day late
money? whats that?
Captain Rutherford and his men hadn't taken two steps before they felt the ground under them begin to tremble, and then violently shake. Someone cried out,
"Earthquake!"
He was right. It was what is known as an upthrust earthquake, during which one plate suddenly shifts upwards over the opposing plate.
Everyone of both sides were knocked off their feet by the shaking. The ridge line where Rutherfords' men were standing cracked open and the portion of land nearest the Christian group heaved up. A sheer wall of stone raised itself sixty feet above them. The ground that Rutherford's' men were standing on gave way, and a huge gash appeared in the earth. The men had been shaken so badly they had all fallen where they were standing, and the quake continued for what seemed like forever. As the tremor eased, a section of the new cliff face sheered off. A solid piece of stone, sixty feet high and over one hundred feet long toppled over on to them. There were no survivors.
As they laid on the ground waiting for it to stop, the Christians couldn't see what was happening on the other side of the newly form cliff. Kathy had been standing next to Bobs' pick up when it started. For reasons she could never explain, when the shaking started, she jumped into the truck. For protection she thought at the time. Later, she didn't know what to think.
Once the shaking had stopped, she looked though the windshield at Bob. Instinctively she reached for the key, and turned it. Before the engine had started the passenger door jerked open, and Barbara jumped in. Kathy stared at her for a moment, only to hear her say,
"Go, Go, Go."
Kathy hammered the gas pedal. She was only barely aware that she passed first Alex, and then Maria as she headed for Bob. She knew in her heart it was useless, but she had to try. Slamming on the brakes, she came to a stop next to the lifeless body. As she looked at him, she knew it was hopeless. Jagged pieces of bone, which she knew must be what was left of his ribs, stuck out of his chest.
As she knelt next to him she didn't even bother to check for a pulse. There wasn't any point to it. The damage was just too bad. Nobody could live though what had happened to Bob. She heard Maria calling Bobs' name and the sound of her footsteps coming towards her. Glancing over her shoulder she saw Maria and Alex, now neck and neck, running towards her. She glanced at Barbara and said,
"Stop them. At least let me get him covered."
Barbara turned and ran to them.
"He's gone." She shouted at them.
Kathy stood and reached into the the truck, behind the front seat. She pulled out a blanket and quickly covered the worst of the damage. Pieces of broken bone held the blanket above his chest. She left only Bobs' uninjured face exposed.
Maria pushed past Barbara, followed by Alex. Each of them knelt down next to him. Maria was sobbing and calling Bobs' name. Alex simply knelt and silently wept. Maria turned to Kathy with an unanswerable question.
"Why would God let this happen to him? He did everything he was asked. Why did this happen?"
Again she began to sob.
It was at this point that Major Ferguson and Lieutenant Busby, along with many of the Special Forces men arrived at the scene. After looking at Bob, Ferguson turned to Busby.
"Make sure they are dead." Was all he said.
Hearing him, Maria pulled back the blanket from Bobs' waist. The ever present .44 Magnum was on his hip, snapped into his holster. She unsnapped it, pulled the heavy weapon out and stood.
"Lieutenant. If any of them are alive, I want them."
Busby looked at Ferguson.
"Do it." He said.
Barbara was now next to Bobs' body, head bowed and praying for him.
"Lord. This man has served you well. We need him to lead us. Please Father, give him back to us. Heal his body and return life to him."
Alex also bowed his head and joined in the prayer.
Lieutenant Busby signed the other Special Forces men. They picked up their weapons from where they had been held on Bobs' order and moved at a fast trot to join him. One of them handed Busby his weapons, and together they moved to the edge of the cliff.
Maria went to her knees once again, cradling the large pistol in her hands And continued to ask,
"Why?"
Shortly, many of the people of the group came forward, and remained at a respectful distance from Maria and the rest, lost as to what they should do. Finally the men returned from the cliff. Ferguson didn't even look up as he said,
"Report.'
"Sir, I don't think there are any of them left. We could see two of them partially buried under a landslide. There is no sign of the rest. I think they are under it. It would take a lot of rope to get down there to check and be certain."
"Thank you. I don't think that will be necessary." He moved to Maria and placed his hand on her shoulder. He spoke softly. "Maria, I'm so sorry. Please, go back to the camp. My men and I know what to do. We'll call you when we're ready."
Maria stood, and without taking her eyes off of Bob said,
"Thank you, Major."
Kathy walked to her and put her arm around her as she started to lead her back to the camp. She was at a loss of what to say as Maria asked her again.
"Why, Kathy? Why did God let this happen?"
"I wish I had an answer for you. Maybe we should ask Jim. I'm sure...What is that noise?"
She turned and looked in Bobs' direction as a cracking, and popping noise became louder. She was stunned as she watched the points of bone recede into Bobs' chest. Stopping she said,
"Maria. Look!"
After a couple of moments, all of the pieces of bone and tissue had reformed and knitted themselves together, in Bobs' chest. Suddenly he gasped for breath. Without lifting his body off the ground he was heard to speak.
"That was AWESOME!"
Once again, everyone converged on Bob. Not believing what was happening before them. Seeing what was going on, Barbara and Alex began to praise The Lord and thank Him for His mercy.
Kathy reached Bobs' side and said,
"Bob! How can this be happening? You're dead."
"If you say so. Far be it from me to argue with my doctor. Matter of fact I promised you I wouldn't do that. Remember?"
That was enough for Maria. She fell down next to him and cradled him in her arms.
"Thank God." She cried. "You're alive."
"Not according to Kathy. Honey, you might want to let go of me. You're getting blood all over your shirt."
"I don't care. I have more. Are you alright?"
Bob sat up and looking at her answered.
"Well, in this weather I'm a little chilly without a shirt. Besides, this one is all wet with blood, and little more than rags. Think I could get a new one?"
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Bob accepted all the un-needed help in getting to his feet and walking back to the camp. Everyone had seen what happened to him, and most of them had gotten close enough to see his body. Now that he was alive again some of them pulled back in fear. But when many more started to kneel before him, he was shocked.
"Don't do that." He said to them. "I'm still the same man I was before. You should kneel only before God."
Without comment, they stood aside to let him pass. Barbara had saved the tattered shirt he had been wearing, and began to try to rinse as much of the blood out of it as she could.
"Barbara. Just throw that away. It's useless."
She shook her head. "It's proof, Bob. Proof that God has chosen you to lead us. It needs to be saved in case anyone ever has any doubts."
"Alright. But if it ever looks like it is becoming some kind of relic, I'm going to burn it myself."
"Bob, when we talked this morning. How much of this did you know about?" Maria asked.
"I knew that we would be delivered by the Hand of God. I knew that He was going to use this incident to affirm my leadership, but I never expected to die."
"I'm glad to hear that. Now you listen to me. IF YOU EVER do anything like this again, I don't care what you say. I'm going to be at your side."
"And I've got your back." Alex commented. "Dad you don't know what that did to us."
"I think I do. I remember when your mother died. I was useless for months after that."
"Well, just don't do it again. Alright?"
"I promise I'll try not to ever get killed again. Unless that is The Lords' will. How's that?"
"Can't say I like it, but O.K."
Major Ferguson spoke up.
"What do you remember?"
"Not much. I remember getting hit. The next thing I was about fifty feet up, looking down on all of this. I saw the earthquake. I saw those people get buried by a section of the cliff that fell. Oh! That reminds me. Major get everyone ready. I was told there will be two more quakes in the near future."
"Not until I hear the rest of this story."
"O.K. I think we have time. Anyway, after the quake the next thing I knew, I was in Heaven, I think. All I'm sure of is I found myself looking into the face of Jesus. Do you know how incredible His eyes are? When He looks at you, you know He is seeing more than the outside. Anyway I was told that I couldn't stay. I had to return here. There were still things for me to do. He also said the reason this happened was because of the people that were beginning to question if I should be in charge. He wanted to show that I was chosen, not them."
Maria had been cleaning the blood off of Bob's back when she noticed something.
"Bob. You aren't quite the same man you were before."
"I feel the same."
"Maybe so, but your scar is gone."
"Is it?"
"Your shoulder is as smooth as a babies bottom. Check it yourself."
He reached behind his back and ran his hand over the area.
"Well I'll be. I wonder if anything else has changed."
As Bob had said, there were two more earthquakes. One of them permenantly blocked of any access to them by the other group of soldiers that had been coming towards them. The other shook loose more of the cliff and provided a way out of the bowl shaped area, in the direction they were to go.
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It took an entire day for the group to make a path level enough for the trucks and horse drawn wagons to make it down the slope of the new cliff, after the third earthquake. True to form, Bob joined in with the rest of them in clearing the slope although he did have to have a few words with Kathy before she would allow him to do so.
"Bob, you were dead! Now you want to go out there and work yourself to death? I can't allow it."
"Afraid I'm going to have a relapse and die again? Come on Kathy. You've examined me from top to bottom and front to back. Did you find anything at all wrong with me?"
"Well, no. But it isn't every day that a patient comes back from the dead either. I just want to make sure that you are really going to be O.K."
"Kathy. Do you really believe that God does slip-shod work?"
"That's not fair Bob."
"Maybe not, but it is true. Isn't it?"
"Alright, alright. But you promise me that if you feel anything at all, and I mean even if it is only being a little dizzy, you'll stop work and come see me."
"I promise. But I wouldn't hold my breathe if I were you. Like they say, God doesn't make mistakes."
She knew he was right, but just the same, Kathy carefully watched him for the first half of the day. As she did she was reminded of the time he had helped Tim clear the dead trees from their front yard. He never shirked his share of the work. In fact, he did more than his share and refused to quit until everyone else did. As he always said; 'Ever notice how good enough usually isn't?'. She suddenly realized that all of that had happened only about one year ago. One year ago their whole world was at peace. Their children were in school, they had a full refrigerator, and both she and Tim were looking at the prospects of promotion in their jobs. How different things were now.
She also noticed two other things that didn't surprise her in the least. Alex was working side by side with his father, never getting more than a few feet away from him, and never complained about the work.
Secondly, Maria came to the work site with Michelle far more often than was necessary. But the sight of the women help to boost the morale of both father and son.
That brought to mind another thing. She was a dentist, not a doctor. True, she had more medical knowledge than anyone else, but she was still embarrassed that she had made the classic mistake of heartbeats. During an examination of Mike she had heard two heartbeats. So she announced the possibility of twins. It wasn't until later that she understood that she had indeed heard two heartbeats. One belonged to the baby. The other to the mother. When she told Mike about it, she was surprised to hear of Mikes' relief.
"I'm not like you Kathy. You've already had four. This is my first. I was worried silly about how I was going to take care of two children."
Then there was the matter of sanitation. After Bob had made her the medical expert she had made Tim responsible for making sure the growing group kept things clean. Germs, after all, had killed far more people than bullets ever did.
At first the job was only making sure their children washed up whenever needed. However once the group had grown larger, Kathy was amazed to find out there were supposedly mature adults who seemed to be strangers to soap and water. Tim had gotten on them about it. To virtually no avail. They had cleaned up a little, but nobody wanted to live near them while they were still in the town. It was said, and Kathy knew it to be true, you knew when you were getting near their place. You could smell it at one hundred yards.
To be sure, they were very pleasant people. Everyone seemed to genuinely like them. But everyone did their best to stay up wind of them. Something needed to be done about the situation.
It was a couple of days later that she and Tim took their problems to Bob.
"Hi, Bob. Got a minute?"
"For the two of you, always. What can I do for you?"
Kathy sat in a folding chair near Bob and began to speak.
"Bob, I don't know that you can do anything, but I wanted you to be aware of a few problems."
"That's what I'm here for."
"As you know The Lord has been very good to us all. There have been no medical emergencies since we started. The closest thing to an actual trauma was when the Timmons' boy fell off a rock and broke his arm back after the Chinese attacked us. Before that, I'd never set a broken bone before. Thank The Lord two of the Majors men were trained for that type of thing. I learned a lot from those two. But we need to think about the future. I mean specifically about the pregnancies."
"Oh? Are any of the mothers having problems?"
"Not that I know of. But the truth is I'm a dentist, not a physician. Yes I'm a mother, and I know about child birth from that end, but I've never delivered a baby from the other. I think everyone would feel much more comfortable, and safer, if we had at least a mid-wife to help those of us that are expecting. I know I would."
Tim looked startled.
"Us? What is this 'us' all about?"
Realizing what she had said, Kathy turned red with embarrassment.
"Oh. I'm sorry. I was waiting for a better time to tell you. But yes, our family is growing again."
"Kathy, how did that happen? You've been on the pill for years."
She smiled at him.
"Sweetheart, I love you. But sometimes you can be a little slow. In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been able to get that prescription refilled for a long time now. And those things don't last forever you know."
Now it was Tims' turn to flush red.
"I guess you're right. I never thought about it. I mean since I don't take them it never occurred to me that it was a problem."
"So, are you upset?"
"Upset? No. Not at all. Surprised? Sure, but not upset. When are you due?"
"Now we are back to the main problem. I can't be sure, but I'd say about seven and a half months." She looked at Bob to address the doctor situation again and found him grinning at them. "What are you smiling about?"
"It is just nice to know that I'm not the only one in the unexpected fatherhood boat. Here's wishing the best to all seven of you."
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Director Ives couldn't believe that things were progressing so fast, and so smoothly. That might be the reason he had been advised by the master of the future events and warned to be ready for them.
Since there weren't many Christians left, most of the people on earth completely missed the importance of the massive earthquake that had hit Turkey. While it had not taken as many lives as was first feared, it had changed the course of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. They had joined together near the headwaters, and now emptied into the Black Sea. Everything down stream from there was rapidly drying up. Those who thought of it at all were mainly concerned about the people in Iraq. What would they do without the water that had always been provided by the rivers? None of them knew the prophecy about the rivers drying up to make way for the kings of the east.
Ives knew that the time of revealing the anti-christ must be near. Drying up those rivers made it possible for the Chinese to bring their armies into the region of the Middle East. If there were any American forces in the region, by now they were so badly reduced in number and short on supplies and equipment, that they wouldn't be any problem. And that would begin the last phase of World War III.
Since one of the things they had lost when they were forced to retreat from America was a new source of oil. The Chinese needed that oil and because they were now the most powerful country on the planet, they felt the oil belonged to them by right. They weren't going to pay for what they felt they already owned. With an army of two hundred million no one was going to argue about it. Or not for long at any rate.
He also knew that his time in this cursed land was drawing to a close. This winter was proving to be the worst ever seen on the continent. With food already in short supply due to the war, the people here starting to starve. The problem wasn't made any easier when it was discovered, the hard way, that there were more Russian and Chinese troops around than had been suspected. The bad weather kept what supplies the Americans had been able to claim from getting anywhere that they were needed. The nice part for him was that nobody blamed him for the situation.
After all, hadn't it been Ives who had discovered the food and other supplies which had been left behind by the Russians and Chinese when they had pulled out? Wasn't it Ives that had masterminded the plan to retrieve those supplies? Was it his fault the the number of left behind soldiers was greater than had been thought at first? Didn't his plan include defending the men sent to get those supplies? No, none of this could be blamed on him. It wasn't his fault that because of war and weather that famine was slowly spreading across the country. At the rate is was going, it was feared that the number of the newly dead would soon vastly outnumber the living. The only thing that Ives was really upset about was he hadn't been able to get rid of the Americans as fast as he would have liked, and he couldn't be sure he had reduced the Christian population to less than the hated ten percent.
Once this was accomplished, he would at long last leave this place for a new assignment. Perhaps even the one he had wanted all along. In Jerusalem.
"Earthquake!"
He was right. It was what is known as an upthrust earthquake, during which one plate suddenly shifts upwards over the opposing plate.
Everyone of both sides were knocked off their feet by the shaking. The ridge line where Rutherfords' men were standing cracked open and the portion of land nearest the Christian group heaved up. A sheer wall of stone raised itself sixty feet above them. The ground that Rutherford's' men were standing on gave way, and a huge gash appeared in the earth. The men had been shaken so badly they had all fallen where they were standing, and the quake continued for what seemed like forever. As the tremor eased, a section of the new cliff face sheered off. A solid piece of stone, sixty feet high and over one hundred feet long toppled over on to them. There were no survivors.
As they laid on the ground waiting for it to stop, the Christians couldn't see what was happening on the other side of the newly form cliff. Kathy had been standing next to Bobs' pick up when it started. For reasons she could never explain, when the shaking started, she jumped into the truck. For protection she thought at the time. Later, she didn't know what to think.
Once the shaking had stopped, she looked though the windshield at Bob. Instinctively she reached for the key, and turned it. Before the engine had started the passenger door jerked open, and Barbara jumped in. Kathy stared at her for a moment, only to hear her say,
"Go, Go, Go."
Kathy hammered the gas pedal. She was only barely aware that she passed first Alex, and then Maria as she headed for Bob. She knew in her heart it was useless, but she had to try. Slamming on the brakes, she came to a stop next to the lifeless body. As she looked at him, she knew it was hopeless. Jagged pieces of bone, which she knew must be what was left of his ribs, stuck out of his chest.
As she knelt next to him she didn't even bother to check for a pulse. There wasn't any point to it. The damage was just too bad. Nobody could live though what had happened to Bob. She heard Maria calling Bobs' name and the sound of her footsteps coming towards her. Glancing over her shoulder she saw Maria and Alex, now neck and neck, running towards her. She glanced at Barbara and said,
"Stop them. At least let me get him covered."
Barbara turned and ran to them.
"He's gone." She shouted at them.
Kathy stood and reached into the the truck, behind the front seat. She pulled out a blanket and quickly covered the worst of the damage. Pieces of broken bone held the blanket above his chest. She left only Bobs' uninjured face exposed.
Maria pushed past Barbara, followed by Alex. Each of them knelt down next to him. Maria was sobbing and calling Bobs' name. Alex simply knelt and silently wept. Maria turned to Kathy with an unanswerable question.
"Why would God let this happen to him? He did everything he was asked. Why did this happen?"
Again she began to sob.
It was at this point that Major Ferguson and Lieutenant Busby, along with many of the Special Forces men arrived at the scene. After looking at Bob, Ferguson turned to Busby.
"Make sure they are dead." Was all he said.
Hearing him, Maria pulled back the blanket from Bobs' waist. The ever present .44 Magnum was on his hip, snapped into his holster. She unsnapped it, pulled the heavy weapon out and stood.
"Lieutenant. If any of them are alive, I want them."
Busby looked at Ferguson.
"Do it." He said.
Barbara was now next to Bobs' body, head bowed and praying for him.
"Lord. This man has served you well. We need him to lead us. Please Father, give him back to us. Heal his body and return life to him."
Alex also bowed his head and joined in the prayer.
Lieutenant Busby signed the other Special Forces men. They picked up their weapons from where they had been held on Bobs' order and moved at a fast trot to join him. One of them handed Busby his weapons, and together they moved to the edge of the cliff.
Maria went to her knees once again, cradling the large pistol in her hands And continued to ask,
"Why?"
Shortly, many of the people of the group came forward, and remained at a respectful distance from Maria and the rest, lost as to what they should do. Finally the men returned from the cliff. Ferguson didn't even look up as he said,
"Report.'
"Sir, I don't think there are any of them left. We could see two of them partially buried under a landslide. There is no sign of the rest. I think they are under it. It would take a lot of rope to get down there to check and be certain."
"Thank you. I don't think that will be necessary." He moved to Maria and placed his hand on her shoulder. He spoke softly. "Maria, I'm so sorry. Please, go back to the camp. My men and I know what to do. We'll call you when we're ready."
Maria stood, and without taking her eyes off of Bob said,
"Thank you, Major."
Kathy walked to her and put her arm around her as she started to lead her back to the camp. She was at a loss of what to say as Maria asked her again.
"Why, Kathy? Why did God let this happen?"
"I wish I had an answer for you. Maybe we should ask Jim. I'm sure...What is that noise?"
She turned and looked in Bobs' direction as a cracking, and popping noise became louder. She was stunned as she watched the points of bone recede into Bobs' chest. Stopping she said,
"Maria. Look!"
After a couple of moments, all of the pieces of bone and tissue had reformed and knitted themselves together, in Bobs' chest. Suddenly he gasped for breath. Without lifting his body off the ground he was heard to speak.
"That was AWESOME!"
Once again, everyone converged on Bob. Not believing what was happening before them. Seeing what was going on, Barbara and Alex began to praise The Lord and thank Him for His mercy.
Kathy reached Bobs' side and said,
"Bob! How can this be happening? You're dead."
"If you say so. Far be it from me to argue with my doctor. Matter of fact I promised you I wouldn't do that. Remember?"
That was enough for Maria. She fell down next to him and cradled him in her arms.
"Thank God." She cried. "You're alive."
"Not according to Kathy. Honey, you might want to let go of me. You're getting blood all over your shirt."
"I don't care. I have more. Are you alright?"
Bob sat up and looking at her answered.
"Well, in this weather I'm a little chilly without a shirt. Besides, this one is all wet with blood, and little more than rags. Think I could get a new one?"
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Bob accepted all the un-needed help in getting to his feet and walking back to the camp. Everyone had seen what happened to him, and most of them had gotten close enough to see his body. Now that he was alive again some of them pulled back in fear. But when many more started to kneel before him, he was shocked.
"Don't do that." He said to them. "I'm still the same man I was before. You should kneel only before God."
Without comment, they stood aside to let him pass. Barbara had saved the tattered shirt he had been wearing, and began to try to rinse as much of the blood out of it as she could.
"Barbara. Just throw that away. It's useless."
She shook her head. "It's proof, Bob. Proof that God has chosen you to lead us. It needs to be saved in case anyone ever has any doubts."
"Alright. But if it ever looks like it is becoming some kind of relic, I'm going to burn it myself."
"Bob, when we talked this morning. How much of this did you know about?" Maria asked.
"I knew that we would be delivered by the Hand of God. I knew that He was going to use this incident to affirm my leadership, but I never expected to die."
"I'm glad to hear that. Now you listen to me. IF YOU EVER do anything like this again, I don't care what you say. I'm going to be at your side."
"And I've got your back." Alex commented. "Dad you don't know what that did to us."
"I think I do. I remember when your mother died. I was useless for months after that."
"Well, just don't do it again. Alright?"
"I promise I'll try not to ever get killed again. Unless that is The Lords' will. How's that?"
"Can't say I like it, but O.K."
Major Ferguson spoke up.
"What do you remember?"
"Not much. I remember getting hit. The next thing I was about fifty feet up, looking down on all of this. I saw the earthquake. I saw those people get buried by a section of the cliff that fell. Oh! That reminds me. Major get everyone ready. I was told there will be two more quakes in the near future."
"Not until I hear the rest of this story."
"O.K. I think we have time. Anyway, after the quake the next thing I knew, I was in Heaven, I think. All I'm sure of is I found myself looking into the face of Jesus. Do you know how incredible His eyes are? When He looks at you, you know He is seeing more than the outside. Anyway I was told that I couldn't stay. I had to return here. There were still things for me to do. He also said the reason this happened was because of the people that were beginning to question if I should be in charge. He wanted to show that I was chosen, not them."
Maria had been cleaning the blood off of Bob's back when she noticed something.
"Bob. You aren't quite the same man you were before."
"I feel the same."
"Maybe so, but your scar is gone."
"Is it?"
"Your shoulder is as smooth as a babies bottom. Check it yourself."
He reached behind his back and ran his hand over the area.
"Well I'll be. I wonder if anything else has changed."
As Bob had said, there were two more earthquakes. One of them permenantly blocked of any access to them by the other group of soldiers that had been coming towards them. The other shook loose more of the cliff and provided a way out of the bowl shaped area, in the direction they were to go.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
It took an entire day for the group to make a path level enough for the trucks and horse drawn wagons to make it down the slope of the new cliff, after the third earthquake. True to form, Bob joined in with the rest of them in clearing the slope although he did have to have a few words with Kathy before she would allow him to do so.
"Bob, you were dead! Now you want to go out there and work yourself to death? I can't allow it."
"Afraid I'm going to have a relapse and die again? Come on Kathy. You've examined me from top to bottom and front to back. Did you find anything at all wrong with me?"
"Well, no. But it isn't every day that a patient comes back from the dead either. I just want to make sure that you are really going to be O.K."
"Kathy. Do you really believe that God does slip-shod work?"
"That's not fair Bob."
"Maybe not, but it is true. Isn't it?"
"Alright, alright. But you promise me that if you feel anything at all, and I mean even if it is only being a little dizzy, you'll stop work and come see me."
"I promise. But I wouldn't hold my breathe if I were you. Like they say, God doesn't make mistakes."
She knew he was right, but just the same, Kathy carefully watched him for the first half of the day. As she did she was reminded of the time he had helped Tim clear the dead trees from their front yard. He never shirked his share of the work. In fact, he did more than his share and refused to quit until everyone else did. As he always said; 'Ever notice how good enough usually isn't?'. She suddenly realized that all of that had happened only about one year ago. One year ago their whole world was at peace. Their children were in school, they had a full refrigerator, and both she and Tim were looking at the prospects of promotion in their jobs. How different things were now.
She also noticed two other things that didn't surprise her in the least. Alex was working side by side with his father, never getting more than a few feet away from him, and never complained about the work.
Secondly, Maria came to the work site with Michelle far more often than was necessary. But the sight of the women help to boost the morale of both father and son.
That brought to mind another thing. She was a dentist, not a doctor. True, she had more medical knowledge than anyone else, but she was still embarrassed that she had made the classic mistake of heartbeats. During an examination of Mike she had heard two heartbeats. So she announced the possibility of twins. It wasn't until later that she understood that she had indeed heard two heartbeats. One belonged to the baby. The other to the mother. When she told Mike about it, she was surprised to hear of Mikes' relief.
"I'm not like you Kathy. You've already had four. This is my first. I was worried silly about how I was going to take care of two children."
Then there was the matter of sanitation. After Bob had made her the medical expert she had made Tim responsible for making sure the growing group kept things clean. Germs, after all, had killed far more people than bullets ever did.
At first the job was only making sure their children washed up whenever needed. However once the group had grown larger, Kathy was amazed to find out there were supposedly mature adults who seemed to be strangers to soap and water. Tim had gotten on them about it. To virtually no avail. They had cleaned up a little, but nobody wanted to live near them while they were still in the town. It was said, and Kathy knew it to be true, you knew when you were getting near their place. You could smell it at one hundred yards.
To be sure, they were very pleasant people. Everyone seemed to genuinely like them. But everyone did their best to stay up wind of them. Something needed to be done about the situation.
It was a couple of days later that she and Tim took their problems to Bob.
"Hi, Bob. Got a minute?"
"For the two of you, always. What can I do for you?"
Kathy sat in a folding chair near Bob and began to speak.
"Bob, I don't know that you can do anything, but I wanted you to be aware of a few problems."
"That's what I'm here for."
"As you know The Lord has been very good to us all. There have been no medical emergencies since we started. The closest thing to an actual trauma was when the Timmons' boy fell off a rock and broke his arm back after the Chinese attacked us. Before that, I'd never set a broken bone before. Thank The Lord two of the Majors men were trained for that type of thing. I learned a lot from those two. But we need to think about the future. I mean specifically about the pregnancies."
"Oh? Are any of the mothers having problems?"
"Not that I know of. But the truth is I'm a dentist, not a physician. Yes I'm a mother, and I know about child birth from that end, but I've never delivered a baby from the other. I think everyone would feel much more comfortable, and safer, if we had at least a mid-wife to help those of us that are expecting. I know I would."
Tim looked startled.
"Us? What is this 'us' all about?"
Realizing what she had said, Kathy turned red with embarrassment.
"Oh. I'm sorry. I was waiting for a better time to tell you. But yes, our family is growing again."
"Kathy, how did that happen? You've been on the pill for years."
She smiled at him.
"Sweetheart, I love you. But sometimes you can be a little slow. In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been able to get that prescription refilled for a long time now. And those things don't last forever you know."
Now it was Tims' turn to flush red.
"I guess you're right. I never thought about it. I mean since I don't take them it never occurred to me that it was a problem."
"So, are you upset?"
"Upset? No. Not at all. Surprised? Sure, but not upset. When are you due?"
"Now we are back to the main problem. I can't be sure, but I'd say about seven and a half months." She looked at Bob to address the doctor situation again and found him grinning at them. "What are you smiling about?"
"It is just nice to know that I'm not the only one in the unexpected fatherhood boat. Here's wishing the best to all seven of you."
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Director Ives couldn't believe that things were progressing so fast, and so smoothly. That might be the reason he had been advised by the master of the future events and warned to be ready for them.
Since there weren't many Christians left, most of the people on earth completely missed the importance of the massive earthquake that had hit Turkey. While it had not taken as many lives as was first feared, it had changed the course of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. They had joined together near the headwaters, and now emptied into the Black Sea. Everything down stream from there was rapidly drying up. Those who thought of it at all were mainly concerned about the people in Iraq. What would they do without the water that had always been provided by the rivers? None of them knew the prophecy about the rivers drying up to make way for the kings of the east.
Ives knew that the time of revealing the anti-christ must be near. Drying up those rivers made it possible for the Chinese to bring their armies into the region of the Middle East. If there were any American forces in the region, by now they were so badly reduced in number and short on supplies and equipment, that they wouldn't be any problem. And that would begin the last phase of World War III.
Since one of the things they had lost when they were forced to retreat from America was a new source of oil. The Chinese needed that oil and because they were now the most powerful country on the planet, they felt the oil belonged to them by right. They weren't going to pay for what they felt they already owned. With an army of two hundred million no one was going to argue about it. Or not for long at any rate.
He also knew that his time in this cursed land was drawing to a close. This winter was proving to be the worst ever seen on the continent. With food already in short supply due to the war, the people here starting to starve. The problem wasn't made any easier when it was discovered, the hard way, that there were more Russian and Chinese troops around than had been suspected. The bad weather kept what supplies the Americans had been able to claim from getting anywhere that they were needed. The nice part for him was that nobody blamed him for the situation.
After all, hadn't it been Ives who had discovered the food and other supplies which had been left behind by the Russians and Chinese when they had pulled out? Wasn't it Ives that had masterminded the plan to retrieve those supplies? Was it his fault the the number of left behind soldiers was greater than had been thought at first? Didn't his plan include defending the men sent to get those supplies? No, none of this could be blamed on him. It wasn't his fault that because of war and weather that famine was slowly spreading across the country. At the rate is was going, it was feared that the number of the newly dead would soon vastly outnumber the living. The only thing that Ives was really upset about was he hadn't been able to get rid of the Americans as fast as he would have liked, and he couldn't be sure he had reduced the Christian population to less than the hated ten percent.
Once this was accomplished, he would at long last leave this place for a new assignment. Perhaps even the one he had wanted all along. In Jerusalem.