Seven Children of the King

By Woody Goodell

The night before twenty-one-year-old Carly Shanahan takes her little brother and three friends on a three-day caving expedition, Sanford, the elderly eccentric owner of the cave, begins to quote quatrains written by Nostradamus. The next day, shortly after entering the cave, an earthquake traps the group inside with the old man and his notebook.

Twenty miles away, a cluster of prisoners on a work release program inside a coalmine plans an escape. Just as the prisoners, led by a vicious psychopath, brutally murder two guards, the same earthquake also traps them underground. Days later, when both groups finally escape from their subterranean confinement, the world is a very different place.

Is it possible Sanford is actually a conduit, prophesizing from the past? Did he somehow know that world-changing events were about to unfold? Carly must use Sanford and Nostradamuss quatrains as a guide to find a way to save her companions while also somehow preventing the extinction of mankind. She might not be prepared to play the role thrust upon her, but the fate of her friends and the world now depends on her ability to make the right decisions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781532005428

Woody Goodell

Woody Goodell is a self-confessed lifelong thriller junkie. He holds a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering technology and an MBA. After a six-year stint on a nuclear submarine, he worked and consulted at nuclear power plants in the United States and the United Arab Emirates while writing for pleasure. He now lives and writes in Odessa, Florida.

Book preview

1

The Prophet Speaks

The campfire crackled loudly. Sparks cascaded upward into the dark sky, only to drift away from the heat and slowly wink out one by one as they neared the ground. After an unusually loud pop that sent a shower of golden glitter bouncing at the feet of the people sitting around the fire, Sanford J. Chamberlain walked unexpectedly out of the darkness into the flickering glow of the fire, held up one hand and cleared his throat. With the campfire conversations silenced, the elderly man with flowing white hair and matching beard stepped towards the warmth, extended his hands and rubbed them together over the flames, taking some of the night chill out of his old bones. He straightened to his full height, paused, and looked upwards at the sparkling stars.

It was a clear night and the Milky Way was plain to see across the sky. All eyes around the campfire followed the old man’s gaze as he looked in awe at the beauty of the heavens. The man took a deep breath and held it, enjoying the sweet smell of the May Tennessee air ripe with the scent of spring. He closed his eyes, exhaled slowly and then opened them and turned from the fire to face the five people sitting before him. He looked out across the valley bathed in eerie blue moonlight behind them and paused. Almost as if on signal, an owl roosted in a tree behind the campers screeched loudly, cutting through the night like a knife and causing the rapt listeners to jump.

The eccentric Sanford J. Chamberlain, seventy eight years old and owner of the land the group of five was sitting on, and owner of the cave they were all here to explore, was by now the complete object of everyone’s attention. He reached into a pocket and retrieved a pipe and matches. Holding the match with bony fingers, he lit the pipe and took several long puffs. Everyone’s attention was now completely focused on the old man.

Everyone held his breath as Sanford, shook out the match, pulled a small tattered notebook out of his pocket and opened it to a page that he had marked. Finding his place in the notebook, he began to speak softly to no one in particular. "The mighty ruler will turn the wheel again. The bygone miseries will come in an even worse form. Hunger, iron and pest, bloody, milky rain." While drawing an imaginary arc across the sky with the tip of his pipe at arm’s length, Sanford continued, "Fire seen on the sky. A running long spark."

Sanford stopped speaking, took in a deep breath and then elevated his low gravelly voice to a booming volume. "This will affect you, but you will not see it; Ready to fight one will desert. The chief adversary will obtain the victory. The rear guard will make a defense, the faltering ones dead in the white territory."

The people sitting around the fire looked at each other in confusion. The old man was making no sense whatsoever. He hadn’t asked a question, and if what he had just uttered was a statement, it was pure nonsense.

Carly Shanahan, an athletic, attractive red headed college junior, veteran spelunker and the unofficial leader of this expedition group sitting by the fire, already knew that Sanford was rather odd. She and her younger brother Max had known the old man for most of their lives. Sanford had been one of her father’s college professors and had been his mentor for many years. He had always acted a little strangely. She recalled several occasions in the past when Sanford had accompanied Carly and her father on expeditions into his cave. At times he randomly quoted people and spouted bizarre pieces of nonsensical prose seemingly with no point. But even with his odd past behavior, he seemed to have really slipped mentally since her father had died in a car crash last summer. At her father’s funeral, Sanford had been particularly withdrawn and seemed completely preoccupied with a notebook he always carried in his pocket. He referred to it almost continuously and often seemed to mumble to himself as he read it.

Just as Carly started to speak to ask what Sanford had meant, he held up his hand and began talking again, but this time he looked directly at Carly. "When the inscription D.M. is found in the ancient cave, it will be revealed by a lamp. Law, the King and Prince Ulpian tried, the Queen and Duke in the pavilion under cover." He trailed off and became silent.

Carly was now very confused, Forgive me Sanford, but what are you telling us?

Sanford spoke slowly, as if he were teaching a child something very basic, Tomorrow morning you will lead this group and embark upon a spelunking expedition in my cave. Although you have been in this cave several times in the past with your father, this trip has far reaching consequences that the five of you cannot even begin to comprehend. The quatrains have told me enough to understand that the time is drawing near.

Carly asked, I’m sorry, but what time is drawing near?

While Carly was still digesting Sanford’s last statement, Max, Carly’s brilliant sixteen-year-old bookworm brother who was sitting just to her right, rubbed his hands on his extra short buzz cut and then blurted through silver braces, Quatrains! You are quoting Nostradamus, and those are some of his quatrains about Armageddon, aren’t they?!

Sanford smiled and nodded his head. That is correct, young Maximilian. Nostradamus has seen the future, and now the major events are upon us.

Mystified, Carly looked at her little brother. How in the world do you, a skinny little tenth grader know so much about Nostradamus?

Max answered proudly, I wrote a paper on him last year for my history class. I got an A-plus. Nostradamus lived in the early fifteen hundreds. He made a ton of predictions, and some of them have turned out to be pretty accurate even though they were written cryptically. He even predicted the rise of Adolph Hitler, although he called him Hister. It was a pretty sweet prediction considering Hitler wasn’t born until hundreds of years later! Oh yeah, and I just finished tenth grade, so that makes me an eleventh grader, and for your information, I weigh one hundred and three pounds, so I’m not skinny. I’m just very lean.

That comment made Max’s best friend Willy Carter who was sitting next to him on the same log, laugh out loud. Willy, an extremely gregarious sixteen-year-old African American who sported two huge dimples every time he smiled, was two inches taller than Max and had short braided hair that stood out at crazy angles from his head. He grinned, patted his chest and quickly added, "Since I weigh one-oh-seven and I am waaay stronger than Max, you guys can call him lean and me Mr. Muscles.

Carly smiled and turned back to Sanford, And how do you know that some obscure Nostradamus predictions are about to come true?

If I told you, you would think I am crazy. Let’s just say that I have done countless hours of research on Nostradamus’ prophecies, and I had a highly unusual dream last night. I’ll leave it at that.

With that statement, Sanford turned and started to walk away from the fire towards his house.

The fourth member of the spelunking party, Cameron King, Carly’s on again off again boyfriend and ex-college baseball pitcher, couldn’t contain himself. He blurted, That’s it? You’re not going to explain any of it? You’re going to just recite some scary lines, tell us that something bad is gonna happen in the cave and freak us all out, and then just bail? Sir, if you don’t want us in your cave, please just say so.

Sanford stopped, turned back around and gestured towards Cameron with his pipe. I am sorry young man. I can’t explain any of it, and although I am convinced something big is going to happen, I really don’t know exactly what or when it is going to happen. Hell, I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast this morning! I do know one thing though. You are all supposed to go into my cave tomorrow morning…and I’m supposed to walk the half mile back to my house and drink Jack Daniels tonight.

Kristyn Willows, the fifth member of the cave exploration party had been listening quietly for the past ten minutes. Kristyn, Carly’s quiet and strikingly beautiful blond best friend from her sorority who was modeling her way through college, now spoke up. I’m sorry Mr. Chamberlain, are you telling us that Nostradamus told you to drink Jack Daniels?

Sanford smiled at that. No, that would be crazy. I told me. I need something to take the heavy weight of the quatrains off my old shoulders and help me sleep. Sleep tight my friends. Your destiny awaits you! With that, he turned and disappeared ominously into the night down the path leading to his house.

Everyone was silent for a moment, thinking about what Sanford had just said. Then Cameron, who was high strung by nature and appeared very annoyed by the mysterious message just dumped upon the group, spoke to no one in particular, Well, that was weird! He’s not going to come back in the middle of the night and stab us, is he?

Carly stood up, and while tying her long red curls into a ponytail, said quietly, I agree it was weird, but I’ve known him most of my life. He is a nice man and he wouldn’t hurt a fly. He’s just concerned for us, that’s all. I am going to the tent. I suggest that we all head towards our sleeping bags and get a good night’s sleep so we are well rested for the descent tomorrow.

The next morning just after sunrise, the expedition party members had a light breakfast and packed their backpacks for a two night exploration of the cave. The plan was to head underground and hike, crawl, and rappel beyond the first large cavern to a second cavern, which was very large and full of amazing formations and numerous side passages. Just getting to the large cavern would be a full day effort, but it was incredible and was well worth the trip. They would sleep in the large cavern for two nights, and spend their waking hours exploring it and some of its side passages. They would head back out on the third day.

Remembering what her father had taught her over the years about preparation for long term explorations, Carly started checking the contents of each of the explorer’s packs. When she reached for the last pack which happened to be Cameron’s, he told her it wasn’t necessary. Carly held out her hand and told Cameron he wasn’t going into the cave unless she checked his pack. He became agitated and started putting it on his back.

Since Carly and Max were the only people in the group that had ever overnighted in a cave, Carly needed to assure herself that they each had the proper gear, especially a body harness, extra headlamp batteries, and a full Nalgene water bottle for the trip in. The cave system they were about to explore had clear pools of drinkable water in the largest cavern, so they would have ample opportunity to refill their bottles.

Experience had taught Carly that not being able to find or access drinkable water in the cave would be inconvenient and would cause them to head back to the surface early. Running out of batteries would be much more than inconvenient. It could result in becoming stranded in total darkness below ground. Even though their first battery would last for over a hundred and twenty hours of continuous use, she wasn’t going to take any chances. She wasn’t about to take no for an answer from Cameron. She was going to check his pack, end of story.

Max, quietly watching the mini-drama unfolding before him, smiled and spoke loudly to his best friend Willy so that Cameron could hear. I don’t think the ex-baseball player is used to a GIRL telling him what to do!

Willy looked over at Carly and Cameron facing each other down and could see an obvious test of wills in progress. Willy grinned, flashed his dimples and yelled, Dude, don’t piss her off. She can take you, and that would be more embarrassing than having her check your stuff. I thought you knew she was a kick boxing champ? Willy was referring to Carly’s other passion, kickboxing. Regular practice and sparring was how Carly stayed in such good shape. When she was in high school, Carly had won a kickboxing tournament. Right after the tournament three years ago, Willy had told Carly she was the perfect woman.

Carly stood motionless in front of Cameron with her hand out staring directly into his eyes. Eventually Cameron shrugged and handed his back pack over for inspection. Willy had hit the nail on the head. Even though Cameron had never been spelunking before and Carly was very experienced, she could see he really didn’t like being led by a girl. Carly knew this expedition was going test their relationship and would either make or break it. Right now it was teetering towards the break side of the equation. Since Carly knew that exploring a cave didn’t appeal that much to Cameron anyway, she could sense he was already considering calling the expedition quits. Although Carly knew he really did like her, for some reason the confrontation didn’t seem to bother him as much as she thought it should.

Carly inspected Cameron’s pack. Satisfied that everything was in order, she handed it back to him and turned towards the trail without saying a word. There was no point in starting an argument before they had even begun the trip. Carly knew that Cameron just needed a few minutes and he would reflect on his behavior and come to her and apologize. Carly thought that for a twenty three year old, sometimes he could be very immature, but he was still overall a pretty decent guy.

Carly led the way up the short path from the camp to the cave entrance. It was nearly invisible since a large thorny bush was growing directly in front of it. The opening wasn’t much more than a four foot tall vertical crack in the huge vertical rocky face. It was barely more than a foot wide, just big enough for an adult to push their way through into the cool darkness of the cave passage beyond.

Carly called out, Headlamps on! She took off her backpack and held it in her left hand, turned sideways and squeezed behind the bush into the cave entrance. One by one, the other four explorers followed and squeezed through the small opening in the side of the hill.

Once inside the entrance, the explorers walked in single file hunched over through the low passage towards the first cavern. The passage was about as tall as the crack and sloped gently downward. About two hundred yards from the cave entrance, the passage widened into a small cavern with a ceiling about fifteen feet high. As they came into the cavern, they stopped and stood up straight and looked around them. Their headlamps illuminated no stalactites or stalagmites, although the floor was very rough and there were several interesting rock formations. The cavern was about a hundred feet long, thirty feet wide and was cool and almost deafeningly quiet, much like being in a completely soundproofed room.

The group walked across the cavern to the far end where the ceiling gently rose to a peak in the center. It was shaped like a tent roof over thirty feet tall. Carly’s dad had named this area in the cave The pavilion. In front of them there were three small passages close together, all of them leading downward. Once the group neared the three passages, Cameron separated from the group and started walking towards the far left tunnel, which was the largest of the three.

Carly knew the passage Cameron was headed into was dangerous. After a few dozen yards it ended up in a deep vertical pit many feet down. She spoke loudly so that everyone could hear her clearly. Everyone keep together. No one goes down a passage or moves ahead without me. I’ll take the lead.

Cameron turned around and came back to face Carly. Let’s get something straight. I know you know this cave stuff, but you don’t tell me what to do.

Carly was annoyed but kept her composure. I’m sorry Cameron, but while we are in this cave, I do tell you what to do. There are lots of ways to die in here. I am responsible for your safety, so you have to follow my lead. If you can’t live with that, you’ll need to leave.

Cameron said defiantly, This isn’t your cave. I can do whatever I want.

Carly blurted, Is your inability to follow directions why you got kicked off the baseball team? She hadn’t really meant to use the nuclear option, but it had just popped out, and now it was too late. Now it was floating out there like a giant Hindenburg and it couldn’t be taken back. She knew immediately it was now over between them, and she was the one who had swung the axe.

Cameron growled, Screw you! You are waaay more trouble than you are worth! and headed back across the cavern towards the cave entrance tunnel. Carly knew she would have to go after him. It wasn’t because she wanted him to come back, either. As the largest and strongest member of the party, he was carrying a large share of the group’s food. Just as Cameron reached the far end of the cavern, he stopped, turned around and began to yell. You know something?…

A deep rumbling sound emanating from beneath the feet of the explorers accompanied by a mild tremor cut Cameron off in mid sentence. Everyone froze in place. A few small rocks fell from the middle of the ceiling near Cameron and landed harmlessly on the cavern floor. Dust seemed to appear from everywhere around all of them, causing each person’s headlamp to create a long gray column that only penetrated about ten feet into the cloud. Suddenly the rumbling stopped.

Cameron yelled from the other side of the gray cloud, This was a stupid idea to start with!

Just as the last word came from Cameron’s mouth, the cave gave a low subterranean groan and the ground shook violently beneath everyone’s feet. This time the shaking continued. The ceiling of the entrance tunnel and the front half of the cavern directly above Cameron abruptly collapsed with a thunderous roar, sending millions of tons of rock and choking dust into the cavern from above.

2

Century II Quatrain 46

The mighty ruler will turn the wheel again

The bygone miseries will come in an even worse form

Hunger, iron and pest, bloody, milky rain

Fire seen on the sky, a running long spark

Shortly before the earthquake, ninety three million miles away from the planet’s surface, a storm on a colossal scale was moving beyond the embryonic stage. An anomaly was occurring in the massive magnetic field surrounding the surface of the sun the likes of which hadn’t occurred for millions of years. Like a rogue ocean wave created from random nothingness, the sun’s magnetic field began warping and twisting, causing a series of magnetized loops to be formed on the surface of the sun. The magnetic lines suddenly contracted and reconnected like gargantuan rubber bands snapping into place. The sun’s surface material surrounded by the rapidly contracting magnetic lines compressed, and having nowhere else to go, accelerated away from the sun’s surface into space at an incredible speed. A celestial version of a laser beam had just been fired directly at the third planet.

The instruments on NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) spacecraft monitoring the sun from a geosynchronous orbit above the planet sensed the cosmic event as it unfolded. The solar atmospheric imaging assembly picked up the imperfection in the sun’s surface as the giant solar flare started forming. A stream of visual data immediately began automatically downloading from the small satellite to the computers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland. The initial data stream did not show anything that deviated from a typical solar storm except that it was exceptionally large. Because of the distance between the earth and the sun, eight minutes after the magnetic reconnection on the surface of the sun caused the solar flare to shoot towards the earth followed by a huge coronal mass ejection, the first X rays and ultraviolet radiation reached the earth’s magnetic sphere and became visible to the Solar Dynamic Observatory.

Ted Moore, the NASA project supervisor monitoring the SDO spacecraft visual output at the Goddard Space Flight Center couldn’t believe the data he was seeing as it suddenly came streaming in. The solar flare was completely unexpected, and it was of a magnitude never before recorded or anticipated. Ted jumped up from his computer workstation, spilling his coffee across the keyboard. Ignoring the mess he had just created, he ran headlong out of the lab, dodged several coworkers and raced down the hall to the command and data center that managed another spacecraft, the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite. The ACE satellite had been dutifully sampling particles from the sun as they streamed towards the earth for more than sixteen years, and Ted knew it would be able to give him a read out of the magnitude of the event now in progress.

A couple of quick keystrokes from shaking fingers on the ACE data retrieval system confirmed what had caused such an alarm in Ted. A quick scan of the data showed that an initial ultra high energy burst of radiation including wavelengths across the entire electromagnetic spectrum had just impacted the earth’s magnetosphere somewhere above Lithuania. If the readout was accurate, and the energy was high enough, the radioactive particles moving at the speed of light may have sliced through the protective layer of the magnetosphere and struck the planet with the force of multiple atomic bombs.

To make matters worse, Ted knew there was a huge coronal mass ejection following the radiation wave and it was now hurtling towards the earth. The new threat, consisting of a slower moving cloud of electrons, ions and atoms, would also strike the magnetosphere. In theory, this coronal mass ejection could cause even worse damage than the radiation burst had. The cloud was large enough that within hours it would be able to be seen from earth by the naked eye, like a giant skyrocket slowly tracking across the sky on a collision course with the earth. Ted knew there would be no way to keep this sequence of events quiet. He shuddered at the thought of the worldwide mass panic that would ensue once people began to see the cloud moving its way towards the earth from the sun. He estimated they had about three or four hours maximum before the incoming threat would be able to be seen worldwide, and they had somewhere between twenty and forty hours before the new threat would impact the earth, depending upon the velocity of the ejected matter.

Ted