Nathan Hystad - The Survivors - Books 1-3

The dirt layer separating the bottom of the pyramid from the portal halls had been excavated. It felt wrong to destroy something the Theos had built so long ago, but we had to live another day, and this was the only way.

“What happens after this?” Mary asked, leaning her head on my shoulder as she chewed the last of her roast beef.

I watched the lines of people walking into the Giza pyramid, and spotted a young family with two small children. The mother held her small son in her arms, and the dad held his daughter’s hand, leading them to an uncertain future. Life as they knew it was over, for everyone.

“Dean?”

“After this?” I smiled at her. “We help build a new future for everyone.”

Leonard came out of a tent set up with food, carrying a sandwich and a bottle of water. “Mind if I join you?” he asked.

“Not at all,” Mary said, patting the unused pyramid stone beside her.

“How are you hanging in there, Leonard?” I asked, seriously concerned about my new young friend. We’d been through a crazy adventure together, one where he’d been forced to kill, and be part of something that turned our people’s future forever. His eyes had deep purple bags under them, evidence of the last day’s trials.

“You had to do it,” I said, knowing he’d understand what I referred to.

“Dean’s told me all about you, Leonard,” Mary said. “We’re both very proud of you.”

The man I’d met a couple days ago would have blushed at that, but the new version wasn’t the same youth any longer. “I think I’m done with comics.”

“You don’t mean that. People will want to know what happened.” I surprised myself by saying that.

“Really?” he asked, looking at me with tear-filled eyes.

“Really. You’re a great guy to have by my side. You’ll always have a place on my crew.”

His posture straightened up, and he looked up to the sky, the clouds breaking for a moment so the sun beat down on his face.

We sat there in silence, enjoying each other’s company in near silence as countless people moved from Earth to our new world. Each one of them with a story: a tale about their pre-Event lives, how they survived the Event, why they elected to stay on Earth rather than travel to New Spero, where fate was bringing them after all.

I wondered where their tales would lead them. For that matter, I didn’t know where mine was headed. I sat my hand on Mary’s thigh and gave her a light squeeze. She smiled at me, her hair in a loose ponytail, and a few strands broke free, covering her face. She blew at them, and I loved her more at that moment than ever before.

My future wasn’t set, but my fate was now intertwined with hers. We were partners in whatever was to come.

Magnus approached as the sun went down, followed by Clare and Nick when they swapped out with a duo Magnus trusted to make the portal journeys with the people. The room held four hundred at a time, and they could make the trip every five minutes; the people from Earth arrived at the caves near Terran Five on New Spero.

The warships were able to take a quarter of the Earth’s population, and because of the distance to the pyramids, the Western hemisphere was being brought to the ships rather than to the portal. All in all, almost everyone would be off Earth in five days or less.

Camps were set up, and all Terran cities were pitching in, taking in refugees and donating food, clothing, and shelter where needed. My sister and her husband James were leading the charge at Terran Five, and I couldn’t have been prouder of them.

Slate was the last of my old crew to arrive, and he brought something brown in a clear bottle.

“Where’d you get that?” Magnus asked, taking the bottle and sniffing the contents. He shrugged and grabbed some empty water bottles from around us, filling each with two fingers’ worth.

“What are we toasting to?” Nick asked, looking as exhausted as I felt.

“To surviving.” I raised my plastic bottle in the air, and everyone joined in. “To surviving.” We tapped our drinks and downed some of the liquid.

With that one done, Mary had one more. “To Patrice Dalhousie. One of the strongest and most visionary people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.”

“To Patty,” we chorused, and drank the last, Magnus pouring a splash onto the dusty ground.

M ary raced across Africa in the old-style Kraski ship. It had been only six days since we’d made the deal with the Empress, but it felt like weeks.

“Looks clear.” Mary lifted up, taking us higher.

“One more pass?” I asked her.

“Dean, we can’t save them all. If they didn’t make it by now, we can’t do anything.”

Slate made a tapping motion on his wrist, telling me time was up. “You have a last job to do, and so do I.”

Mary nodded and gave the controls over to him.

“Slate, we’ll see you in a couple of months. Don’t worry, we won’t do anything crazy without you,” I said, getting an eye roll from him.

“Like you didn’t do anything crazy the last time I left you?” He laughed.

We neared the pyramids. After days of commotion there, they seemed eerily quiet and serene on the viewscreen. Nothing was left but some tents and millions of footprints from around the world.

“It’s always more fun exploring ancient alien planets with you, buddy. You know that.”

He lowered us, and we headed to the ramp in the middle of the ship, opening it to a brisk midnight desert breeze. “You have everything you need?” he asked, passing me a heavy pack.

Mary swung on a winter jacket and tossed me mine, which I caught with my free hand. “I think so. Sad to think this is the last time we’ll see Earth.”

“You never know,” Slate said back. “Especially with you, boss.”

Mary hugged our big friend. “Zeke Campbell, you’re one in a million. I can’t wait to see you back home. Thanks for keeping Clare and Nick safe up there.” She kissed his cheek, and I hugged him too.

“I couldn’t keep us all safe,” he said somberly.

“You couldn’t help that,” Mary said.

“I guess so. I wish I could just leave this ship behind and come with you, but Magnus is probably right. Every asset should be saved.”

“See you soon.” I saluted him, and we walked down and toward the pyramid. Slate lifted off and headed upward toward the last warship, waiting for the remaining Kraski ships to join them for the journey home.

We watched him leave, looking at the starlit sky. This was it. No more Earth. I thought about my farm back home, my parents now both gone. With a glance over at Mary, I knew she was thinking about it all too, and a single tear rolled down her cheek.

I stretched out my hand, grabbing hers. “New Spero will be our new home. A fresh start for everyone.”

“I’ll miss what we had.”

“Me too.”

We stared into the sky for a while longer before shaking it off and heading toward the pyramid.

“After you,” I said, waving Mary into the entrance. We walked along the pathways in silence; recently installed battery-powered LEDs lit our path. The walkway slanted down the whole time, and soon we were at the floor built to separate our people from the portal.

Crude stairs had been dug into it during the excavation process, and we carefully stepped down them, aware of how many feet had walked down them over the last week.

It looked far different than the portal we’d emerged from not long ago. Now the walls had lights mounted on them, and the halls had been widened to fit more people through at once. The entrance to the portal room was there, the round stone door open just enough to allow us to slip through.