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rushing through them. A general outbreak of health, energy, and stamina, far
exceeding what had resulted even from the communion, filled the people with
the assurance that what Christopher had promised was true, and gave them hope
of victory over their foes in the coming battle at Petra.
The Signs 331
6:30 p.m., Thursday, August 7, 4 N.A. Petra
Chaim and Rose Levin walked the steep path up the mountain called Umm Al
Biyara, from which they could view most of Petra. Below them the rows and
columns of tens of thousands of tents, set off by interwoven strips of garden,
formed a huge quilt pattern which seemed to stretch on forever.
Scattered about throughout the lush valley, groves of fruit trees offered
their harvest to all who came to pick. Bisecting Petra from east to west, the
crystal clear waters of the wadi Mousa flowed into their ringed refuge,
directed there through an ancient tunnel cut through the mountain. And in the
morning, they were sure, the life-sustaining manna would again settle upon
their camp, just as it had six mornings each week for the past three and a
half years. Neither Chaim nor Rose had said much since they set out on their
trek ostensibly for their evening walk but both had the same thing in
mind.
"It's all happening just as they said," Chaim whispered, as much to himself as
to his wife as they reached the end of their journey and stopped to rest. "All
of this," he said with a broad wave of his hand over the valley below, "the
plagues, the extermination of the Christian fundamentalists.
And soon, no doubt," he said nodding, "the armies of the world will be at our
door."
7:40 p.m. Famborough, England (south of London)
lan Wilder sat on the bare wooden floor leaning against his assigned bunk in
the World War II
vintage barracks. In his lap sat one of the four books he had been given to
read about the New
Age. After three weeks of waiting with literally nothing else to occupy his
time, he decided to try to read one of them in earnest, instead of just
flipping through the pages. Three weeks before he had been assured that this
was not a prison and that he would only be here long enough for his paperwork
to be 'out-processed' and then he'd be returned to fulfill a useful role in
society. He had taken the communion and the mark of his
332 Acts of God own free will, they reminded him, and that meant he was a
citizen of the New Age, with all the associated rights and privileges. It did
not matter, they had told him at the time, that he had made the choice only
minutes before he was scheduled to be executed; only minutes, he remembered,
before his wife refusing to listen to reason and just too stubborn to see
logic had submitted to her own death. It was just as well he supposed: she
never would have let go of her old religious beliefs and never would have been
happy in the New Age. Still, he was glad that he had not had to watch her die.
It all seemed like a dream now. In a single day they had been betrayed by his
brother, arrested, loaded into the back of a cattle truck, and sent to be
executed. When they arrived they were taken to a large holding cell and
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crammed in with a hundred others to wait. Next to them, another holding cell
was being steadily emptied as its occupants were taken to the guillotine. On
the wall in front of the cell, a television screen alternately showed
close-ups of the executions and scenes of various prisoners, usually young
boys and girls, being brutally raped or mutilated by guards before being taken
to their own deaths. Music was playing over the prison's speaker system at
ear-splitting volume to drown out any praying or singing of religious songs.
lan covered his ears but it offered only minor relief.
When the other cell was emptied, the guards came to lan's cell and began
taking those nearest the door. The executions progressed so rapidly that in
minutes only about half the prisoners remained.
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At about this time, another truckload of people arrived and were put in the
other cell to wait.
lan stayed close to his wife, though he could not help but feel resentment
that she had gotten them into this by insisting that they not take the
communion. Soon the guards came and took lan and his wife and eight others
from the cell. Going down a series of long corridors, the sound of the music
finally faded and, though their ears were still ringing, they could now begin
to make out the crack of the falling guillotine blades as they performed their
The Signs 333
intended function. The sound became more distinct as they were taken out a
door into a poorly lit exterior passageway.
Turning a comer, they came into the open courtyard where the executions were
taking place. The scene was overpowering and lan's wife nearly passed out. The
man behind lan vomited. Three rows of six guillotines each dropped head after
head after head into blood-spattered grey-green plastic barrels until they
could hold no more. Bodies were rolled or heaved by brawny men onto conveyors
which deposited them unceremoniously into waiting dump trucks. Here and there,
bodies which had missed their mark on the conveyor or heads that had bounced
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