The Mountain: An Event Group Thriller (2 page)

At the end of his words his family started to rise as one. He looked at each and prayed that his path had been the right branch in the road to take. A barren road he had been placed upon at birth was now coming to an end as once more the world started to shake. This time the earth moved in a deeper and more pronounced motion.

The war between the barbarians of the combined world and the false gods of the south—the Atlanteans—had begun in earnest and the false gods were losing.

The known world of the first age of man would end in less than two days.

*   *   *

As Hamm traded the last of their hoarded gold for the remaining three shoats left in their neighbor’s pen, he grimaced as he heard the laughter behind him from his shameless old friends. He ignored them as best he could as his five sons maneuvered the three small pigs from their pen and started them along the path to the once-thick forest that grew between the two rivers.

As the laughter at his family’s lifelong endeavor continued, Hamm looked up and saw the giant trees ahead of him, and it was then that he realized how much the forest had vanished in the thirty-two years they had been building their father’s hopeless folly. The deforesting had caused many a hardship for his kin and even more so for their neighbors, who had come to hate the family of Noah.

As they cleared the screening line of giant trees, leaving the mocking laughter behind them, Hamm had to stop and look upon the false deity they had built. The Ark had taken thirty-seven years to design and construct and had cost the family everything they had in life, and even that of their children’s and grandchildren’s lives. From the gold riches of his father’s family to the many hundreds of pounds of precious coin made by his sons, all had gone into the construction of the monstrosity towering to the top of the few trees remaining, which were tasked with holding the great vessel anchored into place. The once-great and very powerful family was now close to destitute and with everything they owned aboard the Ark, they had nothing but the clothes on their backs and the laughter of old friends in their ears.

As he was about to turn away he saw a shadow peel away from the highest point of the Ark and then vanish beyond the curvature of the bow. This was not the first strange darkness he had seen. For the past forty years the shadows that acted as if by magic came and went and their father, who Hamm knew had seen the strange shadows, never spoke of them. Even when one of his many offspring asked him about the darkness that seemed to have an intelligence, he would just shrug his aging shoulders, smile, and then say he had not seen a thing. The subject of the shadows was rarely brought up any longer.

The trees held the enormous Ark taut to the earth in the ever-increasing winds. The giant, ages-old trees and their vines were intentionally entangled among the wood of the great vessel anchored to the earth. The Ark stretched four hundred and fifty-five feet from arched end to arched end. The spire-like bow of the ship rose to a hundred feet above the ground and it was there that Hamm saw his father perched, looking to the far-off southern borders of the two rivers. The skies there were glowing red and black. White and gray ash had started to fall only an hour before, falling ever thicker, like sickly snow from a dying sky.

Hamm could see and hear the near panic in familial faces and voices as they herded the last of their farm animals over the thick, strong ramp and then aboard the Ark. They had bought as many animals and beasts of burden as they could before the end days, making them the butt of even more laughter and mockery by their neighbors, extended family, and former friends who counted the money offered for their animals and grain even as they laughed at the foolish family of Noah.

“Hamm, you and Shem commence to raising and moving the ramp into place. The Atlanteans have unleashed Hell to the south. It is now time!”

Hamm heard the words of his father and wondered as always how he knew these things, but did not ask. All the same he felt his blood go cold as the skies started to darken even more than the previous two days. The earth once again lurched under his feet and he stumbled as the ground seemingly came out from beneath his sandals.

The world started to break apart from the power being unleashed by the warlords to the south.

*   *   *

The known world of the first age of man had actually ended two hours earlier in the Poseidon Sea. The large body of water, which would eventually become known as the Mediterranean, exploded with the power of ten thousand nuclear weapons as the seabed cracked and split from the power of the Atlantean sciences of earth and sea, along with the necromancy of tectonic earth movement. The combined strength of the allied barbarian states that had suffered through the reign of terror for five thousand years at the hands of the inhabitants of the circular-ringed island was now devastatingly close to their homeland.

The attack started in earnest on the morning of the end of days. The strength of the Greek fleet under the command of Jason of Thessaly, coupled with a ground attack under the command of another Greek, Heracles the Barbarian, had pushed the Atlanteans to use the one thing they thought could save their island empire—the total destruction of the combined Greek and Egyptian fleets. This would be accomplished through the use of sound-inducing bells arrayed on the sea floor. The audio assault would fracture a localized section of tectonic plate, and that localized fracture would in turn create massive tsunamis that would swallow the entire thousand-ship fleet of their barbaric enemies.

As the great machines were put into motion the world erupted. The Atlanteans’ map of the tectonic plates had not taken into account the spiderweb makeup of the earth’s crust. The grinding of one plate would cause a domino effect of the audible attack on the planet and spread far beyond the defensive area desired in the middle of the Mediterranean. Each was linked one with the other, which meant that the advanced race of Atlantis had set off a worldwide chain reaction that would change the face of the earth for all time.

*   *   *

The earth continued to rumble and roll beneath their feet. As Hamm looked to the sky, lightning wrenched the darkness and brought fire to the night, affording him a look at what it had taken him a lifetime to build. The Ark stood strong against the increasing winds and the constant shaking of the world. The ground beneath his sandaled feet lurched and the Ark rolled. The father heard the screams of the children inside as the wooden vessel rolled to the right and the old man feared it would continue to tumble until it tipped on its keel and was crushed beneath its own weight. Just as it hit the optimum point where it had to roll over, the restraining ropes still attached to the strongest of the remaining trees snagged and held firm as the Ark stopped its roll. The towering trees continued supporting the Ark but swayed as the smaller trees were uprooted and thrown into the hurricane-force winds shaking the world. Then the rains started in earnest. Viscous mud and stone struck the wooden ship at the same time as the first dirt-infused drops of rain started to fall. Enormous fireballs arched across the night sky as mountain-sized boulders and spits of land were hurled into the air from the horrendous explosions of the earth to the south.

The father watched as Shem sent the last of the goat herd aboard. He knew they had lost a good ten percent of their animals because the firestorm had started without notice of quake or wind. The water was now broaching the banks of both the Lira and Mud rivers, or as they are now known, the Tigress and the Euphrates, sending freshwater to mix with the sea falling from the sky. As the old man looked around he saw the waters rise to the base of the ramp, and he felt the first true fear he had felt since he had been a child when the nightmares of water and of drowning had started—the sea was coming and nothing in God’s world would stop it.

He felt the first sensation through the thick leather soles of his sandals and then the night sky started to shimmer and shake as the vibratory effects of the incoming sea distorted the perception of all living things. The father stumbled, trying desperately to gain his feet.

“Now!” he screamed into the blowing wind and falling mud and rain. “Raise the ramp!”

“Father, we need to cut down the remaining trees!” Shem called as he took his father by the arm to stop him from gaining the sloping ramp, which now had a quarter of its length under water.

“There is no time, the sea comes now! Do you not feel it?”

Shem did. The black clouds above started swirling as the distant waters came on so powerfully that they actually changed the direction of the winds, causing so much static electricity in the air that the trees around them were terrifyingly illuminated with what would eventually become known as St. Elmo’s fire.

“Go, my son, the Lord’s night of nights is upon us!”

Noah stood by as he watched his sons and grandsons fight to raise the ramp. Ropes were taut and the men were screaming in terror as the weight of the large wooden ramp slowly started to rise from the gathering waters. As the men struggled to shut out the horror of the night, Noah wiped water from his eyes, fighting to see the outside world for the last time as the ramp was slowly raised. He saw several dozen women, children, and men claw through the rising waters and beg for entrance. Several men even managed to take hold of the rising ramp as it cleared the swirling waters. Noah so wanted to assist the men who only hours before had laughed and ridiculed his salvation, but as he started to reach out for the hand that was pleading for help, a shadow shot past the old man and as Noah watched in abject horror, the shadowy figure seemed to reach for the struggling man’s hand and pry it loose from the ramp, brutally snapping the man’s fingers as if they were nothing but dried twigs. The shadowy entity flew from the death of the first to a second set of hands that had managed to grab the ramp, prying them off even as Noah reached to help. The shadow turned on the old man and he felt its force as it slammed into him, clearly revealing the face of darkness for the first time. The mouth extended and Noah felt as well as heard the roar of an otherworldly animal. The large blackened teeth were transparent, but lethal looking. Noah jumped away, truly frightened for the first time after seeing the angels for what they were—not angels, but God’s killers of men.

The ramp closed for the last time. The screams of the lost were clearly heard above the wrath of the storm. Noah was in shock at seeing the shadows send his neighbors to their deaths.

He felt his chest where the shadow had slammed into him as he had attempted to help the men he had known his entire life. It was ice cold to his touch and he knew then that whatever was watching out for his family was as merciless as the Lord God that had sent them.

*   *   *

Before the initial wall of water struck the land side of what is now modern-day Iraq, the rivers themselves had exploded from their shallow banks to drown or crush most of the inhabitants of the two-rivers region. Men, women, and children, who had spent the bulk of their adult and young lives ridiculing the family that had foolishly built the Ark on dry land many miles from any body of water deep enough to carry her weight, were dying a death they had been warned was coming.

The old man was struggling with six oxen as the wide-eyed animals fought panic. They too had the instinct to know the world was breaking apart. All two thousand seven hundred animals of the family of Noah were close to panic as the great Ark rocked on its ten-foot-wide keel.

The trees holding the giant ship in place swayed in the increasing hurricane-force winds that now gripped the entire Middle East. Shem and Hamm with their sons at their sides were battling ever-changing forces in an attempt at placing the last of the thick pitch around the ramp’s strong frame. But still, water forced itself through the small areas where the builders were off on their measurements, and no amount of pitch in the world would seal the doorway completely.

Noah watched as the women finally tied the last of the livestock down in the animal hold where water was falling rapidly as each and every flaw in the Ark’s design was now under relentless attack. Noah knew his life’s work would only last so long in the disaster. The design that had come to him in a series of dreams that had lasted the whole of his first twenty years of life was now close to falling apart.

Women, men, and their children were in the water outside the Ark pounding and pleading to be allowed inside. Hundreds of their neighbors were screaming for help as they pounded on the thick wooden hull of the only structure left standing within a hundred miles. The old man saw the shadows return, and then several broke free of the wooden wall of the Ark and vanished between the minuscule cracks in the framing. Then the sounds of screams were heard over the roar of the storm. It sounded as if the men and women outside were being attacked by something unseen. Noah, grateful his family was now too busy to see and hear what was happening outside, placed his hands over his ears in an attempt to close out the horrible misery on the other side of the thick hull.

“Father, we can still get a few of those men and women inside before—”

Hamm’s words were cut short as every member of the family of Noah felt it at the same time. The sound of wind, rain, and thunder was silenced by the deep bass rumble now coming from the south. Everyone with the exception of Noah froze as the terror of what was coming stilled their hearts. The old man knew he had been meant to see the killer of their world. He was to bear witness to the death of the first age of mankind.

The paralysis of his sons and family broke as they screamed for their father to come down. The old man was climbing through the crisscrossed beams securing and strengthening the thick members that made up the massive hull. As the Ark announced the arrival of the sea and its preceding waves by rolling once again, Noah breached the top deck and slammed his hands into the small wooden doorway that led out onto the long, sloping deck. He gained the slick, wet, and mud-covered beams and immediately looked toward the south over the chest-high side wall.