R. Allinson: The Last Day on Earth

The Australian Prime Minister has yet to comment. The Leader of the Opposition released the following statement:

“This is catastrophic. This is what happens when funding is cut from research and development, and we have a Prime Minister who doesn’t believe in Science. This should have been spotted months or even years ago, but thanks to all the funding cuts that have happened both here and overseas under the current administrations, we’re stuck in this predicament. I urge the Prime Minister to throw everything he’s got into stopping this thing. It’s not a joke, and not something that he can bury his head in the sand about, like he’s done with so many other issues.”

More coming soon…

Lucy sat there in shock. Jess hadn’t been joking.

She called her back.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. You believe me now, right?”

“Yes,” Lucy whispered.

“Can I come over?” Jess asked.

Lucy looked around the office. It was mostly empty. Most of her team was at lunch. She caught her boss’ eye. He frowned at her.

“Yeah sure. I’ll be home in about half an hour.”

She hung up, logged off her computer, and grabbed her handbag.

“Have you heard?” she asked her boss as she approached his desk.

“Heard what?”

“Check the news sites. I’ve got to go. I’m sorry. Goodbye.”

She kept walking, ignoring his calls for her to come back.

Lucy left the office building in a daze. The streets were already busy. Lucy thought everyone looked slightly crazed, and nearly everybody was talking or crying into their phones, or at least trying to.

“It’s like goddamn fucking New Years,” she heard one man mutter as she walked past him.

She made it to Flinders Street Station. It was packed, even more so than usual. She studied the board, looking for her train and platform. The platform was dangerously packed. Just as she’d been about to give up and fight her way out of the station and begin the long walk home, a train rolled into the platform. She managed to squeeze onto the train, along with the hundreds of other people. The normally quiet commuter train was alive with the clamour of voices. Everyone was talking about the asteroid.

Lucy eavesdropped on a middle-aged man and woman next to her.

“I just can’t believe it. Surely they’ll be able to figure something out?” the woman said.

“I don’t know, Cathy. I hope my son’s okay. He’s in London. I tried to call him, but it’s the middle of the night over there.”

“Oh, Bob, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“Can’t they just blow the damn thing up?”

“Wouldn’t they have tried it already? Why can’t they just be honest with us! Who knows what’s been going on! I feel so helpless.”

“If this thing’s for real, and not some elaborate sick joke… I really hope this is some War of the Worlds type stunt…”

“War of the what?” Lucy mentally thanked Cathy for asking, because she didn’t think he’d been talking about the Tom Cruise film.

“You know, that H.G. Wells radio show back in the 1930’s that had everyone believing a Martian invasion was actually happening.”

“I can’t see the American President being involved in something like that, Bob.”

Lucy privately agreed.

She was jolted back to reality when the mechanical announcers voice came over the loudspeaker announcing that Ripponlea was the next stop.

“Excuse me, excuse me,” she muttered as she tried to squeeze back through the crush of people before the doors shut again.

Lucy found herself glancing upwards at the sky every few steps as she walked from the train station to the flat she shared with her friend Mitch. She wondered if and when she’d be able to see the asteroid. There was no sign of it yet, her near-constant scanning of the clear blue sky confirmed. It looked deceptively peaceful.

The tree-lined streets of Elwood were strangely quiet after the chaos of the city. The few other pedestrians that she passed seemed oblivious to their surroundings. Through windows, Lucy glimpsed families crowded around televisions and computers, and one man who looked like he was packing his entire life into his SUV. He glared warily at Lucy as she walked past. She felt slightly indignant. Did he think she was going to steal his stuff? In hindsight, Lucy acknowledged that it was a legitimate fear for him to have had.

The flat was empty and silent when she shut the door behind her. She was vaguely disappointed. Mitch’s comforting presence would have been appreciated. Lucy by-passed the empty living area and slowly climbed the stairs to her large loft bedroom, her dangling handbag thumping as it hit each step.

The room was exactly how she’d left it that morning. Lucy surveyed it for a moment, then stepped over the threshold. Bed unmade, yesterday’s clothes strewn all over the floor, a pile of books next to the bed that she’d been meaning to read, a wilting aspidistra plant under the skylight, bills that needed paying on the desk.

She straightened the bedspread, put the clothes in her laundry basket and watered the poor neglected aspidistra. Her mother had given it to her when she was 19 and had first moved out of home. Lucy was quite proud of herself that she’d managed to keep the plant alive for six years. She had not inherited her mother’s green thumb.

She sat down at her desk and opened up her laptop. There was an email from her sister waiting for her.

Lucy — go home to Mum and Dad’s. Don’t stay in the city. I’m worried that things are going to get ugly soon. Keep in touch and be careful.

Lucy frowned. Her mother hadn’t called her yet. That was strange. She pulled her phone out of her handbag and called her parents home. There was no answer. She put the phone back in her bag.

She opened the news website again. There were a bunch of articles that hadn’t been there when she’d last looked. She clicked on one.

Cecilia, an asteroid first discovered a year ago by South African amateur astronomer Frank Langdale who named it after his daughter, is approximately 14.5km (9 miles) wide. In comparison, the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was thought to be 10km wide.

Lucy stopped reading and stared at the screen in shock — worse than the dinosaurs? Shit!

She jumped at the knock on the door. She sprang up and raced down the stairs, pausing to look through the peephole, then threw open the door. Jess was standing there, hair on end, grocery bags in hand.

“Hey, come in.”

Jess followed her into the kitchen where she dumped the bags onto the table. She pulled out two bottles of wine, a packet of Tim Tams, a bag of grapes and three blocks of chocolate.

Lucy reached up into the cupboard and pulled down two wine glasses.

“Pour. I can’t do food right now.”

Lucy leaned on the bench and watched as Jess opened the bottle of red, and poured two large glasses. A couple of drops spilled as her hand shook.

“Mitch home?”

“Nope.” Lucy shook her head. “Haven’t heard from him.”

Jess handed her a glass, and they both took large gulps.

“Crazy, huh?”

“Yep.”

Lucy put the wine down, rubbed her face and let out a huge breath. She looked at her friend. Jess’ short hair was standing on end and Lucy soon realised why. She kept running her hands through it, something Jess usually only reserved for exams or before big dates or job interviews. Or finding out that there was a massive asteroid heading towards your planet.

“What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know, Jess.”

“This is crazy. Where’s Bruce Willis when you need him?”

Lucy spluttered on the sip of wine she’d just taken.