Under a Broken Sun Read Online Free Page A

your name is out there it’s out there in a bad way.”
    I looked around at the crowd buzzing from one point to the next.  Many ran, several sat wide-eyed and trembling, some tried in vain to use a phone, but nothing worked.  Cell phones were dead.  Phone lines were dead.  Even the cops’ radios were dead.   Marilyn was right.  People were panicking.  And when they panic, they need a release, a bad guy.  Finding, blaming, and killing the bad guy.  A communal means of cutting.
    “C’mon, we have to get out of here,” she said grabbing my hand. 
    More cops evacuated the international terminal; lines of people spilled out from the exits like kids executing a school fire drill.  Officers stood along the line with their arms outstretched making sure people stayed in line and orderly.  One younger cop - husky, like an ex-football player - waved us over.  “You two, let’s go.  Get in line.”
    Marilyn and I hustled to the back of the line and watched carefully.  We walked down the frozen escalator, filed out of the double door with the others, and entered the departure zone.
    The heat blasted my face like a desert; dry and abrasive, not at all like what you'd expect on the east coast.   It had to be over a hundred.  Terrorists couldn’t do that.  Not even the worst solar flare I could think of could alter the Earth's atmospheric conditions.  What the hell happened?
    Marilyn led me back to the edge of the crowd furthest away from airport.  I scanned the faces while Marilyn looked for our escape.  Some people, lost and wandering like the walking dead, drifted towards parked cars, probably looking for theirs.  Shock resonated on just about everyone’s face.  Especially the guy up ahead of me.  His eyes locked on mine, his grew wide, and he turned and muscled his way towards the nearest cop.
    It was the manager from the PC place.  He remembered me, frantically trying to get on the internet, print something out, and then BOOM.  Everything died.
    I watched him grab an officer, turn and point towards me.  I ducked down, grabbing Marilyn.  “Shit.  We gotta go,” I said. 
    We ran out towards the parking garage.  I stole a glance behind me but no one was following.  Maybe the cop thought the manager was whacked.  Maybe he didn’t care. 
     
    Then again…
     
    “STOP!” the cop yelled from behind a wall of people.  “Hold it right there!”
    Marilyn and I ran full force.  I heard the cop stumble through the crowd but we didn't hang around to check.  We bolted out of the front of the garage towards the highway. 
    Time had come to a standstill.  Cars sat on the highway, in the parking lot, in mid-turn, completely frozen.  People sat on their cars, some sunbathing, some just looking confused.   None of them noticing another airliner floating down behind them in the sky.
    “Freeze!”  The cop yelled.  We didn’t.  I grabbed Marilyn’s hand and ran towards the landing plane.
    “Adam, Jesus, what are you doing?”
    “You wanna run back to the airport?” I yelled.
    The plane dipped lower, far too low to clear the parking garage.  It glided over our heads, close enough for me to see the rivets on its underbelly.
    We ran into the underpass of the highway as the cop fired a warning shot, exploding concrete close to my head. The plane slammed into the parking garage with a thud followed by an air-ripping explosion.  Both Marilyn and I left our feet as the shockwave tossed us forward.  I don’t remember what happened to her.  I met a concrete pillar face first and blacked out.
     
     
    When I came to the sun was just beginning to set.  My head throbbed so hard I could’ve taken my pulse just by paying attention.  I looked around the underpass.  To my left, Marilyn lay on her back, arm flopped over her head.  Fires roared in the parking garage, and black smoke rose mixing dark grays on the canvas of the sunset. 
    I crawled my way over to Marilyn and turned her over, afraid