Rapture Chronicles: Why do you persist?

Seven days. Seven days it took me to reach the top of the mountain. Seven days since the entire world was told that it was all going to end. They say that on the seventh day of Genesis, God rested. Unfortunately, on the seventh day of the Rapture, today, God will strike us down. As I climbed over the edge of the cliff, I was blinded on all sides by not only the natural radiance of the angels awaiting for my arrival, but the shine of their golden armor, as well as their spears and swords sharp enough to sever Demonflesh - all of which were pointing directly at me. Though, to be honest, I couldn't blame them for the hostility after the adventure I had getting up here, and the surprising number of their dead that lay at my feet, dead by my hand.

As slowly as I could, I unslung my rifle and tossed it over the side of the cliff. Then I unholstered my pistol and tossed it away, too. After climbing for two days, I wasn't sure if I would even hear either of them fall to the ground below, but I listened anyway. Sadly, no sound, or at least none that I could hear over the howl of the wind. Finally, I took off my jacket and lay it upon the dirt, the best blanket I could manage before placing the unsheathed sword upon it. A weapon taken from one of their fallen brethren, I figured it would be polite to return it. After all, this was the end.

An angel approached, four pure-white wings spread wide, spear in hand, golden armor glistening upon it's chiseled features. Immediately, I felt a warmth spread over me, driving away the cold. His face, however, was that of pure disdain, sending a chill down my spine. Before he could speak, I raised my arms. "I've come to negotiate on behalf of humanity. For our survival," I added, though that should've been obvious.

The angel turned to face the crowd and nodded. As if on cue, a single angel in the mass sheathed it's sword and took off, flying away toward the shining palace, The Kingdom come to Earth. Then the angel turned his gaze back to me. "You, mortal, will proceed no further," the angel said as he moved his spear to bar the path. The remaining army of angels enclosed on me, weapons still at the ready, as if it were actually possible for all of them to attack at once.

I shrugged my shoulders and sat on the ground, hands in my lap. An audience was all I wanted, and if this was as close as I was going to get, then so be it. I really couldn't blame them for their suspicions though: from their point of view, a mere human advancing this far at the height of the Apocalypse, the Rapture, Ragnarok, whatever word you had for the end of times, well I, too, would suspect that creature must be special, must be powerful, must be dangerous. And maybe, in today's times when God and the divinity has turned against us, maybe that quality was something that made me the most likely to survive - that I still had faith.

With nothing else to do, I thought about how I got here. I'd first set off on my own, thinking that it all had to be a mistake, that there's no way that God would order the destruction of his favored children. So I set off on my own, guided by faith. Along the way, others joined along and soon enough, I had a following of a dozen people: people enraged by what was happening and looking for revenge against The Divine; some hoping to rescue their family members from rapture; a couple who thought they were prepared enough to survive Armageddon; and one other who just needed to do something that would matter in the face of their inevitable destruction - all of them with their own reasons but none of them like my own. In the beginning I tried to discourage them, to turn them away, but still they followed. Before getting to the mountain, we didn't lose anyone: not to the random pits opening in the ground, swallowing buildings whole; not to the red lightning which stalked us like a predator from dark clouds before striking in random intervals; not to the True Believers, zealots who welcomed the end of days with open arms, seeking to redeem themselves by spilling the blood of "heretics", which to them meant less about faith and more about attacking those who were not as well armed as themselves.

"Thremmiskes' sword," said the angel, holding the sword I'd placed on the ground. "Where did you acquire it?"

I stared at the sword, then turned to the angel. "I won it."

The angel just stared at me, as if trying to decipher if I was lying or not, before just nodding and placing the sword back onto my jacket. "So it is yours," was all he said.

When my group finally got to the foot of the mountain though, we ran into ... something, something more monster than man. We riddled its body with bullets but still it advanced on us, speaking in tongues, saying that it was possessed by God's Will, by an angel. In the end, we managed to blow off its legs, losing a friend in the process. Though crippled, it continued to crawl toward us. I managed to get behind it and stab it in the back with the sword it had been swinging. Once the steel pierced flesh, the body glowed for a brief second before going limp. We buried our own and set the other body aflame, afraid that it might rise again. We knew at that moment we were definitely in the right place, where the divine met Earth. We met several more vessels on our way up, each of them angels riding in a possessed human, armed with more strength than should be capable of a normal human. We lost more of our friends to these creatures, but still we marched on. It was the only thing we could do.

"Tell me, human," said the angel, again breaking me away from my memories, "how were you able to kill so many of my kin, to take the life of a being superior to your own?"

I thought for a while, thinking about how those monsters killed my people. How was I still the one to survive? "I don't know. I just believed that what I was doing was right, and my faith would guide and protect me." I paused before adding, "As for the superior beings part, well, technically we're both creations of God, your kind imbued with the power of the divine but forced to serve, us with free will but no power of our own. Two branches of the same tree, if you ask me. Brothers even." I paused for a couple minutes. "Plus," I said, "we had some help."

On the last day, the day before I scaled the cliff alone, we fought an angel. Being that close to the point where Heaven met Earth, that close to the end of times, they were finally able to fully manifest themselves fully rather than force their will into human hosts. They were beautiful, strong, fast, powerful. We couldn't win, wouldn't survive. Almost immediately, Nancy and Tom were dead, and Luke and I were on the run. Mid-stride, Luke stopped and began convulsing, falling to all fours. I swear I didn't know he carried it in him, though I really should have guessed after all of those "lucky breaks" in our travels when he survived close calls which would've meant a dirt nap for anyone else. Because, technically, he didn't survive them. "Run" were his last words to me, then he spewed forth the darkest sludge I'd ever seen, gallons and gallons of the stuff, more than what should fit inside a human body. Then he slumped over, his body no longer alive but the used shell it had been for a past couple days. Quickly, the liquid began to form and harden, taking shape and growing limbs, horns, a tail, claws. A demon brought to our plane of existence using the same tear in reality which allowed the angels to manifest. It turned to face our pursuers and launched itself at them in a frenzy. I'm not sure if it actually managed to kill any of them as I was already heading in the other direction, determined to make it to the top.

"Human," the angel said, "tell me, why does your kind fight a war it cannot hope to win? Why do you struggle? Why do you persist? Your maker has deemed now as your time to end, for the best of you to be welcomed through the Gates, yourself included, why do you fight?"

I looked to the angel in his armor, at the entire horde of angels with their weapons. I just shrugged my shoulders. "That's the reason I came, on behalf of all of us. I'm afraid of dying. We're afraid to die. This isn't about getting revenge or justice for the ones I've lost, or fighting because it's all I have left, trying to save the ones who've been welcomed into Heaven, or struggling to keep myself from the punishments of the Pit. I really, truly just don't want to die. Terrified. After all, we were granted the gift of life and the freedom to choose. Why should that be taken from us for a reason we don't understand, without our consent?"

From the direction the other angel had flown to, there came a brilliant flash. The angel nodded and turned his back to me, as if my message had been delivered. The army of angels lowered their weapons and parted allowing me a narrow path back down the mountain from where I'd come. And so I stood and walked away. It seems anti-climactic, but what else could I hope to accomplish in the face of the Divine? Should I have tried to beg and plead louder until I knew my one voice would be heard, until I got the answer I wanted, or an answer at all? Did I really stand a chance fighting with mere force and will? We'll just have to wait to see what tomorrow brings.



A while back there was a huge influx of "God/s return to destroy humanity" type prompts on Reddit which prompted a bunch of these "Fuck you, humans are the greatest" type responses (I think someone's story ended nuking Heaven). Anyways, they got me back to thinking of this set of stories I was working on years and years ago: The Rapture Chronicles (see tag for the other 2 related stories). Originally, all the stories were supposed to be from multiple points of view with each character telling their story as journal entries (kind of like the epistolary style of "Dear Mr. Henshaw" though not letters, so maybe not like "Dear Mr. Henshaw" at all ... I really liked that book). Anyways, I got lazy so I didn't write a response to any of those prompts, but I decided to finish up at least the central character to those stories (I don't even remember what his name was supposed to be). Actually, as long as I don't get lazy again, there will probably be a bunch of posts in the next coming weeks as I finished up a notebook recently, and, like with most of my notebooks, there's a bunch of unfinished work/ just stuff I never got around to typing out. Anyways, I'll try to go through all of it.

Rapture Chronicles (Jack's story)

May 8

If there’s one thing I hate about Sundays it’s waking up for church. I don’t mind going, it’s just the whole waking up early thing I don’t like. A new family moved in down the street (met them at Denny’s after church, The Jacobsons?). They seem okay though I don’t think I’ll being seeing their kids at school (their son Steve is about Jack’s age while their other two kids look like they’re still in elementary school). Jack went out this afternoon. I think Dad’s still bugging him about getting a summer job before he goes back to college next fall.

May 11

The Thompsons (yeah, way off on that one) came by earlier tonight asking if we were going to church today. Apparently they saw us on Sunday (they came BEFORE moving into their new house) and thought we’d be going tonight as well. Luckily dad answered the door and politely told them we weren’t (he’s the reason we go anyways since he went as a boy). Spent the rest of the night playing online.

May 14

Jack left today. I don’t know where he went but he just said he needed to go. Said that he heard it in a dream. It happened right after the broadcast. At least that’s what everyone online is calling it. Dad called it some sort of global mental telepathy or something like that but he’s always been too much into sci-fi and junk. But it was like everyone, everywhere was hearing the same thing at the same time. I swear I saw a figure too. Like a man except he had wings, but not like a bird or angel. They were different. Just different somehow. Mom and Dad said they didn’t see anything, but they did hear it, the broadcast that is. It said the world was going to end. That the rapture was upon us and soon we would all be judged. That he would judge us. I thought it was just me, until I realized I was in my parents’ arms, all of us sitting on the living room floor. Their faces were wet with tears. Jack though, Jack was standing in the doorway. A duffel bag was slung over his shoulder and Dad’s rifle was in his hand. I remember just staring at him in the doorway. He said he needed to go, that he had a dream about this and that he needed to go. He said he would be back in a week, the same day the world was supposed to end. My parents just stared at him without saying a word. I thought he was nuts. I chased him out the door but I froze when I got to the porch. I didn’t even see which direction he went. All I could see was the sky. The afternoon sky covered in black clouds which still haven’t cleared. No rain has fallen yet, but still I can hear a rumbling from above. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I’m scared. My parents haven’t left the house. They just sit by the phone with the radio and news on (everyone says to carry on normally but I know they don’t believe it).

Note: I taped Jack’s crucifix to the bottom of the page (I found it on the steps outside). He’d probably be pissed if I lost it.

May 15

The sky hasn’t cleared yet, but the booming is getting louder. At certain times, I can see a faint glow in the clouds (sometimes it’s just one, sometimes many). The storm is all over the news and it seems like it’s happening everywhere, even in other countries. I think everyone else is trying to stay calm though I can see how tense they are just walking around. I don’t think anyone’s gone to work. I know my parents haven’t. Me and a couple of my friends tried to go to school today, but someone burnt it down. I just wish they had waited for Mr. Wallace to finish cleaning the classrooms. He really was a cool guy (even promised not to turn us in after he caught us smoking stoges that one time).

May 19

I know it seems like I would want to log down every day and everything I do until the world ends but for some reason I just didn’t feel like writing. I’ve been trying to carry on with my day normally though the constant lightning show is making it a little hard. Yeah, not just clouds anymore (the lightning is even red!) Luckily no one seems to have gone into the full-on-end-of-the-world mode. Well, except for the Thompsons who just moved in the other week. I mean, I think they’ve already abandoned their house because I always see them preaching on the street with their three children or else hanging out at church. Dad makes us go for about an hour every other day now (though I don’t even know if it’s going to help). The other day there was a slight earthquake and the McGrady’s house fell down. Luckily it was the only one on the street that did. Dad and a couple people went over afterwards (I assume they found all of them because they dug 4 holes in the backyard). I don’t know. I’m just really hoping Jack’s okay. Yeah, stupid tangent but it just popped into my head.

May 21

JACK’S ALIVE! HE’S ALIVE! WE ALL ARE!

It was the morning of the supposed final day of humanity when we woke to the sound of a helicopter outside our house and a convoy of black SUVs. I stood behind Mom and Dad as they approached the door. Then we heard Jack’s voice. I pushed through and opened the door and there he was. He was Alive!!! A bunch of other men in black suits were getting back into their cars but I didn’t care. My brother was home! We had a huge dinner that night. It was mostly canned food and bottled water. It was the best meal I’d ever eaten.

I know I should feel like there could be nothing better than having my brother back home, but I feel like something’s wrong. He wouldn’t talk during the whole meal. He wouldn’t tell us what he saw or what he did. A whole week’s worth of being gone from home and supposedly battling the Rapture and he won’t tell us anything. He still had that duffel bag but I could see the hilt of a sword sticking out the top. The only question he answered was about the crucifix around his neck (he said he found it). But I mean he must have some story to tell. Something must have happened. He just won’t tell me anything.

May 24

Everything is kinda settling back to normal though it still feels awkward. No one is going to work or school (I think they’re going to start rebuilding next month). Nothing strange or paranormal has happened since we thought the world was going to end. We’ve heard reports that the government was going to start sending out agents to collect information from everyone to assess things (whatever that means). But until then we all seem to be carrying along fine. We missed church on Sunday because of the celebrating and stuff but it seems like the Thompsons are gone. For a while they were on the street, preaching and stuff. I think they still think the Rapture is still coming. Or at least that’s what they would shout at people as they walked past. Except for me. They kinda just stared. It was really weird. Speaking of weird, it was a sword that Jack brought home. He just has it sitting in the corner of his room, point down. I walked in there last night when he was in the bathroom. It shines on its own and somehow hasn’t stabbed through the carpeting yet it feels sharp. Just being near it, its its like I don’t know… can it be called “pure happiness”? It’s like I just feel happiness when I was near it. Jack however, he just stares at it, eyeing it like it’s going to come to life or something. He still won’t tell me where he got it, just that “he won it” whatever that means.

May 28

Someone arrived to see Jack today. He looked like he was the same age as I was. Said his name was Mark and he was looking for his brother Tom. That Jack might know where he was. I tried to tell him that Jack wasn’t talking to anyone but nothing would make him leave. I showed him to Jack’s room and a couple of minutes later he left. I asked Jack about it. He said Mark was just the first of many and that if anymore came to just let them in. “Especially,” he said, “if her name was Laura.” (who was she?) I asked him what had happened and for a while he just looked at the sword. Then he looked at me and I thought I could make out tears in his eyes but I couldn’t be sure (the only light in the room was glowing from the sword). People began following him wherever he went though he didn’t know exactly where he was going. He couldn’t tell me what happened but he was the only one who made it to the end of the road. He said they didn’t understand why he was going through all this trouble even when he told them. He said he was afraid, afraid to die. He said they didn’t understand

June 1

Jack Jack I want to write it, but I don’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it. Jack’s dead. They came to the house today in their robes. At first it was just the Thompsons but then more showed up. They watched the house, but we were so busy we didn’t pay attention. They said they were believers. They said Jack had damned them, that he had damned us all. There was nothing anyone could do. That he had cost them all salvation. They were willing. They had accepted their fate and Jack stopped it, stopped it all. They said it was his fault. I couldn’t watch as they as they beat him. He didn’t make a sound except to say that he was ready. I couldn’t understand. Sorry it’s just too hard. The next part. I heard a shout. One of them tossed aside a red can as a flame snaked its way to Jack, lying motionless on the ground in the street.

The flames engulfed him as it is engulfing our house now. I can feel the heat of the flames now as it consumes the hallway outside my bedroom door. The crackle and pop of the wood drowns out the sirens as the flames march closer and closer. I can still hear mom and dad’s screams outside my door, but it’s too late. They just don’t know it yet




*I actually thought about writing several of these pieces to turn this into a series (I actually have two more that I'm working on) but, truth is, I'm bored of these already. Maybe I'll come back to them later.

Rapture Chronicles (Tom's story)

May 13

We lost again, though 5-4 isn’t too bad. Went 1-3 with a double and finally got a stolen base. Made routine plays at second (nothing impressive like last game). Tom came home today. He’s back for just a couple of days before he goes back to Cali to keep looking for a job. I think he’s just slacking since he graduated from college last year. He’s said that he wants to do something meaningful but I wish he would just move back home and find a job here so he can help out too. It’s getting hard taking care of both Mom and Laura (though she could probably start helping with some of the chores now that she’s starting intermediate). Oh, and coach still remembers him though he always just brings up how Tom quit the team his senior year. He’s still never told me why

 May 14

I’m scared. It feels like the first time I’ve actually felt fear. And yet with it comes….I don’t know how to describe it…is it relief? It’s the end of the world and can I actually be feeling calm? We all saw, heard, felt it (I don’t know what word describes it). We were all sitting in front of the tv this morning and suddenly its like the entire living room disappeared into darkness and there was just this man I think it was a man and he said the world was coming to an end and we had just one week to prepare ourselves. What can I possibly do to prepare? And still I feel like there’s something I need to do. I know its stupid to think that when the sky outside is black with clouds and I swear its like a lightning show. Mom and Laura just sat on the couch after it was over. Tom went to his room without a word. Nothing. What the hell?! I don’t know what he’s going to do, but he better come outside soon and help. The wind is starting to rattle the windows and I should board them up soon. Hopefully its just a hoax and we can all just get back to our normal lives. Maybe the storm is just a coincidence too

May 15

Tom ran away. That bastard ran away with those people. They said they were going to stop the Apocalypse. That the guy Jack was their leader. He had a “dream” which told him how to save them all, us all, that it was his calling to stop the Apocalypse or some shit like that. They said he was their hero, their savior. I don’t trust him. How could they believe that? That just the 7 or 8 of them could stop the end of the world. Half of them already looked like they were on the verge of death and they said they still had miles to go. How could they think they had a chance against something which could control the weather, that could destroy humanity? It was too big. And Tom just went with them. He packed a duffel bag and just left with them. What chance does he think he has? He can barely find a job. He told me to take care of Mom and Laura, which is exactly what I’ve been doing THIS WHOLE FUCKING TIME! “It’s all I can do” he said. That’s stupid. He could do so much more by staying. I don’t know if I can still do this on my own

 May 18

I’m scared. Mom won’t let me leave the house after we barricaded the door with the couch. Tomorrow I’m gonna put up boards on the doors and windows like I saw other people doing. I can see buildings on fire from my window only two blocks away. When we went out this morning, everything looked fine and normal. Well, besides the sky (getting even darker now and the red lightning?) and the people (families packed close together on the sidewalk) it was normal. Mom and I grabbed a couple things from the store and as we reached to grab a case of bottled water some guy came out of nowhere and grabbed it right from my Mom’s hands. I mean, like he just snatched it and when she yelled, he just yelled back and took off running, screaming something about “The End.” It wasn’t even the last case, but as we tried to grab another we were swarmed by shopping carts and screaming people reaching and piling on as many cases as they could before bolting out the door. Tom should’ve been here. He should’ve been the one to go with her. I couldn’t do anything, anything to make her feel safe, to gather the things that we needed. I don’t understand, they were all perfectly fine just a minute before. Did they all finally just snap? When we got outside, every shop was covered with shattered glass and there were even a couple people lying in the street. We didn’t stop. We couldn’t. We just ran. It was all we could do

May 20

The electricity finally went out like I knew it would. For some reason the water is running. It’s quiet outside, and from the cracks between the boards I can’t tell if anything is going on outside. I’ve been using the small propane grill to heat up our food but I need to force Mom and Laura to eat sometimes. They still won’t leave their rooms. Mom just cries about her “lost son” Tom. Tom, who should be here helping me, helping us

The world ends tomorrow so I guess I’ll just say this now. I don’t know if I’ve completely accepted that this is the end. I mean, the fact that I’ve stocked food and haven’t done something insane yet kinda proves that I’m hoping tomorrow is coming and yet I I don’t know if I really believe that we are going to survive this. I want to live and I keep thinking that tomorrow we all die. I hate this. I just wish things could go back to the way they were and yet somehow this all feels like the way it was – taking care of mom and Laura ever since dad walked out, trapped in this house while Tom just does whatever the fuck he wants. I never wanted to die here and yet I guess that’s what’s going to happen. Stuck in the same damn place until I die still doing this crap. Sometimes I think I hate them for all this, but they’re still family, they’re all I got. We are all we have. I guess this is just the way it is

 May 21

We’re alive. I don’t understand it, but we are. I haven’t gone outside yet but I’m pretty sure I heard people screaming or cheering so I guess that means other people survived too. Maybe that means those guys Tom went with really did save us. Maybe they really did stop Armageddon. Now we need to survive this. Our food supply is low and the electricity still down along with the brown water now coming from the pipes. They were pounding on the door, trying to get in. Goddamn animals. I don’t know how well my baseball bat can defend us, but its worth a try. I don’t know what they want or what they’ll do to get it. We barely have enough for ourselves

May 23

It’s been two days and Tom still hasn’t come back. Our water is gone. I haven’t eaten all day (I had to lie to Mom just to get her to eat). I’m going to have to go outside to look but I’m scared of what I’ll find, or if I’ll even have the strength to just pry the boards down. They haven’t come back since yesterday when I yelled at them to leave (I’m just hoping they believed that I had really did have a gun). Everyone is probably having as hard a time as we are and I don’t want to see what they’ll do to save themselves. I mean, we are desperate too and I guess I’m scared of what I’ll have to do to save not just mom and Laura, but myself

May 24

I don’t understand how this happened. I don’t know what time it was, but they broke through. I didn’t wake up until I noticed the light shining through the door which they managed to break in half. I couldn’t lift my bat to beat them back much less lift myself off the floor. All I remember before I woke again was Mrs. Luke’s face looking down at mine (she’s the lady I think I helped with her groceries a couple months ago). Then I was on a mat under one of those pop-up tents in the park down the street. Someone came by and gave me some water to drink. The smell of the soup though made me puke on the floor. Mrs. Luke later said it was because it’d been a long time since I’d eaten. I think she meant “actual food”. I spent the rest of the day on that mat

Oh, I heard rumors too. The government was escorting the people who saved us back to their homes. I can’t wait til Tom gets back home

May 27

It’s been a couple of days and Tom still isn’t back yet. Things are getting along better than I ever imagined. Usually they send me and a couple other guys out to scavenge for supplies and also to let the people still boarded up in their houses know that there are other survivors. I’ve never been there to break open doors (mostly it’s the older group that does it). There doesn’t seem to be any fighting for stuff which I expected. We just kinda forgot about all that stuff before we thought the world was going to end (even that guy at the market apologized to my mom this morning before breakfast). Mom and Laura seem to be getting along a lot better now too, even helping Mrs. Luke and the others with all the chores we all need to do to get through the day

I heard that Jack guy lives just a couple hours away, but I’ll have to travel by foot. I let mom and Laura know that I’ll be leaving tomorrow morning. I need to know where Tom is

May 28

I went to see Jack. It took me half the day to bike where I was told he lived. Strange, I never would’ve thought that it looked a lot like my neighborhood. A small suburb looking place. His brother Kyle was in the yard and he showed me to Jack’s room. He said he hasn’t left there since the day he returned. I was expecting him to be some weirdo like I first saw outside out house just over a week ago, but instead he was just quiet, sitting on his bed and staring at the wall. Jack said that he expected more people soon. I asked about Tom. He said he liked Tom, that he had one of the most interesting reasons for coming – that it was all he could do. Tom wouldn’t say more, but Jack said he understood, as if such a vague reason was all he needed. He wouldn’t tell me his reason, but his brother Kyle assured me it too was stupid. After that, Jack wouldn’t speak; he just went back to staring at the wall, though I’m not sure if his eyes ever stopped staring at it.

I’ve been thinking about those words my entire trip back and I still can’t shake the possibility that Jack was full of shit. All he could do?! That’s ridiculous. He could’ve stayed. That’s one thing he could’ve done. But then maybe he couldn’t. The more I think about it now, especially with all the work we need to do now just for our group to survive. Tom never would’ve been any help to us, neither now nor during what we thought was the end. Is that what you meant?

Finally decided to try my hand at epistolary style (though this would be a character's diary rather than letters, but close enough)....I really need to start looking for a job