Empty Planet

by Lynette Sloane

  Martin Haliday, the surviving Earth-Cry leader, was yelling, “Let us in, we want the vaccination. Save us!”

  A nurse used a loud hailer to make herself heard over the frightened mob, “Get back, no one can save you now. You already have the virus. Let the healthy through.”

  Undeterred, the crowd surged forward. The nurse fired a gun into the air several times and the crown quieted.

  She spoke into the loud hailer again, “If you have the virus leave the area or you’ll be shot.” Most of the people wandered away knowing they had no hope, a few of them collapsing as the virus took over their central nervous systems.

  Haliday fell back against a wooden fence, beaten. He coughed deeply, his eyes running, and let himself slip down onto the floor like the condemned man he was.

  I noticed Dad had been speaking to Zee while we’d been watching the screen. From her shocked expression I concluded that she was hearing about C.

  She turned to address the young man operating the interface nearest the doorway we’d just come through.

  “Stefan, seal the exit. We’re all inside.”

  The sandy haired lad sadly entered a security code on his touch-screen interface and the small reception room began filling with a quick drying compound, harder than granite. No one would be able to follow us into the shelter, which was now completely cut off from the outside world.

  “This way,” said Dad, leading us though another doorway and into a huge manmade, rectangular cavern the size of an aeroplane hanger where hundreds of Section personnel were standing around anxiously awaiting orders.

  Gemma and I spotted Alison, Sam and a few of the other Primary Jumpers, so went over to talk to them while Dad spoke to Zee again.

  Zee listened to what he had to say, then, as she took her place behind a microphone, the crowd became quiet and she began addressing us all.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I am deeply sorry to have to inform you that your Commander has been killed in action. I will now be acting as Commander of Operations but will still liase with Section Directorship.”

  The crowd were clearly shaken at the news of C’s death, but continued listening to what Zee had to say to them.

  “We have been preparing for this day for many years. In a few minutes a large parallel vortex will open and we will begin moving to our new headquarters. Check the touch screens on the other side of the vortex for your designations and instructions, then go to your new posts to await orders.”

  Because everyone had been identified by retinal scan, the system knew exactly who was present and was able to direct everybody to his or her work designations and their place in this new society.

  We heard the distant rumble of the vortex system powering up, and a few moments later a large vortex, several metres wide, opened. With a few exceptions, the Primary Jumpers had been standing together near the back of the waiting room so it followed that we were going to be some of the last to relocate.

  As the room emptied and we got nearer to the temporal doorway we could see our destination was a large, naturally formed cave.

  “So we’re still underground then,” I mumbled, as we stepped into our new headquarters.

  “Yes, but now we’re safe,” said a familiar voice I hadn’t heard for some time. I turned around.

  “Carla!” I exclaimed. “You’re here.”

  “Yes, that’s true,” she said, smiling. I felt slightly embarrassed for stating the obvious. As a teenage boy I’d always tried to act grown up in front of Carla. I had wanted to impress her, and consequently often embarrassed myself. Now as a young man I’d done it again.

  “I’ve been counted as a Section member for some time now,” she said. “I was the first born Jumper you know.”

  “Yes, Dad said. When we settle in the future location you’ll be the oldest person on the planet, unless the resident population survives,” I said cheekily.

  Carla chose to ignore my comment.

  “I shall have to find John,” she said. “He tricked me. I met him on a jump when he was in his twenties. I quite fancied him and invited him to join my website and the leadership team, but after the jump he returned to his natural time where I hadn’t been born or even conceived.”

  “He told me that too, well not the bit about you fancying him.”

  Carla already knew her designation—Chief Intranet Coordinator—and had received her orders, so she said, “See you later,” and left, making her way to the living quarters she was to share with three other women.

  The new Section Headquarters were a hive of activity. Everyone poured over the touch screens looking to see where he or she was supposed to be, and how to get there. Other screens, fixed on the cave walls, gave directions and showed maps of the cave complex. Some of the caves had been formed by natural means and others carved out of the rock.

  I was exhausted. It was three o’clock in the morning; the day had been long and eventful, and I was worried sick about Anna. I knew she’d had the vaccination, but George and David had refused it, so I was deeply concerned as to how it might affect her and our unborn baby if she was to witness her father dying and David suffering the effects of the super-virus. I knew our unborn baby would be safe from the anti-virus for a while, but soon after birth he or she would need the vaccination too.

  Maybe George and David won’t catch the virus today, I thought. I hoped they wouldn’t catch it for weeks and that Anna and our baby would be safe for a while longer, but in reality I knew this wasn’t the case because George’s friend had said he would drop the Christmas tree off that afternoon. This event marked the day David told me he and his father caught the super-virus.

  When I got to the front of the queue I entered my name on the touch screen and waited for my designation. A new window opened. It stated: Steven Blakely aged Twenty Three, Primary Jumper, then gave the direction to my digs, a small cave on level 17, with the added instruction, stay in digs and await further instructions via your home station.

  I memorised the directions to level 17, said ‘see you’ to Gemma and made my way to my cave. I was concerned for her; she was still tearful but was trying to put on a brave face.

  I thought I might get lost in the cave system, but there were touch screens at every passage intersection, so it was easy to get further directions. The caves and tunnels were well lit with overhead lighting, and the air was fresh, indicating a very good air conditioning system, but, all the same, I was glad I wasn’t claustrophobic On my way to level 17 I passed an area of manmade tunnels and caves cut in darker rock, then ascended one level, via a stone staircase, and moved on to an area of limestone rock, where the caves were all naturally formed.

  After walking on the hard pebbly ground for several minutes I found level seventeen. Mine was the first cave and was labelled ‘A’: hence my new address, ‘17A’.

  I stepped inside my small cave and sat on a plastic covered mattress, which had been placed on a natural shelf about a metre off the ground level at the back of the cave. The cave roof was high and the walls a light grey limestone, about five metres apart, with a natural, mostly level stone floor. A small voice-controlled overhead light shone out near the middle of the cave illuminating a sliding door on the cave entrance. It was primitive but would suffice.

  A small lamp had been placed on a ledge near to the sleeping area, and a sofa, an office chair, and a home station computer built into a desk/storage compartment, were positioned nearer to the doorway. I pressed the ‘on’ switch and the computer sprang to life. Another naf hotel I thought to myself, you can’t even make coffee in here, bet there’s no room service either.

  Moments later, when the computer was fully booted, a screen opened bearing a message: ‘Welcome Steve, would you like a virtual tour of the cave system?’ I clicked on ‘yes’, adjusted the audio settings and sat back in my chair to watch.

  The virtual tour began, voiced over by a homely sounding female of indeterminate age.

  ‘Section hopes that your stay in their new head
quarters will be comfortable. The cave system is vast, consisting of more than fifty miles of tunnels, several large eating areas and many communal caverns. The sleeping quarters, stretching over twenty levels, are sufficient to house over two thousand people. There are several canteens on each level, and cold water and drainage systems for waste have been plumbed into the communal washrooms. The toilets are also communal but you will find plenty in each area.

  ‘All electrical items are run on hydroelectric power generated by underground rivers and waterfalls within the cave system. Everything here is natural and we are virtually self-sufficient.

  ‘The whole system has taken more than twenty years to plan, tunnel out, and construct. Our air conditioning system is second to none and is an amazing accomplishment of twenty-first century engineering. Fresh air is pumped in from outside, filtered to remove all trace of the virus, and circulated around the whole cave system where, even in winter, the temperature will remain a constant fourteen degrees Celsius. Please note that in order to preserve the air quality, no one is permitted to cook or build a fire in their living quarters, or to smoke anywhere within the complex.’

  I paused the blurb for a moment, walked over to my bunk and lay back on the mattress. The pain of missing Anna, compounded by my worry for her and our baby’s well being, felt almost physical. Somehow I dozed off, suddenly waking some time later when a couple of noisy women passed my cave entrance laughing. I checked my watch; it was just before five o’clock in the morning.

  I un-paused the virtual presentation and listened to the remaining few minutes.

  ‘There is enough food stored within the complex to feed two thousand people for ten years.

  ‘The lower levels are situated below the water table, and contain a vast freshwater supply and our fish farm. By the time you listen to this broadcast the cave system will have been sealed and cut off from the outside world, which, you will agree, is essential for security, and the future of mankind.

  ‘Once the virus has decimated the world’s population, scouts will be sent for further provisions and to find out what has become of the survivors of this viral holocaust.’

  The virtual tour ended and I was given the option to ‘play again’, which I declined. I checked my inbox and opened the email headed ‘Directive’. It instructed me to report to Area One on the highest level the following morning at nine-thirty sharp.

  I turned off the home station and flopped down on my bed, lying on my back with my arms cupped behind my head. It had been a very long day. Over the last few months we had done all we could to save the rest of humanity: now they had to fend for themselves.

  I hoped that, like David Franklin, some pockets of humanity would survive, and one day, many thousands of years from now the Jumpers and I we would step into a new world and interact with their descendants. Would they be technologically advanced or still living in caves like ancient man? If the latter, at least we would have something in common with them. We were, after all, the cavemen of the late twenty first century.

  I was physically and mentally exhausted, and most of all heartbroken at the thought of what Anna must be going through up on the surface. It was mid-December so David’s recount of Anna bringing the Christmas tree home to her father’s house was probably accurate, except that we had now changed the time line a little and it was George’s friend, Mark Benson, who had brought the tree—and probably the super-virus—to the household. Anna was about six months pregnant so this also correlated with what David Senior had told me that night in the barn as he tried to negotiate his freedom to see his sister.

  Grieving at the thought of never seeing Anna again, and never holding our baby, I turned over, hugged my pillow and shut my eyes.

  __________

  About an hour later Dad shook my shoulder, waking me from a fitful sleep.

  “What’s up, it can’t be morning,” I moaned.

  “It is. Zee has given us special permission to leave Section Headquarters. Section Directorship has requested that we retrieve someone from the surface.”

  “It must be someone very important to them. Who? … And what’s the time anyway?” Tired and lacking enthusiasm, my thoughts were still captivated by Anna and our unborn baby.

  “Just after six. Section needs to know how long babies are protected by the antibodies received from their mothers during pregnancy, especially if that baby is the son or daughter of a Jumper,” Dad explained.

  “Anna!” I exclaimed, “Anna’s the only woman pregnant by a Jumper and she’s had the vaccination.”

  “I thought that would perk you up.”

  Dad led me back to Area One, which contained the new Hub and vortex room. Everything was going to be all right; Anna would be with me for a while longer.

  Vanessa Wilkins didn’t look too pleased at having been awakened to work the vortex interface. She’d worked through most of the night and had been told she could have the day off. Her eyes were puffy and she wore tracksuit bottoms and a sweatshirt instead of the usual blouse and immaculate suit.

  “Good morning Vanessa,” I said cheerfully, “I didn’t recognise you without your makeup.” Vanessa scowled and opened a parallel vortex.

  Dad leaned in towards me saying, “You have a real way with women Son.”

  I peered through the vortex to see where it was sending us. The sparkling vortex lights picked out the outline of George’s kitchen units. Dad followed me through. We were in the farmhouse.

  “Anna will still be in bed,” I whispered. Dad and I crept through the kitchen doorway, across the hallway and up the stairs. I wondered how I was going to wake Anna without startling her. I needn’t have worried; she was already awake. As I pushed the bedroom door open she sat up in bed.

  “It’s Steve and John. We’ve come to pick you up,” I reassured her.

  Anna reached out to the bedside lamp and turned it on. I could see she’d been crying.

  “Oh Anna,” I said as I walked over and sat next to her on the bed.

  “It’s Dad,” she sobbed. He’s dead. The virus …” She broke down, unable to continue.

  “Shhhh, I know,” I said, gently cradling her in my arms, aware that nothing I could say would help her feel any better.

  My father spoke from the doorway, “I’m sorry love.”

  She cried silently, her face against my chest.

  “We’ve got to get you to Section,” Dad explained. “Please get dressed and get your things together.” He stepped outside the bedroom while Anna put on her leggings and a maternity dress, then slipped on her socks and boots. I picked up her case while she grabbed her coat, and then we all quietly made our way down the stairs.

  As we passed the living room door Anna heard David coughing so she stepped inside for a moment.

  “David, you any better?”

  “No, keep away,” he said, his voice gravely.

  I looked through the doorway. “I’m taking Anna somewhere safe,” I said.

  Anna made her way across the room and knelt down next to her brother. She looked into his bloodshot eyes. He was running a high fever and was sweating and shivering at the same time.

  “Please keep away, I don’t want you and the baby to catch this.”

  “I won’t, I had the jab. Let me hold you,” Anna said, tears running down her face.

  “No. This killed Dad and it’s got me. I’ve never felt this bad.” He called out, his sore throat making his voice hard to understand, “Steve, take her away … and please look after her.”

  “I will, I promise. And David … hold in there, I know you’ll make it.”

  I led Anna out of the room and back to the kitchen where the return vortex was starting to open.

  Vanessa didn’t look at all pleased to see my wife step into the vortex room, and wore a fixed frown on her face.

  “These are the new Headquarters,” I said to Anna as she looked around the cave, “the old ones were blown up by Earth-Cry.”

  “So we’re going to live in a cave?”
she asked.

  “Yes Sweetie.”

  That night I took Anna’s hand as we cuddled in bed. She wasn’t wearing her engagement ring.

  “Did you leave your ring at the cottage?” I asked.

  “That was the strangest thing,” she answered sleepily, “I was painting my nails when it disappeared from before my eyes. It really freaked me out, but after everything that happened yesterday I forgot to mention it.”

  “I’ll get you another one,” I promised, before confessing that I’d brought it back from a jump, and explaining the laws of temporal adjustment to her.

  Chapter 23

  The next few months were a hectic but well organised blur of activity. As no Earth-Cry member would have taken the vaccination, it was assumed that all of them had perished from the super-virus. However, before their demise they managed to blow up the surface vortex core. This saved us the trouble of disposing of it ourselves. Section couldn’t have left such potentially dangerous technology on the surface, even though the surface vortex core was only a booster to the primary vortex core hidden deep underground. If discovered by the surviving members of society, the vortex core could have been used to wreak havoc with time and space, either purposely, or accidentally, by people trying to change the past, desperate to get their loved ones back.

  The Earth-Cry rebels died thinking they had won the final victory, but this wasn’t the case. We were living proof of that. What they didn’t realise was that the primary vortex cores, both in the United Kingdom and across the world, had been located deep below the ground in cave systems for over ten years.

  Communications with all other Section Headquarters had been restored so we now knew that nearly all Section buildings had been totally annihilated and their employees relocated underground in similar cave systems. We still had no way of knowing how many people remained alive on the surface, but just short of five million vaccinations had been given worldwide. This sounded a lot, but it was a long way short of the necessary eight point five billion needed to vaccinate the whole of mankind.