Shaken (4 page)

Judd prayed as he watched Mr. Stein walk toward the Jerusalem Global Community headquarters. The man seemed fearless.

Sam stared at his father and stood. Lionel and Judd grabbed him and pulled him into his chair.

“We don't need anybody else getting arrested,” Lionel said.

Mr. Stein walked into the street, his face turned toward the steps of the station. A car passed him and honked, but Mr. Stein continued, staring at the deputy commander and Sam's father. Mr. Stein stopped in the middle of the street and raised his voice. “You who walk in darkness, behold, you will see a great light—a light that will shine on all who live in the land where death casts its shadow.”

Deputy Commander Woodruff and Mr. Goldberg turned and glared.

“This is what the Lord Almighty says,” Mr. Stein continued. “ ‘Every word that was written, every promise given, will be fulfilled.'”

Deputy Commander Woodruff walked down a few steps and yelled back, “And this is what I say; you are under the arrest of the Global Community!”

Judd looked at Lionel. “What's he doing?”

Lionel shrugged. “Looks like he wants them to take him away.”

Mr. Stein stood his ground as GC officers walked outside to see what was going on. The deputy commander pointed and ordered them to arrest Mr. Stein.

“The captives will be released and the prisoners will be freed!” Mr. Stein shouted.

“And you will be behind bars where you belong, you stupid fool,” Woodruff said. “No more of your lies after today.”

The officers reached the bottom of the steps and moved into the street. Sam shook his head. “I don't understand.”

Suddenly, officers coughed and gasped for air. One pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and put it over his face. The two near Mr. Stein fell to their knees, sputtering and panting.

“What's that smell?” the deputy commander said. Everyone in front of the GC station coughed and waved their arms.

The waiter at the restaurant ran inside. “Sulfur! It's sulfur!” He closed the door behind him and collapsed in a heap.

A woman ran by them on the sidewalk shouting, “We're going to die! It's poison!”

“I don't smell anything,” Sam said.

Then Judd saw them. The huge beasts rode over a building in front of them. Judd pointed. Lionel and Sam couldn't speak.

The horses approached the street where Mr. Stein stood. They hovered as if walking on air. These were not ordinary sized horses. These were monsters. Judd had seen Clydesdales close up, but these were enormous, at least twice the size of any he had ever seen.

Lionel gasped. “Look at their faces!”

Judd couldn't keep his eyes off them. Their heads looked like lions with flowing manes and huge teeth. Flames and thick yellow smoke shot out of their mouths and nostrils, but Judd didn't hear anything. No hoofbeats or snorting or any sound.

The horses were so frightening, Judd almost didn't notice the riders. They were every bit as large as the animals. They looked human, but each one was at least ten feet tall and five hundred pounds. Every horseman wore a shimmering breastplate. Their biceps and forearms rippled with muscles as they worked to control the enormous horses. Judd thought they might stampede at any moment.

Judd jumped out of his chair. “Come on!”

“I'm not going out there,” Sam said.

“These have to be the horses from Revelation 9. Tsion teaches that they won't hurt believers.”

“How can we be sure? They look pretty mean.”

Judd raced into the street. Lionel and Sam followed. Mr. Stein put up a hand as the three came near. One of the horses was only a few yards away. It turned and for the first time they saw the tail.

“Sick!” Lionel said.

Instead of hair, a snake's head writhed on the end of the tail. It bared its fangs and looked at the kids.

“So this is why you came out here,” Judd said to Mr. Stein. “You knew this was going to happen.”

“I had no idea,” Mr. Stein said. “I felt God wanted me to speak and I did. Follow me.”

“We can walk right through the horses?” Judd said.

“These are not physical beings. Their effect is real. They will cause the deaths of many, but we have no reason to fear them.”

Sirens wailed throughout the city as Judd and the others walked up the steps. The deputy commander lay on the steps, clutching his throat. As Judd passed, Woodruff reached out and grabbed his leg. Judd quickly jerked away. The man summoned his strength and stood, finally recognizing Judd. He reached for the radio on his shoulder and clicked the button.

Woodruff gasped and tried to speak. Before he could utter a word, a horse moved toward them and turned, its tail crashing into Woodruff's back. The man flew into the air like a child's toy and crashed into the building. His limp body fell to the sidewalk.

Judd shuddered. How could the horses strike with such force when they weren't physical beings? He and the others had walked directly through them!

Lionel reached the deputy commander's body and checked his pulse. He shook his head.

“Let's go,” Mr. Stein said.

Vicki started to run, but Conrad grabbed her arm.

“Stay right where you are!” the man in the truck said. Vicki noticed a gun rack in the rear of the pickup. The man stepped out and walked in front of the headlights. He was thin and had a long face with a stubbly beard. His arms were gangly, and he walked with a slight limp. He cocked a pistol and held it out as the car arrived.

“How many are there?” the woman said as she stepped out of the car. She was short and wore a leather jacket. She waved the shotgun as she talked.

“Three,” Long Face said. “Two girls and a guy.”

The driver of the car was a man in his mid-thirties. He was stocky with curly hair. He got out and eyed Vicki and Shelly. Something didn't seem right about him.

The woman threw a bag in front of Conrad. “Put all your Nicks and valuables in there and step away from the van.”

“We don't have much,” Vicki said. “This isn't even our car—”

“Shut up and do what you're told!” the woman screamed.

Conrad turned to Vicki and said, “Give them what they want. Main thing is getting out of here alive.”

“Why didn't you think of that back on the road?” the woman yelled.

“Yeah,” the man by the car whined. “You almost scratched my car.”

Conrad shrugged. “The stuff's going to be hard to get. Van's all smashed and—”

The woman pointed the shotgun at Conrad. “Shut up and get out of the way.”

Long Face crawled inside the van and rummaged around. He threw out Vicki's notebook, and papers flew everywhere. Vicki started to retrieve them, but Conrad held her back.

“I've got a bad feeling about this,” Shelly whispered.

“Hey, look what I found!” Long Face said from the van. He handed a metal box to the woman.

“So, you were holding out on us!” the woman said. “Where's the key?”

Conrad pulled a key from his pocket and tossed it to her. She tried to catch it, but it pinged off the side of the car. The curly-headed man glared at him.

The box held enough Nicks to get the kids back to the schoolhouse, but not much more. The woman stuffed the money in her jacket pocket.

“Van's torn up,” Long Face said. “Probably couldn't drive it even if we got it out of the ditch.”

The woman kicked the van and cursed. “We could have sold it, no problem. Now it's a hunk of junk.”

“Better make 'em pay for their mistake,” the curly-headed man said. He stepped forward and reached for the shotgun.

The woman pushed him away and waved the gun at the kids. “If you hadn't tried to get away, we'd have let you go.”

“We won't tell anybody what happened,” Shelly said.

The woman frowned and pointed to the field. “Start walking.”

“What are you going to do?” Conrad said.

“Move,” Curly Hair said.

“You think we should make a run for it?” Vicki whispered.

“I don't think we have much choice,” Conrad said. Shelly gasped. “Wait. They're back!”

Vicki's mouth dropped open when she saw the horses and riders. A herd was moving effortlessly across the field behind them. Fire blew from the horses' nostrils, and great clouds of black and yellow smoke came from their mouths. Vicki guessed they were a half mile away.

The woman glanced behind her when Shelly gasped. The men did too. Both turned and laughed.

“You're not going to get us to fall for that,” Long Face said.

“You don't see them?” Vicki said.

“Real cute,” Curly said. “Just keep moving.”

“If I were you, I'd get out of here fast,” Conrad said.

“This is far enough,” the woman said. “I'm tired of your games. Let's get this over with.”

Vicki looked at the horses. They were right behind the three bandits, hovering over the field. Vicki cringed when she saw their faces. The locusts had been hideous, but these horses and their riders were even scarier.

“Whoa, what's that smell?” Long Face said.

Curly took a deep whiff of air and coughed violently. One of the horses blew a plume of smoke toward the three, and it engulfed them. The woman dropped the shotgun and fell to her knees. She grabbed her throat with both hands and gasped.

Long Face ran toward the kids, his face turning blue. He nearly knocked Shelly over as he pushed past them. One of the horses followed and snorted a blast fire. Long Face burst into flames and went rolling headlong onto the ground.

Curly ran toward the road and jumped in the pickup truck. He gunned the engine and shot past several horses. One turned and flicked its snakelike tail and smashed the windshield. The truck went out of control, ran up the side of an embankment, and hit a tree. One snort from the horse's nostrils and the pickup was engulfed in flames.

The woman tried to stand but couldn't. Finally, she cried and stretched out on the ground. Her body twitched and jerked for a moment; then she lay still.

Shelly put her head on Vicki's shoulder and cried. “I never dreamed it would be this awful.”

Conrad checked, but the woman was dead. He found their money in her jacket and walked toward the road. “Come on, let's get out of here.”

4

MARK
Eisman and the others at the schoolhouse sat in front of the small television their friend Z had recently sent. Mark usually monitored the computer for the latest news, but everyone wanted to see the local coverage. Darrion had alerted Mark about the horses and riders. Now they all sat before the flickering television.

“Reports from Rockford to downstate Illinois have officials concerned,” a nervous reporter said. “But it's not just the Midwest that's being affected. We're hearing about fires and deadly fumes from around the globe. As of yet, there is no explanation for this lethal outbreak that has killed thousands. We have no word yet on the exact number of casualties, but some experts believe hundreds of thousands might lose their lives.”

“Try millions,” Darrion said.

Charlie sighed. “I'm sure glad I got the mark before any of this happened.”

Someone handed the reporter a piece of paper. “We're going to join live coverage from the international headquarters of Global Community Network News.”

The feed switched to a newscast already in progress. The anchor was better dressed than the local reporter but equally baffled at the unfolding events. “Emergency medical professionals are at a loss, frantic to determine the cause. Here's the head of the Global Community Emergency Management Association, Dr. Jurgen Haase.”

Dr. Haase looked composed, almost too calm for the situation. He spoke slowly and with great poise. “If these deaths were isolated, we might say they were caused by a natural disaster, a rupture of some natural gas. But they seem random, and clearly the fumes are lethal. We urge citizens to use gas masks and work together to put out the fires.”