After a long wait, the beginning of book two is here....[[|:-)
I do plan to write a prologue for this book, but this is the first few paragraphs of Act I.
You can now read the entire chapter here, and you can also start with the prologue if you like....[[|:-)
Brandon felt his consciousness return, but at first, he couldn't sense anything. No sights or smells, and he couldn't even feel if he was breathing or not. It was a bit frightening, then suddenly he felt himself breathe in, eyes popping open, head raising up. It was a strange sensation, as though he was going through a cold boot like a computer, slowly re-intializing and becoming aware of input.
He shook his head and blinked his eyes several times as his vision took the longest to get back to normal. He quickly assessed that he was in an escape pod and his memories soon reminded him as to why. As he unbuckled himself, he noticed sparks floating in midair, originating from a broken and exposed overhead light. He furrowed his brow in confusion as he finished removing the harness.
He stepped forward to investigate the light and could see a small, but still, flame inside the fixture; no doubt the start of an electrical fire. This caused him to hold his breath for a moment, and that is when he noticed that there were no ambient sounds. With his exosuit on, he only noticed the sounds of his breathing at first. This added to his confusion. If he was in a temporal anomaly, he should be affected, too.
Brandon focused on one of the sparks and used two fingers to grab it and pull it closer. It wasn't as bright as he expected, and had less spindles as well. He realized that the brilliance of a spark is partially an illusion as the eye would have trouble keeping up with its action. Even though it seemed to be frozen in time, the heat of it soon permeated the exosuit, and he was forced to let go, yelling out an expletive in the process.
He then heard a young girl giggle, and as he whipped his head in the direction of the sound, he only saw the trail of her long skirt as she had turned to run off toward the front of the craft. Again, he was very confused by this. He wasn't even sure if Dega III had a breathable atmosphere or not, let alone contain humanoid life. He was further struck by the fact that the pod hatch was open, and that he didn't notice that right away. Thinking back, he couldn't recall its state when he first assessed his surroundings.
Despite this, he had to find the girl and hopefully get some answers. Brandon then had a horrifying thought. He theorized that he could be dead, and that this is the afterlife. He shook off the thought before leaving the pod. He took on a fast-paced walk, but soon slowed as he took in his environment.
Thank you so much for reading. Please consider leaving some feedback. Have a wonderful day....[[|:-)
This is interesting! At first I was a bit confused where it was going, but as I read on I realised it must be part of describing Brandons confusion. Then shapes of clarity formed only to end up in that cliffhanger in the end. Please post more as I’d like to read on. 😀
A Subtle Armageddon follows in the tradition of C.S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien in defending traditional values in an increasingly secular culture. It deals with the plight of the last man on Earth, who ought to have had it easy. But he is not the la
