June 21, 2021 • 19 mins
Sasha arrives at the Heavenly Kingdom.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Chapter nine, Sasha. They unloaded her in plaino. The porters
who cracked open her crate, two men in dirty jumpsuits,
seemed disappointed that she wasn't food. One of the men
was tall and balding, the others shorter and still fairly young.
They had white skin burnt reddish by the sun, and
neither of them looked like they bathed in quite some time.
(00:23):
Their faces were gaunt. Sasha didn't see any extra fat
on either of them. Add Dang, said the tall one, welcome,
said the short one. I hope you're ready for what
this is. They were not exactly the welcome crew she'd expected.
Saul had told her a man named David would be waiting,
but neither of the porters knew who David was. They
(00:44):
seemed much more frustrated than joyous at her presence. The
building wasn't what she'd expected either. It looked like an
old FedEx facility, with all the branding covered by red
spray paint. There was trash everywhere, mostly food waste from
crates of aid supplies that had been opened too late.
The spoiled food had been shoved into large piles and
left to rot. In one center of the large room.
(01:05):
Sasha guessed this had once been a loading dock where
delivery trucks would have dropped off and received packages. The
room was filled with a mix of aid crates and
miscellaneous boxes, stacked into piles by a ragged army of
tired looking men. Like the two men who had greeted her,
they all looked malnourished and skinny. The only people not
dressed in blue jumpsuits were a pair of armed guards.
(01:27):
They stood in the back of the room, near a
door that seemed to lead deeper into the facility. Both
men had white paint crosses daubed across the body armor
on their chests. Both carried very large black rifles. One
of them ran over once he saw her emerge from
the shipping crate. Welcome to the heavenly Kingdom, ma'am, the
boy drawled. He looked young enough to have come from
her own high school. There was a dusting of acne
(01:49):
on his unlined face, and his round cheeks still held
a bit of baby fat. Thank you, sir, she said,
and pointed to the cross on his chest. It's good
to see that. The young martyr smiled. Yes, ma'am, we
wear the cross here. He glanced at the porters and
narrowed his eyes. Most of us anyway. He extended his hand.
Sasha took it, and he helped her take her first
(02:11):
few steps into this strange new world. Her legs felt
wobbly and unstable after so much time crammed into a crate.
She was grateful for the help. I'm looking for David,
she said, Do you know where I might find him? No,
David here, ma'am, the martyr replied, But Darrell's the team
leader for this receiving yard. He'll set you to rights.
They walked through the rear door and into the building proper.
(02:33):
Sasha's escort guided her past old offices and break rooms
into what looked like it had been a waiting area
for customers. It had been transformed into an office. The
only occupant was a single man, surrounded by four folding tables,
each piled high with a mix of paper shipping manifests
and folding e paper displays. He sat in the middle
of it all and scrolled feverishly on a heavy government
(02:54):
issued tablet computer. This man, Darrell, was tall and broad shouldered,
but stooped forward. It looked as if his spine had
been bent at the mid's shoulders. Sasha relished the deep
lines on his face, the bags under his eyes, his
receding hairline, and even the way his joints popped audibly
as he stood. When she entered. No man she'd met
in the American Federation had aged so honestly, not even
(03:17):
her father. Sasha realized with a start that this was
the first older man she'd ever really seen. He must
be fifty at least. Hello, sir, she started, Ah nuts,
he spat not another one? Ee you. The man had
a thick drawl. He sounded country in a way Sasha
had only heard in movies. Her voice caught in her
throat as she tried to respond, Sir, I'm I'm looking
(03:39):
for David. Yep. He grunted you and every other teenager.
What's come through a depot? I'll tell you the same
thing I told them others. Ain't no David here. Sasha's
eyes widened. She squeaked and immediately hated herself for it. No, No,
David Darrel must have seen the fear in her face
and taken pity, because his tone softened. Listen. He glanced
(04:01):
at the small screen wrapped around his wrist. Tapped it
a couple of times and looked back to her. I
got about fifteen minutes left Herefore, I got a mating downtown.
I can drop you off. Folks there can help you
get set up if and you decide to stay. I
would appreciate that very much, Sasha said. Her face reddened
again when she asked, is there a restroom I can
use around here? I'd like to clean up a bit. Yep,
(04:23):
the man grunted and nodded towards a red door in
the back of his office. That's brabbit. No shower, but
the water runs. Sasha couldn't really smell herself anymore, which
she knew she probably smelled terrible. The thing she wanted
most was a long, hot shower with shampoo. Holy God,
she realized, shampoo is amazing. She was so preoccupied with
(04:44):
the thought of clean hair that she didn't even chastise
herself for the blasphemy. Sasha knew she wouldn't find shampoo
in this restroom, but any kind of clean was better
than her current level of filth. She thanked Darrell and
stepped into his bathroom. Sasha told herself it wasn't the
(05:06):
worst bathroom she'd ever seen, even though that was a
clear lie. The floor, once white tile, was so crusted
with black and yellow she could only tell they'd ever
bin tile by the slight suggestion of squarish shapes underneath
the filth. The toilet had been shattered almost completely. All
that remained was a little circle of busted ceramic around
a hole in the ground. It seemed to function as
a squat toilet now. The sink was intact, but it
(05:28):
also looked like it hadn't been cleaned at all in
the last year. The metal of the faucet was green
where it should have been silver. Sasha held her nose,
turned the hot water on, and hoped for the best.
It took her a round minute to stop hoping for
hot water. Of course, this place didn't have a functioning
water heater. This is a war zone, you stupid girl,
Sasha cursed herself. She felt tears at the edge of
(05:50):
her vision, but fought them down. Slowly, deliberately. She pulled
off her top, undid her braw, and hung both from
the door knob. As she did, she thought of the
Book of Romans. We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
and hope does not put us to shame because God's
(06:10):
love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,
who has been given to us. The word of God
gave her some comfort, but Sasha's stomach still churned as
she scrubbed the grime from her body. She confronted the
fact that this was all real. Now. She'd fled her
home and her family, traveled to a war zone, and
now she was here. It was done. Her great sacrifice
(06:31):
was now real, not theoretical. The excitement she felt that
that realization was marred by an anxious kind of horror
at the things she'd never do now. She hadn't really
thought about that before she'd left, but now Sasha realized
that she was never going to graduate high school, she'd
never go to college, she'd never see her father's face again.
She started to cry. It surprised her a little. For
(06:54):
days now, her emotions had felt stunted, buried under the
very immediate concerns of escape and survive evil. But as
soon as she had a minute to breathe, everything she
hadn't been able to let herself feel flowed out of
her eyes. First, she tried to fight it, but then
she remembered something Pastor Mike had written in one of
his columns for Revelator. Embrace your pain, for you will
(07:16):
hurt again. Embrace your grief, for it is a gift.
Lean into the wounds the world gives you. Have faith
that the Lord God does not send us burdens we
are too weak to bear. She left behind a world
where people denied their age with science, saved their pain
with narcotics, and fought the natural order of the world
the Lord had built. Sasha had wanted authenticity. She'd wanted
(07:38):
to live the truth of Christianity without compromise. That meant
leaning into this pain and letting it lift her up
into the arms of God. So Sasha leaned in. She sobbed,
and sobbed and sobbed, shook and shuddered with a pain
more profound than any she'd known before, and then she stopped.
She dried herself off, pulled her one fresh pair of
clothes out of her backpack, and got dressed to go
(08:00):
and meet the heavenly kingdom she'd sacrificed so much to join.
Darryl banked twice on the door right as she slid
on her socks. Ma'am, I gotta get moving. Maybe do
the make up later. Sasha shoved her dirty clothes in
her backpack, zipped it up, and opened the door. The
Heavenly Kingdom included rather more ship and bullet casings than
(08:22):
Sasha had expected. She'd known, of course, that it was
a war zone. The whole Kingdom was less than two
years old. Plaino had been taken just days ago. It
had all been won by blood and violence. She just
sort of figured the Army of God would have cleaned
up after itself. Daryl's truck was the oldest vehicle and
the first non autonomous one she had ever ridden inside.
(08:43):
It was frightening to think that one person's movements were
the only thing that stood between her and a grizzly death,
but her fear at that soon faded into anxiety at
the state of the world around them. The signs identified
this as plain O. She knew the center of that
city had been a stronghold for the Republic of Texas
and its corporate masters. They'd been content to leave many
(09:04):
of the surrounding cities in the hands of the Heavenly Kingdom.
Since that had meant more work for the SDF in Austin.
Despite its proximity to the front, Plaino's status as a
stronghold for some of the Republic's wealthiest citizens and corporations
had made it seem unassailable. The notoriously stingy Republic had
spent heavily on the city's garrison. Sasha still didn't know
(09:25):
what had happened, how a Republican stronghold had fallen so fast,
but she saw evidence of how the fall had gone
down all around her. The city was devastated. They drove
past a police station that was filled with bullet holes
and burnt black around its windows. They passed an elementary
school that looked as if it had been barricaded, turned
into a fortress, and then blasted apart with rockets. The
(09:45):
streets they rolled over had been cracked and broken by shellfire.
Sasha stared out with wide, excited eyes as they passed
mansions that had completely collapsed under the weight of heavy bombardment,
and all around them the streets were filled with soldiers.
There seemed to be a checkpoint every two or three minutes.
The martyrs who manned those checkpoints looked impossibly young. That
made Sasha feel a little less lonely. This is what
(10:08):
it looks like when a generation comes back to God,
she thought. At each stop, Darrell pulled a laminated paper
id out of his pocket. The soldiers would take it,
look it over, and then ask him about her. None
of them met her eyes. Just arrived today, Darrell always said,
she's here to help build the kingdom. Thanks be to
God was the usual reply. Some of the men at
(10:29):
the checkpoints were enthusiastic and shouted it with all the
joy she'd expected to hear, but a few of them
just looked at her with eyes that were half sullen,
half hungry. Darrell, she asked, twenty minutes and three checkpoints
into their drive, what exactly happened here? I left home
the day after plain O fell. It felt like just
such a miracle. It seems impossible for things to change
(10:50):
so much so fast. Darrell fixed her with a look
that Sasha couldn't quite read and made her nervous. The
next words jumbled up as they left her mouth. It's
just I mean, I know all things are possible through God,
but how how did we win here? From what I
read on the news? The older man laughed, well, there's
your problem. Trust in the news, you ain't gonna read
(11:12):
much true about Texas. There all those foreign papers love
the s d if. He spat out the window for emphasis,
and they treat the Republic like a real government, not
like a collection of robber barons and their hired guns.
Truth is, their position was always rocky. People around here.
You'd rather live under God's law than the rule of
the rich or those Prance and Austin faggots. He spat again,
(11:33):
and somehow made the gesture look like an apology. Sorry
for the curse, Miss Sauchi, It's been a minute since
I spent much time around a woman. She smiled in response,
because she wasn't really sure what else to do. And
then they turned a corner, passed a mostly intact line
of shops and a sign that welcomed them to downtown Plano.
The wide streets had been cordoned off by sandbags and
what looked like enormous fabric cubes filled with rocks. Several
(11:57):
dozen armed men milled about, and in the center of
the broad thoroughfare, Sasha saw what could only be a
gallows built right in the middle of the two lane street.
It was her first gallows. Capital punishment was illegal in
the American Federation. She stared horrified at the way the
six corpses strung up there swung to and fro with
the breeze. Sasha squeaked just a bit in shock. She
(12:19):
was glad the bodies weren't very close. Darrell seemed to
notice her discomfort. He looked down at her with a
mix of pity and understanding, ain't always pretty what we're doing,
but it's the Lord's work. The truck rolled to a
stop outside of a large red brick building that reeked
of government. Sasha couldn't tell what it had once been.
The sign was too thoroughly burned. A new sign made
(12:40):
of white vinyl identified this building as the House of Miriam.
This be your stop, ma'am. Darrell said thank you. She
forced a smile and then asked, should I just go in?
I'll walk in, how about that? Sasha nodded her gratitude.
She wasn't a hundred percent sure what was supposed to
happen at this point. Revelator had claimed that every man
(13:02):
and woman who journeyed to the Heavenly Kingdom would be
given meaningful work, food, and as much shelter as the
martyrs can provide. She knew that she could expect to
be housed with other young, unmarried women, at least until
she and Alexander were finally together. But this trip and
the Heavenly Kingdom was already so very different from everything
she'd expected. That was reinforced when she stepped out of
(13:23):
the truck and directly onto a pile of spent bullet casings.
There were burnt cars in the street, burnt buildings all
around her, and a vague but persistent smell of sour
milk in the air. The feeling of dread that had
built inside her since she'd left the crate hid a
new crescendo. And then Darrell took her inside the House
of Miriam, and everything changed again. Sasha saw a middle
(13:43):
aged woman sitting behind a desk in a big white
room while younger women sat and lined the walls around her.
The older lady had loose, friendly jowls and a mop
of gray hair tossed into a lazy bun. She looked
exhausted until the moment she fixed eyes on Sasha. At
that moment, her eyes lifted, along with her lips, into
a smile that was the truest thing Sasha had ever seen.
(14:04):
Praise be to God, she cried, You've made it. And
then a sea of girls rose up around her. Most
of them appeared to have been sewing up military uniforms,
but at the moment's call, every one of them set
their work down and rose up to meet her. Sasha
was swarmed by a sea of smiling faces, as girls
pressed their hands to hers, or embraced her, or prayed
over her and chanted in tongues. A dozen people told
(14:27):
her their names at once. Sasha went stiff at first,
shocked and a little mortified by the mass display of
physical affection by so many strangers. But then the older
woman made her way through the crowd and put her
hands on Sasha's shoulders. She brushed a stray hair out
of Sasha's face and fixed her with a smile that
was more motherly than Sasha's actual mother had ever been.
(14:47):
It's all right now, she said, in a voice that
was pure comfort. I'm sure you're probably feeling frightened and overwhelmed,
but you've reached the heavenly kingdom. Loose yourself from the
chains around your necko captive daughter of Zion. Your home now.
Something about the woman's voice and the way her hands
felt broke through the anxious wall around Sasha's heart. She
(15:08):
found herself in the older woman's arms. She sobbed, and
then she felt the press of bodies close against her.
The mingled sense of lavender, citrus and human beings filled
her nose. It comforted Sasha in a way she'd never
quite known. The anxiety and fear were gone now, but
so was any sense of motive inspiration. She let her
sisters guide her to a pillow on the ground. The
(15:31):
room got very busy. Girls scattered. They heated up water
and prepared food, and generally bothered themselves with every aspect
of Sasha's comfort. Soon she had coffee and buttered muffins
and a heavy jug of gatorade. A fan was moved
into position where it could blow more cool air onto
her face. The older woman sat down next to Sasha
and started to speak. My name is Helen, she said.
(15:52):
I watch over the newcomers here, and I helped them
adjust to life in the heavenly Kingdom. The most important
thing for you to know is that you loved and
wanted here. You'll have food and shelter into purpose. Do
you understand that, darling? Sasha tried to smile, but realized
her face was still stuck in the same absent grin
she'd worn since the greeting. After a long pause, she
(16:13):
managed to nod and speak, yes, er, sorry, Sasha. My
name is Sasha Marian. I'm from Virginia in the American Federation, Sasha.
Helen said, just Sasha, we have no last names here
and no nationalities beyond our allegiance to God and his
heavenly kingdom. Do you understand? Sasha nodded yes. I mean,
(16:35):
of course, I've I read every issue of Revelator before
coming here. I know that nations and states are a
worldly concept that only serves to separate us from God Almighty,
I memorize, Pastor. It's one thing to read the truth,
it's another to live it. Don't worry, child, It'll take
some time to unlearn your old habits. Helen had cut
her off, but she'd done it so gently that Sasha
(16:55):
didn't even take it as a rebuke. She just nodded again,
and then she remembered something. I need to find a
young man. His name is Alexander. He's in a mechanized
infantry unit. I think he's a corporal, and I have
a picture of him printed out in my bag. If
it will help, dear, Helen's voice dropped an octave. I
know this is hard to hear, but the martyrs have
important work to do. They fight that we might build
(17:17):
the heavenly Kingdom if the Lord sees fit to deliver
him safe from the fray. Sasha really didn't like the
way she said. If then we will find him and
reunite you two. Re Sasha gave a nervous laugh. Oh no,
we we've never met except for online. He convinced me
to come. I mean, I didn't come for him, but
I was really on the fence until I met him.
(17:38):
Helen's expression shifted. She looked was that anguished or angry?
But Sasha didn't detect any anger in her voice when
she replied, I know it's hard, love, but you're going
to need to wait to hear from Alexander. For right now.
It should be enough that you're here, you're safe, You've
done it. Do you know what this means. It means
I didn't get caught. Helen laughed, You had a beautiful laugh.
(18:01):
Sasha wanted to curl up and fall asleep inside it. No.
I mean well, yes, of course, she said. But more
than anything, it means that, for all time, forever and ever,
you're a person who made the choice to be brave.
You took a leap into the dark and trusted that
God's light would rise to meet you. There were tears
in her eyes, genuine tears wrapped up in genuine wrinkles
(18:22):
and laugh lines that had never felt the touch of
a surgical laser. That's the most beautiful thing in the world,
Helen said, I want you to know that. Sasha started
to cry too. Helen embraced her, held her close, and
Sasha was certain she'd never been happier. Hey, everybody, Robert
Evans here. I hope you just enjoyed the chapter you
(18:44):
listen to. I hope you enjoyed the chapters to come.
If you would like to read the text version of
this book either on the web or on your e
reader as an e pub you can find those on
the website a t r book dot com. So again,
the free ad free EP hub and the text of
every chapter will be on a t r book dot com.
Thanks
Chapter nine, Sasha. They unloaded her in plaino. The porters
who cracked open her crate, two men in dirty jumpsuits,
seemed disappointed that she wasn't food. One of the men
was tall and balding, the others shorter and still fairly young.
They had white skin burnt reddish by the sun, and
neither of them looked like they bathed in quite some time.
(00:23):
Their faces were gaunt. Sasha didn't see any extra fat
on either of them. Add Dang, said the tall one, welcome,
said the short one. I hope you're ready for what
this is. They were not exactly the welcome crew she'd expected.
Saul had told her a man named David would be waiting,
but neither of the porters knew who David was. They
(00:44):
seemed much more frustrated than joyous at her presence. The
building wasn't what she'd expected either. It looked like an
old FedEx facility, with all the branding covered by red
spray paint. There was trash everywhere, mostly food waste from
crates of aid supplies that had been opened too late.
The spoiled food had been shoved into large piles and
left to rot. In one center of the large room.
(01:05):
Sasha guessed this had once been a loading dock where
delivery trucks would have dropped off and received packages. The
room was filled with a mix of aid crates and
miscellaneous boxes, stacked into piles by a ragged army of
tired looking men. Like the two men who had greeted her,
they all looked malnourished and skinny. The only people not
dressed in blue jumpsuits were a pair of armed guards.
(01:27):
They stood in the back of the room, near a
door that seemed to lead deeper into the facility. Both
men had white paint crosses daubed across the body armor
on their chests. Both carried very large black rifles. One
of them ran over once he saw her emerge from
the shipping crate. Welcome to the heavenly Kingdom, ma'am, the
boy drawled. He looked young enough to have come from
her own high school. There was a dusting of acne
(01:49):
on his unlined face, and his round cheeks still held
a bit of baby fat. Thank you, sir, she said,
and pointed to the cross on his chest. It's good
to see that. The young martyr smiled. Yes, ma'am, we
wear the cross here. He glanced at the porters and
narrowed his eyes. Most of us anyway. He extended his hand.
Sasha took it, and he helped her take her first
(02:11):
few steps into this strange new world. Her legs felt
wobbly and unstable after so much time crammed into a crate.
She was grateful for the help. I'm looking for David,
she said, Do you know where I might find him? No,
David here, ma'am, the martyr replied, But Darrell's the team
leader for this receiving yard. He'll set you to rights.
They walked through the rear door and into the building proper.
(02:33):
Sasha's escort guided her past old offices and break rooms
into what looked like it had been a waiting area
for customers. It had been transformed into an office. The
only occupant was a single man, surrounded by four folding tables,
each piled high with a mix of paper shipping manifests
and folding e paper displays. He sat in the middle
of it all and scrolled feverishly on a heavy government
(02:54):
issued tablet computer. This man, Darrell, was tall and broad shouldered,
but stooped forward. It looked as if his spine had
been bent at the mid's shoulders. Sasha relished the deep
lines on his face, the bags under his eyes, his
receding hairline, and even the way his joints popped audibly
as he stood. When she entered. No man she'd met
in the American Federation had aged so honestly, not even
(03:17):
her father. Sasha realized with a start that this was
the first older man she'd ever really seen. He must
be fifty at least. Hello, sir, she started, Ah nuts,
he spat not another one? Ee you. The man had
a thick drawl. He sounded country in a way Sasha
had only heard in movies. Her voice caught in her
throat as she tried to respond, Sir, I'm I'm looking
(03:39):
for David. Yep. He grunted you and every other teenager.
What's come through a depot? I'll tell you the same
thing I told them others. Ain't no David here. Sasha's
eyes widened. She squeaked and immediately hated herself for it. No, No,
David Darrel must have seen the fear in her face
and taken pity, because his tone softened. Listen. He glanced
(04:01):
at the small screen wrapped around his wrist. Tapped it
a couple of times and looked back to her. I
got about fifteen minutes left Herefore, I got a mating downtown.
I can drop you off. Folks there can help you
get set up if and you decide to stay. I
would appreciate that very much, Sasha said. Her face reddened
again when she asked, is there a restroom I can
use around here? I'd like to clean up a bit. Yep,
(04:23):
the man grunted and nodded towards a red door in
the back of his office. That's brabbit. No shower, but
the water runs. Sasha couldn't really smell herself anymore, which
she knew she probably smelled terrible. The thing she wanted
most was a long, hot shower with shampoo. Holy God,
she realized, shampoo is amazing. She was so preoccupied with
(04:44):
the thought of clean hair that she didn't even chastise
herself for the blasphemy. Sasha knew she wouldn't find shampoo
in this restroom, but any kind of clean was better
than her current level of filth. She thanked Darrell and
stepped into his bathroom. Sasha told herself it wasn't the
(05:06):
worst bathroom she'd ever seen, even though that was a
clear lie. The floor, once white tile, was so crusted
with black and yellow she could only tell they'd ever
bin tile by the slight suggestion of squarish shapes underneath
the filth. The toilet had been shattered almost completely. All
that remained was a little circle of busted ceramic around
a hole in the ground. It seemed to function as
a squat toilet now. The sink was intact, but it
(05:28):
also looked like it hadn't been cleaned at all in
the last year. The metal of the faucet was green
where it should have been silver. Sasha held her nose,
turned the hot water on, and hoped for the best.
It took her a round minute to stop hoping for
hot water. Of course, this place didn't have a functioning
water heater. This is a war zone, you stupid girl,
Sasha cursed herself. She felt tears at the edge of
(05:50):
her vision, but fought them down. Slowly, deliberately. She pulled
off her top, undid her braw, and hung both from
the door knob. As she did, she thought of the
Book of Romans. We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
and hope does not put us to shame because God's
(06:10):
love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,
who has been given to us. The word of God
gave her some comfort, but Sasha's stomach still churned as
she scrubbed the grime from her body. She confronted the
fact that this was all real. Now. She'd fled her
home and her family, traveled to a war zone, and
now she was here. It was done. Her great sacrifice
(06:31):
was now real, not theoretical. The excitement she felt that
that realization was marred by an anxious kind of horror
at the things she'd never do now. She hadn't really
thought about that before she'd left, but now Sasha realized
that she was never going to graduate high school, she'd
never go to college, she'd never see her father's face again.
She started to cry. It surprised her a little. For
(06:54):
days now, her emotions had felt stunted, buried under the
very immediate concerns of escape and survive evil. But as
soon as she had a minute to breathe, everything she
hadn't been able to let herself feel flowed out of
her eyes. First, she tried to fight it, but then
she remembered something Pastor Mike had written in one of
his columns for Revelator. Embrace your pain, for you will
(07:16):
hurt again. Embrace your grief, for it is a gift.
Lean into the wounds the world gives you. Have faith
that the Lord God does not send us burdens we
are too weak to bear. She left behind a world
where people denied their age with science, saved their pain
with narcotics, and fought the natural order of the world
the Lord had built. Sasha had wanted authenticity. She'd wanted
(07:38):
to live the truth of Christianity without compromise. That meant
leaning into this pain and letting it lift her up
into the arms of God. So Sasha leaned in. She sobbed,
and sobbed and sobbed, shook and shuddered with a pain
more profound than any she'd known before, and then she stopped.
She dried herself off, pulled her one fresh pair of
clothes out of her backpack, and got dressed to go
(08:00):
and meet the heavenly kingdom she'd sacrificed so much to join.
Darryl banked twice on the door right as she slid
on her socks. Ma'am, I gotta get moving. Maybe do
the make up later. Sasha shoved her dirty clothes in
her backpack, zipped it up, and opened the door. The
Heavenly Kingdom included rather more ship and bullet casings than
(08:22):
Sasha had expected. She'd known, of course, that it was
a war zone. The whole Kingdom was less than two
years old. Plaino had been taken just days ago. It
had all been won by blood and violence. She just
sort of figured the Army of God would have cleaned
up after itself. Daryl's truck was the oldest vehicle and
the first non autonomous one she had ever ridden inside.
(08:43):
It was frightening to think that one person's movements were
the only thing that stood between her and a grizzly death,
but her fear at that soon faded into anxiety at
the state of the world around them. The signs identified
this as plain O. She knew the center of that
city had been a stronghold for the Republic of Texas
and its corporate masters. They'd been content to leave many
(09:04):
of the surrounding cities in the hands of the Heavenly Kingdom.
Since that had meant more work for the SDF in Austin.
Despite its proximity to the front, Plaino's status as a
stronghold for some of the Republic's wealthiest citizens and corporations
had made it seem unassailable. The notoriously stingy Republic had
spent heavily on the city's garrison. Sasha still didn't know
(09:25):
what had happened, how a Republican stronghold had fallen so fast,
but she saw evidence of how the fall had gone
down all around her. The city was devastated. They drove
past a police station that was filled with bullet holes
and burnt black around its windows. They passed an elementary
school that looked as if it had been barricaded, turned
into a fortress, and then blasted apart with rockets. The
(09:45):
streets they rolled over had been cracked and broken by shellfire.
Sasha stared out with wide, excited eyes as they passed
mansions that had completely collapsed under the weight of heavy bombardment,
and all around them the streets were filled with soldiers.
There seemed to be a checkpoint every two or three minutes.
The martyrs who manned those checkpoints looked impossibly young. That
made Sasha feel a little less lonely. This is what
(10:08):
it looks like when a generation comes back to God,
she thought. At each stop, Darrell pulled a laminated paper
id out of his pocket. The soldiers would take it,
look it over, and then ask him about her. None
of them met her eyes. Just arrived today, Darrell always said,
she's here to help build the kingdom. Thanks be to
God was the usual reply. Some of the men at
(10:29):
the checkpoints were enthusiastic and shouted it with all the
joy she'd expected to hear, but a few of them
just looked at her with eyes that were half sullen,
half hungry. Darrell, she asked, twenty minutes and three checkpoints
into their drive, what exactly happened here? I left home
the day after plain O fell. It felt like just
such a miracle. It seems impossible for things to change
(10:50):
so much so fast. Darrell fixed her with a look
that Sasha couldn't quite read and made her nervous. The
next words jumbled up as they left her mouth. It's
just I mean, I know all things are possible through God,
but how how did we win here? From what I
read on the news? The older man laughed, well, there's
your problem. Trust in the news, you ain't gonna read
(11:12):
much true about Texas. There all those foreign papers love
the s d if. He spat out the window for emphasis,
and they treat the Republic like a real government, not
like a collection of robber barons and their hired guns.
Truth is, their position was always rocky. People around here.
You'd rather live under God's law than the rule of
the rich or those Prance and Austin faggots. He spat again,
(11:33):
and somehow made the gesture look like an apology. Sorry
for the curse, Miss Sauchi, It's been a minute since
I spent much time around a woman. She smiled in response,
because she wasn't really sure what else to do. And
then they turned a corner, passed a mostly intact line
of shops and a sign that welcomed them to downtown Plano.
The wide streets had been cordoned off by sandbags and
what looked like enormous fabric cubes filled with rocks. Several
(11:57):
dozen armed men milled about, and in the center of
the broad thoroughfare, Sasha saw what could only be a
gallows built right in the middle of the two lane street.
It was her first gallows. Capital punishment was illegal in
the American Federation. She stared horrified at the way the
six corpses strung up there swung to and fro with
the breeze. Sasha squeaked just a bit in shock. She
(12:19):
was glad the bodies weren't very close. Darrell seemed to
notice her discomfort. He looked down at her with a
mix of pity and understanding, ain't always pretty what we're doing,
but it's the Lord's work. The truck rolled to a
stop outside of a large red brick building that reeked
of government. Sasha couldn't tell what it had once been.
The sign was too thoroughly burned. A new sign made
(12:40):
of white vinyl identified this building as the House of Miriam.
This be your stop, ma'am. Darrell said thank you. She
forced a smile and then asked, should I just go in?
I'll walk in, how about that? Sasha nodded her gratitude.
She wasn't a hundred percent sure what was supposed to
happen at this point. Revelator had claimed that every man
(13:02):
and woman who journeyed to the Heavenly Kingdom would be
given meaningful work, food, and as much shelter as the
martyrs can provide. She knew that she could expect to
be housed with other young, unmarried women, at least until
she and Alexander were finally together. But this trip and
the Heavenly Kingdom was already so very different from everything
she'd expected. That was reinforced when she stepped out of
(13:23):
the truck and directly onto a pile of spent bullet casings.
There were burnt cars in the street, burnt buildings all
around her, and a vague but persistent smell of sour
milk in the air. The feeling of dread that had
built inside her since she'd left the crate hid a
new crescendo. And then Darrell took her inside the House
of Miriam, and everything changed again. Sasha saw a middle
(13:43):
aged woman sitting behind a desk in a big white
room while younger women sat and lined the walls around her.
The older lady had loose, friendly jowls and a mop
of gray hair tossed into a lazy bun. She looked
exhausted until the moment she fixed eyes on Sasha. At
that moment, her eyes lifted, along with her lips, into
a smile that was the truest thing Sasha had ever seen.
(14:04):
Praise be to God, she cried, You've made it. And
then a sea of girls rose up around her. Most
of them appeared to have been sewing up military uniforms,
but at the moment's call, every one of them set
their work down and rose up to meet her. Sasha
was swarmed by a sea of smiling faces, as girls
pressed their hands to hers, or embraced her, or prayed
over her and chanted in tongues. A dozen people told
(14:27):
her their names at once. Sasha went stiff at first,
shocked and a little mortified by the mass display of
physical affection by so many strangers. But then the older
woman made her way through the crowd and put her
hands on Sasha's shoulders. She brushed a stray hair out
of Sasha's face and fixed her with a smile that
was more motherly than Sasha's actual mother had ever been.
(14:47):
It's all right now, she said, in a voice that
was pure comfort. I'm sure you're probably feeling frightened and overwhelmed,
but you've reached the heavenly kingdom. Loose yourself from the
chains around your necko captive daughter of Zion. Your home now.
Something about the woman's voice and the way her hands
felt broke through the anxious wall around Sasha's heart. She
(15:08):
found herself in the older woman's arms. She sobbed, and
then she felt the press of bodies close against her.
The mingled sense of lavender, citrus and human beings filled
her nose. It comforted Sasha in a way she'd never
quite known. The anxiety and fear were gone now, but
so was any sense of motive inspiration. She let her
sisters guide her to a pillow on the ground. The
(15:31):
room got very busy. Girls scattered. They heated up water
and prepared food, and generally bothered themselves with every aspect
of Sasha's comfort. Soon she had coffee and buttered muffins
and a heavy jug of gatorade. A fan was moved
into position where it could blow more cool air onto
her face. The older woman sat down next to Sasha
and started to speak. My name is Helen, she said.
(15:52):
I watch over the newcomers here, and I helped them
adjust to life in the heavenly Kingdom. The most important
thing for you to know is that you loved and
wanted here. You'll have food and shelter into purpose. Do
you understand that, darling? Sasha tried to smile, but realized
her face was still stuck in the same absent grin
she'd worn since the greeting. After a long pause, she
(16:13):
managed to nod and speak, yes, er, sorry, Sasha. My
name is Sasha Marian. I'm from Virginia in the American Federation, Sasha.
Helen said, just Sasha, we have no last names here
and no nationalities beyond our allegiance to God and his
heavenly kingdom. Do you understand? Sasha nodded yes. I mean,
(16:35):
of course, I've I read every issue of Revelator before
coming here. I know that nations and states are a
worldly concept that only serves to separate us from God Almighty,
I memorize, Pastor. It's one thing to read the truth,
it's another to live it. Don't worry, child, It'll take
some time to unlearn your old habits. Helen had cut
her off, but she'd done it so gently that Sasha
(16:55):
didn't even take it as a rebuke. She just nodded again,
and then she remembered something. I need to find a
young man. His name is Alexander. He's in a mechanized
infantry unit. I think he's a corporal, and I have
a picture of him printed out in my bag. If
it will help, dear, Helen's voice dropped an octave. I
know this is hard to hear, but the martyrs have
important work to do. They fight that we might build
(17:17):
the heavenly Kingdom if the Lord sees fit to deliver
him safe from the fray. Sasha really didn't like the
way she said. If then we will find him and
reunite you two. Re Sasha gave a nervous laugh. Oh no,
we we've never met except for online. He convinced me
to come. I mean, I didn't come for him, but
I was really on the fence until I met him.
(17:38):
Helen's expression shifted. She looked was that anguished or angry?
But Sasha didn't detect any anger in her voice when
she replied, I know it's hard, love, but you're going
to need to wait to hear from Alexander. For right now.
It should be enough that you're here, you're safe, You've
done it. Do you know what this means. It means
I didn't get caught. Helen laughed, You had a beautiful laugh.
(18:01):
Sasha wanted to curl up and fall asleep inside it. No.
I mean well, yes, of course, she said. But more
than anything, it means that, for all time, forever and ever,
you're a person who made the choice to be brave.
You took a leap into the dark and trusted that
God's light would rise to meet you. There were tears
in her eyes, genuine tears wrapped up in genuine wrinkles
(18:22):
and laugh lines that had never felt the touch of
a surgical laser. That's the most beautiful thing in the world,
Helen said, I want you to know that. Sasha started
to cry too. Helen embraced her, held her close, and
Sasha was certain she'd never been happier. Hey, everybody, Robert
Evans here. I hope you just enjoyed the chapter you
(18:44):
listen to. I hope you enjoyed the chapters to come.
If you would like to read the text version of
this book either on the web or on your e
reader as an e pub you can find those on
the website a t r book dot com. So again,
the free ad free EP hub and the text of
every chapter will be on a t r book dot com.
Thanks
Host
Robert Evans
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