28 Hours
By
Mia Brookes
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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28 HOURS
MIA BROOKES
Published by Solstice Publishing at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 Mia Brookes
For my mum, June.
I wish you could have been here
to see this in print.
On April 13th, an astronomer named David Haskell-Morton reported the sighting of a huge asteroid on a collision course with Earth. He contacted the authorities immediately. With the speed of the asteroid confirmed, Haskell-Morton predicted that they would have just less than two months in which to act if they were to prevent the devastating impact.
They failed.
Chapter 1
June 7th.
11:15 pm
"You tell me over and over and over again, my friend,
Ah, you don't believe, we're on the eve of destruction."
Barry McGuire, 1965.
That song replayed itself in an endless loop in Alex Mackenzie's mind over the past few days, acting as an irritating reminder of what was to come. The man had been right, he thought. He found it almost impossible to believe that the eve of destruction had arrived. Almost. Over the past month or so, it began to seem more real and now that the end grew closer, the only choice was to accept it.
It all started and, some would say, ended, with the terrifying discovery by a lone astronomer, working late at the observatory one night. He reported his discovery to the authorities but they were skeptical. Not entirely without reason; after all, how many times did they receive calls from panicked astronomers, telling them that asteroids were heading for Earth and they actually turned out to be genuine? They had, understandably, felt the need to verify this news with their own people, therefore shielding the general public from news that may well turn out to be a hoax.
It did not them long, however, to discover that David Haskell-Morton had indeed just identified the shape and form of the end of the world. All of those skeptics, who had expected the 'asteroid' to be a bug in the system, or indeed a bug on the telescope, were silenced in an instant.
The asteroid measured approximately six and a half miles across, larger than the one that had delivered a similar fate to the dinosaurs, and currently advanced on Earth at around 600,000 miles per hour. They speculated that something must have caused it to change course along its true orbit, from bypassing Earth to sending it straight for us instead, as it had not been identified as a threat earlier.
Two weeks after Haskell-Morton had dropped his proverbial bombshell, the relevant authorities finally acknowledged that he had been right all along. They informed him of this as though he should be proud of his discovery, as though he were announcing the discovery of a new star that would be named after him or something. It was not though; he had just discovered that in two months time, Earth would be wiped out and the thing that would do this would be known as his discovery. With two precious weeks wasted with their disbelief, those in charge began to make preparations.
There were two options: The first, to prepare the people for the worst, offering survival tips, while the second was to try to take the problem away by either destroying or deflecting the asteroid. They chose the second. They got everyone together whom they thought could help, needing ideas and advice. David Haskell-Morton would head the research team as the top military and scientific minds came together to try and find a solution to their fast-approaching problem.
Meanwhile, the general population went about their daily lives, unaware that the mid-summer holidays and family get-togethers that they were planning were nothing more than an exercise in futility. It was not until a few days later that the wall of silence finally crumbled.
On May 2, at 6:00 pm, there were simultaneous news bulletins on every radio, television and satellite station across the world. Alex watched with his family, as the rest of the world also did; every station made sure that the public saw or heard the same thing.
The Prime Minister of Britain spoke to the camera, an ashen-faced, sandy haired man in a rumpled suit looking terrified beside him.
"Citizens of Britain, and the world. This evening we bring to you some devastating news. A little over two weeks ago, we discovered that we are facing a disaster of global proportions. I am handing you over to Dr. David Haskell-Morton, who made the discovery, to tell you more about what we are facing."
He paused and looked across at the frightened-looking man on his left.
"H-Hello." Dr. Haskell-Morton coughed nervously before continuing. "I am David. I work at the Litchfield Observatory where I am the senior astronomer on the research team." He caught the eye of some of the reporters in the crowd in front of him; those privileged few who had been granted access to report the biggest story of their rapidly shortening lives, and realized that he digressed.
"On April 13th, I discovered an asteroid, as large as six and a half miles across, on a collision course with Earth."
He paused as the reporters gasped, as did everyone else across the world, and wondered briefly if he should perhaps have broken it to them more gently.
"The asteroid will strike us unless we can prevent it, which we are working on at present."
"When will this happen?" one brave female reporter enquired, voicing the one question that no one else dared to ask, fearing the answer.
"At present, we predict that it will hit us at approximately 9:28 am on June 9th," Haskell-Morton told them.
Nobody else asked anything. They were all too busy trying to digest the news that their ears had heard but that their minds were unwilling to accept. They were all silently working it out in terms of weeks, days, and hours. The Prime Minister took over once more, allowing the grateful astronomer to escape once more to his seat, where he huddled down to try and make himself as invisible as possible to the billions of onlookers.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," the Prime Minister continued. "I am urging you to remain calm. As Dr. Haskell-Morton said, we are currently preparing measures to avert this global disaster, with the co-operation of our military forces, as well as those of our foreign allies. We will keep you informed of progress, but you must remain calm and work together in this. Only through our courage and faith will we overcome this threat. Thank you."
He had signed off there and then, leaving a world of silently stunned viewers and listeners. Stay calm? Yeah, right. He would probably have more luck if he had told us to stand out in the rain and make sure we don't get wet. For Alex, as for the rest of the civilian population, this was the first they had heard of the asteroid. Oh, sure, more details came out later about the earlier investigations and confirming the threat to be real, but until this point there had been a media blackout on the subject. It was probably the only time Alex could remember when the tabloids had not managed to get hold of the story before the official announcements. They had done a good job of keeping it quiet this long. Now that it was out in the open, the shock did keep everyone calm, numb and trying to process what he or she had just learned. Having just heard that in less than two months the world will end, however, staying calm did not last very long.
All that panicking takes is one, you see; one person for it to occur to and it spreads like a virus, passed from person to person until everyone in its wake is infected. No amount of inoculation against it can prevent the spread and no cure can be offered. It began wit just a few, those who read between the lines of the official speech, the smokescreen of 'we are doing all that we can to prevent this'. They heard the tone of voice as the words were spoken, the one they interpreted as 'we really don't stand a chance but we have to say something' and that was the start. Then others joined them. Stage one of the virus.
A week later, stage two began to settle in: The denial of what was about to happen. Actually, it became more of an acceptance. Denial implies a lack of belief or acknowledgement in what is happening, and it was not like that. People knew the doom that lay ahead of them, but the realization that not a damn thing could be done about it now began to sink in. Especially when the news broke three weeks later.
The announcements came out in the usual way: radio and television broadcasts on every station. On April 22, at 4:30 pm, the combined efforts of the US and UK military launched a strike against the approaching threat. With the help of NASA, they modified a nuclear warhead with the intention of destroying the asteroid or, at the very least, knocking it off its collision course with the explosion.
No one knew what went wrong, but the missile did not detonate. Those back at the control center watched in dismay and horror as the missile signal vanished off their radar screens leaving only the asteroid leaving no time to try again. Various other things were tried, as well as simulations being run as to 'precautions to take on Earth'. Unfortunately, they discovered that seeking refuge underground, which had so far been thought the best option for survival, would prove almost useless. It would, the public were told, still only give an estimated 3-5% overall survival rate. Sure, it may increase the chances of living through the impact but the aftermath would be enough to wipe out the vast majority of those who survived.
Following the failed attempts at preventing the catastrophe, it was decided that they had better begin preparing the public for the worst. Of course, most of it would be based on educated speculation as not one of the scientific minds working on this had ever seen what a six-mile-wide asteroid could do. However, they could piece together a good picture based on research from the times that smaller asteroids and space debris had hit in the past, such as the hit in Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908. The asteroid that time had been only a 200-foot wide fragment that exploded five miles up in the atmosphere. From that alone, without the impact, it had produced an explosive power more than 1000 times that of the Hiroshima bomb. An asteroid of a mere two thirds of a mile wide would have the destructive power of a million Hiroshima bombs. The one heading for Earth right now measured over six miles across.
This time, in addition to radio and television broadcasts, the newspaper presses were set to work printing information sheets to explain about what to expect, to hand out to anyone who wanted to know more. So, with morbid fascination the world read about the devastation that the asteroid would cause, in the same way that you get so many rubber-neckers at a car crash. Everyone is horrified and sickened at the sight of any blood and/ or injured persons, yet those same people found it impossible to drive by without trying to catch a glimpse of one of the above. And so, billions read, watched or listened as the experts went through precisely what would happen on Judgment Day, Doomsday, Armageddon, whatever they were deciding to call it: June 9th, 9:28am.
First, as the asteroid struck, the resulting shockwave would obliterate most physical structures in its immediate path (immediate meaning a good few thousand miles), i.e. the Strike Zone or Ground Zero. This had been estimated as being Southeast Asia, meaning that it would take a few minutes for the effects to catch up with themselves as the destruction progressed across the continents. The shockwave would be strong enough to trigger chain reactions in other destructive forces also, such as volcanoes and earthquakes, as well as man made hazards such as power stations and munitions silos.
Within hours of impact, the Earth would be ablaze; every blade of grass would be seared off, trees reduced to charred stumps and plant life destroyed but that would not be the worst of it. The fires would eventually die down, once nothing remained to burn, but the impact would send debris into the atmosphere, darkening the skies. The smoke and soot from the fires would join it to create an endless night. An endless night, that is, with the added hazard of the plunging temperatures and the debris and fireballs beginning to rain back down onto the Earth's surface. Toxic fumes and smoke would make the air poisonous for most living beings to breathe.
To emphasize their point- as though the general population were not terrified enough by this point! - The scientists reminded their audience that the asteroid responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs all of those millennia ago had been of roughly the same size. That one had killed the dominant species at the time and nearly 70% of all other species. They explained that because of the darkness, due to the sunlight not being able to break through, there could be no heat or photosynthesis for plant life to grow, if any still survived after the initial blast or fires. No vegetation means no food for the smaller animals, and none of them for the larger carnivorous animals to eat.
The good thing, they added cheerfully, was that this nuclear winter would clear after four or five years, gradually allowing the skies to clear and the world's climate to return to normal. Exactly how they thought that this little revelation would cheer anyone up, no one knew. The human race would likely be extinct, or at least on the endangered list, and so what did anyone care if the Earth would become livable again later on? By that time, any animals that managed to survive would have claimed squatters' rights and would be working on re-population. A new dominant species would emerge to their recently vacated home.
Therefore, with their minds mulling over the specifics, the human race began to contemplate its last weeks. At least, most did. There were a few- alright, quite a lot of- people who, after digesting the news reports, simply filed the information away in the little cupboard of their minds where it could be ignored. The attitude of 'the show must go on' prevented them from abandoning their jobs and enjoying their remaining time as though, by not allowing them to listen to it, the disaster would not happen. The rest of the population, however, did not agree. Workers walked out of their jobs, people got drunk, partied, or did whatever they wanted and no one cared about the consequences. After all, what did it matter if you ruined your life, health, or reputation if 'life' only meant another month or so?
Chapter 2
Alex sat in the dunes with his four best friends, empty beer bottles scattered around in the sand in front of them. A small fire burned in an old metal oil drum, the bottom rusted away after years of being in the salty ocean.
"Did you hear? The bookie down on High Street let a guy place a bet of a million to one that he'll survive," Vince Malloy sniggered.
"What's the point?" he asked. "I mean, even if he does win, I doubt that the bookie will be still alive to give him his cash."
His friend stretched out his legs and yawned. "You never know," he pointed out with a grin. "Maybe they'll double the odds for both of them surviving."
He had known Vince for a long time, since school in fact, but he could still remember the day they had met as though it were yesterday. He had been a small child, being shorter than his classmates until his teens, and that unofficially branded him as being fair game to the bullies. Alex had been laying low in the playground, hoping to avoid being noticed until the bell rang to allow them back into school, when the bullies spotted him. Stevie Parks had harassed him for the past few weeks, and he could hit hard. Alex had gone home many times recently, having to explain a torn sweater or bloodied nose to his mother. Of course, he never told her the truth, but his excuses were rapidly running out of.
On that particular morning, Stevie aimed a second punch in his direction when he found himself being rugby-tackled to the ground. His cronies fled, fearing that they were next, leaving Stevie to get a taste of his own medicine before running away to a dark corner in tears. Alex took the helping hand offered to him and looked at his rescuer, recognizing the new boy who had joined their class at the start of the year. He introduced himself as Vincent Malloy. He had not spoken to him before that day but he heard the other kids talk about their new classmate, telling stories about how he got into fights and had been thrown out of his last school, and he believed it. Even at nine years old, Vince looked menacing but all that Alex cared about was that he had stopped Stevie beating him up again. He did not think that he would be bothered again and he thanked Vince as they walked back to class together, sealing their friendship over a shared bar of chocolate.
Now, 17 years later, the two of them were still best friends. They went through college together, sharing student digs, before moving on into the wide world outside. Alex looked around at the group of friends around him. These were the people who mattered the most to him, outside of family, and so it was only fitting that they spend their last few days together. The other three members of the group, the three girls, were giggling amongst themselves about something, the alcohol working its way to their heads. He had lost count of how many bottles in the sand were his or anyone else's, but he knew that the girls could probably out-drink himself or Vince any day. Jessica Golden, Iona Bennett and Eleanor Walker: three people who had shared almost as much of his life as Vince had.
Suddenly he saw Jess, followed by Iona and Ellie run past him towards the sea. It took him a second glance to realize that he was not just drunk but rather that they were, in fact, in their underwear.
"What are you doing?" he yelled after them.
Iona came back and grabbed his hand, pulling him to his feet. "We're going swimming," she told him, as though it should have been the most obvious thing in the world. "Come on!" She began to laugh again as she raced to catch up with the other two who were waiting at the water's edge. He heard them squeal as they ran into the freezing water, arm in arm, and turned to Vince.
"Oh, what the hell!"
Seconds later, he and Vince were heading for the water, leaving a pile of clothing in the sand.
The desire to swim in the ocean did not last though, the water too cold to stay in for long without a wetsuit to keep the body from freezing. It had a sobering affect on them all, the shock of the temperature banishing the alcohol-fuelled enthusiasm for this rather quickly. Ten minutes later, they were sitting around the campfire once more, trying to warm numbed limbs. Alex reached for his jacket and draped it around Iona's shivering shoulders. She looked up gratefully and smiled, huddling herself closer to him to get warm.
It felt strange, she thought, watching the flames flickering in the darkness, that she and Alex were so comfortable here together, so close. They had been a couple before, but broke up and got back together more times that either of them could remember. For a variety of reasons, they always drifted apart; it was as though by making it official, they automatically started attracting problems that eventually drove a wedge between them. Last year, they spilt for good, to save them both from going crazy or ruining the friendship that somehow managed to survive all these years, whichever came first. Not for the first time, Iona wished that it could have been different. She knew that he felt the same but they had always joked that fate held a grudge against them. Maybe, Iona told herself, fate wasn't so much against them, as having a really twisted sense of humor.