I had an idea for a novel that would explore the concept of
how a simple chain of events could end up with Earth experiencing both a
nuclear and volcanic winter at the same time! The story would center around a character by the
name of Cliff Roberts; an aging professor at Berkley
California who specializes in
sudden and abrupt climate change along with the factors that can cause it. Soon he
finds himself the in the center of a maelstrom of events that will lead
humanity on a path to destruction and, just possibly, salvation. Please feel
free to read on…
Prologue
It was springtime and Cliff Roberts had himself a busy
schedule on tap. While forty years of living a hectic lifestyle as senior professor
of climate change in Berkley
California had done little good
for his face, inside he was still energized and intellectually razor sharp - He
had to be or his students would run over him like a Mac truck.
As he sat himself down to a plate of eggs (bad for the
heart), toast and milk, he looked up briefly at an old tube type TV stuffed
into a remote corner of the kitchen. The words ‘asteroid strike’ had caught his
attention and for a moment his breakfast was forgotten.
[This just in from
NASA...Apparently, a small asteroid has struck the US
in the vicinity of Yellowstone
Park. Details remain
sketchy as the area of impact has been cordoned off by emergency
services…. stay tuned to this channel folks for unfolding events as they happen…]
“Well, I’ll be! Cliff spoke aloud to the toaster as though
it could hear him. It did not. “How bad could it have been? That media guy had
used the word small had he not?” The toaster remained stoically mute. Cliff
decided to refocus his attention on his breakfast and then get ready for work.
-----------
Eleven hundred miles to the northwest of Cliff’s home, in
the area of Yellowstone
Park, a scene out of
Dante’s Inferno was rapidly unfolding. While the ‘asteroid’ had turned out to
be just a large meteorite measuring less than two hundred feet across, it had
landed almost directly over the immense magma dome under Lake Yellowstone.
Now a small fissure that had been created by the impact was rapidly expanding,
and in doing so, was opening the doors to hell on earth – and super volcanic
eruption was now only hours away. No one on planet, not Cliff, the President or
anyone else for that matter earth had any idea of how such a seemingly minor
impact was going to set the stage for a series of events that would end in the
near extinction of mankind and most surprisingly, their salvation.
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