Overture (Earth Song) (55 page)

“
We’re out of time,” she said quietly. The cop looked at her with confusion in his eyes until she pointed up through the door. A second sun was in the sky, a point of bright white light that quickly outshone the Earth’s natural yellow primary sun. “Don’t look at it,” she warned and turned her back. They did the same and she watched on the floor as her shadow began to move faster and faster, the shadow cast by their own sun now completely washed out by the new light. It had a harsh, stark quality rather like the light thrown off of an arc welder. It even flashed and flickered.

As
the new shadow reached its far left point and began to slow its movement, she turned around and looked. LM-245 was falling below the western edge of the city. It was easily the size of a basketball if you were to stretch out your hands and try to grasp it. The passage of Lebowski left a glowing tail of ionized atmosphere in its wake as the meteor continued its course to the west. “It’s in the upper atmosphere,” she said to the small crowd that had gathered behind her.

“
I thought it would burn all the way across the sky,” Billy said, “like a meteor.”

“
It’s coming in too steep and too fast, it’s only going to be in the atmosphere for a few seconds before it hits in the Pacific. Just watch.” True to her word there was a wash of radiant light from the west only a second later. It was like watching the entire sky briefly turning into a huge fluorescent light from horizon to horizon; behind it trailed a multi-colored rippling rainbow of dazzling luminosity. And then it was gone. “Game over,” she said.

“
How long?” asked one cop.

“
For what?”

“
Before we feel it?” asked Billy.

“
We won’t survive to feel it. If we’re still here, it’ll hit like a bomb, tearing though rock and steel like a sneeze through tissue paper.” All their eyes were wide around her. “Speed of sound propagation through rock, call it four hours.” In a moment, all but the two guards scrambled back to finish the work.

Outside the Portal Dome, a drama was been playing out. Leo Skinner’s co-conspirators quickly regrouped after retreating from the dome and prepared for a devastating counterattack. Heavy weapons were taken from their copters and made ready to break the dome wide open. Leo wasn’t aware of this contingency. Some of those he’d made deals with in the intelligence community and private power brokers had prepared their own contingency plans. As those powerful people arrived in small dark helicopters, the gathering finally drew the attention of the loyal US armed forces battling the remnants of General Hipstitch’s rebels. Then things really began to come apart.

The
first sign that something was wrong came as a pair of newly arrived helicopters blossomed into miniature mushroom clouds. Stealthy black attack copters swooped in and began raining death on the rich and powerful. Their hired soldiers fought back but they were in turn engaged as a US Marine air mobile assault team arrived. Shouts were exchanged for recognition and when no answer was received the guns on both sides began to roar.

As
Mindy watched her shadow split and crawl across the floor, all the fighting stopped as eyes turned toward the sky. The bright circle of LM-245 became an unbelievably bright ball of light that crept across the sky to the west moving ever faster. The smart ones turned away or shielded their eyes from the glaring light more intense than the sun; those that didn’t saw only a white circle burned into their retinas for the rest of their short lives. Once the fireball streaked below the horizon and then lit the sky, there was a pregnant pause between the two forces. Then hostilities resumed with a new urgency.

Mark
Volant glanced at the strangely illuminated skies for a moment and tried to understand what it meant. He knew the asteroid must have hit somewhere, but why hadn’t they felt anything?

“
What do we do sir?” asked one of his men.

“
Re-secure the Portal Dome,” he said and checked his weapon, “just like the plan says.” And hope Hipstitch gets here in time, he thought to himself. He stood from behind where they had taken cover and headed for his vehicle. Eleven men from his former contingent of almost a hundred, that was all he had left. Many with minor wounds, a few were seriously injured, and they were more than a mile from the Portal Dome. And he was not completely recovered from his wounds of the first assault on the Portal Dome by the fanatic Followers of the Avatar cult. To make it even more fun, he’d sustained a new pair of wounds as they fought to throw off the unknown forces that were fighting around the park. One grazing wound to his stomach caused little trouble but a more serious head wound gouged out bone from his forehead and refused to stop bleeding. Many of his men looked at him in fear and horror, their leader’s face awash with his own blood like some ancient Viking berserker.

When
the battle began, Volant moved out into the compound, linking up with all the extra agents he put on, and tried to secure the facilities. There were just too many aggressors fighting on too many sides. He’d found himself in a dozen brief firefights and eventually retreated outside the compound entirely. It reminded him of those online shooter video games where hundreds would all just jump in and start killing each other.

The
arrival of the loyal US forces gave him the distraction he needed to penetrate back inside to where they were now. The Portal Dome a distant bump through a mile of the park’s carefully manicured forest paths. As the frightening lights in the sky faded, leaving the normal morning gloom, they climbed into the four unmarked cars and made a run for the dome.

Several
soldiers of different allegiance attempted to impede them and were quickly dealt with. Resistance was too disorganized to slow them down and in a short time they were almost to their objective. The man driving Volant’s car cut him a wide grin and Volant clapped him on the shoulder. “Almost there, son. We’ll figure things out once we’re more in control-”

Out
of nowhere, a young emaciated woman stepped out in front of them. “Don’t swerve,” Volant was about to say but the young man driving had the instincts of any other well trained motorist. He’d slammed on the brakes and jerked the wheel even before he knew what he was doing.

They
’d only been doing about thirty but on the loose gravel it was enough. The car fishtailed and the front wheels caught in the gravel. The rear end spun around violently and they hit a tree rear first. The impact flipped the car and landed them upside down in the center of the path. The next car behind them locked up its breaks as well but didn’t stop before sliding into the side of Volant’s car with a shuddering bang. Volant heard a snap and felt intense pain from his left arm before the car came to a rest.

“
Well that was fun,” he said through gritted teeth. The car was on its side with him facing the ground. His driver wasn’t moving and by the amount of blood pooling up on the lower window he was quite dead as well. Volant stuffed his left hand into his waistband, the pain so intense he bit his lip and tasted blood. The broken limb dealt with, he began extricating himself.

All
four of their vehicles were piled up as a result of the chain reaction accident. The last two looked okay but his own car was lying across the entire narrow road, they would have to backtrack almost a half mile to get around the obstruction. His men were asking him what to do as he slid down from his ruined car onto the trail. The Portal Dome was just a quarter mile away. As he looked that way, he caught a momentary view of the emaciated woman slouching down the trail toward the Portal Dome.

He
was about to tell them they were going to proceed on foot when powerful floodlights illuminated them. “You are under arrest,” boomed a voice over a loudspeaker from above, “place your hands on your heads and lie down face first on the ground!”

Volant
chuckled and gave a painful shrug as he pulled out his pistol. “Make a run for the dome!” he yelled to his men and opened fire on the glaring light. An instant later a torrent of lead began roaring down on their heads.

“We’re it,” Billy said to Mindy as they threw crates after the last police officer who went through. The final case soared after him and was caught on the other side just as the Portal swirled and closed. He looked over at the stack of equipment nearby and rubbed his chin, his arms aflame with fatigue and so tired he could barely stand.

“
Come on, let’s start getting that crap on you,” Mindy said as she wiped sweat from her face.

“
I don’t think this is a good idea,” he said, “It makes more sense for me to go through last.”

“
We’re not going over this again. I’m the only one that knows how to work the Portal, if something goes wrong there’s no way for you to fix it. Now get your sexy ass through that Portal, mister!” 

“
Just have to do things your own way, don’t you?”

“
That’s right, you should have thought of that before you married me.”

“
Too late to reconsider, I guess,” he said as he slipped the straps for a pair of cumbersome crates over his shoulders. “Don’t keep me waiting,” he said and strained to lift the load. Once it was suspended, Billy duckwalked through the portal. Mindy quickly rolled a pair of crates through the Portal after him but the third one wouldn’t go. Her husband had managed to get through with almost his entire allotment. He managed to turn around on the other side and wave just as the Portal closed.

“
Just me now,” she said to the empty room. The oval of the Portal ring was alight now with one hundred-forty two glowing lights. There would only be one extra after she went through. Mindy went to the huge stack of crates with the rope attached. There was still a stunning amount of equipment that she desperately wanted to bring through and only her few hundred kilos of allotment remained.

She
double-checked that the ropes were correctly looped through all the handles of each crate and then tied it around her midriff. With a silent prayer that the rope would remain intact, she turned toward the glowing Portal.

“
Time to take the dive,” she said. It was strange, but even after watching all those people go through before her she still felt a prickling fear rising in her chest. No backing out now. She exhaled with a whistling sound and moved toward the Portal.

“
Don’t do that,” a voice said from the doorway. She turned and saw Mark Volant standing with a gun in one hand. He looked like a refugee from a slaughter house as he stood there bleeding from several bullet wounds and supporting himself on the door frame. Despite the wounds, his eyes were bright and his intentions obvious. “You’ve caused more trouble than any one person deserves,” he said and coughed blood, “but I aim to put an end to that right now.” He raised the weapon to eye level and took aim at Mindy.

For
a fleeting instant, she considered diving backwards through the Portal, then she remembered she was still tethered to all those crates. If she attempt to jump backwards the movement would be arrested by the stack of equipment. With sick resignation, she watched his finger tighten on the trigger.

The
roar of a gun shock echoed in the small dome. A small scream escaped Mindy’s lips and she jumped slightly, waiting to feel the searing pain in her chest but nothing happened. Volant had a confused look on his face as he realized he'd been shot, again. Volant turned his head, almost falling over from the simple motion, and saw the same emaciated woman pointing a smoking gun at his back just outside the doorway. She held the huge weapon unfamiliarly, but the look on her face was unmistakable.

“
She deserves to live,” Kadru growled and pulled the trigger again. The second shot hit him in the shoulder and spun him partially around as she fired a third time and missed.

“
Women,” Volant spat and fired his own gun, “I can’t seem to get away from them.” Kadru was hit squarely in the stomach. The impact pitched her backwards onto the floor. She quickly sat back up and laughed at her attacker.

“
I thought it would hurt worse to get shot,” she said, “it’s not so bad.” Her gun spoke a fourth time, missing again. Volant returned the shot and hit her in the neck. Bright red blood sprayed from the wound and Kadru fumbled to hold onto her gun. Volant pulled the trigger again, but the slide was locked open and the gun was empty.

He
slumped to the floor against the door frame, his strength beginning to ebb. From a pocket, he produced a magazine for the pistol. His hands were slick with blood and they quivered with the effort of ejecting the empty magazine. He tried several times before he got the fresh magazine in place.

Meanwhile
Kadru was whispering a prayer. “Vishnu, guide my hand,” she said and tried to raise the gun. She didn’t seem to have the strength to bring it up and aim so she just did her best to line it up on target. Mindy was frantically trying to untie the rope around her waist and help the mortally wounded woman, but the knots were confounding her efforts.

“
Time to die,” Volant said victoriously as he flipped the slide release and loaded his gun.