Torn (45 page)

Her mouth moved but no words emerged.

Darius
shook
his head. “It’ll be dangerous after the lottery.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll come down with Colin on the third.”

“Then no. I stay, the kids stay. We all go down together. We have you guys in our li
ves
. We are a family,” Bret said. “We stay and go as a family.”

In his typical
ly
sarcastic way, Colin interjected. “For as love
noble
as that is
. . .
”

“
No
.” Bret cut him off. “We stay. We were in together from the get
-
go, and now
we
wade through every storm and we do
it
together.”

It wasn’t eve
n the break of day, and already
the lottery had started. Martin monitored the problems that began with the first detaining.

The president issued a speech the night before stating, “We aren’t deliberately trying to separate families, we are, however
,
deliberately trying to ensure man’s survival.”

Martin knew well ahead of time the moment the first name of a child was draw
n
, and the moment that child was taken from his or her family, chaos would begin
in earnest
.

Not that chaos hadn’t
already
started.

The
snake
attacks set fire to a wave of viral infections that claimed, in one month’s time
,
15,00
0
people.
Even that paled in comparison to the revived bubonic plague that
swept
Europe.

Chaos.

Though there weren’t any other sun problems, solar flare
s
or
EMP
hits, the last two flares caused panic.

And chaos.

The
heat wave
was showing no
signs
of letting up, and the news of the ice age seemed like a rumor instead of fact. But
M
artin knew, he knew, the oceans had
begun
to evaporate, the temperature rose, and it was just a matter of weeks before
the air
temperatures p
lummet
ed.

Nature.

Chaos.

Many of the southern states issued border patrols to stop the pending migration of people.

The only way to drive or fly in was to have your papers authorized by the government ahead of time that you did indeed
have a
destination
down south. A place to go
. . . .

Louisiana
was a free state. They stated they would let anyone in and set up refugee camps.

Although
traffic to the south wasn’t as predominant as Martin expected, he guessed after the lottery it would be worse.

People were waiting for their number to be called.

The word ‘fire’ over the radio caught Martin’s attention. A soldier was reporting that a mob had formed and they were burning things. His CO
gave
the order to use gas.

With the intervention of monitors, Martin felt as if he could see the world.

On one end of the huge monitor
board,
he could see the
preparation
for the dome city.

The place where the lottery winner
s
would
be
move
d
after they left the local detaining centers.

Martin
didn’t like the idea of moving the
detainees
at the last minute, but in an
o
dd
way it made sense. It kept people from following the transport. And the longer they waited to move them, the more likely
that
those who
were not chosen
would find a survival place or somewhere to go. And leave the detainees in peace.

Plus, the time gave them a chance to hope that the
Tundra
P
lan would succeed, and then the GEP would be moot. The world would be saved.

Martin was doubtful of that.

However
. . .
t
he dome
d
cit
y
filled Martin with hope.
It
would
work. Of course, they would be
buried in snow for three months, but after that
it would work.
It was basic needs but needs would be met.

Man would live, survive and go on.

An e
stimate
d
750,000 people would be
brought
to the G
E
P project, or rather chosen. Martin figured 20% if not more wouldn’t show
and
would die,
or
run away.

Even with half that many, man’s extinction was almost guaranteed.

Left. Right.

Good. Bad.

Dome city. Greenhouses.
Workers
completing projects.

Rioting. Destroyed cities streets.

Le
f
t
.
R
ight
.

Chaos
. Peace.

Martin knew, p
retty soon, if the
Tundra
P
lan didn’t work, there would be a difference between
the
left and right monitors. It would
all
be the same.

Quiet.

Empty

Bret had been
to
the doctor’s office once before, and it was packed
, b
ut not on this visit.

Not only was the office empty, but so
was the clinic, the parking lot
. . .
the
streets on the way there
.

Like some sort of sci
-
fi movie, the
streets
were barren
and
papers flew about.

She
lay on
the table in the examining room, giggling.

Her shirt
was
lifted some, cold ultrasound ‘goo’ on
her
belly, while Darius used the
Doppler
to
listen
for a heart
beat.

“There.” He
smiled
.

Swish-swish. Swish-Swish.

“No matter how many times you hear it, it still sounds weird.”

“I wonder if Doctor Beck
will
let us keep this.”

“Be my guest,” he said as the
door
closed.

Darius
grinned
. “Hey
,
doc.”

He
gave an ‘up’ motion of his chin. “Did you get a beats per minute.”

“One fifty.” Darius replied.

“Good. Good.”
Dr. Beck, an older man, late sixties, sat on a stool and rolled toward them.
“You can take that and the gel. One less thing for me to pack. And as you can see
. . . .
”
He indicted to the near
empty
exam
room. “What I wanted to send, I sent.”

Darius handed him a folder. “There’
re
your travel papers for you and your family. Lease agreement approved by the government. Virginia said your cartons
arrived
. But I have
to
stress no more than one big bag and one small bag on the plane.”

“Absolutely,” Dr. Beck said. “My wife and I are
very
grateful for this chance. Glad
to be
a part.”

“Glad to have you.”

Bret interjected. “Oh, me too.”

Dr. Beck smiled.
“How are the others finding the facility?”

Nodding, Darius answered as he stood and grabbed a paper towel
.
“Good. Some of the little kids have made the back hall into a bike center.
” He wiped off
Bret’s stomach as he continued
speaking, “
But they need to play. Keep in mind, this is the last
plane
we have going down there. It takes off at three. Be at the old Clairton Airstrip by 2.”

“I’ll assume we have to s
h
ow
these
papers?” he asked.

“Yes. We didn’t have any problems the last two flights.
Government
is ready for us.
Hopefully
, they’ll have an agent there. They’ll check our documentation and we’ll take off.”

“Why did you wait so long?” He questioned.

“Data.
We wanted to be up to date on everything.”

“Darius is lost,” Bret said, sitting up and sliding from the table.
“His equipment shipped down yesterday. My sons Luke and Perry went down to set it up.”

“The girls?”

Darius shook his head. “
Authorities
wouldn’t
let
them travel with
out Bret. We tried. But they’re only thirteen.
She could have signed over guardianship, but no one was going down that we trusted for that honor.
”

“And I didn’t want to go.” Bret added
, shifting her eyes to Darius.

Dr. Beck nodded. “Understandable.”

“Well.” Darius
exhaled
,
handed Bret the ‘goo’ bottle, and tucked the wires neatly around the fetal heart monitor. “We’ll be seeing you shortly.”

Dr. Beck looked at his watch. “Six hours.”

“Six hours.” Darius extended his hand.

As did Bret.

After another smile
and nod
s
goodbye, Bret and Darius left the office.

She paused in the waiting room before they left.

“What’s wrong?”

Her eyes shifted to the
magazine
rack. The empty waiting
room
,
o
nce
full
of life. With
a shiver of what was impending
and
slight
worry, she grabbed a handful of baby magazines.

“You’re stealing?”

“Well. You never know.”

With a grunt and chuckle, Darius led her out.

Admittedly, it was
M
other
N
ature’s great diversion.

When the lottery
was announced, people assumed that their names would be scrolled across a television screen or a phone call would come. But that was not the case. The
y
were pre
-
selected and drawn, so when it was time, an armed escort came to their door. No warning. Ten minutes, pack a bag.

Cell phone service was shut down nationwide. The only number that anyone could dial was 911.

Just as he predicted in his thesis twenty-six years early, every phase was occurring
,
a
lthough Martin didn’t
foresee
the emergence of past viruses, the solar
flares
, the EMP’s, earthquakes, all of them.

The sun finally settled
down
and i
t was time for Earth to give it
s
last
hurrah.

Final signs.
Once the
volcanoes
started erupting, Martin knew it was just a matter of time before the storm started forming for the ice age.

Four underwater volcanoes in the
P
acific erupted, but they were
n.t
the diversion.

The eruption or pending eruption of Mt.
Rainer
was.

Two
volcanoes
in
Hawaii
were ready to blow as well.

All Martin could think about was the dust and smoke joining the evap
orated oceans in the atmosphere,
e
vaporations that were growing by the day.

No wonder he found it as no
surprise
when the government moved up the Tundra
P
roject
by
three days.

Three days. Which meant
they would know shortly after if it worked. Which also meant, the lottery winners would be transported shortly after.

He
only hoped that if it failed,
the lottery winners could be moved to the GEP faster than the storm would move in.