Poseidon rubble and ash, p.1
POSEIDON Rubble and Ash, page 1
POSEIDON
Rubble and Ash
Book Two
S.A. Ison
POSEIDON Rubble and Ash
Copyright © 2019 by S.A. Ison All rights reserved.
Book Design by Elizabeth Mackey
Book Edited by Ronald Ison Esp. Editing Service
All rights reserved. Except as under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without prior written permission of S.A. Ison
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the production of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons – living or dead- is entirely coincidental.
OTHER BOOKS BY S.A. ISON
BLACK SOUL RISING
INOCULATION ZERO WELCOME TO THE STONE AGE
BOOK ONE
INOCULATION ZERO WELCOME TO THE AGE OF WAR
BOOK TWO
EMP ANETDILUVIAN PURGE
BOOK ONE
EMP ANTEDILUVIAN FEAR
BOOK TWO
EMP ANTEDILUVIAN COURAGE
BOOK THREE
EMP PRIMEVAL
POSEIDON RUSSIAN DOOMSDAY BOOK ONE
THE RECACITRANT ASSASSIN
BREAKING NEWS
PUSHED BACK A TIME TRAVELER’S JOUNAL
BOOK ONE
FUTURE RELEASES
THE HIVE
SMOKEHOUSE SMILES
THE LONG WALK HOME
SHATTERED MIND
Other books by S.A. Ison under the name: Stefany White
Dragon’s Fortune
Alaskan Heat
The Seeding
Future Releases
The Butler Did it
Little White Lies
FOR MY FATHER,
WILLIAM BRADLY
I MISS YOU
♥♥♥♥
PROLOGUE
An implausible detonation vaporized the seawater, air and living tissue of everything as far into the coasts, as fifteen miles inland. More, perhaps, no one would ever know, in less than a millisecond. Where there was substance, solid and living things, in less than the blink of an eye, there was less than nothing. The blast radius expanded exponentially. Onward and upward, destroying everything in its path for thirty-five miles. Chewing through substantially impenetrable objects, both animated and inert. Buildings exploded into trillions of fragments, some as small as atoms.
Living creatures were eradicated, both plentiful and rare, never to exist again. Beneath the surface of the water, the shoreline is obliterated. Rock, soil, and living matter all gone in a nanosecond. Water vaporized, boiled and vanished. Only prehistorically did these oceans experience this phenomenon, billions of years before. Direct massive meteor strikes might compare to the devastation at that spot.
The shockwave continued on and outward, a homologous undulating wave. A tsunami of destruction, moves faster than the speed of sound. Trees and buildings collapse and explode, people are thrown down, their eardrums bursting from the increased air pressure. Their capillaries rupture, blood vessels collapse, organs implode. Unimaginable excruciating agony, delivered by an incredible undulating shockwave. Now there are countless creatures, that suffer internal hemorrhaging, their brains swelling from the shockwave that hammer at them. The agony is unfathomable, before death finally takes them.
At the blast sites, irradiated sea water flows back into the vast deep pockets in the substratum, yet nothing will live there for a millennium. The initial blasts trigger numerous earth-shattering tectonic shifts, and the aftershocks continue. The substratum has now taken on a life of its own, moving and shifting, now set free.
The Earth’s axis moves by fourteen inches. This is more than the 2011 earthquake in Japan, which shifted the axis roughly six and a half inches. The earth is forever changed, by human hands.
In a radius of more than a few hundred miles away from the coasts, the earth trembles. Seismographs rock violently, their zigzagging needles announce to the scientists, their world is fucked. Fear skitters down their collective spines, they feel that antediluvian terror. Their brains already know, their lives will never be the same.
The oceans begin to pull, sucked into the vacuum created by the explosions. The water roils and turns in on itself like a rising beast, like the Greek god Poseidon. The waves rise and crest, the water dead and irradiated, all life within its depths destroyed.
Poseidon’s vengeance rises high, it will move across the land, destroying what remains. Life along the coastlines, more than seventy miles inland, is now gone, a blasted wasteland torn apart by the shockwave, the heat and the radiation. Farther in, all living things are irradiated, the radioactive isotopes attaching themselves to each cell in the organisms’ bodies.
More than two hundred miles out, radiation creeps along like a killing fog, the prevailing winds carrying it beyond the blast zone. It settles in the air, the water, the clouds. It will spread deadly fingers outward. Nothing will stop its whirling outward.
Hundreds of thousands of transformers explode and catch fire. Vehicles die, never to live again. People run, screaming, panicked, cut down. All electronics have stopped. Airplanes being to fall from the sky, thousands plunging to their deaths, their screams following them all the way down, to plow into the ground below. All is ruined tinker toys, viciously scattered around from a giant’s temper tantrum.
Water, deep green and black, rushes over the devastated ground, bodies – human and animal alike – floating in it, churning. The flood waters surge on and on, gathering in small eddies here and there, depositing unrecognizable red foamy bits and pieces. A radioactive viscus soup.
The water pushes on, carrying radiation with it. Washington, D.C. is no more. Not a tree, not a monument, not a bridge. Nubby protrusions in the ground remain, as water surges in and over, relentless.
All along the entire east and west coastlines, it is the same: boiling irradiated water, pushing inland. Tremors move the land. Deeper inland, there are indications of life, but most will soon perish painfully. The lucky ones are those who never felt a thing.
Those on the bitter edge, suffer the most, feeling the blast and radiation before drowning, drinking in death, the dark waters filled with something vile. Eyes wide, fear and uncomprehending, smothering, drowning, dying, sinking and then floating, bloated.
The dead ocean waters spill into rivers, ponds, and lakes. Immeasurable ecosystems are completely destroyed, neutralized, and poisoned. Contamination permeates the breathable air, the blast sending the radioactive isotopes far up into the atmosphere where it rides on the currents of the air and seeds the clouds.
Now the dead ocean begins to recede from the land, dragging with it, rubble and ash. The ocean currents pick up the radioactive water and move it along, distributing it across the world. Tsunamis now move outward, across vast distances. Low lying land masses will be inundated with radioactive waters. The Gulf Stream, North Atlantic Drift, and California currents will ensure that the deadly waters spread far and wide.
POSEIDON has taken its vengeance Nothing survives the devastation.
ONE
Outside of Lincoln, NE
There was no moon that he could see, but strangely, Sayer Bleak and Joy Flannery could see the road. It wasn’t bright, but it wasn’t pitch black either. Sayer and Joy had been walking for well over six hours, after leaving the safety of their farm. Sayer hoped they would make it to Maryville Missouri within a week. Sayer knew in his heart that Russia had launched the lethal POSEIDON torpedoes.
Just as they’d lost the electricity, and their cell phones, Sayer and Joy had felt the vibrating deep in the earth. The vibration had moved through the soil, into their bodies, into the very marrow of their bones. The transformer box, that had been mounted on a tall poll, across the road from their small farm, had exploded, and burst into flames. The event had sent a tremor of terror through his body. Where had Russia detonated the torpedoes and how many had Russia launched? He had to push down that fear, he didn’t want Joy to panic. It was his job to protect her, but hadn’t he been training for this? Hadn’t he and Pike Addison worked toward this end?
He guessed it didn’t matter, no matter how much training you had, and no matter how hard you prepared, nothing could prepare you for the overwhelming feeling of sheer terror. To recognize that life as you knew it, would cease to exist, a new paradigm had emerged. He’d not really prepared himself for the overwhelming sense of fear, that permeated every pore of his body. How could he? He’d never known, nor comprehended that level of fear.
Ever since Pike had messaged him the article about POSEIDON, both men had existed in a controlled panic to get ready for the end of days. Sayer and his friends had all hoped that they were simply paranoid, but then everything had stopped. There was no question now. He and Joy had loaded up an old cart with all their possessions that would be useful and had headed out on foot, going to the cabin by Mozingo Lake. The old truck had failed them, it had not started after the EMP blast of the POSEIDON torpedoes.
Since reading the article, it was their hope to live their lives, safe and off grid, surviving this nightmare. It was one thing to imagine that life in the safety of the electrical world, it was now becoming apparent, to be something different in the actual application. There was no way for any of them to know what the full extent of the damage would be. All they could do was plan and pr epare.
Sayer and Joy passed numerous abandoned cars and trucks, even old ones like Joy’s old truck. Their hearts had fallen into their stomachs when the truck wouldn’t start. They’d planned to drive to Pike’s cabin, but now, they were on foot. The best laid plans, played over and over in his mind. It would become more dangerous the longer they were on the road. It had been their hope to be at the cabin before the rest of the world caught on to what had happened.
Sayer and Joy had not been walking long, but as each hour passed, people would begin to realize something was wrong, then the dangers would rise. Then they would have to deal with what ever came their way. And that might mean killing someone or fighting for their very lives. Sayer hoped he’d be able to pull the trigger when the time came. He didn’t want to, but he also knew it was a different world now. There might only be a split second to decide. The rest of the world might not know that the world had changed, but he knew. He could not hesitate.
It must have been a very powerful blast, he’d seen the light of it, but no sound. Both he and Joy had felt the tremors, but now they only felt the occasional shift. Each time he felt the tremor, it caused the hair on his arm to raise and the goats to bleat. He was sure the whole of the east or west coasts were gone, perhaps both were gone. That would mean the government was gone as well. What was left of the United State, Canada and Mexico? He was sure they would ever know. Would the rest of the world come to their aid? Had Russia sent POSEIDON to other countries?
“How do you think Pike and Margo are doing?” Joy asked, smiling up at him. He saw uncertainty in her countenance, but he also saw trust. Leaving Lincoln Nebraska behind them, it was going to be a long walk ahead of them.
“They’re probably doing a heck of a lot better than we are, but they’ll hold down the fort until we get there. I’m glad we moved most of our supplies there. If we’d have tried to take the provisions, I’m sure in a couple days, people would be robbing us blind.” He said.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. There was no way to transport all of that without a truck and multiple trips. I’m just sorry the truck didn’t work.”
“We’re not the only ones, honey, so we’re all on an equal playing field. But we have an ace up our sleeves. We have a safe place to go and live, thanks to Pike and Margo.”
“How long do you think it will take for everyone to lose their ever-loving minds?” She asked.
“There’s no telling, honey. Could be within hours, it just depends on where they are. I’m just glad we won’t be in Lincoln, or outside of it. I’d give it maybe three days, when people start running out of the food they have in their pantries. We both know most people only keep a few days of supplies. Then, if they’ve not gone to the store, others will have. More than likely, the stores will be ransacked within twenty-four hours.” He said, pausing to look around. The air was damp and cool, but the walking kept him warm. He took a deep breath and blew it out.
They’d passed many cars and trucks, but the vehicles were vacant. The roads were empty and he assumed that the occupants of the vehicles had wandered off in search of help that would never come. They’d seen one or two people standing by their cars. Waiting for what, he didn’t know.
“I guess it would be like Black Friday, after Thanksgiving.”
“I think it’ll be even worse. I think people will be killing each other, taking what they can and killing anyone who tries to take it from them. The people who first realize what is really happening will be the first to make the hits on the stores. But they’ll not have a vehicle to transport it. I guess, they’ll load up as many carts as they can push. Maybe the police can hold them at bay, but they have no communications, nor the ability to move around the city. Then, like dominoes, others will see what is happening and then real panic will start. They won’t know why or what is happening, but the fear and panic will spread and spread fast.” Sayer predicted.
“All I can say is, thank you Jesus, that we planned ahead.” She grunted, smiling up at him. Sayer watched the goats and noticed that the animals began to lag. The kids were also looking tired as well.
“Why don’t we load the goats into the cart. The babies are looking a little weary.” Sayer suggested.
“Sure, poor babies.” She cooed softly.
Sayer led the goats to the cart and encouraged them to jump in. He and Joy set the kids in with the mothers. Once they loaded the animals, they began to walk once more. As he and Joy pushed the cart down the road, they’d stopped talking for a while. Each in their own thoughts. Sayer’s mind raced with all the scenarios that would play out over the next couple of days. Though the permutations would be many, they’d all lead to the same conclusion, people were screwed. The vicissitudes of new world would be many, Sayer knew most would be bad, very bad.
Sometimes Sayer and Joy had to slow down, and it was challenging to maneuver around vehicles. Fatigue pulled at both of them. It was slow going and though the couple was in a hurry to get to the cabin, there was nothing they could do, but push on. Several times, he and Joy had had to move the vehicle themselves, to get around the obstacle. The owners of the vehicles having abandoned them, and Sayer knew he’d have done the same thing.
“You know, I wish people would have moved their cars out of the way. Next apocalypse, let’s suggest they do that.” Joy grinned, sniggering.
“Yeah, we can put out advertisements and blogs about it.” He laughed. The sound bounced eerily off the cars as they shoved and pushed, grunting. Humor helped. Seyer wiped the sweat from his face, smearing the dried mud that Joy had smeared on him, earlier that evening.
They’d not been stopped, though people had looked at them, and their dirty and disheveled faces. Joy had artfully taken water and some soil and had painted their faces with muddy water. He was now very grateful for her forethought. They looked like the poorest of the poor. Vagabonds, homeless tramps with nothing to steal. Beneath scrutiny and approachability. People tended to avoid them, but in a week or less, many of those same people would be looking damn near like he and Joy. He knew of a few places to get water, but most would need electricity to bring it forth.
They’d have a precious few gallons in their water heaters, if they even knew to access that resource. There wasn’t a hell of a lot of forests around, so dried wood would be a premium. And what if things caught fire? That fire would spread and fast across fields. Someone trying to make a cooking fire outside, might well burn down their entire neighborhood. He shivered at the thought. There would be no fire departments putting those fires out. They would burn until there was nothing left to burn.
He felt pity for all the unfortunate people, but he and Joy didn’t dare enlighten anyone. He didn’t want to answer questions in which the answers no longer mattered. It was too late and he didn’t want to inform anyone, for which there was nothing he could do about it. He knew a lot of people were going to start dying and fast. To his mind, the biggest problem would be clean drinkable water. Once more he thought, if they were at home, they could use the water left inside their water heaters, unless they had the instant propane water heater. Depending on the size of the water heater, was the amount of water they’d have on hand.
That would at least give the folks time to figure out how to get more water and purify it, either by boiling it or by chlorine tabs or everyday bleach. He just hoped that the people hadn’t bought the scented bleach. He wasn’t sure how safe that was, to add that stuff to potential drinking water. And if people weren’t at home, say on vacation or out of town, how would they get water? Christ, he didn’t know how they would get that lifesaving substance. Maybe out of toilet tanks? Maybe find bottled water?
Next the people would have to find food, enough food to last. That too would be a problem for someone displaced. It was spring, but things weren’t growing yet, and you had to know what kind of plants you could eat, if you foraged for them, if they were even growing now. And if they didn’t have seeds to plant, what then? Or, if they did, it would take months to grow that food to eat. If, that is, if someone didn’t steal it or kill you for it. Looking back to the cart, they had quite a bit of food. Only because he and Joy kept a lot on hand.
