The car chugged and clunked its way through the smoky streets, leaving a trail of smoke of its own. Judd glanced at Vicki and smiled. “You think the GC will stop us for polluting the air?”
Vicki gritted her teeth. “You’re doing this for me, aren’t you?”
“In a way, but I’m doing it for Howard and his mother too.”
“I saw Westin’s face. If we don’t get back to that plane in time we’re in big trouble, right?”
Judd made a sharp turn, and the tires squealed. “This is the right thing to do, and not just because it was your idea. We’re going to find Howard and get to the plane. Besides, Westin owes me.”
Judd parked on what had been the lawn of the library. All the grass had burned, along with the flowers and shrubbery that surrounded the building.
“How do you want to do this?” Vicki said.
“We don’t have time for strategy,” Judd said.
“If there are GC here and they have guns, they’ll use them.”
Judd scratched his chin. “Maybe we can make them think there are more than two of us.”
“It doesn’t matter how many they think we are—if they start shooting, we’re in trouble.”
Vicki already noticed a change in the way Judd handled things. In the old days, he would have simply rushed inside without talking with anyone. He might have dismissed the idea of coming back altogether. But something had changed, and it made Vicki want to follow him inside.
Judd stopped, picked up a huge rock, and pointed to the tinted glass below them. “That’s the stairwell. Grab a rock and see if you can break that glass.”
Judd’s first throw glanced off and landed below. Vicki moved for a better angle and heaved a chunk of concrete. The glass crashed and fell inside the stairwell.
“Good job,” Judd said, picking up another stone. A minute later the stairwell was filled with glass, and the sun reached the fire doors below.
Judd climbed down the small hill and carefully crawled through one of the broken windows. He reached back to help Vicki through, then propped open the fire doors with two rocks. Immediately Vicki heard voices whispering inside. A woman was crying, and someone tried to shush her.
Vicki moved into the basement and thought about the GC’s perspective. They were trying to stay out of the fire, and here were people walking through it as though it was nothing. “They must be terrified,” she whispered.
Judd pointed to the opposite end of the building. “I saw two windows down on that end. There must be an office or something. The more light we can get in here, the better.”
Vicki nodded, grabbed two rocks, and hurried in the shadows to the other end of the room. Judd was right. A sign on a door at the end said Library Director. Vicki tried the doorknob, and to her surprise the door opened. She hurled stones at the window behind the desk, and the glass shattered, letting in some of the deadly heat.
Another crash on the other side of the library and a shaft of light lit the room. Judd walked into the light.
“What do you want with us?” a man yelled, his voice full of fear.
“Why are you trying to kill us?” a woman sobbed.
Vicki froze and strained to see the people. “It’s getting really hot,” someone said.
“We don’t want to hurt you,” Judd said. Vicki had never heard this voice of Judd’s. It was full of authority, though he wasn’t yelling. “Throw out your weapons, and we’ll get what we need and leave.”
“Don’t do it,” someone whispered. “It’s a trick.”
“That blacked-out window behind you will come down if you don’t slide your weapons out now.”
Vicki held her breath.
Several guns clattered on the floor. Judd gathered them up cautiously and returned to the shadows. “All right, step forward and come to the front of the stacks.”
“He’s going to shoot us!” a woman said.
“You won’t be harmed. Step forward.”
“The sun’s too hot,” a man said.
Judd kicked the rocks from the stair doors and let them close. The room darkened, and several people stepped forward. “Sit,” Judd said.
Vicki counted twelve people, four of them wearing Global Community uniforms. They sat in front of the bookshelves, sweating and breathing heavily, eyes darting from Judd to Vicki.
“Is this all of you?” Judd said.
“It’s everybody,” an officer said.
Judd placed the guns on the floor and squatted. “How did you find this place?”
The officer laughed. “What do you mean? It’s the only building standing for blocks. We ran in here to escape the heat. More come every night.”
“Did you see anyone in here when you came?”
“Nobody,” the officer said.
“I thought I saw some Judah-ites run out,” a younger woman said. “They ran into the sunlight just like …”
“Just like what?”
She hesitated. “Just like you.”
As Judd spoke with the group, Vicki wandered down the corridor, looking for a hiding place. She noticed movement in one of the locked study rooms along the north wall. A series of doors opened on small, five-by-five-foot rooms. Vicki got on all fours and crept toward the door at the end. She stood and looked through the window. A young man with the mark of the believer on his forehead moved behind a desk. He was startled when Vicki knocked on the door.
“Howard?” Vicki said.
The young man’s mouth opened in shock. “How did you know my name?”
“Get out of there. We don’t have much time.”
Howard was thin and no taller than Vicki, with a slight beard. His clothes were tight, and his hair stuck up in the back.
“I’ve been waiting two days for someone to come get me,” Howard said as he snatched his backpack and followed Vicki. “Do you know where my mom and—”
Vicki put a finger to her lips. “Keep quiet until we get out of here.” She led Howard to the stairwell door and cleared her throat. “I have him.”
Judd grabbed the guns from the floor and stood.
“I thought you said we could have our guns back,” the officer said.
“You don’t need guns to survive this plague by God.”
“You are Judah-ites,” a woman said.
A gun clicked from the back of the library, and Vicki ducked as the wood above her head splintered. Automatic weapon fire filled the room, and Judd hit the stairwell doors hard, spreading light onto the people sitting in front of the stacks. All of them screamed and ran for the darkness as Judd, Vicki, and Howard bolted upstairs.
“Get in the car!” Judd yelled as they jumped over the broken glass on the stairway. More gunfire erupted, but the shooter quickly ran out of ammunition.
While Judd plopped the weapons in the backseat, Howard jumped inside. “Where are you taking me?”
“Hang on,” Judd said, firing up the Beetle. “We’re headed for the airport.”
The car’s tires spun on the lawn when Judd pulled away. Vicki looked back to make sure no one was following them and noticed more smoke. Judd slowed long enough to see the roof of the library begin to curl. Windows on the upper floor of the building shattered, and smoke billowed. Vicki put her window down a little, then rolled it up when she heard people inside screaming.
Judd had clicked his stopwatch as soon as Westin and the others in the bus pulled away. He looked at it now and shook his head. They had less than twenty minutes to make it to the airport before the hour was up.
He flew through the streets, made a wrong turn, backtracked, then headed in the right direction.
“How’d you guys know I was there?” Howard said.
“Your mom noticed you were missing,” Vicki said. “What happened?”
“Our leader told us to stay together, but I got fed up with all the rules. I went into one of those study rooms, and when I woke up the GC had moved in. I tried to slip out last night, but I got scared.”
“You should have list
ened to your leader,” Judd said.
Howard rolled his eyes. “Thanks.”
Judd dialed Westin, but the call didn’t go through.
“A lot of the big towers are down,” Howard said. “I heard that before the power went out.”
By the time they made it to the airport, Judd’s watch showed the trip had taken an hour and a half. He jammed the keys in his pocket, slammed the door of the Beetle, and joined Vicki outside. The sun was fading, and they had only an hour of daylight left.
“Don’t be too hard on Howard,” Vicki whispered. “Westin will be back for us tomorrow, right?”
Judd sighed. “I hope so, but you know if he talks to anyone in the Trib Force they’ll blacklist us.”
Vicki shrugged. “Well, that’ll just give us more time together.”
Howard got out of the car and approached them with his hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you trouble. Guess I’ve really messed things up.”
Judd put a hand on Howard’s shoulder. “Everybody makes mistakes. I just hope you live long enough to learn from them.”
“We need to find a place to hide, right?” Howard said. “I think I might know the spot.”
Howard pointed to the parking garage, and Judd parked the car behind some burned-out vehicles. They wound their way through the stairwell, made it to the roof, and found a spot by the door.
“I’m hungry,” Vicki said.
Howard opened his backpack and pulled out a couple of sandwiches and some candy bars. “I had these stashed away in my little corner so I wouldn’t have to go out and eat with the others.” He gave the food to Vicki, and she divided it equally among them. Judd rushed into the terminal and came back a few minutes later with several bottles of water he had found in an employee kitchen.
“What do we do if the GC come tonight?” Howard said.
“The only people who knew about you are part of the ashes of that library,” Judd said.
“What if somebody heard the plane?”
Judd shrugged, and Vicki huddled close to him as the sun finally went down. Judd tried calling Westin, but the connection didn’t ring. He thought about calling the group in Wisconsin but decided against it. They were on their own for the night.
Vicki suggested they pray, and the three bowed their heads. Judd and Vicki prayed freely and paused to let Howard join.
After a few seconds he took a breath and struggled through a brief prayer. “God, I want to thank you for these people who helped me. If the GC had caught me back there, I don’t know what would have happened. I ask you to forgive me for being so … hardheaded and help Judd and Vicki make it back to their friends.”
43
JUDD was surprised at how fast the temperature dropped after the sun went down. Vicki snuggled close, and the two tried to stay warm. Though fires burned throughout the city, they feared building one on the roof would draw attention.
In the daytime, the only sounds Judd had heard, other than their car and plane, were the crackling fires and the whistling of the wind. At night, however, the city seemed to come alive. Dogs barked, motorcycles whined, and people shouted in the distance. But the worst sound was the cries of people who had lost family and friends. The high-pitched wails of men and women in pain echoed through the smoldering ruins.
“I feel so bad for them,” Vicki whispered. “If they’d chosen God instead of Carpathia, they wouldn’t be hurting.”
Judd looked at Howard, who was looking out at the city over the concrete wall. “How long have you lived here?”
“All my life. I never thought I’d see anything like this.”
“Tell us your story,” Vicki said.
“You don’t want to know about me.”
“Come on,” Judd said.
Howard sighed, turned, and slid to a sitting position. “My dad left when I was four or five. My mom did her best, but by the time I was a teenager, I didn’t want anybody running my life. She worked two jobs, so she was out till all hours of the night.
“I hung out with a bunch of friends, and a lot of times I didn’t even show up for school. We’d party all night, which meant we’d buy some beer—we didn’t have much money for drugs. I guess you could say I was wasted. I was just kind of out there.”
“You didn’t know any Christians?” Vicki said.
Howard laughed. “I saw them on TV, you know, the evangelists and all. Preachers who wanted me to send money. I knew kids whose parents dragged them to church, but they pretty much did the same stuff I did.
“But there was this one kid, Kirk. He was just as wild as we were, only not in the same way.”
“What do you mean?” Vicki said.
“He could do stuff on a skateboard you wouldn’t believe. No helmet. No fear. He was skinny, like me, with a pointy nose. He kind of looked like a bird, come to think of it. His hair was always sticking up in the back, and his body was always moving. You know, even if he was standing still he was moving, cracking his knuckles, crossing his legs, snapping his neck. You just couldn’t stop the guy.”
“What happened to him?” Vicki said.
“We were hanging out one night when Kirk came by. He was riding a new scooter he’d saved up for. His dad didn’t like him riding at night, but he had to show it off. You should have seen his face when he pulled up. You would have thought he had a Mercedes. He’d been talking about the thing for a whole year.” Howard looked at the floor and pursed his lips.
“What?” Judd said. “Did you do something to him?”
“We made fun of it. We asked him why he threw away his money on a toy. Said it would probably only go ten miles an hour. I knew we hurt him. He just wanted to show it to us.”
“When you get with a group, it’s hard not to put others down,” Vicki said.
“Yeah, well I never got the chance to tell him I was sorry.”
“What happened?”
“He gunned the thing and drove down an alley, trying to show off. I told the other guys he was going to wipe out if he wasn’t careful. He must have been going fifty when he came out the other side. We heard a squeal and a crash. And when we got there, a guy was standing by the scooter saying, ‘He drove right out in front of me.’ The impact had thrown Kirk about thirty feet into some garbage cans. He was still breathing when we got to him. The driver called an ambulance. Kirk wasn’t wearing a helmet, and I’m not sure he had much of a chance, anyway.”
“That must have been awful for you,” Vicki said.
“Yeah. I went to the hospital, but I couldn’t face his family. The next day I heard he’d died and that all of us were invited to the funeral.”
“Did you go?” Judd said.
Howard nodded. “It was the first time I heard any kind of religion that made sense.”
“What do you mean?” Vicki said.
“Kirk wasn’t real religious, you know. He didn’t push it on any of us. When we’d get beer or the occasional joint, he’d find some excuse to leave. He did smoke cigarettes, but I could tell he felt bad about it and tried like everything to quit. He actually invited me and my mom to church a couple of times, but I always made some excuse.
“Anyway, the funeral was at his church, and you wouldn’t believe all the people. There were church kids sitting next to stoners and freaks. Just about every group in school had known Kirk. We were there to say good-bye and try to deal with the loss, but the family had asked a guy to speak.”
“Someone from the church?” Judd said.
“Yeah, a youth leader. He had kind of a high-pitched voice and was short, but what he said made all of us want to listen. He talked about Kirk and nailed him. I mean, the guy knew him inside and out. Even talked about Kirk’s struggle to kick tobacco.
“Then he told us that we’d all known Kirk for a reason. He was quiet for a moment, and I could hear people sniffling. He said God had called us to a divine appointment that day to hear Kirk’s biggest hope for each one of us.
“He pulled out a wrinkled p
iece of paper and put on his glasses. It was so quiet you could have heard a mouse burp. I looked at Kirk’s mom and dad, and I don’t think they even knew what the guy was going to say.”
Howard stopped his story and turned his head. “You guys hear that?”
Judd stood up. He had been so engrossed in Howard’s story that he had forgotten they were keeping an eye out for the Global Community.
“Maybe this wasn’t the best place to hide,” Vicki said.
Judd peeked over the railing and scanned the area. A black dog pawed at debris below them, and Judd sighed. “Keep going. I want to hear what happened.”
“So the guy pulls out this paper and starts reading. I guess Kirk had asked a bunch of questions, and the youth guy had told him to write down his thoughts and dreams.”
“What was on the paper?” Vicki said.
“Kirk started with something like, ‘I don’t understand why God could forgive me for the stuff I’ve done and not forgive the others.’ You know, he just kind of went off on God and asked why all his friends seemed so unhappy and how Kirk felt guilty for not reaching out to them and helping them. That was the main thing the youth guy said, that Kirk came to him feeling guilty that he didn’t have the courage to tell all of us about Jesus.
“That’s when he read the prayer. I’ll never forget it. ‘God, I’m asking you to give me the courage to help all my friends hear about you. I don’t know how you’re going to do it, but I ask you to work through me to tell them the truth.’ That was it. The guy folded the paper and put it back in his pocket. He told us that God had worked it out to have all of us in one place so we could hear about Kirk’s faith.”
“What did he say then?” Judd said.
Howard bit his lip. “I remember him talking about Jesus and dying on the cross and wanting to forgive us, but I was so upset about being the reason Kirk was dead that I couldn’t concentrate. I remember him saying that one day Jesus was going to come back for his followers and take them away. When the service was over, the youth guy asked people to come forward and give their lives to God. I slipped out the back door and went home.”
“Did you ever talk with the youth leader?” Judd said.
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