Chapter 5: The Repercussions
“Are you sending it again?”
Sam was tired of Mike sending the leap vehicle again and again. She did not understand what Mike was trying to do. He had been only getting black images.
“No. I am done. The situation is more worrisome than it looks. I sent the leap vehicle to four different parts of the world. The conditions are same.”
“What the beep?”
“Then it struck me that why were we not able to get the images of the sky. So, I programmed the vehicle to rise to the level of the stratosphere and then take the images. The images were shocking. The surface of the earth is covered by a smoke cloud which is so dense that it reflects back all sun rays.”
“But we have our own flashes, they should have taken something?” Sam’s voice was shaky and her breath was risen.
“Exactly the question I asked myself, and then the answer came to me, smog – smoke fog. The smoke cloud stretches till the surface of the earth making zero visibility.”
Mike took a sip of water from his glass. Sam had her hands crossed over her head.
“How could this have happened?”
“This is not all. The temperatures are below zero everywhere. I assume in these conditions, all water bodies would have frozen. Without sunlight all plants would be dead. It is unbelievable to think but there is no life possible on the surface of earth after 100 years. Even for creatures that live in the deepest waters there is very little chance, with no oxygen being dissolved in water now, they would not last long if they are not dead by now.”
Sam had her hand over her mouth. Her eyes were wet.
“Is there any chance anyone would have survived?”
“They will not survive long. The surface conditions will only get worse.”
“Couldn’t we do something to stop all this from happening?”
“I think we can.”
Sam wiped her tears with her fingers and set into motion.
She said, “We must first find out the time when it all started. What do you say, we go 50 years?”
“No, just 1 year would be fine.” Mike was slow and was thinking as he spoke.
“Do you think that it is going to happen next year?” Her voice again shaky. Her whole body was shaking.
“I do not know when it is going to happen but I think we need only one leap to know when and why this will happen.”
“Explain.”
“Considering the fact that we want to know when and why this catastrophe happens, we are going to leap to different times in the future. If we start today, then it might maximum take a year to completely understand the reasons. So, after a year, we will exactly know when and why it is happening. If we leap to the next year, there will be someone ready with this complete data and so we need not make any more leaps.”
“How are you sure that you will get this information? It may so happen that we do not make any more leaps.”
“We do not make any more leaps only when we have the information. If we do not have the information we will be making leaps. If we make leaps, then this information will be with us. One way or the other, we have the information. I hope you understand now?”
“No. Who will give the information?”
“I will.”
“And how are we going to receive it? Like in what form?”
“I am going to receive the information.”
to be continued…