And the Light Shines

By Terri Wallace

The road to life is not an easy path to follow. Chris discovered that truth in a prison cell as he remembered and told his story to Michael. In the prison cell, he remembered aspects of his life he had forgotten because of the life he had chosen; yet a plan still existed for him. He thought God’s plan for him would end in a prison cell fil

• Language: English
• Publisher: TOPLINK PUBLISHING, LLC
• Release date: Feb 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781950256631

Terri Wallace

Only through the grace of God is anything written by me, for he is the author of my life.

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And the Light

Shines

Terri Wallace

Copyright © 2019 by Terri Wallace.

Paperback: 978-1-950256-62-4

eBook: 978-1-950256-63-1

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Contents

Preface

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Preface

The city was in ruins. The buildings were little more than rubble, stones, and dust. But the energy of the city remained and moved with the single survivor as he walked through the city. He noticed the reddish tint to the sky and the deafening silence that followed the last of the bombs. He walked aimlessly through the rubble looking for a marker that would tell him that he had arrived at the right building where he would leave his message for the following generation.

As he walked his mind returned to the beginning of Dumpstar’s reign. Although Dumpstar claimed to have been dually elected by the vote of the people, he was a tyrant with one mission, the destruction of all free thinking in the world. He was like a magician who cast a spell on everyone. The enchantment led people to the darkest part of the human heart where hatred, bitterness, and prejudice dwell. He set brother against brother, father against son and so on until there was no unity in the country. This enchantment soon spread across the world and changed life drastically.

If you didn’t believe everything that Dumpstar said, you were labelled a dissident and an outlaw. The dissidents were placed in a prison, a walled off city, to be rehabilitated. Once in this prison, there was no escape. The walls were electrified and security police were placed every ten feet with orders to kill. Dumpstar could not allow these prisoners to escape because they alone could change the world he was creating. They contained a power he could not reach because of the life he had chosen. He could have gained their power if he chose to surrender himself to their God and His way. The prisoners were Christians. The Christians were starved, tortured, beaten, ridiculed and mocked. Some even disappeared. Dumpstar tried everything to get the Christians to turn away from their faith, but no one did. There was only one thing left to do: the total annihilation of the city.

The man shuddered as he thought of the past. His heart was burdened with the knowledge that there was no one to teach or tell the next generation of God’s love for them. The reddish tint in the sky seemed to mingle with the blood on the streets and the deafening silence was broken by an agonizing scream. The police have moved in, the man thought, to kill everyone that had survived the bombs. The man’s pace increased, he had to leave something for the generation to come before he was killed. He climbed a hill of rubble. At the top he paused, rubbed his eyes and looked again in wonder. In the midst of a ruined city, a church stood untouched. Urgency filled him and he ran toward the church. In the church, he found a typewriter and paper. He inserted the paper and left a message. He walked out of the church and thought, it is a good day to die.

Chapter One

The screams of the children could be heard as the police vans rolled through the center of the village. The children scattered. It was useless to run, the children knew, but continued because they might get away this time. The police captured the children, threw them into the vans and left the village.

Jenna watched from the top of the hill, tears streamed down her face as she watched the round up. Nobody knew where the children were taken, but when they returned they were different, devoid of life.

Jenna watched the dust settle from the vans’ passage. She stared at the village wondering why the police came each day. What did they do to the children that made them different? Why did the police have to change the children? What was so wrong with us, she wondered, that they came every day? At the tender age of eight, she knew the city was excellent and the village atrocious. The city was something to be attained. Why wouldn’t someone want to be in the city? The city was clean with shining buildings that can be seen for miles. In the city, people received water from pipes, had food, neat clothes, nice homes to live in, and didn’t have to worry about being captured by the police. Jenna glanced back at the village, her brow furled, life was hard there. One was lucky if one survived.

As Jenna got up one of the ragged edges on her tattered dress caught on a rock and tore off. She bent down to pick up the rag and her gaze fell on the city of rubble. The city intrigued her. More than once she had thought of investigating the city but never had because of the police that regularly patrolled the area. It seemed strange to her that she never thought about what her father would think only the police. She realized, she knew exactly what her father would say and the consequences for disobedience. Normally, she would have gone through the consequences but today was different. As she stared at the ruined city, the wind picked up and rolled the ancient debris from the city. Jenna could see paper and clothes moving across the ground. She moved closer to the edge of the hill. The open space was free of tracks and beckoned her towards the city. The wind told her that the police would not be at the city today. Cautiously she descended the hill, her head seemed to swivel around her neck as she checked in every direction for the police patrols. At the bottom of the hill, she took off like lightening. An eternity passed before she covered the expanse and sat gasping for breath behind the broken walls of the city. After she caught her breath, she peeked around the wall at the distance she had covered and wondered how she had made it without been seen.

The ruined city was different. Even in the desolation that surrounded her, she could sense a presence or energy surrounding her. For the first time in her life Jenna was not afraid. She felt different, encompassed in this presence was peace, joy and love. She followed where the presence led. The buildings in the city were crumbling down; some looked like they had been blown apart. The ground was littered with skeletons and yet Jenna knew that the people had willingly died for the presence that led her through the city. As she walked an idea formed in her mind.

The idea sprang from a story an old man told her once. The old man said the story was told to him by his father and had been passed from father to son for a long time. Jenna stopped at one of the buildings and entered to get some relief from the sun. As she rested, the story of the city returned to her. In her mind, she could see the shrivelled man on the hill, wearing a filthy cloth around his middle, gazing lovingly at the ruined city. She didn’t even know that he knew she was there until he began to speak. His raspy voice filled the morning sky.

My father told me this story from the time I was your age until I had children of my own. It is important that you know that humans didn’t always live like this. His withered hand swept across the air in the direction where the village was located.

There was a time that people didn’t live in fear, or wonder if the police would take their children and not return them. Before the reign of Dumpstar, people decided what they wanted to do, where they wanted to go, who they would marry and if they wanted to have children. More importantly, they chose what they wanted to believe and who they would believe in. We had the freedom to choose. Dumpstar came and took that freedom away. Everyone wasn’t ready to give up this freedom. The people that lived in the ruined city would not bow down to Dumpstar and they paid for it with their lives.

I do not want to frighten you child. I wish only to enlighten you to another way of life that has been suppressed for a long time. The rulers think they destroyed the way when the city was demolished, but God is greater and will prevail in the end.

God? Jenna inquired, Who is this God?

"That is why I have come, to tell you about Him. Long before the security police and Dumpstar, God existed. He created the world we live in and someday I will see what it looked like before man destroyed it. In His love, God created us but we decided to go in another direction then the one God had planned for us. But even in this, God did not desert us, He had a plan. When the time was right, God sent His Son to earth to die for the sins we had done. God’s Son’s precious blood washed away the sins of those who believed in Him. He promised that someday we would be with Him in glory, if we followed Him.

That’s exactly what the people in that city did, they followed him. The people in the city were called Christians. They wouldn’t follow Dumpstar so he put them in that city, which was really a prison. He told them to stop following God and he would let them out. The Christians said, They would rather die than deny their God. Dumpstar killed them because he knew that their God was mightier than he and with the Christians annihilated, the news of God couldn’t be spread. Everybody would listen and do what Dumpstar wanted because there would be no other way to compare life to. But Dumpstar didn’t succeed in annihilating all the Christians, God’s message of love still flourishes in today’s society and that is the reason for the poor villages. In these villages the last remnants of God’s people survived. They are weak and afraid of what will happen if knowledge of their existence is known, but the time is coming when God will move mightily through the land again. It is said that the ruined city holds treasures for those who believe in God."

Why are you telling me this?

The man smiled, God has plans for you.

The decrepit body slowly rose and descended the hill. Jenna stared after him wondering what he meant.

Sitting in the building, Jenna again questioned what the old man meant. How could she, a mere child, do anything to help the God of this man? Before meeting that man, she had never seen anyone filled with hope, peace and love. Where had he attained those qualities in a world stricken by hatred and fear?

A voice whispered, His God provided the feelings.

I think I would like to know more about this God who can take away fear. Jenna thought.

Follow me, and I will show Him to you, the voice answered. But now it is time to leave this place and continue your journey.

But I don’t know where I’m going or what I’m doing in this place.

And yet, you have followed the tugging of your heart without question, he paused, until now. Not many people would follow what they do not understand to a forbidden place, where there are unknown dangers at every turn and the punishment for going to this place is death, the voice stated.

There is a presence that leads me and if I follow I know that I will have nothing to fear. You are a part of the presence I feel, aren’t you?

Yes I am, the voice whispered, but now we must continue the journey and complete the task.

As Jenna walked through the city, she wondered how anyone could have survived the destruction of the city. Could what the old man told her really be true? Did people survive and continue to hold to the values that had brought them to this city in the first place? And if the values and beliefs were so important to them, why didn’t they tell others about them?" Questions raged through out her mind as she walked through the city. Her mind was so concentrated on the questions she gave little thought to where she was going or the dangers that lie in the ruined city. Many times she narrowly escaped debris falling from a building, or giant cracks in the ground that would have tripped her. Not once did she look for the police that regularly patrolled the city.

Aimlessly she walked through the city looking for something she could not describe, other than to say, it was a marker. She climbed a hill of rubble, that she thought must have been a very large building or maybe two, when she reached the top she couldn’t believe her eyes. In the midst of the debris stood an intact building, she knew that this building was what she was looking for, so she ran down the hill not taking any heed of the surrounding area for any danger.

Behind the building in the shade, a police van sat watching the building. In all the years since the destruction of the city, the police waited because Dumpstar was positive that one day the building would be visited and Christianity revived. He never explained why even when the question was asked. Dumpstar knew something had been left, he didn’t know what but he would make sure the security police found the message before anyone else. Several generations had passed and the watching of this building was the only order not changed in any degree, after Dumpstar’s death. Those who watched the building detested the job because nothing ever happened in the desolate city, and many watchers came to read, sleep or make plans for the future.

Jenna came running down the hill shouting, I’ve found it! I’ve found it! I’ve found it! Her voice echoed in the dead city.

The police officers were awakened by all the shouting. At first, they thought they were dreaming because no one would ever enter the forbidden city, when the penalty was death. One of the officers decided to lay back down and as he did he noticed something moving on the hill of rubble.

Come on, Bert, we have to check this out, Allan said.

It’s nothing go back to sleep.

Normally, I would agree with you but I saw rubble moving and I feel there’s something different, something wrong in the city today.

If you want to check it out, fine, but I’m going back to sleep.

As the police officers argued about whether or not to investigate the noise, Jenna drew closer to the building. She was still blinded to the van, that was now clearly visible beside the building. She walked up to the building and pulled the doors wide open and left them that way as she entered the building. The building was not extravagant. There was nothing that would draw a person to this place. There were long wooden benches, that Jenna guessed would be used for seats and a platform at the front of the room with a wooden box about four feet high on it. Jenna didn’t know what this place was and what she was doing here. She wandered around the rest of the building hoping to find what she was looking for or a clue to guide her. As she walked around, she pulled and pushed the things around her. One of the things she touched made a noise and she continued banging the keys because she liked what she heard.

The noise she made carried out of the building to the police officers in the van.

The arguing stopped as they both heard the noise. They grabbed their guns and tore out of the van. What precious time had been lost because of the argument. They were both gripped with fear because if a person left the city with anything from the building, it would mean their deaths. They raced up the stairs, pointing directions as they went, so the entire building would be covered in a short amount of time.

Jenna saw the officers before the racket they had made finished echoing. She was dead, was the first thought that ran through her mind. She looked for a hiding spot, but in the open room, she would be spotted instantly if she tried to hide. She watched as the officers slowly approached her. She couldn’t understand why they checked the room so carefully.

Do you think we might have missed him, Bert?

We better not have missed anything, Bert grumbled, Or our lives won’t be worth anything.

What do you mean? Allan inquired.

If we don’t find someone, we had better head for the hills or a village settlement where we can disappear.

And if we don’t.

We’re dead, Bert said grimly, Now start looking, I really don’t want to die or live in a village for the rest of my life.

Allan resumed his searching at a furious pace. He had never realized the extent to which failure at this assignment would take. As they searched the rest of the rooms and the basement of the building, they began to despair. They returned to the first room and sat on a bench.

Maybe the wind blew the doors open, Allan suggested.

And maybe the wind made the box play too, Bert stated sarcastically.

But nothing has been touched, not even a dust particle has been moved. No footprints, or handprints to suggest that anyone, besides us, has been in this building for years.

Don’t try to comprehend what is going on here today, Allan, Bert lowered his voice, as