Listening by Dave Mckay Mckay (best summer books .TXT) 📕

Near the river-bank, not far from a heavy-set Muslim woman in a burqa, someone jumped back in shock as they spotted a snake slithering across the closely cropped grass. Then someone else, twenty metres away, let out a yelp as they too saw a snake moving near them. Other serpents began to converge on the area near the Muslim woman. Out of the river dozens of them moved in from behind her. At first people were so busy reacting to the snakes, that they did not take note of the woman. But it wasn't long before it became clear that this woman, though totally surrounded by snakes, was neither fearful of them, nor under threat by them.

A soldier who had been positioned closest to where the woman was standing advanced toward her, with the intention of establishing her identity. But he was struck in the calf by a huge brown snake approaching him from behind. He screamed in pain, and that drew attention away from the woman for a while longer.

Everyone had formed into a tight congregation, all facing toward a writhing stage, where a fat Muslim was now removing her burqa. What came out of the garment was a man, dressed only in a T-shirt and shorts.

One soldier, convinced that this was, indeed, the man he had been sent to arrest, decided to shoot Chaim instead. He lifted his rifle and took aim. Just then, Chaim pointed in his direction and said, quite loudly, "NO!"

A flame appeared to shoot directly from his mouth to the soldier's chest, igniting into a fireball. In response to the soldier's scream, several other soldiers lifted their rifles, but just as quickly, Chaim pointed at each and gave the same one word command: "NO!" for each of them. Like rapid fire from a machine gun, six deadly accurate flames shot out in quick succession and hit each of them. There were now seven soldiers screaming in pain as spectators sought to put out the flames. By this time the others thought better of lifting their rifles… with one exception. A loan marksman had managed to sneak to a position around behind Chaim, with the intention of taking him out from the rear. Without even turning, Chaim lifted his finger, wagged it in front of him, as though addressing a small child, and said "No" once more, much more quietly this time. The flame shot out from his mouth, turning to circle around behind him, and enveloped the would-be sniper.

Ambulances were being called, and the victims, who were all still alive, were being consoled. Several soldiers had radioed their predicament to their superiors as well. Chaim waited quietly until people had settled down sufficiently, and then started to speak. The media cautiously moved closer to the snakes, which all seemed to be in position now, forming a neat semi-circle in front of him. Microphones were extended in the hope of picking up some of what Chaim had to say. A hush settled over the area, including those who had been injured earlier.

"I am sorry for the suffering that has happened here today," Chaim began. His voice was remarkably clear and remarkably calm. "I am afraid that there will be more, if the people of Australia, and, indeed, the whole world, do not begin to show more respect for God.

"These snakes," he said, pointing to a sea of perfectly still serpents in front of him, "have a message for each of you. Look at them. They are at peace now. Snakes do not naturally seek harm. They are quick to avoid a confrontation. But if you antagonise them, you will create your own torment.

"There is a lesson here," he said, lifting his eyes to the cameras and to the faces of some deeply worried soldiers who were still standing.

"For the next week, there will be a plague of snakes all over Australia. They will come into the cities and into your homes. They will not hurt you if you do not try to hurt them. They are there under instructions from God. Not me, mind you. I'm just a mouthpiece. They are being controlled by God.

"Now if any of you," and he emphasised the word any as his eyes narrowed and his forehead wrinkled, "If any of you reports even one person to the authorities as a believer, or lifts your hand to hurt even one believer, you will be bitten by the snake or snakes nearest you. Do you understand?"

And with that, Chaim turned around and walked into the Yarra, where he swam to the opposite bank. Two soldiers raised their guns, but without missing a stroke, and without looking over his shoulder, Chaim merely raised one hand out of the water and shook one finger, as though saying "No" yet again. The result was the same as it had been earlier, except that these two were also set upon by the snakes, receiving numerous bites before they died.

Chaim, wearing only shorts and a T-shirt, pulled himself up on the city side of the river, and walked into the CBD shopping crowd. Reinforcements had not yet arrived, and those present did not have the courage to chase him, especially when they saw the number of snakes in the river, with many more of them coming up onto the banks on both sides of the river now.

Chaim had planted yet another disguise behind a dumpster in an alleyway in the city, and so he collected it, unnoticed, and completed his costume change in a department store toilet. He came out dressed as a priest, for his journey back to Sydney and the walk to his room.

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Chapter Thirty-Three--A Warning Unheeded

Matt Hocking had had enough. Snakes in the kitchen, snakes in the lounge room. Even snakes in the bedroom. He had heard the warnings, and it did seem uncanny that the snakes were not attacking. A big black snake had curled up in the bed, beside him, on the first night after the plague began. It didn't move, even when he threw the covers back in angry shock on discovering it the next morning. But there was nothing supernatural about these desert creatures. He had shot several through the head, including the big black, and they died the same as any other animal. He even beat a couple to death with a rake. So no fool warning about these reptiles being from God was going to scare him off. It was time to act.

He strapped two six-shooters to his thighs, and carried a stock whip in his left hand as he headed off to the Department of Peace and Unity in downtown Kalgoorlie, a rural mining town in Western Australia. His neighbour, Cal Linley, was one of them; he was sure of it. Cal had been warning Matt not to kill the snakes, saying God would kill him if he did. And he saw with his own eyes Cal giving food to a vagrant earlier in the week. If he wasn't one of them himself, Cal sure as hell was supporting them; and the only way to deal with a snake like that was head on.

The office was quiet, with just two people on duty when Matt arrived.

"You got a report form?" he asked a huge middle-aged woman sitting on a stool behind the counter. It looked like she was doing a crossword puzzle as she leaned her heavy frame on the counter.

"I got someone for you," Matt announced.

"Down there on the end of the counter," the woman replied lazily, pointing to her right. "There are pencils in the box beside the forms."

Matt started filling one in, giving the authorities Calvin's name and address, and details of his suspicions.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of movement on the floor. The whip flew from his left hand to his right, and with a flick of the wrist, the tiger snake's back was broken, rendering it immobile. Matt swung the whip two more times, breaking the deadly snakes back closer to the head this time, and then crushed its head with the heel of his heavy riding boots.

"Jist gotta let 'em know who's boss," he said, looking up at the fat woman with a grin, and then at her young geeky-looking assistant, who was peeking around a computer on the other side of the counter.

Matt finished the form and then walked with it up to the woman.

"Thank you," she said, as she reached out to accept the piece of paper from Matt.

"Liz, look out!" shouted her assistant. A death adder had been hiding behind the waste paper basket and it lunged at her ankle. In her rush to get off the stool, both the stool and the woman fell to the floor. The death adder struck again. And then once more, before returning to its hiding spot behind the waste basket.

Matt Hocking could not see what was happening behind the counter, but he had a good idea. Stupid bureaucrats, he thought. They've probably never seen a snake in the wild before. Live their whole lives behind a desk, they do.

"Here, you take it," Matt said to the nervous young man as he placed the form on the counter and turned away with callous indifference to the woman's plight.

"No, I don't want it!" screamed the assistant as he debated whether to help his superior or whether to track down the death adder. "I don't want anything to do with it!"

He raced to the woman, but already her breathing had stopped.

"Oh God! What do I do now?" he asked himself, for he didn't really believe in the One whom he had so spontaneously addressed.

He dialled triple 0, reported the incident, and then scooped up a few things from the drawers of his desk. Finally, he grabbed the form that Matt Hocking had just left on the counter, studied the address before stuffing it into his pocket.

"Oh God, let him be one of them," he said, suddenly realising that this time he really was talking to God.

Outside, a small crowd had gathered across the wide main street of downtown Kalgoorlie. Between this newest recruit to the ranks of the Tribulation Saints and the crowd, scattered across the road, lay the dead bodies of three or four snakes, each with their backs cruelly broken. In the middle of the crowd lay the lifeless body of Matt Hocking.

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Chapter Thirty-Four--The Big One

Chaim gave other warnings for other countries after that. The plagues varied, but the message was similar, and the responses, too, were much the same. People were more or less free to report believers after the week-long plagues ended, but the point being made each time was that, even when they later got away with turning believers in, it was only because God had let them.

Personal responsibility for the killings did not, in Chaim's opinion, rest with him, though he could hardly dissociate himself from what he was certain that God was doing. Nevertheless, the general public came to see him as cruel and bloodthirsty. This bothered him a little, but he knew it was only because they felt the same way about God. At least fewer people were trying to stop him now, as it became clear that he was being protected by a God of fierce countenance.

The deaths on both sides had risen into the millions by the time an announcement