The Second Possibility

Arthur C. Clarke said, “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”

It’s 2119 and it’s the 100th Anniversary of the day we learned that the second possibility was not equally terrifying, but far more terrifying than anything that we could have ever imagined. I was six and the year had been really scary. In 2016 the Russians had hacked the US Elections and by late 2018 cyber attacks were occurring globally. Economies collapsed.

By 2019 the world was on the brink of a world war. There were major famines and climatic catastrophes on the news almost daily. Mom and Dad were always talking behind closed doors or watching the news. The day before they came, Dad had decided that we needed to load up the Dodge Caravan and the Envoy with all of the food in the house and things we just couldn’t leave behind and drive to Grandma Murray’s near Knoxville. She had a big farmhouse with lots of rooms and was far enough from the city that he felt we would be safer. Mom and he would go back for a second load after Heather, Jason and I were at Grandma’s.

We had packed the vehicles and the plan was to leave early in the morning. Mom turned on the news to check the traffic. The words BREAKING NEWS kept scrolling in big red letters across pictures of cone like objects falling all around the world. “They’ve been falling since before 5:00 AM Eastern and seem to be falling everywhere”, the newscaster was saying. Dad took one look at Mom, scooped me up in his arms, and yelled for everone to get to the cars. “We have to go now,” he was yelling with panic in his voice, “I’ve seen Independence Day enough times to know this is not going to end well.” He strapped me in the car seat of the Caravan and jumped in the front seat as Mom, Jason, and Heather climbed into the Envoy.