[Your bag took a bullet for me, Jacob. You were never injured.]
Another six inches and we wouldn’t be talking. My point is I don’t scare easily. I’m telling you: I have a bad feeling about this.
[I hope you’re right, or there’ll be hell to pay.]
I sincerely hope I’m wrong. We’re at the van. I’ll call you when we get there, Jack.
[No, you won’t. Don’t hang up. I’ll put you on the air just before the weather, but I need you in front of the camera five minutes from now.]
Janet, Jack says we have five minutes.
[What’s she saying?]
She’s smiling.
[That’s more like it.]
Janet, look in the mirror behind us. Can you see that?
{Yes, what is it?}
[What is what, Jacob?]
The air … It’s hard to explain, the air around the robot is becoming … thicker, like …
[Like fog?]
Not quite. It’s like a mist slowly forming all around it. Whatever it is, it doesn’t look like a natural phenomenon. I see people running away.
[Is the robot making it?]
I think so. I can’t see where it’s coming from. The air is whiter now, opaque. I can’t see the robot’s feet anymore. It’s not fog. It looks like … like smoke from dry ice, a lot of dry ice. Janet, can you drive faster? I think it’s gaining on us.
[Is it dangerous?]
How the hell should I know? It’s moving a lot faster than anyone can run. We’re about three hundred feet from the road but it’s right behind us.
Floor it, Janet! There! That way! We’re in the city. Take Golden Lane. Bloody thing’s all over us now. We can’t see ten feet ahead of us.
Bloody hell! It’s coming through the back door of the van. Through the floor. Janet STOP!
[Jacob?]
…
[Jacob!]
I’m here. Fuck! We … we hit a parked car. My head, it’s bleeding. Janet! Janet! Janet’s unconscious. I have to get her out. Come on, girl. Let’s get you out of here.
[I’ll send help. Tell me where you are.]
I’m taking her inside Cromwell Tower. Jack, you better hurry. She’s … Her veins are dark, almost black. Her skin is all pale.
[Is she dead?]
I don’t fucking know! I have her in my arms. I can’t check her pulse. The smoke, it’s coming inside the building, even with the doors closed. I have to get her away from it. I’ll try the lift.
[Jacob, is she dead?]
I’m getting on the lift. I’ll take her to the top floor. Hopefully whatever is hurting her won’t reach us there.
[The police won’t answer.]
…
[Did you hear what I just said?]
…
[ Jacob!]
She’s dead. Janet’s dead. Bloody aliens killed her. She’s … hard. Her skin … It’s like someone sucked all the blood out of her— …
[Jesus.]
They’re doing it again, Jack. They’re killing us all.
[I’ll find some help. I’ll come get you myself if I can’t.]
You worry about yourself, Jack! The fog will have crossed the river by now. It will reach you soon.
[You think it will make it this far?]
I’m looking through the window now. It’s everywhere, as far as I can see. Anything smaller than twenty-five or thirty storeys is completely covered by the cloud. It looks like a white sea, with a few tall buildings rising out of it. Get everyone out of the office and to the top floor. You should be safe there.
[What about you?]
I breathed as much of this smoke as Janet did. I don’t know why I’m not dead and she is. I feel fine. I’ll stay here until it dissipates.
[Be safe, Jacob.]
Goodbye, Jack.
FILE NO. 1567
INTERVIEW WITH DR. ROSE FRANKLIN, HEAD OF SCIENCE DIVISION, EARTH DEFENSE CORPS
Location: EDC Headquarters, New York, NY
—Dr. Franklin.
— …
—Dr. Franklin. What are you doing?
—I’m … I’m not doing anything.
—You are sitting on the floor with your eyes closed, surrounded by a thousand body bags. You are doing something.
—There are 861. It seems random. Why not eight hundred, or a thousand?
—I assume it is the number of cadavers they could fit inside the cargo plane that brought them here.
—I guess so.
—You have not answered my question.
—What was it?
—What are you doing?
—I was trying to imagine what four million body bags would look like. Could I see them all? Or would it look like an endless sea of dead people in every direction?
—I do not know the answer. It should be relatively easy to calculate if it is important to you.
—It’s not. It’s just hard to get a sense of what four million really means. Did you know it would take about three months with no sleep just to read their names out loud?
—I see you have been giving this number a fair amount of thought. You should know that four million is only an approximation of the death toll based on other very rough figures. We do not know how many people were able to leave London before the attack, how many people lived in the area affected, how many were gathered near the alien robot, and so on. The final count, if there is ever one, may be significantly different.
—It doesn’t matter. It’s still sad.
—Four million dead is indeed terribly sad.