reason you won’t tell anyone. Because if you do, they’ll throw you in prison. And you’ll spend the last two years of your life away from Mark and everyone else you love. And that’s where you’ll die when the collision happens, and you’ll spend eternity locked in a cell. It’ll become your tomb. That’s not for me. I want to spend my last months with the ones I love.”
Sarah went on. “ Chris asked me to marry him the day after Steve discovered Saris 7. I told him no and then broke up with him. Because I loved him too much to watch him die.
“ Most of the rest of us have already decided that we’re going to commit suicide just before it happens. The other options are freezing or starving to death, and they’re both supposed to be very agonizing.
“ I’ve already asked Steve to shoot me in the back of the head before he shoots himself. Quick and painless. I’m sure we won’t be the only ones.”
“Oh, my God,” Hannah cried. “How can you even think of such a thing?”
“I’ve had no choice. I’ve lived with this thing hanging over my head for a year now. You think of all kinds of ugly things. You two will think the same things.”
“No.” Hannah stated emphatically. “There’s got to be a way to survive. And we’ll find it.”
- 8-
Sarah left an hour later, and Mark and Hannah slept fitfully. While laying in bed looking at the ceiling at 3 a.m., they made a pact to find a way to survive the collision, and to save as many of their loved ones as possible.
Mark didn’t tell her, but he already had an idea in mind. He just had to do some checking first to see if it was feasible. And he loved her far too much to get her hopes up on something that might not pan out. So instead, he held her closely all night , tried to comfort her as much as he could, and told her it would be all right.
And secretly he hoped that he wasn’t just lying to her.
Hannah tanked up on coffee the next morning and considered the possibility of going to work. But her heart wasn’t in it. So it wasn’t hard for Mark to convince her to call in sick, and to take the day off. She’d only gotten a couple hours of sleep, after all, and she wasn’t a woman who operated well in a zombie-like state.
Mark made her breakfast and promised her that if she went back to bed and slept until noon, he’d take her on a road trip in the afternoon. There was a plot of land he wanted to look at, he said, and he wanted her to see it too.
Hannah was much too tired to ask questions, so she accepted the mysterious journey on face value and plodded back to the bedroom.
By the time Mark followed her, five minutes later, Hannah was hugging his pillow and sound asleep on her own. He sat on the edge of the bed for a few minutes, gently brushing the hair back from her face, then kissing her on the cheek.
Then he carried his coffee cup to the den, and to the computer. It was research time, and he had a lot of work to do.
Hannah awoke just after noon to Mark kissing her cheek and nibbling on her earlobe.
“Oh, really?” She said. “Again?”
“Nope,” he said. “I just wanted to get you up, and I knew that would do it.
She asked groggily “What time is it?”
He threw back the covers and said “Time for you to get your beautiful ass up, my dear. We have places to go.”
Hannah took a shower and put on her makeup. She seldom left the house without it, despite Mark’s constantly telling her all it did was cover up her natural beauty.
While he waited, Mark did some more research on his computer, and made notes on a scratchpad.
“Okay, baby, I’m ready.” Hannah said as she walked up behind him and rubbed his shoulders.
“Where are we going?”
He replied “Well, the first place we’re going