Carl Azuz - A Scoop to Remember

Roll Call

"Time for today's roll CALL!" Carl Azuz bellowed.

Montana, Florida, and Michigan lit up on the map, each in turn.

"... And coming back up to the MICHIGANERS of Michigan High School..."

His soft eyes flashed in the camera light, his waves of dark hair sparkled. While the Friday weekly slideshow appeared on the screen, his job was over for the day. He wished he had something interesting to report on. It had been a slow year in news so far. His boss always tells him to exaggerate, to play up his stories. But Carl knows that it's wrong. His job was to tell the news, to tell it like it is. Not to get the best ratings, but to tell the news. And nothing more. As the music faded into thin air and the cameras stopped rolling, a red envelope was placed on his desk. Bold letters on the front read "CONFIDENTIAL- DO NOT OPEN IN PUBLIC." He didn't listen to the warning. Things like this were never that serious. But this time, he was horribly, horribly, horribly, horribly mistaken. His wish had been granted, and now he wished it hadn't.

The piece of paper that stood before him contained information about an imminent alien threat. Total annihilation was inevitable.

He shot up from his desk and frantically walked towards the exit. "I-I left the oven on!" He spat out. He could barley breath when he reached the elevator. He tried his best to shield the piece of paper from the others in the elevator. His face was hot and red, his hands and knees shook. Was this a joke? Was this a dream? No, nobody jokes about the news.

Nobody.

Carl had tripped and fell straight on his face before the shooting of today's Student News, so he was fairly certain that he wasn't dreaming. Well, this was it. Everyone was going to die, and he was the only one outside of NASA who knew. Now, he thought, what will tomorrow's news look like?

He did not get much sleep that night.