Apocalypse Burning (16 page)

For the first time, Goose realized the truth of that. Chris was safely out of the line of fire from the greatest enemy mankind had ever known and struggled to deny. He was safe; he was with God. Forever.

Pain threatened to bring back the tears at that thought.

“So you see?” Baker asked.

“I still don’t want to accept it. I miss my son. Chris was safe back at Fort Benning.”

“Was he?”

“Yes. I’ve talked with Megan.” Actually, now that he thought about it, Goose hadn’t been able to talk to her for days. Phone communications had been spotty. Few military men had been able to get in touch with their families. “Things are confused at the post, just like the things we’ve seen on television, but everyone there is safe, including my stepson, Joey.”

“Things there are safe
for now.
The world isn’t going to get better. Cataclysmic events lie ahead of us. Many people will perish.” Baker sipped his coffee. He glanced at the bread on the small plate in front of Goose. “You need to eat, First Sergeant.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Eat anyway.”

Reluctantly, knowing he would need his strength, Goose turned his attention to the bread. Despite the primitive conditions, it was good.

“The time has come for the world as we know it to end,” Baker said. “That was written in the Bible more than two thousand years ago. We weren’t told all of the details of God’s plans for battle, but we were told some of them.”

“Seven years, right?” Goose asked. “That’s how long the Tribulation will last before there’s an end to everything?”

“Yes. God took the children and raptured His church to get them out of harm’s way. A soldier protects those who cannot protect themselves.”

“Bill Townsend was a soldier,” Goose pointed out. “He vanished. We could have used him here.”
I could have used him here.
Goose immediately felt selfish, but he also knew he was right. “There were a lot of good soldiers among the missing men that we could use now.”

“Bill and those others earned their places in heaven, First Sergeant. You can’t begrudge them that. They knew the Lord better than we did before the world changed so much for the rest of us.”

“I don’t begrudge them that. But I wish they were here.”

“Those of us who were left behind,” Baker said, “we have to learn to fight our own battles. We must come to our beliefs truly and without holding back. Many people—if not most—who were left behind will not survive these next seven years.” He paused. “You saw the dead children in Glitter City? And the bodies of the children who were killed in the SCUD attack launched on this city?”

The images of the small corpses flooded Goose’s mind. He remembered that one of the first tasks Baker had volunteered for when they had reached Sanliurfa was the comfort crew. Those men had prepared mass graves to empty the city of the dead. They had taken the dead from their loved ones, gathered broken, gory corpses, and buried them with as much honor and dignity as possible under the circumstances. Baker had served prominently among those teams.

“Yes,” Goose said. “I remember. I won’t forget them.”

“Nor should you.” Baker looked at him. “But for the grace of God, soon you could be burying your own son as so many of these families have done.”

The thought hammered Goose, making him feel shamed and agonized at the same time. “I know,” he whispered.

“The sad thing is, First Sergeant, you have another son that wasn’t so blessed. You still have a son who’s at risk in this world, and that is a frightening thing.”

Goose thought of Joey. The last he’d heard, Joey had left the house after an argument with Megan. With the phones out, he didn’t know if Joey had returned. Or even if Joey was able to return. Baker was right. Joey was still at risk.

“Chris is gone from you,” Baker said, “lifted on high by God Himself. Thank God in your prayers that you didn’t have to bury him.”

“I know.” Goose let out a tense breath. “I just wish that all of this was easier to accept.”

“Don’t wish for that, First Sergeant.
Pray
for it. God will answer those who call on Him. Read Psalm 145:18.”

Goose nodded.

“Now, as to what we can know and guess of the Tribulation,” Baker went on. “We know that those left behind will be tested for seven years. At this point, I can only tell you about the first twentyone months. I could guess at the rest of it, but I don’t want to do that.”

“Nearly two years’ worth of battle plans,” Goose said. “I can live with that. As of right now, we’re still going day-to-day here.”

“During these first twentyone months,” Baker said, “we’re going to witness miracles and cataclysms known as the seven Seal Judgments. And according to the book of Revelation, the next twentyone months will be filled with the seven Trumpet Judgments.”

“I know a little about the Seals,” Goose said. “Those have been talked about a lot outside of the Bible.”

Baker nodded. “Before those begin, though, the Antichrist will rise to power. He will promise peace and find a way to unite the world. Many people will fall for the great lie the Antichrist spins because, during the time of fear and confusion that is upon us now, they will want to believe that someone knows exactly what to do. They will seek a leader, and the Antichrist will be swept into position by that need.”

“And someone here in this world that we think we know and understand is easier to believe in than in God.”

“Exactly. You see the problem.”

“Bad intel,” Goose said. “Wouldn’t it be easier if Jesus just returned now?”

“Or if we’d all been raptured?”

“Yes.”

Baker leaned forward. “Not all of us were deserving, First Sergeant. Staying here, dealing with the terrible things going on in this world, this is the course set before us by God Himself. We will be tested and forced to look inside ourselves to find our faith. It just has to be.”

“I have a problem with that, too,” Goose said.

“Many people who come late to their faith are going to struggle with that concept. If things could be any other way, they already would be. This is what we have to deal with. Just like we have to deal with being stuck in Sanliurfa.”

“If God loves us, why didn’t He just take us as we are?”

“God does love us,” Baker said. “That’s why we have this second chance to get it right. And all the reason in the world to do so because there will be nothing left here to cling to.”

“I wouldn’t abandon people.”

“As a person or as a Ranger?”

“As either.”

“But we left men behind at the Turkish-Syrian border during the retreat. They fell and we kept going.”

“We couldn’t stop.”

“No,” Baker agreed. “And those men became ‘acceptable losses.’”

“So that’s what we are in God’s eyes? Acceptable losses?”

“No.”

“Then what happens to those who die now?”

Baker took a deep breath. “That will be between those people and God, First Sergeant. In my heart and according to Scripture I have read, I believe that He will be merciful and accept them and only turn away those who truly deny Him. But our faith wasn’t as strong as those who left us. So we owe this world a death. Regretfully, that death will probably be even more horrible than we have ever imagined for ourselves.”

Fear thudded through Goose as he thought about Megan and Joey. If Baker was right, if the world was going to end in seven more years, they would have to die then.
If not before. God, You can’t allow that to happen. You took Chris. I can’t live through losing them too. I swear to You I can’t.

“What are we supposed to do here?” Goose asked. He was a soldier. Soldiers were supposed to do something to protect innocents. “During this seven years? Especially if so many are going to die?”

“Those of use left behind are going to get right with God,” Baker said. “We no longer have a choice, and we won’t be able to disbelieve any longer. Those of us who are strong enough will help the weaker ones to survive and to better understand everything they are facing. That will be our mission.” The big corporal spread his hands. “I’m doing that now with my church, and you’re doing that now by questioning God and this world and your place in it.”

“I’m a soldier, not a preacher.”

“You’re a witness. As you become stronger in your faith—and I believe you will, First Sergeant—others will watch you and follow your lead. I believe you have a large part to play in the coming battle for the souls of those left behind.”

A big yellow bulldozer stained by dust and blackened by fire damage rolled through the street. A cargo truck filled with soldiers carrying shovels as well as assault rifles rolled along in the bulldozer’s wake. The bright morning sunlight already promised a long, hot day.

For a long time, Goose considered what he should say. He had told Baker most of what Icarus had told him, that the man had confirmed that the world had been raptured and they now faced the Tribulation.

“I was also told the identity of the Antichrist,” Goose said.

Interest showed on Baker’s bruised face. “By this man you talked to? Icarus?”

“Yes.” Goose had hesitated only a short time before revealing part of Icarus’s story to Baker early in their conversation. For some reason, it was easy to trust the big man. That impulse to talk to Baker chafed at Goose. If there was anyone in the city whom he should have told, it should have been Cal Remington.

They had been friends for seventeen years, brothers in blood, with trust and friendship forged on battlefields. And, as commanding officer of the Rangers posted there in Sanliurfa, Remington should have been the one to decide to whom the information was disseminated, how much would be told, and what weight would be given to Icarus’s claims.

“Do you believe him?”

“I think so.” Goose hesitated. “I mean, it could be. Have you heard of Nicolae Carpathia?”

A sour look darkened Baker’s round face. “I was already considering Carpathia for the role of Antichrist.”

“Why?”

“Because of his sudden rise to prominence on the world scene and his interest in the United Nations. Although U.N. Peacekeeping forces have been somewhat ineffectual throughout the world since they were first set up, the fact remains that the U.N. is a worldwide organization. Many connections across international borders are already in place.” Baker spread his hands. “Do you know about Carpathia’s history in Romania?”

“Just what I caught in the news.”

“Apparently, Carpathia skyrocketed to power in Romania.”

“I’d heard something about that. The previous president stepped down.”

“The day before the attack by the Syrians and the Rapture occurred,” Baker acknowledged.

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Perhaps not. But if we are going to look at Nicolae Carpathia as the potential Antichrist, let’s consider everything he’s done.” Baker ticked off points on his fingers. “Becoming a rich man; stepping up to become an investor in international business; buying out several companies and making one out of them—as he did with OneWorld NewsNet; choosing to set himself up as a spokesperson for international concerns and getting a lot of attention for doing so; getting elected as a national leader in his home country; accepting the presidency of that country that was more or less handed to him, then using that position to immediately take advantage of a chance to speak before a world body like the United Nations. Those things aren’t on the agendas of most people. Or even goals other people would be able to accomplish.”

Goose thought about that. “No. But it almost sounds … right. From what I’ve seen in the news, the guy has deserved everything he’s gotten. He’s worked hard and he’s … deserving. I can’t think of a better way to put it.”

“Exactly the way it should be for the Antichrist to come to power in plain sight of everyone, as the Bible foretells,” Baker agreed. “If I hadn’t been looking for signs of the Antichrist, I probably wouldn’t have given Carpathia a second glance. But I was looking for signs.”

“What does the Antichrist do besides unite the world?”

“You make that sound like unifying this world is an easy task. That’s something that has eluded statesmen for decades, even in spite of all the advances in modern communication.”

“If the Antichrist is going to get it done in twentyone months or less, it might not be easy,” Goose said, “but it’s going to be quick.”

“It will be quick,” Baker agreed. “Look at how quickly Carpathia has already stepped into the limelight with the United Nations. The Antichrist’s coming is signified by a white horse.”

“The First Seal,” Goose said, remembering what he’d read in the sixth chapter of Revelation.

“Yes. He will achieve world peace and unification in one to three months.”

The timeline blew Goose away. “After all of this, after all the vanishings, the Antichrist is going to be able to pull the world together in a way that decades of politics hasn’t been able to do?”

“Not after all of this,” Baker said.
“Because
of it. If the Rapture had not occurred, if times were not this confusing, he would not be able to come to power. But just as quickly, once the Antichrist’s true goals become apparent to some, a world war will consume the nations of the earth. That is represented by a red horse.”