EARTH’S ANGELS
Book One of the Earth’s Angels Trilogy
By Beth Worsdell
Earth’s Angels Copyright © 2017 by Beth Worsdell.
All Rights Reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Cover designed by GermanCreative
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Beth Worsdell
Visit my website at www.bethworsdellauthor.com
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing: October 2018
Beth Worsdell Publishing
Dedicated
To all the people who take the chance to follow their hearts and dreams. Thank you to all my supporters and test readers for your constant words of encouragement, feedback, reviews and sharing of my media pages & book posts. My favorite comment from a test reader on my first rough draft was, “Beth you vomited commas,” which will always make me laugh!
“I never intended to write
a song, I never intended to write
a story. Sometimes these
things just write themselves.”
Quote by Beth Worsdell
Chapter 1
We should have known someone or something would step in and save our planet. Who could blame anyone for trying to save the planet we’d been steadily destroying for centuries! Let's face it; we couldn’t possibly be the only inhabitants of a planet in the whole universe. Especially when you consider how much evidence there was of ancient aliens and proof of UFOs being seen, not only recently, but in ancient historical records.
We had tried to change our ways; we really did. However, our farmers had already poisoned our soil with pesticides for decades; and purely for profit. Our oceans had been overfished by commercial fishing companies all over the world, and nearly all whales were already close to extinction.
Our oceans were being constantly diluted and poisoned from oil and huge amounts of plastic, and it wasn't just all the oil rigs and tankers in our seas that were causing the pollution. It was also the amount of human waste that was being pumped into our waters.
Governments around the world tried to stop the ocean pollution from the big waste companies, but let's be honest, they couldn’t be watched constantly. These companies would try and save or make their money any way they could. They didn’t care what effect their actions had on our race or our planet; they only cared about their bottom line profits and their shareholders.
Society was just as much to blame, with our overuse of plastics and our throw away culture. Plastic waste was constantly washing up onto shores all over the world, washing up on once beautiful beaches, as well as killing whales, turtles and other marine life.
We had destroyed so much land to build new towns and cities; as well as extending the current ones. There were so few forests and jungles left compared to centuries ago.
We were constantly destroying natural habitats, forcing animals to scavenge for food any way they could. More and more wild animals were having to make their way into the cities to try and find whatever food they could.
Then we had the audacity to complain about it!
We'd also become a throwaway race, and nothing was made to last any more, unlike when my grandparents were young. Only some of us tried to use vintage things from a better time, buying household items from antique shops and thrift stores.
Then out of the blue; everything began to change. All governments around the world suddenly started taking everything seriously for a change. Finally, they were prosecuting companies for not following their new strict guidelines for emissions and waste. They started taxing them heavily if they didn’t use green energy. Some companies were even shut down when they didn’t become environmentally friendly.
Soon, most companies and homes were powered by solar energy, wind turbines, hydropower, geothermal and bioenergy. Massive changes were happening at last, all over the world.
Money was no longer important or an issue for our world governments. They were practically giving away solar panels, wind turbines and hydropower units to anyone willing to use them.
Where once most people couldn't afford green energy, it was now easy and cheap to have a green energy efficient home thanks to government-sponsored commercials and programs. We were one of the first in our neighborhood to make the new changes, jumping at the chance to be green, and we were happy to do so.
The majority of us knew something big was going on. It was just so strange how governments and world leaders all started to take global warming so seriously. It was a total reversal of a global attitude.
Things began to change rapidly, with organic food being grown with natural peat moss and compost being sold in all food shops. Pesticides were being banned all over the world at long last.
Action groups were popping up everywhere; actually, supporting our governments, forcing companies to change to biodegradable everything. From all bottles being made from recycled glass to shopping bags and all paper being made of hemp.
Most people were actively trying to do their bit too such as making their own compost with kitchen waste, minimizing water usage and trying to grow their own fruits and vegetables in their gardens or allotments. Fruit trees were being planted in public areas such as parks, library grounds and schools.
We all felt that we were finally making all the changes to repair the damage we'd done; none of us realized at first, that it was too little too late.
Because we had abused our planet for so long; our Earth was a disaster waiting to happen. Our planet was so over-populated; it was just too late to reverse the damage we’d already done. Even though we’d tried to change our ways, we didn’t seem to be making any difference whatsoever.
Our ice caps were beginning to melt at an alarming rate, and temperatures were drastically rising all over the Earth. Hurricanes were hitting countries one after another; some of them were even classified as super hurricanes.
Places where storms were common were now having to cope with horrendous lightning strikes causing horrific wildfires. It seemed as though all weather was becoming extreme across the world.
On top of all the extreme weather, permafrost was thawing, releasing long time buried infections such as Anthrax and unknown diseases never before encountered by mankind. These diseases were killing wildlife and people, spreading through our streams and rivers.
As far as I know, the end of our planet first started with the oceans. There was a supertanker that had sunk and had leaked oil, just in the perfect place to change our ocean currents. This was before we all knew that our Earth was already going through irreversible changes. We had no real idea what was going on.
The tanker had an explosion on board, leaking its oil right where the warm water met the cold, and because the warm water and the cold couldn’t mix anymore, it started a chain reaction, and so our oceans began to die.
The coral started to die first, leaving no living habitat for so many marine life, and then the seaweed and marine flora died off. The microscopic organisms that fed off the ocean flora and coral died. The shrimp, krill and other mollusks died off too as their food sources vanished. Next were the fish, dolphins, whales and then lastly the sharks.
After a while, marine life eventually sto
pped being eaten by other marine life and so the oceans were full of dead fish and mammals. Some were floating and rotting on top of the water, while larger sea life such as the blue whales rotted on the ocean floor. At first, the seabirds fed off the dead rotting fish floating in the seas, but all too soon, those carcasses were poisonous as well.
We began to see photographs and videos over the social media and the news stations, showing all the dead birds, fish and sea mammals and hearing people's theories. So, we all realized that the situation was getting extremely critical.
Then all at once, our world leaders and governments leapt into action, using every possible resource and every scientist they could find from all over the world. Leaders from every country addressed their nations to tell us what was happening to our planet. They couldn’t hide anything from us any longer.
Every day on the news, we learned of yet another animal extinction, and it was heartbreaking. Scientists around the globe were desperately collecting and freezing eggs, semen and DNA samples from every species they could before it was too late. Other scientists were trying to figure out how to reverse the damage to our oceans while removing the dead sea life and the death sludge left behind.
So many people stepped up to help the scientists as much as they could. Fisherman and many people who just happened to own a boat helped to retrieve dead animals and capture whatever live sea life they could, collecting samples.
DNA collecting kits were sent to anyone who was willing to help; provided by all governments around the world. Huge storage facilities and laboratories were also created to cope with the growing need. For once, all our governments were working together for the common good.
We were, however, powerless to stop the chain reaction that had begun. When all our governments gave yet another public address, informing us that the rivers and streams were going the same way as our oceans, we knew it was the beginning of the end.
Our governments were beginning to prepare us for the mass extinction that was approaching. We were all finally having to come to terms with our dire fate.
We had taken our four kids out of school months ago. We didn’t see the point in making them go anymore when it was no longer of benefit, especially as so many teachers were no longer turning up for work. Not that we could blame them.
We had both stopped going to work too, deciding to spend as much time with our kids as possible. Neither of us had jobs that affected anyone else, so what would have been the point in going?
We stocked up on as much food and water as we could get our hands on, even dehydrating food that we'd been growing in our garden. Anything that could give us a little longer with our kids.
Thousands of families in our state of California had already committed suicide, so they didn’t have to watch each other suffer. Some did it to give the rest of us some more time. Especially the older generation, the grandmothers and grandfathers. They took their own lives, so there was more food and water supplies for their children and grandchildren.
It was truly heartbreaking, knowing that my husband’s parents had done the same for our kids and us. James and I had already started rationing ourselves, so our kids had enough food. We understood why the older population and his parents were sacrificing themselves for the ones they loved.
All conflicts around the world had finally ceased, even the conflicts over religious reasons. Many believed that the end of the world was our punishment for all the wrongs we’d done.
Instead, everyone still surviving was helping each other. There was no point in fighting over a dead planet where money and power were now meaningless. It had taken our world to start dying for us to finally gain world peace. However, it didn’t make us feel any better.
Everyone was doing the same thing as us; preparing to die. We just didn’t know how we were going to die. Diseases were spreading like wildfire. The poorest countries were losing millions of people every day because their food and water supplies were running out so quickly.
Either way, my husband James and I agreed that our deaths were likely to be slow and painful if we didn’t take control. We’d already discussed ending it all as a family before that could happen. We had enough means in our house to enable all of us to fall asleep and never wake up. There was no way that we were going to let our kids suffer slow, painful deaths.
It was beginning to become very real for our kids too. Especially when they were outside finding dead birds and small animals in our garden, such as hummingbirds, mice and many others.
At first, they were so upset finding the dead animals who were lying motionless on the ground. Tears streamed down their little faces, but after a while, the tears stopped, and they no longer showed us what they'd found. Instead, they either collected DNA samples to send off to the labs or buried what they discovered. We had many little graves dug in our backyard.
Once our rivers and streams began to be undrinkable, we all knew it was the end for all of us. We’d already used all our savings, at the beginning when things had started to get serious, to stock up on as much food and water as we could get our hands on when the shops were still open. Thank goodness James made us act quickly. It was as if he’d sensed that things were serious right away.
We stored all our supplies in the kids’ bedrooms and our dining room, opting to all share the same bedroom. I suppose we were trying to make the most of being so close together and wanting to keep the kids safe.
When we saw the news updates about the insects dropping dead all over the planet, we knew that what little food was still growing would be the last. With no more insects, the plants wouldn’t be able to reproduce, and our lead scientists around the world had all agreed that there was nothing more that could be done to stop it.
We no longer had any proper programs on our televisions or radios. Only news updates from our governments and world leaders. With the insects now dying, we had to explain to our kids that this was going to affect what little food supplies our countries had left.
Even our children seemed to grasp how horrific the situation was. My heart was breaking in my chest at their facial expressions. The looks of sheer fear and the color draining from their faces; their eyes wide with shock.
The last updates from our governments were letting us know that an ice age was coming. So, even if we didn’t starve to death or die of diseases, we were all going to freeze to death. Nothing we could do could save us from the freezing temperatures or the amount of ice and snow that was going to hit the whole planet.
I didn’t remember any of this, when I woke up, however ........
✽ ✽ ✽
It was so bright when I tried to open my eyes. My eyes hurt from the light as they tried to focus. My vision was blurry, and my eyes stung and started to water. Both of my arms felt heavy and weak as if they hadn't been used in a while.
When I tried to lift them to rub my sensitive eyes, I felt a tug on my right arm as I raised it, making me stop. I laid my arms back down, deciding to give myself a moment to focus my thoughts and let my eyes adjust.
I didn’t know where on Earth I was, and as I laid flat, I realized that I didn’t know anything! Who I was, where I was or why I was laying down. What was also very strange was that I felt no panic. In fact, I felt very relaxed, even woozy. I didn’t like the woozy feeling at all, but I didn’t feel in any danger.
Gradually, my eyes began to focus, and as I lifted my head to the side, I saw beds in a long row next to me; all occupied. The room was obviously massive because I couldn’t see a wall at the end of the rows of beds. I assumed I was looking at people in the same situation that I was in, ‘We must all be sick,’ I thought to myself.
The woman in the bed next to me looked so peaceful; she didn’t look like she was suffering or was sick in any way. ‘This place does feel like a hospital.’
Everything looked so bright and clean, and I wasn’t sure if I was seeing things, but the white ceiling and the floor both looked as if they were shimmering, ‘Maybe it’s my
eyes still adjusting to the light?’
The woman next to me was young, and she looked like she was in her early twenties, with a beautiful pale face and rich, dark chocolate brown hair. She was slender in her body shape, and she was obviously pregnant. I could see a definite small baby bump, covered by the white gown she was wearing, and a silvery, shiny sheet that covered her from just below her breasts to her feet.
The young woman was hooked up to what I assumed were monitoring machines, but they weren’t like anything I’d seen before. It all looked a lot more advanced than what I thought they should look like. ‘Have I been in a hospital before?’ I didn’t know, but I could hear a repetitive small bleep sound, which I thought must be the woman’s heartbeat or maybe the babies. The bleeping was soft and rhythmic.
As I took in all the visual information, my senses and body sensitivity seemed to be returning, and I realized that I didn’t feel woozy anymore. When I looked down at myself, I saw that I was in the exact same situation as the woman next to me.
I was on a hospital bed with an IV looking thing in my right arm, hooked up to my own machines. No wonder I’d felt the tug on my arm; I was lucky not to have pulled it out. I was wearing the same kind of white gown which felt like silk against my skin, and I was covered with a thin silvery sheet.
What shocked me the most was the fact that I seemed to have a baby bump as well, with no memory of ever getting pregnant or how I ended up there whatsoever. I was stunned when I looked down at my swollen abdomen. Lifting up my arm, I reached up and touched it, ‘Yes it was real, and yes, it was a definite baby bump.’ By the size of the bump, I was around four months pregnant, but I wasn’t sure how I’d even know that.
Earth's Angels: The Earth's Angels Trilogy Page 1