Chapter 2 - Life. Daily, not-so boring life.

Luckily, the destruction of mankind and its planet did not occur. Nothing really happened. Almost a whole month had passed and still nothing new had come out of all the research the governments of the world had been doing. Nothing public, anyway. There was some uprise when some scientists in Sweden apparently found some incomprehensible code, but as no one seemed to be able to decipher it, there had been no new discoveries.

There had been an astonishing amount of videos of people sneaking up to the spires, which had been closed off from the public. However, there did not seem to be anything interesting about the spires, except for the fact that they could not be damaged. There even had surfaced a video of a volcanic eruption that hit a remote spire on Iceland. The lava just built up until there was enough to continue its slow journey across the ice. Not a single scratch could be made, which baffled scientists.

This cycle of testing and no results continued for almost a month. Then, in the middle of the night, a professor of computer science with a specialization in digital encryption at the National University of Singapore, made a breakthrough. He excitedly posted his findings all over the internet, which resulted in him not gaining any reward except for a few moments of fame.

Apparently the code was a complex method of depicting a timer. A timer that was counting down by the microsecond. This sparked international outrage and panic, as the nature of this countdown could not be determined. All over the world, governments and the public prepared for what could only be imagined as the apocalypse. There were still major disputes about what would happen when the timer would hit naught, but the human race prepared for the worst.

Meanwhile, life continued as usual in Cambridge. Exams were coming up and the students were far too busy studying to prepare for some doomsday scenario that may or may not happen. Even Elliot had to study, as his stay had still not been confirmed after this paper turned out mediocre. Sadly, his mind was on the events that had transpired the previous month and he suspected that most students would be doing the same. The university will probably see an all time low in results, as most people's attention will be somewhere else.

He had been seeing less and less of his friends as well, because they were either holed up in their rooms, studying, or they quit to visit family before the timer stopped. Elliot reckoned that that was quite an extreme reaction, but then again the timer might actually predict something significant. Simply, no one knew. He had spoken to his parents over the phone and they told him they'd visit a remote spire on the North Pole, as they were interested in what would happen when the timer ended.

Fair enough, leave me here, basically living the same day that I’ve been living for the past 24 years. No, of course you don’t have to take me with you. Thanks for asking though, I really appreciate that! You guys truly are good parents.

Fuck you.

I need to take my mind of things, I can’t continue this cycle of trying to start studying but constantly finding a way to procrastinate. Guess I’ll hit the gym again, no point in waiting around in my room untill the supposed apocalypse starts.

As Elliot was leasurely walking down the street, it was obvious that something major was about to happen. He could just smell it in the air. Not really, a more probable cause to think such things was the fact that there was not a single soul in the street and it was earily quiet. The sun shone brighly behind the clouds, occasionaly slipping past its resticting prison, to brighten up the day. No rain today, however, it was definitely not decent weather. A heavy pressure, a feeling of humidity and a dry wind flew through the city, negating any positive thoughts one might have had.

Arriving at the familiar gym, Elliot realised his mistake. Obviously, people would not open the gym on the last day of normal life. Alice had gone of to visit some family in Africa and no one had made the effort to assign a new manager. Well, as it could be the last day he’d have the chance to work out, he decided that the police probably wouldn’t care too much if he’d entered without permission. Picking up a stone from the side of the road, he threw it as hard as he could towards the glass door, shattering it. Carefully, not to cut himself on the loose shards of glass, he kicked out the remaining parts of the door before heading inside.

The gym was the same as it had always been, besides the broken door and the fact that there was no one there to greet him. Putting in his Epod, he made his way towards the changing rooms.

~ High in the sky, where eagles fly. Morgray the dark enters the throne. ~

While Elliot was comfortably exercising, all over the world people were holed up in their homes, nuclear bunkers and favorite spots. All waiting for what was to come. It felt like even the animals and nature itself was holding their breath as the timer slowly approached zero. The ever ticking of clocks, the merciless continuation of the countdown of what may actually be the end of the world.

This silence would occasionally be broken by ‘special’ cases. One of these cases was a certain student that, while working out, was singing loudly. As the tenor’s voice rang throu gh the once busy building, there was no one to witness this sight. The world was engaged with different problems.

Ten. As the final ten seconds arrived, mankind thought of its ancestors and theorised if anyone had known that this would happen.

Nine. The question arose, whether or not there would be someone or something that would remember them and their race, if they’d be gone.

Eight. Unfounded hope for salvation arose. Hope for a savior, that could end this process.

Nothing came.

Seven. Confusion about the fact that it would all end this way. Had there been anything that they could have done to prevent this?

Six. Unrequitted anger towards the world and the fact that it had decided their paths for them. How dare someone or something else judge us and decide our fate?

Five. Despair washed over all, as there was no hope left. No stopping this ever ticking countdown. No chance to save either family and beloved ones or themselves.

Four. An unnatural calmness came over the earth, as it waited for its end. Given up all defiance, there was only the acceptance of powers greater than a mere human.

Three. Happiness and thankfulness for all that had transpired in their lives up until now. Glee over their experiences, satisfaction for that first love, joy over that one encounter and delight over that particular meal.

Two. A look of acceptance and happiness towards family and loved ones, one last time, before it could all end.

One. A quick embrace of all that had been loved, one that should never end.

While this was happening all over the planet, a particular young man was doing pull ups in a deserted gym in an almost empty city. With his Epod on full blast, he could not hear the speeches that were being broadcasted over giant speakers that people apparently had bought. He did not hear the countdown. He did not realise the world could very well end. The only though that came to mind was:

So when would this apocalypse-thing start?

Oh well, there was no point in worrying over that now, was there. He’d just finish his workout before taking his phone from his locker to look up the time of the countdown.

Zero.

As the timer hit zero, for a brief moment it appeared as though nothing would happen. Complete silence. Not a word was uttered and people felt like it would be neccesary to hold their breath. However, as nothing occured, confusion and relief washed over the masses. Nothing had happend, no apocalypse, no destruction and no death. Slowly, hope returned to those that had felt despair just a moment ago. Those that had been heavily embracing eachother also slowly put a stop to their intertwining. Awkward smiles and laughter of relief could be noticed all over the world, as if the anguish they had been feeling just a moment ago, had completely vanished.

However, those that had been camping at the massive black spires quickly realised something was afoot. On the bottoms of those pillars, some sort of rings of heat could be seen, forming. Very similar to a mirage, a wrinkling square formed, slowly growing in size. Then, exactly thirty second after the countdown had ended, these ripples quickly shot up to the top of the 800 meters tall spires, stopping at the very tip of these enormous structures. Another thirty second later, the rings dropped at unbelievable speed. Mankind could only gasp at the unexplainable phenomenon as they witnessed it reaching their point of origination.

The event that occured thereafter would later be described as ‘The Waves’. A massive wave of some unknown energy or substance, which the human eye apparently could perceive, was released from the monoliths. These waves traveled all over the lands and seas, until they’d reached another wave from another spire. Those waves that met, simply vanished without a trace. In just a few minutes, the whole earth had been hit by these waves, but still no one knew exctly what their purpose was. Again, confusion spread as people tried to theorize what those seemingly harmless waves could have meant.

Thirty second later, the first plane fell. Apparently, there had been some people still willing to travel with the countdown happening, which resulted into a public airplane falling unctrollably out of the sky. It circled a few times before it ‘landed’ in an apartment complex in the southern part of Chicago. At the exact same moment, all machines and devices, connected to a power source, completely stopped functioning. Only small, old devices that had not had any modern implementations, such as bluetooth or wifi, survived these waves.

Planes fell out of the sky, trains ran off their tracks and cars simply broke down. All of a sudden, all electrical sources of light stopped working. The world was covered in darkness and silence, except for the screams of agony of those that had fallen prey to misfortune.

Worldwide panic and chaos ensued, as humanity had relied on their technoloy for such a long time. Being unable to use anything they’d previously taken for granted, many mentally broke down. The fear of the unknown and the helplesness that most felt, was crushing for the soul. Riots broke out in the largest cities of the more unstable countries, which lead to the response being overly aggressive, as the unrest influenced all. Those that had previously been dependent on mechanically assisted medication either died or were lucky and were taken care of by another human fast enough.

Countries that had had more stable governments were either quickly taken control of by the military and public service or, as was the case in England, people simply did not crash as hard mentally as many others. The government still had a heavy grip on the situation, but because relief forces were soon dispatched, mostly on bikes and without any form of communication, there was little uprise.

The part of the population that had some form of illness soon realised that there were no more machines to produce their medication. Besides that, many food producing methods had completely stopped and their means of transportation as well, leading to even more public outrage. Again, in the more unstable countries, a battle for resources broke out, resulting in a massive death toll.

Meanwhile, Elliot was sitting in his boxers on the roof of his university complex. Seemingly without a care in the world, he took a bite of his still slightly warm pizza, whilst adjusting the volume on his Epod. Looking out over the once buzzing city, he saw nothing but a shell of its once bright past. No more lights, no more cars and no more people. To be fair, there still were people around, not like they’d all died, that would be preposterous. People just did not like to go outside anymore and who could blame them?

Being cut off from the world definitely had been a new experience for him. It had been a week since everything broke down and Elliot still had no idea what was going on. He’d met some people from his university that seemed equally confused, but it was clear the electricity and, for some reason, most mechanical devices, had stopped working.

The first thing he had thought of, was the fact that all the freezers would soon be overflowing with rotten food. So he did what any good citizen would have done. He clearly sacrificed his own health for the wellbeing of the nation by eating all the icecream and pizza that he could find. As most people had not returned to their rooms and houses, he took it upon himself to help them as well and enter their property to make sure there would be no foul stench if they’d ever come back. Obviously, he had still been working out, because there was not much else to do without technology. The only thing besides that, that he’d been doing, was ‘exploring’ the city. More specifically, he’d been ‘exploring’ houses and buildings he’d never been to before.

Whilst Elliot was taking advantage of the situation and was ‘increasing his life experience’, a scientist on the other side of the planet had made a breakthrough yet again. This time, without his computer and its decrypting software. A new code had appeared when the technology broke down, this time much simpler. It had taken him only a week of almost no sleeping, eating and defecating. Holed up in his apartment, with the world slowly burning and decaying, he had worked tirelessly on the code. The moment he had decyphered the message, the world changed as a whole.

*

By the way, I was wondering if the seemingly abrupt and quick perspective changes are a nice read or if they make the story more confusing. Let me know!

Not sure yet what my release schedule will be, but as for the first few chapter, I’ll definitely post them as fast as possible, just to set a base for those that might be interested.