I watched Brian walk in an unusual style. There was no bounce in his step,
and the smile on his face seemed forced.
"Hey, Bri, you ok?" I asked him quietly when he reached me.
"Yeah, I just miss Leigh," he said sorrowfully. I nodded, not
quite sure how to comfort my sad friend. I never really had the beautiful
relationship he had with Leighanne, but at the time, I really didn't care.
I had my whole life ahead of me for that.
"Bri, we'll fly her out for a lot of your shows, don't worry," I
tried to comfort. "And you'll get to see her when the-"
I was interrupted when one of our managers came running into the hall in a
hurry, carrying a small portable tv.
"You guys, there's something big going on and you need to hear it!"
he exclaimed. He turned up the volume as we all gathered around and saw a
scientist standing in front of the blue curtain you usually see when the
president makes a national address.
"...heading right for us," we managed to catch as he pointed to a
picture of what looked like a comet heading in the direction of the earth.
"After continuous close observance of the comet, many tests run
countless times, we have come to the result the comet will hit in a
month."
Reporters began quickly calling out to be picked for the question, I'm sure
everyone wanted to know.
"What is our chance of survival?" finally one reporter called out
loud enough to be overheard.
A look of grim, sad disappointment came over the scientists face, causing the
room to quickly go silent.
“The
comet is approximately twelve miles in diameter, twice the size of the comet that
destroyed the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago. If it struck this planet, all life would be
destroyed. It would be the end of
mankind.
Not even bacteria will be able to survive," he said. The
reporters stayed quiet, along with everyone else in the room I was in.
"So we're all gone?" a
reporter managed to choke out through her shock.
"Well, there's where an exception for some people comes in. I would
like to bring out our Secretary of Defense. Colonel Rumsfield," the
scientist stepped aside and allowed the man in charge of our lives to step up
to the mic.
"Hello," he began. "In the chaos that has been the few
days, we were able to find a way to continue on mankind as we know it.
After World War II, the U.S. created a giant bomb shelter under Texas.
It is as big as Texas, and while we're talking is being set-up to allow
one million people to live in it for up to 20 years."
Reporters immediately began to shout out questions that everyone was thinking.
But the Colonel just kept on talking.
"World leaders have met and decided who would be the most important to be
saved and who would be most valuable in a new society. These people will
be brought to live in the shelter. They
make up only a fraction of the one million, however. The others will be chosen randomly by
computer to make it fair for all people.
Within the next week, officers will be going the selected people’s
houses and bringing them and their immediate family to the shelter. The
rest is now in the hands of God. Thank you, and God bless."
While everyone around me talked in a panic, I sat there, stunned. Just
minutes ago, I was thinking I had the rest of my life ahead of me, but now, I
had less then a month.
***
"Well, I guess that didn't go as well as we thought it would,
did it?" I asked sarcastically, as I slammed the car door shut behind me.
Darrin shot me an annoyed look and gripped the steering well so
tightly that his knuckles were turning white.
"I'm twenty three years old for Christ's sake! When are they going to stop treating me like
a child and let me live my own life?"
I couldn't think of the right words to say in response to his
outburst so I quietly buckled up my seatbelt, secretly wishing that we were
home then, where at least it was safe for awhile.
***
As soon as we arrived at our apartment complex, Darrin parked the
car, as I went up and unlocked the door.
I immediately noticed the red light on the answering machine blinking as
I opened the door, and I pushed the play button and turned up the volume, as I
walked back to mine and Darrin's room to change clothes.
As I pulled my hair into a pony tail, I heard the answering
machine rewind and play again, and I walked into the living room, not surprised
to see Darrin sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. I knew better than to bother him so I went
back into our room and grabbed our laptop computer off of the desk and turned
on the computer, waiting impatiently as the computer loaded too slowly for my
liking.
Finally, when the computer
loaded, I picked it up and placed it on the bed by my side as I tried to get
comfortable. Once I found a comfortable
position, I placed the computer on my lap and clicked on my internet connection,
cursing slightly under my breath as it took several minutes to connect. Suddenly, I felt a space beside me sink down
as Darrin sat down beside me and turned on the TV that was in our room.
"Hey will you promise me something?" he asked once the
television program he was watching went to commercial.
"Yeah, maybe," I said as I looked up from the screen and
shot him a grin.
"When we have kids, promise me that you will shoot me if I
treat them the same way my parents treat me.
No kid should have to go through that."
"Okay, I promise," I said, returning my attention back
to the screen, watching my Instant Messenger Buddy List, hoping that if I
wished hard enough that Julie would come online so I could tell her the good
and the not so good news.
I grinned triumphantly as I saw her Screen Name pop up several
seconds later, and I quickly typed in a greeting. She quickly replied, and out of my
excitement, I told her about Darrin proposing to me just the night before and
about how his parents didn't react as well as we hoped they would.
Suddenly, Julie stopped typing, and I logged into my email account
as I waited for her to come back, and as I was emailing my friend Natalie, I
heard Darrin gasp, and I felt him tapping me on the leg.
"What?" I asked impatiently as I stopped my typing and
took my glasses off. He said nothing,
just pointed at the screen where the President was obviously having a press
conference. I rolled my eyes and mumbled
"big deal" as I turned my attention back to the email I was
writing.
I stopped mid-sentence as I heard the words, "There is a
comet currently traveling through space, and it is heading right for us. After continuous close observance of the
comet, many tests run countless times, we have come to the result the comet
will hit in a month."
I felt the blood in my veins literally turn cold as I heard this
horrible news, and I started to shake out of fear and hopelessness. Just as my life was turning wonderful, we had
to be hit with this horrible news. This
would be the end of life as anyone knew it.
***