Jake was dragged all the way from the roof down through the alleys and streets of Jericho. Some people stared while others turned away. They were the ones who didn’t challenge what was wrong with their world.
When they got to the doorway that led to the ledge, Ka’nah stopped and looked at Jake. “You don’t belong here. I don’t know how you got here, but I’m convinced that it’s my job to make sure you never leave.”
Jake was finally face-to-face with the end of his time in Jericho. The man who embodied evil and who lived to see other people suffer.
Ka’nah opened the door and pointed to the narrow precipice on the other side. “Head on out there.” Ka’nah pushed Jake through the tiny opening. “You and your friends might have burned some of my compound, but as you can see it only ruined the storage room. The ledge is still beautifully intact.”
The man spread his arms open wide.
Jake stopped himself on the small stone ledge.
“After you die, I’ll have my men collect your body. I’ll make sure you serve a purpose. You will be an example of what happens to people who try to cross me.”
Jake stood on the rocky ledge and looked out over the valley far below. The last rays of sunlight painted the plain a deep purple. He sat down and let the situation soak in. He had tried hard, but it wasn’t enough. He had come so close to helping Dair and the other boys escape Ka’nah’s grasp. And here, on the edge of the world, Jake was right back where he had started. Alone.
As the sunlight faded and the darkness grew, night took over. Jake fell into a light sleep, but dreams still found him.
This time it was different. Jake found himself standing on the side of a mountain looking down onto a vast plain. Above the plain was a city carved out of stone. It was broad daylight, and now Jake could see a massive throng of people who seemed to be marching. At the front of the procession, something was glowing.
The only darkness was a cloud of thick mist that hung over the city. A figure stood on top of the city walls. The scene zoomed in, and Jake saw that it was his twin standing on top of Jericho. This was crazy, but it was so real.
The mist started to churn and cover the other Jake. Real Jake looked on from his hillside perch in shock. He was too far away to save himself, but he had to do something. The walls started to crack and fall. Huge slabs of stone began to peel away from the city and crumble down into the valley.
Jake watched his other self begin to run across the rooftops as the city literally fell apart behind him. Then he could run no farther. His other self was running one second, and swallowed up into the breaking earth the next.
Real Jake looked down and saw an army rush into the crumbling city with swords drawn. Soon, flames were licking the sky.
That’s when Jake saw the glowing supernatural hand reach down from the heavens and scoop up a pile of debris. Some unseen wind blew all the unwanted rocks away and left only the other Jake sitting safe in the middle of the glowing hand. The hand lifted him up above the smoke and flames and continued to carry him a great distance away.
Real Jake felt like he was riding in an airplane watching all these things happen to the other Jake. He watched the hand descend through the clouds and come to a stop above a chain of mountains. After a brief pause, the illuminated hand continued its descent over the mountaintops and farther down through the trees. It finally put him down next to a beautiful blue lake.
At some point, the imaginary airplane landed, and Jake disembarked and found himself standing on the shore of a beautiful blue lake. It looked like the exact same one that he had seen from the plane. He had an urge to find the other Jake and ask him to explain what was happening.
When Jake turned around, the airplane was gone. He looked around and knew exactly where he was.
The sound of trumpets pulled Jake from a deep sleep. Pieces of a bizarre dream clouded his vision. He turned and saw Ka’nah standing over him.
“Jake Henry,” the wicked one said, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ve had a change of heart. I want to give you credit for trying to not only save yourself but those four boys and Levi. I’m taking you off the ledge and bringing you into my inner circle. After all of your hard work trying to find a purpose here, I look at you and see that you’re still all alone. Just like you started.”
Jake counted the stones in his pocket.
Six.
The end was here. These trumpets were the last ones. Jake’s brain tried to figure out a way to beat the evil man standing in front of him. But now it didn’t matter, because if the Israelites were really on their seventh day of marching around the city, Jericho was about to fall. He remembered that they would march around seven times, so this was it. The end of all of it was finally here.
“Young Jake, I want to show you I’m not the evil man you think I am. I’m giving you one last chance to join me. You are very smart and brave. I don’t want you to feel alone or left out.”
A long blast of trumpets rang out. It was so loud, Jake thought the Israelites were just on the other side of the compound walls, not way down on the plain.
“No! I realize now that I am never alone! God is with me wherever I go.”
Ka’nah pulled his sword from its sheath. He held the silver blade out toward Jake. “Well, I’m really sorry you believe that, because you are all alone whether you believe it or not. There’s no one here to save you.”
The shouts of thousands of men proved Ka’nah wrong. No sooner did the sound of voices end than the sound of the world breaking came over Jake and his enemy. The wall behind Ka’nah split in two like a piece of paper being torn in half. The ground shook, but Jake was able to keep his balance. Ka’nah, on the other hand, stumbled.
Jake jumped for the sword. The earth shifted again. Ka’nah regained his balance and yanked his blade away from Jake.
“God is here to save me!” Jake lifted both arms in the air, fists clenched.
Walls exploded and fell all around them. Off to his right, Jake saw the dorm building collapse like a sand castle punched by an ocean’s wave.
Ka’nah ignored the destruction and swung the sword at Jake. Jake jumped back and missed getting cut in half by inches. He shook off the fear and refused to back down. Even though he didn’t have a weapon, he was not going to go back to camp with regrets. If he ever got back to the camp.
Angry rocks shot past him in all directions, trying to rip his skin off his body as they flew. Groaning from somewhere deep within the ground beneath his feet threatened an even worse fate than being buried underneath the collapsing city.
Jake still couldn’t believe all of this was really happening. He grabbed a chunk of stone and used it to block Ka’nah’s next swing of the blade. Sparks flew as the sword connected with the stone. Another wave of earth-cracking energy ripped the ground under the compound. Jake fell down and saw that Ka’nah did too. The next thing Jake noticed was the sword wasn’t in the wicked man’s hand. It was on the ground halfway between them, lying across an opening in the ground like a narrow silver bridge.
Jake jumped and grabbed the sword before Ka’nah was able to stand to his feet.
The sword was very heavy, and Jake barely managed to raise it up to waist level.
“Please!” Ka’nah yelled over the groaning earth. “You’re going to hurt yourself. Just give me the sword, and I’ll let you go!”
Jake knew better. “No! You come and take it.”
Ka’nah lunged at Jake.
Jake summoned all his strength and shoved the blade toward his opponent. The tip cut the man’s right hand.
The ground shook and crumbled again. Jake fell down again but didn’t let go of the sword. Rocks from a falling wall rained down over Ka’nah.
“Jake! Come on!” This was a new voice. A new sound in the middle of the chorus of collapsing walls.
Jake saw Dair standing on a pile of rubble on the far side of the compound. He yelled to Jake again. “Jake! You were right! The whole city is falling! Come on. Follow me!”
Jake went to where Ka’nah was being buried alive. He saw the man’s hand reaching out. Jake bent down to see if he could help. It felt insane that one minute he was trying to protect himself from the madman, and the next he considered saving him.
“Come on, Jake! Don’t worry about him! We’re not going to make it if we don’t leave right now!”
More groaning. More exploding rocks.
Jake let go of the idea that he would be the one to save Ka’nah. He took off running after Dair up over piles of fallen walls and crumpled homes. As he ran after Dair, Jake couldn’t help but think what would happen if he died here. Would that mean he would also die in the real world back at camp? Or would it be like a dream where he would wake up right after the end came? Jake looked back and saw Ka’nah crawling out from under the rubble.
Dair was fast. The older boy moved like a mountain goat up and over the piles of Jericho that had collapsed all around them.
Jake looked back again and could not believe that Ka’nah had the strength to not only climb out from under the rubble, but also to use his long legs to catch up to his prey.
Jake’s chest started to burn. He was running out of gas, but he couldn’t quit now. He had come too far. He wasn’t about to let the evil man catch him.
Jake concentrated and pumped his arms and legs as hard as they would go. Rocks shot across his path and rained down over him. Adrenaline surged through his veins and temporarily prevented him from feeling any pain.
“You are finished!” Ka’nah tackled Jake from behind. The force of the hit knocked the breath out of Jake’s lungs. The wicked one got up and pinned Jake to the ground with one foot. He took his sword from Jake and swung it down.
Suddenly the earth screamed, and the ground fell away from him. Jake went flying backward. He watched Ka’nah’s face let go of victory’s grin in exchange for the frown of defeat.
The race had finally come to an end. Despite all his hard work and standing up to the very wicked man, the falling Jericho was seconds away from ending it all.
He had stood up bravely to the evil Ka’nah but didn’t have the power to stand up against the forces of nature that were churning around him. As he flew down, Jake looked up and saw Ka’nah looking out over the chasm.
Jake crashed onto a pile of jagged stones. It was like diving backward into a concrete ocean. Stars of pain and light shot over the backs of his eyelids. Fire shot through his arms and legs. It felt like some invisible monster hand had squeezed his body and busted every bone. Twice.
The one who caused so much misery jumped and kept the sword out in front of his body. Ka’nah became like a bird of prey—a powerful falcon—zooming down to capture Jake. Jake was about to be pierced by the wicked man’s sword, and he couldn’t make his legs or arms work to get out of the way.
Where was Dair?
Muted voices came to Jake through the rubble. The sounds of men seeking their prey. Angry and determined tones got louder and clearer.
“Here’s another one!”
Through the haze of his confusion from the fall, Jake was able to make out a mob of men holding weapons.
“Kill him!”
Ka’nah was right above Jake, blade extended, zooming down for his own kill.
Jake shut his eyes and screamed.
Dair’s voice came immediately to him. “He’s with me!”
His body was yanked hard to the side.
He waited for the pain, but the piercing blow of the weapon never came.
A twisted clang and sickening crash echoed through Jake’s ears.
Jake opened his eyes and saw that Dair was holding his arm.
The aftermath of Jericho falling reminded Jake of the war movies his dad watched. Mountains of rubble rose up around him. Dust hung in the air, making it hard to see and breathe. It was like the pieces of a giant stone puzzle had been dumped out all over the plain … all around Jake.
Ka’nah’s body lay in a broken tangle inches away.
“I was there that day,” Dair said to the men standing in a circle around Jake. “One of your men said we needed to tie a red ribbon in the window as a sign of the oath that our family would be spared.”
The man lowered his sword. “Yes, that was our plan. I’m Joshua.”
“Joshua! Yes, I’m Dair, brother of Rahab. These are my brothers Rehu, Jez, and Sebbi. And our grandfather, Levi.”
Jake couldn’t believe any of this. Joshua? Rahab? And Dair was her brother? And Levi their grandfather? Out of all the people in this forsaken city, Jake had met Dair. Jake shook his head. God really was in control of all things.
“And who is he?” Joshua asked, pointing at Jake.
“He’s with us. He’s family.” Dair smiled at Jake as he spoke the words.
It felt so good to be wanted.