Spiritual Warfare

“This is where you’ll sleep,” Adam said and opened the door to a cell.

“It works,” Roxanne sighed and sat down on the cot. Adam stayed standing at the entrance. “Is there something I have to do?”

“No,” he shook his head. “If you didn’t catch on earlier, we’ll be calling you Eve from now on. My suggestion to you: Forget your old name. You’ll never be called it again.”

“Never?” she asked and he shook his head again. “But…”

“Just trust me,” he interrupted. “It’s for your own good as well as ours.”

“Ok,” she sighed and lay down on the cot this time. “Good night.”

“Sleep well,” he said and shut the door to the cell.

Roxanne sighed and stared up at the ceiling. It was her first night under a roof since the war started a month ago. It seemed like so much longer. Her father’s death made her stomach fall. She had no doubt that her mother and her sister were part of the Infected now. The thought brought terrible feelings on her and she pulled out her small pocket Bible.

“One day I’ll get a bigger one,” she muttered to herself.

She opened to a random Psalm and the last thing she remembered was reading ‘Amen’ before falling asleep.

++

The next morning, she was woken by a hand on her mouth. Her eyes shot open and Sarah put a finger to her lips. Roxanne nodded and followed Sarah out of the cell on their toes. She wanted to ask what was wrong but knew it was best not to say anything. Then they started to descend the stairs slowly and a foul stench reached Roxanne’s nose and she almost gagged.

She knew that smell.

Hiding behind a wall was the whole crew and Sarah and Roxanne joined them. Michael was glaring at Adam as he loaded his gun. Adam was pushing guns into people’s hands and Roxanne nearly panicked when a 410 shotgun was pushed into hers. It had been years since she shot a gun and now was not the time when she wanted to revisit that day. She accidentally shot her father’s foot.

Adam was making weird hand signals and she began to panic as everyone started to move out. Sarah – now significantly kinder to Roxanne than before – put a hand on her back and led her forward. They rounded a corner and there in the middle of their food, were ten Infected. Roxanne felt her knees go weak as she watched them ransack what food they had scrounged together.

Adam was counting down with his fingers and everyone was aiming their guns. Trying to remember exactly where to put the gun, she did the same. When he lowered his final finger, everyone fired. Three Infected fell but the other seven scattered.

“Go, go, go!” Adam yelled and Michael was the first out, yelling and shooting his gun like a mad man.

Roxanne let her adrenaline take over and ran out after them. She aimed and shot but only hit one Infected out of all of them. After all the Infected were dead, Noah and Moses went out to find the weak wall in the prison and everyone else gathered around the food.

“This will all have to be thrown out,” Adam sighed, kicking an open can.

“We worked hard for all of this,” Sarah said, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

“We’ll just have to find some more,” Adam muttered but his eyes weren’t on the food.

Roxanne followed his gaze and in walked a stranger. Adam lifted his gun and aimed it at the person’s heart. The person was still in shadow, though, and soon the person started to laugh.

“Very good,” the person said and a man walked into the light.

He was the epitome of good looks. He had black hair that framed a pale white face and sharp blue eyes. He was observing each gun pointed at him with great interest. Then his eyes landed on Roxanne and his eyes flashed.

“You have a new girl,” he observed.

“What are you doing here?” Adam demanded.

“I just came to send you a warning,” the man answered and picked up a piece of destroyed food. “Where are Carl and Ian?” Roxanne looked at Adam, confused. Adam looked furious. “Oh! That’s right! They’re with me, aren’t they?”

A strange anger burned for this man in Roxanne and she cocked her gun. His head snapped to her and he grinned, showing brilliant white teeth.

“Are you going to shoot me Roxanne?”

“How do you know my name?” she asked, hesitating for just a second.

“I knew your father,” he said, his eyes shining with an evil happiness.

“Leave!” Adam yelled and even Ruth jumped as the yell echoed in the building.

“I’ll leave,” the man said, slowly walking back. “But I will be back. I will have your soul, Dallas.”

The man disappeared and Adam lowered his gun, his chest heaving with suppressed rage. Roxanne was shaken herself and put the safety on her 410.

“What now?” Ruth asked as Noah and Moses came running back.

“We didn’t find anything,” Noah panted.

“Really?” Adam snapped. “Well Lucifer just dropped by to say hello!”

Noah froze. “He did?”

Adam rolled his eyes and ran up the stairs. “Clean that mess up!” he yelled from somewhere in the prison.

“I’ll go talk to him,” Ruth said and followed him.

For the next hour, the rest of them sorted through the food carefully. Whatever had been touched by the Infected had to be picked up with thick Latex gloves and burned in a small fire they started in the center of what was once the cafeteria. As they worked, they tried to figure out how Lucifer had gotten in.

“Is Lucifer really…” Roxanne trailed off, not sure how to finish her question.

“There’s a lot you need to learn about this war, Eve,” Luke sighed. “There’s more to it than people think. Those who are the Infected have lost all ability to speak and act for themselves. They’re controlled by Lucifer and they’re stuck forever until we kill them.”

“Then where do they go?” she whispered.

“We’re choosing to believe in God’s good character and His redemptive spirit,” Luke said after a little while.

“Eve!” Ruth called and Roxanne turned around. “Adam would like to see you in Cell 208.”

Roxanne nodded and went up the stairs in the direction that Ruth pointed. It didn’t take her too long to find Adam’s cell. She observed it before stepping in. There were guns on every surface and bullets in boxes and just by themselves littered every other surface. Some pictures hung on the walls but not many. Adam was sitting on his cot, cleaning one of his shotguns.

“Come on in, Eve,” he said. “We need to talk.”

“About what?” she asked, sitting on an overturned bucket.

“About your further involvement in the Resistance,” he answered. He looked and talked like he was a lot older. “You need a gun that suits you. One that doesn’t have much kick.” She only nodded, not sure where he was going with this. “This is an AR-15,” he said, gesturing at the black gun in his hands. “She’s yours.” Roxanne took the assault rifle carefully. “The safety is on and it is always loaded. Make sure you keep it loaded. You never know when they’ll attack.”

“Ok,” Roxanne whispered and Adam gestured for her to leave.