“I’m fine, just…we left to find a new home for those on Earth. We arrived on Earth when everything was over. Somehow, I feel,” Rey said, “we’re about to land right in the middle of all the hell.”
“Sadly,” Finch said, “I think you’re right.”
<><><><>
“Two, three, five…” Nate shook his head. “Too many storms to count in the pacific. But Hawaii is gone, Finch. Not there.”
“Seas are insane,” Tucker said. “Though not as bad as when we left.”
“Still seeing Australia,” Nate said. “Nothing on Japan, though. I don’t see it. It’s gone.”
“Keep looking,” Finch ordered. “It’s darker on this side of the world. It could be the storms. We could have missed it. We’re clearing the storms now.”
“It’s not there,” Nate replied.
Finch looked over at Sam and saw his reaction. Sam had closed his eyes, taking in that information. “Sam, are you okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah. Fine.” Sam cleared his throat and returned focus to his screen.
“Nate, keep looking. Sam anything on your end with the ARCs?”
“Hunan Province ARC is not there,” Sam replied. “We’re not close enough to confirm Gansu or Tibet.”
“But Hunan is not there?”
“It is not there.”
“Well, one ARC got off the ground. Cities? Anyone seeing anything on cities?”
“We can zero on one,” Tucker said.
“Do that.”
“It’s dark,” Nate stated. “As you said it’s barely morning over here. There are no lights. No sign of power.”
“We still have a lot of area to cover,” Finch said. “Let’s keep checking.”
“Quinn said Europe went under first,” Rey said. “From what he read that seemed to be the kickoff, so if it’s still there, the world is not over. Not yet.”
“What difference does it make?” Sam asked. “Can we do anything about it?”
“If there is anyone left down there, yeah we can,” Rey said. “We can try. We know there are three safe states. Right now, they may not know that.”
“It’s a lot of years, Rey,” Sam said. “Just saying, a lot of years. Almost a hundred since Tucker and I left. I’m not holding out much hope.”
Rey nodded. He had a point. It didn’t matter though. They couldn’t just say, ‘well this is a bust let’s hit the Androski again.’ No matter how bad it was below, the ship needed to recharge and they had no choice but to land.
SEVENTEEN
The Omni flew on autopilot just as they finished the first orbit. Nate called everyone into the back to show them what he’d figured out with Tucker.
“We have two hours of power,” Finch said. “Then we are out. So once we figure out where we are landing, I can turn around.”
“You’ll be able to turn around shortly,” Nate said. “But I needed you guys to be informed first.”
A twenty-inch monitor was before him and on it was a still image of the United States. “This is where we are,” Nate explained. “No cloud formation and we have a beautiful image. Now…” In the corner another image appeared. “This is Earth when Omni left. I call it Earth Zero.”
The images then appeared side by side.
“You can clearly see the difference.” Nate pointed. “Florida is no longer half gone. Like it was when we left. You can see the east coast is starting to expand and the southern west coast is slowly being swallowed, opening Nevada up to prime beach front property. Next image…” His finger clicked and another image appeared. He moved it to the right so that the current United States image was center. “This image is Earth one-seventy-five. One hundred and seventy-five years after we left. Big difference from Earth Zero.” He pointed to the image on the left. “But…If you look…” A few keystrokes and Earth-175 turned into an outline, and using his finger Nate slid it over Earth-100, the time where they were now.
“Look at that, Sam,” Tucker said. “He has touch screen.”
Nate smiled. “You’re funny. If you look at this, it’s about halfway to where we are now at Earth-100, right here and now. Therefore, nothing occurred overnight, which is a good thing and the reason that a lot of buildings remain. Had the shift or whatever occurred over the course of one year, no one would have been able to withstand it.”
“How does it look now as far as life and so forth?” Finch asked.
“There are segments of the country that look to me as totally overgrown, not the same at all. I’d say abandoned at least for twenty-five years.”
Finch rubbed his chin. “Anywhere to land?”
“Actually, yes,” Nate answered. “Tucker?”
“You told us about the Wyoming, Utah, Colorado stuff so we concentrated on there,” he said. “Hey, Sam, watch as I pinch the screen and enlarge.”
“You’re an ass,” Sam replied.
Tucker enlarged the map of Earth Zero. “This is the area we focused on. And this is how it looks now…” He switched images to the same enlargement of the three states. “There’s lots and lots of overgrown areas. But look at this area north of Fort Collins…” He zoomed in even more. “There’s not a lot, but there, a farm. Unlike anything else in the area. Judging by this image, this farm is maintained. Small but maintained. Someone is there.”
“And you’re absolutely sure,” Finch said, “it isn’t abandoned.”
“It could be now, but I’ve been a farm boy my entire life. This farm has upkeep. It looks too perfect on this image.”
“Good.” Finch folded his arms. “We have a destination. Sam, let’s turn the ship around. Nate, find us an area near there big enough to land,” he said. “Let’s get on the ground and find out what’s going on.”
<><><><>
Just like the sun that traveled east to west, the density of overgrowth lessened. Although, highly populated areas all around the country appeared to be the worst. Cities had been abandoned in the wake of disasters such as earthquakes,
