It took an entire day for the group to make a path level enough for the trucks and horse drawn wagons to make it down the slope of the new cliff, after the third earthquake. True to form, Bob joined in with the rest of them in clearing the slope although he did have to have a few words with Kathy before she would allow him to do so.
"Bob, you were dead! Now you want to go out there and work yourself to death? I can't allow it."
"Afraid I'm going to have a relapse and die again? Come on Kathy. You've examined me from top to bottom and front to back. Did you find anything at all wrong with me?"
"Well, no. But it isn't every day that a patient comes back from the dead either. I just want to make sure that you are really going to be O.K."
"Kathy. Do you really believe that God does slip-shod work?"
"That's not fair Bob."
"Maybe not, but it is true. Isn't it?"
"Alright, alright. But you promise me that if you feel anything at all, and I mean even if it is only being a little dizzy, you'll stop work and come see me."
"I promise. But I wouldn't hold my breathe if I were you. Like they say, God doesn't make mistakes."
She knew he was right, but just the same, Kathy carefully watched him for the first half of the day. As she did she was reminded of the time he had helped Tim clear the dead trees from their front yard. He never shirked his share of the work. In fact, he did more than his share and refused to quit until everyone else did. As he always said 'Ever notice how good enough usually isn't?'. She suddenly realized that all of that had happened only about one year ago. One year ago their whole world was at peace. Their children were in school, they had a full refrigerator, and both she and Tim were looking at the prospects of promotion in their jobs. How different things were now.
She also noticed two other things that didn't surprise her in the least. Alex was working side by side with his father, never getting more than a few feet away from him, and never complained about the work.
Secondly, Maria came to the work site with Michelle far more often than was necessary. But the sight of the women help to boost the morale of both father and son.
That brought to mind another thing. She was a dentist, not a doctor. True, she had more medical knowledge than anyone else, but she was still embarrassed that she had made the classic mistake of heartbeats. During an examination of Mike she had heard two heartbeats. So she announced the possibility of twins. It wasn't until later that she understood that she had indeed heard two heartbeats. One belonged to the baby. The other to the mother. When she told Mike about it, she was surprised to hear of Mikes' relief.
"I'm not like you Kathy. You've already had four. This is my first. I was worried silly about how I was going to take care of two children."
Then there was the matter of sanitation. After Bob had made her the medical expert she had made Tim responsible for making sure the growing group kept things clean. Germs, after all, had killed far more people than bullets ever did.
At first the job was only making sure their children washed up whenever needed. However once the group had grown larger, Kathy was amazed to find out there were supposedly mature adults who seemed to be strangers to soap and water. Tim had gotten on them about it. To virtually no avail. They had cleaned up a little, but nobody wanted to live near them while they were still in the town. It was said, and Kathy knew it to be true, you knew when you were getting near their place. You could smell it at one hundred yards.
To be sure, they were very pleasant people. Everyone seemed to genuinely like them. But everyone did their best to stay up wind of them. Something needed to be done about the situation.
It was a couple of days later that she and Tim took their problems to Bob.
"Hi, Bob. Got a minute?"
"For the two of you, always. What can I do for you?"
Kathy sat in a folding chair near Bob and began to speak.
"Bob, I don't know that you can do anything, but I wanted you to be aware of a few problems."
"That's what I'm here for."
"As you know The Lord has been very good to us all. There have been no medical emergencies since we started. The closest thing to an actual trauma was when the Timmons' boy fell off a rock and broke his arm back after the Chinese attacked us. Before that, I'd never set a broken bone before. Thank The Lord two of the Majors men were trained for that type of thing. I learned a lot from those two. But we need to think about the future. I mean specifically about the pregnancies."
"Oh? Are any of the mothers having problems?"
"Not that I know of. But the truth is I'm a dentist, not a physician. Yes I'm a mother, and I know about child birth from that end, but I've never delivered a baby from the other. I think everyone would feel much more comfortable, and safer, if we had at least a mid-wife to help those of us that are expecting. I know I would."
Tim looked startled.
"Us? What is this 'us' all about?"
Realizing what she had said, Kathy turned red with embarrassment.
"Oh. I'm sorry. I was waiting for a better time to tell you. But yes, our family is growing again."
"Kathy, how did that happen? You've been on the pill for years."
She smiled at him.
"Sweetheart, I love you. But sometimes you can be a little slow. In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been able to get that prescription refilled for a long time now. And those things don't last forever you know."
Now it was Tims' turn to flush red.
"I guess you're right. I never thought about it. I mean since I don't take them it never occurred to me that it was a problem."
"So, are you upset?"
"Upset? No. Not at all. Surprised? Sure, but not upset. When are you due?"
"Now we are back to the main problem. I can't be sure, but I'd say about seven and a half months." She looked at Bob to address the doctor situation again and found him grinning at them. "What are you smiling about?"
"It is just nice to know that I'm not the only one in the unexpected fatherhood boat. Here's wishing the best to all seven of you."
Director Ives couldn't believe that things were progressing so fast, and so smoothly. That might be the reason he had been advised by the master of the future events and warned to be ready for them.
Since there weren't many Christians left, most of the people on earth completely missed the importance of the massive earthquake that had hit Turkey. While it had not taken as many lives as was first feared, it had changed the course of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. They had joined together near the headwaters, and now emptied into the Black Sea. Everything down stream from there was rapidly drying up. Those who thought of it at all were mainly concerned about the people in Iraq. What would they do without the water that had always been provided by the rivers?
Ives knew that the time of revealing the anti-christ must be near. Drying up those rivers made it possible for the Chinese to bring their armies into the region of the Middle East. If there were any American forces in the region, by now they were so badly reduced in number and short on supplies and equipment, that they wouldn't be any problem. And that would begin the last phase of World War III.
Since one of the things they had lost when they were forced to retreat from America was a new source of oil. The Chinese needed that oil and because they were now the most powerful country on the planet, they felt the oil belonged to them by right. They weren't going to pay for what they felt they already owned. With an army of two hundred million no one was going to argue about it. Or not for long at any rate.
He also knew that his time in this cursed land was drawing to a close. This winter was proving to be the worst ever seen on the continent. With food already in short supply due to the war, the people here starting to starve. The problem wasn't made any easier when it was discovered, the hard way, that there were more Russian and Chinese troops around than had been suspected. The bad weather kept what supplies the Americans had been able to claim from getting anywhere that they were needed. The nice part for him was that nobody blamed him for the situation.
After all, hadn't it been Ives who had discovered the food and other supplies which had been left behind by the Russians and Chinese when they had pulled out? Wasn't it Ives that had masterminded the plan to retrieve those supplies? Was it his fault the the number of left behind soldiers was greater than had been thought at first? Didn't his plan include defending the men sent to get those supplies? No, none of this could be blamed on him. It wasn't his fault that because of war and weather that famine was slowly spreading across the country. At the rate is was going, it was feared that the number of the newly dead would soon vastly outnumber the living. The only thing that Ives was really upset about was he hadn't been able to get rid of the Americans as fast as he would have liked, and he couldn't be sure he had reduced the Christian population to less than the hated ten percent.
Once this was accomplished, he would at long last leave this place for a new assignment. Perhaps even the one he had wanted all along. In Jerusalem.
BW, Vietnam Vet