BOOK EXCERPT: SEVENTH DIMENSION – THE PRESCIENCE: A Young Adult Fantasy, Chapter 2: “Sneak Peak”

SOON NUMBNESS CREPT up my arms. Even though Shira was light, I wasn’t used to lugging around a small child.

Daniel offered to carry her, but she clung to me.

We walked past shards of glass and building fragments that littered the ground. The inferno had grown. Dead people covered the ground like ghosts. I couldn’t keep up with Daniel. “How much further?”

He adjusted our backpacks he’d slung over his shoulders. “Not far.”

I sighed.

The missiles had stopped, but the suffocating smoke burned my eyes. Sheets of flame shot up everywhere. Was there any place that was safe?

Daniel pulled out his iPhone. “Let me see if I can reach my brother.”

I started to call my mother, but my cell hadn’t worked since I left America a few weeks earlier. How long would the EMP attack in the United States keep communications down in the West?

I leaned against a stone pillar beside the road littered with debris and switched Shira to my other side. Jumping from one worrisome thought to another, I couldn’t focus. Even though I knew time was an illusion, how long had we really been gone? Could it be more than a few weeks?

Daniel interrupted my musings. “I can’t call or text.”

“Did the camera work?”

“Yes, I have the photo of her parents. Hopefully that will help us to locate relatives.”

I sat on a nearby bench with Shira. When had I last slept?

I ran my fingers through the child’s curly, brown hair. Soot covered her angel-like face. The only sign of the conflagration she had endured was the singed edge of her light-colored jumper.

“How old do you think she is?” Daniel asked.

The little girl held up three fingers.

Daniel cocked his head. “I spoke in English. She understands English.”

“Don’t Israelis understand English?”

Daniel eyed her curiously. “Not that young. Kids learn English in elementary school. Her parents might be American or British.”

“She understands Hebrew also,” I added.

“God must have sent us—or you to rescue her. What else did the dog tell you?”

Shira had closed her eyes, but I knew she wasn’t asleep. “Shhh. I’ll tell you later. Let’s get to Jacob’s first.”

As Daniel led us through Jerusalem, I tried to shield my eyes. Corpses littered the city. Those few who were alive walked aimlessly in circles. Frozen cars sat motionless on the roads, now probably driven by dead people. I had never seen such carnage. How long would it take Israel to recover?

Why God? I remembered what Jesus said when he lamented over Zion. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”

The almost full moon rose higher into the sky. As we approached the Old City, intermittent flames offered a brief reprieve from the darkness. The ancient bulwark was a stark reminder Jerusalem would survive because God willed it.

My excitement at making wedding plans evaporated as I thought about what lay ahead. I wanted to run, but I was too tired. Shira must have fallen asleep in my arms because she was like dead weight.

“Can you carry her?” I managed to hand her to Daniel without waking her. How could I broach with Daniel what the dog said?

I moved in closer. “I didn’t want to say this when Shira was awake, but the dog told me she has no other family.”

Daniel slowed down. “She must have somebody. We could have a DNA test done.”

I hadn’t thought of that. “Yes, we could. I’m telling you what the dog said. He also said God had chosen us to take care of her. For how long, I don’t know.”

“She’s so young.”

I could sense his concern—how could we provide for the needs of a three-year-old? We had just turned eighteen and weren’t yet married. What did we know about parenting a child barely out of diapers?

More smoke blew in my face, and another round of sirens pierced the silence. I wanted to sleep and wake up to a different reality. 

“Do you remember how to get to the underground bunker?”

“Yes, but how will we get inside at this time of night? That’s what I’m worried about.”

We passed through the Old City Jaffa Gate and the Muslim and Armenian quarters. Stores had closed hours earlier. I followed Daniel down several flights of stairs.

Fortunately, the Old City had been mostly spared during this attack although much cleanup remained. Endless stairs and dark corridors brought us to the bunker door. No one would imagine that behind the steel door was a secret command center and star gate to the seventh dimension.

Two watchmen stood at attention. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, but at least somebody was here. Shira woke up and Daniel passed her to me.

The guards, dressed in typical Israeli fatigues, held menacing guns and blocked us from entering. Daniel spoke in Hebrew. “I’m looking for my brother, Jacob Sperling.”

*~*~*~*

BOOK EXCERPT: SEVENTH DIMENSION – THE PRESCIENCE: A Young Adult Fantasy, Chapter 1: “Sneak Peek.”

A LOUD EXPLOSION shook the ground as dust blew in my face.

“Run!” Daniel shouted.

Blinding light lit up the night sky. If only these were celebratory fireworks, but they weren’t.

I stared. My feet felt as if they were entombed in concrete. This couldn’t be happening—not now.

Daniel pulled on my hand. Seconds ticked by as I imagined my body being blown to bits. Sirens faded in and out. Swishing knives cut through the air, followed by rumbles. Each one got closer. Multiple alarms sounded as transformers blew across the city. I felt something burning and slapped my arm.

“Ashes!” Daniel exclaimed. “Hurry.”

I wiped off the soot. How could this be? My ears rang from the dinning across the deadly landscape. Were those people I saw in the distance? They looked like zombies.

I couldn’t believe this was happening. One minute we were celebrating our first kiss, and the next we were running for our lives. I brushed back my long dark brown hair with my fingers. Another missile whizzed by.

Daniel nudged me as grass sizzled underneath our feet. Minutes later, he found an enclosure that reminded me of a bus stop.

I struggled to catch my breath. “We’re going to die.”

Daniel’s brown eyes reassured me. “We’re in a bomb shelter.”

For the uninitiated like me, I never dreamed I would need one. We didn’t have such things in America.

“You’re shaking,” Daniel said. He wrapped his arms around me. I didn’t want to think I’d taken my last breath.

A thousand thoughts supplanted that one. Was my mother still alive? 

When I returned from time traveling to the first century as a young teenager, I never told her where I had been. She would have taken me to that psychologist who wrote that stupid report. The wretched principal would have expelled me.

Why couldn’t this attack have waited a few more days? Jesus told us to marry, but we had just returned to Jerusalem.

Daniel whispered in my ear, “I love you, Shale.”

I broke into sobs.

A dog barked.

I touched Daniel’s shoulder. “Did you hear it?”

Unperturbed by my unusual gift—after all he had his own—Daniel’s eyes met mine. “What did he say?”

Now the sirens drowned him out. I stepped toward the shelter entrance, but Daniel blocked me.

“I’m not going to let you rescue a dog.”

“The dog needs help for an injured child.”

Daniel stared. “No, can’t be.”

“We must go.”

“You stay here and let me check.”

“You don’t understand dog talk. I must go.”

Daniel grimaced. “Let’s hope he keeps barking. Watch your step. There could be unexploded bombs.”

The only light came from fires burning in the distance. Shadowy embers floated from the sky.

The dog barked again.

“What’s he saying?”

I translated. “Hurry.”

Straight ahead, a shadowy four-legged figure appeared that reminded me of my friend, Much-Afraid, who’d guided me back in time. She was now safely at home with my mother. The brown furry dog that resembled a border collie wagged his tail.

Another bomb screeched by. The boom nearly broke my eardrums.

The dog took a few steps back and lowered his head.

Then I saw two bodies. A small child was stroking a young woman with mangled hair. I stumbled over bloodied shoes.

“Mommy.”

I knelt beside the child. “Thank God, she’s alive.”

“Her mother and father aren’t,” the dog said. “She has no one. God sent me to find a rescuer.”

My vocal cords went dry as numbness filled my throat.

“I must go rescue others. Take care of Shira.”

“Wait.” I reached over and touched the dog’s head, focusing on his crusty eyes. “What do you mean?”

“You are the ones God called.”

“I understand animal speak, but I don’t know this poor child. What was her name again?”

“Shira,” the dog replied.

I tried to pick the child up, but she clung to her dead mother.

“Others need my help,” the dog said. Then he took off, disappearing into the darkness.

“We need to find her relatives,” Daniel said. He walked around to the other side and searched the pockets of her father. I looked for a cell phone.

Daniel shook his head. “Nothing,”

“Her name is Shira,” I whispered.

I stroked the child’s back and spoke in Hebrew. “Sweetie, come with me. Your mother and father are sleeping.”

The child turned and focused her eyes on me. After a brief hesitation, she lifted her arms. She was small and light—and couldn’t be more than three.

“Let’s get out of here,” Daniel said.

“Where should we go?”

“Jacob’s. He can help us find her relatives.”

When should I tell Daniel she had no relatives?

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