When the World Ends

Thursday

The world fell apart on a Thursday.

   The month was October, the 27th day, and it was almost Halloween.

   It was a school day. At 2:40 p.m., the bell would ring and students would rush for the hallways.

   But at 2:05 p.m., the world began to shake. Lightly at first, and then violently, throwing students to the ground and desks at the wall. We'd never had an earthquake before; nobody knew what to do. This wasn't California, where earthquake drills were constant--this was Colorado.

   The teacher yelled for everybody to stay calm, cover their heads. We did as she said, but so many people were still screaming. And then, all of a sudden, the shaking stopped.

We all stood up slowly. A few girls were crying. But none of us had any clue what was about to happen next.

I know now that that earthquake was caused by the Yellowstone super-volcano erupting. And with its eruption, a chain event of earthquakes caused other volcanic eruptions, in turn leading to tsunamis, more earthquakes, and so much ash in the air it was impossible to breathe in some places. The tornadoes that followed resulted in dust storms; thousands of people suffocated to death.

Cities and towns near Yellowstone were decimated; all that remained of them was ash and rubble. Lava had hardened over some of the areas like in Pompeii; craters had appeared where buildings used to be from the rocks thrown about by the force of the volcano.

This caused acidity in the air. It poisoned the rain, the water. Not immediately--the world didn't end as soon as the volcano erupted, not for everyone. But for the people of Wyoming, the world ended in a flash for nearly all of them. The ash and smoke got a lot of them, too, or so I've heard.

I remember her telling someone she'd spend hours wasted on Wikipedia, somehow ending up reading about random odd things. Serial killers, cults, movie and book summaries, and a couple of times, objects such as the Yellowstone super-volcano.

But I hadn't really met her yet.

We'd all stood in the classrooms, the announcement coming from overhead for everybody to please stay calm and in our class until it was known what had occurred. Of course, that didn't last long.

   She was playing cards with the boy. After the one game, though, he went off to play with his other friends. And many kids got up and asked to go to other rooms--the band hall, choir room, art room, and many others. After about ten minutes, all that was left were her, her friend, myself, the teacher, and three other boys.

   One boy had his headphones on. The remainder of us joined together to play a game of Uno. Buts she only watched.

   Parents came to pick up two of the other boys, one set ten minutes before the other. Then, the parent of her friend, an hour later. They hugged. They said farewell.

   The boy's parents came to get him. She told him good-bye.

   Just me and her and the boy, but then only me and her and the teacher left. She disliked me. I tried to speak to her, but she only huffed in response. I learned later that both of our parents worked...and neither would be coming to get us.