by CW Johnson
“We could park right here…set up camp?”
“No, this place is creepy. Could we at least get out of the city?”
“Which way?”
Maria unfolded the map. “Look,” she said, glancing up. “Omaha is straight north from here…not very far.”
Todd scanned the map. “We need to try and find a track heading north.” He backed the Humvee up, pulled around an abandoned train car and quickly closed the distance.
“I think it’s going north,” Maria said, holding her stomach.
Todd glanced at the onboard compass. “It’s going north, but we don’t know for how long.”
The northbound track bed led them through the middle of the city.
“It looks like they really had it bad here,” Todd said, as they passed dozens of discarded vehicles piled up at the railroad crossings.
~~~
As they blew past one of the railroad crossings, neither Todd nor Maria noticed the black SUV parked, its engine still idling, only yards from the track bed. It waited fifteen minutes, then pulled forward, turned onto the track bed and headed north towards Omaha.
~~~
Todd and Maria drove until the city faded into suburbs, then into vast, browning cornfields stretching on for as far as they could see.
“Let’s stop there,” Maria said, pointing at a small patch of trees.
Todd pulled off the track bed.
Maria motioned towards a small fenced area to the west. “What’s that? It seems so out of place…out here in the middle of nowhere.”
“I don’t know,” Todd said. “Looks like a power station or something.”
They drove the Humvee through the open field till they finally reached the patch of trees. They set up camp near an irrigation ditch, unrolled their sleeping bag and settled in next to a small, crackling fire. Soon, they were huddled together against an old feeding trough, silently watching the western sky turn to shades of pink as the glimmering yellow sun slipped down below the boundless Nebraska horizon.
“That was so beautiful,” Maria said.
Todd silently sat next to her.
She dropped her head on his shoulder. “How much longer?” she said, softly.
Todd gently rolling his hand up and down her shoulder. “Till what?”
“Till the…till that thing kills us.”
He sat quietly for a time. “I’m not sure,” he said finally. “I’ve lost track of what day it is.”
She snuggled in tighter under his arm and sat quietly staring into the fire. “I hope we can’t see it tonight. I hope it’s cloudy.”
The baby should be coming any time now,” she continued, breaking another long silent spell.
Todd nodded. “I’ve noticed you’ve dropped a lot.”
“Really?”
“Quite a bit.”
She rolled her hand over her stomach. “I hadn’t noticed.”
They sat listening to the sounds of the trickling irrigation ditch. After a moment Maria softly spoke. “Brother Michael said…when the baby grew up, he’d change the world…set everything straight….”
Todd sat quietly beside her.
“Do you remember what Dr. Donahue said that day? He said God himself told him nothing would stand in the way of the baby being born.”
She sat staring into the fire for a moment before continuing. “Remember… Father Jenkins, he showed us right out of the bible….The baby was supposed to be the second coming of the Messiah.”
Todd looked down at her. Her tear-welled eyes glistened in the firelight. “Maria,” he said softly, “maybe, they were all wrong. Maybe they all got so caught up in this thing they…convinced themselves.”
“You didn’t see the things Brother Michael did,” Maria said.
“There are other explanations,” Todd said quietly. “The truth is, the least likely scenario would be…supernatural.”
“But how? How could he have killed those men…fooled all those people.”
“Maybe…” Todd paused for a moment, not sure if he should continue. “Maybe they didn’t die. Maybe you just thought they did.”
“But…I was there…those men died….”
Todd pulled out of the sleeping bag just enough to stoke the fire with a stick, sending a billow of sparks out into the night sky. He slipped back in beside her, hesitated and spoke softly. “Last summer Obie, Tadpole and I spent some time in San Francisco. On our way back we stopped off at a little fair, I’m not sure where…somewhere upstate. They had a hypnotist there. The guys dared me to go up and be hypnotized. Before I know it I’m sitting on the stage looking out. I’m looking at the audience and they were naked…The whole audience was naked. Of course, I know now they weren’t really naked, but at the time…What I’m trying to say is, I genuinely saw those naked people, and I was genuinely wrong.”
Maria looked up at him, her moist eyes sparking in the firelight. “So that’s it then? All this is for nothing?”
Todd blew out a sigh. “Ultimately…maybe, but right now, we have this beautiful fire, the smell of God’s good earth beneath our feet, the sounds of the water and the wind in the trees…the canopy of stars over our heads…we have our baby…and we have our love.”
Maria melted into him and began crying softly. “I want to keep it,” she moaned.
Todd tenderly rocked her till she finally drifted off to sleep.
~~~
Blaze had been drinking for days. His once plush office was now littered with rotting hamburger corpses, tin cans half full of molding vegetables and partially eaten sacks of uncooked Ramen noodles. He slowly regained consciousness to the smell of old vomit and urine.
His only desire was to die quickly but he was terrified of hell. The death of Todd and Maria was the clincher. He may just as well have pulled the trigger on Riley…God only knows what happened to poor little Maria. What was left of the police said they’d never seen such a crime scene. Oliver had apparently gone berserk, killing Santana and his goons. What he did to that poor girl was anyone’s guess.
If only he could be an atheist again. Maybe those terrifying nightmares of hell wouldn’t haunt him. Even now he wasn’t sure he believed in God. It was the possibility God existed that kept him reaching for the bottle. He slowly pulled himself up off the floor and set out in search of rum. An old fuzzy memory stopped him…he had finished off the last of his rum the night before. "How much longer before that damn asteroid hits?" he wondered out loud. "What day is it?"
Only a few months prior, in another life, he was at the top of his game. The same folks who wined and dined him then, were now scattered to the wind; had vamoosed without a trace. Jim Donahue, his old friend, hadn’t even bothered to try and get in touch with him. You could bet the distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the Vinces were even now enjoying the hospitality of the European Union.
They blamed him for Loosing Maria, blamed him for her death, he was certain of it! Like they were bastions of morality themselves, the bastards! Where was their noble morality when they were moving heaven and earth to illegally clone a child? The first sign of trouble…they discard the project, forget the child and dump Blaze in the street like a trash bag.
Something’s going on out there, he thought, noticing the flashes of light for the first time. He stumbled to the window and looked out towards the east in the direction of Arnold Air Force Base. What are they doing over there, setting off fireworks? Maybe the asteroid has been diverted or something. Was he still dreaming? What the hell has happened since he passed out?
~~~
The sound had driven the family out of their beds. They were now pressed against the tent door flap, peering out onto the massive lower deck of the former United States ship Ronald Reagan. In better days, the lower deck had been used to store and maintain some of the ship’s array of warplanes. The president had ordered the planes scuttled into the sea to make room for hundreds of tents, now housing families of American refuges. The battle group had been steaming eastward acros
s the north Atlantic for the last two days.
Stacey Wheeler peered out of the tent. “What was that?”
“I don’t know,” Eric said. He looked down at the girls. “You kids stay here. Mommy and I will be right back.”
Eric and Stacey pushed out of the tent and began moving towards a small gathering crowd.
“What’s going on?” Eric asked a couple who were meandering along with them.
“We heard a bunch of loud gong sounding things,” the man said. “Everybody started running, that’s all I know.”
“My name is Eric. This is my wife Stacey.”
The man pushed his hand out. “I’m Mike Gibson…this is Nikki, glad to meet ya.”
“Where you from?” Stacey said, looking at Nikki.
“We’re from Salt Lake City…originally, we moved to Boston to be near Mike’s mother.”
“We lived in Burlington, Vermont,” Stacey said, as they walked. “I can’t believe how many kids there are around. Do you have any?”
Nikki glanced up at her husband. “We have two; a boy and a girl…thirteen and fifteen.”
They walked together in silence for a time until Nikki finally spoke. “Mike’s brother…they turned him away.”
“They did what?” Eric said.
“Mike’s brother was traveling with us. We had to leave him on the beach. They were only taking families with children.”
“Oh my Lord.” Stacey breathed.
“Makes you wonder how many folks are getting out,” Eric said softly.
“I don’t think there are very many of us,” Mike said.
A group of military men appeared at the entrance of one of the colossal elevators used to move aircraft. They quickly left the elevator and struck out towards the small, growing crowd of civilians gathering at one of the stair rails.
“There’s no cause for alarm,” a navy lieutenant said, as he came within earshot. “The Admiral is getting ready to call the crew to general quarters…it’s routine.”
“General quarters?” Eric asked from within the crowd. “What does that mean?”
“It’s just a drill, nothing to worry about.”
The lieutenant motioned to another man standing nearby. The other man lifted a large telephone looking apparatus and spoke into it. Without warning, a loud cacophony of ringing gongs sent civilian hands to their ears. People ducked and blinked as the military contingent soberly looked on.
“General Quarters, General Quarters,” a voice rang out over the din. “This is not a drill…all hands man your battle stations…set condition Zebra!”
“What’s happening?” several people yelled from the crowd.
“Please stay in this area,” the Lieutenant hollered, “until the Admiral calls the stand down.”
The noise stopped as soon as it had started, giving way to the sounds of uniformed men frantically running back and forth across the deck.
“Are we under attack?” one of the men in the crowd asked.
“No,” the Lieutenant said. “It’s just a drill.”
“Why would you be having a drill on a ship evacuating civilians?” another man asked.
“The drills are a requirement of the normal operation—”
A deafening roar silenced the Lieutenant who quickly covered his ears. The mighty aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan began shuddering beneath their feet. Within moments, the roar ebbed and was gone.
“Look!” Eric said pointing out at the sea through an opening left visible by the elevator.
Two white plumes were making their way skywards from the deck of an enormous battle cruiser just off the starboard bow.
“What is that?” Mike asked.
“Nothing to be concerned about,” the Lieutenant said, “just routine.”
The crowd remained quiet for a moment before slowly turning inward, quietly conversing with one another. A new sound erupted from the COM.
“Now secure from general quarters, set condition X-ray…set the regular underway watch!”
~~~
Todd had been trying to cover Maria without waking her when he felt the first tiny raindrop on his face. “I don’t think we’ll see the moon tonight, baby,” he whispered. He carefully laid her down, ran towards the Humvee and quickly pulled the tent from the back seat. A loud grinding noise made him jump.
Maria woke up. “Todd!”
The ground began to shake as the entire corn field lit up with a glowing white light.
“Oh no!” Todd groaned. “It can’t be….” He sprinted towards Maria and dove on top of her. A deafening roar drove their hands to their ears as a mammoth plume of white-hot fire shot hundreds of feet into the night sky. Maria screamed as searing hot wind sandblasted the campsite, sending debris clanging and clattering into the trees. The ear shattering sound reached a crescendo, then there was silence.
Todd slowly backed off of Maria, shaking his head trying to clear his ears. He turned and looked back behind him. “Look,” he said softly.
Maria slowly pulled the sleeping bag away from her face. Todd was staring into the sky. The thick smell of smoke and sulfur hung in the air as she slowly sat up. High above the campsite, a glowing white light was making its way skyward.
“Todd,” Maria said, pointing into the west, “Look!”
He turned. In the distance, two more fiery plumes were streaking skyward, one closer than the other.
“There’s more,” she said, pointing east.
Todd turned just in time to see several more columns of fire moving into the clouds. An eerie glow followed the plumes deep into the cloud cover until they finally disappeared from sight.
“Maria,” Todd said, motioning towards the fenced area next to the camp site, “that’s a by-God missile silo…those were missiles! Somebody fired off our land-based nuclear missiles!”
~~~
“Why don’t you just go away and let me die in peace.”
“Oh stop being so melodramatic and eat this thing.”
The old woman winced and turned away. “At least pull the legs off, can you do that for me?”
“Yes, Gladys, I’ll throw away a third of the protein so that you can pretend it isn’t what it is.”
“It’s a bug, Louis…I know what it is, pull the damn thing’s legs off.”
Louis shrugged, pulled the still writhing legs off the grasshopper and pushed it at his wife.
“What was that?” Gladys said, ignoring his offering. “Did you feel that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s an earthquake…eat.”
“Look at that,” she said, pointing out of the tent flap into the east.
He turned to see a distant light, streaking into the air. “Maybe it’s the asteroid,” he said, staring into the rainy night.
“Ya’ think?” Gladys asked. “Isn’t the asteroid supposed to be coming down?”
Louis glowered back at her. “I merely meant that it could have been an atmospheric phenomenon caused by the asteroid’s approach.”
Uh huh,” she grunted, pushing the bug into her mouth. “Yummy. Tastes just like chicken…I have one more day to live and I’m eating bugs.”
“I think we’ve positioned ourselves just right,” Louis said, ignoring his wife’s sarcasm. “I think it will come down right over there next to that grain silo.” He pointed into the drizzly night sky.
“It’ll come in at a very gradual angle, thirty degrees or so. It should pass by right over our heads.”
“I should’ve gotten married when I was three,” Gladys said. “I would’ve married my father or a policeman…Instead, I get the nutty professor.”
“I’m coming to bed now,” Louis said. “Stop nagging me. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow and I need my sleep.”
“Tomorrow, we’re gonna die in a horrible fiery cataclysm, Louis.”
“Stop being so dramatic, Gladys. You won’t feel a thing.”
“Silly me,” Gladys snorted, “and to think I was worried.”
~~~
; Maria had insisted they move as far away from the missile silo as possible before they set up camp again. By the time they had managed to get the tent set up it was pouring rain. They finally dozed off just as the sun was rising onto the vast, drizzly Nebraska horizon.
A hard contraction brought Maria out of her sleep. “Todd,” she moaned. “I think it’s starting.”
“What?” Todd said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“We have to go…now! The baby is gonna be born now!”
Todd sat up. “Are you sure?”
Maria was panting.
“Ok…ok,” Todd said, squirming out of the sleeping bag, “nothing to worry about. I’m an ex med student…this is gonna be cake.”
“We have to go,” Maria said, still panting. “We have to go to Omaha.”
“I think we should stay here,” Todd said. “You really shouldn’t—”
Maria reached out and took hold of his leg. “We have to go,” she screamed. “NOW!”
“Ok…ok uh…we’ll…I’ll get the….”
“Help me,” she said, reaching up towards him.
Todd pulled her up from the ground. She painfully stepped out of the sleeping bag and moved towards the tent door flap. He helped her to the Humvee and left her there while he sprinted back for the sleeping bag. He returned, quickly made a bed for her in the back compartment and helped her in. Within minutes the camp was loaded into the Humvee.
They made their way back towards the track bed and headed north.
~~~
“NORAD is reporting hundreds of direct hits on the asteroid, Mr. President, but there has been no noticeable change in velocity or trajectory.”
The President sighed. “Damn, we hit it with all we had; didn’t even budge the thing.”
“At this range, sir,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said softly. “It’s like trying to stop a howitzer shell with a BB gun.”
The president looked at the chairman with tears in his eyes. “But we had to try didn’t we? I did everything I could, didn’t I?”
“Yes sir, you did,” the Chairman said.
The president sat silent for a time staring into his coffee cup. “How long do we have left?” he said finally.
“Just a few hours sir, we need to get out of here right now.”