“Mary!” I called, until someone came to me.
“Who are you looking for?” a young boy asked me with a thick accent. His clothes were dirty, but I couldn’t help feeling relieved to see another human standing and healthy.
“Mary? Do you know her?”
“Of course, we all know her. She saved our lives. Does that mean you’re Dean?” he asked, smile growing wide.
“That does. Do you know where she is?” I asked, feeling my back twinge. It was much looser than it had been, and moving seemed to help.
“This way.”
I followed slowly, and soon we were in a room where Mary was sorting through supplies.
“Mary,” I said, and she turned to me. “Son, can we have a moment?”
The boy blushed and ran down the hall.
“Dean, what are you doing up?” she asked.
“I don’t think it’s over. There’s another threat.”
THIRTY-ONE
The Jeep stopped in front of my house. There was so much to do, but I had no doubt we couldn’t pull it together as a whole. From rotten food in everyone’s fridges, to worrying about pets, things would get back to normal for many of us. The past couple days had been hard but wonderful at the same time. Over half of the world’s population was dead, either by running into the sun or from illness on the vessels, like dehydration and lack of sustenance. It was horrific. Stories were coming out about everyone’s time on the vessels, and references to great wars, and hiding on boats to come to America were compared. But there was no real comparison. Earth would never be the same again.
Carey trotted along with me, and I felt tears welling in my eyes as I remembered looking over the lists. Susan, my neighbor, was among those lost in the Event. That was what they were calling it now. The Event. As if there was any name that could justify the real truth of it all. Most people still didn’t know what had happened, they were just glad to be alive and back home. Some ships fought to land elsewhere, not willing to go back to their countries if given a choice. With so much open space now, it was agreed that Canada, the US, and some European countries would take in refugees at this point. I wasn’t sure that the whole world wasn’t in refugee status now.
Carey started to go to his old house, and I knew I would let him in soon enough, but for now, I urged him to my house, and he happily obliged. I grabbed a few things, clothes mainly, and locked back up. This wasn’t my home any longer, and I doubted I’d ever live here again. I had a new life lined up. I went back to the Jeep, where armed guards were waiting. It was a couple hours’ drive to New York, even though they’d already begun the highway clear-up. The vehicles had been left with keys in them, most running out of gas, so they’d had to bring tankers, fill them up and drive them away to large fields. I would let the bureaucrats worry about the logistics of getting people their cars back.
A few hours later, I walked into the UN building in New York for the first time. Magnus, Natalia, and Mary were waiting in the lobby and I ran to them, enveloping my partners in crime in a massive group hug.
“Am I ever glad to see you guys,” I declared.
Everyone looked well-rested and clean. Magnus almost looked a different man, clean-shaven and with a tie on. I supposed I probably did too. I looked down and saw Nat and Magnus’ hands intertwined, and I gave them a grin.
“Are you guys ready for this? We tell our story, then the world tries to start over,” Mary said.
“I’ll just be glad when it’s all over. I want nothing more than to disappear and let the government worry about everything now. Don’t we deserve that?” Natalia asked, and I was still surprised to hear her voice.
I had a feeling that it wasn’t quite over for us but kept it to myself. We headed into the UN General Assembly Hall, where massive screens were set up, playing live feeds of the largest mass funeral in the world’s history. From around the world, we were sending the dead back into space on the vessels. I had been amazed at the support for the idea, with so many conflicting religious beliefs out there, but everyone seemed to be okay with it. Cleanse the planet instead of burying three or so billion people.
We watched as the containers, as we had called them, lifted into the sky and were remotely sent out of the atmosphere and into space. This took over an hour, and many were openly weeping. I thought of my mother, who hadn’t made it, and countless others who were huge parts of my previous life, now floating in space. I was glad to know that my best friend James was among the survivors, and I was looking forward to seeing him again.
In the room filled with the world’s top surviving leaders and ambassadors, we spoke our side of the Event. Everyone listened with wide eyes, and many times, there was clapping, as if we needed the praise. We didn’t. When it was all done, they spoke of forming a world government. It was the only way to have a unified presence in a universe much vaster than we ever knew. NASA spoke of duplicating the technology we had now, and then hours after we started, I was finally asked the question I’d been waiting for.
“Dean, can you please describe this threat you mentioned?”
I swallowed and spoke what I knew about the Kraskis’ enemy. In this case, I didn’t think the enemy of our enemy would be our friend. My pulse raced as I talked, my new hybrid blood coursing through my body. I knew it wasn’t over for me. I reached over and squeezed Mary’s hand.
The End of The Event
The Survivors Book One
BY
NATHAN HYSTAD
Copyright © 2018 Nathan Hystad
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Cover art: Tom Edwards Design
Edited by: Scarlett R Algee
Proofed by: BZ Hercules
ONE
I could hear him coming from the main level, his nails click-clacking on the hardwood floors. It was his morning routine: step on my chest, lick my face, sniff Mary, and then hop down off the bed. I think he checked the back door, then the front, then a quick peek through the window. He was checking if his previous owner, Susan, was there. She wasn’t.
I felt his pain. It was the same pain most of the world was feeling, after half of us hadn’t survived the Event. We all opened doors expecting to see someone we knew, only to see their bedroom empty. I had to stop myself at least twice a week from dialing my mom’s phone number, and that wasn’t an easy revelation to live with. The pain of loss was widespread, but the whole thing had left humanity stronger than they’d been in a long time; maybe ever.
Mary rolled over and rested her head on my chest. “You know we don’t have to go today,” she said, nuzzling in closer.
“I think we should. Plus, it’ll be good to see Magnus and Natalia again.” I stopped, and Mary turned and looked me in the eyes.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I actually think it’s time to move on. I can’t live here anymore. Not after all that’s happened, and I know it must be a little weird for you to be here too.” Even though I’d changed the furniture when Janine had died, I knew deep down the whole scenario wasn’t ideal for either of us.
“Dean, it’s okay. It’s not like we’ve lived permanently in any of these places over the last year. At least the house has more room than my condo in Washington, and Carey seems to be happier here. But I think he’d be happy wherever we take him,” she said with a smile. On cue, the spaniel hopped on the stool at the end of the bed and catapulted onto my stomach.
“Okay, Carey, what do you say? Want to come to New York w
ith us today?” I asked the now-rolling-around dog.
“I think that means yes,” she answered for him.
Less than two hours later, we were loading the truck with our bags, for the second time in a month. It would be nice to settle in somewhere, but we had to figure out just what we wanted to do. The economy still didn’t know what it was doing, and the world powers were contemplating a global currency. There were so many empty properties now, and some estates had nowhere to go, whole families gone at the same time.
Looking around the living room, I slowly closed the door, breathing out, somehow feeling like this was the last time I’d see my house. If I’d learned anything over the past twelve months, it was to trust my gut. I locked up and glanced toward the truck. Mary was in the passenger seat with Carey sitting beside her. They were both looking at me, and Mary gave me a soft smile. Her smile managed to make me feel like a teenager again. There was a warmness I’d never known from a woman before, and I couldn’t help but feel like we were meant to meet and stop the invasion. It made us strong. It connected us forever.
Soon we were heading down the road, passing the church down the street, driving down the road I’d seen James getting almost beat up on, the day they arrived. It felt like yesterday at times, and like a decade ago at other times.
Stories had come out of the horrors from the cube ships. At the time, we hadn’t given it a lot of thought, but it made sense later. Once everyone realised they were on ships going God knew where, the trouble began. There were stories of fights, murder, riots, and rape. No one was safe from the events, and it made humanity take a good look in the mirror. There were countless survivors with stories to tell, and thousands of people were arrested afterwards. It was another gray area with no proof and no trials. There were a lot of lawyers and people smelling profit, but the government didn’t allow this.
Their process seemed to have worked, and the arrested were left on an island, fenced off from the world. It was either that or shoot them back into space, all in a transport vessel like they’d done their atrocities on. Everyone knew there must be some innocents among them, and guilty among us, but it was the best they could do at the time.
Safety was imperative after the hell everyone had been through.
My hometown was almost a ghost town. Most people had left for the big city, and over half of the town had died up there. Being a bedroom community, we had a lot of elderly; they were the first people to go, with no water, and as the illnesses spread like wildfire, only twenty percent of people over seventy survived the journey. Things had changed on Earth.
We cruised down the highway, and for a moment, it felt like a weekend drive to the city. But it seemed, nowadays, it was never just a drive to somewhere. There was always an underlying tension to life. While I was thankful to be alive and have people around me again, we all knew there was life out there, and they weren’t our friends. It was like a constant buzz in your ear… knowing. We knew a lot more about them, thanks to Mae. Half human, half Kraski. We just called them hybrids, which Mae claimed to not find offensive.
“Honey, what do you think they want to see us for?” I asked for at least the third time since they’d called Mary.
“Still not sure. But I’m hoping it’s to give us a mansion on an island to retire to,” she quipped.
“Well, if we’re going there with Magnus and Nat, I hope we don’t have to share a house with them too.”
We neared the city, and I saw the large area of fields filled with cars. All around the world, there were similar areas. Once everything had settled, the cleanup began. One of the most trying things had been clearing the empty cars off the roadways. If they weren’t claimed, they were towed into fields, where mobile crushers would eventually come and recycle the materials. The world was in a state of flux, and it was doubtful everything would be straightened out for years to come.
“It’ll be good to see Mae too. I hear they’re doing some amazing things, tech-wise. I guess there have been some dramatic medical advances just from the computers on the ships.” I could see Mary look at me from my peripheral vision. I still had this nagging suspicion she was a little jealous of the fact that Mae was the spitting image of my dead wife, but she had never acted strange about it, and she and Mae had become fast friends.
“I heard, and I doubt they’re even leaking half of what’s really going on. Top secret. But I have a feeling your charm can get us the inside scoop when we get to D.C.,” I said with a wink.
“We’ll see. If I can be honest, I want to see what kind of reverse engineering they’ve done with the Kraski ships we have. I mean, this could really shrink our universe,” Mary said, a twinkle in her eye.
“I’m happy with a small universe… a tiny one, in fact. One that just involves the east coast: you, me, and this pup here.”
In a quick thirty minutes, we arrived in the Upper West Side. As we passed the museum, I thought back to the moment I saw the ship above the truck, and Ray running at me. I’d forgiven him a long time ago for what he did. Vanessa had convinced him to turn the Shield off, and he thought he could save his family for it. We were no worse for wear, but Ray was dead, and his family would never see him again. We never told anyone what happened that day. It was thought he was killed by the Kraski, and I intended it to stay that way.
Even though it was New York on a weekend, I still found a parking spot on West Central Park. It would have blown my mind a year ago. Now the vacant streets just made me remember all we’d been through. We got out of the truck and soon we were taking a nice walk through the park, and it felt great. Carey pulled at his leash, sniffing everything he could along the way.
“What if we just got a place here? A condo on the park?” I gazed back at the beautiful buildings to the west of us, peeking at us from above the trees. “We can walk Carey, go for runs in the park… see a show every now and then.” I tried hard to sell it.
I wasn’t sure what Mary would say, but she just smiled at me and held my hand. “I think that’s the perfect idea.”
“So do I,” I said, and we walked the rest of the way in near silence, just enjoying ourselves.
The Boathouse was coming up quickly, and I could spot Magnus’ red hair from a way away. He came trotting toward us, and Carey growled a bit as he saw a shape rushing at us. When he saw who it was, he turned into a wiggling mess.
“Dean! Mary!” He grabbed Mary and squeezed her, spinning around. “How have you two been?”
“Buddy. We talk every couple days,” I said, laughing at his excitement.
“I know, but we haven’t seen you guys in weeks,” he said, motioning to Natalia coming down the sidewalk toward us.
Mary waved to her, and I saw Nat’s eyes light up just a little bit. She was a closed-off person, and even though she had started to talk again during the events of last year, she still said few words, at least in public.
“Hi, Nat,” I said, and gave her a light hug. She smiled and hugged Mary. Before we knew it, we were sitting on the patio by the little lake by the Boathouse, watching a few couples idly paddle by in rented canoes.
Mae walked in as we were finishing our meals. I had a flashback to the night I’d seen Janine here for the first time, eight years earlier. My throat closed up a bit, and I pushed aside the feelings and memory. So much had changed since then.
“Sorry I’m late. We had something come up last night,” she said, sitting down at the table. We cleared a spot for her, and after waving the waiter over, she ordered a latte. “I can’t get over the luxuries of Earth. We were used to protein slop up there.” She pointed to the sky and my stomach tightened.
“What happened?” Mary asked.
“You know how our group is still under surveillance, right? Well, a couple of the ones I had marked as potential dissidents have been meeting secretly. Of course, they have no idea the government is watching them. They’re tired of being confined out on Long Island, but most of us understand the concern. We were piloting your people to their
deaths.”
“Most of us know you guys were doing what you thought was best. And almost all of you have been more than amiable since arriving on Earth. Sharing knowledge and being productive members of New Earth.” Magnus said this, and the name some people had been giving our planet sent shivers down my spine. If anything, this was still old Earth. Perhaps half-Earth. That might have been more fitting. The planet was still the same; it was the people that had changed.
“Well, we’ve been keeping an eye on them, and last night the mics picked up a name. Not one anyone on this planet wants to hear about. The Bhlat.” She said the last in a hushed tone, and we were all leaning in around the table. Damn. We’d learned a lot about the race from Mae and the other hybrids, but it still seemed like only a little.
“The Bhlat? Why would they be sneaking around discussing that?” I blurted, and the answer came to me before the words were out of my mouth.
“It seems to be the game these days. The Deltra infiltrated the Kraski, and the Kraski hybrids like us. It seems only fitting that somehow the Bhlat had gotten to someone on the Kraski before they evacuated their planet.” Mae stopped and looked at each of us before continuing. “If you thought the Kraski were bad news, you were wrong. They were just low-level compared to these guys. Sure, they took the Deltra and treated them like slaves, but they kept most of them alive. The Kraski only decided to kill all of humanity near the end. Those transport vessels were supposed to bring their people with them. That was, until the Bhlat came and destroyed them.”
We knew this story, but it still drew us in: a huge intergalactic war we were now a part of.
“If these guys find out where Earth is, it’s only a matter of time,” Mae said.
“Do you think there’s any way to prevent it?” Magnus asked, chest puffing out a bit.
“I hope so. I’m starting to like this world.”
The Survivors: Books 1-3 Page 22