The Underground

The Underground is the sixth book in the Left Behind:The Kids series. The novel opens with Vicki feeling worried for her friend Shelly and overcome with an urge to pray for her. Judd decides to run with the idea Vicki mentioned at the end of Nicolae High, namely the publication of an underground newspaper, which he calls 'the Underground'.

Vicki is annoyed by this as Judd is taking the idea over, after Judd spends a whole night 'mixing fonts' in order to produce a title page for the Underground, Vicki is not impressed. She wonders why so much time needs to be spent on 'the incidentals'. A fierce argument ensues, which results in Ryan and Vicki leaving the house for a walk, whilst Judd and Lionel stay to work on the Underground.

Lionel and Judd go shopping, Lionel reminds Judd of First John 1:9 and Judd confesses his sins and realises he needs to apologise to Vicki and Ryan. Lionel buys a copy of a magazine containing an article by Cameron "Buck" Williams.

Vicki and Ryan eventually return after receiving a lift with Vicki's gym teacher. Judd apologises and everyone agrees to work together on the newspaper again.

Sadly, after returning from church Judd rushes to the den to find out that the computer has crashed thereby meaning all work has been lost. It is not recoverable, but Judd says they are going to run with what has already been written and use the article Lionel bought in the magazine by Williams.

The next day Judd and Vicki deliver the newspapers to school however it does not go as well as planned when the vast majority of the papers are confiscated by Coach Handlesman.

Vicki is called out of class and asked to take a call from her mother in the office. Vicki is confused as she lost her mother, Dawn Byrne,in the Rapture. It turns out however that the mystery caller is Vicki's friend, Shelly Brown, who asks Vicki to meet her at the trailer park that afternoon.

Vicki goes to see Shelly, when she arrives at Prospect Gardens she is stunned to see Shelly has called her 'to say goodbye'. Shelly has overdosed on sleeping pills and wants to kill herself. Vicki rings for an ambulance and goes with Shelly to the hospital.

Judd meanwhile is frantic with worry, he has no idea where Vicki has gone. He is approached by Mark Eisman and John Preston, two other believers, who say that they can help with the publication of the Underground. They also give the Young Trib Force a watch gadget which they can use to get in touch with each other.

Vicki eventually phones Judd telling him that she is at the hospital. The Young Trib Force decide to deliver the Underground once more. John Preston and Mark Eisman used to work on the school magazine, now re-titled the 'Olive Branch'. Both of them therefore have inside knowledge relating to the distribution of the newspaper. The kids work together to slip a copy of the Underground into each and every copy of the Olive Branch.

The next morning Vicki decides to go to the hospital before going to school to check up on Shelly, the rest of the Young Trib Force go to school. Judd waits in anticipation for the discovery of the Underground, he stalls the teacher, as he does not want the Underground to be discovered saying that perhaps the school have included the Underground in the school paper due to 'free speech' which they had been told for so long was crucial. As soon as the lesson ends the teacher takes the Underground to the office.

Vicki speaks with Shelly and tries to find out what happened, Shelly is tired and the doctor tells her to return later. Vicki is stunned to see tens of students outside the office when she returns to school, all of whom used to work on the paper and are being questioned about potential involvement in the Underground. All of a sudden the fire alarm goes off.

Later at lunch, Mark describes how he thought he was done for, 'you think they would have postponed the fire alarm when they had an important meeting going on' he remarks to Judd, Vicki and John. Vicki tells them 'it wasn't exactly a scheduled drill', implying Vicki was the one who triggered the alarm.

The Young Tribulation Force unleashes the power of the printed page through an underground newspaper at Nicolae High. School authorities are enraged after only a few copies of the first edition are distributed. After Judd devises a plan to distribute a copy to every student in the school, the authorities search with a vengeance for the kids responsible.

Follow Judd, Vicki, Lionel and Ryan as they and trusted friends face one close call after another until one of them is caught.