The warnings first came through on social media. It was a fairly ordinary Sunday morning as I sat behind the intriguing screen of my computer. For some many hours I had been checking my feed on Facebook, when an article caught my eye. Now, I’m not some sucker who gets drawn to obviously fake messages spawned by trolls online, but hey, it was Sunday and I was bored. One of my friends had shared an article entitled ‘The end’, and if I had half my wits about me then I wouldn’t have even contemplated reading it. But I did, and that would soon become the most frightening mistake of my life.
The article proceeded to explain how our world was coming to an end, and that the sun was going to devastate our planet. It urged everyone to seek shelter, although it would do no good. Of course, the comments were a mess of arguments and the occasional rant of someone who took the message way to seriously. Back then I paid no mind to the useless article, and had closed the tab almost as soon as I opened it. I can’t recall the rest of that day, but I assume that it carried on as normal.
The next day, however, was when things got slightly concerning. I’m not sure if it was all the talk about this message at school, but as soon as I got home, I decided to examine the website again. I had gotten to the bottom of the page when the number of viewership got my attention; over one billion people had viewed the page-long article. I will admit that that slightly freaked me out. I mean, one billion views? Was that even possible? And, the most prominent question-why was everyone so interested in it?
That was when I noticed that the TV was blaring out an emergency message. On the screen was a video of a man behind a pedestal, clad in a very smart suit. I had missed the majority of the broadcast, but I do remember the last part. He said; “…Supernova, in our galaxy, only days away. There is no force on earth that can stop nature from running its course. The end is near, God help us all.” I remember standing there, my voice caught in my throat, and not being able to comprehend with the news. What were they talking about?
It was only after I had searched endlessly online that the facts were clear to me-the sun was due to explode, and it was going to bring earth down with it. Everybody was talking about this. And I’m not talking about a few million, I’m talking a few billion. I remembered the article linked from Facebook, with its billions of views. And then, I could comprehend. And boy, I did not take it well. I didn’t have much time to sob and despair, as my dad had come rushing in. Imagine the talk we had. In the end, we thought it best to gather supplies and seek refuge in our fallout shelter which dad had gotten a few months ago.
I offered to run to the store and gather food, although we all knew that this plan was futile. But we were desperate, and anything beat standing outside and waiting to die. I ran to the supermarket, my eyes clogged with tears and my face scrunched up in an expression of utter despair. When I arrived at the supermarket, I was swarmed by almost the whole suburb, who had gotten the same idea as well. It was only once I had gotten in the midst of the crowd that the fighting began. The store clerk had shut the doors, despite the amount of food left inside. People were rioting, throwing punches and practically killing each other.
I had gotten several metres ahead when some guy turned on me and brandished a knife from his pocket. I couldn’t understand what he said, but I knew he was demanding me to give him something. Money, perhaps. Or food. I couldn’t be sure, but the knife was definitely very intimidating. A loud bang came from behind me, and it was in that brief moment, when his gaze was averted elsewhere, that I seized my chance. I managed to wrestle the knife into my hands, and when he came running at me, I simply held it in front of me and allowed him to walk into it. I had never killed anyone before, but there he was, his eyes wide and his mouth gaping. He gave a slight choke, then slumped to the ground, dead.
I don’t know what came over me then, but I suddenly found a sense of survival; I used my knife to threaten people into giving me food, and usually it worked. I didn’t want to waste what little time I had left cluttering about with a bunch of strangers when I could have been at home with my parents. One woman, when I asked for the cans she had stowed away in her bag, screeched and came at me, her arms flailing wildly. She too lay dead very soon. I don’t know how many people I had to kill, but when I returned home, I was relieved that I had managed to scavenge some food.
What I came home to was not something I had expected to find. My parents were sitting on the couch, staring at the screen intently, and holding back laughter. As I stepped into the room, I saw the headline on the news; ‘End of the world statement a hoax. Hackers arrested and awaiting trial.’ And it showed a video of several people in handcuffs, one of them the man in the suit on the previous report.
My parents were still clucking with slight laughter when they turned around to see me standing at the door, my hands and forearms soaked in fresh blood, with a knife in my hand, and a backpack full of supplies. I began to laugh. Slowly at first, then progressively louder in pitch. I don’t know why, but something about the whole scenario seemed just so amusing. My mom stifled a gasp at the sight of me, and I can tell you, their smiles soon faded after that.