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it. Five popover sized chunks of bread, warm and golden brown, were piled in
it. "Start that around. Here you go.
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Sure, take one. No, a whole one! Take two if you'd like. There's more where
that came from."
The basket passed from hand to hand and everyone took at least one piece,
several two, and yet the basket was never depleted.
"Who am I? Who do you say that I am? I am a disciple of the living lord,
Potentate Carpathia. Have I persuaded you that he is all powerful? His
patience has run out with you people, however.
He would like me to administer the mark of loyalty to you, which
I can do without technology. You don't doubt me anymore, do you?
"
People shook their heads. "Who will be first? I will do four simultaneously.
You, you, you, and you. Ask your friends what they see."
Even Mac could see that they had Carpathia's mark on their foreheads.
"More? Yes, raise your hands. Now those of you who have your hands raised
right now, hear me. No, no new ones. Hands down if you did not have them up
when I said that. Why have you waited so long? What was the hold up?The one
I serve wants me to slay you, and your"re dead."
More than a hundred dropped to the desert floor,
causing the rest to shriek and cry out.
"Silence! You do not think I could slay the lot of you? If I can slay them,
can I not also raise them? These six, right up here, arise ! "
The six stood as if they had just awakened. They looked embarrassed, as if
they didn't know why they had been on the
ground.
"Think they were merely sleeping? in a trance? All right, they're dead again."
They dropped again. "Now if you know them, check their vital signs."
He waited. "No breath, no pulse, correct? Let that be a lesson to those who
remain. You see that, in the distance? Yes, there. The little cloud of dust,
what appears to be tumbleweed rolling this way? Those are vipers of the
deadliest sort. They are coming for you."
Some turned and began to run, but they froze in place.
"No, no. Surely you do not think escape is possible from one who can create a
cloud to cover the sun? If you want the mark of loyalty, raise your hand now
and receive it."
The rest of the crowd raised their hands, frantic. "But more of you should die
before the vipers get here." About three dozen keeled over.
"Why do the vipers keep coming?" a woman cried. "We have all obeyed! We have
all taken the mark!"
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"The vipers are wise, that is all," he said. "They know who was serious and
loyal and who acted only out of fear for their lives."
The spring turned to blood, and the people near it backed away.
"Fools!" he said. "You're all fools! Do you think a god like
Nicolae Carpathia wants you as his subjects? No! He wants you dead and away
from the clutches of his enemies. You are free to run now, and it is
entertaining to me to see you run as fast and as frantically as you can. But
let me warn you. You will not outrun the vipers. You will not reach Petra in
time to save yourselves. Your bodies will lie bloated and baking in the sun
until the birds have their way with your flesh. For as I leave, I
take with me the shade I provided."
The people burst from the scene, screaming and staggering madly in the sand
toward Petra. The GC guards seemed apoplectic and stared as the vipers changed
course to chase down the people. The spring dried up, the cloud disappeared,
and dozens of chunks of bread lay in the sand.
Mac looked at Albie and Smitty and they all shook their heads, trembling.
Suddenly the wonder worker stood directly in front of the chopper. Though he
did not open his mouth, Mac heard him as if he were inside the craft. "I know
who you are. I know you by name. Your god is weak and your faith a sham, and
your time is limited. You shall surely die."
Mac had difficulty finding his voice. "Let's go," he croaked, and
Abdullah started the engines. The cloud of sand blew up and then away, and as
Smitty lifted off, Mac looked down to see nothing but a long stretch of
undisturbed sand, dotted only by the dead who had
dropped at the site. No GC. No miracle man. No platform. No bread. No
vehicles.
What about the snakes? He didn't see them either. But stretched for a quarter
mile were the rest of the
people, still and flat and grotesque on the desert floor, limbs splayed.
Tsion was troubled in his spirit by a deep sense of foreboding.
He knew he would not be able to shepherd all the way to the
Glorious Appearing every person who
had arrived in Petra. And yet he believed that when they had seen
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