Living for the Lamb of God: The Sequel

By Jamey O’Donnell

In Living for the Lamb of God, the sequel to Hunting for the Lamb of God, the residents of New Hope are discovered by the Hunters. They realize how vulnerable they are in their present location and search for a place where they can start over again and live in peace.
Their settlement grows exponentially after finding that place and settling into Peaceful Valley, an old scout ranch outside of Colorado Springs. Once again, they find themselves having to deal with not only the Hunters but also must contend with a foreign army that is now in country---looking to exploit America’s natural resources.
Their love for each other and America gives them the strength to meet these challenges and forge ahead.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9798823011471

Jamey O’Donnell

Jamey O'Donnell's world view comes from a lifetime involved in politics based on his work involving two presidential campaigns, being a recovered homeless methamphetamine addict that used from the time he was 13 to the age of 45, and being a single father that raised his son alone from the time his son was one years old. As a father, Jamey's main objectives were to teach his son the value of hard work by instilling in him a work ethic, enlisting him in scouting and helping him achieve the rank of Double Silver Palm Eagle Scout, and the importance of giving his life to Christ. His son was awarded both athletic and academic scholarships to Benedictine College. He is now beginning his senior year for his degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. To date, Jamey has written five books and is one of America's most prolific writers of our time.

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© 2023 Jamey O’Donnell. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue

in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Published by AuthorHouse  07/28/2023

ISBN: 979-8-8230-1146-4 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-8230-1147-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023913038

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in

this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views

expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

DEDICATED TO MY FRIEND AND ADVISOR

GEORGE BUDDY DOW

CONTENTS

Foreword

1     Everything is Different Now

2     First Line of Defense

3     Dreaming of a New Horizon

4     Last Chance in Boulder

5     Preparing for Peaceful Valley

6     Catching Up

7     A New Kid in Town

8     The Way Things Are Now

9     Mandy Sigler

10   The New Girl

11   Home Is Where Your Heart Is

12   Knocking on Heaven’s Door

13   Waiting in the Moonlight

14   Shooting Gallery

15   Jack Price, DDS

16   Mr. Stork Comes to Call

17   To the Rescue

18   Not Smokey the Bear

19   Mercy and Murder

20   Test of Faith

21   Sixty to Fifty-Nine to 102

22   Faith Renewed

23   The End of the Rainbow

About the Author

FOREWORD

L iving for the Lamb of God begins where Hunting for the Lamb of God ends, with the Hunters discovering the settlement of New Hope, which is a collection of families and individuals who have banded together with the hope of restarting civilization after much of the Northwest Hemisphere is decimated by a super EMP at the hands of Iran and North Korea.

Their encampment is located next to the Cherry Creek Reservoir in Denver, Colorado, providing fresh water and opportunities for game hunting. It also provides tree cover to camouflage them from the Hunters…humans who have resorted to hunting and killing other humans for food.

When the EMP hit the previous year in 2022, all electricity stopped and electrical wiring was fried, eliminating cars, airplanes, computers, internet, phones, running water, television, and radio.

Elevators stopped working, trapping hundreds of thousands, all dying within days. Pacemakers stopped working, causing millions to drop dead where they stood. Over 3000 jet airliners fell from the sky, killing close to a million people. Anyone relying on oxygen died within hours.

In a nanosecond, the world changed as America changed, and the initial survivors of the bright light and the big swoosh had to rely on their survival skills and pre-planning for a disaster such as this.

In Hunting for the Lamb of God, the book tracks the footsteps of the Jenkins and Price families, who have both joined together to traverse the terrain. With laden shopping carts, they make the days’ trek to Cherry Creek Reservoir after surviving for months in their homes in a suburb of Denver, fighting off cannibalistic neighbors wanting to kill and eat them.

There, they find communion with other God-fearing folks and life was as good as could be expected until the day the Hunters drive through their camp. The Hunters do not stop to talk with them as would be expected, thereby tipping off New Hope as to who they were and their intentions.

What used to be normal people living normal lives, all had been stretched to their limits while finding their inner strengths and discovering their flaws, all while trying to maintain some semblance of their humanity in a world that was seemingly bereft of feelings and charity.

To a man, they came to an understanding that the America they had known would never be what they remembered.

To have any kind of future, they had to be willing to do things they’d never had to do before and not lose themselves while doing them.

The key component to their survival would be their faith in God.

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;

There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

Psalm 91 KJV

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ONE

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Everything is

Different Now

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I f they have cars, then there have to be other cars that survived the blast, Bill Jenkins said.

The difficult thing will be to find them.

He rubbed his chin as he contemplated the where of it all.

"My guess is that the vehicles we saw were underground somewhere when the EMP hit. The Sheriff’s vehicle was probably in their underground garage, so that’s a no-brainer, but the other vehicle was an old classic car. Wherever it was when the blast hit, it had to be underground, otherwise, it was rewired and re-equipped with an ignition switch, generator, spark plug wires, and battery that was either underground or in a Faraday cage, and I think that’s highly unlikely.

My point is this…we start looking for cars underground and hope we can get the keys to whatever vehicle we find, or we are going to have to hotwire it, which I’m not familiar with how to do to a newer car. Getting gas won’t be a problem because we can just siphon it out of cars along the roadways" Bill added.

Having a vehicle would change everything for us. Having more than one would be a game-changer for sure, offered Bob Hawkins. We need to start brainstorming possible locations where we might find these underground places that would have cars, and quite frankly, I have no idea where to start, except for downtown Denver, and that’s a good fifteen-mile walk away.

There are other buildings closer, off of Orchard and I-25, and there’s some up Parker Road where the freeways meet, so I think that’s where we go first, said Terry Pryor.

What about car lots? Do they have underground facilities, you know, where they would keep cars? asked Mark.

I’ve never heard of a car lot having an underground garage, said Bill as he continued.

"Whatever we do, we have to do it quickly, because I don’t think we have much time. If those cars that drove through here were not hunters, they would have stopped and identified themselves. They would have been glad to see that there were other people alive and surviving. They were scouting, looking for a food source, and now I’m sure they believe they’ve found one in us, so it won’t be long before they come back, and it will be a sneak attack at night. Everything has changed now, and we must be vigilant like never before. If we are lucky, it will just be those two cars, but we can’t count on that. What we have in our favor are numbers. We have a lot of men here, and we are armed.

Anyone that has their tent set up away from the rest of us needs to move their tent closer, otherwise, they will be the first ones targeted. We must remain together as one big group so everyone can be safer, Bill recommended. Make sense?"

We can be sure they are coming back. Who knows when the last time they’ve eaten was, so if it’s been a while, they could be back as early as tonight. Whatever we need to do to protect ourselves, we need to get busy and do it right now because time’s a wasting.

The men all agreed, and New Hope became a buzzsaw of activity. All tents were moved closer to the activity areas, a new fire ring was created, the consolidation of all of their activities in proximity between the Great Building, the picnic tables, and the latrine and shower area was completed and made more sense for their survival.

After everything was moved, it created a whole new look that everyone would have to get used to, especially when getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

Whiskers had become especially needy living in this new outdoor environment, clinging to Julie and Viv and following them wherever they went, alternating between the tents of both women. Whiskers was in tune with the wildlife surrounding them along the perimeter of New Hope and would never go outside the activity area under any circumstances.

Everyone in the camp gathered around the new fire ring that was now ablaze, and the men of the camp picked up their conversation where they had left off, bringing everyone else up to speed with what they had discussed earlier.

The women were terrified at the thought they may be under attack in the near future, but not like they would have been almost a year ago when their lives were still certain. They had become hardened to the world around them, circumstances making it a priority. Viv knew firsthand how evil could disrupt their daily lives, remembering full well her episode in the Whole Foods that could have ended badly for her, but thanks to the sheriff’s deputies, she escaped a tragic outcome, giving her the strength to overcome an attack on her family in their front yard not long after.

She often wondered about whatever happened to Officers Tipton and Engleart, hoping they were still surviving and navigating their way through this horrific life the world was now providing. She owed a debt of gratitude to them that she knew she could never fully repay. The patrol car that had come through New Hope earlier in the day looked to be a lot like their vehicle, so a part of her thought the worst, causing her sadness thinking about it.

One thing she knew for sure.

It wasn’t a sheriff driving that car and neither was its passenger.

The men decided that any plans to go looking for a vehicle would have to wait.

With the possibility of an attack looming large, they would need every able-bodied man to be at the ready on site.

That night and all of the next day, there was a nervous buzzing around the camp, with people very nervous about an imminent attack, and everyone stayed close within the confines of New Hope. Even the fishing was done exclusively on shore, as no one wanted to be too far out on the lake should they be needed to fight.

The nervous tension in the air was not good for Kate, with a baby on the way. She tried her best not to dwell on the hunters, but she knew she would be an optimum prize for them, considering the extra weight she was beginning to put on with her pregnancy.

Mark kept his eye on her wherever she went in camp, so she knew there were more than her eyes watching out for her, giving her some comfort in a world of uncertainty.

There would be no drinking alcohol by any of the men, at least not until they knew where they stood with the hunters, making sure everyone would be on the alert.

Bob Hawkins wanted it to come sooner rather than later if it was going to come, feeling that the more time that went by, the less diligent his constituency would be. He was the elected lawman for New Hope, and he’d be damned if any of his flock were harmed in any way.

He made sure that everyone got familiar with their weapons and knew how to use them. He instructed those that did not know how to clean them how to do so because a clean weapon was a trusted weapon and could be counted on in your hour of need.

They also agreed to stand watch over the camp throughout the night, with a man taking an hour watch, then relieved by the next man doing the same, continuing through the night.

Jack Price was the spiritual leader of New Hope and led the group prayers before every meal and before they bedded down for the night, and he believed probably more than most that they were protected, and no harm would come to them. Since he was fairly new in his faith, his optimism was strong and his resolve unwavering.

His optimism was not shared by most of the others, as they had been on this Earth longer and seen the ways of the world, but it was shared with the children, and for that reason alone, his attitude was appreciated by all.

The last thing the inhabitants of New Hope wanted was for their kids to live in fear.

It was good for them to be alert to the outside world but growing up being scared of everything around them did them no good at all, so it was natural that the children gravitated around Jack, and he kept them all busy by delegating small chores for the camp, small but necessary chores to keep things running smoothly. In between, he would lead Bible studies and games to be played.

In the back of Bill’s mind, he thought a great deal about the army base underneath Denver International Airport and the resources they possessed, wishing he could get his hands on one of those MRAPs, which would put them in a whole different category regarding protection.

A big part of him wished the soldiers had agreed to take the Price family so they would be in a secure location, even though he didn’t have much hope that they were even in existence now, but another part of him felt an allegiance to his new neighbors and he couldn’t imagine leaving them behind. They were all in this together, and all of them would survive this new threat from the hunters if they worked together and kept their heads on straight.

If America were to continue, it would be because of small communities like New Hope that sprung up across the land, incorporating the same frontier spirit our ancestors had shown when traversing across the Rocky Mountains and settling in the West.

Bill knew there had to be more just like them, good people banding together and surviving the best way they knew how, without resorting to hunting down their neighbors and eating them, and maybe one day they could come together as one. That was Bill’s hope for the future, and up until this latest scare from the hunters, that hope was alive and well in his heart and his actions.

The hunters would be nothing more than a momentary setback if Bill had anything to say about it. His belief was if they came for them, New Hope should show them no mercy and extinguish the threat immediately, meaning they should all be killed with extreme prejudice. There was no room for mercy in this new world and none should be given, especially to those with the intent of killing those in New Hope and eating them.

Though they were not technically zombies, it was paramount they were treated as if they were, because they had acquired the taste for human flesh, and their appetites would not be sated by normal food. Eventually, they would turn on the community and begin their old habits again, and New Hope could not afford to have a killer amongst them.

The night after the hunters had made their appearance and the camp had transformed itself, everyone gathered after dinner around the new fire ring, as was their custom, but now a roll call was done before everyone began socializing, as it was done first thing after breakfast in the morning and would continue to be done without fail from that point on.

"Tonight, we are going to begin our night watch, with the adult male members of New Hope standing guard, each for an hour, continuing until sunrise, and everyone for tonight’s watch has been notified, so the rest of us can sleep peacefully, which is the whole point.

This will be the new way we do things around here, and it will continue until we are sure the threat is gone. No one leaves the perimeter of the camp unless you are fishing on the lake or hunting, especially the children. We have to insist that everyone follows this rule for all of us to be safe. If you are outside the perimeter and run into trouble, chances are we will not get to you in time to save you, so if you break the rules, know that you are gambling with your life. Understood?" asked Bob Hawkins.

Everyone in the camp acknowledged Bob and went about their socializing, thinking about what Bob Hawkins had just said to them, and incorporating it into their conversations. All were on board with the new way things would be done, and everybody would do whatever was asked of them to contribute to the well-being of the camp as a rule.

Bob and Viv had each other to lean on, as did Mark and Kate, Brian and Rocky, and just about everyone else in New Hope had that someone, even Jack had the kids, but the one person in the camp that was all alone was Julie Price. Though she missed her husband every day since he’d been gone, she never missed him as much as she did that night.

After everyone had finally gone to bed after extinguishing the fire, it was Julie alone in her tent with Whiskers, but he could not give Julie the comfort that she needed, so she lay alone in her sleeping bag, sailing off in her mind to happier times when she and Paul would laugh and talk halfway through the night, with Paul making her giggle like a little girl at the funny things he would say to her. He always had a captive audience in Julie and loved to make her laugh, and it was no hard feat to bring her to tears from laughter.

When it was time to sleep, he always put his arm under her neck so she could breathe him in, knowing she was protected from everything out in the great big world that could ever hurt her, but now he was gone.

Jack had told her about the time on the couch with his dad and his dad’s wish for Jack to relay to his mother how much she was loved by him, and it crumbled her. It also gave her solace to know that Paul was in heaven waiting for her, and she would someday be with him for eternity, never to be apart again.

This is where she always ended up at night in the throes of slumber, enabling her to go to sleep and dream of him, always with a tear in her eye and a song in her heart. It was Paul’s favorite song, Dream a Little Dream of Me, and he used to sing it to Julie in her ear.

Tonight was different, however, because the threat of a horrible death was something the whole camp faced, and she being the most vulnerable beside the children, it would be Julie that would be the easiest prey. She understood this without anyone having to tell her, which is why they made sure Julie’s tent was the closest to the inside of the group of tents banded together.

Everyone had the responsibility of watching out for themselves and their children, but they also kept an eye out for her.

Julie was starting to come around, and there were moments she could even be seen laughing at something in camp, taking her away from her inner misery, even if for a moment, and it was wonderful to see her smile. She was beginning to let her guard down and see how beautiful life is beyond her pain and suffering, and most of all, her loneliness.

Whiskers had turned out to be a Godsend for her. Even though the cat loved Viv too, he gravitated more toward Julie, maybe because he knew she needed him more than Viv did.

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Bill Sigler and his family hadn’t eaten for days, and their stomachs were rumbling. Their last kill was 2 weeks prior; a homeless guy not more than skin and bones because he had not eaten for a while himself.

Most everyone had died off, either from being hunted by the hunters or from starvation and dehydration. The sick died soon after the EMP struck, cutting off their ventilators and dialysis machines, and the diabetics had no insulin to keep them alive because it went bad with no refrigeration.

The ones that lived longer than a month were of hearty stock, and they foraged through every store and house they could find for food and water. There were still a few people left, but they were few and far between and got good at avoiding the hunters, so Bill Sigler’s food supply had begun to dwindle.

He was most worried about the General. If he had not found that camp at Cherry Creek State Park, it was a sure bet the General and his two soldiers would be cutting Bill and his family up into steaks.

Bill was cooking up one of the two guys on the grill that tried to ambush him when the General pulled up to his house with his men. Had Bill not offered them a place at his table, they probably would have killed him and his family right then and there, then proceeded to eat the two men Bill had killed, cutting the family up for later.

Bill was a smooth