Arrived (41 page)

Judd opened his eyes and noticed a glare shining through a tiny hole in the brick wall. A bomb must have exploded, he thought, and created the crack there. He glanced down and noticed Vicki on his chest.

She shifted slightly and looked up at him. “You're awake. How do you feel?”

Judd put a hand in front of his face. “Fine except for that annoying light coming from over there.” He gestured at the wall. “You think the Unity Army's put up floodlights?”

“If they have, they're yellow,” Vicki said. “Listen.”

Judd sat up quietly, straining to hear a hum coming from outside. “It's weird that we'd hear it down—”

“Shh,” she said. “Can you feel it vibrating?”

Judd listened a few more seconds. “It almost sounds like the light in the aquarium back home. Only a million times louder.”

Vicki's gaze darted left and right.

“What is it?” Judd said.

“I don't know. Maybe we've missed it,” Vicki said.

“Jesus?”

“Yeah, maybe he's already come back and we were down here. Or maybe …”

“What?”

She rolled to her knees and stood, peeking out of the crack in the wall. “There was supposed to be a sign in the sky. …”

“No way I'm going to miss this,” Judd said, racing her up the stairs.

They plunged through the door and into the street, not caring that the GC was nearby. The sight in the sky took their breath away. Judd put an arm around Vicki and hugged her.

“A cross,” she whispered. “Of course!”

Judd couldn't take his eyes from the yellow pulsing light. He wondered what was happening at the Temple Mount right now and in the desert with Carpathia's army. Could the GC sense their end was near?

“Wait a minute,” Vicki said. “What are you doing? You have a broken leg and you just …”

Judd stared at her. “And you—we just ran up those stairs, but …” He put all his weight on his bad leg. No pain. He wasn't even sore. “I thought for sure it was broken.”

Vicki felt the back of his head. “There was a big knot here. What happened?”

Judd's eyes grew wide as he pulled Vicki's pant leg up and unwrapped her bandage.

“What are you doing?” she said. “I want to keep it covered so it won't get infected.”

“You were limping on this, right?”

“Yeah, but—”

Vicki's mouth dropped open. Her leg looked perfectly normal. No skin tears, no blood, no scars. Not even a scratch.

“We've both been healed!” Judd said.

They jumped and giggled like schoolchildren. Judd felt ten pounds lighter.

“What do we do?” Vicki said, unable to stop smiling.

“Jesus is supposed to come back to the Mount of Olives, right?”

She nodded. “And he's going to split it in two.”

“Okay, there's got to be another mount close by where we can see everything.”

“Mount Scopus,” Vicki said.

“Mount Scopus it is,” Judd said. “Let's go.”

Lionel picked up the canteen and screwed on the lid as he watched the cross. It was a symbol of how far God would go to show his love.

Lionel felt pressure on his left arm, and the one Zeke had made for him pushed forward.

Sam yelled and pointed, startled by something on Lionel's clothes.

Lionel brushed his hand against his shirt, thinking there might be an insect on him. “What is it?”

Sam stared at Lionel's left arm. Lionel raised it. His arm had returned. Two hands.

A miracle!

Lionel raised both hands toward the cross and fell to the sand, overcome with thanksgiving.

40

JUDD
and Vicki ran through Jerusalem with the pulsing, flashing cross lighting their way. Judd knew the Unity Army controlled the city, but he didn't care. His Lord was coming, and Judd wanted to see him.

They rounded a corner and noticed several dead bodies. To Judd's amazement, one of them moved. He and Vicki rushed to the man.

When he saw the mark on Judd's and Vicki's foreheads, he smiled. “I was shot and fell here. I pretended I was dead—and nearly was. But just now I felt something strange.” He pointed to his chest. “Look. The hole where the bullet went through isn't there.”

“We were healed too,” Vicki said. She explained where they were going.

“I'll go with you and show you a way around the Unity Army,” the man said. “My name is Ehud.”

The three raced into the night, wondering what they would find around the next corner. What would God do to top what he had already done?

Lionel was so excited about his arm that he didn't notice what was happening behind him.

Zeke rushed up and yelled, “You two fall back. They're coming!”

“What?” Lionel said.

But it was too late. The cross in the sky had set something in motion with the Unity Army, and Lionel heard hoofbeats on the sand. He glanced back as horses galloped toward them.

“Big Dog One to all units,” someone said over a radio Zeke had on his shoulder. “Hold your fire. Wait. On my command.”

“What's he thinking?” Zeke said. Then he hollered at the rebels in front of him, “You heard him—hold your fire!”

The men grumbled, pointing at the oncoming army, a death machine rolling across the desert. The radio crackled with protests.

“Hold, hold, hold!” Big Dog One shouted.

“Permission to speak my mind, sir,” someone said.

“Denied. Follow orders.”

Lionel backed up while he and Sam watched the human tornado heading straight for them. The front line closed the gap in seconds. In the eerie, yellow light, horsemen pointed rifles. Others wielded swords that glinted yellow off their sharpened edges.

Suddenly, a shot. Then all riders opened fire. Bullets pinged off rocks. Lionel shouted for Zeke to get down, but the man stood tall. The army rushed through the line of rebels, and the lead rider raised his sharpened sword and plunged it down at Zeke.

Lionel put his head in his hands. When he had the courage to look, he saw Zeke still standing. How could the lead rider have missed?

Sam stood, smiling and waving, daring the army to hurt him. He jumped on a rock, both hands in the air, yelling at the top of his lungs.

A rider flicked his sword out and took a swipe at Sam as he passed. If Lionel hadn't seen it, he wouldn't have believed it. It was as if the blade went straight through his friend's body. Sam didn't crumble in pain and blood didn't spurt from his wound, because there was no wound.

Others stood against the gunfire, unhurt by bullets that simply passed through them.

“Come on up!” Sam called to Lionel. “Either these guys are really bad shots, or God's up to something!”

Lionel climbed onto the rock as another wave of riders approached. A man fired at Lionel at close range.

When Lionel didn't move, he fired again. The soldier looked at his weapon and paused. Riders swept into him, knocking him from his horse.

Lionel reached down and helped the soldier up.

The man pulled out a pistol and fired again. “Blanks. They're all blanks.”

“No,” Lionel said, “it's just that your bullets don't work here.”

The man turned to run but was caught in the stampede. Horses couldn't take the steep landscape, and those at the front stalled and turned back. Others kept coming, creating a horse traffic jam.

In the chaos, Lionel and Sam climbed down and joined the rebels who calmly walked through the enemy throng.

Zeke found them and slapped Lionel on the back. “We're heading back to the others. Gonna wait on Jesus with our friends up top rather than down here with the GC.”

Sam gave a fake cough and waved a hand in front of his face. “Yeah, these guys are kicking up too much dust.”

Conrad and Shelly made it to Enoch's house with others from different hiding places. Charlie had taken Phoenix to Enoch's basement, and the dog was barking his head off.

“You sense it too, don't you, boy?” Conrad said to the shaking dog.

Charlie pulled Phoenix onto his lap and that seemed to help. “You think he knows Jesus is coming?”

“Wouldn't doubt it,” Conrad said. “If dogs can sense an earthquake, I'll bet they can sense the King of kings.”

“You think he'll get to see Ryan Daley again?” Charlie said. “He's the one who found Phoenix in the first place.”

“I hope so.”

“What about animals in Jesus' kingdom? Dr. Ben-Judah taught that people could live a long time, even hundreds of years. What does that mean for animals like Phoenix?”

“Well, this is a guess, but I think dogs will live a lot longer, just like people. Dogs and other animals don't have souls, but it does say in the Bible that the wolf and the lamb are going to lie down together.”

“And isn't there supposed to be less effects of sin, you know, diseases and sickness and all that?” Charlie said.

“True. Plant life is supposed to grow like crazy, so I wouldn't be surprised if old Phoenix here grew old with the rest of us.”

Charlie smiled. “I can't wait to see his reunion with Ryan.”

Vicki followed closely behind Judd and Ehud as they made their way through Jerusalem. They rushed down the Via Dolorosa, hit Carpathia Way, and headed for the Damascus Gate. When they found a few Unity Army soldiers there, Ehud led Judd and Vicki east to a breach in the wall and they climbed over.

The cross stayed behind them, lighting the way. Vicki wondered if this was the same kind of light given off by the star announcing Jesus' birth.

They stayed off the main roads, circling the Old City at a safe distance. After they passed a museum, Ehud motioned them northeast to a road renamed Fortunato Boulevard. Vicki chuckled because every block sported a likeness of Leon, the Most High Reverend Father of Carpathianism. Each banner showed him in a different outfit, and in the glowing yellow light, he looked even more ridiculous.

“How much farther?” Judd said.

“Mount Scopus is right this way,” Ehud said.

“What if the troops are there?” Vicki said.