Times of Tribulation: Christian End Times Thriller (The End Times Saga, #7) (12 page)

“I haven’t the slightest idea, but we’re going to resist if they ever show up here. I am not going to submit to any government that will kill people for having a different opinion than the government. Those religious folk seem to really believe what they’re saying, but I don’t know enough about what they believe to make an informed decision. Maybe we’ll have someone show up here who can help us learn all we can about their beliefs so we can decide what or who we should follow. In the meantime, we’ll do what we need to do to survive this mess.”

Chapter 12

Four months later, the world learned about a comet, called Wormwood, which would impact the Earth around Europe and North Africa. The talking heads on UETN began asking questions, even though a lot of the remaining people on Earth hardly ever watched the news, even when the Patriarch had suggested doing so was mandatory.

“We’re here today with a Doctor William Barrett, Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. Earlier in the day, he spoke to Patriarch Karimi about this asteroid. What can you tell us about this asteroid, Doctor, and what will happen when it impacts the atmosphere?”

“Well, Wormwood is a comet that usually passes our planet every other decade, but for reasons my colleagues and I can’t explain, its course has been altered and will impact our planet in three days,”

“Any guesses as to where it might come down when and if it gets through the atmosphere?”

“I don’t know, but I do know the chemical makeup of the comet will be harmful wherever the comet breaks up in the atmosphere,”

“Care to explain, Doctor?”

“Yes, of course. As I told our esteemed leader, the meteor has cyanogen gas as part of its makeup. When the meteor interacts with our atmosphere, it’ll produce hydrogen cyanide when mixed with the water in the atmosphere and any surface water. This gas will cause the water to taste bitter and smell like almonds. If one were to try to drink water with the gas laced throughout it, they’ll die,”

“Is there any way to stop the comet from impacting our planet?”

“I’m afraid there isn’t, we’ll just have to wait to see what happens.”

“Thank you, Doctor Barrett, for your insight. Stay with UETN for further updates on Wormwood. Next on UETN Primetime, a man tries to figure which of his four wives do the best at fulfilling all of his needs. Who will he pick to be his main wife? Find out next. Peace and blessings on all who are watching and we here at United Earth Television News wish you a good night.”

Millions around the planet watched the meteor through telescopes for the next few days, utterly fascinated by the prospect of it hitting Earth. Some people were worried about what impact it would have, others not so much, and most figured that if Patriarch Karimi wasn’t upset about it, they wouldn’t be either.

The comet broke up over Europe when it hit the atmosphere, affecting all water on the continent and also affected the waters of North Africa. Millions died who tried drinking the water, mostly because the authorities had ignored the problem, and hadn’t informed the people that drinking the water would kill them. Some blamed the two men who were witnessing in Jerusalem, even though they weren’t at fault, but many still tried to blame them for causing the problems.

There were some, however, who wanted to blame Patriarch Karimi for everything. A small group of environmentalists in their twenties, who were all for the global community, and were some of the first to take the marks, were upset over the volcanoes, the asteroid, and now the comet causing untold damage to the planet and its defenseless animal citizens.

“We need to demand to see the Patriarch, tell him to get those Centurions to stop harming our precious Mother Earth. Surely there must be some other way for our planet and its residents to cleanse itself of the impurities before it joins the galactic community?”

“You’re our leader, Xander, we’ll go with you wherever you want to go. Can I suggest we go to Babylon so we can address our concerns with the Patriarch?”

“Rose, I think that’s a very good idea. We tell him our concerns in person and he’ll tell the Centurions to back off and figure out some other way to bring us into their global community. Come, my brothers and sisters, let’s make a trip to Babylon.”

The eight arrived in Babylon two days later and went straight to the office of the Patriarch. They stood in front of the Patriarch’s secretary, while Xander said, “I demand to see the Patriarch. He must know what we think!”

Calmly, the secretary replied, “Do you have an appointment? He’ll see you if you have an appointment.”

“An appointment? What I have to say is far too important to wait. I demand to be seen. Where is he?” Xander’s voice kept getting louder and louder.

The door to the Patriarch’s office opened, and the group heard the world leader demand, “What’s the meaning of this?”

Xander boldly walked over to the Patriarch, stood face to face with him, and demanded, “We demand you do something about these environmental disasters. Our planet and its animal friends are suffering from being severely harmed and they’re crying out for justice. Can you talk to those aliens, the Centurions, and ask them to help us in our planet’s time of suffering? If they’re supposed to be so benevolent, then why do they need to hurt us?”

“What do you mean, ‘you demand’? You have no power over me and your demands mean nothing. Why should I bother our friends from Alpha Centauri, who do care for us, with such trivial matters? You want the children back, don’t you?”

“Well, I don’t know. We were doing all right until you took over, then all this insane stuff started happening. Seems to me you have no real control....”

“Silence!” bellowed Karimi in a louder voice than anyone was used to hearing from him. The young environmentalists in the room were intimidated and looked at the leader of the world in fear. “You will not question me. I brought the world together in peace, unity, and harmony, no one else has done that. You dare question my control? I can have you and your friends locked up in a deep, dark cell and none of you would ever see the light of day again. Or, better yet, have you beheaded for your insolence. I’m sure none of you want that,”

“No, Patriarch,” Xander weakly replied.

“Good, then we’re back on the same page. Why don’t you and your friends do something constructive, like help the regions that have problems? I’m sure all of you would like to be contributing to the needs of our world, am I correct?”

“Yes, of course, Your Excellency. We’ll do what you ask us to do.” mumbled the young man.

“I’m glad to hear that you’ll do what I ask. Now, if there’s no need to bother me further, you can leave.” Karimi went back into his office, slamming the door behind him.

The group walked out of the building with their egos deflated some. Rose turned to Xander, saying, “I kind of feel like my parents had just disciplined me. Meeting the Patriarch wasn’t as pleasant an experience as I had imagined it might be,”

Pouting, he replied, “No kidding. The Patriarch was rude and mean to us,”

“Xander, don’t let him or anyone associated with him hear you say that, we might get beheaded for even thinking such thoughts,”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. So, should we do what he says and help out where it’s needed?”

“I guess we should. But what about protecting Mother Earth?”

“We’ll do what we can when there’s an appropriate time. Come on, let’s go find something to do that’ll please the Patriarch.”

Nearly a month later, the citizens of the world were told that the Centurion leader would be speaking to the global community. So, nearly everyone on Earth watched the broadcast. The alien told everyone the reasons for the disasters, because Earth was being readied to join the galactic community. All the people of Earth would need to do was follow the Patriarch because he knew what was best. Once the people of Earth were united behind the Patriarch, peace, harmony, and unity would finally come to the planet.

Once the alien broadcast ended, an instant poll conducted by UETN showed that the Patriarch was now more popular than ever. Amongst the believers, anti-government types, and others who didn’t follow the Patriarch, they thought the Centurion alien and the message it supposedly brought to Earth was a scam. If the intent of the Patriarch was to fool the fools, the people against him thought the scam was a job well done.

Chapter 13

Six hikers had been wandering around Big Bend for weeks, trying to find the Prepper camp they’d heard rumors about for many years. Of the six, four of them were newly saved Christians, wanting to escape the persecution of the U.E. and wanting to avoid being beheaded. The other two had rejected Christ as their Savior since the two had relatives who were Christians, told the two about Christ, but they rejected Him. Now their hearts were hardened and not open to hearing the Word ever again. The two would’ve preferred to stay where they were and obey the Patriarch, but came along on the hike because their friends had asked them to, but they still weren’t happy about it.

“I read about this Prepper group a couple years back. They said they were in Big Bend, but I didn’t realize just how big this park was. Are we doing the right thing by coming here? What if they’re not even here?” Josh Harrison, the leader of the hikers, wondered aloud.

“You said it yourself that you think God is leading us here, so have faith, Josh, that you’re doing the right thing.” replied his wife, Gwen.

“I still have faith, but we’ve been wandering around for weeks. Where are they?”

“Maybe they packed up and left. Maybe they decided to join the global community like everyone else with brains has done. Maybe the Patriarch found out about them and executed all of them. And if any of that’s true, you’ve led us to nowhere.” complained Bill Holland, one of the two who rejected Christ before the Rapture.

“You’re free to go back, you know. The trucks are back near I-10, they’d be easy to find,”

“I’d get lost trying to figure out my way back,”

“Then please stop complaining!”

Bill wisely stopped talking, but muttered to his wife, Robin, “This whole excursion is a waste of time and will get us killed.”

“It’s too late to complain about it now, don’t you think? We followed them here through our own free will, so there’s no turning back now, you know,”

“Yeah, yeah.” Bill decided to shut up, but kept being angry about the situation, wishing he could go back to Galveston, find someone associated with the U.E., and turn these so-called friends of his in to the authorities.

While they were continuing to hike, the blazing sun suddenly stopped showing as much light. Unbeknownst to the hikers, Elijah and Moses had commanded that the sun, moon, and stars light be cut in third to show the Patriarch that he’s not the one in control. The air temperature slowly began cooling off and the hikers only had light jackets to keep them warm.

“I wonder if the sun suddenly losing a lot of its power is the fourth trumpet judgment?” asked Gwen.

“I don’t know, it might be. It had been feeling like it was over 100 degrees out here, so it’ll probably get into the lower 70’s to upper 60’s soon, which will be kind of cold for us. It’ll probably get even colder at night, so we should think about starting a fire pretty soon,” replied Josh.

“What are you talking about? You guys think this is another one of those trumpet judgment that you’re always prattling on about? It’s probably some odd space phenomenon that’ll subside in a few minutes, so there’s probably nothing to worry about.” Bill interrupted.

“Bill, like I said earlier, if you’re so unhappy being with us, you’re free to leave. Otherwise, shut up.”

“Well.... I.... uh....” Bill shut his mouth, not knowing what else to say.

“Okay, everyone, let’s start gathering firewood just in case we need to start a campfire.”

While the hikers gathered wood so they could build a campfire, they happened to be closer to the Preppers than they realized. A camera had picked up movement and the hikers were watched for a while before the camera operator sent for Pete. Pete and some of the others had been watching television, even though there was hardly anything decent on anymore, they mostly wanted to see what the explanation was for the light from the sun being cut by a third. Within twenty minutes of the sun’s power being reduced, UETN cut into regular programming to give the explanation.

“Good day to all citizens of the global community, we have some news to report. As I’m sure all of you can tell by now, the sun’s power has been cut by one-third. At this minute, there’s only one explanation, but we here at UETN find the explanation dubious at best. As we’re sure you’re aware, there are two men in Jerusalem who have been challenging the Patriarch’s authority for two years now, and claim to speak for God. Anyway, we have video of one of them, who claims to be the Old Testament prophet, Moses, striking out a third of the light from the sun. Here it is,”

The video began: “Heed my voice, you who have not repented of your sins and continue to wallow in your wickedness. God is not happy with you and He will judge you for your unrighteousness. Because of your sins, the Earth will have a third of its light diminished from the heavens. As I have done before, when God commanded me to reach out my hand towards the sun, moon, and the stars when my people were attempting to leave Egypt, I will diminish, with the trumpet call of God’s angel, one-third of the sun’s light, one-third of the moon’s reflective light from the sun, and one-third of the stars at night. The people of Earth will only have eight hour days of full sunlight, use it wisely and pray for your deliverance.” Moses stretched forth his hand, instantly causing the sun, moon, and the stars’ light to diminish by one-third. Then the video ended.

“We’re not sure how long this phenomenon will last and we have no idea if we will literally have eight hour days uniformly across the globe, but so far, everything either man has said usually comes to pass. Scientists we’ve spoke to aren’t sure how this will affect the planet, especially since we haven’t had any cloud cover or rain in months, but stay tuned as we gather more information throughout the day. As of now, we have yet to receive an official response from Patriarch Karimi or anyone associated with the government of the Union of United Earth about this latest crisis, but we will break into programming when they let us know something. This is UETN, peace and blessings.”