The least Buford could do was show him someone cared at the end, that he wasn’t alone.
Buford did care.
This man represented so many people he would never see. Those partially affected, lying there, waiting for help that would never come.
“Close your eyes, son,” Buford told him. Then he stood. Whispering a prayer of forgiveness, Buford fired one shot.
He was a strong man and very little in life ever made him cry. Right there Buford wanted to break down and weep.
Not just for the man, but for all humanity.
There wasn’t a single soul on earth, physically effected or not, that wasn’t watching their life dissolve before their very eyes.
19 – NEVER READY
Cleveland, OH
Even though it was four blocks away, Bob could see the thick black smoke from the crematorium rising to the sky as Mitch and Liv took their turn bringing bodies to the old funeral home.
Bob had done it the day before, there was only another trip before they had finished placing all the hospital victims to rest.
He was glad for that.
It was emotionally daunting. They couldn’t do it for every body, but the ones they did were symbolic.
Bob was hungry and made his way to the cafeteria where the new woman that joined them the day before, volunteered to make lunch and other meals.
She wanted to keep busy and claimed to be an excellent cook.
The woman had read one too many ‘end of the world’ novels, and her paranoia, along with her pastor preaching that God was tossing out brimstone and fire, saved the life of her and her five year old son.
In fact, it saved the life of twelve people all together in the basement of the old Baptist church.
Bob and Mitch came across two of those twelve, after they spent several days underground, foraging for food at a local deli. Mitch had barely just called it into the General when the two men told them about the others.
She and the others were scared of the comet. A fear fed by her pastor who believed the three comets signified God’s end.
“I told them it was coming,” Pastor Patrick said.
“Yeah,” Bob told him. “So did NASA, but hey … does it matter which source gave the info?”
Bob wasn’t going to argue religion with the man, after all, who was Bob to say it wasn’t God.
All Bob knew was the outcome.
Most of the church dwellers made their way to the hospital while the rest went to search for family and said they’d return.
The hospital was the waiting place before they left for the safe site in Pennsylvania.
The woman, Ginny and her son, Dom, stood out to Bob. Something about them. Maybe it was her story, her claim to being a culinary genius and Bob’s desire to finally have a good meal.
At the far end of the cafeteria, Dom was seated at a table with Ollie in what looked like an intense task of building something with Legos.
Ollie was another one, that even days later, Bob just couldn’t figure out. He’d join Ollie and the boy after he got some of that gourmet lunch. They had kept the generators to the hospital running, even after the power went out.
The whole building wasn’t powered. But the kitchen and ER, where their amputees recovered, were.
He approached the counter, and Ginny smiled pleasantly at him. She wasn’t young nor was she old. She had a naivety about her.
“Hi, Bob? Lunch?” she asked.
“Yes, thank you. And thank you for cooking for us.”
“It’s no problem, I love to cook. Now don’t forget to grab silverware.” She reached down, set a plate on the shelf, then on that plate she placed a steaming, prepackaged, Styrofoam cup of Oodles of Noodles and a hard boiled egg. “There you go. Now, remember, if you want to get really daring. Put the egg in the soup.”
“A ha.” Bob stared at it. “I may just do that. Thanks. Looks … looks great, Ginny.”
Ginny smiled and nodded, and Bob took his plate, venturing over to Ollie and the little boy.
Upon a far away glance, the Lego structure just looked random, but when Bob drew closer, he was stunned at how good the table size building was. Each piece meticulously placed to recreate the Pentagon. He whistled. “That’s amazing. How long you been working on that?”
“Couple of hours,” Ollie answered.
Little Dom looked up. “It’s the Pentagon.”
“I can see that.”
“Ollie made it fast,” Dom said.
Sitting down, Bob looked at Ollie. “You amaze me. Video game clerk and Lego extraordinaire.”
“Eh,” Ollie shrugged. “Part of my geek hood.”
“Well, I’m impressed with that. Unlike the lunch.”
Ollie glanced at him. “What’s wrong with your lunch?"
“It’s Ramen noodles.”
“And?”
“Um … an egg.”
“What’s wrong with it?” Ollie asked, twitching his head toward Dom. “His mom worked really hard on it.”
“Oh. Oh, nothing at all. Just was hoping for beef.”
“That’s for dinner!” Dom said brightly.
Bob mumbled a, ‘swell’. He placed a fork in his noodles. “So, how are our patients today?”
“Donna is up and about, gathering medical supplies for the hunker down,” Ollie said. “She should take it easy. She won’t. She wants to go look for her family. Even though she knows what’s become of them. They were at a comet viewing party.”
“Ah.” Bob nodded. “Trent and Rose?”
“Trent will be able to travel. Rose is tough, but it’s gonna take some time. At least that’s what Mallory says. Her best bet is to get her to a real doctor.”
“For what it’s worth, you did a heck of a job for someone who learned amputation from video games.”
Ollie sort of chuckled.
“What?”
“That’s not all true. I mean, yeah, I did the amputation in video games. But I knew bodies because of my father. He was a mortician.”
Bob waved a finger. “And that is why you know about the crematorium.”
“My uncles place. It was a family tradition,” Ollie said.
“Why didn’t you follow? Not for you?”
“It was. I wanted to. I think I had a gift and knack for it. Make up … boy I was good. But, did you know in order to be a mortician you have to have to pass accounting. Never was really good with schooling, that’s something Liv and I have in common. She wasn’t a pilot because of the school.”
‘She mentioned that.” Bob lifted a fork of noodles.
“I think she’s my soul mate,” Ollie said nonchalantly.
Bob nearly choked on his noodles. “She's what?”
“My soul mate.”
“You’ve known her like five days.”
“You don’t need to know someone long to know,” Ollie said.
“She hit you with her car.”
“Fate.”
“You realize she’s almost old enough to be your mom.”
“Hardly. But … your point?”
“Just saying,” Bob shrugged. “She’s not very nice at times.”
“Why are you talking about Liv? That’s not nice,” Ollie scolded. “And it’s not like I am thinking romance. Sheesh, her husband just died. What is wrong with you? You can be a soul mate without romance.”
“You know what? You are absolutely right. This was my bad.”
“Thank you,” Ollie said.
Bob resumed his noodles, while Ollie and Dom worked on the Lego Pentagon.
He would keep his mouth shut, at least for the time being. They had other things to worry about. Like transporting nearly twenty people across two states, making sure two of them stayed alive long enough. All while not even knowing if it was all in vain. There was still a chance, that even at eight hundred feet below ground, it wasn’t going to be deep enough to survive Olympias.
<><><><>
The blue barrel was clearly marked ‘not for d
rinking’, so Liv figured that was the one Donna referred to.
Blue barrels of water set aside for emergency use, for cleaning during surgery and for sterilizing. The water has a sanitizer in it. Liv didn’t care, she used it for washing her entire body. She needed it after the day of moving remains.
It was incredibly warm for late spring and those they found at the church had made a camp outside the hospital. After cleaning up, she placed on a pair of surgical scrubs to keep cool, then went out with the others. Not that she would talk to them, but it was better than staying inside the hospital.
What Liv wanted to do was go home. She would in the morning, with no power, it was just too dark to move around at night.
It was pretty quiet, then again it was only twelve people. At the ambulance doors, people made tents out of bed sheets and curtains and beds from emergency room cots. About twenty feet from the emergency entrance, a small camp fire burned, around it were chairs brought out from the waiting room.
No one sat there, but Liv did. She set down a small six pack size cooler, pulled out a cigarette and lit it, grabbed a beer from her pack and leaned back as she opened it.
She was in her own world for a second when Mitch approached. “They cold?”
It took Liv a second to realize he referenced her beers. “Yes. Have one.”
“I brought you dinner.” He held out a cup of Oodles of Noodles. “I hope you don’t mind, I took the liberty of adding the egg to it.”
“Wasn’t that clever of her,” Liv said. “She has a knack.”
“Are you joking?”
“Not at all. It was a nice added surprise this afternoon.” She put out her cigarette. “Thank you.”
“I’m just glad you’re not mad at me anymore.”
“I’m not gonna thank you like you said I would, but … I will say this. Because you stopped me, two more people are alive.”
“I took it personally,” Mitch said. “I think you need to know that. My sister took her own life three years ago. We were texting, I … I didn’t take her threats seriously, you know. She always threatened. That time she did it.”
“I’m sorry”
“Yeah, me, too. Now … now I focus on life. I’m going tomorrow to help Donna look for her family. She suspects they’re gone but needs to know for sure.”
“That makes sense. I’m gonna head home and pack some things I need to take.” Liv said.
Mitch nodded.
“Are you going to look for her?”
Mitch looked up. “Excuse me?”
“Your wife. Are you going to look for her?”
“If I’m in the neighborhood.” Mitch lifted his beer and took a drink. “My main focus is to make sure me and Donna get back in time to travel to the site.”
“By tomorrow, according to the warnings, we have four days.”
“Yeah, and I know it’s only like a seven hour drive. We don’t know what we’ll deal with or run into, and Rose still isn’t a hundred percent. We may have to stop. Plus, we still need to find a vehicle big enough and fuel for it.”
“I have an idea.”
“What’s that?” Mitch asked.
“Why don’t we fly there. Contact the general, find out where we would land and fly there. Bob and I can get things ready at the airport. I’m sure there’s a plane.”
“That is a great idea.”
“And that gives us time,” Liv said. “Which I can’t figure out.”
“What do you mean?” Mitch asked.
“I mean, Olympias is coming in a week. Seven days. Why do we need to be there early?”
“Buford said the comet will cause other problems. He didn’t get into it.”
“Problems?” Liv asked. “It’s a comet that’s gonna kill everything that isn’t hundreds of feet underground. Really? Two days early? What difference is that going to make? Compared to dissolving everything living,” Liv said. “How bad are the effects really going to be?” She glanced upward to the clear sky. “Oh, wow.”
“What?” Mitch asked.
Liv pointed. “The stars are really bright. Look at that one.” She pointed to the bright light that seemed to dwarf everything. “I wonder what planet that is?”
“I don’t think that’s a planet. I think that’s Olympias.”
“It’s that big?” she asked.
“It’s that big.”
“Shit.”
<><><><>
Raven Rock Complex, PA
‘Virgil Caine is the name, and I served on the Danville train.”
George needed someone to talk to and other than the radio operators, Mallory was the one person he knew was awake, so he sought her out.
It was an odd choice of music.
‘Til Stoneman’s cavalry came and tore off the tracks again.’
He heard the song just as he approached her door, the line, ‘In the winter of 65, we were hungry just barely alive’ causing a sad sinking feeling in his gut just before he knocked on the pane of glass.
Mallory wasn’t in her biohazard suit, she was standing before a computer and turned around, waving him in.
George stepped inside. “Interesting choice of music.”
“Walker … my husband and I, this is what we listened to when we worked on something.”
This particular song only?”
“No,” she sadly chuckled. “A whole bunch like it. They were depressing. I kept thinking, if Walker was here, he would blast this and thrive while he worked on this … I don’t even know what to call it. It’s not a biological weapon.”
“I like to think of it as an alien invasion.”
“So true.”
“I’m not bothering you am I?” George asked.
“Not at all. I was just reviewing, stewing. Wondering what I did to deserve a two in the morning visit.”
“You’re a night owl. I needed someone to talk to.” George pulled up a stool. “I finished my final calculations. I’ll be off an hour or two, but …” He tossed a folder on the counter. “I’m not getting any closer than this.”
Mallory placed her hand on the folder and lowered her voice to a whisper as if someone could hear her. “Must be the night. I finished my calculations as well. I went over and over them.”
“Me, too.”
“Okay, so are you going over and over the results because you want them to be wrong?” Mallory asked.
“Yes.”
“Me, too.”
George huffed out a breath. “This isn’t good.”
“Wanna go first?”
“Sure why not.” George shrugged. “Olympias, at a speed in excess of a hundred thousand miles per hour will enter our orbit in just over four days. It will be within forty-thousand miles of us. Right smack between us and the moon. It will shoot in, get caught up, loop around and then leave. Two days it will take. It sounds far away, it’s not. The moon controls our tides. This comet will disrupt that. For two days that tail leaves a deadly trail, but the damage begins before that. Ever blow over an ashtray?”
“Can’t say that I have.”
“Well, when you do, the ashes fly everywhere. Think of that comet as our breath and the ashes water.”
“Holy shit.”
“Exactly.” Mitch said. “It will whoosh by and we are gonna feel it.”
Mallory pulled up a chair and sat across from him. “Two days right? Two days, not five hours for that tail to clear us, right?”
George nodded.
“That makes it even worse. By my calculations, basing it on the readings from Pyrrhus, we are looking at not only the dissolution of human and animal life, but all biological life. All.” She pursed her lips. “And the effects won’t last five hours or two days, it will take at the very least, twenty-eight months to clear up.”
“Are you saying people have to remain underground for over two years?”
“That’s what I believe. Yes.”
“Jesus, we have to get the word out,” George said. “Is it worth it?”
; “Life is always worth it” Mallory replied. “Life will find a way. We will eventually emerge.”
“Yeah.” George sighed out the word. “Hopefully, there’s a world left to emerge to.”
20 - TIME
Cleveland, OH
Bob whistled as if to say, ‘I’m impressed’ when he stepped on board the converted Airbus 318. The once commercial airplane was redone on the outside to remove the airline name and replaced with the logo and name of the classic rock band. Inside it was made more roomy, with single bucket, reclining, tan leather seats as opposed to the typical economy seating.
“How did you know this was here?” Bob asked Liv.
“My brother told me,” she replied. “It was part of a tour for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum. It works, they flew it in here. I remembered a couple days ago, then when me and Mitch came out the other day we saw it.”
“You know when you mentioned flying out there, I didn’t think you were serious,” Bob said.
“I didn’t think you did. I mean you were pretty facetious saying, oh sure, find us a plane.”
“You did.”
“I did.”
Bob examined the cabinets, whistling again. “Lots of booze.”
“You’ll be sober when you fly, right?” Liv asked.
“Yeah, although I can’t remember the last time I flew sober.”
“Swell.” Her head turned when Mitch walked into the plane.
“Pretty great, huh?” Mitch asked, then saw the open cabinet of liquor. “You’ll be sober when you fly us?”
“Why is that even a question,” Bob said. “First her, then you.” He grabbed a bottle, opened it and poured some.
“And you have to ask,” Liv said.
“I’m not flying now, am I?” Bob downed the drink.
“Can we use it?” Mitch asked. “Seems big enough.”
“Yeah. Well, we’d have to taxi it back to a better runway,” Bob said. “We’d also have to find out where we could land closest to Rock Raven and we’d need transportation there.”
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