Tears ran down his cheeks. It was like a high school football game when the home team scores at the last second to win. Everyone went nuts.
On the fourth night, when the Teacher passed, he turned again and said right at him, “Follow me, Thomas.” He had been with him since then, doing odd jobs and trying to learn.
After making the blind man see, the press started showing up. Their headlines asked the question a lot of people had on their minds and lips. “Was this Jesus’ Second Coming?” Thomas didn’t know any of this, and didn’t care. He was there because Teacher asked him to follow and he didn’t think he could say no.
23.
Quiet before the Storm
Max’s computer slept like its owner, quietly.
His phone’s battery was dead and recharging. Similarly, his body and mind were unconsciously cocooned, recharging in REM sleep. His rhythmic breathing spoke of a peace he found nowhere else the last couple of days. While a few others around the world, those who were paying attention to the signs above, were frantically preparing for the end of the world, Max had done his work long before others even realized what was happening. Max earned his rest. So now, he slept.
When Max returned from the King’s party last night, he was so exhausted, he couldn’t even bother removing his clothes before flopping on his bed. Somewhere in the night, he managed to remove his boots, the rest of him lay in a discarded heap, fully clothed and quietly breathing on his back. He was even too tired to dream.
That day, Max slept through everything. His exhaustion consumed him. He slept through the early morning, not even stirring when several seagulls somehow became confused in flight and hit the side of his house, a few so hard, they broke their necks, their bodies coming to a rest upon his deck.
Then in the late morning, he slept through Sally vigorously knocking on his patio door, seeking answers to her questions.
Then, in the early afternoon hours, a pelican ran into his satellite dish, killing itself and his satellite dish instantly. The pelican’s carcass slid down a course of solar panels before crashing through a glass table on the patio, and coming to rest in a heap of glass, feathers and blood. His satellite dish dangled over the side of his bedroom wall, tethered by its thick black coaxial cable. Perhaps it was the noise, or perhaps he was done sleeping on his back, but Max rolled over onto his stomach and slept some more.
He even slept through the quite of sunset, its eerie light calling to him, unheard.
Before finally being awakened by bad dreams and the pounding on his door, he had slept a total of seventeen hours.
24.
Miracles
The stadium floodlights kicked on, working their soft orange rays into the shadows of dusk, pushing back the inevitable coming darkness. It was late, but no one cared. The Joliet High School Hornets football stadium had never seen a crowd this big, including the night they won state. Throngs of eager people filled the stands, the bleachers, and all grassy areas on the field. Some were even on top of their cars in the parking lot, and two sat precariously upon one of the end zone’s goal posts. All were quietly listening to the Teacher.
He was on a slightly elevated platform that made him look that much taller. He was a manifestation built up by word of mouth, fueled by an overzealous media, and buttressed by his own charismatic presence. The Teacher was educating the crowd about judgment day. It was one of his favorite topics, and one he spoke of a lot recently.
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” He paused for impact.
“Lawlessness will be increase and the love of many will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
The stadium lights started to flicker.
“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, and never will be,” his voice rising in strength for emphasis.
They flickered some more, this time followed by a few gasps from some in the crowd.
“Immediately after the tribulation of these days, the world will be plunged into darkness.”
Only a few miles away, the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant was a buzz of activity. From the air, the workers running around the plant would have looked like ants evading a large predator. The predator invading Dresden was silent and unseen, and far more deadly than any attacker imagined by the Nuclear Power Plant Preparedness Plan.
Induced currents from a moderate sized CME currently working its way to Earth built up along power lines leading to the station’s main transformers. To protect itself, when current levels reached 110% above baseline, the power plant’s system disconnected itself from the grid, in essence shutting itself down from power production. Unfortunately, tonight was also a usually warm summer day in Chicagoland, which was pulling more than its fair share of energy from the grid. The Joliet Power Station, on the NERC’s watch list for not having proper shielding around its transformers, was already struggling to keep up with normal power demands. The same CME induced currents, which were playing havoc at Dresden, started to cause cascading circuit overloads at Joliet. When Dresden shutdown, Joliet’s transformers failed.
The lights went out at Joliet High School stadium, followed by the school’s lights, followed by the streetlights, followed by the AM/PM Mini Mart a block away. It was a blackout.
The Teacher paused and now many more murmured, and whispered. He flicked the microphone on/off switch a couple of times to verify it was not working, confirming its power appeared to be cut off too. He turned and found Thomas, already anticipating what Teacher might need, handing him a bullhorn, already turned on.
He continued, “And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”
The murmur grew louder. A dozen or so fingers were thrust into the air, pointing to the East, then a few more, and then still more, until everyone was looking to the Eastern horizon, which was awash in undulating green clouds. The pulsating auroras rolled in like storm clouds, but far more sinewy and fragile looking, which didn’t at all diminish from their ominous presence. A few people stood up, frightened by the sight before them, as the Teacher had just prophesied. In their fear, they were no longer paying attention, tripping over others who were transfixed by the heavenly miracle they were witnessing.
One of the stadium’s transformers connected to a light pool on the 20-yard line exploded. A gushing arch of sparks fanned out and rained down on the crowd sitting and standing below. The panic bubbled up through the multitude, beginning with those being covered by incendiary material, and then spreading out. A woman’s scream sliced through the commotion, her hair catching fire from the transformer’s sparks. Terror fueled her voice and legs. Those around her joined in, now accompanying her shrieking and erratic motion, until it seemed a mass of people were rolling into the field rather than toward the exits.
Another transformer blew. This one was on the opposite end of the field by the 30-yard line. These sparks ignited a powder keg of terror. Most of the whole crowd, at once, attempted to flee, many falling over each other, some getting trampled to death. Only moments ago, the field was in rapture over the Teacher’s words and his promised specter of miracles. Now it was a witness to hell on Earth.