by John Freitas
He looked back forward and the red light was on. He took a deep breath and got ready to speak. Then, he remembered they were going to count him in and point. He couldn’t see though. He wondered if he had missed the signal. He stared forward without saying anything.
15
Sean Grayson and Jenny Restrepo – West Memphis, Arkansas
Jenny scrolled through her contacts and tried more than one, but she was getting no signal on calls or data. “Is your phone working, Sean?”
“I have power.” Sean turned the phone where it sat on the side table. “I’m getting no signal though. Did your father say what channel?”
“No. He sounded frantic though. I’m scared, Sean.”
Sean stopped flipping channels. “Looks like it doesn’t matter.”
“Why?” Jenny set down her phone.
“The same broadcast is on every one.” Sean leaned forward and pointed with the remote. “Isn’t that your father?”
“Where?” Jenny sat down next to him.
He waved the remote. “On the split screen. On the left.”
“Turn it up.”
“It is up.”
“Turn it up more and stop talking.”
Sean looked at her, but did what she said.
The screen switched to the group of men in suits and lab coats and Jenny’s dad vanished from view. Camera bulbs flashed and the man held up a hand as he began to speak. “It is vital that the following information be given out to the world, so no interruptions or questions, please, until we have said everything that needs to be said.”
Sean swallowed and glanced at Jenny. She was wringing her hands and sitting out on the edge of the sofa.
Sean switched hands for the remote and put a hand on her shoulder. “Is this what your father was trying to tell us about before the cellphone cut out?”
“I don’t know. Let’s listen.”
The man on the screen continued. “Strange phenomenon involving fluctuations in gravity, normally considered a constant, have been experienced at various parts of the world. A few astronomers have noticed anomalies in the appearance of the stars due to these gravitational waves. Due to the regularity of the gravitational waves traveling through our solar system, the revolution of the Earth has taken us between these waves of distortion. As the Earth’s path encounters one, it travels through our planet. Movement in the Earth’s core and shifting in tectonic plates has caused seismic events of various intensities. It has also changed our perception of gravity within the sometimes narrow path of the waves. With a few exceptions, the Eastern Hemisphere has experienced the entering waves as heavier gravity. The Western Hemisphere has experienced the exiting waves as lighter than normal gravity.”
Reporters began shouting questions and the man waved his hands calling for them to quiet.
Jenny whispered. “This is crazy.”
“I saw it,” Sean said.
“What? When?”
“During the fire,” Sean licked his lips and closed his eyes. “Objects were floating in the building. I lifted a beam off that boy because it weighed nothing in that moment. I floated with him up the hallway like we were weightless in space. Then, gravity came back and it all crashed down.”
She rubbed his back. “Why didn’t you say something? That was a couple days ago. Have you been holding this all in?”
“I didn’t think I could be believed. Admitting hallucinations is not the best move in my line of work or with my … history.”
Jenny hugged him. “It was all real. You could have told me. You can tell me anything.”
“I know. I was scared.”
The man on television said, “Please, everyone quiet. Time is short. Einstein had predicted that exploding stars would create gravitational distortions in spacetime. This theory was proven years ago by LIGO, a gravitational wave detection laboratory.
The recent strange phenomena we have seen around the globe were created by strong gravitational waves. These waves were created by the collapse of Alpha Centauri, one of our closest neighbors in the galactic neighborhood. This collapse occurred some time ago and its waves were periodically going toward our sun and earth sometimes crossed its path. One physicist and astronomer, Dr. Paulo Restrepo of the Marlo-Pitts observatory in South America, was able to quantify the effect and clue the rest of the scientific community in on it. What he discovered though was that the collapse of Alpha Centauri was actually the third in a cascade of three stars. The net effect of that triple collapse and the last cumulative wave pulse will pass through the Earth in a few hours from now.”
“Some global satellites have been knocked out of orbit by the waves so far and very likely there will be many more lost soon, so we need to get all of this information out as quickly as possible. Please, listen closely.”
“It will again enter through the Eastern Hemisphere and exit through the West, but the effect will be far more intense. People in the Eastern Hemisphere should stay low to the ground away from water, hard surfaces, stay outside of vehicles of any kind, and away from loose structures or other objects that might fall. The G forces will be intense and may result in unconsciousness or injury. Do not hold other people under you during the effect. This includes adults or children.”
“In the Western Hemisphere, the effect will be more than weightlessness experienced by some in the path of previous waves. People should be inside stable structures. Remove all loose objects including heavy furniture. Tie down to something solid if possible to limit injury. Objects as large as cars may be lifted high in the atmosphere. Some objects may actually leave Earth’s atmosphere or come crashing back down from a great height. You must get inside now and prepare. There will still be danger from falling debris after the wave has passed.”
“Governments all over the world are now grounding flights, preparing shelters, and clearing highways. Do not delay. Do not try to travel to relatives that are not in your immediate area as this will just put you and them at risk.”
“Lastly, Dr. Restrepo has done meticulous calculations. I and others have carefully checked his work. We are confident in the information we have just told you and world governments are acting on it for your safety as we speak. Dr. Restrepo also believes that while this event will have devastating surface effects as I have just described to you, he assures us that the Earth’s core, Earth’s orbit, and our own sun will be spared from the destruction that overtook less stable stars that sent these waves in our direction.”
“We as a planet and as a global community will survive. We will rebuild. Please, follow my instructions and the instructions of your local authorities so that you will be a part of that rebuilding.”
“Dr. Restrepo will now share his findings from the Marlo-Pitts Observatory in Colombia before we take questions.”
The screen shifted and Jenny’s father stared into the camera on a split screen with a star chart. “I will make this simple so that it is easy to understand and the facts are before you. You will see Alpha Centauri here in proximity of our solar system. The other two stars in question are …”
The screen went blue.
Jenny say up. “Turn it back on.”
Sean poked at the buttons on the remote. “We have no signal. Check online. I’m sure it’s streaming there.”
Jenny ran and opened her laptop. “Internet is down.”
She clicked on the radio on the shelf and hit search/scan. The radio sounded off a hiss of static and the digital numbers rolled through the channels over and over finding nothing.
“Everything is down,” she said.
“The boys.” Sean’s face went pale.
“What are you talking about?”
He shook his head. “Tabitha and Carter took Holden and Grant camping. They are out there in the open. They are probably already out there.”
“I’m sure they heard,” Jenny said. “They’ll find shelter.”
“How? They are in the Ouachita National Forest. There is nothing there. They’ll have their cel
lphones off. Even if they check now, everything is down. There is not even any radio. They won’t know it’s coming. They’ll die.”
Jenny took hold of Sean’s shoulders as the static from the radio hissed in the room. “How far away are they?”
Sean swallowed. “All the way across the state. The Black Fork Mountain Wilderness is remote. There are no cars and no one is even supposed to camp up there. They are all alone.”
“That is really far,” she said dropping her hands. “We have less than seven hours.”
“I have to try,” Sean said. “They are my sons. Carter is my friend. Tabby is their mother. We have to try.”
Jenny nodded and grabbed her keys. “We’ll take my jeep. It has four wheel drive if we need to drive where cars aren’t supposed to drive.”
“I’ll go,” Sean said. “You stay here and stay inside like they said on TV.”
She kissed him on the mouth and ran for the door. “Thank you, but not a chance. Let’s go, redneck hero. We have to cross the entire state.”
Sean thought he should probably gather some supplies. He wasn’t sure what and he couldn’t think clearly. Time was running out and his boys were in danger. He ran for the door after Jenny. They left the radio searching for a signal and hissing static at the empty house.
16
Michael Strove and Roman Nikitin – Russia
Michael charged forward between the light and shadows cut between the trees that were still standing. Roman kept a good pace for hobbling, but it wasn’t as fast as he would have liked. They were passing more and more open ground with fallen, broken trees too.
A bullet tore through a tree trunk on a spot a few feet above his head and just ahead of them. Bark and central wood exploded out and peppered out around them. Michael ducked his head as they ran through. He was just glad the pieces fell at a normal rate instead of firing to the ground like sharp bullets.
They hurdled a fallen tree and then another. These looked to be old logs that had come down when nature still obeyed the old rules of gravity.
Michael stepped off into open space and couldn’t find the ground. He tried to get his balance on the slope, but the two of them fell down the hill head over heels. His shoulder connected to a rock with jarring pain that quickly reminded him that he had narrowly survived a plane crash. Michael’s knee wretched under his body and the captain yelped from the sickening agony. His hip slammed a log and Michael tried to claw himself to a stop on it, but raked off thinking he had pulled off one of his fingernails.
The slope became steeper and the men tumbled harder and faster.
Michael slammed to a stop staring up from his back at clouds painted with the bright colors of the setting sun.
“Roman?”
Michael tried to sit up, but winced.
Roman’s face entered his line of sight and covered the colorful clouds. The Russian pulled the captain up to sitting and Michael cried out.
“Broken, Michael?”
“I don’t think I can keep going, Roman. Can you get to safety before I surrender?”
“They have seen me and will keep following until they find out who I am,” Roman said. “And it’s not nothing that we are in this together, Michael. So, get up. We are getting closer.”
Roman dragged Michael to his feet and Michael leaned more on Roman instead of the other way around. “How much closer?”
“Not as much as we would like, but we will get there. Once we are inside, we will be safe.”
As they pressed forward, Michael looked back at the colors under the clouds. The brightness was dying and purple was painting over what had been there moments before.
Something about the idea of being inside bothered Michael. He could not place why. He pictured his older brother in all his gear running into a burning building and Michael sensed that same level of danger about going inside.
Michael shook his head and pulled his eyes away from the sky.
He thought about Carter and said a prayer in his mind for his brother. He had no reason to think Carter was in any danger beyond his normal job, but with the strange things going on with the rules of the world, he didn’t know, so he said the prayer.
Michael looked back at the darkening sky in time to see the clouds dissolve and fall to the ground as swirling fog. He heard trees cracking to his right. Michael bowed his head and they continued forward.
17
Sean Grayson and Jenny Restrepo – Little Rock, Arkansas
Traffic crawled forward again. Sean slammed his fist into the steering wheel until the heel of his hand hurt.
“Do you want me to drive?” Jenny asked.
“We’re not driving,” Sean said. “We are parked.”
Jenny put her hand on the back of the driver’s seat of her jeep where Sean sat behind the wheel. She stopped short of putting her hand on his shoulder and Sean noticed.
Jenny said, “I can do the parking for a while until we get clear of all this.”
Sean took a deep breath and smelled thick exhaust wafting around him in the open jeep. The cars stretched endlessly ahead of them across the expressway. Sean could see the exit ramp about a quarter mile ahead. Cars jammed every lane up the slope and sat clogged over the bridge of the overpass. He glanced at the shoulder on their side and over the median at opposing traffic. Cars had filled the emergency lane and the gritty edge of the road to create one more lane of congestion.
“No, I’m fine. It won’t matter anyway.” Sean laid his head against the steering wheel. “My kids are going to die because I can’t get to them in time. I should have said something about what happened in the building and maybe things would be different. I should have fought for them and insisted that she honor my weekend. They would have all probably stayed in town and we would all be safe even if she was ticked at me for it. She’s always mad at me anyway, but I just let them go. I always just let them go and that’s why they are growing up without a father.”
“They have a father.” Jenny put her hand on his neck then. “You are doing fine. You are being a good father now regardless of what may have happened in the past. None of that can be changed now, so there is no point in destroying yourself over it.”
Sean lifted his head to look across traffic with tears in his eyes. “Now they won’t grow up at all. We can’t get there in time. We will never make it in all of this.”
Several men got out of a truck and opened the driver’s door of an old, tan Buick. Sean thought there was about to be a fight, but then he saw the tan car had been abandoned and was sitting empty. Traffic had moved so little that he hadn’t noticed. The men shifted the car into neutral and turned the wheel all the way to the side. They hunkered down and pushed it rolling the car sideways through the lanes between bumpers until it dove nose first into the standing water along the side of the expressway.
The men ran back to their truck and traffic rolled forward a few feet. Another blue sedan whipped over into the space the men had opened in the lane and halted progress again. The men shouted and cursed. The fellow in the blue car rolled down his window and yelled back.
Sean came to a halt behind the truck. Through a break in the hills beyond the expressway, he got a better view of the high rises that marked downtown Little Rock. Enormous swatches of glass were missing from two of them exposing openings into the offices inside. He wondered if that destruction had occurred when floating desks impacted the glass from the inside before coming crashing down with full gravity again.
How had Carter missed that? Sean shook his head. He thought it was from the quakes. That’s what any sane person would think.
Scorch marks up the exposed framework of one of the shattered buildings caught Sean’s eye. He wasn’t close enough to get a good feel for whether the fire had originated from within the skyscraper or from something from the outside. He imagined a helicopter pilot suddenly navigating a weightless craft over the city only to have that weight come back again suddenly.
He hoped they were able to get al
l the planes down before the next and greatest wave hit like Jenny’s dad had predicted. He hoped that it would matter. They said people would be safe inside buildings, but could they really know? Looking at the large buildings of downtown Little Rock, he questioned whether inside was safe at all. Would they stand up to the pressures of being yanked upward and back down again. Even if the sun and Earth survived, would this be the end of people?
Sean thought about Carter’s brother Michael. He was in the Airforce and posted overseas. Sean couldn’t remember where. Carter and Sean had not made much small talk recently. He wondered if Michael was in the crush zone or the float zone of all of this. He hoped he wasn’t in the air during any of it. Sean thought a little prayer for his sons and for Michael.
Michael would want me to save Carter. I need to get to my sons and save all of them. I have to.
The men got out of their truck again. Sean watched and expected them to shove another abandoned vehicle off the road. They opened the door to the blue car and dragged the driver out. People on both sides were yelling and honking.
Sean cursed.
Jenny shook her head and covered her mouth. “What are they doing? We need to stop this.”
The driver took the first swing and then the men were on him. He was curled on the ground against his front tire as the men kicked and beat him.
“Sean?”
“There’s nothing I can do, Jenny.”
“Why are people acting like this?”
A gunshot rang off and one of the men fell. Others ran and dove behind cars. Another shot was fired and the windshield of the blue car exploded into shards.
Sean turned the wheel of the jeep and drove across. He scraped the passenger’s side of the vehicle across someone’s front bumper. Glass from a headlight lamp blasted up into the air behind them
“Sean, what’re you doing?”
“Getting us out of here.”
