The Eden Project: Humanity's Last Chance (19 page)

“Check it out,” Ozzie said pointing up to the top of the dome.

Some kind of rushing, dark-red liquid raced down the curve of the glass toward the hundreds of climbing fiends.

“This can’t be good,” Zeke said. His eyes followed the fast moving fluid until it splashed hard into the faces of the infected.

Skin, hair and eyes burned all at once as the beasts began to fall all over each other, sliding down the glass, screaming from their hoarse throats and piling up into a smoking mass of fried flesh at the base of the dome wall.

Ozzie pumped his fist and yelled, “Hell, yeah!” He stepped between Zeke and Adam who were happily peering down at the results of Claudia’s wicked acid wash. The dome now had a slight red tint, a small price to pay for a quick end to the battle.

The boys surveyed the land between the dome and the sea. A few dozen of the horde walked around in a confused daze refusing to get near the glass. Before they could decide if they were coming or going, Claudia began her rat-a-tat-tat welcome party.

Machine gun fire blanketed every square foot of the rocky coast with exploding bullets that blew open various parts of each and every skin ripper left on the island. The ground was covered with their bodies. Claudia’s kill rate was one-hundred percent.

The three boys gazed upon it all in absolute awe.

“Right,” Doctor Quarna said over the speakers. “Get the kids all in for their breakfast. We launch in six days. It’s no longer a precaution.”

The five boys up at the lookout post were overwhelmed by the bodies outside and the idea that they would be flying through outer space within a week.

* * *

THE ISLAND WAS FREE of the infected, but boats full of them remained out in the water. The kids finished their breakfast and were given the task of moving supplies onto the four ships.

The red tint the acid had given the dome helped to hide the bloody massacre that had occurred outside. The streaks of blood on the lower half of the dome, where the infected had slid down the glass, seemed like painted flames of fire rising from the pile of dead which reached nearly ten feet high in places at the base of the dome wall.

The original eight walked into the briefing chamber for a short logistical meeting with Doctor Quarna and Doctor Naseer. Once again, the kids sat together as a unified team.

“Good morning, commanders,” Doctor Quarna said, standing on the other side of the glass. “You have all acted with distinction during these difficult days.”

The kids exchanged winks and pats on the back. Doctor Quarna watched them proudly. Tuna received the lion’s share of encouragement for his work with the satellite.

“Doc, I noticed we are already loading the ships,” Adam asked. “Is the plan still to launch in six days?”

Before Doctor Quarna could respond, Claudia rushed into the room behind him. She held her hand to his ear and whispered. He considered her words before he nodded and she quickly left the room.

“The plan is fluid,” Doctor Quarna said, suddenly preoccupied. “Continue your launch prep. We will have an update within the hour.”

Doctor Quarna left the room leaving the kids sitting on their side unsure what just happened. They flashed uncertain looks to each other and began filing out of the room.

* * *

“THE BIG SHIP HAS OVERTAKEN THE DJ’S SHIP,” Claudia said gravely pointing at the standard detection grid which showed the merging of two pulsing marks.

Doctor Quarna leaned over her and hit the keys himself. Next to the marks a pop-up box appeared which indicated the distance as thirty-two miles.

“The poor fool,” Doctor Quarna lamented, “he never stood a chance.”

The satellite images on the largest screen began to move. Claudia nodded at the screen to alert Doctor Quarna. “That’s Tuna,” Claudia informed him. “He’s back on his ship working the satellite.”

They watched the satellite moving and then stopping to focus on the two ships from high above. The second ship was four times the length of the DJ’s ship and it was gun-barrel gray.

Alarm shot across Claudia’s face. She quickly hit a button. “Tuna, can you get me a closer look?”

“Copy,” Tuna called back.

The satellite view hugged down closer onto the two ships. The image was still a bit blurry, but the big one had what appeared to be long pipes mounted on its side.

“What is it?” Doctor Quarna asked.

“It’s military. Those are mounted guns. ”

Her words hit him in the stomach, knocking him back. He had to sit down. The lights above began to spin. Not this, he thought. This had not been considered. There was no contingency for this.

“Missile launchers,” he said weakly. He hung his head, void of any pretense of hope. “The plan has evolved,” he finally decided. “The ships must launch today, no matter the cost.”

“It’s not possible,” Claudia said desperately. “We’re not ready. We’re not loaded. You’ll cause a panic.”

Doctor Quarna stared into her eyes intensely. She began to understand. “It’s today or it’s never,” he said.

* * *

TUNA RAN DOWN the corridor on ES2 wearing his bulky flight suit, frustrated. There was a big, gray ship with guns moving toward the dome and he was being called away from satellite surveillance for a general assembly of 117 kids. The message on his scrollpad called it a walkthrough. He did not have time to play pretend. He had to have eyes on that ship at all times.

He clutched his oversized helmet under his arm, darted through depressurization and hurried out onto the ramp. He was surprised to see them all there, the other 116 kids in their suits holding their helmets watching the huge movie screen descend from the ceiling. This was not good. That screen only came down for movie night and that was not for three more days.

At the bottom of the ramp he saw the huge silver crates he knew well. Advanced weaponry for colonization. The kids called them space guns. They were to be the last items loaded per Doctor Naseer’s revised pre-launch protocol. A little early for these, Tuna thought.

He walked through the crowd searching for Cassie. The screen flashed on before he could spot his intended. All four doctors stood together on the screen in a room they had never seen before. The walls behind the doctors were covered with digital images of the kids as babies and toddlers.

The 117 were spellbound by the doctors’ special room and the doctors themselves who were all smiling in a very nostalgic, almost parental fashion.

“You are our children,” Doctor Quarna began. “You are the children of a lost world. You are the children of destiny. You will carry the flame of the human soul into the heavens and beyond. You have been given the greatest responsibility in the history of the species. You will not fear. You will not look back. And you are ready.”

The other doctors continued to smile. Tears welled in Doctor Becker’s dark eyes. The doctors smiled to each other, patted backs and shook hands. The kids watched the doctors confused.

Doctor Quarna turned back from his colleagues to show the kids the sweetest, most paternal grin. “Today, when you finish loading your ships, you will stay on them and you will remain there until you step out onto your new worlds.”

The 117 kids gasped as one.

“Children of the Eden Project, this is the day you launch.”

Stunned silence swept over the crowd until Ozzie began to mutter something about his filtration system. A few isolated exclamations of disbelief were shouted and then girls began to hug and boys began to smile and slap each other’s back. They had been trained for this.

“Doctor Naseer will outline your accelerated loading schedule.” Doctor Quarna stepped back and was replaced by Doctor Naseer.

“A great day, children,” Naseer started.

His next words were forever lost beneath the hissing howl of an incoming missile, first approaching, then casting a fast moving shadow down into the dome and just missing the top of the dome. When it sailed over and exploded somewhere in the waters just east of the dome, the ground beneath their feet rumbled.

The girls started screaming even before the siren sounded.

The shocked doctors hidden away in their special room had not seen the missile, but Doctor Quarna knew what the rumbling ground meant. “Helmets now!” he screamed to the kids. “Milo, form a security shield.”

Tuna quickly put his helmet on. It automatically clamped and sealed tight into the neck ring of his suit. Kids banged into each other manically trying to find their bearings and put their helmets on.

Milo and Isaac escaped the crowd running to the silver crates. Zeke and Adam grabbed, fought and pushed with all their strength trying to direct children. It was useless. The chaos grew and could not be controlled until, without warning, it just stopped.

The hissing howl entered the blood and paralyzed the maddening crowd. They all turned quickly to watch its approach, but it was already there.

The missile blew up the glass at the far end of the western dome and planted its nose just past Eden Sphere 4. The explosion tilted the massive ship off its mount and blasted a deadly shower of glass and metal outward in all directions.

Jagged shards rained down on the fleeing kids cutting into suits and knocking down a dozen kids. In the middle of the crowd, just lifting his helmet off the ground, Riley was impaled with a long shard of metal. The life left his eyes as he fell into a dead lump at the foot of a screaming girl.

Her feet became saturated in his blood.

Most of the smaller kids had lost their helmets. Gen and Sylvia grabbed the young ones and put helmets on them and sent them running toward the three ships not damaged by the missile.

Ozzie ran over to his ship, the ES4, to see if it could still be launched. He ran around the back of the ship and found structural damage. His disappointment became total horror as a hook fell around his neck and was pulled tight, choking him as he was lifted up off his feet and through the hole above into a pack of bloodthirsty infected.

Maya screamed so loud when she saw Ozzie lifted out of the dome that everyone turned to ES4 to see Ozzie’s feet disappearing through the hole. A sudden spray of blood poured down as Ozzie was shredded to pieces by the starving horde.

The terrified kids started pushing each other and running madly to the ramps. The infected were in the dome, dropping down from the now bloody hole in the glass above ES4.

Zeke caught Maya just as she fainted. He scooped her up and kept running. Gen watched him. It was as if nothing touched him as he flew through the chaos like some hero from an ancient myth. Her intended flew up the ramp to ES3 and handed Maya over to two boys who were helping kids onto the ship.

Milo and his team ran to create a security shield near ES4. Their weapons were silver and glass and they had small handles and long barrels. Isaac raised his gun and blasted a blue pulse of energy out toward three infected that had landed on the floor of the dome. The head of the middle beast exploded squishily onto the other two who were smacked back by the force of Isaac’s single shot.

“That’s so badass,” Isaac said to himself. He ran up and gave the other two skin rippers quick, explosive deaths.

The ground outside the dome filled with frenzied waves of infected. Many made it to the glass and started climbing before Claudia began to squeeze off her rat-a-tat-tat machine gun welcome.

A giant man stood up on the rocks near the sea. He had not been infected to the point of being a wasted, emaciated rag doll like the rest of the horde. He remained muscular and he moved with fluidity. He possessed a certain command and elegance.

The leader of the flesh-ripping horde lifted a rocket launcher onto his shoulder, lined up the target technology, locked in on Claudia’s nest and blew it off the top of the dome.

The cannibal King laughed hardily and screamed. He had cleared the way. The infected climbed over the rocks now in droves and raced toward the dome.

Milo knew there were too many to be resisted. The infected beasts were running around the dome and his team had been spread out chasing after them. The security line he had meant to form had been shattered. Nothing stood between the ships and the hundreds more infected that were about to drop through the hole.

“Back,” he yelled. “Back!” There were already too many screams on the floor for anyone to hear him.

He moved back to the other ships. Two infected had somehow made it to the ramp of ES2 and pounced on two boys who were there directing other kids. The beasts cut into the boys suits with knives to make room for their fingers and teeth to feed.

The kids on the ramp froze and trembled as the infected dove down to feast on their friends. Milo blasted them both back to hell with two quick bolts from his weapon.

He ran to the boys. Both were twelve-year-olds. Silas and Connor. Good students, he thought. He squatted down to examine their torn suits and check for wounds.

The boys followed his eyes to where their suits had been damaged. The truth hit them hard. They turned back to Milo, frightened.

Isaac glanced sadly back at the boys as he stood nearby blasting any infected trying to make it to the ramp.

“You can’t go on the ship.” Milo said what they already knew.