the final compromise

Part 5

GKO

The 11th hour had dawned upon us at last. We stand on a tall sandy hill. The evening sky churns hauntingly, a luminous full moon floating in the waters of hell and speckled with lights, the only lights seen from at least fifty miles away. We stand on the GKO test site for the very last time. We walk down the hill and look ahead in terror. A gigantic disk looking object stands in front of us, painted with red glossy paint reflecting off the light of the moon and glowing, like a trophy. It is like nothing anyone in this world had ever seen before. The shape, the size, the power it radiates. We curiously walk closer to the craft, examining every little detail and scar. As we circle around the object, we see a small door open slowly. A line of children step in, one by one, all with robot-like expressions. The queue seemed never ending, it might as well have gone on for miles. Thunder cracks, but not a single person turns around, or flinches, or even makes a sound.

Hours pass until every last child has crawled into the craft. The wind howls in the distance and we stand alone, breathing in the ice cold air, although not for long, for a group of people walk up to us deep in conversation.

"All 130 children have been loaded into the spacecraft Doctor," A proud looking Vincent Ives says, his voice echoing into the distance.

"Very well," Doctor Ferguson replies. "It's all coming together."

Vincent Ives, Arabella Gunn, Aiden Copper and Doctor Fergsuon walk contemptuously up to the spacecraft, savoring their last minutes.

A switchboard similar to before lay in the hands of Mr. Copper. He gripped it tightly.

"Shall we board our liberator, my dear friends?" He announces, motioning to the door of the heinous saucer.

Mrs. Gunn, Mr. Ives and Dr. Ferguson step in eagerly, followed lastly by Mr. Copper, stopping to quickly glance at the timer on his switchboard.

"1 minute to detonation."

HOWARD

Each step rings in his ears as the space between him and the ground steadily increases. Daniel Howard walks up the staircase of Resurgence, the similar depressed feeling within him, but this time, much worse. He feels as if he was sinking to the darkest, scariest part of the sea with a stone tied to his foot, nothing stopping him from drowning.

At last he arrives at the roof, soaring higher than any other building around it. Howard walks slowly to the edge, and stands looking over the deserted streets. He closes his eyes and takes a step forward. He stands centimeters away from the end, and tries to take the last step. But his feet are glued to the roof.

All of a sudden, a blazing light hits him, and he opens his eyes. Everything's a blur and all he can see is shadows and spots. From where we are, we see him stumble around blindly, trip, and fall off the edge, not a thing we can do to stop it.

MARCEL 

We are in the middle of an ordinary safe neighborhood, not a single soul on the sidewalk, the luminous moon still lightning the purplish sky. We walk a little further to a common, everyday house surrounded by a picket fence and protected by a sturdy white mailbox. A little boy and his mother sit on the couch watching an old cartoon, large grins on their faces. In a room on the second floor, Mr. Clint Marcel is in a deep sleep, tired from a long flight from the GKO test site.

GRANT AND WALTHAM AND CRIMSON

Ms. Codeline Grant sits grimly on a dewy tear stained grass. Large graveyard fences stand on opposite sides of her, a long way apart from each other. Tall, gloomy trees with arched branches lay on every corner, closing in on the burial ground. A large gravestone stood in front of Grant, tons of colorful flowers surrounding it. The evening sun sinks slowly, and the trees rustle hauntingly. She stands on her weak knees and brushes the dirt off her jeans, tears starting to fill her eyes.

Mr. David Waltham is working efficiently at an old wooden desk, one impeccably similar to that of Mr. Daniel Howard. He quickly types away at a large computer, annoyed at the fact he had to stay in this late. Wanting desperately to get home, he types nonsense words into a large spreadsheet, and sends it away. Mr. Waltham closes his computer and stands up.

Mrs. Blair Crimson, in the headquarters of the busiest newspaper in the world sits in a tall office shouting orders into a telephone on her desk. The building was buzzing, every last person cramming in orders, typing madly away, and formatting, knowing it was critical to get the latest GKO scoop on tomorrow's front page. A stressed Mrs. Crimson scribbles guidelines on a piece of paper as her pencil cracks.

Their minds were occupied, not for a moment thinking about how dangerously close they were to the center of their country. Ms. Grant didn't even notice the red and black air balloon floating above her. A large blinding light goes off, too fast for anyone to realize it. David Waltham, Codeline Grant, and Blair Crismon are reduced to nothing but ash and bones.

MARCEL

Mr. Marcel sleeps in a large room decorated entirely with oak wood in monotone colors. A window on the wall to his right is covered with a black curtain. The room is pitch dark. The only sounds present are the soft rustling of the outside trees and a faint giggling from the downstairs TV.

Suddenly, an incredible flash of light fills the room as a shattering noise echoes through Mr. Marcel's ears. He opens his eyes quickly and looks around frightened. He gets up and runs to the window next to the bed, glass splattering the floor. A minor switch goes off in Marcel's head as it fills with deja vu. Realizing what had just occurred, he reaches for the window sill, but not a millisecond too late. A blast goes off and a force stronger than nature throws him across the room, as he dazedly drifts off to sleep.

GKO

The saucer, now levitating above the world's atmosphere had safely escaped the prison of radioactive waves now spewing through every corner of this ill-omened planet. Doctor Ferguson, accompanied by Aiden Copper looks down and sees a grey fireball cloud forming over the once green planet, spreading like a disease. Their hearts had turned to wax, now matching the shapes of their brains. They'd destroyed the race they'd created, like a cage of mice after the first trial of experiment. Holding a group of specimens not yet tainted with the disorder, they would start over in a new test site. To see their own planet die in front of them, and look proudly, knowing they'd saved it was an illusion they'd created out of fear. But so is time, so is death, so are all ideas of right and wrong. So was it? Was it really wrong? You decide, you watched it happen.

They walk to a large screen opposite to them, a celestial map showcasing their path.

"Where to Doctor," Says Mr. Aiden Copper.

"A planet near, in the Milky Way galaxy, belonging to an incredibly small star called The Sun, a planet exceptionally similar to ours. It's name, Earth."