The Last Coffee Mark Will Ever Spill......

“Maybe that schmuck would treat me a little differently if he knew I just blew up his house, family, work and city for pete’s sake!” blew Alan under his breath. I think it goes beyond saying that blowing up a city was not something you say aloud in a busy train concourse. 

He did however give a rather disgusting look to the gentlemen who brushed passed him earlier,  knocking his coffee on the twenty dollar cotton shirt he found at the bargain store. To be fair, this was mostly because he normally wore rather expensive suits for work; so it as a rare treat to be wearing a button down collar shirt, shorts and sandals for the days work errands.

Normally we was always the last in a particularly long list of agents doing field work; and you wouldn’t be wrong to argue that he still felt he lost after this assignment.

After all, when your ordered by your boss to “blow up a city” you tend to have a unique perspective on things.

Of course Alan argued this, what sane wouldn’t plead with their boss to be assigned a mass murder. But unfortunately there was no arguing the fact that the ends did justify the means.

Alan, like many, were really hoping that the means didn’t include the entire population on New Harvest.

Estimated Population 999,783 Residence (although the number has been debated)

It was built a farming mega-community built sometime around 2067AD along the side of a newly formed crater from the last devastating earthquake to shake the country.

And therein lies the problem.

Had there been a stronger desire for long term wisdom there would not have been the need to undue an entire colony in the matter of thirteen years. Scientists forecasted a plethora of essays that in basic english said “If you build a colony here, you are going to regret it later.:

But we didn’t come here to discuss politics.

We came here to destroy a city.

And now thankfully the hard work has been done.

Alan woke up early to catch the train into town and drop the package off to Benoit C. Clarke National Bank in the center of the city. He felt a little uncomfortable around crowds so he was able to use the access card he was given by his boss to get into the bank before it opened. He found what looked to be a small boardroom  that still had a lot of garbage in it and placed the package amongst the trash and then took the train back out to retrieve his car in the parking lot.

Who knew apocalyptic events could be so easy!

Alan was now waiting at the train station to transfer between trains and noticed he had enough time for a coffee.

There he had about seventeen minutes to wait in the concourse to wait for the next train.

He figured that from his car it would take about a twenty minute drive to escape the danger zone.

All in all he would be cutting it a little close, but there was no need to panic.

“I am Alan! The Destructor of worlds!” he heard someone call out rather brashly. It startled him to realize it was the gentlemen who knocked his coffee only a moment ago. Many people on the concourse took noticed, but thankfully most just carried out their business.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?” said Alan puzzledly to the well dress young man

“Oh I think you do…..” quizzed the young man. Alan suddenly realized he did know the young man. He was just leaving the bosses office moments before he was summoned. He was quite easy to remember as he departed quite dramatically.

“Well the least I can do is buy you another coffee….” he spoke more calmly.

“Thanks.” replied Alan accepting the man’s motion to follow him.

They found a nice counter to lean on the third level of the concourse. The view seemed rather pleasant but would not last the fortnite.

“The names Mark Wallace, by the way.”

“Mark Wallace……Wallace…… wait……. Wasn’t your father one of the main architects of New Harvest?” questioned Alan

“Ah! You’ve done your homework! I take it you spend a lot of time looking up my fathers files!”

Indeed Mark had spent the past twenty hours going through his files non-stop, trying to find any other solution to the one given to him right now.

Soooooo…….. You know why I’m here then…..”

“Indeed.” Mark replied. He was not used to speaking so somber

“Then you know what has to be done….” Mark could only nod.

Mark leaned into Alan to make sure that only they could hear their conversation. Although he wanted to shout from the rooftops, he tried to remain calm.

“I cannot believe that you just waltzed into the city to drop off a bom- “

“Of course I didn’t!” interrupted Alan to make sure the last word went unnoticed.

“I was given an S.T.L. to deposit in the city. The satellites will take care of the rest!”

S.T.L. or Satellite Tracking Locater as it’s better known is a small device to paint a target for an orbital strike made from the satellites. Once a target is “painted” it sends the signal to the satellite to attack that location and then spread it’s gamma rays outwards; ultimately eliminating the entire city.

“They sent you all the way here to paint a target? I thought the satellites were way more sophisticated than that!”

“They are….” Aan paused to sip his coffee “... but the Franklin Lambers Protocol states that for an incident of this scale, the target must be painted in person.”

The former General Franklin Lambers was known for overusing the Doomsday Satellites; which ironically enough caused the crater that New Harvest now sits on. The government then decided that if doomsday attacks were to be used in the future they must do so by painting the targets manually.

“So why did you take the train here?”

“Because I heard the traffic here is atrocious.” Quipped Alan. It was even funny enough to earn a small giggle from Mark.

He stormed up for his rebuttal though “Doesn’t it bother you to know- “

“Of Course it bothers me!!!!” blasted Alan. His voice echoing among the concourse.

Alan took a couple deep breaths to lower his demeanor.

“In case you forgot, over twenty scientists from every end of the globe all came to the same conclusion: If we want to relieve the geographic strain on this fault line for future generations we have to dismantle this community permanently!  And we don’t have the option to wait! We’ve already put this off for too long!”

“Well what if we just put it off for- “

“It can’t. The stress is already too much….. “ Alan reached into his satchel and pulled a datapad out. He brushed through a few screens to show a colorized topographical map of the area. Mark knew little of the data he was looking at, but he figured out enough to know that the color red was a danger zone. What the black area around New Harvest meant could be imagined another time.

“Look….. Even I wanted to work on some sort of evacuation plan…..” Alan wiped his face and tried to speak very calmly “But here’s the hard truth: There’s already been a seismic event forecasted for this afternoon. We figured everything was alright up until yesterday. We talked over and over again about whether it was safe to keep New Harvest where it is, but the eradication of this city will make the difference if one million lives are destroyed, or tens of millions of lives are destroyed. We can reduce the impact zone of the seismic event to a local unpopulated area but we have to act now!”

“We could’ve told people! Get them the hell out of here!”

“And HOW could we have done that? How would YOU have evacuated a population of a million people in fourteen hours? Even if we sent messengers to all corners of this city the mass panic would be devastating! Not to mention all those from traveling INTO the city to retrieve loved ones! This is FAR…..absolutely FAR to an ‘ideal solution’..... “ Alan took time to breathe calmer “.... and thats’s why they got some stupid desk jockey to do their busy work….. “

Both people knew the conversation was not over. 

“Anybody with half a brain would be able figure out that the fallout of this catastrophe will bite more people in the butt, but what has done is now done.” Alan checked the Train Schedule, he had just enough time to catch his second train.

“If I were you, I’d quietly grab your wife and kids and get them to at least Lambsborough or farther……” said Alan, packing up his datapad and throwing his coffee cup in the bin.

“They already left yesterday. A yelled at Hannah quite a bit so they would call my bluff and stay at her inlaws for a week while I ‘thought things over.’” Mark said calmly stretching out the creases in his jacket

With a very puzzle look on his face, Alan had to ask “You’re not going with them? Like, you knew yesterday what was about to happen….. Why are you still here?”

“Hannah and the kids deserve better, I sent them a proper good-bye message that they’ll get tomorrow.” Alan sighed and nodded “I did decide to take a ‘mental health day’ today though….” continued Mark “......I’ve been wanting to check out that new Italian Restaurant on Main Street. I’ve heard good things about it!”

Alan glanced at his watch 

“You’ve got time. Enjoy your city!”

Mark waved behind him as he boarded the train heading downtown.

Alan waved back knowing he made, and yet lost a friend at the same time just by passing each other on the concourse…….

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