The End of Eden (Water Worlds 1)

Chapter 10

10

I lit my pad and searched for a signal. Even when the power did come up, sometimes I could go all day and not get a FIX. Most people in Vietnam didn't even have a pad and relied on TV. Imagine! It was so primitive there.

Finally, I managed a weak link, and tuned to the news of Apophis. Like everyone else in the world I was fascinated by it. To keep from overloading, the Record opened a special frequency, just to spread the wave around nice and even, so everyone could track the approaching asteroid.

Father had turned off all my filters and authorized my Curator to advance the Record to adult level. He thought I was old enough now to come to my own conclusions.

There was a lot of news in English, and most of that I couldn't understand. I set my pad to speak KidsEnglish like we used in school, but the translation was not as accurate when the talk was this technical. Still, I could tell the news was not good.

The focused nuclear explosions from the two Fenghuang craft fractured Apophis instead of merely pushing the asteroid aside. This was not expected. It was apparently less solid than the initial readings had suggested. Now it looked like some of the larger pieces would probably rain down on Earth, and no one knew quite where.

Publicly, China insisted that everything worked according to plan and that, by their quick thinking and uncommonly fast action, the brave Chinese scientists had saved the Earth from certain disaster. They waved off any criticism, insisting that the current approach path showed the larger pieces would more likely hit the Moon than the Earth, and besides, any bits that survived that impact would be so small they'd likely burn up in the atmosphere.

The broken bits of Apophis wouldn't even reach Earth for a couple of years, yet everyone was already panicked. You could hardly get anything at the markets, even in Ha Noi, and while the voices on the Record urged calm, everyone knew it was likely to get much worse before it got better.

We were hiding in plain sight, Mother said. I was not allowed to leave our little walk-up flat, so mostly we just sat and waited. But for what, I had no idea. Father and Mother were very cautious, and they spoke only in whispers. Just like in Wonsan. Now I remembered those days with an innocent longing.

Younger brother Joo Chen joined us a day after we arrived, and I was so glad to see him I nearly squeezed the air out of him. He just appeared at the door, his hat on backwards, a smile on his face, his earbuds stuck in deep.

But now, after a week in these cramped rooms, I was becoming very bored, and Joo Chen was getting annoying. And smelly. I began to scold him once again for his horrible habit of sniffling and snorting for no reason at all.

"That's disgusting," I said. "Use a tissue, please."

"There is none," he replied.

"Then take some bathroom paper."

"Yeww, now who's being disgusting?"

Just then, we were startled by a knock on the door. Everyone tensed and fell quiet. Father had left with two men several days before and we hadn't heard from him. Maybe this was news.

Mother shushed us silently with a finger to her lips, and took a peek through a small gap in the thin, green-and-white flower-print curtain, careful not to stir it. Her tension eased and she opened the door.

It was the same young woman who visited us before. She came often with food or messages, but not regularly, so her visits were mostly a surprise. 

She smiled at me and Joo Chen. 

She's about my age, I thought, smiling back. 

The girl stepped in and bowed politely. She handed Mother two blue plastic shopping bags, then turned and left without a word, pulling the door closed behind her. Mother checked the lock, then placed the bags on our white plastic table and rummaged through. She pulled out several tins, a mesh bag of vegetables, and a few small packages wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine.