TWD - Chapter 541: Father! What Should I Do? (Patreon)

Victor’s eyes widened even more. “Father? You’re a priest?”

“Yes.”

His gaze moved over Gabriel again and again, as if checking that everything matched. Then Victor asked warily, “Where’s your Bible?”

Gabriel’s hand instinctively moved toward his waist, only to find empty air.

Jesus Christ!

He thought for a moment, then said naturally, “I left it on the helicopter. We came in a hurry, and I forgot to bring it.”

Victor frowned. “A priest who doesn’t carry a Bible?”

Gabriel looked at him calmly. “The Bible is a book, but the essence of Scripture isn’t in the pages.”

Seeing that Victor did not understand, Gabriel stepped closer. “When Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness, do you think He carried a Bible?”

Victor blinked. “There wasn’t a Bible yet back then, was there?”

Gabriel nodded approvingly. “You’re right. The New Testament hadn’t been written yet, and the Old Testament still existed on parchment scrolls. Yet He still knew what to say and what to do.”

He pointed to his chest. “Because Scripture is here.”

Then he pointed to his head. “And here.”

Finally, he pointed to his heart. “And here.”

Victor looked at him, his expression gradually loosening. “You mean… the Bible is in your heart?”

Gabriel nodded. “I’ve read it countless times. Every page, every word, is engraved here. I don’t need to carry the book because it’s already part of me.”

Victor fell silent. He looked at Gabriel, a man in a black robe standing amid the ruins yet somehow seeming as though he stood inside a church. “What do you believe in?”

Gabriel looked at him. “I believe in love.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it,” Gabriel said. “Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your enemies and pray for them. Love is the only law.”

Victor’s lips moved. “But The Pope says we have to purify, that we have to…”

“Is what The Pope says the same thing Jesus said?”

Victor opened his mouth but couldn’t speak.

Gabriel stepped closer. “Did Jesus ever hang anyone from a stake?”

Victor shook his head.

Jesus had been the one hanging there.

“Did Jesus ever throw anyone into the fire?”

Victor shook his head.

“Did Jesus ever say, ‘If you don’t believe in me, I’ll kill you’?”

Victor shook his head.

Gabriel looked at him. “Then who do you believe in, Jesus or The Pope?”

The pillar that had supported Victor’s faith ever since the apocalypse suddenly began to shake. “I-I don’t know…”

Gabriel placed a hand on Victor’s shoulder and patted it gently. “My child, it’s all right not to know. The Lord gave you the right to doubt.

“Doubt is not a sin. Blind obedience is. The fact that you’re doubting now means you’re thinking. It means you’re not a machine.”

Victor took a few deep breaths and asked Gabriel, “Are you one of them?”

“I’m from Rock Fortress,” Gabriel said. “But first, I’m a priest, a servant of God.”

Victor’s mind was racing.

A priest, a traitor, Rock Fortress.

He didn’t understand.

“Then how can you help them? They’re traitors. They’ve forsaken the Lord.”

Gabriel looked at him with a gentle gaze. “What have they forsaken?”

Victor froze and repeated, “They’ve forsaken the Lord!”

“Where is the Lord?”

“The Lord… the Lord is in heaven…”

“Have you ever seen Him?”

Victor opened his mouth but couldn’t speak.

Gabriel continued, “Have you ever heard the Lord speak to you Himself? Have you ever seen the Lord perform a miracle Himself?”

Victor was rendered speechless by the questions.

“Then who told you about the Lord you believe in?”

Victor’s voice grew a little softer: “…The Pope.”

Gabriel nodded. “So you see, you don’t believe in the Lord Himself. You believe in the Lord The Pope described to you.”

Victor’s lips moved. He wanted to argue, but didn’t know how.

“Have you ever wondered why The Pope says that?”

Victor opened his mouth. He had never considered that question before. “Because they’re traitors!”

“How are they traitors?”

“They left!”

“Does leaving make them traitors?”

Victor was stunned again.

Gabriel’s voice was soft, but something in his expression changed. He was no longer simply the gentle, compassionate priest. He had become a preacher, drawing Victor along his line of thought. “Victor, I’m going to ask you a few questions. Will you answer them?”

Victor looked at him and nodded involuntarily. “…Ask away.”

“How old are you this year?”

“Twenty-seven.”

“Twenty-seven. You’re still young,” Gabriel repeated. “What did you do before the apocalypse?”

“I was a mercenary.”

“Were you happy?”

“…I guess so.”

Victor thought about it. Killing people had never made him happy, but flying all over the world with his teammates, drinking and bragging between missions, enjoying the nightlife, that had been pretty good.

Gabriel nodded. “And after the apocalypse hit?”

Victor fell silent. After the apocalypse, walkers were everywhere. People who had been killed got back up. Former teammates were branded as the Unclean. He did not want to revisit those memories.

“But The Pope saved me from the horde of walkers. He gave me faith,” he said.

“He saved you, and being grateful to him is only natural,” Gabriel said. “What happened after that?”

“Then I followed him. Fought walkers. Fought those…”

He could not finish, so Gabriel finished for him. “Fought the ‘Unclean.’”

Victor nodded.

Gabriel looked at him. “Those people branded as the Unclean. Did you know any of them?”

Victor’s lips moved as Valentino’s face came to mind. “I knew a few of them.”

“Are they really the Unclean?”

Victor did not answer, and Gabriel did not press him. He simply asked something else.

“Victor, do you believe in the Lord?”

“I do.”

“What kind of Lord do you believe in?”

Victor paused. What had The Pope and the chaplain always said?

“The Lord… the Lord is almighty and just.”

“Does the Lord love all people?”

“Yes.”

“Does the Lord make people kill one another?”

Victor fell silent.

Gabriel’s voice grew even softer. “Victor, do you know what the most important words in the Bible are?”

Victor shook his head.

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” Gabriel looked at him. “Were the people The Pope told you to kill your neighbors?”

Victor didn’t answer.

“They went on missions with you, ate with you, and laughed with you. They were your neighbors.”

His voice was like water, seeping little by little into Victor’s heart. “When you killed them, were you loving them?”

Victor’s eyes reddened. “I didn’t kill them!”

“You didn’t kill them, but you watched. You watched The Pope brand them as traitors. You watched them burn to death.”

Tears finally streamed down Victor’s face. “I had no choice!”

“I know.” Gabriel’s voice grew gentler. “You had no choice because you were afraid, because you didn’t know where else to go, because you thought this was simply your fate.”

He placed his hand on Victor’s shoulder. “Child, look at me.”

“It wasn’t that you had no choice,” Gabriel said. “You were convinced that you didn’t. Those rituals and that fear convinced you.”

He paused. “Do you know what this is called?”

Victor shook his head.

“Brainwashing.”

“No! I haven’t been!”

“No, my child, you have,” Gabriel said. “Anyone can be brainwashed. I’ve been brainwashed too.”

Victor froze. “You?”

Could even a priest be brainwashed?

“Yes,” Gabriel said. “I used to lock myself inside a church and pray, believing that would save me. Later, someone told me prayer alone wasn’t enough. I had to live, protect myself, and protect the people around me.”

He smiled. “That’s when I realized I’d been brainwashed by my own fears.”

Victor looked at him, his eyes full of confusion. “Father, what do you mean?”

Gabriel’s voice grew louder. “If one day The Pope decides you aren’t devout enough and brands you as one of the Unclean, what will you do?”

Victor’s face went pale. “He wouldn’t do that. He… he saved my life!”

“He saved a lot of people,” Gabriel said. “Where are they now?”

Victor was speechless.

Gabriel rose to his feet and looked down at Victor, his solemn black robe stirring slightly in the wind. “Victor, do you understand now what you believe in?”

Victor looked up at him in confusion. “I-I…”

“You believe in a man who makes you afraid. You believe in a doctrine that makes you kill. You believe in something that turns you into a walker. You’re alive, but you’re already dead.”

Victor felt as if he had been plunged into an ice cave. His whole body trembled. “Father! What should I do?”