Intervention | NaNoWriMo 2018

Chapter 11 - The Escape

Disclaimer: The following chapter is the non-edited draft of what was written during NaNoWriMo 2018. My apologies in advance for plot holes and other inconsistencies. I know they're there.

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It was the silence that finally woke Lincoln up. When they had settled in during the storm, there had been a constant buffeting of the structure, creaking and moaning all around them. In its own way, it had been nature's sound machine that soothed them both to sleep. Now, the absence of it woke Lincoln up.

As soon as he started stirring, so did Marie and moments later, they were both sitting up, stretching and yawning.

"Looks like it died down," Marie said in between yawns.

Lincoln nodded and opened the door. "I'm going to check the outside."

"All right," Marie said and reached for a bottle of water from their supplies and threw it towards Lincoln, who barely caught it. "Here, take this, you need to stay hydrated."

"Thanks." Lincoln closed the door and unscrewed the cap of the bottle as he glanced out the window. The dirty glass made it difficult to see so he pushed the box that had blocked the man door to the side and pulled the door open. Outside, sand had been deposited in drifts against walls and other remaining structures. He stepped over a foot high dune that had formed against the man door and stepped outside. A haze still hung in the air but otherwise, the storm had subsided and everything was calm.

Marie joined him and chugged a bottle of water as she gazed at the ruins of the houses around them.

"It's really quiet," she said.

"Yeah, it's eerie."

"No birds or animals, no honking horns or yelling neighbors. It's almost peaceful."

Lincoln looked at Marie and laughed. "Peaceful? Well, if you like it that much, I'm sure I can arrange for a more permanent residency here."

Marie slapped his arm and smirked. "That's not what I meant. Compared to home, you know, it's just different. Really, it's kind of sad. All those things we don't hear, they're gone."

They walked out on the street to get a better feel for the surroundings. The street they had entered the subdivision on continued further in, dead tree stumps still sticking up from the center median where they once provided a lush canopy and plenty of shadow for the residents. A few homes were still standing, like the one they had sheltered in.

"I wonder what it was like here," Lincoln said.

"Looks like a typical family subdivision to me. A family, with an average of 1.5 children, a dog and two cars. Both parents working or one staying at home while the other one is busy with their fast-paced career. It would have been a great place to raise a family."

"And now it's all gone. To think, I didn't even know this was all down here until yesterday."

Marie looked at Lincoln, her eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean? You saw my Earth, right? It's not like it all disappeared? I mean, if I was in the right place, I'm sure I could find my way around."

"What I mean is that I was raised only knowing our orbital habitats. Our whole lives are lived in space. We're taught that Earth is a dirty, abandoned place where there is no life."

"Well, looks like they were right about that lost point, at least," Marie said and made a sweeping gesture.

"My point is, what else were we not told, you know? Finding you've been living a lie, that's an uncomfortable feeling. You don't really know what's right and what's wrong anymore."