Knicolae [070-011-3.8]

By: Jerry Jenkins and Tim Lahaye

Category: fiction religion

Synopsis:

The Global Community places Judd, Vicki, Ryan, and Lionel.  They must
take their newfound faith to the classrooms of Global Community Middle
School and Nicolae Carpathia High.

Danger awaits them.  Should they obey the authorities, outlaw carrying
Bibles or even talking about God?

they risk everything and speak the truth to their friends?  Who can
they trust?

In this exciting series LaHaye continues the saga of four
young friends Judd, Lionel, Vicki and Ryan.  As the world spins out of
control they spread the truth and fight the forces of evil that threaten
their lives.


Jenkins, whose writing has reachec the New york Time best-seller list
four times, lives in Colorado s.

is the numerous sales over I I million co He lives in Southern
California.

The Left Behind series Left Behind Tribulation Force Nicolae Soul
Harvest Apollyon Assassins Book 7 available spring 2000

Left Behind: The Kids # / : The Vanishings -#2: Second Chance #3:
Through the Flames#4: Facing the Future #6: The Underground

Tyndale House books by Tim LaHaye How to Be Happy though Married
Spirit-Controlled Temperament Transformed Temperaments Why You Act the
Way You Do

Tyndale House books by Jerry Jenkins And Then Came You As You Leave
Home Still the One Hi:

Jerry B. Jenkins Tim LaHaye

TYNDALE

LIDS

TYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHERS INn" WHEATONy ILLINOIS Visit Tyndale's
exciting Web site at www.tyndale.com

Discover the latest Left Behind news at www.  left behind com Copyright
1999 by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye.  All rights reserved.

Cover photo copyright C) 1995 by Mark Green.  All rights reserved.

Cover photo copyright O 1987 by Robert Flesher.  All rights reserved.

Left Behind is a trademark of Tyndale House Publishers.

Published in association with the literary agency of Alive
Communications Inc.  " 1465 Kelly Johnson Blvd."  Suite 320, Colorado
Springs,

CO 80920.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the
New King James Version.  Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson,
Inc.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

Edited by Rick Blanchette Designed by Jenny Desiree

ISBN 0-8423-4325-3

Printed in the United States of America

05 04 03 02 01 00 99 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

CONTENTS

What's Gone On Before ix 1. Danger on the Road 1 2. The Announcement 15
3.

Meeting with Bruce 23 4. Back Home 35 5.

The Message 47 6. Deacon and Bub 59 7. Back to School 69 8. Opposition
81 9.

Vicki's Battle 93 10.  The Big Idea 105 About the Authors'll7 What's
Gone On Before

JUDD Thompson Jr.  and the other three kids living in his house were
involved in the adventure of a lifetime.  They had been left alone when
their families disappeared in the global vanishings.

Judd was the oldest at sixteen.  His father, mother, and younger
brother and sister disappeared.

Vicki Byrne, fourteen, lost her parents and her little sister, who all
vanished.  Her brother in Michigan also disappeared.

Lionel Washington, thirteen, lost his parents an older sister, and two
younger siblings-all vanished.

Ryan Daley, twelve, lost his parents in accidents related to the
disappearances.

The four kids had stumbled onto each other and a young pastor, Bruce
Barnes, at New Hope Village Church in their town, Mount Prospect,
Illinois.  Bruce taught that the van- ishings had been foretold in the
Bible and that the worldwide event was the rapture of the church
oflesus Christ.  True believers had been taken to heaven.

Ryan was the last of the four to make the decision to believe in
Christ, to trust lesus for forgiveness of sin, and to assure himself
that he would go to be with God when he died.

While dealing with their grief and fear over the loss of their
families, the four strived to learn as much as they could about what
had happened and what was to come.

Bruce taught that the Rapture was not the beginning of the seven-year
tribulation, where the earth and its people would suffer.  Rather, he
said, the Bible indicated that a great leader would arise, the
Antichrist, the great enemy of God.  He would make a pact with Israel,
and the day that was signed would signal the beginning of the seven
years.

Judd, for one, was proud to be a part of this little group, in this
church, under this pastor.  Judd and his friends were just kids to some
people, but they called themselves the Young Tribulation Force.  Their
task was clear.  Their goal was nothing less than to stand against and
fight the enemies of God during the seven most chaotic years the planet
would ever see.

Danser on the Road

JUDD was stunned.  Vicki was gone.

"Where is she?"  he demanded.

Lionel and Ryan looked up from their spots on the floor before the

TV.

Ryan shrugged.

"There's a note by the phone."

Judd grabbed it and read quickly.

"Hitching to Michigan to see Bub.

Back soon.  "

He slapped the note on his thigh and caught himself before he swore.

What was he so mad about?  This was his fault.

Vicki had asked him to drive her to see her big brother Eddie's buddy,
Judd refused before he thought about it, telling her he felt
responsible for Lionel and Ryan and had better stay with them.

"Let them ride along," Vicki had said.

"Nah," Judd said.

"The roads are just starting to reopen.  We don't really know where
we're going.

There are rumors school is going

to open again, and I'd hate to be out of state if that happens.  "

"You're going back to school?"

"If it opens, sure."

"Why?"

"Because we have to."

"We have to?  Judd, what are they going to do if we don't show up?

They'll figure we disappeared along with thousands of others.  Anyway,
if Bruce is right and there's a peace treaty signed between the UN and
Israel, we'll have only seven years left to live.  Why would I want to
spend half that time in school?  To learn what?  The world is going to
hell, and we'd be sitting in class, trying to prepare for a future that
doesn't exist.  "

She had a point.  Judd was a junior, but Vicki was a freshman.  School
did seem like a waste of time, but Judd didn't know what he thought
about breaking the law by refusing to go.  If it came to that, he
assumed they would all go, Lionel and Ryan back to Lincom Junior High,
he and Vicki to Prospect High.

Judd had underestimated how desperate Vicki was to locate Bub.  She had
never met him, had only seen pictures and talked to him on the
phone--the last time the morning of the Rapture.  Her brother had met
him when he ran off to work in Michigan after high school.  Eddie said
he liked Bub at first because he was a wild party kind of a guy.  But
then Eddie became a Christian.  He wasn't able to persuade Bub to quit
his loose living, but he kept rooming with him any way.  It was Bub who
had confirmed to Vicki that Eddie had disappeared in the Rapture.

"I've been having trouble reaching Bub by phone," she had told Judd.

"I want to just go find him."

Judd thought it was a bad idea and said so.  He even thought about
telling Bruce, but the kids had agreed they weren't going to treat
Bruce like a parent.  IfJudd had known Vicki was going to just leave
and hitchhike to Michigan, he would have taken her himself.  He hated
to think of her out there alone on the road.  He felt responsible for
her, though he knew he really wasn't.  The four of them were on their
own now.  They all lived together in Judd's house, sure, but it had ,
been their choice to accept his invitation.  The :' only rules were
that they would always tell each other where they were.  Vicki had
fulfilled that requirement.

Judd missed Vicki.  There was no other way to say i. It vCasn't that he
was interested in her romantically.  At least not yet.  He hadn't
decided how he felt about her in that way.

But she was the easiest person in the house to talk to.  She would
turn fifteen before he turned seventeen, so they weren't quite two
years apart.  Lionel was only thirteen and Ryan twelve, so although
they were boys, Judd usually chose to talk with Vicki.

But she was gone, at least for a while.  He ; worried about her.

Judd liked having Vicki around because she was a buffer between Lionel
and Ryan.  They squabbled all the time.

Judd told him self he didn't care, but they got on his nerves.  He knew
they were like brothers and that down deep they liked each other and
probably loved each other as brothers in Christ.  They just didn't act
like it.

Lionel, who had been raised in a Christian home, was a know-it-all who
treated Ryan like a dummy.  Well, what did Lionel expect from a kid who
had hardly been to church?  The whole thing made Judd feel old.  Here
he was, suddenly without parents, and he was worried about people who
lived with him and for whom he felt responsible.  Mi this in just a
couple of weeks.  It was too bizarre.

Vicki feared she had made a mistake as soon as she caught the attention
of the driver of an

Danger on the Road eighteen-wheeler.  She had been praying that a
family would give her a ride.  If not a family, then a couple.  If not
a couple, then a woman.

Vicki hesitated when the truck rambled onto the shoulder and awaited
her approach.  She could have easily ignored him, but, after all, she
had been standing there with her thumb out.

She prayed as she approached the passenger side.  At the trailer park
she had grown up in, a friend was a truck driver.  So she knew how to
mount the steps, open the door, and swing herself inside.  But with the
door open, Vicki froze.  This driver was a man, and he already had a
passenger--another man.  She smelled alcohol and both men held beer
cans.

"Well, well, well," the passenger said, lo okie what we got here!  "

He was young and blond with closecropped hair, and he wore a sleeveless
tee shirt despite the chilly evening.  He offered her his free hand,
but she hesitated, one hand on the door handle, the other on the side
of the cab.  The man smiled and she smelled his breath.

"G'mon in, honey.  You can sit right here between us."

" eah," the driver said.

"We'll take a lady like you anywhere you want to go!"  He was muscular
and sweaty.

%

"I was, uh, just wondering how far it is to Mount Prospect," Vicki
said.  There was no way she'd ride with these two.

"You know good and well where it is," the passenger said.

"You had your thumb out there, honey.  Now, where to?"

"Nowhere," she said and began to step back down.

"No you don't, sweetie," the young man said, and he pushed the door
wide open.  Vicki hung from the handle and dangled high off the
ground.

He pulled the door back toward him, and Vicki had to act.  The last
thing she wanted was to get close enough for him to reach her.  She let
go and dropped to the ground.

"Thanks anyway," she called out, heading toward the back of the truck
as the door shut.  But she knew that was not going to satisfy the
truckers when the door opened again and the man bounded out, sloshing
his beer can as he did.

Vicki slipped in the gravel and tried to run, her heart thundering.

She was no match for a man that size.  As she desperately prayed she
realized how stupid she had been to take off on her own.  What had she
been thinking?

The man was gaining on her when another truck rolled off the side of
the road, the skid ding tires kicking up dust.  Vicki found herself
Danger on the Road next to the passenger door of that vehicle as it
flew open.  Now what?

She was relieved to see this driver was alone and older, probably in
his sixties, big, barrel-chested, and with a week's growth of white
whiskers.  His smile disarmed her.

"You ought to be careful, hitchikin' by yourself these days, little
lady," he said.

"Can you help me?"  she said.

"What's the trouble?"

She pointed behind her, but when she turned, the young man had turned
tail and was climbing back into the other truck.  Taking no chances,
Vicki leaped aboard the new track.

"Where you going?"  the old tracker said.

"Michigan," she said, noticing a leather cross dangling from the CB
radio mounted above the dash.

"I can get you as far as Michigan City, Indiana," he said.

"How'll that be?"

"An answer to prayer," she said.

The old man was shifting into one gear after the other every few feet,
getting back up to speed as he pulled back onto the road.  When he
finally had the rig in the right lane and rolling with the heavy
traffic, he cocked his head and stared at Vicki.

"Did you say that just to get next to me,

"I

'cause you saw the cross?  Or are you really a woman of prayer?  "

"I am now," she said.

He chuckled and turned his gaze back at the road.

"Aren't we all?"  he said.

"Call me Deacon."

"Deacon?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Are you a deacon?"

"Actually no.  But once I found the Lord and started telling everybody
on the squawk box, they started calling me Deacon.  I'm a little
zealous I guess you might say."

"Me too."

"You a believer, Miss?"

"Vicki," she said.

"With an I."

"Well, praise the Lord, Vicki with an L Tell me your story and I'll
tell you mine."

Vicki ran down her whole history before Deacon reached the state
line.

The ride was punctuated by occasional static from the CB radio, words
she could just barely make out.

"That you, Deacon?"  came one interruption.

"This here's the Fat Fox."

"Hey, Fatty, how ya doin', come back."

"Seventy-threes to you, Deke.  Still totin' the Lord?"

"That's a big four, Fats.  You will be too if you wanna survive the
flip side."

"I got the whole sermon the other day, Deacon," the other man said.

"Just saying hey."

"Well, hey back, Fox.  Don't be making the Lord wait on you too long
now, you hear?  I want to be calling you brother next time I see
you."

Deacon explained to Vicki that he liked to preach over the citizens'
band radio.  A lot of drivers were scared and curious since the
vanishings.

"I take a lot of heat for it from some.  They tell me to put a lid on
it or save it for Sunday, but it's way too late to be ashamed of God,
don't you think?"

Vicki nodded.

"Did you not believe before, or did you just not know?"

"I knew.  My mother, God rest her soul, told me every day of her
life.

But I blamed God because she married the wrong man.  He treated her
wrong.  Me too.  I hated him till the day he died, and I always thought
she deserved better than a man like that.  I quit going to church fifty
years ago and never went back.  She sent me verses and reminders and
letters and prayers every month until she died a couple of years ago.

I almost got saved at her funeral.  I knew what they were saying was
the truth, but I figured that if I came to Jesus I would have too much
apologizing to do.  Three former wives, you know.  "

Vicki wondered why he thought she'd know.

"Anyway, my last wife became a Christian about six months after she
left me.  She wanted to come back, make things right, clean me up, get
my life straightened out.  I didn't want any part of it.  She warned me
that Jesus would come back and I wouldn't be ready.  Boy, was she
right!  When every body disappeared, I only needed to know one thing:

Was Janice here or gone?  As soon as I knew she was gone, leavin' her
waitress uniform right where she stood, I knew it was true.  I knew
what to do, who to pray to, and what to say.  "

"Me too," Vicki said.

"Quit drinking and smoking too."

Deacon tilted his head back and roared with laughter.

"You got off the sauce and the cancer sticks when you got saved too,
did you?"

"Yes, sir!"

He laughed louder.

"Is that a fact?"

"Yes, it is, and I don't think it's funny.  Why are you laughing?"

He wiped his eyes and down shifted.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," he said.

"You just don't hit me as the hard-livin' type, if you know what I
mean."

"You should have seen me three weeks ago," she said.

"I never thought I would look like this, talk like this, or act like
this either.

Most people called me trailer trash.  "

"Grew up in a park?"

"Yes, sir.  Prospect Gardens."

"I know the place.  No garden, is it?"

"Never was.  Asphalt and dirt."

"And some indoor outdoor right?"

"Sir?"

"That plastic indoor outdoor carpeting that's supposed to fool people
into thinking you've got a yard?"

She laughed.

"We sure enough had a slab of that ourselves," she said.

Vicki told him of the trailers that had burned, and of her brother's
friend Bub, who had been left behind.

Deacon was quiet for a few miles and appeared thoughtful.

"Ever wonder if he doesn't want to be found?"  he said finally.

Vicki shrugged.

"It doesn't make any difference It's like God put him in my heart and I
have to be sure he knows the truth."

"Not everybody reacts well, you know," Deacon said.

Vicki nodded.

"That's OK.  I'm just sup posed to tell him."

Deacon told her that he wouldn't feel right about leaving her at the
Michigan state line, not knowing whether she got a ride to Port age.

"I'll sit with you as long as I can at the truck stop there," he
said.

"I want to make sure you catch a ride with somebody I know and
trust."

"Thank you, Deacon," she said.

Judd wished Vicki had told him she was going with or without him.  He
would have at least made her promise to call him once in a while so
he'd know she was all right.  Now how would he get word to her about
school?  Loudspeakers began blaring late Friday night, informing
residents to tune in certain radio and TV emergency-broadcast
stations.

"Local schools will reopen a week from tomorrow," came the
announcements, "and those stations will carry the details."

"What details?"  Ryan said, and he and Lionel joined Judd in front of
the TV.

"Listen and find out, stupid," Lionel said.

"I just figured you'd know, genius," Ryan said.

"Knock it off, you two," Judd said.

"I want to hear this."

"We already know what they're going to say," Lionel said.

"We know when, we know where, and we know what.  School.  Yuck."

"You both go to Lincoln, right?"  Judd said.  i Lionel nodded.

"Me too," Ryan said.

"But we're not in the same classes."

"At least I have something to be thankful I for," Lionel said.  !  i
Judd shushed them as the list of schools came up.  As the names of
junior highs scrolled past, Judd read, "Formerly Lincoln il Junior
High, now Global Community Mid':i die School."  Lionel seemed to
flinch.

"Why would they do that?"  he said.

"Change a perfectly good name.  I liked going to a school named after a
great president."  The phone rang.  ii "I'll get it," Ryan said.  Judd
let him as he watched the high school listings.  But the station did
better than just list the openings.  The news of Prospect High was
accompanied by film footage of the changing of the sign out front.

"It's for you," Ryan said from the kitchen phone.

"Judd!"

Judd heard him but didn't respond.  He stood, staring at the screen.  A
cherry picker and crane on the back of a truck hoisted a workman to the
Prospect High sign.  As Ryan nagged him from the kitchen, Judd saw the
man on TV trade one sheet of plastic for another that slid in front of
the lights on the sign.

Prospect High was no longer.  His school would now be known as Nicolae
Carpathia High.  The sports mascot would also be changed.  The teams
formerly known as the Knights would now be the Doves.

"C'mon, Judd!"  Ryan whined.

"It's Bruce for you."

iii The Announcement

"You been watching the news?"  Bruce asked.

"Yes," Judd said, "unfortunately."

"You understand what's going on?"

"What's to understand?  School starts a week from tomorrow at Nicolae
Carpathia High."

Bruce laughed.

"Well, it may come to that, but I meant" -- "What do you mean it may
come to that?  I was serious."  Judd told him of the school
announcements.

"It doesn't surprise me about their changing Lincoln to Global
Community," Bruce said.

"That's going to happen everywhere with the new emphasis on a one-world
government.  They'll want to remove nationalism and make everything
planet oriented.  But to already start naming things after the UN
secretary-general?  Wow."

"I thought you were calling to make sure I knew school was back on,"
Judd said.

"No, you caught that before I did.  I just finished a meeting with the
adult core group I told you about--the Tribulation Force."

"Yeah, the pilot and his daughter?"

"And the magazine writer.  Anyway, they had not heard the big
international news today, and I wanted to make sure you heard it.

I have to prepare my Sunday sermon tomorrow morning, but I wondered if
you four would want to come to my office early so we could talk about
it.  "

"Three of us can.  What's the news?"

"Carpathia is making himself unavailable for several days while he and
his top people work on what he calls 'an understanding' between the
global community and Israel, and a special arrangement between the UN
and the United States."

"What does that mean?"

"That's what I'd like to talk to the Junior Trib Force about
tomorrow.

Sorry, the Kids Trib Force.  "

"How about we just call it the Young Trib Force?"  Judd said.

"Sure," Brace said.

"Now, who can't make it?"  When Judd told Bruce where Vicki was, Judd
was met with a long silence.

"Judd," the pastor said finally, "this is not going to work."

Judd felt his neck flush.

"What's not going to work?"

"You being in charge of these kids.  If you can't control"
"Controlling them is not my job!"  Judd blurted.

"I'm just giving them a place to stay.  I'm not their parent.  I can't
tell them what to do."

"Judd, listen to me.  I feel responsible for you guys too, because I
know you and know where I I you are.  You'd never get away with living
alone i at your ages if we weren't in the middle of a '; crisis.  If
the police weren't so busy, they'd never stand for this.  I ought to
call them and have them watch for Vicki, and if they don't have the
manpower, I should be out looking for her myself Where is she
headed?"

"I'm not sure," Judd said, "but you're not responsible for us.  We
don't answer to you, and we don't have to do what you say.  What are
you going to do?  Tell on us?  Get us in trouble?  What kind of a
friend is that?"  Judd couldn't believe he was talking that way to a
man he admired and respected as much as he did Bruce Barnes.  Bruce had
led all four of the kids to Christ and treated them with respect.  But
Judd didn't like to be lectured or told what to do.  Now he sensed he
had hurt Bruce, who was silent again.

"I'd like to think I'm your pastor," Bruce said at last.  Judd felt
guilty when he heard the emotion in Bruce's voice.  He had broken the
man's heart, and he knew he should apologize, Judd didn't have much
experience with that, but he knew he would have to get around to it
sometime soon.

"Will you at least come early tomorrow morning so I can tell you what I
think about what's going on?"

"Of course," Judd said, trying to sound encouraging and apologetic.

"How early?"

"Like I said, I've got sermon preparation, so if you could come as
early as eight, I'd appreciate it."

"We'll be there," Judd said.

"All of us who are here anyway."

, "You don't mind telling the younger ones what to do?"

Judd knew he had been caught in his own weak logic.

Deacon looked at his watch.  Vicki was aware that they had been getting
puzzled stares from other truckers as they ate at the counter in the
truck stop.  Deacon insisted on paying though she told him she had
borrowed plenty of money from Judd.

"Don't be saying that too loud either," he said.

"You don't want anybody knowing you're carrying a lot of cash."

"Hey, Deacon," a man said on his way out.

"Keep preachin', bro."

"Will do, Claud.  Hey, you're not runnin' to Michigan tonight, are
you?"

"Nope, sorry.  What's up?"

"Looking for a ride for a friend.  Can't let her ride with just
anybody."

"But you'd trust her with me?"  Claud said, smiling at Vicki.

"I'm flattered.  If you want to see Pennsylvania tomorrow, you can ride
with me, little lady.  Otherwise, I can't help ya."

"Thanks anyway," Vicki said.

Deacon checked the time again.

"I've got to get going soon," he said, "but tell me something.  Did you
say your boyfriend had wheels?"

She nodded.

"He's not my boyfriend."

"But he took you and the other two in, so he's a good friend?"

"You could say that."

"I need you to do me a favor, Vicki.  Would you?"

"Depends."

"I want you to call your friend and have him come get you.  Now don't
shake your head.  Hear me out.  I don't think it's an accident you
wound up riding in my mack tonight.  I think God put us together to
protect you."

"Believe me, I can take care of myself."

"Little lady, I can't even take care of myself

in this new day, and I'm a big, old, ugly man.  Who knows what kind of
trouble you could get yourself into out there?  Now I have to go, but
I'm not leaving until I know you've got a ride home.  "

"But I have to get to" -- "Let me finish.  I promise I'll check with
some people I know, people in law enforcement who can track this guy
down for you, make sure he's all right."

"But I need to talk to him face-to-face.  He treats me like a little
girl and wouldn't listen to me on the phone.  If I was right there, he
couldn't just blow me off."

"Well, then one of these days, when I know far enough in advance that
I'm going to Michigan from the west, I'll let you know and you can go
with me."

Vicki sat back and stared at Deacon.

"You'd do that for me?"

He nodded.

"What's a brother for?"

Judd was relieved to hear from Vicki, so much so that he didn't even
mind the trip in the middle of the night to get her.  He was not happy,
however, to discover that she had given their phone number to Deacon.

He seemed like a harmless and wonderful old guy, but who knew who was
for real these days?

Judd was stony on the way home.  Vicki badgered him to find out what
was wrong.

"Bruce says this isn't working," he said, "and when you pull a stunt
like this, I wonder if he might be right."

Vicki shook her head as if she was frustrated and angry.

"So kick me out of the house," she said.

"We don't answer to Bruce.  At least I don't.  And I don't answer to
you either.  I mean, I'm grateful for all you've done, but you're not
my morn or dad."

"You didn't obey them either," Judd said, and he knew he had gone too
far this time.

"Well," he added, trying to make it better, "you told me that
yourself."

Heeting with Bruce

VICKI could hardly believe herself.  How could she be talking like that
to the one person who had made her life bearable?  She believed she had
made Judd say something crueler than he had intended.  The worst of it
was that he was right.  She was starting to talk to Judd and about
Bruce the same way she had talked to and about her parents.  Yet now
she missed them with an ache so deep she knew it would not be soothed
until she saw them with Jesus.

She wanted to apologize, but the words would not come.  Bruce had
taught the kids about having to deal with their old selves, their sin
natures.  Now she was discovering what he meant.  Vicki had endured
Lionel's and Ryan's bickering, passing that off as childishness and
blaming it on their ages.  But she and Judd should have known better.

How could they let their old natures take Heetin with Bruce

VICKI could hardly believe herself.  How could she be talking like that
to the one person who had made her life bearable?  She believed she had
madeJudd say something crueler than he had intended.  The worst of it
was that he was right.  She was starting to talk to Judd and about
Bruce the same way she had talked to and about her parents.  Yet now
she missed them with an ache so deep she knew it would not be soothed
until she saw them with Jesus.

She wanted to apologize, but the words would not come.  Bruce had
taught the kids about having to deal with their old selves, their sin
natures.  Now she was discovering what he meant.  Vicki had endured
Lionel's and Ryan's bickering, passing that off as childishness and
blaming it on their ages.  But she and Judd should have known better.

How could they let their old natures take over after all God, and
Bruce, had done for them?  What had the encounter with Deacon been all
about if not God showing her that he would protect her even when she
did something stupid?  Vicki had felt free and powerful when she
started out, walking from the house out of the neighborhood and onto
the main roads leading to the expressway.  But then fear and foreboding
had overtaken her, and she felt tense every second.  Only when she
finally saw Judd and was safely in his car and on the way back to the
house did she realize how afraid she had been.  Why couldn't she say
that?  Pride?  Resentment at having been scolded, in essence, by both
Judd and Bruce?  She opened her mouth to say something, i anything, but
Judd beat her to it.

"I'm sorry, Vicki," he said.

"I shouldn't have said that.  I don't know why I do that.  I care about
you, that's all.  I really thought it was a bad idea for you to go to
Michigan at all, but if I had known you were going to do it anyway, I'd
have taken you."

"You would're?"

"Of course!  I haven't been able to sleep or do anything, wondering
about you, worrying about you."  She put a hand on his arm.

"You're sound Meeting with Bruce ing more and more like a parent all
the time."

"I know," he said, smiling.

"And I can't believe it."

Vicki felt Judd tense under her touch and quickly pulled her hand away.
She didn't want to give him the wrong idea.  She appreciated him.  She
liked him.  But getting really interested in him, interested that way,
would be a mistake.

"I'm sorry too, Judd," she said.

"I feel rot ten when I act so selfish.  I think I had the right idea,
wanting to find Bub.  God really did put that in my heart.  But going
myself was just trying to show you I was independent or something--I
don't know.  It's just that I feel this desperation to tell everybody
about God.  There's been enough death.  Nobody should still wonder what
the disappearances were all about."

"I know," Judd said.

"Maybe this Deacon guy can get you in touch with Bub somehow.

You'll get your chance.  "

"I hope so."

Judd told her about the school announcements

"Oh, brother," she said.

"That sure seems like a waste of time.  Aren't you going to feel
squirrelly, sitting in school while the rest of the world is dying?"

He nodded but didn't say anything.

"What?"  she said.

"You don't agree?

I mean, what will we be studying and why?  I was never that good a
student, but I knew I needed that diploma to get any kind of job.

School was all about the future.  Well, now there is no future like
that, so what's the point?  "

Judd was still quiet, and Vicki was intrigued.  Usually she could tell
when he agreed with her, and now he didn't seem to.

"You going?"  she said.

"Back to school, I mean?"

He nodded.

"You're going to be a Carpathia Dove?"

"That I'll never be," he said, "but, yeah, I'm going to go" "You mind
saying why?"

"For the same reasons you're talking about."

"The future?"

He nodded.

"But don't you agree you'll be studying subjects you'll never use?

Whatever kind of job you'll have will have nothing to do with what you
learn in high school now.  "

He nodded again.  Vicki sensed herself get ting mad again.

"So, why waste your time?"  she said.

"I told you," he said.

"The future.  Every body at that high school needs to know what we
know.  You'd rather be out telling every body about Jesus, but what
about all those kids we'll see every day?  They were left behind just
like we were.  We'll probably meet some believers, but I'll bet not
many."

He had a point.

"But will we be allowed to tell them about God?"  she said.

"Especially if Carpathia is the Antichrist?  I can't imagine anyone
letting us do that in a building named after the guy himself.

And what kind of sense does it make that we go to a school with that
name?  "

Judd pulled into the driveway.

"It's going to seem weird," he said.

"I

don't guess I'll be buying a varsity jacket.  "

He told Vicki about the morning meeting with Bruce, then let her out of
the car before pulling into the garage.

"Thanks for coming to get me, Judd.  I didn't deserve it."

"Yeah," he said.

"Well, you're grounded."  She was too tired to smile.

Judd, on the other hand, was unable to sleep.  He wandered into his
father's den, where the latest monster computer sat.  Judd and Marc and
Marcie used to play games on it and surf the Net.  Judd had enjoyed all
the chat rooms,

though his parents warned him about the worst ones.  Those didn't even
tempt him now.  He pulled the dust cover off and fired up the machine.
He was stunned to see how many advertisements he found for people with
schemes on how to get rich in light of {the global mess.  One ghastly
Web site promised a listing of everybody who had died or disappeared,
Judd spent an hour there, pulling up names of his own family and other
acquaintances to see how accurate the thing was.  His parents were
listed as having disappeared.  Ryan's parents were listed as known
dead.  Vicki's parents were listed as killed in a trailer fire, which
he knew was not true but would also be impossible to prove, Judd i
wanted to look up Bub for Vicki, but that wasn't enough to go on.  Bub
couldn't be his real first name, and even if it was, Judd had never
heard a last name.  Vicki had to know it, though, because she gave
Deacon enough info that he was sure he could track down Eddie Byrne's
friend.  Judd was amazed to see how late it was.

He had promised Bruce he would bring at least Lionel and Ryan to the
church in the morning.  Vicki would be a pleasant surprise for Bruce.

The phone awakened Judd, and he was startled to notice that it was
already ten minutes after eight.

"Oh, no," he groaned, knowing the caller would be Bruce.  He was right,
and he quickly apologized, promising to get everybody rounded up and
over there as fast as he could.  Judd explained he had been up late,
going to get Vicki.

"At least that's good news," Bruce said.

"Now please respect my schedule so I can get to my sermon preparation
when I need to."

Judd scolded Lionel and Ryan for not get ting him up, but they, of
course, blamed each other.

"You never told me when the meeting was," Vicki said, sitting at the
table in the kitchen.

"I'm ready when you are."

Twenty minutes later, after Judd's shower, they all piled into the car.
No surprise to Judd, Bruce seemed perturbed when they arrived.  He
didn't lecture them, but he did say he was willing to have a regular
meeting time every other day and that they would be expected to be
there on time and ready to study.

"There's so much for you to learn, and if you're going to back to
school, you're going to be in the minority there.  It won't be easy."

He prayed and then opened his Bible, but before saying anything, he
took a deep

breath and seemed on the verge of tears.

"I feel a tremendous responsibility for you all," he said.

"I know you don't want me to.

You want to be independent and not answer to anyone.  We're all that
way.  But it's nothing but pride and selfishness.  The Bible says that
as your pastor, I am also your shepherd.  That doesn't make me your
parent, but if you want to be in the church and in this little group,
your responsibility is to respect my authority over you.

"That's not easy for me either.  I'm not used to it yet myself.  I'm
trying to run this church, but I'm also spending most of my days and
evenings studying the Bible and commentaries so I can try to explain to
you and every one else what is going on."

"And what's to come," Judd offered.

"Exactly.  I feel the press of God on me.  It's hard.  And I know I'm
not the only one who feels it.  We're all hurting, we've all lost
people, we all missed the truth.  I don't want to lay this all on you,
but my house is so big and so cold and so lonely without my family that
sometimes I don't even go home at night.

I study here until I fall asleep, and I go home in the morning only to
clean up and change and get back here.  "

Judd didn't know what to say.  He hadn't seen Bruce like this.  One
thing was for sure:

Judd wouldn't let anybody be late to these meetings again.

"One of the things I had never been good at was reading the Bible every
day," Bruce continued.

"I pretended to be a believer, a so-called full-time Christian worker,
but I didn't care about the Bible.  Now I can't get enough of it.  I
know what people meant when they used to say they feasted on the Word,
Sometimes I sit drinking it in for hours, losing track of time, weeping
and praying, forgetting to eat.  Sometimes I just slip from my chair
and fall to my knees, calling out to God to make it clear to me.  Most
frightening--and thrilling--of all, he's doing just that."

Vicki was riveted, and she could tell even the younger boys were too.

They hadn't seen Bruce like this.  Something was weighing on him, and
it had nothing to do with the fact that the Young Trib Force had been
late that Saturday morning.

, "I need your prayers," Bruce continued.  "God is showing me things,
impressing truth on me that I can barely keep quiet about.  Yet if I
say these things publicly, I will be ridiculed and might even be in
danger."

"Like what?"  Vicki said.

Bruce stepped to the corner of his desk and sat on it, towering over
the kids.

"We know

Nicolae Carpathia is the Antichrist.  Even if the story Mr.  Williams
told you about Carpa- thia's supernatural hypnotic power and his murder
of those two men was not true--and of course I believe it is--there's
still plenW of evidence against him.  He fits the prophecies.  He's
deceptive.  He's charming.  People are drawn to him, flocking to
support him.  He has been thrust into power, seemingly against his own
wishes.  He's pushing a one- world government, a one-world money system
a treaty with Israel, moving the UN to Babylon.  That alone proves it.
"

Vicki's ears perked up at the mention of the treaty with Israel.

"He's said that?"  she said.

"On the news, I mean?  Isn't that the start of the seven-year
tribulation?"

Bruce nodded.

"Yesterday," he said.

"His spokesman said Carpathia would be unavailable for several days
while he conducted strategic high-level meetings."

"But did he say what they would be about?"

"He said Carpathia felt obligated to move quickly to unite the world in
a move toward peace.

He's having nations destroy 90 per cent of their weaponry and donate
the remaining 10 percent to the UN in Babylon, which he has renamed New
Babylon.  He's also pushing the international money people to settle on
one form of currency for the whole world.  And he wants all the
religions of the world to unite as one big group that tolerates
everybody's beliefs.  I'm guessing we'll see a one-world religion.  "

Vicki's mind was reeling, as it had been since the day of the
disappearances.  At times she still wondered if this was some crazy
nightmare.  In an instant she had gone from a rebellious teenager to a
fanatical believer in Christ.  She wanted to press Bruce, to ask him
about this treaty.  That would be proof, if nothing else was, but how
did he know?  She didn't want to interrupt him.

"All I know," he was saying, "is that the closer I get to God, the
deeper I get into the Bible, the heavier the burden seems on my
shoulders.  The world needs to know it is being deceived.  I feel an
urgency to preach Christ everywhere, not just here.  This church is
full of frightened people, and they're hungry for God.  We're trying to
meet that need, but more trouble is coming."

When he paused, Vicki jumped in.

"But the treaty.  Has he really announced a treaty?"

Bruce looked at her and nodded.

"The news that really got to me yesterday was the announcement that the
next major order of business for Carpathia is what he calls 'an
understanding' between the global community and Israel.  I don't know
what form it

will take or what the benefit will be to the Holy Land, but clearly
this is the seven-year treaty.  If that announcement says anything
about a promise from Carpathia that Israel will be protected over the
next seven years, it officially ushers in the Tribulation.  "

Back Home

"CAN we go soon?"  Ryan asked.

"I have no idea what you guys are talking about."

"Figure it out, short stuff," Lionel said.

"It's only the end of the world."

Bruce leaned forward.

"I understand you two haven't been getting along," he said.

"Lionel, you know this stuff, don't you?  Better than Ryan, I mean?"

"" Course," Lionel said.

"Doesn't everybody?"

"And is that his fault?"

"No.  I was raised in church.  He wasn't."

"So he's not stupid or a dummy?"

"Unless he doesn't want to learn."

"And I think he does, especially if he understands what we're talking
about.  You should teach him."

"Why me?"

"You're closest to his age," Bruce said.

"He listens to you whether you think so or not.  It's important that
you're positive.  He acts

like he's mad at you, and sometimes maybe he doesn't like you because
you keep putting him down.  But he needs you, and he would look up to
you if you treated him better.  "

Lionel looked down, and Judd hoped Bruce was getting through to him.

It was a good idea--Lionel's being Ryan's teacher.  The question was
whether either of them would tolerate it.

"You two work it out," Bruce said.

Lionel rolled his head to gaze at Ryan, who looked back with brows
raised, Judd took that to mean that both were willing to give it a try.
Now that could be interesting.

Judd missed his parents and his little brother and sister, and he knew
the others missed their families too.  But he was excited about doing
something positive, not sitting around feeling sorry for himself.  They
had only a few years left, and he wanted to see their group be just as
eager to stand and fight as the adult Tribulation Force.

"Bruce," he said, raising his hand.

"Do you have time for us, with all the other stuff you're doing, I
mean?"

"I'll make the time if you'll all get serious about it.  The adult
Force meets here every night for two hours.  I can meet with you guys
after school whenever possible.  I'll out line what God has revealed in
the Bible.  If I'm right and if the treaty with Israel comes within
the next few days, we have no time to waste.  I want this church to
start new churches, new groups of believers.  I want to go to Israel
and hear the two witnesses preach at the Wailing Wall.  Imagine the
stories I'll come back with.  By the way, you know there's a place on
the Internet where you can watch what's happening at the Wall
twenty-four hours a day."

"Yippee," Lionel said, and Bruce looked hard at him.

"Just kiddin'," Lionel said, "but isn't most of that in Jewish?"

Bruce smiled.

"Their language is Hebrew, but often there are subtitles or even
interpreters You might find it interesting, especially when the
witnesses are preaching.  The Bible foretells of 144,000 Jews springing
up and traveling throughout the world to preach the gospel.

There will be a great soul harvest, maybe a billion or more people,
coming to Christ.  "

"Wow!"  Judd said.

"Does it say there'll be that many?"

"Well, this is a good study for you.  Lionel, grab that King James
Bible over there.  Thanks.  Usually we use the New King James, or the
New International, or the New Living Translation, so we can understand
it better.

But let's look at this in an older version and see if we can figure it
out.  Ryan, find Revelation 9:16, and read it to us.  "

Ryan took the Bible from Lionel, and Judd was pleased to hear Lionel
whisper, "Last book in the whole Bible."

Ryan found the verse and read, "" And the number of the army of the
horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of
them.  "" "Stop there," Bruce said.

"What was the number he heard?"

"Me?"  Ryan said.

"If you know."

"Anybody knows that," he said.

"A thou sand thousand is a million, so the number he heard was two
hundred million."

"Good," Bruce said.

"Now, at the risk of being too simple, would you say that army of
horsemen, even though it was two hundred million, could be counted?"

"Of course," Ryan said.

"The number's right here."

"Right.  It's obvious.  So, Judd, read Revelation 7:9."

Judd took the Bible from Ryan and read, "" After this I beheld, and,
lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations; and
kind reds and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and
before

the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.  ""
"That's enough' Bruce said.

"Anybody catch it?"

Vicki said, "I don't know who they're talking about, but it's a crowd
so big nobody can number it."

"Exactly.  That's how we know there will be a huge soul harvest.  This
is talking about people who come to Christ during the Tribulation If an
army of two hundred million can be counted, how many must there be in a
crowd no man can number?"

Judd stole a glance at Ryan, who looked excited.

"Is all this stuff this interesting?"  Ryan said.

"That's nothing," Bruce said.

"You'll be as amazed as I have been with what's in here."

"All those people becoming believers," Vicki said.

"We should be thrilled."

"I am," Bruce said.

"But we're not going to have much time to celebrate and certainly no
time to rest.  Remember the seven Seal Judgments Revelation talks
about?"

"You said something about them, yes."

"Those will begin with the signing of the treaty.  There will be
eighteen months of peace, but in the three months after
that--twenty-one months into the eighty four-month Tribulation--the
rest of the Seal

Judgments will fall on the earth.  One-fourth of the world's population
will be wiped out.  Do you understand what that means?  "

"One-fourth of the people who have been left behind?"  Lionel said.

Bruce nodded.

"I don't like the odds," Judd said.

"There are four of us kids."

"One of us is going to die before even two years are up ?"

Bruce didn't say anything.  Judd saw him just looking at them, one by
one.

"Whew!"  Ryan said.

"Maybe some of this isn't that interesting after all.  I mean, it's
interesting, but it's like stuff you don't really want to know."

"I want to know about it," Vicki said, speaking louder and more quickly
than Judd had heard her before.

"I want to know every thing, every detail.  There's no guarantee I
won't be the one who's killed by the twenty-first month.  I want to
make sure I'm doing everything I'm supposed to be doing in the
meantime."

"To earn your way to heaven," Bruce said.

"Right?"

"Right!  I mean, no!  I know better, Bruce.  I know I can't earn my
way.

I just want to do the right thing because it's the right thing.

Millions of people are going to die in the first quarter of the
Tribulation, so we have to tell them the truth as fast as we can.  "

"That's what I like to hear.  One of the adults last night said the
same thing.  He said, We don't want to just survive; we want to take
action."  " Now they were talking Judd's language, and he was thrilled
that they all seemed excited about it.  There was a reason God had put
them together, and they were going to do important things for him.

Vicki raised her hand.

"How many people will be left at the end?"

"When lesus returns again," Bruce said, "at the Glorious Appearing?"

She nodded.

"With all the judgments--fourteen more following the seven Seal
ludgments--there will be war and famine and pestilence and plagues.  My
study tells me that several of the judgments wipe out another third of
the population.  That's a third of the three-fourths who are left, then
a third of the two-thirds left after that, and so on.  It's confusing,
but if you put a calculator to it, it looks like only one of every four
people who were left at the Rapture will be left standing at the
Glorious Appearing."

"The rest will be in heaven or hell?"  Ryan said.

"Right.  And the ones in heaven will return with Christ to set up his
earthly kingdom, his thousand-year reign."

Ryan looked at the others.

"I'd like to be the one left standing, but if I'm not, I get to go to
heaven and come back?  That would be cool too."

That afternoon Judd worked at the computer, looking for the Temple
Mount Web site in Jerusalem.  Vicki sat in the kitchen with her Bible
and some books Bruce had given her to stu'j.  Lionel and Ryan watched
television, but Lionel also told Ryan Bible stories that were new to
him.

Late in the afternoon, Lionel hollered up the stairs.

"Hey, Judd, some guy on TV is talking about announcements from the UN
and all that.  You want to hear it?"

"I do!"  Vicki said, emerging from the kitchen.

Judd joined the others in front of the TV, where a commentator said:
"Moving the UN out of New York and into the ruins of Baby- Ion, south
of Baghdad, is a good thing.  If Carpathia is sincere about disarming
the world and stockpiling the remaining 10 per cent of the weapons, I'd
rather he store them

in the Middle East than on an island off New York City.

"But the world will never settle on a single religion, and as
streamlined as it may be, there will never be fewer than three
currencies either."

"What are currencies?"  Ryan asked.

"Types of money," Judd said.

"Like now we have American dollars, European marks, and Asian yen.
Carpathia wants to go to just dollars.  Bruce thinks eventually
Carpathia wants to go to no cash."

"How would they do that?"

"Everybody would have an account and a credit card.  Anything you want,
you just put on that card.  No cash."

"Cool!"

"Yeah," Vicki said, "but what happens when they do away with the card
and put a chip or a mark on you to be scanned?"

"Even better," Ryan said.

"Nothing to carry."

"But these books Bruce lent me say it will be the mark of the beast,
the Antichrist, and then he'll own you.  It's right in the Bible."

"Not me," Ryan said.

"They'd have to kill me first, so then I'd be in heaven."

As Vicki headed back to the kitchen and Judd toward the stairs, she
told him, "Bruce

says the only woman in the adult Tribulation Force is the daughter of
the pilot.  "

"I know."

"And she's memorizing three books of the Bible."

"I didn't know that."

"She's going to be Bruce's research assistant and help him teach.

Maybe she'll teach us when he's out of town.  "

"That'd be neat.  What's she memorizing?"

"The three books with the most end-times prophecies: Ezekiel, Daniel,
and Revelation."

"Those are not short books."

"No kidding.  But what a goal.  Maybe I'll try that.  It would be more
important than school.  But you're right.  If I want to tell people,
there are going to be a lot of people to tell at Prospect, I mean "
Nine more days and we're back to class," Judd said.

"I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning.  Bruce says he's got a
message that excites him.  This is so weird.  He told me that this
woman, Chloe Steele is her name, said she never thought the Bible would
interest her, and now she's reading it like there's no tomorrow.  Get
it?"

"Huh?"

"Like there's no tomorrow.  There aren't many, are there?"

Back Home

Back in his dad's den, Judd sat thinking.  Bruce had told Vicki about
Chloe Steele, and he had told Judd about Buck Williams, the magazine
writer.  On the way out of church, Bruce had told Judd the latest thing
Buck had told him.

"He said he found himself turning to the Gospels rather than the Old
Testament or the Revelation prophecies.  He was surprised to see what a
revolutionary Jesus turned out to be."

"A revolutionary?"  Judd had asked.

"You know this stuff as well as I do," Bruce had said.

"You grew up with it.  Buck is just learning the character, the
personaliw, the mission of Jesus, and it fascinates him.  He told me
that the Jesus he had always imagined or thought he knew was an
impostor.  The Jesus of the Bible turns out to be a radical, a man of
paradoxes.  Jesus said if you want to be rich, give your money away. If
you want to be exalted, humble yourself.  Revenge sounds logical, but
it's wrong.  Love your enemies, pray for those who put you down. That
kind of thing."

Judd couldn't argue with that.  He only wished he'd become a radical
Christian long before.

The Message

Judd insisted that everyone in the house be up early and ready to go
long before church Sunday morning.  No one grumbled.  They had somehow
turned a corner and were now excited and bold about the task before
them.  Even Ryan and Lionel seemed to be getting along.

Judd asked that they find good seats in the sanctuary, which was
already filling, and he hurried down to the office to see Brace.

Loretta, Brace's kindly old secretary, was just arriving.  She told
Judd he could knock on Bruce's door.

"If it can wait, I'd appreciate it," Bruce called out.

"OK,"

Judd said.

"Sorry."  But as he walked away, Bruce came to the door.  He looked
disheveled, unshaven, as if he had stayed up all night.

"I didn't know it was you, Judd.  What's up?"

"Nothin'," Judd said.

"Just wanted to say hi."

"Glad you did.  Pray for me."

"OK, but why?"

"Just feeling the responsibility of this church.  Big crowd already?"

Judd nodded.

"Jammed.  Cars lined up around the block.  People mostly look scared or
sad."

"They're terrified," Bruce said.

"They come here looking for hope, for answers, for God.  Some are
finding him, and the word is spreading.

I've been studying all night.  I've got to shave and get going here.

You study those verses I suggested?  "

"Yeah.  I found the one about the quarter of the population."

"Memorize it?"

"Yup."

"Let me hear it."

"You have time?"  Judd said.

"Did you really memorize it?"

Judd had to prove it.

"Revelation 6:8," he began, "" So I looked, and behold, a pale horse.
And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with
him.  And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill
with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. 
"" "Excellent, Judd.  You're a good student.

Unfortunately, you're going to learn that what comes after the pale
horse is worse and keeps getting worse until the end.  "

Vicki waited with Ryan and Lionel in the third pew from the front, in
the center row.  She saved a seat for Judd.  When she saw him coming,
she also recognized Buck Williams across the way.  He had slid in
behind a tall, dark man and a pretty young woman, and they were
greeting each other.

"Ryan," she whispered, "don't make a big scene, but is that Captain
Steele and his daughter over there in front of Mr.  Williams?"

Ryan stood to look, and Vicki cringed.

"Yep," he said.

"That's them.  Mr.  S. and Chloe."  Judd joined the kids as the music
began.  He noticed that many people didn't know the songs.

The words were projected on the wall, and the choruses were simple and
catchy, but they were new to some people.  As for those, like himself,
who knew the words, he wondered how he and they had all missed the
truth while singing songs like those.

Finally Bruce hurried to the pulpit--not the large one on the platform,
but a small lectern at floor level.  He carried his Bible, two large

books, and a sheaf of papers he had trouble controlling.  He smiled
sheepishly.

"Good morning," he began.

"I realize a word of explanation is in order.  Usually we sing more,
but we don't have time for that today.

Usually my tie is straighter, my shirt fully tucked in, my suit coat
buttoned.  That all seems a little less critical this morning.  Usually
we take up an offering.  Be assured we still need it, but please find
the baskets on your way out at noon, if I indeed let you out that
early.

"I want to take the extra time this morning because I feel an urgency
greater even than the last few weeks.  I don't want you to worry about
me.  I haven't become a wild-eyed mad man, a cultist, or anything other
than what I have been since I realized I had missed the Rapture.  I
have read more, prayed more, and studied more this week than ever, and
I am eager to tell you what God has told me."

Bruce told his own story yet again, how he had lived a phony life for
years, even as a member of the pastoral staff.  When lesus came back,
Bruce had been left behind, with out his wife and precious children,
Judd had heard the story, but it still made him want to cry.  People
all over the church sobbed.

"I never want to stop telling what Christ has done for me," Bruce
said.

"I will never again be ashamed of the gospel of Christ.  The Bible
says that the Cross offends.  If you are offended, I am doing my job.
If you are attracted to Christ, the Holy Spirit is working.

"We've already missed the Rapture, and now we live in what will soon
become the most perilous period of history.  Evangelists used to warn
people that they could be struck by a car or die in a fire, and thus
they should not put off coming to Christ.  I'm telling you that should
a car strike you or a fire consume you, it may be the most merciful way
you can die.  Be ready this time.  Be ready.  I will tell you how to
get ready."

Bruce announced that his sermon title was "The Four Horsemen of the
Apocalypse" and that he wanted to concentrate on the rider of the first
horse--the white one.

Judd had never seen him so earnest, so inspired.  As Bruce spoke he
referred to his notes, to the books he'd brought, and to the Bible.  He
often wiped sweat from his brow.  Judd noticed that most people were
taking notes and that everyone was following along in the Bible.

Bruce explained that the book of Revelation spoke of what was to come
after Christ had raptu red his church.

"Does anyone doubt we're in the last days?"  he thundered.

"Millions disappear, and then what?  Some believe the tribulation
period has already begun and that it began with the Rapture.  We feel
the trials and tribulations from the disappearances of our loved ones,
don't we?  But that is nothing compared to what is to come.

"During these seven years, God will pour out three consecutive sets of
judgments-seven seals in a scroll, seven trumpets, and seven bowls.

If the Rapture didn't get your attention, the judgments will.  And if
the judgments don't, you're going to die apart from God.  Horrible as
these judgments are, I urge you to see them as final warnings from a
loving God who is not willing that any should perish.  "

Judd was struck to remember that he had heard old Pastor Billings
preach on these same subjects.  Judd had scoffed and quit listening. 
It all sounded too weird, too far fetched, too unbelievable.

"I warn you," Bruce rumbled on several minutes later, "this is not for
the faint of heart.  Revelation 6:1-2 says, " Now I saw when the Lamb
opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures
saying with a voice like thunder, "Come and see."  And I looked, and
behold, a white horse.  He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was
given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.  "" Bruce
stepped back and began clearing off the lectern.

"Don't worry," he said, "I'm not finished."  People applauded.  Bruce
said, "Are you clapping because you want me to finish, or because you
want me to go on all after noon?"

The people clapped all the more, including the Young Tribulation Force.
If the others were like Judd, they were drinking this in, and they
wanted more and more.  Clearly Bruce had been in tune with what God was
showing him.  He said over and over that this was not new truth, that
the commentaries he cited were decades old, and that the doctrine of
the end times was much, much older than that.  But those who had said
such teaching was not to be taken literally, well, they had been left
behind.  All of a sudden it was all right to take Scripture at its
word!  If nothing else convinced people, losing so many to the Rapture
had finally reached them.

Bruce stood before the bare lectern now with only his Bible in his
hand.

"I want to tell you now what I believe the Bible is saying about the
rider of the white horse, the first horseman of the Apocalypse.  I will
not give my opinion.  I will not draw any conclusions.  I will simply
leave it to God to help you draw any parallels that need to be drawn.

I will tell you this in advance: This millenniums-old account reads as
fresh to me as tomorrow's newspaper."

Vicki couldn't believe an hour had flown by since she'd last checked
her watch.  She was hungry, but she could sit there all day listening
to Bruce.  She knew where he was going with this imagery, but more
amazing, she knew someone in the sanctuary right then who knew the
rider of the white horse personally Buck Williams had experienced the
power of the Antichrist.  Buck had convinced her that Nicolae Carpathia
was the man, the enemy of God.

"Notice," Bruce continued, "that it is the Lamb who opens the first
seal and reveals that horseman.  The Lamb is Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, who died for our sins, was resurrected, and recently raptu red his
church.

"Who is this first horseman?  Clearly he represents the Antichrist and
his kingdom.  His purpose is 'conquering and to conquer."  He has a bow
in his hand, a symbol of war fare, and yet there is no mention of an
arrow.  How will he conquer?  Other passages say he is a 'willful king'
and that he will win through smooth talking.  He will usher in a

false peace, promising world unity.  Will he be victorious?  Yes!  He
has a crown.

"The rider of the white horse is the Anti christ, who comes as a
deceiver promising peace and uniting the world.  The Old Testament says
he will sign a treaty with Israel.  He will appear to be their friend
and protector, but in the end he will be their conqueror and
destroyer."

Bruce said he could prove that he himself was not the Antichrist--not
that anyone suspected him--because he would never promise peace.

"The Bible is clear that we will have a year and a half of peace
following the pact with Israel.  But in the long run, I predict the
opposite of peace.  The other three horsemen are coming, and they bring
war, famine, plagues, and death.  That is not a popular message, not a
warm fuzzy you can cling to this week.  Our only hope is in Christ, and
even in him we will likely suffer."

Bruce closed in prayer, and Vicki assumed everyone else felt as she
did, that she could have stayed all day.  She tried to get to Bruce,
but he had already been intercepted in the aisle, near the Steeles.

Vicki was behind him as people quizzed him.

"Are you saying Nicolae Carpathia is the Antichrist?"  one said.

"Did you hear me say that?"  Bruce said.

"No, but it was pretty clear.  They're already talking on the news
about his plans and some sort of a deal with Israel."

"Keep reading and studying," Bruce said.

"But it can't be Carpathia, can it?  Does he strike you as a liar?"

"How does he strike you?"  Bruce said.

"As a savior."

"Almost like a messiah?"  Bruce pressed.

"Yeah!"

"There is only one Savior, one Messiah."

"I know, spiritually, but politically I mean.  Don't tell me
Carpathia's not what he seems to be."

"I'll tell you only what Scripture says," Bruce said, "and I urge you
to listen carefully to the news.  We must be wise as serpents and
gentle as doves."

"That's how I would have described Carpa- thia," a woman said.

"Be careful," Bruce said, "about giving Christlike characteristics to
anyone who doesn't align himself with Christ."

Vicki had been stopped by Bruce's comment about being wise and gentle.
She couldn't wait to tell the rest of the Young Trib Force about that.
Wise and gentle was what they had to be when they went back to
school.

So many people needed what the Young Trib Force had to offer, and yet
so much danger awaited them too.

The four were strangely silent on the way home, and Vicki assumed that
was because they had all been so moved by Bruce and his sermon.  They
ate as if they hadn't eaten for hours--which was true.  Just before
Vicki finished the phone rang.  Ryan, who loved to answer it, announced
it was for her.

"Guy named Deacon," Ryan whispered.

"Sounds old."

Deacon and Bub

"THIS Bub guy," Deacon said, "you know him well?"

"Never met him," Vicki said.

"I told you.  He was a friend of my brother's."

"You sure you got his name right?  Beryl Gaylor, right?"

"Right.  Why?"

"Are you sitting down?"

"just tell me."

"He's dead, Vicki.  When did you say you talked to him last?"

Vicki could hardly speak.

"The day of the Rapture," she managed.

"He was fine.  What happened?"

"Here's what I heard from my friend in the police department," Deacon
said.

"Gaylor was missing for a few days, so they searched his and your
brother's apartment.  They already knew Edward--that's your brother's
name, right?"

"Right."

"Had disappeared out of his car.  There was no evidence Bub had
disappeared, no pile of clothes, that kind of a thing.  His answering
machine had a message from a friend, asking him to come over and check
the friend's basement with him.  This guy reported a gas leak the night
before.  The gas company repairman came out to check the lines in the
basement, and then told Bub's friend to find another place to stay for
the night while he worked on it.  When the guy called the gas company
in the morning to see if he could move back in, he couldn't get
thrqtgh--you know, with the vanishings and erything.

"So he was asking Gaylor to go with him to see if his house was OK.

The police went to the guy's house and found the gas truck in the
driveway, the owner's car and Bub's car parked behind it.  The house
had blown.  "

Vicki let out a huge sigh.

"So all three of them were killed?"

"No.  It looks like the gas company guy disappeared.  Because the house
didn't blow until Bub and his friend got there.  The cops figure the
gas guy disappeared when every one else did, before he could fix the
leak.  Those guys coming inside in the morning to check on him must
have sparked something that ignited the gas."

Vicki didn't know what to say.

"I hate 1 this," she said finally.

"It's like we have to talk to everyone right away because you never
know what's going to happen to them."

"Had your brother tried to tell him?"

"Yes."

"You never know, Vicki," Deacon said.

"Something may have gotten through to him, even after you talked to
him."

Vicki couldn't imagine, but she could hope.  She thanked Deacon and
said she hoped to run into him again sometime.  She moved to the couch
in the living room and sat crying softly.  In a few minutes, Judd came
looking for her.

She told him what had happened.

"You see why school is going to be such a waste of time?"  she said.

He shook his head.

"I know it seems that way, but more kids might listen to us there than
anywhere else."

"But will we be allowed to say anything?  I wonder what everybody else
makes of the disappearances and Carpathia and all that."

"I wonder, who'll be there and who won't," Judd said.

"How many teachers and coaches and office people were raptu red and 'i
how many students?"

Late that afternoon, as Judd surfed the Internet, he realized how
dramatically his life had changed in just a couple of weeks.  He used
to look for reasons to do anything but study or read.  Now he had
become a newshound, an information freak.  He read his Bible, studied
his notes from Bruce's sermons and private messages.  Now he was
searching the Net for anything else he could find about what was going
on.

He heard a ping and saw the mail icon appear at the lower right side of
his screen.  Judd clicked on it and found a message from Bruce.  "Judd,
I will tell you and perhaps Vicki things I would not feel comfortable
sharing with Lionel and Ryan.  It isn't that I don't trust them, but
these would be highly confidential matters, potentially dangerous if
spread around.  The younger boys might not know how to keep secrets or
understand how important that is.

"Two members of the Tribulation Force, Captain Steele and Buck Williams
(whom you know), run in some very interesting circles and may be able
to shed light on inter national matters that others wouldn't be
exposed to.  I won't be able to tell you every thing, but when I do,
I'll count on your confidence--you know what that means: total
secrecy.

OK?

"

Judd felt special that Bruce would trust him like that.  When he
answered, he would assure Bruce he could be trusted.  Mean while, Bruce
told him the story of Buck Williams having met Israel's Chaim
Rosenzweig, the botanist who had created a formula that allowed desert
sands to bloom like a greenhouse.  The result had made Israel one of
the richest nations in the world.  Buck Williams had interviewed him
and become his friend after Rosenzweig had been named Global Weekly's
Man of the Year.  Rosenzweig had introduced Buck to Nicolae
Carpathia.

"I've been most encouraged by your attitude, your intelligence, and
your curiosity, Judd," Bruce wrote.

"You might be interested in the text of an interview with Dr.
Rosenzweig.  You will find it at the following Web site."

Judd quickly clicked on it.  Bruce was right.  Judd found it
fascinating.

Wallace Theodore of ABC TV's Nightline had interviewed Rosenzweig, and
the text had been stored on the site.  Judd found the

following most intriguing and looked for ward to when he might talk
with Buck Williams personally about it.

WT: Dr.  Rosenzweig, what can you tell us about Nicolae Carpathia?

CR: I found him most impressive.  So bright, so engaging, so
articulate, so humble-- WT: Excuse, me, sir.  Humble?

CR: Probably as humble as any leader I have ever met.  Never have I
seen a man like this.

When he was invited to speak at the United Nations not a month ago, he
almost declined, he felt so unworthy.  But you heard the speech.  I
would have nominated him for Prime Minister of Israel, if he were
eligible!

Mr.  Theodore, he has ideas upon ideas!  He speaks so many languages
that he hardly ever needs an interpreter, even for some of the remotest
tribes.

WT: How can Carpathia give away your formula

NC: I was more than happy to offer it.  Bo tswana will soon be one of
the most fertile countries in all of Africa, if not the world.  WT:
Having the formula made Israel a wealthy nation.  Russia attacked you
for the formula alone.

It's not about money, Mr.  Theodore.  I need none.  Israel needs
none.

WT: Then what could Carpathia offer that is worthy of trade?

CR: What has Israel prayed for since the beginning of time as the
chosen people of God?  Shalom.  Peace.

"Pray for the peace of Israel."

WT: Many say God supernaturally protected you against the Russian
attack.  With God on your side, do you need to barter with Nicolae
Carpathia for protection?

CR: We pray, we seek God, but in the mean time we believe he helps
those who help themselves.  WT: And you're helping yourselves by.  ?

GR: The formula is tied to Carpathia's disarmament policy.  Once the
world is disarmed, Israel should not have to worry about her borders.

Any nation threatening Israel will suffer immediate extinction, using
the weaponry available to the lIN, 10 percent from each donating
country.  Imagine the firepower.  WT: But Carpathia doesn't believe in
war.

CR: He also knows that the best way to keep the peace is to have the
weapons to enforce it.

: And how long does this agreement between Israel and Carpathia last?

CR: Mr.  Carpathia suggested that full rights i to the formula would
return to us after , only seven years.

'i Judd froze.  So there it was, the seven-year agreement between
Israel and the Antichrist.  Judd called Bruce at the church office.

"Does , " this say what I think it says.

"It sure does," Bruce said.

"How many will recognize it for what it is, I can't say.  But here's
another tidbit for you, and please tell no one other than Vicki, and
swear her to secrecy as well: Buck Williams has been invited to Israel
for the signing of the treaty."

Judd shook his head.

"Can you get him to tell us about it when he gets back?"

"No promises.  He may have to lie low and not be seen with believers
for a while.  But if he can and we find a way to make it happen, I'll
do my best."

On Monday a week later, Vicki awoke at the crack of dawn.  Her
schoolbooks had burned with her trailer, she barely remembered her
class schedule, and she dreaded the thought of going back.  She would
miss Clarice Washington Lionel's older sister, with whom she

had sat on the school bus.  Clarice had been raptu red and Vicki would
not ride the bus anyway, she would ride with Judd.  He would drop
Lionel and Ryan off at Global Community Junior High on the way.  What a
joke.

She knew the first day back to high school would be chaotic when she
saw what was happening at the junior high.

SEVEN

Back to School

JUDD felt queasy when he joined the heavy traffic wending its way to
the junior high school.  Lionel had fallen strangely silent since the
four kids got into the car, but Ryan had kept up a steady stream of
chatter.  The only thing Vicki had said was that she wondered if anyone
would recognize her.  Judd did not recall noticing her in the past, but
there was a vast difference between the hard- looking, black-lipped,
and black-eye lidded girl he had met and this preppy version that sat
beside him now.

For many of the junior highers, this merely looked like the first day
of school again.  Everyone seemed carefully dressed and equipped, and
their mothers or fathers dropped them off, watching anxiously as they
headed inside.

"Wonder how many kids lost parents,"

JUDD felt queasy when he joined the heavy traffic wending its way to
the junior high school.  Lionel had fallen strangely silent since the
four kids got into the car, but Ryan had kept up a steady stream of
chatter.  The only thing Vicki had said was that she wondered if anyone
would recognize her.  Judd did not recall noticing her in the past, but
there was a vast difference between the hard- looking, black-lipped,
and black-eye lidded girl he had met and this preppy version that sat
beside him now.

For many of the junior highers, this merely looked like the first day
of school again.  Everyone seemed carefully dressed and equipped, and
their mothers or fathers dropped them off, watching anxiously as they
headed inside.

"Wonder how many kids lost parents,"

i,

JUDD felt queasy when he joined the heavy traffic wending its way to
the junior high school.  Lionel had fallen strangely silent since the
four kids got into the car, but Ryan had kept up a steady stream of
chatter.  The only thing Vicki had said was that she wondered if anyone
would recognize her.  Judd did not recall noticing her in the past, but
there was a vast difference between the hard- looking, black-lipped,
and black-eye lidded girl he had met and this preppy version that sat
beside him now.

For many of the junior highers, this merely looked like the first day
of school again.  Everyone seemed carefully dressed and equipped, and
their mothers or fathers dropped them off, watching anxiously as they
headed inside.

"Wonder how many kids lost parents," to

Ryan said.

"Man, have I got something for show-and-tell."

"They still do show-and-tell?"  Vicki asked.

"No, but for sure everybody's gonna want { to be telling where they
were and what they saw and who they know who's gone and all that."

Judd glanced in the rearview mirror and noticed Lionel nodding, but he
was gazing | out the window, Judd spoke softly to Vicki.  t "You gonna
go to the office and see about I i getting new books?"

"I guess," she said.

"They'll probably charge me."  "Iif you need any mon" -- I know, Judd,"
she said quickly.

"Thanks.

I'll let you know.  But I'm going to find a job soon.

"You don't have to do that."

"Oh, yes I do.  I'm not a freeloader or a charity case."

"Let me get out here!"  Ryan said.

"I see some of the guys!"

"Just wait," Judd said.

"We've got to talk i about what you're going to say about your
situation."

"My situation?  What do you mean?  My parents are dead.  How else can I
say it?  You think I'm going to start crying or something?  I don't
think I can cry anymore."

Judd pulled into the line circling the entrance, and they crawled
along.

"Both you and Lionel have to come up with some story about where you're
staying."

"You mean lie?"

"" Course not.  But you don't have to tell people you're living with
other kids.  Just say you're staying with someone from church.  "

"Good idea," Lionel said.

"I'm not sure I'm ready to tell everybody that I'm the only one left in
my family.  But I'll bet they try to get us talking about what we think
happened.  If they ask me, I'll tell 'em."

Judd pulled over and shifted into Park.

"You guys are sure you want to walk all the way home after school?"

"It's not that far," Lionel said.

"Anyway, it's either wait here for you for an hour or go home.  Nothing
else to do."

Judd nodded.  Vicki said, "We're going to want to hear all about it, so
try to remember everything."

"All right, all right," Ryan said.

"Let's go already!  Unlock the doors."

"They might ask kids whose parents are gone to fill out new emergency
forms," Judd said.

"And we'll put down Bruce Barnes's name and the church's phone number,"
Ryan said.

"We've been through this a gazillion times."

Judd unlocked the doors, and it seemed Lionel was out as quickly as
Ryan.

"Mi of a sudden I feel like a parent," Judd said, pulling back into
traffic.

"I could've waited ten years to start worrying about what a couple of
junior highers are going to do all day."

Vicki just smiled and nodded.  She looked tense.

In the parking lot at the former Prospect High School, teachers and
coaches and office staff directed traffic and spoke through
bullhorns.

"Don't worry about parking stickers today!  We'll deal with that later!
Check the bulletin boards for class and schedule changes!  We'll be on
a shortened program today, starting in the field house for an all
school assembly!  Sit with your class!"

"Homeroom?"  Judd asked through the window.

"No, your whole class.  Freshmen in the west balcony, sophomores in the
east balcony, juniors in the back on the main floor, seniors in
front."

Vicki appeared pale and on the verge of tears as she got out of the
car.

"You want to stay with me for that opening assemuly.

Judd said.  She sighed.

"I really would.  You think II they'd let me?"

"You don't look like a freshman anyway," he said.

"You may have to join your class if they go together, but otherwise,
what are they going to do, kick you out?"

Judd waited as she stopped to ask a teacher what she should do about
her books.

"If that's all you lost, girl," the teacher said, "consider yourself
lucky.  We'll deal with that at the assembly.  Don't be late."

The halls were as crowded as ever until they got into the field
house.

When the opening bell rang it was clear that the place, usually jammed
for an all-school assembly, was only 70 to 75 percent filled.  The
teaching staff was depleted by about the same percent age, made obvious
because they were sitting in rows on the platform behind the lectern.

As Judd and Vicki sat with the juniors, the principal, Mrs.  Laverne
Jenness, stepped to the microphone.

"Welcome back," she said.

"I'm proud to announce, in case you were under a rock and missed the
news or the brand-spanking-new sign out front, that you are no longer
Prospect Knights.  You are Nico- lae Carpathia Doves!"

She may have expected an enthusiastic response, because she appeared
taken aback at a smattering of boos and laughter.  But when the
teachers jumped to their feet in applause, most of the students began
cheering too.  Judd thought at first that they were just mocking the
teachers--as usual--but it soon became clear the celebrants were
serious.

Mrs.  ]enness beamed.  "Tm so pleased that you're pleased," she said.

"We recognize that this decision was made without your input, but there
was nearly unanimous support at the administrative level.  Really, your
response is most gratifying.  There had long been talk that our school
name, steeped in history as it was, was unimaginative, merely echoing
the name of the town in which we reside.  And a knight is, of course, a
warrior, which has long been an offensive mascot.

"To,.be named after so great and humble a leader and pacifist like UN
Secretary-General Nicolae Carpathia, well, that should make us all
proud."

The students chanted, "Nicolae High!

Nicolae High!  Nicolae High!  "

Mrs.  len ness smiled, then raised her hands for silence.

"I recognize that we reconvene only weeks after the most tragic event
to ever curse our planet.  Many of you lost friends and loved ones and
will be grieving.  Thank you for recognizing the importance of
returning for your education, regardless.  As you can imagine, the
counseling services offered by our school district have been taxed
beyond their limits.  But as you see a need for a professional to talk
to, please put your name on

4 the waiting list.  Don't be ashamed or afraid to ask.  We're all
trying to get through this.  "

Judd felt a nudge, and Vicki nodded toward a couple of seniors several
rows ahead.

"Are those Bibles?"  she said.

"Looks like it," Judd said.

"You know them?"

Vicki shook her head.

"Hey, look."

A football coach Judd recognized approached the seniors and knelt in
the aisle.  He spoke earnestly to them, smiling, but came away with
both Bibles.  As he hurried past, Judd reached out and whispered, "What
was that all about, Coach Handlesman?"

"Mind your own business, Thompson," Handlesman said.

"We haven't allowed Bibles here since before you were born."

"But even now, after what happened?"

"Especially now," the coach said, moving on.

"Remember what they look like, Vicki," Judd said.

"We're going to need all the friends we can get."

Mrs.  len ness droned on about the difficulties and trauma, the mixed
classes, the complicated inconveniences.

"Bear with us as we try to regroup and reschedule.  The ratio of
missing students and faculty seems fairly even, so class size should
remain approximately the same as before.

"Those of you who lost textbooks, deal with that in each class and make
your purchases in the bookstore by Friday.  Now before I dismiss you, I
would like to ask for your help.  After an international tragedy that
has struck so close to home, it's only natural to want to talk about
it.  It's therapeutic, and our counselors have advised me to let you
have at it.  Today in your abbreviated classes, we have asked faculty
to get the housekeeping announcements out of the way, the book business
taken care of, and any outlining of new class expectations dealt with
quickly.  Then they are free to supervise group discussions.

Some of you will need to tell your stories of loss and fear.  Others
may choose not to speak of their ordeals.  Please be respectful of
those students and don't badger them for details before they're ready
to be forthcoming.

"Now, here's what you can do for me.  As you know, there has been
widespread speculation about the cause of the vanishings.  According to
our consultants, part of the healing process--the making sense of
this-involves forming and expressing your opinions on this.  But I must
remind you of the strict rule of the separation of church and state
that has helped make this country great.  We are a public institution,
and this is not a forum in which we should espouse religious views.

"I am aware that one of the many explanations for what happened is
religious in nature.  I'm not saying it has no validity.  Like most of
you, I lost extended family members.  Their closest relatives reminded
me that those who disappeared predicted this and told us exactly what
to make of such an occurrence.

"Though this happened among my own kin, and while those stories may
even bear some scrutiny, I will not discuss them on school property
during school hours.  I'm asking that you not either.  Even if I
believed with all my heart that this was the best explanation for the
disappearances--which, you may rest assured, I emphatically do not--I
would maintain that this is the wrong venue in which to propagate that
view.  Thank you for understanding.  I urge you to hold your questions
until class time, unless anyone has something pressing that is
appropriate to ask in front of the corporate body.

"All right, then.  Oh, yes, son.  A question from a junior boy.  Please
stand and state your name and your question loudly enough for me to
hear and repeat it into the micro phone.  And if it is not something
that pertains to the whole school, I would ask"

"It pertains, ma'am!"  Judd called out, rising, his heart thundering.

"Judd Thompson, and I was just wondering if you would clarify this
then!"

"Clarify which part, Mr.  Thompson?  What is unclear?"

"Why freedom of speech is extended only to those who hold certain views
of what has happened?"

"This is not a freedom-of-speech issue, young man.  It's a
church-and-state issue.  Thank you for raising it, but please don't
make something of it that it is not.  Dismissed!"

Judd was short of breath and knew his face was red as he gathered up
his stuff.

"I can't believe you did that," Vicki said, and he looked close to see
if she was embarrassed or seemed to disapprove.

"That wasn't me," he said, shaking his head.

"That was my evil twin.

I've never done anything like that before in my life.  I don't think I
ever even paid attention in an assembly before.  "

"Hey, Judd, way to go, man," one of his classmates said, punching him
on the shoulder.

"Way to be raucous!"

Judd wanted to tell the boy he had been serious, but the guy was lost
in the crowd.  Coach Handlesman shouldered his way through to Judd and
Vicki.

"I liked you better when you made trouble by being a no- account,
Thompson.  Now you're angling to be a smart aleck, eh?"

"Nah.  I just don't think there should be restrictions on people trying
to figure out the truth."

"Cry me a river," the coach said, disappearing in the crowd.

"Be careful," Vicki said as they prepared to split up.

"We don't want to be too conspicuous."

"What's your first class?"  Judd said.

"Phys ed," she said.

"Yours?"

"Psych."

"Should be interesting," she said.

Judd nodded but noticed Vicki was distracted.  She was looking past
him, and her face paled.

"Shelly?"  she said.

"Shelly!  Is that you?"

Judd had wanted to tell Vicki he would be praying for her, but that
sounded cheesy, and she was preoccupied anyway.  And his psych class
with Mr.  Shellenberger was at the complete other end of the school.

Opposition

VICKI had not intended to ignore Judd or abandon him, but he was gone
before she knew it.  She had not seen or heard from her former neighbor
Shelly since the day they both discovered what had happened.  To
Vicki's horror, Shelly looked the same as she had that day.  She stared
into the distance as if she had seen things unspeakable.

"Are you all right, Shel?"  Vicki asked.  Shelly looked at her, flat
brown hair straight and lifeless, her pale green eyes vacant.

"I don't know you," she said.

"Sure you do, Shelly.  It's me, Vicki."  Shelly furrowed her brow and
squinted.

"No way," she said.  Wick, what happened to you?  "

"To me?"  It was out before Vicki could rein it in.  Shelly was the one
who didn't look like herself.  Vicki may have been made up differently
and dressed differently, but Shelly looked as if someone had punched
her in the stomach.

"It's really you, Vicki?"

Vicki nodded.

"Shelly, I know what happened.  I lost my whole family, and" -- "I
don't want to talk about it, OK?  I really don't."

"But as awful as it was, Shelly, I"

"Don't," she said, trembling.

"Leave her alone," an older girl said, glaring at Vicki.

"Don't you know what happened to her?"

"No I What happened?"

"Don't tell her, loyce!"  Shelly said.

"You just get to class, Shelly.  And don't let anybody make you say
anything you don't want to say."

Shelly looked apologetically at Vicki and moved away.  ]oyce turned on
Vicki.

"Are you Byme?"

"Yes, loyce, just dressing a little different these days."

"I'll say.  Your trailer burned, right?"  Vicki nodded.

"So where you livin'?"

"Mount Prospect, with people from my church."

"That explains the threads.  They makin' you dress that way?"

Vicki shook her head.

"So you didn't hear Shelly's story 'cause you haven't been back to the
park?"

"Right."

"She was baby-sitting for the Fischqs.  You knew them."

Vicki nodded, moving toward the girls' locker room.

"One of the kids starts crying just when the parents get home.  Shelly
goes in to check on her, and the kid's really wailing.  She picks her
up, and that gets the little guy crying, so she picks him up too.  Now
she's got two squalling kids in her arms as the Fischers come in the
door.  She's about to explain that they just then woke up when both
kids disappear and the parents too.  Morn and Dad, poof, clothes in a
pile right where they stood.  The babies, gone with their pj's draped
over Shelly's arms.

"Tell you the truth, it would have scared me to death, Vicki, but I
wish I'd have seen it.  Well, you know Shelly.  She can't let it go.

She's playing it over and over in her mind.  I saw her the next
afternoon, wandering through the trailer park, not saying a word to
anybody.  "

"I saw her late that morning," Vicki said.

"Same thing."

"I finally got her to tell me.  Now every body knows and nobody talks
to her, figuring she doesn't want to talk about it.  Which is true.
But I think she feels like it was her fault somehow."

"Where you headed, Ioyce?"

"Health.  Next door here."

"You know what happened, don't you?"

"The disappearances?  Sure.  Jesus came back.  What else?  It's not
like we haven't heard that all our lives."

"You believe that?"

"Sure, don't you?"

"Well, yeah," Vicki said, "but I didn't know you did."

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna get saved or anything.  But look who went
and who was left.  Your mom and dad, right?  And your lit the sister.
But you were left.  So was I. My whole family.  How about Eddie?  Bet
your brother's still around."

"Gone," Vicki said.

"No kiddin'?  Disappeared?"

Vicki nodded.

"That might prove me wrong.  He was no Holy Joe, was he?"

"He became a believer after he got to Mich" -- "See?  I knew it!  What
else could it be, Vick?  Huh?"

"But that doesn't make you want to be a Christian?"

B4

,!

1 Opposition ,!

"No way!  I still think the whole thing sounds wacky."

"Even though you believe it's true?"

"Especially because I believe it's true.  Hey, I know it's true.  If
that was God's idea of how to do things, I want no part of it.  How
about you?"

"I believe it too.  And I plan to be included when Jesus comes back
again."

"Well, good for you, girl.  You're not going to set your sights on me,
are ya?"

"Well, I wish you would" -- "Oh, you are, aren't you?  I'm going to be
a project, just like my mom was to Mrs.  Fischer.  Save your breath.  I
don't need any convincing.  I believe, and I've chosen.  So turn those
Bible guns on somebody else.

Like Shelly.  She'd be perfect.  Gotta go.  "

Psychology was one class Judd had actually enjoyed, and Mr.

Shellenberger was the reason.  He was a tall, fleshy man with a
generous nose and receding, wavy hair.  He had a sonorous voice, a
superior manner, and he loved to bestow his opinions on one and all. 
He was in rare form today.

"OK, class," he began, "listen up.  Parking- lot stickers in the
office, new books in the bookstore--title, if you forgot already, is on
the board.  Now let's do some practical psychology.  Let's vent our
traumas and deepest [ fears for the benefit and enjoyment of all. I'll
/ start.  "

The class chuckled.

"First, is there anyone in here who will turn me into the thought
police if I discuss the religious theory?

Anyone?  No one?  Don't be intimidated.  If you're going to gum up the
school year with an expensive lawsuit, tell me now, and I'll avoid the
subject.  Speak now or forever hold your peace.  Very well, the God
thing:

"lesus didn't come to get the good people and leave the bad.  There are
some who actu ally believe that, you know.  Anyone here want to stake
claim to that view?  Nothing to be ashamed of.  Some very respected
people have fessed up to it.  Come on.

Anyone?  No one?  Mr.  Thompson!  Really?  I thought you acted the
agitator this morning just to get a rise out of our fearless leader.
That was out of character for you, though.  Well, isn't this just too
interesting?  Do you care to discuss it?  "

Judd shrugged.  He was no match for an intellect, a presence, like
Mr.

Shellenberger.  Judd had considered hiding his belief, but he wouldn't
have been able to live with that much cowardice.

"I've already stated my opinion," the teacher said, "so I promise not
to try to shred your belief system.  Tell me, is this new for you?

Apparently it is, because if you had held this belief before, and your
theory is right, you'd have been taken by Jesus too, right?  " Judd
nodded.

"So, who convinced you?  Let me guess.  A parent."

"In a way."

"Hmm.  One that was left or one that was taken?"

"Both were taken."

Mr.  Shellenberger suddenly grew serious, his face grave.  His volume
fell, and he appeared truly different.

"Mr.  Thompson, forgive me if I have offended you.  I meant to ask at
he beginning how many of you lost immediate family members in the
vanish- ings.  Let me back up and do that."

Half a dozen of the thirty kids raised their hands.

"How many lost extended family?"  Eight or ten more raised their
hands.

"How many of you lost people you knew well or cared about?"

Another half dozen or so.

"And how many of you feel almost isolated from this, having lost
virtually no one in your orbit?"

Four kids raised their hands.

"Now then," the teacher continued, his tone still subdued, "regardless
of my personal view of this--which you may be assured I will impart--I
do not take lightly the losses.

Mr.  Thompson, I am sorry for your losses.  Did you lose other family
members?  "

"My brother and sister, twins."  Mr.  Shellenberger stood towering over
the students, his arms folded, a hand under his / chin.

"Mm-hm," he said.

"Religious family?"  Religious was not a word Judd's family used.  But
he knew what the teacher was drivi ing at.  He nodded.

"And you were the only one left behind."

"Right," Judd said.

"It is not surprising at all that you find comfort in ascribing these
losses to something divine.  It has to make you feel better to believe
your family is in heaven with God."

"Somewhat."

"I wouldn't denigrate that.  You will outgrow it, but I'm sure it's of
great benefit to you now.  It may be years before you will be able to
differentiate the very real confidence you feel from the defense
mechanism your mind has provided."

"So I believe because I have to?"

"Excellent.  Exactly.  Don't get me wrong.  Right now this is as real
to you as if it were literally true.  Our perceptions, as I have said
many times, are our realities.  If you perceive I despise you and you
will never succeed in this class, that is reality to you.  If you
believe the opposite, regardless of what you know about me, the
opposite will be real for you."

Judd wondered why he had never detected the silliness of the man's
logic before.

"Let me ask you, Mr.  Thompson, what you now believe is the reason that
your family was taken and you were not?"

"I was never really a believer.  They were."

"Really?  Where did you fall short?"

"I just told you.  I didn't buy into it.  I knew what was being
taught.

When I was younger I was more devout.  "

"But not devout enough?"

"I never actually made the commitment to Christ."

"Mm-hm.  Class, anyone?  We're not arguing here, and I would be loath
to try to talk Mr.  Thompson out of a belief that has to be therapeutic
for him, but someone tell me what he's really feeling now."

"Survivor's remorse," came a low voice from the back.  "just like
soldiers who come back from war."

"Very good," Mr.  Shellenberger said.

"I'm not asking you to concede the point today or even this year, Mr.

Thompson.  But file it away.  Let it work on you a little.  You feel
like the unworthy one, and yet you are the lone survivor."

"That's why I was the survivor!  I was the unworthy one."

"You're asking, " Why me?  "" "I know why."

"OK, very interesting.  Someone else?"  :i A girl raised her hand.

"You were going to i tell us your opinion.

You've said what it was i not, so what was it?  "

"Well, it was not a lot of things.  I don't believe it was space
aliens.  I don't believe an enemy could be so surgical, taking certain
ones apd leaving others.  No doubt it was something cosmic, perhaps
even psychic or metaphysical.  But the result was physical.  I lean
toward the hypothesis of Nicolae Carpa- thia and Dr.  Chaim Rosenzweig
of Israel, who ascribe the phenomenon to some , nuclear reaction.

We have stockpiled so many nuclear weapons that it was only a matter of
time before something in the atmosphere--electricity, energy,
magnetism, something--triggered a reaction.

"I should say this, however.  Admittedly mine is a personal observation
and far from scientific.  But it seems to me that those who were taken,
generally and on the whole, mind you, were of a slightly lower
intellect

than those who were left.  I come from an extremely intelligent and
highly educated mended family.  We lost no blood relatives.  I did lose
colleagues I respected and admired, but in fairness, I have to say they
were not quite the academic equals of those left behind.  I have no
idea what that means.  "

You sure don't, Judd thought.

Vicki's Battle

VIe's first-period class met in the gym normally used for volleyball
practice.  The girls sat on the floor and got the standard
announcements about books, parking permits and even gym clothes.

Then her P.

E.

teacher sat on the floor and gathered the class around her.  Mrs.
Waltonen, in her mid forties was thin and dark with short hair and
glasses.

"What do you make of all the children disappearing?"  she said.

"That's the part I can't figure out."

"You can figure out the rest?"  someone said.

"Well, no.  But if this is what a lot of people think it is, why would
all the babies, even unborn babies, and toddlers and little kids be
taken?"

"What do most people think it is?"  a girl asked.

Vicga's first-period class met in the gym normally used for volleyball
practice.  The girls sat on the floor and got the standard
announcements about books, parking permits and even gym clothes.

Then her P.

E.

teacher sat on the floor and gathered the class around her.  Mrs.
Waltonen, in her mid forties was thin and dark with short hair and
glasses.

"What do you make of all the children disappearing."  she said.

"That's the part I can't figure out."

"You can figure out the rest?"  someone said.

"Well, no.  But if this is what a lot of people think it is, why would
all the babies, even unborn babies, and toddlers and little kids be
taken?"

"What do most people think it is?"  a girl asked.

"You know," Mrs.  Waltonen said.

"The subject we aren't supposed to raise."

"Most people think it's that?"  a tiny girl next to Vicki said.

"I

thought that was just a few of the crazies.  I don't think that, and
nobody I know does.  "

"We're not supposed to discuss it, at any rate," Mrs.  Waltonen said.

"Let's just express some feelings."

"I have a question," Vicki said, raising her hand.

Mrs.  Waltonen squinted at her, and Vicki knew the woman was wondering
who she was "Vicki Byrne," Vicki said.

"Urn" -- "Without all the makeup," the teacher said.

"I like the look."

Vicki blushed.

"Thanks."

"Your makeup disappear?"  someone said, and several laughed.

"What's your question, Vicki?"

"If you think most people think what happened was what you said, why
can't we talk about it?"

Mrs.  Waltonen shook her head and sighed.

"You heard what I heard.  I don't know.  Seems nothing should be
off-limits now.  We have the freedom to talk about everything else
under the sun, including stuff I never thought I'd hear in public, but
not God.  No way.  ,t " Then don't!  " someone called out.

"If I hear another person say they think Jesus did this, I'm gonna
croak!"

"All right," Mrs.  Waltonen said.

"Let's move on."  She asked for a show of hands for i those who had
lost family members and so on.  Someone asked, "Did you lose anyone?"
Mrs.  Waltonen pressed her lips together.

"I'm, ah, trying to get through this right now," she said, her voice
quavering.

"We lost a grandchild."

" To Vicki it seemed the groan of pain and sympathy came from the whole
class.

"How old?"

"A baby.  Not six months."

"That's awful."

"We miss her terribly.  Her father, my son- in-law, also disappeared.

And we lost my husband's sister and her whole family, her husband and
three kids.  "

"No way God did that," a girl said.  Several others nodded and grunted
in agreement.  Vicki wanted to scream.  Instead, she asked, "Anything
different about your sister-in-law and her family?  Any clues why
them?"

:!

"Well, see, I can't talk about that without getting in trouble."

"Talk about it!"  a girl hollered.

"We won't tell."

"No!"  someone else said.

"We're not supposed to, so let's not!"

Vicki turned to see who had said that, and while she couldn't tell,
from the looks on the faces behind her, it could have been anyone. 
They were angry.  In the back she saw a few confused, sorrowful
faces.

Wasn't this just a little too obvious?  The one explanation that made
sense, that most people were aware of, that many had been warned about,
was the one they were not allowed to discuss.  And why?  Because of the
separation of church and state?  Vicki suddenly felt very old.

Like Judd, she found herself bolder than she had ever been.  She had
been so lazy and lackadaisical in gym class that she usually skipped it
or sat out, making up a litany of complaints, illnesses, and injuries.
She had never responded to Mrs.

Wahonen or to any other teachers.  It just hadn't been her style.

NoW Vicki felt like an agitator.  A rebel for another cause.  She had
been against the status quo before.  But now she was for something.

"If we're not going to talk about what

obviously is the truth about what happened," she said, " let's hear
some other explanation.  "

That started it.  Angry words were tossed about, several girls raising
their voices.

"You believe it was God?"  several said.

"Where've you been?  And why are you still here?"

Finally Mrs.  Waltonen calmed them.

"Vicki is right," she said.

"Let's hear what others think happened."

Silence.

"Surely someone has an opinion."

A soft-spoken girl in the back said, "Who could ever know?  I mean,
really.  Certain people disappeared; others didn't.  Some in the same
family.  Almost as many women and men, but all babies and young
children.  I know a twelve-year-old who is still here, and a friend of
mine said she knows a ten-year- old, but I don't know.  These kids'
mothers are wailing all over the place.  This is like the worst horror
movie you could ever see."

"Yeah, but we're in this one."

"Yeah."

"Personally," a girl sitting by herself said, "I think it was some big
science experiment that went bad."

"That could be."

"Yeah, I never thought of that."

"Right, like a scientist figured out how to beam stuff like in the old
Star Trek movies,

only he beamed the wrong people and can't bring them back.  "

"I think they're coming back," one said.

"You do?  Why.?"  "I have to.  I'd go nuts otherwise.  If I lost
somebody in a wreck or I knew they died of some disease, that would be
one thing.  But these people didn't die.  At least I hope they
didn't."

"Some people died."

"Not the ones who disappeared, just people who, like, got run over
because of some one else disappearing."

' "You don't know the ones who disappeared are still alive."

"I do," Vicki said.

"You can't know that!"

"Fine, but I do."

"You might believe it, Vicki, but you can't know."

"Then why do I know?"

"You don't.  You just think you know."

"If my granddaughter is alive," Mrs.  Walton en said, "I'd like to know
that.  I agree you can't really know, Vicki.  But tell me why you think
so, and tell me where you think she is."

Vicki looked around.  It seemed people were actually curious.

"But isn't somebody going to get me in trouble with the church , state
police?.  I guess my freedom of speech goes only so far."

"So you think Mrs.  Waltonen's baby is in heaven with Jesus."

:!

"I know she is."

"You can't know that!  And if you did, you'd be there too!"

"If I had known in advance, I would be, yes.  With my parents and my
brother and sister

"Whoop, there it is!"  a girl cried out.

"You lost your family, so you've got to come up with some nice
explanation.  That's all right.

You're entitled.  No offense to Mrs.  Waltonen, but you two can believe
whatever you want so you feel better about who you lost.  That's all.

I'd like to know where the girls are who aren't here today.  What about
that fat girl who was such a good athlete?  And those twins nobody
could stand?  And that girl with the bad face and the"-- " All right,"
Mrs.  Waltonen said, " I think that's enough detail.  I have a list
here of the girls in the class who are known to have disappeared in the
vanishings.  The ones you mentioned are included, yes.

Mary Alice-you know her?  She's out sick today.  And Francis also
disappeared.  There are two others, Barb and Sue, who are assumed to
have disappeared.  "

The girls sat silently for a moment, a few weeping.  Finally someone
said, "Do you hear how this sounds?  We're sitting here talking about
people we knew disappearing."

And no one, Vicki thought, seems to want to face the truth.  As wild as
the truth seemed, it sure made more sense than the crazy ideas she'd
heard, i "Is there anybody else who believes this J was the rapture of
the church?"  Vicki blurted, and she scanned the group.

It seemed everyone responded at once, waving her off, groaning, saying
no.  But she ii saw the look of hope on the teacher's face, and a
couple of girls at the edge of the group i just looked sadly at her.

H "Stop talking about it!  came a voice over i the din.

"We were told not to, so don't!  i You're pushing your personal
religious ii beliefs on us, and that's wrong!"  Vicki was mad.

"I don't accuse you of forcing your beliefs on me when you tell me it
was aliens or Star Trek scientists.  Don't you have a brain?  Can't you
think for yourself?.  Do you need to hide behind some rule about the
separation of church and state, so you don't hear something that might
mess up your mind?"

"Vicki!"  Mrs.  Waltonen said.

"That's enough."

"Can I ask about the separation thing then?"  Vicki said.

"It depends."

"It's just a question about the history of it.  Where did it come
from?"

"I've heard different theories," Mrs.  Walton en said.

"I know it's not in the Constitution but I believe it came from those
who wanted to protect citizens from having their religious freedom
threatened by the government One of our freedoms is the right to
believe and to worship without the government telling us what church we
have to belong to."

"That's what I thought," Vicki said, knowing she had heard something
about this, maybe from her dad, whom she had ignored.

"So when did it get turned around to protect the government from
religion?"

"I'm sorry?"

"You said the separation of church and state was designed to keep the
government out of the church.  Now it's used to keep the church out of
the government."

Mrs.  Waltonen raised her eyebrows, but several girls said things like,
"That's the way it should be!"

"Even if it was a law, which it's not," Vicki said, "it would be no
good if it violated the

right to free speech.  I have the freedom to say whatever I want,
except here.  "

"Good!"

"Yeah, shut up!"

"Let her talk!"

"She's talked enough!  And when did she start talking anyway?  I don't
even remember her from this class!"

"You do too!  That's Vicki Byrne!"

"Well, when did she start caring about any thing?"

"What's happening to us?"  someone said, tears in her voice.

"I thought we were sup posed to discuss this to start coming to some
closure."

"Glosure?  You sound like a talk-show host!  How are we going to have
closure on something like this?"

"That's right," Vicki said, "especially when certain theories are out
of bounds?"

The bell rang, and the gym quickly emptied, but Vicki noticed that Mrs.
Waltonen was gazing at her.  When Vicki returned the glance, the
teacher said nothing but did not look away.  Vicki felt as if Mrs.

Waltonen was trying to communicate something to her-exactly what, she
did not know.  The quiet girls in the back were also some of the last
to leave, and they peeked at her too.

Was there something here, some core of a group that might agree with
her or at least be willing to listen?

Vicki decided to spend the rest of the day bringing these issues up in
every class.  Maybe she wouldn't be as aggressive as she had been in
gym class, but she would say enough to get people arguing about freedom
of speech and whether God had anything to do with the disappearances.
Somehow she would get an inkling of how many believers or potential
believers there were at this school.

Vicki didn't want one more person to die before she at least had the
chance to tell them what she believed.

The Big Idea

ON the way to his last class before lunch, Judd saw the two senior boys
whose Bibles had been confiscated during the assembly.  One was tall
and blond, the other stockier and dark-haired.  He didn't know their
names, but if his memory was right, they were smart kids--science club,
honor roll types.

"Hey," he said, approaching them, "are you believers?"

They looked wary.

"Why?  Are you?"  He had to take the chance.

"I am."

"How do we know you're not playing us, trying to get us in trouble?"
the blond said.

"You don't."

"Well," Dark Hair said, "how did you become a believer?"

"Lost my family," Judd said.

"I knew the truth all along."

"Then you should know what Christians are called during this period."

"You mean tribulation saints?"

The two looked at each other and smiled.  They extended their hands.

"John," the blond said.

"Mark," the other said.

"You're kidding, right?"  Judd said.

"John and Mark?"

"We're cousins."

"But I meanw" "We know what you mean.  Yeah, we were named after the
disciples.

Churchgoers all our lives.  We lost everybody in our family except one
aunt.  We're living with her and going to a church in Arlington
Heights.  What's your story?  "

Judd ran it down quickly.  Then, "Gotta go, but let's talk again.  We
should get our church groups together sometime."

"That's for sure," John said.

"Especially if they're not going to even let us carry our Bibles to
school.  Coach Handlesman said we might not even get them back."

"What?  You're kidding!"  They shook their heads.

"Are we going to be in a police state or what?"  Judd said.

"It's like martial law," Mark said.

Judd waved as he headed toward Current History.

"See ya tomorrow."

"Yeah," John called after him, "if we're still free men."

"Not funny, John!"  came the gruff voice of Coach Handlesman.

Judd began to wonder if he and Vicki, and even John and Mark, should be
more covert and lie low.  It was one thing to be a bold witness, but if
they got kicked out or were known as dangerous people to be seen with,
what good would they be?

His history teacher, an old spinster named Miss June, looked as if she
had been through a war.  Normally tidy and fastidious, today she looked
disheveled.  Her shoes were scuffed, her blouse wrinkled, her hair
pinned in place without much thought.  Her fingers trembled, and she
sat behind her desk rather than standing as usual.

"Well, class, I have been through some things in my day, but I never
would have [ dreamed that hearing everyone's stories would have been
nearly as traumatic as experiencing this tragedy one's self.  I'm
wondering if you might agree that we have had enough talk on this
subject by now, and perhaps we can talk about the rest of the quarter."
No one said anything.

"All right then?"  she said.

"tim, no," a boy said from the back row.

 "What's to talk about?  You're going to streamline the course because
of the time we missed, and we'll start getting assignments tomorrow.
What else is there?"

"We could talk about what we're going to be studying," she said.  i "We
already know that.  Current History is current history.  Let's talk
about who's not f coming back to this class."  ( Miss June pursed her
lips and gave the boy a disgusted look.  She studied her attendance
printout, but when she began announcing , the names of seven students
who were either confirmed disappeared (four), whereabouts ?  unknown
unknown (one), and ill (two), her voice broke.  Soon she could not
continue, i "What in the world is wrong, Miss June?"  a i girl said.

"How many people did you lose?"  ]l But she could not speak.  She just
pressed a hand to her mouth and shook her head.

"This I've got to hear," the boy behind Judd said, and Judd glared at
him.

"Give her a break," he said.

"If you didn't [ lose anybody, at least be sensitive to those of us who
did."

The boy pantomimed as if playing a violin.

"Can we talk about it among ourselves?"  a girl said.  Miss June
nodded.

"Because I know it wasn't a religious thing."

"We're not supposed to talk about that!"

"Oh, who's going to stop us?"  the girl said.

"Anyway, I'm saying it wasn't that.  How can they have a problem with
that?"

Judd's resolve to keep quiet disappeared.

"You know it wasn't a religious thing?"  he said.

"That's right," she said.

"Not one person in my church disappeared.  So what does that tell
you?"

"That you don't believe in Jesus!"  a husky guy in the back called out,
and several laughed, including him.

"But we do!"  she said.

"We all do!  We believe in all the sons of God."

"What does that mean?"

"We're not supposed to be" -- "Put a sock in it!  I want to know what
her church believes!"

"We believe that everybody's a son of God, like Jesus.  Buddha,
Confucius, Muhammad, Jesus, all the great moral leaders and great
teachers."

Judd said, "So you believe Jesus is a son of God but not the Son of
God."

"Not the only one, no.  We're all children of God."

"So Jesus isn't God."

"Of course not, silly.  God is God.  There is only one God."

"So you don't believe the Bible."

1Qg

"Of course we do.  We accept all the sacred writings."

"Like what?"

"The Bible, the Torah, the Talmud, the" -- "And they all say that Jesus
is God and is the only way to God?"  Judd said.

"No!  None of them say that!  God is not the exclusive property of
Christianity.  There are many roads to God."

"The Bible says Jesus is God and that he's the only way to God."

"I don't believe that."

"That it's true or that the Bible says it?"

"Either one!"

"Then that's why you're still here."

"Oh!"  someone shouted.

"He burned you!  But he's still here too, ain't he?"

"That's enough," Miss June said, rising and wiping her nose.

"This is the very reason we're not to be getting into this aspect of
it.  Now if you're going to insist on discussing this, let's keep it
nonsectarian."

"What does that mean?"

"Keep religion out of it, especially specific ones."

"Yeah," someone said, "like those ones where everyone was left
behind!"

Miss June was weeping again.

"I don't see any humor in this!  Aren't you people the least bit
scared?  I'm terrified!  I can make no

 sense of this, and there seems no recourse.  If someone would come
forward and take k credit for it, make some demands, tell how he or she
did it, we could get our minds , around it.  But this.  " this.."
crazy, unexplainable mystery!  Every morning I wake up and pray it was
a dream, that it will end, that it will all be made plain.  Talk about
it, kids.  Talk about how it made you feel.  " That served to silence
the class.  It was clear they didn't want to talk about it.  Judd
glanced around.  The kids were somber again.  No wisecracks.

"It scared me to death," he said.

"I was on an airplane when it happened."

The classroom was deathly still as Judd , spoke.

"The guy next to me disappeared L while I was dozing.  He was a big,
heavy guy, and I couldn't figure out at first how he could have climbed
over me without waking [ me.  Then I saw his clothes there in a pile.

1 Everybody else was discovering people missing at the same time.  What
a mess!  I'm amazed there wasn't more panic.  People thought their
seatmates had gone to the bathroom, but too many were gone, and what
was a" e " es shoes and jewelry and glasses?  "

Judd told how he had lost his whole immediate family, but he said
nothing about how he knew what had happened.  He just

warned to get kids talking, trying to find out who leaned his way and
who might already be a believer.  His own high school had already been
named after the Antichrist, and he knew he and Vicki were going to need
all the friends they could get.

At lunchtime Judd looked for Vicki.  Juniors and freshmen shared the
cafeteria, but he had not known her before and had no idea where she
sat.  He finally spotted her in a corner with a bunch of girls who
looked the way Vicki described herself before the Rapture.  They must
have been friends from her trailer park.

Judd wanted to talk with her, but he didn't want to barge in either.

He sat near their table and heard some of the conversation.  The girls
were telling Vicki they missed her and wondered what had happened to
her.

"I've been hammered every night since," one I said.

"How else do you cope with something / like this.Z"

A heavyset girl sitting next to Vicki said, t "Apparently you change
your life and get preppy all of a sudden."  (

The others smiled.  Vicki didn't.

"I lost my !] whole family, you know," she said.

"You lost your mind too," the girl said.

"Look at you."  Judd decided it was time to give Vicki an

out.  He walked past her table so she could see him.  If she didn't
want to acknowledge him, that was all right too.  Maybe she didn't want
to confirm that she even ran with a crowd that looked like him.  That
would make her transformation too complete.

Vicki was thrilled to see Judd, 1nd she jumped at the chance to escape.
"Judd!"  she said.

"Can I sit with you?  We need to talk."

"Sure."

"What'sa matter?"  a girl said.

"We're not good enough for you anymore?"

"I'm not good enough for you anymore," Vicki said.

"Since I'm wearing borrowed clothes and they don't look like yours"
"They look like somebody's mother's clothes," the big girl said, but
Vicki didn't respond.  She and Judd took their trays out side.

"There's a reason these look like someone's mother's clothes," she
whispered.

He nodded.  They brought each other up to date on their mornings.

"This is going to be hard, isn't it?"  he said.

"You're telling me.  But, Judd, I just feel like this is where we're
supposed to be, doing what we're meant to be doing."

"Out loud or in secret?  Sounds like neither of us got very far by
being open."

"I found a few people I think might be with us, and those two seniors"
-- "John and Mark," Judd said.

"Yeah.  We've got to stick together somehow."

"We need more people.  We can't just be a secret, private club.  We've
got to do something."

"I've been thinking about that, Judd," Vicki said.

"I think there's something we can do."

"That won't get us kicked out of Nicolae High?"

"If we do it right.  Your computer is the latest thing, right?"

"There's not much it can't do."

"Including publishing?"

"Desktop publishing?

"Course.  It was made for that."

Vicki started gathering up her stuff.

"Walk with me," she said as she took her tray inside.

"And let's talk to Lionel and Ryan about this when we get home."

"About what?"

"An underground newspaper.  We'll have to think of a good title for it,
but it will tell people's stories without giving away their identifies.
We can use lots of prophecy and stuff from Bruce, and we can just leave
piles of them around where anyone can get them.  They don't have to be
long, but we have to

keep them coming.  If Bruce is right and we can put a few predictions
in there that actually come true, kids will want these.  Who knows how
many kids might become believers?  "

Judd slid his tray onto the retrieval rack and stood back, looking at
Vicki.  "y didn't I think of that?"  he said.

"You like the idea?"

I "It's ) perfect!"

i "That's another thing we need more of in the Young Trib Force," she
said.

"I "

What," he said, " more perfect ideas?  " :i " I was thinking of more
women," she said.

"Same thing."

[ iiI

"I

1,

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jerry B. Jenkins (www.  jerry jenkins com) is the author of more than
one hundred books.  The former vice president for publishing for the
Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, he also served many years as editor
of Moody magazine.  His writing has appeared in a variety of
publications, including Reader's Digest, Parade, inflight magazines,
and many Christian periodicals.  He writes books in four genres:
biographies, marriage and family, fiction for children, and fictiofi
for adults.

Jenkins's biographies.  include books with Hank Aaron, Bill Gaither,
Luis Palau, Walter Payton, Orel Hershiser, Nolan Ryan, Brett Butler,
and Billy Graham, among many others.  The Hershiser, Ryan, and Graham
books reached the New York Times best-sellers list.

Five of his apocalyptic novels, co authored with Tim LaHaye, Left
Behind, Tribulation Force, Nicolae, Soul Harvest, and Apollyon, have
appeared on the Christian Book sellers Association's best-selling
fiction list and the Publishers Weekly religion best-sellers list.

Left Behind was nominated for Novel of the Year by the Evangelical
Christian Publishers Association in both 1997 and 1998.

As a marriage and family author and speaker, Jenkins has been a
frequent guest on Dr.  lames Dobson's Focus on the Family radio
program.

ferry is also the writer of the nationally syndicated sports story
comic strip Gil Thorp, distributed to newspapers across the United
States by Tribune Media Services.

Jerry and Dianna and their sons live in northeastern Illinois and in
Colorado.

Speaking engagement bookings available through speaking@jerryjenkins.
com.

 Dr.  Tim LaHaye is a noted author, minister, counselor, television
commentator, and nationally recognized speaker on family life and Bible
prophecy.  He is the founder and president of Family Life Seminars and
the founder of The PreT rib Research Center.  Presently Dr.  LaHaye
speaks at many of the major Bible prophecy conferences in the H.

S.

and Canada, where his seven current prophecy books are very popular.
Dr.  LaHaye is a graduate of Bob Jones University and holds an MA.  and
Doctor of Ministry degree from Western Conservative Theological
Seminary.  For twenty-five years he pa stored one of the nation's
outstanding churches in San Diego, which grew to three locations.  It
was during that time that he founded two accredited Christian high
schools, a Christian school system often schools, and Christian
Heritage College.  :. Dr.  LaHaye has written over forty nonfiction
books, with over eleven million copies in print in thirty-two
languages.  He has written books on a wide variety of subjects, such as
family life, temperaments, and Bible prophecy.  His current fiction
works written with Jerry

Jenkins, Left Behind, Tribulation Force, Nicolae, Soul Harvest, and
Apollyon have all reached number one on the Christian best-seller
charts.  Other works by Dr.  LaHaye are Spirit-Controlled Temperament;
How to Be Happy though Married; Revelation, Illustrated and Made Plain;
and the youth fiction series, Left Behind: The Kids.  I He is the
husband of Beverly LaHaye, founder of Concerned Women for America.
Together they have i four children and nine grandchildren.  Snow
skiing, waterskiing, motorcycling, golfing, vacationing with family,
and jogging are among his leisure activities.