CHAPTER 20
UNDER A SPECTACULAR golden sunrise of scarlet hues, a low fog covered the land at the base of Ceramecy Mountain. From the trees, only partially discernible through the thick fog, marched horses and cows. Upon these animals rode people determined to do whatever was required of them.
Jasper, Tanya, Janet and Randy rode the horses bare back, while Pastor Reed and Bobby rode atop the bare backs of two of the six cows. Megan and little Tessa rode on the back of the donkey, together.
Through the fog, figures painted in water colors with movement and life began to silently trudge forward. The six Angels of light hovered above them in the mist. Once they all left Ceramecy only Jasper could, once again, see the Angels. Everyone thought the Angels had left them, but, Jasper explained they were no longer able to see or hear the Angels. The group surprisingly understood. Satisfied to have proof of Angels, they now trusted what Jasper translated from them. The experience would forevermore occupy their memories.
“Jasper?” Pastor Reed asked suspiciously, “You can still see and hear the Angels, can’t you?”
“I can.” Jasper answered, looking back toward the Pastor with his white eyes.
Pastor Reed couldn’t hide how envious he was, “I wish I could see what you see and hear what you hear.”
“If you hadn’t experienced the Angels, you’d remain suspicious when I tell you I can see and hear them. I understand how you feel. I’ll do my best to keep you informed about all the Angels say and do.” Then Jasper gave to Pastor Reed, his Bible. Even though the presence of the Angels was no longer known to them, the Ceramecians were like new people and they trusted Jasper implicitly.
Plowing their way through the snow most of the time, the citizens of Ceramecy were able to stay warm by the body heat of the animals they rode. The wind was enough to make minus twenty feel like minus forty. Frequently, Jasper looked back to check on his people though he couldn’t really see them anyway. Little Tessa road between the bodies of her mother and the donkey. So comfortable was Tessa, she fell asleep. The Angels made certain the Demons and rats, at the farm, wouldn’t pose any further threat. Once they came up onto the road, they found the snow wasn’t so thick. The wispy wind had naturally swept it away, making it far more bearable for the horses and cows to travel along. Great cracks in both the ground and the roads resulted from the severity of the earthquake. Obviously the earthquake was responsible for the absence of traffic.
Power poles were down, amongst broken tree limbs scattered across the surface of the snow. Passing countless homes and properties affected by the storm, the Angels informed them not to stop for every incident. The caravan of animals had to navigate around damaged vehicles left abandoned on the road. Everyone felt, the damage they saw would just be the beginning of what was still to come.
On the highway they found people half frozen in their vehicles. From the Angel’s instruction, Jasper insisted they take the cold people from their vehicles, if they were still living, and put them on the backs of their extra horses and cows. The rescuers leaned over the frozen casualties and from their own body heat, they were able to save. The Angels stayed close to each person who was rescued to care and ensure a speedy recovery throughout the long and treacherous journey.
It was an eerie feeling not finding other people on the highway. They tried to search and rescue who they could, but with no automobiles, transport vehicles or emergency vehicles, except the ones that were in the ditches, their capacity was limited.
The Angels stopped the caravan at a commercial transport truck and trailer. The nose of the truck had been driven into a snow bank on the side of the road where it could go no further. A gaping crack had broken up the highway ahead of it. Jasper and Pastor Reed went to the cab and looked in. Knocking on the driver’s side window, the driver slumped out of the curtain of his sleeper. He came to the window and rolled it down.
“Hey, are you okay, sir? Do you have any injuries?” Jasper asked.
“I’ll be just fine. Are you helping only the injured?” The truck driver wanted to know.
“We’re going into Kingston. You should come with us.” Jasper offered.
The truck driver was weighty, cold and fatigued. “Okay.” He said as he nodded his head. He opened his door and climbed down to Jasper and the others. The driver insisted they walk out to the back of the trailer. When he did so, the driver looked at the horses and cows. “Huh? Are you serious? Those animals will freeze in this weather. It’s forty degrees below Celsius!”
“What’s your name?” Jasper asked.
“The name’s Jed, but you folks can introduce yer selves later if you can get me somewhere warm right now.”
Jasper looked to the livestock. They were freezing up, but what he also saw were large powerful Demons that resembled white abominable snow-men. Fast and powerful, these creatures froze everyone and everything they swiped their mighty claws at. The Angels could do nothing to hurt these hairy albino creatures so they would go behind them and try to thaw all that was frozen, but for all their efforts they saw very little effect. Grossly out matched, everything the Angels tried to use against the snow-men failed. All they wanted was to just drive the simple minded beasts away.
Jasper leaned in close to Pastor Reed, “We won’t make it like this.”
“When you lose your faith, we should all begin to worry.” Pastor Reed told Jasper while he shivered, “I could have told you this morning, before we set out, the animals were going to freeze.”
Jasper went out into the middle of the road. His long hair moved with the wind and collected snow. Looking around at his surroundings, knowing the Lord would never abandon him, Jasper had to keep an open mind. Though the frost nipping at his hands and feet distracted him from thinking clearly, Jasper managed to piece a plan together.
“What are you hauling in here?” Jasper asked Jed.
“S-s-s-some heavy duty fan assemblies. I m-m-mostly have pallets stacked with electronics.” They thought he was finished talking when he added, “Oh, yeah, and a g-g-g-generator.”
“Jasper, the back of this truck must be opened in order to fulfill our mission requirements.” Wilson told him.
“Please, open it up!” Jasper asked, though he wasn’t sure what the significance was, he knew better than to argue with the Angel’s instructions.
Jed looked at Jasper hesitantly, he wasn’t sure if he was being robbed. A stern expression with Jasper’s white eyes was a confrontation he was in no mood for.
“Look, we’re in an emergency situation here. We need to do what we can to survive.” Pastor Reed explained, trying his best to be the voice of reason, while blowing warm breaths into his cupped hands.
“Fine, take what you want, ya, thieves!” Jed’s feet hurt as he trudged through the snow to the rear door of the trailer. Unlocking the back door, it dropped down like a ramp. One of the cows began to moo loudly. It was in extreme pain from the cold. Jasper and Pastor Reed went into the trailer and looked around. Everything was securely tied down with one inch thick Teflon rope. The exceptional rope would serve plenty of jobs from here on.
The Angel, Joel told Jasper, “Tie ropes to each of the pallets and pull them out one at a time.”
They tied on the ropes and the cows pulled out the pallets exposing one piece of merchandise after the other until the Angels told them to stop sliding them out. All that remained was the generator and multiple large fan assemblies. Jasper used some tools he found in the driver’s truck to punch a small hole in the side of the trailer. Jasper bent the exhaust pipe so it poked out the hole. Before start up the generator, Jasper told everyone. “The Angels need you all to help direct the animals into the trailer. They need to be blindfolded or the horses and cows will stubbornly refuse to enter.
After adding some fuel, purging the system and cranking it over, the generator roared to life. With the generator running and the people and animals inside the trailer, they all began to warm up quickly. The truck had to be pulled out of the ditch but the damaged en
gine couldn’t start. The cows and horses went ahead, tied together with ropes and anchored to the truck’s frame, it was towed down the damaged highway. Even with snow chains on his dual tires, Jed had trouble steering the truck down the road. For the rest of the journey the group had to make a stop on the hour for the animals and people outside to warm up. Melted snow was provided for the animals to drink.
Everyone fit in the cab and sleeper of the truck but without a working engine, it wasn’t easy to keep warm. The men took turns going out into the cold to lead the animals down the highway.
As they travelled through Maplegrove, they saw countless homes that were dark, cold and lifeless, without electrical power. The aftermath of the earthquake damage was evident everywhere. The folks from Ceramecy were thankful to have survived the storm.
It had taken them two days to make the distance to Kingston mainly due to their frequent stops to warm up. The wind whistled in at the slow moving travellers as they made their way along the stretch of highway next to the Fraser River. Stronger winds picking up in intensity battering the Portman Bridge. The horses and cows continued to pull against such heavy winds that threatened to push the truck and trailer toward the ditch. Weaving their way throughout the abandoned vehicles, the animals had to be directed to maneuver over great cracks in the asphalt and other signs of structural damage which caused the entire bridge to sag to one side. Faithfully, they crossed over to the city of Kingston. Jasper heard the Angels cheering for the victory and sang songs of their journey.
Kingston, the once great city, now beaten and broken through the ravages of nature, had become like a war torn ghost town. A dead gray city covered in ice and snow. Buildings once able to generate heat, had grown long icicles that hung down the sidewalls. Many of the buildings weren’t standing straight. These buildings told a clear story of just how severe the earthquake was. Some buildings no longer stood at all.
Looking at the lifeless, frozen, city, Pastor Reed prayed, “Oh, Lord, what was the point? For a moment there, I believed our quest was like Noah’s Ark. I mean, we had the animals and everything, but we must have by-passed the Promised Land somewhere along the way.” Pastor Reed’s prayer struck up some laughs from the others. The Pastor began to bashfully chuckle along with his colleagues.
Jasper heard the Pastor’s prayer and perked up immediately. Failing to find the humor in the Pastor’s words, Jasper detected the Pastor’s depression instead.
“Why must we work so hard and receive so little?” Pastor Reed added.
The Angels quickly spoke to Jasper, expecting him to speak to Pastor Reed but Jasper spoke to them all. “Your lack of faith misleads your train of thought.” Jasper told them, “You’re special in the eyes of the Lord. He knows your full potential and he wants you to find it also. This won’t happen if we remain in our comfortable lifestyles. It’s like a man who goes to a church and says, “Oh, this church doesn’t have the flare for God that I’m looking for.” So the man leaves the church and looks for a better one but what God does, is he purposely places his people where they can be useful. If the man provided the ‘flare for God’ that he was looking for, he would’ve experienced the excitement along with the congregation. God wants His people to make a terrible situation better. We must endure even though we don’t understand what the Lord wants or why we are in difficult situations. Today, none of us want to be here, but the Angels remind us this is where we belong at this moment. The Angels will take us through, whatever this is, and we’ll become better people for it. The city of Kingston needs us even if we don’t see why or how, yet. From just one simple act, like the push of the first domino, the Angels have explained, we can set countless other events in motion. Events that’ll change the entire world as we know it. Somehow we’re supposed to be the cause of a greatly needed change. I want to be a part of it, don’t you?”
Everyone agreed, feeling encouraged by Jasper’s words.
The Angels finally directed the truck and trailer to the doorsteps of the half-way house. When Jasper looked up at the old frozen building, his body stiffened. There at the entrance of the building was the floating transparent Demonic forms of the Insufferable six. At first, Jasper had to rub his eyes to be sure his eyes didn’t deceive him, but as the Six began to charge toward them, he knew without a doubt, he was right.
The other Ceramecians noticed Jasper was acting a little odd but they had no clue what threat he was looking at. Wilson came very close to Jasper and said, “Look away brother, you have a job to do. We will handle this.” Then Wilson straightened and addressed the Angels, “Let’s drive these foul phantoms back to the abys!”
The six Angels shot toward the Insufferable Six like beams of light they met them in hand to hand spiritual combat in the air. Roger pulled out the hilt of his sword and water arose to form the rippling blade, then the blade hardened into a sharp crystal-like blade of ice. He chopped and sliced at the giant Vyxcious as Vyxcious lashed back with his instant growing vines of thorns.
Pure light of glory shot from Wilson’s fists and splashed over Wengroangrinch’s large fore-head. This momentarily distracted the deformed Demon and disabled his evil telepathic influence.
Sending high levels of sunset colored light from her palms, Taila burned back Gewgaw’s slime covered shadowy form. Turning away, the rays of light quickly burned through the protective slime and steamed away. Having quite enough of Taila’s barrage, Gewgaw spun around and shot two streams of his ecto-slime at her. The slime coated Taila’s wings, arms and shoulders. Finding Gewgaw’s slime disgusting, Taila ceased her punishment of light. In her distraction, Gewgaw quickly regained his strength and began to approach her again. Taila was about to defend herself with a new burst of her light, but vicious snakes aggressively grew out of the ecto-slime and threatened to strangle and bite her.
Elana broke away from her fight with Vyxcious at the snapping sound of his thorny vine whip. Elana’s silver lasso bound Gewgaw. Gewgaw turned and hissed his warning at Elana, but she struck him in the face with her whip before tossing a couple extra loops of her lasso around him.
With Gewgaw in the bonds of Elana’s lasso, Joel swiftly flew up to Taila and used the swords of his wing tips to cut away the heads of the snakes. “Let’s do this together, Taila. With our combined light we can burn this ecto-slime away in an instant.”
With a quick nod, Taila began to produce her great light from her entire body. Joel flapped his wings to back away from her a short distance before he unleashed a blast of his own fists of white fire at her. As Joel glided around Taila, he burned away all of the evil slime. Taila wasn’t affected by Joel’s billowing volley of flames and for a brief moment, they smiled at one another.
From a sudden lightning flash and a whirlwind explosion came Morbidant. Appearing at Gewgaw’s side, she took hold of the silver lasso that bound him and pulled it apart by the effort of her own hands. Diolucious had slipped away from her confrontation with Starr to rise up behind Morbidant and shoot an arrow over her left shoulder.
The arrow soared past Morbidant’s face and darted toward Taila’s Heart. Joel noticed the arrow and sprang in front of Taila to intercept its trajectory and take the shot for his friend, but Starr wouldn’t have it. Streaking in at the speed of light, Starr took hold of the arrow and redirected its trace path way so it found its mark in Gewgaw.
This, however only managed to make Gewgaw stronger. Tearing the last of the lasso away on his own, he lunged at Elana vengefully. The Angels and Demons fought viciously.
In the heat of battle, Morbidant took hold of Starr by her throat and began to choke her body with tendrils of shadow. The tentacles of shadow wrapped around Starr and threatened to extinguish her light, but Starr opened her wings and a flock of bright white doves flew out. The doves burned the dark tendrils away one by one. Morbidant shrieked painfully, then she looked at Starr and said, “Everything always works out well for you, doesn’t it, Starr. Just once, I would like to see how you would handle a situation of Hell!
”
After speaking these words, Morbidant’s cape was thrown open and many shadow people arose to fight and protect their dark master. While the servants of evil grabbed at the doves, Starr telepathically called her graceful birds back to the safety of her wings. In the whirling turmoil of black smoke, Morbidant took Starr to a dark realm far below the earth’s crust.
Morbidant captured Starr but none of the other Angels noticed them disappear from the battle and even if they did, they couldn’t know with any certainty where the two went.