The sirens blare and we all look up from our work, wondering what’s going on. Lily’s the first to remember. “Quickly!” she says, dragging me toward the emergency exit. I’m confused, until she gives me a long, hard look that says, this is it. I nod, and follow her into the emergency corridors towards Apocalypse.
When the average February temperature rose to 20℃ people said it was lovely weather so early in the year. At 25, people said it was funny how hot it was getting. At 30, the scientists got involved. By 35, people got worried. Politicians called for calm, while scientists poured out facts about global warming that didn’t help the panicked atmosphere. When the temperature in hot countries reached 100℃, people started dropping of heatstroke and diseases it turned out that they always had, but never cared about. All in all, planet Earth wasn’t doing too well. Throughout this, a “lucky” few families containing the “minds” of the world, were safely living in a high-tech, self-sustaining bunker. Whilst millions died, they were protected with the expectation that they could save the planet, before the human race died out completely. Within a matter of years, there were only a few resilient human beings left, dotted around the world, and forty or so “minds”….and my mother was one of them. Selected to survive, and out-live our planet.
It was a good life apparently, before the supplies dwindled, but I don’t remember a time before hunger. There were a few miracles though. Lily was one of them, one of the last babies to be born and survive. But Lily and I weren’t enough for our mother. Her home seemed to mean more to her. I’ve never understood, why she chose to suffer, why she chose to abandon us. I don’t know what to feel about her now, or what to feel about anything with our planet in its last years.
Belted into my comfortable seat on Apocalypse I wonder how far away we’ll be when our planet explodes. I hope we won’t be able to see our age old home destroyed. But, when everyone runs to the window, I follow. At the port hole, my breath catches. I never thought I’d live to see this. No one did. We watch Earth explode into a ball of red hot flame, twisting and turning, rolling, always rolling, until it’s no longer there. Just as we think it’s over, the shock wave sends us flying back. I slam into the cold metal wall and realise what just happened. Where I was born, where I grew up, where my whole family lies buried under mounds of ash, it’s all gone. I’ll never see planet Earth again. Now I know why my mother chose not to leave Earth. I finally understand. I may never even touch still ground again. I could be stuck here, on this rocket, watching the rest of the human race die, helpless, homeless. Until I, myself am gone, into oblivion.
