September Skies
Witness 2
The President and her family watched through the window as little lights appeared across the valley and spread out across the plane.
One of her entourage leaned over and whispered. “Madam President, there’s a concern our medics are exposed. They report a lot of lights coming their way. Nothing has happened in the sky, so they’re getting nervous.”
She smiled, but didn’t take her eyes off the view through the window. “Yeah. I thought about that. You know what? I think God will set the hook when He’s ready.”
The General approached the President. “Ma’am, do you think your husband would baptize me?”
The President turned and looked at him. “Of course. Do you want the icy river down the hill, or the hot tub downstairs?”
“I want the hot tub downstairs.”
“General!” She laughed.
“Seriously. I do want to be baptized.” He looked down to the ground. “I went to my wife’s baptism. On the way home a drunk driver crossed into our lane. He only got a headache.”
“General…”
A tear ran down the General’s cheek. “My wife’s hair wasn’t even dry yet. I was going to be baptized the next weekend, but I haven’t been in a church since.”
She nodded to her secret service, and they all went downstairs.
As the first husband held the General under the water and prayed, the President saw the reflection of distant little white lines on the water. She turned and looked to the sky. “Dear God…”
The General came out of the water and cleared his eyes. He started to smile, but his eyes locked in on the lines in the sky. The others turned and looked. Everyone stared as the lines grew, and everyone knew they were coming straight toward them. There was no crisscrossing, just straight lines on a mission.
*****
Early in the morning Seth saw Rick and Danny walking toward the lake. He whistled for them to wait.
Seth poked his head inside his tent. “Hey Megumi, I’m going fishing with Rick and Danny.”
She rolled over and covered her head with the pillow.
Seth grabbed his gear from the bench, and ran to join them. “Guys! Wait up… I couldn’t sleep.”
Danny kicked a rock down the road. “We couldn’t either. Today’s the day. Right?”
Seth looked at the sky. “Today should be the day Danny.”
Rick stopped. “Why are we fishing? Shouldn’t we do something else? Anything else?”
Seth said. “If we were at the beach I might try to ride one last wave? But were up here, so let’s just take in the moment. The clock is winding down. We are about to be champions. Let’s go fish until someone dumps a heavenly barrel of Gatorade on us.”
They laughed and joked along their way down by the point. It didn’t take long to forget the magnitude of the moment. Fish started jumping all across the lake. Seth dropped his pole. “I’ve never seen the surface light up like that before!”
Danny pointed to several deer running around the peninsula trying to find someplace to run. “There might be an earthquake coming.”
Seth started to say something, but nearby howls made all three of them jump and run back for camp. Seth turned to make sure Rick and Danny were close behind, but his jaw hit the floor. “Holy…” He could see thousands of lines, way up north, etching into the skies.
Rick turned and fell backward when he saw the lines. Danny started to laugh, but followed his dad’s line of sight and saw the sky… he dropped his pole, and helped Rick get up. They ran back up to the meadow in camp where the television had a camera on Pastor Flynn and Molony for the past three and a half days.
There was a shaking of the coliseum. At the top of the screen similar lines were coming in the distance. Morning Star’s smile quickly stopped.
Across the mosh pit of swarming souls the platform holding Pastor Flynn and Molony started glowing. Molony stood first, holding his hands out as he walked around the stage. Pastor Flynn stood and dusted off his suit. Music started, and the volume rose as Molony raised his arms like Moses holding a staff at the Red Sea.
Pastor Flynn issued a last plea through the song "When You Were Young" by The Killers.
At the end of the song, the white lines came into the Jerusalem sky, raining hailstones. Some were up to a hundred and eighty pounds. They were made of ice, but they were on fire.
Seth cried out. “The battle of Armageddon has begun!”
People were getting pounded. The mosh pit scattered. The people tried to run, but they were picked off with absolute precision. Nothing was hitting the ground, unless it went through a body first. Flesh exploded everywhere, except a little huddle in the middle of the mosh pit where fifteen people kneeled down in prayer.
In the upper stands several people tried to climb down the back, only to be picked off the wall with crisp clean shots. Whatever portion they were climbing down got blown apart, taking many others down with a clean shot to their position.
On one lower section two people rode the debris down the short trip like some television game show. When they realized they survived, one ran toward the center of the mosh pit, where the crowd was now 30 people and nobody was getting hurt.
The other guy ran toward a subway. He made it down the stairs, but immediately behind him was a hundred and fifty pound ball of flaming ice. The explosion blew dust out of the entrances on all four corners of the intersection. The manhole cover in the center of the street flew a hundred feet straight up.