The World of NightsEnd

Chapter One

The Watchers never were an official party of TruePath and cannot be classified easily. All Watchers had entered self-imposed exile in northern Idaho, a section of the North American Province by the year 2103. By the time of the Great Purge none remained within TruePath. With no GRAV-LEV and no way to influence the outside world they have been all but forgotten.

TruePath News Vol.101 No. 10

Night was falling along the rim of Hell’s Canyon and the cold air that followed close behind it brought a chill to Enoch’s bones. An involuntary shiver crawled up the old man’s spine compelling him to pull his cloak tightly about his frail body.

The irony that the Watchers had chosen to live in a place called Hell’s Canyon never failed to amuse Enoch. Everywhere else the world seemed to have literally gone to hell but in this place of stark contrasts what was left of heaven struggled to exist. Enoch chuckled as he threw a new log on the waning fire in front of him. His aching fingers drank in the warmth that made its way out from the flames.

A lone and younger figure silently came up beside the man by the fire and put a hand on his shoulder. “Any wise thoughts for a foolish girl tonight?”

Enoch smiled and turned. Esther never ceased to amaze him. Others walked as if on egg shells around him and never spoke what was really on their mind but not Esther. Though only twenty years old she always seemed completely at ease in his presence. She had been good for him and Enoch knew it.

“No my dear, no new wisdom tonight; just cold.”

Esther laughed and heaved a log on the fire to join the other. Flames licked at the logs sending sparks into the sky like a thousand tiny fire flies. The full moon cast shadows through the Ponderosa Pines giving them the uncanny appearance of gray giants stoically guarding the rim of the canyon.

“Do you ever doubt …” Esther hesitated and then added, “… the dreamer? I mean do you ever ask why it has been so long?”

Enoch stroked his long white beard as he often did when stalling for time to think. “The only thing I do not doubt is God himself. Everything else is mere conjecture. Hypothesis and speculation is for Keepers and Speakers. We are Watchers. We do not debate over our uncertainties. Instead, we watch for our certainties.”

Esther’s pert nose flared and her eyes sparkled. “But you quote the dreamer often. Doesn’t every child learn early on to quote that famous phrase, When Judson comes Night’s End is near?”

By now several other learners had joined the two in the circle of warmth around the fire. Every eye focused on the eldest of all the Watchers. Enoch spied a nearby log, slowly lowered himself and welcomed its resting place before taking a long, labored breath. “Child, you misunderstand. I have ultimate faith that God indeed spoke to the Dreamer. That does not mean I never have my doubts.”

One of the other learners feeling brave from Esther’s question chimed in. “But isn’t doubt unbelief?”

“Oh good gracious no!” Enoch made no effort to conceal his displeasure at the lack of understanding of some. “Doubt is not the opposite of faith, young man. Unbelief is. If you have never doubted anything you believe in then you have never been tested. Even the Master Himself doubted in the face of severe trial. But he never lost faith.”

Heads nodded around the circle; faces valiantly proclaiming understanding. But Enoch knew better. How could they? These young ones had never known anything but the protected confines of the canyon. Few had ever tasted the bitter drink forced on the world by the United Federation. And for those that had, that taste was but a faint memory of nearly forgotten time.

The night was growing colder and the old man could stay outside no longer. He stood and studied the eager faces around him. How he prayed he would be allowed to be among them when Judson came. Every watcher did. “I must get some rest. Esther how goes the history?”

Esther jumped up, her eyes reflecting the fire light like an imp with some great secret to reveal. She reached into her pack and pulled out a stack of papers bound together with leather string. The girl reached out her hand and placed the papers in her mentor’s hands. “See for yourself,” she beamed.

Enoch smiled and began to walk away without even looking at what he had been handed. How he loved that girl. He could still remember finding her wandering through the rain soaked forest near Salem an orphan abandoned by someone fleeing the GPP. She had been seven or eight at the time as best they could tell. Now there she stood, tall and pretty; not classically beautiful but pretty. Her cropped brunette hair couldn’t hide that Esther had indeed become every bit a woman. The pride of a father welled up in Enoch’s heart.

“Good work, when the sun comes up and an old man’s eyes can see I am sure I will find this quite the read.”

Enoch made his way to his quarters alone. He knelt beside his cot and spoke to God as though he were in the room with him. He did so because he knew God was there as surely as he was.

After his prayers Enoch lay in his cot his mind filled with thoughts of what had happened to the world out there. Oh sure, people hurtled across the planet at astounding speeds on the GRAV-LEV and information flowed like water through World Net. But was the world really better? He knew the answer to that.

Darkness had come to the world in a way it had never known before. The United Federation ruled by default and the GPP ensured that would never change. The great assemblies were long gone. What remained of them rested in TruePath. And it was nothing more than a deformed and soulless offspring.

Would night ever end? Was the Dreamer right? Surely if God intended to send the one promised it would have to be soon. Things just couldn’t get much bleaker than they already were.

Enoch’s mind meandered back to the last time he had stood before the Assembly in the outside world. He wasn’t much older than Esther then and just as eager to prove himself as she. This was his first Assembly and he couldn’t wait to glean from the wisdom of the Keepers and Speakers gathered there.

The first day of the meeting was devastating. All the Keepers seemed interested in was technicalities. There was a two hour debate on what color silks they should wear when addressing a congregation. After that the General Counsel of TruePath Speaker gave an impassioned speech on the duties of all good religious people to support the United Federation.

Over the next two days Enoch never heard even one call to repentance or return to God’s Word. What Scripture was quoted was from the TruePath New Mellinal Translation. The General Counsel finished her speech with a quote from the translation. “Show obedience to the United Federation and you have given to God what is his.”

The next day Enoch took the GRAV-LEV from Denver to Spokane. Once in Spokane he sought out a fellow Watcher and lived with him until warmer weather allowed for the treacherous trip by foot to Hell’s Canyon in Idaho. No policeman or solider challenged Enoch as he left Spokane. There was no need to. Few who walked away from a GRAV-LEV city ever came back. As far as the United Federation was concerned it was good riddance.

Two months later Enoch topped the rim of Hell’s Canyon and gazed with wonder into its seven thousand foot bottom. Weary from his trip and knowing the way down the canyon wall would be difficult, Enoch found a small cave to rest in and soon fell fast asleep.

As he slept the young man dreamed a most fantastic dream. He was standing on the rim of the canyon and looking out across a vast turquoise ocean. Though it had to be thousands of miles away he could see a tiny island. It was like something one saw in a vid on World Net; sugar white beaches and lush green vegetation.

But it wasn’t the island that seared itself into Enoch’s subconscious. It was the image of a boy just a few years younger than himself. He was dressed in simple white clothes and sat laboring over a stack of papers stretched out before him. The words on the pages were not the empty self-serving words of the New Millennial Translation. Instead, they had life and danced with energy of God himself. He was seeing the true word of God.

As he dreamed on, Enoch saw the young man write more words and then jump up in excitement. He ran to others like him and said he had an announcement to make. “It says to go into the world,” he shouted excitedly.

In a fashion apparently typical for the islanders an older man responded. “Well, if the word says go then we must go. But who will go?”

At first no one answered. Feet shuffled and eyes looked downward. Then another young man spoke. “My name is Judson and as a Christ follower I will go.”

The young man faded from sight in Enoch’s dream, replaced by a being that defied description. All that remained after the dream was a sense of raw power and ultimate majesty. The being picked up the papers and looked at Enoch. “When Judson comes Night’s End is near,” he whispered. …

That dream had been so long ago and so much had happened since. The Great Purge left little hope of light to dawn in this world. But had not God promised differently? Enoch shifted in his cot and sighed. None of the learners had any idea that he was that Dreamer. They eagerly waited for what he sometimes had allowed time to erode. It had been seventy years since that dream but he knew what he had been shown. A man named Judson was coming from a remote island with the true Word of God.

He was bringing living and powerful words that would bring an end to the uneasy midnight that had settled onto the world. Enoch suddenly sat upright. What had he just heard within himself?

“Very soon,” whispered the voice within.

Enoch yawned; lay his aging head back down and closed his dimming eyes. Judson was coming soon and the world was about to have the light shone upon it. And so Enoch slept, full of doubts but never lacking faith.

Judson was coming and Night’s End was near.

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NightFall: Second Revision July 2008

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