Desolation

Paul Agabus Fairhaven, or “Teacher” as everyone now called him, contemplated his next move after they successfully took over the ranch and inventoried all of its supplies. The man they had “convinced” to tell them about the ranch said that there were “enough supplies for thousands of people.” This made Paul question whether he should continue to lead them west on their quest, with the attendant need for having to forage, loot, hunt, and kill for food, or use the ranch and the town of Fossil Ridge as their base.

“What the hell am I supposed to do with these people after this?” he begged God, in full supplication, face buried in the carpet, arms and legs splayed outward. He’d brought them this far, but he wasn’t sure what to do next. He waited for the next vision to pop into his skull like all of the previous ones: unexpectedly, and sometimes with great force. If not a vision, he prayed for at least a sign to tell him what to do next.

He had his first vision when he was just a child, and it had been as clear as the movies he watched on his father’s big-screen projection TV. In a dream, he saw his father driving away from them to the mountains in his red pickup truck, extra shiny like he had just hand-washed it. His arm was around their neighbor, Mrs. Jones. Paul could see this through the back window as they drove off together. Then, in his vision, he saw his mom and himself walking on the road, dragging old suitcases filled with their belongings, no longer living at the Shady Tree Trailer Court. When he woke, Paul asked his mom what it meant as he was too young to fully understand. He hated that his mom was upset by his words. He hated that she bolted to the phone in the kitchen and made many angry calls, asking each person if they had seen his dad. The next day she went over to their neighbor’s trailer while he watched from between the front porch railings, their solid, rough wood offering him minimal protection. Mr. Jones, angrier than his mom, told her that his “bitch wife ran off wit dat sonabitch hudband of yaurs”- -that’s exactly what he said, and how he said it—and then slammed the door in her face. Later that day, the sheriff showed up at their trailer and made them leave. He said it was because his father hadn’t paid the rent the last few months. They were sad for a while, but then one day, his mom started calling him Agabus. She said it was the name of a prophet in the Book of Acts. After she showed him the passage in her Bible, he became enamored by that book’s prophets, certain that he was one of them.

Throughout his life, whether as Paul or as Agabus, or even later as The Teacher, he experienced visions of things that had not yet come to pass, but often would, sometime later. Most recently, after the Event, he had one recurring vision of many insects flying west, confirming to him that they needed to move west, although he still didn’t know to where. He even asked Thomas, his most trusted advisor, if he had seen these insects. Thomas confirmed they were solely his visions. So, he had faith that they would find wherever they were going when they got there, or when he had another vision. Paul figured he was in good company, because many prophets of old were led by God to their Promised Lands: Moses, Mohammad, Joseph Smith. And so he believed he would be the next such man if he led his people through this prophesied tribulation.

Along the way, he had no idea how they would find their food, but John reminded him of when Jesus told his disciples to go from home to home spreading their word, and either people would take them in or they wouldn’t. Paul figured he would build on what Jesus said and told his own followers that if they weren’t accepted, those refusing them must be evil and evil people needed judgment. He added that just like Jesus promised the sword, they should use their army of followers to remove that evil from the land. From this discussion, Thomas formed what he called God’s Army using the talents of Paul’s followers and the weapons they had already procured. Within days, they were going from town to town as easily and smoothly as a warm knife cutting through butter, picking up supplies and more followers as they traveled, finding little resistance. Paul knew his cause was right and just because he knew other examples in the Bible when the Israelites rolled over their enemy, who were felled by the hand of God.

Paul “the Teacher” Agabus Fairhaven remained prone on the carpet of the house he had chosen as his from the kind people of Fossil Ridge, waiting for an answer to his most current query: should they stay here for a while or continue moving west?

The earth shivered.

Thompson Journal Entry

Continued…