Frantic (2 page)

“We have to help!” Lionel said.

Mark was elated that his new friend, Carl Meninger, had believed the message and was now a follower of Christ. The locusts seemed to know he had stolen a victim.

Mark fired up the motorcycle and the two rode away. He slowed to a crawl because of all the locusts buzzing around them. “We get hit with one of those and we're dead.”

After a few miles Mark pulled to the side of the road. “I can't drive in this. We'll have to wait until they thin out.”

He pushed the motorcycle through a grove of trees and into a clearing. The locusts buzzed through the trees looking for more victims. Mark found a spot in the shade and took out food and drinks from his knapsack.

“You saved my life,” Carl said. “That's twice somebody from your family has done that.”

Mark smiled. “Getting stung hurts, but you wouldn't have died.”

Carl took a drink and sat back against the tree. “I have a confession. I said I wanted to meet because of your cousin John. But that's only one reason I came up here. I don't think you're going to like the second.”

Vicki had dropped her wood plank when she helped Lenore up. Now, with a locust bearing down on them, she swung and smacked it with her hand. Vicki recoiled in pain, like she had hit a metal baseball. Her hand throbbed and swelled.

The locust hurtled backward and hit the wall. It shook its head, sputtered, then resumed the attack.

“Another one's getting through!” Darrion yelled.

Tolan sat up in his crib and cried for his mother. Vicki joined hands with Shelly and Darrion and they surrounded Lenore, huddling close as three locusts circled menacingly.

“Pray!” Vicki said. “Hurry!”

“God, protect Tolan's mom from these things. Don't let her get stung.”

A locust swooped in, brushing Vicki's hair. “In the name of Jesus,” Vicki said, “keep them away. God, protect her like you protected your friends in the boat.”

“Apollyon!” a demon hissed.

The girls moved closer together, arms linked, heads touching as they stood against the locusts.

“Jesus is King and Lord,” Darrion shouted.

“Apollyon!” the demons called out.

“Jesus!” Darrion screamed back. “Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb of God! Get out of here!”

Two locusts hovered over Tolan's crib but moved no closer to him. They clicked their wings and joined the other in midair.

“Let's face them,” Vicki said, arms still clasped with Shelly and Darrion.

The hovering locusts looked straight at Vicki. She summoned her courage and looked into their ugly faces, tongues sticking out of gnashing teeth.

“Leave this woman and her baby alone,” Vicki said, her teeth clenched. “In the name of Jesus, I command you!”

Over and over the locusts repeated the name of the chief demon, “Apollyon!”

“Jesus has authority!” Shelly said.

“Jesus is the Mighty God,” Darrion said.

The locusts seemed to look at each other while Lenore whimpered, her hands covering her head.

Suddenly, Charlie opened the door above and peeked into the room. Vicki yelled, but before the boy could close the door, the three locusts darted up and through the crack. Melinda and Charlie screamed.

Vicki locked the door from the inside. Darrion snatched Tolan from the crib and brought him to Lenore. The woman grabbed for him, and he hugged her neck tight.

“I've never seen anything like that,” Lenore said. “They were awful.”

“And more are trying to get in,” Shelly said.

Panting, Lenore scanned the room.

“Settle down,” Vicki said, kneeling before her. “This ought to show you what we're saying is true.”

Lenore tried to catch her breath. “I know . . . you kids are religious . . . but I don't know what to do. . . .”

“Jesus is God,” Vicki said, pulling Lenore's face toward her. “Do you want to know him?”

Lenore nodded.

“Tell him.”

Lenore trembled and bowed her head, her face in her hands. “God, I need you. I know I've done bad things and I'm sorry. Forgive me. I know you're real, and you mean what you say in the Bible. I believe you died for me and that you're coming back after all this is over. So come into my life and make me a new person.”

Shelly and Darrion knelt beside Vicki and the woman. When Lenore took her hands away from her face, Vicki saw, forming on Lenore's forehead, the mark of the believer.

2

JUDD
moved past the screaming ground crew and carefully followed the pilot's instructions. He positioned the jetway and picked up a phone.

“These people are going crazy,” the pilot said. “We need to get off now.”

“Too many of these things buzzing around,” Judd said. “Let me clear them out.”

“Hurry.”

Judd found a fire extinguisher, and to his surprise, the locusts flew away from the white spray.

Something pounded behind him. Lionel was at the door. Judd ran toward him and gave him a thumbs-up. Sam Goldberg stood behind Lionel, waving.

“We've kept them out of this end of the terminal so far,” Lionel yelled.

Judd nodded. “Get as many fire extinguishers as you can find and meet me back here!”

As Lionel and Sam scampered away, Judd tried to clear the jetway. There was a gap of a few inches between the plane and the jetway. As he turned the hose on the demons, they flew down the ramp and clustered on the plane door. Judd hit them with another blast from the fire extinguisher, then maneuvered the jetway as tight against the plane as he could.

“We're almost ready,” Judd phoned the pilot. “Don't leave the door open long. Let the passengers out about ten at a time. Do you have a fire extinguisher?”

“Yes.”

“When I bang on the door, open it and shoot the extinguisher as the passengers get out. Tell them not to stop running until they get to the terminal.”

“Got it.”

“On my signal,” Judd said.

He ran toward the terminal, where Lionel and Sam waited with several fire extinguishers. Lionel opened the door and Judd jumped in quickly.

“Wait here for the passengers,” Judd told Sam. “If you see locusts, don't open the door. We can't let those things in here.”

“Man, we're fighting a losing battle,” Lionel said, grabbing fire extinguishers and following Judd. They blasted several locusts that had flown in while Judd was gone.

“Stand there,” Judd said, “and when I knock on the door, blast your extinguisher around the hole. If I'm right, those things will head straight for these people.”

Judd rammed his extinguisher into the plane door twice. It opened a few seconds later as Judd and Lionel sprayed around the opening.

“Go! Go!” the pilot screamed.

A dozen people darted through the spray, whimpering and screaming. “Keep running!” Judd yelled. When the final person was through, Judd rammed the door closed and ran backward, calling Lionel to follow. They sprayed the extinguishers in the air, hoping no locusts would follow.

The group reached the terminal and collapsed on chairs, coughing and sputtering.

“So far so good,” Lionel said. “Let's get the next group.”

Judd went through the same routine, but this time more than a dozen streamed out of the plane. People shoved through, ignoring the pilot's instructions.

Lionel's extinguisher emptied first. As he reached for another, a wave of locusts poured through the opening between the plane and the jetway. A few flew into the plane. Passengers screamed and ran toward the back, scrambling to get away.

Judd backed up, his extinguisher pointed toward the ceiling. He ran past the last few people scrambling toward the terminal door. “Close it now!” Judd yelled to Sam.

When the last person was through, Sam slammed the door shut. Judd and Lionel raced down the jetway and found the plane door open. Judd rushed in first. What he saw would stay with him the rest of his life. People lay on top of each other in the aisle, writhing in pain. Locusts flew at people's heads and arms as they flailed to keep the beasts away. One woman toward the back knocked a demon away with her purse, only to have another fly at her from behind and sting her neck.

Judd opened the cockpit door and found the flight crew slumped over and moaning. The normally calm and collected flight attendant was hysterical. She had been stung on the arm and pushed through the sea of bodies screaming for the first-aid kit.

“What do we do now?” Lionel said.

Judd shook his head.

Vicki ignored the pain in her hand and helped Shelly and Darrion plug the hole by the door. Lenore and Tolan huddled in the corner.

Vicki took the piece of wood and the baby's blanket and opened the door to the room above them. The locusts clicked and buzzed around. Melinda sat on the floor in the middle of the room, and Charlie cowered in the corner. Vicki stunned the three locusts and wrapped them in the blanket. She called for Conrad. “I'm holding three trapped demons. Can you open the door?”

The locusts inside the blanket were awake now and trying frantically to bite through. Finally, Conrad opened the door, grabbed the bundle, and threw it in the next room.

“Thanks,” Vicki said. “Get a couple of beds ready.”

“What happened to your hand?” Conrad said.

Vicki waved him off. She closed the door and ran back downstairs. She rolled Melinda over and found she had been stung on the leg. Vicki tried to make her comfortable, then moved to Charlie.

Charlie scooted back into the shadows when Vicki came close. “Are those things coming after me again?”

“It's OK,” Vicki said. “They're gone now.”

Charlie looked around the room. He still didn't have the mark of the believer, but he wasn't in pain either. “I'm sorry about opening the door,” he said, “honest. I just wanted to see what was happening. Before I knew it the three of them flew in, and I thought they were going to kill us.”

“You weren't stung?” Vicki said.

“They tried,” Charlie said. “Two went after Melinda and one came for me. It was ready to bite when it just stopped. Couldn't get closer. And it was screaming and stuff was dripping off its teeth.”

Vicki tried to make sense of it. The baby and Charlie had escaped the locusts without the mark of the true believer. Melinda and Janie hadn't. And Lenore was clearly a believer now.

“Help me carry Melinda upstairs,” Vicki said.

“Sure, if you promise those things won't bite me.”

“I think you're OK,” Vicki said.

Charlie carried Melinda on his shoulder and put her on a bed near Janie. The two moaned and begged for something to relieve their pain. The strongest medicine Vicki could find was aspirin. The girls gulped them down and tried to sleep, but there was no relief.

As the day wore on, the locusts thinned out and the kids gathered with Lenore and Tolan. Lenore told her story to Conrad and thanked Vicki and the other girls for praying for her. “I don't know what I would have done without the three of you.”