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more by the minute. There was something festive about them bouncy, fleecy, and
yet moving quickly as if there were strong winds high in the atmosphere.
Before long they were joining each other, making shadow-forming canopies south
of the sun while individual clouds continued to form to the north.
These, too, soon began to join. Chang and Naomi went to their favorite high
spot and lay on their backs, hands behind their heads. "I've never seen that
before," Chang said, pointing straight up.
Clouds seemed to be forming directly above, not on the horizon as usual. They
began as long, narrow formations in the stratosphere, quickly forming into
stratocumulus.
"We're getting high-, mid-, and low-level formations all at the same time, "
Chang said.
"They're gorgeous."
"Yeah, now. Wait till they start developing vertically. They can reach heights
of more than seven miles and generate incredible energy. "
"How do you know all this?" she said. "All I know is computers."
"I know everything," Chang said.
Naomi punched him. "Hey," she said, turning on her side and gazing at his
face. "You're going to fall asleep."
"Not likely," he said. "Too much happening up there. Too much to look forward
to. "
SIX
"BROTHER ENOCH," a Hispanic man said, "if you can concentrate, we can
concentrate."
"I don't follow," Enoch said, again looking through trees and windows at the
edge of the mall's courtyard to be sure the GC had not found them out.
"You seem distracted, brother. I mean, we're all waiting for the same thing.
We want to be ready.
We want to be here when Jesus conies. But in the meantime we want you to teach
us. You keep saying you're no scholar, but you've been our pastor for years.
Something's working. "
"Yeah," another chimed in. "I don't feel like I've got a handle on what all's
happened and what's going to happen. I know we'll soon be with Jesus or
anyway, He'll be with us but I wouldn't mind going into all this with more
understanding. You got more for us?"
Enoch had to smile. "I do," he said. "I just didn't expect to have the time to
cover it, and I
certainly didn't expect you to have the patience for it. "
"Beats waitin' around. I can't wait till Jesus gets here, but the clock moves
slow when nothin's happening. "
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"Fair enough. I've got my Bible and my notes, if you're game. "
"We're game. But, Pastor, have you looked up lately?" It was coming up on noon
in the Midwest, and the sun was riding high. Enoch shielded his eyes.
"Clouds," he said.
"Clouds that weren't there an hour ago. If I'm not mistaken, we woke up to
blue skies."
"Totally blue."
"They're not threatening clouds," Enoch said. "I don't expect we'll get rained
on."
A woman laughed. "I just wanna see clouds Jesus can ride in on."
Razor showed up on a 750cc ATV plenty big enough to accommodate Rayford if he
were healthy.
But he had not been sitting up long, let alone standing or bouncing along on a
vehicle.
"You didn't happen to bring any food, did you?" Rayford said.
"Sir, yes, sir, " Razor said in the maddening military formality of which
Rayford had been trying to break him.
"Miz Leah here didn't care if I starved to death."
"Hydration was most important," she said. "And I didn't expect you to be stuck
here this long. "
"I'm kidding, Leah. You saved my life. Now what've you got, Razor?"
"An energy bar, sir."
"One of those Styrofoam jobs that tastes like cardboard?"
"One and the same."
"Flavor?"
"Corrugated chocolate, I believe, sir."
Kidding aside, Rayford was famished. He tore open the wrapper and took a huge
bite.
"Easy there, cowboy, " Leah said. "Your system's been traumatized. "
"Well, this ought to help," Rayford said, following orders and slowing down.
He was stalling.
Climbing aboard an ATV was going to be an ordeal, but that would be the least
of it. The path back to Petra, such as it was, looked like a sheer cliff from
his vantage point. "It's going to be a beautiful sunset," he said idly.
"And probably the last one before Jesus comes," Leah said.
Sebastian sat on the hood of a Hummer that had been idle for hours, but whose
metal had only just cooled enough to allow him there. The Unity Army seemed
distracted, if that characteristic could be applied to such an expansive
gathering. Ever since they had advanced half a mile and stopped, they had sat
staring menacingly at him and his troops.
George had decided not to antagonize them with directed energy weapons or
fifty-caliber fire, and in the last half hour they had grown, well, somehow
less threatening. It was as if they had lost focus. Earlier, the hundreds of
thousands of mounted troops alone had seemed to act in concert to stare him
down, and now he heard their squeaky saddles in the distance. They had stopped
staring and had begun wheeling in their saddles, chatting with each other.
Was it possible the rumors had reached the battlefield? Did these soldiers
know that they might not be spelled by reinforcements or that, even if they
were, it was unlikely they would be paid on time, if at all? The grapevine was
remarkably accurate, quick, and if this proved true resilient enough to reach
across the desert sands.
Could Big Dog One take advantage of this lapse? He couldn't imagine how. A
volley of shells or
DEW rays would succeed only in getting the enemy re-engaged, setting them back
on course. For now, hopelessly outnumbered as he was, Sebastian liked his
adversary just the way it was. If he could choose, he'd have moved them back
about a mile and a half. But they couldn't pull that off even if they wanted
to, even if they were ordered to. Backing up the front lines meant backing up
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the rear, and coordinating that would take weeks. This was a fighting force
that could go only one way, and Sebastian and his excuse for a defending force
were directly in their path.
He got on the phone. "Chang, what're you doing right this instant?"
"You don't want to know."
"'Course I do."
"I'm lying on my back, watching the clouds."
"And you're not alone, are you?"
"Of course not, " Chang said.
"Priscilla and I are going to be apart when Jesus comes, " Sebastian said.
"You want me to send her and Beth Ann to be with you?"
"Hardly. We've arranged a meeting spot for when this is over. "
"I hope Captain Steele will be up to watching all this when he gets here and
the time comes, "
Chang said.
"Oh, he will be. Just hope the time doesn't come before Razor gets him there.
"
"As you know, " Enoch told his people, "the whole theme through my teaching of
the events of the end times has been the mercy of God. To many of you this
seemed inconsistent with what was prophesied and what came to pass. But as I
have said, all of this, all twenty-one judgments that have come from heaven in
three sets of seven, have been God's desperate last attempts to get man's
attention. Make no mistake about it, however; the last seven judgments in
particular also evidence
His wrath.
"In fact, the angels who carry out these judgments are depicted as turning
over and emptying out bowls or vials, so that every drop of judgment is poured
out on the various targets of God's anger.
Notice the focus of these judgments:
"The first bowl was poured out on the earth in the form of horrible malignant
sores on the bodies of those who had taken the mark of the beast.
"The second was poured out into the sea, turning the water to blood and
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