CHAPTER 1

 

 

 

“So Mr. Wells, do you know what I really miss about, you know, the time before all this started happening?”

 

“Sean, you can call me David, unless your parents insist that you call me Mr. Wells. And you know we aren’t supposed to talk about what things we miss about the past. Jesse specifically asked us not to. We are supposed to look towards the future, not talk about what we miss about the past. I think you were at the meeting when that subject came up.”

 

David and Sean were serving their turn at the advance look-out post of a Christian prepper group, totaling 40 people, who had only recently retreated into the hills outside their town. A smaller, Mormon group had a retreat nearby, up a common road.

 

The country had recently gone through a series of calamities, some with religious significance and some without, which ended most of the rule of law from the federal and state governments in the United States.

 

The American president, who had been widely distrusted by the Christian community, was attending a conference in Jerusalem, to celebrate the mid-point of his much-heralded seven-year, universal peace treaty. Most other world leaders also attended. This treaty had succeeded in keeping world peace as never before. Even skeptics had been impressed with the peace kept by this treaty, engineered by the American president.

 

The location of this conference, believed to be the location of Solomon’s Temple from biblical times, was chosen to emphasize the historical significance of the occasion.

 

However, during the conference, nuclear bombs concealed inside shipping containers exploded simultaneously at several American east-coast port cities. For those who survived the nuclear bombs, full-scale rioting ensued, making the cities involved a vast wasteland of death and destruction. Fearing the same attacks, other port cities that had not been attacked halted all shipping operations, resulting in shortages of essential supplies and food. People in those cities also rioted.

 

All the rioters in American port cities not only demanded a resumption of the shipments of food, but they also resented the fact that any semblance of privacy they had had was gone, ostensibly in order to protect against terrorist attacks like what just happened. Rational observers of the situation agreed that this was one of the few times when the frustrations of rioters, if not the actions, actually made sense. Government snooping of phone calls, e-mails, texts, computer hard-drives, credit card and online purchases, and all other aspects of life in America had produced no noticeable increase in security, as had been promised. Facial recognition cameras had even been set up in city centers, recording the identities and travelling of drivers and pedestrians through the cities. Yet, this end of privacy had still not halted the attacks.

 

Soon after the nuclear explosions in the American port cities, terrorist sleeper cells inside the United States began operations in which they attacked electrical substations – those unprotected junctions of electrical power lines where the voltage in the lines is regulated for further movement into a nearby city – with machine guns in an attempt to cut off the power grid and all communications. At first, the nationwide coordinated attacks on power substations, dubbed “Metcalfing” after the location of the 2013 dry run, had scattered success. Nevertheless, several major American cities still had power. A few nights later, after further attacks on substations, those cities too were in the dark.

 

The lack of power and communications freed up the terrorists inside the country to attack in other ways, like poisoning city reservoirs, bombing refineries, crop-dusting downtown areas with anthrax and blood from Ebola victims, and sabotaging train tracks to cause derailments. Stinger missiles, which had been smuggled across the country’s wide-open southern border, were used to shoot down passenger planes. These attacks resulted in the deaths of millions of people, who kept drinking the tap water, taking trains, flying planes and attending work, in the vain hope that normalcy would soon return.

 

Meanwhile, the American president, still at the Jerusalem conference, noticeably hesitated when asked by a reporter if he considered surrendering to the terrorists. The lack of seriousness of his answer to this question startled many, as it revealed the fact that somewhere in the highest offices of the country a surrender was even contemplated. Nevertheless, for a few days this open consideration of surrender seemed to work, as the terrorist attacks from within the country paused, and Americans looked forward to a return of peace and security.

 

But it was not to be. Once news of possible surrender fully reached the citizenry, several states that had always opposed the president and his policies, and even some counties within states that had supported the president, rejected any talk of surrender, and announced that they would not abide by any decisions reached with the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks. The American military was dispatched to quell the “disloyal” jurisdictions. It was another American civil war, except this time there were many fronts.

 

As with all wars, the United States government had to immediately spend much more money than it had, forcing it to go into even more deficit-spending than it had already been. In the most responsible of times, this would have led to inflation, as so many more dollars were chasing a limited amount of goods and services. But in this situation, the government had for years already been pointlessly overspending to provide government benefits to the citizenry. The result was inflation rates that fluctuated at 30% on up, depending on the week and month.

 

The people soon realized that their dollars and government benefit checks were almost worthless. Consumer spending for non-food items came to a stand-still, resulting in mass lay-offs. The official unemployment rate topped 35%, while the unofficial rate was much higher. The American economy plunged into a slow-down that was even worse than the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

 

By then, established Christian churches were long gone, either made to preach only from abridged Bibles, approved by the federal government, or shut down as purveyors of “hate speech.” The land and buildings of the churches that were shut down were confiscated and sold at government auctions. Many other religious groups, most of them Muslim, bought church properties at very low prices, and these groups began to establish and grow their congregations.

 

The shutting down of fundamentalist Christian churches as disseminators of “hate” ended any political influence the churches and their followers had, and this in turn enabled some state and local governments to restrict heterosexual weddings, so that such weddings may occur only after the couples trying to marry pay a high fee and take a course on “inclusiveness and tolerance.” Muslim weddings were exempted from these new rules.

 

Throughout the country, small pockets of Christians stayed together and worshipped in their homes. The “Bible study groups” from the Christian churches of old became the new Christian churches, except much smaller and underground. With these new churches, secrecy was second in importance only to the unabridged Bible that they studied.

 

These Christians, having read the many predictions in the Bible, realized that the End Times were here. Those who had prepared, like the group David and Sean belonged to, left their homes and jobs and met at agreed-upon retreat locations, where they hoped to survive the coming apocalypse. The coming days, weeks, months and years would see whether these families would survive as they had prepared.

 

One of the first observations made by the leaders of this group were that the people who came to the retreat were shocked and in many cases seriously depressed. After several weeks a policy was promoted at the periodic meetings the group had that they were to encourage humor whenever possible, and to minimize the talk of the “way things used to be.” Despite the obvious challenges, the leaders of this group began to highly prize a positive mental attitude among its members.

 

 

 

 

 

*****

 

 

 

 

 

“Oh come on,” Sean said. He paused. Both looked outside their hillside bunker, onto the empty dirt road below, without saying anything. A dark smoke cloud could be seen in the distance to the east.

 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” David broke the silence. “You don’t just go through life in a normal, you know, non-End Times world, and then begin what looks to be the End Times, and not talk about it. OK, I’ll bite. What do you miss, Sean?”

 

“All-you-can-eat buffets.”

 

“Yes, I can imagine. You are a very big, what are you, sixteen, seventeen years old?”

 

“Fifteen. And I can eat a lot.”

 

“I’m sure of it. If you weren’t being homeschooled, you’d probably be on a football team right now, being recruited by college teams. That kind of thing.”

 

“Every once in a while my mom would let me take a long lunch during my homeschooling, and she would bring me to lunch at a restaurant that had an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. She would just sit back and watch me eat. She would talk about how the restaurant felt bad about letting me in there because I ate so much. She worried that the restaurant would go under or something because I showed up.”

 

“I can imagine.” David chuckled. “It was probably a sight to behold.”

 

“Since all this started happening, we’ve eaten a bunch of vegetables and stored food, and some eggs here and there. And I haven’t really been full for a long time.”

 

“Same here, now that you mention it.”

 

“Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate the people here who cook our food. Jose has been pretty good about killing deer and hogs and preparing it all for us to eat. But I really miss that feeling of being totally full of food. Completely full. Nothing more could fit in my stomach. Sometimes I would almost be in pain I was so full of food. It was a good pain.”

 

“You’re in pretty good shape. You’re blessed that you can eat so much and not get fat. As for me, now that I am in my 40’s, I can’t just eat and eat and eat like I used to, when I was your age. If I did I would get pretty big. You need to watch the old waistline when you get my age, you know.”

 

“That’s what I hear.”

 

A gust of wind blew the trees outside. Both Sean and David looked down onto the dirt road and watched a cluster of leaves get blown across the road in front of a roadblock made of tree branches and trash. There was another silent pause.

 

“Well, I miss a few things, that’s for sure,” David said. “I miss coming home from work and sitting in front of the TV or a fire with my wife, drinking some cabernet and eating some nice cheese and crackers. And olives. It was all so relaxing.”

“I never did like wine.”

 

“You will someday. Well,” David paused, “that’s what I would have said before all this started happening. Nowadays, who knows if you will ever have any wine?”

 

David changed the subject. “By the way, has anyone checked in with the other group over there?” He nodded to his right.

 

“Not in a while,” Sean said, “but the old school bus is there like always.” They both looked to their right and further up the dirt road. An old school bus, painted dark green, was barely visible in the trees on top of a hill nearby.

 

“Not exactly a great hiding place to listen and observe.”

 

“Yes, that is one of the things Jesse did right on this property, setting up these ‘el-pops.’” Sean banged on one of the metal legs that held up the dark green metal roof above them.

 

“Well, I for one feel like I am doing some good listening at this observation post.”

 

“Same here,” Sean smiled. “And observing, too.”

 

“Oh, yes, constantly observing. Maybe someday we will listen or observe something from this listening and observation post. That’s always possible. Right from under this car hood that Jesse had some welder turn into a roof for us.”

 

“If I have to spend a lot of time in a car, I would rather it be in the Whale,” Sean said, nodding uphill.

 

“What do you mean, a whale like in the book of Jonah?”

 

“No, the Cadillac that made it to the far back of the property.”

 

“Oh yeah, I heard about that. One of the families who made it up here drove up in their old Cadillac convertible. A restoration project. And I hear that the ground clearance of that car was pretty bad, but they kept driving up the hiking trails and made it to the very back end of the property, then the car got stuck. I guess they didn’t want the car being visible from the valley below. Remember all the talk of camouflage and all. If I recall, that’s a red car.”

 

“It’s a really cool car,” Sean said. “People go to it and run the engine and charge their flashlight batteries and Kindles. It has cigarette lighters even in the back seat, for charging stuff.”

 

“Oh yeah. That car was made in the early 70’s. Everyone smoked a lot back then. And cigarette lighters were next to every seat, even the back seats. People certainly didn’t want to get caught unable to light up.”

 

“Apparently, the car has a great alternator. And while they charge the batteries they crank the CD player and turn up the AC or heater. It’s actually a fun place to hang out. Like a little vacation”

 

“Listen, that alternator will probably be taken out someday and hooked up to a wind turbine or something. You have to admit, it is a waste of gas to idle a big engine like that.”

 

“Yeah, I know, you’re right. But the last time I was at that car, someone cranked up the old music and Justin jumped in and acted like he was playing the drums. It was pretty funny.”

 

“Yes,” David said, “Justin was the drummer in some band in high school, or at least that is what I heard. There are some pretty funny photos of him out there, trying to act like John Bonham. But who knows, we’ll probably never see those photos again. They would have been great blackmail material.”

 

Sean smiled. “John Bonham?”

 

“Drummer for Led Zeppelin,” David answered. There was a pause.

 

“Oh, I see.”

 

 

 

 

*****

 

 

 

“But back to what I miss,” David said. “I guess there is more to it than drinking wine and eating cheese, although I miss that too.”

 

“What, were there all-you-can drink wine bars or something?”

 

David smiled, then looked serious. “No, it’s not that. I just miss the detachment of it all.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I mean, we would go to church, back when church was open, and we would hear a sermon on the Book of Daniel or Matthew or Revelation, or other books of the Bible. And I never really,” David paused, as if looking for the right words. “I never really thought it would apply to me.” Sean nodded slightly, in agreement.

 

“We would read Matthew 24, and the whole book of Revelation, and I never thought I would be around to see all that stuff happen. I always thought it would be something that would happen to my grandkids or their grandkids, or,” David paused. “What I was reading was pretty scary, you know, Christians getting killed off, and I just wasn’t scared. I believe the Bible, of course. I just never thought I would be here when it all happened. For me it was so hypothetical.”

 

“Kind of like ‘ignorance is bliss.’ Or taking the blue pill.”

 

“Yeah, I guess. I was just so … I guess I was at peace, that there was just too much between our world and the times described in the Bible. I just thought there was so much that had to happen before you could look into the Bible and notice that the End Times were right here. I miss that sense of peace. That sense of ‘it won’t happen to me.’ The sense that I didn’t really need to worry about it. Of course it is good to know, and the book of Revelation says a special blessing will be given to those who read the book…”

 

David continued. “Now I feel pretty stupid. Just look how fast everything changed. I always thought that there was way too much that needed to change before we got to the stuff that happens in Matthew 24 and Revelation. But it seems just like, ‘poof,’ everything got into position and here we are. The gay marriage thing, for example. Only a few years ago, gay marriage was just a joke. Even gays didn’t take it seriously. Nowadays whenever someone opposes gay marriage they lose their job and practically get run out of town on a rail. And in some places, if you are a heterosexual man and woman, you are not even allowed to get married. I remember thinking, ‘Boy that was fast.’”

 

David looked at Sean. “Oh, I’m sorry. Your parents probably don’t want you talking about those things. I keep forgetting that you’re fifteen years old.”

 

“It’s OK. My parents have told me all about it.”

 

“Well, the point is, that the days of thinking this will apply to others is long gone. Long gone. And I was ignoring all the clues. I was busy with my job, keeping up to date with the company’s new product line, new ways to speed up financing, that kind of thing.”

 

“I never knew what kind of job you had,” Sean said.

 

“I was a sales rep for a dental equipment company. For this whole tri-state region. And I was a good sales rep, too. I would visit dentists’ offices and either try to get them to buy new equipment or update their old equipment.”

 

“You mean like drills and stuff?”

 

“Yeah, but it was a lot more than that. And for those who wanted to buy, I would line up financing. It all kept me pretty busy.” David paused. “And I was ignoring all the clues that were right there in the news. Right in front of me. In front of us all. Sure, I knew there were bad things going on in the world, and there was some talk of the new government requiring people to get some kind of faint bar code on their foreheads. Sharia put in place in certain parts of the country. Stuff like that. But I still thought the End Times were far, far off. Nothing to do with me. I guess that’s it for me. That’s what I really miss.”

 

“After my dad got laid off we lost our cable TV, so I was also ignoring the news. We couldn’t watch it at our house. In fact, we were about to lose our house.”

 

David shifted in his seat. “Your family was never going to lose your house. I know it never came to that, but several of us from church were going to pitch in and bring your family current with your mortgage. We weren’t really looking forward to it. At least I wasn’t. I admit that. But you guys were not going to lose your house.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

“You’re welcome. A little, too-late-to-matter reassurance for you there.” David smiled. “Who knows what is going on at your house nowadays? In fact, who knows what is going on in the world nowadays?” David looked out into the valley, then back to Sean. “But the point is, if this all wasn’t happening, you and your family would still be in your house.”

 

“That’s really nice of you guys.”

 

“That’s what a church does.” David looked into the valley below. “Give the glory to God.”

 

 

 

 

*****

 

 

 

 

David continued, “What finally woke me up was when I read about the Nobel Peace Prize.”

 

“I missed it,” Sean said. “What do you mean?”

 

“Well, you know what the Nobel Prize is, right?”

 

“Sure, I’ve studied that.”

 

“Well, one of the Nobel Prizes is for promoting peace in the world. It is called the Nobel Peace Prize. This one was a totally outside-the-Bible clue for me. Like God was banging me on the head, trying to get me to notice some clues of the End Times coming. They just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the religion of Islam. All those terrorists who kill people, and in fact Muslims have been killing and enslaving people for hundreds of years, but they insist that they are one big ‘religion of peace.’ They finally got the Nobel Prize committee to buy it. I just couldn’t believe it. It totally floored me.”

 

“Yes, my parents talked about that.”

 

“I know, the Nobel Peace Prize started getting a little tarnished through the years. In the 90’s once it was awarded to Arafat, who showed up to accept the prize and his check, in between killing people.”

 

“You get money when you win the Nobel Prize?” Sean asked.

 

“That’s what I hear. And then a few years later the prize was given to Al Gore because of his yammering on about global warming.”

 

“Oh yeah, that was a joke.”

 

“But the Nobel Peace Prize always had some legitimacy. Something to make you take it seriously. And then they went and awarded it to Islam. And not any one or two Muslims, or to a group of them, or a country or anything. They awarded it to the whole religion.” David paused. “That is when I sat up and took notice that things in the world were starting to get really screwed up. The Bible says that ‘truth gets traded for lies’ and ‘the wise become fools,’ and that’s what happened. At first I couldn’t understand how people could be so stupid. Could people even hear themselves talk? But the Apostle Paul wrote that God will send a strong delusion. And I got news for you, if God allows you to be deluded, you are going to be deluded. That’s all there is to it. So that has to explain all the stupidity out there, beginning with the Nobel Peace Prize getting awarded to Islam.”

 

“Still, that was pretty strange.”

 

“Very strange. Meanwhile, a little over a month ago I headed south on a business trip. I lined up about twenty-five dentist office visits to talk about the company’s new line. It was a pretty long trip, but the buying had slowed down and I felt I had to do it. The dentists I visited kept telling me ‘Not now. We might expand when things settle down a little.’ All I knew was that there was some giant peace conference going on in Jerusalem. I guess the dentists and their office managers were more aware of what was going on in the world than I was.”

 

“Then what happened?”

 

“Well, without a single sale – not a single one! -- I checked back at the corporate office and they just told me to end the trip; just come back. And on the long drive home, I started looking for local Christian radio stations to listen to. I always do that when I go on a road trip. These stations were totally normal during the trip down, but on my way back… I started noticing that several of them were playing some strange songs, and repeating them, like on an endless loop. Just like our local station, K-Heaven, was supposed to do when Jesse and the others felt that it was time to drop everything and come up here.”

 

“What do you mean by strange songs?”

 

“Well, I knew of the usual Christian radio stations that would play worship songs, by groups like Casting Crowns or Steven Curtis Chapman, or replay a sermon or something. But they were playing songs like the old Rolling Stones song, ‘Gimme Shelter,’ and it was on an endless loop. The song would just keep playing over and over. Like someone in charge at that station had just turned it on, pushed some buttons at the station to just keep playing that same song, and the people working there just left. Some other Christian radio stations played songs like ‘Run Away’ by Real McCoy, that bathroom song, and --”

 

“Wait, did you say ‘bathroom song?’”

 

“Well that’s what I call it. It’s the Credence Clearwater song, ‘There’s A Bad Moon Rising.’ The words of the song sound like someone is saying that there is a ‘bathroom on the right.’ You know, one of those songs with lyrics that everyone mistakes for something totally silly.”

 

“That is pretty silly.”

 

“It’s a song from the 60’s, but a friend of mine saw the lead singer from Credence in a concert of his own a few years ago. True story: during a break in the concert, someone asked the singer where the bathroom was, and he said ‘Oh, it’s on the right.’”

“Really? That’s pretty funny. You’d think he would get mad at a disaster song being morphed into a song about, you know, the location of a bathroom. So what about the other Christian radio stations you heard? What were they playing?”

 

“Well, not all Christian radio stations, but I’d say almost half of them were playing these strange songs on endless loops. It got to be kind of a game to look around the radio dial, where I knew Christian radio stations were, to see if any were playing songs that were bizarre. For example, instead of the latest Toby Mac song, one radio station played the David Bowie song ‘This Is Not America’ on an endless loop. Another station was scheduled to replay a Voddie Baucham sermon at a certain time, and in fact I was looking forward to it. Instead, when I turned to that station, all I heard was the old Pink Floyd song ‘Run Like Hell.’ Over and over.”

 

“Didn’t we have some agreement with our local station, K-Heaven, to do the same thing?”

 

“Well, yeah, but for some reason I just figured our group was the only one. I thought it was a secret. Several of us… not me, but others, had talked our local radio station into just playing the song, ‘We’ll Meet Again,’ when it was truly time to leave our houses and come here to the compound. That is what I was hearing all along my drive home on that trip. Apparently other Christian prepper groups in other areas had the same idea. Well, let’s face it: that is a pretty good way to get the word out to our people, that it is time to go.”

 

Sean looked confused. “I remember hearing that song. Where did it come from?”

 

“It was played at the end of the 1960’s movie, Dr. Strangelove.”

 

“Can’t say I have ever heard of that movie.”

 

“It was way before your time. Well, mine too. It was actually a dark comedy about nuclear bombs blowing up the world. At the end of the movie as the world gets totally nuked, the song that is played is ‘We’ll Meet Again.’ It wasn’t my first choice, but the local guys decided that would be a good endless loop song to play to notify everyone that it was time to leave and come up here.”

 

“The Matthew 24 call to ‘just run.’”

 

“Exactly. Don’t even get your coat, although I know a lot of coats made it up here. Maybe the ‘don’t even get your coat’ language in Matthew 24 was a metaphor.”

 

“Well, I remember hearing that song. It’s actually a nice song. Our radio was playing in the kitchen. That song came on, and at the end of the song it would start again. And then again. I thought something was wrong at the radio station. My dad walked into the kitchen, and when he heard the song, he just grew pale. I mean, he actually looked like he was in shock. He made sure that it was K-Heaven playing it, and then he looked really nervous. He called my mom in, and they hugged each other, then they sat down on the floor in the kitchen. Just listening. My mom started to cry a little. I asked them if they were OK, and they said yes and just sat there for a while. Just listening. They pulled out a Bible and read some. Not saying a word. They wouldn’t even sit in chairs. They just sat on the floor there. Sitting on the floor -- that is what tipped me off that something big was going on.”

 

“What did your family do next?”

 

“I’d say they just sat there and listened to the song play about seven or eight times, while they read the Bible. Then they got up and started packing our Jeep. They got my sister and then we drove here. Not much talking on the drive up here either. It was a really strange day. Once we were out of town they told my sister and me what was up. They told us that we were moving up here. For good.”

 

“Yes. That song was the signal for local Christian prepper groups that people who were paying attention, unlike me, had decided that the world had reached the point of no return. The Abomination. Time to pack up and leave, and come to the compound here. We all thought we were being clever but apparently several other Christian prepper groups out there had the same idea. And I was hearing it all on my drive home on that business trip.”

 

“What other songs did you hear?”

 

“Some songs were more obvious than others. There was the old John Mellencamp song ‘Crumblin’ Down.’ Oh yes, I almost forgot. One station just had an air raid siren playing non-stop. Come to think of it, that was pretty obvious. And there was one song that, let’s face it, was really obvious: REM’s ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It.’ When we chose the song for our local station, well, I wasn’t there, but the idea was to have it a little concealed; not so obvious. We didn’t want to just come right out and say ‘Hey everyone, the End Times are here. We’re leaving now!’”

 

There was a pause. They both looked down onto the road outside. Sean said, “We might have another hour before our replacements come. What time do you have?”

 

“Oh, that’s another thing. I don’t have a watch anymore. I sold my watch during that drive home.”

 

“Why’d you do that?”

 

“Well, I mentioned I was driving home and hearing all this strange music, on endless loops. I was also starting to notice that whenever I came upon a gas station, there were really long lines. I mean, lines that went on and on. As far as you could see. As I got a little closer home, instead of lines at the gas stations I started noticing fires at the gas stations. Billowing smoke that I could see from miles away! And no firemen or police! Just a big fire, people driving away, sometimes fighting, and no firemen or cops. It was totally bizarre. I guess the refineries getting bombed meant that gasoline became pretty scarce, pretty quickly. There were many gas stations like that. You could look across the horizon and see many of these gas stations on fire, sending smoke up. Like a bunch of black fingers reaching into the sky.”

 

“Kind of like that one over there,” Sean said, and pointed off to the smoke far away to the east.

 

“Yes, but on my drive home there were many of them.”

 

“That sounds pretty scary. So how’d that cause you to sell your watch?”

 

“Well, I noticed my own gas supply was getting low. So I turned off the highway onto a pretty deserted road. Just taking a chance. And I found a small gas station that was closed, and a mobile home was right behind it. I figured that’s where the owners lived. I knocked on the door and asked for some gas. They said ‘No, get lost.’ So I offered them my Breitling watch for a fill-up of gas. Gloria paid $4,500 for that watch a few anniversaries ago, and I just handed it over for a tank full of gas.”

 

“At least you got home.”

 

“Yes. I made it home OK. And I keep looking over at my wrist to see the time, but my watch is gone. Oh well, I can always ask the time on these walkie-talkies.”

 

 

 

****