The Beginning of the End by Lorana Hoopes (readict txt) 📕

you don’t sound excited,” Jason said, coming to sit next to her on the couch. “Why don’t you seem excited?”

“I just received this in the TruthSeeker account.” Raven had started the webpage shortly after meeting Pastor Ben. It had been the quickest way she knew to start spreading the word of the rapture, and though she’d met few of the people who visited the site, she’d exchanged emails with many of them. This one, however, was new. “The first part is a letter from a virologist, Gabe Cross, who says he has proof that the virus was man-made. He says he’ll be making a public statement soon.”

“Man-made? So, like it was planned?”

“Yeah,” Raven said. “So maybe Kat wasn’t so crazy after all, but there’s more. He included a few links in his email. The first link is to the patent registry. You know how Daman Caturix has been in the news lately?”

“Yeah, the guy is funding the vaccine companies so we can get back to normal sooner. So what?”

“Well, that guy owns a company called Natas Corporation.”

Jason stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Okay, and? A lot of people own companies, Raven, and considering the man’s a billionaire, I’m sure he owns many companies.”

“I’m sure he does own many companies, Jason, but Natas is Satan backwards.”

Immediately, she could see his walls going up again. “Raven, we’ve been through this.”

She held up her finger to stop him. “There’s more, Jason. Natas Corporation took out a patent on a way to disburse the vaccine. The patent number is 060606.” She stared at him, as if waiting for the light bulb to go off in his head.

“Okay, so what?” He was clearly not following the trail she was making for him.

“Zero six, zero six, zero six, Jason, like six, six, six - the mark of the beast.” She emphasized the last four words so their impact would not be wasted on him.

“Okay, that is a little creepy,” he conceded, “but maybe it was just the next number in line. Do you even know how patent numbers work? Because I don’t.”

She rolled her eyes at him. Sometimes he was so dense. “I don’t know how patent numbers are assigned though I can’t imagine a system that would start with zeros at the beginning, but regardless, I’m pretty sure that’s not the case, especially with the other link that the message contained.” She clicked an open tab and a picture of some strange chart filled the screen.

Jason leaned closer and squinted as he tried to figure out exactly what it said. “What is that?”

“It’s the name of Natas Corp’s vaccine delivery system. Look, he named it the Human Implantable Quantum Dot Microneedle Vaccination Delivery System.”

Jason shrugged. “So, he likes long names. I still don’t see the connection, Raven.”

“Someone assigned the number of the alphabet to each letter in the words. For example, A is the first letter, so it gets the number one. Every A is one. B is two and so on. Do you understand?”

“I understand that someone has too much time on their hands, but yes, I get it. So what?”

Raven sighed. “So, when you add the numbers up, they equal six-six-six.”

The slight teasing grin on Jason’s face slid off as he leaned closer to the screen. She watched his eyes track back and forth as they read over the same information she just had. Someone had spelled out the super long name down the side, then assigned the number to each letter. At the bottom, they showed it added up to six-six-six. It was that picture that filled her screen now.

“Okay, that is definitely weird, but it could still be a coincidence.”

A coincidence? Jason had been there the day of the disappearances. He’d gone with her to Kat’s house and read the letter with her. He’d listened to her tell him what the Bible said was coming. How could he still find any of this a coincidence?

“That would be two huge coincidences, Jason. How many coincidences does it take before it’s no longer possible to be a coincidence?”

He ran his hand down his cheek, scratching at his beard. “What even is this quantum dot delivery system? Don’t they inject vaccines with a shot or a mist up the nose? I always got vaccines by injection in the Army, but I heard they can do nasal ones now.”

“Well, that’s where it gets weirder. It’s a way to get the vaccine to people, so they can administer it themselves. Evidently, they attach it to something like a Band-Aid with this system, and then people can just put the patch on themselves and the vaccine is administered through the microneedles that pierce your skin.”

Jason shook his head and scooted back a little on the couch. “Nuh uh, that sounds weird and little too futuristic to me. I don’t like shots, but I’ll take mine the old-fashioned way.”

“Wait, there’s more. Evidently his system needs some other substance to make it adhere correctly, and the substance he chose is this binding agent called Luciferase.”

This time Jason’s eyebrows lifted and his eyes widened at her. “Luciferase? As in Lucifer?”

“Still think it’s a coincidence?” Raven asked. “Luciferase is actually a luminescent, so it’s named after that, but interesting, don’t you think? Anyway, this Luciferase makes it light up in your body under a blacklight.”

“So, people could check to see if you’ve received the vaccine?”

Finally, it seemed the pieces were falling into place for Jason. “Exactly, and what would be the purpose to knowing if people have had the vaccine?”

“To keep them from entering places and spreading the virus, but if that’s the case, why even open up now? I mean it’s limited, but if the plan is to make people want this vaccine, why open at all?”

Raven shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe to give people a little hope before they take it away again. Whatever the reason, I have a feeling this might be the mark of the beast mentioned in the Bible.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” he