Snow was falling ever so lightly form the colourless skies. Light barely escaped through the cracks in the sheets of clouds that extended endlessly. The ambience was dull and lifeless. However, the snow that fell slowly like feathers along with the mild movements of the magnanimous ceiling of clouds gave a slight soothing feeling. A sense of calm. The calm, before the storm. 

 

A man with a slender figure walked towards the huge opening in the wall. The scene of the horizon where the orange hued ground met the colourless ceiling was visible from inside the dark room. The man stopped only inches away from the edge of the room. He tilted his head as he traced out his own reflection on the glass wall. His pupils dilated as he focused into the view miles behind his reflection.

 

“Wow!”

 

The words escaped his mouth before he realised. As far as he can see, the clouds extended. The horizon was curving into oblivion while the setting sun was colouring the scene with a deep orange. His eyes followed the clouds from the horizon till his head was looking straight above. A lone flake of snow was falling towards him. His eyes stopped moving and he stared at the flake as it floated in the air whilst slowly approaching him. He noticed that the snow was an off shade of white. Like it had been dirtied. Like it was not like snow at all. 

 

The flake landed on his forehead. His vision shifted from the flake to the ceiling of clouds that remained motionless above. The same shade of ‘grey’ was seen in the clouds. The word ‘ash’ came to his mind again. The thought of the clouds being masses of ashes was not the most ideal. But he continued to stare aimlessly into the eerie formation of clouds. The magnanimous sight that filled his heart with peace started to make the same pound harder. 

 

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-DHUMBBBBB!

 

The sound of some bang echoed from an inconceivable distance. The heartbeats that he was starting to hear so loudly inside his own head had stopped. The sound akin so some explosion had cleared his head. He averted his eyes and looked down in an attempt to clear his head. His eyes went wide.

 

The very emotion of fear and confusion merged together. He couldn’t distinguish whether he felt fear or confusion the most. If he had to pick, then the later would be more suitable now. As his shaking eyes were darting across the scene before him, he was coming up with reasons. Reasons for what happened to the world to look like it did.

 

Structures that resembled buildings were broken and demolished. Some were even melted down like plastic. Cars resembled paper and crushed tin cans. Most of the streets were engulfed by fire while some were by red stains. 

 

His eyes jumped from one atrocious image to the other. His breathing was getting erratic. He could feel his legs getting weak. He leaned forward onto the huge glass wall. He supported his almost limp body on the glass. 

 

His eyes stopped at one particular spot. He gazed at a building that remained in good condition. The name ‘Harry’s Hardware’ was written on the board that was hanging from a pole. He could make out 3 figures that seemed human. The thought of humans alive in that wretched scenery brought warmth to his heart. His breathing stabilised. He let out a large sigh while lightly grinning. 

 

The figures that he saw were human. But he couldn’t look closer. They were too small, even more so than ants. Just how tall must he be for humans to look like they did now. 

 

‘Ah--’

 

A chill shiver ran down his spine. His regained strength was running away along with it. His legs started shaking. Tears welled up at the corners of his eyes. He shifted his gaze away from the hardware store and looked below. Closer to where he was standing. The edge of the room. He realised something crucial but very late. Too late. 

 

The room he was in, the building the room was in, was tall. He assumed that the height that he was standing in might be close to the 20th floor. Almost 60 meters above ground. His mouth began falling agape as his breath stopped. He started making whimpering noises in a futile attempt to breath. 

 

Luckily, his already weak legs failed and he fell backwards. With a not so loud thud he fell on his back. Facing the ceiling, he laid on the ground with his arms wide to either side. His breathing started to get erratic again. But at least, he was breathing again. 

 

As his tense body started to relax, he could feel the tension subside along with his consciousness. His eyelids started to drop shut. Seconds before passing out he could smell chicken. Deep fried, spicy chicken wings came to his mind. With a huge ridiculous smile on his face he passed out while drooling like an idiot.

 

* * * * * 

 

Jason woke up in his room that was as cold as a freezing box. The cold was enough to wake him up. He opened his eyes with great effort. But the cold breeze that felt like a dagger grazing the skin jolted him awake. He jumped out of the bed after realising how sore his throat was after sleeping agape all night. In a futile attempt to search the for the remote he pushed his phone down from the table. He paid it no mind as he found the remote and was busy turning the damn AC off.

 

As he made his way back to his bed he was interrupted by a light that illuminated the dark room from a corner. He turned around to see the source of the light. At the corner, a blob of light was glimmering slightly. Jason gulped down dry saliva as he stood there confused. His eyes were blurry and he wanted to go back to sleep desperately. He stepped forward carefully in an attempt not to provoke the blob of light that was in his room.

 

He moved slowly, step by step, drawing closer to the corner where the blob was. The light was so bright that he couldn’t look at it straight. He held is arm out before his face trying to protect his vision from the light. In no more than a fraction of a second, the light vanished. The room became dark again. Jason stood still unable to understand what is happening. Maybe he was dreaming. He concluded it was just a stupid dream and turned around to approach the bed. 

 

The blob came alive again. The room was now tinted in a more sinister colour. The light was red. The blob might have gotten angry. He turned around slowly. He looked at the blob that was glowing red now. However, red was a colour that was eerie but was less brighter than white or its counterpart, blue. The shape of the blob was now visible. Rounded rectangle, he had learned about it in a video he saw for his studies. The only object he had that shape and could emit light was…… His face was flushed red now. He closed his eyes with embarrassment and slapped his forehead with his right hand. 

 

Hesitation was no more seen in his actions. He moved forward with quick and strong steps and bowed down with his hand stretched. He grabbed the blob of light and tapped away quickly on it’s surface. With a cute animal like sound the blob changed its colour to white. Once again, Jason tapped on it and the bright blob loosed its power and dimmed down.

 

"Damn! It's already 3 in the Morning huh. Better go to sleep”

 

The blob of light that he was tapping away was indeed none other than the smartphone that he dropped moments ago. He checked the time and was about to switch the screen off. But some notification popped up once again. As sleepy as he was, the notifications that kept coming in at such an hour was starting to get his attention. He clicked on the notification and it took him to the browser. A page was loading while he was waiting to see what the fuss was about. Once the page finished loading, it showed a huge title. 

 

-’The End of The World has Arrived!’

 

'Eh?'

 

He swiped up to see more of the article. After some amount of text that Jason didn’t care about, there was an unloaded image. He tried to reload the page but the image alone didn’t seem to show up. He threw his phone onto the table and flicked a couple of switches. The monitor that was placed on the table powered on showing the name ‘Astro Megatronics’. He bent down underneath the table and pressed a button on a box that was glowing with several colours. Then he proceeded to draw out a mouse and a keyboard placed inside a cupboard near the table.

 

As soon as the operating system was booted into, he opened the browser and skipped to the history page. The link that he saw in his phone was listed under ’Today’ all alone. He clicked on it. For some reason, the image had loaded. The image worked fine in the computer but in the phone it was broken. But this was not the issue of concern for Jason. His reaction was complex. Confusion, doubt, fear and anxiety mixed together could be seen in his face. He stared at that image. The image of an unknown terrain. Orange land that looked like it was caught in a nuclear explosion. Melted buildings and squashed cars. Ash falling from the skies. 

 

That was a scene of utter carnage. Jason was confused and he was not convinced. He opened a new tab and started typing away at the poor keyboard at a fearsome pace and ferocity. Several sources came up as results for the search ‘end of the world’. But the strange thing was, none of them were nonsensical in nature. Movies, books, comics or the sort. None of those kind were seen in the results. Most of the results were news sites and the rest were older.

 

He clicked on the first result. The page showed a similar title to the one he read. The images were also similar but the terrain was different. A highlighted word in the passage below said ‘America’. His eyes went wide for a moment. 

 

'A terrorist attack in America?’

 

But why the overexaggerating titles saying ‘end of the world’. He knew that the media over-exaggerated everything they get their hands on but this was ridiculous. He jumped to the other tab that he opened already. The same title and a similar image. The only difference was the name of China could be found in the article. An expression that said ‘Really now?’ was forming on Jason’s face. He could even make out names like Japan, India, Germany, France and so on. The names of the countries mentioned was endless. This, was global. 

 

'No, no way that is possible. If America was hit, then even I should be …’

 

He svivelled around in this chair and jumped out of it. He made a beeline towards the window and opened it. The streets were silent, very silent. His house was safe. There was no attack of that sorts that seemed to happen here. He walked backwards and plopped onto the bed. He sat on his bed with his head in his hands. He looked at the computer again from the edge of his eyes.

 

‘The bomb zones were selective then? Wait, is this all true in the first place?’

 

Jason was living with his parents. In his eyes, his dad was as wise as they get. He had an amazing job, excellent salary and was intelligent too. He thought his father might know clearly about what is going on. The internet being flooded with false information or if this shit was all true all along. Jason let out a huge sigh before getting up. He opened the door and exited the room. Jason’s room was in the first floor along with a baby room that was used for storage now and a guest room that was empty. He got to the staircase and trotted down the stairs being careful not to trip. He rushed ahead to his parents room and knocked on the door while screaming for his dad. 

 

"DAAD! DAAAD! Wake up!! There is this thing you need to see!” 

 

The eerie silence continued when he stopped knocking and waited for a reply. Impatient as he was, Jason opened the door to his parents room. The smell of blood was so strong he didn’t even need to open the door fully. Repulsed by the strong odour, Jason turned around immediately before vomiting on the floor. He wiped his mouth with his bare hands before entering the room again. 

 

He held his mouth tight with his hands to fight the urge to vomit again. The place where his parents should be sleeping in was a puddle of blood and bones. Muscles were randomly distributed on the bones that did not even form a skeleton. The white bed that he sat on early that evening was dark red now. Tears started flowing from his eyes. His muffled screams echoed in the room. He kept screaming until his throat that was already sore couldn’t take it anymore. The sight before him was so stomach turning he couldn’t afford to remove his hands. He plopped to the ground powerlessly and continued to stay there with his teary eyes and pale face. 

 

* * * * * 

 

Some time had passed since Jason woke up. The clock in the room had its short hand at 5 and the long at 7. The alarm was ringing continuously for the past 30 minutes until it ran out of juice and stopped altogether. The eerie silence returned. Jason could hear a sort of buzzing persist since he fell on then floor in his parent's room. His face was emotionless as he was motionless. 

 

Knock-Knock!

 

Knock-Knock!

 

Knock-Knock!

 

The sound of someone knocking on the front door resounded slightly in the trance that Jason was in. Legs stretched, shoulders drooped, hands limp, Jason was on the floor with an inconceivable look on his face. 

 

Knock-Knock!

 

Mouth wide agape and eyes so blood shot that it seemed like his eyes were actually bleeding. The flies attracted by the bloody mess on the bed were even seen around Jason. A fly found its way inside his mouth. But he remained motionless. 

 

Knock-Knock! 

 

Like a soulless statue made of flesh and blood, Jason stayed there with his gaze fixated on two skulls that he placed on the ground. The bigger skull had a huge ring that spelled SJ near it while the comparatively smaller skull had a chain with a locket. 

 

......

 

The knocking sound that was so persistent had finally died down. Soon after which there was the sounds of footsteps. The sound got louder with each step. It got closer with each step. At the peripheral of his vision Jason saw a pair of shiny black shoes and a silky pant. A black cane with a golden tip was forced to the ground between the pair of shoes. 

 

"Good Morning Mr. Jason. I suppose it might be a little inconvenient for you to reply right now. But, we must get going now. Or else, we might miss the grand event and trust me you don’t want to miss it for anything.”

 

"...."

 

Jason didnt utter a word. To be fairly exact, he was unable to speak a word. Not even make a noise. He tried to lift his head up only to fail miserably. The figure that was standing before him noticed that pitiful struggle of Jason and started speaking in a coarse but soothing bass voice.

 

"Oh, don't force yourself too much Jason. You need to save your energy for the event. Here, let me help you sleep now.”

 

As soon as he heard the man say ‘sleep’ Jason could feel his eyelids droop. The sense of powerlessness turned to tiredness and he began to fall asleep. In a final unfruitful struggle to grab the ornaments placed near the skulls, Jason fell to the side. He extended his arms but it was not long enough. Tears could no longer exit his eyes. His lips were parched and so was his tongue. With a miserable feeling of being not even able to cry, he was slipping away. 

 

"Do not worry a bit Mr. Jason. I will personally see to it that these valuables will reach you as soon as you wake up. You can surely trust me”

 

Jason felt like smirking. Even if things were as tragic as they were, the thought of getting to keep his parent's belongings in their memory was one good thing amongst a million thorns and daggers. As he heard the words uttered by the strange man, Jason let go of his struggle and drifted away into the dark oblivion.