OLDER
CONTACT ME
DIARYLAND
2003-12-30 - 11:49 p.m.
"Who or what, dare I ask, is 'The Priest'?" Nikki looked at us both as she asked.
"Before you even assume it, he's not another Officer Bob type. He's just a guy we've known and trust." I replied, shifting in my seat. "Pull into that truck stop, we need to eat and I'll explain what I can." Amy pointed ahead on the road. We pulled into the truck stop, your typical roadside diner with a gas station. We seated ourselves when we went in, the waitress behind the counter didn't seem to mind much. The booths were all red vinyl and cracked from years of use, the ones that were too bad were duct taped into usable seats. A group of three overweight truckers at the counter gave Amy and Nikki the once over as we sat down; Amy flipped them off and they went back to looking at their newspapers. The waitress from behind the counter, her name tag read 'Kasey', brought us three glasses of water and some silverware. "Specials are on the board. I'll be back in a few minutes to take your order." And she walked back to the counter to continue flirting with the cook. We stared at our menus trying to find something that wouldn't make us sick later. I decided to just take the plunge and get a burger and fries, the girls followed suit when Kasey came back. Amy kept shifting her gaze between Nikki and the three at the counter, she didn't trust something. She leaned in over the table, "I'm not liking the three at the counter. Something about them just doesn't sit right with me." "Paranoid much?" I replied. "No, she's right. They're too average, too stereotypical for this place. Honestly the whole place is too stereotypical for itself." Nikki looked around as she spoke. "What? You think it's some kind of trap? Like they know we're coming and they want to stop us?" I looked back and forth between the two of them. Just then Kasey returned with our burgers. Everyone pulled back as she set them on the table, leaving the check near the aisle. I started eating as Amy began talking about The Priest. "A lot of what people say about The Priest is pure speculation, very few know the facts. He's a street preacher, which basically means he's crazy. He stands on street corners shouting about the word of God and all that other fun crazy stuff, but every-so-often he stops shouting and mumbles to himself. Those mumblings usually are predictions about people that have just walked by. Now with Seven being the nice guy that he is, one day he took The Priest home to let him take a shower and get a good hot meal. Mary and I stopped by that day to drop off something, when he saw us his head flipped back and he started speaking in tongues or something. All Seven did was touch his shoulder and he calmed down. After that he seemed more lucid than normal and over dinner he told us his story. "He was a marine in Vietnam and his platoon, or whatever they are, got captured. He was able to escape but wasn't able to find another group to help his friends in time. When he returned to the village two nights later to try to break them out, they were dead. Their bodies burning in a funeral pyre of sorts. After that he disappeared into the jungle. While attacking a group of soldiers he was captured again. This time he was tortured and imprisoned. The only thing they gave him was a copy of the Bible that actually belonged to someone from his group. "He read it and reread it until he had it memorized. He would shout different passages as he was being tortured and it seemed to give him the strength to go on. One night while he was praying he says that God spoke to him. He didn't say what God told him, but the next day he was able to escape again and made it to a friendly base. "He's dedicated his life to spreading the word of God since then." "How does that make him effective in helping us?" "After that day that we spent with him he started coming to our band's shows. One night someone attacked my roommate, Parker. Before any of us could react The Priest had taken down the guy who attacked Parker. Which caused several of that guys friends to attack The Priest. The Priest took all seven of them down without having to break a sweat. It was like watching a John Woo movie right in front of you. Posting off of guys, causing some to hit their friends, one arm throws, it was incredible to say the least." "To put it bluntly, he's strong, he's fast and he's got some kind of spiritual energy to him. He should be able to help out if we get in any kind of trouble." "Great, where can we find him?" "First we need to find Parker and your friend Steph. Gather whatever information we can. Then we'll find The Priest."
