Chapter 40

The Adam Clarke Divinity School,
The University of Virginia,
The Free City of Charlottesville,
1513 hours (3:13 pm) local time
18 April, 2014

“And so, my dear students, remember this: it is your sacred duty and honor to build the new world that will follow Doomsday. It is you who will have to do much of the hard work of rebuilding hearth and home, town and country alike. It is you who will bring back civilization to Old Virginia. Just recall that this isn’t the first generation who will have to do so. After the Civil War, many of the survivors who attended this very university assisted in remaking and reshaping this state and country alike in their own heroic fashion.

“So, for those who might feel guilt about any joy that you experience over the relaxation of the old, puritanical, repressive laws of the past, consider that you are already making plenty of sacrifices and enduring many hardships for the greater good. You don’t need to justify, let alone apologize, for whatever pleasures, including those of a hedonistic nature, you might celebrate in the midst of suffering difficulties and yielding the conveniences and comforts of the old way of life. It has become an exchange of sorts, the ease and leisure of the past for the delights of the present, with hope for more of both in the future.

“Also, let me observe that many of you standing here today are pregnant, bearers of the very future of this community, this town, this state, and yes, this institution of higher learning. How then can this pleasure, this new lifestyle, possibly be harmful or wrong, when it ensures that very future, that very hope for a better life and a more just world? No, I say, a thousand times no! What we have done, this bond of physical, intellectual, spiritual, and social intimacy and congress between my tribe and yours, is absolutely vital to a harmonious and equitable social order in this glorious new age!

“Never let the forces of the close-minded and narrow prudery of the past, the voices of repression, superstition, and arbitrary tradition dictated by the clergy of false gods, in any way, shape, or form, dissuade or discourage you from embracing your true nature and your real essence. It is high time that you all embrace the truth of nudism or naturism or whatever one wishes to call it, for example, not to mention full and complete promiscuity. I am pleased to see that you have, thus far, managed to escape the clutches of such ecclesiastical tyranny.

“It has no doubt been aided by the rise of new religious revelation, new revealed authority which has supplanted the old at last. This prophetic epiphany, guided by seers such as the Prophetess Sarah Whitman-Lansing and myself, the Prophet Adam Clarke, has greatly eased the transition from the false values and false doctrines of the past to the new divine mysteries and teachings of the present and the future, the ones which will guide posterity out of the primitive darkness into a glorious new dawn. It is with great pleasure, thereof, that we dedicate this new Adam Clarke Divinity School here at the University of Virginia.

“We consecrate it in the name of the new Supreme Being and King of Heaven, for Heaven indeed is in newer and better hands nowadays. Here to offer the invocation for Divine Providence to bless the foundation of this new and reformed institute is our illustrious guest, the Reverend Austin Bryce of the Church of the New Way in Roanoke. Brother Austin, I mean this quite literally, be my guest!” I turned to the adolescent Prophet, already assembling his first disciples in Roanoke with the aid of angels and some of my emissaries.

The local version of the same movement in Charlottesville, formally co-founded by Sarah and myself, was called the Church of the New Path, but it amounted to the same concept. We were a lot larger, with more and more converts by the day, a rising tide as opposed to the ebbing flow of the Abrahamic wave. After all, we were quite literally on the side of the angels, were we not? How was it possible to defeat us, if the new Almighty and His Heavenly Host stood with us?

After a brief, but impressive prayer by the young Prophet, Austin Bryce, there were just a few more formalities to observe before the convocation was dismissed for the rest of the afternoon. I was soon swamped by my usual proteges, admirers, lovers, etc., but Austin Bryce also gained plenty of attention for himself, which made it rather convenient that I caught up with him. We had much to discuss, did we not? Business before pleasure and all that jazz.

“So, what’s the latest bad news out of Richmond?” Austin was remarkably crisp and decisive for one so young, but then his father was Michael the Archangel, wasn’t he?

“Hopewell has fallen at last and all resistance appears to have effectively collapsed now. Don’t expect a surrender, though. Blacksburg’s fate taught everyone that no mercy can be assured, as did other places taken by the ASF. Eckart and his goons could teach lessons in merciless brutality to the Nazi Einsatzgruppen on the Russian Front and the early Soviet Cheka.

“Or the Khmer Rouge at their peak. Entire families simply lined up where they’re found and gunned down on sight. They’re not bothering with anything less efficient than all-out death squads. Not even a pretense of any kind of red tape, either,” I laid out the worst of the recent updates on which I was briefed.

“What’s the basis or criteria? Just race or something else? Are there any ‘Rape of Nanking’ variety of atrocities? You know, looting, rapine, that kind of thing. Or is the orgy limited to one of sudden and instant death?” Austin replied, much of the color gone from his face by now.

“From what the reports tell me, it’s heavily bent toward sheer, wanton slaughter. But yes, there’s some rape and plunder. Rape is just strongly discouraged where minorities, particularly blacks, are concerned. Eckart simply wants them exterminated, including any biracial types or those with ‘one drop of Negro blood’ in them. In his view, the black, sub-Saharan African is inherently subhuman and worthy only of total annihilation.

“As bad as rape is, outright murder is worse, of course. As noted, there is a strong preference for gunfire, for bullets, but knives, daggers, truncheons, even swords and bayonets are being used as well. Some have even hanged or burned or drowned minorities and other victims. Still, firing squads are the main course of action chosen by the ASF’s Liquidator Corps. As the name implies, they focus directly on ‘liquidating’ enemies, whether armed or not.