Harvest Moon (The Stargazers Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  Solomon got excited and embraced Carl. “Dat is amazing! God has worked in mysterious ways, yet once again!” His excitement faded almost as quickly as it arrived. “Wait! How are we going to get to the airfield from here without transportation?”

  “Well,” Carl stated. “If the Dodge is still out in the parking lot and if it hasn’t been destroyed or claimed by the attacking army, then we should be good to go!”

  “Let’s do it!” Solomon exclaimed as the trio worked their way up the stairwell and outside.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The three men were all in shock. None of them could believe what they saw when they reached the ground floor of the Project Interstellar building. There was utter chaos outside.

  Furthermore, there was a bronze haze over everything, just like Carl had said. Also, the air was shimmering, like Carl described.

  As if they were one, the three moved slowly toward the front door and stared in horror as they saw several raging fires in the nearby foliage. All of the glass on the front face of the building looked like it imploded. There were glass shards everywhere. They walked into excruciating heat when they went outside.

  The hot air burned their lungs. There was a strong hint of sulfur in the air and just enough heat to make it miserable. People were running up and down the street screaming in terror. Young men were looting, and there were several acts of violence in the surrounding areas.

  The world was completely out of control.

  Solomon turned to his friends with a serious expression. “No matter what happens, I am going home. So we cannot get involved with what’s going on out here. We have to look past everyting and run. If we don’t, we could get lost in the despair and misery and be here forever. My mama needs me too much.”

  Eric and Carl both reluctantly nodded. Carl nudged Eric and pointed to the back end of the parking lot where his Dodge Neon was parked. He breathed a sigh of relief when it appeared not to have been touched.

  While Solomon looked one way, and Eric looked the other, Carl raced to the car. They looked both ways again as they also ran toward the vehicle.

  Carl made it to the car first and fumbled for his keys in his pocket. At the same time, he mumbled to himself that he did not understand what was going on. Carl had just found the right key and opened the door on the driver’s side in time. Eric reached the car, opened the back door, and jumped in, closing it behind him. Solomon was close behind, as he opened the passenger side front door and practically dove into the seat. Solomon frantically looked around to make sure no one else was following them. He heard a noise and slowly turned around. There stood Jennifer. “It’s Jennifer,” he said.

  “Run,” Eric called out to her, as he threw open the door.

  When Jennifer arrived, Carl made sure all of the windows were rolled up and the doors locked. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Once they were all secured in the car, a monstrous blast rumbled through the area. Like an earthquake, the resulting vibrations were sent through the entire area and rattled the car. Carl started the engine and hit the gas.

  Carl did not hit the brakes for anything. The rumbling became fainter and the vibrations lighter as they got further away.

  Solomon started to breathe easier, until he saw that most of the road in front of them was missing. All that was there was a large smoldering pit with fire and fumes shooting upward. “Stop!” he yelled.

  Carl saw the pit too late, as he slammed on the brakes and turned the steering wheel sharply. The car rolled over several times, then finally came to a rest at the edge of the pit. “What the heck?”

  Eric looked at Solomon with total shock. “It’s not supposed to end like this, Solomon. It’s not supposed to end like this. I don’t know how I know, I just do.”

  Solomon started to weep, fearing that he would not be able to see his mother one last time. “Jump,” he yelled. “Everyone jump now.”

  The edge crumbled beneath the weight of the vehicle. Solomon jumped. The last thing Solomon saw, before passing out, was a burst of flames.

  The next thing he knew he was lying in a hospital, with Carl in the bed beside him. “Where are Eric and Jennifer?” he asked the nurse.

  “Not sure. But most injured were taken to a different hospital.”

  Epilogue

  Seattle had been bombed by the terrorists having bombs strapped to their bodies, but the city was now being rebuilt. The world still did not end.

  As for Colonel Andrea Sanderson, she was able to help Professor Jeremy Ingram remember the night of their rendezvous when Jennifer was conceived. This made working conditions a little easier for both of them.

  When Solomon and Carl were well enough to travel, a request was put in for them to be transferred to Portland. Now in Portland, Solomon was living at home with his mother. Carl was still with him and now felt like a brother. He was given the guest bedroom and was quite happy to finally have a family.

  Eric and Jennifer stayed in Seattle and became an item, with plans to become engaged. The next November when the Harvest Moon shone brightly at night, the two would spend hours in the moonlight planning their future. Life was good.

  The End

  To be continued in:

  The Sign in the Sky

  The Stargazers Trilogy #3

  by Summer Lee

  coming soon!

  Also available:

  Comes the Pale Horse

  A novel by Summer Lee

  (read on for a sample)

  Chapter One

  In my rose garden, a sudden wind fluttered the pages of my Bible and marked a verse in Psalms with a single raindrop. “I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.”

  I closed my Bible and looked up. Apparently, a storm had arisen while I’d been engrossed. I zipped my Bible into its protective case, but did not make a move to go indoors.

  Dark foreboding clouds, the likes of which I had never seen, roiled overhead. The wind blew hard, and I heard its rising moans—they sounded like the deep neighs of horses—but I was most mesmerized by the unusual clouds, which were lit from within by crackling forks of lightning in white, red, black and pale green.

  The clouds took on a disposition of their own, shaping and reshaping into two long-tailed cones that whipped and whirled across the sky and flicked the ground, lifting debris into the vortex. The funnel clouds looked like dueling tornadoes, but we had never had a tornado in our area. And then, the twin tornadoes split, so that there were four of them.

  I gasped. Now, my eyes were really riveted to the sky.

  I lived in a village in a northern state where the wind blew a lot, but nothing like this. My hair snapped in that hard wind and I held it back to look at the funnel clouds.

  I had been reading the Book of Isaiah, in which he had spoken of a storm. Was this it, then? A sign? Were we at the end of this age?

  As I stared into the darkened haze of whirling clouds, I saw a brilliant being riding a blazing red horse. I gasped when he descended from the center of the spinning clouds and rode toward me.

  The rider was an angel clothed in brilliant white, with glowing wings and a shining countenance. I gasped as the snorting horse came directly toward me, his nostrils flared and his eyes wild with an inner light. While the angel dismounted, the horse was restless to be off again—he stamped his feet impatiently.

  The sight was so bright that my eyes watered. I squatted down behind a bush and hid my face, but one cannot hide from angels.

  “Come forth, Martha!” he demanded, but the voice was in my head.

  “Who are you?” I asked aloud, trembling.

  “Do not be afraid,” he said, his voice now echoing across the land as if he breathed thunder. “I have come to bless you, not harm you.”

  Still, I could not help but be terrified. I stammered, “But who are you?”

  In a strong masculine voice, he said, “I am your protective angel, one sent to inform you how you will keep God’s children safe
from the final destruction.”

  The voice was male, but the smooth, beautiful face and hair were that of a woman. Barefoot with a glistening robe that reached to his feet, he also wore a gold belt.

  “Why did you come to see me?”

  “You are chosen by God to be a final messenger to Earth. You will be a spokesperson to the world.” His voice echoed as if he were standing in a box canyon.

  “Really?” I was stunned. “I don’t know anything about being a messenger.”

  He stood firm, a glow surrounding him, as he grasped my hand. “You are a chosen messenger, my child. God will tell you what to say.”

  “How?” I asked, a tremor in my voice.

  “He will use me.”

  “Who are you? What is your name?” I asked.

  “Your tongue cannot pronounce my angel name,” he replied as his feet glided gently across the ground. “You may call me Walker.”

  He circled me and came back to face me.

  “Walker, you came out of the darkened cloud of four tornadoes. Why did you choose to do so? Is this the end of the world?” I asked, staring at him. “Is that why you’re here?”

  “Not exactly.”

  At that second, lightning flashed across the darkened sky. I jumped and screamed. “Oh!”

  “Look up into the sky,” he said.

  I looked.

  “What do you see, Martha?”

  I put my hand over my face and peeked through my fingers. “A super storm cell is circling above my head, and there are four tails in the storm,” I answered as the thunder vibrated through the atmosphere. Now, swirling clouds as black as ebony were just above our heads, forming a four-pronged cone. I shouted, “Four tornadoes! Make them go away.”

  The angel motioned to the four-pronged clouds and they moved away. “This is just a warning. Another tornado will come soon—one like no other.”

  “Is it coming now? Is this is the end of the world?”

  “No. This is just a precursor of things to come shortly.”

  “A precursor?”

  “The devastating tempest that is coming will be more than a disruption in the atmosphere,” he said. “Every good thing that mankind has produced for himself will turn against him. There will be famine and war at the same time. After it starts, there will be the tempest that will last until the end of the age.”

  “What is it all about?”

  “The ownership of the Earth. The Son of God will reveal himself as the king of the universe. The final decision of who really owns the world will be declared.”

  “Earth ownership?”

  “The title deed to the world will be given to the rightful owner, Martha. A usurper has been running it until now.”

  I knew he meant…Satan. “Who is the rightful owner?” I asked, just to ensure that I was talking to one of God’s angels.

  “The one who paid the price for it,” he said. “The title deed is written on a scroll which the Heavenly Father hands to the Lamb of God.”

  “Why is the title deed of the Earth on a scroll?” I asked.

  “Earth is the property that God gave to Adam. All Adam had to do was obey God, and he could keep it.”

  “But he disobeyed.” I knew that from childhood, but was confused why it was an issue now. “Was there a dispute?”

  “The serpent in the Garden of Eden was possessed by the devil himself,” said Walker. “That devil lied to Adam and Eve through the serpent. They believed his lies. The rest is history.”

  “So, Satan won the dispute and began ruling over the Earth,” I said hesitantly.

  “Exactly.” Walker spoke earnestly. “He had control until the cross. Jesus bought back the world, paid for it with his own blood.”

  “So, God will give the title deed to the Lamb because he earned the right to open it.”

  “Precisely.” Walker turned, motioning with both hands. “Jesus died, rose again and has been growing a large family to share the Earth with ever since. As soon as all his children are born again, he’ll come for them.”

  “And that will be when the tribulation begins?”

  “Exactly.”

  “How will I know?”

  “You’ll know. You will learn all about it, beginning now.”

  “How so?”

  “You will have visions and dreams.” Walker tilted his head.

  I was puzzled. “I will? Really?”

  “Yes, and to make sense of them, I, personally, will give you instruction to read in the Word of God.”

  “You mean in my Bible?”

  “Of course. The whole truth is in there.”

  “It is a thick book. What part should I read now?” I asked.

  “I will guide you. The power is in the Word. You must read it for yourself in order to absorb it,” he said. Motioning to the horse and raising one hand toward heaven, he pointed and said, “Go.” Lightning flew out of his fingertips, and his horse disappeared back into the cloud.

  Suddenly, I saw another horse with an awesome angel ride out of the cloud and follow the first one across the sky. And then, another. And another. The cloud now had a silver lining—the tornadoes had vanished. I felt a peace. “Can you explain this?” I asked the angel as raindrops splattered around us.

  “The Great Tribulation will be here soon,” Walker said sternly. “You must tell everyone.”

  I felt suspicious. Studying his eyes, I muttered, “Me? Really?”

  “Find a dry place to sit down, Martha, and I will tell you about the Great Tribulation,” the angel said. There was thunder and lightning again. It rained harder.

  I motioned toward the house. “Let’s go inside, out of the rain.”

  He followed me into the house, and I made us each a cup of steaming tea. We seated ourselves at the kitchen table. Placing a platter of butter cookies in the middle of the table, I said, “Okay. Tell me about the Great Tribulation. How is it that I was chosen to warn people about escaping the wrath of God?”

  “There will be four strong kingdoms in the end times. One from each corner of the Earth—North, South, East, West. The Tribulation will begin with them and last seven years, but the last three and a half years will be a living hell with one man being the world leader. The Bible says the big war is coming, even though that is not what mortals want.”

  “I see. How is that connected to my assignment?”

  “You will prepare people on Earth to receive the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”

  “Which are…”

  “Which are described by John of Patmos in his Book of Revelation.”

  “The last book of the New Testament?”

  “Yes. Chapter six tells of a scroll that God is holding in his right hand. It has seven seals holding it shut.” He moved to the other side of me. “The Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah are one and the same. It is how Jesus Christ reveals himself. You will need to go online and to the library to find examples of world reactions to blessings and curses of God.” He sighed. “The horses of heaven have been on many assignments through the annals of time. They are like a border patrol.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Since the end is nearly here, will this be the last time the horsemen patrol the Earth?”

  “They will usher in the Great Tribulation, and you must warn the world to prepare to meet God.” He looked me right in the eye. “There are seven seals. When Jesus opens the first four seals, he will summon four beings riding on white, red, black, and pale horses.”

  The sky lit up at that moment, as thunder rumbled across the sky. I closed the window, finding myself shivering in fear.

  “Do not be afraid.” He then told me that I was to tell the world that Armageddon was at hand. It was important to know that the horses would come on the scene first, before all the tribulation. It felt to me as if Armageddon was already here. “People in your day need to know the signs of the times. It is your Divine Destiny to tell them, so that some will repent.”

  I felt weak and frightened. “Walker, I can’
t do that alone. I need help,” I said. “Will you please send someone to help me get the message out?”

  “Yes; you do have a guest room, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Amanda the prophetess will come stay with you whenever you need her help.”

  “Really? Have you already arranged this?”

  “Yes, I have. Amanda will be here in the morning.”

  “I do not even know her!” I protested.

  “She is likable.”

  “How long will she be here?”

  “Invite her to stay a night or two at a time.”

  “I’ll do that,” I said. “Will she tell me something about the future, Walker?”

  “I can’t promise you what she will say. She is a gifted woman.”

  “Can you tell me something right now? What will the nations do in the future?” I felt my heartbeat quicken. “What do they want?”

  “Peace, of course, but people want peace without the Prince of Peace.” His hands were shaking, which frightened me. “What about you? If you could ask, what would you want in the future, Martha?”

  “Peace, joy, love.” I momentarily clamped my lips together, thinking. “It is not what I want, but what is actually coming on Earth that matters. I fear that there are those who want to control the nations and make everyone live passively, like robots that serve humans instead of God.”

  “You are right,” said the angel. “Most nations have evil leaders. Your main assignment is to write a pamphlet that exposes the evil coming from each nation that has a wicked agenda for Israel and their king.”

  “Their king? You mean Jesus. Is he their king?” I still felt fear. Just having a real live angel in my home was scary. The storm outside made it worse.

  “Yes, Jesus is the king of the universe. Those usurpers who want to oust him will be destroyed. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will come to Earth to expose them.”

  With those words, he faded away.

  The clouds above were getting lighter by the moment.

  At that moment, I saw four heavenly horses galloping through the clouds across the broad heavens. One was white, one was red, one was black, and one was pale green. Before returning to heaven, they whinnied and pranced in place, eager for the battle to begin, preparing to come to Earth: