"Hey! It's my lab!" Jimmy shouted with the excitement of a three year old who just saw their mom or dad after a long day at pre-school.

"Shh… due to a certain genius moving his lab down here the walls are hallow and not very good at keeping sounds in."

"Sorry." Jimmy whispered back.  "Think anyone would mind if I re-claimed my lab?"

"Yup!"

"Why?"

"Libs wants to use the hangout as a safety zone."

"A what?" Jimmy asked confused.

"A safe zone… a place for the church to retreat to if they get in real danger."

"Isn't that what we are doing now?"

"Yes…. But we need a place to go outside of Sunday…. A place people can live."

"Why[MSOffice1] ?"  Jimmy asked scrunching his nose.

"Because, before long the Anti-Christ will start killing Christians and non-Christians." Cindy tried to explain.

"Why non-Christians?"

"Because… he'll require a mark to be applied to either the forehead or the right hand. Christians will refuse the mark knowing full well what it symbolizes. Where as there will also be non-Christians that refuse to get the mark just because they think they are 'too cool' or for fear of needles. However, Natas will kill anyone who chooses not to get the mark."

"You saying Natas Reficul is the anti-Christ?"

"Well…he sure fits the prototype."

"So I take it… you are a…" Jimmy stopped, he didn't wanna say the insult above all insults 'Jesus geek'… and 'Jesus freak' was too nice for how he felt; and you gotta be kidding if you think he'd let the word 'Christian' cross his lips.

"Tribulation saint, Christian, Jesus freak, and I know you wanna say Jesus geek? Yes…" Cindy said hesitantly… she knew that by saying that she was laying her whole relationship on the line.

"Cin…" Jimmy fought for control of his tongue. "How could you!"

Fighting back tears with the realization that her worst nightmare could possibly come true. "Jim… you don't understand! I didn't really want to be!" She cried desperately. It wasn't too far from the truth; she hadn't really chosen to have that dream. And while she had chosen God's side… she wanted things to stay the same between her and Jimmy. Therefore, she decided, she'd do whatever was needed to avoid Jim deciding to leave her.

"They forced you to become one of them?" Jimmy asked bewildered.

"Not exactly."

"So it was your choice?"

"Yes… and if you'd give me a second I'd explain."

"Go ahead… you got me surrounded anyways." Jimmy didn't know what to feel, on one side he loved Cindy with his whole heart…and on the other he wanted to just leave her that moment.

"Cindy smiled slightly, relieved that Jimmy hadn't left her that moment, and prayed that whatever she said it wouldn't drive Jimmy away. "This Friday night after I went home I spent a while questioning how you can know something without believing it. After talking to my mom I went to bed… pretty much determined that even if I knew for a fact that I wouldn't believe in a God that won't allow second chances. But that was before I went to sleep."

"Right… let me guess… that's when an angel of the Lord appeared to you and said 'repent or else?"

"No… I went to sleep and had a dream."

"You died and went to heaven?"

"No… Jim… will you at least let me finish?"

"Fine… I'm sorry."  

"Thank you… now where was I? Oh, yea, I had this dream that I'd died and went to Hell."

"WHAT? How did that change anything? I think that it would make me even MORE against God."

"Only cause it wasn't your dream. Trust me, if you dreamed it you'd be praising God and BEGGING for forgiveness the second you woke up."

"For sending me to Hell… that makes a LOT of sense!"

"No… you would be praising him for saving you. See…Hell was FULL of people. All of whom were yelling out 'God, save me… I was wrong… and it NEVER stopped."

"That would freak me out."

"Actually…with it being over 3000 degrees Fahrenheit, and not being able to touch anyone, and no water… I was yelling with them."

"That was pointless… wait… what do you mean by you couldn't touch anyone?"

"That was the strangest of all! You an I were like," Cindy moved closer to Jim, "about this far apart and yet I never ONCE felt you touch me. I scooted closer to you, I ran, and I walked…. No matter what I did you were just barely outside of arms reach!"

"That's just freaky!"

"It was… and then Satan made a guest star appearance in my dream… it was so real!"

"But Cin… you said yourself it was a dream."

"It was…. But Jim… it wasn't JUST a dream."

"Do you have any scars?"

"No."

"Then it's all in your head." Jimmy was about to say something else when he heard chairs and stuff being either thrown in the air or slammed to the wall upstairs.

"Officer!" A familiar voice screamed. "Officer, please!"

"Son, were you here earlier?"

"No… but… my cat is running wildly in circles and my house is covered in snakes!" Jimmy was trying to place the voice.

"Is that sheen?" Cindy asked Jimmy.

"Sheen! That's who that is!"

"What's he talking about, snakes on his house? I can understand him creating a distraction… but no one is going to believe that!"

"Could happen."

"How?"

"Well… snakes usually crawl out of the ground before a earthquake strikes. But there are no plate boundaries or faults around here."

"An earthquake… you don't think…"

Sheen had seen the GPO car pull up and knew he had to do something to distract the officer… but even he wouldn't have planned to say that. However, he was scared to death of snakes… and they were literally crawling all over his house, and all of the neighbor's houses too.

"Son, quit talking non-sense."

"I wish I were sir."

"Well… doesn't look like anyone else is here… let's go check out your house…. Say how old are you?

"Eighteen."

"And yet you are freaking out about a few snakes?"

"I have a phobia."

"Right…" the GPO, said exiting the house. As soon as he saw the snakes crawling on the houses he told Sheen to go on back inside.

Sheen followed orders and went downstairs to see if the GPO's had killed anyone downstairs as well. "Ok… I have no idea where you are harboring over 100 people… but great job!" He said to the middle of nowhere.

Hearing Sheen's voice Jimmy and Cindy again jumped twice and were transported up to the basement. "Sheen, you rock!" Jimmy yelled hugging his friend and patting him on the back.

"Aw, don't think me... I was just saving your life."

"Anyone die?"  Cindy asked worried.

"About twenty by the looks of it."

"Sheen… where's Libby?"

"She's not dead… yet."

"WHAT?!?! Cindy exclaimed running up the stairs.

"Stop! Don't go up there!" Sheen commanded.

"I have to!"

"There's a GPO right outside though!"

"Sheen… I'm not just gonna sit down here and hide when Libby is hurt and could be dying!"

"What is it that you think you can do to help her?"

"Well… I can at least be by her side!" Having said that Cindy finished climbing the stairs and entered the 'living room.' "Libby?"

"Cindy?" came a weak response.

"Libby!" Cindy exclaimed, running to where Libby was, jumping over the puddles of blood and dead bodies that were all over the place.

"Cin… you should be downstairs where it's safer."

"And let you die… no way!"

"Really… I'm ok… just got shot."

"Where at?" Libby lifted her hand, which was placed over her chest, a little to the left of her heart, revealing a small hole in which the bullet had entered her body. "Libby! How can you say you are ok?"

"Well… it's not that big of a hole… and it seems to be slowing down."

"Wait right here…" Cindy stood up and walked over some more dead bodies and puddles. A few times she felt someone grab her ankle to catch her attention, and yet some she wanted to help from hearing their screams. The scene almost made her sick to her stomach.

Once she got past the 'living room' she noticed that the rest of the house hadn't been touched since the rapture. Cindy went to the bathroom and grabbed a whole box of gauze and a first aid kit, then raced back to that awful scene. "Let me see that." She knelt next to Libby and took off her outer clothing in order to dress the wound. "Hang in there Libs!" She cleaned Libby's hands with some disinfectant wipes and put gauze over the wound, instantly the gauze turned blood red.

Libby shivered slightly from the cold air hitting her skin…but she didn't mind too much. "Thanks Cin." She said… knowing full well Cindy usually gagged at the ER episodes.

"No problem Libs, you know I'd never let ya go untreated." She took off the first gauze and rubbed some lotion stuff around the wound, and then cleaning the shallow part with rubbing alcohol. "Think you can stay here for a bit while I go see if I can help some of the others?"

"Don't worry about me."

"You say so." Cindy stood back up and went to the other side of the room to where some of the people had been grabbing at her ankle. Stooping down she checked one lady for any signs of life… before realizing that the lady was her mother.

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