Lenore Barker is one of the believers that resided in the schoolhouse in Illinois with Vicki Byrne and numerous other members of the Young Tribulation Force.
Biography[]
Before the Rapture[]
Before she married Tim, she was studying to be a nurse and have some expertise in providing first aid, which she offered to the Young Tribulation Force. She was a little more than a year from graduation before her son Tolan was born. She also studied short hand in college, which she used when she was transcribing Vicki's crash course on Christianity on the newly converted Carl Meninger.
After the Rapture[]
Lenore Barker first appeared in Attack of Apollyon. During the period of global cooling brought forth by the darkening of the sun by the forth Trumpet Judgment, she and her husband ran out of food and burned everything in her house in order to keep warm. They were starving, so Tim made the fateful decision to search for food. Lenore would find her husband's body lying in the street a few blocks from her house, with a loaf of bread and some meat he had found.
Once the weather became hospitable, Janie McCanyon met Lenore when she ventured away from the schoolhouse to go into town. Janie was compassionate towards her when she saw how pale she was and that she was carrying her child Tolan wrapped in a hole-ridden quilt. Lenore told Janie that she found her husband's body that morning. Janie said that she had nice friends who would let her stay with them and had plenty of food; the only discomfiting part was that they were religious fanatics. While Young Tribulation Force searched for Janie, they found her with Lenore who was crying when she was telling Mark Eisman and Conrad Graham her plight and begging them to let her stay with them. Mark was initially dismayed when Janie told her about the school house, but decided that they would let Lenore stay with them because Lenore might be captured by the Global Community and give them information about the school house. Lenore said that she was willing to work for they food that they would provide her.
When Lenore saw the grisly sight of her dead husband, she thought about killing herself and her baby, but Janie talked her out of it.
In A Dangerous Plan, when the demon-locusts enter the schoolhouse, she was frantic and concerned for her baby. Vicki and the others were trying to repel the locusts by repeatedly shouting "Jesus is God" and other Christian maxims, and they were successful in holding the locusts at bay. At that time, Lenore had enough credence in the Young Tribulation Force's religion that the locusts precipitated her into believing. She had said she knows that they are religious but she does not know what do to. Vicki asked Lenore whether she wanted to know Jesus. Lenore affirmed that she did want to know Jesus, and Vicki urgently said that she should tell Jesus that. Immediately, Lenore bowed her head and said the Sinner's Prayer. She soon had the mark of the believer on her forehead.
Afterward, she had helped out with chores at the school house, including taking care of Melinda Bentley and Janie, who were incapacitated by pain from the locusts. Vicki had told her that with her assistance, Mark said that she was the best thing that ever happened to the Young Tribulation Force since they had found the school house. Lenore also suggested that the school house be opened to provide palliative care for those who had been stung by the demon locusts. Lenore wants others to see how much they love them when they try to help them. It would give them some hope in a hopeless situation.
In War of the Dragon, she was assigned to drive to Hector Rodriguez's gang's hideout to rescue Anita Aguilara after Hector had her brother Manny killed for talking about God. Lenore did successful rescue Anita, but she was shot at by the gang, causing her windshield to be shot. Anita Aguilara and Lenore then lived with other believers in an abandoned community center in the southwest Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook. They likely did not suffer from the Global Community nuclear strike on Chicago that took place after the Global Community attack of Petra since Bolingbrook is way outside of the city.
She later moved in with The Place and Enoch Dumas a few months before the Glorious Appearing.
Appearances[]
- 19. Attack of Apollyon (first appearance)
- 20. A Dangerous Plan (becomes a believer)
- 21. Secrets of New Babylon
- 22. Escape from New Babylon
- 23. Horsemen of Terror
- 24. Uplink from the Underground
- 32. War of the Dragon (voice)
- 40. Triumphant Return
Mentions[]
- 38. The Perils of Love
- 39. The Road to War
Trivia[]
- Lenore did not go to the schoolhouse in the Dramatic Audio. Her character was mentioned, although she was not named. Like in the novels, Janie McCanyon met her when she went into town after the global cooling from the forth Trumpet Judgment. Janie said that her husband died while searching for food and had a baby, and told her about the school house. Janie was supposed to wait for her at a laundromat to return, but the Young Tribulation Force took her back to the school house before Lenore would appear.
- Lenore's first appearance was in book 19.
- Lenore became a believer in book 20, just after narrowly avoiding being stung by one of the locusts in the fifth trumpet judgment. This is similar to Carl Meninger.