Mel Odom - Apocalypse Unleashed: The Earths Last Days: The Battle Rages On

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Combines Tom Clancylike suspense with touches of romance, high-tech flash and Biblical references.

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Tyndale House products by
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The Left Behindbook series
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Tribulation Force

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The Indwelling

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Desecration

The Remnant

Armageddon

Glorious Appearing

The Rising

The Regime

The Rapture

Kingdom Come

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Perhaps Today
Are We Living in the End Times?

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Apocalypse Unleashed

Copyright 2008 by Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph of soldier copyright by Colin Anderson/Brand X/Corbis. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph of city copyright by Olga Kolos/iStock photo. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph of jets copyright by David Pinn/iStock photo. All rights reserved.

Designed by Mark A. Lane II

Published in association with Tekno Books, P.O. Box 8296, Green Bay, WI 65308, 920-437-6711.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Odom, Mel.

Apocalypse unleashed / Mel Odom.
p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4143-1636-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 1-4143-1636-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Rapture (Christian eschatology)Fiction. 2. End of the worldFiction. I. Title.

PS3565.D53A865 2008

813'.54dc22 2008028662

Printed in the United States of America

14 13 12 11 10 09 08
7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Table of Contents

VillageDesignation South 14, U.S. Army Rangers
Seven Klicks North-Northeast of Harran
Sanliurfa Province, Turkey
Local Time 2104 Hours

Goose drove his boot through the frail wooden door of the burning house. The door ripped free of its hinges with a loud screech that nearly drowned out the noise of the flames greedily consuming the structure. With an arm wrapped around his face to protect it from the questing, twisting flames, he dashed through the doorway.

Inside the small room, he looked for the people he was certain hed seen through the window during his approach. Smoke blurred his vision and stung his eyes.

He pulled his assault rifle to his shoulder immediately and assumed a profile position that streamlined his body to make a smaller target. Hed been carrying the weapon for so many years the M-4A1 felt like a part of him.

Im First Sergeant Gander of the United States Army Rangers, he said in his command voice, stern and direct. Im here to get you out.

Two teenagers hunkered down beside a patchwork chair that was probably a castoff from a hotel in Sanliurfa. They stared at Goose. The older one, a girl of maybe sixteen, held a hand over her mouth and nose and the other hand over her younger sisters.

Goose lowered his weapon. Its all right. Smoke burned his sinus passages and made his throat raw. You need to get out of here. Do you speak English?

The girls just looked at him with fear-filled eyes.

A pool of flame suddenly rushed across the ceiling like an incoming tide. The surface burned black in seconds and chunks fell. The fire breathed in cracks and whooshes as it claimed new territory.

Goose stepped toward the girls.

The older one wrapped the younger one protectively and pulled her back. They coughed and hacked as the smoke threatened to overcome them.

Holding a hand out, Goose said, Please come with me. He wished he had the words to make them understand. Since hed been stationed as part of a United Nations peacekeeping effort along the Turkish-Syrian border, he hadnt learned more than a few words of Turkish. Making matters more problematic, the area also contained several Arabic and Kurdish languages and dialects. The villages and towns were often melting pots for several cultures. He had no idea what language the girls spoke.

At the other end of the room, a timber sagged with a loud crack. A large section of the roof pulled free and dropped to the floor.

The girls screamed and held each other.

Please, Goose said as he continued to hold out his hand. Please. The heat boiled all around him and the air thickened with smoke. He coughed.

The younger girl looked at the older one and spoke rapidly. She pointed meaningfully at Goose.

Goose knew he wasnt at his best. He was dressed in sweat- and dirt-stained khaki BDUs, and he was armed with the assault rifle and a Beretta M9 pistol. A bandolier of extra rifle magazines crossed his Kevlar jacket. He hadnt shaved or rested well in days. He knew that, at the moment, he didnt look like the kind of guy anyone should trust.

United States Army, Goose said. United Nations. Good guy. Those words had served him in tours of duty in several foreign countries. A lot of people who didnt understand English at least understood those words.

Good guy, the younger girl said hopefully and turned to the older one. Good guy.

The older girl shook her head vehemently. She spoke rapidly, but the smoke choked her out. When the younger girl tried to get up, the older girl wrapped her arms around her and pulled her back.

Please, Goose said again, youve got to come with me.

The younger girl fought off the older one and struggled to get up. A coughing jag took her strength away and almost knocked her off her feet.