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going to die. It doesn't matter how good you've been or how bad; when the energy waves strike we're all going to be burning up together!'

The old man shook his head sadly and, as I stared at him and his helpers, I could not help wondering for an instant if they were right. I'd never really been a believer but there had always been nagging doubts in my mind because, although the existence of a god had never been proved to me, it had never been disproved either. Regardless, it was far too late to worry now. Even if what the man said was true, there would be very few people in the world who had not committed sins of an equal magnitude to my own. If he did survive with his army of believers, they'd have plenty of space in which to spread the word. Unfortunately, there would not be many people left to spread the word to.

'Do you really expect me to believe what you're saying?' I continued. 'You're feeling the heat as much as I am. If I die, you die too - there's nothing you can do about it.'

'There is - you can repent my child!' he yelled angrily. 'Offer your words of regret to the Lord and he will listen. It's not too late. Leave the road and join us here while we wait for release. Our Lord will forgive you, no matter what you may have done in the past.'

As he spoke, a solitary, theatrical tear trickled down his tanned and wrinkled face and it was that single, undeniably false action that urged me to leave. I pushed the cycle off along the road and, fearing that the religious fanatics might become violent, I pedalled quickly away from the field and towards the village. For the briefest of moments, I paused to look back over my shoulder and watched as the man was helped back through the field to return to the rest of his followers. Good luck to them, I thought, if they're right then they deserve to live. I had a gut feeling though, that when the time came, the people in the field would be burning and screaming along with everybody else.

The road to the village was straight and uninteresting. With a new-found energy and determination, I pushed myself to reach the little collection of quaint, rustic buildings as quickly as I could. Ahead of me, the sun had begun its rapid descent through the evening sky and was quickly disappearing towards the horizon.

The brilliant orange globe hanging in the sky was an inspiring sight. Below it, the world was bathed in a deep orange glow and the sky around was turned a variety of shades of purples, reds and yellows. As the powerful, incandescent disc began to slip below the skyline and out of sight, I could not help wondering if I would ever see it rise again.

It was difficult for me to try and comprehend the fact that it was the sun, our single most important source of energy and power, that was proving to be our planet's ultimate downfall. Everything that we needed to survive came initially from the sun and it was hard to accept that the star which had been so vital and important for millions of years could betray us so readily, so bitterly and so unexpectedly.

I pedalled on towards the village and, beyond the tightly packed collection of buildings, I could see all the way to the coast which was a mile or so further along the road. The water looked deceptively still and, as the sun appeared to sink into the calm ocean, I hoped that its disappearance would bring some relief to the world and dissipate some of its power. I suddenly thought back to my childhood days spent on the beach with my family and I wished with all my heart that I could be back there again, that I could once again be innocent, secure and blissfully unaware of the planet's devastation and anguish.

I didn't want to die.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I cycled nervously into the village, my heart beating quickly through a combination of the overpowering heat, the effort of the final stage of the journey and my excitement at the prospect of finally being with Samantha again. Finding the village had been nowhere near as difficult as I had originally expected it to have been - now I just hoped that the directions Sam had given me to her grandmother's