When Hell Came to Earth

By Terrence Aubrey

How great is the power of nature? From a human perspective, practically limitless, it was something that the human race was very soon to experience first hand.
What is the Gaia theory? The scientist James Lovelock brought the theory to the public domain in 1970’s. Together with Lynn Margulis a microbiologist; they determined that planet earth could and would maintain and sustain the conditions to sustain life on earth, all life on earth.
While the suggestion that planet earth herself might be a sentient form of life was controversial, bold and even regarded as far fetched by modern man, it was in fact nothing new. The theory that ultimately the Earth herself would act to protect and ensure the continuance of all life on earth had long been regarded as a truism and by many ancient civilisations.
Many of modern mans predecessors believed that planet earth was more than a mere rock within a universe of similar rocks. Even more, interesting, many within these ancient tribes claimed to have enjoyed a connection with the spirits of Mother Earth itself. History books are littered with tales of such a connection and worldwide. Within the America’s, north and south, Asia, India, The Himalayas, China and even within the Pacific islands and Australia, examples of this connection can be found within ancient scriptures. To mankind’s loss, each and every one of these ancient civilisations were ultimately rendered extinct and or irrelevant, much of their knowledge with them.
One species of man, one form of civilisation, slowly, but surely became dominant, we can call it modern man. History would show this to have been an error of monumental proportions. The knowledge that was lost, as modern man swept to dominance, would only later be recognised as the disaster that it in fact was, later, much later.
Modern man proved to be inventive, technologically brilliant and doggedly determined to bend all life on earth to its will. The problem was one of balance; modern man did not enjoy this luxury. It would be fair to say the modern man believed only in what he could see hear and touch. In comparison with many of the ancient civilisations that modern man rendered extinct, modern man enjoyed limited understanding. The World and all it contained was regarded one huge source of resources. Resources that could and would be utilised as needed.
Almost from the beginnings of modern mans worldwide dominance, the balance of life on earth began to tilt one dimensionally. It would be hundreds of years before the increasing imbalance would become undeniable. Even worse, for many within the now worldwide tribe of modern man, the imbalance would never be acknowledged.
Mother Nature was patient, perhaps way too patient. She only began to exercise her frightening power at the eleventh hour. How best could the power of Mother Nature be summed up? In one word, awesome, the mighty human race was in truth as but fleas against such power.
When Hell came to Earth, although a work of fiction, looks at one possible scenario of natures awesome power, and its consequences. Despite modern mans dominance of planet earth and all it contained, against the power of nature; he was effectively impotent and helpless. In fact as helpless and impotent as the wildlife he had effectively and contemptuously swept aside.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Terrence Aubrey
• Release date: Aug 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301965434

Terrence Aubrey

Terrence Aubrey was born in Bristol, England, the only son of a Ballet dancer mother and composer father. Rebellious of nature and from an early age, he abandoned his education at the earliest possible moment, fifteen. He showed no inclination of following in the artistic footsteps of his parents during his formative years. Preferring a self enlightening process, he set off upon an adventure that led him to experiment with understanding the mind and the development of self awareness. During that period he enjoyed extensive World travel across the countries of Europe, the America’s, north and south and the FSU. He found those travels, enriching, mind opening and educational and in equal measure. He discovered both a passion and love of writing by chance, while establishing a website. It was a website than required a lot of varied content. That ultimately led him to the writing of many articles upon diverse subjects. That in turn led to him creating a blog. The leap from blogging to writing full length novels was a gradual process. Many of his novels reflect his environmental concern for the way we, the human race have evolved and the consequences that path has led us towards. Whilst many of his novels are dramatic, even apocalyptic, they also show a way forward. Whether you believe that way to be better or worse than the current status quo is for you to decide. Terrence Aubrey currently lives on a farm in southern Spain and cultivates Avocados. He has four sons, three dogs and writes. He has now published several works of fiction and they can be found on Smashwords.

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About the author

Terrence Aubrey was born in Bristol, England, the only son of a Ballet dancer mother and composer father. Rebellious of nature and from an early age, he abandoned his education at the earliest possible moment, fifteen. He showed no inclination of following in the artistic footsteps of his parents during his formative years.

Preferring a self enlightening process, he set off upon an adventure that led him to experiment with understanding the mind and the development of self awareness. During that period he enjoyed extensive World travel across the countries of Europe, the America’s, north and south and the FSU. He found those travels, enriching, mind opening and educational and in equal measure.

He discovered both a passion and love of writing by chance, while establishing a website. It was a website than required a lot of varied content. That ultimately led him to the writing of many articles upon diverse subjects. That in turn led to him creating a blog. The leap from blogging to writing full length novels was a gradual process.

Many of his novels reflect his environmental concern for the way we, the human race have evolved and the consequences that path has led us towards. Whilst many of his novels are dramatic, even apocalyptic, they also show a way forward. Whether you believe that way to be better or worse than the current status quo is for you to decide.

Terrence Aubrey currently lives on a farm in southern Spain and cultivates Avocados. He has four sons, three dogs and writes.

He has now published several works of fiction, often with an environmental slant and they can be found on Amazon and all the best eBook publishers.

Terrence Aubrey Blog http://yes-we-can.co

Prologue

How great is the power of nature? From a human perspective, practically limitless, it was something that the human race was very soon to experience, up close and at first hand.

What is the Gaia theory? The scientist James Lovelock brought the theory to the public domain in 1970’s. Together with Lynn Margulis; a microbiologist; they determined that it might well be that planet earth is a sentient consciousness that can and will maintain and sustain the conditions to sustain life on earth, all life on earth. The implications of this possibility could and more importantly should, have been as a wakeup call to Earth’s primary species, mankind.

While the suggestion that planet earth herself might be a sentient form of life was controversial, bold and even regarded as farfetched by many, it was in fact nothing new. The theory that ultimately the Earth herself would act to protect and ensure the continuance of all life on earth had long been regarded as a truism by many ancient civilisations.

Many of modern mans predecessors believed that planet earth was more than a mere rock within a universe of similar rocks. Even more, interesting, many within these ancient tribes claimed to have enjoyed a connection with the spirits of Mother Earth itself.

The history books are littered with tales of such a connection and worldwide. Within the America’s, north and south, Asia, India, the Himalayas, China and even within the Pacific islands and Australia, examples of this connection can be found within their ancient scriptures.

To mankind’s loss, each and every one of these ancient civilisations was ultimately rendered extinct and or irrelevant. Only later, much later would the loss of their knowledge be fully understood for the disaster it in fact was.

One species of man, one form of civilisation, slowly, but surely became dominant. We can call him modern man, or European man.

History would show that the effective elimination of so many of these ancient tribes had been an error of monumental proportions. The knowledge that was lost, as modern man swept to dominance, would only later be recognised as the disaster that it in fact was, later, much, much later.

The modern European man proved to be inventive, technologically brilliant and doggedly determined to bend all life on earth to his will.

The problem was one of balance; modern man did not enjoy any understanding of quite how important this balance actually was.

It would be fair to say the modern man believed only in what he could see hear and touch. In comparison with many of the ancient civilisations that modern man rendered extinct, modern man enjoyed limited, or no understanding of the delicate balance that life on earth is and must be. The World and all it contained was regarded as one huge source of resources. Resources that could and would be utilised as mankind needed in its dash for material riches.

Almost from the beginnings of modern mans worldwide dominance, the balance of life on earth began to tilt and one dimensionally. It was a process that once established gathered its own momentum and at a dizzying and life threatening speed.

It would be hundreds of years before the increasing imbalance would become undeniable. Even worse, for many within the now worldwide tribe of modern man, the imbalance would never be truly grasped, or even acknowledged. Mother Nature was patient, perhaps way too patient. She only began to exercise her frightening power at the eleventh hour.

How best could the power of Mother Nature be summed up? In one word, awesome, the mighty human race was in truth; as but fleas against such power.

No unwittingly, mankind had, through its own ignorance declared war upon the delicate balance that nature in fact was. Even worse and again unwittingly, Homo sapiens had through a combination of arrogance, ignorance and stupidity; become the virus, the predator, the source of the imbalance.

When Hell came to Earth is a work of fiction that looks at one of the possible scenarios of nature’s awesome power and its frightening consequences. That ever increasing acts of nature’s power and anger are now becoming commonplace is impossible to deny. Why that should be is something we might want to humbly consider and deeply.

Despite modern mans dominance of planet earth and all it contained, against the power of nature; he was effectively impotent and helpless. In fact as helpless and impotent as the wildlife and ancient civilizations he had effectively and contemptuously swept aside. While I have used poetic license and exaggerated the waves of stormy weather afflicting planet earth, it is in fact happening. We ignore these increasingly dramatic warnings at our peril.

Chapter One

The Pink Sky

That she needed to act, make a sign; break through the seemingly infinite arrogance of humankind was more than clear. She had perhaps waited too long, but she felt pain, reluctance. Of all life on earth this species had been chosen above all as the crown of creation, their potential enormous. That they had failed to in anyway live up to that potential hurt and deeply so.

While Craig often woke early since they’d moved to Montana, that morning he woke particularly early, before six. He and his wife Jasmine had almost certainly overdone their homemade wine sampling the previous evening.

They were proud of their wine and amongst their new and scattered neighbours were acclaimed for their wine, but alcohol was alcohol. No he realised too late, last night they had overdone it. His brown hair tousled, now longer and his chin unshaven he made for the front porch. It had become his/their morning ritual since they’d moved from New York.

The contrast from the view from his Brooklyn apartment window could not have been more extreme, it was in fact as stark as chalk and cheese. Montana was in general a lush and verdant state and the valley they now lived within, particularly so.

As soon as Craig opened the door and feeling the worse for wear, he realised that something was not right, then realised what, the sky, it was pink! It was not simply the hues surrounding the rising sun that were pink, the entire sky was pink. He rubbed his eyes, aware that he had quite a hangover. Nothing changed and he retired indoors. He felt pretty awful, he’d go back to bed; he’d sleep it off.

Craig was awakened by a gentle kiss and glanced at the clock, it was near midday and Jasmine was dressed. There was a coffee faintly steaming on the bedside table.

Have you been outside? He asked.

Yes, Jasmine replied calmly.

The sky....... Jasmine stroked his wrinkled brow, her face reflecting an inner serenity; she smiled then kissed his forehead again.

It’s started, she told him calmly, and sooner than I was expecting. Craig raised himself to his elbows, his expression one big question mark.

What’s started, what do you mean?

The earth spirits are moving. They have waited so patiently and for so long. Jasmine offered her hand to Craig’s and led him to their front porch. Craig involuntarily gasped once outside; the entire sky was now an even deeper shade of pink a Barbie Doll pink. It was unreal, surreal and scary.

But, if, what’s happened, how could it happen, what does it mean? Craig eventually articulated after fumbling for the right words, visibly shaken.

I don’t know, Jasmine said calmly, I know as much as you Craig, but it signifies a shift, a monumental shift. Craig stared at her, struggling to grasp what she was telling him. Craig had, over time; come to increasingly respect Jasmine’s Navajo heritage and timeless knowledge.

The earth spirits have been patient, almost unbelievably so. She said. For the earth spirits, we are simply one of millions, billions of species upon this planet, no more and no less. How many of the species with whom we share our World have we driven to extinction? What care and respect have we shown our rivers, oceans, forests and wild life? Craig began to reply and Jasmine held her finger to her lips. You know the answer as well as me, I know, we have talked about it endlessly and we are not alone. There are millions of people that share our views, our concerns, but billions that either, do not agree with us, or are to busy trying to survive to even consider it. Unfortunately the leaders of men, the rich and the powerful, while they do not fall into the latter majority have allowed themselves to become blinded by the accumulation of matter, money, materialism."

For Craig this was way too deep and way too early, his hangover dominating, or limiting his ability to fully grasp the implication of Jasmine’s words.

Come back in, I’ll make you another coffee, there is nothing we can do here. Craig did not resist, happy to follow Jasmine’s lead and perceptions.

Almost from the day he’d first met her, he’d been aware of an otherness about her; an un-worldliness. If anything that aspect of Jasmine, the woman he oh so loved had intensified and progressively.

It was forty minutes later and after a second coffee and a shower that Jasmine took his hand and led him back to their small terrace.

Craig again stared skyward, the Sun, big and clear, was vaguely orange and the surrounding landscape had changed in appearance. The babbling brook that ran through their land, normally so clear, so fresh, was now vaguely pink. The grand and stately forest, from which their small holding had been carved hundreds of years before, had also changed. Instead of the vibrant and fresh hues of green, it also was now tinged in varying shades of pink.

I’m going to check the news channels on the radio, Craig told her, fifteen minutes later. They had left their TV in New York, part of their previous existence.

A good idea, Jasmine agreed, I’m going to listen to the earth, the nature and the trees. They returned to their bedroom to dress, both still in their underwear. Craig said nothing, only watched, as Jasmine retrieved from the bottom of her draw, a traditional Navajo outfit. He’d only ever seen her dressed so once before, for the Navajo part of their marriage ceremony in New Mexico. Somehow it affected him deeply, something of monumental importance was happening, quite what, beyond his grasp.

Craig turned on the radio, but ultimately it was waste of time. Selections of ‘experts’, varying from station to station were explaining away the phenomenon as nothing to be concerned about.

The reasons given for the phenomenon varied from channel to channel and from the absurd to the ridiculous, depending on the field of expertise of the speaker. Craig switched off the radio, he’d been hearing the opinions of such talking heads all his life, hearing, but not listening. Craig returned to the porch, Jasmine not in sight and walked slowly towards the forest, her favourite haunt. It felt strange, it felt weird he felt like he was on a foreign planet.

He heard Jasmine before he saw her, she was singing, her voice sweet, though sad and mournful in equal measure. He spotted her, deep within the forest, she was dancing and he paused; not wanting to intrude. Jasmine was singing in her native tongue and whilst he understood not a word, he could feel the meaningfulness of her words. He felt, but beyond knowing, that the trees were responding, sharing her grief, her frustration, at the folly of man.

Craig returned to their small stone house, which until today had looked so solid. Today it looked as solid as a house built from straw. Craig picked up his mobile phone, during the year they had lived in Montana they had gotten to meet, know and befriend their near and not so near neighbours. Between them they shared a common denominator, most were evacuees from big cities and most shared the same environmental concerns as himself and Jasmine.

The first words of all he contacted were what were Jasmine’s views about the phenomenon? Unlike New York, here Jasmine was not only respected, but almost revered, at least amongst their fellow evacuees. A meeting was arranged and at Craig’s farm, for the following afternoon. They would be many; those he had contacted would in turn contact their neighbours. Everyone wanted to hear Jasmine’s opinion, explanation of what was happening.

Like Craig and Jasmine; many had abandoned the way of life that was predominantly accepted throughout America, feeling it was not only wrong but suicidal; but a pink sky? Some felt fear and others puzzlement. The feeling and emotions that they did seem to share was that something monumental had happened, but that was it. Why it had happened now, quite what it represented and what the implications of the unannounced arrival of a pink sky represented was what they hoped Jasmine would know. If not know, she might at least have some ideas, or useful suggestions, perhaps there was something that they could or should do.

For each of their newly made friends Jasmine embodied an un-worldliness and deep knowledge that defied her youth. Yes if anyone had any idea of what had happened over night, it would be Jasmine.

Jasmine returned just as he set the phone down, her face wet from tears and yet seemingly at peace.

Tell me, Craig asked her, once he’d pulled her closer in a loving embrace.

It’s begun, Jasmine told him simply. I don’t know, even the earth spirits don’t know what will happen, but it’s started. Craig looked at her, respecting her connection with nature, but struggling to understand the implications of what she was telling him.

As if reading his mind, Jasmine continued. "The earth, Mother Nature, has waited until the eleventh hour to intercede, has stood by as man caused it to bleed, suffocate and become infirm. It has interceded only as the last option in protecting this planet from man and his stupidity.

Whilst the earth spirits cannot predict, do not know what is going to happen, they do know one thing with certainty and it’s worrying in its implications Craig, frightening." Craig tried to grasp the meaning of her words, but was struggling. How exactly was Mother Nature going to intercede, how could it. Mother Nature simply was, no?

As much as he had loved Mother Nature and from a child, it possessed not one grain of intelligence, or did it? Was he overlooking something, or had he simply not quite understood what Jasmine was trying to tell him?

Craig had known, or felt a sense of un-worldliness and deep wisdom, from Jasmine almost from the moment he’d first met her, but what she was now trying to share with him went well beyond that.

Change how, what do you mean? Craig eventually asked; and again tears began to well up in Jasmine’s eyes; Craig instinctively pulled her still closer and held her tightly.

We must stay here on this farm as much as possible Craig, Jasmine eventually said. Here the earth spirits can offer us some protection. Oh Craig, it’s going to be terrible, terrible, even the earth spirits weep. Millions are going to die Craig, maybe billions. Craig felt her sorrow, Jasmine’s body now shaking within his arms, but was struggling to grasp the enormity of what she was telling him, her words. His mind was buzzing, his mind now a jumbled mix of questions, how, when, where?

Jasmine my love, tell me what you mean, I don’t understand. Craig eventually said, gathering his thoughts. Jasmine squeezed up tighter, seeming to take comfort from his love.

Craig, how long have we been aware that Mankind has lived as though our World is as a bottomless treasure chest, that its riches were infinite and solely for our benefit?

As far as Craig was concerned that was something he realised early and as a young child. He still remembered gazing from his bedroom window and at what age, maybe three? He’d asked his mother, his father, both highly intelligent people, where all of the multi coloured smoke billowing from countless and enormous industrial chimneys on the outskirts of the city went? Even at the age of three, the answer that the sky took it away did not ring true.

Craig snapped out of his momentary introspection to focus on Jasmine. She had recovered her composure, at least a little and had more to share with him.

Craig, the powers that control our World, powers that we cannot even imagine, have waited so patiently and for so long, for us, the primary species to wake up and wipe the sleep from our eyes. They can wait no longer, have maybe waited too long. For reasons that even the earth spirits do not understand the primary species, us Craig, allowed ourselves to become side tracked. Instead of realising the magnificence of creation that we had been gifted, we chose to allow ourselves to become enslaved by burbles and bangles and simply because of their rarity. Jasmine was overcome by a fit of giggling. Craig pulled her still closer and in a tighter hug; her fit of giggling was not a joyous sound.

Rather than appreciate the magnificence of what we had been gifted in abundance, the oceans, the majestic forests and so much more, we chose to give value to that which is rare. Craig it’s so sad, so very sad, those things in reality have no value. Gold can only be worn as some kind of egoistical back up and diamonds too. In truth they have literally no value at all.

Jasmine again broke down, her entire body wracked by the pain she was clearly feeling, her tears free flowing. Craig held her ever more tightly and with feelings of fear for her wellbeing. He had never before known Jasmine so.

Craig, the power and beauty of nature, that we have ignored and given no thought to, has given up on us. It waited and waited, even as it bled, but could wait no more. Terrible things are going to happen Craig and beyond our wildest fears. Time is up for the human race Craig and it is going to be truly terrible. Even the Gods weep, but nature could wait no longer, no longer.

Jasmine’s body was again wracked, as tears and sorrow overtook her and Craig felt the tears well up within his own eyes. What Jasmine had just described to him sounded like hell. What exactly was about to visit the World, the human race?

What might actually have started was beyond his grasp, but that it was nothing good, seemed more than certain. Jasmine wanted to continue, Craig felt she had said enough, but made no attempt to quieten her. That Jasmine purged herself of the burden she was carrying his first priority.

Jasmine was not yet spent and Craig went with it. Like an internal cleansing, his love, his life, his wife, needed to cleanse herself of the terrible knowledge she’d been burdened with.

Imagine our World as a rug, a rug contaminated with parasites and bugs, how to clean it? First take it outside, shake it thoroughly then hang it up in the frozen night air. Craig we have become those bugs, those parasites! Jasmine again surrendered to her upset,