Prophecy

PART ONE - Chapter One

Chapter One

"Like wings against glass, the world shall hear its own downfall. Like rain against foliage, like thunder over the sea: not with noise nor with din, but only with the slightest of whisper."

The Book of Life

August, 1982

When the first tremor struck that morning people in the Turkish coastal cities were still sitting in their kitchens, having breakfast. Tables set with sweet bread, soups, omelets, börek, sausages, fruits, and strong Turkish tea. Bread baskets and coffee pots in brass and porcelain on white lace tablecloths and linoleum tables. Mothers dressing their children while their husbands and fathers prepared to leave for work. Laundry to be hung, the day's first cigarette to be smoked.

The earthquake that hit northeastern Turkey that morning measured 7.1 on the Richter scale, and over 150,000 people lost their lives.

On the Indonesian island of Bali, the news of the disaster in Turkey had yet to reach the people when Batur, one of Indonesia's many active volcanoes, unexpectedly erupted with massive force. The volcano had been dormant since the autumn of 1964 and this time had shown no signs of the impending eruption. People were caught off guard, but few worried. They felt protected by the divine, as their elders had been during the eruption some twenty years ago. That time the lava stream magically stopped right in front of the closest village temple, a certain sign of the god's blessing. This night, as Batur woke again with all its might, most waited in their homes, confident the gods would turn the winds carrying those lethal clouds, and stop the floods of fire.

The gods did not favor humans that night. Nearly 1,000 people died.

Hours after Batur's awakening, a faint rumble spread through the ports of the Japanese city of Yokohama. In its harbor warehouses fish auctions were in full swing, bustling with activity, rows of tuna, shellfish, squid, and eel. The rest of the city was still asleep, and the sun wouldn't appear for hours. The halls were noisy and crowded, thus the warning of what was to come was most likely lost in the ambience.

Readings would later show the tsunami that swept into the metropolis that morning measured over 20 meters. Eyewitnesses spoke of a black wall emerging from the sea, and they spoke of the tremendous roar the wave carried with it. Like an enormous men's choir, like the sound of a thousand voices, none ever quiet for a single moment, not even to take a breath. Death does not need air in its lungs.

About 13,000 people perished along the Japanese coast that morning.

The rains in Venezuela had been heavy and consistent for over a week. That evening it intensified even further. The massive amounts of water triggered a large landslide that, by morning, had buried much of the western suburbs of San Cristobal. The number of casualties was never made public, but it was said that as many as 11,000 were lost.

In Algeria it wasn't uncommon for winds to get strong at this time of the year, so no one was fully prepared for the force of the sandstorm that swept in over Timimoun in the Gourara region that day. Hundreds of beautiful buildings in ochre and bricks were destroyed by the merciless sand, and nearly every fishing boat anchored in the small saltwater lake was rendered useless, blown apart or set adrift. A majority of the city's residents, who depended on fishing to survive, lost their source of livelihood. Some lost relatives and loved ones. About twenty people vanished in the storm and the destruction, starvation and chaos it brought with it would eventually mean the end for many more.

Italy experienced an intense heatwave that summer, with temperatures reaching nearly fifty degrees celsius. That night, the heat reached impossibly higher. The city of Trieste in northern Italy was trapped under a humid blanket of pressing, invasive heat. City dwellers tossed in their sweat-soaked sheets, trying to cool off with cold baths or ice cubes. When the thunderstorm lit the skies many probably felt relief—at least the heat would lessen a bit with it. But this was no ordinary storm, and the thunder and lightning that came with it did not behave as expected.

46,183 lightning strikes were recorded in Trieste that night; in one house, lightning struck three times. 18 houses caught fire, and the entire telephone network was knocked out. A school burned to the ground, and a family consisting of four children and their parents perished when their apartment building was struck by lightning that night.

Waking to a world chaotic and on its end, many probably felt worry and dismay. Churches filled up even with those who may not have been so godly before. In offices, fields, factories, on oil rigs, in university halls and grocery stores; people spoke of nature taking its revenge on humanity. Morning news shows invited meteorologists and climate scientists to their sofas, who in return offered different theories and explanations for the chaos. Each perhaps more elaborate than the last, because truth be told none could explain why the world seemed to be falling apart.

A small group of people in various corners of the world, however, took the night's events with stoic calm and caution. For they knew that the events of the past twenty-four hours wasn't the end of mankind.

They knew this was only the beginning.