Hours later, Tom and David had struggled against the crowd of onlookers to reach Jesus, to see their friend before he died, but the crowd was too thick and unfriendly to recognizable followers of the man they had nailed to a cross. Tom and David retreated to a hillside opposite Golgotha-which resembled the shape of a human skull-atop which the Romans had crucified three men. Even from his distant viewpoint, Tom could see the stained dirt coating the top of Golgotha. He could see blood dripping from Jesus, his friend, hanging on a cross, twitching and dying for teaching his beliefs- how could these people think that deserved death? It was almost too surreal to believe.
Standing beside Tom in equal shock and horror were David, Matthew, Peter, Mary, Martha and Lazarus. They stood silently on the hill, watching, waiting for the inevitable, afraid that any utterance, any disturbance might permanently break their spirits. But when a voice broke through the air, it wasn’t one of them; it was Jesus, pushing out his words with his last breath.
“My God, My God,” Jesus’s voice echoed from Golgotha, “Why have you forsaken me?”
The voice of Jesus was recognizable, but it was coarse, filled with anguish. Then Jesus’s body went limp, hanging tight on the nails in his wrists and feet. Tom found his face wet and his throat constricting. Tom fell to his knees and wept quietly, completely unaware of how his friends were reacting.
Mary crumpled into tears and fell toward the ground. Lazarus saw Mary fall through his clouded, moist eyes and caught her just before her head hit the ground. Martha was wailing loudly into Matthew’s chest as he held her tightly. Peter stormed off in a rage, cursing the Romans and Pharisees under his breath. And David… Tom looked up at David who was crying, but not like everyone else, who had seen a friend die that they would never see again. David was smiling through his tears.
Confused thoughts raced through Tom’s mind in an effort to make sense of David’s reaction. Could David really be so confident that Jesus would rise again that he could smile at Jesus’s death? Did he really have that much hope? Was he really that naive?
Tom became aware of his surroundings again and heard Mary crying. As he stood and walked to her, she saw him coming and fell into his arms. Tom held Mary as tightly as he could and she squeezed back. They had both felt the pain of loss before, but now they each had someone to share it with. Tom placed his cheek against hers and held her head in his hand.
“Take me home,” she said.
Tom looked toward David, “David.”
David had watched Tom with Mary. He had heard her request. “Go.”
With nothing else to be said, Tom turned with Mary and they left. Lazarus and Martha followed close behind.
David turned his gaze back to Jesus on the cross. Matthew stood next to him. “You’re the most faithful man I’ve had the pleasure of knowing,” Matthew said.
“Not faithful enough,” David replied, as he looked at Matthew, who appeared uncommonly small.
“None of us are,” Matthew said.
The two stared at Jesus for a few moments, watching as the bloodthirsty crowd dispersed. Matthew shook his head. “I better find Peter before he gets into trouble.”
David nodded and placed his hand on Matthew’s shoulder. “Until he rises again.”
Matthew smiled. “Indeed.”
With that, Matthew headed down the hill, leaving David alone.
After a step forward, and then another, David found himself walking toward Jesus at a steady pace. He reached the bottom of the hill, looked up at Golgotha and could no longer see Jesus or the cross. David started up the hill and became aware of how few people were still around. And those that remained were leaving.
The top of Golgotha came quickly as David walked forward, keeping his eyes on his feet. When the dirt beneath his feet turned red, David stopped. He stood still, afraid to look up, afraid to see what he had only witnessed from a distance. But his eyes wandered briefly and found the bottom of a wooden post. He followed the post up and froze on a pair of pierced, bloody feet: Jesus’s feet.
David looked up all at once and found Jesus, hanging on the cross, dead. His wrists were nailed to the wood by what looked like railroad spikes, as were his feet, and his side was wet with what remained of Jesus’s coagulating blood, where a Roman guard had stabbed him after his death. Above Jesus’s head, written in Greek were the words: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. David’s knees shook and gave way. He fell into a kneeling position and found his emotions exploding. He was crying uncontrollably, sobbing loudly. His nose became blocked with mucus. His eyes clouded with thick tears. His head pounded with every quickening heartbeat.
“I’m sorry,” he said like a child pleading to angry parents. “I’m so sorry.”
David’s memories of Jesus were triggered and he remembered their first encounter on the Mount of Olives. David had lost control of his emotions on that day as well. And Jesus had stopped his outburst by reaching out, touching David and saying, “Peace be with you.” But Jesus wouldn’t be reaching out for David today. He wouldn’t be calming David with kind words. Well, David thought, at least things couldn’t get any worse than this.
Whack! David slapped his neck. Something had stung him. He crushed the bug with his hand and brought the remains down in front of his eyes, but he couldn’t see through his blurred eyes. A tingle at the back of David’s neck took his attention away from Jesus hanging above him. What kind of insect had stung him?
David wiped his eyes and blinked several times, making a concerted effort to calm himself and clear his vision. He stared at the insect in his hand. It was still too blurry to make out in detail but he could see that it was a copperish color from front to back. He could also feel that it was hard and heavier than an insect should be. David blinked three times and on the third time, his vision cleared.
David looked at the bug and stood immediately to his feet. The insect in his hand was crushed, but he could make out its components…components on an insect? This was a machine! David saw infinitesimal wings made from a clear, ultra light polymer. He saw miniature gears that gave the robotic wonder life. He saw a hypodermic needle that served as a stinger and he saw the small, empty vial attached to it.
David felt his neck. It was swelling quickly and the tingling sensation was spreading down his spine. David’s eyes widened. LightTech was still trying to kill them, and this time they might succeed!
David ran from Golgotha without looking back. He sprinted down the hill and turned left toward Bethany, toward the home of Lazarus. Toward Tom.
David’s chest felt like it was going to explode, but not from running. He had covered the distance between Golgotha and Lazarus’s home in twenty minutes and now was only one hundred yards from his destination, but he wasn’t sure he would make it that far. His eyes were swollen so badly he couldn’t see more than a sliver of light. His thighs stabbed with pain. His calf muscles felt as though they were being twisted into knots. His arms were limp and his organs burned within him. LightTech had picked a powerful poison and it was working fast. David only hoped he could warn Tom in time.
“David!” Lazarus yelled from the home. “David, come quickly! You-”
As blood began to form a rim around his lower lip, David thought Lazarus must have noticed he was moving like the walking dead. But what worried David was that Lazarus sounded panicked before he saw that David wasn’t right. “Tom…” It was all David could say.
After covering the three-mile trek from Golgotha to Bethany, David couldn’t go another step. He fell to his knees with all his weight, tearing them open, blood mixing with dirt. Lazarus had starting running toward David an instant after he saw him, which was good, because he arrived just in time to catch David. Lazarus hoisted David over his shoulder and ran for the house like a linebacker.
The conversation between Mary and Martha was muffled and fading as David struggled to listen in. To makes things worse, Mary’s voice was quivering too much to tell what she was saying, and the ringing in David’s ears was growing louder. David suddenly felt himself lying on his back.
“Lazarus, what’s-” Martha said, though David couldn’t see her.
“He’s sick too.”
“What sickness is this? What could do this to a man?”
“I don’t know…”
“Mary should say goodbye.”
David struggled to make out the voices of Martha and Lazarus, but he understood the meaning of the
