Back Door to Eden by Robert L Healy

Jean Wyatt’s children, Sarah and Tommy, are missing from their home in the remote mountains of West Virginia. The FBI and local sheriff believe they’ve been kidnapped but have yet to come up with any viable leads. They view Jean’s ex-husband Tom Parker with suspicion, but he is as distraught and racked with grief as Jean. What Jean and Tom don’t know is that something far more sinister than kidnapping is at play, and a force of fathomless evil is behind it. No human knows that in ancient time, God moved the Garden of Eden to a remote mountainous location we know today as West Virginia. God moved the Garden to keep the Tree of Life, the most valued object in the entire cosmos, from humanity. This holy tree is at the center of the Garden. If sinful man should eat the fruit of this tree, he would live forever, eternally separated from God with no chance of redemption. It is for this reason that God banished Adam and Eve from the garden. Unlike humanity, Satan has found the Garden. He knows if he can introduce humans back into the garden and tempt them to eat of the Tree of Life, they and their descendants will become immortal. The promise of eternal life through God’s Son will lose its appeal, for mankind will already be immortal. The devil knows this is his last chance to defeat God’s plan for the redemption of all humanity. Satan’s early efforts meet with disaster at the hands of the fearsome creatures God placed in the Garden to guard the way to the Tree of Life. During the Civil War Satan, in the person of a Captain Lamar P. Chambers tries to force his way to the tree with a Company of heavily armed soldiers. They too are defeated. Only one man survives the encounter with the creatures and the flaming sword. By 2010 Satan has changed his tactics and attempts to introduce children into the Garden. He hopes with children it will be easier to get past the creatures guarding the holy tree. Satan chose Sarah and Tommy Parker for his evil plan and tricks them into entering the forbidden land. The children find a land of breathtaking beauty; a place where animals speak and they are the only humans. Amongst the first creatures they encounter is Satan himself in the person of Snatch, an enormous snake. The battle for the souls of men reaches a climax as the serpent tempts Sarah and Tommy to eat the forbidden fruit. Other creatures the serpent has failed to corrupt risk their lives to help save them and all humanity from Satan’s evil plan. The children manage a daring escape from Snatch and find friends in the animals within the Garden whom Snatch was not able to corrupt. Led by the lion Courageous, the children attempt to flee from Satan and his army of followers. They run from Snatch and attempt to find their way back out of the Garden to their family. The chase ends with Courageous and his small band of warriors facing the overwhelming force of Snatch’s army. With their backs to an impenetrable barrier of thorns and no place to run they have no choice but to stand and fight.