Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before the one who sits on the throne and worship him, who lives forever and ever.
-Revelation 4:9-10
Slowly, Liz pulled the RV up to the stop sign that had recently been placed on the side of the highway. The windows were rolled down, and a soldier walked up to the window with his rifle at low-ready.
“Do you have any weapons or explosives in this car?” The soldier recited this question with the disinterest of constant repetition. He must have asked this question thousands of times in the past, following a standard operating procedure that was created in a time with vastly different circumstances.
“Uh, well, uh,” Liz stuttered as her eyes quickly flipped over to me. People always seemed to look to me for my “legal expertise” in times like this. Of course, I didn’t know anything about military law. I did, however, know how to talk like a lawyer. The secret is to tell the truth without giving too much information away.
“We’re all carrying weapons to defend ourselves from the Diluvians and Uruks, and I have four low-grade explosives as part of my Alchemist class,” I said quickly. “We are willing to disarm if you can assure our safety while we’re here.”
“Pull up to the search area,” the soldier said, pointing to an area on the side of the road that had been cordoned off with safety cones.
Liz pulled us up to the search area, and we were asked to step out of the RV. We placed our weapons on a cheap plastic fold-out table by a soldier who must have been an army Lieutenant based on the silver bar on his uniform.
The others seemed quite anxious during the search, but my experience working in criminal law had made me comfortable with authority. I knew that, as long as we didn’t lead with hostility, they wouldn’t respond in kind.
“As for the explosives, they’re [Alchemist Bombs] that are currently held in my [Inventory]. Your weapons were made by an Alchemist, so you probably have some understanding of how [Alchemist Bombs] work, right?”
“Yes,” the Lieutenant said, seemingly unbothered by the talk of explosives. “Just keep them in your [Inventory], and we’ll be fine. Even if we disabled your [Alchemist Bombs], you could still use spells.”
“You guys catch on quick,” I said with a surprised smile. “I figured the military would take longer to adapt.”
“You’d be surprised by how popular video games are among the armed forces.” The Lieutenant cleared his throat before continuing. “Anyway, we’re not going to deprive you of your weapons in a time like this. My name is Lieutenant Patrick Miller, and I just need to ask you a few questions before you leave.”
“Ask away.”
“Where are you coming from?”
“Chapel Hill.”
“What is the present status of Chapel Hill?”
“FUBAR,” I said before realizing that answer was unhelpful and a bit insensitive. “I don’t know of any survivors other than the four of us. The vast majority of people living in Chapel Hill are dead.”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“My God,” Lt. Miller muttered.
“Are things any better here?”
“We took casualties, yes, but not nearly as bad as you describe.” Miller blinked his eyes before asking, “Last question. Do you know anything about the Revelation System that we should know?”
“Yes,” I said. “Explaining everything would take a while.”
Lieutenant Patrick Miller produced an old-fashioned tape recorder from his pocket and clicked a button. “Luckily for us, we have a while.”
For the next half hour, I explained just about everything I knew to the Lieutenant. I explained everything I had learnt from Hellman and all information I had gleaned from my recent read-through of Revelation. As I spoke, the rest of my group returned to the RV, and one of the nearby soldiers retrieved a cheap plastic chair for me to sit on.
“And that’s about it,” I said, ending my long explanation of the information I had acquired and the deductive connections I had made between those pieces of information.
“Wow,” Lieutenant Patrick Miller said, leaning back into his own seat. He clicked off the tape recorder. “Everything you said sounds impossible.”
“Is it crazier than anything else that’s happened today? If you want evidence, read what Revelation has to say about the second trumpet. Does a burning mountain falling into the sea sound familiar to you?”
“You have a point there,” Miller said with a sigh. “I’ll have to pass this information up the chain of command. I’ll need some way to reliably communicate with you if we need you to testify in person.”
“My username is ‘Vinzadir.’”
“Excuse me?”
“The phone lines will be down soon,” I said. “You’ll probably need to use the System if you want to communicate with me a few hours from now.”
“Right. You might receive a message from Major General Ramirez or someone on his staff. I’ll also need your name.”
“Vincent Blackwell. If you look that name up online, you’ll probably find the video I took when I spoke to Hellman.”
“That was you? Well, that explains where you acquired all this information from, then. Yes, we’ve seen your video.”
“Good, then you know about the rising sea levels.”
“Yes. We calculated, based on the probable water displacement of that ‘flaming mountain’ over the Atlantic Ocean, that sea levels will increase by anywhere from 180 to 185 feet. Most of Fayetteville will be underwater, but Fort Bragg will be fine due to its placement on a hill.”
“There’s a silver lining for everything, I guess,” I muttered.
[NEW FRIEND REQUEST: PAT MILLER]
I quickly hit the “Accept” button on the friend request, and my Friend List appeared once more.
Elstine: Priestess, Lvl. 6
Hellman: Champion, Lvl. 25
Pat Miller: Knight, Lvl. 4
Pixie Chix: Thief, Lvl. 5
Slader: Knight, Lvl. 6
“If that’s all you need from me, I’ll get going,” I said.
“You’re free to leave,” Lieutenant Miller said. He got to his feet, and I stood a moment after. “Where do you intend to go from here?”
I paused for a second before saying, “We’ll stay the night somewhere nearby, and, in the morning, we’ll probably head out to the [Town] the Coalition of Light set up north of Charlotte.”
“Right, if we need more information from you, we’ll send ‘Vinzadir’ a message in the morning.”
A minute later, I sat in the driver’s seat of the RV, checking my pistols to make sure they were still functional. I started the engine, and a soldier waved for me to drive back onto the highway.
Once more, we were on our way, and I was quite happy with how the interaction at the checkpoint went. I hoped that, by providing useful information to the military, I helped increase the chance of mankind’s survival in some small way.