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Chapter 25

   1:20 p.m. I'll leave in about five minutes to meet up with Josh.

   Zane looked up from his phone at his surroundings. Both he and his dad had been given Abraham Lincoln's bedroom to stay in for the week. Mom and Lindsay were in the room next to them, since each room only had one bed. It made up in size though. In front of the bed were two fancy couches that weren't at all comfortable to Zane. Every time he tried to sit back, his back would quickly become stiff. There was also a small brown table with a white top that kept a book and a small statue of Lincoln himself sitting on a chair.

   Overall, it was a very nice room.

   "Well, your mom and Lindsay should be all settled in", Dad said as he walked into the bedroom. "She wants us in her room in about half an hour for another family meeting."

   "Okay", Zane nodded.

   "She probably packed the Holy Bible with her so we can keep studying", Dad sighed as he sat down on the couch next to Zane.

   Zane blinked in surprise. "You don't sound happy about it", he commented.

   Dad shrugged his shoulders. "I don't mind it", he answered. "It just seems like it's... almost unhealthy for us to keep reading it."

   "How?", Zane asked. For some reason his stomach had started to tighten up into a small knot. A very small knot, but it still made him feel a little uneasy.

   "It just", Dad started, pausing, clearly thinking over his next words, "every time I read it I become... nervous."

   "Nervous?"

   "Yeah. Uneasy. Troubled."

   Dad sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know if the Holy Bible is entirely accurate. I'm sure the stories about the Israelites are real, it is their history. But this whole 'end of the world' predictions just seems like a ploy to get people into religion."

   Zane was shocked. I knew he was skeptical about it all at the beginning. Does he really not believe anything we've been reading? "But what about Wormwood?", Zane asked. "And the sea turning into blood? And the mark?"

   "Probably just coincidences", Dad answered, shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe something good is supposed to come out of all this."

   Zane raised an eyebrow. "Dad, we have to ration the water that the government gives us."

   Dad shook his head and gave a small chuckle. "What I'm trying to say is that maybe the world is changing-evolving even- to become something better."

   Zane looked down at his hands. He hadn't actually thought about it like that. The world changing to become something better? "It is an... interesting theory", he said after a moment.

   "That's what the whole book of Revelation is, Zane. It's just a theory. Everyone's come up with different theories about the world ending. Like that article that was published in the National Examiner back in 2018, the one about the seers predictions about the end of the world. It's just a theory."

   Maybe there was some truth to what Dad was saying. Maybe the Holy Bible was just a book of stories and ideas about the world. It didn't make it right just because it was part of some religion.

   So then why can't I shake the feeling that Dad's wrong about this?

   Three sharp knocks pulled Zane out of his thoughts. "I'll get it", he said getting up and quickly walking over to the door. When he opened it, he was greeted by Josh's grinning face.