Page 11 of Torn

3

Jolie

May 2nd, 2010

New Eden Commune

I knelt by my bed,hands clasped and eyes closed.

“Please bless the men as they head out to search the Wastelands for more food next week. I also pray that you keep the land around New Eden safe and unharmed as you have already done for so many years, so that the other men in our flock may continue to work the fields. I know I am not deserving of your love and devotion, but I will always strive to be better for you. In your name, amen.”

I opened my eyes and looked up at the wooden cross hanging on the dark brown wall of my living quarters. The room was small and spartan, but I was still grateful for it. Here at New Eden, I had more than most people in the world. Safety. Clean water. Food.

I was terrified when I first arrived all those years ago, but in the end, there was nothing to fear. The underground shelter was amazing. It never flooded due to the drainage pumps set up around it, the temperature was usually stable, and it was big enough to fit over three hundred people with extra space for cooking, recreation and washing. There were also separate lesson rooms for boys and girls and a large church with beautiful gray stone detailing.

The men’s wing even had functioning electricity, a gift bestowed upon them by our God. Of course, the girls and women were not permitted to use electricity or even battery-powered appliances, as it interfered with the female organs. We knew this because my father had been warned by Him in a vision about the health effects technology could have on us.

On top of that, electrically-powered cleaning machines like people used to have in the old days left women with too much time to rest and relax. That was exactly what caused minds and hands to wander into feminine sinfulness. I understood that, but sometimes it was still hard for me to remember that only men had been given the gift. I missed some of the old electrical things a lot. Like proper lights. It would be nice if we could have them instead of candles.

Still, male or female, gift or no gift, we were all so very lucky to be here.

Not every member of the church had made it to the shelter on that fateful day eleven years ago, so there were only two hundred and thirty people at New Eden out of the three hundred or so who were part of the original church community. The young children had all survived the terrorist attack which preceded the Great Reckoning of the world, but every teenage boy and girl had been killed, along with all the women. Some men, too. Mostly the younger ones.

At first I was confused as to why the young children and older men were spared by the gunmen, but my father had explained it all. He said the terrorists wanted to get rid of us, so they’d murdered all the women to ensure that the church could no longer multiply. The teenagers and young men who were killed were simply caught in the crossfire.

My father had forgiven the terrorists for their heinous actions against our church, the Path of the Covenant, because they were simply lost souls who had been coerced into fighting us by the Devil himself. They were all dead now anyway, because on the same day they tried to wipe us out, the nuclear bombs started dropping.

Many leaders throughout the world had been influenced by our God to make this happen, and within a week of the first bomb, every major city in the world had been leveled. It was known as the Great Reckoning.

Billions had died when this occurred. All of them were sinners. They had to pay the price for the way they had been living, which went against His Word. The smaller cities and towns were razed too, by vengeful angels masquerading as humans. That must’ve been why we all noticed the smoke over Amiens that day. It was the beginning of the end.

But not for us.

The Path of the Covenant was thriving at New Eden. Upon our initial arrival all those years ago, my fellow children and I were shocked and distressed by what had happened to our mothers, but my father and his disciples—the Elders—had been very patient and taught us lessons on everything we needed to know about life.

They showed us the new order of the world. The proper roles for men and women. The appropriate way to think, speak, and pray. They taught us the new rules we must follow, too, along with the justifications behind them.

It was very hard to get used to, considering what the old world had been like for us. Some of us rebelled at first, but within a couple of years, we were all used to it and happy to live underground. It meant we were safe from the horrible effects of the fallout.

None of us had actually witnessed the nuclear destruction when the bombs started falling on the world outside. We would’ve died from the blasts if we’d been out there to see it all, but we knew it happened anyway because our God sent visions of the events to my father. He told us all about it, and some of the bravest men began venturing out into what was now the Wastelands not long afterwards to investigate the extent of the damage and locate some safe food sources for us.

We had photos of the explosions and other awful events, as some of the explorers had found functional cameras hidden in the rubble of cities and towns during their journeys out into the Wastelands. The old owners of the cameras must’ve taken the photos just before they were killed.

My father told us there were some survivors other than us, but they were scattered all over the place. The brave men from our flock who regularly wandered out to the Wastelands—including my father—would trade with these surviving groups for food and other necessities when they came across them. This was fortunate as it ensured we always had supplies to cook with.

Occasionally one or two of the survivors from other places made their way to us, and if they were found to be compatible with our way of life, they were allowed to join the flock. That was rare, though.

Despite all the horrors and destruction of the Great Reckoning, our God had been extremely generous with our church. The ranch had been unaffected by the bombs, because He shielded it with a ring of angels and ensured it would be unblemished by the effects of nuclear fallout.

Still, the men knew they had to do their best to keep the girls safe as our bodies were more fragile and susceptible to radiation damage. Because of this, females were almost never allowed above the surface, just in case. We remained in the confines of the shelter at all times, except for one day in spring every year when the weddings happened, along with the occasional bonfire festival where we would burn effigies of the Devil.

We were also allowed above ground to watch whenever an execution needed to be carried out. Even in this place, our wonderful paradise, there was still the occasional act of sin which needed to be punished.

“Jolie.”

I looked away from the cross to see Elena standing by the door to my room. She was clad in a dark gray full-length long-sleeved dress, an outfit worn by all the wives. I was still unmarried, which meant I had to wear a light blue dress at all times.

Elena had been married to Elder Landry for three years now. There was once a time when she found his son Adam attractive, but that was long ago. A different lifetime. Adam would become the husband of one of the much younger girls when they finally reached fruition a few years from now. Until then, he would work in the fields outside and occasionally venture out into the Wastelands for supplies.

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