State of Chaos - Chapter 1：Meteor impact

Year 0–

NASA headquarters, Washington, D.C

The NASA HQ is the United States first defense against the perils of outer space. They use their sensory mechanisms to try and prepare the people of an incoming disaster. If possible they would try and shoot a missile to direct it off course, if not then they will warn the public to immediately take defensive measures and go to the designated bunkers nearest to them.

As McKinley lazily dozes off in his chair oblivious to his surroundings a pop up appears on the computer screen warning of a impending meteor impact. Normally there is no need for him to be attentive because it is only every couple hundred years when a meteor with the ability to threaten Earth’s survival is on course for impact.

His desk is filled with papers strewn all over the place. Empty coffee cups and candy wrappers are scattered about yet to be disposed. The Screen displayed the coordinates of the meteor’s predicted impact in red letters [8.7832° S, 124.5085° W] with the estimated size of the meteor right below it [4.35 km width~ 1.15 km height~ 3.18 km length].

McKinley is sleeping peacefully with his feet propped up on his desk. Sweet dreams of sipping a Mia Tia next to a pounding surf dance in his head. Suddenly he’s startled by the unexpected ring of his phone, causing him to fall out of his chair and hit his head on the floor. Rubbing his head he begins to grumble and picks up the phone vexed at the fact that his nap time has been interrupted. “Who is it?!” He demands in displeasure to the caller. “It’s David Scott. Wait that isn’t important. Have you not been paying attention to anything that’s going on?” He says in bewilderment. “There is a meteor that is scheduled to hit Earth in two hours. It has already broken through Earths atmosphere. Why have you not sounded the alarm to warn the people?” Scott frantically asks McKinley.

Startled McKinley dropped the phone in disbelief. This was not what he was expecting to hear when he answered the phone as reflected back to his pleasant dreams of sand and surf. In all his career he had only ever had one meteor on a direct course to collide with Earth that required him to sound the public safety alarm. However that one was small enough to be directed away from Earth by a tactical missile. This one was large enough to turn all of the eastern hemisphere into a dead-zone if it managed to make it that far.

McKinley mentally prepared himself for the mental shock he was going to receive. Not wanting to look he slowly turned around and focused his gaze at the computer screen. “Oh Shit!” he exclaimed “May God have mercy on us all” he said while grabbing for his cross necklace. Through the phone you could hear Scott’s voice saying “Sound the alarm you twat!! We need to warn the people so they can have time to prepare! We only have so much time, god dammit McKinley, hurry your ass up.”.

McKinley regained his wits and began the procedure to warn the public.

He took a key out of his pocket and opened a latch that covered up a keyhole. As he put the key in and turned it a new prompt popped up on the computer [Commence Protocol M:15] [YES] [NO]. He took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the Sweat that dripped from his forehead. With his hands shaking McKinley dragged the mouse over the [YES] prompt and clicked on it.

After starting the public safety alarm he bent over to pick up his phone and said “I have activated the alarm. Now It is all up to fate” he dryly laughed. He turned his head and looked at a frame he kept on his desk. A soft smile started to appear on his lips as his finger softly traced the face of the woman standing next to him in the photo. “I wish I could see her one more time before this all goes down,” he sighs to himself painfully.

“You see, this is why its good to be single ‘Ol chap, you should have been like me here only having to worry about myself and my right hand” he laughed in self mockery.

“I don’t understand how this happened. I only dozed off for a few hours and there is no way I would have missed the meteor. How did it move into the atmosphere so fast? We should have been given more time, are the sensors defective?” he proclaimed as he pulled at his hair.

Over the phone Scott says “You’re not seeing things. We’ve checked all the sensors and they are working fine. Tip top shape even. It’s just incredible, we’ve never seen anything like it. This meteor is the fastest moving meteor in History. Nothing could have prepared us for something like this.” Scott stammered. “From the data that I’ve received it seems to be composed of an unknown black substance. Something else is odd about it as well.” Scott announced perplexed. “What do you mean odd?” McKinley questioned. “It’s surrounded by a strange blue light. It’s actually quite astounding really, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I just hope I am lucky enough to survive this and acquire the chance to study it, but alas I think only twenty five percent of Earth’s population will survive.”

“Scott I’m going to have to let you go I want to be alone for my final moment’s, If that would be alright”.

“Yeah, I need to go grab a cigarette anyways I’m going to go down down with a bottle of beer in my hand and a cigarette in my mouth.” Scott said as he hung up the phone.

Dropping to the floor McKinley sat there in a daze. He tried to call his wife, but she didn’t pick up. Looking out the widow to see the meteor that was covered in blue flames he said in a low voice “This will be humanities biggest catastrophe, If we survive it then we will come out much stronger than ever before…If…we survive it.”