"Tim LaHaye - Left Behind Kids 02 - Second Chance" - читать интересную книгу автора (LaHaye Tim)

"You're telling me! I don't think he could have afforded it anyway, but I don't have to take somebody
that far when I've got call-in. You kids aren't really going to O'Hare, are you? You know there's nothing
flying out of there---"

"I'm just going to try to get my car out of there," Judd said.

"That's gonna be no picnic either, son," the cabby said.

"I know. But I have to try. I've got nothing else to do."

Vicki was amazed to see so many fires as the cab snaked its way through the remains of car wrecks,
traffic gridlocks, even fights. It was clear there would never be enough local police to go around.So this
is what it's like at the end of the world, she thought.

Where were all these people going? All Vicki had noticed near the church were sirens in the distance
and the glow of distant fires on the horizon. Now she could see that those fires were not so distant. Why
is everything burning?" she asked.

"You don't know?" the cabby said. "Nobody knows yet how many people disap-peared late last night,
but any of them who had anything on the stove just left it there. You leave something on the stove
overnight, eventually the food burns up, the water turns to steam, the pan gets hotter than blazes, and
before you know it your kitchen's on fire. With nobody there to fight it or report it, boom, there goes
your house."

Vicki saw looks of jealousy on the faces of people waving at the cab from street corners, disappointed
to see that it was already hired. What a mess. Were all these people just try-ing to find somewhere,
anywhere, that wasn't turning to rubble?

As the night grew dark and the cab slowly picked its way through side streets and back roads toward
Interstate 294, Vicki noticed that Judd had seemed to lose interest in talk-ing. He sat with his chin resting
in his hands. He had turned away from her and appeared to stare out the window as they slowly rode
along. When would it sink in? she wondered. When would she feel her own fatigue and exhaustion and
finally be able to sleep? And how would all this feel when she finally woke up and realized it was not a
dream, not a nightmare, but reality? How do you go from being part of a family to becoming an orphan
overnight? She sighed. She hadn't even liked being in her family. She didn't like it when her parents were
loud drunks, and she liked it even less when they became Christians.

Now she realized, of course, that for at least the last two years--- since her parents had become
believers--- she herself had been the problem. She had somehow realized that her life would not be her
own if she became a Christian like her parents. They had told her and told her that she didn't need to
clean up her life before she came to Christ. "Jesus accepts you just the way you are," her mother had told
her. "He'll start showing you what needs to be changed and will help you change."

The problem was, Vicki knew her mother was right. She simply didn't want to change, whether she
herself was making the changes or God was. She had liked her life just the way it was because it was just
that--- her life. Why had it taken this, something so huge, so cosmic, so disastrous to show her how fool-
ish she had been? She had been such a rebel, so mean to her parents and even to her sweet little sister,
Jeanni.

And what was with this dolt sitting next to her? Judd Thompson seemed like a nice enough guy, having