Fifteen Billion Years

by Mclester, Rand

• ISBN13: 9781452097114
• ISBN10: 1452097119
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-01-07
• Publisher: Textstream

Summary

And they assembled them at the place which is called in Hebrew Armaged'don."Revelations 16: 16 (RSV)Holy BibleIn the not too distant future...An open-pit copper mine, the world's largest superfund site now refilled and reclaimed. Disguised as a scientific research center, but in reality the planet's most imposing military stronghold controlled by the world's most evil general.Two men who know the secret... and a time machine.The leap to a faraway and distant future through a horizon threshold on the edge of the universe... and callow people in a new but primitive world beyond the Black Hole.Then returning to an oppressive Federation controlling a world in tribulation... and a wiry little old man with scraggly gray hair and bristling beard.The entire planet on a collision course toward the ultimate conflict....Armageddon.

Excerpts

And they assembled them at the place which is called in Hebrew Armaged'don."Revelations 16: 16 (RSV)Holy BibleAs the sun rose......They sat together on the North Ridge."Mr. Ames..." she brought him back from his thoughts."Yes?""Look at the sky," Evening said, the faint glow of the morning's sun crawling toward the eastern horizon detailing peaks of the Continental Divide.Preoccupied: "Cloudy, will probably rain today.""No, there aren't any clouds. It just doesn't look right." Ames looked again and she asked, "What does it mean?""I'm not sure," he whispered, his voice trailing off, watching as the sun crawled toward the horizon.Worry etching her with its razor edge, sensing in his expression something was seriously wrong; again: "What does it mean?" There was no reply.As the sun inched to the horizon the full moon converged with it... eclipsed it. The moon, darker than the hue of blood, blotted out the sun creating a red corona, a circular specter of eerie flaming light that bathed the world in red-violet ecliptic darkness. Streetlights in the city turned back on. The morning birds remained silent, not welcoming the coming day.Uneasy, Ames recited: "When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood..." (Rev 6:12 RSV)"It can't be," he muttered at last, the pain and sadness within him welling forth with his words. "God help us..."Then It Began.Unexpectedly the ground trembled and surged sending ever-increasing shockwaves under them, louder now. And without warning the mountains surrounding the city quavered shifting with an ear-splitting shatter releasing massive rockslides that avalanched toward the valley below crushing everything lying in their path. Splitting apart in vaulting shearwaves of powerful subterranean force, rock fractured and slid crashing with the grumbling roar of destruction, uprooting and splintering timber then pushing it violently down the slopes onto houses on the mountainsides smothering them with obliterating suffocation. Absorbed within the deluge, only fragmented pieces remained of what had once been life and home; and with the cracking detonations of avalanching granite every living thing in the path of the slides was destroyed.Overhead the hissing increased to festering screeches and an invasive scream, the sickening sound of missiles filling their ears. There were thousands of them, a black migration of geese saturating the sky, dark formations, each programmed and coursing on toward a chosen, final destination.The specter of the eclipsed sun and blood-red moon just cleared the horizon...And it happened....Two missiles exploded as gargantuan fireballs. The entire city was swallowed. Ground rattling, the atmosphere shook.Billions of shredding fragments ripped apart, dissolved, then rose with the climbing fireballs... and flashed fire in a wind illuminating the countryside with blinding intensity brighter than the sun.Ames and Evening instinctively--involuntarily--shielded their eyes from the apocalyptic white-flash of the incredible explosions. With freight train collision of rushing effect, the expanding blast front sprayed through the surrounding city smashing, incinerating, crushing and obliterating everything in its path. Flashing out, the blast front's shockwave rose and poured, towering and growling, melting everything it touched, all of it being incinerated and absorbed in a searing flux of death--roarwinds--a circular firestorm of leaping, boiling flames.Buildings were torn apart, sucked into the roiling destruction of the shockwave, then were shattered and spewn forth as it enveloped them. Nothing would remain but jutting pieces and debris. Already burning, trees leaned into the explosion, fiery limbs and leaves instantly snuffed from the lack of oxygen the nuclear vacuum created; and sucked out by the roots they leapt from the ground into the boiling firewall and were disintegrated--vaporized. Vehicles were hurtled helter-skelter as masses of molten fiery plastic and metal--full-sized matchbox cars of liquefied blob--within an instant of fifty thousand-degree-heat. Billboards and highway signs leaned into the boiling conflagration then instantly disappeared. Bridges heaved and crumbled and were swallowed just as everything else had been.The blast front's destruction was complete. Below, in the valley, the embodiment of Hell had arrived.When Evening and Ames managed to uncover their eyes the city was gone, the mushroom cloud still climbed skyward, a molten city burning within its core, and the expanding apocalyptic fireball still speeding across the valley basin rushing toward the surrounding hills. Hot dry wind preceding the shockwave blew in their faces."Jesus--God," Ames stammered."It's burning up..." Evening gasped in disbelief "...all gone."Then realization, and blinking he focused upon the approaching blast front with its boiling wall of flames. "It's not going to stop." Ames grabbed Evening's arm. "Get to the sewer or we'll be incinerated--Run!"They ran, stumbled, fell, got up and ran again with blind panic.It was coming...A thundering wind of flashburn and racing firestorm...An inferno, it roared!The whirling wall of searing fire rushed the mountainside climbing toward them with blinding speed devouring everything it touched. Nothing withstood the awesome fury."Run--" he yelled, "we're almost there." Incredible heat was saturating the ground--then a temperature thrust of subterranean shearwave, trembling earth heaving beneath them."I can't. Save yourself--" she screamed.A fleeting glimpse back at the roiling hundred-foot wall of flashover flames, and with an adrenaline-surge powering every muscle he yanked her to her feet catching her like a doll. As he ran the brush shredded his worn jeans and cut his legs, rock and cactus slicing into his bare feet--but there wasn't time for pain-- run and survive was his brain's solitary, unyielding message. And he kept going --onto the top, a leaping stride, and over-- pushing dirt with his heels, sliding and falling down the embankment they scrambled to the barred sewage spillway only seconds before the horrendous flames would arrive.Liquid fire crested the hill, whirling clouds overhead. Vaporous flame was everywhere, chasing after them, coming for them, down the embankment toward them...