David rushed up the hill to Tom and Jesus. Sally was right behind him. “Did you hear that? Someone used a watch,” David said.
“I think we know who.” Tom said.
“Who?”
Shick Chic. Jake prepped his assault rifle, standing at the top of the hill.
Tom swallowed; he knew Legion had been used to kill in the past. Would he serve a similar purpose here?
“It’s Jake!” David said, as he took a step back.
Tom took David by the arm and looked him in the eyes. “Not Jake,” Tom urged, “Legion.”
Jake jumped ten feet through the air and landed closer to the group. “Yes, we are Legion! Yes! Yes! And we will-Aiieee!”
Legion saw Jesus and recoiled. “The Son of God! Here! No! This can’t be! Whose idea was this? Not mine! Mine either! Quiet! Wait! We have an idea…YES! YES!”
Jake raised the assault rifle at Tom.
“No…” David said.
Jake quickly turned the weapon at Jesus and fingered the trigger. “We killed you once, Jesus, we can do it again!”
“No!” Tom yelled, as he pushed Jesus down and took his place.
Bang! A bullet ripped through the air and pierced Tom’s chest, dead center. Tom’s body went limp and he fell to the grass.
“Tom!” David fell to his knees next to Tom.
Sally screamed and ran for cover, which only attracted Jake’s attention. Bang! Bang! Jake fired two more shots, laughing joyfully with the voices of fifty men. Sally hit the ground hard, lying motionless.
“Stop damnit! Stop!” David screamed. “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to stop!”
Jake raised the gun at David. “Quiet, human! We will not!”
David looked desperately at Jesus. “Do not worry, David. All is well.”
Jesus looked at Jake, “Stop.”
Jake became rigid as though he had been paused, unable to move. Jesus stood to his feet and walked toward Jake.
“No! No!” Jake screamed, “Mercy! Have mercy on us as you once did! Yes! Mercy! It is your way! It is!”
“Quiet, demons!” Jesus yelled.
Jake clamped his mouth shut.
“You have served your purpose on this earth. You have been a plague for long enough, foul creature. You gave up your place in the Heavenly realms and your time in the world of my children has come to an end.”
Jake’s eyes were wide with horror.
“Be gone! To the burning abyss for all eternity with you!”
Jake fell to the ground in a fit of convulsions. His body shook violently for ten seconds and then abruptly stopped. Jake’s eyes popped open and he glanced around. He saw Jesus. He saw Tom and Sally lying dead, and David staring at him. He looked to his side and saw the assault rifle…and the watch on his wrist. “What did I do?”
Jesus grabbed Jake’s wrist and pulled the watch from it. He worked the buttons with his fingers while saying, “It was not you who committed these crimes but the beast to which you gave access to your body by rejecting my word. Return to your own time and sin no more.”
After he pushed the final button on the watch, Jesus placed the watch on Jake’s lap and stood back. Whum, Whum, Whum, Boom! Before Jake had a chance to register what had happened or where and when he was, he was gone, returned to the future.
As glowing blue particles settled to the ground, Jesus bent down and picked up the loose watch, which was not attached to Jake’s body and did not return to the future with him. He placed the watch in David’s hand and closed his fingers around the device. “It’s over.”
“But what about Tom and Sally? They’ve been shot! They’re dead!” David said, as he leaned over Sally’s body. “Why did you let this happen?”
“Shot? With what?”
David grew angry. “With bullets!”
“These bullets?” Jesus asked, as he held out a hand.
David looked at Jesus’s hand. Next to the scar were three bullets. David turned back to Sally and she began to stir. A rustle in the grass caught his attention; Tom was already sitting up. He looked back at Jesus. “Thank you.”
“It was nothing.”
David smiled, “For you, maybe.”
Jesus laughed.
“What happened?” Tom asked, as he stood up. “Where’s Jake?”
“Gone,” David replied, as he helped a stunned Sally to her feet. “Jesus returned him to the future.”
“And Legion?” Tom asked.
“Legion will never again torment the people of this world. He has been destroyed,” Jesus said.
“We’re not dead?” Sally asked. “But, Jake shot us.”
David smiled, “He missed.”
“But-”
Jesus opened one of Sally’s hands and placed his on top. “Open your eyes child, and believe.” Jesus removed his hand, letting the bullets roll into Sally’s open palm.
Tom and David sat on the hillside for an hour speaking about the events of the past weeks, while Jesus talked with Sally. David knew Sally would be getting an earful, but it was probably good for her, having been so shockingly exposed to Christianity, and who could be better suited to aid in the transition than Jesus himself?
But his thoughts didn’t linger on Sally and Jesus for long. What he was about to do was one of the hardest things he’d ever done. In a few minutes, David would be returning to the future with Sally and saying goodbye to Tom. He and Tom had been the best of friends and trustworthy partners for almost eighteen years. Now he had to return to the future without Tom, without his job at LightTech and without any plans for the future.
“So what now?” Tom asked.
“I take Sally back to the future and then… I don’t know what I’m going to do. But right now… We say goodbye.”
“You say that like you already know I’m staying.”
“I do know.”
Tom smiled. “You know, your knowledge of the Bible kind of takes the surprise out of things.”
David laughed. “Sorry.”
“So, what happens to me now? Is that recorded in the Bible?”
“A little, but the rest is recorded in history.”
Tom pursed his lips and nodded his head, clearly impressed with himself. “Really. So you know how I die then?”
“Yes,” David said as he looked at the grass, avoiding Tom’s eyes.
“How?”
“I believe the saying is something like: That’s for me to know and you to find out,” David said with a smile.
“As long as I outlive you, old man.”
David stood to his feet. “Old man… I suppose you’re right. We’re both old men now, but old men at the beginning of new lives.”
Tom stood next to him and looked at Jesus and Sally talking at the bottom of the hill. “For both of us… I’m going to miss you, partner.”
