Better Times - Facet I: Seeking Better Times

By Gary B. Boyd

Spavin Lawson enjoyed his quiet life as the leader of a team of theoretical physicist who worked for the U.S. Governments Temporal Ministry. The quiet, dedicated scientist was content with his life in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Together with his wife, Clarissa, he had a nice home and two teenaged daughters, Sasha and Stephanie. The experienced the epitome of the American dream. Unfortunately, three centuries of abuse had finally caught up with the planet. The warned climate change that had been pooh-poohed for more than one-hundred years came crashing ashore. With new sea levels and relentless hurricanes assaulting the coasts, hordes of survivors were forced inland only to find that droughts had decimated the breadbasket of the world. Spavin knew that the United States of the 22nd Century was not survivable. His idyllic lifestyle came to an abrupt end. With his family, Spavin embarked upon a journey to seek better times. The Lawsons' journey was unlike any journey in the annals of Man.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496907745

Gary B. Boyd

Gary B. Boyd is a story teller. Whether at his cabin in the Ozark Mountains, at his desk in his home or on his deck overlooking Beaver Lake near Rogers, Arkansas, he writes his stories. His travels during his business career brought him in touch with a variety of people. Inquisitive, Gary watches and listens to the people he meets. He sees in them the characters that will fill his stories … that will tell their stories. A prolific author with more than a dozen published titles and a head full of tales yet to share, Gary submits to his characters and allows them to tell their own stories in their own way. The joy of completing a novel doesn’t lessen with time. There are more stories to tell, more novels to write. Gary expects to bring new characters to life for years to come. www.garybboyd.com

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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue

in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

© 2014 Gary B. Boyd. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse 04/30/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0775-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0774-5 (e)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1      Cataclysm

Chapter 2      Preparation

Chapter 3      Escape

Chapter 4      Surveillance

Chapter 5      Refuge

Chapter 6      Appraisal

Chapter 7      Judgment

Chapter 8      Approval

Chapter 9      Mentor

Chapter 10    Tour

Chapter 11    Revelation

Chapter 12    Clarification

Chapter 13    Realization

Chapter 14    Research

Chapter 15    Reassessment

Chapter 16    Discovery

Chapter 17    Appeal

Chapter 18    Management

Chapter 19    Knowledge

Chapter 20    Desperation

Chapter 21    Tribunal

Chapter 22    Attainment

Chapter 23    Assembly

Chapter 24    Exodus

DEDICATION

To my wife, Shirley, for allowing me the time and space to pursue my dream.

To my daughter, Tina Roe, for helping edit and keep the story on track.

To all the scientists who work to provide information we can use to help us prepare for climate change. May they continue to perform their studies and predictions without preconceived biases that taint the data.

PREFACE

The instinct for survival drives all decisions and actions.

Climate change is real. Scientific data supports the premise that the planet is warming.

Some of that data is geological, based upon findings from the distant past—a past so far reaching that modern man relies upon educated guesses to decipher it. That’s a fact.

Some of that data is modern, relatively new information garnered from measurements using the most technologically advanced devices available.

Some of the data is anecdotal, gleaned from the memories and written words of ‘old timers’—subject to question since those same providers often forget where they left their reading glasses.

In all, the changes are inevitable. The earth will warm. Two questions remain open to speculation.

How warm will it get?

How much of the warming is caused by human activity?

Intelligent people can and will speculate until the maximum climatic temperature is attained. From that moment on, they will speculate how cool the planet will become before the cycle repeats. Geological evidence (deciphered with educated guesses) proves that this fragile planet cycles between torrid heat and untenable cold. Glacial and interglacial periods are predictable within tens of millennia.

We are in an interglacial period. Period. The heat increase will continue until it stops. At some point, that increased heat will impact Humankind. The impact may drive civilization to the brink of collapse. Smaller changes to localized climate have done that very thing. Droughts. Extreme storms. Wild swings between winter and summer weather. All those things will have an impact on the planet’s ability to support the ever increasing population of Homo sapiens.

At some point, the climate pendulum will start its predicted sway toward a planet covered with miles thick ice. Homo sapiens, if they survive the heat, will then be faced with new crises of survival.

What we refer to as civilization will be the most likely victim of the climate change. Without a doubt, the increasing heat will affect the planet’s ability to provide succor for the growing and demanding society of Man. Options to escape the planet are tenuous at best. No nearby celestial bodies offer self-sustaining environments. Support for off-world havens would be required from Earth, the Earth that will be struggling to survive in its own way.

Population control remains front and center in the minds of many governments—and citizens. Overpopulation is not a potential problem for tomorrow; overpopulation is a real problem of today. The increased population imparts bigger demands on the planet. Overheating will reduce the planets ability to meet those demands, ergo, civilization will collapse. Whether that collapse is caused by the heat or the population growth will be a question to be answered by archaeologists of the future.

So, the second question is furthered by the rapidly increasing population. How much of the warming is caused by human activity?

Increased carbon dioxide, as well as other greenhouses gases definitely poses a problem. One can argue that the carbon cycle captured in geological data gathering indicates wildly varied amounts of carbon dioxide and methane in ancient atmospheres. The scientific data is there to be seen in the ice cores pulled from the polar ice caps. Tiny air bubbles that have lain dormant for eons contain ample evidence of the variations and cycles. Empirical data supports either side of the argument.

The reduction of green space, of forest canopy, of grasslands, all of which are being replaced by concrete and asphalt, definitely impacts local climates. One need only compare the summertime air temperature above an asphalt parking lot to the air temperature above a grass covered meadow to understand one very obvious, non-technical impact of humans on the climate. That temperature difference is caused by retained ground heat, heat that radiates and accumulates in the air, i.e., the atmosphere. That overheated air then rises rapidly, as hot air is prone to do, and clashes with the cooler air in the higher atmosphere. Those clashes do not occur without consequence. The up-flow can take on a life of its own and create unnatural (even though it is following natural laws) weather systems.

Those localized weather systems are becoming more common and are often strong enough to exacerbate the normal weather systems, making them stronger in some cases and weaker in others. In either case, the natural transition of weather systems and the overall planet’s weather patterns are disrupted. Those disruptions will continue to grow and expand until the Earth’s weather becomes unrecognizable.

That unrecognizable weather will then become the new climate. A climate that is unrecognizable becomes unpredictable and chaotic for a structured civilization.

Civilization as Humankind knows it and lives it cannot be sustained within chaos.

So, is the climate change predicated on natural glacial and inter-glacial cycles or is it the result of human activity?

Both. It is going to happen no matter what we humans do or do not do. But, because of what we do, it will be more dramatic and disruptive.

So, a third question is raised. How soon will the catastrophic changes occur?

The smart answer is Who knows? The predictive models used to forecast a future of the climate are produced using data that is questionable. The questionability of the data is not the raw numbers themselves. Those numbers are gathered scientifically. The modeling is done by pseudo-scientists with an agenda. They will elicit a prediction that augments their side of the argument. And those divided, deluded pseudo-scientists will set the stage for the unexpectedly catastrophic, though predictable, collapse of current civilization. In essence, the questions remain unanswered and nothing is done in preparation for or prevention of the collapse.

At the beginning of the decade in 2150, Spavin Lawson was much like most Americans. He sought the American dream: to have a Government issued deed to a house with a backyard, to have a wife and to have their allotment of two children. His education in theoretical physics helped him acquire a good Government job in a secretive laboratory located in eastern Pennsylvania. With innate leadership skills and laser-like focus, Spavin worked his way into a leadership role within the Temporal Ministry. His secret project was hush-hush to the point that oversight was general in nature. The greater Government wanted to ensure no one got wind of the discoveries that might come out of his lab, especially no one from the opposition. The opposition was categorized as both foreign and domestic.

Humankind in general did not believe the climate would become bad enough to impede civilization’s reach across the planet into previously underutilized locales. The population of 2150 was more than eleven-billion souls; a number that alarmists of the 21st Century had warned was unsustainable. Nonetheless, the ingenuity of Humankind found ways to support the burgeoning population and humans blindly went about improving technology to be ready for the next growth spurt.

The collapse of the climate came suddenly, with very little warning of its ultimate affect. Governments of the world could not react quickly enough to save civilization. The United States Government barely had time to save itself before the extreme inner-continent droughts accentuated the temperature climb. The polar ice melted within months. Sea levels rose rapidly and water rushed inland. The sudden shift in weight distribution on the tectonic plates caused upheavals that resulted in a sea level increase of nearly fifty-two meters. The new coast was miles inland in some places. The coastal cities were overwhelmed by the seas that also claimed billions of souls.

While some people fled inland to escape the inundating waters and the fear that the level might rise further, Spavin remained in his home with his family. Their home and jobs were inland from the new coast. His lab was still functional and his team continued their work for several months more until survival instinct drove all his scientists to join the masses that fled inland. Spavin stayed the course. He correctly surmised that civilization as he knew it was ending. Running inland would not provide escape from the bad times that were coming for humanity. He used his expertise to begin his journey to seek better times for his family.

Other books by Gary B. Boyd:

ONE PARTICULAR PATRIOT I: A Matter Of Time

ONE PARTICULAR PATRIOT II: Transient Reality

ONE PARTICULAR PATRIOT III: The Final Patriot Act

GRANDFATHER’S WILL

DEATH OF A GENE

CHAPTER 1

Cataclysm

S PAVIN LAWSON felt the worn insole of his boot grate against the ball of his left foot. He knew that it would require attention soon. Otherwise, he would have a blister and the act of walking would take a heavier toll than it should. He glanced back at Clarissa to see how she was holding up to the pace he was setting on the trek across the dusty, sun-baked prairie. Her determined eyes were trained on their chosen trail ahead, undistracted by any disturbance around her.

He and Clarissa had formed a union more than eighteen years earlier; a good union filled with the standard hopes and dreams for a good life and the good times that come with it. Two beautiful daughters later, the marriage was still rock solid. The good life was nowhere to be found. Catastrophic climate change had made a mockery of their hopes for a good life and their dreams of good times.

Sasha was almost sixteen. A spitting image of her mother without the worry lines, she plodded along with steadfast resolve behind the woman who bore her, matching stride for stride effortlessly. She followed silently with her eyes locked on her mother’s backside rather than gawk at the scenery. By looking down, she avoided having to squint away the brightness of the high sun. Unsure of why their journey had brought them to that particular place, she obediently followed her parents’ bidding.

Stephanie was not as accepting as her older sister. Only thirteen and newly introduced to hormones that affected her ability to tolerate that which she did not understand, she challenged the veracity of the barely graying man who led the small family group and she questioned the intelligence of the family matriarch who blindly followed the man. Nothing that she could see about their quest made sense to her. She would have been perfectly content to stay in the familiar surroundings of her youth. Nonetheless, she placed one foot in front of the other and followed, though not without reserved reluctance. She glared menacingly at every small shrub that had the audacity to snag at her camouflaged trousers’ legs when she wandered too close.

Spavin squinted against the sun’s glare to peer across the parched prairie to study the horizon. It was a useless, too often repeated act. The horizon did not change. Walking would not change it very much very fast. Unaccustomed to long pilgrimages, the family group’s plodding pace changed it even more slowly. Days earlier, Spavin had found what he thought was a used path winding through the low, scraggly bushes that covered the flat plain. Doggedly, they had treaded the dusty dirt trail across the relatively flat prairie bent on reaching a low mountain range to the west. Their hopes were tied to finding survivable conditions in those mountains. After eight days, the mountain range seemed to be just as far away and just as unreachable. The path had been nothing more than wind blown areas between clumps of dried prairie grass and scrubby shrubs. The promise of something familiar and tangible had disappeared. Not one of them said a word as they steadfastly walked through the dust, though Stephanie thought of things to say.

A small creek appeared ahead of them, lined by more of the short shrubs and bushes. It was located in a swale that crossed the wide, barren landscape between the travelers and the mountains. The dearth of tall trees on the prairie did not bode well as far as Spavin was concerned. Trees would be required to build a suitable structure for shelter. Sturdy, wide bodied trees with hardwood cores that could be hewn into flat sided logs and stacked to withstand strong storms and repel torrential precipitation, plus provide protection against winter’s cold winds both as a barrier and as fuel, were needed before they could declare a stopping place. Shrubs would not do. The spindly limbed brush was useless. Again facing disappointment, Spavin hoped their luck would hold out and the water would be clean.

The water was clear, though slightly off-putting in flavor. Neither of the girls smiled at their reflections in the slow moving liquid of the stream. What they saw staring back at them were sun darkened, smudged and sweat streaked faces, a testament to the arduous trek through wind driven dust and grit. It seemed they were always walking into the wind. Even the air did not want them to reach the mountain, constantly pushing against progress and whining warnings in late afternoon when the sun gave its energy to the air-streams that rustled and rattled the parched vegetation of the seemingly endless dry prairie.

Clarissa watched her daughters drink their fill from the water pool below a small ripple. The motion of the water at least gave the appearance of cleanliness. Frightened water bugs that scooted across the top of the still water assured her that the water was at least relatively potable. Though not as cool as she preferred for drinking, the water was sufficiently cool to provide some relief from the heat when she pitched water onto her face and neck with her cupped hands. Even though the layer of dirt and grime afforded some protection from the unrelenting burning rays of the sun, the cooling effect of the water renewed her energy. Their journey was barely begun and there were more miles that had to be traveled before they reached their objective. She found it hard to believe they had been traveling for more than a week, especially when she considered that the mountains they had chosen as their destination still seemed out of reach.

While the females refreshed themselves at the pool and relieved themselves behind a clump of scrubby bushes, Spavin built a small fire to heat water so he could boil some of the Grakin™ supplement that he carried for quick, energy-rich meals. The Grakin™, advertised as high protein and high calorie survival fodder for soldiers, was composed of coarsely ground dried grains packed with bits of dried vegetables and dried mushrooms. The Grakin™ was precooked and freeze dried. When briefly soaked and boiled in water, it became oatmeal-like in texture but with the robust flavors of the vegetables. Depending on the amount of water used, it could either be eaten with a spoon or sipped from a cup. Spavin added extra water; the travelers needed fluids even more than calories. He also hoped that the supply of Grakin™ that he carried was enough to last the family until they reached their destination… or at least the mountain, where he expected to find sustainable food sources.

Silently, the four of them slurped the mixture from their plastic cups. The cups were specifically designed to withstand the rigors of rugged environments, virtually indestructible yet portably lightweight. Spavin had chosen the military grade cups and utensils, as well as their other travel rations and supplies, specifically because they would not set off metal detectors or other security devices. The last thing he wanted, or they needed, was to attract undue attention to themselves. Their uncertain destination could be worse than the place they had just left, but in different ways. He had tried to account for any eventuality when he packed for their journey. Their exodus was one of survival, but Spavin did not want to replace untenable dangers with worse dangers—the proverbial jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Stephanie could no longer contain herself. She did not like the gruel that the Grakin™ made. She did not like the continuous dustiness of the air. She preferred what she knew over the unknown. Her black eyebrows drew together in an angry scowl. She groused loudly, This sucks! Why did we leave home? This place is pathetic.

Spavin knew it was going to be said by someone sooner or later. He had watched his youngest daughter grow progressively crankier during the week of laborious walking. Even so, he was unprepared and unwilling to deal with the teenager’s bitchy complaint. He resisted the initial urge to strike out at his insolent daughter. Steph, you know that we all agreed to leave. Civilization was falling apart at home. We would not be able to survive if we remained. Better times are ahead. We just have to persevere. He hoped his words would appease her.

They did not.

Stephanie angrily dumped the remains of her Grakin™ soup onto the powdery, dusty ground. Well, I think the good times are behind us and we should go back to Pennsylvania. She flung the empty cup onto the ground near the spilled soup and stomped away.

Spavin, let it go, Clarissa said firmly to her mate. She saw the anger in his eyes. The normally mild-mannered man she had married was showing the signs of guilt for the decision he had made to leave Pennsylvania. She knew that the family had no choice but to follow Spavin’s lead. Their world, the only world they knew, had become untenable and promised to become even worse before everything was said and done. She also understood her daughter’s frustration. The environs they had left were once thriving and teemed with successful humans bent on achieving ever higher technological advances that made life good for everyone willing to put forth effort.

The journey so far had been nothing short of miserable. All four of them had suffered bone jarring stumbles, scrapes, bruises and lacerations during the eight days of their travel. Their hopes to find their dreamed of better life in better times were quickly fading. They had packed survival supplies sufficient to sustain themselves for a little more than two weeks. The mountains appeared to be the place where they would have the best chance for survival; the open prairie was not particularly inhospitable but it showed no signs of human life and uncertain signs of mammalian life. Better times would have to include both.

Clarissa knew that Spavin would not continue to tolerate the girl’s insolence much longer. Their plight was too severe for disharmony. The burden of their decision to escape their crumbling environment rested squarely on his shoulders. She knew that he felt the weight of the choice made and that he realized failure to find what they sought meant sure death. Besides, Stephanie had wasted valuable food, food that would only be replaced if the mountain range held to its promise.

Sasha Lawson watched the interplay between her father and her younger sister with apprehension. She was mature enough to understand the need for their journey. She was also young enough to sympathize with her sister’s complaint. The mountains were not getting any closer and their supplies were not limitless. She hoped that her mother could calm the man who had the propensity to erupt into vocally violent rages when provoked, and Stephanie had definitely provoked him by discarding her cup of Grakin™. Her father had not always been that way, but over the course of the previous two years Sasha had witnessed the mild-mannered scientist evolve… or devolve… into a forceful, determined alpha male. She knew her father had risked a lot by procuring the Grakin™ and other supplies without Government authorization. Those things were intended for military use only. Spavin Lawson had delved into the black market for most of their supplies at a time when the fractured Government dealt harshly with people who ventured into the underworld activities. The Government feared that the black market would invariably undermine the tenuous control the military still held on the population.

Sasha sighed relief when she saw her father’s shoulders sag slightly. Clarissa had successfully soothed him.

Spavin snapped childishly, speaking to everyone and no one in particular, "Better times are ahead. There is no going back and she knows it. I won’t tolerate anymore of that insolence. Our survival depends on harmony and focus." He kicked dirt on the small fire to smother it out while he collected the cooking utensils and the slurp cups to be washed in the stream.

Clarissa, who would normally have cleaned the gear, knew that Spavin was performing her task so that he could work off his anger. She watched Sasha carefully approach the stream and squat beside Spavin to help him finish the cleaning. By the time the chore was finished, Sasha and Spavin were laughing about some secret joke. Sasha could get through to her father when no one else could.

The trek continued. Stephanie adjusted her conic sunhat woven from thinly shaved limber sticks and fell into step without further discussion. She trailed a few paces behind the rest of the group to show her displeasure but kept her mouth shut, and kept close enough for safety in the unfamiliar surroundings. She knew that she had definitely stepped over the line with her father. She regretted it… but she did not care; she was that unhappy with the situation.

Two years before their trek began, the Lawsons anxiously followed the newscom broadcasts that gave daily updates on dramatic climate changes that were occurring at an accelerated pace.

For more than one-hundred fifty years, the citizens of the planet had dealt with increasing tides and stronger storms, wider contrasts between winter and summer, and more severe droughts and floods than had ever been recorded in the written history of man. The latest changes were more intense and without precedence. Some zealots proclaimed the events as Biblical in scope, a sure sign that Almighty God was gathering His forces to purge the planet of ungodly humankind. Fear mongers proclaimed that the planet was in the final throes of environmental collapse and that humankind was doomed. Only the world’s Governments assured the increasingly concerned population of the survivability of the quickly deteriorating climate.

Environmentalists and scientists of every ilk had argued about the inevitability or the extent of the climate change for almost a century and a half. Human ingenuity and adaptability had prevailed against the gradual changes that had slowly, inexorably occurred during that time. The naysayers held sway on public opinion and Government policy because the changes came with glacial slowness. Everything that occurred was survivable, so why worry. But, the inevitable happened. The extremes that hit the planet had been predicted, though the onset was expected to occur gradually over a longer time period. In truth, very few educated people doubted that the changes would eventually transpire. Even so, two things were never reconciled in the tens of decades of discussion about the warming planet: whether humans were the catalyst for the changes and how far the changes would go before the ‘pendulum’ of the warming interglacial period would begin its swing back toward a glacial period.

The second thing was reconciled. The changes would go to life threatening, civilization devastating extreme before any sign of relieve from the escalating heat and its impact would appear. Whether humankind would still exist to see the pendulum reverse itself was a question that would have to go unanswered by humans of the 2150s. The scientists who opined pedantically across the airwaves were quick to remind everyone how accurately they had predicted the outcome of global warming and were equally quick to point to the Governments of industrialized nations around the globe as the parties to blame.

In Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in a secretive, secured building adjacent to the IRS processing center, Spavin watched the world for which he had prepared to eke out a decent standard of living quickly crumble. The ocean’s tide came in and did not recede. The once vibrant and bustling coastal cities of the United States of America were perniciously inundated to become aquatic wastelands as people fled the metropolises that lined the seaboard, yielding those monuments of human ingenuity to an angry sea that had previously risen nearly twenty feet. The new, higher seas lashed the new coastlines with sand rending waves created by an almost never ending stream of hurricanes. More than ten million obstinate Americans drowned by the time the new sea level was rapidly established.

The Lawson home was in an upper middle class neighborhood not far from the government building where Spavin worked and only a few miles from the university where Clarissa taught mathematics to engineering students. Their inland home remained unscathed by the waters of the new, higher sea levels even though the wood and stone structure was ravaged time and again by fierce winds and driving rain spawned by hurricanes that raked the east coast on a regular basis during the warmer months of the year. Most of the time, Spavin was even able to use his personal transportation unit, a hydrogen powered automobile, to reach the building where he had worked since receiving his doctorate in physics from Ohio State University. When the weather permitted, he simply walked the four miles from his house to the laboratory where his team worked diligently to unravel the mysteries of the universe. The walking helped him think about the intricacies of his project.

Spavin was able to maintain his job as a Government theoretical physicist for almost a year after the sea permanently claimed the former coastal regions and low lying river bogs. By focusing on his work, he was able to push the dread from his mind. His background, his education did not provide him the survival tools common to his ancestors. Until the day his job became nil, he would be able to avoid thinking about what he would have to do to ensure his family’s survival. His work was his haven. At least, because of his renewed intensity and dedication, those around him assumed he was using his work as a distraction. In fact, his mind was focused on the new circumstances and he believed that his project held the answer to survival.

Initially, along with most people in his circle of nerdy intelligentsias, when the climate changes began to accelerate in earnest, Spavin had wondered why the changes had even continued to occur. The world’s dependence on fossil fuels had been vastly reduced and essentially eliminated from the energy stream a century earlier. The scientists of the time and their supporting governments assured the world-at-large that the elimination of fossil fuels was the only salvation from a fate worse than death. Solar, wind and nuclear energy had provided sufficient reliable power for more than eight decades. The electrical grids throughout the world were no longer fed by coal or gas fired power plants. Only military and space vehicles used petroleum products for anything other than lubrication. Even the manufacture of synthetics, plastic and fibers that required hydrocarbons had switched to totally renewable vegetable sources. Virtually no greenhouse gases were produced in the chemical transformation processes. Humans were successfully sequestering carbon and keeping it out of the atmosphere.

The promise that altering bad energy habits would solve the climate issue was not to be kept. To some, the energy consumption changes were too little too late. To others, energy use was not the cause in the first place. The cause was irrelevant when the catastrophic changes occurred with geometric acceleration. The new sea level was established within six months after the final change began. No one was declared the winner of the debate.

Initially, the world population was stunned and unwilling to accept the changes as permanent. They vainly waited for the tide to recede. The blind belief that the planet had always provided sustenance and would continue to do so fed the disillusionment. The people’s faith in the power of the world’s Governments to take care of them was quickly shaken to its core. The wealth of all nations was generally depleted by the coastal inundations because nearly eighty percent of the population lived in those regions that were suddenly either under water or continually hammered by the hurricanes to the point of being uninhabitable. Worldwide, more than one billion people died within that first six-month period. The loss of one twelfth of human population in so short a time frame was staggering to consider. The long term effects of the horrific loss was debilitating to human morale.

In country after country, citizens rose up to demand that their respective governments should implement emergency plans to rebuild the coastal areas as soon as the water receded. In country after country, the demand was not met. The water did not recede. The new sea level was to be permanent, at least on a human time scale. Rebuilding each nation could only be done inland, for those that had an inland area. One-hundred seventy feet of increased ocean depth reduced many nations to small islands or, in some cases, to seabed.

Spavin continued to work in the sanctuary of his lab as long as he could. He led a team of scientist at the Temporal Ministry labs located in Wilkes-Barre. Their work was a logical extension of work that had started and stopped in several episodes beginning in the 1940’s. Their mission was loosely based on experiments by Nikola Tesla dating back to the late 19th Century. With supporting though sometimes conflicting experiments during the decades following Tesla, the United States government had reprised the phantoms of projects popularly and historically referred to as the Montauk Project and the Philadelphia Experiment. Though both of those, and similar projects, had been dedicated to cloaking weaponry, such as warships, for stealth during war, data indicated a greater discovery was at stake. Only after data derived from experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland during the early 21st Century had provided proof that matter could be shifted from one time plane into another and back again did the Government decide to revive those old projects. New discoveries in math and physics, and the constant drive to possess more knowledge than world rivals, made the project worth pursuing with hopes of the eventual discovery of the secret to time travel. More importantly, the eventual development of quantum computers with exabytes of capacity that could perform the calculations needed made the potential for successful completion of the projects a real possibility.

Spavin Lawson and his team continued to receive Government paychecks for more than a year after the sea level rose, more due to oversight than benefit realization. The scientists and their families continued to have access to food and energy. Large parts of Pennsylvania were a sufficiently high elevation to avoid the flooding. They continued to believe that the worst of the changes were behind them. Those eternally optimistic humans continued to believe that perseverance would result in better times.

Local schools continued to provide education services for a short while. Payment to teachers dwindled to the point that very few were willing to waste their time. The Government’s basic systems were collapsing slowly and inexorably. Clarissa continued teaching at the university until she and Spavin determined that her presence at home was more important.

Sasha was preparing for her career as a computer science engineer by taking mathematics courses. Her dedication to her studies and her innate intelligence had advanced her to college level courses earlier than her contemporaries. She was allowed to audit her mother’s classes on a regular basis.

Stephanie, too young to have access to college level training, was developing her skill sets to support her desire to become a medical doctor. Even at her age, she had accumulated a lot of the basic knowledge needed and, though not practiced in the actual use of the healing arts, she could provide sound medical assistance in first aid situations. She was the only one of the two girls with an athletic inclination. Stephanie had been a student at a local taekwondo dojang since she was seven. She was dedicated and proficient enough to have earned a poom black belt by the time she was twelve, nearly a year after the catastrophic change. The dojang closed when her gyosannim, her instructor, fled inland.

The situation worsened as the recurring storms intensified. Hurricane season became a year round event. The only relief from the horrific storm surges that pushed the already high sea level further inland was the occasional weaker tropical storm that raked the coasts from Florida to Maine. What was once considered a marginally destructive tempest was considered a moment of respite in the new weather paradigm.

The military kept control of the streets, issuing curfews and enforcing them without mercy, especially around any Government buildings. Martial law had been declared for all the coastal regions, the new coasts. Spavin and his family and his neighbors were fortunate. The high ground on which they lived was still supported by the power grid and commerce. Adapting to the continual storms was not easy but it was within the human spirit to accommodate the weather.

Not all humans were as tolerant or accommodating. The population that remained on the new coast eroded like the once magnificent beach front properties. The people moved inland, seeking the weather stability that they believed existed in the mountains of the Appalachians and the prairies of the Mid-West. Vacant houses and buildings appeared where there once were good neighborhoods. Fewer residents meant more looting by the opportunistic dregs of society. Military patrols eventually became commonplace in those once good neighborhoods.

An infrequent storm free interlude fell on the subdivision on the southern side of Wilkes-Barre. Spavin watched through his darkened window. Even with street lights illuminating the area, a small group of young men brazenly walked across the lawn of the vacant house that once provided shelter and comfort to a hardworking family. One of the men threw himself against the front door in an effort to break it open. The initial effort failed. Only after a concerted effort by the group of men, repeatedly hurling themselves against the steel reinforced exterior door, did they finally gain access.

The men scurried in and out, each time toting one item or another that they believed held value for them. With practiced efficiency, the looters accumulated a sizeable pile of household items that had once belonged to Carl and Martha Sanders. Jubilantly and callously, the men were soon whooping and hollering in brazen celebration of their good fortune. Initially unnoticed by the looters, a military patrol vehicle appeared on the street near the Sanders’ house. Frightened and frantic attempts to escape arrest elicited the staccato of rapid fire military weapons. With practiced efficiency, the crime was stopped and there were no survivors. Justice was swift and certain. Anyone violating curfew was in danger of apprehension with the potential of extreme prejudice. The act of looting changed that potential to a certainty. The Government was losing its grip and could no longer tolerate unlawful behaviors nor did it have the resources to support a prison population.

Spavin closed the peephole he had opened in his drapes. He turned on a light so any other looters who might think they could elude the patrols would see that the house was occupied. Thus far, no one had been accosted in their homes. There were plenty of unoccupied houses to loot. He hugged Sasha who had been standing nearby while he watched the scene across the street. We are probably not going to be safe here much longer, he said, his voice filled with resignation.

CHAPTER 2

Preparation

B EFORE THE dramatic shift in sea level, the United States Government had relocated to the Rocky Mountains and established itself inside the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado. The move was done without fanfare. No formal announcements were made to the world, to the press, to the citizens of the United States of America, or to the residents of those areas near to and dependent on Washington, D.C. such as Alexandria, Virginia or Silver Springs, Maryland. What had originally been built as a safe haven for the military leadership from nuclear attacks during the Cold War era almost two centuries in the past had been revitalized and enlarged in secrecy. After the annual year end Holiday break, all three branches of Government suddenly appeared in their new digs, literally dug into the mountains of Colorado. Only vestigial remnants of the Government remained where the world’s second most powerful nation on the planet had ruled for centuries. Only the faithful, hardworking government employees who actually made the greatest government the world had ever known run were in the buildings built in a bog when the waters rushed in too fast for escape.

Spavin watched in heart stopping shock when the announcement of relocation was broadcast to the newscom units that once dominated every room in almost every building in the country. Only then did he fully realize that there was no relief in sight from the increasingly dramatic climate change. It hit home on a personal level that the changes that were coming would be severe and that they were permanent and real. The United States Government had known all along that catastrophic changes were coming but had chosen to avoid creating panic by issuing warnings. So much for that. The possibility that the civilization he had always known, that he had always expected to be there to nurture him and support him and his family, was about to come to an end struck fear in his heart. The Government had hunkered down and bunkered up. They knew more than they were telling… but the population was slow to realize that the end was near.

The population centers that were once located along the coast had already begun to shift inland somewhat, just beyond the reach of the original increased sea level. No one wanted to be too close to the ocean when huge hurricanes hit. Once the Government moved to higher ground much farther inland, fear and panic found a foothold, except among the most independent and obstinate thinkers. Survival instincts in a collapsing society suddenly became the motivator rather than the drive for success in a structured civilization. Many of the wiser people who had always populated the coasts moved inland to get away from the instability of their world and from the seaborne weather. Most people believed that such a move would be their only chance to avoid annihilation. What had been attrition of population became a mass exodus to the hinterlands of the continent. That massive relocation prevented the U.S. death toll from being five times what it actually was when the waters rose one-hundred seventy feet higher.

The people who fled for the security of the continental interior found no security. Civil unrest and the lack of infrastructure prevented easy assimilation of the massive influx of so many people into areas without sufficient resources to sustain them. The droughts of the preceding decades had taken a heavy toll on the food production capabilities of what was once the bread basket of the world. The Government had done nothing to prepare the people for the cataclysm that befell the nation—and the world.

When the waters rose, martial law immediately became the law across the entire nation, not just along the battered new coasts. The Government moved the military into place to stem the tide of migration away from the coasts. The country could no longer sustain the population. The Government made the decision to salvage what could be salvaged and prepare for whatever the planet would eventually provide, even if the salvage operation resulted in extensive loss of human life. The New Capitol, in its cavernous environs high in the Rocky Mountains, had become a veritable fortress, defending against anyone not authorized to be there.

The battle between the haves and the have-nots reached its peak within eighteen months of the disastrous climate shift. Nothing humankind could do would prevent the climate and society from reaching their inevitable conclusions. Catastrophic population collapse was inevitable. Few would survive the next decade; those who did would likely wish they had not. Chaos reigned and compassion disintegrated into survival of the fittest.

Spavin saw the proverbial writing on the wall. As a research scientist, a theoretical physicist, for the Temporal Ministry, he had access to secrets. He had access to artifacts protected by those secrets. The weight of time as a factor for regulating the ebb and