All the Space Between Us (A Deathless Series Story)

Episode Thirty: Whispers

"I know you're telling me that my brother is gone, but he and I are twins. We are connected. He's still alive somewhere."
-Oriana Sanders

ESTHER

I can't believe what I'm seeing. Everything Tamara told me is true. I'm back on Earth, but also back in time, standing in a public park, surrounded by kids and adults and dogs and birds and squirrels. Nothing has been destroyed, no one has been corrupted. 

"You still have the portable FTL drive, right?" Tamara asks. 

I nod, though I'm too busy looking around at everything that is still so full of life to really process that I'm still holding the FTL drive in my hand.

"Excuse me, can you tell me what day it is?" Tamara asks someone passing by us. 

The man doesn't answer. She tries another person, who still doesn't answer. She grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me into focus. "We need to figure out the date. We might be too late or too early, I have no idea."

I see a man walking toward us on the path, so I wave my hand at him and say, "Excuse me, sir. What day is it today?"

"Monday?"

"The date?"

"July 1, 20--"

"--Thank you," I interrupt him and turn back to Tamara. "Are we too late? Do we have time to find my cousin and the boys?"

"We have five days until the end of the world," she says.

"Is that enough time?"

"It's enough time to find them somewhere and get out of here. That won't be easy. We're in DC right now. Do you have any idea how many people are alive in DC at this time?"

I shake my head.

"Too many for us to just easily find the people we need to find."

"Any ideas where they could be?"

Tamara shakes her head as she scans the park. "We are near a coffeeshop where some of us would go before our mission to Janus training sessions. If my crew is here, it's possible they are in familiar places."

"Let's check there then," I say.

I follow Tamara down busy streets, a few blocks in the blistering heat, and by the time we turn onto the street of the coffeeshop, I'm desperate for water or something with ice, anything. 

"How are we supposed to survive here? We don't have any money," I say as we near the shop.

Tamara's face brightens. "We won't need it. We found them."

She hurries toward the coffeeshop door, and now that she's out of the way, I see what she saw in the window: Tempest, Neo, and Yuri sit at a table in the front of the shop with Galaxy. 

"Michelle," Tamara calls once we are in the air conditioning.

Galaxy slowly stands up and walks over to Tamara, before wrapping her in a hug. "What are you doing here?" Galaxy, or I guess Michelle, asks.