The apocalypse was announced in every form of communication available; on every screen, hologram, laser writing, earpiece, and even sent in the form of an email. The biggest signal was the Sun, increasing in size every day, getting redder and redder. Every time it rained, it seemed to last that much longer. The pools left from the downpour visibly evaporated, seemingly evolving into nothingness. People started to panic; they huddled in whatever dark corner they could find, like an ant being gently trodden on by a shoe. Learning Domes were forgotten about, old enemies murdered each other in a last fit for revenge and anger that would go by without consequences, Food Integrator Storage Facilities were raided and stolen from, and everyone went back to their most feral instinctive self. Except the city I lived in.
My city, Surota, was all that was left of the planet. Out of all the chaos, all the trauma, all the death, Surota stayed the same; as it was the only area on Earth that still had hope. Our Government was the only one with the Energy-to-Matter Shield, or E.M.S for short. The E.M.S made an extremely non-reactive, dense foggy substance (called Ocinium) in the form of a hollow sphere around Surota, which could just survive the core of the sun. This gave everyone enough hope to live peacefully.
Days before it started, I joined everyone as they all looked up at the Sun and felt the breeze for the last time, as the bluish-white plates of Ocinium was electrically pulsed into the sky, forming a sphere with every heartbeat; slowly cutting us off from the Earth forever.
Day One: The Beginning of the End
The Holo-News stated that what was left of the Ice Caps had now melted. The sea levels had risen a few meters, and chaos was rising outside just Surota. Those who could not stand the heat were dying on the streets, and left to rot. Magnet Transportation all around the world was suddenly stopping or crashing due to power cuts, which were appearing everywhere. Planes fell out the sky or crashed on the runway, exploding on impact. Some people committed suicide or murdered others in front of the Ocinium Sphere in order to save themselves the horror of burning and protesting against Surota. All those who maintained some peace amongst themselves outside the sphere were either praying or saying their last goodbyes to their families.
Inside the sphere everything was as it was, except we couldn't go anywhere near the edges of the sphere so as to save ourselves visual and mental torment. One or two planes crashed on the sphere, but they slid off in a metal mess of fire and twisted aluminum. This caused a slight stir in the city, but with all the talk of the apocalypse it seemed like a breeze in a hurricane.
Day Two: The Sky of Fire
The Holo-News had gone offline as all electromagnetic signals were interfered with by the large sun, which was now four times as big as it was before the chaos. Surota was a double landlocked country, so however much liquid water was left on the planet was out of reach to us. Our resources were no problem since we had an Energy to Matter converter powered by solar panels. However, sanity was not a thing easy to maintain when the world around you is slowly destroyed and the only thing you have left to hold onto is the equivalent of a string. Outside the sphere, the streets were empty, apart from all the dead corpses which hung from trees and littered the road. Dried skin clung to flesh, and blood stuck to the pavement like lichen on stone. The most disturbing and noticeable thing someone had done was to cave in a man's forehead against the sphere and leave it there, as a sign that there really was no hope of the old world anymore.
Day Three: Collapse of Society
The Sun was the size of a soccer ball, sitting in the sky as it always did. It was a creator of life, a caring entity which provided warmth to all. Why did it change? What is left of the Earth rests with only Surota, a single city, meant to keep all of Earth with its history and its legacy on the most reactive and fragile of species, with our own issues. This is a thought shared throughout the minds of everyone in Surota, and some said that the shield should be put down to let us end peacefully. Others said that the Earth should continue on, no matter how small. The rest, thinking, worried as the sun approached every day.
Day Four: Approach of The Arches
The man with the caved in skull is no longer himself. He is the very least of himself without being nothing. His skin and flesh cling to his bone, and his face has caved into his eye sockets, his jaw, and his nose. The skyscrapers of the Earth crumble under the immense heat and pressure, and bridges collapse into the valley beside us. The Magnetic Transportation System has cracked and the carriages of it have crashed into the city below. The trees from which the corpses had hung were dried to the point of their bark peeling off and the ropes had frayed.
The people of Surota wept as the dawn of realization swept over everyone for a second time. Somehow we had continued through the Hell we had created and yet it hadn't even started. Days were longer and people had lost sleep none-the less. Everyone had woken up that day to see the plasma arches in person, for the first time in history of the planet, and it filled us all with fear.
Day Five: The Pressure of Surviving
The Sun's gravity was pulling objects off the Earth. What was left of the skyscrapers slowly broke off and up. Red skeletons and bits of bodies floated up along with them. Our normal world was turned upside down, and everyone was holding onto something to stop them from floating off. This made surviving a lot harder than it was on the remainders of society, and the City of Surota slowed down to the point of almost stopping.
An arch slowly formed from the surface from the sun. At its peak, it broke into two. The pieces whipped out. The very end of the whip came blazing onto the neighboring city and annihilated it, leaving a black landscape in the distance. The scene left a permanent memory with everyone.
The man with the caved in skull floated off to the Sun. All that was left was fractured bone and a skull, which stayed intact and seemingly had a smile on its face as it burnt up.
Day Six: Why
Everyone stayed up to see the Sun's surface slowly disintegrate the Earth around them. It destroyed the horizon that trillions had seen over billions of years since life first began. The wall of fire seemed to glide along as everything came to an end. When the wall hit Surota, an immediate pressure built up. The Ocinium sphere made a colossal moan as the Sun washed over its surface. The pressure kept on building to the point where bones ached everywhere. Blood pressure increased and people outside were screaming as their ears bled; and still the pressure was increasing. It became clear that Surota would not survive to see the next day.
Then, as organs imploded and bones fractured, I wondered something. I asked myself
"How could we have changed the way we have survived so we could end peacefully?"
Because it's taken me this long to figure out that the end is inevitable.
