The End is Now (14 page)

Jeff was flashing that smile to a couple named Andrew and Michelle. They were newlyweds and the first real customers Jeff
had all day. They were the first people who actually wanted to talk about pre-owned cars rather than Will and the rapture
and that school. Jeff looked at Andrew and Michelle, and he could see the questions forming on their faces:
Can we really afford this car? Is this the right one for us? Is there something better out there?
If Jeff was going to survive the next couple of months, he would have to become a closer — a shark. To be a shark, his job
would be to answer every one of those questions with “yes” or “no” or “maybe” or whatever answer the customers needed to buy
the car. To a shark it didn’t matter what the honest answer was. Because who’s to say what somebody actually “needs” or what
is actually “reliable” or what is a “good deal”? Any car will get you around, all cars eventually break down, and all cars
have a value.

The rest is just semantics.

“How’s this thing on gas mileage?” Andrew asked.

Not very good, was the first thought that popped into Jeff’s head. Because it wasn’t. It was a Ford Tundra. It was a huge
truck. Trucks like that don’t get good gas milage. Actually, they get horrible gas mileage. And in today’s economy, who can
afford a car like that? Jeff could just see himself telling this couple everything he was thinking. And they would answer,
“Great, thanks for your time.” Another salmon would successfully swim upstream out of his grasp. Meanwhile, he and his family
were going to starve to death and get their house foreclosed on. He was going to lose his job because Mr. Hansley was going
to tell him, “I’m sorry Jeff, I just can’t keep a salesman who doesn’t make sales. Do you have to be so honest?”

This is bigger than right and wrong. This is about protecting your family, Jeff could hear his father’s words popping back
into his thoughts. It was almost primal, like his father chiding him and daring him to be successful. The voice was reminding
him of what all the business books said — if you want to be successful you have to picture yourself as successful. Think about
positive things. Take control of your life. It was time to stop just trying to survive. It was time to succeed — to thrive.
To make your life what you want it to be. It was time to stop worrying and caring so much about what you think everyone else
needs, and instead direct your life to where you want it to go.

“I mean, how many miles per gallon does it get in city versus highway driving?” Andrew clarified.

“For a truck its size, it gets great numbers,” Jeff said. This was true. But nobody gets a truck for its gas mileage. So there
was no need to focus on that. “You need to realize what a versatile truck you’ve got here. Let’s say you two want to get to
some secluded spot in the Colorado mountains for a getaway. No problem. This truck can get you to where there won’t be another
soul for miles. Or let’s say you want to rent a speedboat and take it to Lake Morgan in Oklahoma. This truck will haul it
down there without a hiccup. If a friend needs help moving, you’re right there for them if you want to be. Before long, everyone
in town will owe you a favor. This is more than just a truck. This is a chance for a better life,” Jeff said.

Then he was silent. He let his work sink in.

It looked like Andrew was about to say, “We’ll take it,” the three magic words every shark longs to hear, when Lisa, one of
the receptionists at Hansley, ran over screaming. “Mr. Henderson! You have to come see this!”

“Really, really bad time,” Jeff said.

“No, you don’t understand. The school — ” Lisa said.

And then everything melted away. The sale, the newlywed couple, the truck — it was like they never existed.

“What about the school?” Jeff asked.

“Something’s happening,” was all Lisa could muster.

Jeff didn’t say goodbye to the newlywed couple as he followed Lisa into the breakroom. The room was packed, the attention
of every soul in the room focused on the Panasonic TV in the corner. They were watching live coverage of Jefferson. The forecast
called for sunny and clear (and Jeff would later talk about how it was sunny outside, right before he started watching the
newscast), but the clouds above Jefferson Elementary were black. It was as if thick clumps of charcoal dust hovered above
the school.

Nancy Palmer was saying, “Only half the students have shown up today. But — ”

And then Jeff couldn’t hear the newscast anymore because someone in the breakroom screamed, “It’s a funnel cloud!”

“Where?” A junior in Emily’s class asked.

“Right there!” someone screamed.

And they were right. Emily could see it on the TV. It was a tornado, right next to Jefferson. It was kicking up everything
around it — newspapers, dust, plastic bottles, and other garbage. And then the tornado began to sink its teeth into Jefferson
Elementary.

Emily had never seen anything like it. Windows shattered, the plastic paneling on the sides peeled off, and then it was hard
to tell exactly what was going on. There were bricks and plastic and glass and God knows what else being spit out by the tornado.
It seemed like the tornado was swallowing the school.

Nancy Palmer was trying to comment on what she was watching, but it was impossible to hear her. There was too much screaming.
Even through the rushing wind, the screaming children could be heard.

“All those kids!” Some girl in the class was crying. “My — ”

“ — friends are in there! I tried to tell them!”

Will thought about everyone. Jane, who was so pretty and nice and who looked like such a babe with those blonde pigtails;
Nate probably had all of his cool new graphic novels with him; and Mrs. White who always put smiley faces on his papers when
he did a good job and wrote “You can do better” when he didn’t try very hard.

Was the face killing them all?

Were they all dying right now?

The thought made Will sick. He wanted to turn away —

— but he couldn’t. He had to see what was happening.

No one in the breakroom was saying a word. Some of the guys at Hansley had kids who’d gone to school today. Hours before,
they’d told Jeff, “Sorry, I just can’t believe what your kid’s saying. I’m not keeping my kids from school two days in a row.
That’s ridiculous.” And now Jeff looked at those same guys (a lot of them soulless sharks who told crass jokes, ripped off
customers every chance they got, and compared their own wives to livestock) and watched as tears rolled down their cheeks.
Jeff thought some of those guys probably hadn’t cried in fifteen years.

And then sunlight started to rip through the black clouds. The whooshing and crashing began to dissipate and the tornado quickly
followed. Quickly as it had appeared, the whirlwind was gone. But it had done its damage. Entire pieces of the school were
missing. The playground had been ripped apart to where only metal poles of the swing sets and half the monkey bars were still
intact.

It looked like a bomb had gone off.

Moments later every person in the room was on their phone. They were trying to get through to anybody: their wives, their
kids, the school. They were trying to get word of what had happened. Some were trying to find out if there were tornados anywhere
else in Goodland.

Jeff didn’t take out his phone. He ran into the bathroom, leaned over the toilet, and let everything go. And in between heaves,
he thought to himself, How is this possibly happening? How could he know? What are they going to do to him?

What will happen to my son?

Amy put her arm around Will. She brushed the hair off his face and kissed him on the forehead. She said, “It’s going to be
okay.”

And it was going to be okay, Amy thought. They said he was wrong. They said he was crazy and he was makings threats. But God,
they all looked foolish now. Because he was right.

Her baby boy had been right about everything.

THE
MIDDLE

Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will
be taken and the other left. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

J
ESUS SPEAKING TO THE DISCIPLES
,
M
ATTHEW
24 : 40 – 42 NIV

There is something undeniably attractive about becoming a born-again Christian… Every moment of your life is a search and
rescue mission: Everyone you meet needs to be converted and anyone you don’t convert is going to hell, and you will be partially
at fault for their scorched corpse.

C
HUCK
K
LOSTERMAN
,
S
EX
, D
RUGS, AND
C
OCOA
P
UFFS

For as long as Goodland has existed, there have been those who knew the Goodland rapture was coming. But they didn’t start
calling themselves the Prepared until after the tornado hit Jefferson Elementary. And even before they called themselves the
Prepared, they understood that God didn’t
need
the test market for the rapture. After all, He is God. He already knows everything. He was, is, and forever will be omnipotent.
And you don’t just lose omnipotence.

The Prepared made it very clear to new members that just because they thought Goodland might be the test market for the rapture,
they were not saying that God had lost a step. Nor were they saying that the creator of heaven and earth now needed market
analysis rather than just flooding the earth or raining down fire and brimstone with the snap of His fingers like He did during
His prime in the Old Testament days.

But there were other factors to consider.

For instance, maybe the testing was more for all of us. Especially in this day and age where human beings test everything.
We measure and remeasure and read consumer reports before we make any decisions. And God understands this, so perhaps He’s
being culturally relevant by testing out the rapture in Good-land. After all, in the twenty-first century, people won’t just
believe something because everyone else does. This is the age of skepticism. This is the age where the answers to any of life’s
great questions are just a Google search away. So perhaps humankind will need a sneak preview of what the rapture looks like
so they can know how to respond.

And there’s also free will to consider. The Prepared don’t like to talk too much about this because who really knows just
where free will starts and stops? Who knows when a decision is made how much free will has to do with the decision and how
much God has intervened? That’s for theologians and heads of denominations to debate.

But that’s beside the point.

The fact is, once the rapture starts, there are decisions that people will make in how it plays out. With human beings playing
a part in the equation, it is possible things can get messed up. There is a chance that God’s best-laid plans and intentions
can go awry. So wouldn’t God want to test out the rapture with the one variable — people — before he took it global? It’s
not like you get a second chance at the apocalypse after all.

With all of this in mind, one of the main reasons for the Prepared to exist was to make preparations for the rapture in Goodland.
There was so much to do. Tree branches that hung over tombstones in graveyards had to be trimmed. What could be worse than
the great ancestors of Goodland rising from their tombs and thwacking into tree branches on the way to their immortal destiny?
Of course it was entirely possible that the souls would just pass through the tree branch like Patrick Swayze walking through
a door in
Ghost
, but the Prepared weren’t willing to take that chance.

Then there were their personal lives and possessions to think of. This is why most of the Prepared drew up a document called
“The Rapture Will and Testament.” This document would bequeath all earthly possessions in case of the rapture. The person
who was drawing up this document would usually leave all of his or her goods to the friend or family member who was least
likely to be raptured. Along with possessions, the inheritor(s) would also receive a note that explained why the rapture had
happened and how it was not too late to save their immortal soul.