Speaker 1: On April four, Dr Martin Luther King was shot and
Speaker 1: killed in Memphis. A petty criminal named James Earl Ray
Speaker 1: was arrested. Case closed right James Sylvy was upon for
Speaker 1: the official story. Some of the evidence, as far as
Speaker 1: I was concerned, did not match the circumstances. This is
Speaker 1: the MLK tapes. The first episodes are available now. Listen
Speaker 1: on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Hello, and welcome to our show.
Speaker 1: I'm Zoe de Channel and I'm so excited to be
Speaker 1: joined by my friends and cast Meats Hannah Simone and
Speaker 1: Lamar and Morris to recap our hit television series New Girl.
Speaker 1: Join us every Monday on the Welcome to Our Show podcast,
Speaker 1: where we'll share behind the scenes stories of your favorite
Speaker 1: New Girl episodes. Each week, we answer all your burning
Speaker 1: questions like is there really a bear in every episode
Speaker 1: of New Girl? Plus you'll hear hilarious stories like this
Speaker 1: that was one of your thank you from Yeah Yeah,
Speaker 1: I brought back a professional basketball players seven Yeah. Listen
Speaker 1: to the Welcome to Our Show podcast on the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcasts from Cavalry Audio comes the new true crime podcast
Speaker 1: The Shadow Girls. I grew up near the banks of
Speaker 1: the Green River and in the shadow of the killer
Speaker 1: that bears its name. Prosecutors described him as a serial killer. Survived,
Speaker 1: but this podcast isn't only about tracking down the killer.
Speaker 1: It's about the victims. We stayed in the woods. He
Speaker 1: always liked to go into words. Listen to The Shadow
Speaker 1: Girls on the I Heart Radio app, on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. Chapter six, Sasha, History
Speaker 1: is a messy thing class. Even a question as simple
Speaker 1: as when did the Second American Civil War begin doesn't
Speaker 1: have a clear answer. Some scholars say the first shots
Speaker 1: were fired during the failed Montana Seccession Movement of twenty forty.
Speaker 1: Others will name the Dallas Water Riots of one or
Speaker 1: the bombing of the Diamond Buildings six months later by
Speaker 1: leftist militants. You can make a good evidence based case
Speaker 1: for any of these. Mister Dane was a good lecturer,
Speaker 1: with a rich baritone voice and a habit of animating
Speaker 1: his lectures with vibrant hand gestures. He was Sasha's favorite
Speaker 1: teacher and one of her favorite people. Mister Dane was
Speaker 1: a heathen, of course, but he was still a sweet man.
Speaker 1: She appreciated his even handed perspective and his commitment to
Speaker 1: the unbiased study of history. It broke her heart that
Speaker 1: no one else in her Advanced Placement Continental history class
Speaker 1: seemed to appreciate him. The other twenty four students stared
Speaker 1: ahead with slackened jaws and unfocused eyes. They were all
Speaker 1: deep in their decks, messaging friends, browsing snap bits, or
Speaker 1: playing whatever game was popular right now. Decks were far
Speaker 1: too entrenched in modern life for schools to force them
Speaker 1: off during class time. Instead, the school filtered the WiFi
Speaker 1: and forced students to download apps that restricted access during
Speaker 1: school hours. This had led to a thriving underground trade
Speaker 1: and apps that countered the school spyware and covertly lifted
Speaker 1: the blocks. The district I T Team was locked in
Speaker 1: a perpetual losing battle to spot and crack these programs.
Speaker 1: But on a practical level, the teachers, like mister Dane,
Speaker 1: just had to accept the intrusion. The students didn't ignore
Speaker 1: him entirely, but very few of them gave him their
Speaker 1: full attention. They didn't give anything their full attention. Really,
Speaker 1: Most of her peers went through their days half reading
Speaker 1: two or three conversations, playing games, and scrolling through several
Speaker 1: social media feeds, even when they were out in the
Speaker 1: world surrounded by people. Pastor Mike called it the death
Speaker 1: of Joy. That was the name of the essay and
Speaker 1: revelator that had first turned Sasha onto the heavenly Kingdom.
Speaker 1: He'd railed against distraction culture, which he said not only
Speaker 1: robbed mankind of a relationship with God, but it also
Speaker 1: robs us of the little moments. The quiet joys of
Speaker 1: living are drowned by a flood of data. It's a
Speaker 1: mosquito bite on the human soul. And the masses have
Speaker 1: convinced themselves that the abatement of discomfort from scratching this
Speaker 1: itch is the same ashappiness. All around her classmates scratched
Speaker 1: their itches while mister Dane lectured, he looked so lonely
Speaker 1: up there, They all looked lonely. So mister Dane cleared
Speaker 1: his throat in an attempt to pull at least a
Speaker 1: few of his students out of their stupor. As we
Speaker 1: close this unit, I'd like to ask you all a
Speaker 1: simple question. What should we call the war that split
Speaker 1: the United States? Your textbook calls it the Second American
Speaker 1: Civil War. In the Northwest, and the Christian States they
Speaker 1: call it the Revolution. By next Monday, I'd like each
Speaker 1: of you to upload an essay arguing which name is
Speaker 1: more appropriate one thousand words please. The bell rang. The
Speaker 1: other students got up slowly in twos and threes and
Speaker 1: made for the door. Sasha was one of the first up,
Speaker 1: but mister Dane called to her before she reached the exit.
Speaker 1: Miss Marian, would you mind holding back a moment? Sasha stiffened.
Speaker 1: She glanced involuntarily up to one of the government's propaganda
Speaker 1: posters on the wall. It showed a young man with
Speaker 1: a brightly colored backpack, surrounded by burnt out buildings in rubble.
Speaker 1: A green rocket hung above him like the sword of Damocles,
Speaker 1: an instant away from impact. Next to the young man
Speaker 1: were the words think again, step back, Yes, sir, she asked.
Speaker 1: As she approached his desk. Mr Dane fixed her with
Speaker 1: a kind smile. He looked around forty, although that was
Speaker 1: no guarantee of anything. His eyes and lips were creased
Speaker 1: with smile lines. Though she liked that about him. You
Speaker 1: seemed a bit distracted today, Sasha that's not uncommon for
Speaker 1: most of my students, he gave a slightly forced laugh.
Speaker 1: But you're normally so engaged. I just wanted to make
Speaker 1: sure everything's okay. Over the last year, Sasha had started
Speaker 1: building up a stockpile of what she called defensive smiles.
Speaker 1: She had one for when her parents were worried, another
Speaker 1: for her few friends, and another for the school administrators.
Speaker 1: The smiles were calculated to reassure everyone that she was
Speaker 1: still normal Sasha, and she certainly wasn't planning to escap
Speaker 1: ape to the heavenly Kingdom. But she'd never worked up
Speaker 1: a smile from Mr Dane. She genuinely enjoyed his class,
Speaker 1: so it hadn't seemed necessary. She just decided to go
Speaker 1: with her friend smile and hope that worked. I'm okay,
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, inspiration had her. The news today
Speaker 1: is so scary. What's happening down in Texas. I'm worried.
Speaker 1: Mr Dane visibly relaxed. Ah, yes, I can see why
Speaker 1: you'd be troubled by that. I think it's taken everyone
Speaker 1: a bit by surprise. He paused and struggled with his words.
Speaker 1: I expect it must be somewhat more difficult for you
Speaker 1: than the rest of the class. Being a Christian. Her
Speaker 1: smile faltered a bit. She knew she was supposed to
Speaker 1: act like one of the tame preachers the government trotted out,
Speaker 1: the men and women whould claim Christianity was all about
Speaker 1: peace and love. They'd say that the Lord's truth could
Speaker 1: coexist with the equal truths of other faiths and with
Speaker 1: the secular world of the am fed. That all felt
Speaker 1: wrong to her, but a little irritation was worth avoiding suspicion.
Speaker 1: My faith is stronger than a handful of terrorists, she
Speaker 1: said to mister Dane. There are a lot of Christians
Speaker 1: in the secular forces. You know they'll win in the end,
Speaker 1: won't they. Mister Dane's smile remained unchanged, but his eyes
Speaker 1: bored into hers. Sasha was more comfortable with eye contact
Speaker 1: than most teens, but she found this deeply uncomfortable, invasive.
Speaker 1: Even after several long seconds, he spoke, I fear it's
Speaker 1: going to be a long, bloody fight before that happens.
Speaker 1: We're very lucky to be insulated from all that madness,
Speaker 1: you know, he sighed. An eleventh grader, However, a Jefferson
Speaker 1: I was killed fighting in Dallas yesterday. The news just broke.
Speaker 1: Sasha hadn't been aware, but thank God for him and
Speaker 1: his sacrifice. She thought. That's awful, She said, I can't
Speaker 1: imagine what his parents must be going through. No, you can't,
Speaker 1: he agreed, and then mister Dane broke eye contact. He
Speaker 1: looked down at the ground, and his voice dropped an
Speaker 1: octave as he asked, did you know I had a son?
Speaker 1: Genuine surprise passed over Sasha's face. No, Sir, I didn't.
Speaker 1: He shrugged and gave up on his smile. It wasn't
Speaker 1: much more than a ghost now, anyway, I married young,
Speaker 1: I was a dad at nineteen, and by the time
Speaker 1: he was nineteen, the whole country was coming apart. He
Speaker 1: reached down to his desk and picked up a small,
Speaker 1: rather battered looking red button. It had the letters R
Speaker 1: J printed in lower case letters across the front. Mister
Speaker 1: Dane stared at it. Something twitched under his left eyelid.
Speaker 1: He bit his upper lip. He was silent for a
Speaker 1: long beat, and he swallowed and looked up at Sasha.
Speaker 1: Do you know what this is? No, she said, reluctant
Speaker 1: and pretty certain. She ought to have known in the
Speaker 1: years leading up to the revolution, there were a lot
Speaker 1: of different activist movements founded and spread by anonymous radicals.
Speaker 1: They'd organized flashed demonstrations and coordinated direct action campaigns. The
Speaker 1: pins were one sort of I D badge, so when
Speaker 1: you showed up for a flashed demo, you could quickly
Speaker 1: identify your comrades. He shook his head ruefully. It sounds
Speaker 1: silly now. All I can say is, at the time
Speaker 1: it made sense and it felt meaningful. The anonymous voice
Speaker 1: I listened to was a guy named read John. He
Speaker 1: had all these videos about history, politics. He explained the
Speaker 1: whole world and what was wrong with it in a
Speaker 1: way that just felt right. I started playing his stuff
Speaker 1: for my boy Mikey when he was thirteen or fourteen.
Speaker 1: I just wanted him to know what was going on.
Speaker 1: I thought I was doing the right thing. Mister Dane's
Speaker 1: eyes looked watery and heavy with the ghost of old tears.
Speaker 1: He seemed to have trouble keeping his voice steady. Mikey
Speaker 1: grew up believing hard, and when the fighting broke out,
Speaker 1: he was young and strong and so very ready to
Speaker 1: fight for the world he believed we all deserved. Mister
Speaker 1: Dane set the pen back on the desk with its
Speaker 1: cover facing down. His eyes were red. He died in Denver,
Speaker 1: mister Dane said, and his voice broke a little shot
Speaker 1: through the head. When the National Guard pushed into Westminster.
Speaker 1: Sasha put a hand on mister Dane's shoulder. It was
Speaker 1: an instinctive move, blessedly honest. She silently thanked God for
Speaker 1: this moment of connection to the educator she so admired.
Speaker 1: He smiled back at her, thank you. I I don't
Speaker 1: mean for this to be a lecture. I don't think
Speaker 1: those tend to work. Just he glanced back at the table.
Speaker 1: Just be careful about putting your faith in charismatic men
Speaker 1: and their ideas. I will, she said. A minute later,
Speaker 1: as she left the classroom, a notification pip lit up
Speaker 1: on the top right corner of her vision. She wink
Speaker 1: clicked it and saw a message from brother Andrew bust
Speaker 1: Stop twenty three a p m. The rest of the
Speaker 1: day passed normally enough. In the afternoon, they had an
Speaker 1: assembly about the suicide of a classmate. It was the
Speaker 1: third this year. Principal Hardgrave delivered the same platitudes they'd
Speaker 1: all heard a hundred times. There was a lot of
Speaker 1: talk about suicide hotlines and chat rooms. Of all the
Speaker 1: counseling services the school had available, Sasha knew none of
Speaker 1: it would help. Almost twenty percent of teens in the
Speaker 1: m FED would attempt suicide. Every year, that number ticked
Speaker 1: up a few tenths of a percent, and the government
Speaker 1: had no idea how to stop it. Pastor Mike blamed
Speaker 1: the rash of suicides on the emptiness of secular life,
Speaker 1: the spiritual whole at the center of capitalism and the
Speaker 1: self worship had fed. Sasha thought he'd hit that right
Speaker 1: on the money. Even the United Christian States still engaged
Speaker 1: in global capitalism and doing so that a dark God
Speaker 1: in permanent opposition to the Lord Almighty. Pastor Mike. Again,
Speaker 1: she knew Principal hargraves lectures were pointless, but she sat
Speaker 1: through the assembly and gave the right smiles to the
Speaker 1: right people. The rest of the day, she focused on
Speaker 1: her studies as best she could, despite the growing anxiety
Speaker 1: in her gut. Two weeks ago, she'd read a Pastor
Speaker 1: Mike article and revelator, don't talk yourself out of Heaven.
Speaker 1: It had clearly been written for the conflicted faithful, just
Speaker 1: like her. I've received messages from hundreds of you who
Speaker 1: say I'd love to open myself up to martyrdom. But
Speaker 1: I'm a doctor, or a police officer, or an engineer,
Speaker 1: and I think I can do more to glorify God
Speaker 1: where I am right now. Brothers and sisters, these are
Speaker 1: the doubts of the serpent. Don't be fooled. No one
Speaker 1: stays in comfort because they want to bring glory to
Speaker 1: the Almighty. Our Lord does not speak to us from
Speaker 1: comfortable places. He spoke to Moses in a desolate desert,
Speaker 1: from a burning bush. He delivered his greatest sermon atop
Speaker 1: a mountain. Jehovah wants our souls to be so on
Speaker 1: fire with devotion that our own lives mean nothing before
Speaker 1: his flame. The heavenly Kingdom is that cleansing flame. What
Speaker 1: a gift it is here now in your lifetime. What
Speaker 1: a tragedy it would be to miss this chance at salvation.
Speaker 1: She recited that passage again and again throughout what she
Speaker 1: now knew would be her last day at school. The
Speaker 1: words steadied her as she waved goodbye to mister Dane
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. These are the doubts
Speaker 1: of the serpent. They calmed her when she looked into
Speaker 1: her backpack, which held the small go back she'd put
Speaker 1: together that morning. It was just a change of clothes
Speaker 1: and a handful of hygiene items that seemed woefully inadequate,
Speaker 1: but anything more would have looked suspicious. Leaving, I'm leaving.
Speaker 1: It was only now, on the cusp of leaving, that
Speaker 1: Sasha realized how much she was going to miss movie
Speaker 1: night with her friends. Central heating in the winter, reliable
Speaker 1: internet access. Our Lord does not speak to us from
Speaker 1: comfortable places. It took her an embarrass same amount of
Speaker 1: time to find the bus stop. She was scared to
Speaker 1: use her deck. She'd shut it off as soon as
Speaker 1: she'd left school, and she didn't know the city bus
Speaker 1: system very well. She'd taken busses to school for years,
Speaker 1: but her parents car had always driven her around the city.
Speaker 1: She was ashamed of how anxious she felt about riding
Speaker 1: a city bus. Here she was on her way to
Speaker 1: a war zone and possible martyrdom, scared of public transit.
Speaker 1: Be strong and courageous and do the work. She recited
Speaker 1: David's advice to Solomon, do not be afraid or discouraged.
Speaker 1: For the Lord God, My God is with you. That
Speaker 1: helped a little. Thinking of Alexander's smile, his green eyes,
Speaker 1: and the strong lines of his jaw helped more. Sasha
Speaker 1: didn't like admitting that to herself it felt too carnal,
Speaker 1: almost sacrilegious, but she knew that what mattered to God
Speaker 1: were her actions. Even if her flight to Zion wasn't
Speaker 1: done with a completely pure heart, God would forgive her
Speaker 1: her sacrifice to build the new Jerusalem. What outweigh the
Speaker 1: sinful part of her mind that couldn't stop imagining how
Speaker 1: Alexander's strong arms would feel when they finally wrapped around her.
Speaker 1: She waited at stop twenty three. A four thirty came
Speaker 1: and went by four five pm, her chest burned with
Speaker 1: barely restrained panic. She was sure the people passing by
Speaker 1: all knew her secret plans. A pair of police officers
Speaker 1: passed her at one point. One of them, a woman
Speaker 1: not much older than Sasha, flashed her a smile. For
Speaker 1: a long time, she was convinced it had been a
Speaker 1: sign that her communics had been intercepted and the police
Speaker 1: or the FBI were onto her plan. But the police
Speaker 1: didn't come to stop her, and after a quarter hour
Speaker 1: that felt like days. A brown sedan rolled up to
Speaker 1: the bus stop, its window peeled down, and Sasha locked
Speaker 1: eyes with a careworn young man in the back. Sasha Marian.
Speaker 1: He asked, yes, She said, are you brother Andrew? As
Speaker 1: I was with Moses, so will I be with thee.
Speaker 1: That was the pass phrase Alexander had told her to expect.
Speaker 1: It was all Sasha could do to stop from bawling
Speaker 1: right then and there she got in the car. The
Speaker 1: man inside was exactly what she'd have expected of a
Speaker 1: man and brother Andrew's profession. He had long, aw colored
Speaker 1: hair and a ragged beard. There were deep pockets of
Speaker 1: exhaustion under his brown eyes and well creased smile lines
Speaker 1: around his lips. He wore a simple black suit with
Speaker 1: no tie. Everything about the way he looked and the
Speaker 1: way he dressed spoke of quiet devotion and humble service. Here,
Speaker 1: finally was a man of God. Not oppressed, preening dandy
Speaker 1: like the pastor at her father's church, not a hip
Speaker 1: young pretender like the Baptist minister who had given a
Speaker 1: speech on inclusion at her school last year. Here was
Speaker 1: a real road weary man of the Lord. I know
Speaker 1: how you must feel right now, Sasha, He said, you're relieved.
Speaker 1: You never thought you'd make it this far. You didn't
Speaker 1: know if you'd have the courage to take the final
Speaker 1: leap of faith. But you have now, child, and your
Speaker 1: soul is secure. Sasha melted. The knot of anxiety that
Speaker 1: had been twisting in her guts suddenly untied itself. Her
Speaker 1: eyesight blurred, and she realized that she'd started to cry.
Speaker 1: It was all she could do to look over to
Speaker 1: brother Andrew and whisper thank you. Together they drove to
Speaker 1: a little, white walled suburban house, maybe five miles away
Speaker 1: from the only home she had ever known. The car stopped,
Speaker 1: but Brother Andrew gestured for her to stay in the
Speaker 1: vehicle while he stepped out and knocked on the door.
Speaker 1: Another man, shorter and balding, stepped out. They both hustled
Speaker 1: back to the car, their eyes darting left and right.
Speaker 1: As soon as they made it inside, the car sped
Speaker 1: off fast enough that the acceleration pushed Sasha back in
Speaker 1: her seat. The new man sat across from her in
Speaker 1: the autonomous car second row of bench seats. He was older,
Speaker 1: in his fifties. If he hadn't taken any juven treatments.
Speaker 1: He had tired eyes with deep bags beneath them. While
Speaker 1: Brother Andrew radiated calm self satisfaction, this man seemed nervous
Speaker 1: and a little frantic. He clutched a small briefcase with
Speaker 1: white knuckled hands. Sasha smiled in an unconscious attempt to
Speaker 1: call him. He smiled back. Brother Andrew spoke, Miss Marian,
Speaker 1: this is Brother Brian. He's going to disable your deck.
Speaker 1: It's the only way we can get you across the
Speaker 1: border to our people in the Christian States. Brother Andrew
Speaker 1: smiled and put a hand on Brother Brian's shoulder. The
Speaker 1: other man took this cue to open up his suitcase.
Speaker 1: He started to assemble something small, silver and intricate. Brother
Speaker 1: Andrew kept speaking. All it would take is one phone
Speaker 1: call from your parents or your school when the police
Speaker 1: could spot your precise location from the GPS unit in
Speaker 1: your deck. This car is a dead zone, so you're
Speaker 1: safe inside it, but as soon as you exit, you'll
Speaker 1: be back on the map, so we need to remove
Speaker 1: your deck before that happens. Will it hurt? Sasha remembered
Speaker 1: how it had felt when they'd first implanted her deck,
Speaker 1: like having a new tooth. Forcibly inserted into her jaw.
Speaker 1: She'd been four or five at the time. Her head
Speaker 1: had hurt for days. Brother Bryan didn't look up from
Speaker 1: his briefcase as he answered her. Yes, I've got a
Speaker 1: topical anesthetic, but nothing stronger. It'll hurt. Sasha nodded gravely.
Speaker 1: She had anticipated this. A little pain was a small
Speaker 1: price to pay to become one of God's elect few.
Speaker 1: She thought of Paul and Silas stripped and beaten with
Speaker 1: clubs on the orders of a heathen magistrate. God shows
Speaker 1: his love through salvation. We show ours through sacrifice. The
Speaker 1: memory of Pastor Mike's words helped ease her fears she'd
Speaker 1: miss her deck, but Alexander had said there'd be replacements
Speaker 1: in the Heavenly Kingdom. In another minute, Brother Brian had
Speaker 1: finished assembling the tool. It looked like a cross between
Speaker 1: a syringe and a handheld shot back. At Brother Andrew's urging,
Speaker 1: she moved over to sit on the bench seat next
Speaker 1: to him. Now lay across my lap an angle your
Speaker 1: temple towards Brother Brian. A pang of fear flitted across
Speaker 1: her heart. These were men of God, but they were
Speaker 1: also men she didn't know who were much older and
Speaker 1: larger than her. She had to fight down the urge
Speaker 1: to panic and flee. You were trusting these men to
Speaker 1: smuggle you across a border, dummy. She hesitated for a
Speaker 1: few sweaty seconds, but eventually Sasha nodded and laid down
Speaker 1: on Brother Andrew's lap. Her heart beat so loudly that
Speaker 1: she could hear it crashing in her skull like ocean waves.
Speaker 1: Brother Andrew put his strong hands on her. He tightened
Speaker 1: his grip. He's holding me down, she realized, and although
Speaker 1: he tried to restrain her in a comforting way, the
Speaker 1: liquid mass of panic in her chest almost boiled over.
Speaker 1: There was a sudden, sharp pain as Brother Brian plunged
Speaker 1: the needle in through her temple, and then a dull
Speaker 1: throbbing feet like a migraine. Sasha felt dizzy, disoriented, and
Speaker 1: then nauseous. In turns, she blacked out for a few seconds.
Speaker 1: When she came back to herself, she realized she had
Speaker 1: been vomiting. The floor of the car was coated in
Speaker 1: the remains of her lunch. Some of it had gotten
Speaker 1: on Brother Andrew's pants leg. Brother Bryan looked disgusted, but
Speaker 1: Brother Andrew was all smiles and comfort. Jesus, here's your
Speaker 1: suffering sister. He knows what you are giving up in
Speaker 1: His name. You will reap the dividends of this investment
Speaker 1: in your soul. He helped her up and guided her
Speaker 1: to the opposite bench, where she laid down and continued
Speaker 1: to clutch her throbbing head. She drifted off or passed out,
Speaker 1: and when she came to, the interior of the car
Speaker 1: had been scrubbed clean, leaving behind only a brown stain
Speaker 1: and the lingering smell of sick and antiseptic. Sasha guessed
Speaker 1: an hour or more had passed, although without her deck
Speaker 1: it could have been more. They were in the woods now,
Speaker 1: driving along a country road. Brother Andrew explained that they
Speaker 1: were just a few minutes away from the border, and
Speaker 1: almost as far as an automobile could take them. Soon
Speaker 1: they'd up in the town of Franklin, right on the
Speaker 1: border of the UCS, and she'd meet the men who
Speaker 1: would help her on the next stage of her journey.
Speaker 1: The main border stations are blanketed with cameras, Brother Andrew said,
Speaker 1: but we're right in the thick of the Blue Ridge
Speaker 1: mountains here. They can't watch every inch of them. We
Speaker 1: have some coyotes here who know where the holes are.
Speaker 1: One of them will spirit you across coyotes, Sasha asked,
Speaker 1: it's an old term, he said, A coyote is someone
Speaker 1: who helps smuggle people across national borders. Usually the phrase
Speaker 1: has somewhat mercenary connotations. But the men we work with,
Speaker 1: our true believers, soldiers in the Army of God. You
Speaker 1: needn't fear, miss Marian. A few minutes later, they rolled
Speaker 1: into Franklin. She'd never heard of the place before, but
Speaker 1: a quick look around told her most of what she'd
Speaker 1: needed to know. Most of the buildings were empty, The
Speaker 1: storefronts were boarded up. The city hall was in disrepair,
Speaker 1: and the skeleton of a once mighty Walmart supercenter dominated
Speaker 1: the south side of town. There was clear fire damage
Speaker 1: around its roof and entrances. Twenty or so years ago,
Speaker 1: when the Civil War had been at its height, Franklin
Speaker 1: had swollen with refugees. When the war had ended, the
Speaker 1: refugees had gone elsewhere, and the city had been left
Speaker 1: gutted and exhausted in their absence. The car stopped outside
Speaker 1: of a public park. Sasha noticed that the grass was overgrown,
Speaker 1: and the sidewalks around it were cracked and broken. She
Speaker 1: shared a quick prayer with brothers Andrew and Brian, then
Speaker 1: they bid her farewell. The car pulled away and Sasha
Speaker 1: was alone. She'd been told to find a park bench
Speaker 1: and wait just a few minutes, so that's what she did.
Speaker 1: A few minutes turned into ten, then fifteen, then twenty.
Speaker 1: Sasha began to worry again. That was when she really
Speaker 1: started to miss her deck. Normally, she'd have been able
Speaker 1: to catch up on the latest news from Zion, read
Speaker 1: one of her favorite issues of Revelator, and maybe even
Speaker 1: touch base with Alexander. Without it, she only had the
Speaker 1: throbbing pain in her head to keep her occupied. Sasha's
Speaker 1: mind wandered to the rolling mountains on the horizon. She'd
Speaker 1: never spent so much as a night out camping before.
Speaker 1: The wildest animal she'd ever seen was a squirrel, and
Speaker 1: there aren't bears out there. That scared her more than
Speaker 1: the price spect of being arrested, or even the fear
Speaker 1: of what might happen to her nearer to the fighting.
Speaker 1: Dying alone in a drone strike or from a sniper's
Speaker 1: bullet would be quick and expected, given where she was going.
Speaker 1: She'd spent a lot of time thinking about dying from
Speaker 1: sudden violence. It had acquired a patina of romance in
Speaker 1: her mind's eye. But dying on some mountain to a
Speaker 1: slavering monster from another age. Sasha shuddered, seized by a
Speaker 1: chill entirely at odds with the extreme heat of this
Speaker 1: August day, it was a hundred and nine at least.
Speaker 1: Sasha rooted through her bag and pulled out a small
Speaker 1: leather bound bible she'd received as a Christmas gift from
Speaker 1: her dad two years ago. She opened it at random
Speaker 1: and found herself in the Book of Jonah. In my distress,
Speaker 1: I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From
Speaker 1: deep in the realm of the dead, I called for help,
Speaker 1: and you listened to my cry. She read on through
Speaker 1: the rest of Jonah's cries to the wail vomiting him
Speaker 1: up on to the shores near Nineveh. The word of
Speaker 1: God calmed her. She grew so engrossed in her scripture
Speaker 1: that she was taken completely by surprise when the coyote
Speaker 1: found her on the park bench. Miss marian a man's voice,
Speaker 1: weathered and gravelly, said from behind her, you'd serve us
Speaker 1: both wail by putting that book away. This is not
Speaker 1: a safe place. She looked up the coyote. He was
Speaker 1: older than she'd expected, in his mid forties at least.
Speaker 1: He had a mop of greasy blonde hair, a round face,
Speaker 1: kind blue eyes, and a slight paunch that spoke more
Speaker 1: to his age than an activity. He had thick biceps
Speaker 1: and forearms that bulged with corded muscle. His thighs were
Speaker 1: large too. He had the look of a man who
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time on his feet. Mister, she
Speaker 1: asked Jonah. He said, you can call me Jonah. And
Speaker 1: again the knots and her stomach melted away. She rejoiced
Speaker 1: inside over and over. Her faith had flagged, and over
Speaker 1: and over the Lord had sent her signs of his
Speaker 1: love and approval. That's what trusting and reason gets you.
Speaker 1: She had modished herself fear and pain. God is watching
Speaker 1: out for me. Her childish fear of bears faded away. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: the world and her future felt bright and exciting again.
Speaker 1: After years of delay, she was finally on the doorstep
Speaker 1: of Zion. Jonah, I'm ready to go, Julie, the way
Speaker 1: and I will follow it. Took about an hour for
Speaker 1: Sasha to decide that she liked camping, and then two
Speaker 1: more hours to decide that she never wanted to camp
Speaker 1: ever again. By the time they stopped for the night,
Speaker 1: she'd gouged herself open on half a dozen different tree branches,
Speaker 1: smashed her left toe into a rock, and somehow managed
Speaker 1: to draw every allergin on the East coast into her nose.
Speaker 1: The headaches from her improvised surgery and her throbbing sinuses
Speaker 1: warred for dominance. She couldn't sleep, food had no taste,
Speaker 1: and her hands were too grubby and generally snotty to
Speaker 1: allow her to read the Bible. Jonah was not as
Speaker 1: talkative as brother Andrew. He'd given her a brief rundown
Speaker 1: of things to avoid out in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Speaker 1: He'd told her how to recognize timber rattlers, diamondbacks, and
Speaker 1: copper heads, although for some reason she had much more
Speaker 1: trouble retaining that information than she'd had memorizing the Pythagorean
Speaker 1: theorem or the date and importance of the Battle of Hastings.
Speaker 1: She was supposed to watch for pointy heads. She knew that,
Speaker 1: but every time a snake slithered past her. It moved
Speaker 1: way too fast for her to tell the shape of
Speaker 1: its head. Other than that quick lecture and a few
Speaker 1: admonishments for her to step lightly, Jonah hadn't said much.
Speaker 1: He'd given her food each night, protein bars and nuts. Mostly.
Speaker 1: He'd been kind enough to let her snuggle with the
Speaker 1: heated blanket he'd brought along. She knew she'd gotten snot
Speaker 1: on it, but he never complained. When they settled into
Speaker 1: camp on the second night, Sasha was surprised to see
Speaker 1: her coyote start to gather wood and build a fire.
Speaker 1: He laughed when he saw the dumbfounded look on Sasha's face.
Speaker 1: He pulled out a small yellow bottle of lighter fluid,
Speaker 1: squirted it onto the wood, and then lit the edge
Speaker 1: of it with his lighter. The fire leapt to life,
Speaker 1: burning away at the pine needles until they caught the
Speaker 1: smaller sticks and limbs stacked round in a small box. Next,
Speaker 1: he pulled two silver pouches out of his backpack and
Speaker 1: handed them to her. The labels informed her that one
Speaker 1: contained chicken and dumplings, and the other macaronian cheese. Her
Speaker 1: mouth was watering before the first and tonight miss Marian,
Speaker 1: you get a fire and a hot meal. We're over
Speaker 1: the line. And that was how Sasha learned she'd crossed
Speaker 1: the border into the United Christian States. She had successfully
Speaker 1: fled her cut tree and the secular rule of law entirely.
Speaker 1: The u c S wasn't a true godly state, not
Speaker 1: by her standards. It's multidenominational acceptance was a denial of
Speaker 1: the harsh truth of God's love. Not everyone who called
Speaker 1: themselves a Christian truly lived in such a way as
Speaker 1: to earn God's gift of salvation. But just being in
Speaker 1: a country that acknowledged the primacy of God Almighty in
Speaker 1: their law and public policy was enough. For now. There's
Speaker 1: no abortion here, she thought with awe. No atheists on
Speaker 1: television mocking the Lord no callow acceptance of premarital sex.
Speaker 1: She felt a thrill at being in a place that
Speaker 1: was so much closer to her conception of right. It
Speaker 1: didn't even matter that she was still stuck in the woods. Jonah,
Speaker 1: she asked, do you live here most of the time? Yes.
Speaker 1: He had a quiet, soulful voice that made him seem
Speaker 1: even older than he looked. What made you decide to
Speaker 1: start smuggling people out of the am fed, she stared
Speaker 1: into the tree line as his hands stuffed thin sticks
Speaker 1: into the base of the growing fire. Sasha watched his
Speaker 1: jaw clinch and unclinched, as if he was mentally rehearsing
Speaker 1: his response before he set it out loud as a
Speaker 1: United States armor arranger. Once been a Christian. My whole life,
Speaker 1: though Southern Baptist, grew up in a country just as
Speaker 1: lost to sin and vice as yours is. And when
Speaker 1: the fighting started, I saw an opportunity to bring my
Speaker 1: nation back to its godly roots. Hands emptied, Jonah rooted
Speaker 1: around his bag and pulled out a kettle. He filled
Speaker 1: it with water from a heavy fabric bag and placed
Speaker 1: it on a flat rock near the edge of the fire.
Speaker 1: Then he stood up, gestured for her to follow, and
Speaker 1: walked over to a nearby copse of trees. I joined
Speaker 1: a local militian Marietta near Atlanta. He said, most of
Speaker 1: us are Vettes, like me, anither Baptist or Pentecostal. He
Speaker 1: crouched down next to a tree that had been cracked
Speaker 1: in half by lightning. It was dead and very dry.
Speaker 1: The ground around it was littered with tree limbs and
Speaker 1: thick slabs of bark. He started gathering up some of
Speaker 1: the larger pieces. Mom, get down are and elk. Some
Speaker 1: of these are a little damp, but we'll stick em
Speaker 1: around the edges to dry out. Most important thing right
Speaker 1: now is to get some middle in size logs in
Speaker 1: there so we can build up a little bit of coals.
Speaker 1: Sasha wiped a runnel of snot from her face and
Speaker 1: knelt down to help. Jonah continued his story while they
Speaker 1: filled their arms. Anyway, things heated up. The army started
Speaker 1: calling in their deep reserves guys. Lack maidman out for
Speaker 1: Daggham near a decade that was after the FIDS nuke
Speaker 1: Dallas so Go an active duty again didn't sound good
Speaker 1: to anyone. He lifted away a fallen limb and revealed
Speaker 1: a massive log, roughly the size of Sasha's torso. Jonah
Speaker 1: shifted everything he'd gathered over to his right arm, and
Speaker 1: then after the law with one hand, he nodded at
Speaker 1: Sasha's much smaller pile. We've probably got enough, he said.
Speaker 1: They headed back to the camp site. She could see
Speaker 1: Jonah was doing that twitchy jaw thing again, thinking carefully
Speaker 1: about every word I grew up real patriotic, you understand.
Speaker 1: I love my country, fought for it down south. But
Speaker 1: I also grew up with a Confederate flag on the
Speaker 1: back of my dad's truck. I wasn't on board with
Speaker 1: those Marxist who started the Civil War. So when Governor
Speaker 1: Galen had his referendum on secession, well, I fell right.
Speaker 1: I was on board with the U c s back
Speaker 1: before it was even born. They sat around the fire again.
Speaker 1: Jonah started to add in larger branches. He slowly built
Speaker 1: the fire in a U shape around the flat stone. Now,
Speaker 1: it is never a fanatic when a church most Sundays,
Speaker 1: but I had jew neighbors, a couple of Muslims in
Speaker 1: the unit. Good guys, wasn't real political, you know. But
Speaker 1: Pastor Elgin's gave a speech only time I saw him
Speaker 1: in person. He said, diversity wasn't making us strong anymore.
Speaker 1: A melting pots all well and good, but the quality
Speaker 1: of the soup depends on the recipe. That made sense
Speaker 1: to me. He sat back, popped the kettle onto the rock,
Speaker 1: and looked over to Sasha. The idea was a Christian
Speaker 1: recipe would make for a stronger nation, But the U
Speaker 1: c S wound up being a dag unprosperity gospel pile
Speaker 1: of nonsense better in the Amphid. Sure, maybe we've got
Speaker 1: less queer politicians, less rich Jews running things, but it's
Speaker 1: still corrupt here. Sasha wasn't really sure how to handle
Speaker 1: this disclosure. She'd run into similar attitudes among believers online,
Speaker 1: uncomfortable references to Jewish gay or gay Jewish conspiracies. That
Speaker 1: sort of nonsense had always gotten on her nerves, but
Speaker 1: she'd written its purveyor's office edge lords and trolls. Part
Speaker 1: of her thought they might be CIA plants hell bent
Speaker 1: on making the Kingdom look bad, but she knew they
Speaker 1: didn't speak for the actual heart of the movement. Sasha
Speaker 1: wanted to speak up, but she held her tongue. The
Speaker 1: fact that Jonah had been nothing but kind and respectful
Speaker 1: to her didn't change the fact that he was twice
Speaker 1: her size who knew what he might do if he
Speaker 1: got agitated. Sasha fought for calm and recalled a specific
Speaker 1: passage from Revelator and one of their guides for young
Speaker 1: women immigrating to the Kingdom, No daughters, that our Lord
Speaker 1: made your brothers and husbands both strong of body and
Speaker 1: quick to anger. It is your job to soothe, not
Speaker 1: in sight. And if his wrath falls upon you in
Speaker 1: a sudden burst, remember the forgiveness and patience of our Lord.
Speaker 1: Let his example guide your reactions. So she smiled at
Speaker 1: Jonah and said, tonight, I'm happy enough to be in
Speaker 1: a godly land. He smiled back. Sasha hoped God was
Speaker 1: proud of her for being meek as Mary. When she
Speaker 1: thought about it that way, the rest of the night
Speaker 1: was surprisingly tolerable. The food wasn't good by her normal standards,
Speaker 1: but it was hot and savory, and after days of
Speaker 1: protein bars, it was exactly what her suffering stomach needed.
Speaker 1: Sasha wasn't aware of when she drifted off to sleep.
Speaker 1: Jonah woke her up the next morning, not long after
Speaker 1: the crack of dawn. He handed her a box of
Speaker 1: wet napkins and walked off into the woods for a
Speaker 1: few minutes while she cleaned herself off as much as possible.
Speaker 1: When she was done, he led her down the mountain
Speaker 1: and into a small town on the border. It was
Speaker 1: Sasha's first real look at life in the UCS, and
Speaker 1: it did not disappoint. In the twenty or so minutes
Speaker 1: they were outside, she saw nine churches. There were crosses
Speaker 1: on every house in a dizzying variety. She saw Bible
Speaker 1: quotes printed on windows of shops and cafes, and the
Speaker 1: strangers who passed them in the street all flashed warm
Speaker 1: smiles if you offered their blessings. Sasha had never seen
Speaker 1: such public display of religion. She floated through those first
Speaker 1: few minutes on a cloud of giddiness, unlike anything she'd
Speaker 1: ever known. The architecture and the environment were similar to
Speaker 1: what she'd grown up with, but everything else seemed alien
Speaker 1: and the most exciting way possible. Sasha felt so light
Speaker 1: she did almost feel the whole spirit lift her up.
Speaker 1: Her gleeful reverie only ended when Jonah led her up
Speaker 1: to the door of an unassuming brownstone house. They were
Speaker 1: taken in by another man, whom Jonah had introduced, a Saul.
Speaker 1: Saul looked a little younger and a lot less weathered
Speaker 1: than Jonah. He had the thin arms and stooped posture
Speaker 1: of a lifelong scholar, and his conservative, button up white
Speaker 1: shirt made him look more like a youth pastor than
Speaker 1: a people smuggler. Welcome sister, he smiled, but his voice
Speaker 1: was more haggard than warm. You want to get inside, please,
Speaker 1: There's no sense tempting the law. Saul's house was packed
Speaker 1: to the rafters with toilet paper, jugs of water, bends
Speaker 1: of freeze, dried food, and bags upon bags of clothing.
Speaker 1: The house had almost no furniture and no decorations aside
Speaker 1: from a large wooden cross above the hearth. There were
Speaker 1: a couple of stools arranged around a crate on the ground,
Speaker 1: which seemed to have served as an improvised coffee table.
Speaker 1: Saul sat them down, left for a moment, and came
Speaker 1: back with a hot French press filled with coffee. I'd
Speaker 1: suggest drinking your fill. It's hard to come by in
Speaker 1: the Kingdom right now, most things are. I'm afraid. I'm
Speaker 1: not scared of hardship, She said a little too loud.
Speaker 1: You sound like a little kid. Keep your stupid mouth shut,
Speaker 1: or they'll think you can't handle it. Saul was conspicuously silent,
Speaker 1: but Jonah spoke up. She handle yourself well out in
Speaker 1: the woods, he said, not bad for a city girl.
Speaker 1: Didn't have a lott of woodcraft, but did have an
Speaker 1: open heart. He took well to it. Ma'am Saul chuckled
Speaker 1: as he began to pour in hand out cups of coffee,
Speaker 1: first to her and then to Jonah. Sasha wasn't entirely
Speaker 1: sure why, but she waited until both men had taken
Speaker 1: their first SIPs to take hers. She didn't know much
Speaker 1: about coffee, but she was pretty sure this wasn't the
Speaker 1: beverage at its best. Would you like to pray with us,
Speaker 1: miss Marian, Saul asked, Of course. He extended his hands
Speaker 1: out on either side, so did Jonah. Sasha took Saul's
Speaker 1: left in Jonah's right. Heavenly Father, Saul began, bless this
Speaker 1: young woman who comes to you with a full heart
Speaker 1: from a land of sin and shirk. She's given up
Speaker 1: all pretense of control and yielded herself fully to your grace. Lord,
Speaker 1: Please guide her in this next journey. We pray that
Speaker 1: she makes it safely to your kingdom and in to
Speaker 1: the arms of her husband to be. Sasha almost paid.
Speaker 1: Where did he hear that she and Alexander hadn't even
Speaker 1: met yet, There'd been no proposal. Was he just speaking
Speaker 1: in the general hope that she'd get married, or had
Speaker 1: Alexander told him something? May she obey him as she
Speaker 1: does you, Heavenly Father, And may you quicken her womb
Speaker 1: like Rachel, so that she delivers a new Joseph to
Speaker 1: our cause. That didn't sit well either. Sasha wanted children
Speaker 1: very badly. She knew they were in her future, but
Speaker 1: not now, certainly not soon enough that she'd be praying
Speaker 1: for them already. She was grateful that they had their
Speaker 1: heads a bowed in prayer. If any of this had
Speaker 1: come up in conversation first, she was sure she'd have
Speaker 1: reacted an obvious shock. But Sasha calmed herself, thought of
Speaker 1: her duty to God, and centered her mind just as
Speaker 1: the prayer ended. And may I say, my lady, it
Speaker 1: is a brave thing you're doing, Sasha said, as he
Speaker 1: reached for his cup and took another sip. Even here
Speaker 1: in God's country, not many are willing to answer the call.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, they'll all tell you it's the drone strikes
Speaker 1: that scare them. I can do more good by working
Speaker 1: my job and sending money, as if the Lord asked
Speaker 1: Abraham to sacrifice a bag of gold in his name.
Speaker 1: Saul kept talking, but Sasha's attention drifted the spot on
Speaker 1: her head where the deck had been itched. All of
Speaker 1: a sudden, she scratched it, and for the second time
Speaker 1: she found herself truly missing the gadget. If she had
Speaker 1: her deck, she could call Alexander and find out what
Speaker 1: was going on, But instead she just squirmed a little
Speaker 1: in her chair and hoped the men didn't notice how
Speaker 1: uncomfortable she'd become. Miss Marian, You all right, Jonah had noticed,
Speaker 1: of course he had. Sasha cursed herself, and then cursed
Speaker 1: herself again for cursing. Yes, sorry, I'm kind of tired,
Speaker 1: even with the coffee, and I'm um worried about my
Speaker 1: friend in the Kingdom. She definitely stretched the word friend
Speaker 1: too much. Do you think I'll be able to find
Speaker 1: a deck once I'm there? I've heard a lot of
Speaker 1: different ma'am. That was Saul, and his voice had no
Speaker 1: more feigned mirth. You're about to be smuggled illegally across
Speaker 1: a heavily fortified border. There are all sorts of worldly
Speaker 1: goods in the Heavenly Kingdom were not poppers or savages.
Speaker 1: But as to whether you'll get a deck, well, that
Speaker 1: rather depends on what our Lord wants for you. Sasha
Speaker 1: lowered her head a little in submission. There wasn't the
Speaker 1: time to press further. Maybe that time would never come.
Speaker 1: You knew there'd be sacrifices, she reminded herself. How are
Speaker 1: you going to smuggle me across the border? She asked.
Speaker 1: Saul finished his coffee and set his mug down on
Speaker 1: the makeshift table. I'll show you, he said. He let
Speaker 1: her pass the living room and into a spacious and
Speaker 1: very chilly garage. There, a trio of workers with face
Speaker 1: masks were busy sealing up large crates of unfinished wood.
Speaker 1: She couldn't quite make out the words stamped on the sides,
Speaker 1: but the blocky font looked military. There was a time
Speaker 1: when it was easy enough to sneak the faithful across
Speaker 1: on foot, Saul explained, but international concerns have forced the
Speaker 1: government to take a rather hard line. I'm afraid this
Speaker 1: is the best way to get across the border. Wait.
Speaker 1: Sasha's gut went sour. She felt the acid in her
Speaker 1: stomach churn a greasy boil. Are you trying to tell
Speaker 1: me I'm going to be nailed inside a crate? Saul's
Speaker 1: face turned. There was no pretense anymore. He was disgusted
Speaker 1: with her. Sasha didn't really know why. All she'd done
Speaker 1: was asked questions. But then Jonah was there with a
Speaker 1: hand on Saul's shoulder and a calm voice in her ear.
Speaker 1: Think of this as a blessing, said Jonah. Most people
Speaker 1: never test the blind part of blind faith. He was right,
Speaker 1: darn it, and there was something freeing in the idea
Speaker 1: of just giving herself up to Providence. She'd done everything
Speaker 1: God had asked of her. Now he would either deliver
Speaker 1: her desire on or the arms of the law. Either way,
Speaker 1: she'd done everything she could to obey the call of
Speaker 1: her faith. All the little sins of her life, the
Speaker 1: cursing and the anger, and those dark, gnawing desires she
Speaker 1: still struggled to tamp down. Those would all be forgiven.
Speaker 1: She was truly giving herself to Christ now, so nothing
Speaker 1: else mattered. You're right, she said, I'm sorry, I questioned it.
Speaker 1: I'll do whatever it takes to reach the heavenly kingdom.
Speaker 1: She took another hard look at the cramped wooden box
Speaker 1: and the piles of aid supplies surrounding it. How was
Speaker 1: she going to fit in there? Whatever it takes. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Robert sex Reese, host to the doctor Sex re Show,
Speaker 1: and every episode I listened to people talk about their
Speaker 1: sex and intimacy issues, and yes, I despise every minute
Speaker 1: of it. And she she made mistakes too, She kill
Speaker 1: everyone at her wedding. But hell is real. We're all
Speaker 1: trapped here and there's nothing any of us can do
Speaker 1: about it. So join me, won't you? Listen to The
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Speaker 1: I'm Colleen with Join me the host of Eating Wall
Speaker 1: Broke podcast while I eat a meal created by self
Speaker 1: made entrepreneurs, influencers, and celebrities over a meal they once
Speaker 1: ate when they were broke. Today I have the lovely
Speaker 1: AJ Crimson, the official Princess of comfin Asia, Kidding and Asia.
Speaker 1: This is the professor. We're here on Eating Wall Broke,
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Speaker 1: on the Black Effect Podcast Network host n O r
Speaker 1: E and d J E f N Sat down with
Speaker 1: artists and icon Yea, which Vulture called one of most
Speaker 1: significant interviews. I literally had to go like Danos, and
Speaker 1: I don't want to have to be the villain. But
Speaker 1: when I went and did the Donda thing, he returned
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Speaker 1: Check out Drink Champs conversation with Yea and many more
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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcast, or where ever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. Chapter seven. Manny Manny was used to war.
Speaker 1: He wasn't quite as used to being on the losing
Speaker 1: side of one. As chaotic as things gotten, his guys
Speaker 1: had always held the upper hand, Manny had come to
Speaker 1: expect safe supply lines and reliable transport to and from
Speaker 1: the battlefield. During past defensives, the martyrs hadn't control the skies.
Speaker 1: His first hint that this had changed came when the
Speaker 1: fifty caliber machine gun atop their transport fired into the sky.
Speaker 1: It was soon joined by the echoing boom of the
Speaker 1: lead vehicle's twenty millimeter cannon and a sparking whoosh as
Speaker 1: anti drone rockets arched up into the sky. Nuts Reggie
Speaker 1: yelped as the gunfire jolted him awake. He drifted off
Speaker 1: a half hour or so into the ride, Manny grabbed
Speaker 1: onto him and looped his own legs around the bench
Speaker 1: for stability. An instant later, the transport veered off of
Speaker 1: the road and into the high grass surrounding the highway.
Speaker 1: There was a flash somewhere to the left, followed by
Speaker 1: the roar and heat of an explosion. When Mannie looked back,
Speaker 1: he saw the smoldering wreckage of one of their escort
Speaker 1: vehicles drones. He shouted into the journalist's gear over the
Speaker 1: blistering gunfire. Mannie scanned the skies as their transport plowed
Speaker 1: through the tall grass. Wounded soldiers screamed as the vehicle
Speaker 1: banked and bounced and sent them slamming into each other.
Speaker 1: He caught sight of a small drone, maybe the size
Speaker 1: of his torso. It was matt black and an almost
Speaker 1: perfect oval. The only break in its seamless form was
Speaker 1: the bulge of a missile pod on its belly. A
Speaker 1: red light blinked above the weapon. The drone slowed to
Speaker 1: a stop, maybe a hundred feet above them. There wasn't
Speaker 1: time to think. The fixer shoved his journalist hard off
Speaker 1: the back of the transport, and then leaped off himself.
Speaker 1: He hit the ground with a painful thump that knocked
Speaker 1: the air out of his lungs and the scents from
Speaker 1: his mind. For a second, the whole world was stars
Speaker 1: and shock. Man He rolled to a rough stop against
Speaker 1: what felt like a large rock. Something cracked inside his chest,
Speaker 1: and then there was another explosion, this one louder and
Speaker 1: closer than the last one. The heat hit him like
Speaker 1: an ocean wave. Many was vaguely aware of the scent
Speaker 1: of burning hair, his hair. He cried out, but he
Speaker 1: couldn't hear his own screams. Many's ears rang like the
Speaker 1: inside of a church bell. It was several moments before
Speaker 1: the pain and shock subsided enough for him to open
Speaker 1: his eyes. He looked down at himself. First, his pajamas
Speaker 1: were scorched and his arms were scraped and bloody from
Speaker 1: the fall. His backpack was gone, but there were no
Speaker 1: signs of serious injury. None of his bones seemed broken.
Speaker 1: What remained of the transport smoldered half a football field away.
Speaker 1: He saw a few writhing, burning shapes inside Manny's stomach
Speaker 1: turned Reggie. The pain of the fall head momentarily wiped
Speaker 1: the journalist from his mind. Mannie scanned the field and
Speaker 1: found the other man curled into a fetal ball a
Speaker 1: dozen or so feet to his left. He ran over,
Speaker 1: gave the journalist a quick scan, and determined Reggie wasn't
Speaker 1: seriously injured either. A small slipper of shrapnel had pierced
Speaker 1: the other man's bicep. He was just as scraped and
Speaker 1: bloody as Manny, but also basically intact, except his eyes
Speaker 1: didn't quite focus when Mannie looked into them. Maybe a
Speaker 1: minor head injury. The journalist said something, a lot of
Speaker 1: somethings in fact, but Mannie's hearing was altenitas. There was
Speaker 1: no time to talk anyway. He hoisted Reggie up by
Speaker 1: the arm pits, ignored the other man's pained expression, and
Speaker 1: pulled him along. As he beat feet away from the
Speaker 1: flaming wreckage in the ongoing firefight, Another blast wave of
Speaker 1: rolled over him, this one more distant, and then another
Speaker 1: coming from somewhere above them in the sky. The extent
Speaker 1: of their injuries meant that their run was more like
Speaker 1: a hobble. Reggie had dislocated his unshrapnelled arm. Manny had
Speaker 1: fucked his knee up in the fall and done something
Speaker 1: awful to his ribs. The two stumble staggered as fast
Speaker 1: as they could manage towards an abandoned gas station by
Speaker 1: the side of the old highway. They reached their temporary
Speaker 1: salvation and took cover inside the dusty, cobwebbed building. Cut cut, cut, cut, cut.
Speaker 1: Reggie screamed as he slumped down against the wall. It
Speaker 1: took Manny a second to process the fact that he
Speaker 1: could hear again. You're all right, he shouted, You're fine,
Speaker 1: We're going to be okay. Manny had no idea if
Speaker 1: that was true, but he knew managing fear would be
Speaker 1: critical to their survival. The gas station had been abandoned
Speaker 1: for a decade or more. Most of the glass was gone,
Speaker 1: but the basic structure of the inside counter was still intact.
Speaker 1: He and Reggie took cover behind it, careful to avoid
Speaker 1: the piles of shattered glass and shrapnel. There were old
Speaker 1: bullet holes in the wall all around them. At one time,
Speaker 1: there'd been a plexi glass window on the inside wall
Speaker 1: behind the counter, with a little bucket in it, so
Speaker 1: the cashier could do business at night without letting customers inside.
Speaker 1: Most of the plexiglass had been removed, leaving a gaping
Speaker 1: wound in the building's concrete hide. Manny stuck his head
Speaker 1: out of the hole and looked out at the side
Speaker 1: of the massacre. Both transports had been hit. Much of
Speaker 1: the field was a flame. The six sweet smell of
Speaker 1: burning human flesh wafted over them like a dense fog.
Speaker 1: Many saw two of the escort trucks still firing into
Speaker 1: the sky. There was another flash above as one of
Speaker 1: them hit a drone. It corkscrewed out of the air,
Speaker 1: burst on the ground and ignited the dry grass. What
Speaker 1: the funk do we do, Reggie shout asked. There was
Speaker 1: panic in his voice and quite a lot of pain,
Speaker 1: but the journalist didn't seem to have lost his wits.
Speaker 1: We need to get out of here, Manny said, Well,
Speaker 1: those drones are still occupied. The highway was a couple
Speaker 1: of hundred feet away. The civilian vehicles following them had
Speaker 1: scattered when the attack began. Some of them had clearly
Speaker 1: been hit by machine gun fire from one of the drones.
Speaker 1: Others had crashed, rolled into ditches and been abandoned by
Speaker 1: their occupants. Many spotted one, an ancient white jeep that
Speaker 1: looked like it had taken around Through the window. He
Speaker 1: could see blood inside the vehicle, but the engine and
Speaker 1: wheels seemed intact. The tree line of a sparse forest
Speaker 1: was just on the other side of the highway, a
Speaker 1: half mile away. If they could reach it, Reggie, he
Speaker 1: put a hand on the journalist's shoulder. The two men
Speaker 1: locked eyes, and many tried to force all the fear
Speaker 1: out of his voice. When I say so, run very fast,
Speaker 1: straight towards that white jeep. Understood the brit brought a
Speaker 1: hand to his dislocated shoulder and winced in intense pain,
Speaker 1: but then looked back to Manny and let out a
Speaker 1: sharp sigh. Fucking all right, shit yeah. Manny took that
Speaker 1: as a yes. He glanced back at the firefight in
Speaker 1: the field. The fire part was literal. Now at least
Speaker 1: a full acre was a flame. The smoke seemed to
Speaker 1: have interfered with the drone sensors. That was probably the
Speaker 1: only reason their last two escorts had stayed unfucked for
Speaker 1: so long. Manny watched in horror as a large beetle
Speaker 1: black drone buzzed down low and opened up with a
Speaker 1: machine gun. He saw bursts of red as the rounds
Speaker 1: tore into the escorts gunner and flung him off the
Speaker 1: truck's bed. Time to go, Manny slapped Reggie's uninjured shoulder
Speaker 1: and sprinted as fast as his jankie ankle could carry him.
Speaker 1: It was increasingly obvious that his leg was supremely fucked.
Speaker 1: The middle of Manny's back itched the whole run in
Speaker 1: anticipation of a bullet. That peculiar sense was even louder
Speaker 1: than the pain. They reached the jeep, Manny went for
Speaker 1: the driver's side door, pulled it open, and jerked back
Speaker 1: as the soupy remains of a pulped human being oozed
Speaker 1: out onto the asphalt. He heard Reggie start to wretch
Speaker 1: behind him. It was fucked in there for sure. The
Speaker 1: man he was sort of sure it had been a man,
Speaker 1: had taken a couple of rounds from a very large weapon.
Speaker 1: Many guessed they'd been fifty caliber mass reactive bolts because
Speaker 1: the impact had torn the man apart. He wasn't sure
Speaker 1: if additional rounds or bone shrapnel had hit the two
Speaker 1: kids in the back seat, but they were all exceptionally dead.
Speaker 1: Many pulled his shirt off and did his best to
Speaker 1: wipe the corpse from as much of the seat as possible.
Speaker 1: He hopped in and glanced over to the journalist. Reggie
Speaker 1: wretched outside, Hey, get the funk in, We don't got all.
Speaker 1: A concussive blast echoed from the field. That was one
Speaker 1: more escort down. The fight was as good as over.
Speaker 1: Many felt a tinge of panic rise up in the
Speaker 1: base of his spine. Reggie still hesitated. Dude, either deal
Speaker 1: with some gore in your clothes or stay here and die.
Speaker 1: Your choice. The Brits snapped out of it, went for
Speaker 1: the passenger door and hopped inside. Manny wasn't a great driver,
Speaker 1: or even a very good one, but this was a
Speaker 1: simple vehicle and he was blessed with the motivation of
Speaker 1: not wanting to die. He turned the car back on
Speaker 1: and the engine woke up with a rich electronic hum.
Speaker 1: The fixer flipped the vehicle into drive and gunned for
Speaker 1: the tree line. The jeep bounced and swayed over the
Speaker 1: lumpy grassland terrain. Reggie puked out the window. Manny felt
Speaker 1: nauseous too. He honestly wasn't sure if it was more
Speaker 1: for the pieces of people scattered inside the vehicle or
Speaker 1: sheer motion sickness. Fifteen seconds went by, thirty a minute.
Speaker 1: Manny allowed himself to think they might make it out
Speaker 1: of this alive. And then he heard the buzz, that sickening,
Speaker 1: familiar machine hum that every war zone kid knew, as
Speaker 1: well as the sound of their own mother's voice. A
Speaker 1: drone closing in. Manny jerked his head out the window
Speaker 1: and scanned the sky. The jeep had a pothole, and
Speaker 1: his head slammed to the top of the window frame.
Speaker 1: He saw stars and almost lost control of the vehicle entirely.
Speaker 1: It veered to the right and lifted up onto only
Speaker 1: two wheels. He righted the jeep, sput it back to
Speaker 1: the left, and gunned it again. As he turned the
Speaker 1: other way, he stuck his head out again and scanned
Speaker 1: behind them. There it was the black, beadily fucker, buzzing
Speaker 1: towards them. It was close enough that he could see
Speaker 1: the glint of its camera optics and the barrel of
Speaker 1: the heavy machine guns slung underneath it. Manny knew it
Speaker 1: was picking up speed to compensate for the recoil of
Speaker 1: its weapon. It would be low on ammunition. Now would
Speaker 1: probably wait to fire until it was too close to miss.
Speaker 1: The tree line was so near he could almost grab it.
Speaker 1: Another fifteen seconds and they'd be there, But the drone
Speaker 1: was close. They didn't have that long. He looked over
Speaker 1: to the journalist, get ready to bail, get ready to
Speaker 1: what Manny saw the muzzle flash, and in the same
Speaker 1: instant he spun the wheel hard to the right. The
Speaker 1: drones first round chunked through the back of the jeep,
Speaker 1: cracked the axle, and blew apart the left tire, but
Speaker 1: the jeep was in the air. An instant later, it
Speaker 1: flipped over like a drunken dolphin, and the rest of
Speaker 1: the drone shots blasted chunks out of the ground where
Speaker 1: the jeep would have been. By the end of the burst,
Speaker 1: the recoil had robbed the drone of its momentum and
Speaker 1: brought it to a spinning halt in the sky. The
Speaker 1: jeep rolled twice and bounced Any and Reggie around like
Speaker 1: rocks in a tumbler. It hurt, it hurt shiploads, but
Speaker 1: Manny was high enough on adrenaline in fear that he
Speaker 1: could almost ignore the pain. Blood streamed from his forehead.
Speaker 1: Something ached terribly between his shoulders. When the jeep came
Speaker 1: to a stop, he was deeply surprised to be alive.
Speaker 1: Let's go, he shouted to Reggie, not even a percent
Speaker 1: sure if the journalist had survived the crash. Many pulled
Speaker 1: himself up out of the open window and then reached
Speaker 1: his hands back blind into the jeep While he scanned
Speaker 1: the sky around them. He felt reggie small hands gripped
Speaker 1: his own. They were wet with sweat, maybe blood probably
Speaker 1: Both Manny squeezed pulled him up. The too hopped down
Speaker 1: quick as they could with their sundry wounds. The drone
Speaker 1: had probably veered around and started another loop so it
Speaker 1: could build up the speed for one more accurate burst
Speaker 1: of fire. Many couldn't quite hear the buzz yet, but
Speaker 1: he couldn't hear much of anything over the sound of
Speaker 1: his pounding heart. Reggie pulled ahead of him in a
Speaker 1: lopsided run. Manny tried to pick up speed, but his
Speaker 1: knee just wouldn't let him. Ah, there it was. He
Speaker 1: had three, maybe four seckends before that big gun opened
Speaker 1: up again. The tree line was only about a hundred
Speaker 1: feet away, so close and yet too far for him
Speaker 1: to possibly make it. In time. I really didn't want
Speaker 1: to die here. I was so close to getting out.
Speaker 1: He thought of a picture he'd seen of the Bavarian Alps,
Speaker 1: white snow filled valleys and rich pine forests. I'm never
Speaker 1: going to see that or anything else. Reggie looked back
Speaker 1: as he neared the tree line. Many appreciated the gesture.
Speaker 1: It was dumb as fuck, though idiot to run. The
Speaker 1: fixer bellowed at the top of his lungs. The journalist
Speaker 1: didn't hesitate this time. He bolted past the tree line
Speaker 1: and disappeared into the wooded thicket. Manny felt a weight
Speaker 1: lift off his shoulders. He was about to be torn
Speaker 1: apart by some nut fuck martyr with an itchy trigger
Speaker 1: finger and a joystick. But he'd done his job. He'd
Speaker 1: gotten his journalists to safety. Well not quite safety, he thought,
Speaker 1: but whatever best I could do under the circumstances. The
Speaker 1: hum grew louder. Manny tried to coax a little more
Speaker 1: speed out of his wounded leg, even though he knew
Speaker 1: he was too far away now to make the tree line.
Speaker 1: Even at a head sprint. It would have been nice
Speaker 1: to see Berlin or Paris. Oh well, he heard the
Speaker 1: thumping sound of heavy gunfire and braced himself for the
Speaker 1: instant of agony that would precede his end. But instead
Speaker 1: he heard the sound of impact and crunching metal behind him,
Speaker 1: followed by a high pitched mechanical wine. Something heavy and
Speaker 1: black crashed into the ground ahead of him. He made
Speaker 1: it to the tree line, pushed through the underbrush, got
Speaker 1: perhaps twenty feet into the woods, and collapsed against a tree.
Speaker 1: For a few seconds, he just let the pain wash
Speaker 1: over him, his knee, his shoulders. He could feel something
Speaker 1: stuck deep in his back too, maybe a shard of
Speaker 1: glass or some shrapnel. From the start of the firefight.
Speaker 1: He had quite a few deep cuts the trauma nanites
Speaker 1: and his circulatory system had clotted most of them, but
Speaker 1: the deeper one still oozed blood. It was hard to
Speaker 1: tell just how injured he really was, since his body
Speaker 1: was also covered in blood and viscira from the jeep's
Speaker 1: previous occupants. Espera, He thought, how am I alive? His
Speaker 1: brain gradually spun up to meet his body. Someone had
Speaker 1: shot that murder beetle out of the sky, But who Reggie?
Speaker 1: Where would he have gotten a gun? And the man
Speaker 1: was British? He couldn't shoot Reggie. He shouted over here.
Speaker 1: The brit called back. He sounded weirdly cheerful. I'm er
Speaker 1: think we've made some friends. For the first time in
Speaker 1: his life, Manny found himself face to face with two
Speaker 1: post humans. The first appeared to be a lady. She
Speaker 1: was hunkered up in the branches of a tree, and
Speaker 1: she cradled a very large gun in her hands. Most
Speaker 1: of her body sort of faded into the forest. She
Speaker 1: was only easy to see now because of her smile.
Speaker 1: The shine of her teeth was quite unlike anything else
Speaker 1: he'd ever seen. They appeared to be made of some
Speaker 1: sort of strange, swirling colored metal. Where a normal person
Speaker 1: would have had incisors, she had long, curved fangs. The
Speaker 1: other chrombed was a black man. He was of average height,
Speaker 1: with a muscular body and a wide build. His head
Speaker 1: was shaved, and he had a plump, friendly face and
Speaker 1: round cheeks that accentuated his broad smile. He wore a
Speaker 1: red kilt and a silver breastplate over his muscular chest.
Speaker 1: It gleamed in the afternoon sun. His only weapon appeared
Speaker 1: to be an enormous sledgehammer, larger than Reggie's entire body.
Speaker 1: He smiled and nodded at Manny. His whole body twitched
Speaker 1: as he stood there, as if a constant stream of
Speaker 1: electricity buzzed through him. Reggie stood in front of the man.
Speaker 1: It looked like the journalist had run into the post
Speaker 1: humans during his flight from the drone. He looked terrified
Speaker 1: in the friendly sort of way only the British could manage. Hey, y'all,
Speaker 1: Manny said, he wasn't sure how nomadic half god warrior
Speaker 1: people preferred to be addressed. Y'all seemed a safe bet,
Speaker 1: hey guy, said the woman up in the tree soap
Speaker 1: said the kilted man um. Can we help you? Manny asked?
Speaker 1: The man chuckled. He had a deep, throaty laugh that
Speaker 1: bounced off the trees and seemed to get louder as
Speaker 1: it reverberated. No, buddy, you guys look pretty near death.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna guess you don't have anything. I want nice pajamas,
Speaker 1: though he pointed down to Manny's blood soaked and burned
Speaker 1: pajama bottoms. The fixer's face turned red with embarrassment. They
Speaker 1: might have whiskey, said the woman. Ask if they have whiskey.
Speaker 1: The big man smiled lowered his mall and spoke the
Speaker 1: name's scuffucker Mike. He said, the lady who shut down
Speaker 1: your drone is Topaz mac Millan. Do you guys have whiskey?
Speaker 1: Manny didn't, but Reggie did. Holy fuck, he shouted, I
Speaker 1: actually do. Somehow, the journalist hadn't lost his backpack in
Speaker 1: the chaos. He unzipped the main compartment, dig around for
Speaker 1: a few seconds, and produced a small metal flask. Reggie
Speaker 1: passed it off to skullfucker Mike, who took a belt
Speaker 1: of it and let out a dog's bark. He didn't
Speaker 1: bark like a dog. It was the exact sound of
Speaker 1: a large hound barking. Scuffucker Mike passed the flask up
Speaker 1: to Topaz. She took a poll and cooed appreciatively. All right, Scully,
Speaker 1: I like these guys. They get a ride. A ride,
Speaker 1: asked Reggie. A ride to Where? To rolling fuck? She said,
Speaker 1: to the city of Wheels. I call the Union, Haul,
Speaker 1: asked his male Alive and dear, I think these people
Speaker 1: of planning to kill doctor King. On April fourth, Dr
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King was shot and killed in Memphis. A
Speaker 1: petty criminal named James Earl Ray was arrested. He pled
Speaker 1: guilty to the crime and spent the rest of his
Speaker 1: life in prison. Case closed right James L. Ray was
Speaker 1: upon for the official story. The authorities would parade all
Speaker 1: we found a gun that James el Ray bought in
Speaker 1: Birmingham that killed Dr King, Except it wasn't the gun
Speaker 1: that killed Dr King. One of the problems that came
Speaker 1: out when I got the Ray case was that some
Speaker 1: of the evidence, as far as I was concerned, did
Speaker 1: not match the circumstances. This is the MLK tapes. The
Speaker 1: first episodes are available now. Listen on the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: From Cavalry Audio comes the new true crime podcast, The
Speaker 1: Shadow Girls. I always wanted to know what it felt
Speaker 1: like he killed somebody. Prosecutors described him as a serial killer, survant,
Speaker 1: kicking up these girls, getting him in a position of
Speaker 1: vulnerability when he got hold of their neck. That was it.
Speaker 1: I'm Caroline Asia, a journalist and lifelong resident at the
Speaker 1: Pacific Northwest. I grew up near the banks of the
Speaker 1: Green River and in the shadow of the killer that
Speaker 1: bears its name. How many times did you bring the
Speaker 1: camera one of time. Just one he started fantasizing about
Speaker 1: having sex with his mother, and he fantasized about killing her.
Speaker 1: But this podcast isn't only about tracking down the killer,
Speaker 1: It's about the victims. We stayed in the woods. He
Speaker 1: always liked to go in the woods. All of the
Speaker 1: kind of strange, you know how he feels about prostitutes.
Speaker 1: Listen to The Shadow Girls on the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to our show. I'm Zoe de Channel and
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be joined by my friends and
Speaker 1: cast mates Hannah Simone and Lamar and Morris to recap
Speaker 1: our hit television series New Girl. Join us every Monday
Speaker 1: on the Welcome to Our Show podcast, where we'll share
Speaker 1: behind the scenes stories of your favorite New Girl episodes,
Speaker 1: reveal the truth behind the legendary game True American, and
Speaker 1: discuss how this show got made with the writers, guest stars,
Speaker 1: and directors who made the show so special. Fans have
Speaker 1: been begging us to do a New Girl recap for years,
Speaker 1: and we finally made a podcast where we answer all
Speaker 1: your burning questions like is there really a bear in
Speaker 1: every episode of New Girl? Plus each week, you'll hear
Speaker 1: hilarious stories like this at the end, when he says,
Speaker 1: you got some schmid on your face. I feel like
Speaker 1: I pitched that joke. I believe that. I feel like
Speaker 1: I did. I'm not on a thousand percent. I want
Speaker 1: to say that was I tossed that one out. Listen
Speaker 1: to the Welcome to Our Show podcast on the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Chapter eight. Roland, so you were there, right, Sardar asked,
Speaker 1: you saw the white house burn Sardar was Jim's mechanic.
Speaker 1: He was a short, slightly pudgy kid with a wide,
Speaker 1: handsome face and scan a couple shades darker than Roland's own.
Speaker 1: This was maybe his twentieth question. Since Jim's aircraft had
Speaker 1: dropped their transport off two hours ago. The other members
Speaker 1: of Jim's team hadn't said so much as a word
Speaker 1: to Rowland. They all listened, though he could see the
Speaker 1: tension in their shoulders and feel the vibrations in the
Speaker 1: air as their ears twitched and their eyes darted over
Speaker 1: to watch his replies. The fact that they were all
Speaker 1: cramped together inside the armored confines of a madis a
Speaker 1: PC made it easy to read the room. Roland wasn't
Speaker 1: a hundred percent sure if the young murk had been
Speaker 1: put up to the task of questioning him, or if
Speaker 1: Sardar was just an inquisitive soul. Roland smelled a light
Speaker 1: drizzle of nervousness waft off the boy. He'd caught several
Speaker 1: glances between Sardar and Bigsby, but neither of those facts
Speaker 1: were proof of anything. Nervousness was a perfectly natural reaction
Speaker 1: to hanging out in a cramped metal box with a
Speaker 1: guy you'd just been trying to murder. I remember pieces
Speaker 1: of it, Roland replied, Fucking somebody in the Lincoln bedroom,
Speaker 1: stealing liquor from the kitchens, shooting in the ball, returned
Speaker 1: the White House bowling alley. Sardar shook his head. That's
Speaker 1: fucking loco. You're like a history book. I bet I
Speaker 1: read about ship you did back in high school. Probably,
Speaker 1: Roland said with a shrug. He had about nine clear
Speaker 1: memories of his life before the shack on Camelback Mountain,
Speaker 1: and none of them felt very historic. Can I get
Speaker 1: your autograph? Man, Sardar asked Bigsby. The post human Roland
Speaker 1: had been about to arm club in a submission a
Speaker 1: day ago, shook his head and groaned in embarrassment. One
Speaker 1: of the women he'd buried in his collapsed hovel grunted
Speaker 1: out a laugh. Her name was Nadine or something with
Speaker 1: an inn. Anyway, she and her partner as Ame were
Speaker 1: both close assault specialists. Like the rest of the crew
Speaker 1: except Tardar. They've been cold to Roland ever since he'd
Speaker 1: beat the living hell out of them. Something occurred to him. Hey,
Speaker 1: I got a question for you, he said to Sardar. Yeah,
Speaker 1: your crew has been real pissy to me this whole ride.
Speaker 1: Roland nodded at Bigsby. How exactly did you guys expect
Speaker 1: that fight to go down? Sardar pursed his lips. He
Speaker 1: seemed at a loss for a second. Then he said,
Speaker 1: Jim framed it as just a standard quilt team action.
Speaker 1: We've done that sort of thing a couple of times.
Speaker 1: Last year there was this crumbed out Nazi in Idaho.
Speaker 1: So he tricked you. Then Roland interrupted, convinced you this
Speaker 1: was just another assassination when all he really wanted to
Speaker 1: do was get my attention. Roland looked around and realized
Speaker 1: the rest of the transport was glaring at him. Bigsby
Speaker 1: spat on the ground in front of Roland's foot. We'd
Speaker 1: device to you if he'd given us another minute. Roland
Speaker 1: just laughed and turned his eyes back to Sardar. It's
Speaker 1: clear you and the other guy, he gestured at the
Speaker 1: young man next to Sardar, are the only smart bastards
Speaker 1: in the unit, since you didn't get back up when
Speaker 1: I beat you down. Sardar squirmed a little, clearly uncomfortable
Speaker 1: me and Pedro. He gestured to the other man. We're
Speaker 1: just engineers. We don't go toe to toe with the
Speaker 1: with whatever you are. All this conversation, the most he'd
Speaker 1: had in years, made Roland feel uncomfortably lucid. He rooted
Speaker 1: around in the tattered old backpack he'd brought with him.
Speaker 1: It can hained one rusty Mateba auto revolver that he'd
Speaker 1: found under the floorboards of his collapsed shack, and five
Speaker 1: point oh eight seven kilograms of assorted narcotics, mostly opiates.
Speaker 1: Roland remembered how fun it was to watch things explode
Speaker 1: while high on oxy. He pulled a pillbottle out of
Speaker 1: the sack, delouted and poured half of it into his mouth.
Speaker 1: Roland swallowed, then guzzled the second half. Jesus said, will
Speaker 1: the man he'd stabbed in the throat with a piece
Speaker 1: of wood yesterday, This is the guy who kicked the
Speaker 1: ship out of us. I am sorry about that, Roland said.
Speaker 1: If I'd known we were going to wind up sharing
Speaker 1: an a PC, I probably would have just choked you out.
Speaker 1: Mortar fire incoming. Roland's hind brain ran the calculations estimated
Speaker 1: it at a round eight miles out. He sat up straight,
Speaker 1: since his focus towards the sound of the fire. Bigsby
Speaker 1: and Asime reacted the same way they'd clearly splurged on
Speaker 1: the good ears. The rest of the team didn't seem
Speaker 1: to have heard. They're shooting ahead. As Amy said, sixty
Speaker 1: millimeter mortars, Get up, folks. Biggs bid it as he
Speaker 1: pulled his own S thirty barret assault rifle from its
Speaker 1: resting place on the wall behind him. The funk was
Speaker 1: that as Amy cocked an eyebrow, her left ear twitched,
Speaker 1: her tan lean face flushed red with excitement. I don't
Speaker 1: recognize that one me either, Biggsby grunted. The other post
Speaker 1: human looked to Roland with clear frustration. You recognize that,
Speaker 1: Roland did. It's an M one forty two, he said,
Speaker 1: Mobile Rocket Artillery antique U S Military issue. Will looked
Speaker 1: over to Biggsby, Confused, I've never heard of anything like
Speaker 1: that in the sdf's armory. It's not the SDF, Roland explained,
Speaker 1: slurring his words more than a little. The opiates had
Speaker 1: just started to hit. Holy shit, I loved allotted. He thought,
Speaker 1: that's in coming. Can't you tell? He said me A
Speaker 1: not from this distance, As Amy answered, she glanced awkwardly
Speaker 1: over to her partner, Nadine, put a hand on her
Speaker 1: thigh and squeezed. Could you not be monstrously fucked up
Speaker 1: when we're about to go into battle, Biggsby asked. He
Speaker 1: seemed angry. Roland debated, offering one of his handfuls of pills.
Speaker 1: He decided he'd much rather save them for later. First off,
Speaker 1: I didn't sign up for battle, he explained, as he
Speaker 1: popped and showed a pair of morphine tablets. Second, we
Speaker 1: still got about almost eight miles before we hit the front.
Speaker 1: Plenty of time to sober up. Eight miles, asked Sardar.
Speaker 1: The Richardson line is fifteen miles out. More mortars crumped
Speaker 1: in the distance. Roland heard blossoms of heavy machine gun
Speaker 1: fire too, and the hums of dozens of assault drones.
Speaker 1: Hey Biggs, the voice of the APC's driver crackled over
Speaker 1: the vehicle intercom. There's a lot of craziness coming in
Speaker 1: from the main s d F channels. It sounds like
Speaker 1: a major assault. The martyrs have pushed all the way
Speaker 1: to deep Ellum. Some of the field commanders are talking
Speaker 1: about a full retreat. Jesus shitting christ Will, Bigsby, and
Speaker 1: Nadine all cursed at the same time. Roland thought it
Speaker 1: was cute. It tugged at his heart strings a little.
Speaker 1: He missed being part of a close knit team. Some
Speaker 1: of his stronger memory fragments involved really good times he'd
Speaker 1: had during and after the war. He remembered blowing up
Speaker 1: an armored school bus with a guy named Mike, throwing
Speaker 1: Rott and orange is at a government sniper with Jim.
Speaker 1: His brain also brought up snatches of late night drinking
Speaker 1: sessions and watching cartoons on an old projector in the desert.
Speaker 1: When he closed his eyes, he could smell the burning
Speaker 1: man's anita smoke of their camp fire, pain tugged at
Speaker 1: his heart, but he was jerked out of his revereree
Speaker 1: by the sound of an explosion. It was big and
Speaker 1: close enough that everyone in the APC heard it, even
Speaker 1: though Roland's hindbrain put the distance at over seven miles away. V. B. I. E. D. Bigsby,
Speaker 1: and as Amy said at the same time, real big one.
Speaker 1: As Amy nodded. Roland could tell that the explosives rigged
Speaker 1: vehicle had been an E series Mercedes truck, but he
Speaker 1: didn't bring that up. No one liked to know it all.
Speaker 1: Bigsby's mouth opened and closed, the telltale sign of someone
Speaker 1: having a subvocal conversation through their deck. Roland could have
Speaker 1: read his lips, but that would have been rude. Instead,
Speaker 1: he looked over to Sardar. If the gig gets called
Speaker 1: an account of war, you want to get ship faced
Speaker 1: in Austin with me? The kid blinked, then replied, I mean,
Speaker 1: of course, but I'm pretty sure boss Man's gonna want
Speaker 1: us to do the job, even if it's hot out there.
Speaker 1: Roland growled a little without thinking, and Sardar cringed. I
Speaker 1: did not sign up to defend against an act of invasion.
Speaker 1: I'm here to funk up property, not people. Jim says,
Speaker 1: that's still the plan. You funk up the property. Biggsby grunted,
Speaker 1: My fam and I are here to funk up the people.
Speaker 1: A red hot cherry of anger bloomed in Roland's heart.
Speaker 1: That wasn't the deal, he said, and Jim knows it.
Speaker 1: One of you call him and loot me in on
Speaker 1: your screen. I'll set this right. Call him yourself, spat Bigsby.
Speaker 1: He can't, Sardar pointed out, he's got a dead deck,
Speaker 1: no signal at all. True, Noll, why the hell would
Speaker 1: you go null? Asime started to ask, Biggsby interrupted her,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter why this ascopters null. I'm on with Jim,
Speaker 1: and he says, you're under contracts. Still, we'll make sure
Speaker 1: you don't have to cack anybody. For a moment, Roland
Speaker 1: focused his attention outside the little a PC. His hind
Speaker 1: brain cohalated the bursts and vibrations that echoed out around
Speaker 1: the battlefield. It compared them with his peda bites of
Speaker 1: stored combat data and the last map of Dallas he
Speaker 1: downloaded before severing his deck. In a couple of seconds,
Speaker 1: he had what his heydenbrain assured him was an accurate
Speaker 1: projection of the current fighting. It didn't look good for
Speaker 1: the defenders, and what if it's too much for you
Speaker 1: guys out there? Rowland asked, you can expect my ask
Speaker 1: to murder a bunch of strangers to get you and
Speaker 1: your fam home safe. Bigsby rolled his eyes. It's a
Speaker 1: bunch of fucking martyrs. Maybe they caught the s d
Speaker 1: off with their pants down, but they'll loose steam soon enough.
Speaker 1: Those savages are all baseline sapien. We got chrome on
Speaker 1: our side. Roland shrugged. If you're wrong, I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: one of your nipples home with me, just a heads up.
Speaker 1: The other post human's face turned to purple. It grew
Speaker 1: purpler still when Sardar laughed at the remark. Sorry, Biggs,
Speaker 1: it's fucking funny, man, it wasn't a joke. Roland shared
Speaker 1: them both. They hit Dallas proper ten minutes later. Their
Speaker 1: arrival was heralded by the sounds of car horns, squealing brakes,
Speaker 1: and frustrated shouts, the songs of a city at war.
Speaker 1: Flashes of memory from this same city in a different
Speaker 1: war shot through Roland's mind. They kept him occupied while
Speaker 1: Bigsby and his squad prepped their combat gear. There was
Speaker 1: something almost comforting about the sound of men and women
Speaker 1: arming for battle. He remembered the way Mike ran through
Speaker 1: the lyrics of Iye of the Tiger before every op,
Speaker 1: and the careful way Jim had loaded his pre battle
Speaker 1: meth pipe. The crump of mortar fire and the boom
Speaker 1: of heavier artillery grew louder and louder. The sour sinse
Speaker 1: of gamma, amino butic acid, cortisol, and epinephrin filled the cabin.
Speaker 1: Biggsby's team had good game faces, but they were nervous.
Speaker 1: Biggs the Driver's voice crackled over the intercom. I'm seeing
Speaker 1: a shipload of hostile drone activity. Sky is fucking angry
Speaker 1: right now. Might be best at dismountain hit. Roland smelled
Speaker 1: the fuel burning off in the wake of the hell
Speaker 1: Fire missile roughly a second before it hit. He knew
Speaker 1: the archaic munition didn't have the ability to penetrate a
Speaker 1: man as a PC, but he still warned his fellows,
Speaker 1: missiles are comming. What Sardar asked, and then it hit.
Speaker 1: The impact rocked the vehicle on its axles and bounced
Speaker 1: its hapless passengers into the hard metal edges of the cabin.
Speaker 1: Roland bounced with them, although for him the pain of
Speaker 1: impact was more curiosity than actual discomfort. The driver braked hard.
Speaker 1: Roland heard and felt as the APEC collided with what
Speaker 1: sounded like the outer wall of a large concrete building.
Speaker 1: He smelled blood on Sardar and Nadine. From the sound
Speaker 1: of the blast and the resulting crash, he guessed the
Speaker 1: APC's front axle had splintered. Ryan, the driver, was unconscious.
Speaker 1: He'd hit his head hard enough that the trauma nanites
Speaker 1: in his blood stream had knocked him out while they
Speaker 1: worked to stop the swelling in his brain. Out out,
Speaker 1: move it, motherfucker's, Biggsby shouted. There was a hiss as
Speaker 1: the rear inside exit hatches of the APC fired open
Speaker 1: light streamed into the vehicle. Biggsby was out first, his
Speaker 1: very large rifle at the ready. Nadine and Asime followed
Speaker 1: behind him. The former had a Juggernaut auto shotgun, the
Speaker 1: latter had an IM fourteen sniper rifle. There were no
Speaker 1: infantry nearby, not yet, but Roland closed his eyes, concentrated,
Speaker 1: and after a second his hindbrain guessed that the nearest
Speaker 1: ground troops were about a quarter of a mile away,
Speaker 1: six in in Airy's pattern powered armor, followed by fifty
Speaker 1: unmodified human soldiers, a half dozen technicals, and two drone carriers.
Speaker 1: The men in the Airy suits were the only thing
Speaker 1: that concerned him. Powered armor couldn't make an unmodified human
Speaker 1: into a true match for a god fucking monster engine
Speaker 1: like himself, but it could give a squad the firepower
Speaker 1: they needed to do some real damage. If they could
Speaker 1: hurt Roland, they could kill Biggsby and his team. His
Speaker 1: hindbrain told him that the power armored soldiers would be
Speaker 1: in weapons range within two minutes, just enough time to
Speaker 1: roll a blunt. He grabbed a blunt wrap and a
Speaker 1: bag of ground weed out of his backpack and started
Speaker 1: to roll. As he walked out of the abandoned a PC,
Speaker 1: Sardar and Pedro had taken cover behind the vehicle and
Speaker 1: started to administer basic first aid to their wounded driver.
Speaker 1: Will was a few meters ahead on overwatch, covering them
Speaker 1: all with his heavy M ninety four belt fed grenade launcher.
Speaker 1: The others were nowhere to be seen. Roland heard them
Speaker 1: though about fifteen meters west of the stricken transport. He
Speaker 1: felt them take up firing positions. Should I warn Biggsby
Speaker 1: about the armored guys, Roland wondered. He his head and
Speaker 1: said nah out loud. Sardar stared at him. The weed
Speaker 1: was dry and slightly yellowed with age. Roland had certainly
Speaker 1: smoked better, but he'd smoked worse often enough not to complain.
Speaker 1: He drizzled the crumbled herb into the blunt wrap and
Speaker 1: rolled it between his fingers. He licked the seam and
Speaker 1: sealed it. As he watched Sardar shoot a stem capsule
Speaker 1: into Ryan's neck, the driver started to regain consciousness. Roland
Speaker 1: lit his blunt, took a hit, and offered it to
Speaker 1: the man. Welcome back to the land of the living,
Speaker 1: he said, with a cheerful grin pop. Sardar gave him
Speaker 1: a stern look. Is this really the time? The screech
Speaker 1: of a rocket propelled grenade filled the air outgoing fire?
Speaker 1: It must have been from a nearby SDF position engaged
Speaker 1: with the advancing martyrs. Of course, there's time, said Roland.
Speaker 1: We got a solid ninety seconds until they're here. Might
Speaker 1: as well get high. The kid rebuffed his offer. Roland
Speaker 1: would have been a little hurt if he hadn't secretly
Speaker 1: hoped they'd turn him down. It took a lot of
Speaker 1: pot to get him high. One whole blunt was about
Speaker 1: the right amount for where he wanted to be. Bigsby
Speaker 1: opened up with his heavy machine Jean gun. A vague
Speaker 1: worry started to grow inside Roland. The armored Martyrs had
Speaker 1: moved faster than anticipated. Am I going to have time
Speaker 1: to finish smoking? He was thankful that he'd at least
Speaker 1: loaded up on pain killers before reaching the front. The
Speaker 1: machine gun was joined by the sharp crack of Nadine's
Speaker 1: sniper rifle and the rich bellow of Asime's auto shotgun.
Speaker 1: It sounded like she was firing tungsten core penetrators rather
Speaker 1: than the explosive Dragon's Breath round she'd loaded during the
Speaker 1: assault on roland Shack. That was probably smart. Are you
Speaker 1: going to do something? Sardar asked. Roland could smell his
Speaker 1: fear wafted off him like a fine mist. He heard
Speaker 1: the heavy hum of a suit mounted rotary chain gun,
Speaker 1: and then another incoming fire. A few rounds arcd and
Speaker 1: ricocheted off the body of the a PC startar and
Speaker 1: Pedro dove for cover and pulled Ryan with them. Roland
Speaker 1: didn't move. His hindbrain had plotted the trajectories of the
Speaker 1: errand rounds as soon as they left their barrels. There
Speaker 1: had been no danger, well, no danger to them. By
Speaker 1: the sound of it, the Power Armored Martyrs had pinned
Speaker 1: a Bigsby down. Roland could smell Nadine's blood in the air.
Speaker 1: She was alive but injured. Will started to fire and
Speaker 1: pumped a steady stream of explosives out in a high
Speaker 1: arch in front of the martyrs. Roland felt as the
Speaker 1: men scattered. He also felt the footfalls of dozens of
Speaker 1: normal infantry two hundred meters behind the Power Armored vanguard.
Speaker 1: He heard the rich thunk of Recoilis rifles being bolted
Speaker 1: into the ground. Roland puffed on his blunt as he
Speaker 1: considered the tactical situation. Bigsby and his team seemed to
Speaker 1: have knocked out one of the armored Martyrs, but they
Speaker 1: were alone and unsupported. The STF was in full retreat,
Speaker 1: and the small squad didn't have the firepower or the
Speaker 1: chrome to hold off what was coming. Roland did, but
Speaker 1: he very much disliked the idea of murdering several dozen
Speaker 1: brainwashed idiots. These kids weren't responsible for anything beyond buying
Speaker 1: into artful propaganda and lofty promises. He didn't see them
Speaker 1: as worse than any other gaggle of armed eighteen to
Speaker 1: twenty two year olds in the history of war. Hey, Sardar,
Speaker 1: you got a wrench, Roland asked, what. Yes, Sarda replied,
Speaker 1: can I borrow it? Um? The young mercenary raised an
Speaker 1: eyebrow in confusion. It's not a sex thing, Roland has
Speaker 1: shared him. I never assumed it was, Sardar said, then,
Speaker 1: can I have it? Sardar stared at him for a
Speaker 1: long beat and then said okay. He handed over his wrench.
Speaker 1: It was nice, more than two ft long, and made
Speaker 1: from fifteen point four pounds of stamped steel. This is perfect,
Speaker 1: Roland told Sardar. Perfect for what Sardar asked, wounding, Roland replied,
Speaker 1: and with that he was off. Roland could break thirty
Speaker 1: miles an hour at a dead sprint, but with all
Speaker 1: the pain killers and weed he'd just taken, and that
Speaker 1: didn't sound super fun. So he strolled along at a
Speaker 1: brisk eighteen miles per hour, darted by will and zig
Speaker 1: zagged his way past a few hundred errant rounds. The
Speaker 1: armored Martyrs fired to suppress Bigsby Squad. Two of the
Speaker 1: big recoilst rifles fired their giant explosive tip munitions. Roland
Speaker 1: reached Nadine and as AME's position. The former was down,
Speaker 1: bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. Her lover fired from cover.
Speaker 1: Roland felt is one of the explosive rounds arched towards
Speaker 1: their position, the other was headed towards Bigsby. Roland's heind
Speaker 1: and guessed that Bigsby would survive the hit. Nadine and
Speaker 1: Asime wouldn't. He jumped forward and grabbed them, both while
Speaker 1: still airborne, and the second before missile met masonry. He
Speaker 1: threw them back out of the blast radius. He knew
Speaker 1: the landing would hurt, but both women were chromed enough
Speaker 1: to survive. After he tossed them, Roland slid to a
Speaker 1: stop on top of the pile of ruined bricks they'd
Speaker 1: hidden behind. The rocket propelled munition hit about three feet
Speaker 1: below him. The seventy five millimeter round contained a half
Speaker 1: kilogram of hexagen, enough explosive power to tear a hole
Speaker 1: in the side of a small tank. It detonated and
Speaker 1: turned the pile of bricks into a shrapnel volcano. Roland
Speaker 1: hopped again. His hind brain made it clear that he
Speaker 1: wouldn't avoid all or even most of the shrapnel. Medal
Speaker 1: and brick tore through his biceps, his gut, his legs,
Speaker 1: and his pectorals. Most of the shrapnel stopped at the
Speaker 1: subdermal carapace that protected his vital organs. A few pieces
Speaker 1: went further. They tore one kidney in half and pierced
Speaker 1: one of his hearts. But Roland had multiple redundant backups
Speaker 1: for every important organ. His medical nanites had already started
Speaker 1: to purge the foreign matter and repair the damage. When
Speaker 1: he hit the ground, the battle high rolled in, and
Speaker 1: Roland's synapses flooded with endorphins, serotonin, and enough morphine to
Speaker 1: kill a middleweight elephant. The chemical elation of imminent combat
Speaker 1: filled his senses. Roland wasn't just high on war. He
Speaker 1: was tripping balls. Sweet shitting fox, I've missed this. Roland
Speaker 1: flipped a jaunty salute to Bigsby as he sprinted forward
Speaker 1: past the man. This time, he let his legs pump
Speaker 1: as fast as they could, and rushed towards the five
Speaker 1: advancing armored martyrs in the quarter second before contact, Roland
Speaker 1: had his first solid look at the enemy. Their suits
Speaker 1: were definitely some iteration of the basic Aries design. They
Speaker 1: had the familiar insectoid helmet with its bulbous eyes and
Speaker 1: heavy nasal sensor blister. The shoulders, chests, growing thighs, and
Speaker 1: shin were all heavily reinforced. These were breaching suits meant
Speaker 1: to lead in advance and absorb an enormous amount of
Speaker 1: incoming fire. The armor was painted the dull yellow of
Speaker 1: a Texas grassland. Roland could see red and blue on
Speaker 1: the edges of the pauldron's Republic of Texas colors, but
Speaker 1: the suits had clearly been painted over repurposed by their
Speaker 1: new owners. Two of the men had large white crosses
Speaker 1: daubed across their chests. One man had a cross painted
Speaker 1: over his face plate. The paint jobs seemed new. These
Speaker 1: suits had been captured or handed over recently. Their wearers
Speaker 1: moved like competent fighters who weren't used to the capabilities
Speaker 1: of full powered armor. Two of the martyrs had shoulder
Speaker 1: mounted missile pods with angry looking rockets. Inside them. Three
Speaker 1: of them mounted rotary chain cannons. Between their targeting systems
Speaker 1: and reflex augmentation hardware, they could have hurt him if
Speaker 1: they'd had their ship together, but they didn't, and he
Speaker 1: hit the point man like a bag of concrete thrown
Speaker 1: by a gorilla. Roland didn't even bother to swing the
Speaker 1: wrench yet, he just let his substantial body weight turn
Speaker 1: him into a post human battering ram. The first soldier
Speaker 1: hit the ground, Roland atop him with a whine of
Speaker 1: pistons and internal motors. He tried to bring his AsSalt
Speaker 1: cannon to bear on Roland, but the barrel was too long.
Speaker 1: Roland slammed Sardar's wrench into the man's crotch eleven times
Speaker 1: in the space of a second. The suit's growing armor
Speaker 1: was rated to stop a fifty caliber rifle round. It
Speaker 1: caved in on the third hit. Stop, he shouted inside
Speaker 1: his own mind, Stop, you're going to kill him. Roland
Speaker 1: pulled back with considerable effort. His brain wanted more in
Speaker 1: every impact fed a few more endorphins into the hopper,
Speaker 1: but he managed to stop himself before he did a
Speaker 1: reparable harm. This hesitation made him a target, though one
Speaker 1: of the armored martyrs shot him four times and ripped
Speaker 1: deep gouges in his torso. Roland rushed the man and
Speaker 1: slapped his weapon aside. The drugs fledded into him again
Speaker 1: as he swung his wrench up underhanded into the poor
Speaker 1: fellow's chin. Bone shattered on the first swing. Bigsby fired.
Speaker 1: Roland felt one of the other armored martyrs go down.
Speaker 1: Knee caps and throats shot out. The two remaining martyrs
Speaker 1: opted to retreat, but it was a fighting retreat. They
Speaker 1: bounded backwards and launched a flurry of rockets towards Roland.
Speaker 1: Discover fire. These he had to avoid. Roland could eat
Speaker 1: small arms fire all day. Rockets were not small. He
Speaker 1: shoved the inch into his waistband and threw himself into
Speaker 1: an elegant backflip. He may be wanted to impress Bigsby
Speaker 1: a little. He landed fourteen feet back from his prior position,
Speaker 1: and the same continuous motion he picked up two fist
Speaker 1: sized chunks of concrete off the ground, flipped back again,
Speaker 1: and launched both improvised missiles at the retreating martyrs. The
Speaker 1: rockets impacted one after the other and spaces Roland had
Speaker 1: been a millisecond before shrapnel from the detonations tore at
Speaker 1: his skin and penetrated his less critical organs. Roland's hindbrain
Speaker 1: registered at least thirty new injuries, none of them were
Speaker 1: serious enough that he felt actual pain. He backflipped again,
Speaker 1: definitely show boating, and landed eight feet ahead of the
Speaker 1: last rocket and right in front of Biggsby's fighting position.
Speaker 1: Right as he landed, the chunks of concrete he'd thrown
Speaker 1: impacted the face plates of both martyrs at around eleven
Speaker 1: hundred feet per second. That impact wouldn't be enough to
Speaker 1: kill men in Airy's armor, probably, but it was enough
Speaker 1: to break most of their suit sensors and shatter a
Speaker 1: lot of the bones in their faces. Roland fixed Bigsby
Speaker 1: with an evil grin as the last two power or
Speaker 1: armored men staggered back, wavered on their feet and collapsed.
Speaker 1: Son of a. Bigsby started to curse in a low,
Speaker 1: odd voice, because I'll be taking that nipple now. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: Robert Evans here. I hope you just enjoyed the chapter
Speaker 1: you 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 e pub and the text of
Speaker 1: every chapter will be on a t r book dot com.
Speaker 1: Thanks Mama, What does the chicken say? Uh? Draft draft? Really?
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