In the Name of the Father
Prologue
He had come from the north, from City 23. He was to be relocated to City 17 but somehow he was able to escape under the cover of night and make it out into the countryside. Nobody saw him arrive in the little hamlet of Ravenholm; not even the guards could claim to have sensed any form of movement in the night.
The morning after this mysterious man's entrance, a Sunday, the people of Ravenholm found him in the town center, ringing a bell and shouting for all that could hear to come to the church if they want to be saved. Many were confused. There is no church here, many thought to themselves. Who needs one anyway?
But still, others were interested, and a woman came up to the man and asked him "Where should we go? We don't have a church."
And the man responded, "A church can be anywhere as long as it is used in the name of God. Follow." He turned and started walking to one of the nearby hills on the outskirts of Ravenholm. The woman went after him quickly, but no one else cared to go with him. He's one of those men who refused to let go of their religion, thought the people of Ravenholm, even in a time when humanity seems to be on the brink of extinction. The residents thought maybe he'd leave with the woman if he was ignored.
But the man did not leave.
Instead, he and the woman walked together, crying out "All Will Be Saved in God's Name!" Many of the townspeople became quite enraged with this. They walked on the opposite side of the street whenever the man and the woman passed. They looked down if one of the two tried to make eye contact. For all intents and purposes, the man and the woman were not there.
At least, not until a family joined the two on the hill the next Sunday morning. When the man rang his bell, there were a few eye witnesses who saw Karl, his wife Sonya, and their ten-year old child, Michael, leave their house in the town square and head east, the direction of the so-called church. All of Ravenholm talked about it the rest of the day. But it was soon forgotten. Ravenholm was a busy trading town and the residents couldn't be bothered dealing with some who didn't follow a normal schedule.
The next week there were three more people on the hill. And the week after that a group of five was there.
The remaining residents of the town began to lose some of their earlier agitations towards the religious mystery man and became more or less curious about what he was teaching. There were still some who claimed not to need religion; that they had gotten along just fine in this terrible world without some omnipresent being to guide them.
As the man rang his bell that next Sunday, almost all of Ravenholm moved towards the church as a man. Everyone had heard many great things about this man, this Father, and what he had done to the people who had come to the church so far. He was a great leader and had brought hope to those who went to his church. There wasn't much known about this man, but this much was certain.
He was a new beginning for Ravenholm.
He was a light in the darkness.
His name was Father Grigori.