Donovan 2013 Nibiru's Shadow

1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-1-61792-022-6
Verlag: Eccentric Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 252 Seiten

2013 Nibiru's Shadow is the continuation of Rachael's story.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Donovan, Peter

Leseproben

ONE     December 2013   Daniel had been watching the night sky from the rooftop of his Sydney apartment. It was a habit he couldn’t get out of, almost becoming an obsession, after everything that had happened to him at the Parkes Observatory. The hot wind howled past the makeshift shelter he had managed to build, enabling him to stay out of the worst of the weather. The heat in the air made him pull at the thin shirt that was sticking to him from the sweat around his neck and he pushed his long blonde hair out of his eyes. Looking into the night sky, he could see the clouds racing past through the hole in the shelter roof where the top of his telescope showed through. The full moon, reflecting across the cloud’s surface illuminated them with crimson, dust-filled iridescent light. Through the roar of the wind, he could hear a faint banging sound, loud enough to get his attention. It was coming from the fire escape, maybe ten metres from his rooftop shelter. It was the only access to the rooftop, the door of which Daniel had bolted and barricaded. Within this shelter were the basic provisions that Daniel needed; two drums of water, a camping stove, a pan and tinned food, the last he had. There was also a battery powered radio which could still pick up any emergency broadcasts, a fluorescent lamp and his telescope together with a blanket which remained unused, still folded in the corner. The banging came again, this time accompanied by a female voice – lost on the wind but one he recognised – suddenly changing his mood from utter despair to ecstasy as he realised that Jessica was still alive. Throwing back the canvas door of the shelter, Daniel ran towards the fire exit, fighting to stay on his feet against the wind, which at this altitude of ten storeys up, was blowing fiercely across his path. He reached the door and pulled the large metal beams away, grabbing at the bolt and wrenching the door open. Jessica stood on the other side, tears rolling down her muddied face, her long brown hair blowing wildly in the wind. She almost collapsed into Daniel’s arms as she stepped out onto the rooftop. Daniel had to help her from the door to the shelter and out of the wind. Then, leaving her briefly, he went back outside to secure the door again. “I’m sorry,” Jessica sobbed, as Daniel came back into the shelter, “I should never have opened the door.” She put her head in her hands. “Hey, it’s not your fault,” he said, putting his arms around her. “I’m just glad you’re safe, I thought that was it, I thought you were gone.” He tightened his grip on her. “I managed to jump off the truck several blocks from here, but I couldn’t move in the daylight, so I hid until it was dark, it’s worse than hell out there.” She stopped, obviously terrified by what she had seen. “You’re bleeding,” said Daniel pointing to her jeans, which were blood stained and torn. “It’s just a scratch, I’m fine,” Jessica replied, covering the tear with her hand. Daniel grabbed one of the water containers and poured Jessica a drink, which she gulped down without stopping. She really did look as though she had been through hell, but then they were all going through hell. The last few weeks had been almost unbearable for them, but was nothing to what the next few hours were about to bring. What was about to occur was unique to the history of the human race, the last such event happened before humans had even evolved from Neanderthals into the dominant species on this planet, Earth. Jessica looked longingly at Daniel, “Is there nothing we can do?” she asked, sounding frightened. “I don’t know anymore, but I’m not going to spend our last night in some concrete bunker,” said Daniel sounding adamant. “From the truck I saw the people being dragged out of their homes, being beaten by the soldiers, hauled along the ground.” She stopped briefly to drink again, “I think they were being taken away, probably underground by truck into the bunkers as the reports suggested. What if they come for us again?” “That’s why were up here, out of the way, it’ll be fine, don’t worry,” said Daniel reassuringly. They both went quiet, silently gazing up through the small hole in the roof of the shelter, into the dust-filled burgundy night sky.   The world had been given twelve months’ notice that the human race’s tenure was up, and humanity had responded to this news in the time-honoured tradition; selfish stupidity and panic. In the first few weeks the global financial system, or what was left of it after the 2009 and 2010 crashes, went into freefall. Stocks and shares were literally wiped out, even money itself became worthless scraps of paper, as the banking system collapsed completely, the promise to ‘pay the bearer’ on the bank notes of the majority of countries went unfulfilled. Gold became the primary currency, it was bartered for food, clothing and safety. The media called the period the ‘Great Leveller’, as the rich became the same as the poor. A house was a house, large or small. Expensive cars became just as worthless as cheap cars, their value based on the fuel in their tanks rather than their model. Deliveries from depots to the large malls dried up as fuel deliveries to service stations became scarce. Power outages initially lasted days, then weeks and became commonplace as only the few automated coal fired power stations continued to produce electricity into the grid. The natural gas system required electricity to power the pumps that pressurised the pipelines. Without the pumps, the gas pressure in the mains collapsed rendering the whole system inert. The same problem occurred in the water mains, which also required electricity for the pumps to maintain pressure and remove the sewage. Without the basic essentials coming into people’s homes, they soon began to starve, not knowing the lost skills of farming and tending livestock, they stole what food was left from abandoned shops or houses. Tinned food became as valuable as the gold used to buy them. It was a traumatic time for most people used to buying food from supermarkets, travelling by car, having home computers, TV’s, washing machines, fridges and dishwashers. Many people did not even know of life before these wondrous inventions, which had become necessities of life during the previous four decades. The anarchy predicted by the world’s media in the few days following the discovery of Nemesis slowly took hold, as the precious chains of business broke. Countries that were no longer self-sufficient and had relied on large scale importation of basic food groups, found their stock piles declining incredibly quickly as people began to hoard essentials.  Soldiers fighting abroad were recalled to protect their own streets from disorder. It was frightening how quickly the socioeconomic system, which had taken over two hundred years to build, fell apart in a matter of weeks, as people became selfish and hostile. Most had been affected by Nemesis already, everyone knew someone who had either lost their home to floods, fire, storms, or were affected by the diseases associated with the carnage. In the final weeks, the government had decided that getting as far underground as possible was all they could do, they offered nuclear bunkers to the people as shelter from the coming Nemesis, but this had only served to increase panic. The scientists’ predictions had indicated total destruction to a depth of several hundred metres, with no escape anywhere on the planet’s surface – over the airwaves, this made for extremely grim listening. This was the reason Daniel had opted to sit and watch. With no way of avoiding death he had said, “We may as well sit and watch the end, it will be the greatest show mankind will ever see.”   “I still can’t believe everything that’s happened,” said Jessica, staying as close to Daniel as she could. “Everything you told me was true, about how it all started.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry I doubted you.” “Hey, stop that, even I have trouble believing it. It all seems like a dream now, but the scar left by that door hitting my forehead always reminds me it happened. Anyway, feel sorry for Rachael and Jack, they were never heard from again, I think they were killed for what they knew and luckily I was only the technician, they must have thought I knew nothing so they left me alone, but I wasn’t going to push my luck, you are the only one I’ve told. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter now, does it?” He shuffled closer to Jessica. “But if the government knew Nemesis was coming, why didn’t they do something, blow it up, anything to stop it?” “I don’t know, maybe they couldn’t, maybe they’ve tried, who knows? I’m pretty sure they can’t stop it now, otherwise they wouldn’t be trying to move all these people underground,” said Daniel, a hint of despair in his voice. They both fell silent again, thinking back through their short lives, wondering what the next few hours were going to bring. Daniel’s watch bleeped, indicating it was midnight; he looked anyway, studying the digits as they ticked past, a random collection of numbers indicating the passage of...