The Milestone Protocol by Ernest Dempsey (best books to read in your 20s txt) 📕

revved the engine to life as a huge fluorescent light fixture fell to the ground and crashed on the asphalt just a few yards ahead of them. Pieces of rock and debris smashed all around the truck.

Sean heard someone in the back pound on the wall. He took the signal, shifted into gear, and put the pedal to the floor.

The lumbering truck turned hard, probably sending everyone in the back tumbling to one side. The right-hand fender grazed part of the rock wall under the catwalk, but only did cosmetic damage. Sean spun the big wheel back around and straightened course as he accelerated toward the exit.

Adriana held on to the handlebar over the window while bracing herself with her left hand. “Easy, Junior,” she said, making a reference to former NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.

He didn’t laugh at the joke. Something else was on his mind, and he kept his eyes locked on the road ahead.

“I just hope they opened that steel door,” he said.

“Did they close it?” Concern spread across her face.

“Probably. I doubt Magnus would have initiated the sequence without doing that.”

Adriana took a deep breath. “Yeah. I guess you’re right.”

The truck rumbled past hundreds of fleeing soldiers. Most were running down the catwalks toward the exit. Some sped ahead in SUVs. Many ran on the asphalt.

The engine groaned as it reached seventy, then eighty kilometers per hour. Sean looked down at the speedometer and rolled his eyes. “Wish I knew how fast we are going. Stupid metric.”

Adriana glanced at him uneasily. “Is that a joke? You know—”

“I know. America and like two small countries are the only ones that use imperial. And metric is superior blah blah blah. I just want miles per hour.”

She laughed uneasily. The truck leaned hard to the left as Sean steered it around the long curve to the right. One of the SUVs in front of him had slowed down due to a line waiting to get out. Sean cut the wheel to the right and felt the truck’s weight tipping, but he corrected and scraped by three of the slower vehicles, knocking off side mirrors in the process.

The massive steel door came into view as they exited the apex of the turn and entered the straightaway.

A giant piece of rock broke free from the ceiling and fell onto an SUV in the right-hand lane, crushing everyone inside a second before the cargo truck sped by.

“Whoa,” Sean said, leaning forward and looking up through the windshield. “That was unlucky—for them.”

Up ahead, the steel door was gradually opening, and people were running over each other to get out. The line of SUVS was at a standstill.

Another chunk of rock collapsed from the ceiling, this time landing on the catwalk to the left and crushing several of the order’s soldiers. The catwalk shook loose from its supports and tumbled down the side of the rock wall, killing more of those on that section as it collapsed.

“How are we going to get through?” Adriana asked. “It’s opening too slowly.”

Sean didn’t answer as he pushed harder on the gas pedal.

She gripped the handle tighter.

The cargo truck barreled forward. The gap between the steel frame and the door grew wider with every second, but it was going to be close.

With a hundred yards to go, it was still only wide enough for a single SUV to get through at a time.

The truck closed the distance in seconds.

SUVs sped through the opening that continued to widen, but still not wide enough for two at a time to get through.

Sean took a deep breath when they were thirty yards from the opening. “Hold on,” he ordered.

“Way ahead of you, my love.”

“This is going to be close.”

At the last second, Sean cut the wheel hard to the right just before the truck rammed into the rock wall and dozens of people. The right side of the van smashed into the first SUV in line, driving the smaller truck into the steel wall with jarring force. Sean deftly guided the cargo truck through the narrow opening, shattering both side mirrors against the door and its frame.

The loud bang of the windows startled him and his wife, but the truck burst through and into the open, dark Arctic night.

The earth shook beneath them as he eased on the throttle and continued down the road.

“Look,” Adriana said, pointing up into the sky.

“I see it.”

In the sky above, bright red beams shot through the aurora borealis, piercing the rippling green waves and spreading throughout the darkness.

“Did we stop it or not?” Sean wondered out loud.

“I don’t know.”

Then the earth shuddered, and a massive explosion ripped through the mountain, sending debris trails hundreds of feet into the air as though an ancient Arctic volcano had suddenly erupted to life.

Kevin struggled to his feet. The ground shifted beneath him, and a terrible, loud humming sound filled his ears. Disoriented, he braced himself on a nearby ramp.

Then he remembered where he was. With terror in his eyes, he looked up the ramp at Magnus. The Swede was propped up on the altar containing the cube, with one arm slung over it. Blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth. Much more oozed through his clothes.

A bright red beam shone through the shaft overhead where the golden metal plate had broken away.

“What happened?” Kevin shouted. “What’s going on?”

Magnus wheezed and coughed, but he managed a chuckle.

“Answer me, Magnus!” Kevin yelled in a panic. He turned and saw the exit was blocked with debris and rubble. “How do we get out of here?”

“We don’t,” Magnus replied. “Humanity is lost.”

“What? No. There has to be another way out of here. Something! Anything!”

“No,” Magnus said. “The human race is finished. We have failed.”

No sooner had the words escaped his lips than a bright white light flashed through the chamber, a second before the Quantium cube exploded and obliterated everything.

51

Oslo

A television hanging in the corner of the pub displayed the headline: “Mysterious Red Lights Shock World