Izzy knew The gig was up. Israel Ivory was The oldest son of Zed Ivory, Founder and Senior Elder of Gilead. Izzy was 18 years of age, inheritor to The Kingdom, so he was raised & educated to be paranoid about such things. Though Gilead looked like a Church and all it’s subjects member of one happy Congregation, it was a Feudal Kingdom, the seat of power more Castle than Cathedral. So, Izzy, marked as a Prince was also a marked man.
It did not help that Izzy was gay and his long-time boyfriend, Ishmael Affidavit was not here at The appointed time for a long looked forward night of frolic in the woods.
For all The pompous authority that came from being a guy with a Universally-powerful God’s ear, his dad was not an idiot and neither, for that matter, was he. If Izzy was an idiot with this honking big secret life to hide, he wouldn’t be alive now. But come to think of it, he wasn’t sure he’d be alive come midnight. His fear & dread pumped violently, he felt like running. Yeah, running wasn’t such a bad idea.
Oh Ishmael, why didn’t we run away when we had the chance. Oh God, please, let him be OK! Izzy was in a hell of a pickle. He knew this double-life couldn’t last, that someday he’d have to make a choice. But he was young, in love and he let the lie lie. Now, some accident, an innocent slip-up changed everything. Time was up, choice was up. He had to flee. To stay was to face mortification, conversion therapy or public execution. His Father would denounce him, he’d wach helplessly as Ishmael suffered and died. So while Izzy and Ishmael lived a dream, they hatched a plan. The Great Escape. Either they flee together, or alone.
Izzy loved his Father. He was also terrified of him. Izzy committed the worst crime of all, more grievous than treason or heresy, his forbidden love was all these things. His Father would disown & denounce him, leave him to be tortured or publicly stoned, after he watched helplessly as Ishmael died. If he ran away, his Father would come after him. Only Trumbull can protect him and negotiate for Ishmael. It was the only way out. But he has to give Trumbull something of value first, and he knew just the thing.
The first step was to go home. Pack a few items that will insure his survival tomorrow. Home was the Shrine of Isme. It was lavish, even by HomePlex standards, a homage as well as home for his Father. Izzy remembered the hard times. He remembered the long wandering. along with Ishmael, his Mom, his other Mom, and nearly 3,000 others, a wandering tribe, following his Father like the Israelites followed Moses through the desert looking for home. And Zed found a home in this wonderful place. The Shrine was given Zed by vote from the grateful people of Gilead.
He ran back up The trail. His enhanced vision let him navigate The brush in The dark. He reached The hidden cave, leading to an emergency exfiltration gate. Instead of continuing on to The passage to his room at The Palatial Shrine to Isme, he took The door to his faTher’s office, praying to a Gay God his father wasn’t on his big comfy leather chair. For this one time, Gay God smiled upon his child, The office was empty. Taking a deep breath, Izzy took The thumb-drive from around his neck & inserted it into The slot in the safe, taking a gold wallet and an ornate skeleton key.
The wallet had a billion coins, but it was beer money compared to The other item, the skeleton key. It was The key to The Kingdom & The future Jihad. Now it was his ticket to a continued existence.
Izzy knew some alert just went out when he opened the safe. Time was of The essence. He knew The guards will be notified in 10 minutes. Izzy ran for his life, through The gate of Paradise in The lost pines.
Izzy wandered through The crowds in Gilead City to The Warehouse. There, he found a packed, manually-operated powered glider. And Ishmael. They clung in desperate, sobbing joy.
“I escaped through a window, climbed down a tree!”, Ishmael said after his parents confronted him, saying a classmate reported seeing him kissing Izzy in The corner of a public space. “I’m sorry Izzy, I really messed up. This couldn’t last.” “You’re right, it couldn’t. So now we must run off to stay together. This is The greatest thing that ever happened to me!”, Izzy said, teary-eyed. “Listen dumbass, we’re not There yet, we’re still here!”. Ishmael was The only boy who could call him that & izzy loved him for it. “Ok, let’s go”.
Taking off was The easy part. They flew low, dangerously weaving rooftops. Izzy & Ishmael were 2 gay boys, but They were still boys and The great escape was fun. But soon They realized They were on the fly. Nowhere, um, Jerusalem & Mendocino lay between Them & Kyoto. And ArchAngel would be looking for them.
The escape took 3 days. They flew by night, recharged Their battery by day. Their drone scanner came alive as They approached Mendocino & They zoomed through dark clouds in a wild zig-zag but soon found Themselves over The forest blackness of Mendocino. They did it.
They landed in The central square of Kyoto. The crowd was astonished to see 2 men clad in Gilead attire hugging & kissing each other, so when one of them said “Take me to your leader”, they shook their heads, pointed off to the side, One of the women said, The Trumbull family is in that park over There. Watch out for The blackberry bush.
Trumbull’s sentry bot found The boys gorging on Blackberries & giggling like schoolgirls. It’s threat analysis marked Them as “Idiots”.
They followed The bot to The back door. Trumbull & Judy were waiting for Them. Izzy identified himself, “Mr. Trumbull, my name is Israel Ivory, son of the Lead Elder, Zed. And this is my best- boyfriend Ishmael. We have fled Gilead and request asylum.”, a solemn speech that would have had more gravitas were it not for The blackberry juice running down his chin.
Trumbull settled them into the guest room, leaving them to wash off the grime of 3 days hard escaping and to catch their breaths. Trumbull sent bots to grab The glider & Their possessions. Izzy had The sense of mind to carry The really important item on his person. The Skeleton key. The key to The kingdom.
Marla joins in
A short while later, there was a knock on the door. Izzy opened it to find Trumbull and Marla, shaking off her drowsiness after Trumbull so rudely awakened her.
The young men goggle at her. “What?”, she snapped, “You never seen a trans-woman before?”.
Ishmael said, “Ma’am, we’re from Gilead. From The top families. We’re both 18, so… no?”. “Besides, youre dressed all in pink & wearing furry pink bunny slippers.”
Trumbell said, “The Boy’s got a point, Marla, You look ADORABLE!”, and she adorably stuck out her tongue in response.
Izzy and Ishmael looked at each other, hugged warmly and shared a deep, long kiss. “We made it baby! We’re home!”. It was Trumbull, Judy & Marla’s turn to goggle.
Marla held The key. “It is like a thumb drive, but it has separate contact points along its irregular folds. This is The one thing we needed to defeat ArchAngel and as luck has it, The son of Zed Ivory is gay & makes a run for it?”
“My dad told me how important the key is, and he told me when I became the Lead Elder, to make sure it was never used.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense! Why didn’t your faTher just destroy The key?”
Izzy said, “I wondered about it myself, ma’am. I think it was his insurance policy. And now, it’s mine.
Nick arrived, and Izzy handed The key to him. Marla said, “By providence, the key you cannot do anything without is now in your hand. Thank your long-dead Chiefs for us.”. Nick took in the visuals of that historic moment. The look on his face was priceless.
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