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