their arms; they were unable to help any but a few, because the blast was so violent. Many were dead before the blast was over.

When the police arrived, Luce and Panda were afraid of being arrested again, this time for practicing medicine. Panda prayed quickly, asking God what to do. A thick smoke plumed up just above them where they crouched on the floor over the injured people. The police tried to enter the room, but were pushed back by the smoke. Strangely, although the police were choked by the cloud of noxious gases, Panda and Luce were not affected in the least. They were able to minister to the wounded, unaffected by the smoke or the heat from the nearby fire.

They had been able to drag many of the less injured people out of the cafe. These people were likely to recover naturally from their minor wounds. The others were seriously wounded and would not be able to recover without advanced medical treatment--a technology that was outlawed on this planet. The only treatment that would be available to these poor people would be euthanasia. The med techs would give them a strong injection of medicine which would induce death, quietly. Their screams of pain and pleas for help would end.

Many of the people who were quite wounded begged Panda and Luce for help; they wanted to live, but they knew they would be euthanized. On Earth, these people would be treated in a hospital and have a good chance of complete recovery. But here on Darkhell, suffering was outlawed, punishable by death. What a cruel place, Panda thought, that sees death as the only cure for suffering. Many of the people she encountered on the floor of the cafe could have recovered with even the most rudimentary medicines and procedures.

When the firefighters arrived, the fire and smoke were quickly vanquished. Panda and Luce sneaked out the emergency exit into the street. There was nothing more they could do. All those still inside would be euthanized within minutes. There was no chance of saving anymore of them.

They walked to a nearby park, where they cried and sobbed, thanking God that they had escaped, but horrified by what they had seen and heard. They prayed that God would somehow be able to have mercy on the victims, people who never had the chance to know Him. Then they feel asleep on the ground and slept through the rest of the day and the night.

In the morning, they feared being arrested for vagrancy, which was illegal only in the downtown parks, so they began to walk back to Misery Field, where they knew the park was safe.

After the lazer attacks began, they couldn't stay out in the open, and they holed up in an abandoned shack, but the lazer beams were able to penetrate the holey roof, and they had a number of close calls.

When the lazer attacks moved away to another part of town, they made a run for better shelter. They hadn't found any. Most of the buildings were either locked up or so derelict that they wouldn't protect the two refugees. They kept walking, looking, and eventually they had to leave Misery Field and found themselves in a much scarier place, Killing Field.

They would have to find shelter now. In Killing Field, if the lazer attacks didn't get them, the dangerous street gangs would.

 

[ZiSunka]

Osher and Tibbins rejoiced when they saw their cell door burst open. They had been arrested with Winston, but because they were obviously street people, they had been thrown into the lowest dungeon. They weren't charged with being Christians, because the prosecutors assumed, without asking them, that they had just been at the mission for the free food.

Tibbins and Osher were preparing their testimonies to tell in court. They were actually eagerly awaiting their arraignment so they could tell the judge and the world about Jesus Christ and what He did for them. They knew it would mean certain death, but they didn't really care--they were so happy to be telling the world about the truth of Christ that they thought their lives were worth it!

So when the cell door popped open. They didn't leave. They sat on the bare floor and waited for the guards to return to secure them again.

Like Winston and his crowd, they sang hymns and praise songs while they waited. But unlike Winston, they couldn't witness to other prisoners. The dungeon was barren. No one else was down there with them.

When the guards returned, almost two days later, they couldn't believe that Osher and Tibbins were still there. They had ample time to escape, but there they sat. When the guards questioned them, Osher and Tibbins gave their testimony for the first time.

One guard wanted to kill them on the spot. But the others knew they would be punished for killing prisoners, so theu restrained him. Two of the guards were secretly intrigued by the testimonies, and returned, one by one, later to hear more. Both of them accepted Christ's wonderful gift that night. Both kept their new lives secret from the others, though since confessing Christ would have meant certain execution.

Whenever those men were on duty, though, Tibbins and Osher were allowed into the warm, dry guard room and the brother-guards smuggled them extra food and clean clothes.

Osher was the first to hear the couplet bombs fall. The couplets would make two explosions, the first would crack open any wall within 300 meters of ground zero, and the second explosion would emit nuclear waves that would kill anything they touched.

Osher heard the twin concussions, but did not have any idea what was happening. Snivva-ma (sings-with-joy, in Darkhellian) was on duty, so Osher went down to the guard room and asked him to turn on his viscreen. Both stared with shock and horror as they watched the DNN broadcast. The South Darkhellian nations had developed this new weapon, and Deathwish had no defenses against it.

Large sections of Deathwish and Maggotville had already been destroyed. Wourstillia had be obliterated. Cullville, Fiend and Wartown had been leveled. Gangreneton and Myst only existed on maps now. There was not one building still standing in Fey.

Osher knew that the couplet bombs were coming closer to the prison. He could hear the reverberations grow louder and longer. They were more audible, too, not just rumblings in the ground. He was wondering if he should ask Snivv-ma to let them escape when the couplet bomb hit the prison and killed everyone inside.

Only Leefee (Grateful adopted son of God, in Darkhellian), the other guard, was left alive. He had been offduty, away from Deathwish at his mother-in-law's house 150 kilometers away. He felt scared and awed that he had been spared. He had been scheduled to work that night, but his mother-in-law had called him for help in blocking her windows against the lazer attacks, so he called off. He, his wife and kids were safe for now. When his wife saw him crying, she was tried to comfort him, but his testimony about God's care ended up comforting her, and she and her mother accepted Christ as well.

She ran next door and told her neighbor, who also accepted Christ and became His disciple.

Sadly, none of them had Bible chips or any other way to study the word of God.

But their souls were at peace, and their fears were calmed. They decided not to even try to go home to Deathwish, but to head toward their cottage in the wilderness. It was near the foot of the mountains, the 20-mile high mountains that separated Deathwish from Hope. The cottage was in a tiny village called Desparation, but it had food synthesizers and an elether supplier, so they would be able to live there indefinitely without starving.

And, if things got really bad, they could flee to the mountains for safety, maybe find a cave deep and safely away from the couplet bombs.

 

[ZiSunka]

Ryan implanted a chip in the left middle finger of each man, and then showed them how to use them. Then Ryan started teaching the men the Word of God.

An hour later, they were all startled by a crash at the back door of the store. They crept out of the storeroom and peered around the corner toward the door. The door had been shattered into splinters.

And crawling through the doorway was...

Faith. Ryan couldn't believe his eyes! He was certain that all the others had been captured or dead, since no one but him had shown up at the vis-box to make the emergency call.

"Faith!" Ryan cried. "Thank God! You are alive!" and he ran to her and hugged her fully and long. Ryan felt something weird going on inside him. An emotion he had never felt before was seizing his heart. All of a sudden he realized that he love Faith. Really loved her, not just like a sister-in-the-Lord, but loved her like a man loves a woman. It surprised him and filled him with joy at the same time. He longed to kiss her, but he held back. They weren't alone, and he didn't know if she would share his feelings. He helped her and Teemel and Hesaw in through the shattered door.

"Ryan," Faith said, "we can't stay, we have to go back for the others. There are about a dozen of us. Is there enough room for us all?"

Ryan looked at the small storeroom and answered, "No. We'll have to find additional shelter. We haven't looked upstairs yet. Come with me."

Faith, Ryan and Teemel went gingerly up the stairs, half afraid of what they would find, and half afraid of what they wouldn't find. If there wasn't another secure room, Faith and her group couldn't shelter here. Ryan was afraid if Faith had to leave, he might never see her again.

At the top of the stairs, there was a steel door, slightly ajar. The door pushed easily open into a room that spanned the entire structure, and with no windows. Everyone sighed with relief. They all could shelter here, with room to spare.

They hustled downstairs to get the others.

"We have two wounded people, too wounded to walk," Faith told Ryan. "We'll need help to carry them here. It's about six blocks."

Ryan was worried. The laser attacks had moved on and all was quiet, but who knew how long that would last?

"Let's go now, then, before the lasers come back. Guyfen and Towen, come with us and help carry the wounded," Ryan said.

He looked at Winston, catatonic in the corner of the downstairs storeroom. "Do you know anything about Panda? Winston's not doing so good without her. She's pregnant, you know, and he's afraid that they might be dead."

"No. Nothing. She wasn't with us when we escaped. I don't know where she is," Faith replied with real sympathy.

Ryan looked at Winston and prayed to God that they would find Panda and Luce while they were out.

 

[ZiSunka]

They heard the first couplet bomb explode as they went out the door.

"What was that?" Faith asked, eyeing the sky for any sign of what had happened.

The group stopped and tried to look up from the urban canyon formed by the tall, closely spaced buildings. No one could see anything. Ryan ordered the group forward saying, "The sooner we go get them, the sooner we'll all be safe."

Faith said, "I hope we're not too late. I wish we had the medical packs or the portable viscreen, or access to a vis-box. These people are in bad sha--"

"We have the medical packs, Faith. They're at the store. Let's go--we might be able to save the wounded," Ryan answered.

The next explosion boomed in the distance.

"Ryan," Faith whispered, "I think those explosions might be bombs."

"Bombs?!" Ryan cried, "Nobody has used bombs in 200 years! They're cumbersome and expensive compared to laser attacks. And they don't kill as many people. They are very inefficient weapons! No, those booms have to be something else."

Faith scanned the sky again, nervous and scared for real for the first time. Something was happening that was different, something she didn't understand. She shivered slightly. The air wasn't colder than usual, but something chilling was going on.

Ryan pressed the group on, always viligant for signs that the laser attacks had been renewed.

When they got to the place that Andra and the others were hiding, it was too late to save the wounded pair. They were both dead. Andra's group had covered them with a plastic tarp they had found in their basement hiding place. There was no possibility to bury them. It was too risky to be out in the open, and there wasn't any open land nearby.

They had a time of prayer, of thanksgiving that their dead brother and sister were now safely in paradise with Christ, and sang a sad but simple song.

Then they all climbed out of the basement and began to make their way back to the store.

More explosions went off in the distance, but they couldn't see the explosions or hear which direction or distance they had come from.

On the way back to the store, Ryan spotted a vis-paper dispenser across the street. He ran over, but realized that he didn't have a Darkhellian ID chip that would work like money to let him buy one. He picked up a brick and bashed the front of the dispenser, then retrieved a dozen vis-papers and stuffed them in his pockets. He asked God's forgiveness for stealing once again, but he doubted that the owner of the dispenser would care that he had been robbed.

He turned one of them on, and began to watch the DNN broadcast while they walked.

"Oh God! No!" Ryan wailed when he realized that the explosions they were hearing were couplet bombs, and that the bombs carried radioactive death rays. He knew there was no way to protect themselves from the rays, there was no place to hide from them.

When they reached the store, Ryan sat everyone down and told them what was going on. They had a time of prayer for protection, and everyone prayed for each other.

Ryan finally announced, "There is only one thing we can do. We have to leave Deathwish and get to the mountains. If we can find a cave or a dwelling of some sort, we might survive. We need to take all the people we can with us, whether they are Christians or not. There's no way to hide from this, and we have to warn people and offer them a way to safety."

They all agreed.

Andra took Ryan aside, though, and whispered. "There's no way Winston can take that trip. He's frozen with grief and fear, from not knowing where Panda and their baby might be. We've got to take a vehicle, even if it means we steal one."

Ryan was reluctant at first. He didn't like stealing, and he didn't want to take a vehicle from someone else, because then they might not be able to escape. Leaving the city was the only answer, though.

"What if we start knocking on doors and telling people that they need to flee, and asking them if they have vehicles. Then we might all get a ride instead of trying to walk that distance. It's over a hundred kilometers to the mountains, and it would take us days to walk there, but only an hour to drive."

"Okay," Andra answered, and gave that instruction to everyone. Warn about the bombs, and ask about a vehicle.

They all went out as a group and starting banging on doors. Few got opened, but most of the people were grateful for the warning and the chance of escape. Many actually had vehicles, too, that they were willing to share. Meager supplies were loaded into them, to leave more room for passengers. Within an hour they were all boarded and ready to depart to the mountains. Everyone had found a ride.

 

[ZiSunka]

The caravan of refugees was 23 vehicles long.

People of all sorts were leaving Deathwish, most of them unaware that some among them were Christians. The Christians were unsure how the others would react, perhaps they would not be offended and hostile, but perhaps, because of the heightened fear and the prevailing ignorance about Christ, they might try to kill them on the spot. So, it was tacitly agreed not to say anything about their identity until they had reached their destination.

Fear mingled with excitement and adventure were the prevailing emotions of the refugees.

Most people in Deathwish longed to go to the mountains for vacation, but no one in the caravan had ever been there before. Before they had embarked, Ryan asked everyone if they had been to the mountains or knew of any safe lodging there, and not one could say yes.

They decided to take the Global highway out of town, since that was the widest, most direct route. They would easily reach the foothills in an hour, but it might take the rest of the day or more to find good shelter.

The couplet bombs were still falling, in the distance downtown Deathwish. Ryan saw the strange glowing fire on horizon and wondered if anyone could still be alive there. Certainly, the smokey cloud of death was headed their way. He silently prayed that they would be out of town before the fallout reached them, and he prayed that they hadn't already been exposed to the radiation that was undoubtedly being dispersed unseen on the winds.

Soon the caravan was flying down the highway, far exceeding a speed that Ryan would have thought to be safe. But he had never operated one of these vehicles, so he didn't really have any idea of what was safe or what was dangerous.

He was in the same vehicle as Winston. Winston's head was craned around, staring out the rear window, looking back on Deathwish. He openly cried and wailed, knowing that Panda was probably still there, unable to escape. She and their baby were certain to die, if they hadn't already. Winston's spirit shrank smaller still, as he mourned for his family, for the wife he loved, for the child he had never known. Ryan saw Winston's tears and heard his moans, and grief filled his heart on behalf of his friend, and because he, too, was grieving for both Panda and Luce. In this world of grief, in this city of death, Panda and Luce were just two more casualties, unnoticed by anyone but the Christians and by God.

Ryan openly cried. The others in the vehicle began to cry, too, partly in sympathy, but mostly for the people and things that they were leaving behind. Ryan fingered his Bible chip, looking for something to say to Winston to bring him peace. But his own heart was so empty and hollow, nothing sounded substantial. In his heart he could feel the word "trust," and strangely, it did bring him peace. His tears stopped immediately, and he turned to Winston and said that one word, "trust." Winston looked full in Ryan's eyes and threw himself into Ryan's arms in relief and presently fell asleep. He had peace at last.

Ryan thanked God for the word He had given him, the one word in which Winston could find solace.

 

[ZiSunka]

The convoy stopped when it reached the crossroad at the mountain highway. Since the Deathwish highway made a deadend here, they would have to decide whether to go north or south along the mountain highway.

The vehicles pulled into a field at the roadside, and people surged out and into the grassy meadow.

The wildflowers were blooming among the grasses. Ryan scanned the scene, and realized that every one of the plants was an Earth species, transplanted and thriving in this alien landscape. At least here, not one of the Darkhellian plants had been able to compete with the more hearty and aggressive Earth plants.

Ryan turned to watch the people assembling in the meadow. Some were unpacking food in preparation for a picnic lunch. But instead of a happy, joyous day in the wilderness, these people were preparing a meal of fear and saddness, more of an outdoor wake than a field day. Sad faces, red from crying, looked back at Ryan.

On the horizon, barely visible, Ryan could still see puffs of smoke from the couplet bombs that continued to fall. He looked into the sky for any sign of whatever flying vehicle might be dropping the bombs, but he could see nothing. The bombs appeared to be materializing out of thin air about a hundred meters above their targets. A silvery glint would appear in the air, followed by an instant later by an explosion below. Ryan could not figure out where the bombs were coming from, or how they fell so fast. A millisecond separated the glint from the boom. He had never seen or heard of such a weapon, and became fearful that whatever, whoever, was dropping the bombs would see them congregated in this field and begin to attack them, too.

There was no cover here to hide them in case of an emergency. The field was at the edge of a huge, flat plain, partly planted with sprouting maze. The plain was at least 100 kilometers long, and about 20 kilometers wide. They would be sitting ducks if the attackers came here.

Ryan scanned the horizon in the other direction. The mountain highway stretched north and south along the mountain range, but it sat a good 20 miles from the base of the foothills. There were no roads approaching the mountains, and the terrain was very rugged, too rugged to take the vehicle or even hike. It would be very slow going, especially with some of the children and elderly people; if they had to run for cover, they'd be cooked.

Ryan looked into the crowd of people growing on the field. Most of the faces were grim and sad. Having left everything, including loved ones, behind, who wouldn't be grim and sad? He tried to find Faith among the picnickers. The crowd was too scattered to see everyone, and he decided to walk among the groups to find her.

He saw Winston eating a sandwich with the folks in their vehicle. He saw Andra talking with an elderly couple. He saw the escaped prisoners sitting and reading their Bible chips.

Ryan smiled at them, thankful that they had found the Bible chips and had been able to implant one in each of these new believers.

Ryan saw Faith in the group most distant from where the vehicles were parked and he started to walk over to her. Now that he realized he loved her, he wanted to be as close as possible to her all the time.

On the way, Ryan heard someone call his name. He looked toward the voice and saw Panda. A wave of joy and relief filed him like a tsunami. "Panda!" he screamed, hoping Winston could hear. "Panda! Come with me! Winston is over here!" He grabbed her hand and they ran back to Winston. Such a reunion! Ryan cried as he watched Winston hold Panda and kiss her.

 

[ZiSunka]

Ryan looked around the crowd, expecting to see Luce nearby. If he and Panda stayed together, as they were trained, he would have to be here somewhere. But there were a lot of faces, and Ryan couldn't find him. Ryan didn't want to lose track of Faith's whereabouts, so he left Panda and Winston and went toward where he had last seen Faith.

There, he saw Faith, in Luce's arms, kissing him. Ryan's heart sunk into his shoes. Just when he realized that he loved her, she had already fallen in love with someone else. Ryan wondered how long they had been sweethearts, and why he had never realized it before. Though he knew he should get the crowd to safe cover before the couplet bombs found them, he really just wanted to run away and cry.

But this war had brought a strange new maturity to Ryan, a responsibility and love for these Darkhellians that he never had before. He held back his tears and started to gather everyone up to discuss where they should go and where they might hide.

But behind his determination lay a wounded heart, and tears that would fill the Mara Sangren.

 

[ZiSunka]

"Listen everybody," Ryan yelled. Somehow the yelling let out some of the emotion that Ryan was feeling, and softened it a bit. "Listen. We can't stay here. We've got to move to a safer place, where we can't be seen from the air, where we can take cover if the bombs come our way. Does anyone know anything about the mountains over there? Is there any safe place for us to all hide, or enough small places for us all to get into cover?"

Ryan surveyed the crowd, but no one knew anything about the mountains. Everyone just looked at each other and shrugged. It made Ryan a little mad that all these people had lived here all their lives and never learned anything about these mountains. Then he realized his anger was about Luce and Faith, not about ignorance. He sighed. "Does anyone have a map of this area?" he shouted. Again, everyone looked around, but no one had a map.

Ryan didn't really know what to do next. "Let's get back into the vehicles and keep driving until we find a pass or a cavern or a town or something," he said. They all did what he said.

Fifty km later on, they still hadn't come to a pass or a road that led to the mountains, and the terrain around them was so rugged that they didn't dare leave the road and drive overland.

Ryan looked out the window and scowered the landscape for any sign of a pass or roadway. Nothing. He noticed something odd, though, about the mountains. The sun was directly overhead now, but the shadows on the mountains were still facing west, as if the sun were rising, as if it were still morning. It was subtle, but he could see it. It aroused great curiosity in Ryan, and he tried to think of how this could be happening. He ordered the car stopped, and got out to look at the mountains from the outside.

He started to hike a bit into the rugged landscape to get closer to the mountains, to see if an optical illusion was causing the strange shadows. About a half mile from the road, the ground started sloping up, and Ryan wanted to climb a little to get a better look.

When he reached that point, Ryan picked up his right foot to climb up on a small rock half buried in the sand. His foot didn't catch, though, but passed right through the rock.

It was like a lightening bolt hit him, he got so scared. "What!" was all he could say. He fell down on the ground, and braced himself for the pain of falling onto the jagged rock, but instead, he felt the soft sand. Ryan sprang up and said, "What?" again. Real fear struck through him as he tried to puzzle out what was happening. Darkhellian physics was identical to Earth physics. He shouldn't have been able to pass through a rock. Two solids can't occupy the same space at the same time!

Ryan got up and started running westward, toward the higher slopes. But his body didn't climb. It started passing right through the soil and rocks that made up the base of the mountains. When the ground-level was chest-high on Ryan, he stopped and looked around. The terrain looked solid, but it was an illusion. The real ground was below Ryans's feet, and when he crouched down, he could see the real soil beneath his shoes. The mountains were a hologram.

Ryan started to laugh, in a funny, yet emotional way. The giggles turned to tears and then to sobs. The mountains were a hologram. They were an illusion. The mountains that separated Deathwish from Hope, were not real, they were just projected there, to make it seem like Hope could not be reached. Hope was unattainable to the people of Deathwish because of a silly funhouse illusion.

When Ryan crouched down again, he could look through the mountain, and see the silouette of a city on the other side.

He laughed again. There was Hope. There were no 20-mile-high mountains blocking the passage.

Ryan stood up and ran back to the caravan, wildly waving for them to start driving toward him. He would be able to show them the real path to Hope, to safety, to salvation. There was nothing stopping them but an illusion.

 

[Hishandmaiden]

A pity this story was stopped, but nevermind.