A fictional narrative told from a temporary survivor’s point of view when a world explodes.
Many stories are told of the day the world ended. Don’t worry it wasn’t earth. The planet that beamed with lightning and imploded into specks of dust was my world. While I am floating in my environmental suit hovering just far enough away to avoid the floating debris.
I feel nothing.
Maybe it’s shock or I am simply numb. Maybe I really don’t mind that I will float out here in the black void until my oxygen tanks hit zero. Space is cold, loveless, and unrelenting. There are no stars in the distance like movies portrayed. It is like looking at a black canvas or better yet an empty black room. The walls are like shadows and there is no light to be seen. You may wonder if I lost people?
I didn’t.
My family died decades before the environmental shutdown. The lakes dried up and it never snowed. The snow before the fall, before the war, before this.
The alarms are going off. I have thirty minutes left. I can’t stand this ringing sound.
What’s that?
A big chunk of rock floating nearby must be a piece of my plant. Wonder if that was my town, that slab of rock. I loved living there, it was small but had plenty to do. Keeping up the yard and watering the trees. I used to come inside with dirt ground into my knees from working in the garden.
I would walk in and smell fresh bread baking and milk sitting on the counter. It was delivered by the milkman every Sunday. I put the milk in the refrigerator and sat down at the table. It feels lonely at this table. No one is around today, it’s the 1 year anniversary of their death.
I miss them.
It’s getting hard to take a breath now. The air feels heavy and damp. My helmet screen is full of fog, I can’t see where I am floating anymore. The debris is probably very close now. I hope it doesn’t hit me, but I guess it may be a mercy if it did. It might be faster than suffocating.
What a morbid thought to have right now. In this moment to welcome death. I wish it was different, but wishes don’t change it. Maybe I will take my helmet off and face the blackness of space eye to eye. I tried to move my arms just now, it didn’t work.
I guess I waited too long, well I always thought space would take my breath away.
Sorry, bad joke.
I don’t even know why I am recording this when there is no one left, no planet, just nothingness. Someday this recording will be played for people and it will make history. Boring things always seem to make the history books.
Let my eulogy read “a life well spent ended this day March of 2029. I loved freely and gave openly. I never gave up even when the world gave up on me.”
I miss life.
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