Gatherers For Christ

Bunker Island was located in the Adirondacks of New York. It was a parcel of land in a valley in the mountains. There was plenty of land for farming, and if any one trespassed, intentionally or accidentally, it would be assumed they were trespassing on a farm. However, the area was remote enough where trespassers were far and few between.

The farmhouse and barn were constantly alive with activity. Several miles from the farmhouse was a small warehouse which housed a piper plane, and a few choppers, but beneath the farmhouse, the barn, and the warehouse, there were passages. One such passage led from the warehouse to the barn. A smaller passage led from the barn to the farmhouse. It was the farmhouse which was where the main operations of the hidden facility was located.

Every single man and woman on the property was an ATD agent, playing the part. They were all there for one single purpose. They were there to be a fighting force against terrorists in the event of an all out attack upon American soil. They were all of one mind. Most of them had hopes the day terrorists launched such an attack would never come, and perhaps a few of them believed it never would. But some of them believed it would happen, and they wanted to be in the fight.

LeBeau and Vogel flew their Huey into the valley and LeBeau shook his head, snorting in disbelief.

Vogel glanced at him. “What’s your problem?”

“Ya know, it just occurred to me there ain’t no power lines through here.” LeBeau studied the layout of the farmland below them. “No wires. No poles. Nuttin’. So how is it we get power through here?”

“Duh, I dunno, Bullwinkle. Maybe those solar panels have something to do with it. They’re on the rooftops of all of the buildings. Plus this place has plenty of generators. Everything else is done by hand, just the way God intended it to be.”

“What? You sayin’ God didn’t want us to use electricity or something’? How crazy is that?”

“Oh, maybe He did want us to, but the people also tried to build a tower to heaven. Because of that, God confused them so they couldn’t understand each other.” He let out a chuckle. “Wish I could go back in time to see that.”

“Man, what are you talking about?”

“Keith, I’m saying mankind has run its course and it's time for God to step in. Look, I’ve been telling you for a long time the day would come when the prophecies in the Bible would come to pass. I know you aren’t a Christian, but you have to feel something. Something in your gut has to be telling you that it’s coming and we may not be ready for it.”

“I thought you was ready.”

“Yeah…if the rapture happens, then, of course I’m ready, but not even I know when it will occur. No one knows the time. It could happen before a world wide tragedy, or it could happen later.”

“What world wide tragedy?”

Vogel shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m only saying.”

“You Christians don’t make a lick of sense.”

LeBeau and Vogel began to head for a landing pad outside the warehouse. Before they even began to touch down, Fronk got up from where he was sitting and opened the door.

“Crazy Man!” Shiva exclaimed, reaching for him.

Fronk leaped out of the chopper and hit the ground with a roll. He bounded back on his feet and headed for the side entrance to the warehouse. By the time he was inside, LeBeau and Vogel were shutting down the Huey. Shiva climbed out and headed after Fronk. He found him inside, working a crank clockwise. A chain hanging from the wall was slowly pulling open two large doors on the floor. Shiva began to help him out.

This was Shiva’s first visit to the Bunker. He looked curiously toward the opening they were making. “What’s down there?” he asked.

“What could very well be our only hope,” Fronk responded softly.

Shiva glanced at him.

By the time they had the large doors open, Vogel and LeBeau had joined them. They stood at the opening and looked down into a large room. LeBeau whistled at what he saw. It could only be described as a Gunship, a helicopter with plenty of firepower. At least it looked mean. It was black and had no markings whatsoever.

“Whoa,” Shiva said. “That’s awesome.”

LeBeau glanced at Vogel. “What’s this about?”

“This is your project,” Fronk told him.

“What project?”

“It’s a project I like to call Project Storm Breaker...But in order for this project to be successful, you need to pull out every computer component that thing has and rewire it completely. To put it simply, go back to the basics.”

“You serious?”

Fronk nodded. “The Director’s orders…upon my recommendations.”

“Man, computers these days is what makes these birds fly.”

“Not any more. Just do it. Do it quickly.”

LeBeau paused. “How quickly?”

Fronk looked into his eyes and leaned forward. “As fast as you can. When you‘re done with the Gunship, do the Huey.” With that, he turned and walked away.

Shiva didn’t know what else to do, so he followed Fronk. From that moment on, the way he saw things began to change. He spent most of that day walking around the farmlands and noting the way things were. He walked about the farmhouse, and went below it to the underground facility. He took note of all of the dry goods stored there, and weapons. He began to feel like he was in a bad science fiction movie, or a Grade B film about the end of days.

Something was about to happen. He could feel it, and he didn’t like it.

Several hours later, he found himself back at the warehouse where Vogel and LeBeau were hard at work on the inside of the Gunship. He waited for a while, and his patience was rewarded by Vogel climbing out. Wiping sweat off from his brow with a handkerchief, Vogel looked up and noticed Shiva.

Shiva got right to it. “Can you take a break?”

Vogel paused. “Yeah. I suppose we could. What’s up?”

“We need to talk.”

Vogel nodded. “I’ll be right up.”