by Mark Goodwin
“Try to attach this flashlight to the barrel of my rifle. Duct tape would have been the best option, but we’re fresh out of that.” Emilio tightened the zip ties as securely as he could. He hoped that the light wouldn’t go flying off as soon as he pulled the trigger. After applying his best effort, he pointed the light with the barrel of the gun between the tree trunks. “Come on. Stay close.”
She followed him through the trees. “Did you see something?”
“Shhhh.” He crept softly around a heavy hardwood. Suddenly, he popped around and directed the light at a large mass in the darkness. He sighed.
“What is it?” Mackenzie stood with her weapon ready.
Emilio lowered the barrel of the gun. “Just a fallen tree. There’s nothing out here. Are you sure you saw something? Maybe you dreamed it. You had to be sleeping pretty hard.”
“No! I didn’t dream it!” she insisted.
Just then, the sky lit up with an ominous glow. “Get down!” Emilio ducked down behind the fallen tree, thinking the light must be from a helicopter even though he heard nothing.
Mackenzie shielded herself behind the tree also. The two of them looked up to see a bright ball of fire ripping through the low dark haze in the sky. It lit up the smoky murk hanging above the earth. The object flashed brighter then seemed to burn out.
“Was that an asteroid?” she asked.
“Yeah. Biggest one I’ve ever seen.” Emilio stood up to stare in the direction where the falling star had disappeared.
“Did it burn up before it hit the ground?” Mackenzie looked with eyes wide open.
Emilio was amazed. “I don’t know. I suppose we would have felt the impact if it would have hit. I guess we solved the case of the mysterious light.”
She looked up at the darkness. “If it happened twice, it can happen again.”
Emilio nodded. “I know. But on the bright side, I think the odds of getting hit by a comet are relatively low.”
“Unless you believe the Bible, then it’s pretty much a guaranteed fact.”
He frowned. “Is that the next judgment?”
“I’m not sure. I can’t remember all the sequences, but Dad used to talk about the stars falling from the sky and then a separate event. Wormwood I think he said. Maybe the stars falling from the sky go along with the earthquake.”
Emilio tried to remember Josh’s Bible studies at the compound. He wished he’d paid closer attention. But for that matter, he wished he’d not been left behind. “Yeah, sounds familiar. Maybe the sky turning to darkness was part of that one also.”
“So what are we going to do?” Mackenzie asked.
Emilio walked toward the tent. “I’m going to try to go back to sleep. If an asteroid is going to hit us, it’s not like we’ll be able to outrun it anyway.”
She followed him. “No way. I can’t fall asleep knowing this is going on.”
“You should try.” He pulled off his boots before returning inside the tent. “We’ve got a long trip ahead of us. You’ve been through a lot over the past twenty-four hours.”
Emilio got back into the sleeping bag and closed his eyes. He listened as Mackenzie came back inside. He heard her every move as she sat on her sleeping bag. She was restless and didn’t seem to be able to sit still.
Emilio tried to tune out the noise and the thoughts of impending doom, of being instantly incinerated by a colossal falling star. He tossed and turned. Finally, he felt comfortable. He could feel himself drifting off once more. But just at that moment, light flooded the tent—so brightly that he could see it through his eyelids. He sat up feeling anxious and worried. He looked at Mackenzie who was on the verge of crying.
Quickly, he scurried out of the bag and through the tent door. Still in his socks, he watched another fireball as brilliant as lightning streaming right over his head. Like the last one, it flashed, creating such a deluge of light that he had to turn away. It disappeared over the horizon. Seconds later, he felt the ground under his feet rumble, as if thunder were coming from below the earth.
“That one hit,” said Mackenzie in a worried tone.
Emilio shook his head. “It’s like we’re being bombarded with missiles from Heaven.”
The two stood silent and motionless for several minutes, waiting for the next assault. Emilio felt tired. He sat down at the mouth of the tent. Mackenzie crawled back inside.
Emilio broke the silence. “What you said about how awful it is to be left behind, do you wish you had a second chance?”
She was quiet for a while before answering. “You mean like go back in time? Repent and all of that?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s a moot point,” she replied.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it took all of this to make me accept the prophecies as fact.”
“What about now?”
“What about it?”
“Did you repent? Did you tell God that you’re sorry?”
She was silent once more.
After waiting several minutes with no response, Emilio said, “I did.”
“Good,” she replied. “You should. That’s a logical response.”
“Then why haven’t you?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Why did you wait for the rapture before you committed?”
“I guess this is what it took,” he said.
She huffed. “I don’t know. It’s not a simple answer for me. I guess I’m angry over being wrong.” She paused for a while. “I feel like such a fool. I mean, everything I believed was wrong. And I was so passionate about it, dedicated to my convictions, you know?”
He asked, “So, are you angry at God because you fell for the lie? I don’t think I understand what’s holding you back.”
“I suppose that would be idiotic, to blame God.” She exhaled a breath of frustration. “Maybe I’m angry at myself. I was just so invested, you know?”
“I hear you, but if you’re determined to keep chasing losers, you should see if anyone still has any Enron stock to sell. The consequences would be much less severe.”
“What are you, an evangelist now?”
“No. But the reality is, even if the earth has another three-and-a-half years, you might not. The next asteroid could land on this tent. Even if it doesn’t, we’ve got a long dangerous road ahead of us.”
She shook her head slowly. “I’m just not ready. I’m still processing all of this.”
Another meteor lit up the sky. Emilio stood up to watch it blaze down from the heavens. Mackenzie stuck her head out of the tent. The object flared and seemed to burn out before impact. They felt no rumble as they had before.
Mackenzie said, “We’re never going to get back to sleep.”
Emilio watched the sky. “No. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”
***
Despite the regular bombardment of falling stars, some resulting in a shaking of the earth, Emilio managed to eventually drift off to sleep. One such rattling from the impact of an asteroid woke him up. He felt moderately rested. Of course, he could have done with several more hours of rest, but the limited amount of slumber was better than nothing. The light coming through the tent walls seemed similar to predawn twilight. He checked the phone to see the time. “It’s 10:00 in the morning! No way! We must have slept more than I thought.”
Mackenzie rolled over in her sleeping bag, roused by Emilio’s comment. “What’s that?”
“It’s morning, but still dark outside.” He unzipped the tent door and crawled out. The low hanging smog overhead was dimly illuminated, like light shining through a lens covered in mud. The sky was brown with hues of burnt orange.
Mackenzie came out. She stretched out the stiffness. Her voice was raspy. “Looks like sackcloth.”
Emilio recalled hearing Josh talk about such a phenomenon. “Have you ever seen sackcloth?”
“No. But this is what I always imagined it would look like.” She crawled back in the tent and began rolling up her sleeping ba
g.
Emilio also packed his belongings. “We need to eat and get on the road as soon as possible. If the sky doesn’t clear up, we won’t have much light to travel by. It could be pitch dark by 5:00 PM.”
Mackenzie ate a granola bar from the gas station while she stowed her belongings in her backpack. “So much for a four-day trip to Kentucky. At this rate, it’s going to take us a week.”
Emilio hoped that they could make it at all. He tossed his pack out of the tent and began breaking down the support poles. Mackenzie assisted him. “I’m guessing the fires from the meteors are causing the haze.”
“I don’t know,” said Emilio. “The smog set in before we saw the first fireball.”
“We need a radio.” She rolled up the tent.
Emilio helped to put the broken-down tent into the zip-up pouch. “I’m not sure it would do much good. Maybe we could find a public information station that’s running on a generator.”
“Lucius Alexander knew these events would occur. He has a plan to keep communications going. It’s imperative that he controls the narrative. He’s got a means of broadcasting. You can count on that.” Mackenzie carried her shotgun and backpack toward the fence.
“You’re probably right.” Emilio walked beside her with his bike. “We’ll break for lunch at an abandoned vehicle where we can scan the stations.”
The two made quick work of loading up and getting on the road. The dim light meant that they had to ride even slower to watch out for fissures in the pavement.
CHAPTER 6
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
Isaiah 60:2
Emilio pushed the bike down a severely damaged section of an off-ramp. He checked the time on the phone. The battery was running low. “Two o’clock. We can take a short lunch break after we get around the collapsed overpass.”
Mackenzie guided her bike next to Emilio. “The damage just keeps going and going. The roads will probably be like this the entire way. It’s going to take us a lot longer than we thought to get to the cave.”
Emilio replied, “I just hope it’s not all for nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m saying, we could get there and the entrance could be completely blocked by fallen debris.”
“Then we’ll dig it out. That cave is chock full of supplies. Food, ammo, clothes, everything we need to ride out the next four years.”
“Four? Josh said three-and-a-half!”
“According to my dad, the clock started in September, three years ago, when Lucius Alexander cut the Global Union treaty with all the member nations.”
“So where did Josh get three and a half years? From what I understood, your dad is the one who sort of opened Josh’s eyes to all of this stuff.”
She kept her eyes forward as they navigated down the annihilated pavement in the dim light. “The three and a half years starts when Alexander breaks the treaty.”
“For someone who didn’t believe in all of this stuff, you sure paid close attention to the details. Do you remember the chapters and verses so we can look all this stuff up for ourselves when we get a copy of the Bible?”
“I wish. I didn’t pay that much attention.” She sighed. “I suppose deep down, I knew he was right. Or, I was making a mental note of everything, to test what he was saying. But you know how he was. He said everything with such conviction, you couldn’t help but listen…even if you were diametrically opposed to it.”
“Yep, Rev could be very convincing,” said Emilio.
“We only had about three weeks together from the time I got back from Berkeley until the time he died from the virus.” Her voice sounded sad. “But he talked a lot about the last days during that period. It was like he knew I was going to be left behind. I wish we could have been together longer.”
“You can make up for lost time when you get to heaven.” Emilio looked at her with the center of his eyebrows arched up. “If you’ll get with the program, that is.”
She bit her lip. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what?”
“If I can let it go.”
“You’re still not making any sense.”
“Can we talk about something else?” She huffed as if belabored by the conversation.
“Sure. I’ll drop the subject.” Emilio had to lift his bike up over a section of asphalt which was stood upright like the headstone of a grave.
Mackenzie also navigated around the obstruction. “I know you’re only trying to help. I suppose I need to forgive myself, for being duped. But it’s going to take some time.”
“Okay, this is the last I’m going to say about this, but I feel something inside me pushing me to point out the obvious. Imagine how angry you’ll feel toward yourself if you get taken out before you have a chance to work all this stuff out in your head. What if you die and go to hell? You’ll have an eternity filled with regret, knowing that the truth had been revealed to you and you still didn’t take action. My recommendation is to get right with God while you still have breath in your lungs. Then, you’ll be free to pontificate over all the grievances that you have with yourself.
“Being Rev’s daughter, I’m sure you’ve heard over and over, all about how all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. How the wages of sin is death…”
She finished the verse for him, “… but the gift of God is eternal life. Yes, I know all of that. Seems like you were taking notes in Sunday school also. ”
“Josh must have told me those verses a hundred times.” He stopped walking. “Do you want me to pray with you or something?”
She shook her head. “No. That’s something I need to do by myself.”
“Do you want to do it now? I’ll watch the gear. You can take a walk if you want. Get on your knees, whatever you feel like you need to do.”
“No thanks. But I’m going to do it. Soon. Thanks for your concern.” She kept walking down the ramp.
Emilio felt a sense of urgency over the matter and was deeply troubled that Mackenzie didn’t. The two of them continued around the ruins of the overpass and then pushed the bikes back up the next on-ramp.
Once back on I-65, Emilio scanned the area for threats. “I saw a group of people down on the road. They looked like they might be heading toward the interstate. This is a good stretch of road. We should be able to pedal the bikes and get out of the area. Are you okay with postponing lunch for a few more miles?”
Mackenzie mounted her bike. “Sure.”
The two of them made good time for the next five miles. Emilio saw another of the common multi-vehicle pile-ups which had occurred when the driver of the front car had slammed on the brakes to avoid a massive fissure in the pavement. “This looks like a good spot. We’ve got several vehicles to choose from.”
Mackenzie stopped short of the large crevice in the asphalt. She got off the bike and put up the kickstand. The two of them began checking doors.
“Locked.” Emilio tried the handle of a red pickup.
“What about that big rig?” Mackenzie pointed to an overturned eighteen-wheeler.
“It’s sideways. Too difficult to climb up and get into the cab.”
She pointed to a black Dodge Dart. The driver was still behind the wheel and the glass was broken out of the window. “We can get in that one. And I’m sure the keys are in it.”
Emilio frowned. “This is supposed to be a lunch break. I don’t want to eat in a car with a corpse.”
She dropped her pack to the ground and stretched her back. “The problem is, any vehicle where there isn’t a dead body, the owners locked up and took the keys before they left. Unless…”
“What? Tell me!” Emilio was anxious to get the radio information, eat lunch, and get back on the road before it got dark.
“Unless we check those cars that look like they just drifted off the side of the road by themselves.”
>
Emilio looked to the shoulder of the road at an older-model faded-silver Mercury which had hit a tree and come to a stop. “Why? What’s the difference?”
She started toward the old car with the weathered paint. “That may be a vehicle where the owner was raptured.”
“Leaving the keys in the ignition.” Emilio quickly followed her.
Mackenzie got closer to the car. She ran her finger across the edge of the trunk. “Adhesive residue from one of those fish stickers. I think this might be our car.”
“Yeah, I’m sure Carl Jacobs had one of those on his car, too.”
“Maybe at some point. But he probably covered it up with a coexist sticker.” She checked the handle. “Locked.”
Emilio looked inside. “Keys are in the ignition.” He took his rifle off of his shoulder and slammed the butt against the back door window. Once the glass was busted out, he reached through and unlocked the doors. The radio was playing static.
Mackenzie opened the passenger’s side door. “I can’t believe the battery isn’t dead.”
Emilio got into the driver’s seat. He looked at the gas gauge pointing to the letter E. “The engine could have been idling for hours after the car stopped moving. Besides that, the radio is a relatively low-drain device, compared to something like headlights.” Emilio scrolled through the stations.
“More static,” said Mackenzie.
Emilio switched over to AM. He continued searching the frequencies. “I got something.”
“…damage to the Globalplex in San Francisco was minimal, thanks to advanced building technologies. However, the metropolitan areas surrounding the Globalplex were nearly obliterated.
“Secretary-General Alexander issued a statement this morning saying that he will be relocating the GU headquarters to Jerusalem which suffered much less catastrophic damage compared to other GU cities.
“The governing council will be sharing the Ministry of Religion’s Jerusalem facilities for the time being. The newly constructed Ministry of Religion campus was built in Gazelle Valley after the demise of the wildlife population in the park caused by the Red Virus. The complex features secure workspaces, dining facilities, temporary living quarters, and meeting halls. In the center of the complex is a temple-like structure that architecturally borrows from several iconic designs such as Solomon’s Temple, the Kaaba, and the Parthenon. This building houses a massive replica of the Omniscience AI quantum computer, named Omniscience 2.0.