Falling Stars, Rising Hopes

Fire and Night

                                                                      Chapter 4

    With shaking fingers, Tanya entered the number George had given her. “Hi,” she said shyly.

    “Hi.” There was a pause. He broke the awkward silence.

    “You wanted to talk to me?”

    “Yes. I was wondering if you saw the news this morning.”

    “I did. It was interesting, especially the interview with Doctor Hill.”

    “I don’t usually watch the news. I didn’t even know about it until one of my coworkers showed me a recording. Aren’t the letters really creepy?”

    “Yes,” George said.

    “I saw it last night. It’s even worse when the glow is the only nearby light. The way it shows all the cracks and crevices and just bounces off them, making it look like the whole thing is made of lava that burns and flows and is perfectly cool to the touch.”

    "You saw one, then?” he asked, curiosity evident in his voice.

    “Better, or worse, than that. I touched one. They left out a detail about the letters. They’re channels, engraved into the surface, so that your finger can’t slip away until it gets to the last letter. ‘The new reality,’” she recited. “How can anyone believe these people don’t want to hurt us?”

    “Even on a video, I wanted to throw it into the Mariana Trench and slam a submarine on it until it shattered into a million pieces.”

    “Exactly. They make you want to burn them and crush them and utterly destroy them until they’re nothing but bits of ash floating on the wind.” Both of them shuddered. The image in Tanya’s watch flickered, adjusting to their movements. George sighed.

    “It’s been less that twenty-four hours and it already seems like these things have been around forever.”

    “Has anyone come up with a name for them?” she asked.

    “Not so far. They’re just ‘things’ or ‘objects.’ I’ve heard ‘capsules’ too, and a couple of times someone used the term ‘fake meteorites,’ but that’s a bit of a mouthful. I don’t think it’ll catch on.”

    “Probably not. They’ll get a name once we know what they do.”

    “I wonder what that is.”

    “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe they’re first contact probes.”

    “Maybe,” he said doubtfully. “But then, why would they be so creepy?”

    “Maybe they don’t understand color the way we do.”

    “Or they could be evil. Oh, look at me. A downright conspiracy theorist I am now.” Although, as they would soon find out, not a wrong one.

    “If you are, I am too. I don’t like the look of those things any more than you do,” Tanya declared loyally. She hadn’t even known him for twenty-four hours, but she felt like they were old friends.

    They talked for a bit longer, somehow managing not to bring up the objects again, before Tanya had to go. After saying goodbye, Tanya stared into space and thought of nothing in particular, thoughts swirling through her head in aimless patterns. Finally, she called up a holobook, settled into her couch, which was molded to fit her body perfectly in a variety of positions, and put the projector on her lap. Some people preferred to stream books on their watches, but Tanya preferred projectors because they were bigger. The holobook, Safe Haven, was her favorite, even though it was from 2136. But it struck too close to home that night.

    The main characters faced the destruction of their world, and the book described all their preparations as they set up a colony in a cave system. Tanya read it like she never had before, fascinated by how much care they took to seal up the caves and lay in supplies that would last until their world was usable again. She didn’t like most post-apocalyptic books, but this one was so carefully researched that she almost found herself believing it was true. As always, she grinned at the scene where one woman brought two giant boxes of yarn, and how thrilled the others were about it.

    But it couldn’t take her away from the real world that night. It seemed like the world the book depicted could be just around the corner. Tanya almost thought that if she turned on the news, she would hear the opening lines of the book. “We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. China and Russia have declared war on each other. Already, there are casualties, as both sides launch missiles across their shared border.” Handful curled up in her spot next to Tanya’s knee, purring supportively. The sweet tabby girl always knew when she needed cheering. She petted her with her left hand, turning the holographic pages with her right. There was an option where the pages went up and down instead of left to right, but Tanya liked to pretend that she had an actual, paper, book in her hand, although they had mostly died out by 2100. She had seen several in museums, but they were far too rare to touch.

    She finished the book and set the projector aside, turning it off. When she turned on her watch, she noticed the time, 7:38 P.M. On an impulse, she called up the global news channel. There was supposed to be a fairly interesting documentary on. What she heard was so surprising it seemed perfectly normal.

    “We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. Five minutes ago, all the capsules that fell from the sky last night cracked into pieces. Inside, each held a curled-up rat about three feet long, not including the tail. These immediately uncurled and started attacking everything in sight. Several deaths have already been reported. We turn now to Isabelle Bremond for details.”

    “So, George was right.” Tanya whispered, turning off the news. “They do want to hurt us, after all.” Her watch beeped urgently as a distant rush of screams rolled over her apartment and passed. “What is it?” she asked.  A hologram emerged, showing a map of Louisville. Red dots surrounded by orange zones seemed to be wandering the city aimlessly. Parts of the orange nearest the red were being replaced with yellow as she watched. Her apartment was in one of the orange zones.

    “This is the Louisville police force. If you are in any of the orange zones, please evacuate your apartment immediately. Do not waste time getting any of your things. Your lives are in danger. Get into the third lane or higher, and get to the nearest emergency base as quickly as you can. This is not a drill. I repeat. This is not a drill.” The man was clearly trying to stay calm, but his voice shook. Another rush of noise came, and she realized the people were screaming in fear, accompanied by the horrific sound of crunching metal and ceramics. She raced to her hovercar, slinging her purse over her shoulder and grabbing Handful’s leash remote and the projector.

    “Come on, come on, come on!” she said under her breath, waiting by the hovercar’s door. It seemed to take forever to boot up, and she kept glancing at her watch, wondering what the red dots were. They seemed to be wandering around aimlessly, and the orange zones extended three blocks in all directions from them. Unfortunately, one was wandering straight towards her. She peered in that direction, but saw nothing. The street was empty for as far as she could see, which wasn’t far. A hill blocked most of her view. She couldn’t hear anything coming, but most noises were drowned out by the sound of everyone turning on their hovercars.

    Finally, the hovercar’s door slid open and she climbed in, relieved that she kept some of her things in the car, like a jacket. Even in early May, the nights could be a bit chilly, and this was no exception. Handful didn’t want to get in. Some smell on the wind had caught her attention, and she strained against the leash field, ears pricked intently, nose twitching. Tanya had to pick her up and forcibly put her in the hovercar before she would relax.  The engines whirred, and she sent the car up, grateful that the sunny day had recharged its batteries.

    It was just before sunset, and the sky was still pale blue except for bands of orange and pink near the horizon, complementing the network of orange streetlights held a thousand feet above the city. Tanya knew the lights were powerfully bright, but she’d only flown through the gaps that let airships through a few times, always in daylight. The glow was soft and indirect by the time it reached the ground, similar to how flashlights worked. Look at me. Evacuating Louisville because giant rats have invaded, and I’m thinking about the lights and how pretty they are against the sky, she thought. The hovercar was up to the fourth lane now, its usual level.

    “Where would you like to go?” Alice asked, and Tanya panicked. Where was she going to go? She had no idea where the nearest emergency base was, and even if she did, it was probably full by now. Her parents probably wanted nothing to do with her, given the fight they’d had over Christmas. Harold only spoke to her when he had to, and their conversations were always strained. Alex was the only cousin she was close to, and that was just because they worked together and had some things in common. She couldn’t just demand he tell her where to go. Besides, he might not know any more then she did.

    “Where would you like to go?” Alice was starting to sound impatient. Think, Tanya, think, she reminded herself. Who do you know who might know about the bases? She mentally scanned through everyone she knew, trying to find someone who could help. There was no one. Her friends weren't the type to memorize end-of-the-world protocols. None of them except...George! George Whitfield! He said he worked for the government. Maybe he’d know.

    “Find George Whitfield.” She gave it his watch information.

    “Locking on. Watch located.” A map popped up with a black dot, for George, and a star, for her hovercar, on it. “George Whitfield is 0.3 miles north, in the fifth lane, heading northwest.” Normally, Tanya liked hearing how natural the car's voice was, but she couldn’t that night. Too much was going on.

    “Follow him,” she said.

    “Adjusting course. Following.” Crisis temporarily averted, Tanya’s thoughts returned to the broadcast. What was going on?

    “Find the news,” she told it.

    “Of course.” The Louisville map appeared over the dashboard next to the one plotting Tanya’s progress through the city. She found her apartment, which was still in an orange zone, then found George’s, barely outside another, and relaxed, if only slightly. Neither were yellow. Glancing out the window, she caught a glimpse of the world outside the mass of fleeing hovercars, thicker than she had ever seen them. Her heart leaped into her throat. What she was seeing couldn’t be possible. Could it?

    “Get over to the outside left lane.”

    “Of course.” As the hovercar executed the maneuver, Tanya looked quickly between the window and the map, realizing what the yellow zones were. The areas that had been destroyed. From four hundred feet up, she watched the devastation.

    Several buildings had already fallen. The red dots were rats, so much larger than usual that she could see them from where she was, tiny black shapes racing through the streets, lunging at anything that happened to attract their attention. When the lights caught their fur, they seemed to be coated in flames. Some of them vainly attacked the shadows of the hovercars, while others jumped futilely for the lowest cars in the first lane, but even those were still probably seventy-five feet off the ground, much too high for the rats to reach. The broadcast had talked about three-foot-long rats, but she hadn’t really believed it. Now she did.

    Handful climbed up so she could see over the bottom of the windowsill, hunkered down so only her head would be visible, with flattened ears and, Tanya was sure, hugely dilated eyes. Her normally fluffy fur lay flatter than Tanya had ever seen it as she watched the giant rats three hundred feet below them. She was in full-on hunting mode, not understanding how big the rats really were. Tanya couldn’t take her eyes off them either. She was grateful the car was on autopilot. 

    One of the rats looked up. Almost as if it could see them, it reared up on its hind legs, waving its paws at the car as it passed. Tanya imagined she could see the orange gleams where the lights reflected off its eyes. Handful swatted back, and for a second, it looked like their paws were touching. Then the car passed, the illusion broke, and the rat dropped back to all fours.

    This is why the police wanted everyone third lane or higher, Tanya realized. They wanted to make absolutely sure the rats couldn’t get anyone. Instead of having people fighting to get in front of others, all the cars fought to get the highest. This led to a clear hierarchy, with the best, fastest, and most agile cars on top in lane seven and the cheapest, oldest, clunkiest cars down in lane one. To a lesser extent, people tried to get in the middle of the lanes, but that was less important than the urge to be as far away from the horrific monsters as possible. It seemed like the whole world had gone insane. She shuddered.

    “Return to full autopilot.”

    “Of course.” Tanya realized someone had been talking, but she’d been ignoring it.

    “Increase volume two percent.”

    “Of course.” The voice grew clearer.

    “…police forces are still confident they can deal with this. Video footage has been released of these monsters destroying a greenhouse in Belize just ten minutes ago.” Tanya watched in horror as the hologram showed rats tearing into a synsilk wall, bouncing out, then deliberately ripping a hole in the side and forcing it open. She was suddenly very grateful that rats didn’t have thumbs, even these ones. Especially these ones. Who knows what could have happened if they could use human machinery? The video ended and the news resumed, giving death tolls and damage reports.

    The President and most of the other heads of state had been evacuated. Hydrodomes were being filled to capacity. Evacuation bases were broadcasting. All the end of the world protocols were being activated as governments rushed to download information before the computers were destroyed. Electrical fires raged as rats ripped apart wiring, reckless of their own safety. Satellites showed several cities dark already apart from the fires, their lights pulled down somehow. Tanya hoped the rats that had done it had gotten squished under the poles. Her bloodlust surprised her. She’d always thought of herself as harmless, unwilling to hurt anyone. Still, she mused, there’s something about having your whole world turned upside down that makes you really mad at the people, or, in this case, things, who did it.

    While the night before would have many names, this one would only have a few. "The night of the attacks," was one, "the night of the invasion" was another. But the most common came from a reporter.

    "Last night, the fire was in the sky. Tonight, it is among us,"  she said, and so the night of the invasion became the night of fire. May 11, 2164, like many others before it, became a date burned into history books, a date that would determine the fate of human history. And, though Tanya was just another person fleeing to the bases, she would become one of the most important people to shape that fate.