Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days

“He stood in stark terror and amazement as the great machines of war plummeted to the earth all over the city, crashing and burning. But they fell between buildings and in deserted streets and fields. Anything atomic and explosive erupted high in the atmosphere, and Buck stood there in the heat, his face blistering and his body pouring sweat. What in the world was happening? Then came chunks of ice and hailstones big as golf balls, forcing Buck to cover his head with his jacket. The earth shook and resounded, throwing him to the ground. Facedown in the freezing shards, he felt rain wash over him. Suddenly the only sound was the fire in the sky, and it began to fade as it drifted lower. After ten minutes of thunderous roaring, the fire dissipated, and scattered balls of flame flickered on the ground. The firelight disappeared as quickly as it had come. Stillness settled over the land.”

This passage describes Buck’s memory of Russia’s divinely thwarted attack on Israel using vivid details to connote stereotypes of apocalypse. In addition to foreshadowing the tumultuous events to come, Buck’s descriptions also provide a sharp contrasts with the quiet suddenness of the Rapture that has just occurred.

“The expressways that led to the airport looked like they had during the great Chicago blizzards, only without the snow. Cranes and wreckers were trying to clear a path through the front of the terminal so cars could get in and out, but that would take hours, if not days. A snake of humanity wended its way slowly out of the great terminal buildings, between the motionless cars, and onto the ramps. People walking, walking, walking, looking for a cab or a limo.”

The view from the plane offers a preview of the turmoil into which the characters will be inserted when they land. The metaphor of a “snake of humanity” suggests the slow, crawling progress of traffic; it also connotes biblical evil and the baseness of humanity, particularly in a crisis situation.

“A funeral home in Australia reported that nearly every mourner disappeared from one memorial service, including the corpse, while at another service at the same time, only a few disappeared and the corpse remained. Morgues also reported corpse disappearances. At a burial, three of six pallbearers stumbled and dropped a casket when the other three disappeared. When they picked up the casket, it too was empty.”

Descriptions of disappearances at funerals emphasize the difference between the Rapture and death. The fact that both living and dead individuals have disappeared prompts the question of where they have gone and why the phenomenon has affected both the living and the dead. The funereal imagery also emphasizes the sense of mourning present in the early part of the novel, as characters grieve the loss of those who have disappeared.