1.

Royer's lungs seemed to explode with each breath of frozen air.  He once again stood straight, arching his shoulders back to stretch the sharp ache out of his lower back.  Peering off through a sea of white, he mentally measured the distance to the cabin as less than a mile away, relieved to notice a beleaguered figure wandering toward him.

"Frank, hurry!" Royer yelled, listening to the echo cut off in the howling wind, as he watched the figure jog up to him.

"What's go...ing...on?" Frank muttered through heaving breath as he arrived.   "Where are we and who is that?"

"Welcome to Hell."  Royer replied snidely "Grab Hector's feet and help me get him into the cabin and we'' explain everything inside."

When they finally made their way to the cabin, Gina helped them get Hectors to the couch, took their coats and brought two mugs of hot chocolate over to the fire where they sat to warm up. 

"Thanks Sweetie" Royer said " Could you please attend to Hector and see if you can locate him.  I tried when I found the body, but it was too difficult to concentrate with the freezing wind and snow."

"Sure Honey.  Please try to warm up."  She replied as she went over and knelt by Hector, closing her eyes as she placed her head on his chest.

Frank took a sip from his mug than said.  " I don't want to sound rude, but I have a million and one questions for you, so I hope you don't mind me jumping right in and asking away."

"Not at all" Royer replied, "But we hope you have some answers for us as well.  So please go ahead and ask away and hopefully we all figure out what is going on here."

"I don't know where to begin" Frank stated " I mean one minute I'm sitting at my bed staring at my wall, as I often do when I have a lot on my mind, and the next thing I know is I am walking through the wall in to the middle of a blizzard in some strange frozen tundra.  What the hell is that all about?"

" It’s kind of like the strange worlds, or alternate realities we visited a couple weeks ago at the gathering.  Gina and I call out to you to join us here, because you may have some knowledge of what happened to Hector, and you used your intuition to follow our calls through your wall and meet us here."

"So what is here?  You said something about Hell, were you being serious or sarcastic?"  Frank interrogated.

“A little of both.  Most people's vision of Hell is of fire and brimstone in some middle of the earth cave with imps and the whole nine yards.   But in reality, or should we say alternate reality, when someone is taken by force from the physical world they reside in, without the mental capacity to move on to a new world, they  are often trapped in a froze state between the two worlds.  So in effect we are currently in the frozen vast lands of Hector's mind.

"Interesting." Frank muttered “When I was a kid, My Aunt Beatrice used to swear she had a ghost living in her house, and when ever she said it was in the room, I swear I could feel a cold breeze coming from where she said it was.

"Something like that" Royer said.

"Anyway, so I assume, judging from the round whole in the middle of Hector's forehead he is dead as a door nail.  So how can we be in his mind?"

"Patti told me you came up to her at the gathering and told her you had a feeling that something was going to happen to Hector.  Ironically, Hector had unexpectedly taken off that day and nobody knew were he went.  We've been looking for him ever since."   Royer paused a moment to compose himself.   "Anyway, we were able to track him down to a motel outside of Austin this morning.  But when we got there, we found him lying in pool of blood.  Gin and I were able to channel through the body to this world.  Now we are hoping to catch up with Hector's mental self, but he seems to be hiding."

"Hiding from you?" Frank asked.

"Hiding from something.  What do you know that can help us?"

“I think the military was after him." Frank answered.  "Something to do with notes to a formula he had."

"Tell me everything you know.” Royer asked anxiously.

"When father John was teaching us to connect to the spiritual network, I heard a conversation between tow voices.  They said something about there only being less than a year left, a war, a third term and six months after project cloud or something.  Then they were talking about hector having some notes or something that would help expedite the time frame"

"By how much."  Royer asked nervously.

"I don't know, a couple months, maybe.  They were pretty sure it was eight months from August, so that would give us about six months.  So I assume this is about the military getting their hands on Hector's cloaking experiment.  But how does that speed things up?"  Frank asked back.

"It has been determined that the cloaking device as you describe it will cause some strange phenomena that will offset the balance of our senses, thus destroying all realms to which we live.   We thought we had caught this in time giving us more time to train the masses, before the military could reconstruct Hector’s invention from the scientist who worked on it with him.  However if they got his notes, we will not have much time for the training."

"How do the spirits I was channeled into know about an up coming war and what were they saying about a third term?"

"Because we have been through this before, for some reason we were given the chance to go back and right it before the event takes place.  The third term and war revolved around our illustrious president, who for the past eight years has been spreading American Homogony through out the Middle East.  Well he's not ready to give up this throne before he succeeds as world dominator, so he will plan another attack on the US, so he can postpone the election, until he can mandate a life long term."

"What do you me plan....."  Franks words were cut off as the room began violently crumbling around him with billows of dust and smoke clouding his vision.  When the shaking ceased and his vision cleared, he realized he was lying back in his bed, with nothing but the ringing in his ears to collaborate what just happened.  But even that proved false as he soon realized the ringing was not in his ears but coming from the TV.  Followed by a monotone recorded voice than made his heart sink.

"The following is a message from the Emergency Broadcast System.  Reports of simultaneous nuclear explosions have occurred in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago Metropolitan Areas.  All US Residents are strongly advised to remain indoors until further notification.

2.

John Bramson awoke from another disturbing dream, opened his eyes and noticed a strange beam of light shining down from his bedroom ceiling illuminating his whole body.   His first thoughts were that God or the powers that be have granted him early admission for time well served, and opened the gates to heaven.  However, as he stared at the beam shinning down he noticed something strange about the perspective.  It didn't seem to pinpoint down toward him as if the ceiling had a whole in it emitting light, but rather seemed to disperse wider as it reached the ceiling.   As he slowly sat up to gather his thoughts and reflect on this strange phenomenon, he noticed that the beam seemed to follow his line of sight and was now shinning on the wall directly in front of him.  He got up and walked closer to the wall and watched the beam shrink and intensify with each step closer.   He quickly turned around only to find the light now reflecting back at him from the mirror above his bureau across the room.  He put his hand in front of his eyes to stare thought the glare.

Then he realized for the first time that the light was not shinning toward him but shinning from him.  He just stood frozen in place, like a deer on the road unable to turn from the light, as a wave of awe and panic trampled down upon him with the force of an avalanche, finally collapsing him to the floor in an emotional outburst. 

"What in the world is going on he screamed."

"You know."  A strange but familiar voiced replied calmly in his head.

"No I don't!"  He snipped back.

"John, you are the beacon, the light that will lead millions to salvation."

"I can't be.  I'm just a man, who has failed as a religious leader.  How can I guide the masses, if I'm not quite sure where I am going myself?"

"You know enough from what you have learned over the past year, to help them through."

"But they will revere me as if I am a God.  That is the last thing that I want.  It would be a sham, pure blasphemy!"

"Dearest John that is a problem that has plagued most of the spiritual icons over the last couple of millenniums.  But what they have discovered and you soon will to, is that we are all god and god is all.  And once that is discovered by all no one particular prophet or speaker of the truth will be placed on a pedestal. But rather just be appreciated for the wisdom they share."

"Just the same I respectively decline.  I am not ready."  John said with humble defiance.

"Sorry, what is done is done and can not be undone.  You are the light and they will find you and follow you whether you want them to or not.  Bring them to Royer, Patti and the rest of the group and let them know you are not a higher power, but just a group of people tuned in to a higher awareness.  For it has started and time is short.  Make sure you lead as many as you can before their panic and terror turn to despair."

What has started?" John asked, but the voice in his head was replaced by his won thought to turn on the TV and see what they were talking about.

3.

Patti stood at the shoreline basking in the warmth of the day's last sun, as she peered amorously at the purple and red skyline.  Each thunderous wave crashing against her bare shins seemed to reinvigorate her tired middle age body with energy of a young athlete and washed away any gnawing questions she had about where she was and ho she had gotten there.

She was just about to completely let go of all thoughts and seamlessly meld as one with nature when her vision became blurred by a pair of strong hands closing around her eyes.

"Guess who?" Asked a familiar gruff voice from a distant and painful past.

Her heart pounded uncontrollably, as her mind immediately tried to salvage a logical explanation to prevent an inevitable cardiac implosion.  But not even a life time of therapy, hypnosis and every trick in the book could erase, hide or even bury the voice that has been haunting her mind since she was just a teen.

"Kevin?" she gasped as she swung around in bewilderment.

"The one and only.” He answered wryly as he always did.

Patti just stood there for what seemed an eternity staring at him, mouth ajar and heart still pounding astonished that the young man in the six and a half foot brainy frame, looked exactly as he did when she last saw him.  Exactly as he did in ht picture she has been carrying around etched in her mind for the past quarter of a century.

"Better shut your trap before the flies get in."  He smirked, and picked her up hugging her until she thought her ribs were going to pop, like he often did when she was just a kid.

"But....I...How? What..,."  She stammered as she tried to make sense of all this, and enjoy the fact that se was standing next to her big brother would died when she was just a kid.  Died, trying to save her from their burning house.  The house shed burned down, sneaking off with Peter McGintly, forgetting that se had left the burner on and wooden spoon next to sauce pan.  The ironic thing was, that she was trying to surprise Kevin with a hot meal, while their parents were out of town, only she was the one who came home to a rude surprise of fire trucks and the forever lingering sound of the ambulance siren as it carted Kevin out of her life,.

"Shhh."  He said “There is much to discuss and not much time to cover"

"Please Kevin.  I made a promise to myself to let you know how truly sorry I was... I mean I am... and here you are” Patti blurted out.

"You know kid, for someone who is the self proclaimed Queen of Intuition; you have a lot to tune into."

"What are you talking about?"  She asked.

"Our plan, to get you on track for your mission in this life."

"Still not following.  Do you mind clueing this mere mortal in on your eternal wisdom?"

"Oh, forgive me." Kevin snidely touted back “I forget your mind is still clouded with mortality."

"WHAT EV-ER!"  She replied like she did when they were younger.

"OK, so here it is in the abridged nutshell.  Before you and I decided to grace dear old Mom and Dad with our souls, we had our assignments granted to us.  You were to teach the world to see and feel through a different eye.   And my mission was to make sure you stayed on path to learn and tune into what you did.  The problem is that once we entered the world we would forget what our assignments were. So we planned my death early in life, so you would spend your every waken hour learning how to connect back with me to one day have the chance to say your sorry.  Only ironically it has been me who has been sorry all these years seeing the guilt and pain you have lived through thinking you killed me."

"You’re saying I didn't"

"That would be prescribing to the notion that fate is a random and unpredictable act.  We had chosen my destiny, thus creating yours."

"So what now?"  Patti asked, almost in tears as a huge burden was lifted from her soul.  "Why tell this to me now."

"Because the game plans have changed and my job is to once again set you on the right path."

"What do you mean it has changed?  I thought I was supposed to help guide all those that are lost to the new worlds that Royer's team are going to create."

"Yes, but in a much bigger way than you thought."

"How so?" Patti asked.

"Consider it a numbers game.  Of the 5 billion souls in your world, if you have 1% ready enough to find you and follow your guidance you will save about 50 million.  But don't forget all that we know in the other worlds or in-between worlds will be torn apart too.  We already know how to connect; only we will loose our orientation and need help getting pointed in the right direction.  So if you can save, say 10% of us already in the know, there will be trillions of trillions who will move on."

"O.k., so what do you need me to do?"

"What we know is that when it happens, a hole will be torn through the cosmos, in which all energy will leak through and disappear.  Your job a along with Julia's is to help us find that hole and form a fence to block and rebound that energy back into the cosmos, where new worlds can be created.”

“What do you mean help you find the hole?’
            “There will be total confusion in the chaos, and we will loose orientation to the worlds that we are in, and will not be able to project into your world to see where the hole is.”

“So how will you find us, or how can I find all of you.”

“We will find Julia, and you will find Julia, thus you will find us.”  Kevin replied.

“I’m still not following” Patti said a bit confused “If you can not look into this world how will you find Julia.”

“Oh god, I thought you knew.” Kevin said concerned at how matter of factly he was presenting the plan. “Julia has joined us in this world.”

“What?”  Patti questioned. “Julia is with her family back in Cerritos.”

“I am so sorry, sis.  Most of Los Angeles area has been wiped out with the bomb.  Millions have been lost.”  

“What bomb?” She asked in denial, “I don’t know what you are talking about”

Kevin took her into his arms to comfort her and whispered.  “Just promise me you will find Julia and stay connected before it happens so we can follow her emotions to you.”

4.

            Royer opened the front door and gave Patti a big hug and after a few moments and several tears, he finally said   "Please come in. You must be exhausted.  As I told you on the phone last night, Gina and I would have come down to Las Vegas."

            "And as I told you, Vegas is really crazy right now, being only 300 miles from LA.  I was lucky to get out myself, with all the road blocks stopping westbound traffic."

            "Well at least we could have met in Grand Junction or something." Gina interrupted as she handed Patti a warm cup of Joe, black with two sugars. "I'm still not talking to Roy for letting you talk him out of meeting you halfway."

            "Nonsense, besides I needed the time to think"   Patti replied pausing as she felt tears welling up in her eyes.

            "Us too” Roy said "I think we're all in shock with what has happened.  I mean first Hector, than Julia.  And who knows what the fuck is going on with John."

            "What do you mean?   Don't tell me you haven't heard from John, yet."

            "We've heard him alright, can't seem to shut him up, but we haven't heard from him yet."  Royer replied avoiding Gina's piercing glare and adding "To tell you the truth, he seems brighter than ever, almost glowing."

            Patti just looked at him with utter confusion.  Gina picked up her hand and led her in the living room.  "What my insensitive husband is trying to explain is that something unusual has happened to John."

            Patti's expression did not change as she stared at a 30" image of John standing on top of St. Peter's Basilica preaching to a crowd of hundreds of thousands.  To Patti’s amazement John seemed to be glowing, not as if a spot light was shinning on him, but as if he had swallowed one and light was escaping from every pore on his body.

“What the…?”  Patti mumbled

“Tell us about it.”  Royer answered, “Thing is you would think that John would be the last one to try to be a false prophet, but he has been standing there for the past 24 hours or so, ever since the first bomb, and preaching for people to follow him.”

“MSNBC and CNN have been cutting back to him every 20 or 30 minutes between their disaster coverage of LA and Chicago.   Some of the Religious stations have him on 24/7.”  Gina added.

“Brilliant.”  Patti exclaimed.  “How did he make himself glow like that?”

“We don’t know.”  Gina answered, “He called us briefly on the way to meet with the pope and told us he woke up like that. Had trouble with the lines, since it was right after the disaster, and we have not been able to reconnect.”

            “Well this is a great relief” Patti said. “Looks like our good friend have found a way, in one single swoop to reach 1/3 of the world’s population, who would otherwise just sit here, and die, as the world tore apart, waiting for Jesus to come and show them the way to heaven.”

            “But he is not claiming to be Jesus.  Just a guide who can lead them to a higher being.”  Gina replied.

            “If the Pope has endorsed him, than they will follow, whether they believe him to be the second coming or not.  Most likely they will believe he is being the humble servant that Jesus was.”

            “Well than, I can concentrate on my new task at hand, and stop worrying about the master plan.”  Patti said and filled Royer and Gina on what she needed to do.

5.

John scanned the crowd packed into Saint Peter’s Square once again, amazed that they would let that many people in to see him, and continued with his own rendition of the Sermon on the Mount.

            “Ask and it will be given to you; Seek, and you will find; Knock and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.   You do not have to wait for the light to that leads to enlightenment, to follow the trail.  For those that wish to lead through the dark will be revered and rewarded nicely.   Likewise those brave enough to follow will be justly rewarded in their own right.  Even those who wait for the light, and are lead away will be lead to salvation.   Yet hide in the shadows of doubt, afraid of the own known, and you will be lost forever!”

            With that, John raised his arms above his head and with one fell swoop brought both hands down to his knees engulfing the not only the entire square but the entire world in complete and utter darkness.   He did not speak for two and a half minutes.   Murmurs through the crowd turned to panic, as fear weaved through those unsure of what was happening.   News crews shined spotlights on the crowd to portray what was going to no avail, for not a shimmer of light could begot for miles surrounding the square

            Finally at what seemed to be an eternity, a large light seemed to shine from heaven above on to the crowd below, and through the TV sets of those who were watching, only it was not coming from the sky, but coming from John himself who seemed to be suspended in thin air three hundred feet above the crowd.

            “Those of you who had the courage to put your fears aside and follow you instinct have either lead or have been lead to a beautiful training ground, where you will learn the way to salvation.   Those of you who were afraid to follow will have another chance shortly.  If you loose your way, follow my light, and I will lead you myself. Hide from me, Hide from my light, Hide in the darkness of the unknown, and you will be trapped in the shadows forever.   For now is the time of thy glory, come follow and celebrate with all.”

And then he disappeared and the sun shined bright again.  And when the people of the square opened their eyes wide again they noticed that their masses were halved.  And when the people who were watching on TV looked around their living rooms they noticed that family members were missing.    And when all was tallied a few weeks later, the newspapers and stations reported of upwards of a hundred million were gone. And talks of the Rapture filled every home as family and loved ones, mourned for those who left.