The Ruins of Mankind
Return to Earth The capsule broke through the atmosphere with a sound like tearing metal and thunder. The sky outside her viewport was a roiling sheet of orange fire, clouds shredded by her reentry trail. Commander Mara Vance held the flight stick steady even though there was no mission control to guide her, no telemetry feed, no calm voice in her ear to say, Copy that, Odyssey One, you’re looking good on descent. There hadn’t been a signal from Earth in seven months. She had hoped—God, she had hoped —that it was a system glitch, a solar flare, maybe even a communications blackout. But as the capsule fell through layers of poisoned cloud and ash-dark atmosphere, she realized the truth wasn’t technical. It was terminal. The world was gone. She came down in what had once been the Midwest. A dry lakebed now, flat and colorless, the cracked surface reflecting the faint red glow of distant fires. The parachute tore in the wind, dragging the capsule until it crunched against a rusted car...
