The Beginning of the End [CWC]

1.

"Houston we have a problem". Cpt. Anderson speaks into his headset. On board the ISS he looks out into space seeing a bright object hurling towards earth. "Eagle Eyes this is Houston, Over" Cpt. Anderson floats in zero gravity, staring at the object confused, he replies " Yea, Houston I'm seeing something up here just wondering if you guys have anything on radar? Over." It takes a few minutes but Houston answers " Eagle Eyes we have nothing on our radar, can you explain what your seeing? Over." He pushes himself away from the window, and floats over to a series of computers. Pulling himself down onto a seat he buckles himself in. "Well I'm really not to sure what I am seeing, it is a ball of light and it looks as if it’s heading towards earth. I do not see anything on radar though; I'm going to start a live feed. Over". A second later Houston replies "Roger that, we will begin to receive in T minus four minutes. Over." Cpt. Anderson directs the on-board camera to the object and focuses in. He see’s a giant black sphere about the size of a blue whale. The object seems to have some kind of force field around it. His jaw drops. " Houston, you’re not going to believe this." He pauses trying to collect himself. " I can’t fully explain what I'm seeing here, but it pretty big. And it’s definitely headed towards earth. You guys see what I am seeing yet?” Waiting for a reply he starts to frantically type on a computer. Houston replies “ Eagle Eyes we see the object, we need you to initiate Kilo Protocol Twelve. Adjust the ISS to forty degrees north and activate the tracking sensor. We will stand by. Over” CPT. Anderson starts to flick a bunch of buttons and a control arm slowly makes its way in between his legs. He moves the ISS to the required position and radios back to Houston. “Houston I’m at forty degrees. Standing by to activate sensor. Over.” Houston crackles back “ Roger, Activate. Over.” Cpt. Anderson presses a button and a tiny beacon fires out of the ISS. The beacon floats in space collecting data. After about a minute, a beeping sound is heard. A large map of the world appears on the screen in front of Cpt. Anderson. A circle is over Washington DC, and a countdown from one hour and five minutes starts. “Eagle Eyes, we have the information we need. We will get back to you at 1100 hours. Over.” Cpt. Anderson looks at his watch. He pulls out a picture of his wife and son from a pocket in his uniform and kisses it. He looks out the window. He has an overwhelming sense that this wondrous blue planet before him will soon come to its catastrophic end. He clutches his picture and begins to pray.

2.

The sound of footsteps is heard. A door opens and a balding man rushes in. “ Sir, you’re not going to believe this, but there back.” The President of the United States turns his chair around. “ What do you mean they are back?” The bald man hands him a manila folder. The President opens it and glances through a few pages. “ This is definitely not good” He mumbles to himself. The Balding man agrees, “ Yes sir, it isn’t.” The President puts the folder on his desk and shakes his head. “ We should have listened to SETI when they told us this might happen, How long do we have?” The balding man picks the folder up and answers, “ They should be here in about an hour, and they have not decreased speed at all. We need to evacuate you sir.” Just as he finished speaking, secret service agents storm into the room and take the president by force. “ Sir, we apologize but we have to evacuate you immediately. When that thing hits it’s going to take out half of DC, we have to get you air-born now.” They escort the president out of the White House and into the back where there is a platoon of SEALS loading White House personnel into a convoy of eight V-22 Osprey helicopters. The president is then put into a helicopter along side his family. The first lady is in tears, and his children are frightened and confused. He turns to his wife and children “ Everything is going to be ok guys, I promise. You know that secret place I was telling all of you about? Well we are going to be headed there really soon. Don’t be scared. I promise we will all be OK.” He gently kisses the first lady’s forehead and does the same to his children. As he finishes reassuring his family, the pilot turns to him “ Sir, we are about to take off, everyone needs to be strapped in.”. The president follows the instructions and straps his kids and wife in, and then proceeds to strap himself in. The convoy of helicopters takes off. Looking out the window the presidents mind begins to clear, he is thinking about all of the innocent people that have no clue what’s about to happen. “If only I had time to warn everyone,” he thinks to himself. The Balding man is seated next to the president. His phone rings. After a brief talk he hangs up and looks at the president “Sir, that was Major Lwoff at the DOD headquarters in Arlington, we have forty-five minutes until impact, they are currently evacuating all departments in DC. Someone leaked something to the press. Only god knows what was said.” The president continues to look out the window of the Osprey. He can only imagine why they are coming back after this many years.

3.
“Just a few minutes ago we got a report of an evacuation taking place here. No one is sure what exactly is happening, but here in D.C, rumors are definitely spreading. One witness reported seeing military helicopters entering and then leaving the White House.” The reporter shoves the microphone in the face of a bum-like male with long hair and an eye patch “ Yea, uh…I saw it with my own eye. You see there was like seven. Maybe twelve helicopters. They came from that way and then whoosh; they land behind the White House. Then like five minutes later, they all left. I could have sworn I saw a UFO somewhere in the mix ,but I’m not too sure what I saw. But I definitely did see something!” The reporter looks confused. Pulling the microphone away from him she finishes her story, “ Well whatever it is, this makes me wonder what’s really going on behind these gates. This is Kim Kamonoski reporting live from the White House. Back to you in the studio.” The TV shuts off. A boy about 14 years old sits in front of the television. “ Mom!” he yells. “What did I tell you about watching T.V. before doing your homework!” she replies. The boy gets up and follows her into the kitchen. “You didn’t hear that or what? Something is up over at the White House and I was trying to find out what it was.” His mom turns to him “ I told you the news is full of lies, you can only believe half of what you hear son. How many times have I said that?” He sighs, “ Well I thought I heard helicopters earlier so I know that bum wasn’t lying.” He goes to his room, and flops onto his bed. He grabs a framed picture on the nightstand and looks at it. It is a picture of him and his dad Cpt. Anderson. The ceiling is decorated with glowing green stars behind the photo. He puts the frame back on the nightstand and gets up to look out his bedroom window. Gazing up at the actual stars, he knows his dad is somewhere out there. In the distance, the White House is seen. He drags his telescope in front of the window and peers into the looking piece. Downstairs his mom washes the dishes. She misses her husband badly, “Only one more year,” she thinks to herself. “MOM!” Dropping everything she is doing, she runs upstairs to her son’s room. “Mom, look at this”. She holds her hand to her heart. “ You scared the crap out of me, what?” He looks shocked. He backs away from the telescope and motions her to look into it. She slowly walks up to the telescope and puts her eye onto the lens. She sees a bright object off in the distance. “ I don’t get it, what am I looking at here?” She then turns to him. He replies with a shaky voice “Well I’m only connecting the dots, but on the news the lady said that the White House was evacuated, and now I see why. Mom I think something crazy is about to happen.” She shakes her head in disbelief. “Baby, I told you that the news lies, and that’s probably just a shooting star.” He interrupts her, “No mom, dad has taught me everything there is to know about space and THAT is not a shooting star. Don’t you see? The White House evacuated for a reason.” She sits on his bed. “ Well, I’m sure if something was going to happen they would let us know. Your head is full of conspiracy theories and I’m afraid I’m going to have to block that ATS site you’re always on.” This stirs his temper, “MOM your not listening to anything I am saying, who’s the crazy one? Not me. Whatever that is I promise you that’s why the White House evacuated.” She gets up and starts to head out. “ The White House didn’t evacuate, that bum is crazy and like I said before and I will say it again. It’s all lies. Relax.” She heads back downstairs. He punches his bed. This ruffles his perfectly tucked in sheets and this irritates him further. “ My own mother won’t listen to me.” He hops into his computer chair, opens his laptop and logs into ATS. A number of posts in the Washington, DC area about hearing helicopters is the first thing that comes up. Shaking his head, he clicks on one. Suddenly, the power shuts off. He finds a flashlight in the desk drawer and heads downstairs. “MOM!?” He hears no reply. After what seems like a minute she answers, “ I’m down here.” He stampedes down the stairs, turns into the living room where he finds her on the sofa. “The power went out. I’m going to get the radio dad gave me. I put it in the basement.” He heads to the basement and fumbles loudly down the stairs. “I’m ok,” he shouts. Grabbing the radio he heads back upstairs. Switching between channels he finally finds one. “ This is an emergency broadcast, I repeat an emergency broadcast. If you are in or around the Washington D.C. area, we advise you to seek cover immediately. An unknown object will be entering our atmosphere in approximately five minutes. The force of the impact will wipe out everything in a hundred mile radius.”

The Broadcast ends as quick as it came through the tiny speaker. He looks to his mom and with patience says to her, “ I told you so, we need to get to the basement now, mom.” He takes her hand and they head downstairs. His mother’s eyes begin to well up with tears. They sit in the middle of the basement. He holds her close, as warning sirens begin to pierce through the air