The Journal of Madie Beartri

Journal 140

Anna had her guards let me outside just long enough to empty my bucket. It smelled so good outside. My room smells awful. I begged for more time outside, but Anna said Aloysius had a plan for me and right now, the plan was for me to spend time in my room thinking about doing the Will of Aloysius. I hate Aloysius. Anna gave me a reading of Aloysius to memorize by tomorrow. She said if I could say it back without making any mistakes, she would bring me a treat.

 

 

Journal 138

Anna stopped by this morning. She was all smug and acting as if she was queen. At first, I thought I was dreaming. I haven’t been sleeping well. Anna brought me a Danish pastry and a quart of water. She made me praise Aloysius. At first, I refused to eat but the pastry smelled so good. I was so hungry. I couldn’t go another day without eating. Anna left as soon as she handed me the pastry.

Journal 137

Another day has gone by. I’m cold and hungry. I can’t scream anymore. If someone is out there, they are doing an excellent job of ignoring me. I spend my time sleeping and pacing around the room. I held my pee as long as I could, but I had to pee in the bucket and then I got a case of the runs. It smells awful here.

Journal 136

I walked outside with Joshua. Tony, Marty, and Jonas followed a few minutes later. Kate and Lisa were keeping Anna occupied inside. It was a simple task. Give Joshua a drink of Gin and convince Him that Anna was bad. He already knew that Anna was bad. He had been pretending.

There was an unexpected feeling of relief when Joshua said he had been working with friends to get rid of Anna. Joshua asked me to stay and help him defeat the Followers of Aloysius. Joshua caught me off guard. At first, I thought Joshua was joking, so I laughed. Joshua wasn’t joking. He was serious. The kiss was unexpected.

As soon as Tony realized what Joshua had said wasn’t a joke, he took a swing at Joshua. Suddenly more than a dozen of Anna’s guards jumped out from nowhere. We didn’t have a chance. We tried to fight but they had us outnumbered.

I’ve been inside this room freezing my butt off for more than a day, no food and only a pee bucket. Screaming for someone to let me out doesn’t seem to help. It has given me a sore throat. My friends don’t seem to be in the same building because no one answers when I call.

Journal 135

Joshua continued with his speech, and I waited for lightning to strike me down. My entire life flashed through my head. I remembered the good times before the virus and the bad times after the virus. The key moments, the decisions I had made that brought me to where I was today flooded my brain. I stood mesmerized listening to Joshua. I can’t remember exactly what he said but he was making perfect sense. I think. Whatever he said I suddenly felt a sense of calm and relief. The lights came back on just as Joshua mentioned my name and asked me to say the prayer. I said the prayer and didn’t even have to think about the words.

I forgot about my mission for a few minutes. Moved by Joshua’s words many of the seekers cried as they took the offering. Victor was the last person in line. Joshua was standing to my left and Anna to the right. Victor reached out to grab his offering and then puked all over Anna’s robes. The expression on Anna’s face was priceless. She handled things well for approximately three seconds and then Anna puked in return. The whole room was backed up in unison. It was very much like the parting of the waters in the bible. Kate and Lisa helped an ill Anna out of the room.

With Anna out of the room, I had Joshua all to myself.

Journal 134

The ceremony started as before. Anna spoke the words of Aloysius and praised his good deeds. Joshua stood beside Anna, proud and regal. He was looking healthy. Vastly different from his feeble self I had seen just a few days before.

Tony, Marty, Kate, and the others took their places around the room. Everyone except Victor, he was not where he was supposed to be. Where did the little runt go? I adjusted my robe and stepped to the front just below the podium. It was time for the offering. I had a prayer to say before Anna would request the offering. I kept looking around the room. If Victor screwed up our plan, I was going to massacre him myself with a slow painful death.

Unexpectedly, the room went dark. Everyone in the room gasped at once. As quickly as the lights went out a spotlight lit up Joshua. He looked so tall. Joshua took a step forward and in a booming voice addressed the crowd.

Joshua announced to everyone in the room that evil sometimes reaches out and tries to destroy what is good. To keep evil at bay the righteous must sometimes take a chance and invite evil to walk among those who are good.

Panic hit me hard. I wanted to run but I couldn’t. I was frozen. I stared into Joshua’s eyes. They were so powerful. I couldn’t see anything else but those eyes. The rest of the room dissolved into nothingness. Joshua was talking directly to me. I felt the hair all over my body stand up on end as he announced to the crowd that evil walked among the Followers of Aloysius.

Journal 133

We had gone over our plan a thousand times. We even discussed the things that could go wrong and alternate plans that we would take if anything went wrong. We went over and over the steps that we would take to make the plan work. We practiced and practiced the roles that each of us would play. Because Anna was already suspicious of Kate’s motives I got to play the devout follower role.

I spent two days living at the Spurs Fort kissing up to Anna and learning everything I could about Aloysius. If you are going to overtake and crumble the enemy, it helps to make her your friend. I studied, I cooked, I cleaned, I praised Aloysius every free moment I had. Just to make sure Anna knew I was devout I kissed her feet and washed her back. In a heartfelt display of devotion, I asked Anna if I could pass out the offering at the next Aloysius rally for the seekers. Anna thought it was a wonderful idea. Anna had her tailor fit me with robes.

Marty estimated to the best of his ability the amount of Gin that each of us would need to consume before the rally and then we drank a little more just to make sure none of our brains would turn into mush. I didn’t want Anna to turn me into a walking complacent zombie. Playing the role was hard enough.

Marty, Tony, Jonas, Victor, and I walked into the rally together. Anna requested I privately meet with her soon after we had arrived. Anna was pleased. Not everyone from Bear Country was present but the show was big enough to let Anna know that I was serious about my dedication to the Will of Aloysius.

Kate and her friends spread out among the other guests. We gave each other the secret sign and mingled with the seekers. Everyone was hanging around the food tables stuffing their faces with the assortment of treats. It was a happy crowd.

Journal 132

I should have known that sneaking into the Spurs Fort to get more Gin to try out our theory wasn’t going to be an easy one. It did start out easy. Kate and I snuck into the Spurs Fort through the cellar just as we had done before. There weren’t any guards around. At least no guards were paying attention to what they were supposed to be doing. I had a moment of thought that our entry was a little too easy. I ignored my feelings and continued to follow Kate to her room.

Anna was sitting on Kate’s bed as we opened the door. She was grinning from ear to ear as she looked at Kate and said, “Welcome home.” Two guards stepped in behind us and closed the door the moment we entered the room. I wasn’t going to be able to escape that way. The window was my only other option. With a running start, I could have dived through the window and only broken a few bones in the fall. I won’t mention the dirty words that were exploding in my head as I tried to figure out what to say.

I take my hat off to Kate. She was a quick thinker. I followed her lead as she praised Aloysius and stroked Anna’s ego. I think I turned Anna around the moment I said I was struggling to get everyone in Bear Country to accept the Will of Aloysius. I needed Kate’s help and advice. I was feeling inadequate and ashamed of my inability to persuade my friends to follow Aloysius. I feared for my friends. I apologized if I had gotten Kate into trouble, but I needed help and advice from someone that had firsthand seen the goodness that was Aloysius. I shed a few tears and begged Anna not to send me away. Anna left the room with her guards.

Journal 131

Marty is a wise man. I didn’t think he was actually paying attention to what was happening outside of his tent in his corner of the room. Marty, Cecelia, and the baby kept to themselves most of the time. They rarely talked to anyone unless they were performing some assigned chore. I really hadn’t seen Cecelia at all. I had heard the baby cry occasionally.

Kate and I were talking, discussing how we might save Joshua and the others at the Spurs Fort when Marty asked Kate if anyone else at the Spurs Fort was addicted to alcohol. It was a rude question, and I told Marty so. Kate rolled her eyes at Marty and sarcastically said she only drank occasionally, she wasn’t addicted. Except for Kate and her friends Lynette, Travis, and Pepper, no one at the Spurs Fort had had a drink since Anna arrived. Anna had forbidden the use of alcohol by everyone at the Spurs Fort. She had it all destroyed except for the case Kate had hidden in her room.

I could see the wheels turning in Marty’s head. Something had clicked in that scientific brain of his. Marty said certain medications are less effective and sometimes inactive if you drink alcohol. He said the reason Kate, her friends, Tony, and I weren’t affected by the drug put in the offerings at the Aloysius rallies was because the use of Gin could be making the drug ineffective.