Jack Chalker - Echoes of the Well of Souls

The captain gulped down several deep breaths. “Yes, yes! I’m all right. It was—strange. I’ve never felt anything like that before. Never. It’s fading now. Did you feel it?”

“Only the wind.”

He was getting some self-control back but was clearly still shaken. “That was just the fireball sucking up some of the air in its wake. It must have come almost directly over us. The explosions were sonic booms. It’s still going very fast, unless it’s already crashed by now.” He looked out at the spectacular fireworks display still raining down all around them. “Some of those are big! I think I can see smoke in the direction of the city!”

There was a sudden, jarring explosion very close by, an explosion so near that the ground trembled and Anne Marie’s wheelchair began to vibrate, almost tipping over. The captain again fell, this time from the tremors.

“What now? Earthquake?” Tony asked, frustrated that he could see nothing.

“I don’t think so,” the captain responded. “I think a big chunk came down pretty damned close to us.” He picked himself up off the ground and wiped off some dirt. “Everybody okay?”

“Yes—I think so,” Anne Marie responded. “Oh, my! This was quite the adventure, after all. I doubt if I will ever forget this. I’m so glad we came!”

The captain began looking around and immediately saw a reddish-orange glow from the direction of the road below—the road they’d used to get there.

“You two stay here and try to relax,” he told them. “I’m going to walk over and see just what hit and where.” He had visions of landslides that might possibly trap them atop the mountain, but he didn’t want to alarm his companions until he knew just what the situation was.

He was also still somewhat shaken by that terrible paralyzing sensation he’d had as the meteor had passed overhead. Nothing, but nothing, had ever felt like that before.

It had felt like death.

Not the warm, dark cessation of life he’d imagined but cold, terribly lonely, empty, corrupt—the cold of decomposition and the grave.

He reached the point where the road started down, but he didn’t have to walk far along it to discover what had hit and where. No wonder the earth had shaken! He couldn’t imagine why it hadn’t knocked them off the hilltop and toppled the car, for all the good the car was going to do now.

Below, near the point at which the dirt road met the main paved highway, was a large glowing object. There was a lot of steam and a hot, acrid smell as if the area had suddenly gone volcanic and melted rock and road. It was impossible to see much detail without going down quite a ways and it wasn’t terribly clear how much of the dirt road remained intact, but he didn’t dare leave his two companions to go down to check.

He started back toward them, reaching into his pocket and taking out a large cigar, which he stopped to light. He had refrained from smoking near Anne Marie, but this was the kind of situation that called for a good cigar. The hilltop was dark again, and all the debris made it a tricky walk, but he made it back to them without falling or twisting an ankle.

“We’ve got a real problem,” he told them straight out. “Our friend that just passed over left us a present right at the base of the hill, and it’s none too clear if we’re going to be able to get down very easily.”

“Oh, dear!” Anne Marie exclaimed. “What will we do, Captain?”

“There’s a good-sized meteor chunk that came in and hit right down there. That was the earthquake we felt. It’s still glowing hot—probably will be for days—and I’m not sure how much of that road is still there or whether there are any rock slides or other obstacles. The only thing we can do is try very carefully to make it down in the car. If it’s impossible, then we’ll have to go as far as we can, get out, and manage on our own. I’m pretty sure that if we can get down to the main road one way or another, people will be along fairly soon who might help. But the plain fact is, we have to get down there, since nobody knows we’re up here and neither of you is exactly in condition to climb down the side of this hill even if we had ropes and such to do it with.”

“I don’t like it,” Tony told him. “The whole road might be undermined, and there might well be rather narrow passages. Not only would that cause me obvious problems, but Anne Marie’s chair would never make it.”

“Couldn’t we build a signal fire or something from all this junk?” Anne Marie asked. “I mean, there are sure to be all sorts of folks out here sooner or later, right? If it’s big enough, possibly helicopters. You did say that this was once a helicopter landing pad, didn’t you?”

Solomon nodded. “The trouble is, I think this is only one of a lot of fragment strikes, and it’s pretty far out. I would expect people along the main road any time now, particularly others who came out here like us to get a better look, but in terms of the authorities and helicopters and the like—possibly sometime. The glow toward Rio has increased, I think, and I suspect that there are a number of fires and possibly worse.”

“Check the radio,” Tony suggested. “At least we’ll know where we stand.”

The captain nodded, went over to the minivan, and, after discovering he had to start the engine to power the radio, flicked it on.

There was mostly static.

“I think Jesus may have lost his power,” the captain said a bit sarcastically. The great statue that sat on the mountain that directly overlooked Rio was the symbol of the city, but that same mountain and two others nearby were where the transmitting towers for radio, television, and other telecommunications were located. If power was out up there, it wouldn’t matter what was going on below.

He slowly turned the dial, finally getting a low-powered broadcast heavy with static.

“… out in two-thirds of the city, and there are numerous fires from sparks and cinders all over. Because we have managed to keep our power and remain on the air, we will keep broadcasting information as we know it. Civil authorities have asked that no one attempt to use telephones and that they remain in their homes and remain calm. Fire brigades are out all over the city, and police are trying to free people trapped in buildings and cope with dozens of accidents as most of the traffic signals are out. A declaration of martial law is expected and may be in force now; we have no way of knowing from here…”

Solomon got out but left the radio on. “Sounds pretty bad. Martial law, fires, power outages, you name it. They didn’t expect this. Not knowing anybody in particular is up here, I seriously doubt if anyone’s going to be out this way for some time—maybe a day or two. Even if they knew we were here, I think we’d be a pretty damned low priority. We’ve got the remains of the little picnic I packed, but that’s it, and there doesn’t appear to be any water or other facilities up here. If you’re too nervous to make the attempt down, my next inclination would be to go myself and see if I could find help—but, again, that might take a very long time, and I really wouldn’t like leaving you two up here for an extended period.”

“Ordinarily I would agree on getting down, but I am afraid that Anne Marie might get stuck halfway and then what do we do?” Tony asked.

“This is one of those ‘there’s no good solution’ problems,” the captain replied. “Anne Marie, you said you had medicine you had to take religiously, and you’ve been fairly weak as it is. How much of an extra supply of that medication did you bring?”

“Oh, my! Yes, I see what you mean,” she said thoughtfully. “I’m afraid, dear, that he’s right—we have no real choice in this.”