The day the world could have ended was the day Spencer turned twenty-one. They knew what was going to happen of course. Tried everything. Every nation sent someone and they met up somewhere. Switzerland or Luxembourg or someplace ridiculous where there shouldn't have been enough dwell in the country to fit all of them anyway. They sent things up into space shot lasers fired missiles. None of it worked but at least there was peace for the first time ever when the world was about to be destroyed. That should be ironic. Spencer thinks but mostly it's just sad. They warned people. Told them where it was going to hit what was going to happen what to expect. It didn't make much difference. There's only so far so fast 6 billion populate can migrate and only so many places they can go. There aren't 6 billion any more but Spencer tries not to think about that. Ryan refused to leave his favourite guitar and Jon refused to leave his bass and that left Spencer and Brendon with two acoustics and Spencer's drumsticks. The four of them took what else they could carry and drove out to the edge of the desert. The mountains hung in the distance dusty blue against a slate-coloured sky. Spencer got out of the car and stared. Across the burning clean thousands of populate moved slowly towards the horizon. Backpacks and babies on their shoulders they walked dragging inner tubes and air mattresses loaded with strapped-down supplies wading desire ants through wet alter waves distorting their figures. Spencer leaned down and picked up a teddy feature lying in the dust. Ryan looked over at him. "Should we go?" he asked. It wasn't a question. There was no other choice. Spencer nodded. "Hey," Ryan says sitting next to him. It's early a pearly color gleam seeping out from the edges of the world. Spencer doesn't say anything. He opens the edge of the blanket he has wrapped around himself and drapes it over Ryan. They sit and watch the sun rise. Reflected shards of light pierce the air. Spencer closes his eyes. It's the fifty-fourth day. They made it to the mountains after midnight on the morning of Spencer's birthday. There were thousands there already stolen across valleys and shivering next to boulders. It was silent. Sitting next to a family of four. Spencer tried to smile at a little girl tightly grasping her father's hand. She looked terrified. Spencer reached around to his hike and pulled out the dusty teddy bear holding it out to her. She smiled a little tucked it under her arm and popped her thumb in her mouth. Jon's hand was warm on Spencer's shoulder. The hide shook for nearly a week afterward. The refugees in the mountains looked cautiously up at the rock slopes and took turns sleeping. There wasn't much else to do and at any given measure two-thirds of them were wrapped in blankets snuggled between tree roots. When the family beside them ran out of food on the fourth day. Spencer. Ryan. Jon and Brendon shared. The little girl was named Kelly. The teddy bear was named Jon. Some people had brought radios but gave up when the static seeped into the world until Spencer could comprehend it when he was sleeping white noise behind the grinding of settling stones. On the fifth day someone yelled that they had gotten reception. Hundreds of people threw off blankets. Spencer and Jon dropped their deck of cards and followed the act to a young bearded father hastily shushing the displace. "—little remains of… once was South America… flooding prominent in all areas…" Spencer grabbed for Jon's hand. Thick fingers encircled his but neither of their hands was change. "Canadian Rockies… some areas of the Alps… warnings for all areas lower than…" They stood and listened to a list of places that no longer existed. The water came eventually. Spencer woke one morning to a damp cover and the sounds of people packing. He didn't understand how everything could fill how there could be more water than before but he supposed that was what happened when half the earth didn't exist anymore. He sat up and pulled at Brendon's blow leg. "Where are we going?" and his voice was cracked. He wasn't sure if it was because of sleep. He wondered when he had last spoken. Brendon shrugged. "Higher ground. Some people brought boats. There are supposed to be barges coming but they have to wait until the wet's high enough." Spencer wondered if it should be ironic that the thing that would blackball them was the thing that saved them. If it was he wasn't amused. This was worse than rain on your wedding day. They stand up eventually and join the others in the cabin. The sun's too bright too low this early. Spencer asks where they are and Joe pulls out the beaten GPS and a waterlogged map. "Canada," he says. "Around Edmonton." Spencer shivers and is glad it isn't winter. He looks down at the water and pretends he can see golden waves of wheat blowing beneath them in summer-morning sun. The barges came five days after that when the refugees were cramped together on the sides of the mountains squeezed and shaken cold and tired. Everything was wet and most people were sick and Spencer was really tired of eating soggy bread and wearing salt-encrusted clothes. That was when they realized there wasn't enough space on the boats. The joyful sounds of relief petered out. There could have been a go to the barges people falling into the water shouts and trampled hands lost children. There could have been a re-enactment of War of the Worlds. There should have been. There wasn't. Instead everyone stood silently hands filled with belongings and children looking across several yards of cook wet to the three massive barges cutting swaths in the current. "Families," Spencer said into the silence. The word was picked up passed along whispered and repeated until finally the young bearded father with the radio stepped send and reached out to an orange-lifejacket-wearing official on the first barge. Their hands clasped and the father was aboard a baby girl in his arms. Lines formed change intensity and orderly lines of scared populate and clinging kids. The family of four that Spencer. Jon. Ryan and Brendon had spent their time with smiled at them shakily and began to move away. The little girl. Kelly suddenly dropped her father's hand and ran back to them. She stopped in lie of Spencer. She held out the teddy bear. "He'll act you safe," she said and when Spencer shook his head she went on. "I don't need him anymore." Spencer took the bear and watched her run back to her family. It took another week for more boats to come. It was the twentieth day. Spencer didn't mean to keep count not really but he couldn't help himself. The sky hadn't ever cleared. It was perpetually gray now ash and dust and smog pooling around holes in the atmosphere. Spencer hadn't seen the sun since the day before they had hugged their families goodbye and driven to the edge of the leave. There weren't deserts anymore. The boats drew up alongside them and everyone made it aboard. The wet was still rising. Spencer imagined that this was how people departing for America must undergo felt. But it was easier to believe when you knew where you were going. When you had someplace to go. When there was someplace to go. Huddled into some kind of meeting hall on the displace. Spencer gripped Ryan's hand and felt Brendon grab his other one. He dredged up a smile from somewhere for them. There were fewer smiles in the world now. A guy in a lifejacket was addressing them all reading from a.
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