Darkness on a Pale Blue Stone

by D. T. Peterson

  "What about Jen?" Jordan asked.

  "It was her who convinced me," Gresson said. He looked back at his house. In the doorway stood his wife, watching them. "She knows it's the best thing to do. With her here keeping a voice of reason at council, and with me there keeping the army in check, we are at least doing something."

  "Alright," Jordan said. "Stay safe, okay? All of you."

  "You too," Sean said. Jordan flashed a smile and left.

  The group walked through the front gate, passed the vehicular debris, and found themselves on the road once again. They retraced their path down the backroads and returned to I-95. The warm asphalt beneath their feet was a familiar feeling, as was the lack of clear purpose they were all experiencing.

  It took them merely an hour to reach the suburbs of Jacksonville, where they left the highway. The city was segmented into three distinct shorelines by the split St. Johns River. The north land mass held residential and industrial districts, the west contained the downtown district, and the east housed more residential districts. The city had survived the Arrival fairly well. No crashed Exterminator ship had left devastation similar to what they had seen in New York and, at least on the northern side, no major fires had broken out. There were many people outside, most sitting on porches with little to do or talking with others in their lawns. A few animals wandered the streets that were now filled with litter, wasted food, and abandoned cars. The smell in the air was particularly unpleasant. Gresson wasn't sure if it came from the waste or the un-showered people.

  "How does anyone live like this?" Marie asked.

  "Same way we'll have to," Lash noted.

  "Right..." Marie said, quite unhappy about that fact.

  They arrived at Imeson Park, the industrial complex at the southern tip of Jacksonville's Northside district. Valdez and his marines were staying here. It did not take long to find them. The battalion of marines had taken up the area around several warehouses, along with an old Marine Reserve building that would serve as their temporary base. The marines that had been staying there before had been more than happy to join ranks with their fellow military forces. The Army soldiers that had been under Sanders' command were segregated from the marines for the moment. All the men and women knew they were on the same side, albeit currently with an awkward command structure.

  The surprised marines who first saw the group greeted Gresson and led him and his followers to Valdez.

  Valdez saluted. "Well, when you said you would send orders, I didn't expect you to actually come down here, especially this soon. Either way, it's good to see you Mr. President."

  "You too, General. We are not here to provide news or orders, however. We just needed to... take some time away from New Salvador."

  "Should I be concerned?" Valdez said with a tone clearly displaying that he already was.

  "Not more than usual. For now, it just means we will need to sit tight."

  Valdez was disappointed, but nodded in acknowledgement.

  "How is the situation in the city?" Gresson asked.

  "We haven't had the time to check. We're still in the process of setting this place up. But if you're planning to head over the river to downtown, I wouldn't mind joining you. There is someone I'd like to check on, see if she's still here."

  "Of course. In fact, we should go soon. We'll need a place to stay and I doubt you have much extra room."

  "Even if we did, you wouldn't want to stay here. The sleeping arrangements aren't too comfortable at the moment. We need more proper bedding."

  "One more thing we can look for downtown."

  "Actually, there's a Marine facility, Blount Island, not far from here. I was stationed there a long time ago. I sent a few marines over earlier today to make contact. We'll take any spare supplies and I may move our force there."

  "An island? Sounds like a promising defensive position."

  "Perhaps. We'll see how good of shape it's still in."

  "My only concern is how far away it is from the city."

  "I can't say how long of a walk it would be, but when I'd drive there from downtown, it was thirty minutes. I still plan to keep marines stationed here regardless. We should be able to mobilize for anything downtown quickly from this location. We're working on securing useable boats too. Having transportation across the river besides the bridges would be invaluable."

  "Good idea."

  Everyone waited for Valdez to finish a few things at the military office, then they left for downtown. Within forty minutes, they reached the bridge that would take them across the St. Johns River and into the heart of Jacksonville.

  "So, who are you wanting to find?" Alice asked Valdez as she weaved her wheelchair between the vehicles scattered on the bridge.

  "My ex-wife," Valdez replied. "We hadn't spoken for months before the blackout, but as far as I know she still lives at her house just north of downtown. Not too far from the river, actually."

  "Maybe I'm just an asshole, but why do you want to see your ex-wife?" Jake asked.

  "You're just an asshole," Lash answered curtly.

  "No, I get it. It sounds odd, but we were never really on bad terms. We just... wanted different things, or maybe our careers were too important." He sighed. "Everything that's happened though... it really puts things into perspective."

  "It certainly has," Michael agreed.

  "Take us to her house first. If she's there, she might be able to help us find places to stay," Gresson said.

  "I'll be honest. I have no idea how she'll react to seeing me. I might be the last person she wants to talk to," Valdez said.

  "It's worth a try," Lucas said.

  The house was only fifteen minutes away from the bridge. Valdez stood on the sidewalk, unsure about approaching the front door. He had taken bullets, killed targets, hidden in cover from rockets, and charged into the heat of battle, all with less hesitation than he had now. His apprehension was less due to his ex-wife herself, but from the possibility that she would not be there, or worse. After a deep breath, he walked to the front door and knocked. A few seconds later, it opened.

  Rebeca Bello stood speechless for a moment. Valdez copied her lack of reaction. Finally, she broke into tears, put a hand to her mouth, and embraced her ex-husband. "Marco!" she managed to exclaim.

  Valdez held her close. "Thank god, you're alright!"

  "Wha... What are you doing here? How'd you get here? Why..." she said between happy sobs.

  "Can we come inside?" Valdez asked with a smile.

  "Of course, of course!" Rebeca said, waving everyone in. She turned to go inside, cocked her head, then turned back. She stared at Gresson. "Is that..."

  "You might want to sit down for this," Valdez said.

  Chapter 39

  Moon - August 29, 2072

  Andre heard a knock at the door.

  "Mom! Can you get that?" he asked. He wasn't doing anything important. Why can't I get the door? he wondered.

  His mother appeared in his room. "Sure," she said sweetly.

  My mother is dead, he thought. It felt more like an arbitrary fact, not a contradiction to his mother's presence. He knew she shouldn't be here, but it didn't disturb him that she was.

  His mother went to the door and pulled on the handle. "I can't open it, sweetheart. You have to."

  The thought felt obvious to him. I have to. I have to open it. He tried to stand up, but couldn't.

  Andre peered closer at the door and realized it was no door at all, but a window. Outside stood a bright, white angel. The angel knocked again.

  Andre reached out. He could feel his arm moving, but couldn't see it in front of him. Another knock on the window.

  Pain began to pulse in his head. His childhood home around him began to fade. "Mother," he moaned. Another knock.

  The pain extended to his hands and feet, but was somehow different. He couldn't place it. He couldn't understand what he was feeling. Another knock.

  Cold. I'm cold, he realized. One final knock bro
ught him back into full consciousness.

  Andre looked up. A man in a white spacesuit was standing outside the window of the pod, knocking. One of the engineers, he thought.

  He looked down. Blood was on the console. He had hit his head.

  The man outside saw Andre's movement and tapped more furiously on the glass. Andre raised his hand. The man vanished from the window.

  How long have I been here? Andre wondered. He was quickly understanding what was happening. The pod's fall had led to a violent crash, rendering him unconscious. A similar fall on Earth from that height would have undoubtedly been fatal. But, apparently, the moon's weaker gravity hadn't accelerated the pod enough to kill them. Them.

  Andre looked over at Vadim. He was leaning to the side in his harness, not moving.

  "Vad..." Andre tried to call out. His throat was too dry. He was dehydrated. Again he wondered, How long have I been out?

  He could see condensation occasionally forming from Vadim's warm breath. He's alive, he discerned in relief.

  The engineer knocked on the window. He made a pull-down motion in front of his face. My helmet, Andre understood. He unharnessed himself and fell forward, now completely aware of his utter weakness. The frigid metal hurt as it touched his face. He pulled himself up to his knees and grabbed his helmet. Before putting it on, he crawled over to Vadim. Vadim slumped over after Andre released the harness that attached him to his seat. Once Vadim's helmet was securely in place, Andre put on his own. He double-checked both of the small oxygen containers attached to their suits, making sure they had air to breathe.

  He gave a thumbs up toward the window, which was a surprisingly difficult maneuver for him. The engineer motioned to the left. Andre remembered that he would have to open the door. Perhaps his subconscious had understood this even before he had awoken.

  Andre pressed the button for the door and could feel the air rushing out around him. There were three men outside wearing white suits. They quickly pulled Andre and Vadim outside onto the lunar surface. A large Tonka-truck-like vehicle sat nearby. It took some group effort, but the men managed to get both Andre and Vadim inside. Once they were all in, they began to drive back to the mining facility.

  After a few minutes of driving, several lights turned on, accompanied by a chime. The vehicle's atmosphere had been restored. The engineers took off their helmets and helped Andre and Vadim with theirs. Vadim was still out cold.

  "You alright?" one of them asked Andre.

  "I... Wat... Water..." Andre struggled to speak.

  "Here," the man said, offering a water bottle. Noticing Andre's effort to hold it, the man helped tilt it back into his mouth.

  "Tha... nk..." Andre said.

  "Just rest, just rest," the man said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

  Six hours later, they arrived at the mining facility. The lunar vehicle pulled into the garage. Andre had regained enough strength to be able to get out himself and the engineers carried Vadim. They took Vadim to the small med bay, where the medical robots began to run scans.

  After getting his head patched up, Andre was led to a lounge area where several engineers were gathered. In total, there were twelve men and three women at the mining facility and they were all anxious to hear what Andre had to say.

  "How long were we out there?" Andre asked.

  "About seven hours. As soon as we saw you guys flying side-ways, we sent a Hog after you," one of the engineers said.

  "So what happened up there?" another asked. Someone brought Andre a cup of coffee and a ration bar.

  "Thanks," he said. "Well, the pod was certainly not made to go this far. I guess the rockets took more fuel in the last burn than we anticipated."

  "You two are lucky as hell. Any higher up, and who knows what would have happened."

  "Tell me about it. I have no clue how we're getting back, though."

  "I'll be honest. It doesn't look all that bad," the engineer, whom Andre had first mistaken for an angel, said. "Must've been built to withstand some impact, 'cause it was all intact, at least it looked that way from the outside,"

  "Think we can get it over here?" Andre asked.

  The engineer nodded. "First thing tomorrow."

  "So, you guys had a better view than we did. What's it look like planet-side?" another asked.

  "Not good," Andre said. "I assume you are all just as in the dark about what happened as the last time we spoke?"

  They nodded. "Nothing new. Just more... silence."

  "Any theories?" one of the woman asked. "I mean, we saw the ships on the data you sent us. There's no mistaking it. Spaceships. They just... appeared."

  "Besides that, no." Andre leaned forward and cupped his face in his hands. "It just doesn't seem real."

  "How did they just appear like that? How did we not pick them up?" a man wondered.

  "Maybe they teleported," another suggested.

  "If that's true, the people on Earth don't have a chance in hell. What if... what if we're next?" someone proposed.

  "Let's not talk like that. Besides, it's been almost a month now. If the aliens wanted to get us..."

  "Who said they're aliens?"

  "Well then, what are they? The Christmas elves?"

  "I'm just saying. Maybe it's a government thing. Maybe they messed with the scanning equipment. Made it look like alien ships."

  "There's no pretending massive fireballs you can see from space," Andre said. His comment hushed the engineers.

  One of the robots chirped in the med bay. Everyone stood up and made their way there.

  Vadim had woken up. "Where am I?" he groggily asked.

  With a grin, Andre answered, "We made it, Vadim."

  Chapter 40

  Jacksonville - August 29, 2072

  "That's... that's quite a story," Rebeca said. The group had collectively told her a summary of the past month's events, along with an account of what they knew about the Exterminators and the signal, though only what Valdez knew himself. Gresson had taken care to be the one telling those parts of the story. His curtailing of the truth had drawn odd looks from the eight others in the group who knew what he was leaving out.

  "Yeah. So we need your help, Beca," Valdez said. "They need a place to stay. And what have you been doing about food and water?"

  "Um..." She was still struggling with the bizarre tale she had just been told. She wasn't sure what part she found the most unbelievable: the living President Gresson, alien invaders, or the signal that caused a blackout over the entire world, though the last she had experienced directly. "Well, a few neighbors and I store a lot of food together and we share whatever we can find. And for water, there's this guy named Wesley. He has these big boilers near the shore and he distills water for everyone. Oh, and if you want to find a place to stay, I'll introduce you to Kelsey. She's sort of the one in charge around here."

  "We should talk to Kelsey, then," Gresson said.

  "Yeah, sure. Follow me," Rebeca said, standing up and leading them all outside. They walked down the street and drew curious stares from the neighbors. They reached the end of the street, turned left, and continued down the sidewalk which was difficult to see, hidden under a layer of refuse.

  They arrived at a high school. The letters above the five double-doors at the entrance read "Tomas Cortez Memorial High School," named after a Jacksonville community leader who had died nearly two decades before. The parking lot was vacant. School had been out at the time of the Arrival. The building was a three-story structure made of tan concrete and large panels of glass.

  Alice used the handicap ramp with her husband walking beside her and everyone else took the stairs up to the front doors. They walked inside and heard the shouts and laughter of children, though the hallways were empty. There was also a faint ticking sound. Perched high above the lobby on a wall was a working analog clock. The time was 2:47.

  "Whoa," Jake said.

  "It must be mechanically based," Michael observed.

  "That's what t
hey say," Rebeca said. "It wasn't here to begin with. Someone downtown had a big collection of clocks and watches. He offered the ones that still worked to anyone as long as they were used by the community."

  "Were you really able to keep the school system running?" Alice asked.

  "Actually we just started holding classes last Friday."

  "Um, maybe I'm the only one, but I have absolutely no idea what day of the week it is, or even the date," Jake said.

  It's August 29th. A Monday. For now we are teaching on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I teach some of the morning classes. It keeps the kids out of trouble and gives the parents time to help out around town. Kelsey made a system so that everyone whose children take classes has a daily assignment, whether it's scavenging for food, collecting firewood, or helping out in some other way. It's working well for now, but I'm worried about what will happen when more and more people join us. There are far too many in Jacksonville to keep track of."

  "You'll need protection too. The more you collect, the more likely someone will try to steal it," Valdez said.

  "We've already had some trouble with that," Rebeca replied.

  "I have a battalion of marines across the river. Soon you'll have all the protection you need."

  "General, we should consider a few things before we make any promises about..." Gresson said.

  "With all due respect, Mr. President, we need to keep Beca... and everyone else here... safe. The marines can't do that if they stay cooped up in a few warehouses."

  "Alright," Gresson relented.

  "Thanks, Marco," Rebeca said. "Come on, I'll take you to Kelsey."

  They walked down one of the hallways and stopped at a small office. Rebeca knocked on the door and a woman's voice answered. "Come in."

  Rebeca opened the door and stepped inside, followed by Valdez and Gresson. Everyone else waited in the hallway. Kelsey was sitting at the desk, surrounded by stacks of paper, loose drawers, and open books, apparently in the middle of both paperwork and cleaning. She looked up at Rebeca and smiled. She was an older woman, with grey hair, a plethora of wrinkles, and a fragile frame, though her intense blue eyes exhibited an inner strength.