After Armageddon: Vision of The Future (Part 1)
---an original story by Cam---
Armageddon has come and gone and I am left to tell the story. I can't say exactly when Armageddon ended; it happened as gradually as it had begun. It's just that the dust sorta cleared, so to speak, about three months ago.
It seemed like people weren't dieing anymore and the military started flying over areas spraying some kind of chemical sanitizers. Don't know what it was. Maybe it was something to kill germs, I suppose. Then, about a week later hazmat teams went through with the meat wagons. Then, there was another aerial spray, and three months later, here we are going into the areas.
We have all overheard a bit of talk about that. Some that went in to pick up bodies said there weren't nearly as many as they expected to find. I know walking around in my neighborhood, I didn't see much. Everybody had been ordered to stay inside for so long, so I guess I wouldn't have known if people were dead or alive inside their homes.
A lot of folks talked about missing family members, coworkers.... neighbors. Maybe those people died in other places, maybe they did go to death camps, but nobody talks about that rumor at all. It's not allowed. People will turn you in for talk like that.
We have also heard that some of the worldly Christians (yes, they are still around!) believe that the rapture got some people and that Jesus came back and took his chosen. If that were so, I don't think he would have left me, so I don't believe he came.
I guess most of us aren't really sure what happened. Media coverage announced that the flu pandemic had turned deadly and the next thing we knew, entire cities went into lockdown and state borders were closed. We had gotten a heads-up from the elders the week before. They were calling all members in good standing to tell us to stock up on medications, supplies, and food for a month or two. Somehow they had an inside line. Of course, it all came down from Jehovah's mouthpiece, the FDS. Since learning the truth about "the truth" I have felt that the Organization was into something much deeper and that they were part of an elaborate game plan.
Whatever happened during the next couple of months, we just don't know with any certainty. The Elders said it was Jehovah's instructions to his people to "go into our inner sanctums and close the door." We were told that the FDS said not to come out of the house for any reason. The WHO had asked people to self-quarrantine as much as possible, but there were no government demands to do so. No martial law like people had been expecting. The only thing is, people who did go out shopping, or to the movies, sometimes did not return home ever again.
Somedays there were no television broadcasts at all. Most days the phone lines were dead, too. Even cells were on the blink. In between these episodes, the media was telling us it had something to do with solar flares and meteor showers. Sometimes they blamed it on frequency jamming and kinks in the network due to the digital change-over. Workers at the water treatment plant and the electric company were often out sick and that accounted for some of the water and power outages; at least, that's what we were told.
I know you probably have a lot of questions and I will get to them, but I am just gonna start with telling you what my daily routine is like right now.
The congregation set up a service location at the local high school in town. Probably because they have a lot of desks and file cabinets and plenty of classrooms for the different teams to meet separately in smaller groups. They have bused in all the congregations within 15 miles to this one central location. We all pretty much know each other or at least a lot of the faces are familiar.
We just got assignments and territory cards this week. I am driving the jewel truck. There are two vans that ride ahead of me and they are chauffering 16 sisters total. We drive into the territory together and the sisters go four to each house, working both sides of the street. So they are doing four houses at a time. They go in and get all the jewelry.
My truck holds eight big boxes on the back. My partner and me help to separate it after the sisters bring it out. They don't have time to sort because they are supposed to get as many houses done as fast as they can. Brother Fred, that's my territory buddy, he sorts out the mens jewelry. I am supposed to sort the valuable stuff---gold, diamonds, and silver---from the women's costume junk jewelry. Not that I've got anything against rhinestones and beads; it's just what they tell me I am supposed to do. And I want to do a good job for The Kingdom, you know. (barf. double barf.)
Oh yeah. You might find this amusing. Nobody is bringing out any billfolds. I tell you it would take another truck this size to carry all the billfolds and purses left on the nightstands! But money is worthless now. There's no use for it. Heck, they told us they don't even want the dimes and quarters. Guess it got to where change was mostly tin, so it's not worth anything either.
(be right back)