Under Vanishing Skies by Fields G.S

Author:Fields, G.S. [Fields, G.S.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: apocalyptic end of the world mars apocalypse pirates doomsday science fiction scifi
Publisher: Tuscan Fields Publishing
Published: 2013-12-30T16:00:00+00:00

I tossed and turned most of the night. It was no use. I couldn’t get to sleep.

I sighed and slipped out of bed. Grabbing my data mat, I went outside. I stood on the front deck and tried the bullshit breathing exercises that I had learned in that couples yoga class Kelly had dragged me to a year before the storm. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. I tried to clear my mind by listening to the chorus of insects who sang along to the rhythm of the waves. Nope, it was no use. The thoughts that had kept me awake were still bouncing around in my head. That hippie yoga crap didn’t work back then. I don’t know what made me think that it would work now.

I looked up to the stars. Goddammit! This didn’t make any sense. I got William on the list. The kid was going to Mars just like Rick and Sarah had wanted. So why the hell did I feel like something was wrong?

I sat down, opened my data mat, and read through the new list again.

See! There was nothing to be worried about. Shannon was right. Ahmed had dropped more of his candidates, one hundred and thirty-eight to be exact. Still, there was something wrong. I could feel it in my gut.

I reviewed the replacements on the list, checking their profiles against the selection criteria. They all met the criteria… all of them. I don’t think I’d ever seen a list without at least one person who didn’t meet at least one of the criteria. Maybe our constant bitching had gotten through to Ahmed. Maybe he and the others had decided to finally follow the rules. As much as I wanted to believe that, I didn’t.

I sorted the list by name, age, religion…nothing. See, I was just imagining things. But when I sorted it by island, the little voice in my head returned and said, “I told you something was up!”

It wasn’t a smoking gun, but this wasn’t a normal distribution. Ninety-two of the one hundred and thirty-eight candidates came from the same island, Hanikada. I knew that island.

There had once been a tiny resort there before the storm, but the island was eventually abandoned. Something about an insufficient water supply, or water quality issue. I don’t remember. But I remembered the island. Goose bumps popped up on my arms as I recalled how eerie that place was…really creepy.

Everything had been abandoned. I even found a table in the dining hut that hadn’t been cleared after a meal. The whole time we were there erecting the communications tower, I felt like I was in an Old West ghost town. So unless the names on the list were ghosts—.

The door latch clicked and interrupted my thoughts. I turned and saw William peering through the door crack and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “What are you doing?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I thought some fresh air might help,” I said. “What are you doing up?”

Shrugging, he said, “I dunno.

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