Julie nodded and Candace helped her get the bed wheeled into the hallway, but as the elevator door opened and Julie stepped inside, chaos erupted in the ER.
The sound of ceramic shattering sent Gabe Cross jumping to his feet. “Melinda, are you okay?”
His wife had been grabbing them both a mug of afternoon coffee - a rare treat around his house. Normally, he would be at work right now, and she would be wrangling the kids, but he’d finished work early, and she’d taken the kids to her mother’s house, so it was just the two of them. They’d decided to have a cup of coffee and watch a movie before her mother brought the children home.
“Melinda?” He stepped into the kitchen and froze. Shattered pieces of mugs lay in a pool of brown liquid. At the edge of the liquid lay the jeans and sweater that Melinda had been wearing. Though he knew it was irrational, Gabe tore through the house calling her name, but she was nowhere to be found. That could only mean… The kids! The thought pierced him like a knife and he placed a hand against the wall as a vise squeezed his lungs. Would they be gone too?
When he could catch a breath, he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed Melinda’s mother’s number, but all it did was ring. No, this could not be happening. Not now! Not yet!
Grabbing his keys, he hurried to the car. He had to find the kids. They couldn’t be gone. Not all of them.
Lily dialed Katie as the sound of sirens grew louder around her. Normally she didn’t mind being home alone after school. It gave her time to get a snack and unwind before her parents came home and peppered her with questions about how her day was, but right now, she didn’t want to be alone.
“Lily, are you okay?” Katie was Lily’s best friend, and she’d never heard the kind of fear she heard in her voice now.
“I think so, but the sirens are so loud. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but my neighbor is screaming that someone took her son. She’s starting to freak me out. Are your parents home?”
“No, are yours?”
“No.”
Lily took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. Even though Katie was as scared as she was, just having her on the phone helped. “It’s okay. It will be okay.” She moved to the window to glance outside, but not much seemed out of the ordinary there. Of course, she lived on a quiet residential street. Whatever had happened must have happened closer to the business side of town.
But what? An explosion? No, she would have heard that. A robbery? Possibly, but there were so many sirens and that didn’t explain Katie’s neighbors’ kids.
Lily let the curtain fall back over the window and walked into the living room, her eyes searching for the remote. She clicked it on and stared at the images invading her television. Her breath escaped in a soft whoosh along with the strangled words, “Oh my gosh.”
Pastor Benjamin Westley felt it. He didn’t know what it was at first - a cold sensation, the kind that he imagined he would feel if a ghost ever passed through him, but then an immediate weight descended upon his shoulders. And he knew. He knew that Jesus had come and he’d been left behind.
Dropping his head to his hands, he began to sob. “I’m so sorry, Lord. Please forgive me but use me now. Let me be like Samson. Use me to save as many as possible. Please Lord.”
2
The following Sunday
Pastor Benjamin Westley wasn’t sure if anyone would come to church, but there hadn’t been a Sunday he hadn’t opened the doors, and he wasn’t about to start now. He had already fielded a few calls from parishioners who had been left behind, but he wasn’t sure if they would show up. Most of them didn’t understand what had happened - why they’d been left behind - and he was afraid the few who did wouldn’t want to come hear what he had to say. After all, he’d been left behind too.
However, he knew he wasn’t alone. When the disappearances hit and he realized what had happened, he’d cried and apologized to God. Then, he’d begun calling his friends who were also in the ministry. Most didn’t answer, and he assumed they were gone, but a few had. They also had realized what had happened and lamented with him, feigning disbelief that they were still here. Ben knew why though.
What he’d realized after hanging up with the others was that they had all been avoiding preaching The Word. The world was changing rapidly, and tolerance was the message of the masses. That meant there were suddenly a lot of topics that were off limits for fear of offending someone, and God help him, instead of standing firm in the word of God, he’d succumbed.
No more. If anyone returned to church, Ben would be teaching from the Bible, and he didn’t care who he offended.
The building was cold and dark as he opened the door. How sad it felt without the people. Would any of them return? Would this place ever fill up again? He flicked the lights on and realized he didn’t know how to make everything in this place work. Someone else usually handled the sound system and the singing and the greeting. A sigh bubbled up within him; he had no idea if any of those people were left, and he rather hoped they weren’t. Thankfully, he knew where the thermostat was, so he headed there first and flicked it on to get the place warmed up.
“Pastor Ben? Are you here?”
Ben recognized that voice as he rounded the corner. Nathan, one of the sound guys. Though saddened that Nathan had been left behind, he was thankful for the company.
“Nathan, how are you, my friend?” Ben asked as he greeted the man and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Nathan was a big guy, nearly six feet and close to three hundred pounds, but the man’s face crumbled at Ben’s touch.
“They’re gone, Pastor Ben. Heidi, the kids, my parents. Everyone is gone.”
Ben led the man to the chairs inside the sanctuary. “I know, Nathan. It’s hard, but we will see them again.”
“Why, Pastor? Why weren’t we taken too?”
Ben knew he would be asked this question a lot in the future, however much of the future he had. It would never get easier, but this first time would have to be the hardest. “Well, Nathan, the Bible says that some will call him Lord but not really believe. As for me, I know that I lost my faith when Beth died last year.” Cancer had taken her, but Ben had blamed God. “I stopped preaching the words God wanted me to preach and turned to what the world wanted. I lost my way.” Ben softened his tone and leaned toward Nathan. “Do you think there’s something that caused you to lose your way?”
Nathan looked down at the floor and shook his head slowly. “This weight. I guess more of my identity was tied up in my job than I thought, and when I lost it, I slowly lost myself. I couldn’t seem to stop eating, and the more I gained, the more I hated myself, the more I thought I wasn’t worthy.”
“That was Satan in your ear,” Ben said. “God always thought you were worthy, and he doesn’t care what you look like on the outside though he does appreciate when we keep our bodies healthy. They are His temple after all.”
Nathan nodded and then slowly lifted his head. “What do we do now, Pastor Ben?”
“Now, we believe. Completely. We follow God’s law and we tell everyone we can what happened. Unfortunately, the Bible says it won’t be easy until we get to Heaven, but we will get there, Nathan.”
Nathan took a few steadying breaths. “Okay.” The word came out more as a sigh, but it was a start. He placed his hands on his knees. “Should I get the sound system fired up?”
“I think we can wait on that a bit, Nathan,” Ben said. “It might be just the two of us today.”
“Hello? Is there anyone here?”
“Or not,” Nathan said with a slight smile.
Ben didn’t recognize the woman’s voice, but he stood and walked out to the foyer to greet whoever it might be. He could feel Nathan behind him, a large and protective presence, though he wasn’t sure he would need it. The woman was young with dark hair and an edgy air. He didn’t know all the parishioners in the church as well as he would have liked, but he was certain he’d never seen her before.
“Hello, I’m Pastor Ben. How can I help you?”
Her brow lifted as she folded her arms across her chest. “A pastor. Well, I didn’t expect to actually find one of you left behind. I figured I’d have to settle for an intern or something.”
“I’m sorry?”
“No, I’m sorry,” she said, dropping her arms. “I’m forgetting my manners.” She took a few steps toward him and held out her hand. “My name is Raven Rader, and I think I was meant to find you.”
Ben blinked at her. “Well, I’m certainly glad that you found me, but why do you think you were meant to find me?”
“Can we sit down? My story is kind of long.”
“Sure. This is Nathan by the way. He handles our sound system although I doubt we’ll need it today.” Pastor Ben led the way to the sanctuary. He and Nathan turned a few chairs around so that the group faced each other. “The floor is yours,” Ben said, leaning back in the chair.
Raven chewed on her lip before taking a deep breath and beginning. “A few weeks ago, I met this girl named Kat who said she saw angels. She told me that I was going to play a role in what came next. I didn’t believe her, but then I started seeing dark shapes, shapes I now believe were demons, though I haven’t seen them since the disappearances.
“Before Kat was taken, she told me she left something for me at her house. I went with a friend of mine and found this letter in a journal along with her Bible. I’ve never been a believer, and I am not familiar with the Bible, so she told me to find others who are. I’m hoping that’s where you come in.”
Ben leaned forward, intrigued by the woman’s story. “I can certainly help you understand the Bible. I may have lost my way, but I understand the words.”
“Good, because somehow, I’m supposed to tell those who are left what’s about to come, and I have no idea how to do that.”
“What if you did it virtually?” Nathan asked. He had been silent up to this point, and he now looked sheepish as if unsure he should have spoken.
“What do you mean? Like online?” Raven asked.
He shrugged. “Yeah, I watch a lot of YouTube and those people have thousands who follow them. What if you made videos like they did? We could even record your sermons, Pastor Ben, and send them out. That would reach way more people than we could do by ourselves.”
Pastor Ben looked to the woman who appeared deep in thought. Her dark hair covered her face, so he couldn’t see her expression, but when she lifted her head, she was smiling.
“Nathan, I think that’s a great idea.”
Candace Markham stared at the Bible she hadn’t read in ages. Her fingers trembled as she let them glide across the dark leather cover. She’d known or at least she’d assumed as soon as the patients began flooding in that day. Most had been involved in automobile accidents when either the person they’d been driving with had disappeared or a car with no driver had hit them. A few people had been hit while walking, and one person had been injured from flying debris when a plane crashed near him. Regardless of the injury, all the stories had been the same. Someone had disappeared.
Candace remembered the pain that had gripped her heart as she treated one patient after another. She’d had no time to call her husband, but she’d known it wouldn’t have mattered. He would be gone. She’d been attending church with him as long as they’d been married, but that’s all she had been doing - attending. At the end of the sermons on the Sundays she could attend, she could rarely recall the message because she’d been too busy thinking about her job to actually listen to the words.
Phil had tried to talk to her in those rare moments they’d had together, but she’d brushed him off. She liked the idea of God - someone who was there when you needed Him, but she hadn’t actually wanted to change her lifestyle, and she’d heard too many people who’d spoken about giving up things they loved to follow God’s plan. She’d always thought there would be time for God’s plan, when she was done with her own. Turned out, she’d been wrong.
When she’d finally gotten home the day after the disasters, Phil had been gone and the house had been empty, just as she’d known it would be. She’d expected to feel something - sadness, anger, shock, something, but all she’d felt was nothing. A deep, empty void of nothing. So, she’d showered and crawled into bed, pulling his pillow toward her. It had been strange. They rarely shared their bed anymore due to her demanding schedule, but at that moment, all she’d wanted was something to remind her of him.
She’d stayed in bed all of Tuesday and returned to work on Wednesday where it had been just as hectic as Monday evening. Several of their staff had gone missing and more causalities had come in while she’d been out.
“The government is now claiming the disappearances are a terrorist attack from Russia though they have yet to supply any proof of how Russia might have pulled this off.”
Candace shook her head and smirked at the newscaster on the television. She’d turned it on for noise in hopes it would lessen the lonely feeling pervading her house, but she hadn’t really been listening until now. However, at the word that had seemed to own the previous year, she focused her attention on the newscaster.
Russia! Though she had no doubt that Russia played a part in some of the nefarious activity the government reported on, how anyone could say the country was at fault here with a straight face was beyond her. People had disappeared from all over the world, including Russia, but then again, these newscasters probably had no idea about the rapture or had probably hardened their hearts like she had. She wondered how many others like her might be out there - people who had known but hadn’t really believed. Could she find more like herself? She could try, but it could wait until after she caught up on some reading.
With a sigh, Candace flipped open the Bible and began reading.
Gabe shook his head at the television as the anchor spoke of the newest theory that aliens were involved in the mass disappearances six days previously. Just a few minutes ago, the media had claimed the disappearances were Russia’s fault though they’d never been able to explain how Russia vaporized people or why certain people had disappeared while others had not. Add to that the fact that Russia suffered their own disappearances and Gabe wasn’t surprised they’d had to cancel that theory, but he was slightly surprised they’d gone with aliens. It wasn’t that Gabe didn’t believe in aliens - he had heard enough stories to at least be open to the possibilities of aliens, but why take so many of the population? What would that accomplish?
As the news anchor flashed up pictures of the recently released information for Area 51 as if that explained everything, Gabe clicked the channel changer. He didn’t believe it was aliens any more than he had believed it was Russia, and neither of them got his family back or filled the void in his heart.
Melinda and the kids had been gone for six days. Six long days. No matter where they were, could they even still be alive? Melinda’s mother had been gone as well when he’d finally reached her house which gave him hope that at least the kids weren’t alone, but where were they? And more importantly, how did he get them back?
He paused as the image of a man with scraggly hair and wild eyes filled the screen. “I’m telling you it was the rapture,” he said to whomever was interviewing him. “God got tired of us turning our backs on him, and He took them home.”
“You sound like a believer,” the off-camera voice said.
The man nodded. “I am.”
“Yet, you’re claiming God took the believers-”
Another nod. “He did.”
“Then why are you still here?”
As if realizing he’d walked into a trap, the man opened and closed his mouth a few times before his shoulders dropped. The craze went out of his eyes, replaced with a deep sadness. “I guess I only thought I was a believer.”
The camera cut to the interviewer who shook his head. “And there you have it folks, the rapture could be another theory for the disappearances, but you’d have to be a little crazy to beli
eve it.”
The camera panned back to the man, but Gabe no longer saw crazy. He saw himself in the man’s dejected shoulders and downcast eyes. The man had obviously lost people close to him. Could he be right? Could it have been the rapture? Gabe remembered Melinda talking about it, pleading with him to believe so he wouldn’t be left behind, but he’d thought it, like a lot of the things in the Bible, was something taken out of context. There were so many rules that couldn’t really be requirements in the culture of today which had led him to believe that the Bible, while it may have been important to the people of the time, held no relevance in today’s society. But had he been wrong? Had he been left behind?
3
Two months later
“Are you sure now is the time, sir? The economy is just starting to recover after the rapture. This could throw it into chaos again.” Samael bowed his head to avoid looking Daman directly in the eyes. It was not in his nature to question his lord, but the timing did not seem appropriate to him.
“Chaos is exactly what we need, Samael.” Daman rose from his throne and paced the dark room. “After the rapture, the churches were empty, the people blamed each other. We were this close to an all-out war.” He held his long, pale fingers less than an inch apart. “But now they are beginning to fill again,” he said with disdain. “People - these hapless creatures God created - are searching for meaning again. We must shut that down. Turn them back to things of the flesh. If we can strike fear into them again, they will be desperate for a savior.”
“A savior like you, sir?” Samael lifted his face slightly now that it seemed Daman was not angry.
A sinister smile pulled at Daman’s lips. “Indeed. A savior like me. Once we infect the world with this virus, we can sow dissent, fear, hate. Get the people in power to spread the fear and keep the people locked inside. Then, I can emerge with a cure that will end the misery.” He spread his arms wide. “They will trip over themselves in the race to save themselves, to return to normal. They will clamor to appoint me ruler over all. By the time we are done with them, few will pause long enough to consult scriptures that have mostly been forgotten anyway.”
The Beginning of the End Page 2
