My APOCALYPSE

Chapter 1

"The explosion is imminent." The news reporter reported gravely.

"Don't be so happy about it." I snapped at the impassive blonde on the TV.

"Why on earth would she be happy about it, Lyla?" My roommate, Kate, called from the kitchenette.

I gestured wildly at the television while trying to face Kate and watch the program at the same time.

"She got to report news that will now make headlines around the world! She's famous for thirty seconds. Of course she's happy about this."

Kate laughed.

"Don't be so bitter, Lyla. You'll get your break soon. And anyway," She said wryly, putting the plate she was drying away. "They're deluding themselves. There will be no 'explosion'. The apocalypse is a fantasy dreamed up by fanatics and then backed by a few rough earthquakes."

The 'rough earthquakes' she was referring to had all but shaken our tiny apartment down. Kate was an optimist.

"It's 2012, Kate," I reminded her. "The Mayan prophecy declares this to be the end of the world as we know it."

"Oh please," She snorted. "Don't tell me you believe that superstitious crap?"

"Makes for an interesting theory though." I mumbled, settling back onto the couch to watch the famous bimbo.

The phone rang. I groaned. To answer it I would have to uncurl from the comfortable little ball I'd rolled into.

"Kate?" I asked hopefully.

"Answer the phone, Lyla."

Grumbling to myself, I unrolled.

"Hello?"

"Lyla?"

"This is she."

"Lyla, it's Mummy!"

Stifling another groan and the urge to smack my palm against my face, I replied:

"Hi, Mum."

"Listen honey, we're going to be going out of town for the next few days. Would you be able to check on your brothers every now and then?"

"Yeah sure," I replied, my attention fixed on the TV already. "How long will you be away for?"

"A few weeks we think. It's hard to say."

"Hard to say?"

"Well as long as it takes us to spend your inheritance, baby." She burst out into peals of laughter.

"Ahaha." I agreed. I do not like inheritance jokes.

She proceeded to babble for the next forty minutes, in which I just mhmed and agreed with every few seconds. Finally she hung up and my ears were allowed some peace.

"Mother?" Kate asked.

I nodded without turning around.

"What does she want you to do?"

"Look after the little bro's while she and Dad are out of town." I said.

"Fair enough."

We spent the rest of the evening playing Monopoly and trading theories of evolution.

The next day, I was headed to work. Being less than twenty minutes away, I walked, inwardly laughing at the people caught in the morning rush hour traffic. A shadow drifted over me, and I glanced up. I remember wondering why what looked like a cloud of ash was drifting towards the ground. And then the world exploded. The explosion was so loud it felt like my eardrums would never stop complaining.

With the noise, the ground rattled underfoot as though the planet was a giant's play thing. Around me, people, buildings, trees and the sky fell.

This is my apocalypse!!