Joel Prologue

There was no one thing that caused the collapse, but the combination of many things.   Economic failure world wide; horrific natural disasters, not enough food supply, and world wide war.   The earth couldn't sustain the devastation humans had put it through.   Earth took her revenge and not one living soul was left on the planet to tell the tale.

However, if one had been left, they would have spoken of strange beams of light that came and took certain people.  This is the story of one of those people; taken to another life.

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Huddled in the basement of the rundown apartment building, Joel wondered if there was a god to pray to.   And what should he pray for?  A quick end to this horror, or to spare his life?   People had been dying by the millions.  His own parents and little sister had died in their home when a tornado larger than any ever recorded before had swept through the midwest.

A few years before that devastating tornado, Joel had moved to the big city of New York years before, hoping to find not only a job, but tolerance of his sexual orientation.   Growing up in a small farming community of mostly white, mostly Christian people, he knew he'd never be accepted; he'd always have to hide who he was.   As soon as he was old enough and had saved enough from working at the local feed mill, Joel had packed his bags and left.

The famine that had swept the world had perversely given Joel the opportunity to find employment in a city that had more than half the population unemployed.   A group of agriculturist had created a hydro garden deep in the basement of the derelict apartment building that Joel was now huddled in.  They'd gladly taken in Joel with hope that his knowledge of farming would help them produce more food.  But before Joel had the opportunity to prove himself, the earthquake that would destroy the city started.

As Joel huddled in the corner he watched the plants he'd so lovingly taken care of shivere and shake as the earthquake grew stronger.   Screams of people dying and metal buildings twisting and falling roared in Joel's head.   Suddenly all was quiet; he could no longer see the destruction taking place around him.   Joel was cocooned in a blue light that had such fresh air he felt as if he was suffocating.   The silence roared in his head.   He cried out in the silence as his body was lifted and hurled through the tube of light.   Knowing this was the end, Joel let himself give way to his terror, and fainted.

TBC