Chapter 42 -- LIFLUOHRJHJC
Grant Page's phone rang. Luther's name was on the screen, and he swiped the
answer button.
"Grant here."
"Hello, Grant. This is Luther. Would it be possible to have a meeting soon?"
"Sure," Grant replied. "We're all here just now, when's a good time?"
"As soon as possible. Can we meet over here?"
"Just a second," said Grant. "Let me check."
Bill and Arthur were with him. He called Gerald and Douglas to confirm their
availability.
"OK, it looks good," Grant said. "Half hour do it?"
"That's fine," Luther replied. "We'll see you shortly."
They had had occasional conversations over the past few months, mostly about
the continuing deterioration of the situation. Already new firearms laws
were making their way through Congress, largely unchallenged. The minority
party had never been willing to fight without superior numbers, and had not
had those in years. The process of confiscation was merely awaiting final
approval, and only then could anyone know how it would go.
The 'education reform' law was now on the books, and by the beginning of the
next school year all children under the age of eighteen would be required to
attend an approved school. Private schools were for the present allowed, but
would require a license. Thus shutting them down would be simply a matter of paperwork.
It was the latter, Grant and his fellows suspected, that Luther wanted to
discuss. They themselves had not yet decided on a course of action for their
own children, and the coming end of the current school term would signal a
time for decision. The government would likely begin the process of rounding
up the home-schooled children for registration well before the beginning of
the next.
It was certainly the most pressing, Grant thought. They got up and went out
to where their vehicles were parked, awaiting the arrival of their comrades.
Once they had arrived, they got into two of the trucks and drove over to Luther's
community. Luther and all of the elders were there, and they sat down to talk.
"You've probably guessed what we wish to discuss," Luther said. "as you will
be dealing with the same matter, presumably."
"The schools," said Grant. "Yes, we seem to be up against it, or soon will be."
"Have you reached a decision?" Luther asked.
"No, we haven't," Grant replied. "But we'll have to soon. I'm guessing you're
not planning to turn your children over to the state."
"No, we aren't," said Luther. "As I said before, if we resist they kill us or
put us in prison and take our children anyway. If we don't we will watch them
take them."
"The only other option," Bill said, "for those who can afford it, is to put them
in private schools. And most people can't afford it, and it would be a brief
respite, if any at all. The approved schools will sooner or later have to do
the same indoctrination as the government schools."
"We don't see a way out," said Luther. "Perhaps we could hide our children,
for a time, but even giving over to a life like hunted animals they must
eventually find us."
"Probably hiding them, unless you give in, is the last resort," Arthur said. "We
don't know, of course, what form the enforcement will take. They have records
of all, or most, home-schooled children because they have to be registered.
They'll go to their homes and check on them. Out here in the wilderness we
may not be found for a while, but eventually..."
"So we hide, for as long as we can," said Luther. "And then whatever happens,
happens. Perhaps it is the end. We pray to know what the right action is,
but perhaps it is to just wait for the end. Probably every generation for the
past two millenia has thought it was living in the last days. Perhaps we are
that one."
"Perhaps," Arthur said. "And perhaps not. There are still weeks, maybe months
of continued development of these things, and each day we learn more about
what we are up against. For all the good it does us."
"The other thing," Gerald said, "which might actually come earlier, we don't know,
is the gun seizures. It's almost certain it will happen, but we don't know at
what point they'll actually start coming to doors to take them."
"Yes," said Luther. "And again, it's either surrender or die, or worse. We've
already had reports of arrests, sometimes of large groups of people, and
they don't seem to be heard from again. And they were just taking part in
protests and demonstrations."
"Well, we know they've been arresting people and holding them without bail for
such offenses, going back close to twenty years now," Arthur said. "There
were fewer of them, so it wasn't so noticeable as now. Sometimes hundreds
have been taken away, to who knows where. Of course there are plenty of
places to hold them, the government has so many unused facilities just waiting
for use. It's likely many, perhaps most of them will never be seen again. We
do seem to be at the edge, with no way to go back."
"What will you do?" asked Luther.
"At the end? Fight. Take as many of them with us as we can.
That may not be your philosophy, but whoever comes after us is already
condemned, whether or not he claims to like what he is doing. They can always
refuse."
"That's a decision no one should have to make," said Luther. "Still, even if
we run and hide, if they are determined to hunt us down, then at some point we
will have to make it."
"At lease we'll have a choice," Arthur said. "For centuries, indeed millenia,
people have not had that choice. When the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, the
Muslims and the Mongols overran their lands, they were usually just killed or
sent into slavery without having a chance to fight. People had a chance to
resist the Nazis and failed, and after them the Russians and Chinese
enslaved their people, again without much chance of resistance. But I believe I'll
stick with sending a few of them on ahead of me when I go."
"Make a last stand at your camp?" asked Luther.
"Possibly," said Arthur. "Or we may have the opportunity to do some mischief
before they get to us."
"How is that?" asked Luther.
"Something we've become aware of in recent months," Arthur said. "We still
don't know much, but there have been rumors of an organized resistance, one
that has been in the works for some time. We began to get hints, as I say, a
few months ago but haven't been able to confirm anything. But recently we
were contacted by a rather interesting person, rather mysterious but we're
grasping at straws here, so we've humored him.
"Essentially what he has told us is that very soon - he didn't say how soon -
things will begin to happen. Things that we will recognize as signs of their
work. He says that at that point, we may be contacted and given an
opportunity to join the battle. Beyond that, not much. But he did seem both
serious and sane. So we're passing that along, for what it's worth.
"Who knows?" said Luther. "It certainly seems to be out of our hands now."
"Perhaps," Arthur said.
He took something out of his left front shirt pocket and handed it to Luther.
Luther examined it - a small piece of metal shaped like a shield, with the
letters "M" and "C" in the upper left and lower right of the four sections
into which it was divided. An oak tree and a torch occupied the other two
sections.
"He gave us each one of these, with several others to be closely guarded and
only shown or given to trusted allies," Arthur said. "It seems they might be
used as a signal, a pass, or something similar in the future."
"Thank you," said Luther. "I hope it does signify something, that there is hope.
We live now, day by day, and can assume nothing."
"Indeed," Arthur said. "Is there anything you need, in the way of weapons or
gear, if it comes to that?"
Luther looked around at the elders briefly.
"No," he said. "Not at this time. We'll see what happens."