all god's orphans

Sign after sign was letting everyone know how close they weren’t to Denver, Colorado. 589 Miles to Denver. 571 Miles to Denver. Way too many Miles to Denver. Millie had never been to Denver, but she had always wanted to go. She had heard it was nicknamed “The Mile High City”, and even though she knew it wasn’t possible, in her mind she imagined a city atop a mountain so tall and steep that you could stand at the top and see clear to California on one side, and almost to New York City on the other. She had never been this close. Only five hundred or so miles, she told herself. She wondered if she would ever see Denver. Or anywhere else.

Sarah had told her all about the underground bunker. It was called Valhalla and it was built into an old missile launch silo. Different quarters were arrayed around the center of the shaft, radiating out into the earth. They were set into the interior wall of the silo and there was a circular walkway that went in a kind of spiral from the top to the bottom. Her dad had showed her pictures. They would have their own apartment, and the center shaft formed a sort of atrium they filled with fake sunlight, but it looked real enough. Like you had simply stepped out onto your balcony to talk to your neighbor across the way. It made Millie think of tenement era Manhattan the way Sarah described it, but she didn’t want to be the one to dash the girl’s dream.

Wes was still at the radio, trying to contact the extract team that would come from Valhalla’s secret location to get them and bring them to safety. All he could get was static. His head was starting to hurt from staring at these controls all day. He needed a break. Just to have something else to read, he flipped open the general’s pilfered briefcase and perused the contents. There were notes regarding various shipments and camp locations, or maybe possible locations. It was difficult to tell. He saw scraps of notes that seemed to be part of a speech he was writing. A lot of it was missing, but the gist seemed to be something along the lines of a new future, and a new leader. He’d scratched out ‘ruler’ in wrote ‘leader’ instead. It gave Wes a chill to see that. He was almost glad the rest of the speech wasn’t there.

He had taken a look at Grey’s letter and had nothing to say about it. He agreed with Brian. It could be anything from anyone. It didn’t seem genuine at all. There was a map of the United Sates highway system. It wasn’t nearly as detailed as the road atlas that Raymond had found at a truck stop, but there were several indications where there were supposedly “enemy forces”. Wes didn’t know if that meant US troops, or something else, but there were several places located around Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. They were distributed seemingly at random, and with a few exceptions like Colorado Springs or Omaha, they were in the absolute middle of nowhere.

Inside a spiral bound notebook, Wes found cryptic notes regarding “broadcasts”, but there was little that made any sense. The first few pages were lists of Bible verses and beside each one was a date. The ones already past were marked through with a line.

“Does anyone know today’s date?” Wes asked. Raymond looked at his watch.

“It’s the fourteenth.”

“Where’s your Bible?” Wes called prompting Raymond to turn and shoot him a confused look from the driver’s seat. “Eyes on the road, hoss.” Wes admonished him. Without looking, Raymond reached up into a cubbyhole above his head and pulled out a worn, leather Bible. Wes thought better of asking him to toss it over and instead got out of his seat and retrieved it. Consulting the list, he turned to John chapter fourteen, verses two through fifteen, thinking some clue would be revealed.

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. 15 “If you love me, keep my commands.

That shed no light whatsoever. Wes checked the list again but nothing made any more sense than it had a few minutes ago.

“Brian!” He needed help from someone who knew about this freaky shit. Brian sat at the small table across from him. Kite slept on the couch with her head in Grey’s lap and Millie was staring at the coded letter, willing some new clue into existence. Sarah stared out of the window, watching the strangely flat world roll by. She had never seen such a landscape.

“What are all these?” Brian asked, looking at the list of Bible verses.

“I was hoping you could tell me.” Replied Wes. “Are any of these significant in any way?” Brian took a second look at each verse listed. He shook his head.

“Not that I know of.” He said, which made him wonder why that was. He read the passage Wes offered him, and of course he remembered hearing it, but it was such a strange section to be citing. There was something else strange about the verses. “This is weird.” He turned the notebook back so Wes could see it. “They all start with thirteen or fourteen.” Wes looked confused.

“Is that not normal?” Brian shook his head. “Oh. I just assumed they were in some kind of order like that.” Brian laughed.

“You’re such a heathen.” He teased Wes. “Usually you’ll have just a few and they’ll be from all over the Bible. Written like this, it just looks kind of weird.” Something blinked on in Wes’ head.

“Wait a minute.” He said, turning back to the radio. “This may just be the result of trying to get someone to answer me on this damn thing, but those might be HAM frequencies.” He set the dial to 14.215.00 and listened. There was nothing. He scrolled around in the band for a few minutes, the eerie bending of the sound waves creeped Brian out something fierce, but there was nothing. Wes shrugged. “I really thought I was onto something there.”

“You might be.” Brian reassured him. “Just keep checking it.”