The Day Time Ran Out Read online

“Pretty rough, I picked up some others on the way, John.” He introduced Zack and the others to John.

  “I trust your judgment Virgil; if you brought them I know they are ok.”

  “I hate to ask, John, but do you have room on the ranch for us to hole up?”

  “We’ll make room, we have been building steady now for a week. We have been hauling lumber from Waite’s Lumber in Porterville. It’s just there for the taking, but it won’t last long, I’m afraid; so we are getting it as fast as we can.

  “No one tried to stop you?”

  “No, not so far. Say, let’s get you all up to the ranch. He turned and locked the gate back as he led them through. “Keep a sharp eye, Jody.”

  “Sure will, boss,” the man said, who had spoken from the trees. He had never shown himself, and Virgil knew they meant business.

  They stopped the vehicles a few yards away from the main house. Nell came running out and hugged her sister close; both were crying tears of joy. Nell hugged Virgil and said, “I am so thankful you guys are safe. It’s been almost too much the last few days.”

  “We are glad you are safe too, but I doubt if many of our kin folk made it through the first weeks of this.”

  “Come on in and we’ll fix you all something to eat.”

  After introductions all around, they trooped into the house. Virgil observed the new out buildings, small huts really, and the lumber stacked around with markers stuck in the ground outlining more buildings.

  The sun was setting in the west, and the men sat out on the porch and talked while supper was being prepared by the women.

  John began to speak, “I want you all to hear what I have to say…” He hesitated, as if he was getting what he wanted to say together for the first time. The men waited silently.

  “There have been people dribbling in, good people; it’s almost like there is a magnet in this ranch, and they are being drawn to that magnet. I believe God is drawing people here for purposes unknown to me right now, and I may never know, but I believe he is.”

  “There have been many reports brought in of people having to fight some really mean people to get here. I never was very religious until late, but I have been reading the Revelation in the Bible.” Zack glanced sharply at Virgil with knowing eyes.

  “Somehow I believe that we are living in the time of the plagues mentioned in that Bible. Nell thinks so too, and so do a lot of others. What do you all think?”

  “Something’s going on,” Zack spoke up. “I have been reading the Bible for a while now, and I came to the same conclusion; we are in the time of the apocalypse. Virgil and I talked about this on the way up. I’ll let him tell you what he thinks, though.”

  “I am of the same mind. We had to kill some bandits at Castaic Junction. I didn’t care for it, but I knew I had to. Zack and I talked about forming some kind of stronghold.”

  “That’s what we are doing. I don’t know why we are doing it; I only know we are. I want to talk more about this, but let’s wash up for supper. I know you all must be starved.”

  After supper, the men gathered on the porch, and John began to speak again. “Here is what I think, although I can’t be sure. God has let us live for his own purposes. I don’t know what they are, but I think the people who were born again were taken to God’s heaven in the first day of the plague. We unbelievers were not taken. I think the Holy Spirit the Bible speaks of has withdrawn his influence here on the earth. That means that if we obtain salvation, we will have to go on faith alone in what that Bible says.

  “Furthermore, we will be killed just because we believe in the Bible and what it says. It seems like every one of the people that have been drawn to this ranch are ready to believe in that Bible.”

  “We have to work together and finish whatever it is that God wants us to do. We have to have commitment to love and care for one another until the very end.”

  “How do you know this John? I think you are right on, but how did you know it?”

  John looked seriously at his brother-in-law, “I just don’t know how I know it Virgil. I just know it, that’s all.”

  “But John, shouldn’t people start showing up with some kind of mark on them? I haven’t seen any mark, even on the ones who tried to kill us.”

  “Watch closely, the ones who drift in here and won’t join in the Bible studies, won’t pray, they will leave and not come back. They carry the mark, the mark is on their soul.”