Cataclysm Tomorrow

I yawn as I awake from an odd dream. I can’t even recall what it was about but for some reason, it’s bothering me and I know it had to do with my friends. I look over to the small black box that I hate on school days. 6:35 am the red numbers read. I sigh and look up at the glow-in-the-dark stars that have been stuck to my ceiling since I was ten. I close my eyes and decide that I should go back to sleep, no matter how disturbing the dream.

The annoying sound of my alarm going off wakes me up again and it feels like I have only slept for five minutes. I look at my clock and this time the red letters read 11:00 am. I groan and look over at my phone. The red light is blinking. I sit up, propping myself up against the headrest. I pick up my phone and unlock it, seeing a message from my friends John and Sudden. John and Sudden have been my best and very valued friends for the past three years and now. When I met them, I had this feeling inside of me, it was my heart whispering in my ear that I could trust them. Now that I’m in college, we don’t see each other as much as we did last year, although we do meet up every now and then. According to my phone, it’s April 18, 2019. The years have gone by quickly.

Sudden Strahlung is eighteen years of age and he is fairly shy. He listens when I talk a lot, which is often, but when he does talk we have very interesting conversations. I remember when I first met him. He seemed quiet and shy like I was at the time, and I wanted to make friends of my own. He reminded me of myself and so I decided that I wanted to make friends with this person. John Strahlung is also eighteen years of age and he was the first one I talked to when I met them both. He struck me as a person with a personality similar to mine, although at the time I wasn’t sure of what it was, and even now, I can’t fully pinpoint it.

I look at the message from Sudden first:

Yeah, see you tomorrow S, 12:30.

That’s right, we’re meeting at the skating rink. I think to myself.

See you soon Sudden.

I read the text from John next:

Okay, good night.

I smile, shake my head and put my phone back on the small night stand. I fling my auburn satin sheets and my white feather comforter down and climb out of bed. My feet hit the cold carpet and I wiggle my toes just before I give a quick stretch. I walk over to my window and push the black curtains aside. It’s dark outside as if it were still only four in the morning. The sky is covered with black clouds. I open my window, letting the smell of lotus incense flee to the outside world that smells of damp earth and concrete.

“Looks like it’s going to rain,” I say to myself. “What a perfect day for a murder.” I walk back over to my phone and turn on a song titled “The Doomsday Machine” by Audible Landscapes. This day reminds me of my old high school teacher who absolutely loved Shakespeare. She passed away last year in October from cancer but that was her favorite saying on a dark gloomy day like today, “What a perfect day for a murder,” and what was mysterious was that every time it was dark and gloomy out, it was the exact time the class would get to the murder scenes in one of Shakespeare’s plays; except for Romeo and Juliet, she absolutely refused to read that play in her Shakespeare classes. I smile, looking out the window, seeing the winds bustle because of the harsh winds.

I walk over to my closet and pull out a knee-length black dress, black combat boots that I have had since I was fourteen, and debate between my black fedora, and my white fedora with a black ribbon. I slip my black dress on, grab black socks from my dresser drawer, walk over to my bed, and put on my combat boots. I walk back over to the closet and grab my black fedora. The white one is for spring.

I walk into my bathroom and flick on the light. I look at my uncombed short black hair and place the fedora on my head. As my friends Sudden and John agreed to one time, you do not need to comb your hair if you’re wearing a hat. If I remember correctly, John said, “That’s why you’re wearing a hat.” I wet my face with cold water to see if I could wake up just a bit more. As I exit the bathroom I look at the clock on my nightstand. 11:25 am.

“Alrighty,” I say with a sigh, “time to get going.”

As I walk outside, I see large piles of trash that have been blown around by the wind, a majority of the trash pinned against trees because of the high winds. I hold onto my hat as the wind whooshes, sounding violent. A lot of cars are abandoned along the streets with open car doors and some are even crashed into each other.

“What is going on?” I ask myself frantically. The wind continues to whoosh. I quickly scramble into my car and try to turn it on. My car won’t start. Great. I keep trying with no success. I sigh in frustration and my car is shaking from the wind.

Guys, I don’t know if you left yet, but instead of at the rink, I’ll meet you guys half way at the park on 50th. See you guys soon.

I get out of the car and holding onto my hat I slam the door. In the distance, the horizon looks like it’s been colored blood red. I see some smoke in the distance in almost every direction I look. My phone buzzes and I look down to read it, it’s from Sudden.

Ok. I stuff my phone back into my pocket and start walking.

The wind continues to howl, still as violent since I left, with only a few moments in between to calm down. I see John and Sudden sitting at a park bench waiting for me. Sudden is wearing dark blue jeans and a long-sleeve gray t-shirt under his long black trench coat with his purple scarf wrapped around his neck and John is wearing one of his button-up black long sleeve shirts, black pants, and his black snow boots. He’s also wearing his black fedora that’s covering his freshly cut short brown hair.

“On our way over here, we saw a lot of abandoned cars on the road, and our car wouldn’t start,” John says once I get closer.

“Yeah, I saw some too, and mine wouldn’t either. What do you think is going on?” Sudden and John shrug. I look at the twins and wonder how no one could ever tell them apart. “I think we should go somewhere other than here.”

“Why?” Sudden asks skeptically.

“Because we don’t know what’s going on and I feel that if we stay here, we’re in danger.”

Sudden shrugs, “I guess…”

“I saw some people panicking on my way over here, they were breaking into closed stores, a lot of guys had guns and many looked like they wanted to kill me. It’s chaos.”

John and Sudden just look at me, blank-faced. Their blue-green eyes just staring at me through their square wire-rimmed glasses.

“Please,” I whine, “I don’t want to head out on my own.”

“Okay, but I think we need to wait until tomorrow,” John chimes in. “It’ll get late soon, even though it’s almost one but if we’re walking while it becomes evening, we’ll be in danger.”

I nod, “Alright.” We walk back to my house and decide to start packing supplies. The rest of the evening we play backgammon, battleship, sorry, and Chinese checkers. After a few hours of playing the different games at least once, we decide it would be best to go to sleep. I look at the clock on the wall and I see that it’s almost midnight. We say our goodnights and head off to bed.

I hear three different alarms go off at the exact same time and I squeeze my eyes shut. I want the noise to stop. I hit the dismiss button on my alarm and sit up. 6:55 am. I yawn and jump out of bed, black jeans and a long black sleeve t-shirt already on and ready to go. I slip on my light brown hiking boots, grab my backpack filled with non-perishable food items, and head to the living room. Sudden and John are already ready to go. Without words, we leave the house, and start on our way, with no general direction.

As we get outside, the streets are still baron, however, there are some people lying face down on the ground, not moving. John is the first to point it out, but he looks up at the sky, and Sudden and I look up with him. Some of the clouds that have parted leave a sight for sore eyes. Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars are all extremely close to the Earth. They are so close, that we can see the details of each planet.

“Whoa,” I murmur out of disbelief.

“Shiloh, I don’t think escaping to another state is going to help us,” John says as he continues to stare at the planets.

“Yeah, I don’t think so either,” I say as I too continue to stare. “But I don’t want to stay here and die, let’s go to the park.”

John and Sudden nod, and we start our journey back to the park on 50th street. Once we get to the park, I set my backpack down and run for the swings. John and Sudden follow behind, talking to one another. I choose the swing on my far left, the woodchips moving slightly beneath my feet from my weight. Sudden sits next to me on my right and John next to him.

“Whoever swings highest is the all-time swing race champion,” I say trying to hide the fear and terror in my voice. I wipe away some unfallen tears quickly.

“Deal,” John says, and Sudden nods.

“One, two, three, go!” I yell and we start swinging, slow at first, until we are all in sync, trying to get higher than the other. “I won!” I exclaim with a fake evil laugh. “I am the all-time swing race champion!” I look over at my friends and smile. Above their heads, however, I see immense dark black clouds rolling in.

The sky is starting to get darker as more and more clouds begin to cover the sky, and the planets are starting to slowly disappear. We stop swinging and just stare up at the sky. We know this is the end as the last part of Mars disappears, and we are consumed by pitch-black darkness.

I wake up in a cold sweat, terrified because of a dream I just had. I look over at my alarm clock, 6:35 am the red numbers read. The red light on my phone is blinking and I decide to check it. I pick up my phone and unlock it, squinting due to the bright screen. My phone tells me I have messages from my friends, unread since I fell asleep late last night. I click on the messages and exit out of them, it’s too early to read them now. Before turning off the phone, I look at the date displayed on my phone; it reads April 18, 2019. I set my phone back on the nightstand and lay back down, looking up at the glow-in-the-dark stars that are stuck to my ceiling. I close my eyes with a sigh, deciding that I should go back to sleep, no matter how disturbing the unknown dream was.