After The Asteroid Struck Earth

Every story starts somewhere in time, and for me, this story started in the year 1997, with a story I found somewhat implausible. The asteroid was nearly thirty years away. Named 1997-XF11, it was going to be the biggest threat to the earth at just five thousand miles distance when it eventually flew through our part of the galaxy. N.A.S.A, however, disagreed in rapid time, calling the findings of the original team off by as much as 290,000 miles. Two years by a group of scientists recruited and paid for by billionaire investors or two weeks by a group of government scientists, whose findings can be classified by the bureaucrats. Which would you believe?

It’s the year 2029 and I’m glad that I was skeptical. Two years have gone by since the asteroid arrived, striking the planet, obliterating Central America and southern Mexico, and bringing with it a doomsday event the likes of which we had never seen. Two years of living in a bunker, without the contact of another human being, had been almost more than I could take. Some days I wished I had perished in the world, like so many others, and then there were days I prayed that the world would be there for the survivors if there were any others besides myself and Johnny. Oh, by the way, Johnny is a black Labrador that was my wife’s, before D-Day. After the antenna array burned out, presumably from the intensity of the blast and the heat that followed, Johnny was my only companion and the only living thing that made it to the bunker when the XF11 arrived a month earlier than planned. If not for Johnny, I would have gone mad by now.

As I sat, reading one of the many books I stowed away for the end of days, I heard Johnny going crazy by the main entrance. We had not seen anything through the portal for an entire year. Six weeks of using remote drones and two diggers that I designed, and there was a world out there but not one that was ready for our return. Slowly, over the past year, the upper atmosphere had begun to return to normal. There were still radiation spikes, indicating that the dust and ash shot into the atmosphere was going to be toxic to humans and most anything else that survived. Somehow, the planet was returning to some resemblance of livable. Johnny, unlike myself, had taken to visiting the portal and keeping a watch on things as they progressed. I had little hope for what was to come so soon until Johnny went crazy two weeks ago.

Birds, that was what he lost his mind over that day. According to my best efforts, it was January 10th, 2029, and we were seeing birds for the first time since the impact shook the planet. Being somewhat of an engineer, I was unable to explain how they survived or their numbers replenished, but they were above us, flying around and the sounds of their chirping and bird calls were quite exciting. I rushed to take readings, checking the radiation levels and the air quality. Looking repeatedly at the readings, I sat there in stunned and excited amazement. The air quality was at eighty-two percent.

“How could this be?” I asked Johnny, talking to my only friend.

‘Bark’ Johnny attempted to answer.

Over the next week, I studied the readings, making sure that everything would be safe before I told Johnny it was time. For the first time since the world ended, we were going outside. We still had years of supplies available and a home, but a need to find survivors, to find out what condition our world was in, was overwhelming. I had planned for this for over twenty years of my life, how to survive the disaster of an asteroid striking our homeworld, and move on after. That day had finally come.

Through an underground corridor, we had everything we would need for the adventure as long as the lines to the generator would still work. The electromagnetic pulse that is given off when trillions of tons of an unknown ore strike a planet is hard to plan for but putting everything fifty feet below ground seemed like a possible solution. So, we packed up a bag filled with bottled water, some dog treats which were really just Jack’s Jerky snacks at this point since Johnny was always so spoiled, a couple of boxes of ammunition, my Glock, and an AR-15 rifle. We were all set.

The four Conquests that were sitting in the side structure were pleasantly intact. Over the years I’d stored plenty of fuel here. Expecting the problems of the blast from the asteroid, the answer to what to do about electronics came in the form of a Faraday cage. They are simple enough to build and I was fortunate enough to find myself a rather ingenious grad student willing to lend his expertise to design and construction. Student loans what they were, he more than jumped at the opportunity when I offered him the half-a-million dollars to do the job. The entire garage was designed this way, to protect what I imagined would be the only form of transportation left once the dust settled, of course presuming the planet was broken in half.

Getting one of the beasts out turned out to be more of a chore than originally planned. The door to the steel corridor was completely blocked by rubble and debris. This side of the compound had not been as quake protected as the living compound. Once I got the lead vehicle started I called for Johnny to jump. He was going to ride shotgun, something that would have likely been my wife or sons’ job had they made it to the shelter. The engine roared as I gunned it and we barreled through the rubble like it wasn’t even there.

“Well, they really are like tanks,” I laughed as Johnny and I were finally off and going, finally going to breathe free air again.

Outside the confines of the shelter, I drove as far as the outer marker. The land I built this on had a giant stone wall circling it entirely, but most of that was destroyed. Seeing the old iron gates that once were the entrance to the driveway leading up to the house I remembered the picture Cherie and I had the real estate guy take of us there. This was meant to be home, and there was nothing left of it besides the memories.

“Well boy,” I say to Johnny, rubbing him behind his ears. “Let’s go see what else is out there.”

It took me nearly nineteen days of setting out in different directions to find any sign of the once-grand society that was America. As we ventured further and further away from the safety of the shelter, not finding much in the way of survivors, or even signs of civilization, I was starting to lose hope that we would find anyone else in this part of the world. As we reached a point nearly 220 miles from the shelter, I noticed Johnny’s attention was hyper-focused.

“What do you see boy?” I asked, looking ahead.

A few minutes after Johnny locked his eyes on the north, I pulled onto what were remnants of the Dan Ryan Expressway. My eyes had to be playing tricks on me, or so I thought. As we got closer to the area that was Chicago, I could see lights shooting up and down the sky. There was something hanging over the center of Chicago, something wonderfully blue with an almost translucent feel. Johnny started to bark repeatedly as I hung over the steering wheel, my eyes aimed into the air, there were two armored vehicles heading directly toward our location.

‘Driver. Shut down your engine and prepare to identify yourself,’ a female voice came over a loudspeaker.

“Looks like we’ve got company,” I say to Johnny, surprised to hear another human voice.

Both of the vehicles were police or military-style tactical units. They both had police lights on the top and were marked NCPD along the sides. I waiting for them to come to a halt and the voice that was on the loudspeaker to order me to step out. Ordering Johnny to stay, I stepped out of the driver's side and left my rifle on the seat where I could grab it if needed. Putting my hands slightly up in the air I waited until, to my surprise, a woman in a black uniform stepped out. It was without question a shock to see another human, especially one that was so attractive.

“Who are you? Identify yourself,” she demanded.

“My names Lucas, Lucas Storm,” I answered, watching the fiery redhead wander toward me.

As she got closer, close enough for Johnny to see her, Johnny started to excitedly bark. He hadn’t seen another human for as long as I had and this one looked a lot like Cherie. I kept my hands up where she could see them and yelled at Johnny to calm down. He bounced around like a kid seeing his first toy store.

“I’m Sasha Bennett of the New Chicago Protective Division. Is that a dog?”

The look on her face was one of curiosity and I motioned for Johnny to join me. Johnny jumped out and promptly sat at my right side, staring at the strange woman in front of him. As he came out, the second unit opened up and a blonde woman, very fit, with an equally tight tee-shirt and black combat pants, joined us with a wide and bright smile. They were as excited to see us as we were them.

“Oh, my, god, what’s his name?”

“Johnny,” I told the blonde officer.

The two ladies pet Johnny and rubbed him behind his ears enough he just rolled over and let them rub his belly. They were ecstatic to see Johnny. I wondered if there were no other dogs.

“What’s this on his neck?” asked the one identifying herself as Sasha.

I looked down, seeing her hold the piece of jewelry on his collar. It was the one piece of jewelry that my wife had always worn. When she left for Los Angeles to see her parents she couldn’t take Johnny with and I was in final preparations for D-Day. It was just a stupid little heart-shaped locket with a picture of her and Johnny on one side, and her and I on the other. It all seemed meaningless but honestly until right then and there, I forgot he wearing that dammed locket. She left it on his collar as a way to calm him down and get him to behave for me.

“Here,” she told him, before she left, “Now behave for daddy while I’m gone.”

“You guys have found civilization,” Sasha told me. “It’ll all be fine.”

“Are all the troops here women? Just curious,” I told her.

“The Prefect prefers us to protect the city. We’re less hostile than the men,” she explained.

Whoever this prefect was at least knew that much about life. Prefects, however, haven’t been known to be magnanimous leaders. Usually, they’re dictators, occasionally like a cult leader, and almost always connected to the less democratically run parts of the world. What, I wondered, had I gotten myself into by coming here?

“Johnny can come too, right?”

“Absolutely,” she smiled. “The truth is, we didn’t have time to move any animals beneath the dome.”

“Looks like Cherie was right, Johnny. You’re one of a kind,” I laughed, seeing him smile, her locket bouncing around on his collar.