Chapter 27 sunrise and sunset

I drove up that little hill.Standing on the top of the mountain, you can see the Camden Ranch below.I parked the car out of sight of the farm.After I turned off the headlights, I saw a predawn twilight in the eastern sky.The ominous light hidden in danger made the stars that reappeared in the sky gradually dim. That's when I started shaking all over. I can't help myself.I opened the car door and fell out.I forced myself to stand up by force of will.The mountains and fields in front of me are like a lost continent, slowly emerging from the darkness.The khaki hills and deserted grasslands turned back into deserts.A long shadow covered the far away farmhouse.The shrubs and cacti trembled in the wind, and I trembled too. It was fear, not the kind of mind-wrenching restlessness caused by the whirling of time, but a panic that came from the bottom of my heart.That kind of fear spreads like a disease in the muscles and internal organs of the whole body, as if the time limit for the death row prisoner to wait for execution is over, as if the day of graduation, as if the prison cart and the gallows are slowly approaching from the east.

I wondered if Diane was just as frightened, I wondered.I thought to myself, I don't know if I can comfort her.I don't know if there is any way to comfort myself first. Another gust of wind blew up a cloud of dust along the shriveled mountain road.Perhaps the wind was the first harbinger of the imminent approach of the great swollen sun.It was the wind blowing from the hot world. I found a place to lie in wait, hoping no one saw me.I was still trembling, struggling to press Simon's phone number on the phone's buttons. After a few rings, he picked up the phone.I held the phone close to my ear to keep the wind from blowing in.

He said: You shouldn't have come. Am I interrupting your rapture? I can't speak. Simon, where is she?Where in the house? Where are you? on top of the hill.The sky was brighter now, very quickly, and the entire western horizon was a purple bruise.The farmhouse was more clearly visible now.The farmhouse didn't seem to have changed much since I was last here.The barn next to it has been completely new and seems to have been refinished and repainted. A long ditch was dug parallel to the side of the barn, which was filled with soil and raised like a long small mound, which looked thrilling.

Maybe it's a recently laid drainpipe, maybe it's a sewage trough, maybe it's a large tomb. I said: I want to go in and find her. Totally impossible. I guess she's in the house, in a room on the second floor, right? even if you saw her Simon, tell her I'm going in. I saw a figure below walking between the house and the barn.Not Simon, not Aaron.Thorey.That man looked about fifty kilograms lighter than Brother Sorey.Maybe Dan.Reverend Condon.He carried a pail of water in each hand and looked in a hurry.Something must have happened in the barn. Said Simon: You are playing with your own life.

I laughed out loud and couldn't help it. I said: are you in the barn, or are you in the house?Condon's in the barn, isn't he?Where are Thorey and Mu Isaac?How can I avoid them? At this time, I suddenly felt a sense of pressure on the back of my neck, as if a warm hand was pressing on it.I turned to look. That's sunshine.The edge of the sun has been exposed to the horizon.The sun shone on my car, the fence, the rocks, the bumpy cactus, casting long purple shadows on the ground. Taylor?Tyler, there's no way to avoid them.you must Simon's voice was suddenly drowned out by a burst of static.The sun must have been shining directly on the aerostat that transmitted the phone signal, causing the signal to drop.I unconsciously pressed the redial button, but the phone was dead.

I squatted where I was.The sun behind him is three-quarters of the way out.I glanced back, then quickly looked away, both confused and scared.The disc-shaped sun was extremely huge, emitting orange-red light, covered with sunspots, which looked like abscesses one by one.The nearby desert kicked up clouds of dust that blotted out the sun. So I stood up.Maybe you are dead, maybe you will be sunburned to death before you know it.While not unbearably hot, the tissue beneath the skin may be beginning to change. X-rays pierce the air like invisible bullets.So I got up and started walking down the filled road to the farmhouse.I have exposed my whereabouts, but I am not carrying a weapon.I was unarmed, but no one stopped me along the way.As I was getting close to the wooden porch, Brother Sorey rushed out.His massive 110-kilogram body burst through the screen door and came out, hitting me next to the head with the butt of a rifle.

☆ Brother Sorey didn't kill me, maybe because he didn't want to have blood on his hands when he greeted the blissful rapture.He left me in the spare room upstairs and locked the door. After a few hours, I finally sat down without feeling nauseous. The feeling of dizziness finally disappeared.I went to the window and drew up the yellow paper roller blind.The window was facing away from the sun, and from here the farm and barn were bathed in a strong orange flame.Although the air was hot, nothing seemed to burn.The cat in the barn ignored the fiery sky and licked the dirty water from the dark gutter.I guess that cat should live until the sun goes down, and I should too.

I want to pull up the old window sash, but I may not be able to jump out from here.However, the sash did not move at all.The window frame had been cut away long ago, the balance bar would not move at all, and the sashes had been glued to the paint long ago. There was no furniture in the room except a bed.I couldn't find any tools except the phone in my pocket. The only door, the door is thick solid wood, I can't possibly have that kind of strength to break it.Diane was probably nearby, just a wall away from me.But I can't decide, and I can't check it out. However, when I had several thoughts in my head at the same time, I would feel a sharp pain in the place where the gun butt knocked on my head, and I felt a little nauseous.I had to lie down again.

☆ Around three o'clock in the afternoon, the wind died down.I staggered to the window.I could see the edge of the sun hanging over the house and barn.The sun is so big that it seems to be falling all the time, and the distance is so close that you can touch it with your hand. Since morning, the temperature in the upstairs room has been getting higher and higher.I can't tell what temperature it is, but it feels like thirty-seven degrees Celsius, and it's getting hotter.Although it was hot, it didn't seem like it would kill people, at least not immediately.I wish Jason was here so he could explain to me what is called thermoelectric global extinction.Maybe he will draw a chart and mark where the trend line will be fatal.

The heat comes from the ground that is scorched by the sun. Dan.Condon made several trips back and forth between the barn and the house.He was easily recognizable in the bright orange sunlight.His dress is full of the flavor of the nineteenth century, with a boxy beard and a face full of holes, which is extremely ugly, as if President Lincoln was wearing blue jeans, but his legs became a little longer, and the expression on his face It also appears more decisive.I knocked on the glass of the window desperately, but he didn't even lift his head. Then I tapped on the wall of the cubicle, thinking maybe Diane would respond.But there was no response.

I started getting dizzy again, so I went back to bed.The air in the closed room was stuffy, and I was sweating profusely, soaking the sheets. I fell asleep, or passed out. ☆ When I woke up, I thought the room was on fire.Later I found out that it was just because the air in the room was stagnant and the heat couldn't escape, and the setting sun was surprisingly big. I went over to the window again. The sun had sunk to the western horizon, and was sinking fast.High in the sky, strands of thin clouds drew a white arc in the dark sky.A wisp of mist floated from the sun-baked ground.I saw someone driving my car down the hill to the left of the barn.There is no doubt that the key must have been taken by them.However, there was not much gas left in the car, and they couldn't drive very far. However, I lived through the day after all.I thought to myself: We've all lived through this day, the two of us, Diane and I.Of course, billions of people survived, too.So, this is <The Bible.Adagio of Apocalypse>.We seem to be placed in an oven, raised a few degrees at a time, and slowly roasted to death.However, even if it doesn't bake to death, eventually the sun will hollow out the earth's ecosystem. The huge sun finally disappeared, and the temperature seemed to drop ten degrees instantly. Scattered stars pierced through the veil-like clouds. I haven't eaten all day and I'm terribly thirsty.Maybe Condon was going to keep me here, to dehydrate me to death. Maybe he just forgot I existed.I can't even imagine Pastor Dan explaining what happened today.Will he feel that his innocence has finally been cleared, or will he be terrified?Maybe it feels like both. It was getting darker in the room.There was no light in the sky outside, and there were no electric lights in the room.However, I faintly heard a faint sound of an engine.That must be the petrol engine alternator.Light shines through the windows on the ground floor as well as in the barn. So, there was nothing tech-related in the room, except for my phone in my pocket.I took out my mobile phone and tried to press the power button in a bored way, just to see the fluorescent light on the display screen. Unexpectedly, the opportunity came. ☆ Simon? no respond. Simon, is that you?Can you hear me? Still no response.Suddenly, I heard a faint, computer-like digitally synthesized voice: I was almost scared to death by you.I thought the phone was broken. Only unusable during the day. Interference from the sun blocks communications from high-altitude aerostats.But now, the sun has gone around to the other side of the earth.The voice of the mobile phone sounds like the power of the signal transmission is very low, and there is static noise. Maybe the satellite is slightly damaged, but it seems that the communication function has been restored. He said: I'm sorry that this happened to you, but I warned you long ago. Where are you?In the barn or in the house? He hesitated.in the house. I've been looking out all day today, but I can't see Mrs. Condon or Mrs. Thorley or the kids.I didn't see Mu Isaac's family either.Did something happen to them? They are gone. are you sure? am i sureOf course I'm sure.Diane wasn't the only one who was sick.She was the last to get sick.Teddy.Mu Isaac's youngest daughter was the first to get sick, then his son, then Teddy himself.Later, when he found out that his kids were, uh, obviously very sick and didn't seem to be getting better, so he just drove them away in a pickup truck.Pastor Dan's wife went with them. when did it happen? months ago.Not long after, Allen's wife and children also left by themselves.Their beliefs are not strong enough, and they are afraid of being infected. Did you see them leave with your own eyes?Are you sure? Of course, why do you ask? Something seemed to be buried in the gutter next to the barn. Oh that!You're right, there were some dead cows buried inside. What did you say? There was a man named Boswell.Geller, he has a ranch over there in Ceribonita.He was a friend of the church, a friend of Pastor Dan, before the Jordan Chapel reorganization.He is breeding red heifers.But last year people from the Ministry of Agriculture started investigating him.At that time, he happened to have made progress!Boswell and Pastor Dan want to breed red bulls of every breed in the world, because that symbolizes the conversion of heretics.Pastor Dan said that what is mentioned in Chapter 19 of "Numbers" is the event that a red heifer will be born on the day of the end of the world.We will search all five continents of the world, search any place where the Gospel has been preached, find red cows, let them interbreed, and breed this red heifer.Sacrifice is a real ceremony, but also a symbol.According to the sacrifice described in the Bible, the ashes of the heifer have a power to cleanse the less clean.However, on the day of the end of the world, when the sun swallows the red heifer, the ashes will be scattered to the east, west, north, south, and cleanse the entire earth, washing away the death on the earth.That's what's happening now. <Hebrews> Chapter 9 If the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of heifers are sprinkled on the unclean, and their bodies are clean, how much more will the blood of Christ cleanse your hearts from your dead works , that you serve the living God?so of course Do you keep those cows here? Only some.We smuggled fifteen embryos out of the country before the Department of Agriculture searched and seized them. Is that when your people started getting sick? Not only people get sick, but cows get sick too.We dug that trench next to the barn and buried all but the three original breeds of dead cattle in it. Weakness, unsteady walking, weight loss, and finally death, right? That's right, almost all of them. How would you know? These are all symptoms of cardiovascular exhaustion.Those cows are carriers.Diane suffered from this disease. Then he didn't speak for a long time.Finally, Simon finally said: I can't tell you this. I said: I'm upstairs in the back room i know you are there. Then you come and help me open the lock. no. why not?Is someone watching you? I can't just let you out like this.I shouldn't even be talking to you.Tyler, I'm busy.I'm making dinner for Diane. Isn't she too sick to eat? She can eat a little if I feed her. Let me out and no one will know. no. She needs to see a doctor. Even if I wanted to let you out, I couldn't.The key is with Brother Aaron. I thought about it, and then said: Well, when you get her something to eat later, give her your mobile phone.You said, she wanted to talk to me, right? Most of the time she speaks incoherently. Do you think she was incoherent when she said she wanted to find me? I can't tell you any more. Anyway, you can just give her the phone, Simon, Simon? There is no sound. ☆ I went to the window, looked out, and waited. I saw Pastor Dan come out of the barn with two empty buckets of water, go into the house, and go out with two buckets of boiling water.After a few minutes, Alan.Thorey also ran to the barn to find him. Now, only Simon and Diane were left in the house.Maybe he was bringing her something to eat, feeding her. I couldn't wait to make the call, but held back.I have to wait a little longer, when the time is right, when the night is calm. I look at the barn.Dazzling lights leaked from the gaps in the barn's horizontal walls, as if someone had erected a large industrial lamp.Condon ran back and forth throughout the day.There must be something going on in the barn.Simon didn't tell me what they were doing there. I looked at the faint luminous display on the watch, another hour had passed. Then, vaguely, I heard someone close the door, and a sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.After a while, I saw Simon go over to the barn. He didn't look up at me. After he entered the barn, he never came out again.Thorley and Condon and he were in the barn.If he still had that phone with him, if he was stupid enough to set it to ring loudly, calling him at this hour might get him in trouble.anyway.Actually, I don't really care what happens to him. However, if he had already given Diane his phone, now would be the time. I pressed the number. Hello.It was Diane's voice. Then, her voice rose slightly to a questioning tone.Hello? Her voice is breathless and weak.Just by the sound of her voice she knew she needed to see a doctor. I said: Diane, it's me.I'm Taylor. I tried to hold back my excitement.My heart was pounding like my chest was about to explode. She said: Tyler, Tessaimon told me you might call. I had to pay all my attention to hear what she was saying.Her voice was weak, it sounded like it was squeezed out of her throat, and she was almost lifeless.This is a symptom of cardiovascular exhaustion.The disease attacks the lungs first, then the heart.The coordination of the pace of invasion is like efficient military operations.Lung tissue is scarred and blistered, and less and less oxygen is being delivered to the bloodstream.The lack of oxygen supply to the heart reduces the efficiency of blood compression and relaxation.Cardiovascular debilitating germs aggravate both of these deficiencies, causing breathing to become more and more labored and seriously affecting the functioning of the whole body. I said: I am near you, Diane, very close. nearby?can you come and see me I can't wait to dig a hole in the wall.I'll be seeing you soon, I promise.I want to take you out of here and help you get well. I heard her inhale hard, it was painful.I thought to myself, is she unconscious again?Later I heard her say: I seem to have seen the sun That's not the end of the world.Anyway, the end of the world is not here yet. not yet? not yet. She said: Simon. How about Simon? He was so disappointed. Diane, you have cardiovascular weakness.I'm almost certain that Mu Isaac's entire family has the disease, too.They are smart and know how to go to the doctor for help.This disease can be cured well.However, I did not tell her that this disease can only be cured to a certain extent, and if it develops to the end stage, it will be very difficult to treat.However, I must take you out of here before I can help you heal. I miss you. I miss you too.Did you understand what I just said? understood. can you go anytime when the time comes The time is coming.You should rest now, but we have to move faster.Do you understand, Diane? She said weakly: Simon, very disappointed. you rest well, i Suddenly, I heard someone opening the door with a key.I closed the phone and stuffed it in my pocket.The door opens, Alan.Sorey stood in the doorway, rifle in hand, panting as if he had run up the stairs.Against the dim light in the corridor, he looked like a black shadow. I took a few steps back and leaned my shoulders against the wall. He said: "I saw the sticker on your license plate, that's a doctor's logo.You are a doctor, right? I nod. He said: Then you come with me. ☆ Thorey escorted me down the stairs, out the back door, and toward the barn. The moon was tinted amber by the huge, swollen sun, and it looked crumpled and smaller than it used to be.The moon hangs in the sky on the eastern horizon.The night air is cool, almost intoxicating.I took a few deep breaths.This brief bliss did not last long.When Suo Lei suddenly pushed open the barn door, a cold animal stench rushed towards him, which was a bit like the smell of animal feces, urine and blood in a slaughterhouse. go in.Thorey said.He gave me a push with his free hand. It was a halogen light hanging from wires over an open cowshed.The wires ran into a fence behind the barn, where there seemed to be a gasoline engine generator humming, and it sounded like someone in the distance was starting a motorcycle and pushing the accelerator. Dan.Condon stood by the open door of the bullpen with his hands in a bucket of hot water.He looked up and watched us walk in.He frowned.Under the illumination of a single light source, the contours of the facial features on his face appear more distinct in black and white.However, he looked less intimidating than I remembered.In fact, he looked sluggish, haggard, and even a little sick.Perhaps he too had contracted incipient cardiovascular wasting.He said: Close the door. Allen reached out and pushed, and the door closed.Simon, who was about a few paces away from Condon, glanced at me nervously. Condon said: Come over here, I need you to do me a favor.Your physician specialty may be used. In the stable, a scrawny heifer lay on a pile of dirty straw.It is getting ready to give birth. The heifer was lying on its side, its rear exposed outside the stall, its tail tied around its neck with a thin rope so as not to interfere with the birth.Its amniotic sac jutted out of the pussy, and the straw beside it was covered with bloody mucus. I said: I'm not a veterinarian. Condon said: I know.There was a subdued hysteria in his eyes, as if he had thrown a party and it got out of control, the guests went wild, the neighbors complained, the bottles slammed out of the window like mortar shells.However, we need help. I have limited knowledge about breeding cattle and production, most of them are Jasmine.Seagran told me.That was her experience growing up on a ranch as a child, and those experiences sounded uncomfortable.But at least Congdon has the basics ready: hot water, sanitizer, production chains, and a large bottle of mineral oil.The bottle was already covered in bloody fingerprints. Condon said: "It is a mixed breed, including Anglo, Danish red, Belarusian red.These are just its more recent lineages.However, Brother Geller told me that mixed breeds have a high risk of dystocia.Dystocia means that it will be very hard to give birth.Mixed breed calves are very difficult to produce.It has been struggling for almost four hours now.We have to drag the calf out. When Condon spoke, his tone was flat and unchanged, as if he was teaching a group of stupid students.He didn't seem to care who I was or how I got here.In his eyes, I was just useful, someone who was available to help. I said: I need water. There is a bucket of water there to wash your hands. I'm not trying to wash my hands.I haven't had a drop of water since last night. Condon hesitated for a moment, as if he didn't understand what I was saying.Then he nodded and said: Simon, go get some water. Simon seemed to be the one running errands among the three of them.He bowed his head and said: Taylor, I will definitely bring you something to drink.When Thorey opened the door to let him out, he couldn't keep looking me in the eye. Condon turned and walked back to the stables.The exhausted cow lay there panting.Flies, busy and happy, settled on the cow's flank.A few perched on Condon's shoulders, and he didn't notice them.Condon dabbed some mineral oil on his hand and squatted on the ground trying to open the cow's birth canal.His expression was contorted, looking urgent and disgusted.Before he could do anything, another pile of blood and mucus gushed out from the birth canal, covering the calf's head.The whole body of the cow contracted violently, but the calf's head still couldn't come out.That calf was too big.Molly had told me about the birth of too big calves.While not as miserable as giving birth with a breech presentation, or giving birth with half of your hip stuck, it can still be uncomfortable to deal with. To make matters worse, the cow was clearly ill, with green mucus dripping from her mouth.Even when the contractions were paused, it struggled to breathe.I wondered if I should tell Condon that the cow was sick.His holy calf was now infected too. However, Pastor Dan clearly didn't know, and didn't care.Congdon was the last remaining member of the Dispensationalist sect in the Jordan Chapel Church.It has almost become a one-person sect now, with only two believers left, Sorey and Simon.It's really hard for me to imagine how strong his faith is, and it can support him all the way to the end of the world.When he spoke, there seemed to be suppressed hysteria in his tone.Maverick, that calf is red Allen, look at that calf. Allen.Sorey had been standing by the door with his rifle.He walked over to the bullpen and took a look.The calf was indeed red, soaked in a pool of blood, and its whole body was limp and motionless. Thorey said: Is it breathing? Condon said: Wait a minute.He looked a little distraught, as if enjoying the moment.He sincerely believes that at this moment, the whole world will enter the water constant while the sky is spinning.Come on, put the chain on the crotch of the cow's hooves, and tie it now. Soley gave me a glare, which meant to warn me: shut up.So the two of us did what Condon told us, with blood on our arms stretching down to our elbows.The spectacle of dragging an oversized calf out of its womb looks bloody and absurd, an odd mix of biological science and violence.It takes at least two strong men to help hold the cow in order to get the calf out.Production chains are used to hold the cows by their feet.The timing of dragging must match the contraction of the cow, otherwise it may tear the cow to pieces. But the cow was so weak that she was almost dying.The calf's head hung limp and lifeless.Apparently stillborn. I looked at Sorey, and Sorey looked at me.Neither of us made a sound.Condon said: Drag him out first, then resuscitate him. A cool breeze suddenly blew in from the door.It was Simon who came back with a bottle of mineral water in his hand.He looked at us with wide eyes, and then at the half-born calf, his face suddenly became very pale. He finally said it: your water is brought. The cow flinched weakly again, but still couldn't give birth.I let go of the chain in my hand.Condon said: Boy, you drink some water first, we will continue later. I'm going to wash, at least my hands. There is a bucket of clean hot water next to the haystack, you can wash it there.Move faster.He closed his eyes, tight shut, as if common sense and faith were at war within him. I wash my hands to wash away the germs.Sorey stared at me.His hands were on the chain, but the rifle was leaning against the rail of the cattle stall, within easy reach. When Simon handed me the bottle, I leaned over his shoulder and said: I have to get Diane out of here before I can save her.Do you understand?If you don't help me, I can't do it alone.We need a car in good shape, fill it up and get Diane in the car.Better go now before Condon finds out that the calf is dead. Simon gasped.Is that cow really dead?He spoke so loudly that it was clear that neither Thorley nor Condon heard him. I said: the calf is not breathing and the cow is dying. But is that calf red?Is the whole body red?Are there any white or black spots?Is the whole body red? Simon, even if that calf was some kind of fire truck that could put out the fires of the end of the world, it wouldn't save Diane's life. He looked at me with the expression on his face as if he heard his beloved puppy being run over by a car.I wondered in my heart, when his full of faith turned into nothingness and confusion, whether the process was a blink of an eye, or it was extremely long, as if the joy in his heart was lost bit by bit, like fine sand in an hourglass. I said: Ask her yourself if necessary.You go ask her to see if she wants to leave. I don't know if she is awake enough now, and if she has a way to answer him.I don't know if she still remembers what I told her. He said: I love her far more than love life itself. Condon yelled from inside: Come and help! I drank half of the bottle of water in one go, and Simon was still standing there staring at me with tears in his eyes.The taste of water is really sweet, clean and pure. Then I was back inside again, holding the production chain with Sorey, pulling while watching the pregnant cow struggle and convulse in death. ☆ Near midnight, we finally pulled the calf out.It was lying on the straw, twisted into a ball.The forefoot was pressed against the limp body, and the blood-red eyes were lifeless. Condon stood for a while astride the calf.Then he said to me: Is there any way you can save it? Do you want me to bring it back to life?I'm afraid I can't. Thorey gave me a hard look, as if to say: Stop torturing him, he's had enough. I walked slowly to the door.The Simons had disappeared an hour ago.At that time, we were still fighting in a pool of blood.Blood gushed out in waves, and the hay that was already wet with blood was finally soaked in a pool of blood.Our clothes, arms, and palms were also covered in blood.There was a gap in the half-open door, and I saw someone outside, that person was on the other side of the car, and seemed to be doing something.That's my car.I saw that the man was wearing a checked suit, much like the shirt that Simon was wearing. He seems to be doing something outside.Wish I knew what he was doing. Thorey looked at the dead calf, then at Dan.Reverend Condon, and then looked at the calf.He tugged at his beard as if he didn't mind the blood getting on it.He said: "Maybe we should burn it. Condon looked at him with contempt and despair in his eyes. Thorey said: "I'm just saying maybe. Then Simon pushed open the barn door, and a cool breeze blew in.We turned our heads to look.The moon behind him looked huge and alien. He said: "She's already in the car and ready to go.He spoke to me, but stared at Thorley and Condon sternly, as if to see how they would react. Reverend Dan just shrugged, as if mundane affairs didn't concern him anymore. I look at Brother Allen.Allen slowly approached the rifle. I said: I don't care what you want to do, but anyway, I'm going out. He stopped suddenly halfway through his hand, and frowned.He looked confused, as if trying to make sense of what had happened.He has gone through many things to come to this moment.All things are interlocking, and one thing develops into the next as a matter of course, as if stepping on stones to cross a brook.Everything is so logical, yet, yet His hands hung limply.He turned to Reverend Dan. I think it's okay to burn it, it shouldn't matter. I went to the gate without looking back, and went to Simon.Sorey might change his mind and grab his rifle and aim it at me.But I don't care about him anymore. I heard him say: Maybe we should burn it before daybreak, before the sun comes out. ☆ When we got to the car, Simon said: You drive.There's still gasoline in the tank, and a few spare cans in the trunk.I have prepared some food and several bottles of mineral water.You drive, I will sit in the back and support her so that the car does not shake too much. I started the car and drove slowly up the hill.The car passed the half-log fence, passed the moonlit cactus, and ran towards the road.