The Ascent A Thriller

by Jeff Long

Super hurricanes. Ozone holes. Acid rain. Invasive species. Fallout from nuclear wars overseas. As these and other calamities converge—as hell boils up—America goes down into the earth’s quiet interior. Anyone with common sense has already joined the exodus into the subterranean earth. Just before the hatches close for good, twelve adventurous people set off from New York City on “The Swan Song Express,” an “ultimate road trip” through the mostly empty remains. Jenny is our guide. An embittered ex-primatologist (her great apes have been wiped out by man), she has joined the group in order to free zoo animals along the way. But she is also hoping to catch some familiar glimpse that might lead her to a home she can’t remember. A dozen assorted characters travel with her through the still tidy ruins of America. What begins as a lark turns into a hunt, first for monsters no one believes in, then for the devil, rumored to be captured and in chains. City by city, the journey begins to devour them. By the end, human survival depends on Jenny’s race to defeat an angel lost in time.