“When the Event struck, we pulled together every single scientific resource we had at our disposal to investigate the circumstances surrounding the atmospheric disruption, the seismic and tidal activity and, perhaps most important, the seeming disappearance of land beyond the narrow strip that comprises our island.
“Our most publicized effort was in coordination with other government agencies. We flew several helicopters a significant distance, only to discover nothing but ocean. This was only the beginning of our explorations.”
He gestured to a woman seated in the front row on the side opposite Tiberius and Lucas. She raised a remote and clicked a button. The screen behind the podium, which had until now displayed the Atlantic Island insignia changed to show a map of the island. Dr. Johnson lifted a laser pointer and activated the red light, placing a dot in the middle of the map.
“As most of you know, the Event resulted in the land beyond roughly the first quarter of Margate heading south to disappear.” He moved his hand and the red dot danced in a line along the southern border of the island. “Similarly, the land abruptly disappeared just before the north end of what was Atlantic City. Not far at all from where we sit right now, as a matter of fact.” Another flick of his wrist and another illustrative laser line along the north shore.
“Once most of the commotion on the island had died down, we sent out a marine exploration vehicle. A drone device piloted remotely from land and constructed to withstand very deep water exploration. We conducted missions off all four coasts to collect samples from the ocean floor. On the south and north ends, the soil appears uniform for a great distance. On the west end and the east end, what we used to refer to as the bay side and the ocean side, we found something interesting.
“The samples our vehicle collected are different than those on the other two coasts. I won’t bother you with the details beyond saying that it involves mineral content. It is more important to tell you that beyond this point,” a laser line in the ocean on the west side, “and this point,” another line in the ocean on the east side, “the sediment matches the compounds found on the north and south. We mapped this out carefully and found that if one traces the exact line where the soil changes,” he pointed to the woman in the front row and she advanced the slide show. The previously stoic government employees gasped as the new slide added a bright red circle fit perfectly to the north and south ends of Atlantic Island.
“It appears the ocean has hidden what really happened,” said Dr. Johnson. “While it appears on the surface that our island was ‘sliced’ off the rest of the land, it appears that our island was just the visible part of a perfect spherical chunk.”
“Excuse me, Doctor,” called out a man from the back of the room, “but don’t you mean ‘circular?’”
“Oh, no,” said Dr. Johnson. “I’m afraid I mean spherical. The samples we’ve taken from the perimeter of the circle have provided strong evidence that the part of the world we live on, whether it survived, or moved or something else, was taken in a giant ball incorporating land, sea and air. We think that a good deal of the noise reported during the Event and the unusual light features in the atmosphere were a result of this molecular disconnect and disruption of water and air.”
“So wait,” said the man in the back, “if our land, water and air were all that remained after the Event, where does the sky and ocean all around us come from?”
“That is a good question,” said Dr. Johnson, “and I will be happy to entertain your questions at the end of the evening if I haven’t addressed them in my presentation. I will say that we thought similarly. At all land edges of the sphere, what I will call ‘our’ land was fused. Superheated. We found nothing abnormal in those samples beyond that.
“We have one more discovery to discuss with you. I’m afraid just like what I have told you, this discovery will raise more questions than it answers. Several weeks ago we sent a helicopter out on a very far reaching mission.” He signaled for the image on the screen to be changed. The new image showed a faded outline of the eastern part of the United States with only the small sliver of Atlantic Island in bold color. “We sent the helicopter to right about here.” Dr. Johnson pointed a dot on the map. Theo felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up as he realized immediately where that dot was located.
“This location, geographically speaking, would be where one would expect to find the city of Philadelphia,” said Dr. Johnson. “It is a location many tens of miles beyond the presumed edge of the sphere, and as we expected it was covered with water. We sent the exploration vehicle into the ocean at that point. I am afraid…” he shifted from side to side and braced himself to say what he needed to say. “I am afraid to tell you that we found Philadelphia.”
The men and women in the room all started yelling at once. The Deputy Mayor rose from his seat and turned his icy glare on them. They quickly quieted down. Dr. Johnson was sweating and the rest of his team exhibited similar signs of distress. This must be the part Ryan was so afraid of, thought Theo.
“As I said,” continued Dr. Johnson, “We are confident that we found the remains of the city of Philadelphia approximately one hundred feet below water. The tallest buildings of the city were terribly damaged at some point so none of them rises above the water. Most smaller buildings are reasonably intact but with one glaring exception: the level of corrosion on metal surfaces matches what we would expect to see after an object has been exposed to salt water for between thirty and forty years.”
He signaled and the slide changed to an underwater image showing a close-up of a piece of metal. It was too close for Theo to make out what it was, though he assumed it was some kind of beam used in a building. What was clear in the image was the degree of wear the metal had experienced. Barnacles clung to the decomposed surface.
“I’m sure you want to know what we were able to determine about the cause of the advanced corrosion. We thought that perhaps something was wrong with the salt content of the water, but there wasn’t. A theory was raised that maybe something in the Philadelphia air had pre-weakened metal in the area, making it more susceptible to the water. We didn’t find anything abnormal in the air above the ocean surface. We continued our explorations and it became clear that there were marked differences in some of the structures from what we expected to see from photographs. And then… we found this.”
The slide changed to a photo of Philadelphia’s city hall. The building was battered but maintained it’s recognizable shape. Draped over the roof of the building were the remains of two giant flags, partially bolted to the structure but twisted slightly from wriggling in the water as the photo was captured. Chatter among the government employees grew louder and more convoluted, and someone screamed. Visible on each of the flags, though the fabric was as worn and distorted as everything else in the dull underwater landscape, was a giant Nazi swastika.
Chapter 13
Even Deputy Mayor Tiberius could not easily calm the crowd after the science team’s big reveal. It took a few minutes of everyone talking over each other for curiosity to take hold and the question and answer session to begin.
Dr. Johnson did not have many answers. No, they hadn’t yet been able to send explorations to other major cities, though a trip to Manhattan was planned for November. The issue was the travel limits of the helicopters. Construction was underway for an exploratory boat, but they didn’t have a timeframe for completion at the moment.