Damien Kova
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Northcote Impact Part 2
🕑 Added 2017-03-09 16:11:00 +0000 UTCFinally, my family comes in. First up is my mother, bawling her eyes out that her fifteen year old is awake after three months. “Gryffon!” She calls through her tears as she pulls my neck into her death grip of a hug.
Second was my father. Happy to see me awake, but much calmer than Mum was. “About time you woke up, Son.” His voice seemed different than when I heard it before I left for school that day. He’s not one to show worry, but it’s easy to tell in his voice when he is. Now was one of the times when he was.
Last, before the nurse anyway, was my little sister, age ten. Anne. We have the usual sibling relationship, fighting 65% of the time, silence 10%, and helping each other out with homework and such the rest of the time. Saying nothing, she knew she’d have to wait on Mum to stop her crying before she could say anything.
As the family told me stories about the months that passed, their worries, and even the gifts that were on the table, the nurse checked my vitals and asked me to try to speak. Once again, nothing. Giving a light nod and a quiet “I’ll be right back”, she left the room and returned only a few seconds later with a whiteboard and markers for me to “speak” with for anything that wasn’t a yes or no question. She gave one final look over the machines in the room and my IV and left to leave me with my family. Deciding to write first before anyone spoke, I wrote “Hey, Anne. Didn’t get to say it earlier. Can we open gifts now? Might help me remember what happened at school.”
“Of course, Gryffon. We did miss your birthday after all.” Dad spoke up, smiling as my hands moved along the board with ease. “First, we’ll open your gift from Anne.” I gave a quick nod and placed the board into my lap with a smile, happy to see Anna actually getting me something without Mum having bought it for her.
“It’s just a pair of earbuds, Bro!” Her cheerful little voice rang out as Dad handed me the gift. “You keep saying how I take yours or Jack loses them at school, so I bought you a pair!”
I smile, opening the box the earbud come in, almost ripping it open as I do. Perfect, finally a pair I can stash away and hide in my bag soon. I stare off into space, a memory of Impact Day coming back to me. There was a student listening to music around Jack and I. I set the earbuds around my neck as I grab the board once more. “Other student next to us.” Erase. “Jennie from Chess Club?”
Jennie Schetrom. Same form class as Jack and I and head of the Chess Club, undefeated as well. Third highest marks in school as well. She was one of those students who enjoyed dying her hair every few months to a slightly different color and kept to herself unless one of her few friends were around, as if studying her classmates or something. Maybe a few inches shorter than Jack or I and piercing blue eyes that sent one classmate to extreme measures to flirt with her just because he couldn’t stop thinking about her eyes.
I move the board back to my lap and shake my head, smiling to my family as their looks seemed worried for me. Opening my mouth by instinct this time, finally words form from my lips. “Next gift, please?” Jagged and shaky at first, my family’s eyes still light up at me having my motor functions back again.
Mum moves over to the table and picks up a decent sized box, this one actually having wrapping paper on it. “Not that big, wonder what it could be.” Chuckling, I hold my hands out to take the gift from her.
“You’ll be surprised, Gryff, sweetie. Open it up and see.”
With a quick nod, I do as told and rip the wrapping off of the box and my eyes widen at the sight. The first book in a series I was hoping to read in a year when it’d be sold internationally. Known as Nightmare School. But under the book was something I had been asking for for almost a year now, if not longer. A laptop that I could use for schoolwork to make it easier on me. Opening it, I noticed the NVIDIA sticker on the bottom left corner. A gaming laptop? No. That’s far too expensive. One look at the joyed expression my mother was wearing made it clear that it indeed was. Holding my arms out to my mother, I gestured for a hug. “Thank you.” I said as tears began to form in my eyes. Without hesitation, my mother came to me and hugged me in another one of her bear hugs.
“He better be grateful for that laptop.” I could hear my father say as I let go of Mum. “That thing cost us more than it did to buy him that book he wanted.”
“Well, I imagine it costs a lot, Dad, but really. I am grateful for everything you gave me.”
“What costs a lot, Son? The laptop? Well of course, but I didn’t say that…..did I?” His pause gave me reason for concern. Was I hearing things? I heard him so clearly, though. An ear dysfunction? Possibly. Shaking my head, I dismiss the topic from my mind and start setting up my laptop, keeping my new book close as I’m excited to read it once I get a chance. If I get a chance.
But once the laptop is setup, internet connected, etcetera, there’s just one thing I have to check out before I can have any real fun. A quick google search later, and I have my answer.
A meteorite, at the slowest, travels at 25,000 mph. In kph, that’s… 40,000 kph. An unnaturally easy calculation. A softball-sized meteorite weighs about 3 kilograms. That was about ten softballs, judging on what I saw before it hit. 30 kilograms, times 40,000 kph, equals 1,200,000 Newtons of force.
It takes only 4,000 Newtons of force to break a human bone.
I directly withstood, at the minimum, more than 300 times the amount of force required to shatter my body.
And I’m already awake, with nothing broken- at least, that I can tell- in three months.
How?
Not to mention the explosion that would have been made as 24 gigajoules of kinetic energy hits the ground and gets converted into sound and heat.
That is six kilotons of explosive force.
And that is about a third of the explosion of the first nuclear weapon.
TL:DR, I was hit with one third of a nuke.
