Day Nine Hundred Sixty #DiaryoftheEndotheWorld

Elijah and I rode inside of Jezer’s tanker truck. We had wanted to ride in the cab with him, but he explained that it would not be possible. There were too many checkpoints, and we would have looked out of place.

Reuben was in the truck behind us, driven by Elam, and Magwich behind them, driven by Raj G.

We were cautioned to speak and move as little as possible, which was difficult, for the jostling at times was bone rattling.

It’s hard to imagine how those fared who made the trip before us. There were so many more of them.

We were more than glad to be out of the confined space at the next leg of our journey.

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Day Nine Hundred Forty Two #DiaryoftheEndoftheWorld

It was a bumpy ride to Damascus. We weren’t allowed to talk. And our captors were tight-lipped as well. There was little we could do but look out the windows at the passing scenes.

At one point outside Damascus we were inching along in the congestion when I saw a tanker truck by the side of the road. In the cab I saw Elam and he saw me.

I still dwelt on the chance sighting this morning as they loaded us into the back of a windowless truck. We were still forbidden to speak, but somehow I knew that Elijah was more in the know than he let on.

By evening we were processed into a prison cell somewhere.

Day Nine Hundred Thirty Five #DiaryoftheEndoftheWorld

Elam squeezed the three of us into the cab beside himself, and began the long tale of the pilgrimage across sea and land of the group led by Sy and himself. A story that continued this morning by the mere dint of the wealth of detail Elam wanted to share.

And we listened with great interest, plying him with our many questions.

There was one note of sadness – Sy, the former soldier from whom Elijah removed the mark, lost his aged parents on the ocean passage.

During the times of silence I marveled at the work of the Spirit in their lives. And Jezer, to my surprise, burst forth with outright praise.

Then came our turn to share our stories.

Day Nine Hundred Thirty Four #DiaryoftheEndoftheWorld

The tanker truck was still a good way off when we saw it halt at nightfall.

We settled in ourselves, and then arose early to cut across the land to meet it lower down.

We took up observation on the high ground, which gave us an excellent view of the slow moving tanker truck and the winding track, both the direction from which it came and ahead where we assumed it was going.

We were watching from our perch when it rumbled by. At the sight of the driver, Elijah jumped to his feet and seemingly flew down the hillside.

There behind the wheel in the cab of the tanker truck was the former madman from the great city, Elam.