The Day the Lights went Out, Book four, Evolution

The Day the Lights Went Out

Book four

Evolution

Terrence Aubrey

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2011-2014 Terrence Aubrey.

All rights reserved worldwide.

All contents copyright 2014 by Terrence Aubrey

All rights reserved. No part of this document or the related files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the Author and publisher.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction, an invention on the part of the author. All names, characters and places used within this trilogy have been invented, from the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, places or localities is completely coincidental.

About the Author

Terrence Aubrey was born in Bristol, England, the only son of a Ballet dancer mother and composer father. Rebellious of nature and from an early age, he abandoned his education at the earliest possible moment, fifteen. He showed no inclination of following in the artistic footsteps of his parents during his formative years.

Preferring a self enlightening process, he set off upon an adventure that led him to experiment with understanding the mind and the development of self awareness. During that period he enjoyed extensive World travel across the countries of Europe, the America’s, north and south and the FSU. He found those travels, enriching, mind opening and educational and in equal measure.

He discovered both a passion and love of writing by chance, while establishing a website. It was a website than required a lot of varied content. That ultimately led him to the writing of many articles upon diverse subjects. That in turn led to him creating a blog. The leap from blogging to writing full length novels was a gradual process.

Many of his novels reflect his environmental concern for the way we, the human race have evolved and the consequences that path has led us towards. Whilst many of his novels are dramatic, even apocalyptic, they also show a way forward. Whether you believe that way to be better or worse than the current status quo is for you to decide.

Terrence Aubrey currently lives on a farm in southern Spain and cultivates Avocados. He has four sons, three dogs and writes. He has now published several works of fiction.

Prologue

Can you imagine a World, or life without electricity? Four AM on the twenty third of November, two thousand and sixteen was the day the lights went out.

The evolution of the Human Race is something that has taken millenniums to develop and until relatively recent times, it was a slow and gradual process. Was it the astronomer, the late Carl Sagan that first created the 24 hour clock to measure the evolution of life upon planet earth and mankind’s emergence as the dominant species? Using this 24 hour clock to trace mankind’s history and evolution is to say the least, sobering. Mankind, the human race, as we now know it arrived at a little more than one minute before midnight. To give that some sense of scale Dinosaurs roamed the planet at around 22:56. Using that same 24 hour clock, the origins of life of earth began at around 4:00 AM.

Mankind’s emergence from the primordial sludge began, using the 24 hour clock as a point of reference at 23:58:43. The shocking fact of human kind’s existence is that we are in every respect "The new kids on the block.

How have we performed during our short time on planet earth? To be polite, could do better could be the answer, but in truth, inaccurate in the extreme. Mankind has not only imperiled all life on earth, but the very planet itself, why?

The question of why mankind has evolved so is too vast a question to consider here, but to deny that fact is on a par with insisting that the World is flat. The history of the human race is on a universal scale, brief and his destructive nature has only become apparent within the twinkling of an eye.

There are many contradictory theories as to why Mankind has evolved as it has, but perhaps the answer is not so difficult to find. Even now, despite the seemingly irrefutable evidence, there are many that refuse to accept that man is by far the most dangerous animal on planet earth.

Whilst the mentality of man has barely changed over the millenniums, the affect of his actions have and dramatically. From the very beginning mankind has suffered a misguided sense of his own self importance, even relative to his fellow man. This state of being was for millenniums, undetectable on a universal scale, but that situation slowly changed.

From the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt, to latter dictators there have been those for whom enough was an alien concept. Throughout history man has not only subjected nature and the planet to its sense of self importance, but his fellow man too.

For millenniums mans barbarity was as a dripping tap. Yes the forests slowly disappeared and as a result species of wildlife, but did anyone notice, or even care?

It was only in the latter part of the second millennium AD that mankind’s activities began to become increasingly apparent. Whilst the mentality behind the caveman’s bone and the nuclear weapon is much the same, the effects are not. Progressively the combinations of technological know how, coupled with the caveman’s fear of the unknown became ever more dangerous.

During the latter part of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century the process began to accelerate and at ever dizzying speed. Man learnt how to harness and control electricity. When did mankind first learn of the existence of electricity, arguably thousands of years before, but harnessing it’s power was relatively recent.

Electricity presented Man with endless possibilities, both good and bad. Once again mankind’s misguided sense of its own self importance overruled all and he became even more detached from nature. Whilst mankind’s priorities had barely evolved, electricity presented him with an Aladdin’s lamp of potential. This huge and additional potential was unfortunately, disastrous. Mankind’s ability to now bend both nature and planet earth to its will took a giant leap forward. From the nineteenth and up to the twenty first century mankind’s progress accelerated dramatically, but in what direction? The sad fact was little, or no consideration was given to the way we chose to live, some termed it a ‘Rat Race’. Electricity allowed us to materially evolve at dizzying speed, but towards what goal? More of whatever was attainable, best summed up the overriding mentality. Whilst materially mankind was now master of all he survived, the innate fear suffered by his distant ancestor, the caveman, still ruled supreme.

So how was this great discovery, electricity, utilised? Ever more efficient and bigger machines were built. Now the forests could be cut down with ever greater speed. Minerals could now be extracted not only from deep beneath the ground, but the oceans too.

It was only towards the end of the twentieth century that some, scant few, began to realise that planet earth was in serious decline. Eventually even the planets climate began to change. Ferocious storms of terrifying strength began to circle the Earth, causing shocking human suffering, loss of life and massive devastation. Even though it became increasingly clear that mankind’s activities lay behind the changing weather and climate, little was done. The pursuit of more, the economy, had become the only God of importance for many of the Worlds leaders.

This is book four in The Day the Lights went Out series. It is a series that revolves around a supernatural act of electricity ceasing to function and Worldwide. Even the dramatic loss of electricity changes little. The battle between those that want to retain their power and influence and those that know that change is imperative continues.

A young lady from New Mexico with near saintly powers described the new World order thus: - The plug has been pulled on mankind’s blind stupidity and will never be put back in.

Book four in this series, whilst focusing upon the trials and tribulations of the small group of power workers in Florida, is but a microcosm of events happening worldwide. While the vast majority that survived the effects of the worldwide loss of electricity strived to live more harmoniously, others did not.

The small minority that included Commander Peter Cartwright were interested in one thing and one thing only. For these people the new reality was simply another opportunity and their only concern? Quite simply they each in their own way were going to bend the circumstances to suit their best interests. Quite how they would achieve that goal varied from individual to individual, but they shared one thing in common. Quite simply, they would do whatever it took to climb to the top of whatever ant hill they found themselves within.

Chapter One

It was now three years since the lights went out on planet earth. The World’s population had thinned and dramatically. Many had died within weeks of the loss of power, while some had hung on, some for as long as a year and a few longer. The sudden loss of power effectively knocked civilisation back into the Middle Ages, or even further. The fact was, in the many areas of the first World, the very concept of self sufficiency had been abandoned years earlier. No in the modern World self sufficiency equaled a car, phone, internet connection and money. The loss of electricity effectively caused the illusion of civilisation to evaporate and virtually overnight.

By the year 2019 the Worlds population stood at only a fraction, fifteen percent, of its pre-2016 levels. Ironically and as an indictment of how humanity had evolved, pre- 2016, the World was rapidly healing. While all other life forms upon planet earth had lived in harmony with Mother Nature, one species had chosen not too, Mankind.

Who were the survivors of