Carefully avoiding any spot in the floor that appeared to have a crack in it Alexa tiptoed over to her room. She grabbed her own Bible, some pictures of her family, her laptop that amazingly enough had not a dint on it, and all of her family's cell phones. "Thanks goodness I come from a rather big family!" she said out loud. Alexa had a mother, and a step-dad. Her mom and her real dad had four children together, and then divorced. As for her step-dad's side… he and his previous wife had two kids, and he and her mother had three.
Alexa still hoped to get a hold… or more to the point not get a hold of her stepsisters. She had already gotten in touch with her two older sisters… and the youngest from the original four children had been in bed at the time of the rapture at Alexa's house. As far as Ben and Kyle... they were both raptured.
She grabbed her mom's, step dad's, Ben's, Kyle's, Krista's, and her own cell phone. Due to having a huge family and each member having a phone they had a really cheap rate so she knew that wouldn't be a problem.
During the time that the girls outside had been praying and Alexa was gathering stuff inside Cindy felt more and more like she should be looking for Jimmy. About ten minuets after Alexa had gone into the house she came back out.
"To your house Cin?"
"Maybe later Libs. I think I should go check on Jimmy… see if I can find him."
"Ok… we'll help! All you had to do was ask or tell us or something!"
"Really?"
"Yes!" The other three shouted in unison.
"Thanks… you guys survey the surrounding area, I'll check inside." With that Cindy ran up ahead to the house. She stepped over everything until he got to just about where she guessed was the kitchen.
The earth had stopped shaking not long after the tree had fallen. Jimmy held his breath hoping that the earth wouldn't shake just enough to move the tree that had placed a protective shield around him. He had heard what he only assumed, and would later found out was, the whole house crashing underneath him. Then came the sound of something soaring through the sky, and shadows followed. Of course he couldn't see the outside world from inside his little tree dome… but shadows appeared and burst of lights filled the tiny little space he had. For about two hours he sat… or laid… in the tree, then he heard it. It was the sound of an angel… or better yet, the sweet, innocent sound of Cindy's voice. "I'm right here!" he called back to her.
"Where?" Cindy asked… not entirely sure that she really heard his voice, it was possible she had imagined it.
"Under the tree!" Jimmy yelled.
"Jimmy!" Cindy squealed with delight. "You are still alive!" Cindy ran over to where the tree was and tapped rapidly on the tree.
"You seem to be tapping just above me." Jimmy said excitedly. He and Cindy were once again re-united.
Cindy leapt for joy at once again being close to Jimmy, how she longed to hold his hand once more. She tried desperately to roll the tree over, no success at all. "It won't budge… are you completely in the tree?"
Jimmy moved around a bit. "Am now."
Cindy pushed again, still nothing. " I… just… can…" Suddenly there was a medium sized aftershock, just enough to thrust Cindy into the tree enough to roll the tree over, and allow Jimmy to crawl out. Squealing of shock… and a tiny bit of pain in her side, Cindy threw her arms around Jimmy and embraced him in a tight hug. Jimmy hugged her back and after a few kisses, another hug, and a few more kisses, they joined hands and went to look for Alexa, Libby, and Bethany. "Don't ever do that again!" Cindy said starting t cry from happiness.
"What…. Be in an earthquake, possible the worst earthquake ever, and have a tree fall on top of me… I'll try to remember that!"
Cindy laughed just happy to once again hold Jim's hand. "Good." She joked, beaming.
"Then again… seeing you this happy… I may have to try it." Jimmy teased.
Cindy scrunched her nose at the idea. "Don't you dare!" She play slapped Jimmy, and yet never quit smiling. "I'm so glad God spared you!"
"God didn't do anything… the tree did."
"And the tree just happened to have a hole, exactly your size, that fell exactly over you and protected you… just before your whole house collapsed?"
"I suppose." Jim shrugged it off.
"Do you have any idea what the chances are?" Cindy was bewildered. She was sure that Jimmy knew he was going to die when he saw the tree come down, and she couldn't…not matter how hard she tried… imagine how one could say that was by chance.
"About 60,000,000,000 to 1."
"And you can honestly say that you are that one in 60 billion… and it's by chance."
"Could happen…"
"Could… and the Natas COULD die before his due time." Is there anything that will convince him? "Look who I found under a tree!" Cindy called out when she saw Alexa and Libby, along with Bethany, come into view.
"Wow! Talk about an answer to prayer!"
"Just lucky."
"Luck?" Libby repeated in complete disgust. "You were literally saved from death by… what, a couple inches? And yet you say luck saved you?"
"Yea…"
All four girls slapped their foreheads. "How can you say that?"
"Easy…. Luck did it." Jimmy responded smugly.
"Did what?" Libby knew Jimmy was stubborn… but SURELY he couldn't say luck saved his life; that had to be why he just said 'luck did it.'
Getting fairly aggravated at Libby and the girls Jimmy said, "Luck… saved… my… life."
Libby didn't know what to say, and Alexa was the same. Bethany however, was reminded of her dad after hearing that. He had been in the earthquake too. As had her mom and sisters… and the rest of the world. As that thought wandered around her head she remembered that she hadn't seen either her mother or her sister since they had separated when they'd first arrived at the church. "Guys… I'm gonna go look through the crowd in front.. to see if my mom and sister made it out ok." Bethany said running around to he front… and jumping over debris.
"Any of you guys want to help me get that car over there out of the tree… at least he person inside he car down?" Cindy asked remembering the car being thrown into the tree before her eyes.
"I will." Jimmy said. He and Cindy went across the street to Cindy's house and then over a few houses. "There it is!"
A GPO car passed the neighborhood shouting on a bullhorn "Stay out of your homes, wait until the all clear to return to your homes."
"As if that's gonna work!" Cindy scoffed.
"But… that's a GPO car." Jimmy said coldly when he realized that it was a GPO car in the tree.
"You're point being? He has a life too and if he's still alive we are helping him out."
"But… he could be the guy that almost killed Libby… and did kill your mom." Cindy softened at the mention of her mom… and was even more determined to get that guy out of the tree.
"Come on Jimmy… we HAVE to get him out of there!" Jimmy started to protest. "Don't try to stop me… I have to rescue him!"
"But…"
"Jimmy… come on!"
"Ok… I just don't see why you wanna save the guy who killed your mom."
"Because… I just can't let him die. Sides…even on death Jesus said 'forgive them.' And they had whipped him, spit on him… and nailed him to a cross." Cindy said and Jimmy gave in and decided to help.
"Sir, are you there?"
"I… think I'm up a tree."
"You are!" Cindy yelled up to him.
"I'm… afraid of heights."
"Don't worry… we'll get you down!" Cindy said. "Jimmy… get Goddard."
"Mom, Hanna, Mom!" Bethany called out in the mob of people.
"Bethany!" her sister yelled when she heard her name. Hanna had auburn hair that dropped to just above her shoulders. She resembled Bethany in her oval face, and their smile was just about the same. At 23 years of age she had one little three year old, who had been taken in the rapture.
"Hanna! Where's Mom?" Bethany said hugging her sister tightly.
"She's… inside."
"What? Why didn't she come out?"
"She couldn't… the GPO's shot at me… and she jumped in the way… taking the bullet and letting me get safely downstairs. She died instantly."
"She… took the bullet instead? WOW! I guess she went straight to heaven… at least according to you she didn't suffer."
