Glorious Appearing: The End Of Days by Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins Page B

courtyard to be sure the GC had not found them out.
    “You seem distracted, brother. I mean, we’re all waiting for the same thing. We want to be ready. We want to be here when Jesus conies. But in the meantime we want you to teach us. You keep saying you’re no scholar, but you’ve been our pastor for years. Something’s working. ”
    “Yeah,” another chimed in. “I don’t feel like I’ve got a handle on what all’s happened and what’s going to happen. I know we’ll soon be with Jesus—or anyway, He’ll be with us—but I wouldn’t mind going into all this with more understanding. You got more for us?”
    Enoch had to smile. “I do,” he said. “I just didn’t expect to have the time to cover it, and I certainly didn’t expect you to have the patience for it. ”
    “Beats waitin’ around. I can’t wait till Jesus gets here, but the clock moves slow when nothin’s happening. ”
    “Fair enough. I’ve got my Bible and my notes, if you’re game. ”
    “We’re game. But, Pastor, have you looked up lately?” It was coming up on noon in the Midwest, and the sun was riding high. Enoch shielded his eyes. “Clouds,” he said.
    “Clouds that weren’t there an hour ago. If I’m not mistaken, we woke up to blue skies.”
    “Totally blue.”
    “They’re not threatening clouds,” Enoch said. “I don’t expect we’ll get rained on.”
    A woman laughed. “I just wanna see clouds Jesus can ride in on.”
    Razor showed up on a 750cc ATV plenty big enough to accommodate Rayford if he were healthy. But he had not been sitting up long, let alone standing or bouncing along on a vehicle.
    “You didn’t happen to bring any food, did you?” Rayford said.
    “Sir, yes, sir, ” Razor said in the maddening military formality of which Rayford had been trying to break him.
    “Miz Leah here didn’t care if I starved to death.”
    “Hydration was most important,” she said. “And I didn’t expect you to be stuck here this long. ”
    “I’m kidding, Leah. You saved my life. Now what’ve you got, Razor?”
    “An energy bar, sir.”
    “One of those Styrofoam jobs that tastes like cardboard?”
    “One and the same.”
    “Flavor?”
    “Corrugated chocolate, I believe, sir.”
    Kidding aside, Rayford was famished. He tore open the wrapper and took a huge bite.
    “Easy there, cowboy, ” Leah said. “Your system’s been traumatized. ”
    “Well, this ought to help,” Rayford said, following orders and slowing down. He was stalling. Climbing aboard an ATV was going to be an ordeal, but that would be the least of it. The path back to Petra, such as it was, looked like a sheer cliff from his vantage point. “It’s going to be a beautiful sunset,” he said idly.
    “And probably the last one before Jesus comes,” Leah said.
    Sebastian sat on the hood of a Hummer that had been idle for hours, but whose metal had only just cooled enough to allow him there. The Unity Army seemed distracted, if that characteristic could be applied to such an expansive gathering. Ever since they had advanced half a mile and stopped, they had sat staring menacingly at him and his troops.
    George had decided not to antagonize them with directed energy weapons or fifty-caliber fire, and in the last half hour they had grown, well, somehow less threatening. It was as if they had lost focus. Earlier, the hundreds of thousands of mounted troops alone had seemed to act in concert to stare him down, and now he heard their squeaky saddles in the distance. They had stopped staring and had begun wheeling in their saddles, chatting with each other.
    Was it possible the rumors had reached the battlefield? Did these soldiers know that they might not be spelled by reinforcements or that, even if they were, it was unlikely they would be paid on time, if at all? The grapevine was remarkably accurate, quick, and—if this proved true—resilient enough to reach across the desert sands.
    Could Big Dog One take advantage of this lapse? He