Atlantis Rising: Chapter 4
Previous Chapter: Atlantis Rising: Chapter 3
Homepage: Atlantis
Also see: Reaper's First Drop
12:00 Hours, January 1, 9400 BCE (Military Calendar), Inner Ring, Atlantis
The Siren bell blasted out from the city center.
The bell was only sounded in times of public danger or disaster and called for all citizens to stop whatever they were doing and return to their homes. Jason paused in the act of labeling his blueprints to the new market and looked up. Everything dragged to a standstill for a moment, and then workers began filing out of the construction site, orderly for such chaos. Jason jogged out into the public square in front of his architect's temporary office and looked around wildly before sprinting off for his house.
"What's going on!" Jason yelled as he entered the atrium. His mother, father, and two brothers were already there.
"I'll tell you in the cellar!" Daedalus shouted as he ran. Jason and the rest of the family quickly followed suit as Daedalus led them into the family's storage cellar. It was chilly down here, full of ice chests, grain, fuit, and everything else the family needed to keep cool.
"Meteor." Daedalus said as soon as they all had gathered in one corner. "Actually, technically a comet. The twin of the one that hit 65 million years ago and wiped out the dinosaurs, everywhere but here."
"Where is it going to hit?" Jason's mother asked.
"Right off our coast. But don't worry, the comet won't kill us. It's the chain reaction and fallout from the comet that will eventually destroy all civilization." Daedalus said with sarcastic cheeriness.
"When?" Jason asked gruffly.
"In about..." Daedalus consulted his watch. "Thirty seconds."
Jason stared with mounting horror, then without a word dashed up the stone steps back into the atrium, through the kitchen, and out the back door. In the streets, columns of soldiers marched up and down, ensuring that everyone was as safe as they could be. One tried to stop Jason, but he shrugged the soldier off and jumped out of the way, fist raised. They both paused mid-blow, though, as the comet came into view.
It was beautiful, in a strange, twisted way. A shield of red, yellow, and white fire ran across the front of the celestial missile, and a tail of ionized particles trailed from the back, a beautiful shade of rinsed blue. It arced through the air and shed a golden glow along both sides, its interior a seething mass of blue flame. Just as quickly as it arrived, the comet fell through the sky and out of sight, distantly, beyond the continent's shore.
There was absolute silence for a second. Nobody made a sound, nothing moved. Jason's ears rang from the lack of any noise whatsoever. It was profoundly and unexpectedly peaceful.
Then a brilliant flash lit the horizon, forcing him to cover his face from the raw force. A heartbeat later, the world exploded.
Tremendous shockwaves raced across the vast ocean, jumping onto land and hurtling at impossible speeds through the ground. The first one reached Jason; he fell to his hands and knees, struggling to stand. His ears throbbed, and he reached a trembling hand up to find they were bleeding. So was his nose, and his eyes felt thick and darkness clouded his vision. Jason pushed himself up, got one leg under him, and then the second shockwave hit.
This one was worse than the first. It completely toppled Jason, sent him flailing to the ground. Jason worked his jaw, trying to relieve the pain as reflexive tears streamed down his face, mixing with blood and sweat.
The comet had far-reaching repercussions for the rest of the planet. As it fell, it superheated the atmosphere in a 20 mile radius and vaporized anything that got too close. When it hit the water, it plunged straight through to the relatively shallow coastal sea-floor, boiling the water around it instantly and casting incredible waves in every direction, a mile high and scores long. The impact threw the Earth off balance, shifting enormous shelves of ice on both poles, and permanently skewing the planet's orbit around the sun.
Jason's vision returned, and he looked up to see the storm shields rising through the water. He almost laughed. As if those would do anything.
Just to add to the ongoing worldwide catastrophe, Mt. Heliotropos, supposedly dormant, erupted. Jason caught a glimpse of a ring of figures around the volcano, suspended impossibly hundreds of feet up, and then a cool, ice blue mist distorted the air, and a liquid barrier enveloped the crater mouth. The magma bubbled up and burst into the barrier as lava, the barrier seeming to be semi-physical. The shield did not waver, but instead absorbed all the force the volcano was throwing at it, becoming a super-charged gold.
Suddenly, a shaft of blinding light shot into the sky, emanating from the shield around the volcano mouth. It's intensity seared Jason's eyes, and he ducked his head quickly. He blinked recovering from the blast
Jason looked skyward in time to see a second liquid barrier extending in all directions out from the light, again a cool, icy liquid blue. This one was much larger and thicker, and seemed more physical. The shield flew out towards the ends of the continent and enveloped all of Atlantis under its icy glare.
Fragments of the meteor rained down all around them, but in the places that the shield covered, they bounced off or shattered. Jason understood. The High Priests and their division, the ones that worked Psi, were covering all of Atlantis with a shield, using the energy created from the volcano.
Then a voice of fire and ice spoke in his mind, and all was darkness.
Nothing. Nothing at all.
Next Chapter: Atlantis Rising: Chapter 5
Homepage: Atlantis
