that.”
Bowen took a flask from his jacket and took a long pull. “So what are you saying?”
“I said that Mars looked like it was in the wrong place in the sky. That was incorrect. Mars is where it should be. It’s Earth that is a million miles out of position. Apparently, while we were within the black hole’s event horizon, the tremendous pull of its gravity altered our orbit. We’re now moving away from the sun at approximately sixty-seven thousand miles per hour and accelerating. Unless our orbit stabilizes soon, at the rate we’re accelerating, we have less than a month before the planet’s surface becomes uninhabitable. The average surface temperature will drop to minus one hundred degrees Fahrenheit and continue to decline until every living thing left on the planet freezes to death. That is assuming, of course, that we don’t run into something like an asteroid or another planet on our way out of the solar system.”
The heaters in the observation room couldn’t keep up with the falling temperatures outside. Beyond the opening in the roof, dawn was breaking on a world that should have been waking up for the start of another day.
“That’s why they took everyone,” Cameron whispered. “They knew this was coming.”
“See, Doc, I told ya it was them Mayans all along,” Ferret said.
“You never said anything of the sort.”
“Well, I was thinking it. Don’t you see? They figured it out. They saw it coming and got out of Dodge when the getting was good. Then they sent in the cavalry for the rest of us. That’s what them UFOs sightings was all about. They weren’t Martians. They was Mayans. That’s their ship the government’s holding at Area 51, the one with all that funny writing on it. It’s Mayan, I tell ya.”
“Is it possible there was a civilization on this planet that lived so primitively by our standards yet was so advanced that it could predict an extinction-level event two thousand years into the future? And if we allow for that, must we not also allow for the possibility that they were capable of leaving Earth, finding a new home, and coming back to relocate us?”
“That’d make a great bedtime story, Loeb, but what good does it do us? We’re dead in a month.”
“Oh, we can survive for years underground once we get to shelter, Bowen. Even with the extreme surface temperatures, Earth’s core is still molten metal and will continue to generate sufficient heat for our lifetime and beyond if we are far enough underground. We’ll be the last of our species, living in a hole in the ground like our ancestors of thousands of years ago. We will end as we began. Fitting.”
“Then let’s get going. We can be back to Camp David in an hour.”
“Bowen, wait. We’re forgetting one thing — our friend at the White House.”
“He’s on his own.”
“We’re just going to let him die?” asked Cameron.
“We’re all going to die, kid. It’s just a matter of when.”
“No, this is wrong,” Michael said. “We need to try and save him.”
“I suppose you’re going to tell me that it’s God’s will or something?”
“I don’t pretend to know God’s will anymore, Mr. Bowen. This is just wrong.”
“He’s right,” Cameron said. “What’s the point if we can’t live like humans anymore?”
“The point is survival, boy.”
“What if he’s one of them?” Loeb asked. “He could be the key to this whole thing.”
“One of them? If he’s one of them, why the hell didn’t he say so and point us to the spaceship? This is bullshit, Loeb. There’s no aliens, and there’s no Mayans, and there’s nobody coming to rescue us. I don’t know what happened to everybody, and I don’t care. But I’m damn sure I’m not going to die a Popsicle out here with you.”
“What if he’s been telling us to come to the White House all along?”
“Maybe that’s where the transporter is,” Cameron whispered.
Bowen pushed Cameron aside. “Loeb, have you gotten
Bowen took a flask from his jacket and took a long pull. “So what are you saying?”
“I said that Mars looked like it was in the wrong place in the sky. That was incorrect. Mars is where it should be. It’s Earth that is a million miles out of position. Apparently, while we were within the black hole’s event horizon, the tremendous pull of its gravity altered our orbit. We’re now moving away from the sun at approximately sixty-seven thousand miles per hour and accelerating. Unless our orbit stabilizes soon, at the rate we’re accelerating, we have less than a month before the planet’s surface becomes uninhabitable. The average surface temperature will drop to minus one hundred degrees Fahrenheit and continue to decline until every living thing left on the planet freezes to death. That is assuming, of course, that we don’t run into something like an asteroid or another planet on our way out of the solar system.”
The heaters in the observation room couldn’t keep up with the falling temperatures outside. Beyond the opening in the roof, dawn was breaking on a world that should have been waking up for the start of another day.
“That’s why they took everyone,” Cameron whispered. “They knew this was coming.”
“See, Doc, I told ya it was them Mayans all along,” Ferret said.
“You never said anything of the sort.”
“Well, I was thinking it. Don’t you see? They figured it out. They saw it coming and got out of Dodge when the getting was good. Then they sent in the cavalry for the rest of us. That’s what them UFOs sightings was all about. They weren’t Martians. They was Mayans. That’s their ship the government’s holding at Area 51, the one with all that funny writing on it. It’s Mayan, I tell ya.”
“Is it possible there was a civilization on this planet that lived so primitively by our standards yet was so advanced that it could predict an extinction-level event two thousand years into the future? And if we allow for that, must we not also allow for the possibility that they were capable of leaving Earth, finding a new home, and coming back to relocate us?”
“That’d make a great bedtime story, Loeb, but what good does it do us? We’re dead in a month.”
“Oh, we can survive for years underground once we get to shelter, Bowen. Even with the extreme surface temperatures, Earth’s core is still molten metal and will continue to generate sufficient heat for our lifetime and beyond if we are far enough underground. We’ll be the last of our species, living in a hole in the ground like our ancestors of thousands of years ago. We will end as we began. Fitting.”
“Then let’s get going. We can be back to Camp David in an hour.”
“Bowen, wait. We’re forgetting one thing — our friend at the White House.”
“He’s on his own.”
“We’re just going to let him die?” asked Cameron.
“We’re all going to die, kid. It’s just a matter of when.”
“No, this is wrong,” Michael said. “We need to try and save him.”
“I suppose you’re going to tell me that it’s God’s will or something?”
“I don’t pretend to know God’s will anymore, Mr. Bowen. This is just wrong.”
“He’s right,” Cameron said. “What’s the point if we can’t live like humans anymore?”
“The point is survival, boy.”
“What if he’s one of them?” Loeb asked. “He could be the key to this whole thing.”
“One of them? If he’s one of them, why the hell didn’t he say so and point us to the spaceship? This is bullshit, Loeb. There’s no aliens, and there’s no Mayans, and there’s nobody coming to rescue us. I don’t know what happened to everybody, and I don’t care. But I’m damn sure I’m not going to die a Popsicle out here with you.”
“What if he’s been telling us to come to the White House all along?”
“Maybe that’s where the transporter is,” Cameron whispered.
Bowen pushed Cameron aside. “Loeb, have you gotten
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