"Human life is like a meteor streaking across the heavens. It burns brightly and magnificiently for a short while, but it ultimately fades to nothing."
-Unnamed Philosopher.
Greenwood, Suburban Virginia
April 18, 2003
Erik stared at himself in the mirror. He felt like he was looking at a different person, and it definately wasn't the idealistic young man who had enlisted in the Marines over two years ago. His blond hair had grown over the past two weeks of being home; and his handsome face was marred and sunken by the horrors of war. The attacks in New York had stirred his desire to join the Marines. Self-righteous fire burning feriously in his heart, but the reality of the war in Afghanistan had been completely different. He had seen his life-long best friend blown to pieces after stepping on an IED, and countless other's killed by enemy fire. In his mind he could envision the faces of the men he had slain, haunting him in his dreams. "You good in there Erik?" His father's brass voice echoed through the bathroom door.
Erik was jerked back to reality, "Yeah, just getting ready to shower." He lied as his hands shook.
"Alright son, just hurry it up. You still have to go over to Susan's for dinner tonight."
"Thanks dad," Erik sighed as his father's heavy footsteps pounded away down the hallway. His father knew exactly what Erik was going through. Daniel Green had been a career long Marine, serving in both Vietnam and the Gulf War. He had retired as a Colonel a year before 9/11, and he had desperately tried to warn his oldest son against enlisting. But Erik hadn't listened, and it had been a decision that would haunt him for life.
With a shake of his head he ripped off his clothes and stepped underneath the steaming showerhead. He stood there for several minutes, absently staring at the tiled wall. His thoughts turned to Susan, the girl he had dated all through high school. She was gorgeous and he was handsome, everyone thought that they would get married, but she had broken up with him before his deployment. It had hurt him so bad, that when his best friend Tommy died, he had considered taking his own life. Now that he was back for the time being, her mother was desperately trying to get them back together. Erik wasn't so sure he could handle it in his current frame of mind. He had been deeply in love with Susan, and the breakup had made his experience in the war so much worse.
After his shower he threw on a pair of jeans and an black athletic shirt that hugged his muscular frame. The only positive thing about the war was the way it had molded his body. Before he had been muscular enough, but there was always a layer of fat he was unable to lose. It had disappeared after a few weeks in Afghanistan, replaced by corded muscle and deadly reflexes. Those reflexes had saved his life countless times and forged him into a dangerous weapon.
After saying goodbye to his parents he walked out the front door of their three story home, and climbed behind the wheel of his red 1999 Chevy Silverado. Susan lived on the opposite end of Greenwood, a town of nearly 50,000 people, and named after his great-great grandfather, Leif Green. He noted that the town had grown quite a bit in the two years since he had left. A super-store had opened up in the middle of town, as had a new movie theatre, amongst other things. At one point in his life he would have went on and on about how great his home town was, but not anymore. He had realized the cold reality of their world, and it made him realize that he was truly a changed person, as were several of the other young people in Greenwood. Out of his senior class, nearly thirty out of the five hundred seniors had joined the military in some fashion. And out of those thirty, at least four of them hadn't come home, one of those being his best friend Tommy Garison.
He forced a smile as one of his mother's friends waved at him as he passed by. His hands were shaking nervously as he pulled up outside Susan's house. Erik had rarely interacted with anyone in the weeks he had been home. His only outings were his evening runs, but he avoided everyone then. In fact, this would be his first interaction with anyone besides his family since coming home. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves and walked up to their front door. "Here goes nothing." He mumbled under his breath as he knocked twice on the door.
"Coming!" A familiar voice yelled from inside, and moments later the door swung open, revealing the most beautiful girl he had ever laid his eyes upon. Susan's eyes widened as she saw Erik for the first time in two years. For a moment she didn't recognize him, and felt as if he were a different person. His hair was shorter then she remembered and a blond beard had grown over his chizled jawline. She gaped as she saw how tall he had gotten, and how muscular his body was. But her gaze stopped when she met his eyes. They had changed the most. No longer were his blue eyes full of joy and happiness, but of profound sorrow and horror. As she gazed into his eyes, she swore a storm cloud floated in their depths.
To Erik it had seemed like one swift action. As soon as the door opened she threw her body into his, hugging him feriously. Tears streamed down her tan cheeks, causing her makeup to run. For several moments they stayed like that, hugging on the front step of her house, not a word being uttered amongst them. After a while Susan pulled away, and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Come inside Erik, everyone is excited to see you."
Erik nodded, but didn't speak. Susan's reaction had stirred up feelings he had attempted to lock away. He had saw the love in her eyes when she looked at him, and it had nearly broken the damn on his fractured emotions. He knew he still loved her, but their was resentment deep in his heart, and it held a chain around his more tender emotions. He followed Susan inside, and was immediately met by an onslaught of people. All of Susan's direct family were there to greet him with sad smiles and words of thanks for serving his country. He was numb to their words, but his demeanor slightly changed as his eyes fell upon one individual. It was Susan's massive younger brother, Henry. He sat in his wheelchair with a bright smile, his brown eyes sparkling with boyish delight. Henry had been one of Erik's younger brother's friends before he met Susan. The young man had been hit by a car as a child and paralyzed from the waist down, and Erik had began to hang out with him once he and Susan started dating. They had grown so close that Erik would even push Henry through town as the two of them hung out.
Erik veered over to him and wrapped Henry's massive upperbody in a hug. "It's good to see you Ox." He smiled as he stepped back, and looked the young man over. Erik had began calling him Ox when Henry hit his growth spurt. He surmised if Henry could walk, he would stand heads and shoulders over everyone else.
The seventeen year old grinned, "You too man. Hey, what happened to your beer gut!" Exclaimed Ox with a mischievious look.
"Henry!" Exclaimed Nancy, Susan's mother.
"Sorry." Henry muttered, but his eyes still gleamed.
Erik shook his head and shrugged, "I guess MRE's and constant exercise will even burn off beer guts."
After another few minutes of catching up with Henry, Susan came to fetch Erik and led him to the dinner table. It was a pleasant affair, but Erik mostly kept himself as he picked at his plate of spaghetti. He enjoyed the company, but he wasn't much for talking anymore. His mind was far away when a youthful voice adressed a question at him. "How many Arabs did you kill?" Jamie, Susan's nine year old brother asked, causing a deathly quiet to settle over the family. Nancy shot Jamie a withering glare and Susan placed her hand over her mouth in shock.
The faces of all the men he had killed once again burned through his mind, and the intensity of it all once again threatened to overwhelm him. "I need to be excused." He mumbled in a hollow voice and quickly hurried out of the room. Erik didn't notice the harsh words Susan's father directed at Jamie, or the fact that Susan followed quickly behind him. He strode out their back door and into the gloomy woods behind their house.
He walked through the forest of oak trees and scattered evergreens. His hands clenched so tightly his nails bit into his palms, drawing blood. "Erik!" Susan's voice called from behind him.
Several seconds later, Susan was standing in front of him. Her chestnut hair was fluttering in the breeze and her brown eyes were full of concern. Erik barely noticed her as he kept walking forward. "Erik, please wait." She said in a soft voice that pulled Erik from his dark thoughts.
Susan bit her lips in frustration as her ex-boyfriend look at her. She saw the turmoil in his eyes, and it nearly broke her heart. "Please talk to me Erik, I'm here for you." She pleaded.
After keeping them damned up for so long, his emotions finally broke free of their constraints. Erik's mouth moved before he realised what he was saying, "Yeah. I needed you when I was in Afghanistan, but you weren't there for me. You weren't there for me when Tommy was blown to pieces by that IED. You weren't there for me when Franklin bled out in my hands, begging me to save him. You weren't there for me when I was forced to kill a ten year old boy holding a grenade." His words were harsh and full of malice but that didn't phase him, he kept going. "You gave up on me when I need you most. 'This was your choice, not mine' were the last words you said to me at the airport, when you broke up with me. I don't know why I came here, it was a mistake. Goodbye Susan, maybe next time I'll come back like Tommy or Franklin." With those parting words he walked further into the woods, disappearing behind a large evergreen.
Susan watched him go. His words had torn her heart apart, and tears ran down her cheeks. She knew he was right. Everything he said had been true, and she knew it. That's what made it so much worse. It had been two weeks after she broke up with him when she found out that he had bought an engagement ring. Erik had needed her, and she had abandoned him. Now he had come back a broken man, and she was partly to blame for it. "I'm so sorry." She whispered as she stared into the dark with sorrowful eyes.
Leaves crunched under his feet as he walked back to his truck through the woods. It was a path he knew all to well. The one he used to sneak back to his truck after spending the night with Susan. His mind was a wreck of different emotions, and he struggled to understand how he really felt. He had managed to keep himself together since coming home, convincing himself that a real man should control his emotions, but he knew that was bullshit. The horrors he had witnessed and committed during his tour were impossible to seal away forever. It was only upon hearing that question did the reality of everything crash down upon him. Here he was, eating dinner at the house of the girl who had given up on him, acting like nothing ever happened. "Why did I even agree to that in the first place? There was no situation where I didn't blow up on Susan for abandoning me."
As he neared the end of his trek through the woods, he stopped in his tracks. No longer were the woods darkened by the setting sun, but clear as day. "What the fuck?" Erik mumbled as he glanced at the sky. He stumbled back in shock. The sky was completely golden, as if the sun had expanded to cover the entire earth. But that wasn't all, some kind of energy was crackling across the sky. It resembled lightning, but as if some god in the sky was directly manipulating it. His eyes widened in horror as the strange lightning began to rain down on the earth. Thunderous booms echoed across the forest as the magical lightning struck whatever was in it's path. A blast of energy filled wind swept across the forest floor. Blowing leaves up from the ground and rustling branches. He was too shocked to move, and his mind was completely numb as he watched the otherworldy phenomenom.
The sky rumbled with thunder as the lightning began to change colors. There were thousands of shades, and they only burned with greater intensity as they struck the earth. It was only then that a thought entered Erik's mind. Is this the end of the world? He watched as the energy struck a tree near him. The tree began to expand with frightening speed, growing twice the diameter it had previously been, and at least three times the height. As he watched the tree grow he was too distracted to notice the massive buildup of blue energy in the sky. With a massive roar that sounded like it came from the mouth of Thor himself, the lightning struck him. His body was overcome with a pain greater than anything he had ever felt. It seemed as if the energy had torn apart his body and completely rebuilt it, only to destroy it again.
But the pain was not brief. In fact, it kept growing and growing. He had screamed so much that his throat was torn to shreds, but the power of the energy only kept growing. Erik knew he was dead, and that brief thought was only reinforced by the darkness that was encroaching along the edges of his vision. At least I can die in my hometown, even if it's not as quick as an IED. Lucky Tommy. He thought as his body finally succumbed to the unbearable pain.
All around the world, hundreds of millions of people died as massive amounts of energy tore their bodies apart. Those that survived would be forever changed, and so would Earth. Because just like in the Viking stories of old, Ragnarok had come.
