Kindle Edition
Amazon
Join the Adventure
Category:
Action/Thriller
Publisher: Sacred Life Publishers
ISBN-10: 1522774580
Type: Fiction
Pages: 356
Copyright: Jan 12, 2016
ISBN-13: 9781522774587
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
Bill Watson's world is about to end as a nuclear blast destroys his home city. Horrible creatures from another realm have come to enslave all of us, and only he can save heaven and earth.
The world is on fire, and everything and everyone Bill Watson has ever loved is about to be wiped out of existence. A nuclear attack forces him to flee San Diego in the middle of the night. With is two dogs and a new friend, he heads for safety beyond the mountains. Bill is desperate to reach his family, but terrorists are everywhere and seem to be after him specifically, but why?
Doors have been opened from another universe and hideous creatures have come to enslave humanity while slaughtering every Bill Watson and Mary Stewart on the planet. His family has been kidnapped, and now Bill and Mary must step through one of those doors to rescue them and end the destruction.
They will face ruthless killers and impossible odds over and again, but also learn unbelievable truths about themseves and the families they never knew they were part of. Their beliefs and faith will be tested to the limit as events spin out of control. Let us hope they are up to the challenge.
Excerpt
Just after four o’clock, Bill pulled his Avalon into the front drive at the Bellagio Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Valets opened the doors and one immediately recognized J.C. “Welcome back, sir,” he smiled.
“Steve, I think the lady will stay with the car if that’s okay,” J.C. replied.
“Sure, we’ll pull it to the curb and leave the key with the lady.”
Bill and J.C. walked through the front doors and headed toward a bank of elevators. “Does your family own this hotel, J.C.?”
He chuckled and said, “No, but that would be nice. It’s just a suite of offices, but I’m sure we can get you a complimentary suite for the night if you like. You and Mary both look really tired.”
Bill yawned and replied, “We’ll think about it. We left home at three o’clock this morning, so it’s been a really long day. We’re both a little scared of staying in a big city with all the craziness going on right now.”
“Okay, it’s up to you, but I think Las Vegas is probably safe.”
“Why? This place is a real den of iniquity. That would be a perfect target, don’t you think? Hey, didn’t we just walk past the elevators?” Bill felt a hand grab his arm and turn him around. Mary stood in front of him and threw her arms around his neck and nuzzled her face against his neck. “Are you okay?”
She kissed his cheek and whispered into his ear, “Don’t believe everything you see, Bill.”
“I don’t understand, Mary.”
She pressed her lips to his, smiled sweetly and replied, “Just don’t believe everything you see or hear, okay?” Bill nodded. She let go of him, turned and headed back toward the front doors.
Bill did not understand her actions or words. He shook his head and turned to see J.C. unlocking a large wooden door. There was a single elevator car behind the door. “Wow!”
“Yeah, private elevator, isn’t that cool? We don’t want to interfere with the hotel’s staff and guests.” The metal door slid open and the two men stepped inside. Bill turned to face the door and could see Mary fifty feet away frowning at them. J.C. closed the wooden door, and then the elevator door closed and the car began to rise. “Our floor is pretty high, so it will take a while.”
Three minutes later, the car was still rising. Bill turned to look at J.C. and said, “This must be the slowest elevator on earth, J.C. The hotel isn’t that tall, is it?” The other man just smiled. The car stopped and the door opened. Bill turned around to exit and stopped in his tracks with his mouth open.
Now he knew what Mary had meant. Rather than a hallway in the hotel, outside the door was a glass hallway leading both left and right. Through the glass, he could see Earth sitting below them. They had to be hundreds of miles above the surface. “J.C., what’s going on? This isn’t real. Is this some kind of illusion or what?”
J.C. walked out of the car into the hallway and turned to the other man. “Bill, think what you want. If you want to believe this is a wraparound painting, that’s okay with me, but what you are seeing is reality.” He motioned with his arm and said, “Come on, dad’s waiting.” He began to move to the left down the hallway.
Bill closed his eyes and looked again. He was still in space. He looked for the button to go back to the ground floor, but there was no control panel at all. “Bill, come on, stop wasting time!” He inched forward until he could look out of the car and down the hallway in both directions. It seemed to be made of glass and stretched in both directions as far as he could see. “Come on!” J.C. exclaimed. Bill took a tentative stop onto the glass floor and it seemed strong enough to support his weight. He stepped out of the car and looked down on the planet beneath him.
“This is quite the illusion, J.C. How much did this cost?” He heard the elevator door close and looked toward it. There was no door, only the endless pane of glass. “Mary was right, this isn’t real. I don’t believe it.”
“Fine, don’t believe it, I don’t care. Just come along.”
Bill caught up to J.C. and they continued down the corridor for several minutes. Bill was finally satisfied that he was looking at a video projection on the glass and not reality. J.C. stopped abruptly and turned to Bill and said, “Okay, we’re here.”
Bill looked at both walls and saw only the unbroken glass. “Where?” J.C. reached out toward the wall to his right and a doorknob formed in front of his hand. By the time he grasped it, a wooden door stood piercing the glass. “That’s pretty cool.” J.C. opened the door, revealing a large office. Several large picture windows were covered by heavy drapes. There was a massive wooden desk, credenza, and chairs to his left, and a large seating area with a table, two couches, and two chairs to his right. Behind the furthest couch was a wall of bookcases pierced by a bar with two stools.
A man was standing at the bar pouring liquor into three glasses. He turned and smiled at his visitors. “Please come in and have a drink,” he said. The man appeared to be around sixty years old with gray hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He picked up the three glasses and set them on the table and approached them. He extended his hand and shook Bill’s. “It’s a real pleasure to meet you, Mr. Watson. My name is Dom Emmanuel. I heard you’ve had a busy day.”
“It’s nice to meet you Mr. Emmanuel.”
Dom pointed to one of the couches and said, “Please just call me Dom and have a seat.” As Bill moved away, Dom hugged his son and whispered something in his ear. Then the two came over and sat on the opposite couch. He picked up one of the glasses and extended his arm for a toast. “Here’s to our health!” They tapped glasses and sipped the whisky.
“Dom, J.C. said you wanted to meet me. Why?”
The old man chuckled and smiled at him. “You’ve had quite a day, son. Can you explain all the things that have happened to you today?”
“What do you think happened to me?”
J.C. and Dom exchanged a knowing smile. “Let’s see, first you were startled out of bed by the evacuation order. Then you stopped your car at the precise moment to keep from having it knocked out by an EMP. Then you twice attacked groups of terrorists like a madman, killing and then beheading them all. Finally, you hid in a truck from terrorists which was then riddled with bullets without any injury to you. Then you morphed into a monster and ruthlessly slaughtered them all.” He turned to his son and said, “Am I leaving anything out, J.C.?” The other man shook his head.
“Hey, I didn’t behead any of them the second time. That isn’t true!”
“Okay, to be honest, your sister did that,” Dom agreed. “Did I get anything else wrong?”
Bill sat rocking back and forth with his head in his hands. “This isn’t possible. How can you know any of that? I don’t even remember a lot of it.” He felt a hand on his back and jumped. He looked and saw that Dom had moved over to sit next to him.
“It’s okay, Bill. We are your friends; at least we want to be. Tell us about the man who has been helping you.”
“You know about that too?” Bill asked and Dom just smiled back at him. “He said his name was Lou and that he was my biological father. Is that true?”
“I suppose in a way it is true, but in another it is not.”
“Is that supposed to be an answer, Dom?”
“Bill, you and the rest of humanity view reality through a narrow lens based on knowledge passed down from generation to generation along with your own framework of the current state of science. From our perspective, reality is not so cut and dried.” He stood and looked down on him. “What did you think of the hallway?”
The sudden change of topic shocked Bill out of his confusion. “That’s quite a video system you have out there.” The other men began to laugh. “Now you’re going to tell me it’s all real, isn’t that right? Well, I don’t believe it!”
Dom grunted and walked over to the door and pulled it open. Instead of the hallway, there was now a sandy beach just outside the door. Low waves lapped up on the sand and he could hear seagulls calling in the distance. “Is this more video?”
“Of course it is,” Bill scoffed.
“Then come over here and prove it by stepping outside for a minute.”
Bill looked at J.C.’s expression but could not tell what he was thinking. He rose and walked over to the door. The scent of the sea was intoxicating and he moved his foot as if to take a step outside. Dom’s hand was in his back, shoving him out and causing him to fall face-first into the sand. He heard the door slam shut behind him. The sand was real, but that would not be hard to do. He stood and turned to where the door had been, but there was nothing there. He reached out with his hands, certain the door or wall would be there, but it was just air.
“Are you okay, buddy?” said a voice to his right. He turned and saw a small bar with a thatched roof only ten feet away. A young man with long blonde hair stood behind the counter. Bill looked around again, but was still on the beach. Past the first few palm trees, a line of tall hotels hugged the beach. Bill walked over and sat on a tall stool. “What’ll it be?”
“What’s good around here?”
“Man, on Maui, it’s got to be a Mai Tai.”
“Okay, I’ll have one of those. By the way, what time is it?”
“Two-thirty in the afternoon, but it’s never too early to party here.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“Can I ask you a question, buddy?” the bartender asked. Bill nodded. “Is there something wrong, pal? I saw you a minute ago. You looked lost.”
“I felt lost, but I’m okay now.” The barman moved away and started to prepare his drink. Bill sat quietly, wondering what had happened. This had to be a dream. He was in the Bellagio Hotel, then in outer space and now on the beach in Hawaii. He hoped he would wake up soon, but then again, this dream was pleasant enough. The barman brought over his drink and set it down. Bill took a sip and said, “Thanks. That’s perfect.” He had decided to go along with the dream and let his body wake up when it chose. After a few minutes, a tall redhead in a tiny ice-blue bikini began to approach up the beach. She caught him staring at her and smiled and he blushed slightly and turned away. A minute later, she sat on the stool next to his.
“Hi, Bill, it’s nice to meet you,” she said. “Can I buy you another drink?”
He turned and gazed into her brilliant green eyes. “How do you know my name?”
She turned to the barman and said, “Troy, another drink for my friend and champagne for me.”
“Sure thing, Faith,” he replied.
“Bill, Dom Emmanuel is my father. My name is Faith. I came to take you back when you’re ready.”
“I’m ready now. I’ve had enough of this silly dream.”
“This is no dream, Bill Watson, no more than when you destroyed the terrorists and saved countless lives today. You’re just confused.”
“Well, there is no arguing that! I have no clue what’s going on. Why don’t you tell me?”
“Very well, if that’s what you want? Troy, hold those drinks, we’ll be right back.” She grabbed Bill’s hands and they disappeared.
Faith and Bill stood on the edge of a tall cliff, surrounded by dozens of waterfalls. The sound of the water crashing into the base of the falls was deafening. They were at the top of a U-shaped valley, where the cascades fell down into a deep ravine. He could feel the spray of water on his face and the stifling heat and humidity of the air. “Wow! This place is amazing! How did you get the effects in this simulation?”
Faith laughed. “So you think this is an illusion too?”
“What else could it be, Faith? Where would you have me believe I am now?”
She put her hand on his shoulder and said, “I would say this is Iguazu Falls in South America, but calling it an illusion is true as well.”
“Listen, all of this mumbo-jumbo is starting to get on my nerves. Is this some real waterfall or just a game you are playing on me?”
She frowned and replied, “First of all, this is not a game. Those terrorists were doing their best to kill you. This is most definitely a waterfall, as real as any you’ve ever seen, but both of the situations were illusions as well.”
“Huh?”
“It seems I have to demonstrate this again!” she exclaimed as she pushed him into the torrent of water. Almost instantly he went over the edge and plummeted toward the river at the base of the cliff. He screamed and flailed with his arms and legs and then slammed into the water. He fought to find the surface and discovered the water was only three feet deep and tasted salty. He stood up and looked at the Maui beach a few yards away. Faith was sitting at the bar again chatting to the barman. Bill’s clothes had changed into swimming trunks. He trudged through the water and up onto the beach where she handed him a large towel. “Did you have a nice swim?”
After drying himself, he sat on the other barstool just as Troy set a fresh Mai Tai down in front of him. He put his hand on Faith’s knee and she smiled sweetly at him. “Everything is an illusion, right?”
She threw her arms around him and squeezed and then whispered in his ear, “I’m so proud of you, Bill.” She kissed his cheek. “Enjoy your drink.”
He took a large gulp and asked, “If reality is an illusion, Faith, then is nothing real?” Troy laughed and Faith frowned at him.
|
