Author’s
note, I am writing to learn writing. I had missed one of the basic rules of
modern literary marketing and ended this story without the tease of a sequel. I
have corrected this oversight.
DAY
ONE
START
READING HERE
The peace of the beach settles my
soul. Tonight the weather is fair, the wind gentle, the sky clear, and the
sound of waves peaceful. It is off-season for the beach community, with few
visitors and a small local population. Life is good. I watch the constellations
and soak in the environment. I am delighted by a shooting star streaking across
the sky, then several shooting stars, then dozens, hundreds, shooting stars
from horizon to horizon, the largest shooting star display I have ever
witnessed! My emotional state goes from awe to frightened; I cannot comprehend
what I am seeing.
Some of the shooting stars hit the
Gulf waters, some land on the barrier island. I see one that lands close by in
the dunes, while others land further inland. After about an hour the celestial
display lessens and then tapers off. My mind demands some understanding, so I
grab a flashlight and move to find the shooting star that landed closest to my
location. Using a reasonably organized search pattern I locate a small
indentation in the sand with a faintly glowing polyhedral object at the bottom,
I can feel heat a foot away from the object. Running back to the beach house I
mentally compile the needed equipment to pick it up, examine and then contain
the object, an oven glove, some tongs, and a metal pot. As I collect my tools
my excitement grows, with tools in hand I hurry back to the strange object. It
is gone.
There are no other foot prints
around the area and there is no other person near. I start a spiral search
centered on the depression, about forty feet from the depression I find this other
worldly object, it is slowly moving over the sand. It is slowly rotating in the
sand, when it stops rotating it floats up a few inches and forward a couple of
feet, then gently settles back to the sand and starts the slow rotation once
more. It appears to select a slightly different direction and lifts into the
air to move a short distance, repeating this cycle over and over. I decide to
follow it rather than collect it.
As dawn approaches my little
mystery has moved 175 feet, I have started to record any data I can observe, It
is tracing a sallow circle bending northward. Then the predawn light allows me
to see more polyhedral objects, all identical and all moving towards each
other. I had picked up the object with my tongs and examined as closely as possible,
it is smooth, as near I can ascertain, perfectly smooth, it is light as a
feather and soft to the touch. When it started to move I could not hold it
back, I had placed it in my pot and attempted to stop it, it could drag me
across the sand. Not even my full body weight could slow it.
Dozens of people had gather, some
following the objects as I had, others attracted by the grouping of people.
Some engaged in excited chatter and others like me, stood in quite amazement, a
husband wife team was providing a running commentary of events reported from
their cell phone. The objects were being called Crystals, no one had been
harmed and millions have landed across the entire planet.
As the first of the crystals neared
each other we all moved back, some in fear ran, but all moved back. The two
crystals touched with a faint click and dropped to the ground, soon more
crystals joined to create a growing structure. The individual Crystals join
with no apparent seam, the structure can be easily moved or knocked over, and
then it rights itself and moves back.
Several in the gathering crowd have
arms, pistols, rifles, carbines and shotguns. One of the armed men has become
agitated, none can explain what is happening and he is creating paranoid
visions in his mind. It is hard to follow his logic, essentially he claims we
are being invaded and we need to defend ourselves. He shoots one of the Crystals.
The Crystal blows apart in what appears to be a splash of water. A single high
caliper bullet completely destroyed one Crystal.
Within moments the armed people are
blasting away at the structure, leaving behind nothing but wet sand. I decide
this an appropriate time to be somewhere else.
Within half an hour I am in the SUV
heading north, the radio stations are reporting Crystals landing everywhere. My
wife has her cell phone online and is relating worldwide reports from social
media. A tsunami of information containing no meaning, no understanding, I am
scared, she is terrified. The President is activating the military, the
Governor is activating the National Guard, and the Mayor is telling citizens to
stay home. The freeway is confused with panicked drivers, we snake pass several
car wrecks while military aircraft cross the sky. We are stopped at police
check points, showing my identification and explaining that we are trying to
get home, they allow us to pass.
What is normally a two hour drive becomes
14 hours, the gas tank is near empty, and we stop at a gas station a few miles
short of home then wait in line to refill. I am confused and frightened, my
dogs have picked up on my emotional state and they growl at anyone that nears
our SUV.
Arriving at home we note a Crystal
structure about a half mile away, it is as tall as a water tower. Our
neighbors, many heavily armed, have collected and are conducting a highly
confused, unorganized debating society. The argument becomes louder, perturbed
and even more rattled. One gentleman fires his pistol into the air, demanding attention
and quite. He declares this an invasion; our first responsibility is to protect
our families.
We heard a helicopter, turning I
see four AH-1 Cobras on an attack approach. Grapping my wife, we run, she is
faster than me and I try to keep up. We run toward the Army helicopter, fear
overrides the growing pain in my side, I watch the helicopter and when it fires
missiles I pull my wife into the ground and try to hide in a ditch. The
violence of military force I had hoped to never see again erupts at the Crystal
structure; after the concussive blast wave has passed I stand and look back.
Mangled bodies, trees burning, there is no Crystal structure. We hurry to help
the survivors.
Hours later we are back in our
house, planning and assembling our survival kit. The cable TV has gone 24/7
with this story, talking heads, politicians and scientist, all can be summed
with three words. We know nothing. Social media is alive with the most
insane explanations. The craziest of the crazies are organizing. Martial law
has been instituted, Habeas Corpus suspended, Posse Comitatus has been
repealed, the government is scared, the civilians are scared, even the military
is scared.
Anyone with a weapon is locked and
loaded, in my community that is everyone, in Texas even Barbie dolls come with a cute little AR-15, in a matching pink. I’ve cleaned and readied my old snub
nosed 38, I’ve borrowed a 30/30 from my brother-in-law, between us we
inventoried our ammunition and tried to purchase more, the Survivalist Emporium
had sold out.
Twenty four hours since the
shooting star shower and I now live in a completely different society.
DAY
TWO.
Exhaustion forced sleep on me, my
wife has not closed her eyes for a second, she was fatigued and scared silly.
Constant, random gunfire sounds across the landscape. Sirens are constant.
Electrical service was out for several hours. Reports are that gasoline is
unavailable, food emptied from the grocery stores, police and military patrols
are maintaining the barest of civil order. One of my dogs is hiding in the
closet under a pile of dirty clothes.
After hours of online research I
have found little to clarify this astounding event. The American government has
responded with military force, the Europeans have responded with attempted
scientific study, the Chinese government has responded with an autocratic lock
down, the Arabic monarchies have collapsed. One clear societal pattern is that
the larger the percentage of an armed populace, the faster the destruction of
the society. Fear combines with undisciplined armed men to create total
anarchy.
The science is flustered. The
Crystals cannot exist. We do not even have theories to extrapolate the action
and working of the Crystals, the crystals create structures of unknown purpose
using an impossible power source. The location and spacing of individual
structures is precise, creating a geodesic network covering all land masses.
This seems to continue into the oceans and seas. The world’s scientific
community has concentrated on the problem, the advanced nations are funding the
scientist without limit, empirical data is collected and posted online for
anyone to examine. No reported harm has come to any person or animal, little
damage has been done to buildings or infrastructure. If this is an invasion, we
are doing all the work.
The American society is collapsing.
Me and the wife formulate a basic plan, collect the family and head for Mexico.
DAY
TEN
I’ve never been a morning person, I
prefer moonrise to sunrise, and most of the sunrises I’ve seen were on my way
to bed. Military organizations have a different approach, attack at dawn and
use all day for fighting. Naturally when the attack came, I was fast asleep.
After the crystals starting
falling, America had become a battle field. Crystals fell from the sky and then
started to move toward each other. They would create structures, strange
structures with no known purpose. The individual crystals evaded any
understanding, when opened they would turn into water. Close scientific
examination confirmed that it was water, based on isotopic analysis it was earth
water.
Building a society is hard and
slow, destroying a society is easy and fast.
The American government knew the
crystals for a threat, what threat no one knew; the military was dispatched to
destroy all crystal structures. The crystals fell, built a structure, the
military blew up the structure, more crystals fell and everything repeated.
Entire cities had been leveled. Virtually all the causalities were civilian, a
few soldiers had died in training or friendly fire but the civilians got a
beating.
Civil disorder was rampant, the
economy had collapsed, infrastructure decimated. The civilian gun-nuts had
turned mercenary, roaming in gangs killing and stealing. Whenever the military
cornered one of these self proclaimed paramilitary freedom fighters they were annihilated.
It was best to keep moving, no defense would stand for long, stay low and keep
moving.
We had gathered family and friends,
everyone over thirteen was armed but bullets were at a premium, we avoided all
conflicts. We had moved out of Houston, heading south, planning to make Mexico in
a few weeks. The interstate highway was a killing field, so we traveled
overland. The farms had been abandoned, most had been burned down. A single
family had no chance against the roving gangs. Living off the land we
scavenged, traveled light and keep moving.
Two nights ago we had found a farm
with a vast number of crystals, more moving in from every direction. They appeared
to be building a satellite array atop a geodesic dome. We moved back about two
miles, an air strike was inevitable, we watched all night and at dawn the air
strike arrived, even at two miles the concussive shock wave was powerful. Some of
the crystals fell near us. I gathered a few crystals for examination. An
infantry scouting team would come to collect the crystals, I dropped the
crystals and we moved out. We planned on making twenty miles.
Last night I had sentry duty, I
loved the night, the sky was full of shooting stars as more crystals entered
the atmosphere, at three in the morning Steven relieved me and I went to bed.
At sunrise the attack started. Overnight an enormous crystal structure had self
assembled about 5 miles northwest and it was hit with a combined air and ground
assault. Heavy weapons fire is a good motivational tool, I didn’t need sleep, I
needed to be gone.
DAY
FIFTEEN
The government was slowly
reestablishing civil society. Most of the paramilitary groups had been disarmed
or killed, the establishment of order had started in the big urban population
areas, what used to be cities, and then the military captured large
agricultural areas to provide food. The interstate highways were cleared of
wreckage and patrolled by armored Hummers with mounted 50 cals.
We had liberated five SUVs and
packed everyone onboard, now we followed the Army Hummers in close order. This
allowed for relative safety in our flight for Mexico. At night we debated our
wisdom. Continue south or turn back for Houston?
DAY
SIXTEEN
The American government had ceased
its war on Crystals, joining the Europeans in scientific research. A Russian
scientist had conducted an extremely clever experiment that proved the Crystals
converted neutrinos into energy and an Indian scientist showed that the
Crystals modified the local gravity field. All this showed that our
understanding of physics was deeply flawed.
The safest place for the family was
behind Army lines and we decided to enter San Antonio. We descended on one
family member, a native to San Antonio, thirty two family and friends clustered
into one house. This was the best we had experienced over two weeks, finally a
dry warm place to sleep. The very best was coffee. I had been fighting coffee
withdrawal and losing.
Coming together and reviewing the
remaining resources I felt the best I had since the night of the first shooting
stars.
DAY
EIGHTEEN
The news was bad. That is an
understatement, the news was terrifying.
The government had tried to
suppress the news, as always, the secret came out, a secret know by hundreds of
astronomers.
A meteor was inbound for earth, 30
miles in diameter and moving at 60,000 miles per hour. The dinosaurs were
killed by a meteor only 10 miles in diameter, now this one was at least three
times larger, nothing bigger that an amoeba would survive. The meteor would impact in two days, Friday, September the thirteenth, when the tip hit the
Atlantic Ocean the tail would still be in space.
Somehow the Crystals no longer
mattered.
I set dazed, watching news programs
confirming the worst reports. The news anchors lacked animation, reporting in a
stupor all the suicides and work stoppage. No one reported for work, police
station stood empty, soldiers walked away from their duties, fire trucks
without drivers.
FRIDAY,
SEPTEMBER 13th
Thousands had gathered on the ocean
beach at Miami, the impending tidal wave would be 2 miles high, moving at 800
miles per hour, before it arrives an atmospheric blast wave would have passed, destroying
anything more that 6 inches tall, most would die so fast they would never know
they had died. I watched a live video feed of this silent crowd. I tried to
identify with them, make it fast is
the only thought I could manage.
I had moved through every emotion
possible, hope was the one emotion unavailable to any, now I stood in the
backyard watching the sky, the meteor was visible over the southeastern sky, it
appeared to move slowly, a false illusion due to the size and distance involved,
the meteor was moving 30 times faster than a bullet.
The end was near, every person
present knew the precise moment of predicted collision. With two minutes left
we started to hug each other, some confessed pass secrets, some cried and some
prayed. One of the teenagers had started a countdown clock. I had him turn it
off.
As I watched the meteor seemed to
rise, then it moved overhead in a blindly flash, disappearing off to the
northwest.
The meteorite had turned aside. Later
investigation showed the crystals had warped space and time to direct the death
of mankind into the sun. Then all the crystals had melted. Not one crystal
continued anywhere on earth.
10
YEARS LATER
After ten years we still know very
little, we do not know who or what created the Crystals, or even how they worked. The
data collected had resulted in an outburst of scientific and technical
advances. Careful review of all observations showed the Crystals had originated
at Saturn, a deep space robot had found an enigmatic construct orbiting Titan.
The second amendment of the
American constitution had been repealed. Armed fools were no longer allowed to
walk America. Government had embraced its monopoly on violence.
Religious leaders claimed the Crystals
as an Act of God, new religious orders were created, and some societies experienced
religious revival and fever, while other societies had committed to scientific research.
America had split and political battles raged.
But that is another story.
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