Exodus (11 page)

The image on the screen could have been anywhere for all Emily and Simon knew. It was impossible to tell because there was nothing but a swirling mass of red that looked like some kind of crazy kid’s finger painting or Rorschach image. No land or sea was visible at all.

“This cannot be happening…” Simon whispered.

“I assure you it is, Mr. Keller,” came Fiona’s voice from the phone. “And I am sorry to tell you that the news does not get any better. Please skip ahead to image three, if you would.” The third image was of a clearly distinguishable US East Coast. Small spots of red were splattered over the image like drops of blood. Emily could see the largest spot was hanging over New York. “That was taken two days ago,” continued Fiona. “You can see the phenomenon is less pronounced than you just saw over South America, possibly because, as Jacob has already postulated, whatever we are seeing here is retarded by colder climates. But if you would be so kind as to move to the fourth image.”

Fiona waited a second before continuing.

“You will see that although the progression is slower on the US mainland, there appears to be a much larger storm, if that is the right word, rapidly approaching from the east. The picture you are looking at now was taken six hours ago.”

Emily sucked in her breath as she looked at the aerial photograph on the screen. It was mind-blowing. While the outline of the coast was still clearly visible, what had been spots of red in the
previous image had now grown to three or four times their size. She could just make out tendrils of red extending out from each spot; each one seemed to be reaching in the direction of the nearest red splotch of its neighbor. Here and there she could see some of the tendrils had already made connections, and the originating red stains seemed to be uniformly larger than the ones that had not yet connected.

But that paled into insignificance next to the huge red storm that occupied most of the right side of the screen, a swirling mass of red hues with thick branches extending out in front of it, as though searching blindly for the land mass that lay just a few hundred miles ahead of it.

“What we believe you are seeing is a huge body of this substance you called ‘red dust’ that we first saw amassing in Europe. It broke off from the main body of the red storm over that continent and began heading in your direction several days ago. You may already have experienced some preliminary effects from its approach. If this was a normal meteorological event, I would be recommending you simply hunker down and try to ride it out, but given the information I have received courtesy of Jacob and Emily, my only advice to you is to reiterate what Jacob has already advised you: run as fast and as far north as you possibly can.”

“Daddy, what’s that?”

The sound of Rhiannon’s voice shattered the shocked stillness that had settled over both Simon and Emily. Simon’s hand flashed out and slammed the screen of the laptop shut. “It’s nothing, sweetheart,” he said as he turned to face his two children, who had somehow managed to sneak into the house unheard. “Just some photos that Emily took that she wanted me to see.”

“It’s pretty,” said Benjamin, standing next to his big sister, a coloring book in one hand and a green pencil in the other.

While the implication of what the kids had just seen had passed by Benjamin, Rhiannon didn’t look convinced by Simon’s explanation.

“Who were you talking to?” she asked, nodding at the sat-phone next to the computer, as Benjamin, apparently already bored by the conversation, took a chair next to Simon and began coloring the remainder of his picture.

Before Emily or Simon could reply, Fiona’s voice filled the kitchen. “Hello, children. My name is Fiona, and I am a friend of Emily’s and your father.” The ISS commander’s strong British accent instantly grabbed the children’s attention. “I was just telling your daddy how nice it would be if you and your brother might like to come see me and my friends. Would you like that?”

Rhiannon’s response was to simply raise her eyes to the ceiling, spin on her heels, and head out of the kitchen toward her bedroom. “Whatever!” she called back over her shoulder. Ben continued to concentrate on filling in his coloring book, biting his bottom lip as he carefully worked the color between the lines.

Simon watched his daughter disappear, then took his son’s hands in his own. “Why don’t you go and take Thor to the kitchen and give him some cookies?” he asked. The little boy’s face instantly brightened as he turned toward Emily, his eyes fixed on the carpet.

“Can I?” he asked.

Emily tried not to let the surprise she felt creep into her voice. Benjamin had barely acknowledged her existence since she had stumbled across his family. She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

The little boy turned to the dog: “For. Want a cookie?” Emily smiled at the sheer sweetness of it. The malamute didn’t seem to have any problem understanding the boy, though. He rolled to his
feet and trotted after Benjamin, and they both disappeared into the kitchen.

“We have some other problems to contend with,” said Emily when the boy was out of earshot. She explained what they had seen happening over the hill, quickly filling in the commander on her experience in the Valhalla forest and what the empty sack might mean for their safety.

“This is a very interesting development,” said the commander after a pause. “And you have no idea what this egg sack contained?”

“No, all I know is that when I encountered the first one, I was almost overwhelmed with fear. Just take my word for it, whatever is on the loose out here isn’t thinking happy thoughts.”

There was a burst of static, then Jacob’s voice cut through it. “…all that you have told us, I’d advise you leave as quickly as possible. While I can’t speak with any certainty about the storm, given your previous experiences and observations, and the unprecedented size of the storms, I can only assume that this is the next phase in the geoengineering of the planet. In short: you don’t want to still be there when that thing makes landfall.”

Emily stared at Simon. She could almost hear the cogs in his brain whirring as he tried to process this avalanche of information.

“Okay,” he replied, finally. “We leave now.” The tenseness Emily had seen in him seemed to drain from his muscles in resignation, all resistance finally leaving him.

“If there’s nothing more? I think Simon and I need to get cracking. There’s not much of the day left and the sooner we’re out of here the better.”

“Good,” replied Fiona. “Don’t waste time. You have no more than twelve hours in our estimation before that storm makes landfall and starts heading inland in your direction. You’ll want to be out of there well before then to stay ahead of it.”

Jacob added, reinforcing the commander, “Whatever you two are going to do, you need to do it quickly, guys.”

“We will,” Emily said, then added, “And, commander, thank you.”

Emily glanced across at Simon as she hung up the sat-phone. His face was ashen, and she wondered how she would be handling the same news if she had been in his position.

Simon looked up and met her stare. After a few moments he gave a single solemn nod of understanding.

“Let’s get started.”

As soon as they were off the sat-phone, Emily followed Simon into the living room. Simon called Rhiannon and Ben in and told them they would be leaving within the next hour or so.

“Is For still coming?” said Ben.

“Yes, he’s still going to be coming with us,” said Simon, smiling at his little boy.

“We’re leaving
now
?” Rhiannon asked. She had a look of incredulity on her face that telegraphed she was going to have a hard time believing anything she was told unless it was the absolute truth.

Simon looked at Emily for support, but she just smiled back at him. The ball was completely in his court, and he had to tell the children what he chose to tell them.

“There’s a very big storm coming,” Simon said. “So, we have to leave sooner than I thought.”

“Why?”

“Because, if we stay, we might be hurt…or worse. Do you understand what I’m saying, Rhiannon?” said Simon, glancing at her brother.

Rhiannon took a moment to analyze what had been said. “I suppose,” she said finally.

“Okay, well I need you and your brother to stay out of Emily’s way for a while. She’s going to pack some clothes for you both for the trip.”

“Where are you going to be?” Rhiannon asked, suspicion back in her voice.

“I’m going to go and see if we can borrow the Jeffersons’ SUV. I won’t be long.”

As much as Emily hated to split the family up, they had decided it was for the best if Simon took the Honda Accord over to the Jeffersons’ place, located the keys to the SUV, and brought it back to the house while she packed some supplies and got the children ready to go.

“It’s not perfect, but under the circumstances…” she said.

Simon nodded. “It’s our only option.” He picked up his car keys from the table in the hall and headed out the front door. “I’ll be back soon,” he said and closed the door behind him.

Emily moved from bedroom to bedroom, carefully pulling a selection of clothing from hangers and packing it into a couple of small travel cases Simon had set aside. When each case was full, she placed them in the hallway near the front door so they could be quickly loaded once Simon returned with the SUV.

She did the same for Simon, quickly selecting and packing enough clothes to last him at least three days. One side of the master bedroom’s walk-in closet was filled with slacks, designer jeans, and summer dresses—they were all his wife’s clothes. How long had she been gone? Two years, or so, and he had never gotten
around to emptying her side of the closet. It was a painfully sweet observation of a man who was still deeply in love with the memory of his wife. By the time Emily had filled and added several cardboard boxes of food supplies to the luggage waiting at the front door, she was beginning to worry.

Where the hell was Simon? It had been at least ninety minutes since he had left on what should have been no more than a thirty-minute round trip, an hour tops if he had to track down the keys for the Jeffersons’ SUV. Either way, he should have been back long ago.

Maybe there was some kind of problem with the SUV? Something he thought he could fix but had taken longer?

Something was wrong here. He could have had an accident or run into something else that delayed him. Emily didn’t even want to think what that “something” might be.

She gave him another thirty minutes, just in case.

But when there was still no sign of his little silver Honda, Emily realized she was faced with two choices. She could stay put and hope that Simon showed up, but if he hadn’t come back by dark then they would be stuck there at the house until morning. Then they would have to go searching for Simon and, if he was injured, they might be too late, and with the storm less than eleven hours away now…

On the other hand, if she left now, she could make it to the house in twenty minutes, locate Simon, and, hopefully, figure out what to do next. But that would mean she would have to take the kids along with her, because there was no way she was going to leave them alone in the house, not even with Thor to guard them.

Every second she wasted brought the red storm closer and would make it even harder for them to get out. It was too late for her to leave by bike now; she would never outrun the storm, and
it would mean having to leave the kids behind to whatever fate was heading their way. No, she would have to risk heading to the other house. She’d take the kids with her but leave the supplies here. Hopefully, they would be able to swing back once they had found Simon.

She found pen and paper and left a note on the kitchen table, where it couldn’t be missed.

Simon,

You’ve been gone for over two hours. I am heading to the house, through the valley. The kids are with me. If you read this, that’s where we will be.

Meet us there.

The kids had both fallen asleep on the sofa, Ben’s feet resting in the lap of his sister, her arm draped over her little brother. Beyond them, through the window, Emily could see they had about an hour of daylight left. That would be enough for what she had planned.