Judgment (The Alternate Earth Series, Book 3)

by S. J. West

  I’m not sure if it’s my crude language or me pulling on them that does the trick, but the group of five finally runs towards the others by the shore. I understand that it’s counter-intuitive to be running towards a wall of water that’s the size of a mountain, but, in this instance, it’s the only way to survive.

  Just as we reach the group, Rafe pulls water from the tsunami and forms a dome around us. I instantly feel as if I’m underneath a glass bowl.

  While Mason and the other Watchers continue to phase people to safety, I feel Zack come up next to me and take a hold of my hand. We watch with horrified fascination as the tsunami washes over us. Through our looking-glass, we watch as dolphins, sharks, and a sundry of fish are tossed overhead by the power of the wave crashing against the western edge of the United States. I don’t know how much of this area will survive a tsunami like this one. I can’t imagine much will come out unscathed.

  “I don’t even know what to say,” Zack says to me, in complete awe of what he’s witnessing.

  “That makes two of us,” I tell him, unable to pull my eyes away from the spectacle of destruction. “I think we need to remember this, Zack. We need to remember just how bad things can get.”

  “I’m glad we were able to deal with the princes in our reality before they ever had a chance to release the seals there.”

  “Yeah,” I say, now worrying about the future.

  We know from Gabe’s vision of the far future, that Caylin’s descendent will be the one who has to prevent the princes from unleashing the power of their seals. I pray that she’s able to do it, because no one should have to witness the devastation that we have in this reality. It’s beyond the imaginings of human beings. No sane person should have to watch the destruction of his or her own world.

  I look over at Rafe to see how he’s holding up and notice that his body is shaking. I’m not sure if he’s simply frightened, or if the strain of keeping the dome of water over us is draining him of strength.

  Still holding Zack’s hand, I walk us over to Rafe. When we reach him, I let go of Zack, and we both place a comforting hand on Rafe’s back. His trembling quickly subsides and eventually stops.

  “Thank you,” Rafe tells us, sounding as grateful as his words imply.

  “That’s what we’re here for,” I tell him.

  Rafe may be receiving a little extra power from our touch, but we’re also receiving the gift of comfort from him. As vessels, we’ve always been stronger together than apart. This moment is no exception. As long as we stand united, there’s nothing we can’t handle.

  After the final group of humans has been evacuated, Mason comes up to me and phases us away without saying a word.

  We soon find ourselves standing on a stone terrace. As I look around our new surroundings, I see that it’s actually part of a medieval castle.

  “Where are we?” I ask Mason.

  “Cardona, Spain,” he replies, looking around the ruins of what remains of the castle. “On our Earth, this castle was turned into a hotel for tourists. Here, though, it looks like it was abandoned.”

  Abandoned is right. There are barely any walls left standing. The people we rescued are either milling around aimlessly among the ruins or huddled together in small groups crying. My heart goes out to these lost souls who literally just saw everything they know be washed away in a blink of an eye. I have to hold back my own tears as I witness their pain.

  “Thank you,” Marie says as she comes to stand with Mason and me. “You were a true God-send for us. We would have all died if you hadn’t shown up.”

  In the back of my mind, I have to wonder: if we had picked another beach, would we have saved a different group of people? Sometimes life leads you to exactly where you need to be, at exactly the right moment. It’s obvious to me that God wanted us to save these people. I don’t know why. I may never know His true intention. Maybe one of them has a destiny that goes beyond the scope of my understanding. In the end, it doesn’t really matter. They’re all safe for the time being, and sometimes you just need to be thankful for what you have in the moment and not worry so much about the future.

  Isaiah and Baruch come up to us and say, “It might be safer for these people to stay up here instead of going down into the lower levels of the castle tonight. Odds are there will be more earthquakes happening in the next few days. Baruch and I can go find them some tents to use for now.”

  “That sounds like a good idea,” Mason tells them. “The two of you handle making these people more comfortable while the rest of us continue the mission. You can catch up to us later.”

  Isaiah nods before he and Baruch phase to find provisions for the survivors.

  “Just let Isaiah and Baruch know if your group needs something,” Mason tells Marie.

  “Thank you,” Marie says gratefully. “We will.”

  “Well,” Nina says, her hands on her hips, “I think we should stay away from the oceans for the time being and try to stay inland as much as possible. I’m sure that wasn’t the only tsunami to result from the last earthquake. It probably won’t be the last either.”

  “Do you think we should start checking beaches to see if we can save other people?” I ask.

  “That’s not very practical,” Mason says. I can hear the regret in his voice as he continues, “We can’t save everyone, Jess. It’s just not possible. In the long run, I think our time is better spent making sure people have drinkable water.”

  “But we could save a few…” I begin to argue.

  “Yes, we could possibly save a few thousand people,” Mason agrees. “Or we can save a few million by making sure they’re not poisoned. I know it sounds heartless of me, but sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture during a war, Jess. Make no mistake about it: we’re fighting for the survival of humanity here. Some decisions are going to have to come down to a numbers game. We have to do what will save the most lives.”

  I understand what Mason is telling me. I might not like it, but I do agree with his logic.

  “All right,” I say, resigning myself to the fact that there are limits to what we can do to help the people on this Earth. “Where do we go next?”

  For the next few hours, we traverse the globe and act as Rafe’s bodyguards as he decontaminates the major water supplies of the world. It seems like each place we go to is in the same apocalyptic boat. No one is doing very well, and almost every person we meet looks shell-shocked. Surprisingly, we don’t meet with any resistance from Lucian’s followers. However, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until we do. Then they’ll start to hunt us down and try to stop what we’re doing.

  Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long before I learn my assumption is right on the money.

  When we phase to the Pepacton Reservoir, the largest reservoir in the New York City water supply system, we come face to face with this world’s Will Kilpatrick.

  When he sees us, Will smiles brightly, like we’re old friends he hasn’t seen in a long time.

  “Well, this must be my lucky day. I can’t believe I just happened to pick the exact right spot to find you. I told Lucian you people would probably come here at some point,” Will says to us, his boyish good looks doing nothing to hide the danger in his eyes. “I can’t believe I’m the lucky one who gets to hand you over to him.”

  “A little cocky, considering you’re outnumbered,” I say, doing a quick scan of the rest of the area to make sure he is indeed alone.

  “Not for long,” Will says, phasing away for a few seconds before returning with a hundred rebellion angels behind him. “See? If nothing else, we’re very efficient about organizing our troops at a moment’s notice. Now look who’s outnumbered.”

  I see Will focus on Rafe.

  “Just so I understand this correctly, as long as we take you out,” Will says, nodding his head at Rafe, “we eliminate your group’s healer and the person who’s going around making the water drinkable, right?”

  “You’re completely delusional i
f you think you’re laying one hand on Rafe,” I tell Will. “I suggest you and your little friends leave now before we kill all of you.”

  “No,” Nina says, taking a step forward towards our attackers. “I want this fight. The more of you we kill, the fewer we have to deal with later. I’m worth a hundred of you, and you all know it,” Nina declares proudly. “If you think you can win against me and my friends then bring it on. But I can promise none of you will leave here alive, and that includes you, Will.”

  Surprisingly, Will doesn’t respond with a pithy retort, which tells me he knows Nina is speaking the truth. I knew War Angels were badass, but I didn’t really think one could strike fear into a hundred rebellion angels with a single threat. I have to admit. I’m impressed.

  “And yet,” a new voice says, joining the conversation, “it only takes one Archangel to destroy a little War Angel.”

  The rebellion angels in front of us part like the Red Sea as Mammon walks up between them. His cocky smile is, to say the least, irritating, and I feel Nina bristle as she watches Mammon warily. Nina is very proud of her War Angel status. I don’t think she likes hearing anyone, especially not a prince of Hell, belittling her angelic class.

  “Well… this should be interesting to watch,” I hear Lucifer say, immediately capturing everyone’s attention.

  He’s standing on the rocky shore of the reservoir, watching the standoff between us and Lucian’s minions. He looks amused by the prospect of the fight to come. I don’t know why I always hope for more from Lucifer.

  “Enjoying the show we’re putting on in our reality?” Mammon asks Lucifer tauntingly. “Are you feeling brave enough to try to match our accomplishments in the Origin yet?”

  Lucifer lifts an eyebrow in Mammon’s direction. “Are you really that dimwitted?”

  Mammon stiffens at Lucifer’s question, but remains silent.

  “I guess that answers my question,” Lucifer says in a resigned voice, with a disappointed shake of his head. “Honestly, you people need to learn how to play with your food, not just gulp it down all in one swallow. The lack of self-control you have is truly mind-boggling. In fact, I think I’m getting a headache just trying to understand this idiotic plan of yours.”

  “What’s so hard to understand?” Mammon asks sarcastically. “Who exactly is the dimwitted one here?”

  Lucifer’s eyebrows rise after Mammon’s last taunt.

  Mammon soon falls to his knees, holding his head with both hands as he screams out in pain. Lucifer stalks up to Mammon and grabs the angel’s head with both hands. I hear Lucifer quickly say some words before he twists Mammon’s neck, effectively breaking it.

  I’m pretty certain that I just witnessed Lucifer use a favorite punishment of his. When I see Mammon’s body begin to twitch on the rocky shoreline, my suspicions are confirmed. Lucifer just trapped Mammon’s soul inside a now-dead human body.

  “I suggest you think before you speak to me again,” Lucifer says, staring down at Mammon as he rolls over onto his back to look up at Lucifer. “As it is, why don’t you leave and take your little peons with you? Tell Lucian these people are under my protection now. If he wants to continue with his little party in this reality, he needs to leave them alone.”

  Mammon sits up. “Sounds like an empty threat to me. It’s not like you can actually do anything to him.”

  “Can’t I?” Lucifer says threateningly.

  Mammon stands. “I’ll deliver your message, but I don’t think it’ll make any difference. It’s only a matter of time before he has everything he needs to make his plan work.”

  “It won’t work,” Lucifer says with certainty. “It will never happen, no matter what he does.”

  “You don’t know that!” Mammon shouts, like a madman.

  “Watch your tone with me, boy,” Lucifer tells Mammon, like he’s speaking to a spoiled child. “I can’t help it if your glorious leader didn’t think things through first.”

  From the scathing look Mammon is giving Lucifer, it’s obvious he wants to kill him.

  Mammon looks over at us. “It doesn’t matter what you do. Go ahead and waste your time making the humans’ water drinkable. We have another way to get what we need anyway. It’s only a matter of time before things are set into place.”

  Mammon phases, which seems to be the rebellion angels’ signal to leave also.

  “What do you think he meant by that?” I ask Lucifer.

  Lucifer turns to look at me. “I have no idea.”

  I’m not sure whether I should believe Lucifer, but I do. At this point, if he knows something useful, he needs to learn how to share.

  “Well,” Malcolm says, “it seems obvious that Lucian has a back-up plan of some sort.”

  “If he does,” Mason says, “then he’s probably keeping it a secret, and only telling his inner group. Maybe Xavier will be allowed in on the secret soon.”

  I silently pray that he does learn what else Lucian has up his sleeve. Mammon sounded too cocksure of Lucian’s fallback plan. Whatever it is, I know it won’t do this world any favors.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  For two days straight, we travel around the world with Rafe. Fortunately, Lucifer’s threat to Lucian seems to have done the trick. We don’t meet with any more angelic resistance.

  When we phase into the safe house in New York City, we discover the warehouse has been burnt to the ground in a firestorm that seems to have destroyed over half the city. The night sky isn’t the only thing that has been changed. The city skyline is now missing more than a few buildings. As I survey the destruction, I begin to wonder if this world will ever recover from what happened. The only thing I am certain of is that it would never be the same again. How could it be? Half the moon was gone!

  Without the other half of the moon, the days on this Earth were becoming shorter. The planet’s rotation was almost twice as fast now without the moon’s gravitational pull.

  Speaking of which, as I look up at the sky, it seems to me like the moon is getting closer to the Earth. It could just be my imagination, but, then again, maybe it isn’t.

  “What are you thinking?” Mason asks as he comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my shoulders.

  “Does the moon look…bigger?” I ask, wondering if my question sounds stupid.

  Mason looks up and studies what’s left of our celestial partner for a moment.

  “Now that you mention it,” he says, loosening his hold on me, “it kind of does.”

  “What do you think it means?” I ask, worried over this new development.

  “I’m not sure,” Mason says, “but I think I have an idea.”

  Mason runs his hands down my arms. “Come on. Let’s get back to the castle and see if Josh has noticed anything out of the ordinary about its orbit. Hopefully, it’s just an optical illusion. Either way, we should check to make sure everything is ok.”

  As we return to our friends, Rafe is pulling his staff out of the freshly-cleansed bay.

  “You guys ready to head back to the castle?” Mason asks the others.

  “Yeah,” Chandler says with a big yawn. “Sorry; I guess the last two days have taken more out of me than I thought.”

  “I think we could all use some rest,” I tell him, stifling a yawn of my own. “Let’s return to the castle and get some sleep. I’m not sure what else we’ll have to deal with in the coming days.”

  When we return to Boldt Castle, Mason and I seek out Josh in his computer room before retiring to our room for some rest. When Mason asks Josh if he’s noticed anything odd about what’s left of the moon, Josh looks confused.

  “What do you think it’s doing?” he asks, turning back to his computer and punching some keys on his keyboard. He quickly pulls up the 3-D hologram of the Earth and what’s left of the moon on the Dragon Network’s radar.

  “Hmm,” Josh says, looking at some numbers flashing across the screen on his desk. “That’s definitely not good.”

  I wait for him to say
more, but he doesn’t.

  “You can’t just say something like that and leave us hanging,” I tell him, sounding more irritated than I intended to.

  “Oh, sorry,” Josh says, spinning around in his chair to face us. “According to these numbers, the moon is slowly moving closer to Earth.”

  “Yeah, that’s not good,” I say, agreeing with Josh’s earlier assessment. “What’s going to happen? Is it going to crash into us?”

  “At its current rate of descent,” Josh says, “it won’t have enough momentum to crash onto Earth. It’ll hit the Roche Limit at too slow a speed to punch through it and stay intact.”

  “Roche Limit?” I have to ask.

  “Basically, it’s the point where the moon will get ripped apart by the Earth’s tidal forces. When the rest of the moon hits it, it’ll disintegrate, and the material will disperse to form a ring around the planet.”

  “Like the rings around Saturn?” I ask, trying to visualize such an event.

  “Yes, like those,” Josh confirms.

  “How long before that happens?” Mason asks.

  “I’m not sure. I can do some calculations to try and get an estimate.”

  I sigh heavily as a thought occurs to me.

  “What are you thinking?” Mason asks, having heard me.

  “I’m thinking it sounds a lot like a countdown to the end of this world,” I admit.

  Neither Josh nor Mason says anything for a moment as my words sink in.

  “I’ll work on the calculations,” Josh says, turning back to his computer. “It might take me a while, though. I may even need to call Wayne to see if he can help me do the math. Some of this is just going to have to be guesswork. We have no idea what the mass is of what’s left of the moon, so my calculations could be way off. I’ll need to watch its descent for a while so I can get a better idea of how fast it’s moving.”

  “Let us know when you have something figured out,” Mason tells Josh.

  My husband places his hand on the small of my back and phases us to our bedroom. I slip my boots off while Mason helps me remove my baldric and jacket.

  “Are you hungry?” he asks, massaging my shoulders.