Tomorrow We Rise

by Daniel P. Wilde

  As John walked from the great hall, Shift followed him. To Shift’s surprise, John made it back to his apartment without incident, except for a small bump into a wall that changed John’s course a few degrees. Finally, John arrived at his apartment, opened the door and went inside. Shift, feeling the anxiety leave him instantly, returned to the hall to escort Anta home.

  “Did John make it okay?” Anta asked casually.

  “Yeah, he made it.”

  “Then let’s go home.”

  “You got it babe,” Shift replied. They said their goodbyes.

  Upon arriving back at their apartment, both Shift and Anta plopped down on the soft bed and fell asleep almost instantly, clothed and uncovered. It had been a long day, and exciting. The news of their pregnancy ignited new life in their friends and that excitement was taxing.

  Not long after they fell asleep, the alarms rang out, blaring up and down the halls and corridors of the lunar shell. The sound was deafening.

  “What is that?” Anta screamed over the loud screeching of the alarm.

  “The alarms! Something’s wrong. Stay here.”

  Shift ran out into the apartment hall and was met by Mike, Jonas and Hasani who all looked as confused by the sound as Shift felt.

  “What’s going on?” Mike asked loudly, so he could be heard over the sirens.

  “That’s the alarm for a breach in the airlock system,” Jonas replied. “We need to find out what happened, and fast. Mike and Hasani, go to the control room. Check the computers for codes. Find out where the breach is—go!”

  While Mike and Hasani ran down the hall toward the control room, Jonas and Shift ran the other direction, toward the outside door. Jonas hesitated, then pushed open the doors. If there was a problem with the airlock system, any significant breach would probably have flushed them all out into space already; so going through the outside door and into the yard around the apartment complex would not be any more dangerous than staying in their beds.

  Upon walking into the bright light of the shell, it was readily apparent where the problem lay. Not more than 200 meters away, near the airlock bay leading to the outside world of the moon, a hover sat lodged in the bay, smoking. John was staggering toward them. Then he fell.

  Shift and Jonas ran to John. He was unconscious, but he would have to stay that way for now. The two men moved cautiously toward the airlock bay. They could feel a draft pulling their clothing toward the airlock. Then they saw the smoke from the burning hover being sucked outward. Thankfully, no debris was being pulled along with the smoke. Whatever the breach was, it wasn’t big enough to kill them—yet. Then they saw the problem.

  “Jonas, that doesn’t look good,” Shift said loudly as the sirens continued to wail around them.

  “It’s not good Shift,” Jonas replied.

  They inched closer to what appeared to be a small crack in the shell next to the hover that John had apparently been driving in his drunken state. The images of the German shell exploding and shooting Alan into space came flooding back to Jonas. Is it happening again? He wondered.

  “Shift, we need to get out of this shell, now!” Jonas yelled.

  “Where should we go?” Shift asked, frightened, as they turned back toward John, still lying unconscious on the ground.

  “To the shuttle bay. We can seal the doors.”

  Lifting John together, the two men raced back toward the apartments, where the other residents had gathered outside to stare. When they got close, Shift yelled, “Everyone get to the shuttle bay—now!”

  In a panic, the small group turned as one and raced back the way they had come, through the apartments, past the great hall, and toward the shuttle bay where they had landed only a few weeks earlier.

  Shift and Jonas, carrying John, brought up the rear. As they rounded the corner by the control room, Mike and Hasani came crashing into the hall and joined them. As a group, they followed the rest of their friends toward the shuttle bay.

  As they skidded to a stop just inside the main blast doors, Jonas yelled out, “Is everybody here?”

  All faces began to twist and turn, looking for their friends. After a few moments, a voice in the back yelled out, “Tom and Misty aren’t here!”

  “Where are they?” Shift called back.

  Nobody answered. Nobody knew. They had left the party earlier than most of the others. Everyone assumed they had gone to bed. Nobody had seen them since.

  “I’m going to find them,” Jerad yelled as he headed back out the blast doors.

  Just as he passed the doors, Hasani grabbed his arm and pulled him hard. “No you’re not,” he yelled back. “Feel the wind?”

  The wind was picking up. The suction from the fissure in the shell wall was increasing.

  “It could shatter at any moment,” Hasani said to his friend. “You can’t go out there.”

  “I have to,” Jerad replied.

  Then the sirens stopped and the moon turned upside down.

  Jonas slammed his fist into the wall to shut the blast doors, but it was too late. Jerad was gone, sucked out into space with the rest of the United States shell.

  October 30, 2093, 3:35 AM—International Lunar Space Station

  Nobody had spoken in nearly four hours. Marilyn had initially suggested donning space suits and going out to search for Tom and Misty. But Jonas reminded them that they only had a few suits in the bay, and, if they opened the only doors now separating them from the outside, those without suits would suffocate from lack of oxygen.

  When Street reminded Jonas that those not searching could hide in the shuttle, an attempt was made to open the doors to the elevator which led down to the shuttle floor, five stories below. The elevator wouldn’t open. A malfunction error registered in the computers that Mike had not been able to override or repair. His best guess was that the temporary unequal pressure during the second before the blast doors closed caused some problem. But it was only a guess.

  On Earth, on the Eastern Coast of the United States, the sun was beginning to rise as the moon descended behind the hills and mountain ranges on the western horizon. In the shuttle bay of the International Lunar Space Station, the only part of the United States shell remaining, it felt as though the sun would never rise again.

  The elation of learning that Anta and Shift would be having a child was gone. Jerad was gone—dead. Tom and Misty were gone too, but nobody knew where they were. Probably dead.

  Finally, Jonas stood, stretched his back, and walked over to the shuttle bay’s communication station. He began dialing the frequencies of every shell on the moon, as he had done four times already. Starting with the major shells, he continued through the smaller outposts. He would find them, if they were alive.

  For twenty minutes, the remaining 12 members of the human population, at least as far as they knew, stared at Jonas’ fingers as he swiped, touched and dialed in an attempt to find the Birds. They still didn’t respond. Finally, he sat back down and put his head in his hands.

  “Are they gone?” Marilyn asked, on the verge of tears for the eighth or ninth time in the past few hours.

  Jonas slowly raised his head. “I hope not Marilyn. They could be somewhere safe, but just not picking up the com. It’s possible.”

  “How likely is it Jonas?” Marilyn asked cautiously.

  “I don’t know.”

  Nobody spoke again for a long time.

  October 30, 9:52 AM—International Lunar Space Station

  Several more hours had passed when a quiet beep was heard coming from the communication table. Jonas jumped up and stared at the table, looking for the source of the noise. A small green light was flashing next to the incoming communication sensor. Jonas pushed it.

  “Hello,” he said tentatively.

  “Jonas, is that you?” said a quiet voice from somewhere outside the shuttle bay.

  “Yes! Tom, is that you?” Jonas almost shouted in his excitement.

  “Yes, it’s me, but don’t get too excited my fr
iend.”

  “Why? What happened? Where are you? Where’s Misty? Are you okay?”

  “Jonas, listen please. We are together, but in body only. My dear wife was killed when the shell exploded.”

  The room grew quiet as Dr. Thomas Bird continued.

  “When the shell exploded, Misty and I were out for a drive in one of the rovers. She wanted to see the stars and Earth. Anta’s pregnancy made her so excited. She finally wanted to go home, for the first time since AE broke out. So we went out to see Earth. We were looking at what must have surely been the killing sands of the Sahara Desert, where AE first reared its dreadful head, when the alarms went off. I thought I had done something wrong. But I’ve been out those doors many, many times. It couldn’t have been me. It wasn’t me, was it?”

  “No Tom, it wasn’t you,” Jonas replied, his voice choked with emotion.

  “That’s good,” Tom replied quietly. “Hearing the alarm, we turned and headed back toward the shell. We wanted to be with everyone if there was a problem. We were close when the shell broke apart. The force of the blast shot our rover backward—up and out. The rover crashed. Misty was killed.”

  “I’m so sorry Tom,” Jonas replied.

  “It’s okay my friend. I will be joining her soon.”

  “Are you hurt?” Jonas asked apprehensively.

  “Yes, badly. I won’t live long. Not even modern medicine can save me now.”

  “How do you know?” Hasani said, anxiety lacing his words, as he walked up behind Jonas. “We’ll come get you. We can help you.”

  “Hello Hasani. Thank you for your bravery and your compassion. But you are wrong. You can’t save me. I’m a doctor. I know these things.” Even though they couldn’t see him, the smile was evident in Dr. Bird’s voice as he said those words. “But how is everyone else?”

  “Jerad is dead,” Jonas replied wearily.

  “I am so sorry for that. I will greet him warmly on the other side.”

  “Thank you Tom,” Hasani said.

  “Now, don’t cry for us. We have loved and enjoyed your companionship. We have rejoiced seeing and being with the great people who have saved mankind. God speed to all of you. I love you. Goodbye.”

  Then he hung up. The Birds were gone.

  October 31—International Lunar Space Station

  “How does it look?” Shift asked Jonas as they peered over the railing toward the bottom level of the shuttle bay, 20 or 25 meters below their feet. The ship they had arrived in sat down there, gathering dust.

  “Well, it looks just like it did when we left it,” Jonas replied.

  “Do you think you can fly it; I mean, if we need to?”

  “I don’t know. Jerad did almost everything last time. I didn’t pay much attention. I just did what he told me. But we’ve got to get down there first, and that’s our immediate problem.”

  “Bummer,” Shift replied.

  “Yeah, bummer.”

  “Well, we’ve got to get down there somehow. We need food and water, and we can’t leave the shuttle bay unless everyone not wearing a suit is inside the shuttle. I’m afraid to see what it looks like outside the bay, but we may need to go out there. Hopefully the ship’s food processors are still operational.”

  “Well, let’s get on it,” Jonas said.

  Mike, Shift and Jonas spent the next two hours trying to fix the elevator which would take them down to the lower floors of the shuttle bay. Eventually, Street joined them at the elevator doors. Mike was still swiping haphazardly at the flat screen next to the doors, but Shift and Jonas sat with their backs propped against the closed doors, heads hung low in defeat.

  “Please move aside dudes,” Street said.

  “What are you going to do?” Shift asked.

  “I’m going to open the doors.”

  “How?” Jonas asked.

  “Move aside and watch,” Street replied.

  “Street, don’t break anything,” Shift cautioned.

  “I won’t—probably.”

  Jonas and Shift stood and stepped to the side, and, together with Mike, watched as Street dug a screwdriver into the small gap between the doors. After widening the gap just four or five centimeters, he said, “Shift, hold this.”

  Shift grabbed the screwdriver and put his weight into it, holding the gap open. Confident that Shift could hold it open, Street grasped the two sides of the elevator door with his finger tips and pulled. As he pulled his hands away from each other, his muscles strained and a sweat broke out on his forehead. The shirt sleeve on his right arm ripped at the bicep. 14 seconds later, a loud pop sounded inside the elevator. The doors opened several inches in response to Street’s brute force. He released his grip on the doors and they continued to open automatically.

  “Whoa,” Jonas said.

  “I guess you haven’t seen Street in action,” Shift replied. “But now what?”

  “Well, now I try to reset the system,” Mike said.

  Mike walked back over to the screen and tapped a few times. A couple quiet beeps sounded from inside the elevator.

  “Well, I think that worked!” Mike said. “Who wants to get in and give it a try?”

  “Uhhh, how about we send it down to the ground without someone inside first?” Jonas said.

  “Good idea,” Shift replied. “Can you do that from here Mike, or does someone need to push something inside?”

  “Here,” Mike replied, swiping and tapping at the monitor again.

  The doors closed and the lift began a rapid, but controlled decent to the bottom floor. After it stopped, Mike reached over and tapped the screen to call it back up. Four seconds later, the doors opened in front of them.

  “Nice work Street,” Jonas said. “I wish you had come over a couple hours earlier though.”

  “Yeah, but then I wouldn’t be such a hero, would I?” Street replied, chuckling.

  “No, probably not. Let’s go.”

  “Maybe, just one of you should go,” Mike said. “We don’t know what the weight capacity is. That pop sound was a bit freaky.”

  “Alright, one at a time then,” Shift said. “I’ll go first.”

  Shift took the elevator down to the lower level without incident. Jonas followed and stepped quickly out of the doors as they opened.

  “That was a bit tense,” Jonas said.

  “Oh, you are very brave,” Shift said, smiling.

  Nobody had been inside the ship since a few days after they arrived on the moon almost three months earlier. On the outside, the ship appeared as they had left it, albeit a bit dustier. When they arrived at the ship, Jonas punched the opening sequence into the panel next to the cargo door and it opened smoothly.

  “So far, so good,” Shift said.

  The men walked into the cargo hold and the lights came on automatically. The hold was empty, just as they had left it. But the smell that accosted them was nauseating.

  “What is that?” Shift asked, gagging as he plugged his nose.

  “I don’t know, but it’s awful.”

  “Well, we need to find out what the problem is and take care of it,” Shift said. “I’m about to puke.”

  The men searched the sleeping lofts near the front of the ship first, then moved back into the lounge area. Finding nothing out of sorts, they visited the research and electronics labs, and finally the cargo hold. Nothing. But the smell got stronger as they moved toward the rear of the ship.

  “I think I found it,” Jonas said, pointing toward the left rear wheel chamber.

  “The smell is pretty strong,” Shift agreed. “Let’s open it.”

  Jonas walked back two paces and hit the switch on the wall to open the interior wall to the wheel chamber as Shift grabbed a flashlight from the tool shelf on the other side of the hold. The men arrived back at the well at the same time and Shift turned on the light. Jonas bent down and peered inside. A thin, pale, rotting hand reached toward him.

  “Whoa!” Jonas yelled, jumping back.

  Then an ol
d man slowly emerged from the well; bald, shriveled, naked, and smelling of death.

  “Is that a Skin?” Jonas asked.

  “Yeah, what’s left of one,” Shift replied. “But how did he get in here?”

  “He must have climbed into the well before the wheels came up when we left Earth. Probably got stuck in the wheel well because we didn’t have to put the wheels down to land here. He’s been in here the whole time, just stinking up the joint.”

  “I guess . . .”

  Shift was cut off mid-sentence as the Skin lunged at him. Shift swung the flashlight he was still holding and hit the Skin in the temple. But the blow didn’t stop his forward progress. He was slow and weak, but he was alive and obviously hungry.

  “Jonas, get a weapon—anything,” Shift yelled over his shoulder as he continued to back away from the Skin.

  “I’m looking,” Jonas replied. “There’s nothing in here. Wait, here’s a crowbar.”

  “That’ll work,” Shift said.

  Jonas brought the crowbar over, slowly, carefully, avoiding the Skin. He’d never been close to one. He’d only seen them in the videos posted on the Net from Earth in the early days and on the monitor when they picked up the stranded humans in Florida. He tossed Shift the crowbar and Shift didn’t waste any time clubbing the Skin in the head. Then again. Then again.

  Finally, the Skin fell to the floor, never to rise again. They were safe. But they had a mess to clean up before the others arrived.

  October 31, Later—International Lunar Space Station

  “A Skin? Here?” Street asked.

  Shift told the story in all its gory detail. He exaggerated just a bit of the story for entertainment value. But everyone knew they were safe, and the story was a bit funny. Shift and Jonas answered questions, embellishing all along the way.

  When there was nothing left to tell, Shift said, “So, here’s where we stand. We can leave the shuttle bay, but we absolutely need suits. While on the ship a few minutes ago, Jonas took remote readings of the air outside the blast doors. There is no oxygen. That means that the containment doors and ventilation systems outside the blast doors were likely destroyed when the shell blew apart. So, we can’t open the blast doors unless some of us remain on the ship while others go out in suits.”