CHAPTER FIVE
Morning reverie was much earlier than Brain expected, but the kids didn't seem to mind getting up early, at least once they reached the mess hall. The morning menu was pretty decent for an army base, and Brain thought the pancakes they served actually used real eggs. Whether they did or not, Buster lapped them up and almost talked his daughter out of one of hers, but she cleverly fought him off like always.
When they were done, they decided to see if there was anything they could do to keep their minds off what was coming. Countdown clocks were ticking all over the base for the impact, which was estimated to hit around one p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and while the adults were easily looking away, Brain and the others caught the kids staring at them more than once. Even though none of them knew what the impact would mean, everyone was starting to get more nervous about what was coming, but there was nothing anyone could do. The base was busy taking in more evacuees, so the family was forced back to their little concrete house.
The kids went upstairs to play in their fort, running around and making more noise than any of the adults usually allowed. But it helped them drown out the sound of the radio, which Buster flipped on and put next to the stove. The adults sat with grim faces, their lips tightly pressed together as more reports confirmed what everyone already knew: The asteroid was coming, it would hit off the Carolina's, and cause tidal waves worldwide as the ocean absorbed the blow. It was bad for the coastal areas and many inland places that had low elevations, but everyone knew it was better than the alternative, the asteroid hitting land and killing people on impact.
Brain wondered what the college would be doing until he remembered the evacuation order covered them too. Elwood City wasn't very far from the Atlantic Ocean now that he really thought about it, and then he remembered the evacuations in the south where communities hundreds of miles inland were strongly suggested to leave. He wondered how many people actually were leaving when the report came in:
"National Guardsmen have been called in to evacuate areas where some residents have refused to leave. Law enforcement estimates there are at least forty thousand people across the United States who have refused to leave their homes. While the evacuation orders are not fully mandatory, officers suspect the areas where these residents remain could be heavily damaged after the event—"
Catherine sighed heavily and turned the radio off, "I just can't hear this anymore. I'm going to call Francine and see what they're doing out there. They should be evacuating L.A. too, right?" she asked.
Brain nodded, "If tidal waves are going to happen with the Atlantic Ocean, they'll spread across the world. Yeah, Los Angeles might be all the way on the other side of the world, but if the waves are big enough, California could still have problems."
John shook his head, "I wondered about that too. Why aren't they evacuating too?"
"Who knows? Who cares?" Catherine spat. "This is not how any of us wanted to spend our lives. Even if they were evacuating, I doubt Muffy would go anyway. She'd say they were fine where they are. She lives in that really nice house with a wall around it. They'll think everything is fine."
John cracked up, "Hey, at least we're not lucky Guy Number 3. I bet he's feeling real bad about himself right now too. He just got the boot and there's an asteroid that could destroy the house, not that he'd get it anyway."
"Yep, none of us ever got it before," Brain scoffed. Buster raised an eyebrow before nodding. He and Brain both ended up in apartments. Buster had at least moved since then, to another apartment with a spare bedroom for Annie. Brain was still in the same apartment, and whenever Margaret came over she just slept on his fold-out couch.
Catherine sighed, "It's really not funny though. Is he okay in Austin? Maybe I should call him too?"
"Yeah, there's nothing better than finding out the world is in danger, your wife doesn't love you, and her sister wants to see how you are out of the goodness of her heart. Let it go, Cath," John said, opening the refrigerator. He sighed as he studied the emptiness, "Forgot we weren't home for a second. I could really use a beer right now."
"It's nine in the morning!" Catherine hissed, storming into the living room to make that call to her sister.
"It's six in California! Don't wake her up!" John shouted back, sighing as he sank next to the other men at the table. "This is the craziest situation I've ever been in, and I've done some stuff in my time."
Buster leaned back in his chair, "Yeah, well, Brain and I have been reading sci-fi for a while."
Brain eyed Buster, "How did you know about my reading habits?"
"I've been to your office, to your house, just like you've been to my shop. You eye my inventory, and I eye yours. It's only fair. Besides, did you think I wouldn't notice? Why were you always into those apocalypse stories anyway? I only read them because they sounded cool, but what about you?"
"I took a disasters course in college. I just wanted to see how different authors covered various situations. This is a situation I've seen numerous times, but the way it's handled varied. The ocean impact scenario usually doesn't do much to people, but this one is different," Brain said.
John nodded, "Because it's happening so close to land, and because it's so large."
"Exactly," Brain agreed. "Otherwise it was land almost harmlessly, causing some waves on the coast. The panic would be more intense if things weren't the way they were. I read most of those books before the better technology came out, which means their writers didn't know either."
"But you read them," Buster smiled. Brain nodded as Catherine rushed back into the room and collapsed into the remaining chair with a heavy sigh. "What's up out west?" Buster asked.
Catherine groaned, "They're flying up here as soon as they can to get the girls. Francine just has to get her mom to mail her passport, but I told her to wait, and we argued. She wants to see her girls, I want her to stay safe and we'd get there eventually, but she's upset. Hopefully Muffy will talk some sense into her or something."
"Do you think the base would let the Crosswire private plane land here?" John asked.
Catherine shrugged, "I've seen plenty of others land out here. People keep pouring in. I think they've started to set up tents for people. I keep waiting for soldiers to barge in and make us put more people in here, but maybe we'll be lucky. I think things will be fine for us. We just have to wait this out."
"That what we've been talking about. We agree," John said. Buster and Brain nodded as the kids thumped around and squealed with laughter above them. Brain kept waiting on soldiers to burst in to shut them up, but maybe no one cared what they heard. As long as it wasn't an explosion as the world went black under a three-mile-wide asteroid, life was good.