The End is Now Read online

  Mike’s face turned Casper white.

  Jeff thought he’d be completely frightened being in this position, aiming a gun at another man, but he was surprised by how natural it felt. Before tonight, he’d only held a gun a couple of times, and that’s when he went duck hunting with Mike every now and then. He usually missed every duck he shot at, while Mike knocked them down like it was a video game. So maybe Jeff felt so confident at that moment because he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to miss Mike at this close of a range. And what scared Jeff the most was that he might just pull the trigger if he had to. He would end his best friend if that’s what it took to free his children.

  With the entire crowd staring at him, Jeff knew he had to say something. These moments happen in movies all of the time, where it’s the hero versus the world, and somehow the hero manages to speak with such noble, grandiose words at those moments. But Jeff couldn’t think of any of those words right now. All he could think was, I just want my kids back. And so that’s exactly what he said.

  The crowd stared, waiting for him to add more. So he said, “You can do whatever you want, make whatever statements you want, argue whatever you want. But it’s not your kids up there. And you have no idea what it’s like to be down here with your kids crying and trapped up there. They’re so frightened and they need their dad. And that’s me. I’m their dad. So I’m going to get my kids, and then my family and I are getting out of here. You can do whatever you need to after that. But in the meantime, if you get in my way, I will do whatever it takes to get through you,” Jeff said, and pumped the shotgun still aimed at Mike’s head.

  Jeff didn’t know he had such a speech in him. And pumping the shotgun was an especially nice touch, he thought. It let the crowd know he meant business.

  However he wasn’t sure what the next practical step was. He couldn’t put his gun down and climb up on top of the billboard. That would leave him pretty vulnerable. To keep control of the crowd he’d have to leave the gun pointed at Mike. Everyone else would have to do the dirty work.

  “Earl,” Jeff said, looking at one of the other officers on the force. Earl wouldn’t want anything to happen to Mike. “Can you climb up there and untie my kids?”

  Earl looked at Mike. “Do it,” Mike said. Earl then climbed the ladder on the side of the billboard up to the level Will and Emily were sitting on.

  “You know, Jeff, you of all people should be empathetic to our side of things,” Mike said.

  “I really, really don’t want to talk about this with you.”

  “I know you don’t want to talk about this at all. Am I right?”

  “Pretty much,” Jeff said.

  “I was thinking of you when I decided that the men were right, that I had to help organize this. I’m trying to help you, Jeff,” Mike said, looking at the crowd who was gathered around.

  “Wow, thank you. Next time why don’t you just torture my dog and burn my house down,” Jeff said. Trying to help me, how could he possibly be trying to help me? He was supposed to be the levelheaded law and order person in Goodland. Now he was tying children up on billboards and telling their father that he was doing him a favor. If he’d lost his mind this badly there was no hope for anyone else in Goodland.

  “Jeff, no one’s going to have a more difficult time putting this behind them than your family.”

  “I already told you I don’t want to talk about this.”

  “Well, you should get used to it. Because you’re going to be talking about it for the rest of your life. Your son will always be this prophet, and people will always, always be asking him what his next prophecy is. When he has kids they’ll ask his kids what the next prophecy will be. You can’t run from this. As long as you’re in Goodland this will hang around your neck. Can you leave? Sure, but do you really want to leave the one place where your life is? Where your friends and family and your home are? If you want to be able to keep a life in Goodland you can take a stand with us tonight. I know this is hard, but if everyone can see that Will’s own father has the courage to say, ‘My son is just a kid. He’s not a prophet and the end of the world is not coming!’ then that will make an impact.

  “And you have the courage to say that, Jeff. But the only way to make sure your message is heard is to keep your son up there. Keep the gag on his mouth as a symbol of silencing the fear that everyone is needlessly spreading. Now, I know what you’re thinking: I can’t do that. But ask yourself this: What’s a rough couple of hours so that he can put this behind him for the rest of his life?”

  That was a good question.

  Maybe everyone got it wrong, maybe Mike really is the Antichrist, Jeff thought. He was talking so eloquently even with a shotgun pressed against his forehead. And what was worse was he was making sense. A lot of sense. This wasn’t just going to go away after tonight. Jeff had tried to escape Goodland and he couldn’t. The more he’d tried to keep Will out of the spotlight, the brighter the light burned on his family. Maybe this wasn’t something he could do by himself. Wasn’t it possible that he needed someone like Mike to help him out of this mess? And truthfully what was a small sacrifice of a couple of hours when compared to the rest of their lives?

  The thought of keeping Will up on the billboard came in a flash to Jeff. He could see himself going up there and explaining things to Will. He’d whisper to his son that this was for the greater good. He’d tell his son that he loved him. And then he’d stand by Mike and everyone else as the sun rose and the possibility of the rapture disappeared.

  This would be the safe thing to do.

  The sensible thing to do.

  And then the flash disappeared. Jeff put it behind him. He wasn’t interested. He knew that he may never be able to protect his family from the outside world, but that didn’t mean he was going to stop trying. Maybe every time he tried to protect his family, forces would push back at him. He’d just have to learn to push back harder.

  Jeff took the shotgun off Mike’s head and fired a blast in the air. “I’m done talking. Mike, the next time I fire this gun it will knock your head clean off,” Jeff shouted, loud enough for the crowd to hear. Then he looked up at Earl, “Get my kids down! Now!”

  Earl quickly started to untie Emily. When Earl took the duct tape off Emily’s mouth, she shouted, “Daddy!” And Jeff wanted to cry. Even tied up like that she still looked like his little princess. “I’m right here, honey. We’ll have you out of here in no time,” Jeff shouted.

  Then he turned his attention back to the crowd. They were too close to him. Someone could try to be a hero and grab the gun. He could shoot Mike on accident. So he shouted, “Back up! Everyone! Just keep backing up until I say stop.”

  The crowd complied; they started to walk backwards, away from this crazy screaming man holding a shotgun at a police officer. Some backed up all the way until they had disappeared into the cornfield. Quickly, there was breathing room around Jeff and he felt better.

  No one would be able to sneak up on him now.

  But suddenly Jeff saw a man who wasn’t sneaking at all. He was charging like a possessed rottweiler. And Jeff could hear this man shouting/snarling, “The message must go on. The message must go on.” He just said it like that over and over, charging at Jeff.

  Jeff did not want to take the gun off of Mike’s head. He said, “Stop! Don’t make me pull the trigger!”

  But the snarling man didn’t even slow down. His eyes were glowing and he was staring at Jeff, repeating to himself that the message would go on. Jeff took the gun off Mike and aimed it right at the guy charging. “Take another step and I will shoot. I swear to God I’ll shoot you right here!”

  But it was pointless. The charging man wasn’t going to stop. He wasn’t going to slow down. He was going to tackle Jeff or die in the process. So Jeff aimed the gun right at him and put his finger over the trigger. He didn’t want to kill this guy. But he gave him ample warning. Pulling the trigger was the only option. So, Jeff stood there with the gun aimed at this man,
waiting for the courage to pull the trigger and save his family.

  The courage never came.

  Before Jeff knew what had happened, this man had barreled into him and sent the shotgun flying. Jeff was knocked clean off his feet and his head thwacked against the gravel road.

  And that was the last thing Jeff remembered for a while.

  When Jeff came to, everything was blurry. He tried to move his lips but they were taped shut. He tried to move his arms but he could feel ropes pinning them to his body. Eventually, Jeff’s eyesight came into enough focus that he could see everything around him. He could see Emily on one side of him tied to a chair and Amy on the other side also tied down. Next to Amy was Will, somehow looking brave and strong as ever.

  Jeff looked off the edge of the billboard and could see everyone scurrying around like ants. Jeff had never been on top of a billboard before, but he was amazed at how high it was. Their chairs were on a lip that jutted out from the billboard, but the lip wasn’t very wide. It was made for guys to stand on while they plastered a new image on the billboard. It was not made for a chair. At that moment Jeff could see himself falling off the billboard and breaking every bone in his body. How embarrassing would that be? So Jeff tried to think about keeping his body perfectly balanced.

  And he tried to think about how he could get his family off the billboard. But the ropes were on really tight. What sort of boy scout tied these? He wasn’t getting out of them anytime soon. There was no choice but to sit with his family and watch this from on high. At least they were together. Still, he wished he knew what time it was. He wished he knew how much time was left. By the looks of things, not much, because there were a lot more people gathered beneath the billboard now. And as Jeff stared at the group below he realized there were two groups now.

  Jeff strained to try and hear what the groups were saying to each other. He knew one group was the Realists. They wanted his son and now his whole family up here to prove their point. And it didn’t take too much imagination to guess who the second group was. The Prepared had heard what was going on underneath the billboard and they were gathering to see what was going on. Jeff wasn’t sure, they may have been gathering here anyway. In his couple of hours as a member of the Emergency Police Force he’d heard rumblings about where the Prepared would gather to wait for the end.

  Some of the guys said the Prepared would gather in a graveyard because conventional wisdom was that the dead would be raptured first. That’s how it would all start. And what a sight that would be. But how would it work? Would the dead rip out of the ground and pull themselves out of their coffins like vampires? Or would it be much simpler? Would they pass through the ground and up towards heaven like friendly ghosts? Some of the Prepared wanted to see for themselves. Others weren’t that interested; they would go to bed for the night and they never planned to wake up in the natural sense. They would just sleep, and while they dreamt, God would grab onto them and take them home.

  And some were determined to gather in the cornfields. Many thought that “The harvest will begin when the rooster crows” meant that God’s harvest of souls would begin in the cornfield, where, of course, the actual harvest was supposed to begin as well.

  Still, it seemed like a lot of the Prepared were there at that moment. Jeff thought this was probably because the ruckus the Realists were making with all of the bonfires, shouting, and the family tied to chairs probably drew out some of the Prepared who were just going to sleep or hang out in the graveyard while they waited to see how things would play out.

  And as Jeff continued looking at the crowd underneath the billboard, he realized it stretched down the road as far as the eye could see. It was as if the outside of the cornfield was a large amphitheater and his family was the opening act.

  The newcomers were saying things like, “This is an abomination. How can you leave that family up there? God will strike you down.”

  “No, he won’t!” someone from the other side of the crowd was shouting. “That’s the whole point. He’s not going to do anything.” Arguments like that were breaking out everywhere. Jeff could pick out bits and pieces of them. And they were all the same: You’re wrong and we’re right. You’re foolish and we’re brilliant. You don’t understand and we do.

  After a while Jeff grew very uninterested in the conversations. The skyline was starting to glow. It would be 6:11 soon, the sun would rise, and one way or another, this would all be over. If God was up there, he was stretching his fingers and getting ready to make his opening move. And as Jeff sat up straight, looking down on all of his friends and neighbors, he wondered for the first time in his life what it would be like to be God. What would it be like to have a bird’s eye view of these arguments every single day from the beginning of human history until today? Watching people shouting and accusing and pushing back at one another but never listening or trying to understand one another. It must be maddening. Jeff would want to bring on the apocalypse too if he were God. He would want to end this all.

  Jeff took his focus away from the crowd down below. He caught eyes with his son and tried to give him a look that said everything. A look that said, I’m so proud of you and you’ve shown me so much in the last week, saving your school when no one else would, protecting your mom, and coming back for your sister because your father couldn’t think straight enough to save her.

  Jeff looked at Emily. He looked her straight in the eye and thought, You, you look like a princess. You probably would have been crowned homecoming queen. But you left it all to save your little baby brother, and they pulled you up here and tied you up and I’m so sorry, honey. But I’m proud of you, Emily. And I love you.

  Then Jeff looked at his wife. He locked eyes with her and he’d swear he could see Amy’s eyes smile back at him as a tear rolled down her face and over the duct tape on her mouth. Jeff wanted to reassure her. He wanted the look on his face to say, “I know things haven’t been easy from the moment we met. I know it’s been such a difficult and frightening journey. But I’ve loved every step of it. I’ve loved taking every step with you. I’m so grateful that you were brought into my life.”

  Jeff knew that sometimes a look and what’s left unsaid can be much more powerful than words. Still, he wished he could pry his arms loose and rip the duct tape from his mouth and tell his family everything. He hoped he’d get a chance to someday.

  But all of a sudden he knew that chance would never come. Not in this life anyway. Because that’s when a light appeared from heaven. It was as bright as the sun itself. Maybe brighter. It was shining right on all of them. And Jeff could see everyone below cease their bickering and stare at the light. The wind started to rush over the crowd and everyone’s hair seemed to toussle from side to side.

  And as they all stared at the light, Jeff knew this was it. This was his last moment on earth. He was going to be sucked up into eternity and he was so incredibly frightened. He wasn’t ready to face God. And then for a moment he thought, What if God doesn’t want me? God could read his thoughts, couldn’t He? He is God, after all. God would know that Jeff had been such a cynic since the beginning. God would know that Jeff never had any real faith in the first place. God could see through his soul with X-ray vision. And when God knew the truth, He would leave Jeff behind. He would take Jeff’s whole family and leave Jeff to sit alone on the stairs and read his Bible like in that really bad rapture movie Amy had made him watch one time.

  And then the light spoke. It told the crowd, “Everyone needs to go home. If you do not, you will be placed under arrest.”

  Jeff didn’t know God placed people under arrest.

  Quickly, the light twisted, and Jeff could see that it wasn’t from heaven at all. It was from a helicopter, a police helicopter from Salina. It was hovering above with its spotlight pointing down on all of them. Then Jeff could hear the sirens. Lots of them lapping over one another. Screaming, letting everyone below know that law and order was coming. A line of cop cars appeared, casting red and blue
light all across the cornfields and everyone who was gathered. Cops with riot gear jumped out of the cars and shouted at everyone to cease and desist. Jeff saw the young officer from earlier jump out of his cruiser and start pointing with authority.

  Jeff and his family watched the aftermath of the police arrival safely from atop the billboard. Some in the crowd fought back and were arrested. Some just ran away down the road or into the cornfields. Many jumped in their cars and drove away while others peacefully talked with officers, probably trying to explain their side of things and what had happened and/or what was about to happen.

  Then the young officer climbed the side of the billboard and began to cut through the ropes. He took the duct tape off their mouths. There was so much to say once they were free, but all any of the Hendersons could manage to say was, “Thank you.”

  When they were off the billboard, the officer told Jeff, “Take your family home. I know a lot’s happened tonight, but I can cover for that. You just take your family home.” Jeff looked at the skyline again. It was getting brighter. The sun was about to rise.

  “You were our ride,” Jeff said.

  “Right,” the young officer said. He fished some keys out of his pocket. “Take my car. It’s right over there. I’ll come get it later.”

  “Okay,” Jeff said. “What time is it?”

  “Just a little after six,” the young officer said.

  Jeff gave the officer an understanding nod, and then the rest of his family followed him down the road and towards the car. As they walked, Jeff only looked back at the cornfields once. He saw a number of crows that had perched themselves on top of the cornstalks to watch all of the chaos — they were the only peaceful living thing in sight.

  Once they got to the car, the wind began to rustle through the cornfields. Maybe God was drawing in a deep breath and about to blow the trumpet. After all, the Bible says the end will come when we least expect it, and this moment with all of the police and everyone scattered seemed like when they would least expect it.