JOAN'S FLASHFORWARD

Chapter 6 The Future is Still There

Adam had always thought in visual images. It was probably why he had become an artist. But after two hours, during which he and Jane tried their best to tend to the wounded and get them to aid, the images of the carnage became too much for him, and he retreated back into their flat.

He sought some other image in his head on which he could meditate, and recalled the painting in his dream. Unlike most dreams, that one had not faded in his memory, and he could recall the painting vividly. It was, he could tell, superior to anything that he had done in reality, even the much-praised JUDGEMENT OF PARIS. Could he reproduce it? It sounded odd, yet many artists of various types had supposedly been inspired by dreams.

Jane came back in, looking emotionally exhausted, and got on the Internet. Amazingly the network was running well in spite of the disaster. Luke had once explained that the US military had been involved in its early years, and had designed it to survive a crisis. There was no center to it, just thousands of servers scattered throughout the world, and they could run independently of each other and without human supervision. What's more, it was designed so that packets that found one route blocked would search out an alternative route to their destination, so that from the human point of view there was no blockage at all.

Having already phoned home to Arcadia, Jane's first priority was finding what happened to Grace. Fortunately Grace's current posting, although in an impoverished country, was on-line, and Jane was able to exchange Emails with her.

It hit me in the middle of the night, and it seemed like the ultimate nightmare. I was in agony, and unable to move, and the only bright spot was that I was vaguely aware of Luke being there. But I woke up, and I'm fine now. Didn't even realize something was odd, until Luke called and asked if I was alive. Then the radio started reporting disasters in Europe and Americas.

Jane next tried her friend Veronica Mars in California. Fortunately Veronica had taken Jane's warning seriously, and had somehow persuaded her family and friends to stay in safe spots at 11:00, which is when the flash hit Pacific Time. Adam didn't know how Veronica had managed that, but according to Jane she was a very clever and persuasive girl. Only one acquaintance, a guy named Dick, had disregarded her warning. He was no longer among the living.

Luke himself sent an Email.

I called Grace; she's OK, and apparently it was just a nightmare on my part. My roommate and I are safe. But he's gotten a message that his mother was in a car accident, in Ohio. He decided to set out for there immediately, even with the roads a mess.

Other Emails came in, too. Jane called her husband's attention to one, which had been broadcast by a local student to everyone in her address book. .

My name is Ellie Himmel. I'm new in Baconia, and you probably don't know me. But it seems that the emergency people – cops, hospitals -- are all swamped, and I'd like to organize some people to help each other get through the crisis. Please contact--

"That's very noble of her," opined Adam, wondering if he should feel guilty about burning out this afternoon. He pushed away the thoughts before they could start eating at him.

"Yeah. I think I'll look her up tomorrow, see if she's on the level."

"Why shouldn't she be on the level?"

Jane sighed, waving her hands around as she spoke. "Adam, I'm a policeman's daughter, and I've known Grace for years. Call it healthy paranoia. It's possible that somebody might try to exploit a crisis, or may make a well-meaning attempt to bring the mess under control. Can you imagine armed vigilantes rushing around in the name of 'maintaining order'? But if I think her idea is good, I'll join up with her."

Meanwhile they kept exploring the outside world electronically. TV was one of the last things to get reorganized; it was more dependent on people than most communication systems, and the people had been knocked out during the afternoon. But by mid-evening they managed to tune in to a sort of news program. After reading the frightening statistics of the day, the newscaster came up with something new.

"I will now transfer you to Janice Hawk, technical specialist of the Los Angeles FBI."

The screen changed to show a rather attractive thirty-something woman.

"Hello. Like everybody else today, people in our office were knocked out for 2 minutes 17 seconds this morning at 11:00 Pacific Time. While comparing notes with each other, we found out something that other groups have also noticed: that people not only had dreams, but the dreams seemed to match up with each other. A couple of people that we have talked to happened to spot calendars or newspapers during their dreams, and they all agree on the date: April 20, 2010."

"We have come up with a rather unusual theory," Janice went on. "What mankind experienced was not dreams. It was a vision of the future, six months from now. The dreams dovetailed because they were looking at the SAME future. It is possible that whatever caused the visions did so with such force that it overwhelmed brains' ability to sense current surroundings, and was responsible for today's death toll. "

"We want to learn everything we can about April 20, 2010, to see if that gives us a clue about the cause of the visions. If you think you witnessed a useful clue, please Email to us, www dot mosaic dot gov, and we will try to organize them into one big picture. Thank you."

Jane switched off the TV and sat there stunned. "A vision of the future! All these years and He's never given me a vision of the future. Now everybody got one. Why would God do this, with such horrible side effects?" She wrapped her arms around herself as Adam hugged her.

Adam tried to think about it, and realized something horrible. "Grace!"

"What?!"

"Grace. We confirmed that she wasn't really dying, NOW. But don't you see what that vision theory implies? She will be dying six months from now!"

Jane dashed to the computer and sent a hurried Email to her brother. For several minutes there was no response. Adam even wondered if Luke had fainted and, if so, whether there was anybody on the other end who could revive him. Eventually the reply came. It was full of misspellings and typos, which were almost unheard of from Luke. Adam figured he must be quite frazzled.

I relized the implctions about Grace too. Evrythins awful.

I cant sit here broooding alone in a empty dorm bout Grace. Can I com visit.

"Yes!"

- -

Morning brought some more startling news, more local, delivered by mass Email from the university office. It came while Joan was out visiting "Ellie Himmel".

"We regret to announce that 5 professors and 21 students lost their lives in yesterday's crisis. Some of them are still unaccounted for. We will release names in one hour after the nearest relatives have been notified. A memorial service will be held tomorrow."

"2 professors and 28 students are under medical treatment. We have received more than hundred requests from students wishing to be excused from classes in order to visit families and friends who need their help. Under the circumstances, we have made a decision unprecedented in our history: classes will be suspended for two weeks."

Adam stared at the computer. It was as if civilization was coming to an end. He was still staring when his wife returned.

"Did you see the girl?" Adam asked.

"Yeah. I'm convinced she's honest about helping people out. But she's not very familiar with the area, and she'll need advice. I promised to work with her."

"I'll help too. By the way, we're going to have time to do it, because classes are cancelled for a couple of weeks."

"I got a call on my cell from Luke. Harvard made the same decision. I suppose a lot of schools discussed the idea with each other." Jane sighed. "I haven't heard from Him

since He gave us the warning yesterday. But I suppose it's obvious what to do. Be as helpful to others as we can."

"Jane, aren't we dancing around the central problem. If God knew that this was going to happen, why didn't He stop it?"

"I don't know. I really don't know."

- -

KNOCKNOCK.

"It's Luke," said Jane, looking through the peephole. "And he looks real pale." She unlocked the door.

Concerning Luke's sensitive personality, and what had happened during the last couple of days, it was scarcely surprising to Adam that Luke would be pale.

Admitted by his sister, Luke took a couple of steps into the room, and collapsed on the floor.

One sleeve of his coat was soaked with blood.

TO BE CONTINUED

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Janice and her project are taken directly from the FLASHFORWARD pilot episode, though viewers did not see her actual announcement)