She smiled, placing down the menus in front of the family, "hello, I'm Lucy. I'll be your waitress for today... would any of you like something to drink?"
She stepped away from the table after they placed their orders, sighing softly, "table seven."
A man in the kitchen spoke to her, "you doing okay, Lucy?"
She nodded, "I'm... okay. Everything's okay."
He raised a brow, "and does 'okay' mean 'completely horrible'?"
Lucy groaned, "I'm just kinda stressed. Adam is starting middle school in - like - a few days."
"Yikes. I thought he was still a little kid."
She chuckled weakly, "nope. He's eleven now."
"Eleven. Jeez."
She looked back at the seating area with a weak sigh, "well... I dunno, I guess I just feel old."
He chuckled, "you're thirty three."
"Still, I- I feel like I'm wasting my life here."
"I thought you loved Gander?"
"I thought so too... I mean, I love Gander. It's my home, I know everybody here but I just... I feel trapped, y'know? I've been to three other countries in my entire life: the United States - which barely counts, then England for a flight layover to Italy... and then Italy for a week."
"Well... have you spoken to David about it? I mean, you could go on a trip somewhere nice for a while right? Still, even a couple days off could be nice for you all."
Lucy sighed, "I guess so... I just don't want Adam to be stuck in the same stupid rut as me, counting down the days until something 'allows' him to travel."
He smiled, "the middle school is shut until Thursday, right?"
Lucy shrugged, "yeah."
"Why don't you go? I can cover your Wednesday shift."
Lucy's eyes widened, "what? You'd seriously cover my shift?"
He nodded, "sure, I've got nothing going on this week. Plus you've covered my shift - what - twenty times over the last couple years?"
Lucy practically jumped through the divider as she reached for him, "thank you, thank you, thank you!"
She turned around with a smile, "I'll finish my shift now and plan everything."
Lucy turned back to him with a genuine smile, her tired eyes still displaying utter joy, "thanks Mike. Thank you."
Four Days Later
Soraya ran into the street, yelling out, "hey! You guys! We need to go!"
A woman stepped out her front door, "who are you? Has- has the plane come yet?"
Soraya approached her, "who are you? Why haven't you left yet?"
"We've... been packing up, is a plane coming?"
"Yes! We have a plane, but you need to move quickly!"
The woman shouted into her house, "Thomas! Get the kids and come down!"
The woman stepped outside.
Lucy ran out from a house across the street, "hey! What's going on!"
"The damn plane is gonna take off! Other planes are trying to land, we need to get ours out of the way!"
The other woman stood confused, "couldn't we just... wait for the other evacuation plane?"
Soraya groaned, "there is no evacuation planes!"
The woman chuckled, "but there is."
"No! They abandoned this town! The pilot told me, the Canadian government said only to evacuate cities."
"Well... who are you?"
"We're just... people from England. Landed here."
Lucy sighed, "Melissa, come on. We need to go now."
Melissa shook her head, "no. Me and my family will just get on another plane if we don't make it in time."
Lucy shrugged, "fine... suit yourself then."
"Hey, Lucy. Where's Adam?"
"He's on the plane, I need to go back and get him."
Lucy looked up, reacting to the extremely loud whirring sound. A plane.
Her eyes widened, "holy shit! Hurry!"
Soraya got back in the car, "get in, quickly!"
Melissa's family got in their car, the scavenging group in another.
They began to drive towards the airport.
Josephine looked back at the family in the other car, "so you know them, Lucy?"
Lucy nodded, "yeah, Melissa was in my class. That's her husband, David... and their kids - uh... Lucas, Maria and Maya."
Josephine nodded, "cool, cool."
Lucy turned the radio on, a crackly audio playing, "-Institute of Technology, they now believe the storm is soon to hit Central Europe. The planet is n-"
She turned the dial, another voice spoke in Spanish with even more background static, "-emos un lugar seguro——nuestra mina de carbón-"
Paul muttered, "what the hell is happening out there..."
Josephine looked at the barren streets outside, "I don't know, but... it does not look good."
Lucy's car approached the building, "okay, get out."
Everybody ran up towards the fence, opening the gate.
As they turned to the right, there was the plane: pulling off the runway, tilting up.
Lucy's eyes widened, "oh- Adam! Oh, god..."
Soraya pressed her hands against her head, "they- they just left?"
The plane continued to ascend.
Two other planes began to lower towards the airport, gliding down still at a high speed.
Lucy sighed, "we can just get on another plane, it's fine. It's... fine."
They all walked towards the runway calmly.
Above them, the plane was moments from touching down.
Lucy smiled, "let's just wait for them to land, make sure the-"
A loud bang, a bright flash and a strong wind hit her, blowing her hair back and leaving her ears ringing and her eyes without vision for a moment.
As she adjusted her eyes to the sudden change in light and sound, she heard muffled screams from all around her.
Moments later - through her muffled hearing - another loud explosion echoed throughout the airport.
She rubbed her eyes, groaning. Terror stained her face.
YOU ARE READING
Hiraeth: Cities To Embers
Sciencefiction'It came from outer space' or 'it was a bioweapon gone awry' The day a commercial airliner departs from London and a group of school students return from a trip to Paris, is also the day a disaster of biblical proportions begins to wipe out both hum...
