(3) The Remaining

by Dequincyx

Clare arrives back in Chicago, Illinois after venturing out through a world she no longer recognizes. Once back home, she finds that most of her friends are gone...while few have been left behind. The CPS worker must find answers as to what happened. Clare and her friends may have survived the aftermath of the vanishings, but can they survive as...The Remaining?

1. Prologue

The
Remaining.

Prologue.

Everyone was caught off guard when the trouble began...but no one was more unprepared than those who had heard the truth and rejected it. CPS worker Clare Dunning believed that God was love, and that he wouldn't destroy the world because humanity couldn't help doing wrong, so she never expected any of this. Not in her lifetime, nor anyone else's lifetime. But she was a realist. If circumstances changed-as they had as a result of the vanishings-then she would simply make the necessary adjustments and set about doing what needed to be done.

Her friends on the other hand-Irene, Raymie, Jackie and Tommy-were believers. Irene Steele attended church faithfully not far from where they lived in Prospect Heights, Illinois.

Burnen Billings-Irene's pastor at New Hope Village church-often taught about the troubles that were going to come on the Earth. He had a shelf full of books, even video-tapes, detailing what to expect. The topic had become some-what of an obsession with him.

Irene knew from what she heard at New Hope Village that a populer world leader was going to arise who would gain control over the entire planet. She had heard he would persecute believers on a scale never before known. She knew that there would be death and destruction everywhere...and that her own country would not be spared. Irene had shared much of this with her then 11-year old son, Raymie, as well as Tommy, who was 9 at the time. She tried to share it with her then 19-year old daughter, Chloe, and her husband, Rayford, but he wouldn't listen. And Chloe was, like her father, a cynic. She had little interest in anything she could not see or touch. In other words, she wouldn't listen either.

Raymie and Tommy found the books, the lectures, and especially the videos exciting. They were scary at times, but both boys took comfort in the fact of knowing that they would never have to go through what was being discribed, because they would be wisked up to Heaven before it all started. Instantly and painlessly. And all because they had said a little prayer, asking Jesus into their hearts.

Tommy faithfully prayed for Clare and his father. That they too would say the prayer before it was too late. If only they had. Then they would all be together in Heaven right now.

Irene prayed the same prayer for her husband, Rayford, and her daughter, Chloe, as well as Clare. And she prayed it even more faithfully and more fervently than Raymie or Tommy did. They did not want anyone that they loved to be left behind.

But Clare and Rayford never for a moment thought that they would be left, because they didn't think it would ever happen.

During the rest of last year and half of this year in Los Angeles, California, Tommy had read books, watched videos, and had a long list of Christian experts to back him up in his belief that he and others like him would be spared. All of the suffering he had been told about was reserved for someone else. For those who remained on Earth during a time the Bible called...the 7-year Tribulation.
####################################################

Please review.