Not as Scary as it Sounds--Derek

 

The world could not comprehend it. It was not real to them. The efforts of those who could have prevented this catastrophe continuously failed and it was that very sad day that they had to tell this truth.

 Come 14 hours and everybody will be gone. 

Nothing and nobody will remember them, no remnants of their history will remain. 300,000 years of human advancement vanishing in an event so very unclear in their minds. Many people dealt with this knowledge in different ways. 

Korey Avila was a 18 year old boy who lived his short life studying, stressing, and suffering for a career he had dreamt of since he was a child. Korey was always told that he had a grand future ahead of him, always told that he was the most hardworking and brightest boy in both his year and more above. It was words like those that inflated and deflated his ego. Those affirmations were a source of burden and constant torment to him. Those words were thorns that constantly pricked into his being every 5:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. Strangely, however, the thorns comforted him. Its pain reminded him that eventually his efforts would be paid back in full. That his struggle would lead him to have a life filled with money, love, and meaning. Korey, who was seated at his desk, checked the clock in his room. He, soon after, checked his phone. That was when he saw the grim report. All he could do in that first hour was stare, stare at something that marked the end of his life. However to him it was so much more, his goals he had oh so struggled for all crumbled in that moment. The work that he had so depressingly devoted his whole being into turned to sludge. His achievements which mattered so much to him, became meaningless in the end. Korey looked back at what he had accomplished in his life and despite doing all these things he was “proud of”, he could not pinpoint a memory where he could think fondly of. It was in that second hour, Korey passed on. 

Fange Celle was a 29 year old woman who loved to cook and eat. She, who spent 8 years of her life incarcerated, became a free woman the day before humanity's extinction. The day she was freed, was a day of indulgence in various food items she had not had in a long time. She filled her gut with an ecstatic grin on her face with every bite. Thankful towards the world and people who had granted her this blessing of delicious effin’ food. However there was something in Fange’s stomach that had yet to be satiated. A craving that could not be found in any of the stores or restaurants she went to. Fange was finally free and since she still had a house to go back to, she had set her sights on getting ingredients to cook for the day after. It was after she had gathered the ingredients and was walking back to her car that she had thought how amazing the free world was. It was that next morning as she was prepping her ingredients in her beat up kitchen that an announcement came upon her barely functioning TV. That first hour, she passionately chopped, diced, and stirred. The second hour, she was feeling adventurous so she fried, steamed, and grilled. The third hour, she cried. Her chest tightened and almost like she was back in her personal hell, was trapped again. She had gotten her freedom for only a day at that point, only for it to be taken away. Fange was imprisoned again by not only her own mistakes but by the world. The walls in that hour seemed to be staring at her, peering into her soul and binding her to the ground as she sobbed. Fange managed to pull herself up, serve herself, sit at her rickety table in the kitchen, and eat. Food was the one thing that always cheered her up but picking her utensils up to eat was the hardest thing to do at that moment. After every bite, bittersweet memories of the past peered in her mind. Memories of her mother and father happily making food for her, memories of her parents trying their hardest to raise a troubled youth like herself, memories of their despair and disappointment as the judge laid out her sentence. Fange was indulging not for joy but regret. They died midway through her sentence and she never got to see them as a free woman again. She finished her plate with a painful emptiness in her chest. She was still not satisfied. Fange remembered the crepes her parents used to make with her as a child and in that fifth hour, she gathered up what she could to make it. The process was dreadful; However, bits of joy sprung up as more and more memories of her lovely parents flooded her brain. With every mouthful she got in the food became easier to stomach, her bindings loosened, it was hitting the spot. The indulgence this time was not regret but joy. Eating that much cuisine had begun to put Fange into a food coma. Fange went to her room, peered and reminisced over one last time and went to lay in her bed. She laid on her back, forearms pointing up, and slept a long and peaceful sleep 

Rami Barock was a 39 year old man who had no spouse, no children, and no friends. The only connection he had was a chronically sick 32 year old little brother, Martinus Barock. To Rami, Martinus was the only thing he needed. Despite his sickness, Martinus was a very charismatic and joyful man, he was the kind of dude that would be stared at not due to his very visible sickness but the damn heart that he would put into everything. Although he had a lot of friends, he preferred to hang with his brother for the majority of his time. To Martinus, Rami was the only thing he needed. The sad day for humanity coincided with an annual tradition Rami and Martinus had done for years. When they heard the announcement from a neighbor who was manically tearing down their own house, they both did not experience the fear they thought they would. They could visibly see the chaos that was sprouting from each household but they were not scared. Despite the mayhem that had been erupting throughout the town, city, state, and world, they began to set up their garage. As they set up for the next 4 hours, the world in their eyes began to get smaller. That was when they began to sing. As children both Rami and Martinus loved to play music and sing but due to their circumstances they were only able to divulge fully once a year. The brothers did not waste one second of their time as they sang their souls out to no one but each other. It was towards the end of the thirteenth hour that they sang their swan song and with their fatigue they both slouched on the floor of the garage looking towards the sky. 

“Martinus…I love you” 

“Haha, you sound sad?” 

“Yeah…but I’m glad we got to do this”

 “Yeah” 

“How long do you think we have”

 “Us? Ha, not much time. No one does” 

“There is nothing we could do, huh?” 

“By now? Nothing”

“…”

 “...”

 “Are you happy, Martinus? Was I a good older brother?” 

“Very happy… Rami?” 

“Yes”

 “You were an amazing brother” 

“...”

 “You know, Rami. Leaving this world is not as scary as it sounds”