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Chapter 17

  If finding Erin was hard, life itself was getting just as hard.

   The entire state of Connecticut had no water. Just blood. And it just didn't look like blood. Scientists ran some tests on it before announcing that the water was real blood.
The public took that really well.

   The government was sending gallons of water to all the states with bloody or bitter water. Which was great and all, except that the fresh water was distributed rationally; only a family with a certain amount of members could have a certain amount of water for teeth, hair, and drinking.
Mom was now only using paper plates and utensils to save on water. Everyone in the house could only take a shower once a week. No one used the shower nozzle anymore though; they would squirt water from a water bottle. Everyone could only use half of the water in a water bottle.

   So yes. Life had just become hard.

   And it's only going to get worse, Zane reminded himself. There's going to be four angels that are going to kill a third of mankind, five months of weird hybrid bugs that are going to kill people for Apollyon, horses with the heads of lions. And death. Lots of death.

   Why does there always have to be death with an apocalypse? Why can't it be something good; out with the old, in with the new?

   Dad hadn't taken the news very well. He wasn't rude about it, but he said the same stuff he'd said to Mom back when they were in the bedroom; it was all just make believe. But even he couldn't explain how the blood water and the meteor called Wormwood matched with the events in the Holy Bible.

   So the Kealer family began a Bible study every day; once in the morning before work and school, and then right before bed. Dad didn't seem all that into it, but, just like with Zane, he soon became just as eager to figure out what Revelation was trying to say.

  Zane suddenly noticed that, though they had always been a close family, the Kealers were now even closer than before. He could feel it; something about reading that book altogether seemed to tighten the family knots they had already made.

   It was awesome.

   Zane still kept in touch with Josh, who had begun to read the Revelation as well, and had even dived deeper to get more answers.

JoshRogersInTheHouse!!: so it turns out that the guy behind all the bad stuff happening had actually warned people about this stuff.

Zaneiack: Wait, really?

JoshRogersInTheHouse!!: yeah! all this stuff about people suffering and a king returning is mentioned in the books isaiah, mathew, mark, luke, john, and briefly in acts.

Zaneiack: Wow. So people were getting a fair warning. That's interesting.

JoshRogersInTheHouse!!: that's not even the best part. turns out that the guy who wrote revelation was a close friend of the guy who said he was coming back.

Zaneiack: No way!

JoshRogersInTheHouse!!: yep. turns out the guy that's coming back is named yeshua, which actually means to rescue or deliver in hebrew. but the modern name for him is jesus.

Zaneiack: Wow

Zaneiack: This just seems like more proof that all this is real.

JoshRogersInTheHouse!!: i know, right?

JoshRogersInTheHouse!!: you think erin really believed in all this?

Zaneiack: I'm more than sure of it now.

JoshRogersInTheHouse!!: what doesn't make sense tho is why didn't she tell us anything about this?

Zaneiack: Maybe she couldn't.

Zaneiack: No wait. Maybe she did and we just didn't see or understand it.

JoshRogersInTheHouse!!: that's actually a really good theory.

JoshRogersInTheHouse!!: too bad all her stuff on facebook is all gone.

Zaneiack: Yeah.

Zaneiack: Hey I've got to go. Bible study time.

JoshRogersInTheHouse: ok man. talk to you tomorrow.

Zaneiack: K bye.

   If finding Erin was hard, and surviving on a week's ration of water was hard, the hardest part was still to come, for Zane, for Josh, for the whole Kealer family, for the whole world.

   And Zane didn't even know it.