Format: Times New Roman, double spaced, 12 point font.
Due Friday, November 16, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
End of the World
Your assignment is to create a three-page story about how the world will end. This story can go in any direction you'd like. You can make it humorous or serious, but try to make your story as creative and original as possible. You are competing. The person who writes the best story, as judged by your teacher, will receive an exemption from the next long writing assignment (however, you may choose to complete the exempt assignment for extra credit).
Format: Times New Roman, double spaced, 12 point font.
Due Friday, November 16, 2012
Format: Times New Roman, double spaced, 12 point font.
Due Friday, November 16, 2012
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ReplyDelete“Hey Kristin,” my father called from downstairs. “Come down here for a second.”
Sighing, I paused the youtube video I was listening to, locked my iPhone and walked downstairs. For some strange reason, I was always annoyed when one of my parents called me downstairs while I wasn’t even doing anything useful. When I walked into the kitchen, where my father was, he said, “Listen to this.” I heard his voicemail, which was saying there was one new message. The message, turned out to be the school superintendent saying that “All schools will be closed due to the hurricane yet to come.” Another hurricane? Another day or two, or even a week off from school? Selfishly, I grew very excited because school was one thing I couldn’t stand. Then, I remembered something.
“We better not have off on the 20th,” I said. “If the choir concert is canceled I’m going to be upset.” On the positive side though, I wouldn’t have to worry about doing terrible on “Pie Jesu,” the song in which I had a solo.
“Don’t get your hopes up too high,” my father replied. “we might loose power again. This storm is said to be worse than Hurricane Sandy, and it won’t weaken anytime soon.”
Apparently, there was no use in evacuating, because the storm was going to be traveling globally. Now, I was very nervous. What if this was going to be the end of the world? If so, then I had to think about what was on my bucket list. Unfortunately, a lot of these things couldn’t be done if this storm was going to take place tomorrow. For instance, I don’t think I would be able to go sky diving or parasailing, and it would be a bit impossible to look for plane tickets to go to Liverpool England, or cross Abbey Road in London barefoot. The least I could do now was call up every single person in my contacts list, even the ones I haven’t talked to in a long time. The least I would say was to stay safe and that I hoped they would come out of the storm in one piece.
At this thought, I ran back upstairs, grabbed my iPhone and started going through my contacts list. I spent hours making phone calls that night, and I didn’t even have to call some people. I was constantly receiving calls, and it was difficult to have a conversation without someone else trying to get a hold of me. Still, It felt very good to know that I was able to contact everyone I knew for what might be the last time, and give them my regards. I also reflected on today, glad that I was at guitar center with my friends, Ethan and Sabrina for hours. It was our favorite store to go to, rather than clothes stores, which is what made us different. It was great that we had done this, because most weekends, I just sit around browsing the internet. If the world was going to end soon, then I at least knew my last day was fun-filled and somewhat active.
ReplyDeleteJust then, the back door swung open and then slammed again. That had to be my older sister, Jennifer, who always came back from her job at Quick Check in that manner. “Guys,” she was huffing. “did you hear about the hurricane that’s supposed to happen tonight? It’s supposed to bring the world to an end cause it’s supposed to be global. Seriously, I don’t know about you but I think it’s just a whole load of bull,”
“Jenny,” my mother said, irritated. “I’m not in the mood for your rants. I just got back from the grocery store trying to stock up on food, and it was a real hassle.”
Most days, I would ignore all this and just listen to music, thinking about how dramatic my sister could be, and that my mother should stop “whining” about how tired she was. Tonight though, I walked out of my room and went downstairs to be a part of what was going on. I walked jauntily, singing REM’s “It’s the end of the world as we know it on the top of my lungs, just to add to the commotion.
“Boy,” my father said. “someone’s quite happy that the world might end.”
“Please,” I scoffed. “It probably might not even happen. You know those crazy people only say those things for publicity. besides...” I broke out into song, “I’m not scared of dying and I don’t really care, if it’s peace you find in...”
“All right,” my mother said, flatly. “That’s enough.” Just then, whoosh! A sudden gust of wind came rushing over the house, shaking it harder than ever before. Quickly, I dropped down onto my stomach, but in a split second, it stopped.
“Are you kidding,” Jennifer complained, her temper clearly flaring. “Another power outage? Does nature think we need to go through all this again after Sandy? God, I wish Mother Nature were a person so I could go shove a knife up her fat...”
“Jen!” My mother scolded. “Please, enough with the cursing. I know it’s annoying to lose power again, but you should be less irritable.”
My sister turned and went up the stairs, sighing and muttering something under her breath. Since I was totally blind, I had no clue that the lights were turned off, and I didn’t even need light. While my parents were fumbling around for flashlights, I just smiled, thinking to myself, those sited people, they’re so dependent on light and have no blindness skills.
ReplyDelete“Good thing I ordered that Brooklyn lantern after hearing that commercial,” my father was saying. “who knew we’d need to use it another time?” A few moments later, my sister came back downstairs, her guitar in her hand. I could tell this because it was banging against her, the way it always was, with the strings vibrating. “All right, let’s have a jam session,” she suggested. “Kristin, what song?”
This was always something we did when the weather was like this. We had a jam session almost every night during Hurricane Sandy. and it was a great way to pass time. My parents never joined in because they had “no musical abilities,” which wasn’t true with my mother. Nevertheless, I usually did the singing, and my sister did the guitar playing, and necessary harmonizing. It was the only thing both of us liked to do.
We started with the Indigo Girls’ “closer To find.” When we got to the chorus, the sound of pouring rain came from outside. The wind started up again, but it wasn’t quite as bad as that sudden gust from before. The house began to shake again, and all I could do was just be thankful that our house was strong. It didn’t fall during Sandy, so neither should it fall now. Jennifer and I tried drowning out the sounds from outside with the music, but it was no use. The wind was growing a lot stronger, and the rain was now pounding on the roof. Saying that it was pouring barrels was only an understatement. The jam session had clearly come to an end, and we all were getting more frightened by the second.
ReplyDelete“Good thing I ordered that Brooklyn lantern after hearing that commercial,” my father was saying. “who knew we’d need to use it another time?” A few moments later, my sister came back downstairs, her guitar in her hand. I could tell this because it was banging against her, the way it always was, with the strings vibrating. “All right, let’s have a jam session,” she suggested. “Kristin, what song?”
This was always something we did when the weather was like this. We had a jam session almost every night during Hurricane Sandy. and it was a great way to pass time. My parents never joined in because they had “no musical abilities,” which wasn’t true with my mother. Nevertheless, I usually did the singing, and my sister did the guitar playing, and necessary harmonizing. It was the only thing both of us liked to do.
We started with the Indigo Girls’ “closer To find.” When we got to the chorus, the sound of pouring rain came from outside. The wind started up again, but it wasn’t quite as bad as that sudden gust from before. The house began to shake again, and all I could do was just be thankful that our house was strong. It didn’t fall during Sandy, so neither should it fall now. Jennifer and I tried drowning out the sounds from outside with the music, but it was no use. The wind was growing a lot stronger, and the rain was now pounding on the roof. Saying that it was pouring barrels was only an understatement. The jam session had clearly come to an end, and we all were getting more frightened by the second.
Finally, my father announced, “We’re going to the basement! Right now!” My father wasn’t ever really one for throwing orders, but when it came to situations like this, he was always in action and we followed willingly. Now, the house was shaking so hard that I became disoriented. “Hello,” I called out urgently. “I need a guide right now!”
Desperately, I put my hands out until I walked into someone. I grabbed them by the arm and realized it was my sister when she shouted, “Ow! your nails are so long!”
“I’m disoriented! I need your help right now!” I shouted back.
“Come on! Quickly!” my mother shouted, grabbing my other elbow and dragging me towards the basement steps. We all were shouting, grabbing and pulling at each other until we finally fell down the basement steps in a heap. When we landed on the cold stone floor, we didn’t move anymore. My teeth were chattering, and my body was shaking so hard. When I heard the first loud crash, the tears began to stream down my face. How could I have been so naive and stupid? It seemed impossible that only a few minutes ago, I was joking and laughing about what would have come. Now, everything was going to be gone. If the world was going to end, I wanted it to end quickly because at this point, I wanted nothing more than to be dead. I thought of all my friends and acquaintances, wondering if they were all right. Maya, the girl from across the street whom I despised, didn’t even have a basement. For the first time, I was actually praying for her safety. Then, I started wondering what death would be like. Would we actually have an afterlife in Heaven, like we’ve been taught, or would everything just disappear?It was frightening to think about.
ReplyDeleteI got up off the ground, finding no use in just lying here. There was nothing to do but listen to the house tumbling down piece by piece, and the water rushing like a river. The next thing I knew, there was a burst of frigid air, and countless objects were tumbling down and smashing into us. My family and I huddled close together, trying to dodge the falling objects, which wasn’t a success. I nearly fell forward when what I thought was a door collided into me, smashing into my backside. It was impossible to move now, and I hoped once again, that this would all be over. Water came rushing down, soaking my clothes. It rose higher and higher, and soon it went over head. The next thing I knew, I was being dragged down, and there was no way to try and stay afloat.
The pressure increased on top of me, and water filled up my ears. That was one reliable sense I lost. I couldn’t even tell which way was up or down. My head was banging against several hard surfaces, which was followed by a brutal pain. My lungs filled up with water, and I wished for once that I could throw it all up. Slowly, everything seemed to disappear.
When I woke up, it was as if I was drifting out of my body. I tried holding onto what was left of my life, but it was no use. I seemed to be slipping further and further away until the connection between my body and soul was no more. I rose up to the surface, and realized I could move again. I don’t know what it was, but I had this feeling that I had to go a certain direction. I wasn’t sure if this was the right thing to do, but I followed it anyway; There was nothing else I could think of doing. I swam faster and faster, with the feeling that I would somehow be free when I reached wherever I was supposedly going. As I drew closer, I could hear voices; it sounded like a large crowd of people that you would most likely hear in a public place. I found myself rising up into the air, and I never felt more free before. The voices grew louder, and I came closer to meet them.
Nothing was normal today in Washington DC. Houses were burning car alarms filled the air dead bodies littered the streets, oh and the corpses were walking. My name is Max I am a Sargent who was deployed to protect the President from this undead threat. We waited for the Black Hawks that were to come and pick up the President and my unit. Just as the helicopters got to the landing zone the undead started scaling the fence to attack us, we opened up on them, most of the shots were hitting them in the torso or the legs but they weren’t taking them down. I looked down my sights and put a round through the eye of one of these creatures putting it down for good. “Shoot them in the head!!!” I screamed to the men firing, but it was too late the undead were already upon us. I could hear the flesh rip as these creatures ripped the skin away from them opening the blood vessels and enjoying their meal.
ReplyDelete“FALL BACK FALL BACK, protect the President!!!!!!” I yelled skipping backwards and firing my rifle at the same time. Moving back I saw more of my men being taken down by the corpses, as one was pulled under by five he pulled the pins on the grenades on his belt and exploded after a couple seconds. I kept firing until my magazine ran dry then popped in a new one; most of my men were taken down by the walking dead and I was starting to run low on ammunition for my rifle. Including the one mag that I’m running through on the retreat I only have two clips left. A couple of my squad members made it to the black hawks as I did but many of them were not as fortunate. As the birds lift off I was looking at who remained of my group, some were still on the ground trying to fight off the remaining dead, they eventual got cornered and were devoured. I was sad that my fellow comrades were killed by overjoyed that I was able to make it out of there alive.
I moved closer to the cockpit to ask the pilots, “Where are we headed?”
Delete“A secret compound to protect the president, you and the remaining team will be in charge of protecting the president along with his secret service.” He said not looking away from his controls.
I went back to my men and they all looked at me, “So what’s the news Sargent?” One asked out of the rest all wondering the same question I’m sure.
“We will be protecting the president from this threat in a secret bunker, I don’t know where it is but we are headed there now.” I said
We road it the chopper for half an hour before we touched down on the ground again, a convoy greeted us and we all disembarked from the choppers, the secret service huddled around him for protection. We entered the vehicles and drove to a mountain side, after twenty minutes we got out of the vehicles and again the secret service huddled around the president to protect him. We met no resistance while on the move, not one single flesh eater had made it to this area yet, but they were coming I could feel it, they cannot be stopped. My men huddled around me and one asked, “So what now Sarge?” They all stared at me like I knew every answer to all the problems in the world.
“I don’t have the slightest clue Davis, we’ll see what the president will do and we’ll go from there, but no matter what we stick together.” They all nodded in agreement, these men would follow me to the ends of the world without questioning my orders. Sadly thought, they might just do that.
We entered the bunker last after all the President’s advisors and the secret service, there were only twelve of my men left under my command. The halls were lined with pictures of old war heroes and former presidents, it was a sight to see, and I doubt that any other grunt had the privilege to see something this amazing. We followed the secret service members until we came to a wooden door and they stopped us. One turned to me and said, “The president wants to speak with you, hand over your firearms and follow Floyd.” He pointed to a man and I handed over my rifle and side arm to Daniels, one of my surviving soldiers.
DeleteI followed Floyd through the two doors and inside there was a large wooden table with the president and some of his advisors, there were on military advisors in the room with him. I stood at attention in front of the president and asked, “You wanted to speak with me sir?”
He stood and said, “Yes Sargent you are the highest ranking of the military that I know is still alive and you are now my top advisor for military action at this moment. I need your opinion on what you think we need to do in this our darkest hour.”
I stood awestruck, I never in my life thought I would be an advisor to the president but I knew the situation was grim and there was only one thing I thought we could do. “Sir if I may speak freely?” I asked
“By all means Sargent that is exactly what I need you to do.” He said sitting back in his chair.
“Well sir from what I’ve seen of these creatures we will never win nor will we ever be able to survive with them around in our world.” I said and the president’s face grew grim.
“What are you saying Sargent?” I think he knew what I was going to say next but I did anyway.
Delete“Sir, do you have the ability to launch every nuclear missile from this station?” I said keeping the same stern face.
“You can’t be serious, we can’t send out nuclear strike across America, the codes to do so are here but can’t do it that is not an option.” He said temper flaring at the thought that I would want to destroy America.
“Sir are the codes here? We need to have it as an option if any other plan fails.” I said lying trying to find the location of the launch codes if the president chooses not to implement the strike.
“I don’t need the codes, there’s a brief case that will launch the missiles when the coordinates are verified, it’s a failsafe created in case the missile silos are ever taken over.” He said rubbing the inside of his nose by his eyes.
“Well sir there is no way to combat these things conventionally; guns will not take these things down and we will lose too many people trying to kill them. The only option sir is to nuke the earth, we cannot let these things survive and that means we will die with them.” I said as he looked at me with a grim expression then it turned to disgust.
“Get him out of my sight. I need a plan that will save the world not destroy it!!!!” He yelled as two of his security agents escorted me out of the room.
The pushed me through the doors and shut them behind me. I started walking to try and find the rest of my men. They were in the mess hall chowing down, all their gear still strapped to them, I found some sick form of comfort in that. I sat down with them and they passed me a tray of steak and potatoes. I nodded in thanks and started chowing down; they at least had the courtesy to wait until I finished eating to ask what will happen next.
“What’s the plan sir?” asked one of the privates leaning in closer.
DeleteI swallowed the piece of steak and said, “This is the end of the world gentlemen, there is no way to combat this threat, so all we can do is go out with a bang.”
“What does that mean sir?” Davis asked I could sense his fear.
“I told the President that the only way to kill these things is to launch nuclear missiles, he said no because that would kill us all and destroy the world. That is exactly what needs to be done; they will consume the entire population until there is nothing left, so we all must die to destroy these things.” I said as all the men took a collective gulp.
I didn’t expect any of the men to stand up, I expected them to shoot me on sight, but Davis stood up, “What do you need us to do sir.”
“Well the president has the codes case to launch the missiles and he won’t give them up and he is guarded. To save the world from an agonizing death we must commit treason. We need to get into the conference room neutralize the security and secure the case.” I said as the men stood and checked their weapons. “Can one of you pass me one of your sidearm, they didn’t return my weapons.
The private who asked what we were doing handed me his Beretta and handed his spare magazines. “I still have most of my rifle ammunition sir.” He said patting his M16
“It’s been an honor serving with you all.” I said saluting them all and they each returned it. “This will be our last fight gentlemen; you are the finest men I have served with.” Those were my last words of encouragement.
We moved out weapons held close ready to fire on anyone who got in our way. We got to the double doors that I followed Floyd through, two guards were there talking, one was smoking. “Someone give me your knife.” I said as one of the men passed me his K-bar knife. “Davis follow me, I’ll take the one on the right you get the one on the left do it quietly.” He nodded as we moved around the corner and approached with our knives hidden as well as possible.
We got in front of the two men and one said, “The president doesn’t want to speak with you anymore Sargent.” I moved swiftly and covered his mouth as I brought the knife across his throat cutting his jugular sending a spray of blood in my face. Davis took his man down with a quick thrust in the throat. He pulled the blade out and wiped it on his pant leg. I waved my arm for the rest of the men to come down the hall; they shuffled down with their weapons at the ready.
Delete“There is a hallway after this door then the entrance to the office where the president is staying, I saw no other exits from the office, we take the hall we have them trapped.” I said picking up one of the sub-machine guns that on of the secret service members had. “Let’s move.” I busted through the door weapon at the ready, two security agents were there talking. I drew a quick line of sight and took him down with a quick burst from the MP5 I took from the agent. The other one fumbled for his weapon and one of my men took him down with a burst from his M16. “Find cover more are sure to come.” Just as we got to cover positions more security members came through their weapons spitting out rounds with intense speed. Two of my soldiers fell in the initial burst. We repaired them blood for blood but with interest. More men sprinted through the hallway to try and take us down. We may have had a smaller force but we had better cover. Rounds were being exchanged back and forth, skipping off walls and plants along with their stands. I could hear my men screaming that their hit or that their changing their mag. We were doing a significant amount of damage but I didn’t think it would be enough, we had no idea how many were left. Four of my men died and two were critically wounded, and would shortly die of blood loss. We must have killed at least twenty secret service members and two or three extra security guards, but for all I knew there were more behind the doors.
Suddenly I saw a man’s white dress shirt pop out of cover, I yelled, “Cease fire cease fire.” Once the rounds stopped the man came from out of his cover with the shirt in hand and threw his weapons on the ground.
“I surrender.” He said panicking; even from where I was I could see the fear in his eyes.
“How many more of you are there?” I asked leveling my sights on his head in case he pulled anything funny.
“I’m the last one, the President and his advisors are all that’s left.” He said coming closer
Delete“Stop right there.” I said then looked at one of my remaining soldiers. “Disarm him we’ll go and secure the President.”
“Yes sir.” He said and walked towards the man, I expected a hail of gunfire to erupt but it never came. Once the man was detained, we gathered the weapons and ammo in one spot.
We came to the door where the President was I looked at my men, “Stack up, breach and clear, it doesn’t matter anymore weather they live or die.” They gave me a grim nod as they stacked up on the doors three on each. I gave the signal to go and we busted through the doors weapons at the ready. All the men in the room had their hands up and the president was sitting back in his chair in horror.
“Mr. President I believe you know what I want.” I said training my sights on him.
“You’re a mad man; I’ll never give up the case.” He said smugly. I pointed the gun and put a round in his head.
“Does anyone else know where the case is?” I asked looking at the other officials in the room.
One nodded his head and went to the book shelf and pulled a few books away revealing the case and brought it over to me. “Thank you.” I said and opened the case. It revealed a map of the world with a targeting indicator that was controlled by a joystick that popped up. I targeted every major city in the world then every area in between with the remaining missiles. I made sure that this bunker was the first target, I didn’t want to have a chance of surviving and seeing what the outcome of my actions would be. I looked around the room at my men and the remaining executives. “Gentlemen it has been an honor to live and serve with you.” I gave a salute to them all and pushed the button, sat back and waited for our inevitable death.
I never thought the day would come where I could feel this life coming to an end. I always knew that I was going to die but I never wanted to know how I was going to die. I could feel the heat of this room getting to me. The news were on and I couldn’t stand to hear this because all I could feel were tears going down my face. I got up and turned off the television and looked out the window. This was the last time I was going to see peace in the world. A smile filled my face which soon became a frown for people don’t know how to create peace with each other. Yesterday was the last time I could smell the roses, smile at nice people, go to work, and do everything I thought I would be doing until I became an elder. I never knew that yesterday would be my last chance doing that if I knew it would have treated my day in a such better way. The news had just said that the war was going to come over here to the United States. A tear drop slowly came down my face I collapsed to the floor and began to blubber like a baby. I crawled over to the couch and cuddled with the pillow.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that I had a dream about the world ending was not the best way to find out this news. They said that World War 3 had started. Rumor goes around that countries and terrorist are coming over the same day. This was not the best idea over because some of our soldiers are staying here others are leaving. We had allies coming over and other staying. There was no country safe because everybody was determined to win this war and wouldn’t settle for anything. I laid down and rested my eyes before I knew it I fell asleep. I woke up and saw that someone had left food on the table. I got up and slowly stretched. I walked over to my bedroom to see my husband there reading his book. I quietly crawled on the bed and cuddled next to him. He put his arm around me and I gently laid my head on his chest. I held onto him tightly and I felt a tear come down my face. He patted my head and before I knew it I was blubbering like a child.
“I don’t want to die. I knew this day would come where I would die but I thought it would be a peaceful death where I couldn’t feel anything. For this death I can feel that this world is over with and we are no longer going to be here. People are just crazy now a day. Look hurricanes are hitting all over the place even earthquakes. I can feel it deep down inside me that this world is about to be over with.” A muffled cry came out of me.
DeleteAll of the sudden I felt a shake in the room. I looked to my husband he jumped out the bed and pulled my hand. He ran over to the dining room and threw me under. He also slid under. I could feel his breath invading my bubble. I looked up and saw everything collapsing on the ground. My body continued to shake I could feel myself getting cold. I went over and held onto his shirt and held him tightly. This was not happening before the world was going to end we just had to have an earthquake. I heard a loud thud on top of the table. I screamed and all I could feel was my husband’s hands slowly digging into my hands.
“Close your eyes. It’s okay nothing is going to happen to you I’m here to protect you. Hush. Just put your head on my chest. It’s alright it will be over soon.” He whispered in my ear.
I did what he told me too and I slowly went to him. I could feel him pulling me closer and closer. All I could hear was him gasping and the thuds of the things falling off. With each thud I held onto him even tighter. I opened my eyes to see that the shaking had stopped. He told me to wait and pushed some of the things in our way out. I peeked at his feet and saw that he stood there not moving a muscle.
I crawled and looked out to see everything was destroyed. I then felt another shake I screamed and went back under the table. I laid on the ground holding onto my knees and looked at Chris.
“Chris move! Don’t stand there get under here, NOW!” I screamed.
DeleteRight when he made a movement I heard something broke off from the roof and was slowly coming down. I screamed and looked away I heard a thud and the most terrible thing crossed my mind. I looked over to where Chris was standing and there was just a piece of the ceiling and the big bookshelf now on his body. I screamed to the top on my lungs and stayed under until I felt the aftershock was over with. When I felt it was over with I slowly crawled over outside. I did the best I could to pull the small bookshelf off his body and when I did I removed the ceiling off his face. There right next to me was a body that had a head with only blood on it. If I was to find him on the street I wouldn’t know who would be there on the street.
“No! Please get up! You can’t do this to me. You need to be with me. Talk to me.” I cried.
There laid his body cold on the ground. I got up and it finally hit me that he wasn’t going to get up. I put my hand over my mouth and I could feel the breath hitting my hand. My hand turned hot and I separated my finger. I ran out not able to know that he was no longer going to be with me. When I hit the outside world everything looked so much different than what it looked like yesterday. There I looked up and saw a man that was looking start at me with a crazed look.
“Hey little woman come here with me.” The crazed man yelled.
Fear filled my body and I was paralyzed for a couple of seconds. I decided to walk away and then I heard him scream once again. I was startled and I could feel my heart beating against my chest. I stopped and then began to walk faster the more he screamed the faster I walked until. I heard a noise and I felt something hit my body. I shot straight to the ground. I was could and I could feel air hitting against my wound. My arm stretched out but I couldn’t feel anything on the bottom of my body. My breath began to get slower and slower and I could hear my husband’s voice. Then I heard a voice from the distance I couldn’t make out the words he was trying to say. I laid there until I put the words together and I understood this was the end.
“Don’t worry half the population is dead and everyone will be dead by the end of this year. Goodbye my little weakling! You could have lived if you picked to come over with me” He screamed.
Coldness filled my body and the last words I heard sounded as the words of my husband. The words were I love you and know we will be together in a much happier place and we will be together forever. Nobody can take us down for it’s you and me forever and ever. I love you see you soon. I looked up with a smile and felt my body and the last chapter finally coming to a close. Goodbye world I won’t miss you at ALL.
It is 2020, and the world has changed a lot from what it used to be like only a few years ago. A normal persons TV is 160 inches, the school year is only five months long as teachers now teach students at an imaginable speed, the internet is no longer free as you now have to pay for it which caused massive riots all around the world for a year or two. Yes the world is a very different place. The only thing that hasn’t changed is the politics; the national debt has cruised to an immense high of 38 trillion dollars with no possible way that it will even decrease anytime soon. President Newt Gingrich has been by far the worst president in our history as we are already in four wars and on the brink of two more. Back a decade or two ago people still believed that the United States was the greatest country in the world and believed that it would continue to be and rising powers like China would not surpass. But sadly the world has changed.
ReplyDeleteEver since a few years ago, there has been a kind of rejuvenation of the Cold War, the United States and Russia has been going at it for a while and the tensions have been high. The Middle East has been the hot point for years. Things started going bad after the U.S. had invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. Throughout that time, leaders of the U.S. would tell the public that relationships were improving between the two countries, when in reality the relationship has gotten worse and worse. The thing that Russia didn’t like is that the U.S. kept invading countries in the Middle East that turned out to be their allies. The U.S. had so much influence in the Middle East that Russia started to get tired of it.
The incident had happened on August 18th, 2020. While fighting their brand new war in Syria, The United States Army was planning on bombing the Syrian capital of Homs. They were on the outskirts of the city where Syrian Army leaders were held up. They were bombing random places as they didn’t know exactly where the militants were, when one of the missiles that they launched hit the Russian Embassy. The embassy was destroyed and the Russian ambassador to
Syrian had been killed. Russia found out about this and the whole country was up in arms that the United States Army killed one of Russia’s Ambassadors. While the war in Syria was still ongoing, Russia was supplying their own weapons to the Syrians to help them fight the U.S. The government found out about that and decided to order Russia to stop supplying weapons to the Syrians, Russia declined. Instead the U.S. blocked all trade that they got from Russia so that maybe they would change their mind. Russia stood by their motives of keeping the supply of weapons going. Russia and Syria have always been allies; Syria gives Russia some control in the Middle East. So the U.S. decided to do something.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. government personally decided to gather up the best hackers in the country and have them try and hack into the Russia government database and find out if they were planning to do anything. Once one of the hackers got into their database, he found a map of all the nuclear missile silos to see if anything has changed in the past few weeks. Nothing had really changed, just the fact that they were being very cautious of what would happen if relations got worse. A nuclear war between Russia and the U.S. would definitely destroy the world and cause a nuclear winter. Then, all of a sudden, some bright lights appeared on the screen of one of the hackers. It said that Russia had just launched a few nuclear warheads towards the U.S.
“Warning! Warning! Nuclear Warheads Headed Towards the United States! DEFCON level now at 1.”
Everybody gasped in the fact that what had already happened over the course of a few weeks wasn’t enough to launch a nuclear missile and start a war. Nobody knew what to do and watched as a few missiles on the map were heading right towards the U.S. Alarms rang so loud they
busted your eardrums. People were going absolutely crazy. Finally the commander of the facility came in and asked what the situation was like, a fellow officer said:
ReplyDelete“We got 20 nuclear warheads headed to every major city in the United States and presumably launched form Russian nuclear sites. The first missile will hit the U.S. in about five minutes.”
There was a tough decision to make, do we hold back and see what happens, or do we go full out and bomb Russia with all the nukes we have. The commander finally said:
“What the hell are we waiting for, launch the goddamn missiles!”
A code was put in and the missiles were launched, with 20 heading for the U.S. and another 20 heading for Russia. The commander and his officers patiently waited to see what would happen when the missiles hit the U.S. The clock was down to a minute and that minute felt like an eternity. Finally, when the clock ran out, the room was as quiet as could be. Then, right away people started trying to contact other military bases from the cities that were hit. On the screen, all of these people’s faces popped up in excitement saying that nothing had happened in any of the cities that they were in. people started celebrating that somehow, the U.S. did not get nuked and everybody survived. Then, everybody realized that the U.S. had just launched 20 real nuclear warheads directly at Russia. The commanders tried thinking of something that they could do, but there was nothing that popped up into their minds. Then on the screen, it showed that Russia had just launched another set of nukes, and these ones were real. It turns out that what the commanders saw on the screen earlier in the day had not been true, a powerful computer virus infected the base and made it look like Russia had just launched all of those nukes. Everyone was baffled and nobody could do anything. People just sat there and watched their country get bombed. The nukes came in from Russia and one by one, they hit a different city, people thought about why this had to happen, but in the end, the people did it to themselves.
I’m Catharine Wu on 92.3 it’s Saturday, April 9th, 2017 and about 78 degrees in the tri-state area. I’ll have the traffic up date for you in 30 minutes, but to hold you guys off here are the throwback of the week Jason Mraz-I’m Yours…
ReplyDeleteI turned the radio all the way up and drove onto the highway. The sky was bright blue, the birds were chirping, and the sun was shining brighter than ever before. It was all very strange and unusual. For the past few years around this time it would be all rainy and humid, but instead all we’ve had are beautiful days. If you asked me it was starting to get boring. I pulled up into the Macy’s parking lot and put on my name tag.
“Another day another dollar” I groaned to myself as I made the long walk up to the place I called work. This is usually one of the calmer times when it comes to shopping season. Besides the people who do birthday presents and try to do belated Valentine’s gifts we didn’t have much of a rush. I pulled myself out of the car and made a slow walk up to building when suddenly the earth began to shake. I feel over onto a car and held onto it in complete fear. What the heck is going on? I thought to myself as the sudden grumbling stopped. I made a quick look around and nothing seemed out of place. No ground broken or people screaming. All that was there was the giant Macy’s staring back at me.
Pulling myself together I started to walk again to the building when it all just collapsed. I stood there in utter horror. I could hear the screams and I saw the dust come toward me. I made a dash back to my car and tried vigorously to open the door. I shuffled through my pockets trying to find my keys or even my cellphone to dial 911, but couldn’t find either. I looked inside the car door and saw them sitting there in the passenger seat. I turned around once again and there stood the crumbs of what used to be my job. I made a dash to the building hoping I would find someone trying to crawl out of the rumble, but no one resurfaced.
I took off my sweat jacket wrapped it around my hand and made a run to my car. I broke open the window and called the police. In a matter of minutes the whole squad was there. After leaving them with my observations I started to drive off when I felt a rumbling again. This time I was prepared so I quickly turned around and saw a huge hole where all the people once were. The whole made a bubbling noise and I saw a fading redness coming out of it. The color started to rise and I noticed the lava just flooding out. I ran to my car and sped away trying to get as far away as possible.
Delete“Reports say that there are catastrophic events going on everywhere. In China a forceful earthquake came and broke apart every home from inland all the way out to the coast. In a matter of minutes Hawaii, Japan, Australia, and every other island has been drowned out. It seems as if they were never there in the first place. Russia and Greenland have been frozen over. All of Central to South America has constant fires and tornadoes. Europe is broken down with a mixture of all types of storms and it seems that they worst is yet to come. California is no longer around and the same with Texas. All throughout the states random volcanoes have been popping up and lava is seeming to rise from cracks in the ground. Everyone on the coastal areas please evacuate. No one is quite sure what is going on, but it seems that it is only getting worse. Only safe place left is Canada and we aren’t sure how long that will last. I am scared to say that maybe this is our dooms day. I’m Arianna Scott News 12 New Jersey.”
I shut off the TV trying to accept what I just heard. I know that it was predicted many times before, but I didn’t think it would actually happen.
“We’re all going to die?” I murmured out loud. My hands began to shake as reality struck in.
“We’re all going to die.” I repeated to myself, but this time not as shaky. I jumped up and started circling my living room repeating those words to myself.
Delete“WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!” I screamed out loud and I finally believed it. Well in this case I might as well live it up. I pulled out my gun and a bag of my clothes. I gathered the last of my money and jumped in my car. Driving all the way out to the bank I took out all 2,000,000 dollars in my savings and decided to have some fun. I bought everything I ever wanted and made sure I didn’t have a penny left. I made out all my credit cards and burned my work uniform. I looked around me and saw that mass hysteria has finally come. I smiled to myself noticing that I was part of it. I went to all my enemies’ houses and robbed them blind. Went to my boss’s house, who happened to not even be anywhere near Macy’s destruction, and told him off like I wanted to for years. I felt so alive as the last earthquake happened to rush under my legs.
I noticed it’s been a week now and the world is in complete shambles. People have gone completely mad and I have become a part of them. I murdered around 467 people and stole from a good 300 of them. I was constantly being attacked by crazy people trying to steal my food, but just simple shot them in the head from a distance. Have I killed some innocent people? Probably, do I care? Not at all. This is how I wanted to go out in a complete and total bang. While walking down the flamed covered street of what used to be New York City I heard a faint screeching noise. I turned around to see a little girl with red hair and orange eyes staring at me intently. I glared back at her as she began to laugh. She walked up to me and look me in my eyes smiling a evilly.
What is it that you want from me?” I asked her with confusion. She grinned back at me and revealed razor sharp teeth.
Delete“I just wanted to see the pathetic people that once roamed this place before I return home?”
“And where do you live?”
“Hell of course.” With that my eyes got big and the girl snapped her fingers making everyone who roamed the streets drop dead. I fell to the ground and heard a screech and never opened my eyes again.
...That's not creepy... O.O
DeleteThe sun came up from behind the mountains greeting everyone that lived in my small town. It wakes everyone up so that they could start their jam packed days on time. I looked at the big yellow orb as a curse and an excuse for my parents to resurrect me from my cave. They would generally throw open the blinds and roll me out of bed and sometimes that wasn’t even enough. It would sometimes take the end of the world to wake me. I slowly opened my eyes to look at the clock which read 7:25. I knew I would be late for school but the question now was how late I would be. I jumped out of my bed still half asleep. I stumbled to my dresser to pull out all the clothes I needed for the day. I turned my body towards the window and the light struck me like an arrow. It seemed way too bright for some reason, but I thought nothing of it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was done with all my preparations for the school day I ran out the door and down the street towards my school. I looked up at the sky to see very gray clouds over head. The sun’s light seemed to have receded behind the clouds. I was just hoping that it wouldn’t rain before I got to school.
The streets seemed very barren. There were no cars on the road and no people shouting at each other from across the street. It was so peaceful. So I kept walking trying to enjoy the only sense of peace that I would have for the rest of the day.
I got to school and missed my first class period which was English so it wasn’t a big problem for me. I then went to my next class which was Math class. My day just seemed to go like a blur. By the time the day was over it only felt like an hour went by. I got outside the school quickly and walked towards my house as fast as I could.
I looked up at the sky to see the bright light still hovering in the sky. I could see no clouds in the sky. Then all of a sudden I heard a loud voice boom through the air. I didn’t know what was happening so I just looked up at the sky and listened.
“To everyone that lives on this pathetic planet, I would like to tell you all that your planet will be destroyed in less than five minutes.”
My gaze turned to complete shock. My planet was going to be destroyed. I was imagining that this was just some big dream that I had. That’s why school seemed so short. I ran all the way home.
“Do none of you guys believe us? Why aren’t you guys escaping from your planet? Oh I see, your species hasn’t evolved enough to have interplanetary travel. Oh well. I guess it’s a good thing that we will be wiping your species off the face of the universe. You clearly aren’t smart enough.”
Then he never talked again. I ran up to my room and to my bed. Maybe if I just lay in bed and tried to fall asleep I would wake up from my dream. This is an awful thing that is happening so this must be a dream. My planet can’t really be destroyed by something that we don’t know about.
ReplyDeleteI jumped out of bed to look back up at the sky. The bright light that I thought was the sun earlier is not the sun, but rather a big light coming from a space ship that is hovering over our planet. The voice probably came from that very spaceship. I ran outside trying to attract their attention to stop this madness.
Then a countdown began. From thirty seconds. I couldn’t comprehend my world being destroyed in just thirty seconds. I stayed in the street still trying to get the spaceships attention. Then a bright light come from the space ship and surrounded me. Then everything went dark.
I woke up on a cold metal floor. The room was dark but a tiny light flicked in the corner. I crawled over to it and curled up in it. The countdown has stopped. I thought that was it. My world was saved. I slowly got up from the floor and leaned against the wall. Although it wasn’t a wall but a window. I looked out of the window to see a black blanket covering the sky.
“Fire,” a voice said from an intercom system. A red beam came out of nowhere and struck a small little ball that was on the black blanket. The ball shattered into a million different pieces. The color of the beam quickly disappeared from the sky as the debris from the ball continued to expand through the blanket.
“Congratulations crew, we just successfully destroyed planet tugamore, also known as earth. We will begin out journey home in five minutes. Prepare for light speed in that time, thank you and have a good day.”
I fell backwards from the window with disgust and shock. I don’t know what happened but my planet was now destroyed and I was still alive. Why was I saved and everyone else wasn’t? Now I would be traveling to god knows what planet where I know no one. My life is completely over. I guess that is what happens when it’s the end of the world.
It was hot and it was not just a humid, muggy kind of climate that often incurred during a New Jersey summer day. This was worse. It was boiling and unbearable. I could see waves of heat radiating off of the ground, baking the earth and simmering away any dampness left. The Earth was cracked and fissured, all of its moisture having been evaporated long ago, leaving behind nothing but the rocks and dirt that colored the world brown. Venturing outside in the heat for more than an hour without any sort of protection would prove to be fatal. Lakes and streams dissolved away. What was left could not even be considered to be water. What remained was a dense and sticky sludge that contained the remnants of decaying fish and other aquatic life that reminded me of what the world once had been. The skeletons of trees scattered the valley, causing eerie shadows to dance on the parched earth. Desiccated remainders of life dotted the terrain, causing me to reminiscent about all of the remarkable life and energy that the Earth once sustained.
ReplyDeleteDry and tough patches of grass were what were left of a landscape once covered with sweet smelling grassland. The vegetation that remained was discolored, as its vibrant green was gone. Replacing the lush greenery was a pale, sickly yellow that was transparent in the bright light. When touched, the brittle and fragile blades crumbled between my fingers and crunched under my footsteps. The sound was strange in the quiet world. With the absence of a bird’s song and the rustling of leaves, the crunching noise was invasive and strange. The sky was so bright that when you looked up, the harsh light burned your eyes and stung the sensitive skin around them. I walked quickly, as I did not want to stay out in the open, exposed to the strong U.V rays that penetrated my skin. Invisible dangers stalked me through way of the atmosphere, and I feared that my contact with them would lead to serious consequences. I hastened my way back towards home, favoring the shadows from massive oak trees that appeared as if the slightest wind would crack their once strong and resilient branches. I was searching for any signs of life, but I found none. Not even a small, insignificant green weed growing in through the lines of drought throughout the Earth.
As I approached the abandoned industrial plant that had once been used to harbor electrical outlets and generators that served as the power source for many homes in the area, a brilliant white light seared my sensitive skin. I dared to look up towards the source of the ruthless illumination and found myself glancing upon a massive stream of effervescent orange lighting up the white cloudless sky. In a panic, I ran around the immense building towards the entrance. As I was running, another flash illuminated the sky, causing an echoing loud noise to vibrate the Earth and echo through everyone and everything. I could feel the sound wave resonating through my feet, causing my bones to tingle. The noise caused adrenaline to pulse through my veins and I bolted across the unsound gravel, kicking up dust and small rocks that shredded my clothes and scratched my skin.
Once inside, I navigated my way through the warehouse towards the back end where an entrance to the underground components of the building was. I tossed the door open and rapidly made my way down the dark stairwell, my footsteps echoing off the concrete walls. With difficulty, I felt around for a rail at the end of the steps and followed the cold metal with my clammy hands. Once I traveled far enough down the seemingly endless corridor, I saw a soft light revealing another door. When I finally accomplished my destination, I was out of breath and exhausted. Staying outside for even a few minutes was strenuous and dangerous. The cool air was revitalizing in the tunnel, but the atmosphere was also stale and I longed for an early morning spring day where the air always seemed to carry the scent of opportunities and hope.
DeleteI drew back the heavy door with stinging fingers and entered into a large, spacious room enlightened by battery operated lights and flashlights. The drastic temperature change from the outside sauna to the cool humid basement was refreshing. As I stepped inside, my older sister, Melanie, approached me with a million questions in her eyes.
Behind her were my father and younger brother who were sleeping soundlessly. My father looked extremely young, the lines of his face reduced in his slumber, his worrying eyes closed. In their sleep, the appeared to be peaceful and serene; however, I knew that when they awoke, the creases on my father’s face would increase considerably and the same anxiety and worry would creep back into his features. My brother would no longer appear to be the innocent boy he should be but one that had been forced to grow up too early. I whimsically thought that sleep can have miraculous abilities.
My sister’s high, sharp voice interrupted my thoughts.
“What happened to you? You look terrible,” she stated with a lack of sensitivity. Feeling annoyed and irritated to begin with, her unsavory comment only heightened my petulance. Trying to keep my flaring temper from worsening, I kept my voice even as I answered her.
“I think we just had another solar flare. It’s getting hotter outside, not to mention the probable radiation that was just made. I don’t think it would be safe for us to keep on going outside.”
“They must be getting worse. I heard a loud noise from above, but I thought it was just another tree falling.”
“No, it wasn't a tree. It seems like the solar flares are getting closer and becoming more numerous. Not a good sign, in my opinion.”
“I agree. We should wake them,” my sister trailed off, concern crossing her pixie-like features as she glimpsed behind her to our sleeping family members.
“No, let them sleep. They already have enough to worry about and the news can wait,” I said quietly as not to disturb them. While I looked at my sister, mutual apprehension was shared between us. We were running low on water and the little food that we had would not sustain us for long. Because we resided in a building that once produced electricity, we had access to many generators; however, we were running low on gas so we only utilized them when it was necessary.
Melanie and I had decided to risk turning on the generators to power the portable air conditioner that we had acquired, as it was getting stuffy in the unventilated space. The cool air soothed my burned and throbbing skin and cooled the sweat off of my temples. The relief was invigorating and I blessed whoever invented air conditioning. A few hours had passed before my brother and father awoke. They both saw the expressions depicted on our faces and theirs instantly darkened.
Delete“What’s wrong?” My Dad asked hesitantly. I glanced over to see my kid brother, Nathan, just as troubled and my chest constricted. I tried to keep my voice steady and clear but I could hear the anxiety seeping through the words that I said.
“The solar flares are becoming more frequent and the temperatures are rising. I checked the thermometer outside and the mercury was close to 120 degrees. A few more degrees and being outside for a couple of minutes would kill us for sure.”
“Alright, I don’t want any of you going outside for anything anymore unless I am with you. The radiation from the flares is also probably increasing and we can’t take the risk of being exposed for too long.” My father’s tone became all business which lessened my fears. I needed to be occupied to keep me from thinking about the consequences of the elevating temperatures and higher radiation.
“If the weather is becoming as severe as you say it is, we will need to acquire as much gas, food, and water that we can find. We need to be prepared.” I was afraid to think of what we had to prepare for.
After some discussion, we were all able to organize our priorities. Although we had no way of keeping track of time, I suspected that it was around eleven at night. Melanie was to stay with Nathan and keep him safe. It had been agreed that my father and I would venture out towards nightfall, reducing our risks of overheating to scout for some water or abandoned cars where we could siphon gas to restock out dwindling supplies.
With flashlights on hand, we moved through the long corridor and stumbled up the stairs with the bright red gas cans. As we reached the entry leading us to the building’s upper floors, my father abruptly took my hand. His face was elucidated by the glow of the flashlight as he spoke softly, but I recognized the undertone of urgency in his voice.
“I need you to be vigilant and cautious. I’m taking a risk in bringing you with me, especially when it is dark outside. I don’t know what kind of dangers are out and about in the world now after nightfall.”
I understood his uneasiness and found it endearing; however, I had learned a great deal because of what had happened to the Earth and I knew that I was capable of handling the dark adequately. After agreeing to some safety precautions, we endeavored slowly out into the night. When we stepped outside, the sky was incredible. I peered up and was amazed at what I saw. The sky was a dark cerulean with thousands of stunning starts that were visible on the clear night; however, these beautiful stars paled in comparison to the brilliant streams of orange and red blazing light that traced fiery veins across the sky. They pulsed and shimmered against the backdrop of the dazzling blue of the atmosphere, dotted with stars millions of miles away. To me, they looked as if the streams were liquid sun. They appeared like torrents of fiery rivers that poured out of the core of the sun, painting the sky effortlessly. The ribbons of light weaved in and out among the stars, before branching off into smaller swirling tendrils until they dissipated into space. It was unbelievable. Remarkable and breathtaking in a world where color no longer survived and where life was no longer capable of existing. It was the most stunning visual that I had ever seen, but as I stared in awe, I came to the realization that the beauty that I was fixated on would lead to our ultimate demise. I wondered to myself, how could something so beautiful conceal something so ugly?
DeleteThe thought triggered memories of what life had once been and I reminisced about how the end of the world had been initiated.
***
Life started to go wrong almost as quickly as a day goes by. Before we knew it, the citizens of the world were being told by our governments and scientists that the sun was suffering from a chemical imbalance that would produce massive solar flares. The scientists spoke as if they were using a different language. I could hear what they were saying, but I could not comprehend their worlds and scientific explanations. I recognized the severity of the predicament when people were forced to participate in massive evacuations and when everyone began to live their lives consumed by a constant aura of panic and fear. I witnessed it occurring within my family, my friends and strangers. Then, it was as if a fever had stricken the Earth, ruining its fertile soils and precious resources. Many people starved while many others died due to the immense amounts of radiation that were penetrating the atmosphere. My family and I were fortunate to discover the abandoned building because the maze of underground rooms, which were reinforced with concrete, protected us from much of the lethal waves of radiation.
***
Although my family and I could be thought as of lucky, I understood that no one really is as we will all share the same fate in the end. I knew that I would eventually have to come to recognize that my death was imminent, as was my family’s, and as was any survivors that remained. Death was something that no one could escape from and I knew that I would have to accept this. As the brutal heat surrounded my already burned and dehydrated skin, I once again looked up at the sky and marveled at the idea that the universe was offering humanity one last chance to witness something truly beautiful before we all perished into oblivion.
The end came so swiftly that we barely had time to react and for this I was glad. To many, death is considered to be something that you do alone; however, I disagree because I could feel the rest of the human race dying along with me in that last second of life.
I cry, as I am the last human left, at least in New York. I sit and mourn in the abandoned car I found. I find my finger reaching for the silver ring on my slender finger, feeling the words that engrave it. The words “best friends forever” race through my mind and the thoughts of the last few days follow.
ReplyDeleteLayla was her name. It reminded me of my own. She was my only friend. We were so similar. Both orphans. Both alone. Both lost. Both looking for a friend. Same brown hair. Same hazel eyes. We could have been twins. But not anymore.
She was the first to disappear, when we were both 21 years old. I came home late in the afternoon and I couldn’t find her. She was always home when I got off of work. I was scared and confused at first. And as the light receded and day turned to night, I grew worried. Days passed and there was still no sign of my best friend. I was on the verge of insanity when she staggered down the street to our apartment. I saw her out of my window through the hot tears. I ran to meet her but stopped before I reached my friend. Something was terribly wrong. Her once beautiful eyes were then a pasty gray as if they were looking right through me. She was shaking. And there was ink on the back of her hand. It looked like a judge’s gavel. I slowly backed up as she stalked closer.
“What’s wrong, Lana?” she said in an alien voice. That’s when I knew it wasn’t Layla. She had never before said my name incorrectly.
I streaked back to the apartment. I locked and relocked all the doors and windows. Then I watched from above as the fake Layla touched any neighbor that dared to cross her path. I saw their eyes change to a dead ashen color. Then they became zombielike, just as Layla had become.
I snap my eyes open and jerk my hand away from the ring. It is the only thing I have left of Layla. Shortly after her return, I fled the city, taking nothing with me except the clothes I was wearing and the ring she gave me a few years after we met. After leaving the city, I found a car with the engine still running and a full tank of gas. I haven’t seen a human since my reencounter with my best friend. There is a disease going around, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it. It took my best friend and my city. It started this war. But I’m going to end it.
I keep driving through the rest of the state and soon enter New Jersey. I have yet to see one human. A live one that is. I’ve seen plenty of the pale-skinned zombies. But as I drive past them, they fall to the ground, their mouths open and their limbs twisted.
ReplyDelete“They don’t live very long after being infected,” I observe.
The fog begins to thicken and the borrowed vehicle begins to slow.
“Out of gas. Great,” I curse in my mind.
I get out to walk. Where to? I have no idea. But as I’ve seen so far, I’m the last human in this area. It won’t do me any good to stay in one spot. The decision to get out of the car, however, will prove to be a mistake.
Cloaked men swarm me. Their hoods covering their shadowy faces. There’s a picture illustrated on the front of their garbs, but it’s too dark to tell what it is. I kick and struggle, straining to escape their clutches. But there are too many of them and they overpower me, carrying me away to whatever place they emerged from.
“Let me go!” I scream as two men hold my legs over their shoulders. Another enemy holds both my arms wrapped around his neck, with my back facing the ground, four feet in the air. I twist and turn, trying to make them lose their grips. But my attempts fail.
Soon, I am dumped onto the hard ground inside a Native American type camp. There are average size burgundy tents surrounding my vision. And I look right up into the doorway of a giant silver tent. Before I can say another phrase, I am pushed through the flaps of the silver house.
After falling flat on my face, I push myself off of the earthen floor. There is a man standing before me in a long, hooded, dark red robe that matches the other tents.
“We are Divine Rule,” the masked villain states, never removing his cowl. “We believe in Heaven and Hell. And all those not among us, will be damned to the inferno! You are one of the damned and will be treated as so!” he finishes as another cloaked man comes closer at me with a needle.
“What are you doing!?” I shriek.
ReplyDelete“You will endure the same consequence as all your fellow evildoers. No one but Divine Rule will live!” the chief of this crazy cult shouted.
“That’s what happened to Layla,” I whisper to myself.
“This is a virus that our finest medicine man created! It will eat away at you from the inside. You will eventually die and anyone you touch with also be infected!”
“You did this to my city! You ruined my life!”
The leader doesn’t answer me. As I struggle away from the shot and run around the tent, I think of what he just said.
I locate the man with the needle and lunge at him, letting the slender tip pierce my arm. Immediately, my skin begins to bubble a yellowish color. All the men turn in my direction, confused.
I hold my arm and tell them my plan, stating, “If I’m infected, everyone I touch will be infected too.”
The cloaked men grunt at my idea and trip over themselves, trying to get away. But I’m too quick. My hands find the faces and hands of all my kidnappers. I run around the tiny tribe, touching anyone I see.
As I walk back to my city, I think to myself, “Now that they’re all dead, we can repopulate.”
My vision is starting to fade and I can imagine my eyes growing that pasty gray color. I begin to wobble and have to find buildings to lean on as I walk.
“My life was worth sacrificing for the rest of the world,” I continue thinking. “At least I can be with Layla now.”
But my nightmare is yet to be completed. As I start to see the bodies rotting on the streets of New York, there is something moving. I strain to see it with the last few minutes of my sight. Claws begin to emerge and rip open the corpses.
They’re green and black and they’re huge. With six legs and giant pinchers for mouths. For every body, there is one of these hideous beasts. But they don’t go for me. Instead they go for their host…and the ground.
ReplyDeleteI soon piece it together. The virus that infected them was holding one of these bugs. As the person died, it grew and aged. Finally it was able to break free of its host. The last piece of information I gather is the monsters diet. Dead bodies and the Earth.
I go back to the fact that there is one of these for every dead human. If my notion is correct and I am one of the last humans on Earth, then there are billions of these massive bugs. And if they eat the Earth, then the rest of the population is going to perish.
I realize this and run to find my friend. I know she is dead but I want to be with her in my last few minutes. I found her outside our old apartment, probably from the day when she tried to get in to get me. Although bloody, for her bug had already let her body, I could tell it was Layla by her face.
I see fuzzy chunks of rocks flying around me as the fiends devour my planet. Soon I see the ground glowing a brilliant red-orange, as the molten core of the Earth grows closer to the surface.
There is a flash of light and I can see my bones through my flesh. I look down at Layla. I can see through to her bones too. I look back at my finger, where my ring is still displayed. The words on it are the last things I remember seeing. That was the end of the world.
ReplyDeleteThe bell rang and I leapt up from my seat, quickly slinging my backpack over my shoulder as I walk towards the door. The teacher shouts at us about the imminent summer homework that we’d be getting in a few weeks, but I can’t possibly care any less then I do right now. It’s summer! Why should I give a crap about some awful book I’ll have to finish the week before school starts? I walk outside and have to shield my eyes from the sun. It’s so dark and hopeless in that godforsaken building that I almost always forget what nature is by the time I get to leave.
I walk outside and am immediately met by something catching my leg and me falling face first into the sidewalk. I scramble to my feet and see Josh and Craig high five and start sprinting down the street, and I take off after them.
“Get back here you pricks!”
I shout and clearly hear Josh’s distinguishable cackle in the distance. All I see in the distance is Josh trip over something and hit the ground hard, sliding a good three feet. I try to imitate his cackle, but it comes out sounding like some kind of dying animal. Craig rushes over to him and wave me over.
“What’s up? Is he hurt?”
“What? Oh, idunno, but check this out!” Craig holds out his hand, full of ashes.
“Craig. Those are ashes. What about the ashes are so fascinating to you, that it was fire once?”
“Shut up! I got over that whole pyromaniac thing like, two days ago.”
“I’m so proud!”
He punched me in the shoulder. “Shut up, Ronnie!”
“Okay, okay. What’s so special about the ashes?”
“What are they doing here?”
“Something caught on fire and it burnt out. You of all people should know that.”
“Right here?” Craig looked around and back at me. “What would catch on fire here? Plus, look at how much ash there is! It’s not even a pile, it’s like a lump or something.”
I see Craig cringe in pain and then feel a pain in the back of my head.
“Waita ignore me, you jerks!” I look up and see Josh rubbing his ankle.
“I could’ve been bleeding out over here, and you guys are examining a pile of ashes like it’s a crime scene! OUCH!” Josh winces and falls on one knee.
“What, you gonna propose to me or something?” Craig laughed and pushed him over.
“AH! Dude, seriously, there’s something in my leg!” he pulled his leg up to his face and tried looking at it. “Shit, why aren’t I flexible?”
“Here, let me see.” I walked over and flicked the gash on his leg.
“AH!! What the hell?! Dude seriously, just, look? Something stings.”
“Alright, for God’s sake.”
I leaned over and looked at his ankle. At first it looked like there was nothing there, but then I saw something with a yellow tint sticking out. Looking at little further I see it has a jagged edge.
“Dude…what the hell is that?”
“There’s something there?”
“Shut up, hang on.” I put my finger on it and move it down to see if it’s loose.
“OUCH!? What the hell are you doing?”
I wiggle it around more, seeing that it’s coming loose. Ignoring Josh’s yelling, I get the shard of whatever between my fingers and yank it out, promptly spraying blood all over my face.
“Dude, it’s a piece of bone!”
Between screams, Josh manages to whimper, “You pulled out my BONE?!”
“I found more!”
Josh and I turn and see Craig holding a hand full of ashes and bones.
“What. The hell.”
“HOLY SHIT this pile of ash was a person.”
Almost on cue, the houses around us begin to shut their blinds, while some people ran out to their cars and drove off. I turn around to tell the guys we should get home and see both of them already on their way home. I get to my feet and walk the last two blocks to my house and before I can knock I hear my dad shout through the door/
“Who is it?!”
“Uh, dad, it’s me?”
“Damn it, Ronnie, where have you been? Get inside!”
The door flings open and I’m yanked inside by the collar of my shirt. All of the lights are out inside and the only sound is of an old radio blaring a static-tainted news broadcast. We walk into the living room and my Mom throws herself at me, locking on the tightest bear hug I’ve ever felt.
ReplyDelete“Ronnie! Thank God, you’re alive!”
“Not…for long…if you don’t…let go!...”
She lets me go and runs to Dad’s side. I sit by the radio and mess around with the antenna, trying to clear up the signal.
“…ask… stay inside…drink only filtered water…whatever is causing these fires hasn’t been revealed yet, but we ask you to use extreme caution from this point on.”
I rest the antenna against the table and turn to my parents. “Fire? What fire? What’s going on?”
Suddenly I hear screaming from outside. I try to run towards the window, but my dad grabs my arm and yanks me back.
“Ronnie, don’t!”
I pull my arm free, hop onto the couch and peer out the window. At first I don’t see anything but a faint glow off to the right. I keep looking around, trying to find out what the hell was making that blood curdling noise when I realize that the glow is coming down the street. I lean over and can clearly see the glow is a big ball of fire, but what’s on fire? A car? No, too small to be a car.
Is that? No…it can’t be. I turn and run over to my parents.
“Dad! Someone’s on fire out there! We have to help them!”
My Dad pauses and looks at the ground. “Son…there not sure if it’s in the water, or the air, or what. All they know is that there’s…there’s something that’s causing people to just…catch on fire. They call it spontaneous combustion…”
I look at him for a few seconds, letting what he just said soak in. I turn from him, back to the window, the burning man on the ground, just a crispy lump. I turn again and look my dad in the eyes.
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
In a time very far off in the future the world is threatened by a new race of species that comes from a different planet. It’s a very aggressive species that was discovered when an asteroid carrying a container of one of the species crashed into the planet’s surface. They called the new species the Cromads. The Cromads were very tiny life forms that lived by leaching onto a host and taking control of their body’s. The body of the Cromads is a very small green caterpillar like shape. No one is really sure how the first people began to be infected or how the organism reproduced. Many experts say that once in the host’s body the organism reproduces and uses the host to spread it’s off spring to other hosts. Before the world new it the organism began to outnumber the normal humans. When the Cromads take over a human the human no longer needs to eat or drink to stay alive. They can only be killed by destroying the brain of the infected human. Eventually the Cromads began to take complete control of the world. The little amount survivors left went into hiding to survive. The survivors went into the woods of Colorado to hide out from the Cromads. The group’s leader name was Greg, he was factory worked before the Cromads invaded. Greg was able to save his whole family and move them to his log cabin in the woods that he built himself. Greg began to bring more people into his home from the town that was trying to escape the infection. The group is at 15 people right now and that includes his family of his wife Patricia and his son Carl. They were joined by another family of 5 and another group of people that were hiding out in the town over to the west. They are the last known hide out for humans in the world.
ReplyDeleteThe group’s primary goal is to hide and survive however sometimes they have to make attacks against the Cromads to get supplies and to distract them away from where they have their hideout. The Cromads use our communication lines and the group listens in on them and that’s when they found out that all other human resistance had been crushed. They have also learned about the Cromads scavenging metal to build some kind of ship. The group has come up with the idea that the ship is the Cromads way of escaping to another world. Greg had decided that they need to stop the building of the ship so they can save other worlds from the terror of the Cromad. The group originally disagreed with that idea but after they thought long and hard about it they realized that the war was over and human beings lost the war. The only thing they could do now was fight till the last person and crush the plans of the Cromads. However the group didn’t know that cromads were only building a small ship to send the original Cromad of the planet and the rest would be blown up with planet earth its self.
The group listened to the communications for another week or so and realized that the building was taking place in California and in a couple months it would be ready. Greg and the rest of the group immediately packed up food and weapons and headed out to California. The road to California was dangerous and they had to only move at night to stay away from the Cromads. The group dynamic slowly began to change as they got closer to California. Everyone realized that they would end up being infected by the cromads or were going to be killed in trying to destroy the ship. It turned them cold and ruthless towards all the Cromads. Many times during the trip Cromads found the groups vehicles and the group mercilessly killed all the Cromads even if they were in a child’s body. The group finally made it to California after a long trip. However once in California they found new determination to destroy the ship and take as many Cromads down as possible.
After a week of searching in California the group found the ship in San Diego in the chargers football stadium. They also found the bomb in the stadium and they new right away that they had collected all the nuclear bomb and packed them into one giant container.
Today when I said I felt like the world was ending, I didn’t really mean it. Don’t get me wrong, my life did feel like it was falling apart when I woke up this morning, but that just doesn’t seem all that significant now. How can waking up to your wife cheating on you with your own brother be important when there’s a meteor twice the size of the earth about to be hurdled into our atmosphere?
ReplyDeleteMy first thought, as I’m sure was the same thought as everyone else’s when they found out about the meteor was, why now when I have so much left to live for? For me this realization was particularly disappointing because in the past few years, I haven’t exactly felt alive. After my wife and I found out we couldn’t have a baby because I was sterile, everything just fell apart. She became cold and I became distant. In the past five years I’ve been basically dead, and now, when I finally have the chance to start over, the world is ending.
But even though it’s all about to be over within a matter of days, I couldn’t help but feel like something spectacular was about to begin.
“I think I should travel. I’ve always wanted to go to Europe,” I said staring out the sliding glass doors of my house at the forest of trees in our backyard.
“Ned, are you not hearing me? Our marriage is over.” Debbie had been trying to talk to me about this all day but I couldn’t bring myself to care.
“You know what Debbie, you’re right. They probably aren’t running the planes. I mean, what pilot is going to work? I doubt anybody is going to go to work with the world ending in a week.” I continued to stare out the window. I haven’t been able to look a Debbie since finding her and Mike together yesterday morning.
“Can you please not talk about it. The world isn’t ending. They just….” She paused, frustrated, “haven’t figured out how to stop it yet.” Debbie had been walking around as though nothing were happening since the broadcast aired about the meteor.
“You really believe that?” I scoffed, watching a blue jay flutter around in the stone bird bath on my deck.
I could hear Debbie shifting uncomfortably on the couch. “Yes,” she said. I could hear the uncertainty in her voice. “I do.”
I turned around and looked at my wife for the first time in twenty four hours. I looked her directly in the eyes and she stiffened under my gaze. She looked so different to me now. She wasn’t the beautiful, happy girl that I married. She wasn’t even the fun sucking vampire she’d been over the past few years. Looking at her now, all I could see was a pale, skinny woman, with dark eyes. She looked hollow. “Well you can think that all you want hunny. But the world is ending.” Her eyes widened at me in shock. “You know what?” I said clapping my hands together. “I think I’m gonna go for a drive.”
ReplyDeleteI picked up my car keys off the coffee table in front of the couch that Debbie was sitting on. I whistled on my way out the door, the warm, spring afternoon air hitting my face. I got in the car and pulled out of the driveway. I cranked up the radio, rolled down the window, and as I rode down the street, I realized that I’d never felt more alive in my whole life.
After a few days of nonstop driving I began to realize just how crazy everyone becomes when the world is about to end. There have been riots, and fires. Someone even tried to steal my car, but I’ve just been driving through it. Just driving. Because once you get through the mass mob of people, and you’re on the open road, everything becomes really peaceful.
On my third day on the road (four days before the meteor was set to hit) I stopped at a gas station. As I was filling up my car something suddenly jumped in through the driver’s side window and into the back seat. I finished filling up the car and went around to the other side. I carefully opened up the door and peeked inside.
As I looked over the seat I saw at tomcat stretching out, getting ready for a nap. I let out a deep breath. “Here kitty, kitty,” I said reaching out to him, but when he saw my hand he turned quickly and hissed at me.
I moved my hand back quickly and the cat arched its back, not moving its eyes away from me. I grumbled something under my breath and reached my hand back in to grab him. “Here kitty, kitty. I’m not gonna hurt you.” I was just about to grab him, when he hissed again and scratched my hand. “Agh!” I yelled, pulling my hand back again. “Fine,” I yelled back at the cat. “Stay there.”
I got back in the car and started it up, not caring about stray cat that had jumped into my car. In all honesty, I didn’t mind him tagging along; it was nice to have someone else with me for the ride, even if it was just some nasty cat from the gas station.
The next day was a bad one. I drove for six hours through nothing but fire and riots. By five o’clock I was so hungry that I considered eating the cat that had been sleeping since I started the car this morning. I wish I’d gotten rid of him when I had the chance, I’m pretty sure he has fleas.
At about seven I finally found a supermarket that looked deserted and decided to stop.