THE BEGINNING Book Two (THE EVENT) Read online

  THE BEGINNING

  PART II

  Of

  The Event Series

  By

  M.W. Huffman

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  This book is dedicated to my wife, Susan. Without her support I would never get around to publishing anything! It is also dedicated to my children, Dominique, Jennifer, Cynthia, and Thomas.

  “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

  - Margaret Mead

  OTHER BOOKS BY MW HUFFMAN

  SCI-FI

  THE BRINK

  CLOSE PROXIMITY

  BLACKSTAR

  CHIMERA

  WORLDS END

  MYSTERIES & THRILLERS & CATACLYSMIC EVENTS

  Angie Bartoni Case File #1 - The Alphabet Murders

  Angie Bartoni Case File #2 - Frost Bite

  Angie Bartoni Case File #3 - Dead Aim

  Angie Bartoni Case File #4 - What Goes Around

  Angie Bartoni Case File #5 - Nothing to Lose

  Angie Bartoni Case File #6 - Shadow Man

  Angie Bartoni Case File #7 – The Club

  Angie Bartoni Case File #8 – Shakespeare Murders

  Angie Bartoni Case File #9 – One Too Many

  The Logan Files - Blond Deception

  The Logan Files - Innocence and Avarice

  The Logan Files - The Deal Breaker

  Norris Files - Silver2

  Norris Files – Insurrection

  Sins of the Fathers

  TRILOGIES

  The Second Civil War–BOOK I-A Nation Divided

  The Second Civil War–Book II-A Nation at War

  The Second Civil War–Book III–A Nation Healing

  THE END–BOOK I of The Event Series

  THE BEGINNING–BOOK II of The Event Series

  THE REVELATION–BOOK III of The Event Series

  WESTERNS

  The Unfinished

  PROLOGUE

  What would happen if most of the population of Earth was suddenly destroyed not by a natural element but by some unknown force that we can’t comprehend? What would the few remaining people do? Would they thank God for saving them or curse him for those lost? Would the world become more devout or would religion simply disappear?

  How would the Earth recover from a catastrophic event? Countries, borders, and entire populations would simply vanish. How would they rebuild? In what configuration would it eventually evolve? How long would it take to rebuild the entire Earth's civilization and how would governments form?

  After the initial destruction, the first order of business would be survival. The second consideration would be to determine how many others had survived. Knowing that, it would seem the next logical step would be to bring them together to start the rebuilding process.

  In the first book of THE EVENT series, THE END, those are the essential factors that the survivors in the US must struggle with.

  The second book in THE EVENT trilogy is THE BEGINNING. It broadens the scope of what has transpired in not only America but in other countries throughout the world.

  While survival and rebuilding may seem logical, how hard would it really be? Who would have the authority to make decisions if no formal government existed? What resources would need to be restored and in what order? Who would determine those things? Would we resort to ‘might makes right’ or would intelligence win out for a change? Have we really evolved as the most intelligent creatures on earth?

  Having survived a catastrophic event, the few remaining survivors left on Earth would be faced with these and thousands of other decisions regarding how the world should function. Is it a clean sheet to start over on or just the other side of the paper that will be mimicked, repeating the same mistakes as before?

  ~~

  Travel by folding time was far beyond the capabilities of humans. However, other beings from extreme distant galaxies were not as limited in their abilities. When the alien ship dropped out of time travel in exploration of the small planet we call Earth, it was simply on a mission to determine if intelligent life forms existed. Since they were not carbon based beings, they did not understand the fragility of such creatures as humans. When they began their procedure to scan the Earth, it destroyed all living creatures on the surface. It was not done with malice and they were unaware of the damage they had caused. Once it was determined that intelligent life as they knew it, did not exist, they moved on to explore other regions of space.

  In their wake they left a decimated world where all but a few fortunate or unfortunate people, depending on one’s perspective, were annihilated.

  Those who survived had been graced with the most basic gift of all, luck. They happened to be in the right place at the right time, nothing more. Those fortunate enough to have been underground were spared the probing of the alien craft.

  The transformation of the world as they had known it was eventually called ‘THE EVENT’. No one who survived knew exactly why it had occurred. In countless ways mankind was thrown back to the dark ages. The simple act of survival was a challenge with each new day. The basic needs became the foremost concern in their existence.

  Slowly, they began to seek other survivors in hopes of finding a way to not only survive, but to rebuild.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Colorado Springs, CO

  Since most of the earth’s inhabitants had been annihilated during ‘The Event’, determining the exact current date was difficult. It had been termed ‘The Event’ because it was widely believed that it was not caused by an act of war or terrorism. No one really knew what had transpired. Popular belief was that it was not a manmade event but was perpetrated by forces unknown.

  Those who were spared by being at the right place at the exact right time were all that survived out of the seven billion inhabitants of the planet Earth. It was luck and nothing more, or so the majority of them believed. The survivors were for one reason or another someplace underground at the time; taking tours in caves, spelunking in caverns, working in deep tunnels, or, of course, stationed at military facilities buried deep underground.

  Once the initial shock of what had just transpired wore off, people began to gravitate to where other survivors were. In many countries the largest cities or capitals were the logical choice. Some countries fared better than others primarily because of the topographical makeup of the country. Places like China where vast mineral deposits were located had thousands of mines and once again had the largest population in comparison to other countries. With the exception of France, Germany, and the Russian Federation, few others had many survivors.

  America also had its fair share and the process of gathering them to a central location had begun nearly a year ago. Colorado Springs was the center of the population with the most survivors and the most technological advantages. NORAD, while damaged from some kind of electrical outage, probably an EMP or Electromagnetic Pulse, still had an abundance of military personnel who could repair, rebuild, and protect. Colonel Webber, a tough pragmatic military man, had been the spark for the start of the rebirth of the nation. Another significant contributor was Randy Boling. He had been reluctantly thrust into a position of authority by his association with the Colonel.

  Randy, a civilian very different from Colonel Webber, added an element of balance. Between them they had steered the city to one of relative peace and comfort for those who found their way to Colorado. Having both a military leader and a civilian as co-leaders was well received by most of the survivors.

  One of the looming problems was the health of Colonel Webber. His health was beginning to deteriorate at an alarming rate. His med
ical issues were being treated as best they could at the only functioning hospital still in America.

  ~~

  The current crisis for America's survivors was centered on four important but very dissimilar problems. The first was developing a way of contacting the other nations of the world to see what condition they were in. Surviving scientists had been working on this problem for the better part of the year and while they had made progress, it had been agonizingly slow.

  The second problem was a band of rogue survivors in Utah that was resolute on having a lawless society. While they had not threatened Colorado directly, Colonel Webber was of the opinion that it was just a matter of when, not if, they attacked. They were believed to be somewhat smaller in strength than Colorado Springs at roughly 9,500 strong. What Colorado Springs had on its side was superior weapons and a well-trained military force that understood tactical operations.

  A new problem that was developing was that a group within Colorado Springs wanted to take off on their own. The issue wasn’t that they wanted to leave. The real concern was down the road. Gold, precious metals, and weapons needed to be secured. With so few men and women left it would be impossible to protect those resources. Thousands of cities were completely void of all human and animal life. Anyone could walk in and take whatever they wanted. Some system had to be put into place before others started leaving or the society they had worked so hard to rebuild could turn into one like Utah’s.

  Perhaps the most important problem of all was who was going to replace Colonel Webber if he became incapacitated. The Colonel had settled on Randy Boling as his replacement but this did not sit well with the military personnel. Some in the service had no interest in having a civilian in charge. They wanted the Commander-in-Chief to be someone with a military background. This was a crisis that could undo much of what had been accomplished. If the military decided to simply insert their person into leadership after the Colonel was gone, no one could do much about it. This compounded with those who wanted to break off and leave could scatter people in every direction and the process of rebuilding America would take hundreds of years if not longer.

  They were at the beginning of rebuilding a new nation or destroying what was left of the old one. The next few months would be crucial to the survivors. It has often been said that man is the highest form of intelligence on earth. Perhaps we are the also the most senseless and selfish. When a crisis occurs one of the first reactions is to revert to primitive behavior. The law of survival of the fittest overcomes intelligence as a collective means of existence.

  CHAPTER TWO

  COLORADO SPRINGS, CO

  With the initial needs taken care of for those who were now assembled in Colorado Springs, the real work was about to begin. Those living there had food, shelter, water, and transportation. Even a small radio station had been activated which made communication of important information much easier to get out than by word of mouth.

  The printed news was posted on a large board located in the center of town. They had even established a telephone system of sorts but success was very limited. The interstate between Colorado Springs and Denver had been mostly cleared of abandoned cars and trucks making the delivery of food easier and faster.

  The first draft of the new constitution had been delivered to the population of Colorado Springs and a vote was taken on its acceptance. A three-fourths majority was needed and it easily passed with over ninety-three percent voting in favor of its acceptance. Further revisions and refinements were expected as new issues developed and were dealt with.

  The current governing body was presided over by eight of the survivors. Colonel Webber was officially in charge, but only voted when a consensus could not be reached.

  ~~

  Five men and two women sat at the large, highly polished, mahogany table. Colonel Webber stood behind his chair, leaning on the back rest with his forearms, looking around at the men and women seated.

  “You have all had time since our last meeting to think about the main topic on this week’s agenda. I would like to have your thoughts on what, if anything, we should do. Dan, why don’t you start this time?”

  Dan Pierson was a tall man with eyebrows that had more hair than his head. His face was weathered and he had a tendency to try to stay under the radar until he knew which way the wind was blowing on almost any topic. He knew how to ride the fence but this time Webber was going to make him take a stand.

  “I’m still a little bit unsure about what direction we should take. I mean, after all, we don’t really know how this will affect us over the long haul,” he said, trying to hedge his bet.

  Webber didn’t say a thing but just looked at him.

  “I mean, shouldn’t we have more information first?” Pierson added.

  Once again, Webber didn’t do anything but stare and wait.

  “Look, I’m not a scientist. I hardly understand the question, let alone know the right answer for it.”

  “Then let me clarify the question once again. We know that the earth is now spinning faster and that is having a gravitational impact on the Earth. We know it is affecting almost everything we do. The question under discussion today is what should be done about the time and calendar. We are changing by approximately thirty-one minutes and ten seconds each day. That is a huge difference. We are not talking about the long term ramifications of this but what to do about the current time and date situation. All of that was fully explained at the last meeting and discussed. Now Dan, what are your thoughts?”

  “Colonel, I am not qualified to make a judgment on this matter.”

  “Damn it Dan. What are you qualified to make a judgment on? Every time I ask your opinion you hem-haw around and never give a direct answer. You are on this committee to give your opinion. I want to know what you think about this situation.”

  “All I know is that the days are shorter now. At the current rate, that’s approximately 11,351 minutes a year and that is around 7.9 days a year lost.”

  “And you’re recommending what then?”

  “I guess we should keep the 24 hour clock and subtract the days lost to the months to balance it out.”

  “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Good job. Kevin, what do you say?”

  “Picking up from Dan, we now have a year that is 357 days long. Since the weather has changed, we seem to have lost one season. Maybe we should have twelve months with half having 30 days and the rest with 29. I think we should stick with the 24 hour day and use military time for everything. It would take some getting used to but I think we could adapt.

  “Okay. Just doing the math in my head, we are a few days short with that proposal but I’m sure we could adjust,” Webber said, “How about you Randy?”

  “I guess I see it differently. Trying to hang onto the past is self-defeating. You can’t just pretend things are ever going to be the same. I do agree with keeping the clocks at 24 hours. What we don’t know is if this is the way it will stay. We know the Earth is spinning faster by the simple fact that everything has increased in weight. My scales seem to groan when I get on them in the morning.”

  That brought a quick chuckle.

  “I was kind of kicking around the idea of doing away with months totally. We appear to have only three seasons now. My thinking was dividing the number of days into three distinct categories. Something like the Planting Season, Growing Season and Harvest Season. Each season would have 119 days.”

  “Doing away with months totally? Wouldn’t it make it difficult to know the date?”

  “We would have to change how we date things. Again, I’m talking about not holding on to how we used to do things. Someone would ask, ‘what’s today's date?’ and it would be something like, ‘45PS’ for the 45th day of the Planting Season,” Randy said.

  “That’s innovative for sure. Very interesting as well,” Webber replied.

  Webber went around the table and several other ideas were tossed out but he withheld further comment until everyone was
finished.

  “Excellent. I can see a good deal of thought has gone into this by each of you. Let me just pose this question. How do we differentiate between now and before this all happened? We used to have 365 days in a year and now we have 357. We always used AD and BC to denote different time periods. So now what?”

  No one spoke up.

  “Come on. It isn’t a trick question. I just want to know how you feel about still using AD or should there be something else to designate a new time and date system.”

  Webber waited but still no one spoke up.

  “Okay, fine. I’ll go first. Here is what I’m thinking. AD represented time after the death of Jesus Christ, at least for most of the civilized world. Do we stay with that or change? Staying the same would make it extremely difficult to look at past history using two different time frames due to the shorter years we now have. It seems logical to me we need a new system to designate a new starting point.”

  “How would that make it easier?” Captain Sims asked.

  “For one thing, I think Randy’s idea about doing away with months might make it work better. Using that example, today would be the 64th HS, 0001NB. Not much different from what we are doing now.”

  “The 0001NB stands for?”

  “Year 0001 and the NB is for New Beginning. It could be AE for After the Event. That’s not important just now. It’s the concept we need to focus on.”

  “I think you may be right,” Randy said. What we decide to use for the designation isn’t the concern right now. We need to nail down the concept. Determining the designation is the easy part.”

  They spent the next two hours trying to hammer out a method that made sense to all of them. In the end they still did not have a consensus on how to change the system. At one point someone brought up the fact that even the method of location using longitude and latitude might have to be changed. That brought about a discussion of whether the number of minutes in an hour should change as well. They left with more questions than answers.