Let There Be Light: After the Coming, #2

By Mary Newman

Mick lived through hell until he escaped two years ago. He was too young to understand when the aliens came, or the devastation they caused, but he sure knew what growing up in the aftermath was like. Surviving under the thumb of a crazy, self-proclaimed preacher and his equally psychotic soldiers, he lived each day wondering if it would be his last.

Arnie has decided to settle down and put the life of a nomad behind him. He has his hands full taking care of three orphaned, teenage boys and helping his chosen family provide for themselves.

When Mick decides he's waited long enough for Arnie to see him as a man, Arnie finds himself running scared for the first time in his life.

Arnie dealt with aliens invading their world and taking everyone and everything they could get their hands on. Defeating encroaching gangs and scavenging for food is just part of surviving. A determined young man changing the way he sees himself is something else.

New beginnings. Friendships end. Life goes on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mary Newman
• Release date: Oct 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386715511

Book preview

Dedication

For Alex and Luke, who indiscriminately bred plot bunnies and let them loose within the pages of my story. I couldn’t have written this story without you. Love you guys.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Three

Chapter Twenty Four

Chapter Twenty Five

Chapter Twenty Six

About the Author

Chapter One

Idon’t know where to start. Maybe a bit of history about me? I’m the product of a social experiment gone wrong. My birth name is Mickey, but I go by Mick. I like the shortened form better. It sounds more adult, you know? Probably because it was my dad’s name, too. My name’s not the only thing I shared with my dad. I have his pale blond hair, his height, and his grey eyes. I remember my mom used to say I was the spittin’ image of him. My earliest memories are of my mom and dad and me living in a place called Paradise in the backwoods of Georgia. It wasn’t. That’s just what it was called.

See, Mom and Dad got kind of disillusioned with the world and went to live in a kind of semi-religious, sort of military compound with several other young families. We grew a big garden and there were a couple of cows. Chickens ran around the yard and I remember I loved going to gather the eggs. All the kids were home schooled, with the adults taking turns teaching us our lessons. All the families pitched in to help whenever and wherever it was needed, and we were happy. The women called each other sister and the men were brothers. We were led by Preacher Alex, Deacon Sam and Deacon Jonah. I really have no idea if Preacher Alex was a real, ordained preacher or even what religion he aligned himself with. I was just too young to know those things, I guess. Or maybe it just wasn’t that important.

I remember Preacher Alex was a really nice man. He was older than Mom and Dad, with grey hair and a big bushy beard, and he had the kindest eyes. In the evenings after supper, he and Deacon Sam would go out on the big front porch, and all of us kids would sit around them while Preacher Alex told stories out of the Bible and of when he was younger fighting in the war. I was never clear what war he was talking about, just that he’d been very brave and fought hard, but when he came home, everyone hated him. They called him names and said he was evil. Preacher Alex wasn’t evil, though. He was loving and giving and all of us kids loved him.

Life was pretty good until one day when he and Deacon Sam left with most of the men on a supply run and never returned. None of them did. My best friend, Micah, and me waited in the yard for hours before our moms came and made us go inside the big house we all shared. We were supposed to be in bed, but Micah and me, being the oldest two, snuck to the top of the stairs to listen to the grownups talk. They’d gathered around the radio and you could feel something was wrong. We heard words like aliens and taken and false prophets floating up the stairs to where we sat. I was maybe six or seven, but I just remember being so afraid. Then Deacon Jonah stood up, turned the radio off, and told everyone until Preacher Alex or Deacon Sam returned, he’d be in charge. Micah’s dad, Brother Isiah, said he didn’t think we needed anyone leading us. Then he looked up and saw us and we had to go to bed.

And everything changed.

After a few days, Deacon Jonah started calling himself Preacher Jonah. He was nothing like Preacher Alex. He didn’t like us kids, for one, and he had mean eyes. That’s the only way I could explain it. Where Preacher Alex had been loving and good, Preacher Jonah was always screaming hellfire and damnation and the world coming to an end and being prepared for disaster.

With the majority of the men missing, there was only my dad, Preacher Jonah, Brother Isiah, and one unmarried man who didn’t have any kids. I don’t remember his name, but he disappeared a couple of weeks after Preacher Alex. He didn’t show up for breakfast and when Micah and I went to his room to get him, it was empty. None of the adults ever said anything to us kids about him leaving, and I don’t know what happened to him. I do remember he was nice to everyone, though, and was always polite to all the moms. I can still hear his gentle voice calling my mom ma’am, and telling her thank you when she would put his dinner plate in front of him.

My dad and Brother Isiah acted as fathers to all the kids after the other dads went missing. They held the little ones whenever they cried, and helped out all the other moms. Preacher Jonah didn’t help anyone and was always sneering about women’s work and men being men. Most of us just stayed out of his way, as much as we could.

The first big change Preacher Jonah made was to move into the two biggest bedrooms in the house, which happened to share a connecting door. Since that had been Esther and Miriam’s rooms, they had to move all their things into a couple of the smaller bedrooms. They’d always lived in those two big rooms with their husbands and Esther’s baby, Sarah. My dad and Brother Isiah were mad and yelled at him, but Preacher Jonah said it was his right since he was leader, now. I remember Dad grumbling to Mom a few times about Preacher Jonah getting too big for his britches and they talked about leaving Paradise. Some of the other moms agreed with him, but others wanted to stay because they just didn’t have any place else to go. I think we stayed because they did and Dad didn’t want to leave them here alone.

The next big change was when Preacher Jonah went out and recruited a bunch of men to add to the flock. That’s how he explained it to all of us when he came back with this bunch of guys in camouflage clothing and hard faces. I wasn’t sure I liked the new additions. I know they scared me and Micah. Our friend, Joseph, said the same. These new guys brought another boy my age with them named Garrett. Garrett was fun and kind of mischievous. His dad was Blake, and he was one of the nicer new recruits. Garrett told us his mom had died when he was a baby.

He also told us he’d been an army brat and the men with his dad had all been in the military until recently. Garrett’s stories of aliens coming and taking all the people and leaving the world out there in shambles was the first us kids had heard anything about it. It scared us and some of us had nightmares about big mouthed aliens with lots of teeth coming to eat us. Blake told Garrett to quit telling us stories and scaring us, so he stopped talking about it. The nightmares didn’t go away, though, they just changed.

Preacher Jonah informed the adults one evening since the majority of the women didn’t have husbands any longer, they were required to pick out one of the new men. Most of the women got upset about it and went to their rooms, locking their doors. Brother Isiah, my daddy and Blake all told Preacher Jonah that was bullshit. They actually said the bad word and Micah and I looked at each other with big eyes to hear our dads say something like that.

A few days later, Preacher Jonah sent my dad and Brother Isiah out to see if they could find supplies and what happened next made me think the gates of hell had truly opened and swallowed our home. All of us kids were locked in one of the bedrooms by a couple of the new guys and we heard our moms screaming and crying. I could hear Blake yelling for someone to stop, then there was a loud bang and a strange silence. The screams started up again a little later. I heard my mom telling someone No! a bunch of times and then she screamed and then there was a gurgle and I didn’t hear her anymore. Preacher Jonah yelled at someone about not damaging anyone else, but all of us kids could only hold each other and cry.

When the door was finally opened, Preacher Jonah told us all to go to our rooms and go to bed. We didn’t argue, even though it was still daylight. There was no one in the two little rooms I shared with my mom and dad. I couldn’t find Mom, and Dad was still gone. I crawled in my bed and pulled the covers over my head and prayed as hard as I could the aliens and monsters wouldn’t find me. Garrett snuck in to find me and we huddled together.

Dad and Brother Isiah came back the next day and there was more yelling. I’d never seen Dad so angry and upset. He and Brother Isiah said they were taking their families and leaving. Dad had my hand in his when I heard the same kind of bang as when Blake was yelling the day before. There were more bangs and my hand was being pulled down. I looked and there was blood all over my dad and Brother Isiah and they were laying on the ground. I screamed and screamed until Preacher Jonah slapped me across the face. Joseph’s mom came and got me and took me into the house with her and up to the room she shared with Juliet and Joseph. Garrett was there and so was Micah. Both Micah and his mom were crying, but Garrett just kind of sat and rocked and stared at the wall.

It would be a couple of years before I understood my mom and dad had been killed, as had Garrett’s dad, Blake, and Brother Isiah. I remember being angry for a long time after my mom and dad were gone. I didn’t understand why they left without me. By the time I did understand, I lived in a world of terror.

Everything had changed that night. There were no longer any individual families. Just all of us kids sharing a couple of rooms, and the moms were in single rooms of their own. They weren’t allowed to let any of us call them mom, and we only saw them when they served food at meal time, which we ate in a separate room from the adults, now. All the men visited whatever woman they wanted at night, and the women had no choice. We listened to sobbing and muffled screams most nights and huddled in our beds, wondering what had happened to our happy life. Preacher Jonah changed my name from Mickey to Matthew and I was forbidden to ever say my other name again. Then it got worse.

Preacher Jonah had gone on one of his recruiting runs and come back with four additional men. Since most of the kids weren’t allowed anywhere near the grownups, I never actually met them until that terrible morning. We were all called out to the back yard and listened as Preacher Jonah screamed about hellfire, abominations and a bunch of other nations I didn’t understand. Then they hauled two of the new men up in front of us. They’d been stripped and had been beaten until they were bruised and bloody. One of the original recruits, Deacon Joshua, stepped up and cut their throats. Right in front of all of us. Most of us kids were so shocked and scared we didn’t even dare scream. I felt the scream inside me, but it had no place to go. Later at supper, Garrett explained to us the two men had been caught having sex and that was why they’d been killed. I didn’t understand why it was supposed to be bad. I wasn’t even sure what sex was. I was maybe seven years old, and I’d witnessed my dad being shot and two men having their throats cut, but I was still naïve, if no longer innocent.

We left the big house a year or so later. The cows had been butchered and eaten, and now there wasn’t milk or butter. The chickens had either died or been eaten when there was no longer enough food for them to produce eggs. The women couldn’t take care of the huge garden by themselves and the men Preacher Jonah recruited wouldn’t help so food was becoming scarce. Preacher Jonah was always talking about a promised land and leading us to a place where there would be plenty of food and free land and homes. All we had to do was behave and God would see to it. It was going to be wonderful.

I didn’t believe him. I didn’t believe anything, by then. Love was a distant memory, and fear was always right there. Preacher Jonah and his right hand man, Deacon Joshua, dealt with anyone who broke his rules by killing them in front of all of us. I was beginning to understand if Preacher Jonah was crazy, Deacon Joshua was pure evil. He seemed to enjoy when he was called on to dole out punishment. He was also the one the women feared the most because any time he chose to spend a night in one of their rooms, she’d show up with lots of bruises the next day.

We traveled from one place to the next over the years, never settling for long, and always moving west. Once all the game in the area was killed or run off and any food and clean water we could find was used up, Preacher Jonah would move us along to another area. It became a pattern. We’d go into an area, find an abandoned town or buildings and Preacher Jonah would send the men out on a cleansing mission to get rid of all the sinners living in the area. They’d bring back any fuel, food and whatever other useful stuff they could find, and we’d stay until everything was used up. Along the way, babies were born, some of the women and part of the children died, and new recruits deserted or were punished for breaking rules. The kids who were left grew older, too.

I think I was maybe sixteen when we moved to the old abandoned town out in the middle of a prairie. I couldn’t be sure since celebrating birthdays was a sin according to Preacher Jonah. There was literally nothing there but these fallen down buildings. We’d barely got settled when Preacher Jonah came into the house where all of us kids were and got Joseph, Micah, Garrett and me and told us we were too old to be with the kids now. We were put in a different house with some of the newer men, and began training under the direction of the original recruits, led by Deacon Joshua. We learned how to shoot guns, use bows and arrows, how to fight in hand to hand combat, and how to use a knife. Deacon Joshua would take us out to the woods closest to the town and tell us we needed to hunt for whatever animals we could find for food. We knew it wouldn’t take long for any game to leave or be killed and eaten because that’s what always happened.

Micah, Joseph and I had just returned from one of our hunting trips with nothing more than a couple of jack rabbits. I had no desire to eat, but I was hungry. I was always hungry, just like everyone else, except for Preacher Jonah, Deacon Joshua, and their favorites. They always got first dibs on any food – they were served first at meal times, then the newer recruits, then the women, and finally the kids – and if there wasn’t enough to go around, the rest of us went hungry. That day, I noticed Preacher Jonah was talking to a stranger. I never did catch his name and he left shortly after we got back, but there was an air of excitement among the men. The next day we packed up our meager possessions and loaded up the pickups and motorcycles. We were led west by Deacon Joshua in his Jeep with its mounted machine gun and Preacher Jonah on his Harley. It was a break in the pattern we’d become accustomed to, so, of course, we noticed. No one questioned it, though, since it would have brought on a punishment or death.

It was a couple days travel before we found a good-sized abandoned town which would be our new home. Deacon Joshua set about organizing where everyone would stay, while Preacher Jonah decided on the biggest building as his personal offices. He also chose one of the nicer houses as his personal home. Preacher Jonah was all about showing us he was more important by claiming the biggest and best for himself.

Micah, Joseph, Garrett and I volunteered to go hunting. We were all tired, but preferred wandering around in the woods to dealing with the constant complaints of the other men not within Preacher Jonah’s inner circle of followers. Joseph wanted to find some bigger game for his mom, who was close to delivering. Joseph was worried since his sister, Juliet, had died a couple years before, and he was convinced it was because she’d not had enough food. I was inclined to agree.

Anyway we were just kind of sitting out in the woods, waiting for whatever animal came along and the subject of sex came up. Garrett was worried since we were considered men, now, we’d be expected to have sex with the women. The thought was unappealing to all of us because we’d been raised by these women. Micah said something about the four oldest girls maybe being considered women, now, and we all just got quiet. Micah, Joseph and I had even more reason to be quiet. None of us had ever spoke of it, but I knew I had no desire to ever be with any girl. Sometimes, I’d sneak a look at some of the new recruits when we stopped at a creek or pond to bathe, but I was always careful not to get caught by Preacher Jonah or Deacon Joshua. I got the feeling Micah and Joseph felt the same way as I did. I wasn’t sure about Garrett. He never looked at anyone, male or female.

When we finally found a couple of deer, shot them, and headed back to the others, it was nearly dark. We brought the animals to the women, and only stayed long enough to help skin them out. We’d get in trouble for staying any longer since it was supposed to be women’s work. There was talk about some kind of celebration in the house we shared with some of the other men. I wasn’t sure what we had to celebrate, but knew better than to open my mouth. There was too much chance of anything I said getting back to Preacher Jonah. I no longer trusted anyone except Micah, Joseph and Garrett.

We were all called to what used to be an old grocery store and Deacon Joshua told us there would be a cleansing mission, to rid the area of the sinners, in the morning. There were a couple of new men present I’d never seen before, but there were always new men being recruited, so I didn’t think much of it. Preacher Jonah got up to speak and we got a full dose of hellfire and damnation and cleansing this world of all sinners so it could once more be a wonderful and perfect place, and blah, blah, blah. More of the same crap he’d been spouting for the past however many years he’d been in charge. I wasn’t paying much attention to him when I felt a hand on my shoulder and I automatically cringed. Deacon Joshua gave me the creeps and I never wanted to come to his attention.

Matthew, Joseph, Garrett, Micah, you will be going with us, this time. You’re men now and need to contribute as men, he said. No guns for this mission. We’re getting low on ammunition. Get your bows and meet the rest of us first thing in the morning.

I had no desire to go on one of their stupid missions and even less desire to kill. Sure, we hunted animals, but that was so we wouldn’t starve. Killing someone else because they were here first was wrong. My feelings were mirrored on Joseph and Micah’s faces, but Garrett just sat there staring off into space. Garrett hadn’t been the same after his dad was killed. He just lost himself in his own head sometimes. The rest of us did our best to cover for him when he did. The celebration went on long into the night and bled over into the women’s housing. I had to pull my ratty blanket over my head to drown out the laughter and yelling from the men and the screams and crying of the women. There were only five women left, now, the four girls who were almost women, and maybe ten kids. No one knew who the dads were on any of the littler ones. It could have been any of the men who’d been around over the years.

First thing in the morning, we headed off with Deacon Joshua and Preacher Jonah. Deacon Joshua took us to a shallow ravine where he had everyone hide. We were told when we heard a bunch of motorcycles, we were supposed to start shooting at them. Preacher Jonah wanted all of them dead because they were all sinners and abominations. A few cycles showed up, but we were told they weren’t the right ones. These were messengers to tell us how many were coming and when they’d be here. I was feeling sick and I motioned to the other three boys to move us slightly away from the rest of the men. None of us wanted to be here and Garrett was looking like he was about to have one of his panic attacks.

We heard the bikes coming and I peeked up over the edge of the ravine. There must have been twenty or so, and they were led by a tall red-haired guy on a big, matte black trike. I heard Deacon Joshua yell the order to fire and I ducked down again. Joseph, Micah, and I held Garrett as he shook and shivered and cried. We could hear the screams and moans of the men being ambushed. Most of the men were not great with a bow and arrow. Micah and I were, that’s why they normally asked to go hunting. I wasn’t standing up and aiming for any of those men out there, though. I heard Deacon Joshua call for us to get going and I held back with the others.

We just kind of looked at each other and wondered what we were going to do. If we stayed in the ravine, we’d just be found and probably killed. Eventually, we got up and followed the rest of the men back to the town. Deacon Joshua selected a group of men and they took off a couple days later for another mission. I was just thankful we weren’t picked this time. Garrett was still shaky and was having trouble eating or sleeping. I was real worried about him, but didn’t know what I could do.

Deacon Joshua came back that afternoon and looked like he’d been playing with fire. He had smudges of soot on his face and hands and his eyes were red. He went right to Preacher Jonah’s offices and his face looked madder than I’d ever seen him. We learned later he’d lost three men, one of them an original recruit, Adam. He’d been playing with fire, alright, and word spread he’d burned a bar and store full of food. Preacher Jonah wasn’t happy about the store, but when Deacon Joshua told him it was attached to the bar, he seemed okay with it. A bunch of the newer recruits weren’t. They defected that night, angry about the destruction of food when we were all so close to starving. Some of them were upset about the bar because they’d not had a drink of alcohol in over a year. I heard them leave, but stayed quiet, thinking more power to them. I wished I could go, too.

The next morning, Preacher Jonah announced he was going on a recruiting mission in the next couple of days. You could tell he was mad about the missing men and bikes. Before he left, though, Deacon Joshua came up to me and told me we’d be needing to talk when he got back. He looked as mad as Preacher Jonah and I imagined I could see my death in his eyes. I went behind one of the houses and threw up. I had no choice, now. I had to leave. I just had to figure out the best way to do it.

Joseph’s mom delivered a baby girl, the day after Deacon Joshua and Preacher Jonah left with most of the elite inner circle. His mom died about an hour later, and Joseph wasn’t even allowed to see his baby sister. The women staged a revolt that night, locking themselves in the house with the kids and refusing to allow any of the men to enter. I was the one who’d snuck them a loaded gun, so they could defend themselves, but no one but the women and me knew it. We were all tired. Tired of all the abuse, tired of the hellfire and damnation, tired of Preacher Jonah and Deacon Joshua’s insanity, and tired of no food or clean water.

Things began happening about three days later. A big, black pillar of smoke appeared in the south and Abel and Jeb took most of the men to go investigate. They wanted me to go, but I flat refused and neither of them were big enough to do anything about it. They came back later that night, real upset and then got even angrier when the women refused to come out of their house and feed them. Two nights after, someone came in and stole the Jeep with its mounted machine gun. Some of the men took off on the bikes to chase it down, but couldn’t find it or whoever had taken it. Part of them came back mad, some disillusioned, and a few others had just had enough. There was another defection the next morning. Abel and Jeb tried to stop them, but they weren’t near the crazy man Deacon Joshua was. In the end,