“His whole family!” Zerah says.
“And he wasn’t…”
Zerah waits for more, but Tavi has stopped. “Wasn’t what?” Zerah asks.
“Orthodox.” Tavi’s voice gets so low that Zerah struggles to hear. “He was messianic.”
Zerah’s heart races at the words. “Did you ever talk to him about it?”
“No. No one did. He was a very kind man and he often invited coworkers to a special service at the messianic church he attended so they could hear about God’s plans for his chosen people, but no one ever went. Some people got very angry and insisted he stop inviting them.”
“What did he say?”
Tavi is still whispering. “He said that a Jewish man named Paul called it a mystery, but that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”
Zerah is quiet. “Do you know what he was talking about?”
“No. It was just babble to me. It doesn’t make sense.”
Questions loom between them, but there is nothing more either of them can say. Zerah hangs up and mutters curses as he sits on the lid of the toilet.
CHAPTER 11
Queens, NY
Elliott jumps awake and looks at his watch. It’s 6:00 in the evening. His eyes scan the room looking for the light of Jesus. He runs to the bathroom mirror and feels his forehead. There’s nothing there to see. He races to the TV. The screen is black; the power is out in New York, but shock waves are ricocheting around the world.
Iran’s and Russia’s nukes had been ready for years and wasted no time in attacking the United States when millions disappeared, which left the country exposed. The US military and government were in chaos, making them vulnerable targets. Three Kilo-class submarines from the Iranian fleet targeted two American aircraft carriers in the Strait of Hormuz, launching missiles that lifted the ships out of the water, breaking them in two, and destroying both.
Russia fired multiple Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missiles, targeting US submarines, naval aircraft carriers, and other ships at sea. Intercontinental ballistic missiles hit US military bases within the country and abroad, leveling them and further collapsing the power of the US Armed Forces. With the military scrambling, missiles struck DC and Manhattan with little effort. Russia’s hypersonic missiles, able to travel over five times the speed of sound, leveled several major cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Boston, Atlanta, and Seattle, devastating them. Russia had been forecasting a nuclear winter against the United States for years, but experts blew it off as bullying and hype. By all military estimations, the greater threat came from Iran.
Russia had been selling arms and nuclear technology to Iran for decades, supplying components and equipment, and training Iranian technicians in the needed skills and methodology they lacked. Russia’s training and the billions of US dollars given in the Iran nuclear deal were key factors in making Iran self-sufficient in nuclear missile production. Together, Russia and Iran are a formidable threat to the entire world, but the United States retaliated. America’s nuclear weapons have destroyed much of Tehran and Moscow, but the United States is crippled.
In New York City alone, the United Nations, One World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, the Bank of America Tower, the New York Times Building, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Terminal, much of Wall Street, and countless other buildings are leveled. They are completely gone from the skyline; others look as if their tops have been razored off or someone took a wrecking ball and riddled them with holes. An unnerving wail of sirens covers the grave-like city as ash and fire rise from bomb-cratered buildings and roads, and broken water mains gush a flood of water over what’s left.
Terrorist sleeper cells within the United States had been waiting for this opportunity, when many of them could strike at once, hitting financial centers and houses of government in various cities. Buildings around the country were pocked from explosions or scorched from fire. The victims who could stumble away were physically disfigured and emotionally crippled. The country has been devastated.
Now that much of Israel’s once-great ally the United States is shattered, the Jewish nation’s enemies begin aligning. Within Palestine, members of Hamas retrieve their caches of weapons from underground bunkers. President Banes’s plan for a two-state solution called for Israel to withdraw from ninety percent of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), dividing Jerusalem so Palestinians could also claim it as their capital, and keeping the Jordan Valley to be used as a buffer zone against possible future aggression from the east. In the end, Palestine ended up with eighty percent of the West Bank and nearly one-half of Jerusalem. Israel kept the Jordan Valley.
One of the stipulations of the two-state solution was that the Palestinian pay-to-slay had to be completely eradicated and their military and terrorist operations destroyed. They were also to set in motion democratic reforms that would protect the human rights of their own people. With the entirety of the land of Israel within reach, these stipulations were a small price to pay. Realizing that no one will come to the aid of Israel, leaders of Hamas, who have been quiet since the two-state solution, mobilize their forces, reach out to their allies, and begin plans for the “annihilation of the Zionist pigs.”
Videos and pictures showing the Israel Defense Forces killing hundreds of Palestinians rushing across the border spread throughout the world. “Innocents are being slaughtered,” news anchors are saying. But there’s more to this story than the one side the news is presenting: The time is riper than ever for an Islamic caliphate to spread throughout the world, including in Europe and the United States.
Blood rushes from Elliott’s head as he looks at the war zone outside his window, a product of ruthless, determined killers. “Help me! I don’t know what to do!” he says.
He checks the lights. They’re still out. He tries to get an Internet connection but there isn’t any; the power is gone, along with the city. He bolts from the apartment into the hallway. It’s dark as he knocks on the neighbor’s door, and no one answers. He moves to the next apartment and knocks. No response. Then he runs to another and another before taking the stairs by two to the next floor. As he pounds on the third door, he can hear someone moving inside the apartment. “Please, are you in there? My name is Elliott, and I live downstairs.”
“What do you want?” a woman responds with fear in her voice.
“Do you have a Bible?”
Elliott hears her fidgeting with the lock and the door opens a crack; a young black face peers at him through the chain. Her face is wet and her eyes bloodshot; her voice is shaking. “You want a Bible?” He nods, and she furrows her brow. “The city is destroyed.”
“I know. I just saw what happened.”
She looks closer. “What do you mean you just saw? Weren’t you downstairs with everybody else when we were attacked?”
His face is solemn as he shakes his head. “I slept through it.”
“That was thirteen hours ago.” She begins to close the door. “You are wasted!”
He reaches for the door. “I’m not on drugs. It was Hashem.” He notices her confusion. “God. It was God. Please. I need a Bible.”