LOGINBeatrice spoke up. "You guys should go to the military base. Don't let me hold you back."Hughie and Jeremy went back and forth over it, but neither could change the other's mind.Nicole finally offered a suggestion. "Why don't you all go to the military base first? If it doesn't work out, you can figure something else out from there."That made sense. This wasn't the time to keep arguing over it anyway. And there was always a chance the military base had changed its rules.Hughie brightened. "Alright. Then we'll go together. That way, we can still watch each other's backs."Nicole answered as tactfully as she could. "You guys should go ahead. We still have a lot to take care of, so we probably won't be ready for a while."Hughie, never one to overthink things, said, "That's fine. We don't have much to pack. We can help you load everything when the time comes."Jeremy was much better at reading the room. He discreetly tugged on Hughie's arm and quickly said, "Alright. We'll wai
Nicole looked at the group thoughtfully.Truthfully, she still hadn't decided where to go. Her first instinct was simply to get as far away from the coast and Mount Graypine as possible. As long as she stayed with the people she cared about, the destination didn't matter much.But over the past few years, Sven, Hughie, Jeremy, Marcus, and the other homeowners had all started looking to Villa 50 for direction, whether they admitted it or not.That was probably why the Robinsons had spent years making an effort to stay on good terms with them. Marcus even made sure Nicole was one of the first people to hear that the satellite cluster had struck Mount Graypine.That information almost certainly came through official channels. He told her because he wanted to see what she planned to do, then use her decision to help judge what was safest for his own family.As long as they stayed in the neighborhood, it wasn't much of a problem. Once the gates to Villa 50 closed, no one knew what wa
Of course, Marcus and Sven were suspicious. Both of them were sharp as hell. The only question was what exactly they suspected.Zeph figured they wanted to know what disaster was coming next. In the past, Villa 50 always seemed to prepare before anyone else even realized something was coming. But lately, even they had stopped making any obvious moves.Nicole leaned against him. "So what do you think will happen next?""I don't know." Zeph kissed her forehead. "As long as we're together, we'll deal with whatever comes."Satellites kept falling from the sky with no rhyme or reason, like some out-of-control kid swinging a hammer at random. How many fell, where they landed, what they hit… None of it followed any pattern.The neighborhood stayed lucky and wasn't hit again, but the city's waste-to-energy plant wasn't so fortunate. A satellite crashed into it and started a massive fire that burned for two days straight. The streetlights never came back on. No one knew if they ever wo
Unsurprisingly, the father-son duo failed miserably.In the end, they gave up on trying anything complicated and just threw the meat on the grill. Nicole still had to step in and handle the seasoning.There was plenty of meat sizzling on the grill, smoky and fragrant. Marcus, however, was unusually quiet. Instead of bragging nonstop like he normally did, he just kept eating in silence.Once he had filled his stomach a little, he started raising his glass to Nicole and the others. "Come on. Here's to you and Zeph. And you too, Sven. If it weren't for you guys... Anyway, you know what I mean. Cheers."He downed three glasses in a row, then kept drinking until he finally lifted the bottle straight to his mouth.And that was hard liquor.Sven could tell something was weighing on him, so he didn't try to stop him.Satellites were still falling from the sky. One moment, they could be sitting around eating meat and drinking together, and the next, they might be crushed to death.The
The medicinal herb fields represented years of everyone's hard work, and now two of them had been destroyed by falling satellites. Mitchell and the others were so stressed that painful sores had broken out all over their mouths.There was no warning at all, and humanity had no way to fight back.Several satellites had already crashed in Westbridge and Grayport alone, never mind everywhere else. It was starting to feel as if this disaster really meant to wipe humanity out.Nicole knew how devastated Mitchell was, but she didn't know how to comfort him. "Dr. Chapman, maybe one day, all of this will finally end."She helped clean up the ruined greenhouse and salvaged as many medicinal herbs as she could. They worked until sunset before she finally drove back to Westbridge.By the time they reached the neighborhood, it was completely dark. Poppy happened to glance up and pointed excitedly at the sky. "Look! A shooting star!"Nicole looked up and watched a streak of light move slo
Jasper's expression changed when he learned the truth.According to official reports, this wasn't the first satellite to fall. A few days earlier, another one crashed in Kingston, setting a building on fire and leaving several people dead or injured.Now Westbridge had been hit as well, and no one knew whether any others had fallen elsewhere.The old district was already in ruins, and the new district didn't have bomb shelters. If tens of thousands of satellites started crashing down, it would be a disaster for all of humanity, and there was no real way to prepare for something like that.The authorities immediately went on high alert and called an emergency meeting.That evening, Nicole still couldn't shake the uneasy feeling when another earthshaking boom rattled the area.She went up to the roof and scanned the surroundings with binoculars, but she couldn't tell where it came down.A sense of unease settled in the pit of her stomach.Nicole didn't dare sleep upstairs anymore
Two miles was nothing. The Hummer reached the entrance to the complex in just a few minutes.Nicole handed the man 400 dollars, thanking him for saving her and for ignoring traffic rules.His voice stayed cool. "No need. I was heading this way, anyway."Seeing he wouldn't take it, she didn't push
Just after midnight, the timer refreshed. One hundred thirty minutes remaining.That meant time could stack.Nicole nearly laughed out loud. Seconds mattered. During crucial moments, even a minute could mean the difference between living and dying.She decided that unless it was absolutely necess
Nicole jolted, then immediately checked with her mind.The storage space was still there. The supplies were still there, too. She tested it; she thought of an item, and a coal briquette appeared in her hand.Sweeping the space again, she noticed the glowing timer had reset to zero.That was when
Nicole never expected the new resident of 1801 to be the same young man who had helped her at the courier station.He looked mildly surprised, too. He nodded once at her, then went back to work.Up close, he was striking in a cold, sharp way. He was tall and lean, with broad shoulders and clean li







