What People Are Saying
about the Left Behind Series
“This is the most successful Christian-fiction series ever.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins … are doing for Christian fiction what John Grisham did for courtroom thrillers.”
—TIME
“The authors’ style continues to be thoroughly captivating and keeps the reader glued to the book, wondering what will happen next. And it leaves the reader hungry for more.”
—Christian Retailing
“Combines Tom Clancy–like suspense with touches of romance, high-tech flash and Biblical references.”
—The New York Times
“It’s not your mama’s Christian fiction anymore.”
—The Dallas Morning News
“Wildly popular—and highly controversial.”
—USA Today
“Bible teacher LaHaye and master storyteller Jenkins have created a believable story of what could happen after the Rapture. They present the gospel clearly without being preachy, the characters have depth, and the plot keeps the reader turning pages.”
—Moody Magazine
“Christian thriller. Prophecy-based fiction. Juiced-up morality tale. Call it what you like, the Left Behind series … now has a label its creators could never have predicted: blockbuster success.”
—Entertainment Weekly
Tyndale House products by
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
The Left Behind® book series
Left Behind®
Tribulation Force
Nicolae
Soul Harvest
Apollyon
Assassins
The Indwelling
The Mark
Desecration
The Remnant
Armageddon
Book 12—available spring 2004
Other Left Behind® products
Left Behind®: The Kids
Devotionals
Calendars
Abridged audio products
Dramatic audio products
Graphic novels
Gift books
and more …
Other Tyndale House books by
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
Perhaps Today
Are We Living in the End Times?
For the latest information on individual products, release dates,
and future projects, visit www.leftbehind.com
Tyndale House books by
Tim LaHaye
How to Be Happy Though Married
Spirit-Controlled Temperament
Transformed Temperaments
Why You Act the Way You Do
Tyndale House books by
Jerry B. Jenkins
And Then Came You
As You Leave Home
Still the One
Visit Tyndale’s exciting Web site at www.tyndale.com
Discover the latest about the Left Behind series at www.leftbehind.com
Copyright © 2003 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cover photograph courtesy of U.S. Navy website: www.wasp.navy.mil
Author photo by Michael Patrick Brown
Written and developed in association with Tekno Books, Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Designed by Julie Chen
Edited by James Cain
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc. 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.
Published in association with the literary agency of Sterling Lord Literistic, New York, NY.
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s 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.
Left Behind is a registered trademark of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Odom, Mel.
Apocalypse dawn / Mel Odom.
p. cm. (Apocalypse dawn #1)
ISBN 0-8423-8418-9 (sc)
1. Rapture (Christian eschatology)—Fiction. 2. End of the world—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3565.D53A86 2003
813′.54—dc21
2003007784
Printed in the United States of America
07 06 05 04 03
5 4 3 2 1
Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
Epilogue
1
Turkish-Syrian Border
40 Klicks South of Sanliurfa, Turkey
Local Time 0547 Hours
Covered in three days’ worth of perspiration, filth, and fine yellow dust, First Sergeant Samuel Adams “Goose” Gander knelt beside the river that cut through the harsh land of southern Turkey. The stream was muddy brown, low for the season. Fish nearly as long as his arm swam slowly through the water.
Goose leaned forward and filled his canteen, wishing for cooler weather. He popped two water purification tabs into the canteen and shook it.
Then one of the fish he’d been watching jerked violently. Blood sprayed from a huge wound that ran through the creature’s side. Water jumped from the river only a few inches from the dying fish, seeming to hang frozen in the air for a split second. A rainbow flashed through the spray and Goose knew a bullet had caused the splash.
“Sniper!” Goose yelled to his squad as he dove for cover. A second bullet slammed the metal canteen from his hand, leaving his fingers numb from the impact. Goose landed behind a shelf of broken rock.
The Rangers working the water supply detail flattened out against the harsh terrain immediately. Some of them ducked in behind the Hummers and cargo trucks and the big water-pumping unit.
Then the sound of three rifle reports rolled over their position.
“Anybody see anything?” Goose yelled.
“Nothing, Sarge.”
“Thomas?” Goose asked over the headset. Cliff Thomas was the team scout.
“I don’t see anything, Sarge.”
“That’s a heavy-caliber rifle,” another Ranger said. “The sniper could be set up as much as a mile away.”
Goose scanned the broken mountains in the distance to the south. “Anybody hit?”
A chorus of nos followed.
Goose breathed a sigh of relief. Syrian snipers had been something of a problem, but so far he hadn’t lost any of his men. More shots ripped into the river. Two dead fish floated up in response.
Goose didn’t think the shooter was actually aiming for the fish. The creatures were unexpected casualties. But the effect was a sobering one. It was a message of sorts, warning shots fired across the bow of the United States Rangers assigned to the area.
Switching frequencies on the headset, Goose said, “Base.”
“Go, Phoenix Leader. You have Base.”
“I’ve got a sniper hosing my water detail,” Goose said. “I can’t find him. Can you assist?”
“Affirmative, Leader. Base is looking.” Base was the central Ranger command post. The intelligence teams there had access to spy satellites that could peer down into the country and read the time off a man’s watch.
Goose remained pressed into the hard earth, feeling the heat soaking into his body. He listened as Base maneuvered their own sniper team into position.
“Got a line on your troublemakers out there, Leader.”
“Affirmative, Base. Patch me through to the sniper team.” Goose breathed out, blowing dust from the baked grit covering the bare areas where
