Them-2 - Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty Nine – Near White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia

Moses casually glanced down at the large gathering spread across the pine-strewn hillside below him. There were well over two hundred people standing with their hands in the air as if surrendering to some unseen enemy. They were not surrendering though; they were raising their hands high in worship to Father Moses, the man who would deliver them from death.
Moses absorbed the worship like a hungry sponge. He took deep breaths and inhaled the stench of the unwashed bodies deep into his lungs. His keen eyes moved back and forth through the adoring crowd. He was amazed by the glossy eyed looks of reverence and silent petitions of praise. He felt like Jesus during the Sermon on the Mount.
Why not? Moses thought. Was he any different than me? God chose Jesus to deliver his people from sin and God chose me to deliver his people from bondage. The thought excited him. Moses was not a good enough title for him. He should be known as, The Deliverer.
“Take it slow,” Moses mused. “Build your base, expand their needs, make them beg for mercy and salvation.”
Moses knew that this was only the beginning. Even as he watched, more people wandered in to join the growing crowd of worshipers. He had already spotted several tender young girls who would make perfect bedmates… er, young priestesses or acolytes.
Moses glanced to his right to where twelve chosen people were standing. Eight of them were long time congregation members and four of them had been recently converted. They would be his vanguard, his recruiting force.
Moses raised his hands in the air and pointed at the twelve people. “Behold,” he spoke in a loud theatrical voice that echoed down the hillside. “Behold my apostles.” He halted to make sure the attention was back on him before continuing. “Blessed are they for they have chosen to spread the sacred word. They will go forth and succor your brothers and sisters and bring them into the bountiful fold of believers. They will spread the true gospel and the word will protect them.”
“Praise be to God!” one of the congregation yelled.
“Praise be to Lord Moses our deliverer,” one of his apostles answered.
Right on time, Moses thought. That Aaron, or Albert, whatever the hell his name is, will go a long way in my service. I shall call him Alpha.
“Praise be to Lord Moses,” the crowd echoed.
Moses turned and walked over to the twelve Apostles. A dour faced man holding a cardboard box followed him. Within the box was twelve small bottles of the slimy green goo they had collected on their travels.
Moses stood in front of the first Apostle and removed a bottle from the box and held it up. “Take you this holy water and praise be the name of Moses,” he said in a loud voice. “I send you forth among the unbelievers to spread the gospel and convert them to the fear of the Lord and to eternal salvation. What say you?”
“Praise be the name of Moses,’ the man replied.
“Henceforth, you will be called Alpha,” Moses continued. “Alpha as in the beginning for you are the first among the Apostles.” Moses turned and faced the growing crowd. “I give you Alpha,” he yelled, first among the apostles.”
The crowd yelled Alpha in a chorus of voices.
Moses moved to the next person in line, a female. She wasn’t particularly good looking and stank to high heaven but Moses knew she was just about as loyal as a loony could be. “Take you this holy water and praise the name of Moses,” he stated. “I send you out among the unbelievers to spread the gospel and convert them to the fear of the Lord and to eternal salvation. What say you?”
“Praise be the name of Moses,’ she replied.
“Henceforth, you will be called Beta,” Moses stated. “Second only to Alpha among the Apostles.”
Moses continued on down the line of twelve until he came to the last one, another female. It was Beth, his long time squeeze. Moses had grown tired of her demands, especially with so many young tender girls to pick from. He went through the ritual as he had done with the others, although Beth was less than enthusiastic about leaving the congregation. She also knew she had no choice in the matter.
When he was finished Moses turned to the congregation and spoke. “I send forth these twelve Apostles, from Alpha to Kilon, in the name of our Lord God. They have been tasked to spread God’s holy word and to fill His church with believers. Let them go, male and female, let them go give praise be to God and fear his mighty hand.” His final words were words of dismissal.
The congregation burst out with praises for God and for Moses. Moses turned and walked over to where only the Apostles could hear him. “Use the stuff in the bottles to make converts. Just a little dab on their forehead, like a blessing, should do the trick. If the ants show up, don’t fear. They’ll either pass you up because of the green shit like they have in the past, or you’re dead meat anyway. You all have your territories to cover. Any questions?”
Moses could tell that Beth wanted to say something or beg again but, as usual, she didn’t have the courage to face him. He watched as they each took up the staffs he had provided for each of them, then they disappeared into the woods.
He had named them from the phonetic alphabet but took considerable liberties in doing so. After all, who would follow an apostle named hotel or echo, or indio? He was very pleased with the day’s work. They had made good time from middle Kentucky to White Sulfur Springs in West Virginia.
The Greenbriar Resort turned out to be a good choice. At first, before the ants showed up, they hid in the woods nearby living off the hoard of can goods they had collected along the way. As soon as the ants started terrorizing the area and killing people, he made his move. The first convert was the assistant manager of the Resort. As soon as the fool realized that Moses had the secret to keep the ants from devouring him, he became an enthusiastic convert.
The manager knew all the secrets of the Resort, including those areas not usually shown to the general public. On top of that, he was a shrewd man and could easily see through Moses’ scam. His name was Bert and he was a huge black man who got his position more from using his race card than any superior abilities.
However, when it came to running a scam, no one was better than Moses was. He realized that the secret of the slime would eventually get out, so he began to make adjustments to his inside team. Burt was the first member of the inner circle. Moses had him select seven other very large and very powerful men and two beefy women. They were issued the few weapons allowed among the congregation, ostensibly for protection from non-converts, but actually to control the others. They became the elite of his order, his hand picked Saints.
Over the next five months the congregation grew to well over two thousand. The Apostles, or recruiters, were steadily drawing them in. Lucky for Moses, they were visited occasionally by the marauding ants and each time he was rewarded with a new batch of the green slime. A few of the converts, noting how the inner circle, or the Saints, was becoming more and more outrageous in their actions and demands, protested to Moses. A few of the fathers among them were incensed that Moses and several of his henchmen had taken their thirteen and fourteen year old daughters into the, inner circle.
Moses settled the situation with a burst of insight. He noticed that the smell from the slime begin to wear off after several weeks, especially when he had to water it down. For four weeks he pretended to give the holy water to two of the fathers, but daubed their foreheads with water made from a green colored fungus. The very next day, he started telling the congregation that the Lord was displeased with the two men, for they had spoken ill against the Lord’s Prophet, Moses.
Moses forbid the congregation to pass judgement on the two men. “God shall punish the wicked and the transgressors,” he told the congregation. “Justice is mine sayeth the Lord.”
True to his hopes, eight days later several ants out foraging entered the resort area. Moses gathered the people together to offer food to the ants. He chose the two men to deliver the food and when they balked, he shouted and cursed them.
“God has withdrawn his protection from these sinners!” Moses pointed at the two men. He glanced around the congregation to judge their response. They were withdrawn and shocked by his words, especially the men’s wives and remaining children. “In the name of Lord God, I withdraw my protection and pray that each of you will depart from their presence, for they are an abomination in the eyes of the Lord.’
The crowd immediately let out a wail of lamentation and pulled away from the cursed men. Even the wife of one of the men pulled back with her children, the other wife and two children remained with them. They looked wide-eyed as two huge ants slowly crawled over to where Moses stood, not far from where they themselves waited. The ants smelled Moses, hesitated for a few moments, and then moved towards the small knot of five people.
As the ants approached, the wife who had stayed screamed and pulled her smallest child away, then ran for the safety of the larger congregation. The ants smelled the older boy then turned to the two men. Their antennas swept over the men, and then they seemed to hesitate as if confused. They came closer and touched them with their antennas again.
Suddenly, the ants went into a frenzy of ripping and tearing. They grabbed the men with their powerful mandibles and started slicing them up like dicing vegetables. Bits and pieces and blood splattered the ground and coated the boy standing next to them. Evidently the ants were in such a mad frenzy, and the blood so overpowered the smell of the slime, they attacked the boy also. Within seconds it was over. All that remained was a pile of limbs, guts, gore, and blood. The ants took two of the larger chunks and headed off towards the woods. Everyone knew they would send other ants back to collect the remainder.
The congregation was in shock. Moses gauged their mood and realized the time was ripe. “I warned you that these men sinned against the Lord,” he screamed in his best prophetic voice. “Their sin was visited upon the son when God withdrew his protection. Witness you the power of the Lord God.”
The congregation went down on their knees in mass. They yelled out, “Moses! Moses! Moses!”
“Good move,” Burt grinned, as Moses entered the lobby of the resort. “I don’t think there’ll be too many more complaints about our special arrangement around here.”
“Keep that in mind,” Moses replied, emphasizing Burt’s position. “The Lord punishes those who blaspheme and sin against Him, even Apostles and Saints.”
Burt knew exactly what Moses was saying, but he had no intention of going against the top man. He was happy with second place. It was much better than what he had before, bowing down to the sniveling resort manager and sweating over the petty graft he made on the sideline. Besides, he did not have Moses’ charisma and gift of gab. He even found himself half believing the shit Moses spread from his high pulpit.
Moses refused to let the congregation listen to any news broadcast, not that there were many stations left on the air. He had to filter each group of people as they joined to see what they knew of world events and especially to find out if the government was making any headway towards eliminating the ants. When the government had been wiped out in Washington, he jumped up and down with glee and when he learned that the military was pulling back to select locations, his grin spread from ear to ear.
With the government almost non-existent and the military bottled up, he had free reign to do as he pleased. No one was powerful enough to stop him from building his empire. Each night he sat down and made copious notes on food sources, gas reserves, even population densities after the ants had savaged the area. He sent out foraging parties led by one or more of his Saints to collect can goods and other non-perishables the ants had overlooked. They also collected weapons and ammunition and other items that Moses knew they might eventually need if rival gangs of survivors or quasi government forces ever threatened them.
One thing that did bother him was food resources. With the number of people or converts steadily growing, it was becoming more difficult to feed them all. While can goods were abundant, most other food sources had been devoured by the ants, including livestock, wild game, even grain in the fields. The can goods will not last forever and when the ants ran out of natural food sources, what then? Would his luck run out? These were thoughts he preferred to put off for later.
Moses was happy and secure. As a youngster he had read a lot of science fiction. His favorite type of reading was post apocalyptic stories, stories about the end of the world usually caused by some virus or atom bomb or space aliens. He learned a lot about survival from reading those old books and he had been making plans to implement a system of control that would survive and thrive. He also knew that each book or series usually had a hero and a villain, but that was bullshit. There would be no heroes after the ants. If the ants stayed around, and it sure in hell looked like they weren’t going anywhere soon, there would only be survivors.
“Heroes,” Moses mused. “I guess you could say I am a hero. I’ve saved a lot of people. Of course, the hero doesn’t usually go around killing the dads and raping the daughters, but what defines a hero? Who defines a hero? Hard times call for hard measures. And, isn’t the protector allowed certain rewards, certain benefits for the overall good he does? Cattle! People are like cattle anyway, or even sheep. Can’t get much dumber than sheep. They deserve to get shorn occasionally.”
The thought of people being like cattle rattled around in Moses’ mind. We eat cattle? The idea of cannibalism would help to solve some of his food shortages, in the future. He wasn’t too squeamish about it but he’d have to prepare his congregation well in advance. It took a lot to overcome concepts built up over centuries of social indoctrination.