Overture (Earth Song) (49 page)

The
distant crumbling whump of huge explosions was getting closer by the moment. She had no idea what was happening but it couldn’t be good. She ran quickly to the next street. She was running so fast she didn’t see the group of young men until she ran right into one of them.

“
Well, what do we have here?” said the biggest of them.

“
I’m just trying to get somewhere,” she said and backed up.

“
Oh, you got somewhere!” he said and pointed. Before she had time to scream, the two others grabbed her and started dragging her into the nearest ruined store front.

“
I don’t want any trouble!” she yelled and tried to get away from them but they were a lot stronger than her and she felt herself being dragged inside. “What are you doing!” she screamed as they pushed her down on the filthy floor.

“
Shut up, bitch,” one of them said and casually backhanded her across the face.

Mindy
sat up on the floor and wiped blood from a split lip. She struggled against the rising panic she felt. There was a way out of any situation. “I have powerful friends, if you just let me go…”

“
Oh, we’ll let you go,” the leader said and dropped his pants, exposing his huge erect and pierced penis, “we’ll let you go wild on my thing!” They all laughed and she screamed loud and long. The other two grabbed her and held her down as the leader knelt and forced her legs apart. Mindy kicked and screamed as he tore her pants off then her panties.

“
You d-don’t want to do this!” she pleaded as he shoved his way in between her legs and positioned his throbbing organ.

“
Oh, yes I do,” he said with a wild look and moved to ram himself into her. The blast of a gun at close range almost deafened her. The man who was about to rape her looked down at the bright blood pumping from his chest. He gave a gurgling cough and fell backwards.

“
Oh no, you don’t,” said a familiar voice.

“
Billy!” Mindy cried. The other two let her go and ran. Billy shot them both down without a second’s hesitation.

“
Oh, my god!” Mindy said as the last one hit the ground. “You’re a police officer!”

“
Today, I’m a survivor,” he said and looked back at her. He gestured with his gun to the dying thugs. “You’re a survivor too. Would you rather I didn’t come looking for you?”

“
N-no, of course not.”

“
Then let’s get moving, and stay close.”

Mindy
followed because she had to, and because she was too stunned to speak. After a block, she got her voice back. “Is that the first time you killed someone?”

“
No,” he said and they moved on in silence. They paused next to a smoldering florist shop and he spoke again. “Eight years on the force and never pulled the trigger once except at the range. Couple weeks ago when we met, remember that day? The Followers of the Avatar were attacking Central Park to get to the Portal and I was unlucky enough to show up and get into that mess. It was like a war, that day. I don’t know how many people I killed, and I don’t want to think about it.” He looked at her, then back the way they had come. “I guess it gets easier with practice.”

“
I hope I never find out.”

“
Me, too.”

“
They weren’t going to let me go after they were done raping me, were they?” he shook his head. “It was just so sudden, so brutal. One minute they were alive…” Mindy doubled over and vomited on the filthy sidewalk.

“
The next they were dead. And so will several billion more in a few hours, so let’s get a move on.”

“
Agreed, let’s go.” She wiped her face on her shirtsleeve and followed him. A block away they reached their objective, a now abandoned New York City library annex. The streets for half a block were strewn with millions of pages from books that had been looted and destroyed. “Why do they always destroy the libraries?” she wondered aloud.

“
Fear,” was all he could think of. It made as much sense as anything else. Inside, it appeared abandoned until they were off the street then she could see several red laser dots appear on her husband’s chest. She gasped and looked down to see more of them lazily swimming across her body as well.

“
Billy,” she whispered.

“
It’s okay,” he said and holstered his gun. “It’s me!” he yelled and the lasers vanished.

“
You found her then, lieutenant?” said a cop dressed in black tactical vest and helmet as he stood up from behind an overturned bookshelf. He held a nasty looking machine gun with the casualness of a professional killer.

“
Sure did,” he said without elaborating. “How many we have here?”

People
started coming out from the back rooms of the annex building and Mindy cried with relief. She began to recognize her friends and co-conspirators. But there were far fewer than she was expecting. “Is this all that made it?” She asked one of her friends.

“
Yes. We split up after leaving the apartments. I think some were attacked or killed on the way here. It’s hell on Earth out there!” Mindy took a head count and found thirty-five men and forty-four women.

“
I sent out notices of what I wanted to do to a hundred people and only seventy-nine made it?”

“
Afraid so,” another of her friends said. She was surprised to see some of them held guns. No doubt this was the reason these people made it while others hadn’t. So much for gun control in the Big Apple.

“
Just as well, Mindy,” Billy said from where he was talking to one of the dozen cops. “I had to make some deals to get help.”

“
What kind of deals?”

Billy
said something to the other cop who went into a side room and returned with a new group. These were women and children, and it only took Mindy a minute to realize they were the families of the dozen police officers gathered there. Mindy did another head count. Twelve officers, twelve wives, fifteen kids, Billy and herself added up to one hundred and twenty. “We can make this work,” she said with a smile. “The Portal had one hundred and thirty left last time I checked. And since it’s screwed up there’s no chance any more have gone across.”

“
What does she mean ‘screwed up’?” asked one of the cops, a huge black man who had been talking quietly to his scared looking wife and their nine-year-old daughter. “You said we can get away from this comet, man,” he said to Billy. 

“
It’s a meteor,” Mindy said and the man rounded on her.

“
I don’t give a flying fuck what it is, all I know is it’s about to crash on our heads!”

“
Take it easy, Adamson,” Billy said and moved between them. Several of the young children were crying now but the big cop backed away. “If my wife says she can fix it, she can fix it.”

“
What is it, some kind of a secret entrance to a bomb shelter?” asked one of the wives.

“
You didn’t tell them?” Mindy asked.

“
There wasn’t time,” he said, “and there still isn’t.” He turned to the crowd. ‘Everyone, it’s a way to survive, guaranteed, if we can just get there.” Slowly, they all began to nod their heads. The ones who knew about the Portal all looked at each other and her with worried expressions. They knew much more of the truth that the others, even Billy.

“
I guess we’re in, then,” one of the police officers said, a middle-aged man dressed in the blue patrolman’s uniform and accompanied by his wife and two young daughters.

“
Good, time to get going.” Billy told them. “Here’s the plan.” They all listened with rapt attention as Mindy and Billy laid out the details of their plan. Occasionally someone would ask a question, but for the most part there was quiet. When she had finished, the silence stretched for some time. “Well, what do you think?” she asked finally.

“
I think you’re insane,” said the black cop in tactical gear. Outside, a group of maybe fifty people tore by on foot carrying torches and screaming at the top of their lungs. Many had guns that they were firing into the air as they ran.

“
No,” Billy said and pointed toward the street, “that is insane, what my wife suggests is a way out.”

“
Why are we the only ones?” asked one of the police wives, “I mean, if it’s a bunker or some secret underground shelter why not a couple thousand people? Why are we the only ones who get to live? There are so many people still in the city; can’t we help more of them?” The other women and children old enough to understand were looking at Mindy with the same question in their eyes. It wasn’t an easy one to answer in only a few minutes, especially without souring the deal. If I tell them the truth the cops will bug out, she thought.

“
Here’s the deal,” she began and Billy stiffened next to her, “we don’t have the time to explain everything about this escape device. All I can tell you is: I worked on it as did all these people over here,” she said and took in the people she had worked with on the Portal Project with a wave, “and this is real.” Her friends all voiced support or nodded their head. “We can use it to get away safely, but because of this trouble with the troops and the war they’ve started we can’t get there. We need your help and in return you can bring your families.” They seemed to be accepting her excuse so she pushed on. “The only other thing is, you only bring yourselves. There is a strict weight limit and we already have that equipment waiting. It’s everything you will need so you go only with the clothes on your back.”

“
But we have pictures, family heirlooms-”

“
Nothing,” she repeated, “we need every ounce for survival necessities. Life after the asteroid will be hard, but it will be impossible without those items we are going to bring.” There ensued a short argument about what they could bring and what they couldn’t. Eventually Mindy allowed each person five pounds of possessions while mentally figuring on what equipment that would cost them. Then the police informed her that their weapons would be going with them for which she insisted they sacrifice their five pounds in exchange. By the time they were done fussing over the details, an hour had been wasted.

“
Let’s get moving,” Billy urged them and the group moved to the exit. “We’re going in groups of twelve, each one escorted by an armed officer. Since many of you have guns, we'll split you up with the groups as well to give maximum protection. The last group will consist of four officers with Mindy, the remaining civilians, and me. Everyone be extremely careful. We need to avoid any civilian contact, but more importantly, avoid the military. This whole plan hinges on our getting into the park without being detected.” He went on for a few more minutes about details and finally they got underway. Mindy followed him out with the last group, trying all the time to remember a useful prayer from her youth.

The young corporal was scared and confused, not a good combination for a twenty-something with a gun. All afternoon, the sounds of the distant battle kept getting closer and closer, while his anxiety level got higher and higher. From his post at the northern edge of Portal City there was little to do but watch for civilian incursions and keep an eye on the cargo trucks that were loading at warehouses in the near distance. Being only a corporal, he had no idea what was going on, who was fighting against them, or even why they were fighting. He only knew that his lieutenant had said they would be evacuated before Lebowski hit. As the day wore on, it was the only thing that kept him sane.

“
You doing okay there, Corporal?” asked his sergeant from an idling Humvee. He'd been so lost in his own anxiety he hadn’t heard the rumbling machine pull up.

“
Fine, sir, just a little worried.”

“
Don’t be, rumor has it we’ll be pulling out in about twelve hours.” The young corporal smiled and nodded. The news took away a great deal of his fear as the sergeant moved on to check another guard post. He even waved at a cute blonde woman driving one of the flatbed trucks as it went by on its way to the big central dome.

“
What did you wave back for?” Billy asked the girl driving the truck. He risked a glance out the window to verify that the soldier wasn't running for a radio. .

“
Just keeping up the pretense of one big happy family,” she said and poked him in the ribs. The truck trundled along the steel girder road that had been laid out between the warehouses and the Portal. Behind them dozens of their group were busy loading two other trucks while ahead still more of their team were busy unloading the first truck. Of the five temporary warehouses, four were stuffed with all the junk hundreds of politicians and military geniuses could think of. The final warehouse held the results of many hours work by Mindy, Harold and their friends. The other four warehouses still showed almost no signs of life. The military guards didn’t realize that the equipment wasn't supposed to be mobilized yet, so the sudden appearance of loaded trucks heading toward the Portal was taken for granted.