The Great Worm Lich

In the last chapter of the New Testament, the most famous religious scripture on Earth, ‘Revelation’, it contained the prophecy Saint John made about the apocalypse:

 “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood appeared and was thrown down to the Earth. A third of the trees were burned up. Then the second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain burning with fire was thrown down into the sea. A third of the sea became blood, a third of the creatures living in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. Then the third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star, named Wormwood, fell from heaven and poisoned a third of the rivers and springs of water, many people died from the water because it became so bitter. Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars so that a third of them became dark. The day lost a third of its light, and the night lost a third of its light too. Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to Earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. He opened the shaft of the abyss; and smoke rose up from the shaft. Then locusts with lion-like teeth dragging a scorpion-like tail, and flapping its wings as the beast of a mighty horse came forth from the smoke and onto the Earth. The locusts wreaked havoc on Earth and died seven days later.”

 This was the end of the apocalypse.

 However, the apocalypse was both similar and different from the prophecy. The similarity was that in the apocalypse, in reality, had torrential rains and earthquakes, along with thousands of meteorites falling from the sky that turned into fireballs.

 The difference was that the other bizarre scenes did not occur at all, and the duration of the disaster was concise. It only took place for three days, and the meteorites only fell on the first day.

 Even so, the terrible consequences of the apocalypse were inestimable. After the collapse of thousands of world’s barriers, trillions of souls had returned to the legendary ancient chaotic world. The Colossal World had once again come to Earth, and everything became weird. Its natural face began to change faster than humans.

 A week after the end of the apocalypse, the New York coastal water that had several turbulent waves raised up for being affected by the lingering effect abnormally calmed down all of a sudden.

 After half an hour of calm wind and waves, the seismic index reached above twelve. A group of people was inside a spacious office covered with projections on the walls in an underground bastion about 100 meters deep into the Earth’s crust in a New York military base. The base was fortunately not hit by a meteorite while ten solemn-looking federal officers in military uniforms with different skin tones and varying stature but were all healthy and energetic were sitting around an oval desk with their eyes locked on the only sergeant who was standing in the room as they listened to the report. “…the end time of the earthquake and tsunami has been controlled within five seconds. It is unlikely that abnormal fluctuations will occur again. According to the above analysis, the living environment within a thousand kilometers around New York City has been completely stable. Not only that, the meteorites, satellites, and space trash orbiting Earth have also completely disappeared… ”

 “Disappeared?” A sturdy man with two golden stars on his shoulder sitting on the right-hand side of the main seat of the desk suddenly slammed the wooden table with force and interrupted the sergeant expressionlessly, “Sergeant Fernan, the damn stones and iron blocks in low-Earth orbit did not disappear but somehow turned into ‘cannonballs’ that almost destroyed the entire world. Hasn’t the last message released by the government has confirmed the coming of ‘Apocalypse,’ and the only solution they gave is to ask us to pray? Why are we talking about scientific analysis now? Can we even analyze the disaster we experienced a few days ago with science?!”

 Upon hearing the angry rebuttal of the top commanding officer of the logistics department of the base, the base commander who had only served for only two to three months frowned, “Alright, Major General Agnat, we’re having a strategy analysis meeting right now, not the cigar-smoking time of a club. Please control your emotions. Sergeant Fernan, please continue to report the analysis of the science team.”

 The commanding officer of the logistics department of the base lowered his head with a gloomy expression and no longer said any word after being reprimanded by the base commander. The sergeant who was feeling at a loss of what to do, on the other hand, secretly relieved and continued, “Yes, General. Several doctors like Leighton, Kennett, and Hamid are still observing the movement of the crust and the planets above the Asia-Pacific air… The preliminary judgment made by the scientific team is that the surface disaster has passed its final period and is now basically over so the base can restore its normal operation already. That’s all for my report.”

 After hearing the sergeant finishing reporting the report made by the base scientists, the office where four federal generals and more than ten colonel officers had gathered together fell into a silence.

 After nearly half a minute, the base commander was the first to murmur, “We no longer need to become a ‘mole’ and hide underground anymore, don’t we?”

 Looking at the small black man on his left-hand side, he asked, “General Furret, as the staff officer at the New York military base, do you have any opinion about this?”

 “We can’t hide in the underground forever, Commander Nort,” The short black man pondered for a few seconds before replying in a loud voice that was far from his size, “My opinion is consistent with the science team. Restore the base to operate normally…”

 “General Furret, even if we can’t stay in the bastion forever, is it really the best choice to return to the ground right now?” The base’s logistics director, who seemed to have no intention of speaking at all, suddenly raised his head and refuted once again, “The material reserves in the base is sufficient for all personnel to survive for half a year. We’re fully equipped to continue to stay underground and observe for a while before talking about leaving.”

 “Major General Agnat, your idea is indeed safer, but have you considered the future’ living space’ of the New York military base?” Furret asked in a sigh in a low voice after a moment of silence.

 “The problem of living space…” Although Agnat was slightly impatient and selfish, the fact that he could become a federal general meant that he was not incompetent. The instant he was reminded, he murmured with a change of expression.

 “Yes, it’s a question of living space,” looking at the dazed base logistics director, Furret continued to ask and answer himself, “Even though we cannot predict what kind of change the apocalypse would bring to the world, we can be sure that the situation on the planet will undoubtedly be very different.

 Under such circumstances, the earlier the base resumes its regular operation, the earlier we get more elaborate and accurate information to have a benign control of the situation on the controllable range … ”

 

“General Furret, sorry to interrupt you, but I have to add another point.” Suddenly, the only person among the four federal generals with golden stars on their shoulders who had not spoken at all, expressed in a low voice with his head lowered as he stared at the tablet computer on the desk straight to the point. “The Atlantean principal fleet has returned to the ground from outer space.”

 “Those damn aliens are back again? Hadn’t the spatial gates disappeared already? Why are they still coming back? General Francis, is this true?” The base logistic director’s expression immediately changed as he asked in a gaffe.

 “Major General Agnet, as the head of intelligence gathering at the New York military base, do you think I would joke about this? I sent a scout back to the ground 20 days after the meteorite rain ended and I finally received the first report just now,” Francis looked at Agnet’s nervous face calmly as he said while transmitting the information he just received on the computer in front of the projector to show it.

 After that, he lowered his head and swiped his finger on the flat tablet screen continuously to circle the crucial part of the continually flickering and changing projection before he continued to say, “The Atlanteans have used an even more advanced optical stealth technology this time to return to Earth and have completely circumvented our radar imaging scans. However, amazingly, they still couldn’t escape the naked eye of the scouts even so and exposed their whereabouts in these simple sketches. Unfortunately, the information is still insufficient to determine exactly what their return intentions were.”

 “Then, General Francis, your judgment is that the base should resume normal operation as soon as possible?” After listening to the statement of the chief information officer, the base commander looked at the sketches scarcely drawn by the scouts that were vivid enough to portray enough information on the wall and asked pensively.

 “Yes, Commander.” Francis nodded and replied briefly.

 After hearing what he said, Nort no longer hesitated. He stood up and stared at his subordinates before thundering, “Then I hereby pronounce that the New York military base will resume its normal operation. A full crew of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft is dispatched to gather detailed information within two hundred kilometers as soon as possible…”

 With the orders given out by the base commander, the vast New York military base ended its hibernation and started to operate once again. In New York City several dozens of kilometers away from the station, the surviving people also walked out of their hiding places struggling with their entire efforts to continue living.

 Manhattan’s Times Square, the once most prosperous and modern street on Earth, had long changed its appearance. The modern men and women brushing across each other and the crowded tourists looking at everything around them curiously with amazement in their eyes had long disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only a group of people with a dull and panic look in their eyes as they wandered on the cracked streets that were as dry as Africa.

 “This is so f*cked up!” Slowly moving among the crowds, a black-haired young man who looked ragged glanced at the surrounding and muttered with a frown, “It has actually transformed from a motivational drama to a survival drama in the apocalypse. There are suddenly so many ‘characters’ too. All the ‘scripts’ that I’ve carefully prepared in the past have become a joke…”

 While the young man was venting out his displeasure, several dozens of young people wearing jackets with the ‘L’ logo on their chests while holding thick leaflets in the corner of the street entered his sight. They were distributing leaflets while preaching to the pedestrians sincerely, “Those who believe in Wizard Li will be redeemed. The pastors of the great Wizard Li God have prepared food for all ‘victims’ in Orange Street. They even provide treatment for external injuries… ”

 Upon seeing this, the young man was stunned a little. A bitter smile appeared at the corner of his mouth as he rubbed the leather bag around his waist and said to himself, “It seems that not all efforts have come to naught. Even though the ‘script’ has changed to become ‘Yellow Turban Rebellion’ from ‘Undercover Secret Move’ and is not a piece of optimistic news, it’s still better than starting from scratch…”