The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (6 page)

             
“Why has no one said anything? Why has no one gone to the press?”

             
“Since when has the press ever believed anyone that predicted the end of the world?'
             

             
I did not reply, for I knew he was right.

             
“Plus, can you imagine the pan
ic if people were to believe it? They're going to let this unfold without ever saying a word. No one will be warned.”

             
“So many people are going to die.” I whispered, more to myself than to him. The rush of blind consternation that went through me as that
realization took hold is beyond anything I can describe. “There are billions of people in the world. There are good people who are all going to die now. There are children...”

             
It seemed ridiculous to say but I just could not imagine a higher power so crue
l that He would smite the world while children inhabited it. The notion of the innocent paying the price for the guilty crept into my head and forcibly turned my stomach.

             
“I know.” James told me and I looked up to see my sadness reflected in him. “I can't
believe it, either. But the fact is, we were given these visions for a reason. We were meant to save everyone that we can from this and start over somewhere else. We'll never be able to save them all. But we can save as many as possible, Brynna.”
             

             
I nodd
ed, knowing,
hating
that he was right. I'd have some choice words for a higher power as soon as my mind slowed down enough to think of them.

             
“Why us?” I asked as I shook my head slightly. “Why were we the ones that were chosen?”

             
He studied me for a momen
t, clearly trying to decipher the answer to that question himself. All he could come up with was:

             
“We're lucky, I suppose.”

             
“Lucky by whose definition?” I asked before running my fingers through my hair. “What about supplies? This other planet is complet
ely uninhabited, correct?”

             
“As far as we know.”

             
“So, how are we supposed to build a civilization out of nothing?”
             
“The ship can also hold five tons of cargo. The people who think that they're leaving have been gathering things for years.”

             
“I would call
them such awful things. But I just cannot think of anything that is quite awful enough.” I looked at him. “James, how much time do we have?”

             
Once again, he fell into a lapse of silence and studied me. As the seconds ticked by so distressingly, I began to
dread his answer more and more, until the feeling became so unbearable that when he opened his mouth to reply, I almost covered my ears to avoid hearing it...

             
“A day.”

XXX

             
As we suspected, the two jocks were still outside of my apartment building, sitt
ing across the street on two different benches and staring at the door with expressions of pained concentration on their slowly decaying faces.

             
“Is there a back way in?” James asked me as the car idled.

             
I nodded, studying the physical deterioration of th
e two young men who only the night before had been so boyishly good-looking. No longer were they clean-cut and stocky. Though I knew that their height remained the same in actuality, the way they slouched cast the illusion that they had shrunk down at leas
t three feet. Their emaciation was severe; they were merely wisps of skin clinging tightly to creaking bones. Even from across the street, I could see that their eyes were surrounded by menacing dark circles and their hair was beginning to fall from their
pale white, snake-veined scalps. To a passerby, they simply appeared to be afflicted with some terrible, fatal disease. To me, they were the perfect real-life imitations of the monsters I had run from in my childhood nightmares.

             
“Why do they look like tha
t?” I whispered to James and I did not realize how tightly my hand was squeezing his arm.

             
“Do you want me to sugar-coat it or do you want me to be blunt?”

             
I frowned at him over my shoulder.
             
“What do you think?” I answered sarcastically.

             
“They haven't e
aten you yet.”

             
I looked at him, my eyes bugging in fear but then quickly resuming their normal shape.

             
“I will let you know when I require a full explanation on that. Now is certainly not the time.”

             
“I wasn't going to give you one anyway.” He drove away
slowly, rolling his window up before we passed them. Thank God his windows were tinted or they surely would have seen us.

             
He parked the car just behind a meter. I watched him hop out with charismatic grace and had to roll my eyes; this was a gentleman who
knew how good-looking and powerful he was. Arrogance never complimented a male, I had been told once by Maura, who believed herself to be the all-knowing authority on the matters of men. Shaking my head, I started to open my door only to find that he was
already there, opening it for me.

             
“Thanks.” I murmured. “Chivalry
isn't
dead, I suppose.”

             
“No. Not to old guys like me, at least.” He replied as he walked to the meter to dispense three quarters inside of it.

             
“Shall we?” He beckoned towards the alley. I
nodded, striding ahead of him with no fear of what might meet me. I just wanted to pack my things and go, knowing that every second ticking past was too precious to waste. We only had twenty-three hours left until the ship that would carry us far from the
chaos and carnage departed our world forever.

             
Once safely sheltered by the shadows of the corridor, we hastened our pace until we reached the
back door of my building. I took my keys from my purse and tried to steady my trembling hands long enough to unl
ock the door for us. I tried to tell myself that it was adrenaline causing me to tremor that way and not fear strong enough to drain what was left of my vitality. Thankfully, James reached out after a moment of watching my pathetic attempt at completing th
e simple task; he held my hand still with both of his and together, we unlocked the door.

             
We moved quickly up the back stairway, jumping the steps with ease. After reaching the fourth floor, we both had to stop and breathe heavily. Damn smokers, we never
learn.

             
“Alright, let me check,” He said, “I don't know how many of them there are. I've seen as many as ten of them casing someone's place.”

             
“Do you always use action movie jargon or is this new for you?” I whispered to him in a lame attempt to make a jo
ke. Sometimes a little humor can go a long way to ease one's anxieties.

             
“It's new for me.” He whispered back, deadpan, as he looked up and down the hallway. He looked back at me and said in an intentionally hoarse voice reminiscent of a chain-smoking dril
l sergeant, “Coast is clear. Move out.”
             

             
I couldn't help but laugh softly at that. If my joke was of slightly below average hilarity, his was scraping the very bottom of the meter.

             
I have never been as stunned by normalcy as I was when I walked into my a
partment. Everything remained exactly where I had left it: My clothes were still strewn out on the floor, my dishes were still piled in the sink, and my window was left open from when I had burned muffins the day before.

             
“Nice place.” James complimented
me as he looked around. “How much do you pay for this?”

             
“Wow, nosy.” I replied before walking in further and going straight back to my bedroom.

             
“Not nosy. Just curious!” He called to me from the living room.

             
“You can come back here.” I told him as I sta
rted to pull the clothes from my drawers. I shoved them unceremoniously into my overnight bag before moving over to my closet. “So many shoes, not enough space...”

             
“What is it with women and shoes?” He asked me. “Why do you need a pair to go with every ou
tfit?”
             
“I know. Why can't we just wear the same severely scuffed pair that we bought almost a decade ago everyday?”
             
“Are you talking about my shoes right now?”

             
“I'm sorry, you're allowed to call me out on my excessive footwear collection but I'm not all
owed to call you out on your scant one?”

             
I poked my head out of the closet, raising my eyebrow in sardonic scolding, awaiting an answer.

             
“Touche.” He held up his hands in surrender. “But just to verify, I don't wear these everyday. I wear them for work.
And for your information, it was six years ago.”

             
I smirked and went back into my closet, quietly commanding myself not to take my stilettos, boots, or flats, but only my practical walking and running shoes. I sighed heavily again as I looked at the ones t
hat would be left behind. I had spent so much of my parents' money on that assortment of shoes. How very sad I was to leave them all behind. I grabbed a few more items out of my closet that I couldn't bear to leave behind before moving past James into the
bathroom.

             
“I do not like the silence so I will answer your nosy question.” I told him as I pulled my shampoo and conditioner out of the shower. “I don't pay for this place at all. My parents are responsible for paying my rent. They're responsible for all
of my expenses, actually. Credit cards, cable and phone bills, things like that.”

             
“Typical rich kid, I see.”

             
“I didn't say I was proud of it. I just answered your question truthfully.”

             
“Is your relationship with your parents a good one?”
             

             
An iciness
must have come over my features because he immediately backed off of the subject.

             
“You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.”

             
I nodded before answering.

             
“It's better that way. Let me just say this: A part of me wants to leave them behind.”

             
He rea
ched out suddenly and grasped my hand, startling me with the gesture.

             
“You have no choice but to leave them behind, sweetheart.”
             
Some would have considered that a bombshell. But somehow, I already knew. My parents, I'm sure, knew of the impending crisis
because of their jobs. My mother was a senator who was, if we are being honest, partially responsible for the predicament that the human race found themselves in. My father ran a news organization that was no doubt hushing it all up. Guessing was not neede
d; I could denote easily that they had no place on the ship that would carry civilians away from the doomed earth.

             
“You don't seem surprised.” James gently prodded me to speak, to tell him in detail about the blustering war of sadness and fury inside of m
e. Instead, I simply posed a question to him:

             
“Is it because they're responsible?”

             
“Yes. We all voted. Every last one of us who had the vision first voted on whether or not to allow your parents to come. But since they are involved in covering this up an
d since they were of the many that were going to leave us all behind, we decided against it. Originally, they had all agreed that even you couldn't come. But I persuaded them.”

             
“Why?”

             
My blue eyes raised to meet his light brown ones. We gazed at each oth
er for one long, curious moment and then he answered: