Birth of an Age Read online

  God Amok

  New York

  “We’ve received reports of thousands of cases of arsenic poisoning from all over the world,” Dr. Sumit Parekh of the World Health Organization told the special meeting of the UN Security Council. “With the cloud of volcanic ash continuing to spread and worsen, at first we thought that the arsenic was from the cloud. But atmospheric samples taken at various altitudes and in different parts of the world showed no significant levels of arsenic, certainly not enough to cause widespread poisoning. That’s when we made the connection to the dust of the third asteroid.

  “You’re saying the asteroid was made of arsenic?” asked Ambassador Clark, who represented North America.

  “Not entirely,” replied Dr. Alsie Johnson of the UN Space Science Foundation. “Meteors and asteroids often contain some arsenic, but usually just in trace amounts.[37] While most of the fragments recovered from asteroid 2031 KF are fairly small, Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, has a piece weighing 288 pounds. Running through the fragment are veins of a dull gray brittle material, which, when chipped, reveals a tin-white color with a distinct metallic luster. Further tests have verified that the third asteroid was honeycombed with arsenic. We believe that’s what caused it to shatter when it was hit by the first volley of missiles. Now, as the dust settles, it has entered the water table.”[38]

  Arsenic appears dull gray, and when chipped, reveals a tin-white metallic luster.

  “But the poisoning seems so random,” Ambassador Clark said. “It hits one city and skips another altogether.”

  Dr. Parekh fielded this question. “We believe this is due to a number of factors,” he said, “including weather patterns. Like rainfall, some areas have received heavy amounts, while others have been passed over completely as prevailing winds blow the dust safely past. Where it falls, shallow rivers and reservoirs are more affected because the smaller volume of water creates a greater concentration. Wells, because they’re fed by underground springs and have very limited surface area, have been largely unaffected. Other factors such as temperature and pH levels dramatically affect the dissolution of the arsenic into the water.

  “Because arsenic is colorless, odorless, and tasteless in water, there’s no simple way to tell if a source is contaminated, so each source must be individually tested.”

  “Will the water stay like this?” Clark asked. “Is there something that can be done to purify it?”

  “With seasonal changes, temperature, pH balance shifts, and settling, eventually — perhaps in six months — most water supplies should become potable again. Until then, millions will die unless we can get water to the affected areas.”

  Three days later

  Jason Baker sat quietly so as not to disturb his wife, Judy, who was asleep against the passenger door of their pickup truck. He briefly turned on the wipers to clear the soot and volcanic ash that had settled on his windshield. It was 5:45 A.M., just five minutes before dawn, and though the skies were heavy with smoke and ash, there was enough light as he sat facing the oncoming sunrise to see all he needed to understand.

  They had come 1,048 miles from the devastation of what had been Seaside, California. Another 1,102 miles remained to their destination in Patterson, Louisiana where they hoped they would find Jason’s parents still alive, and a place to start again. But that mileage estimate was based on conditions before the asteroids. Jason looked at the odometer on the truck’s dashboard. With all the backtracking and detours and unplanned side trips, they had already added 622 miles to the 1,048 expected. Watching the sun peak above the horizon, he realized that had been the easy part of their trip.

  As the orange light of early dawn filled the truck’s cab and shown on her face, Judy stirred and stretched and rubbed the muscles in her neck, cramped from several hours of uncomfortable sleep. Opening her eyes to the surreal scene before them, the sleep quickly left her. Speechless, she and her husband, studied the freakish sight with discomfited curiosity for several minutes. The sun on the horizon broke through volcanic ash and the smoke of untold millions of acres of burnt forests, illuminating from below the thickening shroud that hung over the planet. The black and gray canvas of the sky appeared at some points to be worn thin and at some points ripped wide by odd-shaped clearings that admitted the light of day. In places, too, were broad misplaced strokes of blue, pale gray-brown, and dirty red-orange. The foreground was charred and strewn with twisted metal and mounds of wreckage. Shallow ravines, like dry riverbeds, snaked across the landscape, exposing huge rock obstructions.

  Like the face of the moon, there was no hint of life, either ancient or contemporary. And yet, there was too much debris of man for this to have been just another of nature’s exotic spectacles. Still, nothing in man’s experience could explain what lay before them.

  “What is it?” Judy asked, finally. “Where are we?”

  Jason had driven through the night until he lost the road and conditions made it impossible to continue safely. He knew the answer to Judy’s questions, but struggled to believe it. He pointed at the GPS. Judy looked again at the moonscape before them and then back at the dash. According to the GPS, they were on Interstate 40 at Rio Grande Blvd. in Albuquerque, New Mexico. But both the interstate and the city were gone.

  Nine months later

  Jerusalem

  The sky over Jerusalem was as gray as the ash-covered sackcloth that hung on their bodies, yet no rain cloud could be found. For two and a half years the fields of kibbutzim had lain parched and barren. Only those fields irrigated by water from Israel’s desalinization plants produced any crops. Instead, the gray that filled the sky was the slowly thinning but ever-present shroud of smoke and volcanic ash. The last major volcanic eruption had been two months before, but the shroud remained, darkening by as much as a third, the light of the sun by day and of the moon and stars at night.[39]

  No one saw them arrive. No one had seen them at all since before the first asteroid. Then suddenly, they were back — the prophets, the mad men — as unwelcome as the message they would certainly deliver. Slowly and purposefully they walked through the streets of Jerusalem, again and again repeating in Hebrew, “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”[40]

  All that the two men had thus far foretold had been fulfilled, and now they were back. Though much of the rest of the world still doubted the connection between their prophecies and what had befallen the world, the people of Jerusalem believed.

  A local news team was dispatched to follow the men to report on what they foretold. But again and again they repeated only, “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!” A strange energy seemed to surround the two men, causing those nearby to fear. No one dared approach. Soon police arrived, but even they held back, ordered only to observe.

  The situation remained unchanged for several hours. The prophets walked, repeating their message; the police held back onlookers, and the cameras and reporters followed. Then the situation changed. The men moved toward the Temple Mount.

  New York

  Decker arrived at Christopher Goodman’s office and brushed away the ash and dust that had settled on his hat and coat. He found Robert Milner already there. The television was on and it was obvious they had already heard the news from Jerusalem. Christopher pointed without speaking to a large leather chair next to his, and Decker sat down, joining them in front of the screen. Decker recognized the setting immediately. It was a street near the Temple Mount in the old city of Jerusalem; he had been there more than once. A British reporter described the action.

  “The two men continued without incident until it became clear to local police that they intended to approach the Temple, Judaism’s most sacred shrine and Israel’s most popular attraction. Concerned that the two fanatics would disrupt worshipers and visitors, police ordered the men to stop, but they ignored the order. As yo
u can see in this footage from our local affiliate, at that point police moved to arrest the men. As a twelve-man squad approached, the two men warned police, calling out in Hebrew, ‘Stay back or taste the wrath of God.’ The police continued to advance, and then . . .”

  As Decker, Christopher, and Milner watched, the entire squad of Israeli police began to convulse and cry out in pain and then suddenly, they burst into flame. It wasn’t that their uniforms were set afire; rather the fires seemed to come from inside their bodies, burning outward and only coincidentally igniting their clothing. It was a horrible sight, but the camera stayed with it, catching every gruesome minute as the two men in sackcloth stood surrounded by screaming and burning flesh. Decker wasn’t certain — the picture through the flames was unclear and the screams covered all other sounds — but he thought he saw John and Cohen weep.

  “Additional police then opened fire on the men,” the British reporter continued, “with equally disastrous effect.” A round of shots rang out, but the bullets appeared never to have reached the men. Rather, like their colleagues before them, the police who fired the shots were incinerated. After a moment of the grisly display, the reporter continued.

  “With the police dead or dying and reinforcements ordered not to approach, no one tried again to stop the men as they walked in silence past the mounds of charred human flesh toward the Temple.”[41]

  The scene changed, indicating that a few moments had been edited out. In ash-covered sackcloth, John and Cohen now stood before the broad stone steps leading up to the Temple. Temple Police stood back, their weapons at the ready, seemingly keeping the crowds of worshipers and tourists from venturing too near the men, though no one would have dared to approach. Halfway up the steps, alone except for a few assistants standing behind him, stood a small bearded man dressed in elaborate robes and head covering.

  The reporter continued: “When they arrived at the steps of the Temple, the Jewish high priest, Chaim Levin, a man rarely caught on camera, was waiting midway down the steps. It’s unclear whether he intended to confront the men or had come to see the disturbance for himself. Whether out of fear or respect of the high priest, or whether getting Chaim Levin’s attention was their only intent, the two men went no farther. Instead, they simply repeated their message so that all could hear, adding that the first woe would come soon, then turned and simply walked away. Our affiliate’s cameras followed the men as they moved away from the Temple, trailed by police and some of the more adventuresome onlookers.”

  “Outside the city, Israeli military awaited the men’s approach, obviously uneasy and perhaps fearing the same fate as had befallen the police. But at the city’s edge, in the plain view of hundreds of people and of our cameras, as you can see in this incredible footage, the two men stopped and then simply vanished.

  “That these men, known as John and Cohen, have unusual powers is now undeniable,” the reporter said, now appearing on the screen himself for the first time since the report began. “Many in Israel blame them for the long regional drought and point to the striking similarities between their predictions last January and the devastation brought on by the three asteroids. Some in Israel firmly believe that they and their followers are responsible for causing the asteroids to leave their orbits and head toward the Earth.

  “Whoever they are,” the reporter concluded, “considering the terrifying things they have done here today, the questions must be asked: Do these men represent God as they claim? Are they latter-day prophets? Or does their power come from somewhere else? And if they do represent God, one more question seems reasonable: Has God gone amok?”

  Milner turned off the set.

  “Can’t you do something to stop them?” Decker desperately pleaded.

  “It’s still not time,” Christopher answered.

  “But can you be sure?”

  “In the desert in Israel, my father told me that only when I fully understand what I am to tell the people of the world — only when I grasp the full truth about myself — only then would it be time.”

  “But we can’t let this go on!” Decker implored. “The world is collapsing! Hundreds of millions have already died! Half the world is starving, and thousands more die every day! You have to do something! You’ve got to stop them!”

  Christopher dropped his head and held his palms on his temples as if to keep his head from exploding from the pressure.

  “Decker!” Milner scolded. “There’s nothing he can do.”

  Decker struggled with his despair, running his hand over his head and closing his eyes. Then finally accepting what he couldn’t change, he put his hand on Christopher’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know that if you could do something, you would. It’s just so unbearable!”

  “I know,” Christopher said, not looking up.

  “So we just have to wait?” Decker asked Milner.

  “At least they won’t do any more harm to the planet,” Christopher said. “Now they turn their attention strictly to the people.”

  Decker was not consoled.

  Chapter 9

  Swarm

  Two months later

  Jerusalem

  It was almost two months before John and Cohen were seen again, and their return was much the same as their previous advent, except that now the police had strict orders not to interfere with or attempt to apprehend the pair unless they clearly threatened public safety. Again they walked through the streets of Jerusalem repeating their message, and again they went to the steps of the Temple. This time their message was more lengthy:

  Hear O nations of the world what the Lord, the God of Israel, who made the heavens and the Earth says: “Cursed are they who trust in their own flesh and whose hearts are turned away from the Lord. They will be like a bush in the land that the locusts consume.” [42] Listen! The fifth angel sounded his trumpet and a star that fell from the sky to the earth was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke of a huge furnace. The sun and sky are darkened by the smoke. And out of the smoke locusts swarm down upon the earth and are given power like that of scorpions. They have been told not to harm the grass or any plant or tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They have been forbidden to kill men, but are given power to torture them for five months. And the agony shall be like the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. So great shall the agony be that men will seek death, but they will not find it; they will long to die, but death will not take them.[43]

  As before, when they delivered their message at the Temple, they left and walked to the northern edge of the city. With witnesses all around and cameras broadcasting the scene around the world, once again they vanished. There were no deaths this time, which made for dull television, but it gave the media a chance to rerun their footage of the fiery deaths during the pair’s previous appearance.

  Ten days later

  New York

  Decker tipped the driver and got out of the cab in front of the UN Secretariat Building. It was hazy and gray, as were most days. But there was some improvement. Much of the volcanic ash had settled, though it was still wise to wear a hat and jacket, which was just as well because the temperature remained about twelve degrees below normal. But some grass was beginning to grow again. There was that much to be thankful for. And while the diminished sunlight had stunted the growth of grain, there would be at least a modest harvest.

  As he approached the revolving doors into the Secretariat’s lobby, Decker heard what sounded like a helicopter approaching and turned to look up. But instead of a helicopter, it seemed as if the volcanic ash cloud had suddenly become a thick gray liquid, slowly pouring down upon the earth. He squinted, hoping to get a clearer focus, but to no avail. As the darkness descended, the sound intensified.

  Decker ran for cover under the overhang of the building. The sound was now a roar that seemed to fill the sky over the entire city. The bulk of the shadowy mass was still a few hund
red feet above ground, but parts of it ran down like thick oil, covering the tops of surrounding buildings and even the upper branches of trees. Then suddenly, from all around him, Decker heard screams and he saw more clearly what it was: an immense swarm of insects. They were as large as small birds — and there were millions of them.[44]

  He ran for the door, but a dozen of the insects had already landed on him. He made it inside, but in doing so he allowed a hundred more to fly past him into the building. Most of the insects clung to his clothes, but one climbed up his collar to his neck. Decker reached up to knock it away, but it was too late. Searing pain nearly knocked him off his feet as the creature simultaneously stung him and bit into the soft flesh of his neck to feast on his blood. In the lobby people screamed and swatted desperately as the insects attacked their exposed flesh.

  The pain was unbearable, but Decker tried again to grab at the one on his neck, hoping to crush it in his hand. It was larger than he expected, nearly filling his palm. Unable to crush it, Decker ripped it from his neck and flung it to the floor and stepped on it. He put his full weight on the creature before its exoskeleton finally gave way, spitting guts and blood — some of it Decker’s — onto the floor.

  Outside, people ran through the streets, vainly hoping to escape or to get to an open door. Those inside, rightly fearing the insects would enter along with the fleeing people, locked or blocked the doors, leaving the unfortunates to fend for themselves. True to the prophecy, only those who had “the seal of God on their foreheads” — the members of the Koum Damah Patar with their bloody sign of membership written above their brow — were spared. A pair of KDP members who had been across the street from the UN when Decker arrived stood watching the attack, completely untouched by the insects.[45]