Shaken Read online

  The woman had said very little in Judd’s presence since he had met her. He wondered if it was cultural or if she was ashamed of her English. Judd said, “All this time I’ve never known your first name.”

  The woman smiled. “Lina.”

  Judd nodded. “I read Nada’s note. Did she write it in jail?”

  “Yes. She told me a little about her concerns and said she wanted to talk to you when we were released. I told her she should write down her feelings so she would remember everything. I never dreamed she would die.” Lina looked away and closed her eyes.

  “I don’t know if she was right,” Judd said. “Maybe I was concerned about what your husband thought about us—”

  “What about her belief that there is someone else?”

  Judd sighed. “I have friends back home that I met after the Rapture. But I’m not sure—”

  Lina put a hand on Judd’s shoulder. “Forgive me. I do not like to give personal advice when it’s not asked for.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Nada spoke very highly of you. She said you were a gentleman in every way. But she had a gift for knowing things. The longer you two knew each other, the more she felt like there was someone standing between you and her. If this is true, you must return to your home and find out.”

  Judd ran a hand through his hair. The only person he was remotely interested in was Vicki, and they had fought so much. He didn’t know what to think.

  “Jamal and I agree that you should stay here as long as you need to. Frankly, it may take a while to get back to the States with the judgment that has come.”

  “Does your husband know about this?”

  Lina shook her head. “All he knows is that he has lost his only daughter. She was such a joy to him. When she was a little girl, he would take her everywhere. When he was at work, she would wait at the window until afternoon watching for him. It was very difficult for him when she became interested in you.”

  “That’s why I tried to be careful. The trip to New Babylon was totally Nada’s idea.”

  Lina smiled. “I understand. Even when she was small, she had wild ideas. She collected kangaroos. Stuffed. Porcelain. She cut out pictures of kangaroos and taped them to the wall of her bedroom. It was no surprise to me that she disappeared one day. We found her walking on the street, several blocks from our house, with a suitcase full of clothes and her kangaroos.”

  “Where was she going?”

  “Australia. She had read an article in the newspaper that said there are many kangaroos there. She said she was prepared to take a bus if she got too tired.”

  Judd laughed out loud. That was Nada all right. Stowing away in a Global Community airplane was a piece of cake compared to her trip to Australia. “How old was she?”

  “Seven, I think,” Lina said, the tears starting again. “I believe you when you say it was her idea.”

  “I’m not sure how soon we’ll go home. So if it’s okay with your family then, I’d like to stay here awhile longer until we’ve arranged the flight.”

  Lina hugged Judd. “May God bless you and keep you safe.”

  Mark Eisman was excited to read anything Tsion Ben-Judah had posted on his Web site, but when Tsion sent him a personal note late one night, Mark was thrilled. The file attached was Tsion’s latest message to fellow believers around the world.

  I am sending you this a few hours before this hits the Web site, Tsion wrote. Please work your magic to make it understandable to young people.

  Mark went to work and was almost finished when he heard Darrion sound an alarm. “There are headlights coming up the road!”

  “Maybe it’s Vicki and the others,” Mark said, rushing to the balcony for a better look. Lenore wasn’t far behind. Tolan cried downstairs.

  “It’s not them,” Charlie shouted from the kitchen. “It looks like a small car. Could be GC!”

  “Everybody to the basement,” Mark yelled. “We take no chances.”

  As the others ran downstairs, Mark unplugged the laptop and grabbed the important files.

  “What’s all the commotion?” Janie said, rubbing her eyes.

  “Unknown car’s coming up the road. Get to the hideout.” “Not me. I’m not going to that dungeon again.”

  “Fine. If it’s the GC, you’ll be the first one they catch.”

  Janie scrambled down the steps behind Mark. They were almost to the basement when Mark heard the car’s horn. “The signal! It’s Vicki!”

  The kids rushed upstairs and greeted their friends. Vicki took Tolan in her arms and squeezed him tightly.

  “You’re getting so big!”

  Janie headed back to her room while everyone else settled in the kitchen.

  “Don’t you want to hear what happened?” Vicki said.

  “Tell me in the morning,” Janie said.

  Vicki found Melinda and gave her a hug as she squeezed in with the others. She couldn’t believe she was finally back among her friends.

  Conrad explained what had happened to the cell phone and the computer. Shelly described what had happened with the bandits in Colorado and how their van had been totaled.

  The newest believer, a girl named Jenni, laughed and said, “I’ll take the car over the van any day.”

  “Did they take your money?” Lenore said.

  Vicki described the interaction with the three thieves. The kids gasped when they heard the story of the horses and riders and what they had done to the thieves.

  Vicki took over and went through many of the stops they had made across the country. She wanted to tell the others about Jeff Williams, but she knew she couldn’t. “We met a relative of someone in the Trib Force,” Vicki said. “We need to pray for this guy and his dad.”

  “Who is it?” Darrion said.

  “I promised I wouldn’t say.”

  Mark excused himself and returned a few minutes later with a stack of pages an inch thick.

  “What’s that?” Vicki said.

  “Read it,” Mark said. “It’s feedback.”

  Vicki read the first page but couldn’t continue. She passed the stack to Shelly.

  “These are messages from people we met?” Shelly said.

  “All but the last few pages,” Mark said. “Those are more requests for you to come teach.”

  Vicki took the stack back and glanced through the pages. She recognized most of the names. Each person had a story to tell about how God had used Vicki, Conrad, and Shelly in their lives. “I don’t know what to say,” Vicki finally said.

  “You can read those tomorrow,” Mark said, pulling out another printout. “This is even more exciting.”

  “What is it?” Melinda said.

  “Tsion Ben-Judah’s latest message to believers.” Mark looked at his watch. “It’s supposed to be released on the Web in a few minutes. But I have an advance copy. And you’re not going to believe what’s in here.”

  7

  VICKI wanted to sleep, but she wanted to hear what Tsion had said even more. As Mark read the letter, changed slightly for younger readers, she felt like she was taking a drink of cold water after a long journey across the desert.

  “My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, my heart is heavy as I write to you. While the 144,000 evangelists raised up by God are seeing millions come to Christ, the oneworld religion continues to become more powerful and— I must say it—more revolting. Preach it from the mountaintops and into the valleys: There is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.

  “The deadly demon locusts prophesied in Revelation 9 finally died out after torturing millions. Many who were bitten at the end of that plague have recovered only three months ago.

  “While many gave their lives to God after seeing this horrible judgment, most have become even more set in their ways. It should have been obvious to the leader of the Enigma Babylon One World Faith that followers of that religion suffered everywhere in the world. But we followers of Christ, the so-called rebels—enemies of
tolerance— were spared.”

  Darrion shook her head. “Makes you wonder why anyone wouldn’t believe the truth about God.”

  Vicki glanced at Melinda. The girl looked down at the table as Mark continued.

  “We can be thankful that in this time of turmoil, our beloved preachers in Jerusalem continue to prophesy and win converts to Christ. They do this in that formerly holy city that now must be compared to Egypt and Sodom.

  “By now you know that the sixth Trumpet Judgment, or the second woe of Revelation 9, has begun. I was correct in assuming the 200 million horsemen are spiritual and not physical beings. But I was wrong to think they would be invisible. I have spoken with people who have seen these beings kill by fire and smoke and sulfur as the Scripture predicts. Yet unbelievers charge we are making this up.”

  “I saw them, and I never want to see them again,” Shelly said.

  “It is helpful to know this current plague was created by the releasing of four angels bound in the Euphrates River. We know that these are fallen angels, because nowhere in Scripture do we ever see good angels bound. These were apparently bound because they wanted to create chaos on earth. Now they are free to do so. In fact, the Bible reveals they were prepared for a specific hour, day, month, and year.”

  Melinda raised a hand. “I don’t get it. I thought angels were good.”

  “They were all created by God to follow him,” Vicki said. “But a third of the angels followed Satan and became demons. Angels only got one chance to choose.”

  “I’m glad I’m not an angel,” Charlie said. “It took me a long time to decide to follow God.”

  “What’s the deal with the river Tsion mentioned?” Shelly said.

  “I’m getting to that,” Mark said. He turned a page and read:

  “It is significant that the four angels have been in the Euphrates. It is the most prominent river in the Bible. It bordered the Garden of Eden, was a boundary for Israel, Egypt, and Persia, and is often used in Scripture as a symbol of Israel’s enemies. It was near this river that man first sinned, the first murder was committed, the first war fought, the first tower built in defiance against God, and where Babylon was built. Babylon is where idol worship started. The children of Israel were taken there as prisoners, and it is there that the final sin of man will culminate.”

  “That means Nicolae is going to get clobbered one day,” Charlie said to Melinda.

  Mark smiled and continued.

  “Revelation 18 predicts that Babylon will be the center of business, religion, and world rule, but also that it will eventually fall to ruin, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.”

  Mark moved to a blackboard and wrote:

  R

  25%

  75%

  25%

  50%

  “What do those numbers mean?” Shelly said.

  “I studied what Tsion wrote and came up with this chart,” Mark said.

  “I’ll bet the R is for Rapture,” Darrion said.

  “Right. Tsion told us the horses and riders will kill a third of the population alive right now.” He pointed to the R. “After the Rapture came a great war, an earthquake, and meteors. All of that killed 25 percent of the people alive after the disappearances. That left 75 percent of the people who weren’t taken away by God. Follow closely. One-third of 75 percent is 25 percent, so the current wave of death will leave only 50 percent of the people left behind at the Rapture.”

  Vicki shook her head. “And the worst is yet to come.”

  “This next section is a little difficult,” Mark continued. “Tsion thinks God wants people to come to him, but this latest judgment might be preparation for the final battle between good and evil. He’s weeding out the people who won’t accept him.”

  “I don’t understand,” Shelly said.

  “Let me read,” Mark said.

  “The Scriptures foretell that those unbelievers who do survive will refuse to turn from their wickedness. They will insist on continuing worshiping idols and demons, and engaging in murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft. Even the Global Community’s own news operations report that murder and theft are on the rise, and idol and demon worship are actually applauded in the new tolerant society.”

  “So God is taking away people who would be against him in the big battle?” Charlie said.

  “Exactly,” Mark said.

  “So how much longer will the horsemen be around?” Darrion said.

  “Tsion believes it may continue four more months, until the three-and-a-half-year anniversary of the treaty between Nicolae and Israel.”

  “Which will also be the end of our friends Eli and Moishe,” Vicki said.

  “They’re going away?” Charlie said.

  “In the due time, the Antichrist will execute them,” Vicki said. “But they won’t stay dead.”

  “Here’s the bad news for us,” Mark said, finding his place in the letter.

  “This will usher in a period when many more believers will be martyred.”

  “What’s that mean?” Charlie said.

  “Killed because you believe in Jesus,” Conrad said.

  The room fell silent. Vicki thought of the adult Tribulation Force and those believers who even worked inside the Global Community. Could they survive for long when they were employed by the enemy of God? What about Buck Williams and Rayford Steele? Vicki closed her eyes and wondered how many in this room would make it to the Glorious Appearing of Christ.

  “Let me finish the rest of this, and we’ll get some sleep,” Mark said.

  “Many of you have written and asked how a God of love and mercy could pour out such awful judgments upon the earth. God is more than a God of love and mercy. The Scriptures say God is love, yes. But they also say he is holy, holy, holy. He is just, as in justice. His love was expressed in the gift of his Son as the means of salvation. But if we reject this love gift, we fall under God’s judgment.

  “I know that many hundreds of thousands of readers of my daily messages must visit this site not as believers but as searchers for truth. So permit me to write directly to you if you do not call yourself my brother or sister in Christ. I plead with you as never before to receive Jesus Christ as God’s gift of salvation. The sins that the stubborn unbelievers will not give up will run out of control during the last half of the Tribulation, referred to in the Bible as the Great Tribulation.

  “Imagine this world with half its population gone. If you think it is bad now with millions having disappeared in the Rapture, children gone, services and conveniences affected, try to fathom life with half of all civil servants gone. Firemen, policemen, laborers, executives, teachers, doctors, nurses, scientists … the list goes on. We are coming to a period where survival will be a full-time occupation.”

  Vicki glanced at Melinda. She was hanging on every word of Tsion’s letter.

  “I would not want to be here without knowing God was with me, that I was on the side of good rather than evil, and that in the end, we win. Pray right now. Tell God you recognize your sin and need forgiveness and a Savior. Receive Christ today, and join the great family of God. Sincerely, Tsion Ben-Judah.”

  Mark folded the pages and put them in his pocket.

  Lenore said, “You did a great job making that understandable.” All the kids agreed, then, one by one, stood and headed off to bed.

  Shelly hugged Conrad. “Thanks for all the driving you did.”

  “My pleasure, little lady,” Conrad said in a mock cowboy voice. He laughed, and Shelly winked at Vicki.

  “Wait a minute,” Vicki whispered. “Are you interested in Conrad?”

  Shelly yawned. “I’d love to stay up and talk, but I’m pretty tired.”

  “Not fair!” Vicki said, but Shelly was already out of the room.

  Melinda sat alone at the table. Vicki put an arm around her. “You want to talk?”

  “I don’t trust the others like I do you.”

  “I’m glad you trust me.”

 
; “When they told me about those horses and riders, I freaked. Getting stung by the locust was bad enough, but this next thing sounds awful.”

  “It will be. It is. But you don’t have to be afraid. If you’ll just—”

  “I know. All I have to do is believe like you guys.” Melinda turned. “I don’t want to do this simply because I’m scared.”

  “Understood, but God’s trying to get your attention.”

  “He’s doing a pretty good job of it.” Melinda looked out the window. “I had nightmares after they told me.”

  “Nightmares?” Vicki said, stifling a smile.

  “What?”

  Vicki put a hand to her head. “I’m sorry. I’m just really tired. We were talking about the horses, and you said you had nightmares. Bad joke.”

  Melinda smiled. “You’re crazy. That’s one thing I like about you. A lot of church people I met would never laugh.”

  Vicki snorted and put a hand over her mouth. “My mom used to call this the tired sillies. We’d laugh our heads off late at night at the dumbest things.”

  When Vicki settled, Melinda said, “Maybe that’s one thing that scares me. If I believe like you guys, I’m afraid I’ll never have any fun again.”

  “I used to think the same thing. Church people seemed so stiff and uptight, like if they cracked a smile their face would break. But the believers I’ve met since the disappearances are the real deal. They’re serious about their beliefs, but there’s something different.”

  “They’re happy on the inside.”

  Vicki nodded. “Yeah. God can give you joy, even in the middle of the worst things anyone on earth has faced. He puts something indescribable in your heart. He gives you hope.”

  Melinda nodded and looked away. “I want that,” she whispered. “I don’t want to live scared anymore. In my dreams, those horses had big hooves, and they were tromping all over people. One stood by my bed and breathed on me.”