Times of Tribulation: Christian End Times Thriller (The End Times Saga, #7) (8 page)

“Don’t worry, Jeff, God’s in control. Nothing happens without Him knowing about it,” Dave replied, trying to get Jeff to calm down.

“So you say, Dave, but I need to look out for my own family, and we’ve suffered too much as it is. If we leave, none of you should try to stop us.” Jeff left the room, taking the darkness that seemed to hover over him with him.

“You don’t think he’ll sell us out, do you?” asked Lindsey.

“Could we stop him if he was going to?” replied Dave.

“No, I guess not. I guess I need to do my devotions and pray so I won’t worry so much.” Lindsey got up from her chair and left the room.

“I think doing devotions is a good idea. I can worry about this other stuff later.” Dave went to his room and began doing devotions.

Meanwhile, in Big Bend, the Preppers in hiding watched the execution of Administrator Powell with shock and dismay. So far, the North American leadership or the military hadn’t figured out the Preppers were in Big Bend, but now that Wayne Davis was in charge had Pete Robertson worried. The new leader’s ruthlessness and lack of compassion was well-known in most of Texas, at least to those who paid attention to such things. Many of the Preppers who lived with Pete’s group were from Dallas and had lived through Davis’ time as the Mayor. They knew that when it came to demonstrating his power, the new North American administrator wouldn’t hesitate to show it off. But, they also knew there well hidden and hoped to stay that way.

“I’ve been thinking about whether we should start letting people in who are trying to escape the tyranny of the Union of United Earth?” Pete asked his wife.

“I don’t know. We might get noticed a lot more if we did. If lots of people are traveling by car or walking to an area the authorities think is mostly void of life, they might wonder what was going on. Considering how heavily armed we are, are you sure you want to get their attention, which would be followed by a battle we couldn’t possibly hope to win?”

“You raise some good points, Sweetheart. I imagine most of the authorities in Texas are probably dead, so those outside of our borders probably knows next to nothing about us, if at all. We’re isolated now, but we wouldn’t be if we extended an invite to those who want to hide. Now, if there are some who manage to make it here on their own, we’ll take them in, just as long as it’s safe to do so. What do you think?”

“I agree, my Dear. Meanwhile, we can talk to fellow Preppers and other anti-government types around the world who have access to shortwave communications to see how they’re doing and managing to survive.” Janet glanced at the clock on the wall, got up from sitting next to her husband, and said, “Well, almost lunch time, so off I go to make lunch.”

“Good, I’m starving!” Pete playfully replied, while kissing his wife before she went to the kitchen.

The others discussed with Pete what was going on and agreed with the plans to keep avoiding the supposedly all-seeing eye of the Patriarch and the Union of United Earth.

Chapter 8

For over three weeks, people in the northern hemisphere were able to see at night the asteroid that was headed directly for the planet. Very few of the general population knew that China, before Patriarch Karimi came along, had made plans to bring the asteroid to Earth, park it in orbit, and mine it for its resources. China’s plans fell by the wayside when the two American astronauts assigned to bring the asteroid to Earth vanished without a trace and the Chinese Space Agency had no way to stop the asteroid’s headlong plunge towards the planet. For those who were curious, barely any news on it could be found through internet searches, mostly the searches came up with old articles about China launching the project, nor had the news networks reported on it. But, that all changed the night before the asteroid was projected to hit the planet.

China’s administrator appeared on television, mostly aimed at his own region, but it was carried live worldwide by UETN. “Greetings, citizens of the region of China. As many of you know, I am Administrator Li Bei Sheng, the head of this region. I come to you tonight to let you know about a coming disaster headed for this part of our planet. As you may or may not know, the previous government of China commissioned the space agency to harness an asteroid to mine it for minerals and metals. Unfortunately, the space agency lost control of it months ago and it will be plunging to our planet tomorrow, specifically it will hit somewhere in the Pacific. I am issuing orders to the militia to move those of you on the coast further inland until the coast is safe from potential tsunamis. Do not hesitate and do not resist following the militia inland. This is all I have to say for now. I wish peace and blessings on you. Goodnight.”

Administrator Li walked away from the podium and the camera switched to the in-studio anchor, who said, “As you know, China wanted to harvest this asteroid, but those plans went out the window. In spite of our reporters’ best efforts to find out precisely how the astronauts up and vanished without a trace, the best guess we can come up with is that they were also abducted by the Centurion aliens. If that’s true, China should’ve conducted a more thorough background check on these two haters. Could it be the two purposely directed the asteroid towards Earth so it could cause massive damage? We’ll never know for sure.

“According to Mr. Li’s office, due to limited resources, the Chinese were limited in what they could do when it came to trying to stop the asteroid from being pulled in by Earth’s gravity. Rumors have it that the current head of the space agency may be held responsible for this impending disaster, and when he is, we’ll let you know about it first on this network. We’ll also interrupt scheduled programming once the asteroid breaches our atmosphere and it plunges into the Pacific. Here’s a simulation from our computer that shows the projected path of the asteroid,”

A graphic came on screen showing the asteroid’s projected path. The computer doing the projection showed the asteroid possibly hitting Hawaii directly, and projected the possible collateral damage to the rest of the Pacific Ocean, the surrounding islands, and the mainland’s of Asia and North America. The possible damage to North America would only add to the destruction caused by the earthquakes and volcanoes, but would definitely destroy more life west of North America. Another graphic displayed possible economic problems and a projection of the deaths caused by the asteroid’s impact.

“As you can see, the asteroid’s collateral damage will be a big hit to the economies and populations of at least two regions, three if North America hadn’t been devastated by their own natural disaster from a few months ago. Stay tuned to this UETN station and we’ll bring you more news as it comes. We wish peace and blessings on you and yours.”

When the asteroid hit the atmosphere, everyone in North America and in northeastern Asia could see it. The asteroid turned into a fireball and a sound unlike anything anyone’s ever heard before rumbled through the sky as the asteroid hit the sound barrier. UETN utilized drones to follow the asteroid on its downward plunge, which was now projected to hit directly on Midway Island. Drones recorded the frantic reactions of the residents of Hawaii and other islands in the Pacific as the asteroid hit the water and caused massive waves to wash over the islands of the Pacific, killing millions of people as walls of water hit them.

The effects of the asteroid hitting the Pacific were also shown by the many drones tasked with recording the event. The asteroid being massive enough to also touch the seafloor sent shockwaves through the crust, activating more fault lines, causing many volcanoes along the Ring of Fire to activate. As ocean water flooded over Japan, Mount Fuji erupted. In the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo erupted once again as ocean water destroyed half the island. All ocean going vessels in the Pacific were destroyed and sinking, while all marine life surrounding the most devastated areas of the ocean died, causing vast tracts of the Pacific to be red with blood. Remains of human civilization also floated in the Pacific, with millions of bodies floating in the water alongside destroyed remains of buildings. The scene looked eerily similar to the tsunami that hit Japan and its Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, but was hundreds of times worse. The talking heads of UETN began talking about the estimated toll the asteroid had on the region.

“From the footage taken from the drones, I believe we can estimate that one-third of life in the Pacific died and the asteroid’s impact destroyed one-third of the economy of the region,” stated an economist.

“What would that do to the rest of the world?” asked the UETN anchor.

“I’m not sure it’ll have that much of an impact. The Patriarch told these administrators that they only have so much resources to work with and once those are depleted for the year, no more will be allotted to them. I’m sure the citizens of the global community will chip in to help, but the regions themselves will be limited in their response,”

“Before this disaster, China was attempting to complete their dominance of outer space, and was close to achieving what the Americans or Russians could never do. Will the Patriarch finally put a stop to all space exploration?”

“Yes, I think so and I believe he has. Space exploration is considered to be an economic black hole in some circles, so don’t expect anyone in the know to shed a tear over mankind trying to build a civilization on Mars or whatever. What assets we do have in space, on the Moon or on Mars, has been written off, as many feel we should direct all the attention and resources on making our planet the utopia it could and should be.”

“Thank you, Mr. Benson, for your insight. Now, we’ll take you back to your regularly scheduled program already in progress.”

A few hours later, UETN broke into programming again. “Good evening, citizens of the global community. We interrupt your program to bring you a special event. As you know, the asteroid wiped out a considerable portion of the Asian and parts of the Australian regions. With that in mind, the authorities have arrested who they feel is responsible for this tragic event. The authorities blame Fred Travis, the current and last head of the Chinese Space Agency. His team led the efforts to bring the asteroid to Earth, which, of course, resulted in the tragedy we saw earlier today. He is being prepared for his punishment and we’ll soon see the Union of United Earth’s swift retribution live on this network. Okay, I’m being told he’s being led out, so let’s go to our live feed at the location to watch this special event.”

The camera followed Travis being led to a guillotine and being placed into the contraption. Next, the camera focused on Administrator Li, who was saying, “We’re here today to witness the execution of one Fred Travis, who is guilty of crimes against humanity. His crime – bringing death and destruction upon us by unleashing an asteroid upon Earth that could’ve been an extinction-level event....”

“That’s not my fault, I’m not to blame! Let me go!” Travis interrupted, with everyone around the world hearing his pleas, but the camera continued to focus on Li.

“He has been tried and his punishment is death by beheading. Guillotine Master, are you ready?”

The camera turned and focused on a man in all black, including a black hood over his head, who replied, “I am.”

Next, the camera panned the audience in the stands as they cheered. After focusing on the crowd, the camera returned to show Li, who said, “Fred Travis, you are hereby punished for your crimes. Let loose the blade!”

The camera returned to filming the Guillotine Master as he released a lever, and the blade, which gleamed in the sun from being polished until it was almost mirror-like, dropped. The crowd roared with approval as Travis’ head bounced into the basket that was there for dismembered heads.

Li was smiling as he walked over to the guillotine, picked up Travis’ head by the hair, and said, “May all who witness this punishment remember that this is what we do to all who defy their Patriarch, Jahangir Karimi. You will not be able to hide from his all-seeing eyes, for he is our Lord and Master! All hail to the Patriarch!”

Everyone assembled began praising Karimi, including the assembled media. In what looked like a scene from 1930’s Germany, the assembled crowd stood in lock step as they showed they were devoted to their magnificent leader, Patriarch Karimi. Back in Texas, the group of Preppers and those who were with Dave Abbot were shocked and disgusted by the scene. Others finally made up their mind which side they should follow.

“I think this solves the question I had about which side I think we should choose.” Jeff Michaels told his wife, Diana. They were watching the execution by themselves, away from the others.

“I think you’re right. I’d rather be on the winning side, than be caught up with all these people who choose to defy the authority of the Patriarch. When are we going to leave?”

“I think we should slip out in the middle of the night. These people wouldn’t understand, especially since they think their God will rescue them from all of this. I personally don’t see the problem with taking the marks of loyalty and commerce. I think the others are getting worked up for nothing. Go get the children ready and we’ll leave around midnight.” The Michaels family quietly left the church property at midnight with no one being the wiser.

Chapter 9

The Michaels family, the two adults and their three children, from seven to fifteen, made their way to San Antonio, where the nearest Universal Congregation building was located. They drove through a ruined San Antonio hit hard by the earthquake, which killed thousands of people, while ninety percent of the remaining population died from lack of food and clean water. Very few people remained in the city, which looked like a ghost town to the Michaels family.

They found the newly constructed Universal Congregation building and went inside right after nine in the morning. The five stopped at the help desk that was in the lobby. “How can I help you?” asked the man sitting behind the desk.

“We’re here to take the marks, where do we have to go?” asked Jeff.