A Theist Tale
                        
                     © 2002 by David M Payne

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
(Genesis 1:1)

It was the year of our Lord God, Yahweh, 2069, and the
early morning was peaceful and serene, with the sun
rising and gently drifting in and out of the small fluffy
clouds that dotted the turquoise sky. It was a glorious day
to be alive, and Rebecca Strong thought of Genesis
1:3-1:5. She marveled at how true the scripture of the Old
Testament was for this day, for it was good. She stood at
the edge of the roof and looked down over the lush
forested beltways below. The birds chirped as they flitted
from tree to tree, now and then trying to get to the rooftop
gardens, frustrated by the greenhouses which rose up
like giant tents, covering the gardens and keeping the
birds at bay. Rebecca wondered to herself, but just for a
moment, if the Tree of Knowledge as described in
Genesis 2:9 might be down there. Better not to think such
thoughts, for too much knowledge was a thing that had
caused mankind much grief and pain, and besides, as a
young woman she had no need of much of its fruit. She
should be content to look after her own little flock, here in
this heaven on earth.

Rebecca was one of the more beautiful of the young
women of Brian's denomination; she was already over five
feet eight inches tall, slim but full-figured, blond hair, blue
eyes, and the face of an angel. But such talk of her
beauty made her blush, for "beauty is in the eye of the
beholder" and she felt her real beauty lay in the strength
of her faith in the Lord Yahweh, the Holy Bible, the clarity
of her mind, the purity of her body, the quality of her
character--and most importantly, her devotion to God's
true prophet, Brian Theist, and his writings.

She had just that day downloaded into her E-book reader
a copy of the book detailing the life of her prophet, "The
Life of Brian," written by the well-known biblical scholar,
Monty Python. It was a fascinating story of the heroic
deeds and virtuous life of her denomination's Prophet,
BT. She also had the true King James Bible as well as the
Book of Sayings and Prophesies of the Prophet Brian
Theist in the reader, a book which all of his flock were
required to study faithfully. The E-book reader was also a
wireless voice-activated PDA, which she used to store her
thoughts and which was protected by a password that she
alone knew.

Rebecca was often told that her only weakness was her
curiosity, curiosity which got her into trouble from time to
time. She knew it was true, but she couldn't help having
an inquisitive mind. She whispered into her reader, "Why
is it that I can't go out at night and wander through the
forests of the beltway, what could be the harm in that?"
The reader dutifully translated her words into text and
stored them in her protected file.

Rebecca recited Psalms 18:2 to herself as she stood
upon the rooftop of her dominion, feeling safe in its
towering strength. As she shifted her gaze to the rooftops
of the city, she could see the gardens and fields that
made up the roof of each dominion, over 100 of which
now belonged to her denomination. Brian said that one of
the true tests of the righteousness of any religious
denomination lay in the number of members it had, and
his was the largest and fastest growing denomination in
the city. The Lord Yahweh had admonished his people to
"waste not, want not" according to the teachings of the
prophet Brian Theist, the father-leader of her
denomination, and the perpetual mayor and supreme
lawgiver of the city. The people of the city were prolific in
their observance of this commandment, as no space that
could be used to produce food was wasted. The city
needed all the food it could produce to feed its
ever-teeming population.

Though the infidels and heretics had scoffed at religion
as a backwards-looking practice, Rebecca knew better.
"Look at the use we put technology to in recycling all
waste products into useful fertilizers and methane gas to
supply the new generation generators that power the
city," she said to herself. New Eden was as
forward-looking as any Christian civilization had ever
been in the history of mankind. Poverty had been
banished, godly technology was in abundance, and food
was available to the faithful so that no one went unfed--as
long as they worked for their keep. The man who
personified the true, kind, caring, compassionate and
righteous godliness of the Christian religion, Brian Theist,
led New Eden into the future. He spoke of the glorious
path that mankind was on, following the teachings of the
Lord Yahweh as written in the Holy Bible and as was
handed down to his people through the words of the
Lord's prophets, of which he was the latest.

As a child Rebecca, had gotten to know him. He was the
most wonderful person she had ever met. You felt his
power and grace when you were in his presence. He
inspired his flock to willingly and without hesitation do his
bidding. You knew that his will was but the will of the Lord
Yahweh himself.

Looking down from the roof, Rebecca could see the men
engaged in the business of peaceful commerce with the
men of the various other Christian denominations, sects
and cults that made up her city, a city located outside of
what remained of Omaha, Nebraska. The streets were full
of men and the few women that tended the fruit trees.
Everywhere were the sentinels, the warriors of Yahweh,
numerous and well-armed, for they were the force that
kept order among the denominations and cults, and kept
the heretics, infidels, mud people and other riffraff out of
the city. She thought of the sad history that had led the
faithful to this place of wonder and perfection, this heaven
on earth called New Eden.

Ever since the Mensa flu had started to devastate
humanity, the white Christian fundamentalists in America
had formed their own walled cities to keep out the
Muslims, Jews, atheist infidels, homosexual perverts, the
mud people, and other riffraff that had brought this
plague from Yahweh down upon themselves. The
Christian religions were the only ones large enough, as
well as organized and cohesive enough, to stay together
and flourish after the great plague of 2010. The filthy
infidel riffraff were forbidden to enter the city, lest they
come into contact with the Christians of New Eden and
contaminate the faithful. Of course, some said that the
plague had already infected the faithful here and would
strike again, but that was heresy, and the heretics were
dealt with swiftly and justly when they were exposed.
Rebecca remembered the story of the fate of Old
Jerusalem, from "The Book" of the prophet Brian Theist,
called by some of the faithful "The Book of BT."

It also became apparent that all the Christian faithful must
band together after the destruction of the holy city of old
Jerusalem by the forces of darkness. The holy city had
been turned into the wailing pool, by the war between the
Muslim and the Jew, though each side denied it; and tried
to lay blame for its destruction on a Christian named
Williams, and somebody who went by the name of Baal.
(BT 66:6)

But the destruction of the Holy City was a sign, and the
time of the second coming and the rapture was near, as
foretold by the prophet Brian Theist. (BT 9:69).
The city walls of New Eden were six miles on a side in a
triangle, thirty-six feet tall and thirty six feet thick, a
covered roadway on top and round guard towers on each
end, much like the castles of old Europe. From the
battlements on the roadway or the slotted windows of the
towers, the entire wall was well-defended from those
infidels that would attack from the outside. There were
only three entrances to the city, each in the center of the
wall on one side. The entrances to the city were guarded
by massive gate complexes that had the ability to drop
two gates within a matter of seconds, each one made of
reinforced armor plate three feet thick and weighing more
than one hundred tons.

As the plague destroyed the Godless federal
government, the righteous Christians had taken over the
military bases and supplies, unchallenged by the heretic
and infidel riffraff that survived in the wasteland outside
the cities of the Lord Yahweh. Their small arms were no
match for the firepower that the sentinels could bring to
bear on them, yet they tried from time to time to break in
and plunder the city. The sentinels had to be numerous
and ever-vigilant to guard against such attacks. All of the
young men went to Warriors School, to learn the art of
the sentinels and the way of Yahweh's warriors. Most
women were charged with raising the children, feeding
the people and tending the crops, as was the will of the
Lord.

The city proper consisted of over 200 six-story buildings,
called dominions, each one 36 acres square. Within each
dominion the tribal or cult business was produced. Brian's
denomination had over half of all the dominions in the
city. His denomination produced the E-book readers and
other electronic tools, and TV's and video equipment that
were used by the people of the city. This monopoly made
them very wealthy and powerful, as these were the goods
that were most in demand. They even produced
computers, but they were very expensive and were strictly
controlled lest they be put to ungodly use.

The factories were on the first and second floor, where
the men worked. On the third floor were family housing
and the boys' dorms. The fourth floor was the Mall, where
the women who were not engaged in raising children or
crops worked and shopped. On the fifth floor were the
girls' dorms and more family housing. On the sixth floor
were the penthouses of Brian Theist, and the deacons
and other wealthy members of the denomination. It was
said that Brian Theist's penthouse occupied over two
acres alone. There was also a basement several floors
deep, but it was dark, dangerous and off limits to most of
the denomination. Besides, it was rumored to be as hot
as Hades and foul smelling.

The machinery that produced the power and ran the
equipment in the dominion was there, in the basement, as
were the recycling plants that turned the organic waste
into methane for the electrical generators and liquid
fertilizer for the gardens. For the faithful, it was the least
desirable of the places to work, and those who had no
other skills were assigned there. Still, it was a sign of the
worthiness of New Eden that nothing was wasted, as the
Lord had commanded.

Rebecca returned her attention to the fields of corn on
her roof, and to the small charges she was responsible
for. All of the children of the Prophet Brian's denomination
worked when they reached the age of five, for "The Lord
doth not suffer the lazy, the devilishly willful and wickedly
idle" (BT 99:9).

At the age of twelve, most teenage girls were given
responsibility to tend a few younger children during the
mornings while the boys went to the Holy Warrior School
to learn to defend us from the evil outside the gates. The
children that Rebecca watched over were the children of
the adults who worked in the factory on the first two
floors, or the orphans of those that had died or had been
delivered by the Lord Yahweh into the denomination's
care. These days, it seemed there were more and more
orphans to look after. It was a job Rebecca cherished, for
she was an orphan herself, and she knew firsthand the
value of the service she provided to her charges.

Well, they must hurry and finish weeding the field, as it
would soon be time for the feeding and watering of the
corn to begin. All the young women in charge were
admonishing their young charges to hurry, lest they
become fouled with the stench of the fertilizer that would
soon begin spraying from the overhead pipes that
crisscrossed the field. Young Bobby had not yet come out
of the field and Rebecca had to find him. Bobby was
several rows in, watching a spider weave a large intricate
secular web to trap the unwary fundie flies that stumbled
into it. Though the web was a thing of beauty, Rebecca
could hear the pipes start to chatter as the fertilizer
began to flow through them. "Run Bobby run, or we'll get
soaked by the malodorous fertilizer," she warned. They
ran to the safety of the elevators, but they did get a little
spray on themselves anyway. There was no time to clean
up; Rebecca needed to get her flock back to the
children's center and then get herself to school. Her
teacher, Ruth, would not be pleased with Rebecca's smell
this day.

Rebecca slipped into class and went to the back of the
room hoping that Ruth wouldn't notice that she had not
taken her usual seat in the front. One of her boyfriends,
Don Walker, sat down next to her.

"Hi Rebecca. How're you today?"

"I'm good Don, how are you?"

"OK. I can't wait for school to be over with though," he
replied.

"Class! Stop the chit chat! Your days here are drawing to
a close. You have learned reading, writing, and
mathematics. You have also learned all you needed to
know about worldly things; most importantly, you have
learned the Bible and the Book of Our Prophet Brian
Theist, from whom all truth flows. Now we will do some
review for your finals later this week. get out your readers
and go to Revelation and starting with 1:1, I'll have you
read them to us. Don W., you first please."

Ruth always called the students by their first name and
last initial, and she insisted we call her "Ruth." Still, that
was better than getting called by your last name as Mr.
Beede did in my last class, last year. Mr. Beede was a
harsh man who punished anyone who didn't know his or
her scriptures from heart--which was everyone, as the
bible was too big for anyone to memorize, except Mr.
Beede of course.

The year before that, I had Mr. Laymen, who saw sexual
innuendo in every conversation between boys and girls. I
had stopped talking to my boyfriends, fraternal twins Don
and David Walker, because I got tired of having to stay
after school for detention. Besides, Mr. Laymen gave me
the creeps, the way he would hover over me and watch
me write his favorite bible quotes as punishment on the
chalk board, always dealing with the same subjects,
fornication and whoring, like Chronicles 21:11, Isaiah
23:17, Matthew 5:32, and Leviticus 19:29.

He knew them all by heart, though his grasp of the rest of
the Bible was tenuous at best. He said his method was
designed to drive out the desire in me to practice such
evil, though in my heart no such desire existed, for I
wouldn't lie with a man until he was my husband. I'd had
some romantic experiences, of course, like most of the
girls, but we all drew the line at anything more than
kissing. I thought Mr. Laymen had fornication and whoring
too much on his mind.

"Rebecca S, are you with us? Stop daydreaming and
read Revelation 1:11 for us from your reader please."
I came out of my thoughts and scrolled down to the
passage, Revelation 1:11, "Saying, 'I am Alpha and
Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write
in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are
in America; unto New Eden, and unto San Diego, and
unto Pittsburgh, and unto Toledo, and unto St Louis, and
unto Philadelphia, and unto Lubbock.'"

"Uh, Ruth, that doesn't seem to be right, I remember the
passage differently, though I can't remember it exactly
right now." I replied.

"Class, does anyone else have a different quote on their
reader for Revelation 1:11? If you do please hold up your
hand and read the quote for us."

There were no hands forthcoming and my face turned
bright red. Though I was sure I was right, there was no
use pursuing this, it had happened before and the
teachers were always right.

"Sorry Ruth my mistake."

Don leaned over and whispered, "You were right, I'll show
you later after school in the dining room."

We studied other passages from the bible and then the
class was over for the day. As I was leaving, Ruth pulled
me aside.

"Rebecca you must stop drawing attention to yourself with
your questioning of the Bible and the works of our
Prophet Brian Theist. You know where all truth comes
from, don't you?"

"Yes Ruth, all truth comes from our Lord Yahweh, the
Holy Bible, and the writings and sayings of our prophet
BT."

"Right, and what do they call those that question these
proven truths?"

"Heretics and infidels."

"And what happens to them?"

"I don't know, though I have heard it is in line with Job 8:4
and Job 36:17, as well as other quotes on the Lord's
wrath and justice from the scriptures and the writings of
BT."

"Pray you don't find out, child, for the lord works in
mysterious ways. Do you remember your best friend
Rachel who also had raised such questions and how she
was sent away to another place to be retrained in the
teachings of our Lord Yahweh, the Holy Bible and the
teachings of the Prophet BT?"

"Yes Ruth, and I miss her, when's she coming back?" I
asked.

"She is not coming back, child. I was told today that she
sickened and went to be with the Lord last month. I'm
sorry to have to tell you this now, but the places of
reeducation are harsh and I don't want to see you end up
there. Now get thee to your room and get out of that
smelly dress. You're a mess!" And she shooed me off to
change my clothes.

I ran into David In the hallway. He opined that I had on "a
most unusual perfume" that day. Later that day, Don told
me the same thing.

I had known David and his brother since we were kids.
David told me when we were little that we would some day
be married. But David had changed the last couple of
years, and I wasn't so sure anymore he was the boy for
me. Still, he was fun to be around and he still stirred my
soul. He told me he wanted to meet me in the mall later
that afternoon. He had something to ask me.

He could be such an impulsive and intemperate young
man, yet there was something about him that made him
very exciting to be with at times. He danced on the edge
of trouble these days, but he always got out of any
scrape he got into. He had to have a guardian angel
watching over him. I was torn between him and Don.
Which one would I marry and be fruitful with? Would it be
David, dark, dangerous and exciting, the one who could
make my blood race at times, or would it be Don, smart,
charming and wholesome, the one who could leave me
feeling warm all over some days?

Well I didn't have to worry. As was the custom of our
denomination, I had been allowed to pick two boys for my
potential husband. At the time of my eighteenth birthday,
after graduation from high school, it would be time for me
to marry one of them, and Brian Theist was the one who
made the final choice for each couple. All the girls turned
into women at that age, were married to "the right man,"
and admonished to "go forth, be fruitful and multiply," (BT
3:69) as was the custom in our denomination.

I ran to my room, took a shower, and put on my best
dress. I might let David kiss and hold me, as long as he
didn't try to talk me into doing something more than a little
kissing. I was chaste, and I would stay that way until my
wedding night, as it was written in Isaiah 62:5, "For as a
young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry
thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so
shall thy God rejoice over thee." Clearly Yahweh wanted
his flock to be virtuous and chaste.

I met David in the mall, at Mickey Dees, and he bought us
real hamburgers, not veggie burgers, and a coke. They
were delicious and we ate quickly. This was a real treat. I
hadn't had any real meat in over a month.

"Where did you get the money for this?" I asked as we
were leaving.

"I have friends in high places now and they pay me well
for what I do for them."

"What do you do for these new friends?"

"I can't tell you. It's a secret. But someday I will be a
powerful man and it would behoove you to curry my
favor," he replied with a sly look.

"You speak in riddles, David. I'm your friend and someday
you may even be my husband. What more of me could
you ask?"

"Come with me to my mom's shop. I want to show you
something," he replied.

We went to his mom Doreen's shop and slipped into the
back through a side door. I knew that our elders looked
down on kissing and any other forms of affection between
unmarried people, but what was the real harm in it, I
thought. As he had done in the past, David started to kiss
me. After a few minuets my face was flush and I could feel
my body displaying the signs of the passion that I had felt
before. But this day David got too carried away, and he
placed his hand on my breast, which I shoved away,
admonishing him to cease his brazen actions. I reminded
him that we might become husband and wife and that he
would have to wait till then to consummate our love.
"But Rebecca, I love you with all my heart and I would
have no less respect for you on our wedding night as I do
now, if you submit to my desire today."

"I must not David, even though my desire for you is great.
If you are picked by BT to be my husband, I'll submit to
you gladly and with great passion on our wedding night.
Please wait till then."

"You tease me with your kisses and your lush body,
Rebecca, but I'll wait for now. You are so innocent and
naive aren't you? Perhaps that'll change, we'll see. I was
wondering by the way," he asked, "if you would like to
walk through the trees at night and see the moon and the
stars?"

"Yes, I'd love to walk through the trees at night and see
the moon and stars." I replied. "But it's forbidden, and you
know that. The elevators all have watchers on them who
would report us to the sentinels if we tried to use them,
and the stairways are locked at night and there are
alarms on all the doors, so such talk of going out at night
is foolish."

"I can show you a way to do that, I know how to avoid the
alarms and open the doors in the stairways. Meet me at
the stairway door by your room at eight tonight, and I'll
show you the beauty of the beltways at night."
"I don't think I should, if we got caught, we'd get into a lot
of trouble."

"Rebecca, I go out all the time, I have friends in high
places, remember? Besides, there's a lot more going on
at night out there than you can imagine. My crew and I
are going out tonight to rumble with the Sabbath Keepers,
a cult posse from the other side of the city. They keep
tagging our dominion and we're going to stop them
tonight. Want to go?"

"What does "rumble" and "tagging" mean?" I replied.
"They're old words that mean we have a big party where
we get together and settle things, kind of like what the
deacons do when they meet. It's exciting. You'll like it I
promise," he said with a devious smile on his face.
"Are you sure we won't get in trouble. I remember that
Rachel said she was going out one night, and I never saw
her again. I don't want the same thing to happen to me."
"Rebecca, I don't know what happened to Rachel, but she
was questioning the truth of our prophet ET, and that's
why she got in trouble, not for sneaking out at night. Don't
worry, you'll see it's safe if you go with me. Just try it once
and if you don't like it, you don't have to go again."
"OK, I'll be there, but you promise I'll be safe and we won't
get into trouble?"

"Rebecca I swear on the Holy Bible and the book of BT
that we won't get into any trouble, and you'll love the
trees and the sky at night. Wear dark pants, a dark top
and your tennis shoes, and pin your hair up and put a
knit cap on, we wouldn't want to attract too much
attention."

With that we left his Mom's shop and I went to the dining
room to meet Don. I was curious as to what he had meant
with his comment about me being right about Revelation
1:11. We ate our dinner, boys on one side of the tables,
girls on the other. Don sat across from me and we
touched each other's feet as we often had done in the
past. Don was much more shy than David, and not as
romantic or exciting. I knew he would be a good husband,
though he might prove less stimulating compared to the
fire that David sparked in me when we got together. Still, I
liked him a lot and it caused me great confusion when I
pondered which brother I'd like to spend the rest of my
days with.

After dinner Don and I went off to the mall to have a coke
and talk. We found a secluded spot in the mall atrium and
sat down. I asked Don what he meant by saying I was
right about Revelation 1:11.

"If I show you something that would prove you were right,
will you swear on your E-reader Bible to keep it a secret
between us? We could both get into trouble so you must
promise me first."

I thought to myself, well, Don was a little more risqué than
I thought.

"OK Don, I promise."

He looked around and then pulled a real book out of his
backpack. It was a Bible! We had been taught in school
that printed Bibles had been banned because there were
so many that were fakes, and those fakes were used by
heretics and infidels to fool us with false sayings and
passages that contradicted each other or were nonsense.
The heretics would quote passages from these false
bibles and make the writings look stupid, outdated and
contradictory. The deacons and Brian Theist provided us
with certified copies of the real Bible in our E-book
readers, so that we would get the true word of our Lord
Yahweh.

"Look, read this. Here is the real quotation. Read it
yourself."

I took the Bible and read the passage, Revelation 1:11,
"Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last:
and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto
the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and
unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and
unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea."
"Where did you get this, I thought almost all the books
were burned by the infidels in the great fire in Alexandria?"
"Rebecca that's a myth that has been propagated by the
ministers, deacons, prophets, cardinals, popes and
others with religious power, including Brian Theist. There
are those that would spread false words to control us.
The infidels didn't burn the books, it was the Christian
fundamentalists that did that in Alexandria, Virginia, and
other places including here. My mom told me of an
ancient tale that said the Christians burned the books in
another Alexandria in the Middle East two thousand years
ago, but I can't be sure of that, as all the records of it are
destroyed or in the hands of the Catholic Church.
Anyway, the leaders of our city seek to restrict our
knowledge so they may keep us in their control. They
give us the E-book readers, so that they could carefully
manage the content. My mother gave this Bible to me to
safeguard and pass down to my children, which I hope
are with you," he replied.

I was shocked that Don could be involved in such heresy
and I told him so. "How can you think I would believe that
the our leaders including our prophet BT would do such a
thing? That bible is probably a fake. What you speak is
heresy and I will hear no more of it from you."
"I'm not the heretic, but if this upsets you I will speak no
more of it." With that he put the Bible back in his
backpack.

We sat there in an uneasy silence for a few minuets, and
then he asked me what I was doing for the rest of the
night. I decided to tell him about what David wanted to do
tonight. Don became visibly upset.

"Don't you know how dangerous it is in the beltways at
night? I, too, snuck out once with some people I thought
were my friends, and who knew how to open the stairway
and basement doors. There are bad people out there
that could do you great harm. Please don't go, you know I
love you with all my heart, it would be horrible if
something bad happened to you."
"David promised me there would be no danger for us, and
he isn't a heretic like you, Don. Besides I've always
wanted to walk in the trees at night, you know that."
"I can't let you go Rebecca. I'll tell a watcher, if I have to."
"If you tell on me, I'll tell them you have an illegal Bible,
and you'll get into big trouble. I must go now, I'll keep your
secret and you must keep mine."

With that I got up and went back to my room to get ready
for the night. I was excited. Finally, I would get to wander
through the trees with David at my side to protect me. I
showered and dressed and at eight PM I went to the
stairway door dressed in my darkest clothing, ready for
the great adventure. David opened the door and let me in
the stairwell.

"Keep to the side he whispered to me and don't make any
noise, the walls have microphones in them and noise will
alert the watchers and sentinels."

We went down to the first floor and came to the door to
the basement. David took out a small device and pointed
it at the alarm on the door, and a small red light came on.
He took out some small metal tools and inserted them into
the door lock, wiggled them around, and the door clicked
open. He took a small dominion of wood and put it into the
door jam hole so the door would close but wouldn't lock.
We went down the stairs and into a hot, dark, damp,
rank-smelling hallway. We followed it for until we came to
a door that led to a room the size of a couple of football
fields, full of big machines that and looked like big pots
sitting on their sides and made a loud humming sound.
"What are these machines?" I asked.

"They're the generators. They run on methane gas and
provide electricity to the dominion," David replied. "We
need to go through them to get to a door that'll take us
outside."

We went around the generators and came to a door that
was sunk into the wall. David opened it. We went up the
stairwell to the outside and into the misty night. It was
beautiful.

"Quick Rebecca, follow me." And David led me to a small
stand of trees on the corner of our dominion. "Look up.
You can see the stars between the clouds," he said.
I looked up to see a most wonderful sight, the stars
framed between the leaves of the trees, dancing in and
out between the clouds overhead. I stood there in
amazement, a light misty breeze blowing in my face,
drinking in the wonder of it all, when David grabbed me
and pulled me to the ground. He put his hand over my
mouth and told me to be quiet, the sentinels were near.
As he whispered the warning in my ear, a spotlight swept
over the spot where we were, just missing us by a few
inches. I turned to see a large armored personnel carrier
go by us and down the street. After a few minutes, David
said it was safe, they wouldn't make the rounds for
another couple of hours at least.

It was wonderful out in the forest, the stars twinkling
above.

David took me in his arms and held me tight, kissing me
until my face became flush. We lay back down and he
started "French kissing" me as, he called it. He put his
hand on my tummy and began to rub it gently in a most
pleasant manner. Before I knew it, he had slipped his
hand under my blouse and was caressing my bare skin.
The passion in my soul was coming to a boil, but then he
went too far and slipped his hand under my bra and
roughly caressed my breast.

"Don't! Stop, David! I can't do this! You know that! I want
to, but I must be chaste until my wedding night." I took his
hand out of my bra and pulled away from him.

"Well 'David' looks like you struck out with the lady, mind if
we give her a go?"

I looked up and saw a few dark outlines of some boys
standing around us, their long fighting knives glistening in
the moonlight.

"Looks like we have one of the BT Heresy Hunters here
guys, and he brought us a pretty prize to share."
David pulled a fighting knife out of his boot and waived it
at them. "So, you Sabbath Keepers have enough
courage to show their faces to me instead of sneaking
into our territory and spray-painting your little tags on our
dominion. Are you going to give me a fair fight, or will you
all attack me at once?"

"A fair fight, like the one you BT thugs gave our friend the
other night? No, we're just going to kill you and make
sport with your girlfriend. She looks like she'll be a fine
breeder back at our dominion. We'll let you apologize to
her and say goodbye before we send you to hell. You BT
cult members are all infidels anyway."

At that moment David yelled "Hunters" and a bunch of his
crew dropped out of the trees and attacked the Sabbath
Keepers from behind. It was chaos, and I found myself
cowering behind a tree, watching in horror as the fighting
went on. David's crew was twice as numerous as the
attackers, and they were slaughtering them--kind of like a
cat plays with a mouse. David was directing it all, like
some mad conductor directing his orchestra of murderous
thugs. He looked over at me with an insane look in his
eye as his crew was mopping up the last of them and
said, "Rebecca I told you this would be fun, but not as
much fun as you and I are going to have shortly, you little
tease. I knew you'd be good bait." Then he turned his
attention to cleaning up the last of the Sabbath Keepers.
There was much yelling and cursing as they fought.
Someone grabbed me from behind, put their hand over
my mouth and pulled me backwards towards the
dominion. I bit his hand and screamed, and Don said,
"Shut up, or you'll get us both killed! I have to get you
back into the dominion before the sentinels or more of
David's Crew arrive. This is worse than you think it is.
Trust me Rebecca, my brother's changed into some kind
of passive aggressive fanatical control freak. He's very
dangerous."

With that, he grabbed my hand and we ran back to the
door into the dominion. We started to go back down the
hallway that went to first floor stairway, but we could hear
some more of David's crew coming down the hall. We
went the other way until we came to a door that wasn't
locked and we slipped into the murky room. I knew
immediately where we were, the smell was almost
unbearable. We'd entered a recycling room and the
stench of death and decay was intense. Don took me up
a flight of stairs and into a small office that was there.
There was a door in the back of the office, but it was
locked. At that moment we could hear the door into the
recycling room open and David and his crew came in with
the bodies of the Sabbath Keepers slung over their
shoulders. They also had a couple of girls they'd
captured that had been with Sabbath Keepers. The girls
were handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded. David took the
blindfolds off the girls and made them watch what he did
next. They stripped the boys' bodies of their clothing and
put them on a big conveyer belt that took them up to a
large shredder that ground them into small bits, and fed
the remains to one of the recycling vats that converted
waste to fertilizer. I thought of the cornfield on the roof
and started to gag. As this was happening David quoted
Psalms 58:10; "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth
the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the
wicked." "This is the will of Yahweh, for this posse
followed a false prophet. Then he said to his crew, "We
are," and they replied in unison "The Sword of the lord."
"Yes we are, aren't we boys!" he replied, laughing as
though it was all a big joke.

Then he told the girls, "You do what I tell you to or you'll
join your friends in the vats, understand?" The girls were
terrified and both nodded their heads in agreement. I was
horrified to see just what kind of beast David had
become. How did he fool me all this time? What'd
happened to the guy I had grown to love and desire? My
head was spinning in disbelief at what I was seeing!
We could hear them talking and David said, "The hunt
went well. We have provided much fuel for the generators
and fertilizer for the fields tonight. Tom, Bobby, take the
girls to the holy vessel room and prepare them to take
our life-giving seed. It's time to take our reward, boys. I
want the rest of you to fan out and look for Rebecca and
whoever took her away from our party outside. They can't
get away, we have all the stairwells covered and the
sentinels have been alerted and have the area around
the dominion saturated with troops. The boss wants this
girl in one piece, so no one hurt her, got it? I want to deal
with the guy myself, so take him alive."

They took the girls through a door that was under the
office we were hiding in, and David and the rest of his
crew went out into the hallway to continuing to look for us.
"What're we going to do now, Don? There's no way out of
this place. I'll pray to Yahweh for our deliverance." I knelt
down in prayer, but Don said, "Get up, I've got the door
open, maybe there's a way out of this mess yet."
We went into the next room and I couldn't believe what I
was seeing. The room was as large as a football field,
and it was a prison of some sort. We were overlooking all
these steel cages that had girls chained up in them.
Some of them were pregnant. Now I knew where all the
orphans were coming from. I caught the eye of one of the
women there and felt I had met here somewhere before.
Her eyes got big when she saw me, and she motioned for
us to hide. The two girls that David's crew had captured
were in the same cell block, and the boys had put some
kind of metal dog collars around their necks, which they
locked into place with a small key. All the girls we could
see in this prison had these collars on their necks, and a
chain attached to the cot on one end and an ankle cuff
around one of their ankles. They were all clad in their
undergarments.

My face was burning with shame and humiliation, how was
it that I could have loved someone who could be involved
in this barbarous activity? At that moment David and the
rest of his crew came into the cell with the two girls in it.
He asked them if they were virgins and they said "Yes."
He asked them if they were willing to sacrifice their
innocence for the good of the denomination. They said
"No."

It became clear what the collars were for. David pressed a
small remote control device and the dog collars shocked
them like some kind of stun gun, only much worse,
leaving the girls writhing on the floor in agony. David
spoke to them again. "This is how it works ladies. 'Yes'
answers lead to pleasure, if not yours, then at least ours.
'No' answers lead to pain and agony, as you've just
experienced, and they won't change the outcome anyway.
If you try and take the collars off, you get another, fatal,
shock. The collars are permanent, to ensure your faithful
obedience to your new masters, us. Now, are you ready
to submit to my will?"

They nodded in agreement, clearly broken by the power
of the pain the collars had imparted.

"Good, now take off your clothes and prepare to receive
our holy seed in your new role of mothers of the future."
Don and I sat there transfixed, as the girls disrobed and
David had his way with each of them. When he was done,
he invited the rest of his crew to follow his lead, and "Spill
your seed into these holy vessels, and may the seed of
the best man win the race." He roared, laughing. I heard
his cell phone ring, he answered it, listened for a few
seconds and said "Yes sir, I'll take care of it right away."
He left, and his crew picked up where he left off.
I couldn't watch anymore. It was a sickening, degrading
thing to do to these girls that had probably been
promised the same night of adventure and excitement by
their boyfriends as I had been by David.

Don told me to keep an eye on the crew, he was going to
see if he could find a way out of this hellhole for us. He
went back into the recycling room and I kept an eye on
the rest of David's crew. After a few minuets, I heard the
door behind me open, and Don staggered through it, his
eyes wide open, a frantic look on his face. He opened his
mouth and blood dribbled out. He mumbled, "I'm sorry,
Rebecca, I love you," and then David popped up behind
him, gave me a wink, pulled his knife out of Don's back
and pushed him over the catwalk railing to the cement
floor below.

"Hi Rebecca. I've been looking for you. You shouldn't
have run off with Don, look what you made me do. Pity
about my brother, but we were like Cain and Abel anyway.
Genesis 4:9, I guess I'm no longer my brothers keeper,
huh Rebecca?"

I recoiled in terror and tried to run down the catwalk,
David tackled me and stuck a stun gun into the back of
my head. The world became lightening bolts and pain. I
passed out.

When I came to, I was in one of the cells laying on a cot,
one of those dog collars on my neck. David and his crew
were standing around me, leering.

"What are you going to do, rape me too David?"

"Don't be silly Rebecca, I have a much higher purpose in
mind for you my dear, even though you liked Don better
than me. Boys, our job is done for the night, time to get
back upstairs. You my dear have another fate that has
been preordained for you, come with me."

"I'm not going to do anything you say... you, you
barbarian! You killed your own brother! If I live through
this, I'm going to tell Brian Theist what you are doing
here. He will surely put a stop to this little bit of hell you
are involved in."

"Really, so you think BT is in control of everything that
happens here? How amusing. He'd have to be omnipotent
to know everything that happens in a place this big. No
matter, it's time you came face to face with your fate. Let's
go."

"David, how can you do this to me? You said you loved
me. What happen to you?"

"Well, Rebecca there're some things that are stronger
than love, and power is one of them. I had to give up
something of great value to get this position of power and
wealth, and that something was you. I feel bad about you
getting caught up in this, but hey 'the Lord works in
mysterious ways.' Besides I get lots of 'love' these days,
as much as I want. Now, lets go!"

With that, he pressed the remote and a wave of pain
worse than anything I could imagine swept over me from
the top of my head to the tips of my toes. David
handcuffed me and pushed me into a small elevator at
the end of a long hallway outside of the holy vessel room.
In the elevator he took out a key and used it to access
the sixth floor. As the elevator doors opened, I felt I was
stepping into another world. I had never been on the sixth
floor and the difference between the rest of the floors on
the dominion and this floor was immediately noticeable.
There was plush gold carpeting in the hallway, the walls
were finished in rich hues of purple with gold trim. There
were hanging tapestries depicting religious scenes or the
official portraits of Brian Theist every few feet.

We came to a long hallway that had large doors in it
every ten meters or so and dead-ended at a big pair of
doors. As we went down this hallway, a side door opened
and Brian Theist and a couple of sentinels came out of it,
directly in our path.

"What's this David, why is this child here in handcuffs with
a restraint collar on her neck?"

"Excuse me father, but she's been a bad girl and willfully
disobedient, and I was taking her to her punishment."

"David, you've exceeded your authority. Turn her over to
me. I will deal with you later young man!"

With that, one of the sentinels grabbed David by the arm
and took him away while the other took my handcuffs off.
"Come with me, child. We'll get to the bottom of this
mystery in my quarters here."

I followed him through the double doors and into a huge
living room, relieved to be free from this terrifying night.
"Thank you Prophet Brian, I knew you'd put a stop to this
evil as soon as you found out about it."

"Call me Brian child, and don't worry, you're where you
belong and you're safe now. So, how did you end up in
handcuffs with a restraint collar around your neck?"
I told him how the night started, of all the horror I had
witnessed both outside and in the lower levels of the
dominion, how David had killed his brother Don, the terror
and humiliation of the girls in the prison, and the horror I
felt in his control.

"It must have been awful for you. Well you're out of
harm's way now and under my direct protection. Come, I
want to show you some things that will help you
understand how things work around here."

He took me into the living room, a room that had all the
material things one could ask for. Huge windows
overlooked the city. A large-screen TV that covered one
wall. Ornate couches and chairs scattered about, facing
the TV. On another wall were pictures of beautiful women,
one of which looked a lot like me.

"I see you have noticed the picture of my favorite wife,
Amanda. I sure miss her, but she became willful and
disobedient and had to be severely punished. She is in
the basement now, serving the needs of the
denomination. My, you are a spitting image of her aren't
you?" He said with a wry smile. "She is your mother, you
know, and I am your father." As those words started to
sink in, I could feel my skin getting goose bumps. She was
the woman who had looked up at me in the prison.
"Father Brian, can you please get this collar off me and
get me back to my room? I'm exhausted and I need to get
some sleep," I said, as the fear started rushing through
my mind.

"All in good time child. Those collars are tricky, and trying
to remove them can get you killed if it isn't done right.
Besides, my records, including the contents of your
E-book reader private files, shows you've been a bad girl.
I think you can be saved from going down the wrong path,
that's why I had David bring you here. I'll take you under
my wing and show you the light, and the correct path for
the journey before you."

His words sent chills up and down my spine as I started to
understand the danger I was in.

"I mean no disrespect father, but I'm scared and I want to
go home and be in my own room, please." I begged him.
"You are home child. As for your room, well it's fine, see."
With that he picked up a remote control and turned on
the big TV. It displayed multiple screens showing various
places in the dominion. I could see the mall, the factory
floor, the recycling room, as well as the prison where the
girls were held as sex slaves, and several other places in
our dominion. My fear rose to almost overpowering levels.
He said, "Voice Control mode." Then he said, "Rebecca's
quarters." My room, as well as my bathroom, came
on-screen. I realized he could see everything I did there.
"Replay Rebecca's room tonight, seven PM." It showed
me in the shower, drying off and dressing and getting
ready to go out with David.

I could feel my face burning in shame as I realized he had
been watching my every move in my room. The disk
played as I went into the stairwell and followed David
outside.

"Stop replay."

I have the whole evening on disk Rebecca, and you broke
several rules, didn't you?"

"Well yes, but David promised me I wouldn't get into
trouble and he lied to me."

"Rebecca, do you remember Genesis 3:5? 'For God doth
know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall
be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil.'"

"Yes, but it was an innocent thing I did. I meant to cause
no harm."

"You were given a choice and you choose poorly, as did
Eve with the fruit of The Tree of Knowledge. Now you
must pay the price of your poor choice. You can never
return to your past life Rebecca, but you can be saved by
submitting to my will and becoming one of my wives. You
were predestined to this role anyway, so chose well this
time and your life will be one of luxury and plenty, or you
may chose to be willful and disobedient and join the girls
down in the basement. What say you?"

"You are my father, and you want me to become one of
your wives? That's polygamy and incest isn't it?"
"Rebecca, do you remember Genesis 3:20? 'And Adam
called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother
of all living.' We all came from the same mother and
father Rebecca, Adam and Eve, and we are all the
product of what you call incest. Could the Lord have
made a mistake like that? No, this is as it should be. The
great prophet Joseph Smith, who founded one of the true
branches of Christianity in America, the Mormons, had a
revelation from the angel Moroni about the need for a
righteous man to have many wives. Am I not a righteous
man, a prophet of the Lord? If Yahweh didn't desire me to
make the choices I do, then he must strike me dead right
now! You see I live still, therefore he must agree with my
decisions to do what I must to keep the denomination
healthy and growing. And what I must do now is take the
flower of your innocence and give you my seed that you
may fulfill the commandment of our Lord, as spelled out in
Timothy 2:15; 'Notwithstanding she shall be saved in
childbearing, for that is her proper role.' So you see, I
seek to save you from your mistakes and put you on the
right path to your salvation through the lesson of Timothy
2:15."

"But father that isn't exactly what 2:15 says. Please, I
don't want this, I just want to go back to my room, and I'll
be good, I promise! I won't tell anyone!"

"You're being willful and disobedient, Rebecca. I think the
devil is within you. Yahweh told me in a vision that I have
the power to drive evil out of the flock."

With that he opened a set of drapes and a large one-way
mirror that looked out on another room with several girls
in it. I looked into the room and could see them in a
nightmare scene from the Arabian nights, with all the girls
dressed in silk nightgowns, all wearing restraint collars,
and sleeping on large pillows on the floor. Do you
remember your best friend Rachel? She is here with me
now. See?"

"This is evil father, how can you do this to me or any of
these girls?"

"You call my decisions evil? I'm the prophet of the Lord!
You must not question my authority! Enough of this willful
disobedience girl, you will obey me!"

He held up a small remote like the one David had used
and pushed the button on it. I was engulfed in searing
pain and slumped to the floor, unable to move for a few
minutes. As I lay there, he went into the room and brought
out Rachel and another girl.

Prepare her to be my wife. As it was with the great
prophets and martyrs David Koresh and the Branch
Davidians in Waco, and Jim Jones and the People's
Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, so shall it be with me, for
the Lord has confirmed my decisions with his blessings. If
it were not so, he would strike me dead. Let us remember
the lessons of Timothy 2:11 and 12. 'LET the woman
learn in silence with all subjection. And 'But I suffer not a
woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but
to be in silence.' There can be no doubt that Yahweh
meant for man to be the master and for woman to be
subservient to our will, his words in the Holy Bible shows
us so.

Rebecca, do you agree to be my wife and bear my
children?" he asked as he held up the remote.

"Yes, yes, please don't hurt me anymore," I heard myself
saying.

"By the power vested in me, by our Lord Yahweh, I now
pronounce us man and wife.

Rachel, Heidi, bathe and anoint her with fine perfume,
and put her in a white silk nightgown, you know the one I
like. It's time for her to perform her wifely duties.

Remember Revelation 22:13, for it speaks to me. 'I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first
and the last.' You'll grow to love me my dear, as have all
the rest of my wives, right Rachel, Heidi?"

I looked into their eyes as they nodded in vigorous
agreement, I could see the terror and helpless despair in
their eyes. Rachel whispered in my ear, "You must submit
to him, he's crazy and there's no way out of here, the
sentinels guard the doors and our collars sound an alarm
if we get outside his quarters. I'm so sorry Rebecca, I
don't know if there's a heaven, but there's a hell, and
we're in it."