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Riven

By H. L. Wegley

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Prologue
Zach Tanner drew a long breath as he sat in his chair in the Rogue Valley’s KROG-AM studio. The clock said only two minutes remained in his network program, Zach’s Facts. He leaned toward the mixing console, placing his mouth an inch from the mic, and began his closing remarks in a low, unrelenting voice.
"America may not be where it was on March 4, 1861, when Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated. But many of the divisions that led to that terrible Civil War exist today—divided views of our national history, divided views of our founding documents, of our monuments, of most of our symbols, of what it means to be a patriot, and what it means to be an American.”
Propelled by the driving rhythm of his heart, the words pulsated from his lips.
"We are in a cold civil war, but one that will grow hot given the slightest provocation. I believe many provocations are coming, and the incompatible political ideologies on the right and the left prevent any resolution but a violent one, a rending of our nation. It will not play out as it did in 1861, but every American will know that we are at war when one group crosses the line, a point of no return, leaving a riven republic. And as the nation fragments in a de facto secession and struggles against itself, the question on each true American heart is, can we ever recover what we once had?
"The courts cannot save us from ourselves. No part of the federal government can. Maybe if enough pulpits echo the call to revival, God will move as He has in the past. Maybe the hearts and minds of millions will be changed, and we will find unity once again.
“At this critical juncture in American history, it appears that only an act of God can save this nation. May God have mercy on the United States of America."
Zach hit the button that played the closing theme for his show.
How much longer could he endure painting gut-wrenching pictures of the state of our severance to the citizens of the nation he loved, a nation barreling headlong into a tunnel of total darkness?
And how much longer until I’m arrested for doing this?

 

Chapter 1
One week later, 10:30 p.m. Keizer, Oregon – 30 minutes before curfew
Kate Alexander turned out the narthex lights and stepped outside the main entrance of Chemawa Community Church. As she pulled out the door key, she scanned the dimly lit street and the sidewalks where overgrown bushes and trees encroached, offering too many hiding places for the ne’er do wells roaming the streets these days … and nights.
She saw no one and so she locked the door. But seeing no one didn’t mean she was safe. And the emergency curfew enacted last week by Governor Harper, her aunt, did nothing to ensure Kate’s safety.
How could it after Sandra Harper’s repressive policies had driven nearly half of the police force to resign and leave Salem. And it had been the best half that left.
Now criminal activity mushroomed out of control and every evening—
Kate froze.
Blinding blue headlights came on from a vehicle parked a short distance up the street.
Spotlighted by the headlights, the churchyard and Kate’s arms turned a pale shade of blue.
The car rolled slowly toward the church.
She shoved the key into the lock. But would locking herself alone in a large, dark church keep her safe?
After the vehicle continued down the street, Kate drew a calming breath.
Something zapped her leg and she jumped, dropping the key.
Her cell. Someone was calling.
Kate picked up the key, leaned her back against the door and slipped her cell from her shorts pocket.
The caller ID displayed Shauna, her roommate.
Kate answered.
“Kate, have you left the church yet?”
So Kate wasn’t the only one concerned about her safety thirty minutes before curfew on a moonless June night.
“I just locked up. Everyone else is gone. I’ll tell you about the meeting when I get home. What’s up?”
“A few minutes ago, your mom called our house phone.”
“My mom? We aren’t exactly on speaking terms right now. What did she want?”
“That’s just it. She didn’t come out and say, but she asked questions like she thought, or expected … that maybe you’d had a change of heart.”
“You mean she was asking if I was leaving the church and coming back into the fold like a dutiful daughter resuming my place in Oregon’s political machinery?”
Shauna blew out a breath, creating a static-like sound. “I thought you always called that playing left field.”
“It’s playing radical left field—over the line into foul territory.”
“I don’t know if your mom was in foul territory, but she was rather evasive. And, yeah, she sounded like she wanted to know if her little girl was ready to come home?”
Kate hadn’t talked to her mother in three or four months. And why would she call tonight of all nights when critical issues were being discussed at the church in what Kate thought was a secret, unannounced meeting?
“You still there, Kate?”
“Yes. But I need to hurry home. It’s only three blocks, but just looking at the street, hearing sirens in the distance, I—”
“Girl, you’d better use that speed of yours and run home. And be careful. This city’s going to pot.”
“My aunt helped take the whole state there a few years ago, literally. I’ll hurry, Shauna. See you in a minute or so if I’ve still got the legs for it.”
“Wait. Do you want me stay on the phone until you get here?”
“No. I’ll be fine. After six years, I still hold the two-hundred-meter dash record for my high school. Who’s going to catch me?” Her words signaled more bravado than the presto tempo her heart drummed.
Kate ended the call, slid her cell into her pocket and kicked in the afterburners.
When she cut left from the church walkway onto the sidewalk, bright blue headlights turned onto the street a block ahead and headed her way.
It was the same car.
If these were hooligans looking for some easy victim who was trying to get home before the curfew, she needed to surprise them to ensure she escaped them.
She slowed to a brisk walk and studied the movement of the car.
The vehicle sped up and veered across the sidewalk only ten yards ahead of Kate, cutting off her path.
The passenger’s door flew open.
Her heart pounded out panic, but adrenaline launched Kate out of the blocks in an all-out sprint.
She cut right to cross to the other side of the street.
The driver’s door swung open.
A man leaped toward her as she ran by.
He snagged her left arm.
Kate surged forward with all her strength and jerked the man off his feet.
He hit the pavement with a loud grunt.
As Kate accelerated to her full speed, cursing came from twenty yards behind her, profane descriptions of women, descriptions embedded in other gutter language. But thankfully no sounds of running footsteps.
Less than fifteen seconds left to reach her front door.
She pushed the pedal to the metal, and her legs responded. If she needed that sprinting speed, it was still there.
The front door to the small rented house came into view.
Kate slowed to turn onto the walkway.
The door swung open.
Shauna appeared then backed away from the door.
Kate ran through the doorway, yanked the door closed behind her, then turned and locked it.
“Girl, are you all right? Your face is all eyes.”
She was okay, except she couldn’t catch her breath. And she sounded like an asthmatic each time she tried to draw in some air.
Hyperventilation. She’d done that once after winning a big race. It would pass, but rebreathing her air would speed her recovery.
“Kate?”
She pushed a palm at Shauna and nodded, but the wheezing continued.
“Need … grocery … bag.” Kate struggled but managed to force out the words.
Shauna’s eyes widened. “You’re not gonna puke on our carpet, are you?” She whirled toward the kitchen closet and came back with a paper bag.
Kate pulled it snugly around her face and tried to slow her wheezing.
Soon she could draw in a full breath, and she pulled the bag from her face. “I hyperventilated.”
“You’re scaring me, girl. When do you intend to tell me what you hyperventilated over?”
“In just a minute.” Kate went into her bedroom, unlocked the gun safe, pulled out the handgun they had purchased several weeks ago when things turned ugly in the Salem area, and returned to the living room.
“Now you’re really scaring me. Are we expecting company?”
Kate didn’t reply.
“You better tell me something, girl.” Shauna stood in the middle of the living room, hands on hips, gaze alternating between the front door and the gun in Kate’s hands.
“I don’t think they followed me home, Shauna.”
“And who’s they?”
“Some thugs cruising the streets just before curfew, looking for easy prey. I think they had some bad plans for me, and they sure didn’t need to worry about the police interfering.”
“Kate, you are not easy prey for anybody.”
“One of them grabbed my arm. He wasn’t a football player. If he knew how to tackle, I might not have made it. When I ran, I pulled him off his feet.”
Shauna whistled. “That’s too close. This town’s not safe anymore and never will be until we clean house in the city government, the state government, and—”
“And my aunt.”
“I didn’t say that, but the shoe does fit.” Shauna paused. “I’ve been thinking about moving back home to Roseburg. Smaller town. Safer, even if it is on the west side. It’s more isolated.”
“Maybe it’s time for us both to ditch this place. The whole west side of the state has gone nuts. It’s not safe anywhere the radical left controls the government.”
Shauna’s eyebrows rose. “You mean like in the good old USA, since we elected Wendell Walker as president?”
Kate nodded and sat on the living room couch. “But I need to know more about my mom’s call. You said she asked if I’d changed my mind. She probably meant about Jesus, because she thinks he’s simply an irrelevant historical figure who’s growing more irrelevant every day.”
Shauna sat in the easy chair. “She wasn’t very precise. More like purposely vague. But it sounded like she expected there would be some change. That lady doesn’t know her daughter very well.”
The church meeting was the only thing that might have come close to changing Kate’s mind. And that would only have impacted her view of certain people in the congregation, including some of the leaders. Sure, it could have been hurtful, but it wouldn’t have changed her beliefs about God or Jesus.
What would have given her mother a reason to expect Kate would abandon—wait. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the woman who had started all the nasty rumors. They were trying to decide what to do about the rumors and the woman.
But how would Kate’s mom know about the—Aunt Sandra!
It had to be something that—
“Oooh! Those eyes. Girl, what are you thinking? You better let it out or you’re gonna explode.”
Sometimes Shauna read Kate too well. “Shauna, it all makes sense now.”
“No, it all doesn’t. And you aren’t making any sense.”
“The meeting at the church—you can’t repeat any of this and I won’t trouble you with the specifics—but there were rumors of unethical and immoral behavior among—”
“You mean sex and lies? Whatever happens that’s bad, it always includes sex and lies.”
“But they were all just rumors started by a young woman who began attending the church about six months ago. That was … let me see. Right after the big argument with my parents about their political ideology and its spiritual ramifications. I told them it was wrong, evil, anti-God, and I would not have anything to do with it.”
Tempers had flared, hers and her parents’. Kate had stormed out of the room. But as she left, her fine aunt, Sandra Harper, had said she would rescue Kate and bring her back into the fold.
If Kate were a betting person, she would bet good money that’s what Governor Harper had been trying to do.
“Don’t leave me in suspense. What happened?”
“I think my aunt sent someone from her staff, a spy, and tried to sabotage Chemawa Community Church so I would leave.”
“The governor would do that? Seriously?”
“I heard her tell my parents that she would do whatever it took to bring me back to my roots, the lair of the so-called intellectually elite.”
“But, Kate, they’re proposing things that are evil.”
“Those things aren’t evil to a person who doesn’t believe in evil, or to one who defines it however it suits them.”
“So what’re you gonna do?”
“First, I’m going to straighten things out at the church, and then—"
A siren screamed its alarm a few blocks away. Soon others joined, creating a howling pack of sirens.
“Hear that?” Kate motioned toward the sounds.
Shauna dipped her head slowly. “The fruit of our governor’s politics.”
“It’s five ‘til eleven. Those thugs who tried to catch me may have attacked some other woman. I’ve had enough. I’m leaving here, Shauna. Do you want to come with me?”
“Where will you go?”
“You know that radio talk show I’ve been listening to?”
“You mean Zach’s Facts?”
“Yes. Since the whole nation seems to be ripping apart, Zach Tanner thinks we’re headed toward something warmer than the cold civil war we’ve been seeing for the past several years. He says, in Oregon, the Constitutionalists, Christians, and some other conservatives will congregate on the other side of the mountains and defend themselves from there.”
“War? That’s a big, bold prediction. And picking up everything and moving to Eastern Oregon? That’s a tough decision for a family to make. What would drive them to leave their—"
A deep rumble reverberated through the house. The sound came from the street outside.
Bright lights penetrated the curtains and lit up the living room.
Kate scurried to the window and pulled the edge of the curtain back. “Shauna, come here. This is what will make people move to the east side.”
Shauna pushed her head beside Kate’s. “Military vehicles. They look like porcupines with all those guns sticking out.”
“My aunt must have activated the Oregon National Guard and declared martial law. I didn’t think a governor could do that before there was a disaster or civil unrest that created chaos. I knew it might come to that, but not so soon. But then I didn’t think she would send a spy to sabotage my church either.”
“You know, Kate, if this really is martial law, you may not be able to just leave. You might have to escape.”
“Maybe. But I’m going. Are you coming with me?”
“I want to try Roseburg first. But Salem is a place where being a black girl has its advantages.” Shauna grinned. “I’ve got black privilege. I can slip out of town more easily than you.” Shauna’s grin faded. “So, Kate, you should take the gun. If I’m right, you’re gonna need it.”

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