The Underground

by Jerry B. Jenkins

  Ryan would find an abandoned house and walk right in. “I found seven in here!” he would call to Vicki. He plunked them into the bottom of the bag and ran off again. He was right, Vicki thought. I’ll never be able to drag this home.

  They came to the brick shell of a burned-out house.

  “Stay out of there,” Vicki said. “It’s too dangerous. Anyway, everything’s burned!”

  “Something’s in there,” Ryan shouted, running ahead. He pushed aside the charred remains of the front door and a sooty beam came crashing down, just missing him.

  “Get out, Ryan!” Vicki said as she ran to the house.

  “Wait!” he said. “There’s somebody or something in here!”

  Vicki followed him in and saw something moving in the rubble. Ryan got close and it whimpered. Black as coal, it looked like a wild animal. Ryan knelt and held out his hand, and the animal sniffed. Finally, it gingerly moved toward him. Vicki held her breath as Ryan gathered it in his arms.

  “What is it?” Vicki said.

  “Our new dog,” Ryan said. “He looks like he hasn’t eaten in weeks.”

  Ryan was as dirty as the pup, but it occurred to Vicki that this was the answer to her prayers. She had prayed that God would take some of the pain from him. Maybe this new companion would do just that.

  ___

  “No way,” Judd said. “He’s not bringing that filthy thing into my house. It looks more like a rat than a dog.”

  Ryan handed the dog to Vicki and ran inside, returning with a piece of hot dog. “Come here, boy!”

  The dog lunged at the food and nearly nipped Ryan’s finger.

  “Just like a rat,” Judd said.

  “Can I talk with you, Judd?” Vicki said. “In private?”

  Vicki and Judd went into the den. Judd had begun the next edition of the Underground and the place was cluttered.

  “You have to understand what this means to Ryan,” she said. “What could it hurt?”

  Judd shook his head. “It’s not practical. We’re trying to do some radical things here that take up most of our time. What happens when the dog doesn’t get fed or isn’t let out, and Ryan’s not around?”

  “Make it his responsibility. It’ll be good for him. For all of us.”

  She was right and Judd knew it. She was in tune with Ryan in a way he could never be.

  “Don’t blame me if it doesn’t work,” he said. “The first time Ryan messes up, the dog goes.”

  ___

  Vicki was elated to see the change in Ryan. He went straight to work giving it a bath. Judd had invited John and Mark over to work on the next Underground. Everybody seemed stunned when Ryan unwrapped the dog and revealed its white fur.

  “What’s his name?” Mark said.

  “Call him Rapture,” Lionel said.

  “How about Ashes?” Vicki said.

  “Wait,” Ryan said. “What was that bird that came out of the ashes?”

  “The Phoenix,” John said.

  “That’s it! I’ll name him Phoenix.”

  ___

  Judd told John he wanted the next edition of the Underground to cover the Israel treaty. “We’ll deliver it Friday and the treaty will be signed Monday. That ought to convince people we’re onto something.”

  “How are you gonna do it,” Lionel said, “with all those Global Community thugs around?”

  “They aren’t going to be there every day,” John said. He pulled out of his pocket what looked like a tiny radio. “We put a transmitter on Mrs. Jenness’s desk. It’s a tiny smiley face at the end of her stapler. This receiver has to be within a hundred yards, and sometimes it doesn’t work too well, but we heard her say the Global Community guys would be back Friday. That’s when the Olive Branch gets distributed again. We can’t risk that scheme again.”

  “I can think of only one way to get the paper to everyone,” Vicki said. “And we’ll have to use Ryan to do it.”

  “Me?” Ryan said.

  “Yeah,” Vicki said. “Are you willing?”

  “I am,” Lionel said. “I don’t care what happens to me anymore.”

  “Me neither,” Ryan said.

  “Either,” Lionel said.

  NINE

  Fugitives

  LATE Thursday night, Judd drove Vicki, Lionel, and Ryan to Nicolae High, where Vicki had left a window slightly open, leading to the showers in the gym locker room.

  Judd parked a few blocks away and each kid grabbed a box filled with the Underground.

  This was their best issue yet. With John’s expertise with the publishing program, it looked professionally printed. Readers of the Underground would learn that the Bible predicted the signing of the treaty that coming Monday. Assuming it came off as the paper outlined, readers should be convinced that the writers knew what they were talking about. They would be urged to give their lives to Christ before the beginning of the Tribulation. John and Mark had even included an untraceable E-mail address where students could write for more information and a Bible study.

  The kids knew the prophecy could also backfire. If Bruce was wrong about the signing of the peace treaty with Israel, their message wouldn’t ring true. It was a risk they were willing to take.

  All four wore dark clothing. Each carried a winter hat that pulled over their faces. They had heard rumors of surveillance cameras.

  Judd and Lionel were to creep to the rear entrance of the school where it would be easy to hide behind the evergreens. Vicki and Ryan crawled along the rear wall to an inner courtyard. The place was well lit, so when Vicki gave the signal, they dashed to the other side, Ryan following her into the darkness.

  They gingerly made their way down a few steps to what smelled like a cellar. A dim bulb above lit a huge door with bars across the window. A little farther down was a small, cobweb-filled window. “This is the one I left slightly open,” Vicki said. “We’re right under the gym near the showers.”

  Vicki pushed and the window gave way. “Can you squeeze through?”

  “It’s tight,” Ryan said. “No wonder you didn’t want to do this. Looks like the spiders are having a party.”

  “Yuck! Go left to the stairwell and up to the gym, across the basketball court to the back entrance. Those are the only doors I could find that don’t have alarms.”

  Vicki returned to Judd and Lionel. They wouldn’t approach the school until Ryan opened the door.

  “What’s taking him so long?” Lionel whispered.

  “It’s a long way,” Vicki said. “And pretty dark. He probably has to feel his way along.”

  “What if a janitor or night watchman is in there?” Judd said. “Or one of the Global Community guys?”

  “Don’t even think about it,” Vicki said.

  The wind picked up. Judd and Lionel sat on the open boxes to keep the papers from flying and pulled their hats down over their faces.

  “Look,” Vicki said. A door opened at the end of the gym. Ryan stuck out his hand with his thumb up.

  The three raced to the gym, boxes in tow. In seconds they were safely inside.

  “I took a wrong turn and wound up in a big storage room,” Ryan said. “It’s like a dungeon. Perfect place to store my Bibles. I had to wait under the stairs when a janitor came down. He’s sweeping or dusting or something in the locker room.”

  “Then we’ve got to hurry,” Judd said. “And be ready to hide if you hear him.”

  “You’ll hear him,” Ryan said. “He’s carrying a big ring of jangly keys.”

  They split into two pairs, Judd and Ryan taking one end of the school, Vicki and Lionel the other. They would meet in the middle. They folded copies of the Underground and slid one through the vent opening in each locker. It was slow work. It was 2 A.M. when they finally met near the front office.

  “Look up there in the grate,” Judd said. “They did install cameras. They’ll be checking the tape tomorrow.”

  “Can we go now?” Ryan said. “I want to check on Phoenix and make sure he’s OK
.”

  “Ryan, wait!” Vicki said. Before she could stop him, Ryan pushed open the fire doors at the front of the school. A shrill alarm filled the hallway. Ryan turned, wide-eyed. “I didn’t mean to,” he mouthed.

  “This way!” Judd shouted, and they raced back to the gym. When they reached the back doors, Vicki heard the janitor’s keys bouncing. He was closing in. Judd quickly opened the doors and started out, but stopped. A siren. Tires on gravel.

  “We can make it,” Lionel said.

  “We have a better chance hiding,” Judd said. “It’s an open field. They’ll see us out there for sure.”

  “The dungeon,” Ryan said.

  And they bolted downstairs in the darkness, putting distance between themselves and the jangling keys.

  Vicki could feel the spiders. Everywhere. She shuddered and stayed close to Judd. After a few minutes their eyes adjusted to the dark. They were in an inner chamber underneath the gymnasium. Boxes of paper and school supplies were stacked around the room. The four huddled behind water-stained boxes.

  “Don’t worry,” Ryan whispered as he swiped at the cobwebs. “These are only spider leftovers. They won’t hurt you.”

  Judd fiddled with something in his pocket, then raised his hand for quiet. They heard footsteps overhead.

  “They’re in the gym,” Lionel said. “I hope they don’t have dogs.”

  “Dogs?” Vicki said.

  The footsteps came closer. A beam of light waved through the hallway. A man shouted and another joined him.

  “Here’s the window they came through,” one man said. “I heard ’em. I was workin’ down the hall there. They probably came in to spray paint a few walls. I’ll bet we scared ’em and they took off the same way they came in.”

  A light shone near the dungeon.

  “Stinks down here,” the first man said.

  “Tell me about it. I’m here almost every night and I’m still not used to it. Let’s get out of here.”

  The kids waited a few minutes, then tiptoed to the gym. The men were gone. Judd opened the back doors of the gym and motioned the others toward the car.

  As the back door closed, a light flashed in their faces. Colored lights. A voice on a loudspeaker. “Police! Stop right there!”

  “Scatter!” Judd yelled. “Try to get back to the car!”

  Vicki ran with Ryan. The police car threw gravel and went another direction. Toward Judd, she thought. She and Ryan ran past the football field toward town. When they came near houses they stopped to catch their breath.

  “Where’s the car?” Ryan said.

  “That way,” Vicki said, gasping. “You run pretty fast.”

  Vicki and Ryan took the long route and made their way across lawns and through alleys. A dog startled Vicki when it snapped at them through a chain link fence. When they finally made it back to the car, neither Judd nor Lionel was in sight.

  A car approached with its headlights off, so Vicki and Ryan crouched beside Judd’s car.

  “They’re not there,” a voice said.

  “That’s Judd,” Ryan said, standing.

  “Don’t!” Vicki said, but it was too late.

  “Hey,” Judd said. “You made it.”

  “How did you?” Vicki said, standing. Judd and Lionel were in the backseat, John and Mark in the front.

  “I got Judd’s SOS on the gizmo,” John said, “and we got here just in time to see these two running for their lives.”

  ___

  Judd found sleep impossible. He wandered down to the living room and found the others so keyed up that they were sitting around the living room talking. “We’re all running on empty,” he said. “Too many short nights in a row. Even if we can’t sleep, we need to get to bed and at least rest. Tomorrow Nicolae High is going to get its strongest dose yet of the Underground.

  Judd finally fell asleep just before dawn and made everybody late for school. As he and Vicki hurried in, she said, “I thought the GC guys would be searching everybody again.”

  Judd shrugged. “Me too,” he said, just as they came upon hundreds of students lined up in the hallway. School administrators and Global Community monitors went from locker to locker with garbage bags searching for copies of the Underground. Mr. Handlesman barked at kids and banged on their lockers if they were too slow.

  “Students with lockers in the east hallway only, report there immediately,” Mrs. Jenness said over the loudspeaker. “Everyone else, remain in your class.”

  John rushed up to Judd and Vicki. “Everybody who went to their lockers before first period got one,” John whispered. “Now the office is in damage-control mode. You should hear students, though, Judd. Everybody’s talking about it.”

  ___

  Vicki’s gym class sat in the bleachers, still dressed. Mrs. Waltonen conferred with an assistant as the girls sat and talked. Vicki sat near the front and listened.

  “Why don’t they want us to read this stuff?” one girl said.

  “It’s dangerous,” another said.

  “It says there’s going to be some treaty signed Monday. It’s supposed to be predicted in the Bible.”

  “I never understood the Bible.”

  “This says you can, though. It makes sense to me.”

  All around Vicki girls were whispering, “I want to read it. I don’t care what they say. If I find one, I’m keeping it.” She was ecstatic. This was just what the Trib Force had been hoping for.

  At the end of the period, Mr. Handlesman’s voice came over the loudspeaker.

  “We’ve just witnessed the last incident of rebellion at Nicolae Carpathia High School. We will find those responsible, and we will find them today. Anyone with any information that can help us should report to the office now.”

  Kids walked through the halls carefully, as if through a war zone. Vicki knew better but felt people looked at her strangely, like they knew of her involvement.

  In Vicki’s English class, Mr. Carlson asked, “How many have actually read this underground paper?”

  A few raised their hands. Vicki knew there had to be more but couldn’t tell if they were afraid or really hadn’t looked at the Underground.

  “Why do you think this publication is so threatening to those in charge here?” Mr. Carlson said.

  “There are a lot of kooks out there,” a girl said. Vicki knew she was on the staff of the Olive Branch. “Maybe they’re trying to manipulate us by scaring us about Mr. Carpathia being the Antichrist.”

  “Kooks is right,” someone else said. “I thought all those people were gone.”

  “And what if one of those kooks is one of you?” Carlson said. “A schoolmate? A classmate?”

  Kids looked around the room, laughing and pointing at each other. Vicki felt her cheeks flush. Mr. Carlson tried to restore order, but he was unsuccessful until Coach Handlesman entered with two Global Community guards. The room got deathly quiet. The guards stood by the door as Handlesman spoke to Mr. Carlson.

  “You have to be kidding,” Carlson said with a laugh. “There must be a mistake.”

  Coach Handlesman turned to the class. “Which one of you is Vicki Byrne?”

  Vicki held her breath as everyone turned and looked at her.

  “Come with us, Miss Byrne,” the coach said.

  “Why?” she said. “What?”

  Coach Handlesman approached her desk. He leaned inches from her face.

  “We know,” he said. “It’s over.”

  TEN

  Betrayed

  BETWEEN classes Mark found Judd and pulled him into an audiovisual department closet down the hall from the front office. John had hooked a small speaker to the receiver. “I got a message from Vicki that she had been found out,” he said.

  Judd looked at his own message receiver. It was off. “Oh no.”

  “She’s not in the office yet,” John said, his ear near the speaker. “At least I haven’t heard anybody yet.”

  “My battery must be dead,” Judd said. “Tell
Lionel and Ryan to pray for Vicki.” Mark punched in the message. “And just in case, add a line to tell Vicki we’re with her.”

  “Wait, I hear something,” John said. “Somebody just came in and sat down.” They all huddled closer. Judd heard crying and hoped that wasn’t Vicki. He knew she was tougher than that.

  A woman’s voice cut through the static. “Stop blubbering. Tell them what you know and get the money.”

  “Nobody said the reward was money, Mom,” a girl said. “Why are you making me do this?”

  “It’ll be money, all right. Tell them everything. I want to get out of here too. I got places to go.”

  Judd felt helpless. He wished he had been caught. Instead, Vicki was about to take the blame for them all.

  “How did they find Vicki?” Mark said.

  “Somebody must have turned her in,” Judd said.

  ___

  Two GC guards sat behind Vicki and in front of the closed door to Principal Jenness’s inner office. Vicki felt a vibration and peeked at the tiny screen in her pocket.

  “Pray for Vicki—Caught,” it read. Then, “If you see this, hang in, Vick’.”

  She prayed silently, “Please give me the right words. And thank you for my friends.”

  Coach Handlesman and Mrs. Jenness entered. He pulled a chair near her, letting it scrape across the floor. Mrs. Jenness leaned against a file cabinet, arms folded. The two adults stared at her for what seemed an eternity.

  “Why’d you do it?” Handlesman said.

  “What did I do?”

  “You know what you did,” Mrs. Jenness said. “Why did you trip the alarm the other day?”

  Vicki stared at her.

  “C’mon, Byrne,” Handlesman said. “We saw it on tape, and we also compared the video of the kids who broke into the school last night. It was you, Vicki. There’s no use trying to hide it any longer. Tell us about it.”