Chapter Eleven
strength and weakness together
This is part of a middle-grade fiction series about a group church-camp teenagers who experience a mystical phenomenon. It’s a silly and light-hearted series, but your middle-grader might also find themselves better inspired to practice the fruits of the spirit. If you’d like to read all the chapters, visit here.
“It’s Jason,” Faye explained to Declan. “He seems to be doing something to the cave to set it off and catapult it off.”
“Jason?” Declan asked loudly, obviously confused.
“Shh.”
It was too late though. Jason staggered up, and spun around. “Who’s behind that rock!”
The six of them stepped forward, Tamar shoved to the front of them.
Jason didn’t recognize any of them. Fright beaded on his forehead. He wiped his sweat away with his dirty shirt sleeve. “What are you?” He asked.
“It’s the man we found in the woods,” Faye said to Declan.
“Oh.”
“What are you doing?” Cameron asked the man.
“I .. uh ..” Jason stammered. “I’m saving the world.”
“By destroying it?” Rayne scoffed.
Jason stood straighter. “No, by destroying its destroyers. I have found a way to spread fire over the entire earth by activating every dormant volcano and attracting every falling asteroid. You’d be surprised just how full Earth is of lava and fire, waiting for its day of vengeance. Earth will burn for a time, but she can heal herself. And with humanity wiped away, she will be able to live in peace after this.”
Cameron laughed.
Faye jabbed Cameron. “This isn’t funny, Cameron.”
Cameron held his ribs and wheezed and coughed. “Ouch!”
“Sorry, I forgot you’re frail right now,” Faye said.
Cameron turned back to Jason. “Wait. You’re serious, aren’t you. Do you plan to kill yourself, too?”
“As a human, I’ll die with pride for the sins of my kind.”
Cameron laughed once more.
“Not funny,” Faye chided.
Tamar tried not to smirk. She knew they were in over their heads. But Jason was being so ridiculous. And what were they supposed to do with him? They wouldn’t … kill him would they? They couldn’t just let him go, either.
Declan stepped forward, with Faye holding his hand. “I’m sorry, Jason. Actually I’m not sorry. But yeah... we can’t let you do this.”
“You can’t stop me now. The machines can’t be stopped. I’ve programmed this just in case of such a turn of events. If you destroy this machine, it’ll just activate the rest to go off immediately. I’m unnecessary now, and there are too many for you to deactivate if you could do so.”
The severity of the situation struck Tamar. She said, “Why are you doing this? I mean really, why are you doing it? The earth is beautiful, and sure there are plenty of jerks. But not everyone is deserving of death. Not even God is so vengeful.”
Jason appeared regrettable for a moment. “I’m grieved about all the good people that will die, just as I’m devastated that the world must be ruined for a time. But humanity is too great a threat to the planet.”
“How can we be a threat to what is ours? Earth was given to man, not man to Earth,” Rayne said.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Jason said. “She desires to belong to none. I must free her.”
Cameron snorted. “So earth has feelings and goals now, does it?”
“You’re not helping,” Faye warned.
“There’s no helping this nut case,” Cameron said.
Gretchen reached out to Jason, “We’re sorry you see it this way. But can’t you —”
“I’m done talking.” Jason pulled out a gun. “I don’t know who you all are, so don’t take this personally, but I can’t be hindered any longer.”
He pointed the gun, and clicked off the safety. Tingling sounds reverberated through the tapioca exteriors, and ringing filler Tamar’s ears. She stumbled backward, her legs remaining stiff.
“Is anybody hurt?” Gretchen asked.
Cameron glared until his eyes glowed green. A line of light shot from his eyes and connected to the gun. It heated, changing colors from yellow to green. Jason dropped it as it shattered into a multitude of fragments, and scattered.
Jason backed up against the cave. “You can’t stop me! Even if you kill me, you can’t stop what’s happening.” Even as he spoke, the bits of the cave shot upward to the outside world, sending fire and chaos and brimstone.
“We’re not going to kill you,” Gretchen said, kindly. “It’s just not time for the end, yet—only God can decide when it is.”
Jason backed away, cornered by the cave.
“What should we do with him?” Declan asked, as if he’d been thinking of killing the man.
Cameron crossed his arms. “I thought killing him was a pretty good idea myself…”
Jason raised a defiant chin, obviously not fearing death.
Faye said, “Boys. We’re not vigilantes. We’ll take some pictures and take him to the police.”
Jason said, “I’d rather die than rot in a man-made pollution center. Death would be better for anyone.”
“We’d let you go if you helped us shut all these machines down, and proved you wouldn’t do it again,” Rayne offered.
“Prison is worse than death,” Declan and Cameron consented. Declan added, “What do you say? This doesn’t need to get nasty.”
“I’ll kill myself if I have to,” Jason said quietly. “But I won’t be stopped nor imprisoned.”
He pulled a small bag of something small and white out of his pocket.
Gretchen was the first to recognize the poison and gasp. “Don’t!” She screamed.
“What’s going on?” Declan asked.
Tamar opened her mouth just as Jason was about to pour the contents into his bag, and she blew. Everything in his hands was swept away, out of reach into the cabin.
He fell to his knees, and weakly said, “I won’t let you stop me.”
Gretchen neared him. “We’re going to shut these machines down, okay? You can either help us, or show us where you keep some rope.”
“I don’t have any rope,” he said. “And if I did, I’d hang myself with it before giving it to you.”
“I’m sure you would,” Gretchen said. She neared the machine, and reached for it. “Right now, though, we need to save the world from fire and brimstone.”
Jason yelled, “Don’t touch that!” He ran toward her, fists raised up. Gretchen faced the angry man. He tried to throw a punch. She was faster. She whacked him across the head. He flopped to the ground.
“Oops,” Gretchen said. “I think I knocked him out.” She turned back to the machine.
“Stop!” Everyone else said.
“We gotta think this through carefully,” Declan said. “Remember what he said about what happens if we touch this machine..”
“Oh, yeah.”
Cameron pointed to a duffle bag shoved in the bushes. “Looks like he’s had this planned out for quite awhile. He’s got these machines everywhere! Even if I could access the wires, I’d only have time to sever one of the two wires before the other sends signals.”
“How can you tell,” Declan asked.
“I’ve found his laptop with a map. Huh. Looks like he was responsible for that earthquake, too. I don’t know what we can do guys… this is pretty set up. And in just a few hours the entire world could be lost.”
“We could throw them into outer space, like they do in the movies?” Rayne suggested.
Everyone laughed nervously, wishing it’d be that easy.
“We’ve never had to face something like this before,” Declan murmured. “We need to talk to Mr. Cowell.”
“There isn’t time for talking,” Faye said. “According to this map we might not even have twenty minutes.”
“And I’m not going to be able to manually override his system. We’re gonna have to go to each location.” Cameron added.
“Well, if this is goodbye guys… it’s been good.” Faye said.
The mood didn’t lighten with Faye’s pretense at a joke. Maybe the world really was meant to end today.
“It’s fool-proof,” Cameron said.
They stared at the unconscious man.
“I have an idea…” Tamar said.
“Let’s hear it,” Declan said.
“You can control flames, can’t you Faye? If we deactivate the machine and it goes off, you can just tame it, can’t you?”
Faye wilted. “I’ve only ever made them… never tried to calm them.”
“Not true,” Rayne said. “Whenever you’ve wanted to be done, your fire goes out.”
Faye thought about it. “I suppose that’s true.”
“It’ll be enough…” Tamar said. “Here’s what I think we should do…”
They stood in a circle around Jason’s bomb, and grabbed hands. They prayed quietly among themselves, then broke apart. Rayne stepped outside the ring, and raised her hands to the sky. A wall of water, thick and immeasurable, rose and insulated them from the outside world, surrounding the entirety of this cave.
As soon as the wall was formed, Rayne nodded to Gretchen.
“Here goes.” Gretchen sucked in a breath, rolled her sleeves up. She yanked the machine out of the ground. A mound of wires dangled underneath and lit up. “Now!”
Cameron kneeled near it, his face right in it. He lowered his gaze just as the juices squeezed through the tubes toward danger. Green rays shot from his eyes, and the wires severed. “I’ve broken the connection!” he shouted.
But all was not finished. The contraption combusted as Gretchen threw it far out of sight.
Faye kneeled, then lay flat, her stomach pressed into the warming earth. “I feel it coming,” she whispered. “Now!”
Tamar floated nearby, ready. She said, “Carry me up.”
Declan grabbed Tamar and flew up through the water funnel. They raced white and red flames.
“Almost there,” Tamar said. “Just a little higher. Okay, stop.”
Tamar looked into the center of the fire. Faye was there, now standing, the long flames of burning lava standing on her fingertips, no longer of the earth, but belonging to Faye. Tamar blew harder than she’d ever blown. The lava retreated and fanned out into the walls of water where it sizzled and returned to the opening it had come from.
Tamar inhaled, and said, “Fly down, straight and slow.”
“Are we doing it?” Declan asked.
But Tamar was blowing again, unable to answer. She could hardly see anything except Faye and the fiery liquid between them. She released another breath. Then shouted, “We’re landing!”
Declan flipped, so their heads were upright, and they gently touched the cooling ground.
“Keep blowing,” Faye said. “I feel the humidity on my skin.”
Rayne dissipated the tower of water, and Tamar continued to blow at Faye. Gretchen grabbed onto Cameron as a side-wind picked up.
“Thanks,” he said.
The six of them huddled together as the ground shook once more, and the splits in the earth slowly resealed.
“We did it,” Rayne said.
“Except there’s more,” Gretchen reminded them. “And they are all so far away, and if we don't have them off in twenty minutes dozens volcanoes will erupt.”
Cameron suddenly burst into laughter.
“Cameron,” Faye said. “I know it’s a lot, but you gotta keep it together just until we’re done.”
“I’m so foolish,” he said. “Everything has a kill switch. He ran to the duffle bag, tucked in a safe corner near the slumped over Jason. He opened it, messed on it for a few moments, then threw the laptop against a pile of boulders.
“There,” he said. “Sorry to ruin the laptop, but that was satisfying.”
“What did you do?” Declan asked.
“Oh, too hard to explain, but it was elementary. I simply forgot my training because I was so focused on Jason saying it was impossible. He was just throwing a red herring.”
“Did we even need to do what we just did?” Rayne asked.
“Not really,” he said. “But it was fun, wasn’t it?”
They all fell to the ground, laughing, except for Tamar who was forced to remain suspended in the air until she could figure out how to regain the use of her legs.
They’d done it. They’d saved the world. Tamar surveyed their surroundings. There really wasn’t much of a trace left from all the damage. Nothing was that wet. Nothing was burnt—the trees were mostly unharmed. Only a few stones and boulders were out of place. And it was hard to tell if the cave was still passable.
Now she just wanted to figure out how to get out of this tapioca bubble. Oh, and there was one other conundrum.
“What are we going to do with Jason?” Cameron asked.
If he were dead, everything would be so much easier. Tamar didn’t want to think like that. In superhero movies, that was always the solution. That was wrong and too easy. This guy was human, and in need of God’s love like anyone. Death would only condemn him, and she knew enough about the justice service. He’d find no mercy there and would be ruined.
“Who wants to call the cops?” Gretchen asked.
“Nobody would believe us anyway,” Declan said. “Imagine what they’d say if we claimed he tried to destroy the entire world.”
“Yeah. Besides, the prison system is so corrupt. Even if they did sentence him, he’d receive no justice,” Rayne said. “Believe me, the condition of our prisons isn’t humane. I’d kill him myself before sending him to such a place.”
“Wow. Had no idea you were so passionate about that,” Gretchen told Rayne.
Rayne’s cheeks blushed like a warm, sunlit rainy day.
The kids gathered around Jason. He stirred a little. His eye was swollen and turning blue. He moaned.
“My uncle will know what to do,” Cameron said.
“Let’s carry him back,” Rayne said. “We can ask Mr. Cowell.”
Gretchen picked Jason up and slung him over her shoulder. Rayne retrieved the duffle bag, but left the broken laptop. She pushed Tamar, and the group headed back to the raft. They crossed the lake, then took the raft and Jason back to the boating shack, where they found some rope and tied him up.
As soon as this was done, the tapioca lifted away from them, and Tamar’s feet touched grass… she could feel it again. Gretchen flexed, and her arms resumed a soft, supple shape. Cameron stood firm as a breeze wafted by, and Declan blinked. “Ah, it’s good to be able to see again.”
Rayne said, “Should we leave him here alone?”
“Why don’t you all stay while I get my uncle,” Cameron said.
Jason was just starting to come to when Cameron and Mr. Cowell returned.
Mr. Cowell poked his head into the shack. “Hello! Jason?” Jason was still unresponsive. “Well, this is a pretty pickle we have here.”
“What can we do with him?” Gretchen asked.
“She won’t let us kill him,” Cameron added.
“And I’m not standing by to watch him carried off to prison,” Rayne inserted.
Mr. Cowell nodded. “Yeah, none of those are choices. Hmm, but he can’t be left here can he?”
Tamar shuffled. Too bad the man wouldn’t wake up and repent and be saved and turn his life around. But they all knew how unlikely that was. Especially at this very moment, and it was this moment they had to worry about.
“The man has had a hard life,” Mr. Cowell thought out loud. “He’s not had the same advantages we have. We need to give him shelter from the world that has shown him a false version of God, and give him the opportunity to reexperience nature and humanity. Hmm. Yes, I think so.”
“What does that mean?” Declan asked.
Faye smirked. “He’s saying we’re going to lock him in a cage in the jungle and see just how innocent he finds nature.”
“Or put him on an oil barge out in the ocean,” Cameron continued the joke.
“Um,” Rayne said. “That wouldn’t help. The oil pollution would enrage him.”
“Oh, yeah,” Cameron said.
“I know a family down in Bolivia,” Mr. Cowell said. “I think we should send him to live with them. They are farmers, so the man would learn to work with the land. And they would know how to show him God’s love in the most genuinely possible way.”
“He wouldn’t dare come back for fear of being found out,” Rayne added. “It’s perfect.”
“I’ll talk to my friends,” Mr. Cowell said. “You all can take turns, and then later Declan can fly him to Bolivia.”
Declan said, “Sure. Just as long as I have a pair of eyes.”
“I’ll go with you!” Gretchen exclaimed, just as Faye said, “No problem.”
Gretchen blushed.
Faye twisted her lips slyly. “Nevermind. I’ll stay.”
“Once the camp is resituated, make sure one of you bring him something to eat,” Mr. Cowell said.
“I’ll do that,” Rayne said.
“And I’ll take the first watch,” Cameron said.
Mr. Cowell disappeared to make the phone call. After he was gone, Tamar asked, “How can Mr. Cowell see us when the others can’t”
Rayne answered, “He was once like us?”
“Once?” Tamar asked.
“When he was younger, the tapioca attached to him, too. But the powers wane with age, but not the memories. That’s what he says.”
Although she was free, a bubble of tapioca still floated around Tamar, most playfully. “So, I’ll have this for a long time?”
“Yeah,” Gretchen said. “It’ll follow you everywhere for the rest of your life. Or at least until we’re as old as Mr. Cowell.”
Rayne said, “It really stinks, I know.”
Tamar wasn’t sure what she thought about it. She hated being half paralyzed. It was wonderful to be able to move her legs again. But it had all been worth it to work alongside these kids, and to know their secret at last.
Her smile fell as a sudden thought struck her. “Where’s Ariel?”
It dawned on her as everyone else looked away—now she understood why they’d judged her all week and given her those salvation scriptures.
The next installment will be published on the first Monday of next month.
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