"Tim LaHaye - Left Behind Kids 03 - Through the Flames" - читать интересную книгу автора (LaHaye Tim)

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CHAPTER TWO



Ryan's Escapade




RYANwas angry and confused. What else could he be? He had overheard Vicki trying to explain his
situation, and she was exactly right. In truth, he wanted to believe exactly what these other kids believed.
It all made sense. His friend, Raymie Steele, had warned him. And it seemed most of the people who had
disappeared were known to be Chris-tians. So many people from so many churches were gone that they
must have known something.
 But if all this was true, his parents had not made it. But still they were gone. Dead. The only nightmare
worse than having your par-ents die, Ryan decided, was knowing that they had missed going to heaven.
Was that fair? What kind of a God did something like that to people as nice as his parents? Or to
someone like him

He wasn't a bad kid. Sure, he had done a lot of things wrong, but who hadn't? Raymie Steele was a
Christian, but he wasn't perfect.

The one thing Ryan couldn't get out of his mind was that if this was true and his parents knew it, they
would have believed. And for sure they would want him to believe before it was too late. But knowing it
was probably true, even believing it, didn't mean Ryan was accepting it for himself. Because what Vicki
Byrne had said was right. If he bought into it, it meant he was admitting that his parents had missed out
and were in hell. That was too much to take in just now.

Ryan knew something the other kids didn't know. Well, except maybe Lionel. Lionel seemed to know
Ryan better than Ryan knew himself. What only Ryan, and maybe Lionel, knew was that Ryan had no
intention of doing anything that would cause him to leave Judd's house. He had never felt or been so
alone in his life, and these kids were his new family. Whether or not he became a Christian, he was not
about to leave them or let them abandon him.

Yeah, they treated him like a baby and used names for him that made him feel even smaller and younger.
But hehad been acting like a baby. He had a right. He was an orphan. The others were enduring the loss
of their families too, but this was different. Ryan needed time away from the pressure, time to think, time
to do something to take his mind off everything. He had to admit he was afraid to go out alone at night,
so while it was still light, he headed out on his bike.

The others had seemed so concerned with his packing up his stuff that they would likely watch to see if
he took it with him. They would be relieved, he hoped, to find everything still in his room. It was packed