THE SON OF ELI 2: LIKE A GOD

CHAPTER 15: THE RECKONING

The son of Eli made the people hide on the rooftops and behind the windows and doors along the main street. He knew most were ordinary folks who had been behind living in relative safety before the Meltdown.

Scavenging for survival had taught them a few skills, but mostly they were not skilled for violence and the life of soldiers. Saint Doug Holy, on the other hand, had surrounded himself with hardened criminals who knew how to fight and kill. It should have been a quick slaughter, but the people had Eli on their side, and that made all the difference.

Eli moved forward from the main building until he was standing on a relatively empty square patch in the community. This area had been the Parade Square when the army base had been in operation. There was a flat stretch of paved ground on either side. A few royal palms still grew around it. There was a circular and decorated section to his left where the statutes of three soldiers were. They represented departed soldiers, and on each parade, wreaths were laid at their feet.

There were two miniature army tanks mounted on cement blocks on the parade ground and a row of broken-down army jeeps at the far end.

Eli, unarmed, waited for them.

The Saints were all in white robes with their crests. Three army jeeps were in the lead. A white one, decorated with flags of African states and Black Supremacy artwork, was slightly in the lead, and behind it slightly to each side, were two others painted in army-green colours.

Saint Holy was in the first jeep, sitting comfortably in the back with an amused smile on his face even in the relative darkness, making his teeth glint.

Zeus was driving one of the jeeps, and Mack the last.

Behind them were the grim-faced Saints most of whom had painted faces. Others had hideous animal masks over their faces. They had guns, machetes, clubs, knives, cutlasses!

It was frightening, but Eli watched them without an expression on his face. He stood with his feet slightly apart and waited. The jeeps rolled up to him, then Saint Holy held up a fist, and it came to a halt. He regarded Eli in the dim light of the lanterns and smiled, but it was not a very nice smile.

“The rabble-rouser!” he said carefully and got out of the jeep.

He walked slowly towards Eli and stopped within touching distance of him. He was tall, but still, his gaze was not exactly up to Eli’s chest. “I had such big plans for you, my boy, big plans! Your genes would have filled Africa, raised some unbelievable species to conquer the world, show the Whites that the new Black Man is a force to be reckoned with! I wanted to make you a god, boy, a god! But, as should be expected of the Black Mind sometimes, you could only think of mediocrity! Now, why would you go and endanger the lives of innocent people, huh?”

“Endanger?” Eli hissed. “You are eating them!”

“Fodder, boy, fodder!” Saint Holy grated, and he looked absolutely mad now. “What’s their use, huh? Just a bunch of useless black lives occupying space, non-productive and reducing the scarce resources meant for others! The Black Reign Project is real, man, real! It will come to pass with or without your bloody help! And no stone should be left unturned to make the dream real, no sacrifice should be too big! Why let them suffer when they can have the rich nutrients the human meat provided, huh? They sacrifice their lives for the bigger future when the African will conquer the world and reign!”

“You have a sick mind,” Eli said, and he looked at the Saint with chagrined eyes. “You don’t deserve the air you breathe! You don’t have the right to decide who lives and who doesn’t. Sir, you don’t have the right to breed people!”

“I have every f*****g, bloody right!” Saint Doug Holy screamed and swiped the air with his serrated knife. “I am building the next African dream, and I still believe you have a part to play! Every one of those stupid people you have back there will die this night, and their bodies would be food, do you understand? You are an amazing guy, I saw that, but you can’t take all of us on! We are not Searots, brother! We have guns, and we can make you bleed and die! So, what is it going to be, my friend? Are you with us, or against us?”

“I’ll give you a chance to walk out, sir. You take your soldiers and go anywhere you want, and never set foot here again. It is the soundest advice I can give you, but I know that in your false sense of supremacy, you will not take it.”

“You’re f*****g right I won’t take it!” Doug Holy screamed and took a step back, his face livid. “This is my town, my world, my footstool, you bastard! I own this land, and I own the people! No flying bird is going to drive me out of here, or give me any bloody ultimatums! You’re nothing but a cockroach, my boy! It gives me great pain to see you die, but if you must sacrifice for the cause, who am I to delay it?”

Eli could feel the danger in the air and he knew it would not be long now before they descended on him, but he did not want any blood to be shed again. He shuddered to think of how many people had been killed and eaten by these horrible people. They had almost killed him too, and that was why he had been on the bench that day.

“Listen, you Saints,” Eli said as Doug Holy continued to walk backwards. “I don’t know if you’ve been killing and eating people intentionally. I don’t know if all of you enjoy doing this. But it ends here! Anybody who wants to stop this, and live a normal life again, this is the time to step forward. If you don’t, I will kill you.”

“f**k you, you f*****g i***t!” Saint Holy screamed and pointed the knife at Eli’s face. “Waste him! Waste the motherfucker!”

They levelled their guns at Eli!

And fired!

But Eli was no longer where he had been a second earlier! As the bullets slashed the empty air, he leapt into the sky, soared upwards, and disappeared into the gloom.

The Saints raised their guns and aimed into the dark night, their faces filled with trepidation and dawning fear.

“Where the hell did he go to?” Zeus asked as he covered the dark sky with his rifle.

“Maybe the coward fled,” Mack said tentatively.

“No, stop the fuckery!” Doug Holy shouted. “He’s right there! Fill the sky with bullets, you maggots! Kill the bastard!”

And that was when Eli came down!

He came with his right fist first, and it was at such devastating speed that no one really had a bearing on him. He slammed down in their middle, his right fist crashing into the hard, paved ground between them with measured force! The perimeter of the parade ground shook with a horrible tremor, and the ground broke in with a shattering explosion under the power of his fist.

It caved in, sending the Saints spiralling into the yawning hole as the parade ground exploded!

The Saints screamed!

The jeeps, the people, and the weapons fell through into the abyss below them. Eli launched himself back into the air, turned over, and landed gracefully on the lip of the huge crater that had opened up.

He stood there as the cries came from within, faint and weak.

Behind him, Sir Ralph and the other men emerged from cover with their guns elongated. Many of them looked at Eli with awed eyes, their faces reflecting their reverential adoration of him. But, when they neared the crater and looked down, he saw the beginnings of their hatred and the grim resolve on their faces.

“How?” Sir Ralph whispered as he put a hand on Eli’s shoulder.

“I read about the army base,” he said with a great sigh. “This area was an underground bunker and storage, and later filled up. The ground was weakened. I just opened it up again.”

“God bless you, son,” the man said with tears glistening in his eyes. “Thank you. Thank you, Eli.”

Eli said nothing as he saw the grim-faced, oppressed people lining the lip of the crater with their guns levelled. From within the abyss, weak voices still called out, confused and scared Saints who did not fully comprehend what had happened to them.

“Perhaps, some can be saved,” Eli said softly.

Sir Ralph shook his head sadly.

“They were not human, my son,” he whispered. “They were savage beasts!”

Somebody tossed a flare into the crater, and Eli turned away abruptly as pity surged through his heart. He had seen tiny faces staring up at him from the crater, and he could not bear to see them suffering.

The men on the surface did not have any mercy!

They had seen loved ones abused, shot, decapitated, eaten!

To them, this was salvation, a righting of wrongs, and the time to avenge and start fresh!

As the shots rang out and the faint screams came from the crater, the son of Eli leapt into the sky with a muted grunt, unwilling to witness the c*****e.

He landed on the house he shared with Kate, slid down, and walked towards the door.

It flew open and Kate came running out. She was wearing a short, white nightgown that set off her beauty. But she was weeping as she put her arms around his neck.

“My mother?” she asked in an agonized voice.

“She is well,” he said softly.

“The Saints?”

“Gone.”

She saw the haunted look on his handsome face, and she knew it had not been easy for him, and that whatever had happened had been nasty. She nodded numbly and took his hand, then led him inside.

It was time to comfort him.

God knew she also needed comfort after the harrowing experience of knowing she had eaten human flesh.

Maybe, before dawn, they could find some happiness and pleasure.

It was going to be a new dawn.