"This is Pyotr Zakarov," the taller man told Skylar. "You'll be working for him in his lab, manufacturing weapons for the upcoming war."

"What war?" asked Skylar.

"The war between Yahweh and TOL," Dr. Zakarov explained. "I believe we now have the capacity to destroy our enemy when he comes to mete out judgement upon us."

"You mean to kill God?"

"That is correct."

Skylar thought of Zaki and Wendy, of her other Christian friends, of her family members who'd begged her to become a believer before it was too late. They'd all told her the same thing - nobody and nothing can ever defeat God. His power is absolute.

Was it possible they could have been wrong?

Skylar soon settled into her new job. It was boring and didn't require much thinking, which was fine with her. Not that there was anything wrong with her intelligence; it seemed to have been unaffected by her transformation. Her emotions were a whole different story. It was almost as if they weren't even there anymore. In place of love, hope, fear, anger, and even sadness, there was merely a mild curiosity.

Not that Skylar really pondered such things anymore. The only thing on her mind now was the task at hand and the most efficient way to get it done, so she threw herself into her duty of manufacturing weapons, only vaguely conscious of what they were to be used for.

One Saturday, she was out for a stroll when she came upon Wendy and Zaki walking in the opposite direction. Wendy gasped and paled, clutching tightly to Zaki's hand. Zaki frowned.

Skylar waved to them. "Hi!"

"So you're one of them now." Wendy gave a sad sigh. "I was hoping so much you'd come to your senses before it was too late!"

"What do you mean about it being too late?"

"Once you've died, even if you're reanimated right away, your chance to receive salvation is ended forever," Wendy explained. "All you have to look forward to now is the Judgement, and then the Lake of Fire."

Wendy and Zaki continued on their way, leaving Skylar as deeply in thought as her condition allowed. If she were already doomed anyway, then what did she have to lose by joining the resistance against Yahweh? The worst that could happen was they'd lose, and she'd end up in the Lake of Fire anyway.

Not too long after that, she met Quinn in the break room at work.

"I'm a trained assassin," Quinn told her. "My job is to eliminate competition for new converts."

"You mean missionaries?" asked Skylar.

"That's right. They're winning lots of new converts from the young people coming of age, and TOL hates that."

"But isn't that awfully dangerous?"

Quinn shrugged. "It doesn't really matter to me anymore. Whatever happens will happen."

Skylar concluded she was probably right.

The Last Day Of The Millennium

From the space ship, Skylar watched as Satan came forth from among the masses and marched toward the temple. She saw Jesus confront him, after which the entire TOL army was instantly vaporized. She heard Jesus give a speech, saw the evil one drop his sword and fall to his knees. She watched as King David emerged from the temple, quoted a passage from the Bible, and then retreated.

Jesus opened a seam in the cosmos, revealing Nicolae and Leon Fortunato on their knees, writhing and screaming 'Jesus is Lord!" over and over again. Satan was thrown in with them, and then the seam was closed.

As the Natural believers were transformed and raised together with the Glorifieds, a city made of pure gold, its beauty beyond description, descended. Skylar gaped in disbelief as millions of bodies from time immemorial began to materialize and amass in the sky. Before them descended Jesus, who sat on a great white throne. Instantly, the earth was incinerated.

"Quinn's down there." Skylar clasped the hand of her friend, Salvador. "I should be, too."

Salvador nodded. "We all should be."

Skylar's eyes scanned the sea of faces for that of her friend, but couldn't find it among the billions. Gone was the clothing representative of their cultural backgrounds and periods in history, to be replaced by sackcloth. Whatever remnant of humanity remained in her wished there was a way out for her friend, a chance to escape her certain awful doom.

She watched as each unbeliever was confronted with his or her sins and then condemned. She saw a host of angels simultaneously tossing each lost soul into the Lake of Fire, the underlings having been charged with the dirty work for the final time.

Jesus created a new earth for His followers to dwell upon, but Skylar and her friends would never set foot on it. Their destination was another planet in another solar system, that orbiting Alpha Centauri. There they would begin new lives beyond recorded history, free to live as they wished with only their own consciences as master.

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