Chapter 15

“So, with the help of a black angel and a white Prophet, the Black Zone has captured Frederick Towne Mall. What else can we take? And why are you guys naked? Isn’t that dangerous?” the chairman of the Black Zone Liberation Council, who at least nominally served as the zone forces’ commander-in-chief, inquired of us now.

“Well, Mr. Chairman, it might under some circumstances be dangerous, yes, but we have had divine favor and protection, as you can see. There was some kind of intuition or awareness, even before divine relation by certain angels, that we would be safe, even if it defied logic in this case. We still have trouble believing that part ourselves, but recent success appears to confirm it, wouldn’t you say?” I grinned.

“Call me Malcolm. I don’t think that you have to guess as to why. Malcolm Philip Ward, for the record,” the chairman smiled now with considerable relief.

“I’m Adam Clarke. The Prophet. These are some of my people, starting with my wives, Autumn, Hannah, and Xia Delan Clarke. This is Dr. Anwyn Slater, a recent professor of history at West Virginia University. This is her wife, Gabby Slater. This is Lewis Slater. Long story on the Slater surname. This is Till Clarke and his wife, Raquel. This is Sardha Clarke. This is Becca Clarke. This is Ryan Clarke and his wife, Bonnie. This is Willa Clarke. This is Wilbur Clarke, her brother.

“This is Tara Lou Clarke. This is Jared Clarke and his wife, Leah. These are Barry Clarke and his wife, Diana, Yitzhak Clarke and his wife, Sarai, and Kylie Anne and Kelly Rae Clarke. This is Eve Clarke. This is Stacy Clarke. This is Eileen Clarke. The rest of these ... I don’t recall their names yet, my apologies, but for now at least all of their last names are Clarke. And I am to breed every woman in my tribe at least once if possible, after which the other men get their turn.

“These guys you probably know a little better. Reverend Morgan Ballard and his son, Obadiah. Brothers Xavier Price and Ismail Haji Ahmed. Stewart Price and his son, Henry. I believe that they were on their way to you when they ... and others got intercepted by the Nazis. Some ... did not make it, sadly,” I observed.

“And I’m coming with them to the east,” Xavier observed, “that’s ... one hundred sixty-two people, by my estimate.”

“I’m staying behind,” Ismail declared.

“As am I,” Stewart added.

“And I,” Obadiah assured everyone.

“Me, too,” Morgan agreed with his son.

“I’m going westward to Hagerstown myself. There’s another colony there with its own Prophet. Melissa Calvert, that’s her name. Lavelle told us all about that,” Henry informed Malcolm.

“Did he also mention that east of here ... well, let’s just say that Annapolis is controlled by the former midshipmen, cadets of the old U.S. Naval Academy and the Marines stationed there? The state government, of course, has entirely collapsed. In mere days, we’ve seen factions develop and seize various parts of our beloved Commonwealth. I suspect that many of them have been waiting for such a power vacuum to form, just so that they could fill the gap.

“Baltimore is reportedly a war zone, too. Six or seven prominent gangs control most of the city. I don’t mean factions. I mean outright gangs. Most police have simply joined them rather than try to fight them. Nobody’s paying them anymore, after all. The Annapolis Naval Enclave, as it’s now called, hasn’t bothered to restore order in Baltimore, frankly because it barely has enough manpower to maintain control in its own turf. I’m afraid that the Old Line State is rapidly falling into complete anarchy and it’s only been ... how many days since Doomsday?” Malcolm now explained.

“Well, the good news is that now you can expand your zone here in Frederick. We will help you do it. Right, guys?” I turned to my tribe for moral support and got it enthusiastically.

“Better these guys than the alternatives, at least from what I can tell,” Tara remarked.

“Nazis, man-haters, and Christian fundies ... yeah, gross! The Reds might be halfway acceptable, but that depends on how many of them are tankies, I guess,” Ryan added.

“The Radical Front is a mixed bag, but yes, we’ve already been in talks with them. In fact, that’s what the delegation was doing out of the zone. They just got back from negotiations with the Reds. When I say, ‘mixed bag,’ I’m actually understating things. Stalinists, Trotskyites, Maoists, anarchists of all stripes except for an-caps, I dare say, social democrats, libertarian socialists, council communists, Gramscians, Luxemburgists, syndicalists, Greens, etc.

“Also, pretty much all of the city’s Jews, not from a natural affinity, but for lack of any practical alternatives. Who else will take the Hasidim, the Mizrahim, the Ashkenazim, the Sephardim, etc.? Except for Jewish feminists and lesbians, I guess, or certain Messianic fundies, of course. And the Black Jews, naturally. It has had ... a somewhat radicalizing effect on the Hebrew population.

“Many of the local Jews have turned into real kibbutzniks and a lot of them have now taken to learning both Hebrew and Yiddish. They’re probably the few theists left in that zone, of course. Almost everyone else is an atheist, but they’ll work with leftist rabbis of any stripe, of course. And there are plenty of secular Jews as well. It’s like a miniature Israel, but without any of the real Israel’s drawbacks, such as hostile and oppressed Palestinian neighbors.