The Unholy Book Part 3

Part 2 chapter 4

Scoot, Koda, and Marcus went off looking for their stuff beneath the snow. I already had my sword, and the canisters, so I didn’t need to look for my stuff. This left me and ivy talking.
“So you used to be with the church?” she asked
“Yeah” please don’t let her know that she’s part of the church
“I used to be part of it too, right?” damn it!
“Yeah, how’d you guess?”
“Scoot told me, that you were part of the church and I was too” damn it scoot. You’re a nice guy, but man, did you have to go and tell her that?
“By the way, what are we wearing? Scoot said you would be able to catch me up to speed on the church” she said with a confused look on her face.
“Yeah I’ll do that” I said, while regretting it in my mind. I though for a second and smiled, she may be confused but I think she meant what she said when she wanted in.
We talked for awhile about how the church is run, and what you do in it. I tried to hint at the fact that we were actually going to try to destroy the church in a way, but she kept talking, and asking questions, so I never had much of a chance. We talked and she was very interested in the church and then she asked me a question that almost surprised me, but I guess I ended up looking very surprised from her reaction.
“Why are you in the church?” she said. As much as I don’t want to tell her, though it was only fair, even though nobody else knew.
I sighed and then replied “I was in new York when my parents were killed by government officials” as soon as I said this she looked puzzled
“Then why didn’t you ever go back to the church?” this one took me by surprise I never really though about it but I’m sure I could have just went back to the church at anytime.
“The truth is, I haven’t really took sides in the war, I just fight for the side with that is fighting for the good of mankind”
“But the church is just as bad as the survivors or the cleansing”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, from what I understand, aren’t all the sides fighting for a better world”
“Yes…, but”
“Then why don’t they all just work together”
“Well it’s not that simple, I agree with you about the fighting for a better world, but every body has their own view of a perfect world”
“Then what s yours?” I thought about it for awhile, and then I soon realized that I was grinning stupidly.
“Well it would definitely have to be warmer” I said laughing, along with her. Then we just sat there for a few minutes, waiting for Koda, scoot, and Marcus. They came after a few more minutes, fully prepared.
Scoot found his shot gun, and was now cleaning the barrel, and getting rid of the snow. Koda came back with his sniper rifle in his hand, looking ready but worried. Soon after scoot had finished getting the snow out of the barrel, Marcus came back. His machine gun had apparently broken and instead he took a one of the shock spears, and was somewhat satisfied.
“You do realize we have no food provisions, and no sleeping bags or tents” Koda said as though he was more concerned with the rest of the group, than himself.
“Don’t worry, that will all be covered in New York.” I said almost happy at the thought. That was probably the only good thing that came out of s.v.p. so far; it actually made New York bearable. Not only had that, but it also allowed us to sleep, where we wanted, and we almost had an unlimited supply of food and gear, from hunting stores, and convenience stores.

We walked for miles, back on the same path we took to get up here, walking through rugged terrain. The landscape was barren, with metal shards every few hundred miles. We would pass by ruined buildings. We traveled through forests. We slept in caves. We ate what we found. Including what we hunted. It was one of the coldest weeks ever.
I was walking through an old hunting/camping store, in Maine, with scoot. We had been there at least for two hours trying to decide what we need and what we didn’t. Ivy, Koda, and Marcus were sleeping in a nearby hotel. The building we were in had green paint on the out side, and the sign had rotten away so it read, sche, and then the rest of the letters were missing. We were now arguing over whether it would be more helpful to have an extra rifle, or two collapsible fishing poles.
“We should get the poles, we are going to be staying mostly along the coast” scoot said, I think he had been leaning towards this because he preferred fishing, far more that hunting.
“but scoot, with a rifle, we could use it for food and protection” I said, normally we could just steal from food stores along the way, but we were going to be going through a decent stretch along the coat that was uninhabited, but a few miles away from the coast was a road, that might have a gas station, but we didn’t want to gamble it. “Fine I said after thinking it through, besides, a loud gun might give away our position”
We were also going to go “car shopping” tomorrow, so we could get across the landscape easier. Even though we could easily carry enough food with the vehicle, we also needed aback up incase we weren’t in reach of a food store.
We wandered through the store, picking up various items, including a semi automatic gun for Marcus. Amongst these items were cooking utensils, five tents, knifes, propane lighter, camouflaged mesh netting, a ghuilly suit, and finally five water packs. The water packs had sacks that could be filled up with any liquid, and leading out of the package was a tube so you could drink out of it. I planned to fill mine with soda. It’s been at least two years since I last had soda, for they never had any up at Quebec.
After getting the supplies we walked through the town looking for anything else that we could make use of. We found nothing, but an old clothes store, a pizzeria, a bookstore that had burnt to the ground, and a liquor store, which scoot and I ended up going to.
We stopped in the liquor store, and found ourselves a pack of beer and a cooler for the road ahead in the mourning. We filled the cooler up with ice and set the beer in it. Soon after that was done, we needed some sleep so we walked back to the hotel, and slept.

Sunlight. Ah.
I sat there for a moment basking in the suns warmth as the rays came down on my skin through the window. I swung my feet from out underneath the covers. My feet were cold but the sunlight helped. I walked over to the sink in my pajama pants that I had grabbed from the clothes store last night. I walked lazily, enjoying the peacefulness of it. I approached the sink of the hotel room, and splashed some of the water in my face. I looked over at the showers contemplating whether to take a shower. I decided not to, besides I almost didn’t even get any water from the sink. I walked over to my cloak in the corner, and my piles of cargo pants and cameo t-shirt, that I had also picked up from the clothes store.
Normally I would have just worn the bland black clothes that the church gave us. I walked over to the mirror, examining the new look. Man it felt good to change clothes. They had no way to clean clothes at Quebec or anything to even slightly take out some of the stains. I kept my cloak on over my new clothes, and then contemplated ripping the cloak in the front, so I wasn’t a sweaty. I did. I tore down the front leaving the cloak on my arms but the rest was handing from my back, with the hood pulled off. I wasn’t a church anymore, but I kept the cloak just in case.

I walked out of the hotel room with my sword at my side. I pulled open the door, and then left the key lying there in the key hole. Across from me was ivy, who had apparently already gotten dressed and was waiting for some one else.
“Good your awake, I have been waiting here for somebody to wake up for like two hours”
“Well I’m up, you sleep well?”
“Yeah, what equipment did you and scoot pick up last night” she said.
“Oh the usual, hunting gear…” I then went on to explain what else we got, and that we also haven’t got a car yet.
“Well... do you want to look at cars now” she said as she smiled.
“Sure” I said with enthusiasm. We walked through the town, looking at the buildings, and then we finally reached the dealership. We waked towards the building looking at all different cars not sure what we needed for the road ahead. Although after awhile she and me both agreed on the fact that we needed a car that had a thick build, although we saw many small little fast racing cars, and mini vans.
“Don’t you just love days like this she said as sat on one of the sports cars, looking up towards the sun? She was still dressed in her church clothes as she said this. She then apparently noticed I had ripped my robe down the middle, and had gotten new clothes.
“Nice clothes” she said.
“Sure” I responded wondering if she was just being sarcastic.
“No I mean it, I’m just dressed in this thing” she said looking at her robe with disgust.
“It’s not that bad” I said trying to be nice
“c’mon, don’t lie” she said with a playful and relaxed voice. She looked back down at her clothes and then added “how bout we go clothes shopping”. I thought this through a couple of times and then told her…
“Ok, but lets make it quick, I don’t want to spend to much time in this city”
“Fine”. And then she jumped off the cars hood and started walking, signaling, for me to come along. And so I did.
We walked along the side walk again towards the clothes store. The burnt book store was nearby the clothing store so before she went in I told her “I’m going over to check out the book store”
“Ok…” she said wondering what I was going to do there. “Well, when your done meet me in the women’s department”. I smiled and then she smiled back.
“I will”
I walked over to the burnt building and approached the door, good thing the building was made out of brick, or it probably wouldn’t even be there at all. I didn’t tell her, but whenever I had the chance I would always try to find old books so I could learn about the past and how the war came to be.
I kicked down the boor, which was barley hanging on its hinge, and walked in. the inside looked even worse than the out side. There was so much ash in the air I could hardly breathe. I walked over to what appeared to be an old shelf. The metal shelf, had lots of ash, on it but one book was actually intact some how. I felt the cover, which was made out of some type of cardboard. Most of the cover was burned off so the title was unrecognizable.
I began to leaf through the pages of the book, noticing that the book traversed with characters, as they traversed through out the orient. This was the problem with books; they could be full of lies though. It was hard to tell what fact was and what fiction was. Although I have noticed over time, most books contain numbers to which one can find out if it is.
I set the book l down and began to walk around the room. Although I noticed after awhile that there was nothing else that was recognizable, except for the shelves and that one book. I turned around to do one finally look over on the place, and noticed that the ash was even heavier now, for that I stirred up the ashes into the air.
I became disappointed, and I left. I pulled the door shut on its metal hinge and hear the door, click, knowing it was now shut. I walked back over to the clothing store, and had my hand on the handle when it began to turn, and then the door was soon pulled open by a mysterious hand.
“What tool you so long” a familiar voice asked “you were in that place the whole time”
“Sorry, shopping isn’t really my thing” I said back to Ivy
“That’s okay” she said, but if you looked close enough into her eyes, you could tell it wasn’t.
“Well, let’s go see if the others are up, and then well go look at the cars” she added, knowing that I knew she was mad at me. We walked back to the hotel, with her saying nothing at all. I wanted to tell her sorry, but she was humming a tune to herself, completely ignoring me. Although to my relief, the others were awake, wasting the beer, scoot and I had brought back the night before.
I could smell it from there. They had been drinking. I hoped that they didn’t drink too much, for I had never seen them drink before. But they had. Scoot was lying there, talking about dragons, and other things that he used to enjoy drawing. Marcus and Koda were in a deep conversation arguing over whether, it was possible to tell a joke so funny that you could kill with it. Koda was arguing that it would be amazing help, and Marcus, said that it would be impossible, because he had tried before.
“No, no, no, a joke that funny, should be saved for, some one, like the maker of the joke” Marcus said and then added “but then he would die of it, too”. Koda agreed with this, and then began talking about the military uses of it again.
“What happened here” said ivy, asking me, as though I knew perfectly what happened. Unfortunately I did.
“Yeah we kind of brought some beer back to the hotel, and we never told you, and…” I probably could have found more excuses but she interrupted me.
“Why, just why you, never minded...” she said stomping off to the car store, apparently thinking we were incapable of any thing now. So I was left there to keep an eye on them.
I began giving them water to sober up. But that didn’t work. I tried crackers to sober them up. But that didn’t work. I even tried scaring them. But that clearly didn’t work. After awhile, I sat down on the bench upon Koda, was sitting too. I sat there for awhile, listening to them talk about even more pointless topics. After awhile I pulled my hood down over my eyes and went to sleep.

I awoke to the sound of a minivan driving up, yes a mini-van. Not exactly my idea of war machinery. The silver mini-van was bright and polished. In the front was ivy waving towards us, apparently she though this would work.
“Hop, in” ivy commanded.
“But, uh, hmm…..” soon after scoot mumbled this he fell back sown to the ground, mumbling to himself, and showing his dislike of the mini-van. Soon after Koda and Marcus showed their dislike of the idea
“It’s not really stealthy” Koda said, and then Marcus added “and how are we going to shoot out of the back windows when they don’t roll down
“Let’s go get, something different guys” I said, now fully waking up
“Wuh, ok, fine” scoot said, now almost recovered from the alcohol.
“But, I just got the van” ivy complained
“Trust me ivy” I said now walking up to her and putting me hand on her shoulder “I don’t think were going to be fighting off church in a mini van”
“Just find what ever you want” she said now looking a little less vexed. Soon after she said this Marcus and Koda helped scoot get up as they began to talk about something else. I then walked over to ivy to tell her to get the van back tot eh place, but I decided against it.
Instead I walked back over to ivy as she was walking away; I reached around on to her shoulder as she spun around.
“I’ sorry”
“It’s okay Nate”
And then she kissed me…

Part 2 chapter 5

“A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

I think I’m in love. Huh. Now I know what they mean when they say when somebody talked about, being struck by love. Its not that I kissed her. She kissed me. I don’t know what she sees in me. But what ever it is, I hope it’s something good. Well, duh it’s something good. Oh and then kiss wasn’t on the cheek, it was on the lips.
God, I sound like some dork. Well it’s just something new to me. Church really doesn’t permit love, until age 30, which I think is bullshit. Only another reason, to get rid of the church. Man if this war ever ends, I’ll be amazed.
Any ways, we did, go and get a different vehicle after the kiss, the guys were completely distracted and I didn’t think they were paying much attention, in their drunkenness. The car we got was actually a truck, nice big and bulky, I’m not sure how much it could with stand if we ended up getting into a fight. We would probably make it out if it was just the swords men, but if they had more soldiers of the third day we were doomed.
To secure, the gear and the supplies, such as food, and not to the liking of ivy, beer, the back was pulled down with tarp. We also left some space in the back in case we needed to carry anything more. The truck was a beauty with its shiny black coat, hardly scratched.
“Time to get in guys” scoot said with his body already in the trucks, driver seat.
“Let some one else drive scoot” I said in a friendly tone
“Who else wants to” scoot said looking around to see if Marcus, Koda, or ivy wanted to drive. Marcus was already sitting in the back of the truck, drinking more, but this time in moderation, so he wouldn’t be drunk when we set off. Koda was over sitting on a nearby bench messing around with one of the shotguns and semi auto rifle, from the hunting store, he had by now wired the semi auto to e bottom of the shotgun, and with a series of complicated gears, and other tools, put together smoking of rifle, that could fire shotgun shells, from the top barrel and rifle ammunition from the bottom barrel. As I stared at it for a moment, I thought to my self that I would have to ask him about it later. Ivy was sitting there comfortably in her new clothes, as she combed her hair, not saying a word to me sense the kiss.
“I might as well try” Koda said, now putting the strange new gun down. I was hoping for Koda to do this, for I knew secretly he loved to drive, or use anything that he could mess around with for that matter. He was an inventor at heart, and might still be if not for the war. Koda walked over and was impatient to get back to his invention, yet also wanting to see what he could do to truck.
Turns out it was a lot. He already began rewiring the radio, as soon as he got in the truck and scoot got out. I never asked him what he was doing. Instead I waked over to Marcus, who was sitting there in the back, resting and drinking at the same time.
“Pass me a beer” I said
“Its, not that good, but hey its beer” he said now handing the bottle over to me. I took it and began to drink. It tasted good, but we needed to get going.
“Lets pack up, guys” I said to every one. Ivy looked up at me “…and Ivy” I said to be respectful. They began to walk over to the truck and got seated. There were only three seats in the front, so two of us were going to have to sit in the back. Scoot and Marcus noticed this, and they hoped in the back.
“Hurry up” said Koda now loosening up because his hands were full with his new toy.
“Coming” ivy said as she began to walk over to the truck. I held open the door for as she climbed in. I closed the door behind her as I hoped in myself. I released my hand off the handle as the door clicked into place and we began moving.
We took the southern direction out of town and began to move again. It was good to feel the road. I looked back through the rear window and saw that scoot and Marcus were leaning up against the sides of the truck as they were talking about how beautiful the landscape was. We had just left the city, and now about 20 miles out of town was a large maple forest. I turned around and began to shut my eyes. Koda was getting tired and in sheer boredom turned on the radio.
Now I hate the radio as much as anyone else. I mean why would you put a devise in a car, that all it did was play the same audio book of the bible over and over and over again? And yes, thanks to the church, that was the only thing on the radio. So after awhile, Koda turned it off.

We traveled down the road for miles and miles. We would occasionally stop at gas stations; take whatever food we needed, and whatever gas was still left in the stations. There was almost none so we had to fill the truck up with the cartons of emergency gas that we found in the backroom of the gas station.
Scoot and Koda took turns driving. I would have but I honestly never have before so I let them have at it. Marcus never did it either, I’m sure he would have but he was either sleeping or reading one of the joke books that he found in the gas stations, or if not that he was either drunk, sleeping, or shooting what ever we passed by. Ivy drove once, but she ended up getting mad at Marcus for distracting her with the gun shots, so she never drove again.
When Koda wasn’t driving, he sat in the back working on his gun. Every gas station or town we passed through, we would stop at a hardware store for him. The shotgun-rifle fusion was looking closer and closer to working each day.
We only had to stop at three hotels before we reached New York. We probably could have made it one day but we ended up stopping at so many towns for meals, parts for Koda, more beer for Marcus, and for scoot we stopped for fishing.
We stopped along the shore whenever scoot got restless and we let him fishing while the rest of us explored. I walked along with him this time carrying another pole so we could go fishing. We came closer to the edge of the pier in the city we were in. there were a few old boats, but none of them worked so we sat there on the dock casting our lines into the water as the sun began to set. We were going to sleep in this town, so we didn’t have to hurry up and get moving.
I cast my line out into the water and saw it splash and ripple the waves. The fish were there some where. I sat there wearing my ripped church cloak, a brown t-shirt, and my favorite pair of cargo pants. My legs were crossed and I felt the fading sunlight hit my face like a wave of warmth. Everything slowed down sitting there with whom I considered my best friend drinking beer and fishing.
“Huh…, I wish everyday was like this” I said before I let out a long sigh.
“Yep another strawberry day” scoot said, referring to his name for a perfect summer day. I looked back down at the water.
“You went fishing with your dad a lot when you were kid?” I asked
“Yeah…” he said taking another sip of his beer. “It was my favorite thing to do that and draw”
“Sounds fun” I said realizing that I never really had any hobbies or anything that I really liked to do or was good at. Well I could fight and I liked to read, but that was about it. There was no way you could really be good at reading though.
“What did you do as I kid” he said as he glanced over at me “ya know, in the church”
“Not much” I said with a slight chuckle.
“Well did you ever try a musical instrument?” he said to me
“No, not really”
“Hmm, you should try you might like it” he said after taking another sip. We sat there for a few more moments, still not having any luck. We did have one or two fish come up and turn away but that was about it.
The sun was nearly gone so we packed up and walked back over to the hotel. Another night with friends.

I awoke in the hotel, a small, dusty room with green floral wallpaper but we were leaving so it didn’t matter much to me. My friends were sleeping somewhere down the hall so I decided to dress quietly. I brushed my teeth, and did all the usual stuff.
I walked down the hall and out of the hotel. We had a few more hours of driving so I went out to the jeep and cleaned out some of the garbage that had been accumulating in the back of the truck. The guys and ivy got up and came out about half an hour later. They all got in their places in the car and we set off. Marcus wanted to drive today so we had to cut him off the beer. We never did get in an accident.
More hours in the car. There’s not much to do. Although we did stop at a book store that also had music so that helped relieve the boredom. We ended up arguing over what we should listen to. Ivy wanted country and the rest of us wanted rock or heavy metal. Scoots though, wanted either country, jazz, or roll. We ended up listening to country for a little while and rock for the other half.

And then we reached New York. It was still as desolate and barren as it had been two years ago. Well it wasn’t really barren, but the buildings were deserted and some of then burned. Moss grew on the outsides of the city. The people were frozen in place. Some were on the ground with there hand over their mouths and noses. I looked at my handy work. Unfortunately it was good.
“Back in new York, how does it feel” scoot said leaning on the side of a building as I took some food from a vender.
“Its ok, nice and quietly” I said “most peaceful place in the world”
“What about the cannibals” scoot asked. I found out that the survivalists never referred to the cannibals as their own but if one came to Quebec the would welcome them in. there were different survivalist camps all over the world. Ones in Egypt, South Africa, Thailand, Russia, and Brazil. Most are underground, but some are thick enough in jungles that they can hide on the surface peacefully.
The church never goes to far from its headquarters in the United States, Italy, china, and Saudi Arabia. The church was a mixture of most major religions joined together against the government. First it was just in America but soon the war over the book spread and now it had consumed most of the worlds.
“There not that bad. We won’t find them unless we look for them”
“Mmm” scoot said, agreeing. Ivy walked over to us wearing a t-shirt and some sweat pants with moons and stars on them.
“What are you guys doing” she asked, apparently in a good mood from the smile on her face.
“Not much you” scoot said back
“Same” she said now sitting down on a park bench nearby.
“Have you had lunch yet” I said now finishing the hot dog
“Yeah but I don’t think Marcus or Koda have had anything yet” she said. Her voice was not audible in a space station floating far above New York City in outer space…

“The extermination was complete for Quebec” said one of the men who had apparently token Dr.Nils place for he was now sitting at the side of Dr.Worth with a rocket launcher slung over his shoulder by a leather strap. The man was about the same size of dr. worth except for the fact that he was maybe five inches shorter than he was. He wore the same armor that the rest of the cleansing wore, the chain mail that went at least from necks to their boots. This man had an extra piece of cloth over it, a sort of robe; it was a pale tan with the symbol of the dark cleansing on the front.
“Are you sure?” Dr.Worth said now very skeptical on how well the extermination went. “I say thousands of them down there in the tunnels”
“Don’t worry Dr.Worth” the man said “I sent men down into the tunnels to finish off the others with the flame canisters”
“Yes and on the topic of your chemicals” dr. worth said “have you translated any others?”
“No, but I do believe the flame spray has more to it. There are small minute hints of a larger and more powerful version but ill have to look at it further”
“Oh and I do hope your enjoying your stay at our little space cottage” dr. worth said, clearly meaning it. He needed this man very badly.
“Oh yes, very much” the man said now walking away from the table with his hands on the door knob of the white room.
“Thank you for your services, I do hope you’ll continue your stay Doctor” Dr.Worth said and then added with an evilly crooked smile on face “or should I say Dr.jhonson, or even Kramer Johnson, discover of the book.

Part 2 chapter 6

Marcus and Koda walked up eating year old pizza that they found in some pizzeria down the road. They both were dressed in the new clothes that they had picked up in the city but they still had on their coats from Quebec hanging on their shoulders.
“What’s up” Marcus said now finishing off the pizza.
“Not much” I said back and then added “although we are near my old monastery.
“So…” ivy said resting on the bench nearby.
“Let’s visit it” I said
“As in...”
“Just walk by”
“Fine” Marcus, Koda, and scoot said at once
Ivy though for a few more minutes and then said “sure, it couldn’t hurt.
We walked a few more minutes until we came upon the monastery. There it sat lying on the ground like a sleeping beast. It looked like every church of the old. Its sides tanned and peeling, and it steeple adorned in stained glass and topped with a metal cross, it didn’t look odd on the outskirts but if it were farther into the city it would have been a sight indeed. I walked up to the large wooden doors to the front. I began to get carried away with it all and so I reached down and grasped the cold brass handle.
“Nathan, no…” ivy said in a whispered voice as she pulled my hand away from the knob of the door.
“I just want a peek” I said pulling myself back towards the door and away from her hands.
“You just said a walk by”
“Ivy, I’m sorry but I have to do this” I reached down and twisted. I took one final breath and pushed the door in. It swung open slowly, releasing musty air into the wind. The door was now swinging freely over against the wall opened up to the world inside.
I walked in realizing that everyone was not in the main hall at this time of the day. They were most likely in the basemen to of the church, cooking meals, practicing fighting, or hearing/reading scripture. The inside was just as peeled and chipped as it was on the outside. Bibles were left on pews that were adorned in soft red cushions. There were at lest twelve pews, six on each side. I heard this was because of the twelve disciples but that was only a rumor.
“Hello” I said realizing calling for someone or something I would recognize from years before. I new these halls well. I knew the people well. I knew the books well. I even knew the air well. I knew the pastor well…
…the pastor. Killed by me. My fault. How many others from my monastery had I killed? And how many more had been added as replacements from the larger monasteries in New York. I walked down the row between the pews and ran my hand over the red fabric. Ivy walked up at my side, trying to take hold of her past.
Scoot, Marcus, and Koda were finally walking through the front door, having curiosity get the better of them. Marcus came in with his eyes flaring left and right, scanning for the church. Scoot was standing there looking in disgust and Koda began exploring.
So this is what its like” said ivy running her hand over a bible. “The church I mean it’s different than what I expected”
“What’d you expect” I said, probably with a big stupid grin on my face
“I though it be all dark” I had to laugh.
“What’s so funny”?
“Ah, nothing”. Marcus was now walking over to one of the doors that lead to other parts of the monastery as scoot followed him. Marcus looked through the window of the door and then walked over to where Koda was standing. Koda was up at the front holding my churches copy of the book. There was no reason to destroy it because we needed to go after the original to stop any more recipes being decoded. The door creaked open. Slowly at first and then with the sound of children it grew.
“Cannibals” wailed one of the children who just came through the door. It happened in a flash. They ran back screaming cannibals as the older members of the church came forwards drawing their swords.
“Out of this holy place” commanded one of the ladies who were watching the children, clearly looking in Koda direction. Koda began to retreat rolling up the copy of the book in his hands.
“He has the book, the cannibal has the book” the women, there was five of them now were coming into the room with their swords drawn, ready to kill us, if we tried to escape.
Marcus had his gun drawn ready to fire. Scoot was holding his shotgun towards them, and I of course had my pistol out in one hand and sword in the other. We were ready. They were to.
We stood there in a stale mate as Koda slowly retreated backwards towards the door outside.
“Ivy your alive” the woman said “but you, but…. ….get over her, away from the cannibals”
“Who are you” ivy said slowly walking towards her by some invisible force.
“It me rose” she said with her hand pointed towards herself. Ivy just stood there shaking her head back and forth. My eyes darted down at my gun. She won’t remember.
“You don’t remember your own sister?” she said, with tears in her eyes.
“I…” ivy began but she never finished. I shot. Then ivy finished. A fury of sadness and hate overwhelmed her and she ran to her dying sister. Ivy shouldn’t know her past. Maybe I’m worse than the church that spawned me, but I don’t want her to go back to the church. I don’t want her to remember her sister; I don’t want her to remember what I was like back then. I don’t want her to remember me and her sister.

“Why, why, Nathan” she said in tears “damn it Nathan, why the hell did you shoot her” I never responded. I just stood there staring at Koda with my eyes, hinting that he should get going with the book. We didn’t go there to take it, but of course there were allot of things we didn’t come here to do for.
“Why the hell, did you…” she continued on mumbling. I tuned her out. I walked away from her, and gave the order. The woman fell and then the other church behind her.
Only ivy stood “get up ivy, we’re going” I said walking away towards the door with Marcus, scoot, and Koda followed behind me. I didn’t wait for ivy to leave. She came out though and hoped in the truck. She sat in the back. Marcus and Koda were acting like it never happened and instead they sat in the back talking about how nasty the pizza they just had was. Koda sat into the front with his head pointed towards the floor. He turned on the radio. It was good to feel the churches word. It helped me think. I know now why my parents were part of the church. It was there to pick you up. It picked my parents up in the economic crisis of 2010, and it picked me up now.

Car wheels rolled along the cracked blacktop road during the dawn. We were headed for the capital. It was no longer the capital since the U.S.A. deteriorated but it still was a major hub of activity for the church. There were almost no nations any more, almost all were joined in the war. The book could have stopped war, but it started the biggest instead.
“Out of gas” Koda said hitting his hand on the dashboard hoping he was wrong. He hit a few more times and decided wee needed to stop. Luckily we passed by a sign a little while ago that said the city was only 10 miles away.
“I think I see it” I said to Koda pointing to the horizon, and sure enough we could see the city. It rose with the sun and it buildings made shadows along the sky in almost the formation of teeth of the beast ahead.
We approached the city rolling into its streets. The buildings were worst than in New York. The buildings were rotting and most of then were burned. The buildings that were once lined with red brick were now in shambles with the black burnt brick lying in heaps beneath the structure of metal frame. Over truck rolled over the thin wreckage of wood, brick, and metal that lined the streets. We reached a pile of rubble that was not traversable so with a nod we all got out and began walking.
“What you thinking scoot” I asked noticing g that he was scanning the tops of the buildings with intention.
“Nothing”
“Sure” I said knowing he wasn’t telling me the truth. “Ivy you still holding up back there” I said while extending a hand towards ivy. She didn’t take it
“Fine, just fine, like my sister,” she said while walking past me
“Ivy, look, I’m sorry, I did what I did and there is no way to change it.” She ignored me and walked on.
“Probably should have picked your words better, Nate” Marcus said now walking towards me from the back of the truck.
“Well you’ll have more…” Marcus said but was interrupted by a loud crash from atop a remaining building. “The hell,” said Marcus?
We both instantly aimed our guns towards the roof but nothing showed itself. We kept the guns aimed at the roof for awhile before running back over to where the others were.

Up on the building…

On a building overlooking a truck sat two men. One holding a sniper over the edge, the other was talking into a cell phone very silently.
The bearded man with the cell phone began talking into it at a louder pitch “the targets got away sir, they must have heard us after grass here, hit his beer can with his elbow”.
“Hey shut up squirrel you’re going to get me bad rep”
“Whatever” he said and then began talking back into the cell phone “anyways, they got away”. Soon after a voice came back through
“Well, follow then we need to eliminate then at all costs, they are cannibals, and are a threat to the church”.
“Yes, captain”
The man closed his cell phone and looked over at grass, which was looking over his sniper. Squirrel pulled his off the floor and rested it between his hands feeing the hard wood of the casing. They were ready to hunt.

Back with Nathan…

“Why are we hear again” said Marcus now sitting on a park bench lighting a “smoke” as he called them. The ashes flew from the butt like a fire beast being brought into existence. The smoke then rose up into the air causing scoot to cough.
“We have to find help” scoot said “ya lazy ass”. Scoot had picked up some new clothes and had on some baggy jeans and a simple blue t-shirt and had finally shaved, for some reason the need for shaving was none up there. His hair though still remained shaggy and uncombed.
“Help?” Marcus said, now looking up from his smoke. Letting out another puff.
Scoot gave a sigh and then said “the D.o.L.”. I didn’t know what it meant and apparently Koda who was walking up to we now knew that.
“They are a group rumored to be hidden in Washington and cause attacks on nearby churches”
Then it struck something and I knew what they were talking about. “The defenders of liberty?” I said hoping I was wrong. They nodded their heads, I wasn’t.
“So… why do we need them” I said, still confused.
“Nate, I’m not sure if you realized this but I don’t think that us alone can march into the churches capital and destroy the book” said scoot, who was still coughing from the smoke
“Makes sense” I said, not wanting to admit that they were right.

Now admitting that the survivalists were forming armies, the pope sat on his throne. He had risen to this level of power only by force and a few quiet assassinations.
He was adorned in gold and dressed in a white robe. The popes before him were modest and were simple. He scoffed at the thought. We should he have to be commoner, besides no other pope was as loving and powerful as he was.
“No one else knew what he had to do to get here anyways. I had to runaway from his father. My stupid god-damned father. Then I had to worm my way into the church as a pastor at a monastery/church/chapel what ever the hell they called them now days. Then I had to raise followers by cutting off my own arm for a sacrifice” he paused and looked down at his left arm, now only a stub “and after that I had to hire assassins who would actually kill the pope with out chickening out because of gods wraith and that shit. Thank god I came upon grass and squirrel” the pope said under his breath. He reached down for his cell phone
“Have the trouble makers been dealt with” the pope said into the phone
“Grass pay attention” the pope heard through the phone before he heard squirrel slap grass on the back of the head. “What was that sir, I didn’t quite catch that”
“Have they been dealt with?”
“No, sir but we’ve been listening in and we know who the betrayer is”
“Who”
“A man who goes by the name of Nathan light”
The phone slipped. It was then slowly picked up
“I take it you know who this is sir”
“Yes, yes I do”

“So where do you think DOL are scoot” I said
“Most likely the old capital of the united states”
“And that is” said Marcus now getting angry from the long walk. Ivy was following behind Marcus chewing on gum that she took from a candy store we walked by earlier.
“The capital building” said Koda who was still scanning the buildings, being weary.
“I knew that” he said. It was now getting dark and Marcus was drunk
“Guys, can we go in and get some sleep” ivy said between chews. We did. We found and old hotel five stories tall, only the first two floors remained but the other three stories frames were visible. We walked into the wrecked building ready for some sleep. They went into the rooms ready for some rest, I didn’t. I walked up onto what remained of the third floor which was covered in rubble of concrete and metal frame.
Good security while it lasted. I walked over to a spot with a little of the fading sunlight visible and laid down. It was nice out. Dust specks floated down the shaft of light like angles falling into the destruction. Where was god? If only…
Foot steps came up the stairs in the corner dust came out of the rubble as scoot walked over to where I was lying. He sighed and sat down with his back leaded up against a portion of the floor above us that had crumbled down near the wall.
“How’s it going” he said with his arms crossed gently with his eyes closed and tilted back towards the newly visible stars.
“Ok I suppose” I said after sighing “just a little tired, I suppose”
“Mmm…” he said with eyes still closed resting
“I just don’t know”
“Don’t know what” he said
“While, are we doing the right thing”
“That all depends on your perspective”
“I suppose” I said while looking for any constellations I could name “but the book, if we destroy it the poisons will be gone…”
“… We will also destroy the cures, I know” he said and open his eyes “and there in lies the problem with humanity.” “We destroy what would save the world, all problems could be solved simply, humanity just hasn’t learned to work together” he then closed his eyes and took a deep breath and let it out slowly “and we never will”
“And that’s how it’s going to stay” he said before walking down the stairs coughing from some of the dust