Chapter 3

The evacuation was happening in earnest, and the street where Lisa and Sean lived became silent and empty, as the residents assembled their pods – under Sean and Mike’s guidance, and took their places in the schedule.

The only house besides theirs which was not now empty, was the one just over the road.

Mr and Mrs Evans had been married for sixty years, had lived in that house for more than forty years.

And they had no wish to leave it.

They had said their farewells to their children and grandchildren, and been content in the knowledge that their offspring would – hopefully live on.

But they had no wish to survive the end of their world, had no wish to be hurled into space, and spend the last years of their lives as refugees.

And they were not the only ones.

It seemed that very few of the pensioner’s population wanted to leave, and some of them were deemed just too frail to even survive the initial blast off – let alone the emotional distress that would follow.

And even some younger generations opted to stay.

The government had been very clear on this. Pods were offered to every single one of its citizens, but it was not mandatory that a citizen should accept it.

It was seen as a person’s right to choose, whether to risk their lives in the hopes of finding a new home, or remaining here to die in their own homes.

No guarantees were offered at any step of the way.

The government had a ‘hope for the best’ policy with the pods, but with no definite planets to aim for, then all they could do, was to give its citizens ‘best guess coordinates’, and send them in the direction of ‘likely candidate planets’.

The months had slipped by at a terrifying rate, and as Lisa walked towards her home, she looked around her longingly.

The street had been left to its own devices, and with residents all gone, the gardens had begun to over grow. Some of the houses showed damage, and an end one, had lost one entire side of it, along with a section of the roof.

It had been a warm summer, very warm.

And the earth quakes had been frightening when they came, especially since this country was not really designed for them.

The worst one had been a week ago, a major quake that had preceded a large hole more than a mile across, appearing about sixty miles away. It had taken a whole neighbourhood with it, and people had died.

The satellites in orbit around the planet were constantly scanning the surface, looking for weak spots and heat sources, any sort of clue to an eminent seismic event.

But they had not been fast enough with that last one, and the consequences had been tragic.

And the heat had kicked off several storms with heavy rain and loud thunder accompanied by severe lightening strikes.

The events had been frightening and dangerous, but nothing compared to what was coming.

Lisa crossed over the road, and walked up to the only tidy garden on that side of the street.

She walked up the path, and knocked on the front door, and after a few moments, an elderly man opened it.

Mr Evans peered out with a wide smile of welcome.

“Lisa!” he exclaimed warmly.

“Good morning, Mr Evans, how are you keeping today?”

“Oh we are just fine, Lisa – thank you for asking.” He beamed at her, and his faded blue eyes twinkled for a moment from behind his black rimmed glasses.

“Good, I am so glad that that storm yesterday didn’t cause you any harm.”

“No, but it was a bit scary for a while ... some of those strikes came pretty close, and following that quake the other day, well nothing is quite as sturdy as it once was – is it?”

“No, it isn’t ... has it made you rethink your decision at all – to stay?” she asked carefully.

He shrugged his shoulders and sighed. “Even if we were tempted – which we are not, once the family left ... well we simply couldn’t bear it to go out there and be on our own, and so we just don’t think about it anymore – the decision was made and now we live with it, with no regrets.”

“You could always come with us, I am sure another pod could be added on?”

He reached out suddenly to pat her shoulder. “You are such a good girl, Lisa. The way you have been keeping an eye on us – don’t you think that we weren’t aware of it and grateful too!”

It was Lisa’s turned to sigh, and she felt her chest tighten with emotion.

“I won’t be able to even do that after today,” she sniffed.

“You’re leaving as well then?” he asked gruffly.

“Yes, we’re slotted in for tomorrow morning.”

“Ah well, I am glad for you, it’s no fun around here anymore – not for a nice young couple like the two of you.”

“Thank you,” she smiled tightly. “Any way I have loads of stores, bottles of water and cans and jars, and well I can’t take them with me, so I was wondering if you could make use of them?”

“Oh well, that is very thoughtful of you,” he exclaimed in a pleased tone. “We don’t know how long we will be around for, and even though we have a good amount of stocks, and more delivered weekly at the moment ... well you can never have too much!”

“No you can’t,” she grinned trying to stay cheerful and positive.

They both knew that those weekly deliveries would stop anytime now, and then they would have to survive on what they had, or anything they might scavenge from their neighbours houses.

“And when we leave, tomorrow,” she said quietly. “I will leave the back door unlocked.” She blushed a little and smiled sheepishly at the thought that she would still be locking the front door – who would be around to break in? “I hope that if you need anything you will check our house first and see if there is anything that you can make use of – you are more than welcome to any and all of it – I would be glad to see it not wasted in fact.”

They chatted for a little while, and the Lisa told him that she would go straight home and sort it at out right then and there, and Mr Evans nodded and agreed enthusiastically with her, and watched as she strode across to her house.

She dug out the large four wheel suitcase and began to fill it with bottles and cans.

The government had sent them two large, heavy duty, leathery chests, to fill up with personal belongings, although the weight could not exceed 75kg per chest, they could put whatever they wanted into it.

These chests had been collected two days ago, and could even now be drifting in orbit – for all she knew, it could have already joined to what was to be their main supply station – for all she knew.

Sitting on her bed was a large holdall, which the government had also supplied to each of them.

She could keep this bag with her, and again the weight was the only restriction given, this time it was a 30kg limit.

It was turning out to be the most difficult thing so far – for Lisa, deciding what to leave behind forever.

She had no use for this case now though, but it made getting the supplies over the road that much easier.

“Hiya, I have just filled it with everything I could get my hands on and these two bags too, but there is loads more!” She grinned up at Mr Evans.

“Oh you are kind, Lisa,” he held the door wider for her so that she could drag the case inside.

“If we empty it now, I can go and fill it up again for you,” she said as she dragged it down his hallway.

Mrs Evan’s silver hair suddenly sprang into view, and her gentle face peered owlishly at her through her thick glasses.

“How are you Mrs Evans?” Lisa beamed at her.

“Oh well, I am doing very well, my dear and how nice of you to come and visit with us today.”

“Yes, Mary ... Lisa is going to join us for a nice cup of tea, as a final farewell ... aren’t you Lisa?”

Mr Evans smile so nicely at her that she found herself nodding with real pleasure. “That would be very nice ... very nice indeed.”

He led her through to the kitchen with the case.

“You just leave that case there Lisa, I’ll sort it out a bit later,” he said as he put the kettle on to boil.

“Oh but!”

He peered over his shoulder at her. “You have already given us a very gracious invitation to pop into your house if we have a need. So I can bring anything over as we might need it,” he smiled suddenly. “It will give me a reason to step out once in a while.”

He took cups out of the cupboard. “Why don’t you go and have a chat with my Mary, and I will bring the tea in when it’s ready.

An hour or so later the elderly couple stood at their front door and waved goodbye to a rather tearful Lisa.

“We really hope that you have a safe journey, and find yourselves a new home, we hope you find what you are looking for out there!” Mary said softly.

They watched as the young woman crossed over the silent road, and then went back into their home.

“What is in that suitcase and those bags?” Mary asked curiously as they sat down in the living room.

“Oh she said that she had all this food, and she didn’t want it to go to waste.”

“Oh,”

They sat silently then – and neither of them spoke of the other visitor that they had had earlier.

The government had given its citizens another choice too, the right to choose how and when they would die.

The two little pills were in a box next to their bed, and they knew that it would soon be time to make use of them.

“After Lisa and Sean have left, and there is no one to have to come and find us,” Mr Evans said as she looked at him questioningly.

“Yes,” she nodded sadly. “Tomorrow evening – after we have a nice final meal together?”

Lisa and Sean would enjoy a final meal together that night, Lisa thought to herself as she packed that bag with a sense of determination.

She would cook them something special for their final night on this planet, and they had decided that they would spend it together – just the two of them.

It was a long sleepless night, but they held each other tight, and talked of their future, of the hopes of a new world – and the hopes for a long and healthy life together somewhere else.

“Maybe we can start a family?” Lisa whispered sleepily.

“Yes, as soon as we have a new home – a roof and four walls...”

It was a bright and sunny day. A perfect day for flying.

There were rows of pods on the long stretch of the newly constructed tarmac, all sectioned off into groups of a dozen.

There were also a number of fairly large circular mid sections, sitting next to each group of pods, and when Sean and Lisa arrived at the large open field, they could see a them all lined up, and sitting next to each other under the early morning sunshine, glistening proudly, as though they had been waiting for them.

“Good morning,” Sergeant Davison grinned tightly at them. “We will be sending up supply stations first, they will be waiting in orbit for you to intercept once you have broken free of earth’s gravity,” he said in a brisk business like fashion.

“Phil ... how are you?” Sean clasped the other man’s hand and shook it warmly, refusing to be anything like formal on what was to be his last day on the planet earth.

“I’m good thanks, been a bit frantic of late trying to get everything sorted, but I got there in the end!” his grin widened suddenly.

“You managed to get your evacuation slot moved forward?” Sean asked as a faint suspicion tickled his mind.

“Yep I did at that!” Phil laughed. “Both myself and Brad are scheduled to leave on the centre pods in the third launch today.

“Oh that is good news!” Sean exclaimed in delight. “We’ll all be able to travel together.” He thought of his sister Claire, and knew that she would be thrilled about his too, since she had developed quite a crush on the young sergeant.

“Yes, we have been supplied with a route – of sorts a direction for us to go, and your crafts will all have the same coordinates on them.”

“So we’ll definitely be sharing the same piece of space?” Sean laughed lightly.

He draped a casual arm across Lisa’s shoulder, as she shivered.

“Yes, we will be able to lock up and separate as we need to and form our own small colony in space.” Phil looked at Lisa seriously. “Between us we will make it to a new world – somewhere where we can step outside again, and breathe in fresh air.”

“Will we though?” Lisa whispered. “It’s such a frighteningly big place – this universe, how will we ever be able to get to another world?”

Sean’s arm tightened across her shoulders. “We believe that will achieve light speed, we will slingshot around three of the planets, and each time we will accelerate.”

Sean had explained it to her before, but Lisa could not get her head around the idea of their little tiny crafts, hurtling through space – in truth she did not want to get her head around it.

“Can we survive those sorts of speeds?”

“We will have to ... to break through the barrier that marks the edge of our system, to break away from the pull of the combined planets, we will need to be a dart that cuts us through and hurls into the next system.”

“Yes, we will do it,” Phil smiled at her. “Like the first sailors on this planet – we will bravely set sail, out of our pool and just like them; we will seek out other islands – other worlds!”

The family were all gathered together, when Lisa and Sean returned to the hanger, to endure the rigorous shower deemed necessary to rid them of as much bacteria and germs as possible and then to change into the travel clothes assigned them.

“Mum, dad!” She smiled with relief as Lisa hugged her anxious parents.

Her mother and father had been questioning their decision lately, and wondering if perhaps they were too old to weather this journey – to start again somewhere new ... or to die out there in space.

“I know that you were worried about us not showing up,” her father said softly. “But we decided that we had to try – if only for you girls.”

“Well whatever it took to get you here – I will milk it for all its worth!” Lisa said with a tight little smile. “We are not ready to lose either of you yet – and you still have plenty of life to live.”

As well as their family flower, Mike and Helen were there too, and the people who would make up their flower.

The plan was that Lisa and Sean’s flower would go up first, then Mike and Helen’s flower, and then Sergeant Davison’s flower. After that Lisa did not know, but the three flowers would all dock on to the same docking station, which would have the power to drive them out of the orbit of earth, and set them on course for the first planet burn.

It was also the docking station that held her trunk of personal possessions.

Phil came striding in with a broad grin.

“I’ve just been talking on the radio to our pilot,” he told Sean. “He’s a guy that I trained with years ago, and we became really good friends.” He rubbed his hands together enthusiastically. “And I will tell you this, he is one of the best pilots I have ever seen – if not the best ... If anyone can get us to a new world – it will be him!”

He pulled out a clipboard, and then looked at Sean. “I just need you to go over this list with me, you know – names ages relationship to the lead pod members ... it will be an official document, so we must be accurate with it.”

Sean stepped closer and frowned. “Let’s see now ... Pod one Lisa Canford aged thirty and me – Sean Canford aged thirty two. Pod Two will be Lisa’s mum Heather Davison aged fifty eight and her dad Barry Davison aged sixty two. Pod three will be my Mum Philippa Canford aged fifty nine and my dad Nigel Canford aged sixty two.”

He rubbed his nose as he thought through the rest of the family. “Pod four is my Cousin Tracy Allford aged twenty two and my sister, Claire Canford who is also aged twenty two. Then there will be Pod five my Aunt Lyne Trafford aged fifty seven and my uncle Todd Trafford aged fifty nine. Pod six will be Lisa’s Aunt Silvia Turner aged fifty four and her uncle Graham Turner who is ... now let me see I believe that he is now ... fifty five?” He looked at Lisa who nodded quickly.

“Then there will be Pod seven my cousin Patrick Trafford aged twenty four and my cousin Paul Trafford aged twenty six. Pod eight will be Lisa’s cousin Tania Turner aged thirty eight and her partner Tod Rollins aged forty two. Pod nine will be Todd’s son Callum Rollings aged nineteen and Tania’s daughter Cassandra Turner aged fourteen.”

He paused to run it through his mind again. “Now let me see ... who’s left now ... ah yes ... Pod Ten will be Lisa’s sister Laura Tenor aged thirty three and her husband Pete Tenor aged thirty five. Pod eleven will be my brother David Canford aged twenty five and Laura’s and Pete’s son Brad Tenor – that is Lisa’s nephew, aged fourteen ... and finally there will be Pod twelve Laura’s Daughter Lucy Tenor aged fourteen and Pete’s sister Charlotte Pettiford aged thirty two.”