Shaken (2 page)

“What did the memo say?”

“They've been planning this for a long time, but with each judgment, they've had to put it off.”

“Put what off?”

“Requiring everyone under the age of twenty to go through what they're calling continuing education.”

“Brainwashing,” Vicki said.

“Exactly,” Mark said. “There are thousands of sites across the U.S. where they'll register kids and have them go through training beamed by satellite.”

“What are they going to teach?”

Mark pulled up the memo on his computer screen and read parts to Vicki.
“We exist to make our students better members of the Global Community. We will teach tolerance and the ideals represented by our leader, Potentate Nicolae Carpathia
.

“Our hope is to also identify those who might be candidates for our Morale Monitor squad. Each location will be asked to screen students for this elite team of committed young people.”

Vicki sighed. “I had hoped after Commander Blancka that the Morale Monitors would end.”

“It gets worse,” Mark said. “Listen.
Not only will we identify those loyal to our cause, but we will also target those against our goals. Some would like to see the downfall of the Global Community. No doubt they have been brainwashed by parents, friends, or heretics such as Tsion Ben-Judah. Young people who refuse to attend our learning facilities will be rounded up and processed.”

“Processed?” Vicki said. “Like we're slabs of meat.”

“They mean business,” Mark said. “We showed the announcement to everybody here today, and a bunch of unbelievers left.”

“Melinda and Janie?”

“No. Janie's worried about getting sent back to prison. Melinda says she's waiting until you get back before she decides what to do.”

“Then we have to come home right away,” Vicki said.

“You have more meetings.”

“We've been gone too long. Cancel our other meetings and tell the groups we'll do our best to reschedule. I need to clear up a couple of things here, and we'll hopefully make it by the end of the week.”

“I'll tell Melinda,” Mark said.

“One more thing. How close is the nearest GC learning center?”

“A few miles from the town where we found Lenore,” Mark said.

“Sounds too close,” Vicki said. “If those people who stayed with us rat us out, we're dead. We need a plan in case the GC come looking.”

“I'm on it,” Mark said.

He hung up and wrote e-mails to the groups who had requested teaching from the Young Tribulation Force. He said he hated letting them down, but he hoped they would understand.

Lenore sat by Mark and looked over his shoulder.

“Maybe having all those people stay with us wasn't such a good idea.”

Mark kept typing. “We all agreed to take care of them.

What we need is a backup plan in case any of them inform the GC about us. Any suggestions?”

Judd closed the bedroom door and huddled with Sam and Lionel. He pulled out a sheet of paper and drew a diagram. “They held me in the same jail. I know how the offices and cells are laid out. Sam, you were just there. If we can figure a way in, I think we can get them out.”

Lionel shook his head. “We've done enough damage.

If the GC catch us …”

“Damage?” Judd said. “If it were you in there, Nada would try to get you out.”

“That's what's wrong with her. She shouldn't try that kind of thing.”

“I'm not leaving her in there!” Judd shouted.

Sam started to speak, but the door opened. Mr. Stein walked in and sat on the bed. “I know what you're thinking, and I don't blame you. I can't imagine what Jamal's family is going through. But I can't let you attempt an escape—”

“We have to get them out,” Judd said. “Kasim's life's at stake.”

“I know that. Allow me to finish. I can't let you attempt an escape without
my
help.”

“You'll help us?” Sam said.

“We must come up with a plan we all agree on,” Mr.

Stein said. He looked at Judd and Lionel. “That should be no small task.”

They laughed, then spread out several sheets of paper on the bed. They worked until early the next morning.

Vicki looked for Jeff the next day but didn't see him. She sped up the teaching and told the participants that she and her friends had to leave that night. When Vicki opened the floor for questions, kids asked about the startup of the Global Community satellite schools.

“What should we do?” a girl asked. “They could brainwash us, and we'll lose the mark of the believer. But if we don't go, they'll know we're against the Global Community.”

“You don't have to worry about losing the mark.”

Vicki explained that the kids who believe in Jesus are held not by their own power, but by God's. “Each of you has to make up your own mind. By going you might be able to reach some people who don't know about God. But it might be too much for you to listen to the GC's blather.”

“What are you going to do?” another teen said.

Vicki glanced at Conrad and Shelly. “I'd like to ask you all to pray for us as we head back tonight. We have to resolve some issues about the place we're staying and some people we've taken in.”

Kids stood and held hands. The pastor led them in a prayer and asked God to protect Vicki and her friends as they traveled. Other kids prayed simple prayers and thanked God for bringing Vicki and the others to help them learn.

As they were praying, the door opened. Vicki looked up and noticed Jeff Williams slip into the back of the room. When they were finished, Vicki walked up to him. “I'm glad you came back.”

“What you said makes sense, but I'm not sure I can believe it.”

“Why?”

Jeff frowned. “It would mean Buck was right.” He sat and leaned back in his chair. Shelly, Conrad, and the pastor joined them. “I'm ticked off at Buck right now. I mean, I'm proud of him and everything. He's accomplished a lot. But he didn't even come to Sharon and the kids' memorial service.”

Vicki started to speak, but Jeff held up a hand. “I know he was probably busy with a story or something. I also know I shouldn't base a spiritual decision on what Buck did or didn't do.”

The pastor leaned forward. “Jeff, you know the truth now. You were left behind because you didn't have a true relationship with God like your wife did. Give your heart to God right now.”

Jeff stood. “I need more time.”

“I understand,” the pastor said. “But don't wait too long. We don't know how many will make it through the next judgment.”

Jeff turned to Vicki. “You promised not to tell my brother or anybody else that you saw me here.”

Vicki nodded. She felt bad as she watched Jeff leave. She wanted him to pray right then and bring his father to the church. But she knew no one could make the decision for Jeff. He had to make it himself.

Before they left, the pastor gave the kids some extra food to take on their trip. Since the man's computer had been destroyed in the earthquake, Conrad suggested they let him have theirs. Vicki and Shelly agreed.

Vicki's phone rang. “I just heard from Carl,” Mark said. “Are you sitting down?”

“Just tell me.”

“Remember the guy who helped you out in Tennessee?”

“Omer?”

“Yeah. He and a bunch of others from Johnson City stormed the GC prison to try and rescue the believers.”

“Is he—?”

“The GC killed most of them. Omer's gone, Vick.”

Vicki slid to the floor. Shelly knelt beside her and put a hand on her shoulder.

“The worst part is that the GC were getting ready to release Omer's mom. Carl said if they had waited a few more days, everything would have been all right.”

2

VICKI
stretched out in the back of the van and thought of the disaster and death that had become so common. The world had changed on the awful night of the disappearances, but with each passing day things got worse. Losing her parents, sister, and brother was only the start. She had been adopted by Bruce Barnes, the pastor who had helped the kids know God. Bruce had died in a fiery explosion at the start of World War III. Then, Ryan Daley, one of the original members of the Young Trib Force, had been killed during the wrath of the Lamb earthquake.

With each day, Vicki grew numb. She didn't want to. She wanted to feel alive. With each person who prayed and asked God for forgiveness, she felt a spark in her soul. Then something else would happen, like the news of Omer, and she would become preoccupied again. She knew the Bible taught that things would get worse and worse. In four months they would reach the halfway point of the seven-year tribulation. Then would come the Great Tribulation. Vicki trembled. Nicolae Carpathia was bad enough now, but the Great Tribulation would make this seem like a picnic.

She wanted to survive all seven years and see the Glorious Appearing of Christ and his victory over evil. But how? In time, the Global Community would force people to identify with Nicolae or face the consequences. That was something she simply would not do. Rabbi Tsion Ben-Judah believed only one-fourth of the population alive after the Rapture would survive until the end. Would Vicki be among them? And what of her friends? What about Judd?

Vicki prayed for Jeff Williams and his father. She prayed for each group she had met over the past few weeks and asked God to continue raising up house churches around the country. She felt exhausted but kept praying and pleading with God for believers she knew. She thought of Chloe Williams and her new baby. How difficult it must be bringing up a child in a world like this. Chloe had a lot of work to do with the commodity co-op. Now she would need to care for little Kenny. Vicki prayed that Chloe would have new strength each day.

Vicki pulled out a flashlight and a printout the pastor in Arizona had handed her before they left. It was the latest copy of
The Truth,
a cyberspace magazine. The articles were written anonymously, but the kids had heard this was Buck Williams's new writing project. Buck told the truth about Nicolae Carpathia and the Global Community. The latest edition gave more information about the so-called satellite schools.

The article included photos of locations ready for students. “These schools will not teach reading, writing, and arithmetic,” Buck wrote. “Instead, they will soak young people with Global Community propaganda. We can only hope the next generation will see through the smoke and mirrors and find the truth found in the Bible.”

Buck sure wouldn't have been able to write that in
Global Community Weekly, Vicki thought.

The next few pages were printed from
www.theunderground-online.com
. Mark had posted Tsion Ben-Judah's latest Internet offering.

My text is from Revelation 9:15-21. “And the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were turned loose to kill one-third of all the people on earth. They led an army of 200 million mounted troops—I heard an announcement of how many there were
.

“And in my vision, I saw the horses and the riders sitting on them. The riders wore armor that was fiery red and sky blue and yellow. The horses' heads were like the heads of lions, and fire and smoke and burning sulfur billowed from their mouths. One-third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues—by the fire and the smoke and burning sulfur that came from the mouths of the horses. Their power was in their mouths, but also in their tails. For their tails had heads like snakes, with the power to injure people
.

“But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to turn from their evil deeds. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that neither see nor hear nor walk! And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their immorality or their thefts.”