The remains of the once life-threatening comet filled the sky with a flaming glow. Up the side
of the mountain came several dozen half-drowned people, their eyes rising to the heavens in awe.
Sarah Biederman wrapped her arms around the neck of her husband, looking at him in disbelief. “Leo- oh, God, Leo,
why didn’t you stay with your parents in the Ark? I wasn’t worth it, Leo! You shouldn’t have-”
“I had to come back for you, Sarah,” he said, looking at her with wearied eyes. Sarah shook her head. “But what
about my parents, Leo? They can’t have survived. My parents...”
Leo guided her to a large boulder and pulled her to the saturated ground. “Listen to me, Sarah, we’re going to be
okay. You and I, we’re together and that’s all that matters. Your parents-” he paused. “Your parents loved you, remember that.
All they wanted was for you and your brother to live. They got their wish. They’re happy.”
Sarah held her brother close to her and cried into Leo’s shoulder. He exhaustedly closed his eyes, dead tired after
three days of traveling without sleep and the nerve-wracking escape from the wave.
After a long time, or maybe it was just a short while, Alexander began to cry quietly. Sarah tried to shush him
unsuccessfully. “He’s hungry,” she said. Leo smoothed back the baby’s fine hair and took a deep breath.
After a moment, a bedraggled woman with a black eye and a cut on her face staggered over. “Dana... good lord,
Dana, where are you?”
Sarah looked at Leo, who shrugged. The women turned to them. “My baby girl, she’s gone! My baby girl...” The
woman stumbled, and fainted to the ground.
Sarah held Alexander closer, and Leo held Sarah closer. She looked at him with fear in her eyes. “Thank you for
coming back Leo...”
He kissed her softly, his lips lingering on hers for several minutes. “I should have got off the bus sooner. I shouldn’t
have got on in the first place.”
“No, I should have got on. I was so stupid-”
Leo kissed her again, more deeply than before. “It doesn’t matter. We’re okay now.”
They sat together silently, taking in each other’s presence, for nearly half an hour. By this time the people on the
mountain had seemed to calm down, and organize themselves as best as possible. Sarah handed Leo the baby, and went to
the others to see what was going on. She returned in about ten minutes, with a strangely dazed look on her face.
“There’s ten live people and three bodies up here,” she said. “There’s no food and no water, but there’s a man who
has a suitcase with three blankets in it. He’s setting them up for tents. There’s a bunch of wood that’s washed up and two men
are trying to prop it up against one of the boulders for a shelter. The guy with the blankets has his arm... oh it’s desgusting and
bloody... everyone’s older than us. Some of them passed out when they got up here and some just keep babbling like they’re in
shock...”
Leo shushed her, taking her hands and forcing her to sit down. “You’ll pass out yourself if you don’t rest a while. It’s
okay. We’re not sick. We’ll get out of here. I promise.”
The moon was rising, and the comet’s explosion lit up part of the sky, when the exhausted survivors- began to crawl
into their tents, hungry and scared. Sarah sat next to the large bonfire that had been started in an effort to attract attention to
any rescuers. Only one woman remained outside, and that was a tall, black, athletic woman.
“Those tents are damn cold and dank,” she said. “The lean-to’s at least drier, off of that ground. Are you sure you
don’t want to trade my spot?”
Sarah shook her head. “Well, at least your baby, then? He’ll die sleeping in that mess.”
She frowned. “You looked kind of sick before...”
The woman shook her head. “The world was coming to an end, you know that? I thought the whole thing would
explode. Didn’t think I’d make it to the top, and when I did, I didn’t think I could live with myself leavin’ my family down there. It’s
a god-awful world around us, Mrs. Sarah Biederman. I’ve seen it, and I hate it to death. But your brother hasn’t. Even if he
hates it more than I do, he deserves a chance.”
Sarah looked at the woman, and then reluctantly handed over Alexander. She was right, the baby would die in the
tent through the night.
“I’ll be careful with him, Mrs. Sarah Biederman.”
She thanked her, and headed to the small tent where Leo was sitting, looking out into the stars.
“That’s one problem solved,” she said, sitting beside him. Sarah shivered. “Shit, it’s cold.”
Leo removed his thick flannel shirt, and wrapped it around her. “Leo, you’ll freeze,” she protested.
“Better me than you,” he said, sliding his arms around her and looking into the sky. “Well,” he sighed, “You always
said if we’d had a honeymoon, you wanted to go to an island somewhere.”
Sarah smiled halfheartedly. “I meant the Bahamas or Jamaica, not the top of a mountain in the middle of a natural
disaster.”
“I don’t care where we are, so long as I’m with you.”
“...God I missed you...” Sarah put her arms around his neck and kissed him slowly, passionately, caressing his bare
back with her fingers. Leo gently guided her down to the floor of the tent.
“Leo,” Sarah whispered, “we’re on top of a mountain surrounded by 17 strangers and my baby brother.”
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