Rachel's Rapture Ch. 01

Rachel sat on the cold uncarpeted church floor for quite some time. Eli's head was still cradled in her lap, his blood soaking into her dress. Later on, she would have no idea how long she had sat there crying; her brain had temporarily shut down when Eli's had stopped permanently...and then there was the prayer that she had shared with the dying Brother Eli, she couldn't explain that either. She understood that women were not worthy of leading prayer inside of a church; they were to remain silent and obedient in God's house. She'd been taught that since birth.

She may have remained there for an hour, indeed, she couldn't have sworn that it wasn't two hours, or even three; but through all of that time, absolutely no one else had arrived at the church; not a soul had shown up to break the spell that she was under. Eventually though, Rachel's back began to ache from being too long in an uncomfortable position on the icy floor; and as she slowly returned to clarity, the first thing that she realized was that she was cold...and wet. She'd been sitting in a puddle of the Pastor's blood and it had soaked completely through her cotton dress. Her teeth had begun to chatter.

She was cold, wet, and covered in blood that was beginning to clot; how had it come to this? Hadn't her few sins been minor ones? Had doubting her father's ideas about God's chosen role for women been such a grave error? Both he and Brother Eli had possessed very strong ideas about a woman's place being in the home. Should she have shared them?

Instead, she'd begun to let herself dream that maybe she could become a nurse after she'd settled down with a Godly man. She hadn't thought that too large of a dream; after all, there were a few women from the church who worked or volunteered a few hours away from their homes each week after their children had left the nest. Rachel had always hoped that just maybe she could do this too; maybe she could even act as a nurse for the church's religious retreats. She had thought that this surely would have pleased God. It was hard for her little church to bear the expense of hiring someone and she'd be willing to do it for free.

It is true that she had never been brave enough to tell anyone of her dream though, and it was abundantly clear to her that her father wouldn't have wanted to hear of it at all. She had thought that she could continue to advance her education until such a time that God chose to send her a husband, and considering the total lack of suitable marriage prospects that were her age in the church, she'd thought that she'd probably have some time to work on her dream. She would have even admitted that for once, she'd been happy that father would never consent to her dating anyone outside of their own small church, and heaven knew that their church was not as well attended as those modern churches with their video monitors, satellite campuses, and rock music.

But now she was starting to wonder if God had turned his back on her because she had not been suitably happy with her lot in life. She also considered Brother Eli; what grave sins had he committed? Rachel wished that she knew what he'd done wrong, but whatever it had been, he hadn't gotten around to confessing his sins aloud. She prayed that Brother Eli had mentally confessed everything to Father God; surely whatever his sins had been, they would not have been enough to consign the good pastor to Hell for all of eternity.

Rachel found herself wondering where the un-Godly had gone. If Father God had taken his people up to heaven, where had the others been sent? Had he already sent them to Hell, and if so, why had he left her behind? Why not me?

Rachel slowly began to realize that remaining on the cold floor with a dead man's head in her lap was not doing much to answer any of her questions, so she gently moved the Brother from her lap and climbed slowly to her feet. Much later when she thought back on this day, she would think that she surely must have been in shock because the only thought currently in her head was that father would be upset because her dress and shoes were saturated in blood and completely ruined.

As she dimly began to realize that she'd need a change of clothes before she could go anywhere else, she headed back to the narthex where the 'poor box' was located. If she'd been thinking clearly, she would have realized how unlikely it was that there would be anything in the box that would come close to fitting her. This wasn't because the women of the church were ungenerous, because that wasn't the case at all; rather, it was because of how the poor reacted to the gifting. Very few of the poor would do more than sigh when presented with the clothing of the Holiness women; most of them would rather wear rags than the old-fashioned clothes that the church women wore every day of their lives. The women had learned that only the truly desperate or mentally ill ever were pleased with what the church brought them.

Now, the box itself was overfull, containing mostly brand new or gently used clothing. The church committee made sure that the box was always ready and waiting, but as usual, most of what it contained was men's and children's clothing. The few garments that were intended for females were all intended for children; Rachel recognized many of them as they had belonged to her sisters at one time or another.

When she reached the bottom of the box, she stifled a sob. What was she going to do? Her dress was soaked in blood, and as she thought with a shudder... other fluids as well. There was no way that she could even consider wearing it home. She told herself, maybe one more time through the box; but a second trip through the box revealed nothing that she could wear. Well...nothing that she was allowed to wear.

Rachel could hear Brother Eli's words, "Holiness starts from the inside, but it must be reflected by one's outside shell as well. A woman was not to wear the garments of a man, nor could a man wear garments of a woman! Deuteronomy was quite clear on this! Some congregations might make the error of allowing their women to wear culottes or even slacks designed especially for women, but the East Bakersfield Holiness church was going to keep to the old ways! Young girls could wear skirts, as long as they were below the knee, but once their time of womanhood came, they would wear only dresses and attire that pleased God. Nor was she to wear any cosmetics or ever cut her hair. A woman's hair was her glory; the Bible said so!"

As she considered what he'd taught her, Eli's lifeblood was slowly dripping from her dress and down her long legs. And something snapped within her; she let out a shriek of anguish and began to rip the sodden garments from her body. She wasn't sure what she would be wearing home, but it would not be this blood-soaked dress. She kicked off her shoes and threw her dress away from her, shuddering from the thought of wearing either of them a moment longer. She was not comforted however; as she realized that she was now standing in the narthex dressed only in her underclothing. Her hair had come undone when she'd ripped her dress away; she truly felt like the harlot of Rome.

Desperate to cover her nakedness before God, she grabbed one of the men's shirts and quickly pulled it over her head. This calmed her somewhat, and she found that the shirt covered her completely and that it fit surprisingly well considering that Rachel had always been the tallest one in the family- lately she'd even been taller than her father. She belatedly realized how ridiculous that she must look standing there in the church barefoot and dressed only in a men's work shirt and granny panties, so in desperation, she started looking for a pair of pants that might actually fit her.

She wasn't really sure what she was looking for; she'd never worn a pair of pants in her life. She selected a pair that she thought might fit her waist, and even though it seemed as they would be a close fit, she couldn't get her hips or bottom into them. The second pair proved to suffer from the opposite problem; they fit comfortably around her hips, but their waist was much too large to wear without a belt of some kind.

The boys from school had always teased her with many unchaste suggestions about her bottom, (not that they had called it that), but before now, she hadn't really grasped the idea that women's clothing might actually be cut differently than men's. She tried on a few more pairs, but in the end, she was faced with a dilemma, her waist or her bottom, only one would actually fit well. Frowning at the situation, she decided that the second pair really had been the closest fit; so she donned those and headed into Brother Eli's study, tightly holding up her new pants with both hands.

Pastors had to be ready for emergencies, and she knew that Eli had always kept several changes of clothes in his study ready for any occasion. She found several belts in his closet, but unfortunately, she had forgotten that Eli was a very large man and all of his belts more or less swallowed her. She was not to be deterred though; she strung his longest belt through the large loops in her pants and tied its ends securely into a square knot; she'd learned the knot to help her brother in the church scout program. She didn't expect her improvised belt to stay very tight, but it only had to last long enough to get her home where suitable clothing awaited her.

On some level, she certainly realized that she looked ridiculous, but she didn't have time to care right then. Her world was in shambles, and even though she was now dressed like a male hobo, she desperately hoped to see someone who knew her. Indeed, at this point, she would have been glad to run into anyone, whether she'd ever met them or not.

Her prayers were not to be answered the way she hoped though. She walked out of the church, restarted Billy's truck, and then slowly drove it home without seeing a single person or living thing other than the ever-present flocks of birds. This time, she slowly rolled through the red lights and stop signs, somehow the traffic laws didn't seem to be as important anymore. What she would give for a nice safe police officer right about now! It was a quick trip, and she'd gotten home before it really struck her; there was no one here for her and she seemed to be on her own. What was she going to do now? Whatever am I going to do now?!

~~~~

Rachel awoke slowly as her alarm began to buzz incessantly. She rolled out of her bed and directly on to the cold floor where she got down on her knees and began to pray. She thanked God for another day of life and for providing everything that she possessed. It was a long list, although in truth, there were very few actual material possessions on that list.

She was in the process of thanking Father God for her family when she spotted the men's clothing on the floor at the foot of her bed, and then she pleaded, "Please God, tell me that it wasn't real; please tell me that is was only a dream. Please make it just a horrible nightmare; I don't know how to live alone. Please God forgive me for my sins; I'm sorry that I am so unhappy about being a girl. Give me back my family and I promise to be happy as my husband's help meet. I know that I was wrong to imagine more for myself; I put myself in your hands..."

She repeated this prayer several more times just as she'd be taught, as it was never wrong to repeat the things that were Holy. When she'd repeated her prayer a third time, she waited in silence, listening for an answer just as she'd been taught to do. She opened her mind to whatever ideas or revelations that Father God might put there.

Search for others.

It was a simple idea, and in truth, Rachel had no idea whether God had placed the idea into her head or if she had come up with the thought on her own, but this was their way. God was a real and speaking presence to those of her faith. She would be wrong to disobey the voice.

When her prayers were complete, she once again checked every room in her house, but nothing had changed, she was still alone. Her entire family was still gone, and whatever Father God had planned for Rachel, it must not have included her family. At least...not yet, so she nodded her head sadly and began to get dressed, all the while, staring at the men's clothing at the foot of her bed.

She'd discovered that those clothes had been shockingly comfortable, and she'd been surprised at that, she'd always thought that wearing pants would have been more confining than she'd found them to be. This made her wonder about those pants that the immodest women wore, those ones that were cut for a woman. Would those be an improvement over the men's sizes; that belt sure hadn't helped much.

Brother Eli had been wrong about one thing though. He had always taught her that when a woman wore immodest dress, that this woman would begin to think of herself as being a seductress, and that this would affect how others reacted to her. Rachel had absolutely not felt seductive or sensual in any way when dressed in those men's clothes; actually, she'd felt sort of frumpy, and if Eli was right about the second part of his theory, well...then she supposed that men would pick up on that and find her frumpy as well.

Maybe he'd just been erring on the side of caution. She shook her head in annoyance as the thought came to her that it didn't really matter, there didn't seem to be anyone to see what she wore anyway. Father God had told her to look for others though, so she would dress modestly in case there was anyone left to see her. She donned one of her dresses, pulled her uncut hair back into a messy bun and headed out in the truck.

As she started her truck, (since she supposed that Billy no longer needed it), she studied the gauges curiously, though she was unsure about what they were telling her. It looked like it had a quarter tank of gas left in it, but that worried her. How long did a quarter tank's worth of gas last anyway? She resolved to watch the gauge very carefully, as she wasn't really sure how to obtain more gasoline.

She knew that her father usually went inside the store and paid for it, and then he came back outside and pumped it into the car...somehow. She'd never really paid any attention though; although it was one of those men's things that it looked like she was going to have to learn to do for herself. She supposed that she could learn which buttons that she'd have to push to get gas as it would be better than walking, not that walking scared her really; she was used to that.

As she continued to ponder the mysteries of gasoline, she slowly drove west along Niles Street as she headed downtown. Brother Eli had always said that evil men would fight for control of what was left on Earth after Father God rescued his people, and while his predictions had been proving to be more wrong than correct so far, she still assumed that if anyone was still alive, then they'd surely contact whatever authorities that remained.

The farther she drove though, the more doubts that began to creep into her mind. She knew that it had been over twenty four hours since the Rapture and there was nothing moving anywhere, except for the lone fly that was buzzing lazily in the truck, evidently attracted to the day old doughnuts. This reminded her that she was hungry though and she reached for one of the slightly stale pastries as she filed away the fact that other than Eli, the only living things that she had seen were birds and insects.

She was starting to wonder if flying creatures had been left behind for some unknown reason when she came upon the first traffic accident. She stopped and carefully searched through both cars, but it didn't reveal anything new. It was clear that the cars had run head-on into one another and at a reasonably high speed too, but there was no sign that there had been any people involved by the time that the cars met.

Both sets of airbags had deployed, and while both seatbelts had been securely fastened, there had been no one inside either vehicle when they had collided. The keys were still in the ignitions, and both cars' transmissions were still firmly in the drive positions. The now dry residue under each car testified to the fact that whatever had been in the ruined radiators had already evaporated away into nothingness.

Rachel dejectedly shrugged her shoulders and climbed back into her truck. She studiously checked her gas gauge once again and seeing that the needle hadn't budged, she felt herself relax with the realization that gasoline must last longer than she had feared it would. The rest of her trip proved to be largely uneventful as she saw no other collisions, though she saw a few instances of one car accidents here and there, but this just cemented her idea that the Rapture had happened at night when there were very few people on the roads.

She drove passed city hall and then the court house, figuring that the best place to start her search would be at the police station. She parked her truck in the public lot and walked through the front entrance and the automatic doors opened as soon as she stepped on to the mat. There were no signs of life within the building however, and the only sounds it contained were the sounds of the automatic doors and the still functioning ventilation system.

She nervously called out, "Hello... I'm Rachel, is there anyone here?" Only silence was returned to her; the building was well insulated and there was no echo, but neither was there any one to answer her question. No one arrived to see what she wanted, and since she was left with no real options, she decided to explore the building.

Rachel spent the next few hours exploring the building from its top to its bottom, greatly aided in her efforts by the set of master keys that she found at the front desk. She avoided the elevators as she feared what might happen to her in the event of a total power failure, and as she searched, she found most of the things that she had expected to find; there were empty offices aplenty; rooms full of equipment and weapons; evidence rooms, changing rooms, and even an employee cafeteria. She found everything that you would expect to find in a large police building, except for any actual policemen.

Eventually she found herself immediately outside of the prisoner holding unit, and she wasn't sure what she would rather find. Would it be worse to be alone here, or would it be scarier to deal with some sort of violent law-breaker? She wasn't sure if she'd be able to deal with a hardened criminal, but Christian charity would insist that she couldn't leave anyone in the cells to starve to death. She took a deep breath and unlocked the door to the unit, but her worries had been for naught, the holding cells were as silent and as empty as the rest of the building.

After that scare, her search went pretty quickly. The only new information that she gained she found in the employee break room. There was a television set there and it was equipped with cable television. Rachel managed to turn on the set with no problems, but none of the channels were operational. Then she'd found a radio, but it too had no stations to receive. Evidently this Rapture, or whatever it had been, had cleaned out the entire country, and not just her little town in Kern County California.

After she'd checked the entire building, she finally explored the area behind the station house where she found the motor pool. Dozens of police cars were parked there, and even more importantly, there was an unlocked gas pump containing thousands of gallons of fuel. She thought about the small truck for a moment, and then decided to trade it in.