TORMENT (13 page)

“You blew it, Garbarino,” Austin said. “You can have it back when I trust you again.”

Garbarino let go of the gun and Austin took it.

“You did the right thing,” Austin said.

Garbarino glared at him. “Go fu—”

“Something’s happening!” Collins shouted from the far end where he stood peering through a portal at the view of earth. “Oh, God, something’s happening!
The clouds.
They’re fading. I can see the ocean!”

Everyone forgot the confrontation and moved toward the windows. They looked out in groups of three, peering through the windows. Collins was right. The dark swirling clouds faded. The stabs of orange light disappeared. Gaps in the cover slowly appeared revealing splotches of blue, brown and green. Their world still existed below the clouds.

Over the next half hour, the group watched in silence as the clouds continued to fade as though some magic force had called them back from whence they came. Austin could think of no rational explanation for it. How could that much ash and fallout simply be sucked down from the atmosphere? He couldn’t explain it, but he could embrace it. He smiled wide, meeting Mia’s eyes. She returned the smile. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Garbarino.

“Sorry, boss.” Garbarino said. “I lost it.”

“Understandable,” Austin replied, then smiled. “I’m still keeping the gun.”

Garbarino nodded. “Fair enough... You think we’ll go back soon? You think anyone survived down there?”

“The computer determines when it’s safe to return, you know that.” Austin didn’t want to answer the second question, not truthfully anyway. He knew Garbarino had lost a wife and son. Their loss was probably what tipped him over the edge earlier. He needed hope. “Look at it,” he said, turning to the view of the cloudless Earth, glowing brightly, free of darkness. “Someone must still be alive down there.”

Austin felt guilty for not pointing out the pock marks that revealed the locations of thousands of nuclear explosions. From this distance they looked like dirty specks on a lens, but to be visible from space, they had to be huge. And there were so many...he doubted anyone could have survived the initial attacks, let alone that swirling storm of fallout that consumed the entire globe afterward.

“Attention, crew,” boomed a female voice over the intercom, “Attention crew. Optimal conditions have been reached. Please takes your seats and prepare for descent in ten minutes.”

The group stood back from the windows as a collective. “That can’t be right,” Austin said.

“Computer failure?”
Paul asked.

Mark shook his head, no.
“Hand of God.
That’s what.”

“Not now, Mark,” Mia said more harshly than she meant to. “Everyone strap in and get ready to go.
Chang, take care of Liz.”

Austin looked over the rest of the group as they began sitting on the chairs they’d climbed out of only two hours ago. They listened to her. She’d taken charge. Though it seemed all for nothing now. Returning to the surface within two hours would be a death sentence. They’d all die from radiation poisoning. No matter how clear the atmosphere became, the surface of the planet would still be coated by a layer of radioactive dust.

Chang took Elizabeth’s hand and pulled her toward the nearest chair. Elizabeth reached back for Mia, “Auntie!”

“You’ll be okay, Lizzy.”

Austin could see it broke Mia’s heart to leave Elizabeth again, but if they managed to survive, this would probably be the first of many tough calls she’d have to make in the coming years.

“Tom, come with me.” Mia pushed off the wall and headed for the exit.

“What’s the plan?” Austin asked as he drifted up next to her.

“Find out if the computer is right.”

“If it’s not?”

“We try to stop it.”

“If we can’t?”

“Then it’s been nice knowing you.”

Mia reached the hatch, yanked it open and looked back at Austin. “But if it’s right. Well then, we’re going home.” She pulled herself through the hatch and was followed by Austin...and Garbarino.

16

Floating to the command center, Mia looked back over her shoulder and said
,
“If the system is wrong—” She saw Garbarino right behind Austin. She didn’t know his intentions, but he was unarmed. “If the surface is still radioactive and there’s no air to breathe, will the EEP protect us once we’re on the ground?”

“Should,” Austin said.

“If it’s not damaged,” Garbarino added. He sounded much more put together. “They’re designed to block out the radiation in space. They should be okay against fallout, too.”

Entering the command center, Mia and Austin took the seats and strapped themselves down. Garbarino stood behind them. A digital display counting down read 6:45

6:44

6:43

“You double check the readings,” Mia said. “See if the system really is detecting optimal conditions or if it’s just the landing system on the fritz. I’ll try to get in touch with the—”

“Earth Escape Pod Alpha, are you there?” Reggie’s voice was insistent. He must have been trying to reach them for some time.

“Is that Reggie?” Garbarino asked.

“I’m here. We’re here,” Mia said.

“Bout
damn
time, Durante. Our system seems to be having a glitch.
Wants to send us back down to Earth.
Tom, if you’re there, any idea on how to stop this thing?”

“Working on it now, Reg,” Tom said.

There was a pause. “You just started working on it, or already were?”

“Already was,” Garbarino said. “We’re having the same problem.”

“Shit,” Reggie said. “Have you heard from Delta? We haven’t been able to reach them.”

“We had...” Mia glanced at Garbarino. “...a distraction.
Just got back to the command center now.”

Reggie’s sigh came over the speakers loud and clear.

“The systems check out,” Austin said. “Unless the software is totally compromised, it’s really detecting a habitable atmosphere.”

Garbarino let out a victory hoot.

Austin turned back to him. “Make sure the others are all strapped in.
Gently
.
And get yourself ready. We can ride out the descent in here.”

Garbarino gave a nod.

“And make sure buckles stay on until we’re on the ground.
Could be a rough landing.”

“You got it,” Garbarino said as he pushed for the door.

“This looks like the real deal, Reg. Better get your people strapped down.”

“Got them strapped in tight as soon as the alarm sounded.
What’s your countdown at?”

Austin looked at the readout. “Four minutes fifty seconds.
You?”

“Looks like we got a head start.
Two forty.”

“You remember the protocols?” Austin asked.

“Guinea pig goes out first.
Then everyone else.
If we’re out of visual range, GPS trackers should lead us to each other, assuming the satellites are still functioning.”

“We have guinea pigs on board?” Mia asked, confused.

“As senior security officer on the EEP first to the ground,” Reggie said, “
I’m
the guinea pig. I’ll be outside and breathing Earth air before you’re on the ground.” His hopeful words sounded forced, but at least there was a fraction of hope now.

“Whoa!” Reggie’s voice was so loud the speakers crackled.

“What is it, Reggie?” Austin asked.

“Earth Escape Pod Delta.
She just passed by. Nearly hit us.”

Austin and Mia leaned against their straps and looked out the long window. The white hull of EEP Delta came into view. The bell shaped ship was indeed descending, and would at any moment drop into Earth’s atmosphere.

“We have to assume it’s either a ghost ship or everyone on board died for some reason,” Reggie said. “So I’ll still be the first man on the ground, agreed?”

“Agreed,” Austin said.

“I’m strapping in now.
Won’t be able to talk until I’m on the ground.”

“Copy that, Reg, take care of yourself.”

“Good luck,” Mia said.

Reg laughed. “We’re either the luckiest or unluckiest people in the history of mankind. Guess we’ll find out when we get down there. See you then.”

With that, Reggie went silent.

They watched as EEP Delta succumbed to Earth’s gravity and became a white spec over the North American continent. Just as the Delta ship disappeared from view, Beta passed by and began its drop.

“Better activate the chairs,” Austin said.

Mia wasn’t looking forward to the crushing pressure of the restraint system again, but she also didn’t want to become a smear on the ceiling.

“Handle over there reclines the chair. Once you’re back you’ll see the restraining bar. Pull it over your chest to activate the pressurized cushion system.”

“Pressurized cushion system?”

“I couldn’t remember the actual name.
Just made it up.”

“Reassuring,” Mia said, then reclined her chair and pulled the bar up over her head.

As the padding filled with air around her, he added, “Prepare for the wildest ride of your life.”

“Wilder than the takeoff?”

“About the same, but the view will be better.”

Mia remembered looking out the portal as the EEP blasted its way into space. “You saw the missiles, too?”

“Worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“And this will be better because?”

“The world as we know it is already gone. Everyone is dead.”

Their eyes met. He smiled. “Even if we explode on reentry, or die of radiation poisoning, or have to live in the EEP for six years, things couldn’t possibly get any worse.”

17

The physical toll of reentry seemed paltry compared to the pulsing acceleration of liftoff. Mia’s stomach lurched when gravity took hold, but other than that, she remained fully conscious and aware. The view out the window shifted from dark space, to deep purple and then to clear blue sky. Not a cloud in sight. The view through the command center window was much more expansive than the small portal had been, but she still could not see the ground.

And that’s what she really wanted to see.

She expected the world to be scorched and decimated.
Ruins of the human civilization.
Over time, what was left would be reduced to dust, and future generations, born from the children of the few survivors, would build a new world.
Villages at first.
Then small cities.
Migrations would come next.
Trade routes.
Countries.
Wars.
Human civilization would be remade and probably, someday in the future, undone again.