Title: Desolation
Author: Kate Anderson
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: These beautiful characters aren't mine.
Author's Notes: It...wouldn't leave me alone...
*
It was a Monday afternoon when he heard the news. On a small portable television set in black and white. Somehow fitting, like those old science fiction movies that he sometimes watched as a kid on a lazy Saturday afternoon.
Someone turned on a radio, as if to gain clarification that what they were hearing was true. So many voices, all saying the same thing.
Go home to your families. Be with them. The end of the world is coming.
~*~
The streets were filled with people. Screaming people, crying people, celebrating people. The bridges were clogged. The subway had stalled.
"Repent now!" cried a man in a white suit. "Jesus will save you!"
Jack didn't want to be saved.
Samantha stood at his side, her eyes wide as she took it all in. "It's like a bad dream," she whispered in awe. A police car drove by, no sirens - that would have been hopeless. The injured were simply dying and the shops were simply robbed.
"This is our punishment!" wailed a woman at the white suited man's feet.
The man was staring at Jack. His eyes piercing and Jack felt weak. "It's not too late," the man said.
"I have to go home," Jack said and grabbed Samantha's hand. "Where will you go?"
Samantha shrugged. "Maybe I'll stay here."
And she would stay there to wait for the end.
~*~
Maria's face was white. "The girls are in bed." she said. "They...they don't know."
Couldn't they hear the screaming? The crying? "Is that the best thing?" Jack asked.
"Do you want to tell them?"
Tell them that a big rock was going to hit earth and they were all going to die? "No," Jack answered simply. He gathered Maria in his arms and kissed her neck.
The voice on the radio belonged to the President. He talked slowly, his voice filled with emotion. For all the citizens of not only his country for the others as well.
"I urge you all to go home to your loved ones. Be with them."
Jack let go of Maria and went into the small room with the two pink beds. He kissed Kate first and then Hanna. Maria had shut the windows tight and then drawn the shades. A dull roar from outside was all he could hear.
"Good bye." Jack whispered.
~*~
Samantha picked up a stapler and began to staple her square of paper shut. She could see fire in the distance if she looked out the window. Smoke rising above the buildings.
"Goodnight and good bye." said the voice on the radio before it turned over to dead air. Samantha listened to the silence.
The man that had spoken to Jack was still outside, having gained a band of devotees. They clung to him as though he could actually save them.
She bit down on her lip and swore that she wouldn't cry.
~*~
It was a cold night. Jack could see his breath condensing in the air as he hurried through the crowded streets. Maria had tearfully begged him not to leave, her tears almost seeming to freeze on her cheeks.
Jack had held her hand and told her to stay with the girls.
"...though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..."
It was almost enough to bring him to his knees.
He passed the man in white, casting nary a glance his way. The doors were unlocked and he walked through the metal detectors, ignoring the harsh beep.
The electricity, he supposed, would remain on until it no longer could. Eerie silence, his footsteps echoing in the halls.
"Samantha?" he yelled, not knowing if she had indeed stayed.
Please, he thought, let her be here.
~*~
Samantha spun the dial of the radio around and found nothing but dead air. Be with your loved ones. She thought of her mother and of Jack.
The smell of smoke was leaking through the windows. Something close was burning. Samantha sneezed and blew her nose. The smoke was making her eyes water - she wasn't crying.
How long had they known? How long had someone known that the earth was going to be destroyed? What a secret to keep.
"Samantha?" The voice was loud and shattered the silence.
Please, she thought, let it be him.
~*~
"You stayed," he said.
"I have no where to go." she replied.
"It's chaos out there," He looked out the window and saw the flames.
"It's the end of humanity." Sam said. "Aren't we entitled to a little chaos?"
Jack pressed his palm against the cold glass. "You're crying." he whispered and turned around.
"Because you're here." She pressed her body to his.
Jack tried to pretend there weren't tears in his eyes and led Samantha to a corner. He sat down and the lights flickered.
"Is it starting?" Samantha asked as she sat down beside him. Jack took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders.
"I think so," Jack said softly and kissed the top of her head.
And as the earth shook, he held her.