Robert Grist pulled the action back on the rifle. The polar bear he had waited patiently for all morning was finally in his sites. For weeks, the bear had lingered around Robert’s cabin. Everyday it moved a little closer. Robert knew, from years of hunting, that the bear was waiting for an opportunity to attack. It was hungry, most likely. But Robert wasn’t going to give it a chance to feed.
At the moment, the bear had its back to him. He would wait until the bear turned, and then shoot it through the head. A body shot would only enrage it. Robert didn’t want to take the chance of having the bear attack. He needed to put it down as quickly as possible and a shot to the head with his high-powered rifle was sure to do the job.
As the world around him waited in silence, the bear slowly turned. Sniffing the air, seeming to sense another’s presence, the bear almost fled. But it seemed desperate. Robert almost felt bad for it. There wasn’t much out here in the artic for nourishment and he knew that the bear was on the verge of starvation. He even had a twinge of guilt at the fact that he was human and he was in the bear’s world. But Robert had been here for years, this was now his home as well as the bears and he had every right to protect himself.
With the bears head in his sites, Robert carefully pulled the trigger, feeling the recoil of the powerful rifle slam against his shoulder. The front of the bear’s skull exploded in a mass of blood and bone. Stunned, the bear shook its head, brain matter flying in all directions. Its body twitched violently, a loud bellow erupted from its throat and then it fell to the ground, dead.
Robert stood up from the pile of snow he was hiding behind. Slinging the rifle over his shoulder he trudged forward through the snow toward the dead polar bear. Standing over it, he looked down to see that there was very little blood oozing from the bear’s head. The air outside was a little above 20 degrees fahrenheit and the meat under the bears skull where the bullet had gone through was already beginning to freeze over. If Robert had not been within walking distance of his cabin he probably would have taken only a little of the meat and left the rest to be eaten by the numerous carrion animals that wandered the barren landscape. But today, nothing would be wasted.
Removing the six inch bowie knife from the sheath hanging from his waist he set to work on dismantling the bear. It would have been impossible for him to drag the one ton bear even three feet, let alone the quarter mile to his cabin, so he cut off the bears arms and legs, set them aside and began working on gutting the bear. Once finished, he placed the parts on the sledge he brought with him and began to drag the sledge through the snow. Luckily the snow was only a couple of feet deep and he was able to make a lot of progress in only a short amount of time.
When he was within one hundred feet of his cabin, he stopped to take a quick break, and that’s when he heard it. Above him came a tremendous explosion. Louder than any thunder clap, Robert had to place his hands over his ears to block out the sound. Looking up, using his hand to block out the glaring sun, he saw rings of fire spreading away from a large, black object. The object was growing larger, it was moving towards the planet at incredible speeds. Robert saw tiny black dots move towards the object and again came the thunder clap and the numerous bursts of flame. Robert stared, stunned. He didn’t know what to make of it.
Leaving the quartered bear where it was, Robert ran forward through the snow towards his cabin. Up the steps he flew, two at a time. Kicking the door open he ran to the kitchen and grabbed a pair of binoculars. Running back outside he thrust the binoculars to his eyes and stared up into the sky. Adjusting the focus with shaky hands, he stared through the lenses and gasped at what he saw.
A giant black rock that had to be at least one thousand feet in length, was quickly hurtling towards the planet. Robert’s first guess was that it was an asteroid. But it didn’t look like any type of asteroid he had every seen in books or magazines. It was smooth, almost like obsidian. The outside of it seemed to shimmer in a multitude of colors when the sunlight hit it. Like waves, the colors washed over the object.
From the left came more of the black dots he had seen before. Robert adjusted the focus, zooming in on the dots. This time he recognized what they were: missles. Somebody was trying to destroy this thing! He watched as the missles struck the black mass, and again came the explosion and the flames, but nothing happened to the rock. It kept on coming as if nothing had happened. Robert focused his attention back on the object. There wasn’t even a scratch. What the fuck was this thing??
Robert took the binoculars away from his eyes, left them hanging from his neck with the rifle and ran back into his cabin. Inside he looked around, frantic. Taking steady breaths, he calmed himself and moved over to the radio in the corner of his kitchen. Turning it on, he flipped through the dials trying to find a signal, anything. But all that he came up with was static. For the first time in his life, he regretted living out here in the middle of nowhere. He wanted desperately to know what was going on.
Sitting there, fully dressed in his winter gear, sweat dripping from his nose and thinking about what to do next, he suddenly felt the floor begin to shake. The plates in the sink started rattling, the clock on the wall fell to the floor, shattering the face plate. Everything in the cabin started breaking. Robert felt like he was in the midst of an earthquake. He stood up, balancing himself against the kitchen counter. He knew he should run down to the basement and lock the door behind him, but curiosity got the better of him and he headed back out onto his front porch.
On any other day, the view was spectacular from this vantage point. The snow covered mountains in the distance glowed from the arctic sun, the lake to the right surrounded by pine trees was picture perfect. But looking up and seeing the giant black rock falling above him caused Roberts heart to pound uncontrollably. He saw the black dots shoot toward the rock again. Someone had made one final, desperate attempt to blow this thing up. But the missles hit again, without effect.
From the corner of his eye, Robert saw a tiny flash of silver light streak through the sky. Before he could get the binoculars to his eyes for a better look, a stray missle, silent from this distance, crashed into the silver object, exploding in a ball of flame. The silver object, emerging from the explosion with a trail of smoke billowing out from behind it, shot through the air at incredible speeds, a sonic boom erupting in its wake. Robert watched as the object disappeared behind a distant mountain.
Robert turned his gaze back to the rock, it was here!! When the rock hit he was surprised that he didn’t hear or see anything happen at first. The world was quiet, everything was still. But then, beyond the peak of the highest mountain, he saw a blinding light and then he felt the ground under his feet shift. He was thrown hard on the ground and was sure that his wrist was broken. The cabin shifted to the right and he heard everything inside smash on the floor.
Rising quickly to his feet, he stared out at the mountain, which was only about fifty miles away. The peak, which he saw only moments before, exploded as a geyser of snow, rock and whatever else came crashing over the top of it. The wave of destruction was quickly moving towards him. Panicking, he ran back into his destroyed cabin, moving around turned over tables and chairs, jumping over numerous objects that were scattered about and headed to the door to his basement. The cabin moved again and Robert almost fell, but caught himself in time.
Tearing the basement door open, he moved inside, slammed and locked the door behind him and ran down the stairs as quickly as possible. In the back of the basement was another door. Moving aside skis and boxes of blankets and clothes, he opened the door and quickly moved inside the small room. Flicking on a light switch he turned and closed the door behind him, locking this one as well. Sitting down on a wooden box filled with canned goods, he caught his breath and waited in silence.
The walls around him were a foot thick and made of steel. He knew that he was relatively safe. This shelter had been made in case of an avalanche, but would it protect him from the destruction moving toward him?? The only thing he could do now was wait and hope.