Page 19 of Sixty Meters Under

“Good. Finally.”

“Have many people arrived?”

“Yeah, the hall is full all the time.”

Anna smiled as she looked ahead at the rows of traffic. They moved faster in that part of the street, but suddenly the car in front of her braked. Anna stopped just in time to avoid crashing. She thought she was lucky that the driver behind her also reacted well and did not end up in her trunk.

“What the–!” she cursed, and her eyes went wide. She was still holding her phone to her ear, and for a moment forgot that she had her son on the line.

“What happened?”She could hear Lennart’s worried tone. That brought her back.

“I… I don’t know. The car in front of me braked and stopped.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I stopped in time.” Anna could hear her son let out a sigh of relief. “Wait,” she added. “I think someone crashed in front of us.”

“Really?”Lennart asked, sounding irritated.

“It looks like…” Anna saw people gathering on the road. “I have to hang up. I’ll call you back.” She ended the call and got out of the car to see what had happened. She saw that two cars had collided in front of hers.

“Shit!” Her instincts kicked in and she secured her car then rushed to the place of the accident. There was a chance someone required help.

?

“What did she say?” Liam asked when he saw the worried look on his friend’s face.

Lennart put the phone down on the table. “It looks like someone crashed in front of her.”

“Is she alright?”

“She said she’s fine, but I’m worried because I know her. She probably went to see if anyone needed medical assistance. That wouldn’t worry me if the situation outside was normal.”

“I get you. But at least she’s okay.” Liam tried to be positive.

“I hope it stays that way.”

Lennart paced the room, debating whether to go after her. Liam noticed he was becoming increasingly anxious, so he said, “Calm down man. It’s gonna be alright.”

“How can you be so sure about that?” Lennart snapped.

Liam was about to say that the ambulance will be there soon, if someone got seriously injured, but at that same moment he remembered what the situation was like in the town. “I can’t. But at least wait until she calls you back.”

“I will not calm down until she’s here with us.”

“I know. But give her a few minutes, at least. Okay? We can go to search if we don’t hear back from her.”

Lennart stopped pacing, ran a hand through his hair and released a heavy sigh. He had a few words hanging at the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t dare to say them out loud. Instead, he slumped into his chair and stared at his phone, willing it to ring again.

?

Strange sounds tore Ryosuke from his nap. He looked around, confused, his eyelids blinking rapidly. It took him a minute to remember he was at the airport with his family, and that the Third World War had begun.

Ryosuke furrowed his brows, surprised that sleep had overtaken him. The waiting seemed endless, and he outstretched his arm to check his wristwatch. At that moment he realized his fiancé was sleeping with her head resting on his shoulder, so he tried his best not to wake her up. His sister was on his other side resting her head on the pillow.

His watch showed it was already four in the morning, but Ryosuke knew it was still hours until their takeoff.

He felt stiff and uncomfortable but tried to remain in the same position. Since he couldn’t do much, he scanned the waiting room. There were still a lot of people waiting, probably more than half were sleeping with their heads hanging in various positions. Some of them looked comical, but Ryosuke didn’t find it funny; the other half were immersed and hunched over their phones. A peaceful night, if one didn’t think about the events at the global level, and Ryosuke didn’t want to think about that. At least not too much.