Blacker
Chapter Twenty One: The Bright Side

An entire town had been thoroughly demolished. Hundreds of traditional homes lay in ruins. Newer and more vulgar looking luxury homes built to the south of the ancient town had also been crushed beneath tons of steel and masonry. The primary and grammar schools had both been flattened, the town community center and the high street itself buried under tangled orange steel. The tennis courts, parks and the railway station, all of it unrecognizable in the rubble. The twisted mess of steel bridge had flattened the town completely. It’s wreck extended far past the old Seabird Centre and disappeared into the sea itself.

“It’s absolutely amazing, isn’t it.” MacGregor said.

MacGregor and Hunter surveyed the scene from their vantage point at the top of the town’s famous landmark, the breast shaped volcanic plug called North Berwick Law. They were sitting together on a red tartan picnic rug. The sun was going down, the brighter stars now beginning to show in the cloudless dark blue sky. MacGregor was sipping warm Coca Cola and carefully nibbling a digestive biscuit. His cracked ribs were painful when he made any movement at all. Hunter was sitting on his left and smoking a filter less cigarette. She was staring blankly at the damaged town, not saying a word to him. The bruise above her left eye was almost invisible now in the descending evening sun. She nodded silently and slowly in response to MacGregor’s words, but she didn’t say a word. She rolled the tip of her cigarette against the dry earth. MacGregor watched as she formed a pencil point of the grey ash. It had been three days since they’d left Glasgow behind. There had been no more Carol Annes. No more anybody at alls. And the earth shattering tantrums had not been repeated. By the second night MacGregor was sure that it was over. Whatever it was had gone. He hoped forever.

The bridge had fascinated him. At first he’d thought that the metal had been changed to form some mathematical symbol. A message, perhaps, from the incredible power that had caused all of this death and destruction. Hunter had been excited by that idea. He’d used that as the excuse to come and see the fallen bridge. In truth he hadn’t really expected the bridge to yield any answers. He’d just wanted to see what they now looked at. Somehow, the devastation seemed to make everything more real. The town had been pulverized and was a stark contrast to the quiet sigh the Human Race had given when it had been extinguished. There was a strange beauty in it, he thought.

“You were right,” Hunter said, “it really is a spectacular sight, John.”

He smiled and reached to take her hand. She recoiled from his touch and looked at him strangely. But he nudged her with his elbow and she reluctantly took his hand. He smiled, more to himself than to Hunter, and squeezed her hand. He gazed up at the sky, considering a cigarette and wondering why he hadn’t felt the need to smoke for days now. The sky above was so clear. No more pollution, no more people. The stars were becoming more visible, constellations presenting themselves. He could make out the Big Dipper and the giant W shape of Cassiopeia. He also recognized the constellation of Orion and the three stars of Orion’s belt.

The dark blue sky quickly gave way to complete darkness. They sat together on the lonely Earth for a long time. Eventually, he heard Hunter’s breathing change and realized that she had fallen asleep leaning against him. He smiled and looked up at the sky one last time, ready to close his eyes, too. That was when he noticed that one of the stars was slowly moving. For a moment he felt a surge of panic, but then he realized what he was looking at.

“Satellite,” he whispered. “Oh thank fuck for that.”

“Hmnn?” Hunter roused slightly, her head shifting on her shoulder.

“Shhh,” he said, “it’s nothing. A satellite reflecting the sun.”

She didn’t make a further sound. He watched the shooting star drift slowly across the sky. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against Hunter’s. He frowned, eyes shut, still thinking about the moving star. When he opened his eyes again the object in the sky had begun to blink.

THE END