Read IMPACT (Book 1): A Post-Apocalyptic Tale Online

Authors: Matthew Eliot

Tags: #Post-Apocalyptic, #Zombies, #meteorite strike, #asteroids, #meteorites, #Science Fiction, #apocalypse, #sci-fi

IMPACT (Book 1): A Post-Apocalyptic Tale (17 page)

BOOK: IMPACT (Book 1): A Post-Apocalyptic Tale
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“Told me what, Luke?” Paul suddenly felt awake and aware, shaken out of sleepiness by Luke’s intensity. “What are you talking about?”

The young man smiled, his eyes locking into Paul’s.

“The Affliction, Father, they’ve found a cure.”

Chapter 25
Someone Dark

Colossus. Europa. Nero.

Whoever the forgotten astronomer, journalist, or committee member who came up with the names, I commend him. They have a nice ring to them, don’t they?

Colossus, with its titanic stature, that spelled the end for the Americas. Europa, who devastated the civilization to whom she owed her name. And Nero, my personal favourite, with its pestilential load of obscure sickness striking deep inside the East. Of course, this is all fanciful simplification. The deadly guest that travelled along with Nero was present on the other rocks too, although to a lesser degree.

Colossus. Europa. Nero.

Death. Destruction. Disease.

A giant, a Greek goddess, and a psychotic emperor. Sometimes, before falling asleep or in the lazier hours of the afternoon, I let my mind drift and consider the wondrous and unreliable thoughts inspired by their names. I follow their paths, often ending up with confused images, sketches of unfounded theories, and a strange sense of fear and awe before the overpowering might of Nature.

The goddess, Europa, Zeus’s beloved, inexorably entwined with Greece’s lore and culture – the same culture that once was the heart of the West – now returning to reduce that civilization to cinders. And Nero’s Affliction, spreading like the fire the ancient Roman emperor was said to have unleashed upon his own people.

I can get lost in these thoughts.

But always I return to the image of the vast rock they were once united in, travelling through the utter silence of the expanses of space. This mindless conglomerate of the most basic matter of nature, this idiotic tangle of atoms and vacuum, blindly drifting along its orbit. Here, I find none of the virtues or sins all the merciless destroyers among humans are endowed with – no cunning, sophistication, or higher moral calling. No trace of intelligence to balance its physical grandeur. Just a big rock, floating ever closer to the coming collision, to its resting place here on Earth.

This world of ours – the one I shall one day rule – with all its history and glory, brought to its knees by virtue of basic laws of motion and attraction. Nothing more.

Except, there is more.

Humans called the Sun ‘god’ in the infancy of our civilization. We believed eclipses and comets carried with them the stark warnings of ill fate. Earth, the planet we inhabit, was our Mother. Somewhere deep inside the human consciousness there is a need to explain the physical world, to draw myth from maths, fantasy from physics. This is not, I believe, due to a naïve world view or inadequate scientific understanding. If this were the case, we’d have been done with religion decades, if not centuries, ago. No. The shortcomings of our faiths do not lie within them being incompatible with modern science.

Religion, with its romantic tales of divinity and humanity, will die – indeed already is dying – simply because it doesn’t have a story that fits post-impact Earth.

So, the Sun truly was a God. Comets did indeed spell misfortune. Human belief causes consequences, and it doesn’t matter whether those beliefs are grounded in fact or fiction. Belief in the intangible, be it a unicorn or a deity, exists because there are men and women willing to believe it does, and act accordingly.

There is a tale to these meteorites.

And it’s a tale I can tell.

And the people will listen.

 

END OF BOOK ONE

 

Join Matthew Eliot’s Reader List, and get notified the instant Book 2 is released:
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Dear Reader,

 

I hope you enjoyed this first installment of
IMPACT
.

As an indie author, I am my own publisher. That means I have absolute creative freedom, but it also means I can't benefit from the support of a publishing house.

You, as a reader, can make a huge difference.

If you feel like lending me a hand, you could try the following:

- If you enjoyed the book, please consider writing a review on Amazon. It would help me find new readers, and allow them to make an informed purchase.

- Tell your friends about
IMPACT
.

- Join my Reader List. This allows me to communicate with you directly, and, hopefully, keep in touch.

- Write to me. I'm happy to receive emails. This is my address:
[email protected]

Well, time to get back to writing.

Yours,

Matthew

BOOK: IMPACT (Book 1): A Post-Apocalyptic Tale
2.81Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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