Chapter One

My watch shows it is just past seven thirty in the morning. Yet the Sun isn't where it's supposed to be, not even close. An insurmountable impossibility stared me in the face as I stood on the deck of the observation platform. I can see across the vast blue waters of Lake Ford from here. The waters were crystal clear this morning. My family's cabin is only fifteen minutes from the nearest observation tower, but that wasn't the reason I went up the mountain. For my own sake, I had to confirm that I wasn't dreaming. Everything I grew up knowing is there... but it's different. I can make out the changes at the mountain's base and the shoreline farther out. I couldn't quite pinpoint what the difference was from here. I just knew it was wrong. In the distance, fog clouds slowly came like a white tsunami. The sky above only confirmed what I could see below. The rays of the early morning sun weren't coming from the east, but from the north. Something I never thought would happen. No... the world wasn't ending or some other unnatural catastrophe. The world as I knew it had changed. That wasn't the only mind debacle currently challenging my perception of the world. An even larger impossibility shone down from the clear sky on me is not a Sun, but suns.

The plural world of the Sun, meaning I'm seeing more than one Sun in the sky of a world I thought should only have one. One gigantic bright blue Sun dwarfing what should have been a yellow sun rose over the horizon to the northwest. Following the blue rays of that Sun is another slightly smaller yellow sun rising beside it like a twin. Its yellow shine didn't differ from the Sun I've known my entire life. 'Okay, so there are two suns to the northeast!' From the observation platform, I could see contradicting colors shining from the northwest. There, just over the massive crater mountain ring, I see the white and green rays of two more suns yet to pass over the ridge. It was hard for me to imagine the size of these two and the others. 'Four suns? Good god, this is... this, I can't explain?' At the realization of the reality in front of me, all my years of life experience screamed warning signals. I didn't need to pinch myself to know this wasn't a dream.

The warmth from the two suns from the north displaced that idea. 'How could this be happening? Could the death of my parents have caused me to have a mental break? No... this is happening. It isn't a dream.' My mind returned to the events leading up to the discovery. Just a week ago, I drove across multiple territories on my way back to Pineford for the first time. We recently lost our parents in a freak accident we never expected. To help with the final arrangements, my three younger sisters, triplets, and I drove across the country. They arrived only a few days before I learned of the accident. I remember Farrah tirelessly calling my holo-Phone to tell me the tragic news. I'd been on training drills, so I was the last to find out what happened to my parents.

Since graduating college, our lives have taken us in separate directions, and we have yet to be together in our hometown once. We all kept in touch, but we all had our own lives to live. 'I never thought this would be what brought us back together.' I hadn't seen them in ten years, but they didn't have to come back every Christmas to Pineford. Instead, my parents would gather at one of my siblings' homes every holiday season. My path in life usually had me knee-deep in dirt and grime somewhere in a conflict zone. But... It almost felt like a joke. The moment I return, the world turns upside down. A bark from the Jeep below reminded me there was no time to waste. As soon as I got back to the Jeep, I got in. As I was leaving Pineforte Crater Valley, I took one last look beyond its crater mountain ring. The binoculars on the deck were more than enough to show me what lay beyond, and it sent chills down my spine.

The drive back to the cabin only took fifteen minutes, but even that felt like I was running out of time. As I sped down the long dirt road to my parent's cabin, I didn't slow down. As I drew up beside my motorhome, I slammed on the brakes. I left my motorhome parked in the same spot around midnight two nights ago. The girls and their boyfriends arrived three days ago. After my arrival, we had a brief reunion, and they said goodnight. The funeral the next day went as expected. I saw a lot of familiar faces from my childhood and many faces I did not know. The day flew by so quickly that I could barely remember it. It took us all until around 1 am to get to bedtime because family members stayed late at the cabin. Being an early riser, I usually awoke around six in the morning, but the day of the funeral was exhausting. It had been a long time since I had been to Pineford, and my sisters had only been there once. The reason they returned is still a mystery to me, but there must be something important about it. The cabin sat atop a large shield mountain with many rolling peaks. On the mountain's north side, I see a medium-sized town of twenty thousand people below.

Only this morning, something strange had changed. There the town of Pineford lay, as expected. But, even though everything looks the same in the cozy township, there is something different. The more I tried to think of the differences, the worse my head hurt. Everything is where it should be, right down to the sandy shores of Lake Ford. But... the far shoreline felt more distant. The central part of the city below almost felt bigger. Over the years, the town grew to encompass the entire mountain's base because of its exotic location. Then, with the pair of rising binary stars, the city's lights slowly began to dim. Gradually, the four suns rose higher, their rays of light reaching the town. Then the images of that barren landscape came back to my mind. A sea of white dead trees just outside the mountain crater ridge as far as the eyes can see. Mount Pineford is several thousand feet higher than the mountain crater ring, but I wish I hadn't seen what I'd seen. From the observation platform, one can see dozens of miles with clear skies on sunny days.

Well... thanks to the four suns, I can see dozens of miles this morning, as clouds are absent. The land beyond the walls of the crater ridge mountain is a place of the dead. The thought of the foreboding fog rolling in the distance felt ominous. Thousands of years of baking under quadruple suns dried the barren wastelands in all directions. 'What the hell is going on?' Whether it's the navy seal in me kicking in or a more primal sense. There was no question... this place, this hellscape, meant danger.

'I will take every avenue to protect my sisters.' Two extensive tours in the military and traveling around to the mixed martial arts circuit gave me the self-defense skills I would need. Working my way up to a foreman at a small construction company and my DIY attitude gave me the tools to survive. The unfathomable reality of the circumstance of the reason some unknowable force brought us here wasn't lost on me. I understood just how serious these facts were. I wasted no time making my way back inside the cabin. Everyone else hadn't awakened yet. My mind runs a million scenarios in my head, assessing the situation and every plausible scenario. By any measure, I was neither stupid nor a fool. By any measure, I was neither stupid nor a fool. No, my eyes aren't deceiving me, and I did what Dad would do.

I sprang into action, locking every nook and cranny inside the three-story cabin tighter than a prison. With the help of the cabin's security station, I can place all the cabin's security shutters in test mode. As a result, every window with security shutters would close rapidly within seconds, securing themselves without causing an alarm. Next, I put all the entry points to the sleeping quarters and the other areas in the same state, but left the internal doors wide open. I didn't want to lock my sisters and boyfriends into their rooms. If a perimeter alarm goes off or someone tries to force an entry into any of the buildings, the doors will only close. My sisters would know the code to open any door in case of a lockdown. Then I went about checking every inch of the inner and outer cabin.

Next, I pulled the motorhome into one of the four enormous barns next to the cabin. In addition to several buildings and barns, our property is enormous. Behind the massive lodge-type house stood another mammoth barn nearly as big as the residence. Locking everything up took almost an hour. It was important to me to notice every detail, including the basement entrances. The five barns, two stables, and four-grain silos are all connected to the cabin, both above and below ground. Our dad was a man of convenience and practicality. He spent his life building this property with his bare hands, just as he did with his business. When it came to this place, the towering, brawny man spared no expense. It's from him that I got my hardened work ethic. The barns, horse stables, and grain mills are all connected to the cabin.

I armed myself with a forty-five-caliber pistol in a hip holster and my three-fifty-seven in an underarm holster. I loaded my favorite rifle, a compact M416 carbine, and slung it over my shoulder. My last defensive item is a five-shot Remington shotgun. The clean-cut military-style mohawk is what I feel when I brush my hand. His signature pair was a pair of gold-rim glasses on my dad's desk. I put them on, looking into the mirror. My dark brown skin and blue eyes were a rarity. I had slightly slanted eyebrows over oval almond-shaped eyes. My most noticeable features were my long, prominent triangular nose that gave me a no-nonsense look and thin lips. People often assume I'm too serious because of that. The shape of my angular square face and angler high cheekbones only added to my menacing appearance. I even sported my dad's or stepdads styled, clean-cut beard, which added to my intimidating allure.

I was born only a few months before my biological parents died. My stepdad and mother were their best friends, and we were the only survivors of a freak storm while we were at sea. Of the five hundred passengers onboard the cruise ship, only three lived. My biological parents gave their lives to save me then. I had my father's towering figure and athletic, slender physique. I stood almost seven feet, and only my stepdad matched my height. They were two peas in the same pod. During my martial arts days, my fellow seal team members called me the 'beast of a brute'—a giant among men but nimble as any ninja. I keep in shape regularly, not for anything particular other than the force of habit, but that demands an insurmountable appetite. Fortunately for me, I got my mother's looks, her eyes, and her uncanny ability to stay petite no matter what she ate. Everything else I got from my adopted parents. As a result, it took a very long time for them to have kids of their own, never forgetting that terrifying experience. So, my sisters were barely in their twenties but were practically geniuses, graduating high school at thirteen. I feel my gut screaming at me that we are in danger. As I watched the town below, the only thing that bothered me was the absolute silence. In the valley below the mountain sat a town full of twenty thousand and no sirens, not to mention the hundreds or thousands around the outskirts. Not a single sound came from anywhere.

I went up to the attic to test the radio, which is basically the fourth floor of the house. Several of the town's local radio stations are in emergency mode, and no one is on the air. I need to get down there and do a preliminary check. My only goal was to keep my sisters safe, even though it was a perilous and almost illogical idea considering the situation. These young boyfriends of theirs don't strike me as intelligent. My mind went to the only other early bird in my family. Farrah Hawthorne. The others probably will be up for a few hours. Someone needs to know what's going on. I'll write everything I know so far on a yellow notepad. 'This would have to do.' All my sisters are brainy, but Farrah took the cake. She even wore thick glasses like me. As a child, I wasn't much of a book reader, but I read everything I could get my hands on to impress my adoptive parents.

My dad was a military man and an engineer. In contrast, my mother was a successful brain surgeon working in a big city about two hours away from town. Like my real father, they never pressured me to do anything I didn't want to do. I know it made both of them proud. They never once failed to tell me how amazing my birth parents were. I was proud to be their son, but too much of my father was in me. It's not like I didn't want the average life others had. My heritage makes me a lone wolf; someone like that can either end up on the wrong side of the law or focus that energy on something selfless. For me, that meant joining the military right out of high school.

As I always did on missions, I snuck into Farrah's room without making a sound. She's fast asleep with her boyfriend Todd in the next bed. She has bright, bleached blonde hair, like my biological mother and stepmother. I used to hear stories of them being twins if they wanted to be. Her face is as calm as ever, just like she always was. No doubt she will know what to do. I put the note on her nightstand with a short-range radio. Having tested it extensively, I knew it worked. Her crystal green eyes beckoned to me, but I couldn't waste more time if something terrible had happened. My sister's safety came first.

I began by inspecting every lock, door, window, and surveillance system to ensure they were functioning in good condition. My next step was to ensure our childhood home was tightly secured and safe by checking the security system. Except for explosives, there is no way to get into this house. I gave her one last look before I carefully made my way out of her room, closing the door quietly behind me. Once back downstairs, I began preparing to head out.

"Remember, this is just a quick recon," I whispered to myself.

In my motorhome, I had drones, and my dad had some in the cabin's basement. The drones will allow me to keep an eye on the property even though I am away, but I do not feel the need to bring along a control holo-tablet as I am not planning to use it. Those were an option if anything looked out of place before I got to town. The town is thirty minutes away by car or one hour by foot down the mountain's winding roads.

Of course, I could take one of our horses, but not this time. So instead, I took one of the many jeeps—a surplus Humvee from the nineties in excellent condition. As I said before, my dad was a very convenient man. Practical and meticulous, this cabin and property were self-sufficient, with surveillance everywhere on the property. Sam jumped into the passenger seat. I hadn't seen him since we got here last night. The sheriff has been taking care of things since our parents died. Sam is a mix between a German Shepard and a gray-wolf breed, a descendant of my pup with the same name. He wouldn't let me go anywhere without him now that dad was gone. Just over two years old, dad brought her over every time he visited. I must remind him of his old master. I gave her a long rubdown and pulled the Jeep out.