The Earth Is a Dead Rock

A Dying Earth Story by AE_KIrk

The day after I graduated with my Primitive Cultivation degree, which I passed with 100% might I add, I was sitting in my parent's living room eating my mother's famous sardine, cucumber and pickle sandwich. I turned my nose up at it when she passed me a plate and gave her a wan smile.

'Hmm my favourite,' I lied, placing the plate on the white coffee table in front. 'So what is dad doing?'

'Still growing his vegetables,' she smiled. 'They'll only take a few weeks to fully mature. Science ey?'

Nodding I frowned at the repercussions of dad's vegetables. Taking so little time to grow, the vegetables have decreased in nutrients. I was annoyed my folks didn't know this.

As I thought to myself, I was unaware my mother was watching me. After a little cough, I glanced up to see her nodding at my plate of death. With another wan smile, I picked up the sandwiches and shoved one in my mouth. The cucumbers were tasteless, like cold soggy pasta and the pickles were like wet mouldy dog biscuits. The taste of food had clearly been thrown out of the window, run over by a bus and then pissed on by a homeless person.

Only being able to stomach two bites, I placed the plate back on the table and decided to ask my mother what the matter was. It's not often your parent's call for a "chat" and when they do it's usually because they miss you, but with my parent's they probably want something.

'You rang?' I asked her. She fumbled with her hands and gave a heavy sigh. 'Well are you going to tell me what's wrong?'

'It's your brother. He's run out of money, again.'

Trying hard not to roll my eyes at how typical my brother, Edrick, was I rested my head on my hands. 'Ok, and?'

She frowned. 'I would like you to do something about that.' She flattened her dress and sat up, staring at me. 'You have a stable income Harrison, I expect you to help out your family.'

My ears burned from regret and guilt. If only she knew what I had done.

'Helping out Edrick will do no good,' I told her firmly. 'He is twenty-two. He has a degree; he is able to find a job himself.'

She snorted. 'Do you know, your brother thought it would be a great benefit for us if he went on to become an Origin Hunter?' she tittered. 'Hardly beneficial for him. It's more stupid if you don't mind me saying so.'

I could understand why Edrick would want to do that, his morals were in the right place. He had always dreamed of finding a new planet. For the last seven generations, earth's smartest and bravest had ventured into the void of space to find a new earth as this one wasn't going to last much longer.

'If truth be told, love we thought you would want to become an Origin Hunter. It must be nice, leaving space for a few months at a time.'

My blood boiled and I stood up abruptly, trying to calm my temper. 'Mother, our planet needs saving not abandoning. All those idiots who have tried and failed to find us a new home, we need to pool our last meagre resources into replenishing the planet. It's why I'm applying for the FS Campaign, I truly think that we might be able to find it, somewhere.'

'Are you mad?' She shrieked. 'Harrison, the First Seed Campaign is a load of tripe! You are not going to waste your degree on finding something that doesn't exist!'

I glared at her. 'Alright then,' I shouted. 'So if we do happen to find a new planet, where the hell are we going to find various seeds to plant? As they no longer exist now and everything is made in a fecking lab, are we going to eat the plants and vegetables of a new planet that may be poisonous, instead of healthy?' She looked flustered and straightened her dress. 'Think! We need the first seed to help our plants to grow. Yes, our planet is on its last legs. China, Russia, India, South America and parts of Europe are completely covered in thick yellow polluted air that nearly 2 billion people contracted lung cancer and have died. Nearly all the animals have been wiped out in those countries and the rest of us are clinging to the last shreds of hope that we are still able to save our planet, I may be one of them, but at least I'm sure as hell trying!'

My mother shook her head. 'Honey, it breaks my heart to know the truth behind our dying earth. Each day we scrimp by on meagre rations.' She went to the leftover plate of crap she gave me. 'I'm sorry the food I give you isn't good enough.' I took the plate from out of her reach.

'I'll eat it,' I glanced at the floor and mumbled, 'because you made it.'

She smiled. 'Thank you. So, about Edrick? Will you help him?'

Taking a bite out of the sandwich, my stomach rumbled in disgust. 'I won't give him money, but he can come and work with me. We need all the help we can get.'

Leaving my parent house, I placed my protective mask on and headed back to my office. It wasn't too far away, but then again the small town we were living in made things much easier. After all, it was decreed that if the human population was to survive, it must live in small groups and spread out. Over population in a small area caused no end of pollution.

Calling my brother he didn't pick up, which was typical. I left him a message to get in contact with me though really, I didn't know whether he'd accept my offer or not.

Reaching the office, I flashed my security card and was admitted inside. Taking my mask off, I nodded to the receptionist and went to the backroom.

'Harrison, nice of you to finally join us,' Bob smiled from his work. 'We've got some interesting news.'

Heading to my desk I saw that the rest of the team, Julee, Sadie and Peni came over to me. 'The last chunk of ice in Antarctica has been found. We're going there in a few days time to collect samples,' Sadie told me with a very enthusiastic smile.

'No way! I thought it had melted!'

Julee shook her head, 'Nope. Our Russian representatives have found it and we got the coordinates this morning.'

Peni went back to her desk the news was over so there was no need to hang around me. 'I was right though that it was floating around Alaska.' She shrugged. 'Of course, no one listened to me.'

Bob rolled his eyes, 'Sorry your Highness.'

'So, we've got big plans then,' I sighed, thinking about the amount of data we could potentially gain. 'Say, could I bring my brother along? He's got the knowledge; he's trained to be an Origin Hunter. I just want to keep him out of trouble for a bit.'

'I do love me a bag boy,' Peni muttered, Sadie shot her a disgusted glance.

'As long as he doesn't get in the way,' Bob said. 'It shouldn't be a problem.'

Getting back to my work, I finally managed to succeed in finishing off part of my projects when there was an emergency broadcast system that came over the tannoy.

"Earthquake imminent. Please proceed to the nearest quake stronghold immediately!"

'Hurry now everyone!' Bob called as we headed to the exit. Flashing green lights along the floor indicated where to go, though we knew exactly where to go. They were becoming more and more frequent which put extra pressure on the space projects to ensure there would be enough room for everyone onboard the Eden.

Eden was the last Life Support Ship in existence. It was the house the last remnants of the human civilization that were still drowning on the pollutants from earth. Though it was still being built, it was a catch twenty-two. Even if there were enough room onboard, the soil in the fifteen harvest fields would be barren as the original seeds on earth are still nowhere to be found.

'I feel sorry for the Origin Hunters,' Sadie spoke as we huddled in the bunker, slamming the steel doors tight behind us. 'They get updates of the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. They know how difficult it is finding somewhere.' She spoke my thoughts. Everyone was clearly worried about it. We couldn't stop the earthquakes or the eruptions. The best thing we could do was to prepare, or to space out the human population so they'd be less casualties. It was disgusting how we knew we had to sacrifice some to save the others.

Only a few minutes later, the entire facility was locked down. The bunker nearly half a mile underground and had enough provisions to last a week or so. There was no signal down here for cellular phones, but there was a sort of Morse code system to tell others where we were.

When the earthquake came, the lights flickered and the thick steel walls creaked under the strain. A few people who were huddled against the wall, moved away in fear and those who were seated sat on the floor with their hands over their head.

The shaking lasted roughly a minute, but we knew all too well that it wasn't the sign that we could leave. The aftershocks would come momentarily.

A few hours later and we were given the all clear to leave. Frightened at the prospect of what we'd see, we emerged to devastation of our small town. Buildings were levelled; roads were fractured like splintering ice. It was a bomb site.

The parking lot behind the building was now a sinkhole. And my car had sunk into it. Pissed, I ran as quick as I could to my parents home and found that the entire structure had collapsed.

'Mom! Dad!'

Three bloodied people staggered out of the ruins. 'We're alright,' mom called. Racing to her, I checked to see her cuts. They weren't too deep. They clearly got to safety in time.

Dad nodded at me, supporting broken arm and my brother, Edrick, sported a bruised eye and a small trickle of blood running down his cheek.

'I was heading here when I got your message. Lucky for me I got them both into the basement.'

Mom started to cry. 'My home... it's just gone! Everything's destroyed.'

Edrick splintered dad's arm as I comforted mom.

'You two have to do something about this,' dad muttered. 'Our planet is dying. It's not going to be able to sustain us for much longer. I mean months rather than years. Work as a team. Find our damn seeds and new planet, but for the love of life, get us off this dying rock!'

The earthquake that destroyed our town was eight on the Richter Scale. It caused mass devastation across three states. Families destroyed, business ruined beyond repair. Many evacuated to the mountains for safety, but they knew it would only be a temporary fix.

My parents moved to the next state over and stayed in a town that still had a few buildings that weren't completely destroyed. Edrick and I, however, remained with my work colleagues. Come hell or high water, we were still going to start our expedition to Alaska in search for the original seed.

Three days after the earthquake, Bob, Sadie, Julee, Peni and myself were on an old creaky fishing boat. The large five mile chunk of ice that came from Antarctica was floating half a mile ahead of us. There were still a few mountainous regions on the large blue and white iceberg and Bob was mapping which section would be most dense to extract several ice core sections.

Scientists in the early part of the 22nd century believed that the ice had completely gone, but there were still some of us who believed that there must be ice somewhere out there in the oceans and we were fortunate to be able to see it, before it would be gone forever.

The ice cores that we were hoping to get, would hopefully shed some light on the topography of the ice and perhaps we could get through enough layers to find a year that would help us determine some type of original seed. It was a long shot, but we were running out of options.

'Harrison,' Peni called as she zipped up her red puffer jacket and donned a matching snow hat. 'Where is your brother? You said he was coming with us?'

I nodded. 'He's meeting us there. He's bringing diving gear. He said he'll tackle it from another angle,' I shrugged.

Peni folded her arms. 'Er, what exactly has he studied?'

'He wants to be an Origin Hunter.'

'And he's not at NASA or at the Space Station because...?'

I shrugged again. 'You'll have to ask him. Unless he's got work, he's a slacker. My mother is thankful I asked him on this trip or else he would have stayed with them not doing anything.'

She rolled her eyes. 'Wow. It's nearly the end of the world and there's still weirdo's like him. No offence,' she added.

Chuckling I replied, 'None taken.'

As planned, Edrick approached our small fishing vessel in a speedboat dressed in a black diving suit. I took inside to get him kitted out with warmer gear as well as rollock him for dressing inappropriately.

'What the hell is wrong with you?' I snapped as my colleagues eyed him suspiciously. 'You turn up in a damn wet suit and no freaking warm clothing? Are you insane!'

He smiled cheekily. 'Don't worry big brother. All part of the plan.'

'What, to fricken freeze to death!' I hissed.

Bob approached us. A wan smile plastered on his face. 'Dr Bob Rhodes,' he offered his hand, Edrick shook it. 'I see you are, er ready to dive first then?'

Edrick saluted. 'You betcha, doc.'

'Will you be taking any equipment with you?' he asked.

I felt a bristle of embarrassment wash over me. 'I'll brief him on what to take,' I interjected.

Bob clapped me on the back and left without a word. I stared at my brother, wanting to punch him. He picked up on my anger towards him. 'Hey, I'm here to help you, alright? I didn't bring any equipment, but if you want me to help you with something-'

'Yes.' I went to the plans and brought them to him. 'We are taking ice core samples from here, here and here,' pointing to each area. 'If you are diving, we've scanned the entire iceberg-'

'You're calling it an iceberg?'

'- and there is a large air bubble inside it. I can give you a handheld scanner to track its location. Once you get there, you need to take at least three ice core samples and then come back.'

'How do I take an eye core sample?'

I pointed to the equipment. 'Those are hand augers, or hand drills. They take shallow samples, which you'll need. We can't give you the bigger drills as they'll be too heavy. You'll sink rather than float to the top. So just press the on button and drill until you reach this line here. Then, press the black button and pull it out. Simple.'

My brother picked up the nearest hand auger, turning it in hi hands. 'Seems simple enough. Anything else I need to do?'

'Yeah, don't die. It'll be annoying to explain to mom and dad.'

He reached out to flick my forehead, when I stopped him. 'I'm serious. Don't play a hero. Okay?'

With a serious nod, Edrick put some warm clothes on, picked up a hand auger and left for the top deck. I worried for him though. He usually got into some type of trouble.

I followed him on deck as soon as Bob and the captain helped take the equipment from the lower deck and placed it on a small dinghy. The first lieutenant, who was taking the helm, suddenly broadcast over the ship.

"Ladies and gentleman. We have some grave news concerning the Philippines, Vietnam and the West coast of South Korea. A rogue wave from an earthquake that happened in the middle of the Yellow Sea has ripped through the islands of the Philippines, Vietnam and South Korea. The citizens of each respective country were only given fifteen minutes warning. It is not clear the extent of the damage as no news is coming out of any of the areas that have been affected at present. If there are any more updates, we will let you know. Thank you."

Bob and I exchanged panicked glances. Mother Nature was hurtling everything at us so we'd leave the earth quickly. We wanted to go we just needed to have a good damn reason to leave. We couldn't until we got what we wanted.

'Right everyone,' Bob called everyone around. 'We need to do this within three hours. We've got two compact snow mobiles to get us as near to the mountain as possible-'

'That is not a mountain,' Sadie frowned, 'it looks like a melting hill.'

He refrained from rolling his eyes. 'Yes, but it's what's inside that matters. The further we drill into the mountain the better. As we've discovered, there is an air pocket underneath. Edrick is going down there to get some core samples. We will test them as soon as possible. Underneath is melting the fastest and it's where we might find something.'

Julee raised her hand slightly. 'What if we don't find anything? I don't think there is any floating ice left in the world.'

Bob took a deep saddening breath. 'Then we prepare to leave the planet within the following weeks and hope and pray that the OH teams can find something within our lifetime.'

It was a crippling blow to morale but Bob was never one to skirt over the truth. He said it like it was and sometimes, I was glad of it. I liked straight talk. I hated people pussyfooting over crap. It never did anyone any favours.

A few minutes later and we were about to disembark. The equipment was onboard the dingy and Edrick was ready with what he had to do. I was to remain behind and keep in contact with him and the team to ensure that everyone knew where they were going and what they were doing. It was a meaningless job, but being this close to a gigantic iceberg, I had the chance to do my own testing on the desalinisation of the berg and find out how long it would take to completely disappear.

'You ready little brother?'

He gave me a nervous smile in return. Edrick hadn't really done anything like this before. Yes, he had the training, but he hadn't had any field work and that was really what he needed. Experience.

'I'm fine,' he spoke confidently. 'Easy as piss.'

'I hope you are good at diving in cold temperatures?' Peni asked in her usual drawl tone. 'Personally I can't abide by them.'

'Well thank god you aren't doing it,' Sadie sniped.

Bob took it upon himself to start the engine. When everyone was seated and were wrapped up warm, he drove the dinghy towards the berg.

'We need to go a little Starboard,' I informed Bob. 'There are a few shards jutting out along the base. Don't want another Titanic if we can help it.' Bob adjusted and we arrived safely though Bob and the girls had to use their pickaxes to get up onto the berg itself. Edrick and I assisted with the equipment and once it was all set up and the compact snow mobiles were up and running, they sped off towards the peak of the berg.

Edrick and I got back into the dingy. We had to travel a quarter of a mile around the berg. It was the closest to the pocket of air that was discovered.

'Right, this is it,' Edrick said. Taking his warm clothes off, he placed his flippers on and attached a waterproof belt around him and attached three empty cylinders and a hand auger. 'This is going to be fun.'

'You have enough air in your mini-tanks for 4 hours. It gives you plenty of time to get there and get back. Put this in your ear,' I passed him an earpiece and receiver. 'We can keep in contact all the way through. Okay?'

He nodded. Sitting on the edge of the dingy, and placed the receiver in the mouth mask, covering his chin and lips giving him the ability to talk while under water. He gave me the 'Okay' sign and tipped backwards into the frigid cold waters, splashing me as he went.

Taking out a sonar device, I watched my little brother dive deep under the waters. Placing an earpiece into my ear, I tapped it once. 'Testing, can you hear me?'

'Loud and clear,' he replied.

'Great. So, the air pocket, thankfully, isn't as farther in as we originally thought. It's about... three hundred meters under the berg, right in your direct path.'

'Is there a tunnel or something to get there?'

'Yes. It's a perfect trapped air bubble.'

'Can I breathe the air?'

'Negative. We don't know if there's gas in there. For all we know, it could be methane. I'd continue to use your mini-tanks to be safe.' I switched to the surface team. 'How are you doing?'

'We have found a few bumps in our path. Large ice boulders,' Bob explained. 'We were prepared for this, but our expedition will take a little longer, probably an extra half hour or so. How's your brother?'

'On his way to the air pocket. Keep me informed of any changes. Harrison out.'

Some twenty minutes later there was a soft beeping coming from my earpiece. 'Harrison.'

'It's me,' my brother said. 'I've reached underneath the air pocket. It seems like there's a tunnel of ice to get to it. I can fit through easily. Shall I proceed?'

'Yes. Just be careful.' I heard him snort before I heard static and then the line went quiet. 'Edrick, are you still there?'

'Ye...th...br...sti...-'

'Why the hell would there be interference unless...' Taking out a radio, I contacted the captain on the ship. 'Could you check for metal, specifically copper, in the berg?'

'Copper? Sure, but why?'

'Something is interfering with the radio signal.'

The captain replied, 'You're right. There is a small copper source near you. It's in the path between you and your brother. Nice find.'

'Yes, but we don't know what it is. I'm going to go and check it out. Could you possibly send me the coordinates and I'll check it out.'

'It's sent.'

'Thank you. Harrison out.'

Securing the dingy around an ice boulder, I braced myself for an uncomfortable walk through the snow towards the coordinates of a copper source somewhere on the berg. I found this odd, but perhaps it was a menial deposit within rocks that had been found in some bergs.

Walking across the half frozen, half slushy snow, I meandered around boulders and very large, deep puddles and soon came to the coordinates that the captain sent me. Of course, the source of which was deep under the thick compact ice.

Uncomfortably falling onto my knees, I brought out a small pickaxe and began to hack away, to see how difficult this would be. However, I instantly discovered how effortless. After hacking at the ice for half a minute, there was a sudden, loud crack underneath me and before I knew it, I pitched forward into a small cavern in the iceberg.

The sounds of static in my ear woke me up. I was partially covered in chipped ice; my breath melted some of it around me, causing cold drops to down my coat. Pulling myself out, I did a quick body assessment and discovered my right ankle was hurting, a lot, though I knew from painful experience, it wasn't broken.

'Right, where the hell am I?' Around me were thick sheets and fissures of shocking blue ice. This berg must have been part of a large glacier once. Blue ice only occurs when snow is compressed so much, that the air is displaced, giving the chance for ice crystals to enlarge to such a degree it causes the ice to seem blue. Tilting my head back, I saw the Harrison shaped hole above. I'd need ropes to get back up there. I didn't see a way out of this small cavern that I'd fallen into. 'Better make the most of it.' I checked around for the copper source that I'd discovered, but it didn't seem like it was around me. 'Damn, it's below, isn't it?' I asked myself.

Getting the pickaxe out again I started to hack away at the compressed ice. It was so thick and compact I kept hurting the palms of both my hands. 'Clearly not used to manual labour,' I gritted my teeth and felt a little pathetic.

After fifteen minutes or so, I saw a discolouration in the ice below me. Scanning over the area, it came up as the copper deposit. It wasn't that far down. Swapping the pickaxe over, as my right hand was hurting somewhat, I hacked away at the ice for a couple more minutes, until a large chunk broke away, revealing an old cloth sack. It appeared to be made out of hessian.

Lying on my belly, I reached down and gently lifted it out. It was surprisingly light. Opening it, the sack revealed a medium sized box, made out of copper. Intricately decorated with a deer frolicking in a forest on the lid and around the sides were beautifully hand crafted geometric design, there was a small catch on the lid. About to open it up, my radio crackled.

'Harrison,' it was the captain. 'We have to abort the mission and get back to the mainland.'

'Why, what's wrong?'

'There's been a large sea earthquake approximately two hundred miles from Bukhya Anastasii in Russia. A confirmed tidal wave of over a hundred feet, which will envelope the iceberg, is heading right for us. We need to get out of here, now!'

My heart rate sped up as fright and adrenalin coursed through my body. This was the worst case scenario. 'We need airlifting out of here! I'm down a freaking ice-shaft, my brought may survive, but the others who are heading to the mountain won't. How long until the wave reaches us?'

'I've been told a little under an hour.'

'Shit. Contact the coastguard now. Get us out of here! Harrison out.' I switched the channels. 'Bob, do you read me?'

'Bob here, over.'

'I'm sending you my coordinates. Get there ASAP, a freaking tidal wave is heading right for us! I've asked the captain to get us airlifted out of here. Hurry!'

'Will do, over.'

Switching channels again, I tried to get hold of my brother. 'Edrick! Get back to the surface! Edrick, can you hear me?' But all I got was static. 'Damn. I bet the freaking copper is distorting the signal.'

Ten minutes later, I still couldn't get hold of my brother, but I heard the distinct sound of approaching snow mobiles. 'HELP! I'M DOWN HERE!' I yelled. Once the noise stopped, I called out again and saw four heads stare down at me from above. 'I fell down this ice shaft. Throw me some rope down, quick!'

I was hoisted out of the whole and showed them quickly what I discovered. Neither of them were impressed.

'You went looking for some damned old snuff box!' Peni yelled. 'We're about to be drowned and you go treasure hunting!'

'Come on, get back to the dingy,' Bob called.

Running after them, I said, 'I wasn't treasure hunting. I was trying to discover the copper deposit that was throwing off the signals!'

No one replied to me.

Reaching the dingy, I saw a red helicopter in the distance. It hovered over the fishing vessel and a rope ladder when thrown down. It wasn't until I saw that when I realised how dangerous this was.

'We didn't even get a chance to get any ice cores,' Sadie said. 'I don't know where else we can look.'

'Let's hope that the berg survives the tidal wave.'

'It's a hundred footer,' I told them. 'I doubt it.'

Julee glanced around, appearing perplexed. 'Where is your brother?'

The group was silent when I replied, 'I can't get through to him. I keep getting static.' Bob clapped me on the

The helicopter soon came to us. Snow was whipped around us like a flurry of snowy owls as the rope ladder descended. As the women went first, the radio crackled.

'Harrison?'

It was Edrick.

'Bro, there's a freaking tidal wave coming!' I screamed into the radio. 'Dive down as much as you possibly can. Get out of there!'

'I've got the ice cores,' Edrick said.

'Bro, get out of there now!'

The ladder was free. Bob jumped on. 'Harrison!' Getting my attention, he pointed behind me. 'HURRY THE FUCK UP!'

Turning, I saw a wall of dark blue water head straight for us. The entire berg literally began to tile upwards, almost being sucked up like water in a straw.

'Shit. GET UP, GET UP!' Motioning to the pilot to pull up, Bob and I began to clamber up the ladder as quickly as we could. As we nearly reached the top, the tidal wave, tipped the iceberg. Several chunks were severed off, sounding like glass being smashed out of a window pane. Careening towards us, I felt such cold pressure being blown right into my face. Closing my eyes, I prayed for Edrick's safety and hoped he listened to me.

The helicopter managed to pull just high enough as the tip of the iceberg brushed right underneath me.

As the rope ladder was pulled up, I scurried into the helicopter. The frigid water passed by beneath me and yet while it was a lucky escape, all I could think about was about Edrick.

'He'll be fine,' Sadie mouthed as we flew back towards the mainland.

When we touched down, we heard the devastating news that came out of Alaska. The western part of British Columbia, the coast of Washington and a great deal of coastal towns in Alaska had been destroyed by the tidal wave. Though many people managed to escape as they were given warning, many perished when the water came for them.

The helicopter touched down in Paxson, Alaska. The fishing boat had gone, the equipment that we had was most probably destroyed. The only thing we had from our trip was the copper box I'd found under the ice.

'Edrick,' I asked one of the operators at the helicopter base. 'Can you check if he's still alive?'

The control tower that had a fleet of rescue helicopters had various sensors on their birds to detect life primarily through heat signatures.

The operator, who was at a console in a control tower nestled in a rather isolated part of the town could only sympathise with Harrison. 'I'm sorry, sir, but all of our fleet are currently out trying to save others who have been affected by the wave. There is nothing we can do.'

Bob who was speaking softly with the others who each looked in a state of fright caught my eye and beckoned me over. 'They can't help me,' I felt a lump in my throat. 'I... I have to tell my parents... Edrick's...' unable to bring myself round to saying it.

Each of them seemed rather uncomfortable, clearly needing to tell me something and they didn't directly look at me, Bob finally said, 'There's been more disasters across the globe. The Big Island had erupted in Hawaii, Mount Etna is spewing lava and even Mount Fuji is showing signs it's about to erupt. The world is falling apart. We have to leave.'

'Leave, what, for Eden?'

He nodded. 'Yes. They are sending a great majority of people up within the next few days. The passenger ships are taking up people now.'

'No, we haven't finished our mission! We cannot live on those ships. We won't last! We need to find a seed! Just one damn seed!'

'We haven't found anything!' Sadie yelled. 'We've failed, Harrison. Our last chance was probably on that damned iceberg. No matter how far we dig down in any field, all we find is acidic, damaged, irreparable soil. There is nothing we can use to cultivate healthy food anymore. What we are growing is so far beyond GM foods, it's killing us faster than cancer!'

'What if we took a submarine?' I suggested.

'It's too late for that. The government need to grant us permission and at the moment, it's not a high priority. Getting off this planet, before it kills off the human race, is our only priority,' Bob said.

Julee turned to go. 'I can't stay here anymore. I need to get my family away from here. You do want you want to do. I've had enough trying to find something that doesn't exist anymore.'

'No, there's got to be something, we can't give up so easily, Julee. You'd rather starve on a space ship flying above the earth than stay and be a hero and find an original seed?'

She scowled. 'I'd rather try and spend as much time with my family floating above earth than rather being burnt alive by ash, or drowned in a freaking tidal wave. Harrison, I do respect you, and I'm sorry about your brother, but we need to see the bigger picture. Leave with your parents now and save yourself. The earth is dying. We cannot live on it anymore. Mother Nature is hurling everything at us to get off it as soon as possible and I'm listening and acting accordingly. Bob, Sadie, Peni, it's been a pleasure working with you. I'm just sorry it's come to this.'

When she left, Sadie and Peni nodded. 'I think it's best that we go too,' Peni said. 'Bob,' she stuck her hand out, 'thank you for letting me work with you. I've learnt so much. I'm sorry it didn't work out and we didn't find what we were looking for.'

He shook her hand and wishing them luck, Sadie and Peni also left.

'Bob, I-' I didn't know what to say.

The man sighed. 'Harrison, the women are right, as always,' he forced a smile. 'I think we need to abandon our mission.'

'But we were the last of our practice to do something for our race. We're going to become extinct. Who knows how long it'll be until we find a planet like ours? Bob, we'll be in space for a very long time. We won't survive.'

'I know the stakes,' he sounded defeated. 'But we can't stay on a choking planet. I think you need to take a leaf out of Julee's book, be with your family and get off this planet. It's not habitable anymore.' He reached out and shook my hand but didn't say anything more and followed the women, leaving me alone in the control tower.

I felt completely lost, betrayed and pissed off. How could my colleagues give up so easily? We had been trying for years to try and find an original seed. We'd spent thousands of dollars trying to help the human race survive, and they were going to give up after we'd come so close?

'Sir?' One of the tower operators asked. 'Are you okay?'

'I'm fine. I'm going to finish this. I'm going to do this for my brother.'

It took a few days to get to the Western coast of Alaska. I had contacted my parents and told them to evacuate with the rest of the populace in America. They asked me about Edrick, but I couldn't tell them what happened. Almost choking up, I explained we got separated and I hoped to find him soon. I couldn't tell them the truth. I couldn't bare to give up on the idea that maybe he was still alive.

'You stay safe,' my mother sobbed over the video phone. 'I love you boys so much. You go and be our heros.'

I saw dad nodded and giving them a forced smile, I ended the call. They were going to evacuate. They were going to be safe. I was just the idiot who was going back out there to risk my life for the good of the human race. I wish that Bob would have stayed though. Perhaps he and the women were right. In some sense, it was a fool's errand and I had volunteered myself as the fool.

Tuning into a radio station, as I pulled up outside an abandoned shopping mall, I heard that it was a planet wide evacuation. They wanted everyone off the planet within a fortnight. They didn't think the planet would last that long. The radio presenter had explained there'd been a mini-eruption from Yellow Stone park over the past six hours and geologists believed there would be others following soon. The earth was practically choking us. And there really wasn't very many ways to kill us off. Starvation and various cornucopias of diseases had plagued the dying population of the planet for the past four decades. There were less than two billion people on the planet now. Many cultures and civilizations had been completely wiped out. So finding a seat on one of the space stations wasn't a problem.

Hoping that the planet would last two weeks, I had my work cut out.

Sipping a cup of coffee in the parking lot, a mother and her daughter came walking by, they were carrying what I could only assume were their prized possessions.

The girl pointed out the copper box that I twirled in my hands. I had been absentmindedly twirling it around and around in my hands, unwilling to open it.

'What's inside it?' the girl asked.

'Callie, don't bother the man,' her mother chided.

'Its fine,' I smiled at her. 'I don't know. I don't want to open it.' I admitted. It was odd, but I suppose it was because of the box that I lost my brother. I hated thinking like that but it was how I was feeling; quite alone and quite pathetic.

'But what if there is something interesting inside?'

'There might be, but it's fun not knowing. It's fun to guess.'

The little blond child paused. 'What do you think is in it?'

Her mother looked at me and I gave her a small smile, 'Hope,' I told her. 'I'd like to think that there is hope inside.'

She screwed her nose up. 'That's a funny thing to want to have in a box. I'd like there to be a photograph of my daddy.' She gazed up at her mother and hugged her.

'I'm sorry,' I mumbled and her mother nodded.

'We must be going. I wish there is hope in there for you,' she glanced at the box. 'We all need a bit of that. Come on, Callie.'

Holing her mother's hand, the pair walked off to their own salvation, wherever and whatever that might be.

I wondered if they would make it. And I wondered too what happened to the little girl's father.

Before I could finish my coffee, a strange siren wailed around me. After a few seconds, I came to realise it sounded something similar to the old air raid sirens of the 1940's. Then moments later, I saw cars began to careen past me, flooring it to get away... from the coast.

'Damn, not again.'

Throwing my cup, I got back into the car and turned around. Tuning the car into a radio station, I didn't pick anything up for the longest time.

As I roared down the freeway, I saw cars driving in the opposite direction they were flashing and beeping at me. But clearly I was going away from the danger, whatever it may be.

Feeling sick from fear, I decided to head up. I needed to get high so I could assess the situation. If I was unable to get to my destination, I had to get somewhere high and safe, but that was proving difficult. As I turned right, to head to Mount Huxley, cars stopped on both sides of the road. No one was going anywhere.

Getting out of my car, all I heard was people screaming and swearing at one another in total panic.

I managed to find someone who wasn't a dramatic, a man in his fifties with his wife and two children. 'Sorry, but do you know what's going on?'

He pointed ahead. 'US Army have stopped people getting to higher ground.'

'I'm guessing that people are trying to get to higher ground because there's another tidal wave?'

He nodded. 'Apparently, this one is a whooper,' he looked pained. 'But that's not all, fella. The reason the army have stopped people getting up higher is 'cause the geologists believe that the mountains on the planet are ticking time bombs! The planet isn't safe!' He gestured to the people around us, 'Everyone is stuck. We can't get back on the freeway because the wave will get us, but if we go higher,' he shook his head, not wanting to finish.

'Is there an army officer I can speak to?'

The guy looked bewildered. 'They are just along there,' he pointed out ahead, 'about ten minute walk from here.'

Thanking him, I returned to my car, plucked my bag from the front seat, got my ID, and made my way to an army officer. I doubt whether they would see me, but I needed to try.

As I approached, irate, frightened people demanded to be rescued if they weren't allowed to go into the mountains. They had a right to live as long as they could on the planet, but wanted to be given a chance to survive.

Feeling pity for them, and myself, as we were not even near an evacuation base, I managed to push myself to the front. In the briefest flash I saw the soldier's name. Second Lieutenant Briggs.

I saluted and caught the soldier's eye. 'Captain Harrison England. I have clearance; I wish to speak to your captain or superior, now.'

The young lad nodded and barked down his radio to request clearance for me. A few minutes later, a black jeep came careening down the road and skidded to a halt. Two men got out. One was quite a tall man with a ginger moustache. The other a woman. Briggs assisted through the gate, where a lot of civilians argued and shouted abuse at me for being let through, but my eyes were solely on the female captain who was strutting towards me.

Stopped two feet from me she scowled. 'Weren't you dishonourably discharged?'

'Honourably,' I smiled back. 'You would know, you were at my hearing. I wouldn't be so nasty to me, Vivian, I have some important information to share and we really don't have a lot of time left.'

She continued her scowl and nodded for me to follow her towards the jeep. I got in the back and the ginger moustached man drove us towards the mountain. After several miles I noticed it was getting noticeably hotter that I had to wind my window down.

'Getting a bit hot, isn't it?'

'Noticed did you?' she asked. 'Yellow Stone Park is spreading out to all of the dormant volcanoes within the entire Americas. We only discovered so much before the world was ending, but now, we learn so much so quickly.'

'A guy I was talking to said that this mountain would erupt?'

'Oh yes, eventually. But we hope to be off the planet by then,' she turned and smiled. 'I take it you want a free ride? Your brother had probably high tailed it off the planet too.'

Choking back that annoying lump in my throat, my eyes stung from tears. 'No. He was caught in the tidal wave that destroyed the West coast. I haven't heard from him.'

Her eye met mine and she shared my feelings. She lost a brother several years ago to a large maelstrom in the Yellow Sea. I was there for his funeral.

'Your brother was a brave man, foolhardy at times, but very brave.'

'He was brave to the end. We went on an expedition to the last part of what we believe was a shelf from the Antarctic. We were trying to get ice cores.'

She frowned. 'Why?'

'Discharged or not, I'm still an honourable men. I'm looking for the Original Seed.'

Her mouth opened slightly in shock. 'I never thought you'd end up in that type of profession. Doesn't your work involve very stupid missions to impossible and almost implausible places on earth?'

'Yes. I don't think that that the iceberg is destroyed. I think it survived the wave and I need to go back and find it.'

'An iceberg?'

'You knew it existed?' she nodded. 'What happened? Do you know?'

'Harrison,' she began softly, 'parts of the berg ended up in the obliterated Quinhagak Airport. If there was something there, it won't be now. It would have melted in the acid rain.'

I couldn't help but hang my head. It couldn't end now, it just couldn't. 'Damn,' I whispered.

'Why were you looking in ice cores?'

'Millions of years ago, Antarctica was a huge continent that was lush and green it had plant life! We have known from historical searches that ferns that have been encased in ice for thousands of years. The Original Seed, I believe, can be cultivated from ice from an era of a great freeze. If we can do that, we can save humanity.'

Vivien turned back in her seat. 'Harrison, we are taking you to Juneau. It's the only place that's safe at the moment. You can get a transfer to Washington, from there you can fly over to Texas and pick up a shuttle to Eden. There is nothing on this planet for you. I suggest you leave.'

'I can't. I can't give up so easily. My other colleagues have abandoned this mission. I won't. Thank you for letting me know about the iceberg, but I will go there and search for any ice that's viable.'

My former captain smiled. 'I thought you would say that. So, I'll go with you.'

'Captain Gillings, we have to send civilians to the other towns, away from here.'

'I'm tasking you with that. What Harrison is doing is so important, you have no idea. Time is running out. We need to get going. Radio for a chopper to take us to Quinhagak Airport immediately.'

'Yes, ma'am.'

At Vivien's request, a chopper landed precariously a few hundred yards from our position. Ducking from the large rotating blades, we hurried onboard, and threw on a pair of headphones.

'Thanks boys,' she smiled at the pilots. 'You have your orders, take us to Quinhagak Airport on the ASAP.'

'Yes ma'am.'

Buckling myself in, I sat next to Vivien, staring at my bag as the chopper ascended quickly and tilted downwards to gain as much speed as it could.

'So,' Vivien began, 'what's in the bag?'

'My sarcasm and my broken heart,' I smirked.

She tutted and looked away. 'Smart ass.'

'Come on Viv, what you did wasn't nice.'

'Stop winging. What I did was necessary for my career.'

I glanced away from her. 'Yeah, I heard that and everyone ends up pitiful and alone.'

She didn't reply. She knew it was true, for both of us.

'If it's any consolation, I do regret leaving you.'

'For Professor Raj Chattel,' I threw in.

I felt her eyes bore in the back of my head. 'Hey! He came months after you!'

Expelling a lungful of air, I ignored her. She had broken my heat further when she and went off with that asshole. I guess I just wasn't good enough for her.

For the rest of the journey, Vivien talked to the pilots on ETA and what the ground and weather was like but really there was no need to ask. The turbulence was very uncomfortable. Every few seconds, the helicopter would drop so much, my stomach would do a back flip. I gripped onto the leather seat for dear life as I stared out through the small widow.

Below were large chunks of the demolished iceberg. It littered the dirty landscape like flecks of coconut on a bar of chocolate. But, the acid rain that now occurs throughout over eighty percent on land, had lashed down on the remaining shards. Most of them would be contaminated, probably beyond any hope of viable samples.

'We're going to land here,' the pilot told us over the headphones. 'I'm sorry, but we can't stay long.'

'How much time do I have?'

'Based on the fact that we're meant to be evacuating civilians away from the coasts, we're giving you half an hour.'

'What!'

'Sorry, chief. We're cutting it fine as it us.'

'It'll be fine,' Vivien interjected. 'Harrison, just tell me what we are looking for.'

'An uncontaminated block of ice,' I told her. 'We need to find a blue chunk. I've got litmus papers to determine which is too acidic or alkaline.'

'Red take, blue we leave.'

I frowned at her. 'Your science is appalling. Alkaline is blue, red is acidic.'

She blushed. 'I was testing you.'

When we landed, the pilots had already warned us that an ash cloud was on its way from Yellowstone and getting out of the area within the thirty-minute deadline would be favourable.

'You can't rush the survival of human life!' I snapped.

Vivien took hold of my shoulders and guide me away, 'Don't do this to yourself. Let's just test as many as we can.'

'Test underneath the blocks of ice,' I told her handing over a handful of litmus papers. It was lucky I kept these. 'If it's acidic underneath, put some dirt on it to mark it and move to the next one. You just need to gently swipe over the melting liquid.'

She took some orange strip's and walked off to the left. 'Oh wait, what if I find one that isn't acidic?'

'Leave the blue litmus on top and I'll scan it with this,' I held up a small portable scanner, 'It detects organic material. It doesn't work on large blocks of ice, the normal larger ice cores we use we have to take back to the lab and section them thinly, but this should pick up any seeds or plant protein clusters.'

Both of us instantly froze as we felt a strange trembling beneath our feet. 'That wasn't good,' Vivien whispered.

'We're not anywhere near a rift in the plates,' I said more to myself. 'We need to move quickly. Our thirty minutes has been cut in half!'

She was about to open her mouth, probably to ask me what was going on, but I didn't want to alarm her. This two week escape into space was ridiculous. We didn't have two weeks we had more like two days!

Vivien and I scouted out several breeze block sized ice but most of them were contaminated by the acid, however there were three which may be viable. But when I scanned them, there was nothing in them. The more the time ticked down, I felt I was on a wild goose chase.

There was another rumble, so strong in fact, that Vivien lost her balance. I had to throw in the towel. I couldn't kill us both. 'We need to get back to the helicopter,' the tone of warning in my voice. 'We need to get out of here.'

'Hey, what's that?' I turned to see her lift up a black bag. Unzipping it, she glanced inside and pulled out a silver cylinder.

My mouth dropped open. 'That's Edricks!' I raced over to it and taking it off her, opened the top. Inside there was a small ice core. 'He did it,' I laughed, the familiar lump in my throat returned. 'He actually got them.' Delving into the bag, there were three ice cores which my hero of a brother, managed to dig out of the ice berg within the air pocket before he died.

'This is a good thing, right?'

I smiled at her, 'Yes. But we have to get out of here, now!'

No sooner as I said that, the earth shook again. Together, we ran through the melting ice berg and headed to the chopper, its blades starting to rotate quickly.

'Get us up in the air, now!' Vivien barked as we put our headphones on.

'Yes ma'am.'

A few seconds later and we were gradually lifting off the ground. 'Holy mother of earth,' one of the pilots said. Vivien and I glanced out of the widow and saw three great cracks in the earth running inland. A faint glow of red peaked from within them.

'Damn it.' That sickly feeling of panic raised within me.

'What's wrong?'

'Tell the pilots to head to the nearest airplane, or space evacuation base. We need to get off the planet.'

'Not until you tell me what is going on.'

'You see those cracks?' she nodded. 'You know the tectonic plates are floating on a soft mantel called the asthenosphere, one of the earth's layers. Years ago, it was hypothesized that all of the volcanoes were actually connected in a system similar to an ant colony. And each volcano was something similar to an ant hill. For whatever reason, the ant hills are blowing simultaneously around the world, but because there is so much pressure from the layer, the plates are being fractured, which geologists originally thought impossible because they are supposedly meant to be rigid, hence the causation of earthquakes, when the plates sort of rub together. Those down there are the cracks caused from the immense pressure. There are volcanoes which are erupting all around the world. From the force of the fractures that are happening this quickly, no plant, human or animal will be able to survive. It would be as the world is rebooting from the very beginning, when it was completely covered in magma! This planet is dying too quickly. There needs to be mass evacuations within the next forty-two hours. All resources must be pooled to save as many as we can. This is the end of the world.'

Vivien's face became white as a church candle. She gave me a short nod in understanding and radioed to her superior, explaining to them what she was told was happening.

'Yes sir, I have it on good authority. We have just witnessed these fractures. The earth is splitting apart and there is magma underneath. We need to have a mass civilian evac, sir. No questions asked.' She then asked the pilots to head to the nearest airbase then after dropping us off, to start picking civilians up and taking them to the airbase.

Soon, Vivien and I watched the chopper fly off into the strange smoky distance after dropping us at a US airbase in Washington. A warning siren wailed around the airbase in an eerie sense of World War two. Men and women were hurrying around, being ushered into busses, or airplanes or other helicopters. It seemed like pandemonium. But whatever I had said clearly got through to the right people.

'Well, this is where I leave you,' Vivien said as we reached a large plane. 'This is going straight to New York where the shuttles are going up every three hours. They are going to Eden.'

'My team are waiting for me on it,' I tapped Edrick's bag. 'I hope that there is something inside the ice cores.'

'Me too.' She reached up and hugged me around the neck. 'Good luck, Harrison. When I get to Eden, we'll go for a coffee.' With a last smile, she left and I headed into the plane.

The shuttle up to Eden was cramped, long and all five hundred passengers were anxious about their new lives on board the huge ship.

Eden was a compilation of fifteen countries around the world pooling their remaining resources to create over three hundred sections to house two billion people. Eden cost nearly two trillion dollars and began thirty-two years ago when the world cried out that earth was becoming uninhabitable.

When the doors of the shuttle opened, we had to file out section by section as customs in the large docking bay, was going to take some time.

Even when I flashed my ID, it didn't get me very far.

'Good evening Dr Harrison England,' a computer voice sounded above. 'Please take your clothes to your right and follow the yellow line to your quarters.' Taking my clothes, there was an added beep. 'You are requested to report to Lab Beta 2-3-5 at 07:00 hours.'

'What time is it now?'

'23:15 hours.'

I groaned. I wouldn't get a lot of sleep.

After following the flashing lights, I came to my quarters. B-12551. Not particularly wanting to look around, I had some ice cores to scan.

'Computer, please locate Dr Bob Rhodes.'

'Dr Bob Rhodes is currently not onboard.'

I stopped, confused. 'Computer, please locate Dr Peni Saunders.'

'Dr Peni Saunders is currently not onboard.'

'What is going on? Computer, please locate Dr Sadie Cooper and Dr Julee Kim.'

'Dr Sadie Cooper and Dr Julee Kim are not onboard.'

I felt physically sick. They left earlier than me. They threw in the towel to get to their loved ones and get onto Eden. What the hell happened?

Heading to the lab, I was in awe. The room was pristine. It was as though no one had stepped foot it in at all and really, I don't think anyone had. Bottles filled with chemicals hadn't been opened. There was nothing in the freezers which I could use for the ice cores. The more cupboards and trays I searched through, the more I realised that I was the first person here, period.

Opening Edrick's bag, I pulled out the small ice cores and placed them into the ship's organic scanner. It was much more high tech but it would take longer to come up with any results.

Trying to find something to do to pass the time, I sound a small seating area in the back of the lab. There was a black screen. 'Computer, display current news on earth.'

It flickered into life. There were fuzzy videos of people running for their lives. Of vans and cars falling into cracks in the earth, volcano's erupting, spewing ash clouds into the air.

'Computer, what is the status of the evacuation of earth.'

'Evacuation has been abandoned.'

'Why?'

'The earth is unfit for human habitation.'

Fear spread up my stomach. 'Computer, locate Mr Tim and Jenny England of Massachusetts.'

'Mr Tim and Jenny England of Massachusetts are on board.'

I sighed in relief. 'Computer. Locate Captain Vivien Gillings.'

'Captain Vivien Gillings is not onboard.'

I stood for ages, trying to take everything in. Heading back into the lab, I glanced at the scanner. It glowed green, below were the words, "Organic matter found."

'Computer, the scanner indicates organic matter, explain.'

'Seeds have been discovered within the ice core.'

'Are the viable for synthesis for human consumption?'

'Affirmative.'

I wept. We were saved.