Armageddon's Prisoners 1

Jack Thornton suppressed a yawn, not wanting to look disrespectful of the Lord’s Word.  But the temperature inside the Gathering House rose with the summer sun outside.  The austere, windowless building had fans, but no air-conditioning.  This did not pose a hardship on most Seattle Sunday mornings.  The fact that he’d heard this morning’s Message, or one just like it, hundreds of times did not make staying awake any easier.

Jack, his wife Sally, and seventeen-year-old Jack Junior occupied their usual seats on the outside of the left hand aisle, halfway down.  He didn’t think anything of it when he heard Arnold Senge get up from the seat behind him.  His assumption that Arnie was heading to the men’s room dissolved when Arnie started shouting at the speaker, Isaac Taylor.

“How can you stand up there and lecture us about raising fine children when that brat of yours is always chasing after my daughter.”

“Maybe you should tell your daughter to stop encouraging him,” Taylor shouted.

“My daughter,” Senge yelled, “is a good Disciple.  She knows how to act around the opposite sex, unlike that pervert son of yours.”

Jack heard gasps from the rest of the audience. Issac’s face turned red. Jack stood up intending to tell Arnie to sit down and be quiet, they could talk about it after the Gathering ended.

Issac shouted something about Martha Senge being a tramp and stepped off the raised speaker’s platform.  Arnie started toward Taylor, pushing Jack out of the way when he tried to block the aisle.  Jack realized he needed to do something, the two men were only a few steps from each other.  He looked for the other Servants, none was close enough to get to the two men before they reached each other.  The rest of the Gathering sat in stunned disbelief.  Disciples didn’t get into fights.

“Arnie, let’s take this…”

Jack never finished the sentence.  Already unbalanced by the push, Arnie’s fist knocked him into Sally’s lap.  Sally screamed as blood from her husband’s nose sprayed her blouse.

An older Disciple tried to block Taylor’s path, who rudely pushed him out of the way.  Jack waved his arms and legs, trying to get up and feeling like a turtle on its back.  Before anyone else could react, Taylor and Senge collided in the aisle and started throwing punches at each other. 

As he struggled to stand up, Jack thought he heard JJ laugh.  When he did gain his feet he saw why.  Two middle aged, balding, sweating men in suits throwing badly aimed punches at each other made a ridiculous sight.  Larry McKinnon, one of the Gathering’s other Servants, jumped between the two men.

“Stop this you idiots,” he snapped, “this is The Lord’s House.”

A big burly man, Larry pushed between the two fighters and shoved them apart.  Matt Kesselring, coming up the aisle behind Jack got his arms around Arnie Senge, and pulled him back.  Todd Davis came around the front of the House and pulled Isaac Taylor back.  Larry, always known for his jovial personality, managed to find his sense of humor again.

“When was the last time either of you knuckleheads was in a fight?  Fifth grade?  Come on, let’s go to the library and talk about this.”

Larry and Todd pushed the two men toward the small library at the back end of the auditorium.  Somebody suggested to Jack that he clean up.  The rest of the congregation looked perplexed.  Nothing in their experience told them how to act after such an event.

“Who’s going to finish the Sunday morning message?” Travis Wilson asked.

“I think,” Matt responded, “that we should skip the rest of it and just go into the Study.”

“I don’t think we can just skip part of the Lord’s Gathering…”

“Look,” Matt said sharply, “you’re not a Servant, just an assistant.  In special circumstances, we can skip a Gathering if we have to.  Now go sit down.”

Jack, holding his handkerchief to his nose told his wife he thought he needed to get home. 

“I don’t want to miss the rest of Gathering,” she answered, “I can get a ride home with Sarah Davis.”

“Dad, I’ll drive you home,”  JJ said helpfully, as he tried, and failed, to look like he’d rather stay.

“Thanks, let’s go.”

“Well,” Jack said a moment later as he slammed the car door shut, “I have to admit that was more interesting than our usual Gathering.”

JJ laughed, “do those guys realize how stupid they look?”

“They did, didn’t they?  JJ, do you know anything about what’s going on between Martha Senge and Frank Taylor?”

JJ pursed his lips as he pulled out of the House parking lot onto the arterial.  Jack realized his son knew something and didn’t want to talk about it.

“JJ, I’m sure there will be Servants meetings about this.  I’d like to know what’s going on, but I promise you 

I won’t tell anybody where I get the information.”

“I thought the Servants are always totally honest with each other.”

JJ looked like he did not expect his father to keep a promise of confidentiality.  Servants had a habit of poking their noses into other people’s business no matter what the actual rules said. 

“Some man-made rules don’t need to be followed, my family comes first.”

JJ shrugged, “they’re both lying to their parents, she calls him, he goes over to see her.  They don’t care what the Foundation tells them to do.  Or not do.  After what happened two years ago, lots of u… lots of kids don’t care about the Word.  They talked up 2011 for as long as I can remember, and nothing happened.”

Jack sat in silent thought for several minutes.  What could he say? For a dozen years, The Word of God Foundation told its Disciples to expect the great Day of the Lord in 2011.  There had been nothing but trouble since that year came and went.  His own son now had doubts about The Word’s message. He mulled over several responses suggested by the Foundation and rejected all of them.  How could he say something he didn’t believe to his son? Before he could say anything more JJ broke the silence.

“Dad, as long as I have you here without Mom, I need to talk about something.”

“What?”

“I’m going to graduate in a little over a year.  I want to go to college.  I know the Word says it’s a waste of time with Paradise coming so soon and all, but it didn’t show up when they said it would, why should I believe them now?”

“JJ, I can’t say that I blame you for having doubts.”

He paused, gathering his thoughts and strength.  He’d never said what he was about to say aloud.

“I have my own doubts.  Stuff like what we just saw doesn’t help.  I won’t say no but let me think about it.”