A Time of Great Distress (ePub)

Ben and Jake, a pair of brilliant, quirky, college students buy an old analog TV at a garage sale, and as it turns on they see a fleeting glimpse of three reptilian creatures standing next to the presidential candidate at a news briefing. Once Ben and Jake adapt their old TV to pick up the reptilians clearly, they begin posting videos to their new vlog to warn the world of a reptilian takeover. As the vlog grows in popularity, the reptilians begin a smear campaign to discredit the boys forcing them to flee Los Angeles and move to San Francisco.
As soon as the new president is inaugurated, he begins his program to divide the nation into warring factions,. A vignette of the effect of one of his acts on an Iraqi woman dramatizes the outcome on a personal level. This juxtaposition of human tragedy against political theater becomes a recurring theme in the novel. While President Trope fumes over crowd size, a heat wave stifles California, and a brief sketch shows the effect of the desert heat on an illegal immigrant child separated from his mother during a border crossing. The horrific experience of Hurricane Maria, related from the viewpoint of the mayor in San Juan, Puerto Rico is played against the subsequent paper towel-throwing visit by the president two weeks later. During these incidents, the reptilians' influence over presidential powers and policies grows, as they replace more and more of his cabinet and advisors.
Other dark forces taking over the world creep into evidence during the bump stock massacre in Las Vegas, told from the POV of the mass murderer. Shortly thereafter the Tubbs fire destroys Ben and Jake's mobile home, forcing their move to Seattle. The boys are making a lot of money as their vlog exposing the reptilians gains sponsors, but its success draws increasing attention and concern from the reptilians as well. Jake's mother moves to Seattle to be with her son after being threatened, but accidentally gives their secret location away when she purchases something with a credit card. They spot the pursuing aliens just in time and escape by taking the ferry to British Columbia.
Book Two places increasing emphasis on worldwide natural disasters, while still following the reptilian-provoked intrigues in the White House and the attempts of Ben and Jake to warn the world what's going on. California wildfires destroy the town of Paradise, a tornado rips two children from their father's arms in the Midwest, and a locust plague hits Eritrea. These incidents, coupled with the reptilian takeover, cause the boys to finally accept what Jake's mother insists, that the reptilians are actually demons, and the world is in the end times.
More apocalyptic moments seal this: The Australian bushfires, which seem to have a sentient mind behind them, begin tearing across the country at about the same time the new pandemic begins. A market worker in Wuhan dies from the virus, and a nurse in an NYC hospital is overwhelmed by the sick and dying, while Trope, thinking he has godlike powers, questions why the virus doesn't just disappear at his command. Meanwhile, a Rohingya refugee is caught by Typhoon Amphan, and a black man is murdered under the knee of a white policeman in sight of the entire world, causing global riots of hatred and division. Finally the president suffers a stroke and is replaced by a reptilian. Ben and Jake head to Rome in an attempt to get an audience with the Pope, but they must flee to Northern Italy when the pandemic breaks out in Rome. They later return to Rome, but are discovered by reptilians in the Vatican, and escape to Jerusalem where they begin posting their final salvo of videos and messages, warning the world about the demons and reciting Biblical prophecies about the End of Days.