Matt Doeden - Can You Survive an Asteroid Strike?

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YOU are living through a worrisome time in the future of humanity. An enormous is on a collision course with Earth. As everyone scrambles for safety, can you keep your wits and do what it takes to survive? Start your adventure by turning the page, then make your choices as you go along. Every decision you make will affect how your story unfolds. Do you have what it takes to survive the impending colossal impact?

Start on the next page, then follow the links at the bottom of each page. The choices YOU make will change your outcome. After you finish your path, go back and read the others to see how other choices would have changed your fate! Use your device's back buttons or page navigation to jump back to your last choice to make a different decision.

YOU CHOOSE the path you take through an Asteroid Strike.

You wake with a start. Sirens voices shouting. Footsteps thunder on the floor above you. You sit up on the motel bed, rubbing your eyes. Whats happening?

You step to the window and throw open the ugly floral-patterned drapes. Outside, people are running and shouting. Car horns blare out. Is that a tornado siren wailing in the distance? You notice that your parents car isnt in their spot. That means theyre still sightseeing in the city.

You turn and grab the remote for the TV. A news program is showing a photograph. At first, it just looks like a random smudge of light in the night sky.

according to NASA, the asteroid is about 8 kilometers across, says a womans voice. It will strike somewhere in the North Atlantic at 9:01 p.m. Eastern Standard Time tomorrow.

Your knees go weak, and you collapse onto the bed. For the next several minutes, you stare at the screen, watching and listening with a sense of numb disbelief.

You change the channel. Another station shows a news anchor interviewing a man identified as Dr. Grady, an astrophysicist at Stanford University.

How bad will this be? asks the news anchor. Arent we lucky that its hitting water instead of land?

No, no, no, says Grady. If anything, thats worse. You have to understand, this impact will affect everyone on Earth. It will create a 1 to 2 kilometers high. It will set off massive earthquakes worldwide, which will cause even more tsunamis.

The news anchors face goes white. So people need to get to high ground to be safe?

Grady sighs. In the short term, I suppose so. But understand, this changes everything. Flaming debris raining down everywhere. Massive earthquakes rocking the entire planet. Rock, dust, and steam blanketing Earth. Were talking about . Little or no sunlight getting through for years.

Grady leans forward in his chair. Understand this. The world as we know it ends tomorrow. Civilization will fall. Most of the worlds species will be extinct within a few months. And that may include us.

The remote slips from your hand. You sit in stunned silence for a few moments. Then you reach for your phone to call your parents. But you dont have any service. The lines are probably overloaded.

You glance at the map that sits on the nightstand. Youre staying in a little motel about 20 miles west of Washington D.C., near Dulles Airport. You and your parents have been touring the East Coast of North America for the past month. Today, the plan was to hit up the National Mall in Washington D.C. But this morning, you werent feeling well and decided to go back to sleep.

Its only 20 miles. But now, with highways jammed and phones down, its almost like theyre a world away. You run again to the window. To the east, the Appalachian Mountains rise above the landscape. High ground. It might be your best shotyour only shotat survival. But if you go that way, even if you leave a note, what are the odds youll ever see your parents again?

You can almost hear your dads voice. Get somewhere safe! Waiting here, or even worse, going to the city, would be suicide. You hold out hope that you all will survive and meet again. Right now, you focus on getting out of the path of the tsunami.

You cram everything you have into your backpack. A flashlight, two bags of trail mix, a change of clothes, a warm sweatshirt, some beef jerky, and every water bottle you can find.

The last thing you grab is a map of the area. Its about 60 miles west to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Thats your goal. Your watch reads 12:38. Youve got a day and a half to cover the distance.

With your pack over your shoulder, you cross the motel parking lot with no plan other than to keep going west. Around you, the world seems to be going mad. Roads are gridlocked as people try to flee. Emergency sirens blare from all directions. People run through the streets. Its a full-fledged panic.

You follow highway 29 out of Centreville, just a few miles south of Dulles. Above, the sky is filled with planes and helicopters. All of them are headed west.

A teenage boy whizzes by you on the shoulder riding a purple mountain bike. You stare after him jealously. A sturdy bike could be the difference between living and dying.

Half a mile up the road, you hear groaning coming from a stand of nearby trees. You step off the shoulder to investigate and notice the flash of purple in a bush. Its the bike! A few feet away, the boy lies in a heap. Blood streaks his face, and hes holding his left leg.

Are you okay? you ask, stepping closer.

He moans. Hit a rock. Wiped out, hard. His leg is badly broken, twisted and with bone sticking out of the skin. You feel the blood draining from your face.

Its bad, says the boy weakly. I know what this means. Im done. Take the bike. Get somewhere safe.

You cant bear the thought of never seeing your parents again. You know they were headed to the National Mall to see the Washington Monument and the White House. You start cramming everything you have into your backpack, set on hiking the 20 miles or so to downtown D.C. But before you leave, good sense gets the better of you. Your parents know youre here. They may be coming back this way already. The smart play is to stay put.

Waiting makes for a long, miserable day. The news is almost too depressing to watch. The scene outside isnt much better. Streams of people are fleeing west. Tempers are running short. You hear more than a few rounds of gunfire. You find yourself checking the window every few minutes. Day stretches into evening. The evening turns into a long, restless night. By morning, you cant wait for your parents any longer. Its time to go find them.

The Metro would normally be the quickest way into the city. But one look at the street tells you that the trains arent operating. Its likely they were overrun, or that Metro employees simply fled the city.

In the parking lot, a family is loading their things into the back of a small sedan. A boy, maybe 8 years old, is crying. We dont have room for your scooter, his dad scolds. Forget it. We need to go, now!

The small motorized scooter tips over as the car roars out of the parking lot. You move fast, scooping it up. Youre in luckthe battery is charged!