The Survivors: Book One

As hands closed like iron bands around her slender ankles, Samantha started screaming again.

5

Less than half a minute had passed when another wave of destruction rushed out - one of pressure and wind at levels not even buildings, let alone people, could withstand. Those who had time to get below ground were not as safe as they thought, especially in California, where the 'Big One' finally came and went mostly unnoticed. People were already busy dying.

Adrian - California

"Is it true? Are you his son?"

Adrian opened his mouth to confirm the lethal secret he'd just been confronted with by his fellow Greenpeace members, but snapped it shut as the neighborhood sirens began to wail again. The static-filled radio blared a reporter's shocked words.

"…has been unlike anything my generation has ever experienced. We are watching in horror as each of these bombs hits and… it's so ugly! Huge fireballs instantly create gaping, fifty-mile wide craters around the point of impact and blasts all those buildings, cars, and people into the sky. As it rises, it forms a gigantic, toxic black mushroom cloud that immediately begins to spread with the wind.

"Instantly following these explosions, are huge rushes of thermal heat and light that shoot out in every direction, peeling skin away from bones and blinding every living thing facing in that direction. The temperatures are in the hundreds of degrees, and those in the path have no chance of escaping as our way of life begins to crash down…"

The station faded into a national anthem as a city siren reached its peak. Ear-splitting, it overwhelmed, just for a brief second, the horrible noises going on outside the small, San Bernardino ranch home, and across the riot-ravaged country. Adrian's patriotic heart bled for people he didn't know, and the powerful secret he had kept suddenly seemed tiny in comparison. But it wasn't. It was the sum of all secrets, and likely the reason their world was ending.

The radio on the basement steps wailed suddenly, mirroring previous sounds of impending arrival. The stepped under the thick planks next to the Christmas tree as a dozen other surrounded him, shock and outrage on their faces.

"You caused this!"

Adrian had a brief moment to think he was glad that most of those here for the meeting had already fled at the reports of a bomb hitting the West Coast, but even this dozen was too many to fight unarmed if things got ugly. Good thing he wasn't. How had they found out?

"Answer the question!"