Part four is ready to go! Read and review please. Enjoy. -Randall Flagg2
Ed and everybody else in the mind continued to dig in the mines for quite some time. She paused to wipe her forehead. "Phew. Edward is tired." she said to herself. "Sure hope we get a break soon." As if to answer her request, a Matthew Straker's voice called out "Lunch break! Everybody return their tools and take a seat in the cafeteria!" At the mentioning of food, Ed dashed down the hallway and dropped her pick axe at the entrance where the others were depositing their work tools. She followed the other people into a large cafeteria where a large table that took up the entire middle of the room. At the end of the table sat John Mathers. Ed looked at the table's contents and was disappointed to see that only thing on it were loaves of bread. At each of the seats at the table was a small glass of whine. "Edward could go for a cheeseburger right now." she said. That was the wrong thing to say as Luke Rawon's fist came flying towards her and sent her sprawling onto the ground.
"Stupid hellbound mocker! You will take in the blood and body of your savior whether you want to or not!!" he growled. Ed whimpered and rubbed her face where a bruise was starting to form. Rawson grabbed her up with his lanky arm and forced her to her feet. "Take a seat. It doesn't matter where." Ed promptly sat down next to Ray. Satisfied, Rawson walked off and sat down near the end of the table where Straker and Mark were seated. Ed nudged the boy.
"Why are we getting fed so little Ray Ray?"
"This is all that we ever eat. Mathers only allows us to eat this stuff because the apostles ate it at the last supper. The bread was said to represent the savior's body, and the wine was to represent his blood. He said that by taking his blood and body into yourself, you take salvation into you. He never lets us eat any other food. I haven't had a hotdog in a year." he explained. Ed figured it was better than nothing. Besides, she was starving at the moment. She noticed everybody else had bowed their heads in silent prayer. Not wanting to get punched again, Ed bowed her head.
John whispered "Dear Lord, we thank thee for bestowing on us your love and mercy. We have shown you favor and you provide food and shelter for us. We pray that these people who are outlanders and sinners in your eyes may see the light as we have before them." When he said these lines, everybody shivered as if a draft had swept through the room. "May these ones who were blinded be educated in your ways so that they shall not be sent into the darkness where the evil one lurks. We end in saying our thanks to you, oh Lord everlasting. Amen." John ceased. Everybody began to eat the bread. Ed took two pieces and bit into them. They were warm and soft, just the way bread should be. It could have been better with butter or jam, but she had a feeling that asking for that could result in another blow. She ate silently, glancing around the room. Nobody was speaking. John and his followers were watching everybody else the way a hawk watches it's prey. She lifted the small glass that held the purple-pink whine and tasted it. It was sweet, like fruit juice. She happily gulped it down.
"Ed get seconds?" she asked. Mark Calhoun filled her glass again. Ed drank it greedily. After a few more slices of bread, she laid back in her chair. "Ed is stuffed." she said, letting out a burp. John and his cohorts stood up.
"Back to work! Lets go! Scoot!" Everybody stood up and began to walk back to the mine. Ed wished that she could wait for her stomach to settle, but arguing might not be a good idea. In the mines, Ed overheard John speaking with Matthew Straker.
"Your sure it will only take another day?"
"Yes I'm sure. Once we are able to harvest the water from the planet's core, we will be able to rule the new Jerusalem." Mathers whispered. "We shall worship the holy one day and night and the light of god shall be our guide."
"Yes. And the dogs, murderers, thieves, prostitutes, witches and wizards shall be outside where they belong." Straker said with a grin. Ed didn't like the sound of that.
"Just one more day and we shall have what we need." The two of them turned and walked off to patrol the area. Ed continued working until she felt the need to relieve her system. Nervously, she tapped Mathers on the shoulder.
"What?" The response was emotionless and calm.
"Nature is calling Edward." she said.
"Bathroom's down that way." he said, pointing towards a rusty door. Ed went in and relieved herself. "Edward wonders how Spike person and Jet person are." she said to nobody. "Ed hopes bebop is okay." She got off the toilet and stepped out of the stall to see Ray writing on one of the walls. "Hi Ray Ray!" she beamed.
"Hey Ed. I didn't know you were here." he said.
"What is Ray Ray doing?"
"Just expressing my opinions about Mathers on the wall here." he said. Ed looked at what Ray had been writing on the walls and fell over giggling. All sorts on insults had been written on the wall about John Mathers and his men. There were also some crude caricatures of them as well. Underneath a picture of John himself, were the words "false prophet". Ed looked at the picture again and giggled even harder when she saw John had been given devil's horns, a goatee and a pitchfork. Ray laughed with her. After awhile they settled down.
"Let's get back to work. They'll get mad if we don't hurry up." Ray said through his laughter. They went out the door and resumed digging.
Back on the bebop, Spike, Faye and Jet were searching on Ed's computer for information. There had been a lot more information on Mathers' cult than they had expected. Originally they had simply been missionaries who had spread god's word, protesting about many things that people normally enjoyed. Then they had begun to get violent and began hacking into people's homes and kidnapping them for their own sick purposes. Again the data said that they were located on Calisto, but Spike hadn't seen anything except the cross with somebody mounted on it. "This is pointless. We've been searching for an hour and we haven't found anything on them." Faye growled.
"Calm down. We'll find something sooner or later." Spike sighed. Then an idea came to him. Maybe if he tried searching for Mathers' home planet he could find some relations to the guy. If he could, maybe they would have some data on him and his men. Spike searched the net for information regarding people John had been related to. Three people came up. One of them, the guys mother, was dead. The first one was John's father, Reginald Mathers. The other living one was a friend of Johns. A woman named Sonya Rockwell. Both were located on Ganymede. Spike got up.
"I'm going out to look for them. See you guys later." he began to walk to the hangar when Jet stopped him.
"Your not going alone this time Spike. I really want to be in on this one."
"Same here lunkhead." Faye chimed in. "You won't get anywhere without us."
"Alright, you guys can come with me but-" Before Spike could finish, he felt something tug on his pant-leg. He looked down to see Ein pulling gently on him. "You want to come too Ein? You want to pay back those guys for what they did?" Ein barked as if to say "Hell yeah!". Spike turned around and started for the control room instead. Soon the bebop was on its way to Ganymede.
That night.
Ed couldn't sleep, despite how tired she was from all that digging. After they had been told that the work day was finished, they had been led back to the dormitories for the night. On the way back, Ed had seen Mathers stop Ray, saying he wanted to talk to him. That had been over three hours ago and Ray hadn't come back. "Where is Ray Ray?" Ed thought to herself. She was just about to fall asleep when the door banged open. Before Ed could react, she was dragged out of the room roughly. Much to her surprise, nobody woke up. She was forced into the nature room and led towards another door. She was thrust into a white room where John Mathers sat a desk.
"You have brought her Matthew?"
"Yes. She shall be punished for her mockery immediately." Straker took a key out of his pocket and opened a small cabinet in the wall. Ed couldn't see what it was, but she had a feeling it wasn't anything good.
"What has Ed done?" she asked.
"We have security cameras everywhere in this place. We saw the recording of you laughing about the pictures of me in the bathroom. Since you have taken part in another's sin, you will be punished as was your friend. However, since you did not start it like he did, you will not be punished as severly." Before Ed could say anything, Straker shoved her to the ground. As she fell, Straker grabbed the back of her pants, bringing Ed's biker slacks and panties down to her ankles. When she hit the ground, Straker shoved up the back of her tee shirt. Ed was just about to attempt to get up when something whistled through the air and cracked against her back and her rump. Ed shrieked. She turned around to see Straker holding a bullwhip. A look of insane pleasure had covered the man's face. She struggled to get away, but he snapped it again and incredible pain shot up from her rear to the middle of her back. Tears streamed down the hackers face as the whip descended on her again and again, each time making a loud crack, like a rifle. Through a haze of agony, Ed heard John mutter "He who spares the rod, hate their children, but a good father is careful to discipline him." The whipping seemed to go on forever. After what may have been five minutes, Straker stopped. Ed lay there wailing on the ground.
"Get up. I will take you back to your room." he hissed. Ed yanked her underwear and pants up and shakily got to her feet. Straker opened the door and led her out. When Ed stepped into the clearing, she saw something she had failed to notice. In the center of the field where the clearing with the hole was, a large wooden cross had been mounted. Nailed to it was the body of none other than her friend Ray. He was completely naked, his arms nailed to the vertical piece of wood with nails that were the size of railroad spikes. His face was a look of crazed terror, his mouth open in a scream. Blood covered the ground beneath him. Some of it was still dripping from his wrists. Ed was too frightened to scream.
"You didn't hear him because your room door is soundproof. Boy oh boy, did he holler. He died of shock before all the blood ran out of him. Consider yourself lucky. Since he started the sin in the first place, we decided to make him just like Christ." Straker chuckled. Ed wrenched out of his grasp and threw up. Straker grabbed her and led her back to the dorm. He tossed her in like a bag of trash, then locked the door and left.
Ed was horrified. In her life on the bebop, she had seen violence before, but it had been nothing like this. Nobody deserved to die that way. "Ray Ray." Ed muttered. Her control broke and she began to sob. She really wanted to get out of this place. "Spike person, Ein, Faye Faye, Jet person, where are you? Edward needs you." she wept. Ed wept for a long time. She couldn't go to sleep out of fear of the dreams she would have. Ed backed against the wall. "Edward feels so small. Ed is frightened of this place." Ed curled up into the fetal position and began sucking her thumb. She couldn't help it, she was so frightened. Despite her doubts Ed fell asleep, her thumb still corked in her mouth.
Dark eh? Read and review please.
Ed and everybody else in the mind continued to dig in the mines for quite some time. She paused to wipe her forehead. "Phew. Edward is tired." she said to herself. "Sure hope we get a break soon." As if to answer her request, a Matthew Straker's voice called out "Lunch break! Everybody return their tools and take a seat in the cafeteria!" At the mentioning of food, Ed dashed down the hallway and dropped her pick axe at the entrance where the others were depositing their work tools. She followed the other people into a large cafeteria where a large table that took up the entire middle of the room. At the end of the table sat John Mathers. Ed looked at the table's contents and was disappointed to see that only thing on it were loaves of bread. At each of the seats at the table was a small glass of whine. "Edward could go for a cheeseburger right now." she said. That was the wrong thing to say as Luke Rawon's fist came flying towards her and sent her sprawling onto the ground.
"Stupid hellbound mocker! You will take in the blood and body of your savior whether you want to or not!!" he growled. Ed whimpered and rubbed her face where a bruise was starting to form. Rawson grabbed her up with his lanky arm and forced her to her feet. "Take a seat. It doesn't matter where." Ed promptly sat down next to Ray. Satisfied, Rawson walked off and sat down near the end of the table where Straker and Mark were seated. Ed nudged the boy.
"Why are we getting fed so little Ray Ray?"
"This is all that we ever eat. Mathers only allows us to eat this stuff because the apostles ate it at the last supper. The bread was said to represent the savior's body, and the wine was to represent his blood. He said that by taking his blood and body into yourself, you take salvation into you. He never lets us eat any other food. I haven't had a hotdog in a year." he explained. Ed figured it was better than nothing. Besides, she was starving at the moment. She noticed everybody else had bowed their heads in silent prayer. Not wanting to get punched again, Ed bowed her head.
John whispered "Dear Lord, we thank thee for bestowing on us your love and mercy. We have shown you favor and you provide food and shelter for us. We pray that these people who are outlanders and sinners in your eyes may see the light as we have before them." When he said these lines, everybody shivered as if a draft had swept through the room. "May these ones who were blinded be educated in your ways so that they shall not be sent into the darkness where the evil one lurks. We end in saying our thanks to you, oh Lord everlasting. Amen." John ceased. Everybody began to eat the bread. Ed took two pieces and bit into them. They were warm and soft, just the way bread should be. It could have been better with butter or jam, but she had a feeling that asking for that could result in another blow. She ate silently, glancing around the room. Nobody was speaking. John and his followers were watching everybody else the way a hawk watches it's prey. She lifted the small glass that held the purple-pink whine and tasted it. It was sweet, like fruit juice. She happily gulped it down.
"Ed get seconds?" she asked. Mark Calhoun filled her glass again. Ed drank it greedily. After a few more slices of bread, she laid back in her chair. "Ed is stuffed." she said, letting out a burp. John and his cohorts stood up.
"Back to work! Lets go! Scoot!" Everybody stood up and began to walk back to the mine. Ed wished that she could wait for her stomach to settle, but arguing might not be a good idea. In the mines, Ed overheard John speaking with Matthew Straker.
"Your sure it will only take another day?"
"Yes I'm sure. Once we are able to harvest the water from the planet's core, we will be able to rule the new Jerusalem." Mathers whispered. "We shall worship the holy one day and night and the light of god shall be our guide."
"Yes. And the dogs, murderers, thieves, prostitutes, witches and wizards shall be outside where they belong." Straker said with a grin. Ed didn't like the sound of that.
"Just one more day and we shall have what we need." The two of them turned and walked off to patrol the area. Ed continued working until she felt the need to relieve her system. Nervously, she tapped Mathers on the shoulder.
"What?" The response was emotionless and calm.
"Nature is calling Edward." she said.
"Bathroom's down that way." he said, pointing towards a rusty door. Ed went in and relieved herself. "Edward wonders how Spike person and Jet person are." she said to nobody. "Ed hopes bebop is okay." She got off the toilet and stepped out of the stall to see Ray writing on one of the walls. "Hi Ray Ray!" she beamed.
"Hey Ed. I didn't know you were here." he said.
"What is Ray Ray doing?"
"Just expressing my opinions about Mathers on the wall here." he said. Ed looked at what Ray had been writing on the walls and fell over giggling. All sorts on insults had been written on the wall about John Mathers and his men. There were also some crude caricatures of them as well. Underneath a picture of John himself, were the words "false prophet". Ed looked at the picture again and giggled even harder when she saw John had been given devil's horns, a goatee and a pitchfork. Ray laughed with her. After awhile they settled down.
"Let's get back to work. They'll get mad if we don't hurry up." Ray said through his laughter. They went out the door and resumed digging.
Back on the bebop, Spike, Faye and Jet were searching on Ed's computer for information. There had been a lot more information on Mathers' cult than they had expected. Originally they had simply been missionaries who had spread god's word, protesting about many things that people normally enjoyed. Then they had begun to get violent and began hacking into people's homes and kidnapping them for their own sick purposes. Again the data said that they were located on Calisto, but Spike hadn't seen anything except the cross with somebody mounted on it. "This is pointless. We've been searching for an hour and we haven't found anything on them." Faye growled.
"Calm down. We'll find something sooner or later." Spike sighed. Then an idea came to him. Maybe if he tried searching for Mathers' home planet he could find some relations to the guy. If he could, maybe they would have some data on him and his men. Spike searched the net for information regarding people John had been related to. Three people came up. One of them, the guys mother, was dead. The first one was John's father, Reginald Mathers. The other living one was a friend of Johns. A woman named Sonya Rockwell. Both were located on Ganymede. Spike got up.
"I'm going out to look for them. See you guys later." he began to walk to the hangar when Jet stopped him.
"Your not going alone this time Spike. I really want to be in on this one."
"Same here lunkhead." Faye chimed in. "You won't get anywhere without us."
"Alright, you guys can come with me but-" Before Spike could finish, he felt something tug on his pant-leg. He looked down to see Ein pulling gently on him. "You want to come too Ein? You want to pay back those guys for what they did?" Ein barked as if to say "Hell yeah!". Spike turned around and started for the control room instead. Soon the bebop was on its way to Ganymede.
That night.
Ed couldn't sleep, despite how tired she was from all that digging. After they had been told that the work day was finished, they had been led back to the dormitories for the night. On the way back, Ed had seen Mathers stop Ray, saying he wanted to talk to him. That had been over three hours ago and Ray hadn't come back. "Where is Ray Ray?" Ed thought to herself. She was just about to fall asleep when the door banged open. Before Ed could react, she was dragged out of the room roughly. Much to her surprise, nobody woke up. She was forced into the nature room and led towards another door. She was thrust into a white room where John Mathers sat a desk.
"You have brought her Matthew?"
"Yes. She shall be punished for her mockery immediately." Straker took a key out of his pocket and opened a small cabinet in the wall. Ed couldn't see what it was, but she had a feeling it wasn't anything good.
"What has Ed done?" she asked.
"We have security cameras everywhere in this place. We saw the recording of you laughing about the pictures of me in the bathroom. Since you have taken part in another's sin, you will be punished as was your friend. However, since you did not start it like he did, you will not be punished as severly." Before Ed could say anything, Straker shoved her to the ground. As she fell, Straker grabbed the back of her pants, bringing Ed's biker slacks and panties down to her ankles. When she hit the ground, Straker shoved up the back of her tee shirt. Ed was just about to attempt to get up when something whistled through the air and cracked against her back and her rump. Ed shrieked. She turned around to see Straker holding a bullwhip. A look of insane pleasure had covered the man's face. She struggled to get away, but he snapped it again and incredible pain shot up from her rear to the middle of her back. Tears streamed down the hackers face as the whip descended on her again and again, each time making a loud crack, like a rifle. Through a haze of agony, Ed heard John mutter "He who spares the rod, hate their children, but a good father is careful to discipline him." The whipping seemed to go on forever. After what may have been five minutes, Straker stopped. Ed lay there wailing on the ground.
"Get up. I will take you back to your room." he hissed. Ed yanked her underwear and pants up and shakily got to her feet. Straker opened the door and led her out. When Ed stepped into the clearing, she saw something she had failed to notice. In the center of the field where the clearing with the hole was, a large wooden cross had been mounted. Nailed to it was the body of none other than her friend Ray. He was completely naked, his arms nailed to the vertical piece of wood with nails that were the size of railroad spikes. His face was a look of crazed terror, his mouth open in a scream. Blood covered the ground beneath him. Some of it was still dripping from his wrists. Ed was too frightened to scream.
"You didn't hear him because your room door is soundproof. Boy oh boy, did he holler. He died of shock before all the blood ran out of him. Consider yourself lucky. Since he started the sin in the first place, we decided to make him just like Christ." Straker chuckled. Ed wrenched out of his grasp and threw up. Straker grabbed her and led her back to the dorm. He tossed her in like a bag of trash, then locked the door and left.
Ed was horrified. In her life on the bebop, she had seen violence before, but it had been nothing like this. Nobody deserved to die that way. "Ray Ray." Ed muttered. Her control broke and she began to sob. She really wanted to get out of this place. "Spike person, Ein, Faye Faye, Jet person, where are you? Edward needs you." she wept. Ed wept for a long time. She couldn't go to sleep out of fear of the dreams she would have. Ed backed against the wall. "Edward feels so small. Ed is frightened of this place." Ed curled up into the fetal position and began sucking her thumb. She couldn't help it, she was so frightened. Despite her doubts Ed fell asleep, her thumb still corked in her mouth.
Dark eh? Read and review please.