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

The Twelve Tribes website gave people a detailed account of what to expect, as well as practical advice on how to minimise the danger. It said that a huge meteorite shower would cover much of the world, followed by an asteroid slamming into the Atlantic Ocean, and sending mountains of water over the coasts of four continents.

This was the catastrophe that Chaim and Molly had sensed five years earlier.

It had only been six and a half years since America was decimated. Much of the planet was still in shock from that. They fully believed that the world would never suffer such a horrible experience ever again. Nothing would ever compare to it. Yet the Two Witnesses were saying that something even worse lay ahead.

By this time, Dangchao controlled the media sufficiently to be able to suppress most of the warning. People had been forbidden to visit the Twelve Tribes website too, but millions regularly disregarded the rule. The numbers visiting the site shot up even farther when word started to circulate about the "big one", and many who had seen the accuracy of the pair's previous predictions decided to take this one seriously.

When millions of cars started to flow out of the cities along the coasts of the many countries that bordered the Atlantic, U.N. authorities set up road-blocks to take information on everyone who left. This scared many into returning to their homes, but millions more gave the required information and fled, hoping that the authorities would find it in their hearts to go easy on them if they were later taken into custody. Fortunately for them, when the floods hit, all the records were destroyed, along with the personnel who were there manning the roadblocks. There was no way to trace those who had escaped as a result of what they had read on the Twelve Tribes website, and so literally millions more were "swept" into the movement.

Chaim later took comfort in knowing that millions had been saved because of the warnings; but Dangchao and his billions did not see it in the same way. As far as they were concerned, Chaim and Rayford were the ones responsible for all those who had died. They were the worst mass murderers in all history.

At first, thousands of meteorites rained down on Europe, Africa, and the Americas. This was followed by raging fires over much of the earth. The heat rising from the fires led to the formation of unbelievably huge hailstones, big enough to kill a person. The meteorite showers, two of them, were followed by the asteroid. Even Earth's axis was affected by the collision, and the tsunami was so great that whole cities were literally washed off the map along the coast of Europe, Africa, and South America. It was like one big worldwide earthquake, with thousands of normal earthquakes causing further damage in the days following the 'Big One'.

The world would be decades rebuilding, and even just disposing of bodies was going to be a huge task, requiring international supervision. Dangchao was out of his mind with rage as he started to reap what he had helped to sow on America. His brave new world was in complete disarray.

"Forget the corpses!" yelled the tall, handsome man in the office marked "Secretary General", as he stood to his feet and banged his fist on the desk at the same time. "We need every available member of the military to stop the aliens." (Dangchao had started calling the believers 'aliens', in an effort to convince the world that they were non-humans with dangerous super powers.)

"But your worship," answered a timid man in an ecclesiastical robe which suggested that he too had been used to being addressed with such titles, "it has devastated four continents. The whole world is in shock."

"You're not listening!" screamed Dangchao, who climbed onto the top of the huge desk, shoving aside papers and other paraphernalia in an effort to physically attack his assistant.

Pius withdrew, clutching a sheaf of papers and a clipboard in front of his body as his only defence.

"Kill them! Kill every one of them! Kill anyone who resists!" His face had changed, into that of a hideous animal, as he knelt on all fours facing Pius from the top of his desk.

"And I'll kill you too, if you stand in my way!" he growled in conclusion, as he reached his hand out threateningly toward the other man's throat.

"Yes, your excellency. You're quite right, your worship." Pius whimpered as he stepped back even further, almost tripping over the chair behind him.

"Don't just kill them," Dangchao said, a little more quietly now, but no less threateningly, as he returned to the floor on his own side of the desk. "I want them to suffer as I am suffering. Make them give up all the information they have before they die. We must find out who is behind this and stamp them out."

"But how..." and Pius paused for fear of enraging the man further.

"Say it, you stupid creature!" Dangchao said, resuming his seat behind the desk as evidence that Pius' life was no longer in danger.

"But how will we know that they are telling the truth? What if some do not know anything?"

"You see, Pius, this is the difference between you and me. A real leader knows that there will be collateral losses, and we do not let it stop us." He was speaking almost cordially by this stage, although his volume and passion increased with his next line: "Capture anyone who is named, and put them through the same process. If we kill them all, we will elimnate them all! Right?

"And then, when the aliens are gone, those of us who remain can celebrate."

Because of this brash decree, millions of Dang-chao's own followers were tortured and killed. Word spread that loyalty to Dangchao was not enough to protect one from his wrath, and still more turned to the Twelve Tribes... not for salvation from death, for they knew what their decision would cost them, but for salvation from the evil that Dangchao's regime had become. If they were going to die anyway, it may as well be for what was right.

(Table of Contents)

Chapter Thirty-Five--The Monster

Chaim's transformation was complete. He had grown from a harmless, respectable pacifist to become the leader of a movement that was now implicated in the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. And he had the audacity to say that all of it had happened and was happening in obedience to his God.

Dangchao too had changed dramatically over the space of a few short years. And he too, had been responsible for the deaths of millions. The difference was that Dangchao had used his political influence to wreak death and destruction and he had done it to satisfy his own evil whims; while Chaim had acted only as a mouthpiece for a superhuman Director.

Chaim had grown into this relationship merely by "listening"... first to a dream, then to his conscience, circumstances, the wisdom of others, the Bible, and finally to revelations that he had received while worshipping. The change had been gradual, and each step had led naturally to the next, as fellow Quakers had warned him would happen from the start. But he could not find a single point at which it would have been right for him to resist the leadings of the Spirit that he had been experiencing.

More than anything else, what consoled and consolidated Chaim in his position was reality... his experience in the real world. Just as Watchman had pointed out to him in the cave: When things happen... when people die... it ceases to be a theological argument about whether or not God has a right to do such and such, and it becomes a matter of whether we are going to let those experiences draw us closer to God or drive us farther away.

In his case, he had been drawn closer to God. His understanding of who God is and what God expects of us was deeply challenged. He discovered a God who was bigger than the tiny seed that resided in his own intellect and emotions. He learned that this God had a plan for the human race… a real plan… an objectively measurable plan. And it had been recorded in prophecy.

The plan did not deny the differences that exist in belief systems around the world; but it did identify a time when all of those belief systems would need to be thrown into one cosmic blender, where they would each be broken by the grinding wheels of God's final authority. That was exactly what he had seen happening all over the world in the past seven years, both in his own life, and in the lives of everyone else on the planet.

As the Great Tribulation neared its end, the numbers of people leaving Dangchao to join the Saints gradually died out. The great division had been completed, and both sides had become locked into their final decisions.

However, even some of the last people to join the Saints did so with only a vague understanding of what it was and why it was that they were joining. They were sickened by the stench of unbridled evil that came from Dangchao's rule, and they were inspired by the faith of the Tribulation Saints; but they had little understanding of God, and even less appreciation for what it was that the Tribulation Saints expected as the final outcome of all this suffering. Earlier attempts to educate those who first joined the movement were overwhelmed by the flood that came in during the middle stages, so that organisation near the end was largely ineffectual under the parallel waves of new members and new killings. Still, they came, and because it was a decision that they knew would cost them their lives, it was seen by the Twelve Tribes as reason enough to believe that a genuine transformation had taken place in their hearts.

In the final few weeks, even the inner sanctum of the Twelve Tribes was compromised, leading to the deaths of some of the movement's top leaders. Those who remained prayed for strength and counted the days to the end.

Chaim had a final tearful meeting with Molly and Bess just before he successfully stowed away on a flight to Tel Aviv. They met at the St. George's River Rowing Club, within walking distance of the international terminal. He shared with Molly and Bess the sad news that Vaishnu and Ben had been taken in Delhi and were probably being tortured as they spoke. Geoffrey Baum had managed to escape and pass the news on to Chaim, although Baum himself was on the run now and would probably not be able to give any further reports.

They all knew that it would only be a matter of days before the end of all their suffering, but it was still sad to see the movement disintegrating. Chaim -- not one who was given to tears -- broke down and wept openly with the two Aboriginal women, hugging them repeatedly, and assuring them of his love before he headed off walking toward the airport. He was about to board a flight that he knew would take him to his death.

(Table of Contents)

Chapter Thirty-Six--The Witnesses are Killed

"Friends, we mean you no harm!" Rayford's claim was