Revealing Revelations (14 page)

“So what you’re saying is that you failed to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior?” I ask Auron in a slightly cynical tone.

“Yes, I have to say I did make that grave mistake,” he answered almost reluctantly.

I stand up and walk over to the monitors and pick up the Bible that was next to Auron. I study the gold lettering on its black covering, Holy Bible. With Bible in hand, I look at Auron. “Is it not written, ‘If there comes any unto you and brings forth not this doctrine, welcome him not’,” I say almost mocking Auron. He sits upright in his chair catching on to my aggravated mockery of him.

“Yes, it is,” he says. “And now let’s see why exactly are you still here, Thomas?” Returning the same judgment I showed him. His question had me at a loss for words. I didn’t understand the reason why I was not one of the chosen few. “It is clear you’re no stranger to the Holy Bible, Thomas. So, why are you so misfortunate?” he asked me.

I had no clear answer. Not for Auron, everyone else or me. I went to church, I prayed daily, tried to follow his commandments and teachings. I feel a gasp come out of my mouth then another and another. I begin to shake and become overwhelmed with emotions. My eyes begin to burn and I find it harder and harder to breath. “What did I do wrong, God?” I ask while fiery tears rain down my cheeks. It’s so hard to breathe now that I find it almost impossible to stop trembling or close my mouth. All I can do is hurt. Hurt in every member in my body asking myself
why God?
What did I do that was not according to your will? What did I do wrong that separated me from Your grace? I slowly crumble to my knees.

Auron stands to his feet, grabs my arm helping to stand as well just to hug me. Hugging me tight he says in my ear, “I need you to go to God in prayer.” I cried and cried like a child to the point where I fell asleep.

It’s dark and I’m cold. So cold, that I feel only half of my body and that half shivers. My eyes crack open slowly and I find myself back in the same world that frightened me once again as before. With the same crowded streets and pedestrian congested sidewalks. The same ghastly figures contained in or attached to their bodies. I know it’s a dream but I was past the stage of hopelessness, I became mad. Mad at the people bumping into me as they walked passed. Mad at the hissing sound the ghastly figures made towards me I was mad, just so damn mad. I began walking down the sidewalk and the direction I was going seemed to be the exact opposite of the others. It seemed as though everyone else was fixed on going the other way but I paid it no mind. I was so infuriated, I even began talking to myself aloud. “For God so loved the world, huh? Well, God, what about me?” I asked aloud in the middle of this strange world that used to scare me so much. I was too mad to think about anything but my anger. “Why was I left? Why was I so insignificant?” I shouted even louder as if I hoped my words would actually reach God’s ears. But it was a dream I was walking in and nothing more. “Have I not prayed to you enough? Did I not have enough faith? Huh, What is it, what did I do wrong, or are you just too high and mighty to answer me?” Feeling odd, something inside tells me to stop. So, I did and turned around. All the people I had passed had stopped and looked at me. Everyone and everything had stopped as if time stopped and just watched me. My heart began to pump rapidly as I grew even madder. The sensation of rage almost felt comfortable as I began shouting threatening things at the others. Then the clouds parted as they did before and there sat the red beast with the staff and chains. His face was still covered but the ten horns still came from under the hood.

It leaned forward on its serpent throne, almost as if it was looking at me specifically. I look at the others that I had passed earlier and it became apparent it was staring directly at me. It tugs its staff, and the tension in the chains tighten, and everyone is almost dragged and pulled to the ground. It was as if he was studying me. Like he was curious as to why I wasn’t affected by his chains. It leaned in closer and I saw in the darkness underneath its hood fire erupt onto a city set before it in the sky. The city was so unfamiliar I couldn’t make out anything except for a white building and an American flag above it. Next thing I knew, everyone around me was awake and still looking down and depressed as they moved about, as if there was no tomorrow because they can’t see past yesterday. I felt the same as well, how can we feel any different after finding out all hope was lost yesterday? I stand to my feet and look around the room for Auron. I wanted to talk to him about yesterday, for many reasons, but mainly to apologize for mocking him and I’m in the same bout almost. I wasn’t really just confused and hurt. Not that anything had changed, but I shouldn’t have directed any of my pain towards him, it was just the flare of the moment. Looking around I notice everyone pretty much had walked out, the only ones in here with me are James and Jessie sitting in the two computer chairs by the monitors on the far side of the room. James was diligently watching the computer monitors, next to him with one hand digging in a bag of Ruffles potato chips twirling in his chair. They certainly possess intelligence far beyond their age, but they are still children none the less. I still don’t think they grasp the actual perplexity of the current devastating news. Honestly, I don’t think I do either.

I walk over and lean on the back of James’s chair. “What’s going on today, fellas?” I asked the two.

“Running a supply mission, Soldier Boy.” Jessie answered still twirling in his chair. “I’d of sent you, but you didn’t wake up.” He continued on as he tilted his head back opening wide as he inserted a chip into his mouth.

“SENT ME!?” I asked surprised as usual at the things coming out of this kid’s mouth. “I didn’t know you were the commanding officer.” I tell the little tyke. I chuckle it off and look on one of the three monitors I realize each monitor shows four split screens of the entire parking garage. I focus on the middle screen with surveillance of the lower level parking lot on the lower right half of the sceen and still see the S.W.A.T. truck.

“Wait a minute, supply run?” I ask curious as to what methods they took to get supplies. “The trucks still here, what did they do, walk with shopping carts down the street?”

I watch as James leans in toward the monitors and says, “Here they come now.”

I look at the lower right screen and see no one. “Where?”

James points to the above screen of the roof where to my surprise a small helicopter hovers over the roof and ready for landing. “The Hell!?” I shout out amazed at what was going on.

Jessie stops twirling in his chair and looks at me with a serious face. “Hey, watch your mouth we’re only kids. A lil’ respect is all I ask for, geez.”

I look at him, and even though he was a smart mouth brat he was right. I turn my attention back to the screen, the helicopter has already landed and I see Bazz, Shane and Julie wait at the elevator door. “What are the waiting on?” I ask the two.

“Jessie!” James calls out.

“I’m on it!” Jessie replied hopping out of the compute chair. “Come on, Soldier Boy, you might learn something. Curiosity urged me to follow him. We went through the large door into the hall and he opens the door directly across from us. We step inside and I see the room to be exactly the same as the other in terms of size. But the left half the room was congested with boxes on top of small wooden pallets. There were a few blankets and cot’s in front of us, beside them a light colored gray fuse box mounted on the wall.

“When we’re not using the elevators we switch them off to keep anyone from coming in on us,” Jessie says as he walks over and swings the cove open and flips a switch then closes it.

“Monitoring everything coming and going, huh?” I asked him.

“Plus, we don’t wanna give some yahoo working for the power company heads up someone’s staying here, they might cut the power or give away location,” he continued.

“What about this stuff?” I asked him as I walked over and nudge at the light weighted cardboard box with my foot. 

Sigh!
He exhales and walks over and opens up one of the boxes showing me an orange and white pack that reads, “Ramen.”  “All these boxes were accumulated as a stock for kind of like a food pantry. Ever since Auon gave us the word we moved on it,” Jessie said.

“Auron?” I asked him. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, how’d you meet Bazz and Auron?” 

He throws his head back and makes a gesture with his hands. “Questions, questions, always with all the questions,” he says sitting down on one of the cot’s. “We met Auron a few weeks ago on the phone, he told us where to be and when. But we only know him though Bazz. He was the one who gave us his contact information.” He explained.

“So how’d you meet Bazz?” I asked him as he looked at me. “I know, I know, questions right?”

He smiled at the idea. “We met Bazz, here,” he answered.

“You mean in the parking garage?” I asked him with confusion in my voice.

“No, I mean in Miami. He was walking down the street with a briefcase and Hawaiian shirt and linen shorts…and down here that would clearly say you’re a tourist. And if you a tourist with a briefcase you either belong in a building handling business or carrying something to go handle business, if you catch my drift.” He dropped his head and looked at me over those oval glasses.

“I know what you mean, I know how things go in the inner city,” I replied.

“Okay, so we got this routine where James goes up and tries to play innocent and sell white sand from the beach as a souvenir.”

I finish the rest of his explanation for him. “Just to catch them off guard while you snatch the bag, huh?” I smiled. I thought as smart as these guys are they would be more original or creative. “So, what was in the briefcase?” I asked him.

“Well, it wasn’t money,” he answered with a smile. It felt a little tad bit easier to deal with what was going on when I saw him smile, almost felt like a connection. “It was files and a laptop, so long story short, we found out a lot about the nation’s little secrets. We even had a couple of concerns about the government of our own before that really. Seeing as how they’ve been doing major concentration around the Bermuda triangle,” he said.

“Wait that was you Bazz was talking about this whole time? You’re his sources?” I couldn’t believe it, but at this point after all this I wasn’t one to doubt much of anything.

“Look I’m serious and passionate about certain things and this is one of them. I’m gonna see what was the big deal about that Bermuda triangle one day, mark my words.” He storms out of there, swinging the door open. With the door open, I see Shane and the others with cases and bags in hand.

“Did I miss something?” Shane asked me.

“No, but it seems I did. When did you learn how to fly?” I asked him.

“Well you probably don’t remember but I signed up for flight school and was working on getting my chief warrant officer, but it didn’t work out, but I still remember a lil’ bit.”

They all set down cases of medical equipment and supplies. “So, you steal a helicopter from the hospital?” I asked him.

“You sound surprised, Thomas. Even after all of this should you be?” Julie asks as she sets down a huge bag full of first aid kits.

“Hey, Auron wants you, he’s on level three with Jefferey and Dana,” Bazz says. “Oh and here, we got a few of these for communications. Let us know when you wanna move around and if something happens,” He says, handing me a walkie-talkie.

“Why don’t we just use our phones,” I asked him, but Julie answers with a numb demeanor about her.

“Sprint, AT&T, Boost, they’re all down, no signal,” she says walking out the door.

“She’s doing a little better I see,” I tell Shane.

“Better is an improvement we all could use,” he answered. I walk down the hall through the door and into the elevator and push the button with the number 3 on it.

Vrrrrmmm!
The elevator begins to make a humming noise as it moves up to the third level. I wondered what he wanted to see me about, but it didn’t matter. I wanted to talk to him myself. What’s our next move, our purpose for being here, If this is all about God and we are the ones left after the Rapture, there has to be a purpose. The humming stops and the elevator door opens. I step out into the third level parking lot and scan the level for them. It was hard to find them at fist there are so many cars left here; Denalis, Mustangs, Chargers it was almost completely packed in here. But I see them in the distance looking out into the city over the half concrete wall.

“This is Thomas. I’m up here, kill the elevator,” I say into the radio.

“I’m already a step ahead of you, Soldier Boy.” A all too familiar voice tells me as I walk towards the others.

“I should’ve known you would get a radio, Jessie,” I say to myself as I approach the three leaning over the half concrete looking out over the city. I stand next to Dana and look at the city.

“All the hell that happened yesterday, and they’re not even worried or curious as to why.”

“Why, what?” I asked her.

“Why did it happen? Any of it… the fighting the stealing the burnings. Why was it at all necessary?” she asked, her glossy eyes are fixed on the Miami streets, but her mind is focused elsewhere.

“I know what you mean, Dana,” Jefferey said on the opposite side of Dana. “It all just doesn’t seem real, but there is no other way we can look at it,” Jefferey says. I convert my attention from them and back to Miami. The city that was once so alive is now dead. People in the Army used to dream of moving here and retiring after their twenty years. Hot sun, sandy beaches, and pretty women were all they used to think about when Miami was the topic. Now the same Miami they used to mention was a barren after effect war zone, lying desolate under the burning sun.