Lionel took Lee and Brooke outside, telling them the history of the property and making up the rest. He could tell they wanted to go inside and explore, but he knew that would lead to more questions and possibly discovering the other believers. “It’s time for our teaching,” Lionel said, leading them back to the kitchen.
“But we’re already believers,” Brooke said. “We need to listen to more stuff?”
“Yeah, when you receive God’s forgiveness, he puts a hunger in your heart to know more about him. Do you feel that?”
Lee cocked his head. “As a matter of fact, I do have a lot of questions.”
Lionel gave them more water and called for Judd. “We’re going to have our teaching now. You want to tell the others?”
“Yeah, I’ll go get them,” Judd said.
Lionel thought of people in one of three camps: believers in God, followers of Carpathia who had no chance of responding to the truth, or people with neither the mark of God nor Carpathia who could still respond. A thought flashed in his mind as he handed Bibles to Lee and Brooke. If they don’t have Carpathia’s mark, maybe the truth will get to them. Even if they are Global Community or helping bounty hunters, if God’s Word reaches their hearts, they could become believers!
The thought excited Lionel, and he couldn’t wait to go through the material he had chosen. He had them turn to the Gospel of John.
“Why don’t you read?” Lionel said.
“ ‘In the beginning the Word already existed,’ ” Lee read. “ ‘He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone.’ ”
“Any idea who John is talking about?” Lionel said.
“I don’t even know who John is, let alone who this ‘he’ is who was with God,” Brooke said.
“He’s talking about Jesus,” Lionel said. “The Trinity is made up of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.”
“Why are there three of them?” Brooke said.
Lionel paused and said a brief prayer for them, asking God to take away their blindness.
Judd retreated to a corner of the cellar and called the Wisconsin group. Mark answered and asked how things were going.
“I don’t mean to be short, but we’ve got a situation here and Vicki can help.”
Mark handed the phone to Vicki, and Judd quickly explained what had happened. Vicki gave him Chloe’s number without question.
“You guys have to get out of there now,” Vicki said. “The GC could raid you any minute.”
“We feel safe, but we need a destination. I’m thinking, if we head north, Lionel and I might as well keep going until we get to Wisconsin.”
“I like that idea.” Vicki asked Judd to keep her updated on their plans. “We’ll be praying like crazy.”
Judd spoke with George Sebastian at the San Diego underground, who passed the phone to Chloe Williams. She seemed upset at first that Judd had called, but when Judd explained their problem, she understood.
Over the past few months, a series of safe houses, homes, and underground shelters had been developed across the country. It was not as sophisticated as Chloe would have liked, but Judd was thrilled they had options.
Judd took information about the groups and ran upstairs. The meeting with Lee and Brooke continued, and by the look on Lionel’s face, things weren’t going well. Brooke noticed Judd’s cell phone and asked if he had heard anything from the other believers.
“I did talk to someone, but we won’t know until later tonight when they’ll be arriving and how many,” Judd said.
The mood was tense throughout the day as the four tried to keep Lee and Brooke occupied. Tom suggested they sleep in an upstairs room he and Luke had cleared out. When they were settled, Judd and the others retreated to the cellar.
Carl Meninger had a video display of the upstairs room onscreen as Lee and Brooke sat on separate beds facing each other. “I wouldn’t normally do this, but since we think these two might be—”
“Shh, listen,” Luke said, pointing to the screen. Brooke scratched her forehead.
“Don’t do that,” Lee said. “You’ll rub it off.”
“I can’t help it—it itches!”
“You’ll be able to take it off soon, but if these people think we have the mark of Carpathia, we’re both dead.”
“Can you believe that performance during the prayer?” Brooke said, taking off her shoe and pulling a tiny object out.
Lionel moved toward the screen. “What’s she doing?”
Carl shook his head. “She’s calling her boss. That’s a phone.”
Brooke rattled off a series of numbers. Carl turned up the volume, but they couldn’t hear much through the tiny speakers. He put on headphones and relayed what Brooke said.
“She’s definitely talking to her boss,” Carl said. “She just asked them to hold off on the raid until they get more information about the group coming to the house.” Carl pressed the headphone close to his ear and nodded. “Okay, I recognize the protocol they’re using. These two are definitely working for the GC.”
Judd shivered, thinking how easily the two could have duped them. Carl unplugged the headphones when Brooke moved to the other side of the room.
“They bit on everything we said.” Brooke laughed. “The whole thing about our parents, our dad getting religion.” She paused. “No, they’re pretty primitive as far as technology. We haven’t seen any computers at all, so there’s no way for them to check our Florida information. I wish they could—it would throw them even further off the track… . Yeah, we’ll let you know later when the next group is coming in and from which direction… . No, sit tight. I think we’ll have some good news for Commander Fulcire once this thing is over.”
“That’s it then,” Luke said. “Somehow they’ve covered up the mark of Carpathia and are leading the GC to us.”
“And it makes sense that they couldn’t understand what I was saying about God,” Lionel said. “They couldn’t even pretend to believe.”
“But how did they find us?” Tom said.
Judd gave Luke and Tom the information about the safe houses, and Judd and Lionel went upstairs to prepare dinner. When it was time, the six of them gathered around the table, and Judd said a brief prayer. Judd didn’t feel right praying for people who didn’t exist, so he simply asked God to bless the food and protect their friends. Brooke and Lee said an enthusiastic, “Amen.”
Everyone went outside after the meal, giving the kids in the cellar enough time to move their things to an outside shed. They would wear the clothes on their backs and take as much computer equipment and tools as possible in backpacks. Moving on foot wasn’t going to be easy, but Carl had found someone who could give them a ride to the next safe house.
“God sure was good to lead us here,” Lee said. “I can’t believe we’re actually going to get to see our dad again.”
“I look forward to seeing my family again too,” Lionel said. “Almost as much as I want to see old Nicolae finally fall.”
“How’s that supposed to happen?” Brooke said cheerily, though Judd detected an edge to the question.
“The Bible says Nicolae is going to fight God with his armies but that he’ll be captured, along with his false prophet. They’ll both be thrown into a lake of fire, and the army will be wiped out.”
“Wow,” Brooke said. “Nicolae seems so powerful. You think that can actually happen?”
“I know it will,” Lionel said. “I’ve read the end of the book.”
At the selected time, the cell phone rang and Tom answered. He walked a few paces into the front yard and spoke softly. Judd knew the call was from the cellar, and Brooke and Lee strained to hear what Tom said. As Tom walked back to the group, Judd noticed Brooke touch her shoe.
“There’s twenty of them,” Tom said when he returned. “They’re at a safe house south of us.”
“Twenty?”
Lee said.
“We’ve got room,” Tom said, “but they can’t get here until late tomorrow night. Some kind of car problem.”
“That’ll give us more time to fix up the place,” Brooke said.
“Good thinking,” Luke said, motioning for Brooke and Lee to follow. “Let me take you guys down to the river. You know, God’s love is like a mighty river. There’s a ton of verses that talk about that… .”
Judd, Lionel, and Tom quickly ran to the house and helped the others with the last of their things. There were tearful good-byes to Tom. Carl gave him a big hug and said they would wait for him at the Barnwell, Georgia, safe house.
“Hopefully we’ll meet tomorrow night after we get things settled with these two,” Tom said.
“I’ve left a few surprises for the GC downstairs,” Carl said. “Don’t go poking around down there. And you’ll be without any kind of computer connection.”
“It’s okay,” Tom said. “We’ll catch up tomorrow night.”
After dark that night, Judd sat up with Lee and Brooke, talking about the ways God had changed his life. Judd didn’t hold back explaining exactly what God had done, thinking it might have some effect, even on people with Carpathia’s mark.
Tom came in a few minutes before midnight and gave Judd a nod. The others had escaped without being noticed. Judd couldn’t wait until it was his turn to leave, but he knew they had to come up with a good plan to keep Lee and Brooke occupied.
One more night and we’ll be on the move north, Judd thought.
13
EARLY the next morning Judd took the call from Carl Meninger letting them know the group was safe in a hideout at Barnwell, Georgia. Carl and the others had walked miles through the low country until they had reached a major roadway running north and south. There, they hooked up with a fearless Co-op member who had risked his life and his truck to help the kids escape.
“I’ve e-mailed Chang from here, and he says the GC have called in the big guns for tonight’s raid,” Carl said. “There’s a group north of Charleston who want to help transport you. The pickup will be at the same place as ours, but they’ll take you to a different location to be safe.”
Judd noticed Lee and Brooke listening near the door. “Okay, then we’ll expect you guys late tonight. Can’t wait to roll out the red carpet. We’re fixing up some rooms so you’ll feel welcome.”
“I couldn’t help overhearing,” Brooke said when Judd hung up. “The new members are definitely coming?”
“Yeah, and I talked with Luke about setting up watch for them. They’ll be coming from the south, so we’ll need some lookouts to welcome them and make sure we don’t get any unfriendlies.”
“What do you mean?”
“Global Community.”
“You don’t think they know about this place, do you?”
Judd took a breath. “The GC know a lot about everything. They could be following our people, or bounty hunters could be out there. We need people on all points of the perimeter.” Judd handed Brooke a radio. “We’ll use these to communicate.”
“Lee and I will be honored to help.”
Throughout the day, Luke and Tom coordinated the meeting place with believers in Walterboro, South Carolina. The two mapped out their trail as Judd, Lionel, Lee, and Brooke worked on upstairs rooms.
“Some of these are clean,” Lee said. “Were there people staying here before?”
“We haven’t been here long,” Lionel said. “From what I’ve heard, a lot of people have moved through here in the past couple of years.”
Judd broke away from the others and went to the cellar to call Vicki. He remembered Carl’s reminder and noticed wires running along the foundation and several weird contraptions under the staircase.
Vicki was glad to hear from Judd and said she felt good about their escape plan. “We’ve been praying for you guys nonstop.”
Judd told her that he would try to e-mail or call as soon as they arrived at their location, but not to worry.
“Lionel and I have been kicking around an idea for after we get out of here.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s clear that coming up there is going to be risky right now if we try to fly in or even drive. The GC is cracking down on anybody without the mark.”
“Then you need to stay there until it’s safe,” Vicki said.
“Not necessarily. We’ve mapped out a list of safe houses nearby that Chloe Williams gave us. We’ll need more as we go north, but what if we get enough supplies together and hoof it to Wisconsin?”
“You’re not serious.”
“Totally. There’s no way the GC can patrol the forests, what’s left of them, and if we can make it to different safe houses every few days for rations and maybe grab some rides with Co-op members, it could happen. I don’t know how long it would take, but at least we’d be moving in your direction.”
“Judd, you know how much I want you back here, but this sounds …” Vicki giggled.
“What?” Judd said.
“I was just thinking about a story I read about a guy …” Vicki paused. “No, I don’t want to say it.”
“Come on, tell me.”
“Well, he wanted to show his girlfriend how much he loved her, so he started out in California and walked all the way to his girlfriend’s house in Pennsylvania and proposed to her.”
Judd smiled. “Sounds pretty devoted.”
“I wasn’t saying that to make you … you know, to plant some kind of idea or anything … oh no, I’ve really done it this time.”
Judd chuckled. “That story obviously didn’t happen during the Tribulation.”
“Right, that just popped into my head. I’m sorry.”
There were footsteps above so Judd lowered his voice. “Listen, there are a lot of miles between us right now, but I’m going to make it back. When I do, we’re going to be a great team again.”
“Be careful, Judd.”
Vicki hung up with Judd and wished she could do something to help him. Her days at the Wisconsin hideout were good, with plenty of work and new opportunities for reaching out through the Internet. The kids’ Web site had been listed as forbidden by the Global Community, but that only made people want to read it more. It was like the list of “banned books” Vicki remembered at her local library. The controversy made more people want to read them, though she didn’t understand how you could check out a “banned” book.
The Global Community had developed a program that infected The Cube, the kids’ high-tech presentation of the gospel, but Jim Dekker, who had created the program, quickly discovered how to defeat the virus. With the rise of the miracle workers around the world, many undecided wrote with questions, and Vicki found many believers who were confused. They couldn’t understand how these false messiahs could do the same types of miracles that first-century Christians had witnessed.
Vicki spent most of her time answering e-mails, helping with the mundane cleanup and cooking, or fixing up run-down cabins. Charlie was a big help moving heavy things and finding new lumber. Phoenix spent most of his waking hours following Charlie around and never let the young man out of his sight.
Other than Judd, the person who weighed most heavily on her mind was Cheryl Tifanne. Cheryl had become a believer shortly after being rescued from a GC holding facility in Iowa, and the girl was pregnant. She wasn’t due for another few months, but Vicki wondered if the girl would be strong enough to deliver the baby.
Cheryl had asked Josey and Tom Fogarty to be the parents of the child after he or she was born, but Cheryl was having second thoughts. As the baby began to move in Cheryl’s womb, it became more real and Cheryl wondered if she had made a mistake promising the child to someone else.
“If I hadn’t become a believer, I would have probably had an abortion,” Cheryl said. “Now I can see that every life is precious, even though the baby’s father abandoned me.”
“You’ll probably stay right here with the Fogartys,” Vicki sa
id. “You’ll help raise the child.”
“But it’s going to be hard just handing the baby over,” Cheryl said.
“From what I know about pregnancies, your emotions are going to go all over the place. It’s important to keep asking one question: what’s best for the baby? If you keep that in front at all times, you won’t be swayed by how you feel. You’ll do the best for the child.”
Cheryl nodded. “It’s not going to be easy, though. I can’t imagine holding the little thing in my arms and then giving it away.”
Vicki put an arm around the girl. “God will show you what to do when the time’s right. And he’ll give you the strength to do something good.”
Cheryl caught her breath. “Did you feel that? He kicked! Right here. Feel.”
Vicki put a hand on Cheryl’s stomach and felt something pressing against her. A bump appeared on Cheryl’s skin and Vicki giggled.
“I think that’s an elbow. Can you believe it, Vicki? A brand-new life coming into the world and at a time like this.” Cheryl trembled as the baby moved again. “I’m scared for the little thing. How are we ever going to take care of it?”
Vicki didn’t answer. She knew there were no guarantees for any of them. The GC could find out about their camp and wipe it out in a few minutes if they wanted. But for some reason God had left them here, scared and outnumbered, for a reason.
Judd tried to stay calm throughout the day as he and Lionel led another study of Scripture. Lee and Brooke tried to act interested, but Judd could tell the Bible annoyed them. Judd scooted close and asked Brooke to read a few verses. As she staggered through the words, Judd looked closely at her forehead. Whoever had covered their marks had done a good job. All of Brooke’s scratching had left a crease in the makeup, and Judd thought he saw air bubbles under the rubber-like covering.
Tom and Luke gathered the radios and a few BHDs, put them in backpacks, and hid them in the woods to the north of the house. When the six gathered for dinner, Tom gave Judd a discreet thumbs-up.
“Why don’t you lead us in a prayer tonight, Brooke?” Luke said.
“Oh, I-I-I couldn’t, really.”
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