CHAPTER SEVEN ( THE RETURN)

The condition in the U.S had deteriorated beyond anticipated imperilment. Katherine called Tom to inform him of the new development from the white house. She updated Tom about the readiness of the Chinese government to use the solar machine. Katherine instructed Tom and Ben to return to the office. Ben was turning the chopper arround, when he saw a tsunami. The Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers in Antarctica had become notoriously vulnerable glaciers, and have begun retreating at a rate unseen in the last 5,500 years. The Thwaites glacier is known as the 'doomsday' glacier, with areas of 192,000 km2 (nearly the size of the island of Great Britain) and 162,300 km2, respectively. The Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers had melted significant, leading to the rises in the global sea level. The water bodies rose to about 500 feet above sea level. The water flowed into the city washing away anything on its path. Due to the temperature fall to around - 900c, as the water flows forwards, it froze from behind. The water rose to the level of the chopper and seized the control of the chopper from Ben. The propeller above the chopper was hit by an ice blast, breaking it instantly. He tried maneuvering away from the waters, but the chopper got absorbed into the water. There was nothing else Ben could do than to surrendered the fight. Tthe chopper sunk into the extremely cold water. The water began to rushed into the chopper. "May day, May day, May day, our chopper is going down. " Ben called out before the chopper got hit by the car Sam was in. This led to Ben's side of the chopper being exposed and Ben was flushed out into the water. The chopper landed on the frozen ice below and everyone both in the chopper and the car lost consciousness. Katherine could no longer hear anything from their end. She called and called, but no response elicited. He became scared of losing another team. All of a sudden, the sky brightened up with the light and heat from the HL-2M in the milky-way. There was serious heat emanating from the sky where the HL-2M machine was installed. The intense heat from the machine dissolved the ice and it flowed back into the ocean. Some of the waters were also turned into vapor through evaporation. Katherine realized it was safe to some length to now move out, she decided to go for the search of the team. She was on her way out, when Helen intercepted her and asked about her husband. She explained to her what had happened to them. Helen couldn't hold herself together, tears rolled down her cheeks thinking why it had been all about her family since the start of the menace. She got into the van with Katherine to search for the team, most importantly her own husband. Rescue teams had started to rescue everyone of the survivors. Katherine tracked the signal from Tommy's phone and the chopper was located. They pulled out Tommy and the other two, but couldn't find Ben. He had swept off the chopper through the broken screen. The medics were able to resuscitate Tommy and the other guys. "Where's my husband?" Helen asked from Tommy. "We were in the chopper together, " Tommy said. Helen couldn't hold back her tears. She started shouting her husband's name. Several rescue teams were already on ground taking care of the victims. One of them already found Ben and treated him. He was already settled on the stretcher, when he heard Helen's voice from afar calling his name. He rose up to a sitting position and set his gaze in the direction where he believed the voice was coming from. He sighted Helen, stood up and moved towards her. Ben called her name and she turned towards him immediately. She ran into his embrace, with her heart still pouncing in her chest. " I thought i had lost you honey, " Helen said. "No honey, I'm going nowhere, "Ben responded. Ben gave his wife a long kiss and both went straight to meet Katherine. She received them with a brilliant and commending smile." Thank you Ben for sticking with us today, even though it wasn't your responsibility, you still risked your life in a lot of ways to ensure our victory, " Katherine said. She parted Ben's shoulders to commend him.

Everyone returned to the agency to complete their reports and document some vital aspects of the scenario. Ben's mission was to pick up his children from the agency's medical center. Has he was getting close, he heard his daughter; Grace having a seemingly heart to heart discussion. He approached unnoticed to see with his eyes what was happening. He saw Peter holding her daughter's hands on his lying bed talking about having a nice time together after the ordeal. Henry and Haley were nowhere to be seen. Ben decided to look around for them too, and found them sitting together on the sofa by the corridor. Haley rested her head against Henry's chest. The two were seemingly in a romantic mood too. Ben smiled and then cleared his throat, the two disentangled and Henry approached his father with a hug. "It's time to go home, "Ben said to Henry. He looked back at Haley with a concerned look, wondering how she'll get home. His father recognized the feeling and instantly offered Haley the chance to come with them. She accepted the offer without hesitation. Henry was so happy, he returned to Haley and grabbed her hands. " let's go," he said as he pulled her to her feet. Ben returned to meet Grace and informed her of their readiness to go home. Peter wasn't yet in the condition to leave the hospital, so Ben told him his parents will soon meet up with him. Peter was full of appreciation for Ben's intervention in his survival. Grace bade him goodbye with a peck has her father looked and they head out of the agency. On their way home, they saw how much destruction and death the country had suffered, within the couple of hours of the Menace.