by Mark Goodwin
“What do you say, Sox? Do you want to walk down to the creek with me and wash some dishes?”
Sox found a nook between the rocks at the entrance of the cave. The cat worked himself snuggly inside and closed his eyes for a nap.
“That’s what I figured.” Everett peered sideways at the feline. He gathered the breakfast dishes in an empty bucket. Everett pulled the Dutch oven to the side of the grate so the goat meat wouldn’t burn or overcook during his time away. He positioned the second pot containing the goat organs at the other end of the grate.
He picked up the bucket and started down the hill. Once he arrived at the creek, he collected water and washed the dishes in a bucket with a very small amount of soap. He poured the water out, twenty yards away from the creek then refilled the bucket to rinse them. As much of a hassle as washing dishes seemed at present, it would become immeasurably more difficult once winter arrived.
Everett walked back up the hill, pulled the two pots back over the hot coals, found a comfortable position, and continued reading his Bible. Besides the information concerning the end, he desperately needed the faith and strength to endure. And there was no other source to acquire such attributes besides God’s Holy Word.
Two hours later, Courtney and Elijah returned from their excursion.
“How did it go?” Everett closed his Bible.
“Good. We got the seeds in the ground.” Courtney found a seat next to Everett.
Danger sniffed the pot of meat.
“Nope. That one’s ours.” Courtney lifted the top from the pot of organs. She winced as she drew a small bit out with a fork and set it on a rock to cool for the dog. “You get the yucky stuff.”
Everett looked over at Elijah. “How far back have you been in the cave?”
“Not much past the storage corridor.”
“Could you go further if you wanted? Is it accessible?”
“Yes. It gets tight. You’d have to crawl, but it may open back up. I couldn’t say for sure.”
Everett considered Elijah’s answer. “Crawl, like hands and knees or scoot on your belly? Is there room on either side if you wanted to turn around.”
Elijah nodded. “Hands and knees. It’s a low tunnel. Something like a large drainage pipe. Why do you ask?”
Everett shrugged. “Just curious. I’m thinking of doing a little spelunking tonight. We’ve still got plenty of sun. The solar batteries are topped off, so it won’t be too much of a drain to recharge the flashlight batteries. We’re using flashlights in the cave when we’re just sitting around anyway.”
Courtney furrowed her brow. “Be careful, Everett. It sounds dangerous. You don’t want to take any unnecessary risks. We can’t exactly call 911 if you get trapped or injured.”
“I’ll be safe. But I want to find out where the corridor leads.”
The hours passed uneventfully. Sarah and Kevin emerged from the cave in time for dinner, which consisted of stewed goat and rice. No one was very talkative during the meal. A combination of the fine food and all of them being tired made for a quiet atmosphere.
Everett finished his plate. “You guys look well rested.”
Kevin collected the dishes in the bucket. “We are, thanks.”
“I hope we’re able to sleep tonight.” Sarah assisted Kevin with the dishes.
“I don’t expect that you’ll be growing any new legs tonight.” Elijah laughed.
“It was a pleasant surprise, even if it did freak me out a little.” Sarah followed Kevin down the hill to wash the dinner plates and utensils.
Everett checked his flashlight. “Elijah, Courtney, if you two will excuse me, I’m going caving.”
“Why don’t I tail you as far as possible? If you get into trouble, you can call out to me,” Courtney offered.
“Sure. But I don’t intend on going very far if it looks dicey.” Everett made his way through the cave entrance.
Courtney followed him. “Okay, but for my peace of mind, I’m going to tag along.”
“Suit yourself.” Everett began ascending the ladder.
Courtney followed him up to the storage area, past the long corridor where they’d stashed their supplies, and to the place where the corridor became lower and narrower. “This is pretty tight. I think I’m going to hang out here. Give me a yell if you need help.”
Everett crawled on his hands and knees. The top of the tunnel lowered to less than three feet high. He took a deep breath and continued forward for another ten yards. He began to feel claustrophobic in the restrictive space, yet he carried on. The ceiling dropped more, to a height of less than two feet. He called loudly back to Courtney. “This is my limit, any lower and I’m done. I’ll have to back out if the tunnel doesn’t open up soon.”
“Don’t push yourself,” she pleaded from several yards back down the tunnel.
Finally, the tunnel opened up. Everett inched his way out of the slim passageway and out onto a wide flat surface. He stood up and shined his light all around. A massively high domed ceiling stood twenty feet above him. The back wall of the room dropped below the level where he stood. He walked forward, shining his light toward the ground. Ten feet beyond the tunnel, the floor dropped off. He peered over the ledge and looked down, but darkness swallowed the beam of his flashlight. He found a pebble and tossed it over the side. Everett listened as it bounced from wall to wall and fell into the abyss. Finally, he heard the faintest splash. “Water!”
Everett crawled back into the small opening of the tunnel and began his return trip. He called to Courtney. “I’m coming back.”
“What did you find?”
“Water.” He replied.
Everett sat outside of the cave Friday evening as the sun set behind the mountains. He watched the vivid colors, bright oranges, hot pinks, and hues of purple fill the sky. He took Courtney’s hand and held it tight. “I hope this isn’t our last sunset.”
Courtney sighed and looked over at Elijah. “What do you think? Will the next wave start tonight?”
Elijah whittled on a stick with his pocket knife to pass the time. “Who knows?” He picked up a pile of the shavings and tossed them into the fire pit. The hot coals immediately reignited.
Sarah put her hand on Kevin’s leg. “Remind us what Sukkot is again.”
“It is also known as the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles.” The old man did not look up from his stick and his knife. “Sukkot comes from the word sukkah which means hut. Jews build little huts or booths outside and have dinner in them on Sukkot. They do this to commemorate the time they spent in the desert living in temporary shelters while they were on their way to the Promised Land. When they arrived, of course, they constructed permanent residences.”
Elijah looked up at the evening sky, streaked with color. “For you, children of the New Covenant, you might think about the time you’re spending in your temporary dwellings.”
“Yeah, I’ll be happy to get out of this cave and back into a house someday.” Kevin nodded.
Elijah chuckled. “No, no. In Second Corinthians, Paul compares our earthly bodies to tents or temporary shelters. He says when they are destroyed, we will be given new bodies, which he compares to buildings, built by God. These dwellings will be eternal.”
“Hmm.” Kevin looked at Elijah. “That sounds good too.”
Elijah looked back down at the stick he was whittling. “Some scholars believe that Messiah was born on Sukkot. It falls during the time when Romans would typically collect taxes which is where Joseph and Mary were going when Yeshua was born. In an agrarian culture, governments want to get their cut of the goods as soon as the harvests are in.
“Those who hold tight to this reasoning say that it was on the Feast of Tabernacles that God tabernacled with men.”
“A tabernacle is basically a tent.” Courtney squinted as if she were considering the concept. “So, saying God tabernacled with men is essentially saying God went camping with men. I don’t get it.”
Elijah smiled at
her the way a father might look at his child. “Why not? He took on a temporary body, to live among us, to teach us how to walk in his light, to shed his blood in atonement for our sins, to be resurrected, and finally, to ascend back to his permanent home. Given the way he was treated while he was here, it wasn’t much of a camping trip from his perspective. But the time he spent in his earthly tent, it is the difference between eternity in heaven and eternity in hell for you and me.”
Sarah crossed her arms. “One of the men in our survival group, Noah, said something to the effect of thinking the Second Coming of Christ might be during the Feast of Tabernacles. I rarely paid any attention to the Bible studies, at all. But I remember him using that word, tabernacled. Something about God will tabernacle with man. I thought it was odd to hear it used as a verb I guess. But, for whatever reason, it stuck with me.”
“It could be true. Was Noah among those who disappeared?”
Sarah swallowed hard. “Yeah. He was a good man. He had such a beautiful family. Sox belonged to his little girl, Lacy. She was just too cute. I’ve seen combat and been through some pretty tough stuff in my life, but watching them all disappear was more than I could handle. I never thought anything could break me like that, but I had a total meltdown when that happened.”
Kevin looked curious. “Wait. Elijah, how can you say it could be true? The Second Coming already happened.”
“No, no. The Rapture already happened. The return of Jesus to collect his saints. In the Second Coming, he will be crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He will rule on this earth for one thousand years.”
“The Bible says that?” Sarah asked.
“Revelation twenty, verse four,” Everett replied.
She shook her head. “I’ve read Revelation several times. I don’t know how I missed it.”
“I’ve read it too, but it sounds new to me.” Kevin put his arm around Sarah. “I guess it’s like your head is so rattled by all the other stuff in the preceding chapters that it’s hard to grasp what’s going on by then. Besides, when I’m reading Revelation, it’s usually to try to figure out how we’re going to survive the next wave of destruction. I try not to get more than three or four judgments ahead of where we’re at. I just can’t handle thinking about all of it at once.”
Elijah rocked to and fro as he whittled. “That is understandable. It is not an easy time to be alive. But, those who survive to the end without taking the Mark and those who are beheaded for the gospel and are resurrected, will reign with Messiah for one thousand years.”
“Then what happens?” Sarah asked.
“Then, Satan will be released for a short time, to deceive the nations one last time. Afterward, he will be cast into the lake of fire for eternity and God will make a new heaven and a new earth. That will be the final chapter.”
“That’s all literal?” Kevin inquired. “Couldn’t some of that be symbolic? A lot of stuff in Revelation is symbolic, right?”
“Some of it is symbolic, no doubt about it. The woman who is protected by God for three and a half years is a symbol for the nation of Israel. But the new heaven and the new earth cannot be symbols for anything. They are exactly what God has said they are.” Elijah folded his knife and stuck it in his pants pocket.
Everett directed his thoughts toward the Millennium, the new heaven and the new earth. It seemed so far away from the doom-laden realm he currently inhabited. “The sun is gone. It’s getting chilly out here.”
Courtney zipped up her jacket. “It’s warmer than it is in the cave.”
“I could sleep outside.” Sarah pushed another lump of lightly seared wood into the fire.
Kevin protested. “Not me. The temperature is going to drop. The cave will be warmer. Plus it shields us from the wind and any rain that might come.”
Everett added, “Or hail, or blood. Don’t forget; atmospheric conditions ain't what they used to be.” As the last light faded behind the mountains, Everett grew more anxious about the arrival of Wormwood. “But, for now, I guess it is warmer out here than in the cave. Do you guys mind if we listen to the radio for a while?”
“Sure. Let’s hear what the most high and prepotent propaganda machine is spewing out.” Courtney’s voice was filled with disdain for the self-proclaimed global order.
Everett ducked into the cave, retrieved the radio, and returned to his seat near the fire. He switched on the dial. He immediately heard Athaliah Jennings’ voice. Sarcastically, he said, “Uh- oh. They brought out the GR Propaganda Secretary. This must be an important lie.”
Everyone grew still and quiet to listen to the staticky broadcast.
“His Most High and Prepotent Majesty has issued an urgent warning to those living in the western hemisphere. The Great Quake has affected the orbit of the earth around the sun and scientists now believe the planet is on a collision course with the asteroid 2019 WD10. Astronomers have been aware of the large comet for many years but were certain that the object posed no threat to earth. However, the projections have changed, due to the shift in earth’s orbit.
“The size of the asteroid is estimated to be fifty-five miles in diameter. A collision with such a large meteor would likely be an extinction level event. But there is hope. The Watchers, who are maintaining constant contact with His Majesty and the Pope, have assisted GRASA in developing a plan. With the help and understanding of the cosmos from the Watchers, the Global Republic Aeronautics and Space Administration has been able to repurpose one of the rockets scheduled to deliver replacement communication and observation satellites. This vessel will deliver a nuclear payload to the center of WD10, which will break it up, preventing the earth from being hit by such a tremendously large object.
“The calculations and measurements were only made possible by the Watchers. We must be grateful that they have revealed themselves to us at such a time as this. We must also remember to thank them in our prayers for giving us His Majesty. Since he is a son of the Watchers, born of a human woman, he has proved to be the perfect intercessor, if you will, between these gods and mankind.
“It breaks my heart to think there are still people who have not yet placed their trust in His High and Most Prepotent Majesty, Angelo Luz. Without him, we would all perish. But, in his mercy, he has worked to save even the unbeliever from this most catastrophic event.
“But please, allow me to continue relaying this most important segment of this evening's broadcast. While the meteor will be destroyed, it is likely that earth will still collide with the debris field. Smaller asteroids, perhaps as large as a half of a mile wide may still come crashing down.
“His Majesty has requested that all global citizens make provisions to shelter in place for a prolonged period of time. The Global Republic will be limited in what they can do to help for the first week or two after we’ve experienced the effects of the debris field.
“We urge you not to panic. You have over two months to prepare. Our best estimates tell us that the asteroid will be in view of the earth on the first of December. As our planet comes around the sun, and we have a clear shot with the rocket, we will fire the nuclear payload to eliminate the threat. The device will strike the comet on December 4th. Earth should collide with the outer layer of the debris field approximately three days later, on December 7th.”
Everett grabbed his Bible and took out the Jewish calendar he kept folded in the back. “Hanukkah. The threat was announced on Sukkot, and we’ll be struck by the remnants of Wormwood on Hanukkah.”
Courtney shook her head. “At least they’re telling us this time.”
“Yeah, so we can pray to the Watchers and thank them. Can you believe that garbage?” Sarah sounded incensed.
Elijah took a deep breath as he looked up at the sky. “The children of darkness have been praying to them for ages. Satan, Nimrod, Semiramis, Tammuz, under all their various names have been worshiped as gods, almost since the beginning. These Watchers are the same demons with a new look. I suppose you could call it rebranding. Neve
rtheless, they are up to their same old tricks.”
Kevin rolled his eyes. “I liked the part where Jennings fawned over Luz’s mercy.” He mocked the Press Secretary’s voice. “He’s sparing even the unbeliever.” Kevin shook his head in disgust. “Yeah, right. So he can execute us on primetime television.”
Everett snorted. “Debris field of a fifty-mile-wide asteroid. Luz is going to have to take a rain check on his new reality show.”
Courtney corrected him. “Fifty-five-mile-wide asteroid.”
“Even worse.” Everett pursed his lips.
“So. Two months to get ready for it.” Sarah put her elbows on her knees and rested her chin in her hand.
“A little more.” Everett consulted his hand-drawn Gregorian calendar that he kept with the Jewish version. “We’ve got roughly ten weeks. It’s good to know that it’s coming. We can make the most of the time.”
Courtney picked up Sox who was rubbing her leg. “We can take action. Not much, but we can do something. But I feel so horrible for all the people who are already living on a knife-edge and starving to death. They’re pretty much doomed.”
Everett tossed a piece of wood in the fire. “I wish we could help. For our brothers and sisters, we can pray. For those who have taken the Mark, nothing can save them now.”
Sarah scratched Danger. “Why do we always get the brunt of the judgments? The hail, blood, and fire only fell on the western hemisphere. Now we’re getting the worst of Wormwood too.”
Elijah’s face was lit by the glow of the fire. “Luz’s seat of authority is in DC, New Atlantis, or whatever they want to call it. While the entire earth is under the Almighty’s judgment, DC is the current bullseye. But remember, the Seal Judgments were evenly distributed. And those living in nations that were impoverished prior to the First Seal had no means to prepare. They were as Courtney said, living on a knife-edge.”