Aurora - Part 2

As I hit the switch to close the window cover, I realised nothing was ever going to be the same again. I looked at Paul, still looking out the window with a pale, emotionless face even though it was now closed. I span away from him “We cannot tell anyone one about this!”

“We can’t lie to our friends” he whispered.

I don’t know why but I was angry at him for saying that, it felt like a betrayal, though I have no idea why. I knew the right thing to do was to tell everyone the truth but I guess I thought I was protecting them, which is funny considering the pain I caused them in the end. I had to get out of that room. Try to pretend it was not real, just for a few minutes.

“I can’t lie to them Ben!”

“Don’t be naive Paul!” I yelled “We have to find out what happened first!”

“We know what happened, Ben, we’ve just seen it!”

I shook my head silently, this could not be happening. “I’m going to contact HQ…”

“You think HQ survived that?!”

I squared up to him “I’m going to contact HQ.” Paul nodded silently “Good.” I snarled, and turned to leave the room. “and what if they’re dead?” Paul sounded small, his voice echoing off the walls. I didn’t stop to answer.

The Control Room in Sector Two was the best place to get answers; it had everything you needed to contact the outside world. I sat at the computer trying to get a hold of somebody, anyone. I remember typing, but I just could not get the image of the storm from my head. It looked so beautiful and yet so destructive. Paul came rushing into the room to find me there, sitting at the computer. He grabbed my shoulder “We’re going to run out of power soon; the generator is only tanked for about 24hours!”

“Turn off everything non- essential” I stared at the screen.

“That’ll just scare people! Ben, we have to tell them first!”

I always liked Paul, but when it came to problems, he just never knew how to handle it. Now I like to think that I am calm and rational, but Paul is more like an exploding building taking everyone down with him.

“Just turn it off, Paul” I kept staring at the screen “I’ll handle everyone.”

I went through everything I could to make contact. I just had to try. I had to try, before I went upstairs and delivered the news. But I found only what I had expected to, and it wasn’t good. I sat, staring, and I knew I couldn’t do it. I rubbed my eyes, searching for a solution but there was none.

I trudged up the stair to the Common Area, eyes to the ground and found Paul waiting for me. “Gather everybody up.” I mumbled. Paul nodded wordlessly and left me there to think of a way to tell everyone in the nicest possible manner that we’re all alone, and the world is ending. I wanted to go find Jason and Joan but I didn’t have time to explain to them.

 Mary was the first to arrive with many questions of her own already “Ben, why are my radio and TV not working?”

“We know Mary, we’re working on it”

“Bless you Paul” she smiled serenely.

Everyone gathered slowly in the Common Area, muttering to each other and glancing over at me nervously, waiting to hear what I had to say

I dragged my hand across my face and took a deep breath “So” I looked up at them “Earlier this morning, Paul and I noticed an increase in temperature outside from the computers.” I had no option but the truth “At first it looked like we suffered a massive electromagnetic disruption…but on closer inspection I am afraid it’s much worse than that.” The muttering started up again, louder and more urgent than before “I went through the system looking for anything unusual in the last twenty-four hours, and I found something. It looks like there was a geomagnetic storm which is a perfectly normal thing to happen and is usually only temporary, but” My throat dried up, I swallowed nervously “but this one was worse. A lot worse.” People were openly talking now, questions flying across the room, the same one repeated over and over again “How much worse?”

I raised my voice to compete with the crowd “There was a massive disturbance in the interplanetary medium. I know most of you understand what this means, but for those who do not, intense solar flares release very high energy particles that can cause radiation, poisoning, cancer and…” I paused for a breath“…and more likely death.” Panic erupted; I couldn’t make out individual voices, so I kept going, louder than before. “All communications are down and we are running on a backup generator for power.”

“What the hell are we going to do, Ben?” One voice dominated the others.

“I’m not entirely sure yet!”

“Are you sure this has happened?” Mary clutched at the crucifix around her neck.

I raised my voice as the volume in the room grew even louder and panicked “We have several receivers located in the southern hemisphere and they all detected exactly the same thing!” The noise slowly faded, until I was left with silent faces, all staring. “Myself and Paul both saw a massive aurora in the sky in the observation deck.”

“Oh my god, we’re all going to die!” Joan screamed, covering her face as if it would help.

“No!” I turned on her “We are not going to die!” She fell silent “We are still alive and we can find some help!”

“Do you think anyone survived?” asked Colm, eyes darting nervously around the room.

“Honestly?” I shrugged, the full weight of the situation on my shoulders “I can’t see how.” Murmuring began to circulate the room once more “but we did survive, so there is every possibility that there are others.” I turned to leave the room, meaning to go back to the Control Room and continue the fruitless search. Joan and Jason cut me off at the door.

“Ben! What are we going to do?”

I didn’t know what I was going to do. We were all alone and they knew it but they still looked to me for answers, answers I could not give them.

Colm rushed to my side, grabbing my arm. “My girlfriend works in Washington. Do you think it’s ok there?” he looked at me with such hope in his face, I hadn’t the heart to tell him no.

“I’m not sure yet, but we have had no communication with anyone outside since yesterday”

Before I knew what was happening, I was surrounded. A thousand panicked questions from all directions. “Listen!” I yelled “Right now we have a fifty per cent chance of surviving if we don’t go outside. After a week the radiation should be low enough that we will just be vomiting for a few days.” And the urgent muttering began once again.

It was heart breaking to watch those people break down like that. People I had spent many months with that I considered my friends, and of course my wife and son, who were so scared that nothing I could say could make them feel at ease. Deep down I knew we had a slim chance of being alive the next week, but I could not tell them that. I had to keep hope alive in the early stages. If we had any chance at all.

Paul found his voice once more, breaking through the crowd to confront me “Enough! Just be realistic, Ben, everyone is dead!”

“Paul, calm down! We do not know anything right now, stop scaring the others!” He met my eye with venom, and I took a step forward, ready for a fight, but at that moment Jason ran towards me and hugged my waist as hard as he could.

“I don’t want to die, Dad!” He sobbed

“I will not let anything happen to you son, don’t you worry” I whispered, patting his head. I took another deep breath and addressed the crowd again. “We need to start thinking about supplies and power; if we’re going to survive we have to think logically”

“Use as little electricity as possible because we have to stay inside for a least one week before we can go outside”

“If it is god’s will for us to die then who are we to deny that?” Mary screeched, lifting her arms in to the air as if expecting the Lord to come down and pick her up from heaven. I sighed, there’s always one.

“Mary, that sort of thinking is not helping; we have to think logically to survive.”

“We must not turn on our Lord in this time of devastation” Mary sounded affronted, clutching her crucifix in her fist.

I was never a religious man, I always thought of the world as an act of science rather than an act of God, but when people think they are going to die, even if they were not religious before, well they will surprise you.

“What if she’s right, Ben?” Paul whispered, keeping his distance behind me.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I turned and allowed him a withering glance.

“Who are we to question His judgement?” He shrugged nervously.

Questions like that put doubt in people’s minds, doubts that can kill people in a situation like that. When you see accidents happen on TV or in movies it’s always easy to say “Stick Together” but when people are pushed against a wall, they turn on one another and will do whatever it takes to survive. It’s not a strong point in human nature but it is instinct. Once questions about living or dying by God are brought into the conversation then everyone starts to doubt the point of trying to survive, and I could not let that happen

“Listen up! Have you all gone mad? We need to stick together now more than ever! If we all turn on one another then we are all going to die alone! Is it not worth trying to survive?” Mary opened her mouth to argue, but I kept going, I couldn’t let her raise anymore doubts. “Maybe it is God’s will but we can’t prove that, all we know is that we’re in this situation and it’s in our nature to survive because we might just be the last humans remaining!”

Colm took a step forward, wringing his hands “Is there anything I can do, Ben?”

“I can help to Ben” Alan stepped forward to join him

I gave them what I hoped was a grateful look “Yeah, you two get food supplies and bring it all into the kitchen. Find out how long it will all last while I look for candles or flashlights or…I don’t know, anything that can be useful”

“What about me?” Paul came around to join the small team forming in front of me.

“Paul, I need you to keep trying to get communication, can you do that for me?”

“Of course” he nodded glumly.

We stood in silence for a moment, contemplating the situation we were in, when a quiet voice crept up on me.

“Don’t you worry, Ben, God has a plan for you”

“I’m not doubting He does, Mary” I turned away from her and left the room in as calm a manner as I could

“I just hope it’s the same as mine.”

I went to my room to see what useful supplies I had; Joan followed me, crying so loud I couldn’t hear myself think. “Ben, what’s really going on?” she wept, tears streaming from her eyes and down to her chin. I couldn’t look at her. “We’re on our own, Joan.”

If I knew where I would end up it would have been easier to kill everyone right there and then. The pain I had caused these people, my friends and my family. I only wish I had killed them when I had the chance.

by JAMES SMITH