“Yeah, whatever. We have to get another train. Follow me.” They walked up the broken escalators and wove through the crowd to get to the Millennium/Expo Line platform.
“It’s just a few stops along here, shouldn’t take too long to get to.”
Tom was momentarily grateful that the trains were still running, although he supposed with no physical drivers, they could probably function on less staff if they needed to. He briefly wondered what he’d do if he worked in an essential industry like health care, or the police force or in a fire hall. Would he still go to work? He honestly wasn’t sure.
How long could society keep functioning? It had been less than a day and things were already starting to unravel.
The people on the train were subdued. Tom had thought there would be more panicking. Maybe all the panicky people drove cars…
Mike followed Tom when they got off at Commercial Drive station.
“Where exactly are we meeting her? The Drive is kind of long…” Tom belatedly asked, turning to Mike.
“Um. She said there’s a Safeway nearby? She’ll be in the parking lot.”
“Oh, good. I know where that is.”
“Good man. Lead the way.”
Emma waved at them from in front of her car. The parking lot was crowded, but that wasn’t anything unusual from what Tom remembered.
“Hi, again. I was hoping I wouldn’t see you two again! Oh, sorry, that came out wrong.” Emma blushed.
“No, it’s okay. I know what you mean. I was hoping I wouldn’t see you again either,” Tom said with a faint smile.
“Well, I was hoping that I’d see you again, Emma, but under different circumstances,” Mike said with a wink.
Tom resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Mike would probably still be hitting on girls right up until the asteroid landed on top of him.
“What happened? Mike didn’t really say on the phone,” Emma asked. They climbed into the small car. Tom let Mike have the front seat, and immediately regretted his generosity as his knees felt like they were closer to his ears than was proper.
“Couldn’t get on a flight. They were all either full or cancelled.”
“You couldn’t get on one to a nearby city?” she asked, glancing back at him in the rear view mirror. Tom shook his head.
“The closest she said she could get us was Calgary.”
“What! That’s crazy.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think things would fall apart this quickly,” Tom said. He looked out the window as they pulled out of the parking lot. Some people were hurrying about, determined looking, while others wandered about aimlessly, looking lost. Tom idly wondered what would happen to the drug trade. Was that one thing that would keep going? Asteroid or no asteroid, people were still addicted. And perhaps people would want or need an escape, now more than ever. Or try things they’d never done before.
“But maybe you could have caught a flight closer to Toronto from Calgary?” Emma wondered.
That hadn’t occurred to Tom at the time. Mike humphed, and Tom supposed it hadn’t occurred to him either. Well, too late now.
“Well…” Mike said, eventually. “We had a better idea.”
“You mentioned Abbotsford,” Emma turned and said to Mike. “Are you going to try and catch a flight out of there? I didn’t think you could fly to Toronto from Abbotsford. Sorry to break it to you, but I don’t know that you’ll get much further than Calgary from there either.”
“We had an even better idea than that,” Mike said.
“Oh?” Emma inquired when Mike didn’t say anything else.
“I’m going to fly us home,” Mike said with not a small amount of fanfare. Tom wondered if Mike had only gotten his pilot’s licence to impress women. He wouldn’t put it past him.
“Oh, really! You can fly?” Mike nodded. “That’s awesome,” Emma said. Tom thought he could detect a faint smirk on his friend’s face.
“Yeah, I can fly,” Mike said without a hint of modesty.
“What size plane?” Emma asked.
“Just the small ones. Nothing too big,” Mike said with a shade more modesty.
“How far will one of those small ones get you? Not all the way to Toronto, surely?” Emma asked as she wove in and out of the traffic.
“No, not all the way. We’ll have to stop and refuel a few times. Hopefully that won’t be a problem.”
“Well, good luck with that!”
They continued driving, the traffic gradually thinning out as they got further up the Fraser Valley. It was an overcast, gloomy day, but Tom still tried to savour the views. Who knew if he’d ever see B.C. again.
“There’s an airfield where we might be able to rent a plane,” Mike said, looking at his phone.
Tom’s stomach dropped. What if they couldn’t rent a plane? Tom reassured himself. If worse came to worse, they could hire a rental car. It would take a lot longer, but he would still make it home.
Emma followed Mike’s directions and they pulled up at a small office at the airfield.
“Do you want to come in?” Tom asked Emma before he got out of the car.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ve got a couple of calls to make, I’ll just wait here. Let me know when you’re successful. We don’t want you two stranded again.”
“Thanks, Emma. You’re a lifesaver. Seriously.”
“Hey, no problem.”
Tom stretched, feeling relieved at getting out of the tiny car. He followed Mike into the dingy little office. At least he tried to. Mike rattled the door. It was locked. Tom peered inside the dingy little office. It was empty.
“Look,” Tom said, pointing to a small sign on the wall by the door.
OPENING HOURS:
Summer — 8–6
Winter — 10–3
Tom looked at his watch. They were within opening hours. But of course, who would turn up to work at an airfield on a day like today?
“What do we do now?” Mike looked around. “Hey, there’s an emergency number.”
“Call it,” Tom said.
Mike carefully entered the number in to his phone.
“Hello?” Tom listened carefully to the conversation, but he could only hear one side of it.
“Hi, my name is Mike and I’m interesting in renting one of your planes.”
Tom thought he could hear laughter coming from the phone. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Yes, I’m serious. Deadly serious. I need to get somewhere, urgently.”
Mike was silent for a minute, looking up at the sky.
“We can pay that.”
Silence again.
“As soon as this asteroid bullshit is sorted out, I’ll return it.”
More silence. Mike frowned at the ground.
“Look, it’s not like you’re going to need it, you have others, surely.”
Mike whistled. “That’s a lot, buddy.”
Mike listened a moment longer. He held his hand over the speaker and turned to Tom.
“The old codger wants ten thousand dollars.”
Tom felt his eyebrows disappear into his hair.
“How much?” Tom asked, wondering if he’d heard right.
“Ten grand. Dire circumstances, can’t guarantee we’ll bring it back today etcetera etcetera.”
“Does he take credit card?” Tom asked bleakly. Ten grand. That was five each. Getting to his family was surely worth that much.
“Do you accept Visa?” Mike asked the phone.
A grin broke out over his face and he hung up.
“He’ll meet us here in twenty minutes. And yes, he will accept credit.” Mike shook his head and laughed.
“My Visa bill is one of the reasons I’m beginning to actually want this space rock to hit…”
CHAPTER SIX
Claire
LISA and Claire set themselves up with a picnic on the living room floor with a selection of the expensive cheeses and dips and tropical fruits they’d bought the night before.