Had the governments been purposely evasive? Or was it just bureaucratic ineptness? In any case, it didn’t matter. Riots had destroyed whole cities; the world plunged into pre-death spasms with wars erupting in the Middle East, Congo, Indonesia and the Indian sub-Continent. She turned the volume down. She could only take it in small doses.
Pressing her lips together, Celeste turned to stare at Nico. He was sweet, but it was odd. He didn’t react to any of the news, not to anything they heard.
Something beeped, and Nico looked at his phone. “Excuse me,” he said, getting up. “I need to talk to someone.”
“Of course.” Celeste smiled as he walked away. She was glad he had someone. She stared back at the beautiful view, dappled sunshine falling through the oaks onto her. It was peaceful.
She just wished Jess was here with her.
But then that was her daughter. Always running away. She knew her daughter’s pain, and now, she wished she’d done more. An image of a long-ago snowy day filled Celeste’s mind, of two children running in the yard, of her sitting at her desk. The day she lost her family, the day she lost Jess.
“…this just in. A reporter from NewsCorp alleges that Dr. Ben Rollins…”
Celeste put one hand to her mouth hearing her husband’s name. What happened?
“…the celebrity astronomer who spoke to media when Nomad was announced, had evidence of Nomad over thirty years ago. The revelation has sparked a massive backlash. Why did he hide his research paper, and why did he lie to the media? With more, we go to…”
Jess had told Celeste about Ben’s research paper, but he hadn’t hid it. It was never published. She hoped Ben wasn’t listening to this. They made it seem like he was to blame. Hateful vitriol oozed from the radio. Celeste turned it down.
And where was Ben?
Celeste always thought she’d be scared when the end came, but she didn’t feel fear. She should have been a better wife. A better mother.
Guilt.
Guilt filled her.
Was she afraid? A little perhaps, but knowing there was nothing to do, all her thoughts came back to her family. Why hadn’t she done more to keep them together? Why hadn’t she spent more time with them?
Now there was no more time.
Tears fell into Celeste’s coffee as she sobbed, bringing one hand to her mouth.
All she could hope for was to see Jess and Ben again, to be able to say goodbye, to say all the things that had remained unspoken.
“…breaking news…”
Sighing, she leaned forward to turn the radio up.
The announcer coughed and let out a long sigh. “We…there…are reports of nuclear detonations in the Middle East, over Beirut, Mosul, Damascus and Tehran…Israel is claiming responsibility, invoking its right to existence after attacks on three fronts by Arab nations…”
Seconds ticked by in silence and Celeste was about to check the radio to see if it had turned off.
“…we all want to exist,” continued the anchor. “I think, in this final hour, perhaps this is the only thing that humanity can agree on: that we all want to exist.” Another pause. “This is as good a moment as any to announce that BBC World News is signing off. Our skeleton staff is no longer able to maintain the broadcast, and I know we all want to go home.” He took a deep breath. “To everyone listening out there, good luck, and may God be with you.”
The radio beeped once, twice, followed by a long continuous tone. Celeste cycled through the other preset channels on the satellite radio. All of them were blank. She turned it off.
Giovanni had shown Celeste all the trekking gear he used on expeditions, stored in the basements, including the communications gear. Celeste had retrieved a shortwave the day before and shown Jess how to use it. It was time to revert to older technology. There had to be chatter from amateur broadcasters on shortwave frequencies, from all over the world. She’d go and find it in a minute. Right now she needed to digest everything.
On the stone table in front of her, she had a world map from Giovanni’s office spread out. She spent the morning scribbling on it, red dashed lines for major faults lines, hash marks at geologic hot spots. There were over a thousand potentially active volcanoes spread across the Earth. As a geologist, she dredged as much as she could from memory, never having suspected she might need to use her knowledge like this.
Nuclear war in the Middle East.
In another time, the news would have shocked her, but she was already numb. Just another nail in a coffin already going into the ground. It surprised her how easily her mind seemed to absorb news of the death of millions. It had to be millions. The announcer hadn’t said, hadn’t even hazarded a guess, because it didn’t matter anymore.
Even a nuclear war was a sideshow to the coming main event. These wars were one last chance to enact revenge, one last chance to show God was on their side.