Destroyers - Dave Mckay (classic literature list .TXT) 📗

hundreds of millions, if not billions, both on the live broadcast and on replays over the next few hours, before Dangchao succeeded in getting it taken off all but the most remote stations.

There were a few hundred people (a tiny percentage in the bigger picture) who made an eleventh hour decision to stand against the Dangchao regime, even if it meant being beheaded. They each did what Moses had done. They dared to talk to his Friend, asking if they too could become Friends with the one who had brought peace to Moses Chikati. It was the young man's calm acceptance of his fate, the beatific smile, and that one tear. The world needed what he had.

But for these other converts, the newly discovered Friendship was far more emotional than it had appeared to be for Moses. They had been hardening their conscience for years, closing their ears to the truth. Those tears of remorse that Moses had shed in his near death experience were multiplied manytimes over in the prayers of sincere repentance that issued from those final citizens of the heavenly City.

The killings went on, right up to the end. Kyme and Ray were also killed, just six days after Ray had arrived in the unholy city of Jerusalem. Many of the secret hideouts of their followers around the world were discovered as well, with tragic consequences.

But there was one hideout back in Kenya that remained secure right up to the end, thanks to something Moses had done earlier.

* * *

"Tell us the story again, Josh!"

It was raining outside the cave, and all the children (most of them grown now) were huddled together inside the main room, with a few candles illuminating them. Three days earlier, they had buried Amy, who died peacefully in her sleep, from an unknown illness.

They all knew about the Two Witnesses (as Ray and Kyme were known amongst the underground movement that had been led by them over the past seven years). They didn't know their names, what they looked like, or that Moses had anything to do with either of them, but they did know that the Two Witnesses had both gone to Jerusalem over the past few days. They also knew that they were nearing the end of the suffering and persecution that believers in God had been facing for the past three and a half years.

About the time that Ray had left London and Kyme had left Sydney, each on their separate way to Jerusalem, Josh and the older children had returned to the forest, knowing that they would not leave again until their salvation arrived.

Destruction of the forest had continued, right up to the end, and it had become harder and harder for them to grow enough to feed themselves. They were totally out of food now, and had been so since burying Amy.

This tiny young army believed that a cosmic event marking the end of an era of evil and corruption, was going to turn the tables, and make them rulers over a new world of peace and love. It was a laughable fairytale in a world that had lost all faith in God and almost all ability to tell right from wrong. Nevertheless, the young people (and one not-so-young man) had been waiting in the cave for several days now, counting the hours.

"Please, Josh!" Karla repeated. "Tell us the story about how you saw Moses." Karla was 13 now.

The boxes of literature were long gone, but the children seated themselves on old rabbit skin rugs in anticipation. Rosy always enjoyed hearing this story the most.

"I knew they was looking for me," Josephat began. "And I figgered they knew I was in the forest. I had to do something real quick, to stop them coming here."

"How did you know they were looking?" asked Jane, one of the twins. No matter how many times he told the story, there were always new questions... things that had been left out in previous tellings.

"Good question," Josephat replied. "I didn't know for absolute sure, but I was walking through Ileho in the middle of the night, headin' toward the forest. It's so dark there I never had problems with being seen before. But I tripped over someone sleeping off a drunk on the side of the road. He woke up scared real bad; then jumped up to fight me. I was already on the ground from the fall, so I just barely got away. But he sayed or did something in the scuffle that made me think he knew me... maybe from the cane or from something that I sayed."

"Tell about Moses," Karla said.

"He will. Just be patient," 13-year-old Jo-Jo chided.

"So the next night, I sneaked into Shinyalu to see what I could learn. I was thinking about turning myself in, if they knew and if they was coming this way... you know, to stop them coming here. That's when I saw Moses sitting in his matatu all alone, outside the pictures.

"I got in and told him to take me to Kakamega. I just wanted to get out of town, away from the people, and see what I could learn from him.

"Sure enough, they was talking about a search of the forest, to start the next day.

"But Moses sounded different... like he wanted to help us. He asked how Amy and Rosy was, and if I had hurt them. I sayed you was all safe, and God was helping us. Then he asked if he could help us in some way.

"That's when the idea popped into my head."

"You mean it really just came like that, all at once?" Lucy asked. Lucy was 17 now.

"Kinda. I was thinkin' 'bout a lot of plans. Like when Moses pulled away from the village, some people came out of the theater and so I let them see me. I wanted them to think I was in Kakamega... anywhere but in the forest. But I was open to them catching up and killing me too, if it would stop the hunt.

"But then I took a chance and told Moses that I needed to make people think I was dead, so's they would stop looking. I sayed it would help protect the rest of you, and he didn't question me on it one bit. Jist joined right in.

There was a big rock at the side of the road, so we pulled over and picked it up after I told him my idea. He was a little slow takin' it in, but by the time we reached the river, he had it clear enough to pull it off."

"Did you pass anyone else on the road?" asked Lucy.

"Not that I can remember. It was too late for anyone to be out walking. God musta put those two men there by the bridge just at the perfect time. We had to drive to the far side to give us enough time to get the rock out, do some shoutin', and then push it over the edge into the water. I cut myself and put some blood on the head of the cane before we stopped. So Moses took the cane, and then I dropped my felt hat where it would land on the side of the river, before I raced off into the dark. I stayed hiding all that day, and come back here the next night."

"Well, it sure worked," said Micah, who, at 22, was the oldest of the children. "We haven't had any problems with them hunting around here since."

"Josh, do you think Moses will make it?" Rosy asked.

"You've asked me that so many times," Josephat complained. "You know I can't say. He did take the mark, you know."

"But the papers say he blowed it off his head in an accident," the other twin reminded him.

"The papers say a lot of things, Gene," Josephat responded. "They also sayed that he went to live with Dangchao. Like I sayed before, only God knows."

Just then a strange hum flowed down the tunnel from the cave entrance. It was like the most beautiful organ music anyone could imagine. They all stood to their feet and turned in the direction from which it was coming.

"Wow! What's that?" exclaimed Karla, who was the first to push through the heavy curtain to the tunnel. Normally they would have all gone instinctively silent if there had been any distrubance outside.

Josephat said nothing, but he and the others followed. Out in the tunnel, where they could all find their way in total darkness, there was a faint glow that seemed to accompany the musical hum. This, too, was the sort of thing that would have sent them deeper into hiding under any other circumstances. But this was different. Very different.

There were rocks and other debris from when the meteor had hit the mountain and caused a cave-in, but they were almost dancing over all of this now, on their way out of the cave. Each of them, Josephat included, was so happy that they were almost laughing. They felt changes... good changes... taking place inside their bodies, and their clothing was changing too, turning a brilliant white.

Out in the night air, where the rain had now stopped, they all gathered in a circle at the cave entrance, and joined hands. Karla was the first to actually start laughing, and soon they were all intoxicated with joy. Whatever was happening, it was making them feel... well, the only word for it was "high", and it became even more appropriate as they suddenly found themselves rising up off the ground.

"Are we going crazy?" Micah asked. "I feel like I can fly."

"I think it's the rapture," said Josephat.

"The rapture?" Jane exclaimed. The word had falleninto disrepute with them, because so many church people had used it to describe an imaginary escape from all that this band of saints had experienced over the past three and a half years.

"It really means being so happy that you feel like you are floating on air," Josephat shouted across the circle, which had grown much bigger now that they had released each other's hands. "But it's mostly used for a Bible teaching about floating up into the sky to meet Jesus."

"Wow! Jesus? Where?" Lucy shouted as she looked in all directions at once. Surely the noise they were making could be heard across the forest in the stillness of the night, but worries about being discovered by neighbours were now suddenly not a part of their thinking.

Fifteen-year-old Simon was the first to give in to an urge to experiment with his new flying ability.

"Hey, look at Simon!" Karla shouted, pointing across the circle at him. The others looked as Simon bent his body in such a way as to make it veer off from the circle and enter an orbit of its own. He bent again and then zoomed up above them. Soon others were doing similar stunts, as their laughter rang through the darkness. Their bodies had all taken on that glow they had detected in the cave, and so it looked like a scene from Peter Pan as all the children darted around the sky like a lantern full of fireflies. Even Josephat, who suddenly looked much younger, was joining in.

Amoment later they became aware of other creatures off in the distance doing something similar. While they were all turned in that direction, another presence moved silently up from behind them.

"Youse had better get a move on; we've got a lot of travelling to do." It was Winky! Much younger, and full of life. The twitch in her eye was gone too.

All those who had appeared to be surfing gentle breezes manouvered their bodies in such a way as to converge back where Amy was hovering.

"This way!" Amy said, and she turned north. About the same time, it became clear that dim lights off in the distance were also moving in the same direction, converging slightly as they progressed. The air was neither hot nor cold and breathing was not a problem, even though they must have been travelling at more than a hundred miles an hour by this time.

The journey went on through the night, without the slightest hint of anyone feeling tired. It was all so exciting and unbelievable. As they moved closer to the other lights, they found some that they recognised... people from the various underground bases that Josephat and the older children had visited and supported on a regular basis. Farther along, they met up with more whom they had never met, including people who had lived more than a hundred years before now.

They soon learned how to put their bodies into cruise control, so that they could lie back and relax while talking to others around them. When the sun came up in the morning, there appeared to be thousands (if not millions) of others, also dressed completely in white, all flying so high, that, from the ground, it looked like nearly parallel wispy white clouds stretching across the sky, and all moving toward a single destination.. toward an unbelievable