The Book of Chosen - Apocrypha - The Begining

I am the Chosen One and HE who speaks in thunder and gravel has anointed me as his most righteous Prophet. I am nothing. What will follow is HIS WORD and not of mine. Believe it or Perish in the days to come!

The Unknown - Chapter 16 - by nova

The group was already gone with the exception of Miller who had decided, without asking me, to stay on the road with me. The squad, such as it was, was either scrambling up the sandstone the road was cut through or already out of sight.

I looked around, it was a beautiful day, and far away from any place I called home. As soon as I thought that I had to laugh. I had no home, I just had places memories had happened in. If this all worked out then this would be another one.

The road had been cut through sandstone, each side was ragged but a climb straight up of about fifteen feet. That was why I was down on the road with the bus. No way in hell I was going to climb that today.

I walked over to the rear wheel and sat down with my back against it. The way the bus was parked made where I was sitting the only gap between the it and the sandstone. If I stayed beyond the wheel I wouldn't be seen and I would have some protection against incoming rounds. It was a plan. Not much of I had to admit, but a plan. I was never all that good with a rifle anyway. If I was going to make a difference it would have to wait until they got in close.

Miller took the other wheel and began laying out his magazines and grenades.

"You want a grenade or two Gardener?"

"No."

I waited a minute or two and asked him, "What the hell you doing here Miller?"

"Down here with you? My job."

"No. I mean riding to the rescue."

"Well, there was what they told us and what I think is going on."

"Explain Miller."

"You're a big deal, hell, you're a legend, everyone knows you, or thinks they do."

I told him, "But there is another reason. Right Miller."

"Yeah, it's how things are run and done these days." He didn't sound to happy about it either. "It was a lot simpler when I started doing this. What I think is that in the big picture we're here to win the hearts and minds of the Navajo. This area, and the people in it, are in the right place for the move to take back the rest of the west coast, you know, the place that used to be Southern California."

"Yeah. Max always thought big. He wants it all. Him and Freya."

He shrugged. "What we leave behind is always better then what we found."

I laughed. "Sure it is. After you've killed most of the people who might disagree with you it is easy to set things in order."

"Isn't that what you do?"

He had a point. I didn't answer him. I didn't feel like I needed to. It didn't matter anyway.

We had some time. At least ten minutes which was good. I was tired. I was also cold, probably because I was in the shade. I thought about moving into the sun but it wasn't worth it. I wondered how Ninja was doing. It would be good to see him and Max again. Maybe after this I would go North and see them. Hell, the way they were moving I could go back to Virginia. I liked that even better. I missed Virginia or whatever it was called now. I didn't like to think about it but I had outlived, lost, or moved away from everything that meant something to me.

I was glad when I heard the sound of engines. It killed what was turning into a really morbid line of thought. My guess was they had scouts running ahead of the main body on motorcycles. I closed my eyes again. Millers people could handle this. They did. I didn't even bother to look. I just listened and saw it unfold.

Two outriders, both going faster than they should have been, saw the bus and slowed down later than they should have. They got the part were only one approaches while the other hangs back almost right. Almost in that the one who hung back thought he was out of range from who ever was at the bus ambush. He wasn't. His partner went down about thirty paces from me. Miller rolled out from behind the wheel and shot him from a prone position from under the bus. The SAW reached out and finished his partner before he could get headed back to warn the main body.

The Unknown - Chapter 15d - by nova

I was the first off the bus. That was part of the job too. I stood off to one side with Miller. As Rodriguez, and the guy with the SAW, got off they would pause, look around, stare at a spot and look at Miller. He would nod and they would take off.

The people themselves? The men looked grim, the women stone faced, and the kids excited. Each adult took a second to try and smile at me or nod. No words. Just that. 2nd squad had them moving. As they passed me they each saluted. That was more than a little strange. I didn't return it. I just gave them the nod too. I knew how to salute, I just never felt right doing it.

Their Captain joined me and Miller and we all watched Kat get off the bus. She didn't say anything to me. She just kept on going. I guess she figured she said all she had to say. She might have but I hadn't. I called her name and watched as she reluctantly turned around. She was crying. I gestured for her to come to me. She didn't bother to wipe away the tears when she stood in front of me. She just looked at me.

"Here."

I pulled the Colt Navy out of my belt and handed to her.

"Why me?"

"Why not."

She almost smiled, almost said something, but instead she turned and ran off. She had a great ass.

"Time for me go sir." It was the other Captain.

"Okay."

I mean what was the deal here? Just go. Hell, we didn't have time for this. I was getting that feeling, the one that told me it was time to get ready for the storm.

He saluted me, then said, "It's an honor. I envy you Miller."

"Right." I told him. "Get your ass out of here."

He grinned and was gone too.

"Okay Miller. You need to salute or anything?'

"No Gardener."

"Good. Pick a spot and go find it."

He looked at me like he was going to say something profound or worse.

"Just do it."

I walked off. I knew where I was going and what I was going to do. Maybe drugs weren't that bad after all.

The Unknown - Chapter 15c - by nova

It was time in no time. It wasn't always that way. I used to count the seconds before an action. This time they just rolled by me, almost unnoticed. I must have drifted away because all of sudden Miller was sitting next to me and repeating my name.

"What Miller."

"Time to do it."

"Fuck. Okay. I want our people to each have 250 rounds, all the water they can carry, and nothing else. I want the Barrett guy..." I tried to remember his name, shit it was gone, to come with us too. Also..."

He cut me off, firmly, quietly, but never the less he cut me off. "I did all that. We're out of .50 and we don't have 250 rounds per man unless you want to send 2nd Squad away with three magazines a piece."

"You burned though that much ammo?"

"No. We came light. Had to. We were going for speed and humping heavy hardware. We look good for the SAW but otherwise we go with what we got.

The bus was slowing.

"Okay Miller. Block the road with the bus. Get everyone moving towards the chapter house on foot. Two miles is less then 20 minutes. The terrain is to rough for anyone to follow by vehicle after they get past the there. Let 2nd Squad do the rearguard action."

"I've already arranged for all that Gardener."

I thought about that. "So whats left Captain?"

"Our jobs sir."

I had to laugh at that. "Yeah. You got that right."

The Unknown - Chapter 15b - by nova

I leaned my head back and let my mind idle. That didn't work out so well. Fat, nasty thoughts with swollen bellies crept out from under the rocks and began whispering, "You're a cripple. You're a cripple" or "You're going to die!" I didn't mind the dying taunts. The cripple ones I could have done with out. I gave up. I looked out the window and was watching the passing nothing when Kat slid into the empty space next to me. She didn't say anything. She just held out her hand, opened it, and I recognized the two yellow footballs on it. I took them, dry swallowed them, started choking, and drank from the water bottle she handed me.

"Thanks."

I closed my eyes again. I was hoping she would go away. She didn't. I waited for a couple of minutes. I was going to have to get ready to go in about 20 minutes. I wanted to ride the Oxy until then. Not talk. Without opening my eyes I told her, "Usually when someone closes their eyes it means they want you to go away."

"That's not always true. You could just be sleepy."

"I'm not."

She thought about that but she didn't move. Instead she said, "I know what you're going to do."

I opened my eyes and stared straight ahead. "I don't know what I'm going to do. It's kinda like how I lead my life. So you don't know."

She didn't argue. Instead she said, "Look at me."

I looked at her and she kissed me hard on the lips and whispered, "Goodbye. You were the best."

"Were?" Echoed in my head. I banished it. I didn't have time to dwell on shit like that right now.

I went back to watching nothing roll past and what kind of load out we'd need.

The Unknown - Chapter 15 - by nova

"Talk to me Miller."

"Sir, we lost four adult locals inside. Two have minor wounds. Sargent Kim has a leg wound. He is good for the next 48 hours. We are good for one engagement as far as ammo goes. Your turn."

"We are being pursued, or will be shortly, by the remains of the unit that was trying to take the bridge." I didn't want to tell them I had been dropped by the big picture people, I had learned about morale and how important it was to act like we had the winning hand even when I knew we didn't. I did the math, compared my estimate of their speed to ours, and came to a conclusion I wasn't ready to share yet.

We're good."

I had to stop talking and grit my teeth. What ever he did had just hurt like a bitch. Just as that passed we hit a bunk, my arm moved, and the pain returned just as bad.

When I felt I could talk again, I said "Hey medic. You got a name?"

"Cat Daddy."

"Bind the arm to me."

He looked at me, with the exception of Kat, the rest had looked away, I stared at him.

"Fine. Hang on. I got to dump some magic potion on it and then wrap it."

I braced myself for the pain of the magic potion. It was the right thing to do. This time it was bad enough that I almost threw up on my recently repaired boots. Life was good sometimes.

The Unknown - Chapter 14g - by nova

Miller looked at me, shook his head, and walked away flashing hand signs to pull the security team in. I couldn't move. I was leaning against the side of the school building watching without watching. I couldn't focus, all I was able to do was observe. What was hovering around inside me was the desire to just drift off like a balloon. I knew I had felt this before, sometime, somewhere, I just couldn't remember where.

Miller had stopped. He was staring at me, then gesturing for me to move. It was time to go. I wasn't sure I wanted to. It wasn't fear or lassitude, it was the realization that if I moved, my world would move too. I wasn't sure how, I just knew it. I looked past Miller at the bus. Smoke was belching from the crude stack at the back as the wood fired engine came up to speed. Kat stood in the door, concern on her face. I knew any second she would be off the bus and running to me. From the windows I saw the faces, the faces of children, and so I moved.

In doing so something snapped inside of me. Clarity returned. The pain stayed but I could live with that for now. I jogged to the bus which began moving when I was within five paces of it. Kat was there to meet me as was Miller. I ignored her look of concern.

"Kat. I want an adult next to the windows and the kids next to them. Miller, space our people out between them. I want you and Rodriguez up front here with me, ready to go." The wood burning machinery took up all the space in the back so we had that working for us. I wanted to keep the ring of bodies around them for as long as possible.

The Barrett guy pushed pass Miller and Kat and told me, "Take a seat. Let's check out the damage." They had kept a seat open for me behind the driver. I sat down and he started peeling off the wound bandages. I looked down and saw the white of splintered bone. I looked away but not before seeing his eyes change. I knew. He knew. I would be lucky to have a stump left.