John Frum The Reluctant Messiah

Off The Chain

"We don't need to hear anymore!" screamed one of the taller members. He stood, revealing his seven plus feet tall frame and began to make his way towards Aiden.

"Kill him!""Order! Order!" the magistrates gavel repeatedly slammed down on the wooden desk. The giant stopped his advance and quickly turned towards the bench.

"This is our concern!" he said, pointing a threatening finger towards the Magistrate. Em was the first to notice his extended, pointing finger was one of six on his left hand. He addressed the crowd, 

"Do we want judgement on this white devil being decided by another white man!?

The crowd exploded in choruses of "No! Kill the white devil!" Kill him!" and quickly rose to their feet. This was the excuse the masses were looking for and the giants among them seized the moment and began fomenting the crowd. It quickly escalated to full blown chaos with benches being thrown and fists flying. The courageous Magistrate and his brave sidekick quietly slipped out the back and disappeared into the shadowy jungle. John instinctively turned to run to the aid of his friend when Professor Wharton grabbed him by the shoulders. He forcefully turned him and looked him dead in the eyes.

"We are the target! Understand?! I can't do this without you. Stand with me, hand on my shoulder. Clear your mind. NO DOUBT!" he shouted.

"No doubt." John parroted.

Professor Wharton took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and exhaled.  John, for the first time, followed his lead without question and did the same thing. He thought it odd that the professor, in times of great need, did exactly what he had always done since he was a kid. But now was no time to question or wonder. He cleared his mind, closed his eyes, and let out his own singular, exhaling breath and in so doing,

TIME STOPPED.

That is, for everyone except Professor Wharton. John reopened his eyes. He was unaware of any passage or interruption of time, the same way that in sleep, hours can pass by yet upon waking, seems instantaneous. Somehow Wharton was now on the opposite side of him, wearing a totally inappropriate half smile on his face. 

The brutal beating was in the process of being carried out, leaving John horrified until the crowd, having finished its work, stopped, and pulled back the sackcloth hood. It was a bloodied and beaten Fletcher Howard  barely conscious and near death, choking on his own blood. The crowd grew quickly silent, confused by Fletcher's sudden appearance in the accused's tattered robe.

"Em, take your father to the airfield. We'll meet up there." said the professor. 

Em and Aiden were already at the very back of the rowdy crowd leaning against an old beater Jeep pick-up. It was missing its hood among other things but had the keys in the ignition so, hey...finders-keepers. 

She helped Aiden into the back of the open-air Jeep.

"Aiden is her dad!?" John asked in complete surprise.

"Well, yeah. Thought you knew that," said the professor. "Thought you'd be a little more impressed with the other thing..." John wore a clueless expression. " You know, the whole...little...time-altering switcheroo...thing? Look, Aiden probably wasn't the best choice, but he stepped up when Em's parents disappeared."

Fletcher Howard's henchmen had suddenly noticed John and the Professor and that their truck was being commandeered.

"Time to go!" 

The professor and John ran towards Aiden and Em and threw themselves into the truck. Em floored it, spinning the bald tires, throwing pebbles and dirt back at their pursuers. Fishtailing as they went, she headed down the dusty trail and into the security of the enveloping jungle.As the jungle swallowed them up and they began to put some distance between themselves and the mayhem left behind, the group silently began to gather themselves. What had they all just witnessed?

That brief respite was short lived however, shattered by a tremendous crashing sound that came from behind causing them all to turn in unison. There was a flurry of activity in the brush behind them as leafy branches began to be yanked down out of nowhere and disappear.

Then, out of the broken branches and in a great storm of dirt and leaves appeared a monstrously huge Nephilim. Human but not, with animal-like actions coupled with disproportionately large human features. The brain actually had trouble reconciling the image it saw. But the one thing the brain had no trouble with, was alerting the adrenaline producers of the body to start firing on all cylinders. Make no mistake, he was coming for them and with great speed, sometimes literally galloping on all fours, snarling like a rabid,junkyard dog. Except this junkyard dog was off his chain and would not be distracted.

"Must go faster!" Aiden blurted out.

"I can't get it out of second!" Em yelled as she continued forcefully pushing on the floor shifter. 

John joined the effort to move the shifter into third but to no avail. He looked around for something with a bit of weight to it to pound the shifter forward but only came up with a can of starter fluid that had rolled out from under his seat. It did, however, give him an idea. 

He rolled out the open side window,steadied himself with one hand by grabbing onto the window pillar, reached over to the exposed air cleaner and began loosening it's wingnut. Just as he removed the air cleaner's lid, he glanced back. The Neph was now a mere foot away from the Jeep's tailgate, his hand outstretched, poised to grab Aiden's flapping shirt tail.

"Behind you!" John yelled. 

Without a thought, John frisbeed the lid towards the giant, catching him squarely on the bridge of his over-sized nose. It watered his eyes just enough to cause him to stumble. As they sped away the dust cloud cleared enough to see him crumpled in a heap off to the side of the trail.

 The unspoken "Geez, that was close"sentiment shared by all was apparent. The nervous smiles of relief however were quickly wiped away when the determined Neph came crashing back out of the jungle. He was back in the race and quickly gaining on them. 

"Still. Can't. Get. Third!!" Em shouted, struggling with the gearshift. 

"Bloody move!!" screamed Aiden.