One Rotation

Riding the Storm out

The power flickers, and turns on. I turn my ear piece on, and speak to NASA.  “Hello, NASA, this is Molly.  We have survived Neptune, and we took Vexin out of orbit.  I am going to open it now, do you copy?”  I hear static on the other end, and then I hear a voice.  “Molly, hey this is Ryan.  I am glad that you have survived Vexin.  Be careful when you open Vexin up.  Power should go off soon, and Uranus is on its way.  It will be here in twenty minutes, and don’t loo…”  The line goes static, and I hear no more. The power goes off, and everyone looks around.  It is eleven forty at night, and the sky is still bright.  It is royal blue, and I can see Uranus quickly approaching.  I run up to the stage, and yell. 

Everyone stops what they are doing, and looks at me.  “We need to make sure that every window and door is closed and boarded over.  There can be no cracks to see out of.  We have twenty minutes until Uranus is here.  When you are done you should try to get some sleep, but do not look at Uranus.  It has an atmosphere that is not poisonous, but at close range the color can blind you, and do some serious damage.  We have never seen it close up before, so we do not know what to expect.  I want team gold, green, and black to go eat, and I want everyone else to board up the windows and doors.”  They all nod, and get back to work.  I walk to the kitchen, and quickly eat.  We have Luke-warm potatoes, a slice of bread, and some cold green beans. We each get a small sip of water, and we walk out of the kitchen. 

The people from orange found some yoga mats, for us to sleep on.  We switch places with the other team, and we finish their work.  I sit on the stage, and watch over everyone.  People walk in from the kitchen, and pick up their yoga mats.  They lie down on the ground, and start to fall asleep.  I lay on the stage, and look up at the ceiling.  Around 12:45 I stand up and walk to the telescope.  One of the people from the group ahead of me cut a small hole in the wood.  They slid the telescope into the hole, so tightly that you cannot see around it.   I look through the telescope, and see Uranus. Uranus is leaving, but is still too close to look through without the telescope.  I look around in the telescope, and see that Saturn is approaching from the other edge of the sky.  I hear a scream from somewhere behind me, and I whip my head around wildly. 

I see a small kid, who is maybe ten years old at most.  She has pried a small board off of one of the windows, and is looking at the sky.  She screams again and almost everyone sits up.  She falls to her knees, and screams.  Her eyes are frozen in a stare towards the window, silver and glassy.  I run forward, and take off my cardigan.  I push the child away, and throw my cardigan over the gap in the window.  The girl is rolling on the ground, and is screaming loudly.  I roll her to her back, so that I can get a closer look at her face.  She has looked at the planet for too long, and her face is now distorted.  Her eyes are cloudy and unseeing.  Her face seems to be melting off of her bones. Her mouth is drooping into a permanent frown, and her eye lids are starting to droop over her eyes.  I set her down on the closest yoga mat, and turn to look at the other people in the room.  I tell them that Uranus is leaving, and Saturn will soon be near.  I tell them that everything should be fine, and that they should go back to bed.

 They reluctantly turn away from the girl, and go back to sleep.  I turn back to the girl, and lean down to look at her.  She is not moving, and I set my head next to her chest.  She is no longer breathing.  I slowly close her drooping eyes with my hand.  That is yet another person that has been taken by this mad event.  Just another person who I have seen died.  This is another corpse that I will have to add to my mental list.  I slowly pick her up in my arms, and carry her over to the doors.  I try to remember what I have learned about Saturn.  I remember that it does not have a poisonous atmosphere.  I kick the door open, and make sure that it will not lock behind me.  I take the little girl outside and see a shed a couple of yards away from the door.  I set the girl down lightly on the still frozen ground, and turn towards the shed.  I walk slowly to the shed, and look up at Saturn.  I reach the shed, and pull on the door.  It is locked, and I let out a frustrated grunt.  I take a few steps back, and rush at the door.  I crash into it and the door splinters.  I shove the door a little more, and it swings open.  I look around in the dark, and I see a shovel.  I pick up the shovel, and walk back out of the shed.   I walk back to the girl, and start to dig a mass grave.

  I dig for a long time, and I do not get very far.  The ground is frozen, and takes a very long time to crack the surface.  I make the grave large enough, and stop digging.  I throw the shovel to the ground, and go back over to the girl.   I pick her up, and carefully lower her into the grave.  I then walk over to the lady from the first day, and try to pick her up.  I am famished, and I cannot lift her by myself.  I drag her to the grave, and push her into the hole.  I fill the grave partially with dirt, but not all of the way.  I have a feeling that I will have to add more people to the grave, so I do not fill it all of the way.  I walk back to the school, and climb back onto the stage.  I lie down on the mat, and quickly start to drift off.  I am pretty out of it, and I feel someone set a blanket on top of me.  I curl up, and drift off to sleep.

 I wake up and look out of the window.  Saturn is now leaving, and Jupiter is quickly approaching.  Everyone is up and talking now.  I see the two gas giants passing each other, and I look through the window.  I see Jupiter’s blue atmosphere mix with Saturn’s brown atmosphere, and see them swirl around.  I see them start to mix, and then combust.  A mass wave of pure energy surges towards us.  “Get down!” I yell, and everyone looks at me.  I dive off of the stage, and huddle on the ground, shielding my head.  Everyone drops to the ground, and cowers.  The wave of energy hits the walls, and they shake.  Some bricks crumble, and chunks of the ceiling falls.  The walls groan and people scream.  The surge of energy exits out of the other side of the school, and more bricks fall.  The surge explodes, and all of the windows shatter.  Glass shards, their fibers sharper than knives fly everywhere.  I wince as one cuts my shoulder, and another one sticks into my thigh.  More bricks start to fall, and I feel them crash to the ground all around my body.  I feel one brick land on my left wrist, and I let out a scream.  The dust starts to settle, and I push the brick off of my arm.

I stand up, and I look around.  I rip a piece of fabric off of the bottom of my dress, and use it as a bandage.  I feel my shoulder, and try to figure out where the glass is.  The glass has not stuck in my shoulder, and the wound is a clean slice.  It is dripping blood, but it will be fine.  I look down at my thigh, and see glass sticking out of it.  I grip the piece of glass between my fingers, and wince as it slices into my hand.  I pull hard, and the glass slips out.  I wipe the blood off, and set the glass to the side.  I take another section of skirt, and dab the blood off of my leg.  I wait for the blood to clot, and examine my wrist.  It is bleeding a small amount and hurts, but it should be okay.  I see a man from team orange walking around, and I call him over.  I tell him that he needs to go to the nurses’ station, and get bandages.  He nods and runs off.  I shake my head a few times to clear it, and I hear him return. 

He hands me a stack of bandages, and a pair of tweezers.  I take the bandages and tweezers from him, and he runs off to get more supplies.  I dismiss my own wounds, and do not bandage them.  There are people here with worse wounds, and I will be able to deal with the pain.  I walk around, and look for people under the rubble.  I see a man who is mostly covered in fallen bricks.  I walk up to him, and start to lift the bricks off of him.  I set the bricks to the side, and continue to unbury him. When he is mostly uncovered I can hear him groan.  He is mostly out of it, but still manages to help get the last few bricks off of him.  He is mostly uninjured, but has one fatal injury.  He has a very large shard of glass that is in his nick.  I pick up the tweezers, and try to act strong.  I ask the man what his name is, and he tells me that it is Michel.  I put on hand on his shoulder, and grip the glass with the tweezers.  “Now Michel,” I say to him, “This is going to hurt for a moment, but it will all be over soon.”  He is too weak to say anything, and just nods at me.  I get my grip on the glass, but he moves before I can pull it out. 

He coughs twice, and then vomits blood onto himself.  He rolls a little bit to the side, and a small trail of blood runs down his mouth.  I close his eyes slowly, and pull the glass out.  His heart has stopped, so very little blood flows out.  I call the man from team orange over, and he is followed by a young lady.  He had helped the young lady get unstuck, and she has a bandage wrapped around her arm.  We pick Michel up, and carry him outside and to the grave.  I add his name to my mental list, which is quickly becoming longer.  We go back inside, and start to untangle more people.