Excerpt: Rocked

“At ten fifty-four this morning, Eastern Time, an asteroid entered the Earth’s atmosphere and struck the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. Satellite imagery of the area suggests that the impacting body had a maximum diameter of one hundred meters—that’s roughly the size of a football field—and left behind a crater over one mile wide at impact.” (Brigadier General Frank) Downs paused a moment, as the reporters began to murmur among themselves. A couple reporters audibly gasped.

“The preliminary seismic readings from the United States Geological Survey indicate that the impact was in the range of two hundred megatons—two hundred million tons of TNT,” Downs continued. “To give you an idea how much explosive force that is, that would be the payload of twenty of our old Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles.” The reporters started up again, and Downs gave them a moment to settle down.

“We do not know, at this point, how many casualties there are or will be from this disaster. Charlotte is a large city with over seven hundred thousand people within its boundaries and over two million in its metropolitan area. To speculate on how many people may be dead or injured is, right now, irresponsible."