by Summer Lee
“Slow down girl,” he said. “You don’t know that.”
“Eric’s dreams are warnings.” She looked him in the eye. “The end is coming soon.”
“Even if Eric’s dreams are a warning, you don’t know when such a disaster would strike.”
“Well, whether 2015 or 2025, the world as we know it will end.”
“What we need is a world leader,” he said. “A friend of mine from military school later became a general with the US Army and if he is still alive, I do believe he can help solve the world’s problems. He once helped the Pentagon organize a German weapon system project and made it operational within a very short six months!”
“Somebody has to do something about the evil in this world as well.”
“I think he is the man for that, too.”
“If they don’t find someone quickly, this may be the beginning of the end. At any time, America will put boots on the ground. When they do, God help Russia.”
“If you want to get spooked, radical claims by many religious theorists is that a massive asteroid or comet, large enough to spell the end of the human race, will soon collide with Earth. Although the details are still a little fuzzy and the claims lack credentials, the massive popularity of the prediction has forced NASA to respond. I choose to ignore all of it, including that there is some kind of spiritual connection of Eric’s dreams to end times,” he said.
“There has to be something to it,” she said. “Both a solar eclipse and a total lunar eclipse are predicted soon.”
“I know. I read an article on it. It described both a total solar eclipse and total lunar eclipse soon. The sun turning to darkness is when the moon is directly between the Earth and sun is a total solar eclipse. The moon turning to blood is when the Earth is directly between the sun and the moon. The Earth’s shadow falling on the moon is a total lunar eclipse.”
“You know so much about it. I’m impressed.”
“Don’t make too big of a deal out of it. NASA says that there are about two lunar eclipses per year, but they are so subtle they’re barely visible and pretty much go unnoticed. Other eclipses cast a partial shadow on the moon, but don’t give it that blood moon color that only total eclipses do. They come around, on average, less than once a year.” The doctor patted her hand. “Don’t worry your pretty little head over it.”
“No worries.” She smiled a faint smile and tried not to worry.
“I’ve got to get back on the floor. I have other patients to care for as well as Eric.” The doctor stood and walked out.
Sybil followed him. “I’m going to go look at Eric’s last MRI.”
***
Out of nowhere, a loud thunder clapped and it began pouring rain outside. Suddenly, there was a loud clicking noise, like someone was throwing rocks at her car. Sybil was driving home from work when it happened.
Dents were forming all over her car. She saw that hail the size of golf balls was hitting her car. She swore. “It’s hailing. What next?”
Cars were skidding all over the street, some actually running into each other or skidding off the road.
Sybil gripped her steering wheel and held her car steady as she watched cars crashing around her.
She forgot that she had her radio on until she heard the announcer say, “We need to call a state of emergency.”
Sybil could not help but think of Eric’s dreams. She sensed that the disasters in the dreams were connected to the hail storm.
She drove home at twenty miles per hour as she listened to the hail stones bash her car like it was nothing. “Oh God, I think I need to learn to pray. Lord, take this storm away before I have to go back to work tomorrow.”
Under the Blood Moon
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Also available:
Warrior Woman
by Summer Lee
(read on for a sample)
Chapter One
It was a crisp, cool morning and Achsah, the only daughter of Chief Caleb, was stationed as an observer on the hillside. She looked more like a princess than a watcher, with her smooth, chestnut-brown hair and spotless yellow frock. She was one of several observers and knew it was a test, one that would determine who would be chosen as the official watcher.
Today was the third day of the test and she saw both boys who were also being tested. They were already napping in the shade, and it wasn’t even hot yet. She frowned in their direction, not that they noticed.
Her task on this day—and on each previous day—was to alert her father if she saw the enemy coming. If the truth be known, she wanted to fight on the battlefield beside him, but she knew the observer job was important, too. So far, she hadn’t seen the enemy approaching, but she stayed alert.
Sitting on her rock, with her arms akimbo, Achsah watched the clouds slowly move across the sky in the direction from which the enemy would likely approach. Perhaps today would be cooler than the sweltering heat of the past two days that had left her skin reddened and her head pounding. Who could know for sure if the weather would improve? Storms came up quickly and she prayed for one to quench her thirst. How she longed to tip her head to the sky and drink gulps of sweet, fresh rain. Perhaps the Lord would send some.
Life in this land was not easy—it was unpredictable and often far more demanding than she had expected when, as a child, she had dreamed of what her life might become in the Land of Milk and Honey. Now, with the war in full motion, though, she wondered what destiny the Promised Land held for her. Hopefully, it would be something more permanent than the tent which she and Caleb occasionally moved to fresh grazing for their donkeys.
Things had been simpler for Achsah before her mother had died. Since Mary’s death, there had been many chores for her in Caleb’s tent. Without a mother, life was difficult and exhausting. However, growing up motherless had also made her self-reliant and she had a large measure of freedom that other Israelite girls did not have. There were two reasons for this: her father was very busy with his life as a military chief, and he trusted her to carry out the daily tasks of the household without any supervision. He often reminded her that the Lord could see everything she did—that helped her to avoid the temptations that arose for the unsupervised daughter of a war chief.
Achsah shifted to get more comfortable in her sentry position and noticed the boys who had been napping on duty had been caught and were now banished from the hill. She could hear an older soldier shouting at them so angrily that she cringed. They were sent to forage for food, which was considered a job for much younger children—it was a humiliating punishment for big boys who were almost men.
***
Later that afternoon, Achsah was appointed to be more than a watcher on the hillside. She was to be the official lookout person for the entire camp of Israel. She was daunted, but proud. It was an honor and a big responsibility. It also required that she sit on top of the hill on a high platform, one that she had to climb, and it required that she be armed.
However, because she was a girl, she was not allowed to use a sword. Truth to tell, she could barely lift a sword over her head, and even the spears were taller than she was.
An old soldier named Seth, the one who had shouted at the lazy boys, was assigned to teach her to use a sling. When she was not on duty as the official observer, they practiced with a target. When she became adept with the sling, they practiced with a blindfold, until she could load, swing, throw and hit a target with her eyes covered. The old soldier was most impressed and even taught her how to choose the smoothest round rocks from the streambed.
“Now, you can protect yourself. Do not be afraid to defend yourself if the occasion arises,” Seth told her.
“Am I really any good at this?” Achsah asked.
“Yes, but don’t let the boys know how good you are and how fast you learned. Most of them struggle with this weapon.”
“Is that why there are so many sp
ears and swords?”
He nodded. “Your father wanted me to teach you the sling, not the sword or the spear.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because you are a woman, you cannot fight in hand-to-hand combat. A man is always going to have a longer reach than you, so no matter how good you are at fighting, your shorter arm reach is a physical disadvantage in contact battles.”
She nodded, listening.
“Your strength will lie in assaulting your enemies from a distance, and then, if they survive being hit in the head or the throat with stones, you will have time to run away and alert a real soldier.”
She dropped her head to hide a smirk. She would not run from the enemy, but she would fight them somehow. She knew now that she would probably have to sneak up behind her enemy to get close or just sling stones from a safe distance. She understood what he was saying about arm reach. It made sense.
“Thank you for teaching me how to defend myself,” she said meekly, raising her eyes again.
“It was my honor, little warrior woman.” Old Seth patted her on the shoulder. “You are very, very good with the sling. Use it wisely.”
Bursting with pride at her accomplishments, and at what he had called her, Achsah smiled as she went back toward the lookout near the battlefield. At least now she had some defense skills. She would be the best watcher the Israelites had ever known.
She was sure her father had something to do with her appointment to the new position as watcher for all of Israel, as boys who were almost men were usually chosen for this position until they could be fitted with weapons and had undergone some training.
She knew she was the first girl watcher and took her job seriously, but she soon discovered that it was a lonely task. She spent time practicing with her sling and arming herself with many stones. She became skilled at wiping out small trees as she sat on her platform with a pile of stones next to her and practiced her aim on imaginary enemies.
If she saw a strange enemy creature on the horizon, she would be in a position to quickly report it and perhaps, even use her new skills with the sling.
***
Days passed with no enemies sighted from her hill. On this particular day, though, she sensed danger. So, she stood still, looking and listening. When she heard leaves crackling behind her, she jumped in fear.
That was when she felt it—somewhere nearby, unfamiliar eyes were staring at her. Feeling exposed on her platform, she climbed down so that she would not be a sitting target for an enemy archer. She knew someone was in the thick underbrush that was over her head. The hair on the back of her neck stood at attention. She trembled as she slowly turned toward the moving bushes.
Then she saw…him.
She almost cried out as she noticed two big evil eyes glaring at her from the shrubs. The look in his dark and hooded eyes was diabolical. His breath was fetid and saliva dripped from his twisted, leering slash of a mouth as he sized her up. It was almost as if he planned to eat her.
She quickly stepped backward, clutching her sling to her side. She knew if she fled, she would not be able to outrun him in this thick brush, so she stood up to him, though her heart was pounding hard.
“In the name of the Lord, I command you to stand down!” she blurted.
He glared at her brash courage. Achsah concentrated her thoughts on the God of Israel, asking for His power to free her from this evil one. She did not flinch from his gaze.
With fire blazing in his eyes, the heinous one looked like a creature straight out of a nightmare. As he stared at her, his face changed as anger welled up inside of him when she had called on God to assist her. She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but his face seemed to become even more horrific and terrifying.
She stood as tall as she could against this giant creature—he was perhaps twice her height.
With her sling in one hand and a bag of stones in the other, she waited, not daring to move a muscle, unless he did. Her shots, if she took them, would be defensive—she would not attack first. She knew that would be foolhardy.
As the creature crept closer, menacing and curious, she knew she would have to defend herself.
Everything she knew about battles told her that he intended to kill her, not just scare her. There was evil purpose in his heavy steps and a lean to his body that created in her an urgency to run. Yet, she focused on the power that her Creator could give her, rather than on her fear of the loathsome creature that approached.
“Halt!” she cried. “Halt in the name of the Lord of Israel!”
Rage filled his eyes at her demand. He stood before her, obscuring the sun completely. In his long dark shadow, she became terrified. He got so close that she could see the dark hairs on his legs that protruded from a makeshift garment that seemed to be woven of river rushes. She had to act quickly or she would be killed by the giant. She stared him down, placing a stone in the sling at the same time.
Silently, she prayed, Help, Lord!
A surge of divine courage ran through her body. She had experienced that before. It was a sign that the Lord was with her.
Achsah whirled the sling around and around in a graceful arc above her head, until she built up a speed that made a low, thrumming sound as it circled faster and faster. She then released the stone and prayed that he would not move a muscle.
The giant watched the rock come toward him in disbelief. Perhaps he thought her aim was not true, or perhaps he was just spellbound by this young woman taking a shot at him. In either case, he failed to duck his head in time.
With a mighty strike, the stone pierced his eye, pushing the eyeball into the bones of the socket. He roared, grabbed his eye in pain, and fell forward onto the ground, almost crushing her.
Achsah scrambled out of his reach and ran away as fast as she could. While he attended to the pain she had caused him, she hid in the stream—belly down in the reeds—and peeked at him through the vegetation.
He finally sat up, rubbing his gory eye, but he seemed not to know where she had gone. He cried out in pain as he pulled the stone from his eye socket. There was much blood that poured forth and Achsah shuddered in revulsion, but did not cry out. It was the first time in her life that she had ever struck another living creature. She felt sick inside of her, except that she knew she had no choice and that the Lord was on her side.
The giant angrily kicked a stump with a bare foot and roared in pain again.
She trembled at how the giant was so grievously maimed, yet still alive. Had she hit a human with that stone, he would have been dead. Achsah knew the giant would surely kill her if he found her now. So, she stayed down as flat as she could, knowing the thick reeds concealed her, even from his high vantage point.
As the giant struggled to get up, he looked around and even sniffed the air. So, this was important information. The giant had bad eyesight in his uninjured eye and mostly relied on movement or scent. Achsah pressed herself down further into the reeds and into the squelching mud of the slow-moving warm stream. She did not even stir when a little fish tickled her feet.
Not seeing her, the giant stumbled away, moaning and leaving a trail of blood. She studied his appearance. He was at least six cubits and a span tall—a true giant. With large, broad steps and a noticeable limp, he hurried over the hills and disappeared.
She remembered what Moses had taught the Israelites about such creatures. This was one of the Anakim—giants fathered by fallen angels. Moses had written that such couplings and offspring were an abomination to God.
Her heart was thumping wildly now, to see the words of Moses come to life, and her body was trembling. Her head throbbed from excitement and danger.
She disrobed, rinsed out her muddy frock and put it back on. Returning near her watcher post, but not climbing the platform, she paused as she chose a new position and reveled in the coolness of her wet frock in the hot breeze as the garment dried. She would have to wet her clothing again for relief from the heat. How wonderful it felt!
&
nbsp; This time, she wanted her back protected, so she pushed some bushes away from the side of the crest behind her. When she did so, she saw a cave entrance and decided to explore it.
The opening was small, but large enough for her to get through to the other side. She was unable to move boulders from the entrance, but squeezed past them because she was so slender. She crawled inside and discovered that it was a large cave with three side rooms. There seemed to be stores of manmade things piled in there, but she did not have an oil lamp to see what they were. An insect with many legs crawled across her foot and she shrieked in horror. Her voice echoed throughout the cave. She put her hand over her hammering heart and decided to get out of there.
Going back into the open air, she brushed the dust from her clothing and shook out her clothing. She piled branches in front of the opening, so that no one else would know about the cave. Trembling, she sat in front of the cave watching and waiting for Israel’s soldiers to return home past her sentry post.
She inhaled deeply, and then slowly blew out the air. Looking up to the sky, she prayed that peace would come soon. Attempting to relax, she stood her ground at her post to the best of her ability, praying all the while that the giant would not track her here.
She heard movement in the bushes. Achsah’s heart skipped a beat when she saw Othniel, a soldier, walking toward her. He was so handsome with his strong nose and wavy hair.
Othniel was a brave soldier and a good friend to Achsah. Well, he was more than a good friend, even though he was also the son of the ragman, Kenaz. However, Othniel did not seem to allow his humble beginnings to stop him from flirting with Achsah when he saw her. She had not decided how she felt about him just yet, even though she was aware of his ardent affection for her.
Still, he was the son of a ragman…and nothing could be done about that. Yet, she had to admit there was a fluttering in her stomach whenever he was near. But for that feeling that the Lord watched everything she did, she might have already disgraced herself with him because he was that handsome and charming.
