CHAPTER ONE

THE FALLOUT

By Hannah Utley

CHAPTER ONE

Friday, June 12, 2243

            They sat there.  The tension suffocating.  Neither saying a word.  Not knowing what to say or how to respond.  Telling your ex-boyfriend that you’re pregnant with his baby will do that to someone.  His words kept repeating themselves over and over in Abby’s head, “Abs, maybe you should just, you know, take care of it…?”  As if she could even think about doing such a thing.  That was her baby he was talking about—their baby—and he just wanted her to ‘take care of it’?  Ridiculous.

Abby couldn’t think straight, let alone put a coherent sentence together.  She sat there in utter disbelief, holding back the tears and the anger.  She had known Nate forever, lived in the same area outside of Denver since Junior High.  They vowed to remain friends even if dating didn’t work out, but things never seem to go as planned.  After high school, Abby went off to college, ending their relationship, or so she thought.

She would always be in love with Nate, but somehow kept finding reasons for them to be apart.  By distancing himself from her, burning the bridge so to speak had only deterred her even more from trying.

It seemed silly, childish even, to hope that things would change, that he would see the light and want to be with her because of the baby.  But hope, and hope with all her heart she did.   

            The shrill voices of the Spice Girls coming from Nate’s phone broke the deafening silence, bringing Abby back to reality.  Hearing the song, all Abby could think was tell me what you want, what you really, really want. How ironic are those lyrics now?

“Landon, what do you want?  This really isn’t a good time.” It was Nate’s brother Landon.  The ringtone should have given it away.  They were a bit gay with their music choices.  “What?  Why?  I’m a little busy, man.  Abby’s here… What? Okay, fine, but this better be important.” He sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand, like he always did when he was extremely stressed about something.  He gave Abby an apologetic look before turning the TV on to the news.  “Alright, it’s on.  Wait, what the hell?”  He asked.

Abby looked at Nate, and wondered what could be so important that Landon would call Nate.  Landon wasn’t what one would call active or aware of what was going on in the world.   

The caption at the bottom of the screen caught Abby’s attention though.  It read: 

METEORS TO HIT THE EARTH?

            The anchorman was talking while the image changed to satellite images of a cloud of rocks flying through space.  Nate turned it up the volume so they could hear what the man was saying better. 

“…see, meteors like this are pretty common to hit the Earth every so often, but they usually burn up in the atmosphere before getting the chance to make contact or do any damage.  The shear amount and size of these meteors, however, is quite staggering and honestly alarming.”

Abby’s stomach was already churning, but suddenly felt the room spinning and almost threw up her breakfast from that morning.  She took a deep breath and steadied herself on the arm of the couch.  The look on Nate’s face suggested he was feeling the exact same thing. 

“Oh my God…” He whispered, still on the phone with Landon. “How did you hear about this?  You don’t watch the news.” He asked.

Abby turned her attention back to the anchors as they continued with their explanation.   

“President Lewis and his administration claim to have just found out about this, but sources say otherwise, that they’ve just hidden this from the public because they thought disaster could be averted.    They have been trying to think of any solutions to this problem, but so far have come up with nothing concrete.  NASA says they will be trying to shoot missiles into the asteroid cloud to break it up more…”

Abby couldn’t breathe.  She turned to Nate, almost asking him what to do, but he was still talking to Landon.  She was so mad at him that she wanted to just leave and go home, but something told her what they were seeing on the news was serious and would change their lives forever.

**********

Ever since Abby told Nate she was pregnant, with his baby, he couldn’t stop thinking about their first date.  Nate was a nervous wreck.  He had asked her out while at school.  They were sitting in the cafeteria eating lunch, when he blurted out, “Will you go out with me? Like on a date?”  And by some miracle, she said yes.  It was a perfect, beautiful May afternoon, but nothing compared to her beauty. She wore a purple sundress with little flowers on it.  Every time she brushed her hair aside, he caught the scent of lavender, taking his breath away.  He knew from their very first date, that Abby had changed his life.  Once again, Nate was transformed into that five year old kid with a crush on his teacher.   

            Abby was an amazing girl, probably the best thing that ever happened to Nate.  But hearing that he was about to become a father?  When they weren’t even together anymore?  Hell, he had just begun to get over her, sort of. 

Okay, not even close. 

            The phone call from Landon and what was happening on the TV had him distracted though, if at least for just a little while. 

 “Landon, where are you?  You need to come home now.  Katie’s been asking about you, and I’m running out of lies to tell her.”  Katie was their little sister, and at only twelve she didn’t really understand any of their family crap.  Their mom left when the boys I were in Junior High; Katie was only four.  Their dad, Jeff, was a truck driver and was always gone so Nate and Landon basically raised Katie. 

“Nate…man, I can’t,” Came Landon’s response. 

            “What?  No.  No, Landon, forget it.  Whatever you did can be fixed…”  Referring to the fact that Landon was always getting himself into trouble, and Nate was always the one to bail him out.  Landon was his older brother, by only nine months, but Nate still felt it was my responsibly to take care of him regardless of their age difference. 

            “No you don’t get it, bro.  I’m… I’m in jail.” 

            “You’re what?!”  Nate asked.  

            “Yea… I really screwed this one up…”  Landon explained. 

            “Okay… Where are you?  I’ll come get you.”  It didn’t matter what happened.  Landon was still Nate’s brother, and was still willing to risk everything for him.  And the funny thing is that Landon probably wouldn’t even appreciate it.  Sure, he didn’t mean to be a jackass, but he certainly was sometimes. 

            “No, man, you need to get Katie and go somewhere safe.  I’ll be fine.  Jail cells aren’t so bad ya know… And anyway I’m all the way in Wichita.”

            “Landon.  How the hell did you get all the way to Wichita?”  They lived in the suburbs of Denver, and Landon was supposed to be working down in Colorado Springs.  At least, that’s what he kept telling everyone, even though his work had reported him missing for several weeks.  Landon was a loose cannon in the family.

            “It’s a long story, man.  It doesn’t really matter.  I really just called to make sure you and Katie are all right.  I gotta go though.  They’re booking me, so I gotta give up my phone and crap.  Guess I’ll talk to ya on the flip side, eh?”  He half-heartedly chuckled.  He always was trying to lighten the mood. 

            “Alright… but I promise you, I will come find you when this is all over.  We gotta be a family again.  I love you.”  Nate said, resigning himself to the situation.

            “Alright, I love ya too, bro.  Tell Katie that I love her too.”  When Nate hung up, the anchorman was still talking about all the possibilities and implications of what could happen.  Nate barely understood any of it, and was only half paying attention, but it didn’t look good.  It didn’t look good at all.

“Nate? What’s wrong?  Is Landon okay?” Abby asked.

            “What? Yea… Yea, Landon’s okay.  He’s just… in jail so… I’m not really sure what’s going to happen.  I mean, I’ve already got enough on my plate with work, and raising Katie, then you’re freaking pregnant, so that complicates things a bit.  Then this damn meteor crisis happens and I find out my brother’s in jail.  I mean, what the hell is happening?” Nate was usually pretty calm under pressure, but this was beginning to be too much for the young man.

            “I know, but everything will be alright.  We’ll go, I mean…you will go and find Landon and you guys will be okay.”  Abby placed her hand on his arm reassuringly, but he barely noticed.   

            “Wait, what did he just say?” Nate asked, turning up the TV.  He had almost completely forgotten about the real issue at hand.

            “...again, they have warned us that there is nothing they can really do.  We will get hit.  The face of the Earth will be changed forever…”  The screen went back to the anchormen, who weren’t looking so steady.  Finally one spoke, “This is devastating news indeed.  Since this is short notice there isn’t a lot that we have time to do, but we do have some general precautions and advice for you to take.  Try to get as far below ground as possible: basements, cellars, fall-out shelters, whatever you can find.  Store as much food and water as possible.  Take any blankets, pillows, and mattresses that you can into wherever you’re staying.  And… be with your family, for as long as you can.”

Nate felt Abby squeeze his forearm in fear.  The gesture sent chills racing down his spine.  He hated how she could still do that to him, even in the middle of all this drama around them.

The anchorman continued, “The President himself will be giving an address as soon as they’ve moved him to his secure bunker underground, but we’ll stay on the air with you until we… Wait a second.” He pressed his earpiece to his head and listened intently for a second.  

He quickly whispered something to the other anchorman, then they both sat there looking lost in thought for a few moments before one spoke, slowly and articulately.  “I just received some breaking news from NASA.  They’ve determined approximately when the meteors will hit.  They say it should be sometime this afternoon, about 4:00 EST.  They will be giving us updates as soon as they know anymore.   We’ll break for a minute, before hearing President Obama’s address.  God be with you all.”  They went to an emergency broadcast just then; bad timing in Nate’s opinion.

***More to come later!! please comment!!***

Hannah(: