“Now you’re getting stoned out of your gourds?” I said. “While listening to Dark Side of the Moon?” I motioned to the cratered surface out beyond the dome, stretching to the horizon in all directions around us. “On the far side of the moon?”
“This is a special strain of Yoda Kush that I myself created,” Shin said, holding up his giant spliff. “I thought it might help relax his nerves.” Then he took a long hit and inhaled deeply. “Poor Milo is really stressed out, aren’t you?”
Milo shook his head. “Not anymore,” he said, grinning wide. “Zack, you won’t believe this shit!” With some effort, he sat up, then turned to face me. “Shin told me that the EDA spent decades engineering a special strain of weed that helps people focus and enhances their ability to play videogames! Once they had it perfected, that was when the government finally started legalizing it in the States.” He raised his arms in victory. “This ganja is part of the war effort! I love it!” He broke into song, and Shin immediately joined him.
“ ‘America. Fuck yeah. Comin’ to save the motherfuckin’ day, yeah!’ ”
They broke up into another laughing fit.
“Where are the others?” I asked.
“They all snuck off to bone each other,” Milo announced. “Whoadie and Chén, then Debbie snuck off with Graham.”
I had no idea how to respond to this information.
“I can’t say I blame them,” Milo said. “We’re all facing the possibility of imminent death. Why not throw caution to the wind and go out with a bang—so to speak.”
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Shin said, turning to smile down at him. The two of them made eyes at each other for a few seconds—until my clueless ass finally figured out what was going on.
As my mother was often fond of pointing out to me, my “gaydar” was just plain broken.
“I’ll see you guys later,” I said, backing toward the exit. “I’m just gonna—you know.” I nodded over my shoulder. “Let you guys have some privacy.”
Shin grinned at me, amused at how flustered I’d become all of a sudden.
“Thanks, Zack,” he said.
“Yeah, thanks dude!” Milo called after me, laughing. “We could use the privacy!”
As I rode the lift down to the Thunderdome, I found myself wondering where Lex was and what she was doing. Had she too found some handsome stranger to spend her last moments with, while I waited mine out alone up here, a million miles away?
01h33m43s remaining.
When I reached the Thunderdome, I didn’t think there was anyone else there at first. Then the canopy of one of the drone controller pods slid open, and my father climbed out of it. He smiled at me, but I turned away as soon as our eyes met and walked over to one of the other pods. Just as I was beginning to lower myself into it, my father crouched at the edge of the oval-shaped pit and looked down at me.
“I’m sorry, Zack,” he said. “I shouldn’t have dumped all of that on you. It was too much, after everything else you’ve been through today.”
“It’s okay,” I said.
“Thanks for listening,” he said. “You’re a good listener, just like your mom.” He looked away. “I just—I’ve been waiting for a long time to talk with you about all that. …”
He trailed off. I lifted my eyes to meet his gaze but didn’t respond.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I’m still trying to process all of it,” I replied. “I don’t know what to believe.”
He nodded. I hit the button to close my control pod’s canopy. It slid shut between us, ending the conversation—or at least postponing it temporarily.
I sat in my simulated cockpit with my eyes closed, trying to collect my thoughts. I didn’t have much luck.
Sometime later, I heard my father greet Debbie, Chén, and Whoadie. Milo, Shin, and Graham a few minutes after that.
When the countdown clock hit the one-hour mark, we all gathered in front of the command station to watch the president of the United States address the nation from the Oval Office on live television. She smiled reassuringly at the camera, but the fear in her eyes was evident.
“My fellow Americans,” she began. “At this very moment, the leaders of every nation around the world are about to show their citizens the same briefing film I’m about to show you, which will explain the alarming situation that now faces all of humanity.”
Debbie was standing nearby, staring down at her QComm display, waiting for the moment when she could finally call her boys. But our phones were still locked. I glanced over at Chén, Shin, and Graham, who were each focused on other, smaller display screens mounted nearby—the ones that showed the leaders of their respective countries making a similar introduction. A second later, the faces of the US and Chinese presidents, and of the Japanese and British prime ministers, vanished from the display screens and the Earth Defense Alliance logo appeared on each of them.