Home Planet: Awakening (Part 1) (16 page)

I took a deep breath and got to my feet, unsure of how long I’d been lost in thought. The eyepiece beckoned and I accepted its silent invitation after wiping the lingering moisture from my eyes.

The moon had continued its rise over planet X, forming a gray semi-circle on its upper left horizon. I studied its detail—the patches of light and dark, craters of all size—then went back to the finderscope to view its entirety.

I stood up in astonishment, my heart racing, my head in a daze.

“Oh my God … That’s not right,” I whispered. “It
can’t
be …”

I calmed my breathing and returned to the unreality of what the finderscope told.

This wasn’t the Aura
system and the ship hadn’t diverted to some contingency planet light years beyond.

I’d seen this moon before in the night skies of Idaho as a boy. Its face was different from this angle—the
Man in the Moon
, forever facing the home world—but there was no mistaking. This was the Moon,
Earth’s
moon. It meant something else too. Something frightening. The frozen planet I was looking at was Earth.

Humanity’s once beautiful world had changed beyond all recognition, but what the hell had happened? Who made it down there alive? What became of my mom and sister? So many questions and a burning, blazing desire for answers. I suspected there was only one way to find the truth—to go to the surface of the home planet.

*

TO BE CONTINUED IN

HOME PLANET PART II: APOCALYPSE

Release date: February 6
th
, 2016

Amazon US:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019S06FO2

Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B019S06FO2