It had been about four hours since my parents dropped me at the small Fullerton airport. I had boarded the small plane which landed at the big Denver International Airport a few minutes ago. Instead of going straight to Honolulu, I had to travel here first to meet up with my best friend. We had met at a summer camp and stayed in touch ever since. At the start of high school, we promised to meet up in Denver after graduation to have a last vacation before university.
After arriving at concourse A, I had to find my way to my next gate in concourse B. I had only a small carry-on for easier traveling. Who needs many clothes for a week in Hawaii anyway?
An excruciatingly long walk and many security checks later, I found my way to the underground train and hopped on it. It took only 3 minutes to reach the B gates. On the ground level, another short walk and a security check later, I could finally see our gate number.
"Mark!" I shouted my friend's name through the crowd when I saw his head towering over the sea of people.
"Norah, finally," he said, standing closer to hug me.
"Sorry, this place is huge," I answered, returning his hug.
"Let's check you in, then we can talk in the waiting area," he said, reaching for my hand to tug me after him.
"Where is the kiosk?" I looked around us.
"Just use your phone. It's quicker," he answered, leading me to the row of chairs.
I placed my bag on the floor and did as he suggested. Before I finished, an alert showed up on my phone. A succession of pings could be heard, as people's phones alerted them as well.
"All transportation to stop immediately. Stay indoors, seek shelter!" I read the message out loud.
"What? Why?" Mark looked around, but the people were just as puzzled as we were.
The screens switched to showing canceled flights that made the people panic. Suddenly, the same screens went black for a nanosecond then the Nasa TV came on. Everyone around us stayed silent and listened as the man in uniform started to speak.
"Yesterday morning 90 satellites were shipped to space. Unfortunately, there were serious miscalculations at SpaceY. Thanks to this, a collision happened in space which started a chain reaction. We were hopeful that it wouldn't cause trouble. However, various satellites and space junks are heading towards Earth. Many of those will burn up upon entry or break up into smaller units. Unfortunately, there will likely be bigger units that will reach us. The possible impact zone is in the middle of our country. Four Corners region brace yourself, most of them will come your way..."
People started to scream, so I didn't hear any more of it. My hand found Marks during the speech, and we were still holding on to each other. A loud boom rocked through the building, it was as much as herd as felt.
Some went to the huge windows to look at what happened. Outside, people started to run towards the buildings. I watched as boarded planes opened their emergency slides and people shot out of them one by one tackling each other on their way to shelter. Then another loud boom could be heard simultaneously with a flash of lighting.
"Those were big chunks," I mumbled to myself. "Not all of them is burning up in the atmosphere." I looked at Mark in fear.
I heard folks calling their loved ones and saying goodbye. Then we saw one, like a big meteor coming towards us. It was loud and getting louder as it was descending.
"It will hit us," I cried in terror.
Mark grabbed my shoulders and made me look at him. "We have to go underground," he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me after him.
People screamed and started running like crazy ants. Many had the same idea and went to look for the underground train system. There were too many there to go under in time. Suddenly it hit the ground with a big boom then the shockwaves caused the windows to broke into thousand pieces.
"We are never going to make it underground. We have to go outside," said Mark, his eyes rapidly sweeping over the crowd.
"Are you crazy?" I asked in disbelief.
"There are some gates there where you can go in with cars. We can go to the tunnels from there with hopefully fewer people. We can manage."
"Okay. Lead the way," I agreed.
Leaving all our bags behind, we managed to find an unlocked side door. Hand in hand, we stepped outside, expecting the worst, but hoping for the best.
