It was the next morning when Captain Ferguson and Sargent Busby caught up with Bob. Once they had explained the conversation between Busby and McPherson, Bob simply shook his head.

"You know Captain, in a way I'm surprised it has taken this long for people to start talking about my leadership."

Surprised at his answer, Captain Ferguson said, "You mean to tell me you expected this?"

"Captain, these people are civilians. Unlike you and your men, they aren't used to taking orders. They certainly don't like doing without all the pleasures they had before everything started. They want their old life back. Sitting in the easy chair with a drink in one hand and the T.V. remote in the other, watching the big game every Sunday."

"But they are all supposed to be believing Christians. How could they even think of questioning the man that God has put in charge?"

Bob shrugged his shoulders. "They did it to Moses. And that was after the Red Sea crossing. They had seen Gods' unbelievable works first hand. They had seen the army of Egypt wiped out before their eyes, yet they questioned Moses. Why should I expect anything different?"

"I wish I could be as calm about this as you are, Sir." was Sargent Busby's' comment.

"I'll tell you the truth, Sargent. If it were up to me, I'd let this MacPherson person have his way. Let him come up with ways to protect, feed, and otherwise take care of this group. It is a tiresome chore."

The Captain smiled, and nodded his head. "I can identify with that. Still, what are we going to do about it?"

"As with everything, first I'm going to pray. Then if they give us enough time, I'll ask Pastor Jim for some time on Sunday morning to talk to everyone at once."

---

Pride. It always made things easy with these apes, Ives thought to himself. He enjoyed the report that one of his servants had brought to him. Once he knew for certain where those people had gone, and realized a direct assault wasn't going to work, since they were being helped by the Nazarene, he sent out his servant to see what could be done to weaken them.

The servant had influenced a number of those people to begin to question why they didn't have the right to run things. After all, they were as good as the one who was in charge. Even better in some cases. He had caused some of them to think. Really, what were this guys qualifications? And at the same time actually believe they could have done the same, or better, believing in themselves instead of trusting the One who had kept them safe, and His servant in the town. Yes, pride was such a useful tool. He should have thought of it sooner.

Now all he had to do was wait for a little bit, and those people would tear into each other and divide themselves into at least two camps, thereby separating and weakening both camps. Hopefully, by that time the Chinese would have finally gotten through the mountains, and after their losses at that town, they would be more than willing to finally wipe it off the map, along with everyone there. Well, maybe except the women.

He had already sent his servant back to work on more of them, now if there was another way to use this to his advantage. He knew the master would be pleased, which was something he needed right now. The master wasn't happy about the failed attacks, but didn't replace him yet, because of recent victories in the field.

---

Jim had just finished his sermon, on the giving of the law to Moses. He hoped that it would have the desired effect. He closed The Bible, and then spoke to the congregation.

"Brothers and Sisters, I want to ask that everyone remain outside, for something that Brother Bob has to say."

Most of the people had no idea what this was about, but if Bob wanted to talk with them, they'd listen. Bob stood on the porch outside the church, Maria at his side, and waited for every-ones' attention.

"Friends, it has been brought to my attention that there are some here that believe a change in leadership of this town is in order. It has been truthfully pointed out that I wasn't elected to this position. And it seems that there are those who feel that not enough is being done for the people here. Well, I've never claimed to have all the answers, so if there are any here that would like to address this issue, please speak up."

A murmur went through the crowd. It not like anything they had heard Bob say before. He had always lead from a position of strenght, and nobody questioned him. So what was this all about?

Glenn MacPherson moved to the front and said,

"May I speak?"

"That's why we are here. Please go ahead."

MacPherson hitched his Chinese rifle up onto his shoulder, and stepped up on the stairs leading to the porch, turned and addressed the group.

"Friends, I'm sure that we all are grateful to Bob for all he has done for us. When we were wandering the countryside, he took us in, and gave us a place to stay, food to eat, and a safe place to live."

While Macphereson was speaking, something caught the eye of Captain Ferguson. It was common practice for everyone to go armed in town, but most people simply carried a pistol. Some of the younger folks would carry a bow and arrow. But Ferguson noticed that this time there were a number of men present carrying fully automatic rifles. It made him uncomfortable. He signaled Sargent Busby to his side. After hurried whispered instructions, Busby nodded and left the gathering. The Captain turned half of his attention back to Macphereson, while keeping his eye on the rifle carrying men.

"Now friends, I ask you. Why is it that we don't have those generators here in town where they would do the most good for one and all of us?" MacPherson continued to try to turn the crowd against Bob. "Why don't we get the chance to move around outside of town, and see what is out there?"

"Ain't nobody stopping you." A voice called out. "You want to wander around, go do it."

"What if I wanted to go west? What would happen? You already know the answer to that. These soldiers would stop us, that's what."

"That's not true Mr. Macphereson. If you want to go towards the combat zone, we won't stop you. But do you really believe that is wise?" Captain Ferguson said.

"How do we know it is a combat zone? The Chinese were beaten by us, so how do we know the American Army hasn't had better luck than we have?"

"You know the answer to that. We've picked up radio broadcasts telling us that the Chinese are just about stalled out, but they are still out there."

"So you say. None of us have heard these so-called broadcasts. You people have the only radios, we haven't heard a thing for ourselves. How can you be sure you are listening to American broadcasts, and not propaganda from the Chinese? You can't know. All you have is a voice coming out of a box."

"And do you have anything better?"

"I have common sense. Like I said, we've beaten the Chinese, with almost nothing. I'm sure the Army is doing better."

"We've beaten two small elements of a much larger force. The main force hasn't made a major attack against us. If they had, we might not be here by now."

"I say that they are being defeated by our Army, and we shouldn't be hiding out here in the middle of nowhere, while the fight is still going on. We should join with the Army and repel these invaders. Not to mention that we'd have better food, and more of it. We'd have electricity. Hot showers anytime we wanted." He turned his attention to the crowd once again. "Who's with me? Who says that we replace Bob with someone that will do something more than just cower here."

"I'm with you." Came a call from the back. It was followed by more voices supporting MacPhereson. Captain Ferguson noticed the calls came mostly from the rifle carrying men.

"I say we vote on it. Right here, right now. Most people of voting age are here, lets' do it." MacPhereson challenged.

Bob held up his hands for attention. "Friends, it seems to me that the best way to do this, is to just divide this crowd. All those who want to follow Mr. MacPheresons' lead, move over to my left. Those of you who want to continue as we are, please move to my right."

There was a brief shuffle as people moved to one side or the other. Bob noticed that in some cases, those who supported MacPherson, tried to pull others to their side, but they would pull loose, and move to the right. In the end, about twenty armed men moved to the left. Everyone else, moved to the right. MacPhereson was furious.

"Can't you people see you're being lead like sheep? Can't you think for yourselves?"

"Mr. MacPhereson, it seems that you are out voted. Please don't take this any further." Bob asked.

"I haven't been out voted. You've hood-winked them. You've blinded them to the truth, so you can continue to play God over us. Well, we'll see about that. If they can't see the truth, we'll make them see."

He turned and signaled the armed group. They reached for their weapons. A blast of automatic fire ripped the ground between the two factions. Every head turned to see Sargent Busby standing at the corner of the church, with his weapon trained on MacPhereson. The other members of the Special Forces popped up from nowhere, surrounding the armed group. Every man pointing his weapon at them. Slowly they dropped their rifles, and raised their hands.

"You set this up." MacPherson screamed at Bob.

"No Mr. McPherson. You did when you had armed men come to church." Bob looked at those to his right. "What do you folks say we should do?"

"Shoot them." Came a call.

"Why?"

"Bob, don't you think they were going to do that to you?"

"Possibly. But the truth is that no one was hurt. I can't order a mans death without a cause."

"Bob." Came another voice. "You've always done the right thing. What do you think we should do?"

"Yeah. We sure can't trust them after this. You can't just turn them loose either. So what do you think we should do?"

"There is an answer. The way I see it, these have placed themselves outside of Gods' will. They have turned their backs on Him, so we turn our backs on them. Banishment is the way. Cast them out from among us. They don't want to do things Gods' way, then let them follow their own way, somewhere else."

It didn't take long before the chant went up.

"Cast them out! Cast them out!"

Bob waved the crowd to silence, then turned to the men.

"You will remain here. One at a time, you will be escorted to where you live. You may take with you, only those things you brought with you. Everything else remains here." As soon as all of you have your possessions, you will leave this place. If you ever return, you will be shot."


BW, Vietnam Vet