Tales of the Change Chapter 1

ProLog

When the change came it wasn’t with a bang or a whimper, but with the dying gasp of a confused scientist wondering where he miscalculated.

The reporter was bored, she had been waiting for three hours for these eggheads to get ready for the demonstration of their new energy source. Sure it would be quite a scoop, not only would she be on the scene with her camera crew when the zero point fusion reactor came online, but she had an exclusive interview with Argent Fox: the genius who had invented it.
“So tell me, how does the Fox reactor work?”
Doctor Fox looked up from his instruments, “Please Ms. Becker, call it the Z.P.F.R Reactor. I merely headed the team who, let us say, put two and two together and discovered it equaled four.”
“Whatever you want to call it. How does it work? I thought it was impossible to get energy out of nothing.”

Doctor Fox flashed her his brightest grin, “ I assure you it is impossible. However that isn’t exactly how this reactor works. We have known for several years now that at the sub atomic level there is really no such thing as a vacuum. What appears to be empty space may not have any matter, but it is full of potential energy, all we have to do is tap into that potential. Of course there isn’t much energy accessible in say, a square inch of vacuum without expending a large amount of energy in order to expand the conversion into alternate dimensions.
That’s where the reactor part of the device comes in. A Cold Fusion reactor that is.
This device uses the small amount of energy extracted from a vacuum to run a cold fusion reaction to produce more energy, which is used to expand the vacuum reaction into more dimensions thereby increasing the energy output. This cycle becomes an energy loop, allowing us to liberate enormous amounts of energy while consuming very minute amounts of fuel.”
A man, one of several lab assistants, approached.
“Doctor Fox, the reactor is ready to be brought online.”
“If you will excuse me Ms. Becker, it is the moment of truth”.
The woman turned away and signaled the cameraman to start broadcasting.
“This is Amy Becker reporting from the laboratory of Dr. Jonathon Fox, inventor of the Zero Point Fusion Reactor” she said. “Doctor Fox is now bringing this extraordinary device online for the first time.”
“How long will it take to build up a usable amount of energy Dr. Fox?”’
“By our estimates it will probably take about 5 hours, but after that the available power should increase exponentially. In three days it should be able to power a large city. We plan on running it at that level permanently. Fifty Z.P.F.R.s should be enough to provide power for most of the U.S., saving billions of dollars in energy cost.”
One of the assistants looked up from his monitor.
“Doctor Fox, could you please take a look at these readings? The output is increasing much faster than we expected.”
The doctor’s face convulsed in horror.
No! It can’t be freeing that much energy!!………..

An observer who was stationed on the International Space Station remarked on what he saw from orbit that day.
“The explosion in Berkley that day was plainly visible as a bright flash that ran across the world following ley lines like fire would follow a trail of gasoline.
Then the lights of several cities disappeared, snuffed out as surely as a wind would snuff out a candle.”

Chapter 1

Chapter 1
Like most Americans that night I was listening to the broadcast from the Berkley Labs that fateful night.
Hell most of the world was.
The Energy crisis had gone critical after the U.S. started Pre-Emptive strikes against the Moslem Emirates.
Sure you can bomb them into the sand, but you can’t keep them from setting off lots of dirty bombs upwind from an oil well.. Sometimes right on top of an oil well.
America won the battles, but essentially lost the war.
The mid-eastern oil was cut off.
The Zero Point Fusion Reactor seemed to be the answer to everyone’s prayers. Little did we know that the process would pierce the barriers between the dimensions like a needle piercing a balloon.
The blast leveled the Berkley campus, turned most of the west cost into “magic zone”, a place where the Veil was ruptured to the point that different laws of reality exist, in fact you might even say that it appears to be in some type of flux.
The energy from this ran down the Lay Lines and created similar places around the world.
Now there are things in our world, things out of legends, fairie tales, and nightmares.

Unlike most Americans I was not only listening to the broadcast, but I was just cresting Monarch Pass in the Rocky Mountains that night. These days the area is known as Troll Peaks, but remember this was the night of the Change.
But like most Americans I heard the professors scream of horror as the dimensional barriers burst. But then I felt something Change. It was strange, my vision seemed to blur in a strange way that reminds me of watching one of those old 3d movies without the colored glasses, the colors seemed to blur and separate.
Let me tell you it was quite a shock; I almost lost control of my car even though it lasted less than a second.
I had just found a place to pull over when there was a second wave of energy, and a massive earthquake hit. When it was all said and done everything around me had changed, the road had disappeared; leaving my car and me deep inside the alpine forest that had once been a highway.
The cars radio had gone dead, as had the car it’s self.
In a panic I tried to start the car, but nothing happened, like the battery had been drained of all power.
As I looked around me in confusion and horror, somehow I knew that the world would never be the same.
I didn’t know what to do, so I locked all the doors and tried to get some sleep.
Like I said, I TRIED to sleep, but I couldn’t.
Every time I started to drift off into blessed oblivion I would hear strange noises.
Now I grew up in the mountains, and I am used to the usual noises of owls, wolfs, and coyotes, but these sounds were different.
I never was one to carry firearms, but since I performed Live Steel sword work at renaissance fairs I did have my Rapier and Dagger on hand.
I pulled my weapons from their scabbards and put the sword in the floorboard, keeping my dagger in hand.
Feeling a bit more secure with steel in my hand I finally managed to drop off to sleep.
When I awoke the next morning the first thing I did was take a good look around the area to see if I had somehow driven off the road and lost my bearings, but no such luck.
My next item of business was breakfast, so I belted on my Rapier and Dagger and went looking for firewood.
As I wandered through the woods looking for deadwood I heard strange grunting noises.
Being curious to a fault (my mom swore it would be the death of me someday) I just had to take a gander and see what could be making such noises.
As I drew closed to the sounds they started to sound less like grunts and more like some type of speech, but no sound like that had ever issued from a human throat.
As I peeked through the bushes I saw something that made my blood curdle with fear.
The three beast looked like some perverted caricature of a man, but they were at least eight feet tall, and broad as a car. Their faces were straight out of an old horror novel with thick rubbery lips, a huge misshapen nose, and seemingly small piggish eyes.
As I watched from my hiding place two of them looked up and sniffed the air. Then one of them moved off into the forest opposite of my position.
I had just heard a sound just off to my left when I realized with horror that I was upwind from these huge monsters. As I turned around to flee one of them erupted from the forest and ran at me.
In that moment in pure blind panic I drew my rapier and dagger and swung wildly.
Luckily my first swing connected and the beast screamed like a panther, pulling back like I had hit him with a red-hot poker.
Encouraged, I raised the tip of my rapier and cut him right above his eyes hoping to blind the beast so that I could disengage and run away.
Alas, that was not to be. As I cut the monstrosity his fellows came crashing through the bushes. I spun around to face them, cutting and thrusting a quickly as I could with my rapier.
I had just managed to take two of the great beast down when the third connected with a blow from behind that nearly laid me out.
I stumbled and turned to face my adversary and as I did so first one arrow seemed to sprout from his chest, then another.
As I turned to see who my benefactor was the brute passed me by and lunged at the man.
I say man, but in truth he was like no one I had ever seen before. His hair was silver, not the silver of old age, but the silver of mercury. His eyes were bright green, and silted like a cats. His skin was the color of burnished copper.
As I looked on the creature seized the man and tore him limb from limb.
The sight of this was all my mind could take.
As my mind shattered I screamed and ran into the forest.