Adventure Series

"The Chosen Ones"
Fiction Adventure Series
by Brian Carlisle

When the Forces of Heaven encounter evil in the world that is affecting the Body of Christ, they do battle if it is Satan and his angels. But if the perpetrator is a man, driven by his own depraved nature, then they call in the "Chosen Ones."

The "Chosen Ones" is a secret Christian organization that is dispatched at heaven's command. Their mission is to stop evil which is endangering the Church. They have two choices: Stop them by conversion...or by force!

Join Amanda, age 16, as she is trained by an angel named Angela, who, in human form, resembles a ten-year-old girl. Then later, the two girls are joined by Benjamin, an 18-year-old missionary's son. Together they will travel the world as they battle lions, dictators, the Russian Mafia, witch doctors, assassins, demons, communists, and terrorists, just for starters!

Book 1 - A Test of Survival

Chapter 5 - It's You the Lions Are After

Amanda and Angela jumped to their feet. Angela grabbed the two staffs and shoved Amanda’s into her hands.

“Quick, we must run for cover!” Angela cried. “I wasn’t prepared for this. You don’t even know how to use your staff yet!”

Angela grabbed Amanda’s sleeve and started to pull her back through the town the way that they had come. They had gone about a block when Amanda suddenly jerked away and began running back toward the chaos, toward the screaming, and roaring. Amanda was the type that when someone needed help, she responded. Sometimes, though, she didn’t think out her actions, she just moved.

It took Angela a second to realize what was happening, then she began running after Amanda as quick as her little legs would carry her.

“Amanda, wait! You must stop!” Angela pleaded. “You’re not prepared for them!”

“No! I must see what is happening,” Amanda called back.

On Amanda ran. The screams were so loud now that Amanda had to put her hands to her ears. After she had rounded a curve in the road, she put on a burst of speed. As she neared the park she looked back to see if Angela was still coming.

“Oomph!” She took a hard spill to the ground. Amanda had managed to do a half-roll which had broken some of the impact, but she still had landed hard enough that when she hit the back of her head on the ground she thought she would be knocked out cold. It was as if someone had turned the lights out, then slowly turned them back on again.

When Amanda sat up to rub the back of her head, she saw what she had stumbled over, a body. It was a man lying in a pool of blood. His blood-soaked clothes were ripped open and Amanda could see where huge chunks of flesh had been torn from his body. The sight of his face was too terrible to explain.

Quickly, Amanda looked away. She spotted her staff just a few feet away and shakily, on hands and knees, crawled over to it. Just as her fingers wrapped around the staff, another body fell. This time it was a child, just inches from her. It was badly mutilated, just like the first body she had seen. Amanda quickly jerked back into a sitting position and looked down the street in the direction the bodies had come from.

Almost simultaneously her eyes widened, her mouth dropped open, and as the color left her face, a look of pure fear swept over her.

The scene around her resembled a city park. It was a grassy area decorated with large oak trees. Occasionally, a weeping willow would be found standing by itself, its leaves almost reaching to the ground. Picnic tables loaded with food were in abundance, as well as grills and baby strollers. But the beauty of the landscape was destroyed by the carnage that lay upon it. Scattered everywhere were bodies of all ages and gender. All had been mutilated like the two she had already encountered. Looking across the field, she spotted what had killed all these people. There, mingling in a pack, were a mix of 30 or more full-grown male lions, panthers and tigers. Each of them were the size of a large African lion which could weigh as much as 600-800 pounds.

For awhile, Amanda just stared at them. “This is not right,” she reasoned. “Usually, male lions are loners. Or sometimes in a pride, there might be three or four and the rest females, but never this many, especially so many and so large.”

As she tried to figure this out, the lions suddenly raised their heads and turned to the path behind them. Then, like trained soldiers, they formed two columns, and bowing low, they all knelt.

What came out of the woods sucked the breath from Amanda. There, walking between the two columns of lions, was a “master” lion. He had to be at least twice the size of the largest one, she thought. He was closer in size to a large horse than a normal lion, and his color was unnatural also. His fur was almost black.

After he passed through the other lions, they fell in line behind him as he went to each corpse and looked them over. It was their faces that he seemed to be concerned about. If the body was lying face up, he would lean over and examine it, then walk to the next one. If the body was face down, he would take his paw, and with one easy swipe, roll the body over. He was so strong that it took no effort for him to do this. It was as if he was swatting at a dried leaf.

After a few minutes, Amanda noticed that if the body was that of a male or an adult female, he would glance at them without breaking his stride and proceed on. It was then that she noticed that if it was a young girl or a teenage girl, he would look hard at the features of the face and sniff at the clothes.

Amanda also noticed that the longer he looked, the more angry he became. If the girl was not the one he wanted, he would grab her with his teeth across her rib cage, then effortlessly he would pick her up and fling her 15, 20, or even 30 feet.

Near the middle of the park, El Diablo walked up to a girl that was not completely dead. He first gazed into her eyes, sniffed at her clothes, then as she raised her hand as if asking for help, he raised his enormous paw high into the air and swiftly brought it down on her chest, crushing her almost flat and killing her instantly.

As the fear raged inside of Amanda’s body and mind, she was unaware that Angela had caught up to her and was just a few feet behind her now.

Angela had arrived as the great lion had first walked out of the woods. Angela knew she had to get Amanda and silently lead her to safety without the lions being aware of their presence.

As stealthily as a cat, Angela crept up behind Amanda. When she was within reach of her new friend, she reached out with her staff and tapped Amanda on the shoulder.

With a blood-curtling scream, Amanda nearly jumped out of her skin. Angela leaped forward and put her hands over Amanda’s mouth, but it was too late. All the lions looked straight at them. Then the “master” lion, with a roar of satisfaction that shook the ground, began to slowly advance toward the two girls, followed by the 30-40 adult lions.

“Run, Amanda, run!” Angela panicked. “That’s El Diablo! We must get away!”

Helping Amanda to her feet, they both began to run back through the town.

As they started back through the town, they were amazed to find that the townspeople were lining the street and laughing at the two girls and their dilemma. Some actually would reach out and try to snare them, while others would throw things in their way, trying to trip them.

By the time the two girls reached the places of amusement, the crowd was becoming so thick that their flight was almost halted. It was then that Angela put her staff to use. Swinging it back and forth with great power, she began to drive the crowd back, but the girls progress remained slow. Amanda, glancing back, saw that “El Diablo” and his pack were merely keeping pace with the girls. Amanda also noticed that as “El Diablo” approached, the townspeople would fall back out of his way to kneel on the ground with arms outstretched as if in worship. This worship greatly puzzled Amanda, but the fact that the lions were in no hurry, concerned Amanda even more and placed doubt in her mind as to what might lie ahead.

Amanda didn’t have to wait long to find out though, because as she turned back around to face the crowd, she saw that the crowd was finally backing away from their path. But any relief that may have begun to sprout in her mind was quickly uprooted at the sight of two huge warriors, blocking their path at the edge of town.

Amanda’s first impulse was to turn and run down a side street, but Angela kept walking straight toward the two warriors. So Amanda silently followed.

“Well, look what we have here,” said the larger of the two warriors. He was 7 1⁄2 to 8’ tall, about 400 pounds, and carried a sword about 4 foot in length. He wore a breastplate that was black with a large red lion emblazened upon it.

Walking toward Angela, he pointed his sword at her, while the other one started to encircle her. Amanda knew that the second warrior planned on attacking her while Angela was busy defending herself against his partner.

“Don’t worry,” the big one boasted. “I don’t plan on killing you. My master wants that pleasure. All I’m going to do is make it easy for him by cutting off a leg of yours, and maybe a hand if you give me too much trouble.”

“Who me?” Angela smiled. “Now how could a wee little girl like myself cause a giant like you any trouble, unless you fight like a little girl, too.”

This infuriated the big man. With long strides he quickly closed the gap between himself and Angela who had taken a defensive stance.

Using both hands, he raised his sword and brought it down at a slicing angle toward Angela. Expecting Angela to back away, he over-extended his swing. Angela, expecting this type of an attack, did not back away, but instead did a barrel roll toward him causing his sword to pass well above her. Not expecting a clean miss, the big warrior ended in a twisted position like a batter who had just struck out, embarrassed and off balance. Like a flash, Angela was up on her feet in a crouched position and with one powerful stroke of her staff, she knocked the legs out from under the giant. Down like a fallen tree, he landed on his back. Then before he could move, Angela sprung onto his chest and drove her staff, pointed end down, into and through his throat pinning him to the ground, cutting his windpipe and neck bone in half. Death was instant.

The remaining warrior was now upon Amanda. Swinging his sword vertically, he brought it down upon her. Amanda, although unskilled in the use of the staff, raised it with both hands. She managed to stop the blow but was unprepared for what he did next. While she focused on his sword, he delivered a swift kick to her left side sending her sprawling to the ground in pain. Clutching her side, she tried to scoot away from him, but he moved quickly and was immediately upon her for the final assault.

The warrior was about to use his sword once again when Angela let out a war cry. Spinning around, he saw Angela charging at him. With Amanda momentarily out of action he turned his attention to Angela, who had now engaged him in combat. A royal battle ensued.

Angela put on a remarkable display. She was so small and fast that the warrior had a hard time making contact with her. She would either dodge his blows, or would deflect them easily with her staff and all the while, Angela never quit talking. She laughed at the warrior and poked fun at him for not being able to beat a little girl. This caused his anger to keep rising until he made his mistake. He swung his sword way back in an effort to make a more powerful blow. This extra effort and extra swing time gave Angela the opening she needed. She leaped forward and pierced her staff into his right thigh and swiftly out again. The warrior let out a cry as he dropped to his knees in pain. Angela didn’t waste a moment. Like a flash she delivered a blow to the side of his head, collapsing him on the ground in a daze.

Angela ran to Amanda and helped her to her feet. “Can you run?”

“Yes,” Amanda answered, “my side still hurts, but I don’t think anything is broken.”

Then looking back at the lions who had stopped to watch, Angela whispered, “Keep pace with me. We’ll start walking at first. If they sense our fear or see us running, they’ll charge us. And if they do start after us, run into the woods and don’t stop; don’t even look back. Now, let’s go.” At a brisk pace they started walking out of the town and towards the woods.

Amanda looked at the woods. She was certain that this was the same road that she and Angela had taken into town. But now as they approached the woods, Amanda was confused to find everything different. Instead of a nice country road with an occasional tree, now a forest engulfed the road. The forest was so thick, with trees standing close together and briar bushes all around that entering it seemed almost impossible, except for the one road that was approximately 12’ wide that led into the forest. As the two girls neared the entrance, Angela looked back.

“Amanda, they’ve stopped,” her voice was full of disbelief.

Amanda stopped and together they watched the lions staring at the two warriors, one dead and the second one unconscious. As the other lions watched, El Diablo pawed at the dead warrior. Then with head low and a menacing look in his eyes, he turned to face the girls again.

El Diablo took two steps toward the girls, then reared high on his hind legs. Then El Diablo held his front legs wide and with a sweeping motion he brought them to meet in front of him. The lion pack understood this command, for they immediately started running toward the girls to attack.

Amanda and Angela, who had watched all this, began running for the woods, which was now just a short distance away.Upon entering, Angela stopped, but commanded Amanda to continue on.

“No!” Amanda protested. “I’ll remain and fight with you. There’s no way you can survive alone.”

“She won’t be alone,” spoke a voice from behind her.

Amanda turned around and standing there, each armed with a sword, were her pastor, Brother Stanton, and the evangelist.

A third man dressed in a royal blue hooded-robe walked over to stand beside Angela, who had turned toward the advancing lions. Like Angela, the man carried a staff in his hand, except that his was about two feet longer than hers. Although Amanda was unable to see his face or hear what he and Angela were saying, she could tell that there was a closeness between the two of them.

As Amanda watched them talking, Brother Stanton walked up to her and placed both his hands on her shoulders, “Amanda, you must flee to safety. The four of us will keep the lions occupied while you escape.”

“No. I will stay and fight, too,” Amanda protested again.

“Amanda, the first thing you must learn in order to be a good servant of Jesus is to follow directions.”

Amanda threw her arms around her pastor, but was quickly pulled away. Looking Amanda in the eyes, Brother Stanton firmly repeated his orders, then added, “Amanda run. Run into the woods and don’t look back. Just keep running.”

“Where to? I don’t know these woods,” Amanda pleaded.

“Follow the Scriptures you have in your heart.”

“But why can’t I stay and help you fight?” Amanda protested one last time.

Next chapter

Can't wait? Purchase the book