better world

Originally uploaded by eyetwist

The sky was a dull charcoal gray and the streets were littered with leaves as if it were a fall day. This, unfortunately; was a mid summer day. The city of New York lay lifeless with no traffic to be seen. A few military convoys were making their way away from the city towards the airport on the Long Island Expressway; the city’s main artery for transportation was mysteriously empty. In fact the only other proof of life was in the John F. Kennedy airport, hundreds of people were waiting for numerous flights. All sitting in the last transit center open in the country seeing as the rest of the nation was nearly evacuated.

“Attention…flight 783 to the American Orbital Habitat is boarding. All passengers please have your transport permit, immunization card, and social security number with you.” The captain of this flight turned away from the counter of the Starbucks to look through the window. He stared at the massive space shuttle that once led research missions for NASA, now it had been retrofitted for passengers and was a passenger shuttle for the biggest evacuation known to man. He still had the gas mask around his neck from when he was riding the AirTrain exiting Jamaica. The air had never been this bad, but he knew it would only get worse and was glad that this was his last flight. It had been 49 months of trips back and forth along with 300 other space shuttles and countless others from different nations of this evacuation.

He turned around to get some sugar for his coffee when he realized that the Starbucks had closed and the employees were making their way to the gate. Taking a deep breath he began his brisk walk to the gate himself, there were three last flights scheduled before the North American evacuation was complete he walked passed a large group of people that weren’t scheduled to leave for another 15 hours. He smiled at a toddler who had been waving at him from one of the benches. Grabbing his ID he told the flight attendant to stay safe as she closed the door behind him.

“Attention passengers this is flight 783 from JFK to the American Orbital Habitat Transit Complex. Our flight time will be approximately 17 hours and we should arrive there sometime in the afternoon, I’d tell you the weather but I know at this point anything is better than this stuff” laughter filled the cabin of the 364 nervous refugees. A flight attendant took over and began the safety instructions. He was alone in the cockpit. His co-pilot had refused to go back to earth so this was a solo flight.

He yawned as he received military clearance for space-transit. The engines roared as he hit switches and dialed numbers. The aircraft pulled away from earth as a normal plane would and the passengers held onto their armrests as the force was unlike anything they’ve felt before. The aircraft lifted above the city, he was sad that he couldn’t see the skyline for the last time but the pollution had gotten so bad that everything in the sky was grey. As he made his way through the endless wall of pollution he saw that he was over Chicago where he once resided. The AOH Times had stated that hundreds of people were killed last week when there was a canceled flight and a riot broke out in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Darkness began to fill the cabin as the grey slowly dissipated. He was now in outer space, as with every flight he could hear the gasps of the passengers as they looked back at earth. He felt sad every time he glanced at it, but now it was the last time he would ever see it. The green and blue sphere he would see on television and in pictures was no longer there. The sphere no longer held any beauty, it looked as if it were a dark mars. Only one color of darkness, no landmarks could be seen. He was amazed at the damage we did to our own home.

The auto-pilot was now in control. He was allowed to sleep for the next few hours as there was no communication it this distance. He was now flying in a black zone. Only American space crafts were allowed here, but with nothing else scheduled to return he was the only thing flying. He looked at the Starbucks anxiously waiting for the next ten hours to pass so he could get some more. He then drifted off to sleep.

Screeching alarms woke him up and the cabin was lit red. There was a comet cluster nearby and he was required to take the controls from the computer. The only problem was that he had woken up late and was now dangerously close to the cluster. Hitting the “seat belt” button he grabbed the controls and swerved the ship out of the way of the group of rocks, swerving the ship left and right. One by one the alarms began to shut off and he began checking all of the screens to make sure nothing was damaged. After a reassuring announcement to the frazzled passengers he sat back down in his seat and took a sip of his coffee that was now half empty and fifteen hours old. He looked out of the window and saw all five of the Orbital Habitats. American, South American, Asian Pacific, Middle East/Africa, and European Orbital Habitats all sat in the middle of space like something out of a science fiction novel.

He loved staring at them, Often times forgetting to make contact with the American Transit Control Tower. But today he remembered because he wanted to get home to his family in District Albany. He had a week’s vacation before he started work again, making shuttle flights between the America and Europe colonies. He was excited because the five hour trip was a lot better than the seventeen hour trek he was used to.

He was now twenty minutes away from the dock and had made the announcement. He was in dire need of a coffee but couldn’t take another sip of that Starbucks. The skyline of the destination began to show, the hundreds of modern towers made the new home look daunting and cold. He knew it was, everything felt sterile even his home. It was as if he were living in a world described in 1984 except he had the right to complain. He began to drift off, not noticing the beeping sound and the one flashing red light. He then heard screaming over the radio, another space shuttle from Asia had lost power and was now floating dangerously close at a high speed. He remembered that since he was landing there wasn’t any way to take over the Auto-Land system. He stared at the vehicle as it grew closer and close his face filled with horror as the reflection in his eyes showed Asian characters from the side of the ship. Screams came from the cabin as the passengers realized what was happening. A woman clutched to her two kids sitting beside her, and old couple hugged as they sobbed. A baby left alone as her mother went to the bathroom was violently screaming because of all the noise. A business man dialed his satellite phone to call his wife but it was too late.

The explosion lit up the sky, residents from all five Orbits reported seeing the flash. It was so close to the Transit Hub that it tore large holes into the habitat. Destroying the Transit Hub and the surrounding community as air escaped killing a few hundred thousand new residents. Others back on earth were trapped because they didn’t have the security clearance for any other orbit. His body was incinerated as were the rest of the passengers in the two ships. Chaos soon followed as pieces of debris began to crash into other sections, killing an un-estimated amount of citizens of the “better world”.

the season

He stepped onto the train, it was the first stop and no one else was aboard. He looked at his Rolex to see that it was 5:30. The first train of the day usually pulled out within the next couple of minutes. The typical morning London fog lingered in the air. The train began to crowd as the time approached rush hour. Someone on the other end of the car was coughing uncontrollably, he paid no mind to it seeing as it was flu season. He looked up across the tracks into the trees, the vapor that was fog drifted in between them. His radio told him that the day would be full of clouds and rain; he slowly got out of bed to his gray window on his first day back to work after a holiday week spent in Africa. Here he sat an hour later at the first station on a train a few minutes before it was supposed to leave and head south into London. Just as he changed the song on his iPod his stomach began to turn, ever since he got his inoculation shots for the trip he was feeling a little sick, but today was better than during the trip. Just then the train’s motors started to hum and the lights lit up.

“This is Mill Hill East. This train terminates at Morden…Please mind the doors.”

Someone in a business suit ran to the train just as the closing doors siren started to go off, he go his arm in just in time to block the door, he leaned back on the closed doors once he made his way in. Typical starts to the morning’s rush hour the man with the iPod thought as he began to zone out and stare at the mass of trees that were passing just outside of the window. He slowly drifted off to sleep, further into the trip the train began it’s descent into the tunnels when the train came to an abrupt stop waking him.

“Attention passengers due to a sick passenger at the station in front of us we are delayed and will be bypassing Archway” announced the conductor. Minutes after standing still the train began to accelerate. It slowly made its turn into Archway station where he looked out of the window onto the platform. There were two people lying on the floor on stretchers, while another was being tackled to the ground by paramedics in hazmat suits. The man being tackled suddenly threw up onto the train’s windows; the disturbing thing was that he didn’t throw up food the red streaks of blood made their way down the plexi glass. He closed his eyes for the rest of the ride to work, something was going on in this city but he didn’t know what it was.

He got off at Euston station where he caught the 73 bus to University College London. As the double decker bus made its way past the UCL hospital he noticed that all of the ambulances were in a frantic rush. As he made his way off the bus and began to walk to his building in the college four ambulances sped past him with lights flashing and sirens blaring. He walked through the hallways while some of the students in the administration office were sitting and had their faces in buckets in preparation to vomit.

“Attention students and staff, today’s classes have been canceled until further notice. An unknown illness has affected many students and we want to ensure the safety of everyone else” read an email he read once he got to his office. Since he had no classes he would just finish some paperwork that he missed over the holiday. It was around 8:30 when there was an announcement that 34 more students had fallen ill and that all school property were being evacuated. He didn’t take this serious until now so he packed all of his belongings and quickly left the building. He stood at the bus stop and watched as the college buildings emptied out. He stood outside until 9:00 and still no bus had arrived so he decided to walk to the nearest tube station.

He walked past the UCL hospital and it was even more crowded that before. Hundreds of people were lined up outside of the emergency room and he began to shake in fear of what was happening. Just as he made it to Edgeware his mobile phone rang. It was a text from his wife who worked in an office in Canary Wharf, she was on her was home after the entire business district was closed off and evacuated. He wrote her back as he made his way to Euston station.

The northbound platform was crowded, usually it would be quite the opposite as it was rush hour, and people were making their way from London rather than towards it. A train pulled into Euston at 9:45 it was packed and the train slowly crept past the large crowd waiting at the platform by 9:50 the next train pulled in and opened the doors, this is when the fights began. The automatic “Please mind the Gap” announcements were covered by the screams and yells as people tried to push their way onto the train. By 9:57 the train had finally closed its doors with an announcement from the conductor “this train will not be making anymore stops within central London.” He sighed with relief as the train sped past the next stop as his face pressed against the door.

The train opened its doors at Finchley Central, he stepped off and a crowd of people followed behind. He walked across to the other side of the platform to wait for his shuttle train while everyone else left the station in a mad rush. Soon the train he exited had closed its doors and sped off. He stood on the platform alone and in silence. The outside platform was eerily quiet, no one was with him and no one was on the other platform back into London. “Attention passengers. Due to health concerns all central London bound trains are terminating at Finchley Central” said the computer system to no one. Minutes later the shuttle train pulled in. He walked onto the train that stayed empty another packed train pulled in but the shuttle closed its doors just in time. The shuttle train quickly left the station and rocked side to side as it made its way to its next and final stop, he sat there in silence thinking about what was going on.

The train pulled into the empty platform and he was the only one to get off. There were lines of cars waiting outside the station waiting for people to pick up; he walked home making his way past a newsstand. He read one of the headline paper boards that read “Pandemic flu hits major world cities” he began to shake again as he read that and began to rush home. There was no noise, cars weren’t playing music, kids weren’t screaming outside. The only sign of other life was the sound of a dog barking in what seemed to be like hundreds of miles away. He walked up the steps to his home and locked the door behind him; the house was silent, with the occasional fall winds whipping through the cracks.

He began to make a cup of tea for his wife when she arrived home and turned the television onto BBC. In London alone over 1,300 people were killed from the virus with hundreds more from random acts of violence and trampling on public transportation. Thousands of people were sick in New York, Mumbai, Paris, Madrid, Sao Paulo, Berlin, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Shanghai, Toronto, Los Angeles, Houston, Cairo, and almost every other major city in the world.

He sat in the living room with the television on for hours, his wife’s tea now cold. He looked at the clock it was 6:34 and she still hadn’t arrived home. He guessed she’d still be on the train as they were running without schedules and she was on the other side of London. He continued to stare at the news; reports were coming in that there were riots in South London Estates, there were three or for trains that had been discovered with hundreds of people killed from suffocation when the trains stalled in the tunnels. There were people in central London that were jumping off of skyscrapers. The airport had been clogged all afternoon and the Channel train to France was shut down in order to accommodate the thousands of people walking in them. It was 10:30 and his neighbors offered him a ride to the airport as they were leaving to the United States, he kindly refused stating that he was waiting for his wife’s arrival home, even though the trains were emptied out hours ago.

Everyone he knew had left the nation. His wife still wasn’t home, martial law was put in place in London and Manchester; anyone without clearance seen outside would be killed. Three days had passed and the death toll had reached 34,000 in London alone. Reports said that 73% of the city had evacuated and the military would begin mandatory evacuations, when he heard that the power shut off in the entire city. He walked upstairs passing his wife’s cup of tea that had been there for five days. He went to the bedroom and took out a box that contained old love letters. He stood there and read one while tears began to slide down from his face onto the beige carpet below. He walked to he counter and took out some painkillers, he took out fifteen to be exact and began to fill the bathtub.

30 minutes later his body laid face down in the tub full of water, his cell phone began to ring.

“…leave a message after the tone.”

“honey it’s carol. I hope you’re ok. I was pulled out of the tube and taken to a refugee camp. Please call me. I’d die without you…honey call me back. Bye luv”