We sat quietly listening to the broadcast as we drove into Akron. I was glad we turned on that radio, truly glad. It was sobering. We had seen so much ugliness and violence in a short span of time, people panicking, and scared and running and fighting for their lives. Now I was hearing some of the good that had occurred. The stuff the bad had overshadowed. It wasn’t hidden for long and it emerged at the best possible time. Laced with a lot of sadness, the positives of humanity were surfacing as the world said its final goodbye.
19 – SWITCHES
Peter Fleishmann looked nothing like the photo of him in the World Inquisitor. I expected an older man, since the photo was so old. But instead, he was a man in his forties with wiry dark hair, and he was extremely thin.
He was sitting outside of his house on a black box. Behind him were two orange gas cans and a small suitcase. He finished off a can of energy drink and stood as we came to a halt.
“Everyone just stay put, we’re gonna make this fast.” I said and opened the door. We had less than an hour to impact and ninety miles to go until we reached the shelter.
Tony and I stepped from the van. Admittedly I was excited to meet him.
“Anna,” he said. “Nice to meet you. I see we have a police escort.”
“It’s a party,” Tony said and began looking around as he helped Peter with his things.
Walking to the van, Peter asked him. “What are you looking for?”
“No brother, sister, friend, coworker, mystery lover you are gonna spring on us?”
“It’s against the rules.” He said.
I opened the back of the van. I gathered at that moment, Peter saw all the people.
“This is a lot more than three people,” he said.
“Welcome to my world.” Tony lifted the box.
“No. No-no.” Peter shook his head. “Not that one, that has to be right by my side.” He spoke fast and in a quirky manner. “At all times. Yes, at all times.”
“How many energy drinks have you had?” Tony asked.
“Not enough,” He replied. “That case is vital. Very vital.”
We moved Craig, Skyler and Duke to the squad car because Peter had to work in the van. He used the middle seat as a desk, crouching on the floor with the black box in the space next to the side van door. It was pretty big.
“What’s the box?” Jackson asked.
“A Faraday. In fact,” he adjusted his glasses. “I need all of you to put any electronics you want to save in the box.”
“What about that lap top you’re using?” Jackson asked.
“It’s a throw away. I need it to monitor. So we know.”
“Where it will hit?” Jackson questioned. “Why did it flip flop?”
“Only two facilities have telescopes with the capabilities to determine when and where the comet will hit. Both facilities got different results. It was asinine, very asinine. I don’t know how they did that. But last I heard the Puerto Rican telescope people changed their minds to Seattle. It’s Seattle or the ocean by it. Near enough. That is where the comet will hit.”
His fingers clicked furiously on the keyboard.
“That’s really smart of you to have all this,” I said.
“I want us to be ready. I am trying to calculate the exact time, when the earthquakes will hit and where we will be when the ejecta starts. We should be there, before the bad stuff comes.”
The bad stuff?” Tony questioned as he drove. “Bad stuff. Is that a scientific term?”
“Tony,” I scolded. “Stop. Okay? He’s a brilliant man.” I looked back at Peter. “I’m a big fan.”
Tony laughed. “Fan? Are you fan boying out?”
“He was in the World Inquisitor.”
“He was not.”
“I was.” Peter said. “I used a photo of my father, but I wanted a guilt free conscience so I gave them the story.”
“A ha!” I pointed to Tony. “Told you.”
“Miles to Lillyville?” Peter asked. “Hurry. Miles to Lillyville?”
“Um…” Tony glanced down to the dashboard. “Sixty four.”
“Pull over. Pull over now. Right now.”
“Why?” Tony asked.
“Unless you want to walk sixty miles, then pull over!”
Tony pulled over to the side of the deserted road. The car was barely in gear when Peter slid open the side door, laptop in hand.
“Open the hood,” he said, then reached into the Faraday box. “Anything you want saved, you have a couple minutes. Tony make your last radio call to the bunker and make sure it is hatched down.”
I stepped from the van. Peter was by the box. The officer and the Milton crew approached.
“What’s going on?” Craig asked.
Peter answered. “I need someone to remove the battery from this van now. As fast as possible and put it in this box. Place this blanket over the engine.”
Duke reached for the blanket. “I can do that.”
“And hurry,” Peter said. “And you three… anything you want protected, in this box. Now!”
I asked. “How will we know it hit?”
“This,” Peter pointed to the laptop. “Will die. I suggest anyone in the van who wants to see it, come out now.
“Tony,” I said. “Get Joie.”
“Should I?”
“Yeah, yeah, you should. She should see it.”
The officer questioned. “Where, where will it be?”
Peter, cradling the lap top walked around the front of the van to the road.
Duke lifted the battery. “It’s out. Blanket is on.”
Not even looking at him, Peter said, “Put it in the Faraday box and lock it.” He looked to the sky. “There.”
My heart stopped when he said the word and I grabbed for my son’s hand.
Tony held Joie on his hip and we all stood in the road, peering up at the sky.
“Forty miles per second,” Peter said. “Don’t blink. It’ll impact at a sixty degree angle.”
There was no talking, no movement. My hand moved up to clench Jackson’s arm. Despite the preparing, the learning, the violence and sadness, the shot of reality hit as the sky brightened. The noise of it was almost deafening. It seemed so close, but only because of its size. I held firmly to my child as the ground rumbled slightly and I didn’t breathe or blink. I just watch the huge fireball of the comet soar over our heads on its final destination out west.
20 – POP
We watched the sky until the comet was no longer visible. The smoke from it’s tail remained it the sky. Melissa released a single sob and lowered her head. Tony cradled his daughter. The only person who seemed unaffected was the officer. He stood alone.
“This really just happened mom, didn’t’ it?”
“Yeah.” I felt my jaws tighten and my throat swell. I wanted to cry, to break down. After embracing my son one more time, I walked over to the officer.
“I’m glad you came with us.”
His eyes met mine. “Me, too.”
I looked at his name tag on his uniform. ‘S. Price’, “Officer Price what does the S stand for?”
“Spencer. Just call me Price.”
“Will do.”
“Just thinking, you know. All those people who didn’t get out. All those people who watched it come. We watched it go, but they… they watched it come. How scared they had to be and brave as well.”
We were silent, quiet, all of us.
We didn’t need Peter to tell us his laptop died. Price had left the squad car running and the motor cut out leaving even more of a silence.
“Impact.” Peter closed the lid to the laptop. “7:01”.
“Son of a bitch,” Tony said with a soft edge. “I left my watch on.” He removed it and tossed it. “I loved that watch.”
I guess as we stood there we were all wondering the same thing, but Craig spoke up and asked, “What now? Can we put the battery back in the van?”