Into the Storm (8 page)

As soon as the line was free, Judd contacted Tsion Ben-Judah. He had to find some way of protecting Ryan and Darrion.

Lionel was hustled into the van by another man. Several other boys were already inside. They all looked scared. A cage separated the driver and the backseats. Lionel felt like he was going to prison.

“Where are they taking us?” Lionel asked an older boy in the seat in front of him. The boy didn’t respond.

Lionel watched the traffic from inside the tinted windows of the van. They went south on the expressway until the road forked. One sign saidMemphis, another saidIndianapolis.

The driver stayed to the right and drove towardMemphis.

Ryan was playing dodge ball in gym class. He was one of three remaining players when the teacher blew his whistle.

“Daley!” he yelled.

“Get over here.”

“I wasn’t hit. Coach, really,” Ryan said.

“Get over here.”

The coach was a long-faced, thin man who acted tough. But Ryan knew he was fair.

“Somebody wants to see you in the office,” the man said.

“Can I finish the game?” Ryan said.

The coach smiled.

“You go on, it looks pretty important.”

Ryan ran out of the gym and up the stairs to the long hallway that led to the office. He felt weird wearing his gym uniform in this part of the school. He looked out the big window by the office and stopped.

Pulling into the parking lot was a white car that said,

“Global Community Security.” Two men got out and walked toward the school. Ryan didn’t know the one on the left. The one on the right wore a long, black coat and had short hair.

“This doesn’t look good,” Ryan muttered. He turned to head back to the gym for his clothes. Before he took a step, someone grabbed his arm.

Vicki met with the three girls at lunch after the assembly.

“You really showed that Global Community lady,” one girl said.

“I only stood up because I don’t think she was telling us the truth,” Vicki said. Vicki briefly told her story. The other girls listened while they ate. When she was almost finished. Shelly tapped Vicki’s shoulder and nodded toward the entrance.

Mrs. Jenness scanned the room with a scowl.

The three girls picked up their lunch trays and moved away.

Ryan felt the viselike grip on his arm and heard a man whisper, “Move down the hall | and don’t look back.”

When they were nearly to the gymnasium, Ryan glanced up.

“Buck!” he said.

Buck Williams hustled Ryan out the back entrance.

“My car is still around front,” Buck said.

“I just saw GC Security pull in,” Ryan said.

“They’re after you,” Buck said.

“Dr. Ben-Judah reached me at the office. Judd heard they were coming to get you.”

“How would he know that?” Ryan said.

“We can find out later,” Buck said.

“Right now I need to get the car and get you somewhere safe.”

Ryan hid in the parking lot and watched the school carefully. He could see the gym entrance through a window.

The vice- principal and two GC goons were talking to his teacher.

Ryan hopped in the backseat when Buck arrived. Someone was hunkered down on the floor.

“I guess this is Buck’s witness protection program,” Darrion said.

“What did you say in the office?” Ryan asked Buck.

“I told them I was with the Global Community, flashed my credentials, and asked to see you,” Buck said.

“They took one look at my clearance card and didn’t ask questions.”

“Where are we going?” Ryan said.

“We have to get you to safety,” Buck said.

“The GChave both Mrs. Stahley and Taylor Graham in custody.”

Ryan gave a low whistle.

“We must have been wrong about Graham,” he said.

As they drove, Ryan asked Buck questions about the adult Tribulation Force. Rayford Steele was preparing to return to New Babylon Amanda, his wife, was staying to help Chloe with the materials Bruce left behind. Tsion Ben-Judah was in hiding, though Buck didn’t say where, and Buck was working on a Global Community Weekly article.

“What’s it about?” Ryan said.

“I’m taking Bruce’s message and turning it into a cover story,” Buck said.

“I’ve assigned reporters from offices in several countries to interview different religious leaders.

I’ll include their answers in my article. “

“What are the questions?” Darrion said.

“Just one,” Buck said.

“Will we suffer the ‘wrath of the Lamb’?”

“Wow,” Ryan said.

“Has anybody been assigned to talk with that Enigma Babylon, guy?”

“Peter Mathews?” Buck said.

“I did that myself. He thinks the book of Revelation is just literature. He says the earthquake is symbolic and that if God exists at all, he or she is a spirit or an idea. “

“Sounds like what I used to believe,” Darrion said.

Buck pulled up to a stoplight inMount Prospect.

“The only question is,where do I take you?” Buck said.

Ryan smiled. He knew a place where no one would find them.

Vicki sat through the geology lecture, wondering if she would get another chance to talk with the girls she met in the assembly. She was thinking of the Underground and what the next issue would contain when she heard her teacher say something about an earthquake.

“I have a friend who attended a funeral the other day,” the teacher said, “where someone brought up the idea of a worldwide earthquake.” The teacher laughed, and several students snickered as well.

“People who buy into religion put their minds on the shelf,” the teacher continued.

“There has never been norwill there ever be a global earthquake.”

The teacher drew a diagram on the chalkboard.

“We’ve talked about this before.

Earthquakes are caused by faults. These underground plates rub against each other. But tell me, if this one smacks against this one, do you think there will be an earthquake over here? “

“No,” the class responded.

“Of course not,” the teacher said.

“It’s not logical. If you believe there’s going to be a worldwide earthquake, you probably believe in a global flood and that a man and his three sons saved all the animals in a boat.”

While the others laughed, Vicki took notes.

Lionel sat in the dark van, his stomach growling. He hadn’t eaten since the night before. When the driver stopped for gas, he yelled, “Nobody talks!” Both the driver and the other man got out.

Lionel knocked on the window and asked, “When are we gonna get something to eat?”

The driver stuck his head in the door and cursed.

“I said nobody talks!” he screamed.

“Better keep your mouth shut,” a boy behind Lionel whispered when the man was gone.

“He’ll probably give us something before too long.”

Lionel introduced himself.

“I’m Jake,” the other boy said.

“Where are you from?” Lionel asked.

“Detroit. They got me yesterday.”

“Where’s he taking us?” Lionel said.

“Someplace down South,” Jake said.

“We don’t know for sure, but somebody heard the guy mentionAlabama.”

Lionel shook his head.

“They told me there were family members looking for me,” he said.

“I thought the man who took me was a friend of my mom’s.”

“That happened to a couple others in here,” Jake said.

“They grabbed me right off the street.”

“Your family will come for you, won’t they?” Lionel said.

“Don’t have family,” Jake said. Lionel felt sorry for him but didn’t know what to say.

“What could they possibly want with us?” Lionel said. The large boy in front of Lionel turned.

“They’ll have to give us a bathroom break before long,” he said.

“We’re jumping them when they do. Got it?” Lionel nodded as the driver and Tom got back in the van.

The driver pulled over to the side of the road, opened a cooler, and passed bottles of water to the boys.

Lionel thought it was the best thing he had ever tasted.

Ryan asked Buck to drive to the church. Buck’s eyes widened when Ryan opened the secret entrance to the Bible hideout.

“Bruce had this built at the same time ... as the other construction.”

“I got you,” Buck said.

Ryan knew Dr. Tsion Ben-Judah was probably only a few yards away in his under ground shelter, but he didn’t dare bring up the subject. He didn’t want to endanger the rabbi or Darrion by revealing it. Still, he wished he could sit and talk with the man. It seemed dear to Ryan that the rabbi was destined to preach the gospel to thousands in the next few years.

Buck ran out for fast food and brought it back. Ryan and Darrion ate hungrily as they planned their next move.

“I think I should stay here,” Ryan said.

“Can you find a place for Darrion that’s safe?”

“We can use Loretta’s apartment,” Buck said.

“I don’t want to hide,” Darrion said.

“I want to help my mother.”

“Hang tight,” Ryan said.

“We’ll do our best.”

Judd was on-line atmidnight. Through the video link, Pavel said he did not go to a conventional school but had teachers come to him.

“I am alone for another hour,” Pavel said.

“But I need to tell you something.”

“What is it?” Judd said.

“Here,” Pavel said. He reached toward the camera and positioned it lower. Judd saw a wheelchair.

“You may not want to talk to me any longer,” Pavel said, “but I feel you should know the truth.”

“You’re in a wheelchair,” Judd said.

“Big whoop.”

“What did you say?” Pavel said.

“I said it’s not a big deal,” Judd said.

“It doesn’t make a difference to me.”

“It makes a big difference to most people I know,” Pavel said.

“I cannot do what others do. When some find out, they no longer want to be my friend.”

“Their loss,” Judd said.

“You’resmart, you ask questions, you think things through. You may never win the one hundred-yard dash, but there are more important things in life.”

Pavel beamed.

“You sound like my mother,” he said.

“Your mother’s a sharp lady,” Judd said.

“Was,” Pavel said.

“She vanished.”

Judd felt a chill go down his spine.

“Pavel, do you know why she disappeared?”

“I do not know,” Pavel said.

“She never complained, but I thought it might be because taking care of me was so difficult.”

“I’m sure that wasn’t it,” Judd said.

“Did your mother ever read the Bible?”

“My father would not allow it,” Pavel said.

“He says religion is for those who are weak, and I do not want to be weaker than I already am.”

The boy paused and reached beneath his desk.

“I found this on my mother’s bed the morning of the disappearances,” Pavel said. He held up a small black book.

Judd told Pavel why his mother had disappeared. Jesus Christ had come back for true believers. His mother had to be one of them.

“She tried to talk with me about God, but I wouldn’t allow her to,” Pavel said.

“My father can be a very stern man.”

“Don’t wait any longer,” Judd said.

“You can be sure right now that you’re a true follower of Jesus.”

“How?”

“You’ve read the material I sent,” Judd said.

“Do you believe what those verses said?”

“Yes,” Pavel said.

“You know you can’t work your way to God or do enough good things to get you into heaven, right?”

“Before now I didn’t even believe in heaven,” Pavel said, “but yes, I do believe.”

“If you know you’ve sinned, you can pray right now and ask for forgiveness.” Judd outlined a prayer and then watched as Pavel bowed his head.

“God, I am sorry for what I have done,” the boy said quietly, “and I have done so many bad things. I believe you sent your Son, Jesus, to die for me. And I believe he did rise from the dead. Please forgive me. Amen.”

Pavel looked up.

“Was that all right?” he said.

“That was great,” Judd said.

“Does that mean when I die I will see my mother again?” he said.

“It sure does,” Judd said.

Lionel awoke, his head bobbing up and down with the bouncing of the van. He saw the exit forTupelo, Mississippi. Then the van pulled into a rest area.

“You boys have two minutes each,” the driver said.

“We’ll take you in groups of three.” The man held up a gun and shoved in a cartridge.

“In case you get any ideas, we both have one of these.”

As the men exited, the boy in front of Lionel turned.

“This is it,” he said.

“Whoever is with me helps me jump these guys, all right?”

The kids around Lionel nodded. Lionel stiffened. He didn’t mind giving his life for a good cause, but this one seemed stupid.

“Why don’t we just see where they’re taking us first,” Lionel said.

The bigger boy turned and held up a fist.

“I hope you’re not in my group,” the boy said, “but if you are and you don’t help, I’ll get you.”

“I’m just saying we might be making a mistake“ “ You’ll make a mistake if you don’t help,” the boy said.

The first group went into the rest area with the driver and quickly returned. The man named Tom herded the next three Lionel, Jake, and the bigger boy. He sneered at Lionel.

“Better do what you’re told,” the boy said.

The driver was a wiry-looking man with a stubbly beard and bad teeth. He mumbled for them to go to their right, sticking the end of the gun deep into his coat pocket and waving it.

The lobby was empty. There were slots with maps and brochures of vacation destinations. Pictures of Elvis Presley dotted the walls. Lionel went into the bathroom first, followed by Jake. The last boy stumbled, dropped something on the floor,then knelt in the open doorway.

“Giddup,” the man with the gun said.

“Can’t without some help,” the boy said.

“Wait!” Lionel shouted from inside the bathroom.

But it was too late. As the man looked up, the boy on the floor punched him hard in the stomach. The man wheezed and fell backward. The boy jumped to his feet, pulled the bathroom door closed, and locked it.