Arrived

by Jerry B. Jenkins

  “No one wants to listen,” Vicki said, but Tsion was already gone, pushed along by the crowd.

  A man grabbed Tsion by the shoulders and yelled, “Hail to Ben-Judah, fearless leader of the remnant!” Another man raised Tsion off the ground and soon he was on their shoulders, people shouting his praises. As the crowd rounded the corner, Tsion was above their heads, bobbing like a parade balloon.

  “This is crazy,” Judd said over the noise.

  “This is great,” Vicki said.

  They moved forward, looking for more wounded. A short time later shots fired down the street as the Unity Army came over Herod’s Gate. Judd raced a few yards ahead, then came back to report that the rebels had fallen and were retreating. Judd and Vicki ducked into a doorway.

  “You think Dr. Ben-Judah will be protected?” Judd said.

  “I hope so,” Vicki said.

  “We’ve got to get out of here before the Unity Army comes,” Judd said.

  They slipped into the street and ran with the crowd.

  Judd found an entrance to the tunnels and plunged down with others searching for ammunition or a place to hide. Some younger soldiers cowered in a corner, shaking and whimpering.

  A man with the mark of the believer walked up to Judd and Vicki. He was armed with an Uzi and had a string of grenades strapped around his belt. “Any news of Messiah?”

  “Not yet,” Judd said, “but he’s coming.”

  A Jewish woman in her twenties wiped tears from her eyes. She wore fatigues and black boots and reminded Judd of Nada, Jamal’s daughter.

  “Why are you talking about legends at a time like this?” the woman said. She did not have the mark of the believer.

  Vicki approached her. “Surely you’ve heard that a Messiah is coming.”

  “Yes, I’ve heard that all my life, but I’ve always thought it was a myth created by people who didn’t want to deal with reality. And reality now is that we’re all going to die. A fairy tale is not going to change that.”

  “It’s no fairy tale,” Vicki said, “any more than the disappearances and the earthquake and everything else that’s happened during the past seven years. Jesus is coming back—at any moment—and you need to be ready.”

  “I’m ready to die for my country. I want to rid the earth of Nicolae Carpathia, but I won’t turn my back on my religion. Get away from me.”

  “Please, just listen to—”

  “Go!”

  Judd felt bad for Vicki and even worse for the woman who seemed closed to the truth.

  Another rebel nearby waved a hand, so Vicki and Judd walked over. “I heard what you said,” the young man said. “And I heard Dr. Ben-Judah last night. I almost prayed, but I was with my father and he cursed the man.”

  “We can help you,” Judd said. “What do you need to know?”

  The man looked around the darkened hallway. Several people listened. “I always thought the talk about Jesus was blasphemy. A story made up to make people hate Jews. Now I think I might have been wrong. I’ve been wondering if he could be the Messiah.”

  “We all rejected him,” Judd said. “Everyone who’s living now missed him. But the good news is you can be forgiven.”

  Judd and Vicki shared Bible verses showing that Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. Some in the hallway scoffed and kept going, but others stayed.

  “Paul was a famous Jewish person from the first century,” Judd said. “He studied under the best teachers and even persecuted followers of Jesus. Then something happened and this is what he wrote.”

  Judd held out a small Bible for the man. He read aloud, “ ‘I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—Jews first and also Gentiles.’ ”

  Judd flipped a few pages and read from Romans chapter 15. “ ‘Remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show that God is true to the promises he made to their ancestors.’ Jesus came and fulfilled everything predicted about him—that he would suffer and die a cruel death, that he would save his people, that he would—”

  “But what about the verses that say Messiah will be a king,” the young rebel said, “a ruler of the people who will establish righteousness?”

  Vicki smiled. “Jesus is a descendant of King David. He is going to sit on David’s throne, just like the prophecies said. And he’s going to do it when he returns to conquer Satan and those who serve him.”

  “It seems so … foreign to me,” the man said.

  “There’s a verse in Corinthians that says we can’t find God through human wisdom,” Vicki said. “That God used the cross and the foolishness of preaching to draw people to himself. And that’s what we’re saying to you, as foolish as it might sound. Jesus died so your sins could be forgiven. He gave his life and paid the penalty so you could be a true child of God. And he offers you the chance to believe in him right now.”

  “We believe Jesus could come back any second,” Judd said. He looked around at the others who had gathered. “Don’t wait any longer to give your lives to him and serve him.”

  “What do we have to do?” a man said.

  Judd nodded at Vicki and she understood. “Pray with me,” she said. “Give your lives to God right now.”

  Judd glanced around the tunnel and saw several people bow their heads.

  “Dear God, I’m sorry for rejecting you and the Son you sent to die for me. I do believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that he gave himself for me on the cross. I believe he rose again and made a way for me to spend eternity with you. I ask you right now to come into my life, forgive me, and make me a new person. Show me what you want me to do before Jesus returns. In his name I pray. Amen.”

  The people looked up as a new group of rebels ran through the tunnel. The rebel Vicki had first spoken with stood.

  “What’s that on your forehead?” a man said.

  “You have something on yours too,” the young rebel said.

  Judd looked through tears at the scene. What would have happened to these people if he and Vicki hadn’t come to Jerusalem? And what would happen to them now?

  34

  JUDD helped Vicki gather the new believers and prayed with them, asking God to help them spread the message of Christ’s return even in the middle of the war. A few rebels ran through the tunnel passing on rumors that the Unity Army was retreating in confusion. Others said it was a trick.

  “The rabbi said it is true,” a newcomer said. “Something from Zechariah about God striking horses and riders.”

  “Where is the rabbi?” Judd said.

  “I didn’t see him. I was just told about—”

  “Where do you think he is?” Judd interrupted.

  “Someone said he was near Herod’s Gate, but don’t go unless you want to hear more about Messiah.”

  Judd grabbed Vicki’s arm, and they climbed out of the tunnel into the street. The silence was eerie. No gunfire, no hum of GC vehicles or crash of battering rams against gates.

  As they ran for Herod’s Gate, the unmistakable voice of Nicolae Carpathia blasted over a giant bullhorn. “Attention, people of Jerusalem! This is your supreme potentate!”

  A crowd shouted ahead of them, and Judd and Vicki kept moving.

  “Please listen, citizens,” Carpathia said. “I come in peace.”

  More shouting.

  “Come, let us reason together!” Carpathia paused. “I come to offer pardon. I am willing to compromise. I wish you no ill. If you are willing to serve me and be obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword. I will rid myself of my adversaries and take vengeance on my enemies. I will turn my hand against you and thoroughly purge you.

  “But it does not have to be this way, citizens of the Global Community. If you will lay down your arms and welcome me into your city, I will guarantee your peace and safety.”

  Judd and Vicki had made it to the edge of the crowd at Herod’s Gate and looked for Tsion.<
br />
  “This will be your sign to me,” Carpathia said. “If at the count of three I hear silence for fifteen seconds, I will assume you are willing to accede to my requests. A single gunshot into the air during that time will be your signal that you would rather oppose me. But I warn you, half of Jerusalem is in captivity already. The entire city could be overthrown easily within an hour. The choice is yours at the count of three.”

  Judd wished he had a gun, but before Carpathia could even count to one, thousands of weapons fired.

  When the shooting stopped, Judd noticed someone moving on a wall above the crowd. It was Tsion Ben-Judah!

  “It is not too late!” Tsion said. “Make your stand for Messiah now! Repent, choose, and be saved!”

  As Tsion spoke, the mark of the true believer appeared on forehead after forehead. Even at this late hour, God was working in people’s hearts.

  Judd looked at Vicki, who stared at the scene, fascinated. Suddenly Judd felt they should get to safety. Was it God telling him or his own fears? He wasn’t about to take a chance, so he pulled her away from the gathering and to the entrance of another tunnel.

  Lionel watched Unity Army riders get their horses under control. The vast army had moved toward Petra like an endless swarm of bees and had overcome whatever had spooked the horses.

  Sam Goldberg scrambled up an incline toward Lionel and knelt beside him. “You ready for this?”

  “How can I be?” Lionel said. “This is David versus Goliath times a million.”

  “Yeah, but you know who won that fight.” Sam shook his head. “I’m not sure why we’re out here, though. Can you imagine going into the middle of that army and trying to bring back anything?”

  The order came for another round of DEWs, which Sam called ray guns. The Unity Army’s front line fell back, and troops shifted and rippled like a human ocean. Lionel wondered if the GC would respond with an attack, but nothing came.

  “Where’s Mr. Stein?” Lionel said.

  “Praying with some of the elders,” Sam said. “He’s upset he couldn’t be in Jerusalem.”

  “I know how he feels.”

  “What, this isn’t enough excitement for you?”

  Judd sat by Vicki, listening to the battle above them and wondering if he had been wrong about not fighting with these brave men and women. After all, Jesus was coming back any minute—or at least within the next day. He was as sure of that as the mark on his forehead.

  Sitting in the tunnel near a stairwell, it was all he could do to resist grabbing a rifle and heading up. But his promise to Vicki meant that if he went to the fight, she would have to go as well, and Judd didn’t want that.

  Finally the noise died a little and Vicki spoke. “I think we should go up. Maybe there are people who need more ammo or need to hear the message.”

  Judd nodded. “Okay, stay here and I’ll check it out.”

  He flew up the stairs and carefully opened the door. The sight turned his stomach. Weapons and bodies of rebels littered the street. He inched out and closed the door to see if the Unity Army was near.

  A kerthunk sounded some distance away, and Judd instinctively ducked. A shell struck the building behind him, sending debris flying. He stayed on the ground, coughing and waving a hand.

  When the dust cleared, he saw a hole the size of a small car in the wall behind him.

  The hole was right next to the stairwell.

  “Vicki!” Judd screamed.

  Lionel took a walk along the edge of the Petra defensive line, passing a man holding a DEW in one hand and a small television in the other. Lionel stopped and squinted at the screen.

  “You want to see?” the man said, holding the screen higher.

  Lionel thanked him and sat.

  “This is a GCNN report about the war,” the man said. The screen showed an aerial view of the One World Unity Army shot before sundown. The reporter explained that one-third of Carpathia’s forces had surrounded Petra and that rebel leader Tsion Ben-Judah was hiding there.

  “They don’t have a clue,” Lionel muttered.

  “The other two-thirds of the Unity Army is poised to overtake the city of Jerusalem,” the reporter said. “Potentate Carpathia himself reports that nearly half the city has been occupied and that it is just a matter of time before the Old City is overrun.”

  The report switched to a press conference with Carpathia recorded earlier. “We are confident that these are the last two rebel enclaves in the world,” he said, “and that once they have been thoroughly defeated and our enemies scattered, we will realize what we have so long dreamed of: an entire world of peace and harmony. There is no place in a true global community for rebellion. If our government was anything but benevolent or did not have the attitude of ‘citizen first,’ there might be cause for dissention. But all we have ever attempted to do was create a utopia for society.

  “It is most unfortunate that it comes to this, that we have to resort to bloodshed to achieve our goals. But we will do what we have to do.”

  A reporter asked about the huge army fighting against so few.

  Carpathia said no effort in the cause of world peace was wasted. Then he chuckled when another reporter asked if the GC was afraid of the rebels’ God.

  “I do not worry about fairy tales,” Carpathia answered, “but even if they did have supernatural help, they would be no match for our fighting machine. …”

  Lionel gritted his teeth. “You’re going down, Nicolae.”

  “Why not win this war all at once?” a reporter said.

  “What’s the delay?”

  “I am a man of peace. I always believe first in diplomacy and negotiation. The window of opportunity for settling this peacefully is always open. I had hoped that the enemies of peace would be persuaded by our size and would come to the bargaining table. But our patience is running out. They seem markedly uninterested in any reasonable solution, and we are prepared to use any means necessary. So it is just a matter of time now.”

  Lionel thanked the rebel for letting him watch and asked Zeke if he could spare him for a few minutes. Lionel wanted to see the reaction of the remnant.

  Judd didn’t care if the Unity Army was coming—he had to get to Vicki. The door to the stairwell was blocked by stones, so he went through the hole opened by the shell. He checked the street and saw a few rebels but no GC. Must have been a stray shot, he thought.

  It was hard to breathe inside. He called for Vicki, but there was no answer. Finding the way blocked, he dashed back outside and yelled at a few passing rebels. “My wife is trapped! Can you help me?”

  “I’m headed to Herod’s Gate,” one said. “Can’t stop.”

  “Please,” Judd said. “It’ll only take a minute.”

  “In another minute the Unity Army might be over the wall!” The men ran on.

  Finally, Judd saw a believer, and the husky man helped Judd move debris in front of the door. When they had cleared it, Judd tried the doorknob but it wouldn’t open.

  “Stand back,” the man said. He raised his gun and blew the knob to pieces. Judd pried the door open and turned to thank the man, but he was already running away. “I hope you find your wife,” he called, raising a fist. “I’ll see you after Messiah comes.”

  Judd raced through the dust to the bottom of the steps. The tunnel wasn’t as damaged as the wall outside, but there were still huge stones on the floor.

  “Over here,” Vicki said, coughing. She lay on the floor with a stone on her leg. “I tried to move it.”

  Judd’s heart beat furiously as he struggled to free Vicki. The stone wouldn’t budge. He snagged a gun propped against the wall and used it to pry the stone up a few inches, but Vicki’s leg was still pinned. He was afraid the stone would fall and injure her worse if he tipped it farther. His arms ached as he yelled for help.

  A young rebel came toward them from the other side of the tunnel. He put his gun under the stone, and together he and Judd lifted it enough for Vicki to scoot out. The sto
ne crashed to the floor with a tremendous thud!

  “Thank you,” Vicki said, holding her leg.

  Kneeling, the young man took out a knife, slit Vicki’s pant leg at the bottom, and tore it until he reached her kneecap. Judd gasped at the gash in her leg. The wound was to the bone, and blood gushed out.

  The young man unzipped a pocket on his jacket and pulled out some gauze and antiseptic. He poured it on the wound, and Vicki yelped in pain. When he had wrapped her leg, he said, “It doesn’t look like it’s broken, but someone should look at it soon.”

  “I’ll take her to our friend’s apartment right now,” Judd said.

  “You don’t believe in Messiah,” Vicki said, putting a hand on the man’s arm.

  The young man frowned. “Judah-ites,” he muttered.

  “Jesus is coming soon. You need to be ready.”

  “The Unity Army is coming sooner,” the man said, grabbing his gun and racing up the stairs.

  Judd picked Vicki up and climbed the stairs. “We’ll make it to Jamal’s place quicker through the street than the tunnel.”

  He struggled up the last steps, then was outside. Vicki buried her head in his chest as they passed rebel bodies. The sun was high in the sky now.

  “How does it feel?” Judd said, looking at the bloody bandage.

  “I’m okay. It’s just throbbing.”

  “We’ll get some medicine back at—” Judd stopped in the street and stared.

  “What’s wrong?” Vicki said.

  “Over there, the guy at the edge of the curb. Is that … ?”

  “Judd, it is! Oh, Judd, it’s Tsion!”

  Judd walked over to the body and put Vicki down gently. Tsion’s eyes were closed, his hands together at the waist. Someone had smoothed his hair and closed his jacket over a chest wound.

  Vicki wept softly, saying the man’s name over and over.

  “Vick, we have to go. Someone’s coming.”

  Several rebels passed. One slowed and studied the body. “Is that who I think it is?”