The End of the World and Other Signs of the End of the World - ONC 2021

August: Attempt #6

The last thing I saw was her walking away from me, pain and anger radiating off her like flames.

I woke up with tears on my face, which was new but not at all unexpected.

She hated me. My Juliet hated me. I'd fucked up so bad.

I'd also killed billions of people, but that was less of an issue.

I got up robotically, just going through the motions, not caring what time it was or that I should have been rushing to get out of the house, to get to Juliet.

I had dry oats for breakfast. They tasted like shit, but I deserved it.

When Rob called, I picked up. I agreed to go to the Centre but told him Juliet couldn't make it. I packed my bag, got dressed, got on the bus. I'd thought Juliet's curtains had twitched when I walked past her house, but now I felt like I was just lying to myself.

The bus was way less fun without Juliet. I noticed more of the weird smells when she wasn't there.

Just like the first day, there were a whole group of people gathered outside of the Centre.

The girl in front of me turned. "They invited thirty of us. You got the call too, right?"

"Yeah. Because I did an internship here a couple months ago."

"I know," she smiled. "I was at that internship, too. Where's your friend?"

"Oh." I flushed. I didn't remember this girl, and she seemed pretty memorable. She had bright red hair, for starters, and she was as tall as I was, if not taller. Something about her reminded me of Juliet, but everything today had been reminding me of Juliet. "Uh, she probably slept in and missed the call. She doesn't wake up before ten. Why do you think they called?"

She wrinkled her nose. "The orbs in the sky?"

"Oh. Yeah. But what's up with them, right? Like, are they dangerous?"

"I don't doubt it." Her eyes darkened. "I bet it's either aliens or some military fuckup."

"Aliens would mean we're probably here for some sacrifice or something."

Her eyes widened and she let out a snort, covering her mouth with her hand. "That's- actually, I wouldn't be that mad." She extended her hand. "I'm Mackie."

"August." I shook her hand. I was about to say something more - ask her why she'd be cool with being abducted by aliens, for starters - when Rob opened the doors.

It went exactly the same way the first day had, with us meeting Dr Thompson, only Mackie and I were put in the same group, with another two guys.

Mackie ran her hand through her hair. "Is it bad that I'm almost disappointed it's not aliens?"

"I don't know, America having a military fuckup is almost... boring," I said. "Aliens would almost be better."

"With aliens, we'd have more than twenty-four hours, at least," she said. We both laughed, but uneasily, because yeah, we had until three-thirty.

"I had this idea, but it needs some fine-tuning," I said, making a rough sketch of mine and Juliet's plan. Without her, everything was a jumbled mess, equations with no answer, lines with angles that were all wrong. I couldn't remember exactly how she'd cleaned it all up.

Mackie squinted at it. "I see where you're going with this, but how are you going to fix this? And this? And this?"

"I don't know," I said honestly. "I feel like there's a way to make it work, but I just can't... figure it out."