Ragnarok Read Free Page A

control of his bowels. His bladder let go and the saliva in his mouth began to pour down over his lower lip as if he’d been in a dentist’s chair with a few gallons of Novocain pumped into his system. Terror took hold of him. His eyes went wide. His body shook uncontrollably.
    Later, after the creatures returned to the light, and the globe of lightning flickered out, leaving behind an enormous crater and thousands dead or dying, Brian Daly’s mind finally returned to some semblance of what it had been. But he would never be the same. He didn’t know what he had just seen, but he knew that local police forces would be helpless against it. Whatever those things had been, even the military would be hard-pressed to stop them. Still, he needed to tell someone what he had just seen. His brother Steven was an Army Ranger. Steve was just a captain, but he might be able to get the information to someone higher up. Daly pulled out his cell phone and called his brother as fast as his shaking fingers would allow.
     
     
    Philadelphia, PA
    2 November, 2100 Hrs
     
    MOMENTS AFTER THE carnage in the other cities began, the Liberty Bell began to glow.
    Currently situated in the Liberty Bell Center, adjacent to the glass pavilion that had housed the bell from 1976 until 2003, the bell is the object of visitation by over a million tourists a year. But the facility closed to visitors at 5 p.m.. Only three security guards remained on hand when the inscription on the bell, Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof , began to luminesce. One of the three guards—the one furthest from the actual 2,080-pound copper-and-tin attraction—had just enough time to slap his hand on a large red emergency alarm before the surge of light engulfed him.
    Police responded quickly. They closed 6 th Street and set up barricades on Market and Chestnut, thinking people would be safe at that distance. They were wrong.
    Sergeant Gina Martinez stepped out of her cruiser at the barricade to an unholy sight. A giant dome of intense light throwing forked spears of lightning. Thunder boomed despite the clear sky full of stars above her head. She stepped up to the edge of the park, her mouth agape at the sight. The spectacle washed out the strobing colors from her cruiser’s light bar as well as from the forty others arrayed around her on the street and up on the sidewalk.
    What the hell is that ? she wondered.
    “Clayton,” she called to a plainclothes detective who was near her. “What is this thing? Terrorist attack?”
    “Beats the hell outta me. We got an alarm on the bell. Thought it was a B&E or something. We’re trying to keep people out of the way of those lightnin’ bolts, but other than that, what the frig are we supposed to do? Fire Chief is on the way and the Mayor’s got the Guard coming, too. I guess we just wait and see.”
    Just then, a huge bolt of lightning struck close to their position and incinerated a tall maple tree.
    “Shit! That was close.” Gina ducked instinctively, but by the time she had crouched, the lightning was already done with the tree. Had it hit her...
    “I think it’s getting bigger.” Clayton sounded nervous.
    “That’s what she said,” Gina replied, her whispered voice on autopilot. She’d spent the previous night with her girlfriends. They sat around her apartment binging on nachos, drinking margaritas and watching The Office until every other sentence was “That’s what she said.”
    “I’m serious. Look. The top of the dome is above the roof and the edge is touching the credit union now.”
    “Damnit, you’re right.” Gina’s hand went instinctively to the handle of her holstered Glock, before she realized how useless her weapon would be against a glistening whitish-yellow dome of lightning. Still, she kept her hand on the grip. It prolonged her life.
    Four shapes bolted out of the center of the crackling energy. Gina saw them move. She dropped and rolled to the left