The Last Crusade (12 page)

He shows the cameras a patch with the red Knights Templar cross on it, he holds up another showing a red Russian Orthodox cross and one with the blue Star of David. Looking into the camera, he closes,

“We must come together as our Lord’s army on earth. I offer God’s army a blessing of good fortune. I’m asking the Commanding Generals of the free world’s armies to join me and others in fighting for our Lord and God. May God bless you all.”

Shocked silence spreads around the world. Five long minutes of silence in the Caliphate’s shelter are broken by the Ali Mohmand Tanvir screaming,

“HE LIES!
He
leads the armies of Satan. We are Allah’s blessed, holy warriors, we are doing Allah’s will on earth. We will fight his Crusade like we fought and defeated the previous Crusades of his false Church. None can defeat Allah.

The Last Crusade

PART 2

Chapter 1

Pope Francis II’s message surprises people around the world. The tens of thousands wounded in the nuclear strikes pause to listen to the Holy Father. The US and Russian militaries, both heavily wounded and reduced from the nuclear strikes pause to listen to the Pope. They reflect on the Pope’s words.  Many agree he makes sense, in fact, weeks after the American/Russian nuclear exchange the militaries couldn’t understand why the other attacked. When the Pope says the Caliphate was behind the attacks lights go on above the American and Russian Commanding General’s heads; each picks up the phone to call the other. Both Cheyenne Mountain and the Russian strategic center survived the attacks.

The two generals have known each other for years. They’ve met each other over years of various political meetings between the two countries. They like and respect each other which helps the initial discussions get under way.

“Pavel, thank you for taking my call, I’m glad you survived.”

“As I am you did too. Do you think the Pope is correct, we’ve been played by the black asses?”

“I’ve thought of almost nothing else for weeks. Every time I look at the data, the answers look like he could be right. I think it’s most likely true, we spotted a single delivery system bringing the weapon to New York, although we couldn’t trace it back to one of your vessels, nor did we figure out why there was only one missile launched. I swear to you we were not responsible for the attack on Moscow.”

“Frank, I believe that. I also reviewed the tapes, we too didn’t find any record of one of your missile launches. I believe you didn’t attack us. How do you think the weapons were delivered?”

“My guess is by truck, they inherited Pakistan’s weapons which they had to upgrade in order to produce the yields which exploded in our countries. They could have done that simply by adding more material, it wouldn’t be pretty, but it would work. I too believe the Pope is correct. I believe we have two choices, one, we use our remaining nuclear weapons to turn the Caliphate to glass or we merge our troops and invade the Caliphate, arrest their leaders for crimes against humanity. After we arrest their leaders, we are going to have to decide how to wipe out Islam as a religion. If we decide to fight a land war, it’s going to be a long bloody war. It’s not going to be easy.”

“I lean towards turning them to ash and forgetting about them, I don’t want to put my remaining people at risk.”

“I agree, my concern with using our remaining stocks of nuclear weapons is we will send a huge cloud of radioactive fallout around the world. We will need to use large ground penetrators to dig them out, these will create a huge amount of fallout. The land of the Caliphate won’t support life for hundreds of years. We may need their land; we do need their oil which we won’t be able to retrieve if we radiate their land. I think we should reach out and meet with the Pope. Will your military fight for the Pope?”

“For the Pope, no. For our religious leaders, yes. A little good news is our high priest and the Pope have settled the issues between them. It only took 800 years, but they’re now talking. The Pope said we could fight under our own Orthodox flag; our troops will be happy to wear the red orthodox cross on their arms. They will fight a holy war. What about your troops?”

“We’re working on that, as you know our military is very mixed, I think they will fight for revenge if nothing else. Will your troops have any issues fighting next to the IDF?”

“My officers respect their abilities, we will fight together, we have a common enemy. At the end of the day, our people are warriors, they respect and will fight with other warriors. I know your people won’t have any issues since they are one of your strongest allies.”

“I’m glad we agree, let’s plan to meet in Switzerland.”

“I’ll look forward to seeing you there.”

“Before we end the call, I have one additional suggestion, which is we send a combined message to all of our people telling them we believe that the Pope is correct. The war between our two nations was a mistake, we should not fight each other, we are friends in this new war as we were in the Great Patriotic War against Hitler. We have to stop our people from attacking each other, one of our ships or subs may locate and attack yours or visa-versa. We’re going to need all of our resources to fight the Caliphate.”

“Agreed, I’ll have my staff send yours a draft, we’ll issue a jointly signed set of orders to all of our people.”

“Pavel, do sleduyushchego raza.” (Until next time.)

“Frank, God Bless you.”

“Pavel, I think we’re both going to need God’s help.”

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Ali Mohmand Tanvir stares at his monitor,

“I can’t believe this, we must organize the population, the Satans are planning on a new Crusade against us. This will indeed be their last Crusade. We will allow the armies of Satan to advance into the desert before we kill all of them. Allah has given us a gift where all of our enemies will be in one location, this is truly the end times! My friends, we are so close to bringing Allah’s rule to all mankind. Go, prepare all of the people, arm everyone, men, women, and children. Yes, the women too. Everyone will fight against Satan. We will make every meter of the Caliphate hell for these invaders.”

His staff smile leaving to prepare for the last battle.

A tired Ali Mohmand Tanvir retires to his bed, sleep quickly comes, his mind drifts into a dream of the future, he sees a pure white majestic horse rise over the sand dunes, he sees the horse grow wings gliding over the dunes, its wings shimmer in the sun. The horse’s eyes are a deep penetrating blue. The white steed hovers in front of Ali Mohmand, he kneels with his front legs outstretched toward him. Ali Mohmand Tanvir hears a deep voice in his head,

“Ali Mohmand Tanvir, I have sent my pure white steed to you. You will ride this horse into battle carrying my banner ahead of the faithful. You shall be known as the Mahdi; you will complete the next step towards the end days when I shall rule the world.”

Ali Mohmand Tanvir sits up in bed covered in sweat. He remembers every vivid detail of the dream, getting up from his bed, he pulls a white robe around himself, exiting his bedroom, his bodyguards snap to attention. They’re surprised to see his eyes have turned blue, they move to speak with him to ensure he is alright, he waves them away with a flick of his right wrist. He’s drawn outside his bunker, a place he hasn’t been in two months, He hasn’t seen the sky or felt the desert wind against his skin for two months. The guards worry about his safety, they try to block him from opening the outside door, he pushes them away opening the outside door, he wants to feel the cool night. He stares into the sky feeling something unusual within his soul, he pauses mid-step, because he hears an unfamiliar sound to his right. He freezes in place seeing a bright white horse standing in front of him, even its saddle is pure white. The horse silently bows to him. Barefoot,  he walks on the sand to greet the horse. Reaching into the pocket of his robes he discovers a sugar cube which he holds out to the horse. The gleaming white steed and Ali Mohmand Tanvir stare into each other’s souls. The horse nods his head, taking the sugar cube while turning his head to the side motioning Ali Mohmand Tanvir to mount him.

The bodyguards have no idea where the horse came from, they’re mystified watching the interaction between the horse and their leader. They are overwhelmed with a force that drives them to their knees in front of the Great Mahdi. Ali Mohmand climbs on the horse who takes him on a tour of the camp. Word flows through the camp that the Holy Mahdi has returned, the story of the white horse flies from mouth to mouth, each time it’s told, the story slightly expands until the white horse has wings, it’s a personal gift from Allah to Ali Mohmand. Allah has appointed the Caliphate’s Prime Minister as the Mahdi. The soldiers in camp lay on their prayer rugs facing east, they give thanks to Allah that they are able to see the return of the Mahdi, knowing they are bringing the end of days upon the world ending in Allah’s rule over all.

The pure white horse returns The Mahdi to the command bunker, where he dismounts in front of the bunker’s main door. The guards snap to attention; they are joined by the Caliphate’s head Iman, who was woken being told of the return of the Mahdi. The Iman approaches the Mahdi, looking at his face which has a glow to it, the Iman falls to his knees.

“Holy one, welcome to our humble camp.”

“Iman, rise. We have much to discuss. The time is fast approaching, Allah has said the minor times have been completed, we are now entering the time of the major signs. The alamatu's-sa'ah al- kubra (The major signs of the end) have started.

Ya'jooj and Ma'jooj (Gog and Magog), the two tribes, are coming together to do battle. The Earth will be ravaged by the coming war. Allah will eventually send disease and worms to wipe out the infidels.

Our Holy book told us a huge black smoke cloud will cover the earth; this has happened, the black cloud from the nuclear explosions has covered most of the earth. It is per the Holy Quran.

Also, the sun will rise from the west; the nuclear suns have risen in the west brighter than the sun, fulfilling the prophecy.

Per the Holy Quran, three sinking of the earth, one in the east, one in the west, and one in Arabia. This has happened, huge holes have been dug into the earth from the nuclear weapons. Allah has decided the time has come to kill all of the infidels. Will you follow Allah and me?”

“Yes, Holy One, all of the faithful will be proud to follow you to Allah’s victory.”

“Come, we have much to discuss.”

Guards snap to attention and step aside as the Mahdi and Iman walk into the depths of the bunker to discuss the coming war.

Chapter 2

Thankfully for the world’s population, most of the nuclear weapons exploded as air bursts over military bases, limiting deadly fallout. The newest generation of weapons are much cleaner than the early generations, they are much more efficient in converting nuclear material into explosions. A third of the American and Russian military got caught on their bases when the missiles arrived.

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The Pope’s message quickly spreads around the world, Priests announce they will be compiling lists of young people who want to join the Pope’s army.  Churches are quickly swamped by millions of young men and women wanting to join the Pope’s Holy army. They want revenge for the nuclear attacks. Lines of the young stretch around the churches. The media mocks the Pope’s call for an army and Crusade, they claim the Pope is sticking his nose into things that aren't his business. They say he should concentrate on building his new city and leave national and military affairs to the experts. Talk radio doesn’t know if they should support the Pope or not. Two days after the Pope’s call for a new Crusade, Mark opens his show fully supporting the Pope, he says,

“If we don’t end this now, we’re finished. Our leaders should have never allowed the Muslim threat to get out of control. They should have been stopped before they were able to create a situation where we and Russia almost killed ourselves. They tried to destroy the world so they could bring forth their vision of the end days. They are trying to force the final battle between us so, per the Quran, they will win. Their victory will mean the end of all religions except for Islam. Our leaders supported the so-called Arab Spring, which laid the foundation to the modern Caliphate. Our leaders forgot history’s lessons, they appeased Hitler, which led to the Second World War, had the leaders at the time stopped him right away, they could have prevented the second World War and saved millions of lives. If Obama and Clayton hadn’t supported the Arab Spring, we wouldn’t have the Caliphate. There wouldn’t be hundreds of millions killed by the Caliphate. We have a chance to right the wrongs and stop the destruction of the world before it’s too late. I’m going on the record saying we should support the Pope’s call, no matter if you're Catholic or not, this isn’t a Catholic fight, it’s war for our children’s future. This is the real war on women, if the Caliphate wins, women will be hidden behind burkas forever, women will become property, they will be slaves to men forever. If the Caliphate wins the final battle, it will mean the end of religious freedom and freedom of speech. Our freedoms will die. Millions of us will be beheaded. I say to all of you, fight! Fight for our futures. Fight for our children’s futures. Fight to end the evil the Caliphate is spreading around the world.”