Read Online Prometheus Road by Bruce Balfour - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Bruce Balfour
Tags: Science-Fiction
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something to do with that, but he could work that out later. He had to see what was going on.
The landscape was on fire. Many of the trees lower on the hillside were burning, bright flames licking at the night sky, dark smoke streaming away on the salty breeze. Yet it wasn’t a simple fire or explosion that Tom saw farther out on the flat fields—a crater was forming, growing as it went, the ground collapsing like mud or hot lava into a deepening pit. The air over the crater shimmered with a soft blue glow, crackling with static electricity in the night air, smelling of ozone, burning wood, and the heat of shattered dreams. The earth rumbled, swaying back and forth in a slow rhythm that upset Tom’s stomach. Glowing mud pots formed in the soil of the fields, bubbling and hissing as the ground continued to liquefy and steam, adding sulfurous fumes to the air while the gates of hell widened to devour the Eliot farm.
Helix whined, watching the sight beside his master, so Tom picked up the little dog to comfort him, wondering who would pick him up for comforting as his life sank into the boiling crater of his past, taking his parents, his sister, his brother, and their home along with it. There was nothing that could have prepared him for this sight, nothing to give the unreal moment a frame of reference so he could retain his sanity, nothing that could stop the screaming he suddenly realized was coming from his mouth.
There would be no going home again.
SUSPENDED in her liquid of life, her white robes drifting on the surface of the orange-lit pool like some huge butterfly trapped in amber, the Oracle’s body suddenly tensed and began to convulse, her physical form seized in the grip of a time-space shock wave that only she could sense fully, living in the spaces between the worlds where the sudden, definitive event in this history of Marinwood rippled out through many worlds and many paths, sealing off threads of futures to come as it created new threads of dynamic potential, shifting universes and reflecting futures past. Her heart hammered in her chest as her white eyes rolled back into her head. Storms of time raged against darkness and light, fighting for superiority, creating new combinations of tomorrow and tomorrow.
Waves rocked the Oracle’s life tank, causing shadows to jump across the ceiling, chasing each other in a wild dance through crevices and stalactites. Then her body began to settle, convulsions became twitches, and the waves became ripples. Her heart slowed, her breathing became more regular, her exhausted eyes gently closed to seek the peace of sleep and dreams.
Her vision turned inward, and she knew the end had begun.
“THERE he is!”
Tom turned at the shout so close behind him, just in time to see the massive form of Humboldt hurtling toward him. The man looked like a demon in the flickering light from the flaming trees. Stunned from the sight he had just witnessed, Tom gazed dully at Humboldt, seeing it all in slow motion, wondering if he would even bother to try dodging the blow. The rest of Humboldt’s group stood a few feet away, their eyes wide and intent on Tom, unaware that the world was burning at the bottom of the hill or too dull-witted to care. These were the boys he had gone to school with, been tormented by when he was younger, and who now chose to hunt him down because he was too different from the rest of them. Tom saw all of them as being built on the same human model, almost as if they were clones like he’d read about in his father’s books, with small, glazed brown eyes sunk in piggy faces atop hulking bodies, too big and slow to do anything but physical labor. And the biggest of them was about to smash Tom flat against the granite outcropping where he stood, a long metal pipe gripped in his left hand like a spear.
Tom stepped to one side, grabbed the passing metal pipe, and tripped Humboldt, who continued on past Tom and sprawled against the rocky ground. Out of
The landscape was on fire. Many of the trees lower on the hillside were burning, bright flames licking at the night sky, dark smoke streaming away on the salty breeze. Yet it wasn’t a simple fire or explosion that Tom saw farther out on the flat fields—a crater was forming, growing as it went, the ground collapsing like mud or hot lava into a deepening pit. The air over the crater shimmered with a soft blue glow, crackling with static electricity in the night air, smelling of ozone, burning wood, and the heat of shattered dreams. The earth rumbled, swaying back and forth in a slow rhythm that upset Tom’s stomach. Glowing mud pots formed in the soil of the fields, bubbling and hissing as the ground continued to liquefy and steam, adding sulfurous fumes to the air while the gates of hell widened to devour the Eliot farm.
Helix whined, watching the sight beside his master, so Tom picked up the little dog to comfort him, wondering who would pick him up for comforting as his life sank into the boiling crater of his past, taking his parents, his sister, his brother, and their home along with it. There was nothing that could have prepared him for this sight, nothing to give the unreal moment a frame of reference so he could retain his sanity, nothing that could stop the screaming he suddenly realized was coming from his mouth.
There would be no going home again.
SUSPENDED in her liquid of life, her white robes drifting on the surface of the orange-lit pool like some huge butterfly trapped in amber, the Oracle’s body suddenly tensed and began to convulse, her physical form seized in the grip of a time-space shock wave that only she could sense fully, living in the spaces between the worlds where the sudden, definitive event in this history of Marinwood rippled out through many worlds and many paths, sealing off threads of futures to come as it created new threads of dynamic potential, shifting universes and reflecting futures past. Her heart hammered in her chest as her white eyes rolled back into her head. Storms of time raged against darkness and light, fighting for superiority, creating new combinations of tomorrow and tomorrow.
Waves rocked the Oracle’s life tank, causing shadows to jump across the ceiling, chasing each other in a wild dance through crevices and stalactites. Then her body began to settle, convulsions became twitches, and the waves became ripples. Her heart slowed, her breathing became more regular, her exhausted eyes gently closed to seek the peace of sleep and dreams.
Her vision turned inward, and she knew the end had begun.
“THERE he is!”
Tom turned at the shout so close behind him, just in time to see the massive form of Humboldt hurtling toward him. The man looked like a demon in the flickering light from the flaming trees. Stunned from the sight he had just witnessed, Tom gazed dully at Humboldt, seeing it all in slow motion, wondering if he would even bother to try dodging the blow. The rest of Humboldt’s group stood a few feet away, their eyes wide and intent on Tom, unaware that the world was burning at the bottom of the hill or too dull-witted to care. These were the boys he had gone to school with, been tormented by when he was younger, and who now chose to hunt him down because he was too different from the rest of them. Tom saw all of them as being built on the same human model, almost as if they were clones like he’d read about in his father’s books, with small, glazed brown eyes sunk in piggy faces atop hulking bodies, too big and slow to do anything but physical labor. And the biggest of them was about to smash Tom flat against the granite outcropping where he stood, a long metal pipe gripped in his left hand like a spear.
Tom stepped to one side, grabbed the passing metal pipe, and tripped Humboldt, who continued on past Tom and sprawled against the rocky ground. Out of
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