Rise of the Beast (77 page)

The USS
Maryland
surfaced at 2:34 P
.M
. local time in sight of both the Russian guided missile sub
Arkhangel
and the British guided missile sub HMS
Vanguard
. The three vessels would be involved in a coordinated launch against the comet fragment Florence C3.

Even though it was broad daylight, the skies overhead were ablaze with meteors that seemed to radiate out from a central point in the sky. Occasionally, the passage of a particularly bright meteor was accompanied by an almost blinding flash, followed a minute or so later by a low, ominous rumble. Somehow, they had to slip their missiles between those meteors.

And it was their missile that would be most likely to survive the passage through the debris field and impact the comet itself, not the land-based ones. Their crews would also be in the greatest danger if they failed, being less than a hundred miles to the northeast of the predicted impact point.

With the network of communications satellites now completely destroyed from horizon to horizon, they were on their own, totally out of contact with their individual governments. They would execute the last instructions that were sent to them, now over four hours ago. The three subs were linked by their computers, acting as a single powerful engine of destruction.

At 2:49, the first of the
Maryland’s
missiles was lofted skyward, atop a roaring column of fire and smoke. In concert with the
Maryland’s
missiles, the
missiles of the
Arkhangel
and the
Vanguard
also thundered into the heavens. Every 12 seconds the sequence was repeated.

After about four minutes of launches, they said their goodbyes and submerged, descending to a depth of 500 feet. Then they proceeded to the northeast at flank speed in an attempt to place additional miles between them and ground zero.

On the Arizona State University campus, Sam Florence looked on in dismay as their satellite links to the rest of the world went silent, one by one. Yes, they were well outside of the danger zone. By the time the Earth’s rotation carried them around and into the shooting gallery, the comet’s fury would be spent. Still, they would experience the poisonous ammonia and methane rich clouds of dust as they swept eastward, which would dim the light of the sun for what might be over a year.

Then there was the comet’s impact with the moon. No one here was quite sure as to what the ecological implications of that event would be. Perhaps, if they were lucky, it would be minimal.

There was nothing more to do, nothing more to calculate or measure. Sam headed for his office. Here he prayed for the planet and its people. He prayed for the Christians who were already suffering in the midst of the last-days tribulation. He even prayed for the blind followers of a false god. “Forgive them, Father,” he said, “for they know not what they do.”

A few minutes later he headed for home. He gazed up into the sky to see his comet. It dominated the southern heavens. Even the combined light of the moon and that of the city did little to dim its glory. He would have a still better view from home. Somewhere between here and there, the first of the large comet fragments would either strike the Earth or be vaporized in space.

He thought of the Book of Revelation, of John’s descriptions of things to come. He’d never imagined seeing them all for himself. Now here they were.

Almost two hundred miles up, the first of the
Maryland’s
missiles was destroyed by debris. The missiles launched by the
Arkhangel
and the
Vanguard
met similar fates, destroyed by marble-sized rocks moving at 20 miles per second. The second round of missiles fared little better, as did the third. It was with the fourth round that they got lucky. Two of the three missiles slipped through the gauntlet and hit the comet fragment head on. The sky literally exploded with brilliance. Yet this impact generated even more debris. Of the 60 missiles launched toward the comet fragment, only eight found their mark. A cosmic bullet had been turned into a cosmic round of buckshot with a central object that still measured over half a mile in diameter. A minute later it hit the atmosphere.

Many of the fragments detonated upon hitting the stratosphere. Those detonating 15 or more miles up blazed with a brightness that rivaled the sun for several seconds then faded into an expanding gray cloud. But others, dozens of others, penetrated deeper before exploding with the power of a hydrogen bomb, creating a wave of searing heat and a blast that pushed the ocean’s surface downward dozens of feet and sent a tsunami wave out in all directions.

Then there came the largest fragments, those that actually hit the deep ocean. So great was their impact velocity, nearly two dozen miles per second, that they were almost instantly vaporized.

The blast carried some material completely out of the atmosphere, where it followed a parabolic trajectory before coming down a thousand miles away. In this way the devastation spread.

In the Central Pacific, a second group of submarine launched weapons experienced equally poor performance. Now a tsunami wave 300 feet high was bearing down on the Hawaiian Islands, where nearly 40 percent of the population still remained.

In eastern China, a quarter-mile diameter fragment came down near the City of Hangzhou with catastrophic results. Nearly two cubic miles of earth were sent skyward by the impact even as a wall of hot pyroclastic material spread out in all directions, incinerating homes and fields.

The list of devastated cities and towns grew, spreading across the eastern hemisphere, as scores of smaller fragments detonated but a few miles above the Earth with the power of half a dozen Hiroshima-type bombs. Hell had come to Earth.

On the atoll, the sky was filled with bright mid-afternoon meteors. Then a bright flash appeared along the horizon, far to the northeast. You could actually feel the heat, even from this distance. The glow persisted for three minutes, then faded. Now billowing red clouds erupted from that quarter of the sky, clouds that seemed to be moving rapidly in their direction.

The flash had attracted everyone’s attention. Leland and Krissie rose to their feet to see the horror that was moving in their direction. All the while Tom labored on the ring. He reinserted the board into the instrument, only to pull another.

“How much time do we have?” asked Krissie.

“A bit over half an hour,” replied Tom. “I’m sorry I can’t be any more precise than that.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter,” said Krissie, sitting back down. “It might,” said Tom. “I’m almost finished.” “You’ve figured it out?” asked Leland.

“Yes,” confirmed Tom. “I’ve bypassed a bunch of safety protocols to make this work, and the wormhole won’t last long once I’ve formed it. When I say jump, we’ll have only five or six seconds to make the passage, but yes, it will work.”

“How close are you to finishing?” asked Chris.

“About 20 or so minutes,” said Tom, setting two jumpers on the circuit board and reseating it in its slot. “Yes, I know I’m cutting it close.”

A few seconds later, the atoll shook as in an earthquake. The shaking lasted about 15 seconds and then subsided.

All the while Tom worked at fever pitch. No one dared to disturb him. Then he was screwing the cover plates back on the unit. He returned to the monitor and rebooted the system. It gave him a total of five error messages, but he told the system to ignore each one.

To the northwest, Chris watched the horizon bulge. It was the tsunami wave.

“The seas are a bit shallow around us,” noted Tom. “It will slow the wave down a bit.”

Chris looked into Serena’s eyes. “We’re getting out of here in just a couple minutes, my love, just hold on.”

Serena smiled at him. “Yes, we are.”

The wave grew ever larger as the seas around them seemed to flow toward the north. Within a minute those seas seemed more like a thundering river than an ocean; they withdrew from the atoll on all sides.

The computer seemed to be going through some sort of self-diagnostic. Within a few seconds it was requesting coordinates. This was it, the moment of truth. Tom entered the coordinates and prepared to hit the enter key. This would have to work the first time. It was only then that he noticed the growing glow all around him. He turned to see that all of his companions had become luminous beings, becoming ever brighter.

Serena sat up and embraced her husband. Together they rose to their feet. At the other side of the pavilion, Leland and Krissie stood hand in hand. Streams of living light wrapped around them and swept toward the sky. A second later, their feet left the ground. They flew hand in hand into the air and away from the encroaching wave.

Tom turned to Chris and Serena, whose feet had also left the ground. They looked like angels. They moved toward Tom.

“Push the button, Tom,” said Serena. “You’ve got to get out of here.”

Tom turned to see the wave, which now towered above him. He grabbed his rifle and his gear and hit the enter key. The ring began to fill with mists, only to clear once again.

“Oh no,” he gasped.

A second later, Serena’s hand touched the ring. The mists reappeared, filled with sparkling stars. “Go, quickly,” said Serena, who, with her husband, hurtled skyward in a globe of luminous vapor.

Tom didn’t have to be told twice. He rushed into the vapors and vanished. Eight seconds later, a 200-foot wave swept over the atoll removing everything that man or demon had endowed it with.

Chris and Serena climbed ever higher within that globe of light. From their lofty vantage point, they witnessed the full extent of the destruction.

Chris looked in wonder upon his wife. She had been completely restored and more. She looked so young, like she had looked on the day they had met. She was dressed in flowing white robes. She was so beautiful. Then he looked at himself. He too was dressed in dazzling white.

Around them, the world seemed to fade into a realm of billowing, white clouds contrasted against a deep, blue sky. Then he saw the others, people like himself, all dressed in white. They were coming from every quarter, converging upon an area of brightness up ahead. The love that emanated from that light was indescribable. Yet he had experienced it before during his time in Heaven.

In the midst of that light, he beheld a figure, His arms outstretched. He knew him immediately. It was his Savior, Jesus, the Nazarene.

“It’s all so beautiful,” gasped Serena. “I’d never imagined that it would be so beautiful.”

The brightness grew steadily until they were surrounded in nothing but white light. A minute later, the brightness faded. They stood in a vast open-air arena bordered on all sides by a ten-foot wall. And beyond the wall were spectators dressed in white. They sat in ever ascending rows around the great arena. Their numbers must surely have been in the tens of thousands.

Beyond the people were tall, marble columns that stood hundreds of feet high, reaching toward great, billowing clouds set against a clear sky. Before them stood a great and luminous being sitting upon a golden throne. His eyes followed the two humans as they approached.