STARFALL

Six-billion.

That’s a pretty large number. There are six-billion acres of land in the entire North American continent. If you line up six-billion pennies, it will circle the Earth three times. Galapagos Tortoises have an average lifespan of about six-billion seconds.

And when STARFALL took place, six-billion people died instantly.

Of course, it wasn’t a star, and it didn’t fall. But they called it that anyway. One-trillion metric tons of rock… about the same size as Mars’ inner moon, Phobos. When astronomers first spotted it, it was a pale white streak moving toward Earth.

Someone threw in a little geometry and realized that those lines intersected.

According to Facebook, the government shut that information down. They didn’t want a panic since it would probably miss.

Well, it didn’t.

It hit the moon at 40 miles per second and careened off like a cosmic billiard ball, kicking up a spray of rock and debris that pelted the Earth with a couple hundred-thousand meteorites that varied in size from footballs to football players—like an interstellar shotgun blast right into the most heavily populated section of the world with both barrels pointed at New Delhi, India.

That debris hit Earth at 04:42AM local time in New Delhi. We were on the other side of the Earth—ten and a half hours behind them—in the middle of a “Everyone’s going to die” party in St. Louis. The city had gone mad—the whole world had gone mad—ever since the news broke about STARFALL.

************

I was sleeping soundly when the news broke—until Dad thumped the foot of my bed.

“Key, get up. We’re leaving.”

I blinked myself awake, still confused, and looked over at my alarm clock. It was only 9:00AM.

What?

Then I heard the gun safe open, and I sat up in bed. “What’s going on?” I yelled as I reached for my pants.

Dad didn’t answer, so I stumbled out of my room. He was shoulder deep in the gun safe. “Dad, what’s up?”

Dad pulled back and glanced over his shoulder, “World’s ending.” He offered simply. Dad was a man of few words. He started laying out the weapons on the coffee table. That was probably my first inkling of how serious the situation was, because Mom would skin and cook him if he scratched that table.

“Wha… really?”

“Looks like. Get your boots on, Ezekiel.”

I stumbled into my room and grabbed a pair of socks. I was confused but I didn’t hesitate. When Dad used my full name, it was serious.

And Dad never exaggerated.

By the time I slipped into my boots and grabbed my bug-out-bag, Dad already had my shotgun out. “Grab your sister’s pistol. You’ll probably need it.”

Now, I hesitated when he said that. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to carry a pistol. At seventeen I didn’t own one yet, so the idea of carrying one was awesome.

The problem was that my sister, Jael, had a Glock with a hot-pink DuraCoat finish. It was hard to feel manly with a pink gun, but I grabbed the holster from the table and clipped it onto my belt—at least it was in a holster.

Hopefully, I wouldn’t need to shoot anyone.

Of course, that would be a great insult—their epitaph could read, Killed with a girly gun.

“You alright?”

I shook off the thought and focused on Dad. He was shoving AR magazines into his shoulder-bag. “I’m good.” I looked around, “Wait, where’s Mom? And Jael?”

“They’re on duty at the hospital—they went in at six.”

I slung my pack on my shoulder. “So, what happened?”

“Meteor.” He offered simply as he picked up his pack and his AR. “We’ll figure out if we can survive it on the way.”

************

It was a harrowing, adrenaline filled trip across the largest city in Missouri to get Mom and Jael. They were both ER nurses at Forest View General Hospital on the north side of Forest Park; one of the busiest parts of St. Louis.

It was normally a 30-minute drive to the hospital—but when CNN and Facebook told everyone the world was ending, everything went nuts.

The looting started by 11:30AM, and things devolved quickly after that. Throngs of people were running out of stores with armloads of merchandise—some weren’t even content with armloads—Dad almost ran over a guy pushing a cart full of Nike’s.

I shook my head at that one… how many pairs of shoes will he wear in the next 24 hours?

It was almost 3:00PM before we made it to the hospital—and that was only because Dad used the 4WD and drove through people’s yards to get there.

Dad pulled the jeep right up to the ER and we grabbed our bags and marched in through the ambulance doors—but no one noticed. They were scurrying back and forth like rats with what looked like hundreds of patients.

And this was before STARFALL.

Dad grabbed Mom and was talking to her while I hung back by the ambulance doors—standing uncomfortably with my shotgun slung, trying to angle my right hip against the wall to keep people from seeing the pink handle on that Glock.

I was content to be ignored—well, until Lauren Williams rushed past and gave me a wink. She was this cute nurse that worked with Mom and Jael that I’d had my eye on. Jael said she had asked about me, and since she was only a couple years older...

Wait. End of the world. Focus, Ezekiel.  

Mom stalked off and now Dad was talking to one of the Doctors—I believe his name was Davidson, but for all my trips to the ER I hadn’t paid attention to names. I gave one last glance at Lauren and sauntered over.

Dad glanced at me, but continued speaking to the Dr., “...Ellen doesn’t want to leave.”

Dr. Davidson shook his head, “I’m afraid it’s going to get dangerous. Pretty soon all the drug users will be flooding this way looking for an end of the world high.” He glanced pointedly at Jael as she came out of a treatment room, “It won’t be safe for anyone then, especially women.”

I might only be seventeen, but I knew what he was implying—and wasn’t going to let that happen.

But I didn’t have to say anything, because Dad spoke up, “Well, Mark, you know that arguing with Ellen is pointless. She won’t leave—she’d kill me if I tried to make her.” He sighed, “But, Key and I are here. We’ll help guard the staff.”

Dr. Davidson blew out a long breath, “Thanks. I’ll let security know you’ll be here. They’re locking everything else down.”

While Dad met with security, I stayed in the ER to keep watch. Mostly on Lauren, but that was a different story.

“Give me my Glock.”

I jumped at the sudden voice. Jael had walked up, her mouth set in a firm line. “You alright?” I asked quietly as I unclipped the holster from my belt and passed it to her.

Jael nodded, “I suppose it doesn’t matter much.” She clipped it inside her waistband—the pink from the handle looked better on her than me. “You’ve seen the news?”

“Yeah. We watched on the way in. Most of it was graphics.” I huffed out a quiet laugh, “It’d been nicer if they had a video camera in space.”

“Maybe.” She bit her lip and nodded, “Part of me thinks it would be better to not know. Then all this craziness wouldn’t…”

“Yeah.”

She started to turn, but stopped, “I love you, Key, and I’m proud you’re my brother.”

“Love you too, sis.”

************

At 4:00PM The President declared martial law, not that we expected help. Nothing was moving through town but craziness.

The CNN projections were that STARFALL— the name they coined for the event—would start at 4:30PM. That was when the meteor would hit the moon and begin the cataclysmic chain of events. The timeline they gave was vague—some experts theorized it would miss the moon completely…

And the rest knew it would be an extinction level event. Since the moon was on the other side of the world, the initial damage would be centered some 7,500 miles away.

And we had no clue how long we had before we would see the effects.

By 4:25PM the city was in chaos. Many police, fire, and EMS personnel had walked off the job to be with their families—leaving people waiting for help. Fires and accidents were going untended—and the few personnel left were hopelessly overloaded.

Mom’s refusal to leave gave me a thrill of pride—as did our commitment to stay and help.

But how that would play out remained to be seen.

************

At 4:30PM things got eerily quiet. I had moved up to the nurse’s station so I could see the TV better. CNN was broadcasting a camera pointed at the moon, and we all watched with bated breath as the meteor streaked closer.

Someone stepped up next to me and I felt a hand intertwine with mine. Surprised, I looked over; Lauren was focused on the TV, her eyes intent.

But she was holding my hand.

After several seconds, the white streak intercepted the moon and a huge explosion spread out.

Impact. Bummer. Looked like the world was going to end after all.

I glanced over at Lauren; she had tears streaking down her cheeks, but she turned and smiled weakly. “I’m glad you’re here.” Then she leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.

And let me tell you, I was glad I was there too.

************

CNN was still playing, but I wasn’t paying attention to it. I’d been keeping an eye on Lauren as she bustled back and forth checking on patients. Part of me was hoping that something changed, and we’d have a chance together.

At 4:43PM a police car with about a hundred bullet holes in it roared over the curb and slid to a stop about twenty feet from the door.

Not a good sign.

The door flung open, and a figure in uniform rolled out onto the pavement. Even at this distance I could tell he was hurt.

I waved at Lauren and motioned at the door. “Officer down outside.”

She grabbed a bag and headed out the door, so I grabbed a gurney and followed.

The officer had pulled himself into a sitting position against the front wheel of the patrol car and was bleeding heavily down the front of his uniform. Lauren was already speaking to him in low tones, but he was waving her off as he watched me. “What are you doing?”

Of course, the first thing I noticed was that he had his Glock in his hand as he watched me. I took a quick look around to make sure it was clear before slinging the shotgun and crouching by him, “Are you alright, sir?”

“What are you doing?” He repeated.

“Helping security.” I hooked a thumb at the building, “My Mom works in the ER.”

“I’m hit hard.” He coughed, and a thin trickle of blood came down the corner of his mouth. “You’ll need this.” He leaned forward and shoved his Glock into my hands. “There’s a large group coming.”

When that officer shoved his Glock into my hands, I knew.

I knew that if I somehow survived and got married to Lauren and had kids, I was going to name the first one after him. I glanced at the badge. Sinclair.

Well, ok... that’s a weird first name, unless you liked that old show Dinosaurs, but the kid would still get the name.

I helped Lauren get him onto the gurney and wheeled him into the ER. I slung his gun belt around my waist while they took him to one of the rooms—then went looking for Dad.

He was talking with the security guard, but I interrupted, “Officer came in, he was hit hard.”

Dad looked down at the belt, then back at my face with a raised eyebrow.

“He gave it to me. Said there was a large group coming.”

Dad’s lips tightened, but he only asked, “Did he say how long?”

“Nope.”

He looked at the security guard, “Fred, it’s time to finish locking everything down. How much longer on the stairs?”

Fred gave a non-committal shrug, “I have three guys on it. They were throwing beds and chairs from the second floor down to the first to jam the entrances. But there are six different stairwells…”

Dad gestured to the pistol Fred had strapped to his hip, “Any others have firearms?”

“Rob grabbed his shotgun from his car, but he only has birdshot.”

Dad cut his eyes to me, “How are you strapped for shells?”

I shrugged, “Couple-hundred rounds. I’ll give him a box of buckshot when he comes back down.”

That settled, we continued prepping for the worst.

We lost communications right after 6:00PM. The leading edge of the debris started taking out the MEO satellites—which is where many of the communication hubs were.

Now we were blind to what happened on the other side of the world.

************

We were as ready as we could be. We’d moved everyone upstairs and left the elevators shut down on the top floor. I was the lone guard on the bottom.

When the group arrived, I was watching to see what they would do when they reached the hospital.

I didn’t have to wait long. Within thirty-seconds of entering the parking lot they were hammering out windows and glass doors on the ground floor.

“Key, how’s it looking?” Dad’s voice crackled on the radio I had borrowed from security.

“They’re coming in…” I backed up to the stairwell. It was the only easy way up—the rest of the stairwells were blocked, and every door in the building was closed and locked.

But that wouldn’t stop anyone that was determined to come in.

And the mob coming was intent on eking out as much fun as they could before the world ended—and that tended to give people determination.

Another crash, followed by a guttural curse. Then silence.

“Where’s all the pretty nurses?” A voice suddenly echoed through the ER.

A hand touched my shoulder and I jumped; Lauren had come down the steps. She was standing at the door to the stairwell, her face white as a sheet. I motioned for her to go back upstairs, but she shook her head.

Great.

More stuff breaking. “Come out, come out, wherever you are…”

I gestured for Lauren to plug her ears. She shook her head, and pulled the Glock from my holster, then stepped back to the corner of the stairwell.

Well… Ok, then.

I fit an earplug into my right ear in case I needed to shoot, but I really didn’t want to shoot anyone if I didn’t have to.

Maybe if I warned them? I took a deep breath and hollered, “You need to leave.”

“Ooh… found you…” A man suddenly stepped out from the corner pointing a rifle in my direction.

Now, understand, its only in movies that the hero threatens someone that is pointing a gun at them. In real life, only an idiot would hesitate, or someone playing games with their life.

I wasn’t an idiot, and I wasn’t playing games.

My first shot knocked him backwards in a spray of blood that covered the nurse’s station with a pink mist, then I racked the slide and fired again.

Through the ringing of my ear, I could hear shouts but couldn’t make it out. I thumbed two shells into the shotgun and pulled the earplug from my right ear. A multitude of voices echoed through the ER.

“They got Jim!”

“Is it the police?”

“Shotgun. Tore him up.”

“You gonna get him?”

“I ain’t…We got the drugs.”

“What bout girls?”

“More down the road.”

“I’m gonna…”

I pushed the earplug back in my ear and there was some other muffled yelling, but it was interrupted by the Pop! Pop! Pop! of a pistol firing, and two guys rushed toward me.

I triggered off four more rounds from the shotgun, dropping them both.

Then the lights went out.

Lauren let out a brief squeal that cut through the ringing in my ears. I backed up into the stairwell and let the door to swing shut. Lauren reached out in the dark and grabbed me in a tight hug—her body was convulsing with sobs, but my focus was on the door.  

After an eternity, the emergency lights kicked on.

I patted her awkwardly and thumbed shells into the shotgun around her. Two more dead men. When I woke up this morning, I hadn’t imagined that I would have killed three men before supper.

Of course, I didn’t imagine I’d be hugging Lauren either.

I could hear more distant firing, but I wasn’t opening the door back up. We moved up the stairs to the landing, and I knelt with my shotgun aimed through the gap.

“Ezekiel?” Mom’s voice sounded over the radio.

Lauren grabbed the radio from my belt, “This is Lauren. Ezekiel is covering the stairs.”

“What happened?”

“Several men tried to get in.” She paused, then added, “Ezekiel didn’t let them.”

“We started firing from the top floor, and that seems to have encouraged most of them to move on, but there might be more.”

Lauren smiled grimly, then answered, “We’ve got the stairwell.”

And that was fine with me.

************

Ten hours later, Lauren and I stood hand in hand on the roof and watched the sun rise over the burning city. We didn’t know how much time we had left, but it didn’t matter to us. We had each other for now, and if we were alive later today, we’d figure it out.