Chapter 7
Deuteronomy 13:1
“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
Tobias’s Journal:
At long last, my 25th birthday arrived. Ever since Simon had explained the secrets of The Order of Judas and the fact that I would receive my own cross when I reached my 25th year, I trained harder, and studied longer than I ever had before. It was amazing to think there hadn't been more than 100 men with this honor and I was to be one of 30 men alive with this blessing.
My coronation ceremony took place, details of which I will never write about. I will say that Simon did the honor himself, and that Thomas, Philip and a few other members were in attendance. The difference when I woke up was staggering. It was like I had been blind and half deaf my entire life. It was simply indescribable… The strength I now had took some time to get used to. Simple things like opening or closing doors, or getting dressed. Then there was the training. No more wooden weapons for my opponents, and no more special treatments. The first day on the obstacle course, I felt invincible and knew I was beating my best time by minutes. Then I took a crossbow bolt to my chest, knocking me clean off the bars I was traversing hand over hand and down 20 feet onto the dirt floor below. My chest was on fire and I could hardly breathe, I could tell one of my lungs was hit. “Why are you laying there? You were making great time! Don't just stop!” Said a very perturbed Simon. “I… wheeze…. Have a… wheeze… Bolt in my… Wheeze… Lung!!!” I panted and gasped to get the answer out. “Well… You know you can’t heal around an impediment, so what do you do next?” Simon asked me and after a moment's hesitation I nodded thoughtfully. He was right of course… I guess the shock of it still had me a bit rattled. I stood up straight and took in the deepest breath I could. I looked down at the entry wound and asked “Field point?” He smiled warmly and nodded. Without a moment's hesitation to think about what I was about to do, I reached up firmly and slowly pulled the bolt out of my chest. The pain was there, but the relief was quick to follow. Before I could count to ten I could feel my lung inflating again. I took in a deep breath and haltingly coughed up several gobs of blood. That was it, It was over and I was healed. Sure it still hurt, and hurt like a fresh wound till the next morning, but the feeling was invigorating all the same. I had just been fatally wounded, and all I had to do was remove the impediment and I was HEALED. In amazement and with a broad smile from Simon I leaped up and caught a hold of the bars I was crossing before being struck by the bolt. I managed to finish the course, even with the fall and the delay, at what would have been a reasonable time from before receiving the cross.
One really interesting part of training was traveling. I don't mean via horse or ship either. It took me many many years of meditation to figure it out but one day it just happened. I always wondered how people would show up at the compound now and then or leave without me seeing them. When I was still an apprentice I figured they were arriving or departing when I was training or sleeping. Afterall, most of my day was training and I never really thought about it too much. After my coronation, Simon explained traveling to me. Long story short, through intense meditation and prayer, somehow we can instantly go from one place to another. The way it was explained to me is that we are God's warriors, if we call upon him and implore him to take us where we are needed, God will intervene. We started out slowly. I would be in the same room as Simon and do what I could to match his breathing pattern. We would be in a pitch black room and pray. I would clear my mind and pray for God's guidance and vision. Simon would travel, basically from the compound to a room we knew to be empty in the Vatican, over and over again. For months of this I couldn't even tell when he left or returned at all. Then in time I could almost feel when he left, or returned. It was hard to describe but I tried my best to explain it to Simon. I was told to hold onto that feeling and focus all my thoughts on it at the moment he left. Again after **months** of doing just that and clearing out all other thoughts, it happened. He left, then came back, but this time there was more to it. I could almost feel a connection between the two spaces in the moment he left and just before he came back. Like there was a door that was open for a split second, and both places were connected. I could tell he was about to leave again, I could feel it and I wanted to follow him. Mentally I wondered how he passed through the door and the most peaceful presence filled my heart and soul, it was like being struck by lightning made of pure joy and love. The next thing I knew, Simon was standing over me and gently slapping my face. I was on my back and slowly trying to open my eyes. “Tobias… Tobias my son, are you alright?” I could hear Simon asking me as my eyes slowly fluttered open. I looked at him, then slowly looked around in confusion. The room wasn’t dark at all, a door had been opened and I realized I was in a small but completely unfamiliar room. “Simon, did I do it? We are no longer at the compound are we?” He smiled warmly at me, “No my son, we are not. However, do not do that again without my knowledge.” My training continued much in the same way for years before I got comfortable enough to travel solo. When going to a new area, *doors,* for lack of a better description, would be signaled by someone who was there already or by someone who had been there before.
8:13 am Lakeland Fl.
Tobias
I was dreaming, I knew that much. I had that weird floaty feeling and the background shifted wildly as the action played out before me. It was a frantic jumble of screaming, gun shots, violence, fire and rape. Judging by the surroundings, I must have been somewhere in Africa. Gun wagons riding into poor villages and burning huts, the people who lived there running out and being shot as they ran. There was screaming and the shouting of instructions I couldn’t understand. Whatever dialect they were speaking, I wasn’t familiar with it. Children aged 9 to 16 ran around with AK platforms and shot wildly into the crowd. I could feel the fear of both the victims and the fighters, except for one man. He was tall, and stood proud in the back of a gun truck wearing a red beret cap, yelling instructions into a bullhorn. He wasn’t afraid, if anything he was frantic, excited and I could feel the hate and malicious fervor. It poured off of him as he marched his army forward. Somehow, I knew his mission was to clear out a 50 mile circle around a compound. He wasn't afraid, but almost gleeful in his task. The warlord was ecstatic to serve his new master, finally the war to end all war, serving a man with true vision and POWER, OOO the POWER. He was drunk with the power of his new master. I could tell it wasn't just him either, many many other Warlords, who would normally fight amongst themselves, had all joined the cause and all served this new master, with this man at the top. He was now the general and had absorbed all the other warlord’s fighters. Even men from Russia were here, fighting and helping The Master with his plans.
It was all so bizarre, I've had dreams about relevant topics. It had happened more and more recently, but it was normally just a glimpse of something. Almost like a snapshot or strong feelings but it was never anything like this. My relevant dreams started about 70 years ago and they have gotten longer and longer but this.... I sat up in bed soaked in a cold sweat, and yelling incoherently NOOOOO RUuuuuuN, RUN AWAY, scaring Samantha awake as she was sleeping soundly in the bed next to me. I sat there in bed panting, trembling, and sobbing. The last thing I remember was the Warlord looking right at me with a broad smile. It was like he knew I was there and welcomed the challenge. I could feel his twisted sense of duty and malice boring into my skull.
“Holy shit! Are you ok!?!'' Sam said sleepily. Slowly my breathing started to calm down and I wiped the tears and snot from my face. “Yeah… I guess. I… I Just had a really bad dream.... I'm gonna shower and get cleaned up a bit”. The bed was soaked on my side with sweat and my pillow was covered in tears, drool and snot. Not the best look... “I'll join you, if you don't mind”. Samantha said after yawning broadly then with a grinning up at me. I glanced at my phone, it was early, a bit after 4am but I was done sleeping for the night anyway. About an hour later, after we had showered, and changed the sheets on the bed. We sat on the couch sipping coffee quietly. “I need to go and get some work done, You’re welcome to stay here for a bit till you can find another apartment”. I said to Sam thinking I should probably keep an eye on her but not wanting her to think I wanted a relationship, or for her to move in. “I'm going to go stay with my parents, they live in north Lakeland and I'll stay there till I can find a new place closer to campus. If I don’t find something before class starts back up, it's only a 15 to 20 minute drive to class”. I nodded and left it alone. We finished coffee in an easy silence as the sun finally came up, but I could tell something more was on her mind. After she got a text back from her mom so she knew her parents were awake, it was time for her to go. She promised to call me soon as we walked across Longfellow Blvd and to her car in the parking lot behind what was left of her apartment. She had a small bag with all of her stuff, so I didn't think I would be hearing from her any time soon. Yellow crime tape was up around the complex, and I had already been emailed the cover story that morning. Sam already knew if anyone asked, there was a kink in a natural gas line that detonated under the duplex, killing 2 and injuring another. Thankfully Samantha was already at my house visiting when the explosion happened... That part really seemed to sour her disposition, but that's how these things go. She kissed me goodbye and whispered “thank you for… well… thanks”. before walking away. I watched as She got into her red tricked out Honda type R and pulled out of the parking lot. Walking back home down Voltaire Street and wondering if I would ever actually hear from Sam again, I dialed Simon and started to go into the details of the events from last night.
Of course Simon wasn't too thrilled about everything that happened, but fortunately for me, the clean up crew had briefed him on most of the situation already. I told him about my dream and about what the Vamp had rambled about a Caldera. When I got back home I sat down and turned the TV on to just have something on in the background. Oddly enough it was a BBC reporter and an overhead view from a helicopter. Pausing mid sentence to Simon I turned up the volume and was stunned to see the village from my dream... It was day time now and most of the fire was out but I could tell. The red banner scrolling across the bottom said in all caps “WARLORDS BURN ANOTHER VILLAGE ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF CHAD AFRICA, THE THIRD ONE IN AS MANY DAYS”....
I frantically told Simon to get on his computer and go to the BBC live feed. “That's it, that's the village in my dream, it's the same layout with the larger building to the right and the smaller homes in back, THAT'S IT!” I said to Simon as the footage panned again. Just then a truck pulled out of the tree line, a man standing in the bed holding something on his shoulder. There was a puff of smoke blocking the man from view then a trail of white smoke spiraling towards the camera followed by the camera feed going black. The screen went back to the feed of the two stunned news anchors looking shocked as they realized they had just watched the chopper getting shot down while in the middle of a live broadcast. I had seen enough, and now we knew the location in my dream. After talking things over a bit more we agreed it was time for me to come back to The Vatican and have another meeting. It was interesting to think that the Dark Pope had set up shop somewhere in Africa. I was really dreading having to make the trip again after the hijack and the Shoggoth following me home, but flights from Tampa or Orlando international would be over 12 hours. Setting up in the black room again, I closed my eyes, meditated in prayer and traveled.
Mouse: Last night was crazy! Tobias came home and was exhausted. I was there at the door waiting for him as soon as I heard him arrive. He came in and laid down on the couch putting his feet up. Thankfully he wasnt mad about the clothes I shredded, because as soon as I jumped up on the couch with him he started to scratch my chin. I laid there and purred till he fell asleep. It sounds odd but I can tell I help his stress, when he pets me and I'm purring loudly, his heartbeat and breathing slows and I can feel his muscles relax. He fell asleep and shortly after so did I. The next thing I know I have this HORRIBLE feeling and wake up just in time to hear someone pounding at the door. Thankfully it was a friend of his but she was so upset. Tobias ran out the door and she stayed. She scratched me behind the ear for a few seconds then went and showered. I followed her and sniffed her clothes because I was worried. There was fear and adrenaline and some black tar like substance that smelled like rotting garbage, anger and hate. It's odd because she always smelled so good any other time she came to visit, or stay over. Tobias came home and they finally went to bed. After a few hours he woke up from another nightmare. I wont sleep in the bed when he has someone else stay, I don't really like most of them, so I wasn't in the room. I could hear him screaming and ran into the room. He has nightmares often but I've never seen him so shaken before. This one must have been really bad... I'm worried about him.
When I got to the Vatican, The Order was buzzing with activity. Simon and the other elders were already set up in the same conference room as before. Like before Thomas, Reginald, and Phillip were all there. Thomas Was a tall slim Italian man, He was an elder and in charge of all the Rites and Rituals for The Order. He's the one who gave me my tattoos and a lot of the sigils I used when building my guns. He does a lot of the behind the scenes work. Reginald was Shorter than Thomas, Probably 5 foot 3 and English. He is our technical guy, if you need anything from cell phones to drones or anything in between he’s the man to see. Like most of the elders, he doesn’t do a lot of field work. Philip looked like he was Thomas’s brother. Tall, slim build but he enjoyed lifting weights and jogging. He was in charge of the archives and maps. If you needed any information on the past, Philip could tell you where it happened, who was involved and the backstory to the why and where. Thomas and Philip were good friends and the rumor was they really are brothers. They had a friendly grudge with Reginald, basically new tech versus some of the blessed items and sigils handed down through The Order. On the back wall of the conference room was a large map of Chad Africa as well as looping footage projected onto the wall from the news. I sat down at the desk across from Simon. Reginald was at the head of the desk running the laptop and projector playing the looping BBC footage. Thomas and Philip were on either side of him. Philip had a stack of old papers and maps in front of him. The man could talk your ear off about random bits of information, he just soaked it right up. It was amazing and I can't count the times something random he said during a meeting was the random piece we needed to figure something out. His brain was just big picture oriented, he could put the pieces together like no one else I knew. Just then an absolutely stunning woman entered the room and sat down next to Reginald. “Sorry I'm late gentlemen, I finally broke into a satellite with cameras over the target area. I have up to date Images of the compound they are using as well as the scorched area surrounding it”. I didn't know what to think, but I couldn't take my eyes off of her. I never believed in love at first sight but good grief, this woman was breathtaking and absolutely lit up the room. “Thank you Angiola, I'm impressed you got into one so quickly”. Reginald said with an approving smile. Holy poo on a stick batman, this is Reginald's apprentice! I had heard about her but we had never met. She was one of the few female members of The Order. It was not a sexism thing, I mean look at Mary Magdalene, it was just how it worked out over the years... “Thomas, Philip and Simon you know from working under me here at The Order compound. This is Tobias, he was Simon’s former apprentice. He is stationed in America and isn't here very often. Other than yourself, he is the newest member”. I stood up and reached over to shake her hand as Reginald made the introductions. My face must have given my thoughts away, because Simon was giving me a fervent “DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT” look from across the table. She smiled at me as we shook hands and her eyes lit up and sparkled like blue sapphires. “It's a pleasure to meet you Tobias, I've heard a lot about you”. Her smile turned almost mischievous when she said that and I panicked a bit not knowing what she could have heard about me. I know some of The Order thinks of me as a loose cannon... In my defense, if you're almost indestructible, and stopped aging, sure you will take some extreme risks. I have a VERY high pain tolerance so yes I tend to jump in head first without regard for my safety. On the religious side of things... Well, I always believed that having a relationship with God was more important than following a long list of rules roughly translated over and over again. I get the basics and do what I can to follow the 10 commandments but I'm not going to live for a thousand plus years and stay a virgin... O well, not like there was anything I could do to change my past. I smiled nervously and sat back down, trying to ignore the angry looks from both Simon and Reginald. I'm sure I would be pulled aside later by one or both for “the talk” but there are much more important things going on at the moment. Reginald keyed up the new images that Angiola pulled from the satellites. The still shots showed a massive compound being built and a huge area cleared around it in a circle. There was something off about the outlining areas. “Wait a sec, can we zoom in some on the outskirts?” I asked, standing up and pointing to the area. Reginald zoomed in and the room went absolutely silent. “Is that, that can't be..". I trailed off as the image panned around the area. It was a massacre... Or well, it had been. Every victim, every man, woman, child and animal they had killed while running everything and everyone out of the area had been impaled on spikes. There was a perimeter wall around the compound a few feet deep of bodies impaled on stakes. “Ahh I see our Dark Pope is taking a page out of the Vlad the Impaler playbook, that’s fun…” I said turning slightly pale. Simon stood up and nodded to Reginald who clicked on his laptop as the screen changed again. “We know where he's staging from but for now we are still looking into his target. From everything Tobias has gathered I believe this is it'”. Simon said pointing at the north west part of a map of the United States. “The Yellowstone Caldera,” He said as the map changed to an overlay of blast radius. “If the dark pope got it to erupt, It would cover North America in ash. The blast would instantly kill Everyone in the state but that's not the worst effect. The ash would turn day to night for months. With the army of the damned he has recruited, all the creatures of the night will be able to hunt 24/7. Not to mention the mass starvation from crops and food animals dying off. This would essentially jump start a full blown apocalypse”. Simon sat down and let all that sink in a bit. “Do we have any idea as to how Dark Pope is going to set this off or why he's staging out of Chad Africa and not closer to his target?” Angiola asked at the same time I was thinking it. Philip stood up and began shuffling through his paperwork, “At the moment no, Chad has been a conflict zone for years and generally ignored by the mainstream media, however nothing of significance as far as history goes. I believe he simply wanted a staging area that would be off the grid and full of fighters already”. He was right about the fighters, I had seen that much in the dream. “Ok but doesn't uniting the many warring factions in Africa show us his hand? Dark pope knows we are on to him now, but he probably doesn't know how much information we have. Can we do some more digging and meet back here in an hour or so?” I said standing up and heading to the door. This was a lot of information to process. Nothing seemed to add up properly and I needed to clear my head. Normally I wouldn't call breaks like this in the middle of a meeting but I was feeling so overwhelmed by the situation and I could see the same feelings on the faces of the elders.
I stopped by the cafe and got some hot coffee as well as some brie cheese and black berries, then I made my way up to the roof top to look out onto the river Timber. I remember when we used this area for carrier pigeons, but that was years and years ago and no one really came up here anymore thankfully. It was cold out and the breeze coming off the river was trying to cut through my leather jacket. Thankfully I kept a small wardrobe here so the temperature change wasn't too bad. Turning my back to the river I leaned against the parapet trying to clear my head, I had a few bites of cheese and sipped on my coffee. I had my coffee resting on the wide concrete ledge, holding a small plate with the cheese and berries in my left hand. With a blackberry halfway to my mouth I paused when I heard the door open. “Ohh, Hello, I didn’t know anyone would be up here”. I recognized the melodious voice of Angiola. I was slightly confused, none of the regular staff really knew about this area and I came up here to be alone and think. “Sorry I come up here sometimes to be alone and think. I didn't think anyone would be up here. Reginald said this was where they used to house the carrier pigeons". Good God she was gorgeous I thought. “It's okay, Oddly enough this is where I go to be alone and think as well. Would you like to join me?” I said with a chuckle, trying desperately to keep the shock off my face. She walked over and leaned against the parapet next to me then reached over, taking a blackberry off my plate and popping it into her mouth with a smile. Ahhhh… I think I just fell in love... “Thanks for sharing your redoubt, Would you like some chocolate?” She asked me, holding out a Hershey's bar. “I know it's odd but the berries and chocolate always go good together”. All I could do was shake my head as I reached over and took a piece, added a black berry on top and popped it in my mouth to try to hide the smile. Where on earth did this chick come from? “Yeah, that's one of my favorite things in the world”. I said not really able to hide my smile. “So, The 2011 and ammo... That's your design right? I think Thomas said something about welding two frames together to accept modified M3 mags back during the second world war?” Angiola asked. “To some extent, the bullet was my design and I've always liked bottleneck rounds so the 9x25 Dillon was a great fit. The Pistols are based on a competition pistol, with our special ammo we have a great platform that packs a punch without having to fabricate too much in house. I've always been a gun guy. I trained with a blade plenty but when muskets stopped being single shot and you could fire a gun more than once before it became useless I got really into it. As technology advanced... I just dug in and kept tinkering. I know we heal but for some things, like Zombie hoards it's just nice not to get bit or covered in stuff because you have to wade in and fight with a blade”. She blushed slightly and took a sip of coffee. “Angiola, I've been looking for you. We have some…” Reginald trailed off as he saw me, Cleared his throat then finished. “More work to do to help prep this mission. Come along now, Life's are on the line”. She glanced over to me, beautiful blue eyes boring into me before standing up and leaving. Reginald looked disapprovingly at me as he closed the door to the roof access. I guess he's a bit protective of his charge? Or do I really have THAT bad of a reputation in The Order? Oh well. I finished off my coffee, berries and brie cheese. Stomach no longer grumbling and caffeine reloaded. I was good to go for a bit, but man did she have me distracted.
Walking into Simon’s office, I tossed my empty coffee cup into the trash can. I sat down in the empty chair across the desk from him and waited. I knew he wanted to talk to me, and I was pretty sure what it was about. Hoping to get ahead of things a bit I went ahead and started with. “So is Reginald just that protective over his charge or does the entire Order think that I'm an absolute man whore?” Simon choked a bit on his tea and set the cup down with a clatter on the saucer. “Listen, You really need to tread carefully there. He raised her since she was 4 years old. She is like a daughter to him, and you have a reputation for being... being promiscuous... and…” I cut him off, “I understand, but it's not like I can date or get married. Other than the few Nuns who help out around here I think she's the only female in The Order! How can a marriage last if you don't age but your partner does?” Simon sighed deeply as this was a conversation we have had MANY times in the past. “That is EXACTLY why the order requires the members to take a vow of chastity. It makes things like this moot…” Shaking my head I said “Look, I know we…” Riiing Riiing, the phone interrupted me mid sentence. “Hello,” Said Simon answering the phone on his desk. He held up the other hand, pointer finger extended, cutting me off. “Yes, okay wonderful we will be right there”. Hanging up the phone and looking up at me. “That was the Transport team, It seems the vampire you captured should be there shortly. We need to get down to the Facility and see if we can find out any more information. We can talk about relationships later”. He said standing up and motioning towards the door.