Stung

by Jerry B. Jenkins

  Conrad came outside and shoved his hands into his pockets. “The news is almost on. Thought you’d want to see what the GC has been advertising all day.”

  Vicki nodded. As they moved toward the house, Conrad stopped her. “I really respect what you’ve done. You’ve taken a lot on your shoulders. I’ll do everything I can to help.”

  “That means a lot,” Vicki said.

  Janie shivered when Vicki walked in. “Close the door!”

  Vicki ignored her and went to the meeting room. It was the warmest room in the house, and it felt ice-cold. Mark had made a fire in the fireplace, and most of the kids were bundled in blankets.

  The program began with introductions of the various guests. Some were scientists or representatives of the Global Community, while others were authors or even entertainers.

  “I don’t get it,” Shelly said when they introduced one guest. “She’s not an astronomer—she’s a singer!”

  “Every time the GC wants people to buy what they’re saying,” Mark said, “they make it a popularity contest. As if that’s what makes something true.”

  The host introduced Chaim Rosenzweig. The news anchor listed his many achievements, including his winning the Nobel Prize and being personal friends with His Excellency, Nicolae Carpathia.

  “I wonder how many people are watching this,” Darrion said.

  “It’s the only game in town,” Conrad said. “The GC has this on every channel and all over the Net.”

  Melinda, Charlie, and Janie sat close to the computer screen. Vicki wondered about people who didn’t know the truth. With the disappearances, the earthquake, the meteor, and poisoned water, they had to be terrified. This program was their best hope for real answers. Vicki cringed when she saw the guests.

  Each participant praised the Global Community for their work and promised this was a minor, temporary condition. A woman from Global Community Power and Light said, “As alarming as the darkness is, we agree it will have a very small impact on our quality of life. The problem should correct itself in a matter of days.”

  When Chaim spoke, Vicki sensed something different. He made the host squirm with his first response. When he had everyone’s attention he said, “I am not a religious man. A Jew by birth, of course, and proud of it. But to me it’s a nationality, not a faith.”

  Dr. Rosenzweig talked of his former student Tsion Ben-Judah. Vicki’s heart sank when Chaim referred to Tsion’s belief in Jesus as “madness.” When the host tried to interrupt him, Dr. Rosenzweig said, “I have earned the right to another minute or so.

  “Ben-Judah was ridiculed for his belief that scriptural prophecy would actually happen. He said an earthquake would come. It came. He said hail and rain and fire would scorch the plants. They did. He said things would fall from the sky, poisoning water, killing people, sinking ships. They fell.

  “He said the sun and the moon and the stars would be stricken and that the world would be one-third darker. Well, I am finished. I don’t know what to make of it except that I feel a bigger fool every day. And let me just add, I want to know what Dr. Tsion Ben-Judah says is coming next! Don’t you?”

  Dr. Rosenzweig quickly gave the address of Tsion’s Web site. The camera panned back to the host, who was speechless.

  “Go ahead now,” Chaim said. “Pull the plug on me.”

  “I don’t believe it,” Conrad said. “He just gave Tsion the best publicity he’s ever had!”

  Vicki watched Melinda, Janie, and Charlie carefully. While the other kids cheered, they stared at the screen.

  Judd couldn’t believe Dr. Rosenzweig had mentioned Tsion’s Web site. Though the man wasn’t a believer, he had caught the Global Community off guard. Judd wondered if Chaim would suffer for his statements, or if the host of the program would be punished for not cutting Chaim off.

  Judd quickly logged on and watched the number of people accessing the site swell. Lionel said, “This is the biggest Web site in the world as it is. Now he’s going to get ten times the hits.”

  Over the next few days, people around the world tried to adjust to the cold. Many believed the GC reports that it would last about a week. But the longer the cold continued, the more things shut down. News reports from remote areas became scarce because of the energy crisis. People who had lived near the equator all their lives died from the sudden blast of arctic air. In Israel, snow fell. The only ones who didn’t seem to notice the cold were Eli and Moishe. They stood in their bare feet and preached, unaffected by the temperature change.

  Jamal kept a pot of boiling water going at all times. The steam helped heat the apartment. Jamal’s wife had hot cups of tea and coffee to keep people warm. Because of the power shortage, they had to cut down on their computer usage.

  “Will any believers die from this?” Lionel asked one day.

  Jamal shrugged. “I wish I could ask Tsion all of my questions.”

  With the cramped quarters, Judd found himself spending more and more time with Nada. She was easy to talk with and interesting. Judd shared some of the things he had learned from Bruce and told her the stories of the Young Tribulation Force.

  “Do you think I could be a member of your group?” Nada said.

  Judd smiled. “I think the only requirements are that you’re ready to go anywhere and do anything that God asks you to do.”

  Later that day, Lionel asked to talk with Judd in private. They moved to the corner of a room.

  “Nada wants to know if she can be a member of the Young Trib Force,” Judd said.

  Lionel looked away. “That’s what I want to talk to you about. Do you think it’s a good idea to get close to someone like this?”

  “Close?” Judd said. “Just because two people talk doesn’t mean—”

  “It just seems like there’s more going on than that,” Lionel said.

  “You’re crazy,” Judd said. “We’re just friends.”

  “If I’m wrong, I’ll admit it,” Lionel said, “but why don’t you ask her?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” Judd said.

  The phone rang. It was Samuel. He sounded tired and scared.

  “Where are you?” Judd asked.

  “I finally talked with my father,” Samuel said. “I followed your advice. I mentioned the possibility that Dr. Ben-Judah could be right and that we should read his Web site.”

  “What did your father say?” Judd said.

  “He got very angry and accused me of being a traitor. I think he suspects I helped in your escape.”

  Judd quickly told Samuel’s story to Jamal and the others.

  “Tell him he can come here,” Jamal said.

  Judd relayed the message through the increasing static on the phone. “If your dad throws you out or you don’t think you can live there anymore, we have a place for you.”

  Samuel thanked Judd. “I want to give it one more try. I will call you tomorrow and let you know what happened.”

  24

  WHEN Samuel didn’t call the next day, Judd got worried. “We need to check on him.”

  Lionel didn’t like the idea. “What if it’s a trap?”

  “We can’t abandon him,” Judd said.

  “But if we go, they might be waiting for us,” Lionel said.

  “I’ll go,” Nada said. “They won’t expect a girl.”

  “No way your dad will go for it,” Judd said.

  “We don’t have to tell him.”

  Lionel shook his head. “Sounds too risky.”

  Nada looked at Judd. “You said a member of the Young Trib Force needs to be ready to do anything and go anywhere God wants. I’m ready.”

  Jamal walked into the room, and Judd took Nada aside. “Lionel thinks there’s something going on between you and me. I told him we were just friends.”

  Nada looked away, then turned to Judd and smiled. “Your friend has quite an imagination. It has been a long time since I have had someone my own age to talk with. If I gave the wrong impression, I’m sorry.” />
  “Now, about you going to see Samuel—”

  Nada waved him off. “It’s settled. I’m going.”

  Before the change in the weather, Vicki had hoped to make the school a training ground for the Young Trib Force. But when the sun, moon, and stars went dark, Vicki just wanted to keep all the believers and Melinda, Charlie, and Janie warm and alive. When she postponed classes again, the kids understood, but were unhappy. They knew they couldn’t learn much with the frigid temperatures. But Janie had clapped when she heard the news. “I didn’t want to learn that stuff anyway,” she said.

  The kids watched news reports from different parts of the world. The Midwest looked like Alaska in the dead of winter. The first casualties in Chicago were at the zoos. Both the Lincoln Park Zoo and Brookfield Zoo reported all animals dead except penguins and polar bears. But things got worse. Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles estimated that hundreds of homeless people had frozen to death in the first week. Before the disappearances, many of the shelters had been staffed by Christians. Those people were gone now.

  Popular resorts along warm beaches closed. Ice formed along the shoreline. As the icy weather took its toll, the Global Community was forced to change its predictions about how long the cold spell would last. Forecasts of a few days turned into a few weeks, and Global Community spokespersons turned the blame on Rabbi Ben-Judah and his followers. Peter the Second called the preaching of Eli and Moishe “black magic.” Within a few weeks the estimates of deaths related to the weird weather was in the hundreds of thousands.

  Nicolae Carpathia finally appeared before the world in a bare television studio in New Babylon. The kids watched, huddled together, as Carpathia clapped his mittens and praised the loyalty and courage of each citizen.

  “I come to you at this hour to announce my plan to personally visit the two preachers at the Wailing Wall,” Carpathia said. “They must be forced to admit they are behind this assault on our new way of life.”

  “I can’t believe he’s actually going to face them,” Shelly said.

  “At least he admits they have power,” Mark said.

  Carpathia said he would bargain with Eli and Moishe in hopes of ending this latest affliction. “I shall make this pilgrimage tomorrow, and it will be carried live. Take heart, my beloved ones. I believe the end of this nightmare is in sight.”

  Judd knew Jamal would be enraged if he heard of Nada’s plan to visit Samuel. He fought with Lionel about what to do. If he drove Nada like she had asked him, Jamal would be upset. If he told Jamal of the plan, Nada would never forgive him. Finally, his commitment to Nada won out. They made plans to secretly take Jamal’s car the next afternoon as the world watched Nicolae Carpathia face Eli and Moishe.

  Judd hadn’t ventured out of the apartment building since the judgment had begun. He was shocked at what he saw. The wind swept along in a howling blizzard. No one was on the street.

  Jamal’s car was kept in the bowels of the garage in an area sheltered from the cold. It took Judd a half hour to get it started. “If this thing stops on us, we’re in serious trouble.”

  Even with three layers of clothes on, Judd was so cold he could hardly make it back inside to get Nada and return to the car. Snow blew through the garage and piled up in the corner. Breathing was difficult in the extreme cold. Judd felt his nostrils freezing, and he had to shield his eyes from the icy wind. “We can still turn back,” Judd said as he got in the car. “Your dad will never know.”

  Nada got in and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Just drive.”

  Vicki and the others were up early to watch the coverage of Nicolae Carpathia on the Net. Conrad, who had been obsessed with opening the safe, reported that running the generator twenty-four hours a day had used up more gasoline than they had planned. “I think we should turn it off during the day and keep it going at night.”

  Vicki ran the idea past Mark.

  “We can burn wood during the day and use the generator to heat the schoolhouse at night,” Mark said. “I’m for it.”

  Conrad switched the computer to battery power. The Global Community announcers explained that Nicolae Carpathia was in Israel, ready to bargain with the two witnesses. A message popped up on the computer that the battery was going dead.

  “Already?” Mark said.

  “I don’t want to miss any of this,” Conrad said. “I’ll start the generator again.”

  The kids watched Carpathia approach the fence where the witnesses sat. The announcers fell silent.

  “I bring you cordial greetings from the Global Community,” Carpathia said, speaking to Eli and Moishe. “I assume, because of your powers, that you knew I was coming.”

  As Moishe began to answer, an e-mail message popped up on the screen.

  “Great timing,” Janie said sarcastically.

  Darrion moved closer. “Looks like it’s from that GC guy, Carl.”

  “Get out of the way; I want to see this,” Janie said.

  Suddenly the computer went blank. The kids groaned in unison.

  “Battery’s dead,” Mark said.

  “Did you see the message?” Vicki said.

  Mark shook his head. “I’ll go see what’s keeping Conrad—”

  Conrad stood in the doorway, his face ashen. “The generator won’t work now. Gas line must have immediately frozen when I turned it off a few minutes ago.”

  “We’re dead,” Janie said.

  Lionel promised Judd and Nada he would cover for them. When Jamal asked about them, Lionel pretended he didn’t hear and turned up the volume on the television. Nicolae Carpathia went back and forth with the witnesses, who seemed not to want to let the potentate get the upper hand.

  “I am seeking your help as men who claim to speak for God,” Carpathia said. “If this is of God, then I plead with you to help me come to some arrangement, an agreement, a compromise, if you will.”

  “Your quarrel is not with us.”

  “Well, all right, I understand that, but if you have access to him—”

  “Your quarrel is not w—”

  “I appreciate that point! I am asking—”

  Moishe’s voice blared through the speakers. “You would dare wag your tongue at the chosen ones of almighty God?”

  “I apologize. I—”

  “You who boasted that we would die before the due time?”

  “Granted, I concede that I—”

  “You who denies the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?”

  Carpathia sputtered something about tolerance. Moishe countered with, “There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.”

  A few minutes later the witnesses repeated, “Your quarrel is not with us,” and turned away from Carpathia.

  Nicolae looked confused. “So, that is it, then? Before the eyes of the world, you refuse to talk? All I get is that my quarrel is not with you? With whom, then, is it? All right, fine!”

  “What do you think he’ll do now?” Lionel said.

  “Watch,” Jamal said.

  Carpathia moved close to the main camera and spoke precisely, his face clearly freezing in the cold. Lionel thought he looked desperate.

  “Upon further review,” Carpathia said, “the death of the Global Community guard at the Meeting of the Witnesses was not the responsibility of any of the witnesses. The man killed by GC troops at the airport was not a terrorist. As of this moment, no one who agrees with Dr. Ben-Judah and his teachings is considered a fugitive or an enemy of the Global Community. All citizens are equally free to travel and live their lives in a spirit of liberty.

  “I do not know with whom I am or should be talking, but I stand willing to do whatever it takes to end this plague of darkness.”

  The camera followed Carpathia as he turned on his heel, sarcastically saluted the two witnesses, and reboarded the motor coach. Before the news anchors could speak, the witnesses said together, “Woe, woe, woe unto all who fail to look up and lift up your heads!”
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br />   Judd drove by Samuel’s house. He kept moving another block and turned into an alley. “Before you go, tell me what you’re going to do.”

  “I’m going to see if he’s okay. If he’s not, I’ll bring him here.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.”

  Nada opened the door to get out, and a blast of cold air hit Judd in the face. It took his breath away. Nada quickly closed the door again, took a deep breath, and then finally got out. Judd watched her run from the car, her hand over her face. She was either the bravest girl he knew or the most foolish.

  Nada made it to the house and went straight to the front door. Judd couldn’t imagine what she would say or do. If Mr. Goldberg was there …

  The door opened. Judd stretched to see who it was. Suddenly, a hand grabbed Nada’s arm and pulled her inside.

  Vicki knew they were in trouble. Until now the cold had made life difficult. Some of the food had frozen. It was difficult sleeping when you could see your breath. But now their source of power was gone and, with it, their best source of heat.

  Vicki sent the kids into emergency mode. While Conrad and Mark worked desperately at the generator, Vicki and the others brought in more firewood and stacked it in the meeting room. The kids moved their mattresses and sleeping bags into the room. Janie complained and blamed Conrad for their problems, but Vicki told her to keep quiet.

  Shelly returned from the storage area, her teeth chattering. She held up three bottles of water, all frozen solid.

  “Put them by the fire,” Vicki said. “We’ll ration the water until we can thaw some more.”

  Conrad and Mark came back. Conrad volunteered to keep the fire going all night.

  “I don’t know if I trust him,” Janie said. “You see what he did to the generator!”

  “I’ve had enough out of you,” Mark yelled. “If you think you can survive without us—”