Mass Extinction Event (Book 13): Day 365 [The Final Day]

by Cross, Amy

  “Don't be an idiot!” he gasps, trying to shake me off, but I manage to stay strong.

  He throws himself back, knocking me into the wall, but I keep hold of the two ends of the restraint and I tighten its hold around his throat.

  He reaches up and tries to pull the restraint away, and I respond by pulling it even tighter.

  “Stop playing games!” he splutters, clearly struggling to breathe. “I'm giving you a chance to be part of the future, Elizabeth! Just calm down and eventually you'll see that this is a wonderful opportunity!”

  “Nine minutes to launch,” the computer announces. “All occupants prepare.”

  “It's too late to back out now!” Carver gasps. “Why can't you see that?”

  Before I have a chance to reply, he pulls me forward and then he slams me against the wall. When that doesn't work, he does it again, and again, until I feel as if I'm about to get smashed into pieces. Somehow I manage to keep my grip on the restraints around his neck, even when he turns himself around and then runs back, slamming me against the opposite wall.

  The engines are booming louder and louder beneath us.

  “Maybe you don't want to go,” Carver says breathlessly. “I get that. But don't you see that it's your duty? You and I, together, can carry the last survivors of the human race into the stars. When we get to our destination, we can shepherd them as they're woken from their long slumber, and we can make sure that this extinction event doesn't actually have to mean extinction. If only a few of us survive, that's enough to show that we made it out of this madness.”

  “I just want to go back to the lighthouse!” I gasp.

  “Tough!” he yells. “You don't get to choose! Your father was right, at least until the end! When he started saying he'd let you leave, that's when I knew I had to get rid of him.”

  “What did you do?” I shout. “Where is he?”

  “Where do you think he is, you stupid girl?” he spits, as he tries desperately to pull the restraint around his neck. “You can be stronger than him! You can be better than him! He's the weakest part of you!”

  “He's still my father!”

  “He was,” he replies. “He'll have bled out by now.”

  “What do you -”

  “I killed him, Elizabeth,” he continues. “Surely you've figured that out by now!”

  “What?”

  For a moment, just a fraction of a second, I loosen my grip on the restraint as I try to tell myself that Carver has to be lying. If Dad was dead, I'd know, wouldn't I? I'd feel it somehow. I quickly realize that this is probably just some kind of trick, a way to distract me, but suddenly Carver pulls the restraint away and turns to me, and then he grabs me by the shoulders and throws me down against the floor.

  “Eight minutes to launch,” the computer reminds us. “All occupants prepare.”

  “Are you finally ready to accept your role in all of this?” Carver asks, struggling to get his breath back as he stands over me. “You're wasting our energy.”

  As I wait for him to continue, I use my remaining foot to carefully knock away the fake foot that I've been wearing, while being sure to leave the attachment section in place. That section's a pretty sharp pointy bit, and I figure right now it might be my best shot.

  “Come on, Elizabeth,” Carver says, holding a hand out toward me. “Let's get on with this.”

  I hesitate, and then I start sitting up. I'm playing for time just a little, waiting for the perfect time to strike. Carver reaches his hand closer, but I pull away slightly, keen not to seem to desperate. The seconds are ticking past now, and I know I don't have much longer.

  “Seven minutes to launch,” the computer states. “All occupants prepare.”

  “Elizabeth,” Carver says, “please...”

  I stare at him for a moment longer, and then I reach out and grab the side of the computer terminal, as if I'm about to haul myself up. Then, just as Carver takes a step back and smiles, as if he actually thinks that he's convinced me, I scream and swing my damaged leg at him, and I hit him so hard that I send him crunching back against the wall and my fake foot's attachment digs straight into his thigh.

  “What the -”

  He tries to push me away, but the attachment is wedged too deep and I quickly give it a firm twist. He lets out a pained cry, and blood is already gushing from the wound. A moment later he twists to the side, forcing my leg away, and then he reaches down and grabs the front of my shirt. Dragging me up, he turns me around and throws me against the trolley, then he grabs me again and holds me up.

  “Is that really how you want to play this, Elizabeth?” he sneers. “Fine, I've tried being nice to you, but you're just as ungrateful as all the rest. Your father begged for his life as I shot him. Does that make you feel any better? If you'd behaved yourself, that might not even have been necessary.” He leans closer to me. “This little act of rebellion isn't going to change anything, though. You're coming with me to the new world, whether you like it or not.”

  “No!” I scream as he lifts me up and slams me down onto the trolley. “Stop!”

  Holding me down with one hand, he uses the other to grab a mask from the wall. As he pulls the mask closer, I see that it's connected to a pipe that runs up into a device on the ceiling.

  “I was going to give you the chance to see a nice view during the launch,” he tells me, “but now I think I'll have to knock you out a little sooner. Sleep tight, Elizabeth. See you in five hundred years.”

  With that, he slams the mask against my face. I try to fight back, but – as the computer warns us that there are only six minutes remaining, I feel a noxious gas starting to fill my mouth and nostrils.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Thomas

  “Let go of her!” I yell, rushing into the rocket's top section and grabbing Edward Doncaster from behind, throwing him across the room.

  Pushing a mask away from her face, Elizabeth tries to clamber off some kind of bed, only to drop to the floor. I manage to support her, but she's clearly weak, and a moment later something slams into the back of my head.

  I turn and see Edward Doncaster right behind me. He tries to grab my throat, but in the confusion I step on his left ankle and push down, and I hear a loud snapping sensation. He cries out and falls back, hitting the ground hard, and then I kick him in the face as he tries once more to get up.

  “Are you okay?” I ask, dropping to my knees next to Elizabeth.

  She tries to say something, but she can barely get any sounds out of her mouth at all.

  “I remember you,” Doncaster gasps. “I was worried you might have survived, but I never credited you with the sense to find your way up here. Where's your little friend?”

  “You killed my sister!” I yell.

  “Of course I didn't,” he replies. “It was the fall that killed her.”

  I reach out to grab him, but Elizabeth stops me. She's still desperately trying to get her breath back, and at the same time she tries but fails to stand.

  “Five minutes to launch,” a computerized voice announces. “All occupants prepare.”

  “So you're Maxwell Carver as well,” I say, watching him as he prepares to try to come back at me. “What's with the two names?”

  “I knew the good people of Philadelphia would eventually try to attack the facility,” he replies. “We had defenses, but they weren't impregnable, and I was worried that the fools might luck into a way through. So I did the only sensible thing. I went to Philadelphia, I took on an assumed name, and I made sure that I was in charge of their pathetic efforts. That way, I could be sure that they'd launch a frontal assault on the strongest part of the facility, all while rushing straight past the real entrance.” He pauses, and then he smiles. “And to be honest,” he adds, “I rather enjoyed being in charge of both sides in a war.”

  “You sent them into battle against each other?” I reply, horrified by the idea. “You sent them out there to kill each other, and it was all for nothing?”


  “It wasn't for nothing,” he purrs. “The battle served its purpose by removing a few inconvenient irritations that might have become full-on problems.”

  “You're sick!” I shout.

  “Not from where I'm standing. Don't get emotional about this. Logic beats emotion hands down, every time.”

  “You're nothing but -”

  Suddenly he tries to lunge at me, but I quickly kick his damaged heel and he cries out. Pulling away, he's clearly in extreme pain, even if he won't admit the fact.

  “How's that for emotion?” I sneer.

  “We seem to have a problem,” he continues. “Three into one won't go, and I'm certainly not giving up my seat. I'll be honest, I don't really mind which of you comes with me. Think about that for a moment. One of you has the chance to escape this dying world and come to a whole new planet, to see the stars, to experience the wonders of the universe. The other must stay behind and die here like everyone else. Truly, I'm shocked that the pair of you aren't already squabbling over the opportunity.”

  “There's no way either of us would ever go with you!” I shout.

  “Four minutes to launch,” the computer reminds us. “All occupants prepare.”

  “Time to decide,” Carver sneers. “Who's it going to be?”

  “We already told you!” I yell. “We're not -”

  “Me!” Elizabeth says suddenly.

  Turning to her, I see that she's staring at Carver.

  “Fine!” she snaps angrily, pulling herself up. “Let Thomas go, and give him time to get far away from this place before the rocket launches.”

  “He'd better start running,” Carver replies.

  “Delay the countdown.”

  “Impossible,” he explains. “I wouldn't, even if I wanted to, but the matter is entirely out of my hands. It's all automated at this point, and shutting it down now would take too long. Not to mention the fact that it would cause massive damage, and lead to a long delay.”

  “You have to go,” Elizabeth says, turning to me and then pushing me toward the door. “I've got this covered, but at least one of us should make it away from here.”

  “There's no way I'm leaving you here,” I reply. “Come on, we still have time to -”

  “Trust me!” she says firmly, staring at me with an eerie new intensity. “Maybe Carver's right, maybe this is a responsibility that someone has to take on.”

  “You can't go with him!” I tell her. “He killed your -”

  I stop myself just in time.

  “I know,” she says firmly, with a strange lack of emotion. “I just... I know what I have to do. I get it now. Trust me. I was confused before, I was frightened, but now it... I don't know how to explain it, but something just clicked and it all makes sense. Please, Thomas... you have to trust me.”

  That's the third time she's used those two words, and I'm starting to think that she really does know what she's doing. Looking past her, I see that Carver is watching us intently as he slows picks himself up off the ground.

  “Your father gave me this,” I say, suddenly remembering the little badge that John wanted me to pass on. Fishing it out of my pocket, I hand it out toward her. “He said it reminded him of when he used to watch cartoon shows with you. It was kind of one of the last things he said to me before...”

  My voice trails off, and after a moment she takes the badge from me.

  “I remember,” she whispers, with a faint smile. “I didn't before. He tried to give this to me a while ago, and I think he was disappointed that I said I'd forgotten it. It was some weird character named George Crow and...”

  She pauses, clearly lost in thought, but a moment later Carver comes over to join us, and he puts a hand on Elizabeth's shoulder. I swear, I've never seen a single human being who looks so utterly smug.

  “This is very cute,” he says, “but there's not a lot of time left. Your big goodbye is over.”

  “I know,” Elizabeth replies, before slipping the badge into her pocket. “There's just one more thing I need to say first.”

  “What's that?” I ask her.

  She stares at me for a moment.

  “Seeya,” she says with a faint smile.

  “What -”

  Suddenly she grabs the mask that's hanging from the wall, and she presses it against Carver's face. He tries to push her away, but I grab his head and hold him still. I don't even know what's happening, but a moment later Carver's legs seem to crumple under him and he starts dropping to the floor. I try to hold him up, but he's getting weaker by the second, and finally Elizabeth moves the mask away. Carver continues to struggle for just a few seconds, and he lets out a faint murmur, but he's clearly fighting a losing battle.

  “That should knock him out for a few minutes,” Elizabeth tells me as she sets the mask aside. “Let's go. He can figure things out when he wakes up in five hundred years.”

  “Three minutes to launch,” the computer says. “All occupants prepare. Instructional video follows.”

  Once Carver's unconscious body is on the floor, I step around him and follow Elizabeth to the door. I still don't know how we're going to get away from here in time, but I figure we have to at least try. The rocket's engines are roaring far beneath us and, as we reach the door and begin to step out, I figure we're gonna have to run far and fast. Then again, I've managed to get out of some pretty tough situations before, so hopefully this isn't going to be too different.

  “Welcome to Project Atherius,” a woman's voice says suddenly. “Welcome to the survival, and the future, of the human race.”

  Elizabeth suddenly stops dead in her tracks ahead of me, so fast that I bump into her.

  “What is it?” I ask. “What's wrong?”

  She hesitates, and then she turns and looks past me. Glancing over my shoulder, I see that a video screen has come to life on the wall, showing the face of a woman.

  “You're now past the three-minute call,” the woman says with a smile, “and the door is about to close. You might be feeling scared, you might even be having second thoughts, but we wanted you to know that everyone at Project Atherius – in fact, everyone in the whole world – is right behind you. You're going to take our hopes and our dreams far off into the stars, and you're going to make sure that the human race lives on.”

  “We need to go,” I tell Elizabeth, but now there are tears in her eyes. “Why are we stopping like this?”

  I wait, but a moment later she steps back over toward the screen.

  “You're carrying enough pods to populate our future colony,” the woman explains. “Over one thousand specimens will be activated in the new world, and it's your job to help them grow and take humanity to its next stage.”

  “That's her,” Elizabeth says, her voice trembling with emotion as she continues to stare at the screen. “That's my mother.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Elizabeth

  “Once you reach your destination,” Mom continues on the screen, “your ship's A.I. will initiate the procedure required for the start of humanity's rebirth. Most of this will be done automatically. Your job, when the time comes, will be to support the next generation as they begin to grow in their new home.”

  “That's her voice,” I whisper.

  How could I have forgotten? It was as if, when all this craziness began to go down exactly one year ago, the sound of Mom's voice was somehow cut from my mind. I didn't forget anything else, at least not anything important, but Mom's voice slipped away and I couldn't get it back, no matter how hard I tried. Even in dreams, I didn't hear her properly, I heard some distorted version. And now, standing here on a rocket hundreds of miles from home, Mom's voice is being played back to me and I remember her properly.

  Stepping forward, I reach out and put a hand on the screen. My fingers are touching the spot that's showing Mom's face, and somehow I feel closer to her, even though I know this video must have been recorded well over a year ago. I guess Dad must have drafted her in. I guess, long before he knew I'd
be on this rocket, he thought Mom would be the perfect person to record this message.

  “Everything,” she says, “all our work, has been leading to this day. How many hours have Project Atherius technicians worked to refine our systems? How many seemingly impossible hurdles have been overcome? Project Atherius represents the absolute pinnacle of human technological achievement, it's a miracle that few would believe possible, but it's real. So put aside your doubts and your fears, forget your skepticism, and focus on the fact that you're on the cusp of finally breaking the chains of creation. You're going to do what no humans have ever done before. You're going to reach the stars.”

  Tears are running down my face now, and somehow Mom's words are stirring something in me. She's so full of optimism and hope, and I don't want to let her down.

  “This is the most important step in the survival of our species,” she continues, and I can see the fear in her eyes now, perhaps even sadness. “No matter what happens, you need to know that we're all behind you. We're all with you, in some way. And we all know, deep in our hearts, that you're going to succeed. God speed and good luck out there. From all of us.”

  She smiles, and then the screen goes black.

  “Two minutes to launch,” the computer says. “All occupants prepare. Final stage initiating.”

  “We have to go,” Thomas stammers, grabbing my arm from behind. “Elizabeth? I really don't think we want to be on this thing when those two minutes are up.”

  I stare at the black screen, and I can just about see my own face reflected now.

  “Elizabeth!” Thomas hisses, trying to pull me away.

  I want to go. I want to find the lighthouse again, and I want to spend the rest of my life living peacefully and getting by and maybe even starting that little garden I was always planning. I want the peace of those clear blue days when I'd just sit and watch the water, when nobody would interrupt me, when I felt safe. I want to go back to all of that, but at the same time I can't help replaying Mom's words over and over in my head. I know this is crazy, but I keep thinking that maybe somehow, in some weird way, she knew that she was talking to me. Or that she might end up talking to me. Or at least that it was possible. Or that, if it did happen, then I'd make the right choice.