"You did what now?!" Erin slams her hands down on the table glaring at Entius.
Holding his hands up in the air, "Like I said, I may or may not have borrowed a computer from Ben's Electronic Store," Entius shifts the box sideways.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, "By borrowed, do you actually mean you stole a damn computer?"
"Actually I stole a laptop. But I did buy the mouse for it."
"Like that makes a difference Entius,"
"Well, we have it now, and it's not like anyone is going to be looking for it anyway," he cracks a smile, "It's a do whatever you want, everyone is like super dead kind of situation,"
Shaking her head, Erin moves away and stares out the window, "I cannot believe you right now," moving around the table to stand directly in front of Entius, "Do you even feel guilty about it?"
Brow creasing, mouth tightening, "Honestly, I don't have time for feeling guilty at the moment, and I believe you don't either."
Sighing, looking up at the ceiling, "Obviously we have different opinions on how guilt seems to work, but I suppose you are right,"
Running a hand through his hair, standing up straight and turning towards Erin, "No kidding, and at any rate, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission anyway."
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Erin frowns, "Anyway... have you even tried going on the internet with it yet? If everyone is, y'know, frozen and no longer moving, how is anything suppose to work?"
Entius shifts his eyes to the left, humming, "Hmm, well, I'd imagine everything will work for a short time after still; everything is programmed to run on its own without a lot of human attention."
Awaiting Erin's response, Entius pops open the laptop and turns it on, praying to any god out there that he was right about it still running.
"Well, that may be the case, but what happens if that assumption is wrong? Then what?" a note of panic setting into Erin's voice.
The blue light of the screen fills up Entius' face, as he looks up at Erin, "Well, I don't have an answer for the then what, but thankfully I don't need to. It is still up and going for at least a little time now."
Hope fills Erin's eyes as she exclaims, "Thank God something is going our way."
"Although I can't promise it will stay up for long, it's a weak signal and seeming to stay alive barely," warns Entius.
His eyes roam the screen, Erin hearing the mouse click every so often as she looks up towards the ceiling, a frown forming upon her face. A breeze picks up, the tree outside scratching against the window.
The hands on the clock making their cycle finishes its fourth time around had nothing of note to comment on until Entius mutters, "Cannot be, no way in hell."
Hastily moving over to the computer, Erin glances at the screen reading the headline from England out loud, "All communications with the North American Continent has gone dark." Turning to Entius, meeting his eyes, alarm within mirrored in her own, "The whole of North America... has gone down."
Entius looks away, whispering, "That's not even the worse of it, Erin, read the article."
Pulling the laptop towards her, reading out loud,
"With the collapse of communication with North America, officials have sent special forces to investigate the cause. The special forces have also gone silent with neither the forces or pilots coming back. The United Nations are refusing to send in any more and are shutting down any transportation to the North American Continent. The UN has agreed that all borders will be secured further and prompts everyone to ignore any distress signal that seems to be coming from Canada, the United States, or Mexico including the Caribbean Islands and Cuba."
Tears well, and slide down Erin's face gently her voice fading to nothing. Thoughts colliding with each other, struggling to digest the information.
No...no one is coming to help. Entius and I are on our own, out of the whole continent. The rest of the world is fine... at least; but, not rescuing anyone? Told to ignore all distress signals or messages? Entius and I can't even try to get help. I cannot be-
"Earth to Erin? Hello? Entius to Erin? Am I getting through?" Entius' voice drifts through her thoughts, concern sculpted into his face.
"What? Messages coming in from you at least," Erin replies distractedly, still reeling.
One instant Erin was standing, the next, Entius is on top of her under the kitchen table as the kitchen window implodes.
YOU ARE READING
Arrival
Science FictionIn a small town a group of three come across an abandoned building and decide to explore it. They come across a weird message that warns them of something, but what? They will know They will come And They will find...
