The Time of Jacob's Trouble

by Donna VanLiere

  “It’s better than the alternative,” Larry Klein says.

  An argument follows, and Mrs. Gruebber clings to her husband, crying. The children each hold on to a parent, burying their heads in their mom’s stomach or father’s chest.

  “Stop it!” Emma yells over the noise. “Everybody’s afraid, but none of this helps!”

  “They attacked when we were weak,” Mr. Gruebber says.

  “Who attacked?” the single mom says.

  “Iran? Russia? North Korea? Any of them are capable.”

  “But we’re fighting back,” the single mom finally says to Mr. Gruebber. “Right?”

  Mr. Gruebber looks at her with small, sad eyes. “With what’s left of our military, I assume, yes.”

  “We’ll kill them,” Rick says, squeezed into a corner with Brandon.

  Mr. Gruebber shakes his head. “That’s impossible. Don’t you see what’s happening? This is our end.”

  Nobody argues. The old man’s grim prophecy has squeezed the breath from their lungs.

  Israel

  Zerah and his entire family have not left his parents’ bomb shelter; each breath is edged with terror and desperation. Fearing attack from hostile nations at this time of global weakness, the Israeli government continues to enforce a nationwide lockdown, citizens huddled into bomb shelters with family and neighbors. Zerah has continued to try calling Dr. Haas but calls still can’t go through inside the bomb shelter. He’s even tried Dr. Sokolof’s number without reaching anyone. Without being at work, there’s no way of knowing who else is missing from his department or how many from the entire building.

  Under the guise of fetching more food from the kitchen for all of them, Zerah leaves the bomb shelter and runs upstairs into the home, dialing a friend who works on the fifth floor of the medical center.

  “Tavi,” he says into the phone, surprised that he got through. He shuts himself in the bathroom in case someone from the family comes upstairs. “It’s Zerah.”

  “Is everything okay, Zerah? Is your family safe?”

  “Yes. We are all together at my parents’ home,” he says, whispering. “Is your family safe?”

  “We are. Frightened, but safe. It seems it’s only a matter of time before our enemies strike. Everything feels so dark…” He can’t find the words.

  “I know.” Zerah says. “I’m curious. Two colleagues that I know disappeared from our floor. Do you know of any others in the building?”

  “A data specialist on our floor,” Tavi says. “He was talking with a coworker. That man had to be helped out of the building. Shock, I suppose. I’ve heard there are between fifteen to twenty who are gone, but I don’t know. Could be more.”

  “Did you know anything about any of them?”

  “Not too much.”

  Zerah doesn’t know how to ask the next question and pauses, thinking. “Was the man on your floor Orthodox?”

  “What would that have to do with anything?”

  Zerah feels a surge of panic. He can’t appear interested in the messianic believer connection to the disappearances. “Just wondering how his family is doing. If they have other friends and family to count on.”

  “I’ve been told his family has also disappeared.”

  “His whole family!” Zerah says.

  “And he wasn’t…”

  Zerah waits for more, but Tavi has stopped. “Wasn’t what?” Zerah asks.

  “Orthodox.” Tavi’s voice gets so low that Zerah struggles to hear. “He was messianic.”

  Zerah’s heart races at the words. “Did you ever talk to him about it?”

  “No. No one did. He was a very kind man and he often invited coworkers to a special service at the messianic church he attended so they could hear about God’s plans for his chosen people, but no one ever went. Some people got very angry and insisted he stop inviting them.”

  “What did he say?”

  Tavi is still whispering. “He said that a Jewish man named Paul called it a mystery, but that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”

  Zerah is quiet. “Do you know what he was talking about?”

  “No. It was just babble to me. It doesn’t make sense.”

  Questions loom between them, but there is nothing more either of them can say. Zerah hangs up and mutters curses as he sits on the lid of the toilet.

  CHAPTER 11

  Queens, NY

  Elliott jumps awake and looks at his watch. It’s 6:00 in the evening. His eyes scan the room looking for the light of Jesus. He runs to the bathroom mirror and feels his forehead. There’s nothing there to see. He races to the TV. The screen is black; the power is out in New York, but shock waves are ricocheting around the world.

  Iran’s and Russia’s nukes had been ready for years and wasted no time in attacking the United States when millions disappeared, which left the country exposed. The US military and government were in chaos, making them vulnerable targets. Three Kilo-class submarines from the Iranian fleet targeted two American aircraft carriers in the Strait of Hormuz, launching missiles that lifted the ships out of the water, breaking them in two, and destroying both.

  Russia fired multiple Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missiles, targeting US submarines, naval aircraft carriers, and other ships at sea. Intercontinental ballistic missiles hit US military bases within the country and abroad, leveling them and further collapsing the power of the US Armed Forces. With the military scrambling, missiles struck DC and Manhattan with little effort. Russia’s hypersonic missiles, able to travel over five times the speed of sound, leveled several major cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Boston, Atlanta, and Seattle, devastating them. Russia had been forecasting a nuclear winter against the United States for years, but experts blew it off as bullying and hype. By all military estimations, the greater threat came from Iran.

  Russia had been selling arms and nuclear technology to Iran for decades, supplying components and equipment, and training Iranian technicians in the needed skills and methodology they lacked. Russia’s training and the billions of US dollars given in the Iran nuclear deal were key factors in making Iran self-sufficient in nuclear missile production. Together, Russia and Iran are a formidable threat to the entire world, but the United States retaliated. America’s nuclear weapons have destroyed much of Tehran and Moscow, but the United States is crippled.

  In New York City alone, the United Nations, One World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, the Bank of America Tower, the New York Times Building, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Terminal, much of Wall Street, and countless other buildings are leveled. They are completely gone from the skyline; others look as if their tops have been razored off or someone took a wrecking ball and riddled them with holes. An unnerving wail of sirens covers the grave-like city as ash and fire rise from bomb-cratered buildings and roads, and broken water mains gush a flood of water over what’s left.

  Terrorist sleeper cells within the United States had been waiting for this opportunity, when many of them could strike at once, hitting financial centers and houses of government in various cities. Buildings around the country were pocked from explosions or scorched from fire. The victims who could stumble away were physically disfigured and emotionally crippled. The country has been devastated.

  Now that much of Israel’s once-great ally the United States is shattered, the Jewish nation’s enemies begin aligning. Within Palestine, members of Hamas retrieve their caches of weapons from underground bunkers. President Banes’s plan for a two-state solution called for Israel to withdraw from ninety percent of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), dividing Jerusalem so Palestinians could also claim it as their capital, and keeping the Jordan Valley to be used as a buffer zone against possible future aggression from the east. In the end, Palestine ended up with eighty percent of the West Bank and nearly one-half of Jerusalem. Israel kept the Jordan Valley.

  One of the stipulations of the two-state so
lution was that the Palestinian pay-to-slay had to be completely eradicated and their military and terrorist operations destroyed. They were also to set in motion democratic reforms that would protect the human rights of their own people. With the entirety of the land of Israel within reach, these stipulations were a small price to pay. Realizing that no one will come to the aid of Israel, leaders of Hamas, who have been quiet since the two-state solution, mobilize their forces, reach out to their allies, and begin plans for the “annihilation of the Zionist pigs.”

  Videos and pictures showing the Israel Defense Forces killing hundreds of Palestinians rushing across the border spread throughout the world. “Innocents are being slaughtered,” news anchors are saying. But there’s more to this story than the one side the news is presenting: The time is riper than ever for an Islamic caliphate to spread throughout the world, including in Europe and the United States.

  Blood rushes from Elliott’s head as he looks at the war zone outside his window, a product of ruthless, determined killers. “Help me! I don’t know what to do!” he says.

  He checks the lights. They’re still out. He tries to get an Internet connection but there isn’t any; the power is gone, along with the city. He bolts from the apartment into the hallway. It’s dark as he knocks on the neighbor’s door, and no one answers. He moves to the next apartment and knocks. No response. Then he runs to another and another before taking the stairs by two to the next floor. As he pounds on the third door, he can hear someone moving inside the apartment. “Please, are you in there? My name is Elliott, and I live downstairs.”

  “What do you want?” a woman responds with fear in her voice.

  “Do you have a Bible?”

  Elliott hears her fidgeting with the lock and the door opens a crack; a young black face peers at him through the chain. Her face is wet and her eyes bloodshot; her voice is shaking. “You want a Bible?” He nods, and she furrows her brow. “The city is destroyed.”

  “I know. I just saw what happened.”

  She looks closer. “What do you mean you just saw? Weren’t you downstairs with everybody else when we were attacked?”

  His face is solemn as he shakes his head. “I slept through it.”

  “That was thirteen hours ago.” She begins to close the door. “You are wasted!”

  He reaches for the door. “I’m not on drugs. It was Hashem.” He notices her confusion. “God. It was God. Please. I need a Bible.”

  She strains her eyes to study him. “When the city was hit, we couldn’t hear ourselves scream. How did you sleep through that…?” She begins to sob. “It was…It was so loud and then…” She cries, remembering. “Silence. And so dark. People were screaming that the terrorists were trying to kill us and that aliens had taken everyone.” She covers her mouth, sobbing.

  “No! It was Jesus Christ.”

  She looks at him, staring in disbelief. “Aren’t you the Jewish guy downstairs?”

  “I am. Again, I’m Elliott.”

  She squints as she looks at him through watery eyes. “Why are you talking about Jesus if you’re Jewish?”

  “I’ll tell you all about it,” he smiles. “What is your name?”

  “Kennisha.”

  “Do you live here alone?”

  Her tears fall over her cheeks. “I lived here with my sister and my niece.”

  “They’re gone now?” he asks. She nods, closing her eyes. Elliott steps closer. “Please…could you tell me what happened?”

  She closes the door and unlocks the chain, opening the door for him. He steps inside as she shuts and locks the door behind them. Kennisha steps into the living room and Elliott follows, sitting on the sofa next to her.

  Her voice breaks as she begins to speak. She shakes her head and holds her hand in the air, waiting for words. “My niece was getting her appendix out. Kaala and I were in the waiting room talking. She was telling me about something she needed to do at work and then she…”

  “Was gone.”

  She uses her hands to wipe her face and struggles to speak. “I freaked out. The others who were there started to scream; then I heard voices rising through each of the halls and I knew that something had happened. I ran as fast as I could, screaming for my niece. Some nurses tried to stop me, but I kept running and screaming for her. I finally found the operating room and the surgeon was white as a ghost. He was still holding some sort of surgical instrument in his hand and the nurses and other people were just stunned. He was operating on her, and then she just disappeared.” She swipes her cheeks and looks up at the ceiling. “I don’t even remember how I got home.”

  Elliott reaches for a box of tissues on the end table next to him, handing it to her. “Your sister and niece belonged to Jesus, didn’t they?”

  Kennisha uses a tissue to wipe under her eyes. “How do you know that?”

  “Because all of the people who are gone are with him now. It wasn’t terrorists or aliens or demons. Jesus called all of them home to be with him.”

  She begins to weep, groaning. “No! That’s not true!”

  Elliott’s voice is gentle. “Jesus filled my apartment and told me.” He knows he sounds insane. “I’m a Jew. I’ve never stepped foot in a church. I’ve never believed in Jesus my entire life. My family has never mentioned his name. When I heard the theory that someone thought that Jesus had returned for all of those who followed him, I was physically angry. I thought it was the most ignorant thing I’d ever heard. But then Jesus came to me.”

  She looks confused and full of pain. “What do you mean he filled your apartment?”

  “There was this insanely bright light, and Jesus was the light. He was there. He touched me. I felt him. I talked to him. He told me that everyone who’s missing is with him, and that he will come back again and this time, everyone will see him.” She puts her hand over her mouth, listening to him. “I wouldn’t believe it either if it hadn’t happened to me. I’m the last person that you would expect to say that Jesus came and we missed him, but it’s true, and your sister and niece are with him today.”

  Kennisha squeezes her eyes shut as tears begin to fall again. “Kaala told me over and over again that Jesus was real. She said God loved me. But I couldn’t stand it. Sometimes I felt like she was suffocating me.” Her sobs are louder, shaking her shoulders. “But she tried,” she whispers. “She and Keesa both tried to tell me.” She looks at him through bloodshot eyes. “Jesus came.”

  Elliott nods. “Do you have any family besides your sister and niece?”

  “No. Our mom died a few years ago and we didn’t know our father. Mom believed in Jesus when she got sick and she told me and Kaala about him, but I just couldn’t listen. I thought I knew enough about him. I mean, don’t we all know about Jesus?” She stares at him, her face still distorted in pain. “Kaala knew him. My sweet Keesa knew him.” She shuts her eyes again. “What do I do? What do I do?” she says, whispering as she rocks back and forth.

  Elliott lays his hand on hers, squeezing it. “I’ll be your friend, Kennisha.” She looks at him. “We need each other, right?”

  She nods, swiping another tear. “This building shifted when the city was hit. It felt like it was made of popsicle sticks. I thought it would crumble.” Her voice rises, sounding hysterical. “I can’t even look out the window. All those buildings gone… the city. How many people are dead beneath that rubble? What’s going to happen to us?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I need a Bible. I know it has the answers.”

  She stands and walks into a bedroom. Upon returning to the living room, she holds out a Bible. “This was my sister’s,” she says, her eyes misting over as she looks at it. “She would love for you to use this.” Elliott takes the Bible from her and looks at the cover. He’s never held a Bible before. She sits next to him. “When is Jesus coming back?”

  He shakes his head. “I don’t know. I don’t even know where to start in this book. Do you?”

  CHAPTER 12

  Israel<
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  Israel’s defense minister, deputy minister, and chiefs of staff from the Israel Defense Forces, the national security advisor, and Mossad director and deputy director stand in the middle of the room at the Ministry of Defense headquarters in Tel Aviv, staring at the wall of computers and screens lit up with satellite images from neighboring countries. Movements in Lebanon and from 213 kilometers away in Damascus have their attention. The rounds of hostilities between Israel and Palestine have emboldened Israel’s enemies and they are about to move into place. The Israel Defense Forces are firing on the Palestinians and keeping them away from the border, but how long can they hold them off?

  The faces of the defense minister and the men with him are shrouded with concern as images of Syria’s elite Republican Guard are seen running over the Mezzeh Air Base compound. A few years ago, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons found a stockpile of 1,300 tons of chemical weapons in Syria. Who knows where that number stands today? Years earlier, Israel bombed an unidentified site in Syria using Maverick missiles and 500-kilogram bombs. Intelligence revealed the site was a nuclear reactor under construction, and officials suspected North Korea (aided by Iran) of supplying a reactor to Syria for their nuclear weapons program.

  According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, at the time, Syria possessed fifty-plus tons of natural uranium, enough for three to five nuclear weapons. Those numbers could only be much higher now. Israel has long suspected that many of Syria’s chemical and nuclear weapons have been stored at another site, possibly close to Damascus, even beneath the city itself. Intelligence on the ground in Syria reveals that Hezbollah and units of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that are stationed there and just over the northern border in Syria are on the move, headed toward them, and less than 100 kilometers away. Hezbollah was founded by the Iranian government, which wrote Hezbollah’s manifesto in 1985 and has funded and equipped them since. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps trained the terrorists themselves, and they share a common goal: destroy Israel.