Page 5 of The White Rider
“They’d steal everything and kill everyone unless they had a use for them. Some of them were women they had their eye on, and some were people Isaiah wanted. They’d watch them and report back to Isaiah’s people. He’s been on thelookout for doctors and scientists. I think we all know why, but the people going out for him think it’s for a vaccine and a cure.”
People had been stupid before the apocalypse, but man, had the end of the world made people really stupid and evil.
“Leif made a vaccine, and those people that came on the radio when we were in Florida didn’t trust it. If they were so desperate for it that they were willing to murder and kidnap people, then why aren’t they questioning my father?”
All the angels started laughing. I didn’t find this even the slightest bit funny. I knew that trying to explain these kinds of people was a fool’s errand, but after watching people turn into Rage Heads and eat people, I would think they’d be lining up for the vaccine.
“They know I made it in Mexico. These people trust nothing made in Mexico or China. If my lab were in China, they’d be screaming even louder about it. Some of them think China is somehow responsible for the Rage Head mutation, and they did it on purpose. Let’s just say your father stokes those flames.”
I could remember back when conspiracy theories used to be this thing you’d overhear from that one drunk person ranting in the back of a bar. Things had changed now, and vast swathes of people started believing crazy things. Any story that would explain the events that led up to this was bound to be crazy. Tainted water supplements by a company named after Satan was weird, but so was China doing this on purpose. What would they stand to gain from it? Almost everyone was dead, and those that remained had bombed the world.
“How do you convince a conspiracy theory nut what the actual truth is?” I asked.
I certainly didn’t know the answer. I’d gotten into several fights with them online. You could drop a peer-reviewed study on them, and they’d still trust some yahoo doing YouTube videos in their basement.
“They aren’t a new thing,” Aeron said. “There didn’t used to be this many of them, but we’ve dealt with these kinds of people almost every time we’ve been called. They can’t be reasoned with. If we go through with a trial to prosecute these people, it’ll be a total shit show. You should just let me kill them all. They’re all rapists, murderers, and wife beaters. Do we really need them in the new society we’re going to have to build?”
“We’re better than that, Aeron,” Asher said. “People are going to be looking to us once Isaiah is dead. Rebuilding society is my domain. I need people working with me because they want to, not because they fear me after we kill all of Isaiah’s followers. No, we need civilized public trials, with due process, so everyone knows things are going back to normal, and you aren’t going to get shot in the head just because of a difference of opinion.”
I got why that was needed. I really did. But I was alsosuperangry about all the things my father’s minions had gotten up to while I was in the coma. Still, if we held the trial, they’d at least be punished in some way. That had to be enough for now.
“There’s only five of us. How are we going to arrest them, and where would we put them until the trial? Don’t they need lawyers? There’s a lot of people out there. Are there even that many lawyers left in the world?” I asked.
“Asher, seriously. War is my business. These lunatics are armed to the teeth. Before all this, they stocked up on guns and learned to make bullets on YouTube. They were preparing for Doomsday or overthrowing the government. They got their Armageddon, and they think Isaiah is their savior. Even if you got enough people to round them up, they wouldn’t go down without a fight. Innocent people would die. You know I hate risking my soldiers in this kind of battle. Getting them from Florida to D.C. would take time we don’t have. You can’t send your resistance here. They’ll be slaughtered. The choices are either unleash Aeron and kill these people who spent the apocalypse making things worse… or let a lot of innocent people die so you can look better having a trial.”
“A lot of innocent people are going to die no matter what we do,” Leif argued. “Are you willing to let a bunch of abused women become collateral damage?”
“I don’t like it when anyone dies,” Dice said. “It’s just what happens during war. No matter how we play this, innocent people are going to die. I don’t have a solution to how we’re going to neutralize that many followers without letting Aeron loose, and without wiping out what’s left of the military, or sending a bunch of untrained people in for slaughter.”
“Aeron, can’t you just set your whole angel mojo on stun instead of kill? We could knock them out and move them somewhere.”
Aeron wrinkled his nose at me like I just suggested something foul.
“Why would I even know that? I’m not the Horseman of stunning people. I come out to play when people need to die, and I’m good at what I do.”
“There’s no way to test that without killing people and exposing us either,” Asher said. “There has to be a way to save all the captive women and arrest everyone that needs to go on trial.”
“Well, I don’t have any ideas,” Aeron said.
Asher had been an unreasonable asshole about me being here, but not about this. I agreed with everything he'd said. I also agreed with Dice that we’d be sending innocent people to die to round these people up. They weren’t going to go quietly.
“What if their bullet makers disappeared? It can’t be all of them. I would imagine it requires certain tools. Aeron can do his thing in their warehouse, and then we can set it on fire. I’m sure all these people know they have enemies. It wouldn’t be a huge shocker to them if someone here tried to take away their weapons. Isn’t that the whole reason they stockpiled before all this? The government was going to take their guns away, right?” I said.
“That could actually work,” Asher said. “There’s a factory they took over. Even though they have to be running low on supplies by now, they still shoot their guns in the air and waste bullets like it’s not the apocalypse whenever Isaiah shows his face. If we can hit the warehouse after one of those stupid gun salutes, we’ll have a better chance of rounding them up. Not bad, Nephilim.”
Was that a compliment? He couldn’t be bothered with my name or nickname, but he admitted my idea could work. It was better thannot bad.These four assholes would have been at a stalemate unless they formulated an idea that could work.
I liked Aeron, Leif, and Dice. I may even love them. I’d seen some shit since I woke up, but this was my first Antichrist. They’d dealt with countless numbers of them. I could kind of understand this whole kill everyone on my father’s side thing, but I was with Asher and Leif on this.
I couldn’t remember everything, but I remembered a few things. After getting settled into my apartment in Los Angeles, I started volunteering at a battered women's shelter. I met a lot of talented women there. That was how the whole roller derby league formed. Then we all moved to softball.
We wouldn’t be forming a sports team, and I might not even make friends with these women, but I had a duty to them to not set Aeron on them as collateral. I went to court with several of the women I met. I watched several shit-stain abusers get a fine and no jail time for putting their wives or girlfriends in the hospital. It made me so angry. I had a feeling this angel court would hold them accountable for everything.
“When is Isaiah due for another speech on the lawns?” Dice asked.
Asher started laughing.
“He has to go out there a lot more since you took away his access to give radio speeches. I can tell he hates every minute of it. He ran out of shit to say for a while and was just repeating shit, but when you went on the radio and talked about the vaccine and the Rage Heads being dead, he knew he had to address his people a lot more. He knows we are coming for him next. He’s spun several new conspiracy theories, but he has to give speeches to keep people from leaving and seeking out the vaccine, anyway.”
