Glorious Appearing: The End Of Days by Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins Read Free Book Online Page A

dozed with enough presence of mind to keep the pulsing temple dammed. His neck was stiff, and he had the feeling he would be unable to stand or even roll into a 路crawling position if his life depended on it. If someone didn’t find him soon, his life would depend on moving yet again. But that simply wasn’t in the cards.
    It seemed hours later, and Rayford was bereft of hope. He heard the advancing Unity Army and was surprised to see the sun still nearly directly overhead. It would remain that way until late afternoon, he knew, but he wouldn’t have been surprised to open his eyes to dusk. No such luck.
    Far in the distance he heard the high-pitched whine of a powerful dirt bike, the type Abdullah Smith rode. The Jordanian would buzz about Petra, careful in the crowds, then find his way out to the desolate slopes, where he would really open it up. Rayford could only pray that what he heard was Smitty searching for him. He tried to sit up but could not. If he had to guess, he’d have said Smitty was in the area where the ATV had finally landed. That was a long, long way from Rayford’s meager shelter. He tried to stay conscious so he could call out if the dirt-bike sound grew nearer, but he knew it would also have to be shut off if the rider was to hear him.
    Rayford realized his pain had spread past the spots that had taken the most direct abuse. His head throbbed all over. His eyes had become supersensitive to light, and he could barely open them to peek at his watch. His neck hurt, his shoulders were tight and achy, his back felt as if hot pokers were piercing his ribs. He was hungry, nauseated, and alternated between overheating and shivering. His leg muscles and even his toes cramped.
    In and out of consciousness now, when he finally heard the dirt bike slowly approaching, Rayford was certain he was imagining it. When the engine died, Rayford tried to move, to grunt, to do anything to let Smitty, or whomever, know he was there.
    “Big Dog One, this is Camel Jockey…. And, Techie, are you there?... I’ve spotted Captain Steele. Or at least I think I have. The trail stops here, and I do not expect to like what I see. Hold on. ”
    Rayford’s breathing was so shallow he was certain Abdullah would not be able to tell he was alive. He couldn’t move a muscle, let alone turn his head, wave, or wiggle a foot. When he heard Smitty’s steps in the sand he fought to open an eye. Nothing was working. Was Smitty really there, or was this some sort of a near-death experience?
    “Agh, I think he is gone,” Abdullah said. “I mean, no, he is here, but I do not think he made it. ”
    Rayford felt the index finger on his free hand bouncing, but clearly Smitty wasn’t looking at it. “Oh, Captain Steele, ” the Jordanian said as he gently rolled Rayford onto his back. He sounded so grief-stricken that Rayford was moved.
    Rayford kept his palm locked against his temple, but rather than persuading Abdullah he was alive, it must have made him think rigor mortis was already setting in. And so Rayford did the only thing he could manage. He pulled his hand away an inch. By now the blood had clotted enough that it did not immediately squirt from the wound.
    And Abdullah apparently had not noticed the movement.
    Rayford felt the pressure building in his temple, and as Smitty straightened Rayford’s legs, the wound broke loose.
    “Well, hello!” Abdullah said. “Dead men do not bleed. You are there, are you not?”
    Rayford clamped his hand over the wound again and managed a “Yeah. Good to see ya.”
    “Do not talk, Captain. I do not want to lose you before the big event. ”
    “Thought this was the big event.”
    But Abdullah was back on the phone. “Chang, he is alive. I need help here as quickly as you can send it…. Yes, Leah would be perfect. Ask her to bring everything she can carry. I will launch a flare in ten minutes. ”
    Mac fell in with Unity Army troops in the Muslim 路 Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City and