The Event

3.

Leave it to Tommy to try to get everyone's spirits up.

I hid my smile behind my hand as I leaned into the warmth of the fire.

And leave it to Will, to bring everyone back down. "You shouldn't joke like that, Thomas." He snapped. "Uncle Tom is dead now." He frowned at him.

We all fell quiet again, the only noise coming from the crackling fire, and a very confused owl somewhere in the distance.

"Do we all need to hold hands now and say a chant, or are we good to move on and plan what the hell we are going to actually do?" Brent asked, looking us all over.

If Brent weren't like ten years too old for me, I think we'd be perfect together.

Brock snorted a laugh and nudged his friend. "If what science boy said was true, then we should plan to start trekking down this pass as soon as the dome is gone." He said. "How long do you think that'll be?" He asked.

"My name is Matty," He reminded them first, but honestly, I like science guy better too. "Can't say for sure." He said tilting his head back and forth. "Maybe a day, two at the most."

"And you think it'll be safe?" Tony asked.

Matty shrugged again. "Hard to say." He explained. "The fact that they used a dome like this, probably was a means to protect the atmosphere from sustaining any radiation damage." He said. "So on the one hand, that means that there very well could be some radiation left over, but at the same time, with the gas dispersing so quickly, and now seeming to be weakening, that could mean it is safe."

Jeremy cleared his throat. "As safe as it can be on a planet that isn't ours anymore."

Tony stood up, walking back and forth behind Lisa and Kaylin. "So basically what you are saying is that, even if that dome does lift, and we do make it off of this mountain, there is a chance we could still be killed from the radiation from the gas?"

Matty nodded and Will kicked at the snow. "What does it matter?" He asked. "We can't stay here, or we die, and going down there could get us killed from the gas, but even if the gas didn't get us, odds are..." He let it drop, the weight of his words heavy on all of us.

"Every choice we've got leads to death, so what the hell?" Tommy said. "Might as well try." He smiled. "We might be the last of humanity here. Us. We owe it to all of those people who died today to at least try."

"Try to what?" Brent asked.

Tommy shrugged. "Survive obviously."

"There is no way we are surviving this." Kaylin wept. "This was all designed to kill us, and it will."

"It will if we let it." Tommy fired back and he got nods from others around the fire. "If we're it, I'm not going down without a fight. I won't just lay down and die because they want me to."

"He's right." Jeremy agreed, nodding his head with determination.

Brent and Brock exchanged looks and nodded too. "I've never given up a single time in my life, and I sure as hell am not about to start now." Brent said. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want to just survive." He told us. "I want to take them down, and if I can't, then I'm going to die trying."

"You don't come to our planet and think you're going to take it without a fight." Brock agreed.

Matty and Tony both stood up too, nodding to each other. "I'm with you two." Tony said to Brock and Brent. "I'm not laying down and taking it like a bitch." He said. "This is my planet."

Matty looked a little intimidated by the strong men he stood with, but he tried to sound tough too. "We will probably die trying to get off this mountain, or from radiation, but on the off chance that we survive those things, then I am in too."

Will and Jeremy smiled, balling their hands at the sides. "We're in too." Jeremy smiled. "We just need to get the kids and the women to somewhere safe, and then we are taking these assholes down." He said proudly.

Dani and I both rolled our eyes and I stood up. "Hell no." I said, shaking my head. "I'm not going to hunker down in some hole and wait to die while you guys are all off being stupid and trying to be heroes." I said firmly. "I'm going with you too, but I don't think we are going to make a difference." I said. I'm nothing if not honest. "I think we should just take heart in the fact that they think we are dead, and we need to go someplace rural where they won't look for us and just try to survive, not get ourselves killed trying to defeat something that is a lot bigger than us." I said as I watched the ship in the corner of my eye.

"You're wrong." Tommy said to me. "We can do this." He said, the epitome of foolish optimistic humanity. "If we don't at least try, then what kind of life would we even be living if we did somehow find a place to survive undetected?"

"I said I am with you." I reminded him. "I just think it is pointless, but I'm not getting left behind." I said pointedly at Jeremy.

"You can't fight with us." Jeremy said softly, stepping closer to me.

I laughed in his face. "I doubt we will be getting close enough to anything to fight it." I pointed out. "You know, I might be the one who looks like dad, but you're the one who acts like him." I snapped. "I won't be abandoned, Jer. I'm coming whether you like it or not."

He just looked stunned, his perfect face frozen for a minute before he finally looked away.

Dani and Lisa both stood too. "We're all going." Dani said.

"We are humanity, and we are all fighting for what is ours." Lisa nodded.