Story Pilots

A Last Chance: Part 2

June 2nd, 2047
Kansas City, Kansas

Leo stood in under a concrete structure in his raincoat in the fog waiting. He was at the Kansas City airport, waiting to picked up. Today was one day before the disaster was predicted. He was still wearing a paper earloop mask.

Leo looked down at his watch; the time was 8:03. A gray minivan pulled up in front of him and someone opened the door and ran to greet him.

"Oh, Leo! I'm so glad to see you." Leo's mom said, embracing him.

"Me too, it's almost been a year." Leo said as he got into the vehicle. His mom got in next and started driving.

"Nate finally moved out. So it's been kinda lonely recently." Leo's mom said starting a conversation.

"It's about time. Where'd he move?" Leo asked, buckling up.

"Somewhere in near Marilyn. Timmy offered him a room. You should visit them sometime, your always so far away from the rest of your family." Complained Leo's mom turning onto the freeway.

"Maybe sometime this summer. I am really busy at the current moment." Leo answered.

"What happened to your company? I saw it on the news." Mom asked, concerned.

"Well, you may remember I started the company with my friend Jean. Well he now filed a lawsuit against me and that along with government fines and public opposition have drove it into the ground." Leo explained as his mom listened intently.

"I thought that was the case but I wasn't certain. Why would Jean be suing you? thought you were best friends." Leo's Mom asked confused.

"We were, but money makes people do crazy things. He's suing me over ownership of a program I made." Leo paused, compilating what he just said. He decided to change the subject, remembering the Solar Flare.

"I suppose I should tell you the actual reason I came down here." Leo added, awkwardly. His mom look at him for a second with concernment.

"About three years ago I build a computer program that would predict the future. I doubted that it would actual work. I had left it because it was taking a while to compute the prediction. Today when I checked it the prediction was complete." Leo explained, his mom started to understand.

"And what was the prediction?" Leo's mom asked, curious.

"Well it predicted a nuclear world war would caused such tectonic chaos the earth would be launched into the sun just in three years." Leo said trying not to sound crazy. It took a moment or two for Leo's mom to compute the sentence.

"Well it's false though, right?" She asked stopping at a red light.

"Well I thought that too but it was made three years ago and correctly predicted the assassination of King. It still may be wrong though, the next disaster is predicted to be a solar flare that wipes out half of the Earth's electricity from Japan to California. I came out here in case it happens. If it doesn't then I won't need to worry and I'll just go back to my normal life." Leo explained as the vehicle turned left. His mom listened intently.

"And if it is correct?" Leo's mom asked, concern. Leo thought for a second; puzzled.

"Well it won't be, but if it is then I'll have to warn everyone." Leo replied, pausing is thought. "But like what are the chances of that?"

Suddenly a shock wave passed. A powerline fell in front of them and Leo hung on, as his mom steered the vehicle around it without wrecking. The car in front of them smashed into another one as Leo's mom slammed on the breaks. Leo sat, partially paralyzed from the shock.

"You okay, honey?" Asked Leo's mom unbuckling. The sound of car alarms sparked up, almost like a orchestra.

"Yeah." Leo replied, coming back to reality. "Yeah I am fine, what happened?" Leo unbuckled and got out of the car. They were on a small highway running through a suburb. In front of their vehicle was a red car that smashed into a gray truck that swerved and flipped over.

"The powerline fell down, almost on us." Leo's mom reported; examining the situation. Leo looked over at the electric line poll that was sparking on the asphalt. He put together that it must of been a large power surge. A surge possibly caused by... Leo's face went pale, he was not expecting it.

It was the Solar Flare. But that meant Derek was right, but it wasn't June 2 yet. It's still close enough for me to be concerned.

"I am not sure what it was. It almost like lighting but there is no clouds in the sky. Let's see if everyone is okay." Leo's mom insisted going to the crash. Leo followed her trying to piece what to do next.

"Is everyone okay? Anyone hurt?" Leo's mom asked as a small crowd gathered. Someone was calling 911. Someone stumbled out of the upside down truck.

"I think I am okay, just a few scraps. What happened?" There was a older man in the truck with some scrapes on arm. He was wearing corduroy pants and plath buttoned shirt with stains. The lady who was inside the red car got out and came up to him to see if he was okay.

"I am so sorry, a ambivalence is coming so just stay calm." The lady looked worried as she tried to figure out what to do. Leo took his out phone and noticed a warning had popped up. It read that a solar flare was incoming soon. This now confirmed that it was a solar flare. Now what to do? What to do? I needed to tell everyone. Id need to publish Derek's reports. How would anyone believe me though? Well first of all I needed to get to my computer. I had put the file reports on the cloud so if the original computer was destroyed I could still access it. So I need to use the computer at my moms house. Leo, rushed to his mom.

"Mom, we need to get home. That was a solar flare!" Leo told his mom as she followed him back to her car.

"Wait but its not even the 2nd of June yet." Leo's mom said as she got in and buckled up.

"I don't know, it is close enough to be concerned though. I need to publish all the file reports." Leo said as he also buckled up. The ambivalence pulled up as Leo's mom swerved out, back onto the highway. Some of the cars kept going but there were some that had pulled to the side of the highway.

"Why would anyone believe you though?" Leo's mom asked as she pulled into one of the inner lanes.

"I was thinking of that, but doesn't matter if they don't believe me. I still have the responsibility." Leo concluded as Leo's mom turned into the exit lane. "Maybe if I show them the AI and make it open source they'll believe me. It would take a few more years for the program to make another prediction but I still will run one."