Anthony DeCosmo - Disintegration

He chuckled then said, "The nose cone is like a beak; real sharp looking. Besides, they may not look slick but they sure as hell fly with the grace of an Eagle."

Nina shrugged at the whole name thing and asked a more important question: "So, you going to tell me how this thing works? I’ve noticed there are no wings."

"I don’t know all the engineering. I mean, I know what to do but not why it does it. It has something to do with an anti-gravity circuit that runs through the thing. It sort of repels gravity like the same ends of a magnet repel each other. I increase the power to the anti-grav circuit and we go up or vice versa. Then there’s just straight hydrogen thrust coming out the back."

"Armaments?"

"No. But we can change that. Just like there’s no night vision or infrared. There is something like radar but it’s limited."

Nina, surprised, said, "How could a race of people who know how to make anti-gravity circuits and energy weapons not have infrared or night vision?"

"How is it we put a man on the moon but can’t cure the common cold? Different technology trees, I guess. By the way the Redcoats shut down at nightfall, maybe they came from somewhere where the sun shines most of the time. I dunno."

"And the goggle things? Which, by the way, look way-cool on you."

"Sarcasm dully noted. But you couldn’t fly one of these things just looking out the window. Right now, it’s as if I am the ship. My forward view is unobstructed. It’s amazing-try them on; there’s another pair next to your seat."

She found the oversized headgear and held it with both hands. As the goggles slid over her eyes, it felt as if she stepped outside of the ship. The night sky surrounded her, with the moon above and black, rolling countryside below.

The sensation was one of her body flying through the air. It took a few seconds, but she stifled the thrill of the view and thought in practical terms again.

The view inside the goggles included a heads-up display with indecipherable symbols: most certainly a data stream.

"Have you figured all this out?"

"No," he told her. "I can’t read their language. But the thing at the bottom right is sort of a heading indicator. I can kinda follow that back to the Wyoming Valley Mall."

She removed the head set.

"Kinda? Kinda? You’re flying blind at night in an alien plane that you’re not even sure you know how to fly?"

He smiled and admitted, "Yeah. I’m flying blind tonight. But I was doing that before I had the ship."

She understood, shrugged, and conceded, "I guess that makes two of us."

– Dinner and a movie sounded simple. First, they went to the Grotto Pizza restaurant outside of the Wyoming Valley Mall and ate by candle light.

Nina had hoped he had somehow scrounged a pizza but instead ate from a picnic basket he brought including chicken from the farms, instant soup, and canned asparagus, all chased by cold Amstel Lights.

"Oh, look, they’re almost cute," Nina kidded when the things resembling shaved squirrels with glowing tales and fibrous wings gathered on the windows. The glow in the tails came from acid. Acid that ate through glass.

After evacuating the restaurant, Trevor and Nina moved to stage two.

The projectionist Jon had found for the night was able to start up the equipment inside the mall's cinemas. When Trevor and Nina arrived, they found Kristy Kaufman taking "tickets" and playing usher with Dante Jones running the snack bar. A portable generator got the popcorn machine popping and ran the projectors. Trevor and Nina saw thirty minutes of a romantic comedy before the film melted and the popcorn machine caught fire.

Instead of lamenting the disaster, Nina did something Trevor had never seen before. She laughed. She could not stop laughing. As a result, he laughed too.

They left the 'Eagle' under watch and traveled home in a convoy, killing two hostiles along the way.

Trevor escorted Nina to her apartment and paused at the base of the stairs.

"Sorry this wasn’t exactly a night on the town," he apologized.

She answered, "Everything went pretty much as I expected."

"Oh, now that’s just cold."

"Listen, we got back alive, right? I’m just saying that that ain’t half bad these days."

He had seen her smile more that night than in all the weeks before combined. In that, he found some victory.

"I hope you’ll give me a chance again soon. Good night," he told her.

Nina’s brow crinkled.

He asked, defensively, "What? What is it? What’d I do?"

"Well," she tried to be cute but she could not help grinning a big dumb-ass grin. "I mean, this kind of was our first date so shouldn’t we, you know, have, like, a good night kiss?"

"Oh," Trevor considered. "Yeah. I suppose you’re right."

He leaned in slowly. Despite smiling uncontrollably, Nina prepared her lips.

Trevor’s mouth drew closer…closer…then pulled away.

"I didn’t earn it," he smirked. "Next time."

– Trevor walked into the room. The afternoon sun beamed in through the windows illuminating the dust stirred to life by his movement. He sat on the bed.

The room felt both very familiar and foreign at the same time; like visiting a high school classroom years after graduation.

"I came to say goodbye," he told the room.

No one answered.

"I’m moving on now. I have to. I’m sorry I wasn’t here with you when… when it happened. I’m sorry all of our plans got shot to Hell. I really wanted to dance with you. I wanted to see you wearing that gown."

He gazed at the wedding dress on the floor.

"I bet you looked spectacular," his gaze rose to the full-length mirror. He could see the ghost of Ashley wearing the dress and smiling. "I bet you were gorgeous."

He picked up the dress. He held it close. He hoped maybe he could catch one last whiff of her. Instead, he nearly sneezed from the coating of dust.

"Thank you for caring about me, Ashley. Up until ‘all this’ I thought I was worthless and a nobody. Then you fell for me. Why? I’ll never understand. Thank you all the same. You made me feel…you made me feel like a man. But I have to move on now. I can’t be haunted by this anymore. I’m not going to feel guilty for caring about someone else. Nina is…different. I’m different now, too. You might not even like me these days. I don’t know if I like myself. But I love her. I know that as sure as I know anything. I can’t let her slip away because I’m holding on to a world that doesn’t exist anymore."

He walked to the closet, slipped the dress on a hanger, and then gently closed the door.

"So this is farewell. Ashley, I…" he felt he should say ‘I love you.’ Yet those words did not feel as true as he once thought.

"Ashley, I’m sorry things happened like this. Goodbye."

Trevor paced the command center addressing six brave volunteers. He deliberately made eye contact with each of them, one after another.

"Remember, your job is to find out what's in our neighborhood and report back. Don't get into any fights."

The scouts divided into three pairs: McBride and Woody Ross would head west, Cassy Simms and Bird east, while Dante and Kristy Kaufman drew the northern route.

"Keep an eye on the weather. We could get a big snowstorm any day now. If you can go out as far as a hundred miles, great, but use your judgment. You’re looking for survivors and threats. Point survivors in our direction. A couple of days, no more. You can't carry much in the way of supplies in those hover bikes anyway. Oh, and there won’t be any rescue missions. You disappear we can’t go looking for you. We wouldn’t know where to start."

Dante blew Trevor a kiss.

"I love you too."