PROLOGUE

The End of mankind… or more like our mankind. This is all I know. Humanoids have come to take the planet from us. World War 3? No it is a planetary war. Our planet verses their planet. They say if we surrender we will be given the chance to die quickly and painlessly. We have already begun to wage war on them. They have weapons like no other. They inflict pain with their minds. Somehow they are able to magnify their brainwaves to send messages to our brain of pain and suffering. Once they are done watching you writhe in pain, they kill you by making your heart stop with more brainwaves. I’ve only experienced the pain and suffering, but my time is coming. Countless of our kind have died already. Half the population died in the asteroid attack. If only I were so lucky. I am now running for my life alone and hopeless. There are no people in sight, just cracked earth and the scorching sun above me. All buildings I pass are in rubble and ashes. Not a living thing could have survived this. The Earth trembles beneath me as I run. I fear the worst. Another asteroid has hit, but this time in the eastern hemisphere. Running is all I know to do now. Run and run as far away from those creatures that call themselves humane. As a word meaning having the good qualities of human beings, as kindness, mercy, or compassion, I know for a fact that whoever they are, they are not humane. They are sadistic, evil, and care nothing of the destruction they cause. They plan to rebuild the planet to their likings and don’t want any interference from our, what they call, primordial race. They insult our intelligence and our lives with their actions and words. I feel that it is over for us unless our lord and savior means otherwise. I wish it were all a dream, but unfortunately it is all too real. If their leader, which I have only seen once, decides to show his face to me, I would gladly kill him even if it cost me my life. I now feel that the end is near for me, for there is another asteroid on the horizon with two figures guarding it. They have spotted me. Just know that as I type this message to the people of the future, I hope that all of the world will eventually know what happened to us. The humans…

Chapter 1: THE OH SO WONDERFUL DREAM OF A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE

“I had it all… Knowledge, money, athleticism, and even a little fame from my athletics and grants. It sounds like I am any other tycoon with a little athleticism right? Wrong! I am different from all you humans. I have seen things that you will never see. I am a…”
I noticed Artemis’ red head and blue eyes along with his glasses peeking over my shoulder. I slammed the book and hit him across the face with it.
“Ouch! I just wanted to see what you were writing,” he faked innocently.
“Well maybe you will when the book is published.”
“Do I have to wait?” He asked.
“Yes, everybody does.”
I wondered why my room mate, Artemis, wanted to see my book so much. I scanned the room to make sure I had everything ready for tomorrow’s flight to Baltimore, Maryland. Artemis and I were just finishing up here in England at Oxford University. We had graduated with our bachelor’s degree and were finally going home.
“I’m ready to clear this dump.” Artemis did a victory dance.
“You are not… And you haven’t even packed yet,” I retorted. He stopped, went over to the dresser, and started pulling out the top drawer.
“What are you…?”
“Being clever,” huffed Artemis. His complexion of happiness turned to one of work.
“More like being a moron,” I said when I saw him dump all the clothes in the drawer into his wide-open suitcase. He went back and put the drawer back in, and took the next one down. He did the same thing with that drawer, the next one, the next one, and the next one, until all the drawers were empty and his suitcase looked like it was barfing out clothes. He spread the clothes out and then sat on it.
“Help me zip this up would ya?”
Why should I? I thought and went over to zip it up for him.
“Thanks,” said Artemis after I zipped it closed. I stood back and looked at the suitcase. It seemed that it was about to explode.
I headed for the bathroom to get ready for the night. I sighed and looked in the mirror. My black hair looked like it always did. Wild, messy, and dry from all the chlorine I picked up from swimming. My face looked dry as usual and I looked into my dark brown eyes and saw… nothing. All the girls had commented about my “cute nose” and “perfect chin”, but I didn’t see anything other than the regular Michael Park, who of Korean and Scottish descendents had the weirdest culture mix of them all. But the paparazzi didn’t care about that. They just cared about my face that always looked like it was in a scowl, my muscles, and the rest of my body that was said by a magazine to be perfectly hydrodynamic. I don’t care about those things though… I just wish that I could have some peace to myself. I came back to reality and did a mental check to make sure I was thinking right, and then picked up the grimy toothpaste tube. It was covered in dried toothpaste. I picked up my “too-old” toothbrush and I put some toothpaste onto the brush, then I shoved it into my mouth. I hadn’t even started to move the brush when the door violently opened.
“Got to pee! Move.”
Artemis pushed me out of the door and slammed it shut. I stood in front of the door for a moment and then walked off and looked out the window. It was nice looking at the pale orange of the sunset contrasting the purple, blue, and black shades of the sky. It looked like the time when I heard the news about my father. I was caught up in the moment and thought about my father.
I remembered when he threw me in the pool when I was really young. He would always pick me up and throw me half way across the pool and I would land screaming like a little kid could. I loved it though. I always loved the water, but that all changed about fourteen years ago. He left and never came back. I saw my mom crying one day when I saw a black car in the driveway. My mom said that dad wouldn’t be coming back and I felt like a part of my soul had been ripped off, chewed, and swallowed, never to be found again. I always stared out over the sky waiting for that plane that I had ridden in so many times to come back, but that was another story.
I thought about the memory over and over but it was interrupted when a pebble hit the window. I looked down to find three girls looking at me through the window.
“Not again…” I mumbled to myself while I opened the window. I heard the girls screaming at once.
“Oh my gosh! It’s Michael!”
“Will you marry me?!”
“Look at his muscles!”
“Look! Go away and leave me alone! I have things to take care of!”
“Like what?” the blonde asked.
“Just go away!” I shouted furiously. They kept shouting and shouting like little embarrassed girls, so I shut the window immediately and walked toward the bathroom. I heard the dismayed sounds of disappointed girls right after I closed the window, but I didn’t care. I was at the door to the bathroom when Artemis came out.
“I heard girls screaming. Did those three girls come again?”
I nodded my head and went inside the bathroom. I spat out the disgusting mix of toothpaste and saliva and threw away the toothbrush. Getting a new one was on my to do list. Artemis was at the window when I came out and he was shouting to the girls.
“What’s wrong with me? I’m muscular and athletic too right?”
He flexed and I laughed. He obviously hadn’t been to the gym in a while and he just looked about average. Then I flexed. Artemis’ smile fell. I heard the girls screaming outside, but I ignored them and walked over to my bed.
I sat on the edge of the bed doing a quick mental check of all my belongings. I had my toiletries packed, my clothes packed, my power book and camera packed, and all the other accessories I had were packed. I laid down and decided to go to sleep. Artemis came up to my bed.
“You want to go to the party the professors are throwing for the students?” He inquired. I thought for a moment. It would be the last time I saw any of my friends so I decided to go.
“Yeah. Sure I’ll go.”
I got up off the bed and followed Artemis out of the room and to the courtyard. I heard some rap music playing, but I wasn’t interested in dancing. Instead I just looked for my closest friends to hang with. I couldn’t find them at first but eventually I found them in a corner talking and laughing. I walked over to the guys and sat down next to Jeremy.
“Michael! My man! How’s it going?”
“Good. Those girls came again, but I did the same thing as last time. So how about you Jeremy?”
“Life’s great. The girls are digging me.” He pointed to some girls standing a bit away looking and pointing at me, but Jeremy thought they were pointing at him. “And it’s the last day of college!”
I laughed as the girls came over and sat next to me on the bench. Jeremy took his words back.
“On second thought… scratch the part about the girls.”
I nodded and turned to the girls, and said the same thing I said to all girls who try to talk to me.
“Look girls. You’re pretty and all, but I don’t want a relationship right now, I have important things I need to attend to before I get into a relationship.”
The girls all looked at me in awe and then ran away from the bench.
“Mission accomplished,” I told Jeremy.
“You have got to be crazy. You just ditched some of the hottest girls in the whole school.”
“So?” I asked.
“So, you are an idiot. What man who had a chance like that would give up on all of the hottest babes in school?”
“One that has important things to take in before he gets a relationship.” I replied stubbornly.
“You always say that,” he replied unsatisfied.
“Well, considering this might be the last time we see each other,” I said making it sound like a movie, “I didn’t get you anything.”
The others and I laughed as the smile on Jeremy’s face disappeared and turned into anger.
“Just a joke. Here you go.” I handed him a package that he opened quickly. It was a roll of 100-dollar bills worth $10,000. “You’ve been a great friend.” I sat there and saw him jumping around like his butt had been bitten by a wiener dog that wouldn’t let go. I heard everyone gasp and jump up yelling lucky at Jeremy. I then patted Jeremy on the back.
“Stay in touch.”
“Will do!” Promised Jeremy.
I walked off and never saw any of them ever again. I found Artemis over by the punch bowl flirting with some of those girls that came to my window every day. So I just waited for the girls to leave, but as usual they saw me and ran over to me.
“Wow! You look bigger up close.”
Again the blonde one had said something first.
“Do you know how to drown a blonde?” I asked.
“No, how?” She asked intently.
“Glue a mirror to the bottom of a pool.”
“Would you be in the pool with that speedo on?” She asked densely.
“No way.”
“Awww… I still don’t get it.”
I walked away thinking about how dense people could get. I thought everyone knew that joke anyway. Maybe it hadn’t reached the UK yet. I kept walking trying to avoid the girls but they kept following, so I played a trick on them. I walked into the boys’ bathroom in the hallway that ran the perimeter of the courtyard. I knew the girls would wait for me outside. The bathroom I had walked into had two exits. I just walked out of the other door and came around the hall corner slowly, and peeked around. I saw the girls waiting on tiptoe for me to come out. I slowly tiptoed across the hall and opened the door leading out to the courtyard. I looked behind me as I slipped out and saw them still waiting in front of the door.
I started running for my dorm once I was outside. I was sick of the party and those three girls. I wanted to get away from them as far as possible. I reached the door and yanked it open. I ran towards the stairs and dashed up them as fast as I could. I ran up to the second floor and started walking down the hallway. I was far enough away from the girls that I was safe. I slowly trudged out of breath to my dorm at the end of the hallway a couple more times without success and finally looked up at the dorm number. I was on the completely wrong side of the building!
I sighed and walked down the hall and back down the stairs. I walked cautiously looking around for those girls but I spotted them still in front of the bathroom door not as anxious anymore. I bet they would eventually go in and find that I had ditched them. I was in the opposite building of the one I had been in and I walked up the stairs again. I slumped down while walking towards my dorm and then stuck the key in the lock and turned. The door opened slowly and I walked in and fell on the bed. I was out in a matter of seconds.

* * *

I woke up to find that it was 2:30 a.m. Artemis was back and snoring as usual. I tried to fall back asleep but I couldn’t so I got up and decided to go for a little walk. I didn’t need to dress because I had fallen asleep in my clothes so I took my key and walked out the door. I walked down the hall and down the stairs. I walked out into the courtyard where nobody was anymore and all the party decorations were already stored away. I walked toward the gazebo and sat on the bench. It was so… peaceful. The flowers swayed in the wind, the leaves rustled, and I could smell the scent of honeysuckle, but last time I remembered, trees didn’t move. My hair rose and my heart sped up with an adrenaline rush flowing through my veins. I slowly stood and looked around myself to see if there was anything still there.
I saw something move again in the corner of my eye and I turned as quickly as a cat to face the figure. He stood there about three inches above the ground just floating in mid air. The figure had a pitch-black cloak with the hood up hiding its face. I saw two red slits that appeared to be his eyes. There was an outline of a very bony face as if he had no skin or muscle. There was mist starting to spread all around us that seems to try to choke all the life out of everything it came near. I heard a very hoarse, evil chuckle as he floated closer to me.
He laughed more and raised the dagger over his head with both hands. “Die so called savior of humanity!” he screamed as he burst into flames. I saw a skeleton with red fire eyes and the ashes of his cloak around him. He began to bring the dagger down, and I invited the inevitable and shut my eyes tight. I waited a few seconds and felt a heat wave pass over me, but no pain. I opened my eyes just a slit and saw the skeleton stagger back and run away.
I looked behind me to find another figure with a futuristic looking gun. He was pointing it at the figure and shot once, twice, three times. One of the shots hit the skeletal figure and he fell over in a loud roar and shimmered away as if he had never existed. I turned and inspected the figure that had shot the skeleton and tried to decipher who it was but I couldn’t tell by where I was standing. I ran closer to him but a huge light that opened up in front of him blinded me. I looked up and found him looking back at me. He gave me a casual two-fingered salute and stepped through the blinding light.
The light disappeared immediately and I stared in awe at the place where the light had been. I slowly unshielded my eyes and walked toward where the figure had stood. Had he really been… me? I stood there dumbfounded. I looked around and noticed that he had dropped something. It was a golden bead that looked like it was useless. I picked it up and studied it.
It was perfectly round and only the size of the tip of my thumb. It weighed pretty heavy for its size. I guessed it was about two pounds. I put it in my pocket and decided to keep it, but I was hit in the head violently and fell to the ground with everything fading slowly to black. I fought to stay conscious, but in the end gave up and let the blackness engulf me.

* * *

It had just been a dream. I woke up with sweat on my brow and my chest rising and falling at a rapid pace as I hyperventilated. Wow… I thought. That was the weirdest dream ever. Was it real or… I slowly felt my pocket for the golden bead but it wasn’t there. Oh... That’s a shame… I guess I’d better get up. Is Artemis back yet?
I turned over on my side and looked across the room and was answered with Artemis’ loud snoring. He was still dressed in his regular clothes like me. He must have drank too much punch and crashed or something.
I got up and off the bed and stood up stretching my stiff legs. I looked over to the end table and noticed that the golden bead was sitting there next to my alarm clock. I took it and looked it over again to make sure it was real. It was. It was shining in the moonlight. I wondered how much it was worth. I looked around to see if there was anything else to tell that my dream was actually reality but there wasn’t.
I put the bead in my pocket, and looked at the clock. It was 5:30 a.m. Was it really reality, or was it just a bad dream and I had a coincidental golden bead on my end table? That was what I would call a stupid question. I decided to go take a nice hot shower.
Once I was done I needed to brush my teeth, but being the forgetful person I am, I had thrown away the toothbrush last night while not thinking about the next morning. I hoped the day would only get better from there.
I walked over to Artemis.
“Hey! Get up sleepy head! Our flight leaves in two hours!”
He grumbled a bit and whacked me with his pillow. I took the other pillow and whacked him.
“Come on. Get up!” I whacked him a few more times.
“Ok! Ok! I’m up! Stop hitting me!” He said stubbornly.
He walked slowly into the bathroom and I heard the shower come on.
I took the bead out of my pocket and looked it over. It still served no purpose.
There was nothing extraordinary about the bead except that it was nearly pure gold. There was a little slit of silver going down one side of it. I traced my finger down the sliver slit but it did nothing. So much for a gold bead. It probably wasn’t worth much anyway so I threw it in the trashcan. It immediately incinerated everything in the trashcan. The fire burned bright, but then died immediately.
I looked inside the sizzling trashcan. Through the ashes I could see the golden bead glowing brightly. I dared to touch it and found that it was icy cold. I picked it up and put it in my pocket. I could feel the cold touch of the bead through my pocket. So the bead was a weapon? A sort of fire starter? How was the bead so cold from just being in a fire inside of a trashcan? I looked over at the trashcan again and it was still steaming.
Artemis must have finished his shower and dressed because he came out of the bathroom and saw me staring at the trashcan.
“What happened to the trashcan? Did you light it on fire?”
“No,” I said. “It uh…”
“Don’t explain. I don’t care. I just wish I were around to see it.”
I looked at Artemis and back at the trashcan. There was a black ring of ashes all around the trashcan.
“The cleaners are not going to like that,” said Artemis.
“Gee? Really?” I rounded on him.
“Yeah. Really.”
“It’s called sarcasm Artemis.”
“I know.”
“Artemis, sometimes I wonder about you.”
“Well I wonder about you lighting our trashcan on fire.”
“Whatever.”
I walked over and sat on the bed to relax. It was going to be a hectic day and I needed to be ready for it. If I only had known how hectic it would be…

CHAPTER 2: THE WONDERFUL HORROR

Artemis and I were sitting at our gate waiting for our plane. We had packed everything and left our dorm. College was over and we were coming home. Artemis had an obsession over coffee and had drank two so far. He was starting on his third when he had gotten too excited and spilled his coffee on himself. He was wiping it off with napkins at the moment. Some of the girls laughed at him. I laughed with them and he didn’t seem to like it too much. I had been looking over the bead all morning and couldn’t find anything special about it besides the little silver slit on one side of it. I decided to go get some food since our flight was in a couple of hours.
I walked down to the food court and bought a pepperoni pizza. I sat at a table away from everyone else and looked over the bead. The silver slit had turned into a blue slit. I took a bite of the pepperoni pizza. It was cold. Great. I first light a trashcan on fire and then my first meal is cold. It was going to be a wonderful day. I could just feel it. Artemis joined me with a fourth coffee.
“You’re going to be hyper Artemis.”
“But it is so good!”
“To much of it will…”
“Oh my gosh! I have to go to the bathroom!” Artemis ran off leaving his coffee on the table.
“What did I tell him,” I told myself.
“Well you sort of told him but he cut you off,” said a girl standing next to the table. She held out her hand.
“I’m Viviane.” I shook her hand.
“I’m Michael.”
“Yeah I know. I’ve read all about you and watched you at the Olympics. That was awesome!”
“Thanks.” I mumbled taking another bite of my pizza.
“I bet you get that a lot. You know, the “that was great” stuff?”
“Yeah.” She sat down opposite of me and for the first time I actually looked at her. She had long golden blonde hair and green eyes. From what I could tell she was pretty tall and very skinny like she was on one of those South Beach diet programs or something. She also had a southern accent.
“So where are you headed?” She asked.
“Back home to America.”
“Really?” She said. “Me too!”
“Great. Well it was nice meeting you.” I got up and threw away the pizza box.
“Yeah. You too,”
I walked off towards the gate. Artemis was already back at the gate going through the bags. I found him with a Pepto Bismol bottle in his hand. I got out a bottle of water and chugged it all down. The pizza had made me so thirsty. Once I threw away the bottle I saw Artemis taking a pink Pepto Bismol tablet.
“My stomach hurts,” he said once he finished swallowing the pill.
“Gee. I wonder why,” I said mocking him.
“Oh shut up.”
“Hahaha…” I laughed when I saw his face.
“What?”
“Your face is green.”
“Well my stomach hurts so…” He ran off to the bathroom again.
I sat down and took out my power book. I had all my house plans stored in it. I couldn’t wait until I got to America to build my first house. The power book was where I also conducted business. I had my e-mail, stocks, and banking accounts all as gadgets stored on the power book. Right now I had nothing in my e-mail and the stocks were down, but the money in the bank was getting higher. It had just reached $1.4 billion over night and was still climbing. I guess those animals reached New Zealand, but that is another story too.
I went online and checked my Facebook. None of my friends from America were on. It was weird. I got off and saw the fuel car being driven away from the plane and it looked like they were ready to board the plane.
“We will be boarding soon. Please have your passes ready to be scanned,” I heard the woman at the counter say through a microphone. I put up my power book and stood up stretching my legs. It was time to go home.

* * *

The take off was rough and I could have sworn that the ground started shaking once we were about a hundred feet in the air. I was sitting next to Artemis and that girl Viviane. She was actually pretty nice, and she was very smart too. Viviane and I were talking about quantum physics while Artemis tried to stay away from an extremely fat man. The man apparently had a very bad case of B.O. because the kid next to him was already puking only ten minutes into the flight. The man also was sitting on the other side of Artemis.
“Michael!” Hissed Artemis.
“Oh take some pepto bismol,” I said looking at the kid who was still puking. “and get over it.” I told him.
“This is so not fair. You get to sit by a hottie and I sit by a fat slob!?”
I thought the man had heard that when he looked in our direction, but he smiled at me when I waved nervously.
“He must be a nice guy,” I tried to explain to Artemis. “Why don’t you try to start a conversation with him?”
“I don’t know…” Artemis said tensely.
“Give me a break.” I said, and went back to talk about quantum physics again with Viviane.
After we had gotten our free beverages from the flight crew, Artemis struck up a conversation with the big guy. The big guy actually turned out to be very nice, and his name was Ken. He was a mechanical engineer and was being transferred by his company to America. He seemed to have the same interests as Artemis and they were soon talking about cars and things like that. Viviane and I then started talking about each other.
“So what are you going to America for?” I asked.
“Well. First of all I’d like to go home, but mainly because my parents have found a clinic near them that I can work at as a nurse.”
“That’s nice.”
“Yeah. So what about you? What are you going to be besides an Olympic swimmer?”
“Well… I don’t know yet. I’m actually living off of my sponsors at the moment.”
“That’s interesting.”
“It’s very nice.”
“Mhmm.”
I stared into her eyes and she was staring into mine. We leaned toward each other and then…
“Hey Michael!”
I jumped in my seat and Viviane fell back into hers blushing.
“What Artemis?” I rounded on him.
“Do you want to play a game?”
“No! I’m in no mood for a stupid game!”
“Well then…” Artemis added snobbishly.
Artemis turned around and started talking to Ken. I looked back over at Viviane but she had gotten her iPod out and started listening to it. I sat there for a minute and then decided to take out my power book. I had paid for the new Internet access they had now rolled out onto all planes, so my power book had Internet. I checked my banking account and found that I had now $1.7 billion… so Feng had done his job. That of course, was also a different story.
I did various things on my power book for the next couple of hours of the flight including selling all my stock in Disney and buying more of General Motors since it was down. Our lunch arrived at about 1:30 and by that time I was starving. I scarfed down a meal of caesar salad, 16oz. sirloin (I had to pay extra for that), and a small bowl of coffee ice cream for desert, and water to drink. I was finished at lest 15 minutes before everyone else and spent that time groaning over a hurting stomach and taking pepto bismol. Artemis got a kick out of that. He also got a kick out of the coffee he drank that morning. He had to go to the bathroom… and stay there… for half an hour.
“I told him drinking too much coffee would be very bad for him.” I said.
“You were completely right.” Replied Ken.
There was a little bit of turbulence while Artemis was using the facilities. Artemis came out of the bathroom with a dizzy appearance.
“Turbulence is a bad thing when you’re in the bathroom…” said Artemis dizzily.
“I don’t want to picture it thank you very much.” I replied.
“Neither do I!” said Viviane, laughing when she saw him.
Artemis sat down and started moaning. He put the seat back, aggravating the passenger behind him and fell asleep in seconds.
“Wow… He was out pretty quick.” Said Ken.
As soon as he said that Artemis sprang up and screamed. Everyone turned in his direction to stare at him.
“Artemis! Sit down!” I hissed.
Artemis sat down with a look of horror on his face.
“What’s wrong Artemis?”
“I saw… I saw…” He shuddered.
“What? What frightened you?”
“Fire… lots of it… dead corpses and half dead people screaming in agony…” He shuddered again. “There was also… our plane… utterly pulverized. Tons of… holes had been… dr… dr… dilled into it so it… seemed…” He closed his eyes tight. “The sky… It was so dark. It was as if the sun had gone out… and that there was no life… le…le… left on this planet…”
“Wow… that’s intense.” Said Viviane.
“Do you think it means something?” Ken asked Artemis.
“It’s probably just a stupid nightmare… or maybe the apocalypse is coming sooner than expected,” I joked.
“I definitely hope that that isn’t the case.” Said Ken nervously.
“Give me a break it’s just a stupid nightmare.”
“How could it have happened so fast then?” asked Viviane.
She had a good point. It had happened in a couple of seconds. Still… it was very awkward.
“I don’t think so…” I said, but I was lying.
We all sat in complete silence. The air had become still. We were all tense in our seats and waiting… just waiting for what might come. After an hour of nothing we were back to our normal selves. Viviane and I had struck up another conversation, and Ken was playing a game with Artemis. They started showing a movie at about 3 o’clock and that lasted until about 6. The movie was an old classic. Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. We were all tired after the movie and decided to take a nap. I wish we hadn’t.

* * *

I woke up to find myself in a frenzy of screaming and severe shaking. People were dashing up and down the isles of the plane yelling. One group of people was praying. I quickly unbuckled my seatbelt and realized that there were small holes all throughout the plane… “There was also… our plane… utterly pulverizes. Tons of holes had been drilled into it so it seemed…” Artemis’ words rang in my head.
“Oh my...” I heard a woman scream, but the voice was cut short by something that had come through the top of the plane and crushed her skull. I shuddered in horror of the situation.
The panicking increased to a drastic level.
“We are all going to die!” A man cried out. That didn’t help the situation at all. Ken, Viviane, and Artemis were nowhere to be found. I ran over to one of the bathrooms, but found it locked. There was blood coming out from under the door.
The captain came on to the intercom…
“Everyone please stay calm. We are going in for an emergency landing. Every one please go back to your seats and buckle your seatbelt.”
Everyone quickly ran to their seats and sat down to buckle the seat belts. Viviane, Artemis, and Ken all appeared.
“We were looking for you.” Said Viviane with a grave tone in her voice.
Artemis’ face was an expression of complete trauma. His face was pale and he wouldn’t stop staring straight forward. They sat down and fastened the seatbelts. The next few minutes were very bumpy, and every now and then something would come and blow another small hole into the planes hull causing even more panic. I kept looking out of the window. We were over land now. The engines were smoking. I saw something that seemed to be on fire streak across the window and hit the engine. The engine detached from the wing of the plane and started to fall towards the ground like a giant fireball. They plane careened to the left side where there was only one engine left. Everyone started to scream again. The plane started spiraling out of control. Utter terror gained control of the crowd as the plane started to tip downwards at a very steep angle. The wings were ripped off by more fire streaks and we started to spiral even faster.
Our plane was like a bullet trying to penetrate straight through the Earth. The problem was… we would fail. Our plane would be smashed into pieces. The back tailfin of the plane caught a draft and ripped the plane in half at a weak point. I was looking straight up into the sky in a split second. I saw one person who hadn’t fastened his seatbelt fly out of our back half of the plane. I saw Artemis tear up.
“Goodbye Michael.” He said.
“Goodbye Artemis. You were a great friend.”
The rest of us exchanged goodbyes and we sat in silence as the rest of the passengers screamed. I invited what seemed to be the inevitable for the second time. Time seemed to slow. I saw the passenger who had flown out of our half of the plane flailing through the air. It was a sad sight and a tear appeared in my eye. I saw him one second and the next his body was replaced by a bunch of red liquid when one of the fire streaks went straight through him. I let the tears flow now. Everything. My whole life would be down the drain in a matter of seconds. My friends would be gone.
As I thought of all the horrible things that had happened a couple of fire streaks went straight through our half of the plane and out the other side. I looked behind me and saw nothing but dread. Some of the people had been hit by the fire streaks and there were holes in them… Viviane started to turn her head but I put my hand out and stopped her from looking behind her. She knew I was trying to keep her from seeing a horrible sight so she subsided. The fall was over. We hit the Earth hard and the frame of our half of the plane crumpled. The people in the back must have immediately been killed. I felt the pain of a shockwave hit me and go up my spine. I slackened my jaw so the impact wouldn’t hurt my teeth, but it still hurt anyway. The part of our half of the plane that remained intact groaned and fell over. Another shockwave was sent through my system because of the impact, and everything went black…

* * *

I saw light. I ran towards it and stopped when I had gone into the light. I was in the middle of a white void… there was nothing for miles. Or what at least seemed to be miles. I ran in one direction. Nothing happened for minutes, and I wasn’t getting tired. I tried running another way… again nothing. I sat and tried to think, but I couldn’t because I kept hearing my name.
“Michael…” it said. “Michael…” I opened my eyes… at least it felt like I had. It was pitch black. The voice started to fade.

* * *

“Michael! Michael! Please be alive! Please!” I heard a voice say.
“Ugh… Ouch… That… hurt.”
“Michael! You’re alive!” I heard the voice say again.”
I opened my eyes and saw Viviane staring at me and in tears. She had numerous cuts and bruises all over her.
“Viviane… How did you… survive?” I breathed.
“No matter about that. We need to get you to safety.”
“Where is Artemis?” I asked urgently.
She didn’t respond and I feared the worst.
“Can you walk?” She asked.
“I might be able to if I am supported.”
“Ok.”
She pulled me up and I put my arm over her shoulders. We started to limp forward. I looked back and saw utter destruction. The sight was horrible. The plane lay in pieces. Fire was everywhere. I saw bodies… so many dead or mortally wounded bodies lying all over the area. Bodies were dismembered, on fire, or only ashes. It was truly a sight meant only for the devil himself. Then I saw something that ripped my soul into pieces.
Artemis lay right next to where I had. There was a pool of blood around him. He had the look of agony on his face. He lay in a very awkward position. I could tell that he was gone, and that we had no chance of bringing him back. He was so pale. He was almost as pale as a ghost. I cried silently. I had experienced a plane crash, one of my best friends was now dead, and I had seen people die terrible deaths. I couldn’t take much more.
Viviane had dragged me a considerable distance and sat me down on a chair that was missing a leg. I dried the tears in my eyes and looked around to survey my surroundings. We were in a building. It looked like a building from a war movie. It was almost completely destroyed. The room we were in was the only one with the roof still standing, and the roof had holes in it. Viviane took out a medical kit, and started dressing a gash on my leg.
“Where did you get the medical kit?”
“From the ruins of the plane.”
“Oh… Ouch!”
“Whoops! Sorry.”
“It’s ok… how deep is it?”
“Not to deep. You should be fine in a matter of days.”
“Ok. Good.”
I sat back and looked around again. The sky was still black, but the little firestorm had stopped. The landscape was black too. The vegetation was all black or ashes. I looked back into the ruble of the building we were in. I shuddered at the thought that people could be in there. Dead. That’s what this place was. Dead. Everything was obliterated… Dead.
I looked back at Viviane. She had stopped dressing my wound and was drinking a bottle of water. I was pretty thirsty myself. I was also hungry. It was weird that I hadn’t noticed it before.
“Do you have another…?”
She thrust a bottle of water at me. I took it, surprised by her hostility.
“Um… Are you ok?” I just had to ask the stupidest question ever.
She just looked at me as if I had hit my head to hard or something, and started to finish her water. I uncapped mine and gulped the whole thing down in a couple of seconds. After I finished I got up wincing once or twice.
“Is there anything to eat?” I asked.
“Yes… there is some in the emergency pack over there.” She pointed to an orange pack lying on the floor on top of a counter top that hadn’t been destroyed.
I went over and opened it up. I took out some canned peaches and a can opener. I opened the can and ate the peaches in an instant. Viviane was staring at me the whole time.
“What are we going to do?” She asked, looking as glum as ever.
“Well… we better find out what happened and see if there are any more survivors.”
“I already checked. You were the only one alive.”
“How did you survive?”
“Same as you did. I don’t know.”
“Come on lets go.”
I started walking and Viviane followed. We walked in silence. We passed glances a couple of times, but did nothing more. She caught up to me and stayed by my side. I checked my pockets for anything. I found my iPod touch with headphones in it. I took it out and turned it on.
I handed Viviane one of the ear buds. “Here. It might help.”
She took it and I shook the iPod to shuffle it. It just happened to be In the End by Linkin Park.
“This really helps.” She said sarcastically.
We walked for a while listening to the song and then some techno when the song ended. She started to smile. I noticed, as her smile got bigger. She turned to me seeing how my expression would show. Her smile faltered but then she smiled at me. Perhaps she was trying to cheer me up.
“How could you be happy when we just survived a plane crash?”
“Well, you just gave the answer. We survived!”
“Yeah, but so many others died.”
“Yes, but isn’t it a consolation that you and I survived?”
I thought for a moment. I couldn’t say if it was or not so I shrugged my shoulders.
“I honestly don’t know.”
“Well we will see.” She said and kept walking.
The gravel, or more of what was left of the asphalt from the road, crunched underneath our feet. Everything around us was either ruble or on fire. I saw something small in the road. It was on fire and relatively small. I walked over and saw that it was just a rock. I looked up and saw many more. The ground was littered with hundreds of the little burning rocks. Viviane noticed this too and gasped.
“You don’t think…?”
“What? I looked at her quizzically.
“What could possible throw up so much burning rubble?”
“Well… All I can think of is…”
“An asteroid strike!” We both said simultaneously.
I thought for a second. After we took off I saw the ground shaking, but I thought it had just been a little shaking of the plane. I figured that an asteroid would not make the other side of the world shake unless it was a considerable size.
“Did you notice the ground shake right after we took off?” I asked.
“Yeah. I thought that was just the shaking of the plane.”
“Me too, but I didn’t feel any shaking.”
“Neither did I.”
“This is bad.”
“Duh!”
“We better find that asteroid.”
“Are you kidding me? How are we supposed to find it? And who would be stupid enough to look for an asteroid?”
“Well do you have a better option right now?”
“Well… we could make a shelter and wait?”
“For what? Our food to run out?”
“No. We can signal for help. The emergency pack has a satellite S.O.S. transmitter.
“Yeah but it could take weeks, and from what I saw we only have about 7 days worth of food for 2 people.”
“So you are proposing to go looking for an asteroid?”
“Exactly.”
“Are you crazy? We could get killed by more falling ruble! The gas might kill us! The sun might be blocked out! Haven’t you seen any scenarios of asteroids hitting the Earth?”
“I’ve seen plenty enough to know that there is no way that you will be protected from the gas or blocked out sun if you are hit by falling ruble.”
“That’s not entirely true!”
“Well, I can hypothesize on what will happen now can’t I?”
I walked over to a house that had three of its sides completely crumpled. I found a relatively clean cloth and ripped it in two. I wrapped one half around my face tight enough to close off any gas that could come in through my mouth or nose but leave some breathable air inside of it.
I handed Viviane the other half. “I suggest you do the same. This cloth will filter the air just a little.”
She took the cloth and wrapped it around her head just as I had. When she was ready she gave me a thumbs up. She had apparently been thinking about what I had said and agreed.
We started walking again, and I noticed something else. The rain of fire had stopped. That only meant one thing. Worse would come very soon.
“Viviane, do you know if there is a house here with a basement?”
“Um… before you came to consciousness I found a storm cellar which functioned as a wine cellar for the people who lived there.”
“How thick is the door into the cellar?”
“It’s about 3 inches thick and has a rubber seal around it to keep out air and water.” She started getting suspicious.
“Why do you…?” but I interrupted her.
“Perfect! What about food and water? Any of that?”
“Tons of it, plus wine of course, but why…?” I interrupted a second time aggravating her.
“Hmm… is there light in it?”
“Yes. It has a backup generator and spare light bulbs.”
“Ok come on let’s go.” I heard an explosion in the distance. I saw part of our plane wreckage fly into the air. “I don’t think that there is any way that there are more survivors.”
”Wait! What are we…?”
“Going to that cellar… Which house is it in?
“Um… it’s under the house that we came from.”
I silently swore to myself and started walking at a fast pace back towards the house. Viviane followed with a quizzical look on her face. I looked behind me and saw almost pitch black clouds already on the horizon. I quickened my pace and Viviane had to start jogging to keep up.
“What are we doing? There might be survivors!”
“We are saving our own lives. And do you think after that explosion that there are any survivors left?”
Viviane put her head down for a minute as if she was thinking. She slowly shook her head. I looked behind us and started running. The clouds were already closing in on us. They were moving with extreme speed. Viviane tried to keep up, but I flew ahead in a rush of gravel that kicked up from my feet.
“Michael!” I head her yell.
I turned around to find that she had tripped and scrapped herself up. I ran back to her and picked her up. I looked up and saw the clouds were above us. I dashed all the rest of the way to the house. I jumped the fence with Viviane and found the door to the cellar. I set Viviane down gently then wrenched open the door. I carried Viviane down the stairs and set her down. I ran back up the stairs and into the house, grabbed the emergency pack we had left in there, and ran back down the stairs after closing the door and latching it shut. Thankfully the door had no windows so we were safe from anything to come our way. I put the emergency pack down and went over to Viviane who was trying to dress her scrape. I took a look at the worst one, which was by far the biggest one, and noticed she had cut a vein in her leg and was loosing blood fast. I quickly ripped a piece of my shirt off and tied it around her leg tightly covering the scrape. I then got up and took some water and poured it into a bowl. I soaked her leg by running water on it for a little bit. Then I untied the bandage and saw the scrape wasn’t bleeding as much any more so I took some anti-infection cream from the emergency kit and applied it to a bandage and put it on the scrape.
“Thanks.” Viviane said light headedly.
“No problem. I’ll let you have the bed. You saved me in the first place.”
She didn’t argue. She couldn’t. She fell asleep on the spot. I picked her up and went over to a corner that had a bed in it. I placed her on it and grabbed a sleeping mat from the emergency kit. Before laying down on it I surveyed the surroundings. One wall was covered with wine bottle shelves. That part of the room near the wall had stone flooring but carpet covered the rest of the room. There were lights and a ceiling fan. A backup generator was in the corner opposite of us. There were all your basic needs ranging from a kitchen area to a sofa and TV with a rack of movies, along with a couple gaming systems and games. There was a door leading to what I guessed was the bathroom. There was a desk and computer next to the bed. There was even a stereo system put into the wall. These people must have been really rich to do all that to just a storm shelter.
I wondered what was going on outside but I figured it was pretty bad since I could hear things banging against the door. I thought about when it would be over, or if it would be over. Maybe humans could survive an asteroid crash. I tried to be optimistic as I laid down and huddled on the mat. Thanks to the people who had built the storm shelter, they had put an AC unit next to the generator to keep us all nice and cozy here in our little hole, although, how could I be cozy knowing that my best friend had died in a plane crash, only two people had survived, we were trying to survive an asteroid strike, and I had multiple people’s blood stained onto my shirt including my own? I carried that question to my dreams.

CHAPTER 3: THE ABSOLUTE BEST DREAM EVER

 
          I woke to a pitch-black room.  I had a peaceful sleep with no dreams whatsoever.  I quickly thanked God for that.  Slowly, I got up and tried to feel the wall for the light switch.  I tripped over something and fell.  Expecting to hit my head hard, I tensed up but I landed on something soft.  I looked up and noticed that the lights were on.  I also noticed that I was on top of Viviane.
“Oh crap!  Sorry…” I quickly got up and helped her up.  “What were you doing?”
“I was just looking for the light switch,” replied Viviane rubbing the bandage on her leg.
“Does it still hurt?”  I asked.
“You landed on it,” she winced once.
“ I’m sorry.”
“It’s ok.”
“Go lie down.  I’ll make us something to eat.”
            Viviane went and lied down on the bed and was soon asleep again.  I made something common.  Eggs and bacon were soon ready and I woke her up from her little nap.
“Wake up sleepy head.”  She mumbled and turned over.
“Wake up…”
I heard her say, “Five more minutes mommy,” and turn back over.
“Wake up!!!”
            She jumped up and winced again.  She stumbled over to a table and started eating what I had made for her.  I observed her eat the food.  She was obviously starving.  Manner-less, she ate all two eggs and five bacon.  I ate my food and then decided to watch a DVD on the TV.  I chose a relatively new one, War of the Worlds.  The movie was great.  Aliens incinerating humans running from the huge alien machines definitely brightened my mood. 
“What’s that?” Viviane asks.
“War of the Worlds,” I reply in a flat line tone.
“How can you watch that without feeling sad,” she asked with a frown.
“I don’t know… I guess it just helps me make connections.”
“Interesting…” and she walked off.
            After a while of watching the movie I started noticing a pattern of how many near misses they got.  There were too many for real life.  No person could get that lucky. 
            I kept watching until the end… when the aliens died by something so small they couldn’t even see it.  It was a wonder how they were stupid enough to overlook such a detail.  After it finished and the credits started rolling I turned off the TV and walked over to Viviane who was lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling.
“A penny for your thoughts?” I asked nonchalantly.
“No,” she said flatly.
“What’s wrong? Something’s wrong.”
            Viviane looked up at me as if I was an idiot.  I thought for a second and figured it out.
“Wow… I’m stupid.”
            Viviane turned her head away and closed her eyes.  I heard her snoring after five minutes.  I decided to go to sleep myself.  I got down on the mat and closed my eyes.  As soon as I did my pocket started burning.
“Ow!” I yelped as I reached in my pocket and took something out.  It fell out of my hand and onto the floor.  I watched it roll and noticed it was the bead.  The bead!  I had completely forgotten about it!  I chased after it, stopping it right before it rolled under the stove.  I picked it up and looked at it.  The slit had changed to a purple color.  Why did it keep changing colors?  The bead was really confusing me.  I put it back in my pocket and walked to the mat.
            I looked at Viviane.  She seemed to be fidgeting in her sleep.  She rolled over and fell off the bed.  I barely had time to catch her.  Somehow she was still asleep.  I looked at her face and she was crying.  Viviane was crying in her sleep?  What a predicament.  I put her down on the bed and she started screaming.  I picked her back up again and she stopped shouting and reverted back to crying.  I sat on the bed and held Viviane in my arms.  I didn’t know what to do.  I hung my head down and tried to sleep.  I barely pulled it off, but when I did, it consumed me like a fire.
 
 

* *   *

 
            I was inside of a building.  It had concrete walls, concrete floors, and a concrete ceiling.  A warehouse?  This was really weird.  Viviane was lying on the floor a few yards away from me.  I approached her.  She was bloody with scratches all over her face and arms.  I picked her up and she muttered something.  I leaned in closer to hear her.  When I was an inch from her face she started screaming bloody murder.  I dropped her and backed away as I saw her body slowly transform into the skeleton figure from my first dream. 
“You have got to be kidding me!” I yelled.
“This is no game Michael,” the skeletal figure talked.
“What?!  How do you know my name?” I staggered back.
“Everyone in the future knows your name Michael,” replied the figure.  His eyes started to burn with fire… literally.
“Um… so what’s with the…”
“You must die!” the figure pulled out two swords.
            The figure started walking toward me.  He swung the swords in his hands like an expert.  All I could do was stare and watch.  His footprints left scorch marks on the concrete.  I backed up until I hit the wall.  The figure’s eyes burned even more and the rest of his body followed suit by engulfing itself in fire.  I watched in horror as his swords lit on fire.  The figure smiled a devil’s smile and looked at me with the deepest hatred.
            I looked around myself desperately for something to protect myself with.  I saw a lone sword lying next to me.   I could have sworn that it hadn’t been there a second ago.  I picked it up and faced the figure.  He didn’t falter in his march and he smiled even more. 
            I gripped the sword in one hand.  It felt perfectly balanced for me, like an extension of the arm almost.  I twirled it experimentally.  Perfect.  I had never used a sword before, but it felt almost as if I was an expert already.
            Suddenly my pocket started burning.  I guessed the bead.  I pulled it out and looked at it.  It was glowing white hot, but felt cold.  I tried throwing it at the skeleton but it stuck to my hand.  I looked back at the sword and saw the tip glowing white hot like the bead.  I looked at the slit and looked back at the sword hilt.  The very tip was sharp and looked like it could fit inside the bead’s slit.  I started to put them together and the bead instantly flew to fit on the tip.  Once they were together the sword started glowing black. 
            I looked at the skeletal figure, who was almost upon me. I had a huge surge of confidence and I stared him in the eyes.
“Come and get some!” I roared at the top of my lungs.
            This time the smile on his face was gone and he faltered in his march.  I used this to my advantage and lunged at him as quickly as I could.  I found one of his ribs and cut it clean off.  The bone flew in the air for a second and then vaporized.  The figure screamed and flared back.  He righted himself immediately and started running at me.  He lunged and I parried.  Our swords didn’t clang like normal.  They made sounds like bells… bells that warn or spread the word about death.  It gave me a chill and I stepped back to look at the sword.
            That was my stupid mistake of the day.  The figure swung his sword and I barely had time to react.  He ended up cutting my side.  I stumbled over and fell to the ground.  He just about ran me through, but I rolled right in time.  I got up and looked right where I had been.  There was a huge bloodstain on the floor.  I didn’t feel any pain so I decided to ignore any second thoughts and I charged toward the figure.
            The figure was waiting for me and pushed me away as I ran toward him.  I fell over, not from fatigue, or tripping, but to confuse the enemy.  It worked.  The figure walked toward me slowly, grinning, as I lay there fake panting.
            When he finally reached me he said something that made me shiver, “It’s nice to see you cower like the little insolent being you are.  Don’t worry.  I assure you it will be very gruesome, gory, and not to mention painful.”
            That’s when I struck.  I wrapped my legs around his ankles and kicked in opposite directions.  He stumbled over and dropped his swords.  I looked at my pants and they were burned along with the skin underneath.  I didn’t feel any pain though.  Perhaps adrenalin? I ignored the thought and stabbed at the ground where the figure lay.  My sword nearly reached his spine, but right before it did he vanished in a puff of golden smoke.  My sword clanged against the concrete floor.  I looked around for the figure but he was nowhere to be seen.
            I looked up and saw him diving down straight at me.  I moved over to the side right before he lunged downwards.  His body hit the floor and an earthquake ensued.  I fell over but righted myself quickly.  We stared at each other for a minute, and then he started walking toward me.  He swung his swords as I swung mine.  Our swords locked together.  It was a battle of strength now.  I put both my hands on the sword and pressed downward with all the strength I could pull from my already tired muscles.  The figure started to bend backwards under the might that I apparently still had.  How this skeletal figure put up such a fight without muscle I had no clue.   He didn’t even have organs or anything!  He was just bone!  I put my body weight into the struggle when the figure was bending over sufficiently.  This apparently was enough since it fell to the ground.  My blade cut his shoulder severing his left arm from the body.  
It uttered a shriek so severe that I fell back and clutched my ears trying, yet failing, to guard them from pain.  I saw the figure vanish and I looked around.  It was nowhere to be found.  I then heard a raspy voice that rattled with pain.
“You… you little son of a bitch.  I’ll get you...  I’ll get you if it’s the last Goddamn thing I do!”
“Oh yeah!?  Then come back and fight!  Come back and Fiiiiiiiiiiiigggghhhttt!!!…” I roared, but my voice started dimming into silence.  Black was engulfing me.  “Not… again.  No…” I fell forward as my vision blurred out.
 
   

*   *   *

 
“Michael!  Michael!  Where the hell did you get that sword Michael!?”
I was rudely awakened by the sound of Viviane yelling in my face.  I opened my eyes to see that she was in fact yelling in my face.  I felt something at my side.  I sat up and looked at my hip.  There was a sheath there with a sword in it.  It was the sword from my dreams!  But the bead… Where was the bead!?  I put my hand in my pocket and found that my bead was the only thing in it.
I pulled out the sword.  It wasn’t glowing.  I guessed it was because there was no bead on the end.  I put it back in the sheath and looked at Viviane.
“What?”
“Where the hell did you get that?” she berated.
“I… I don’t know.”  I replied stupidly.
“No. Give me a real answer. Now.”
“Or what?”  There was silence.
“Or…” More silence.  “I’ll quit talking to you.”  I thought it over for a minute.
“I’ll tell you if you tell me something.”  I said remembering her crying the night before.
“Ok.  Deal.  What’s your question?”
“What was your dream about last night?”
“What’s it to you?” she replied stubbornly.
“Nah ah ah…  Remember the deal?”
“It was… It was… about you,” She said turning her head.
“Go on,” I replied.
“Well you were… I was.  We had a fight… like a sword fight.  That’s why I’m so interested about where the hell you got that sword.  I don’t know how I got two swords, or why you were attacking me, or what I was even talking about when I blurted out that everyone in the future knows your name.”
I sat there in silence for a minute thinking it over.  So apparently Viviane and I had the same dream from two different perspectives.  Did this mean anything?  Why was she the skeletal figure?  What was going on?!
“Um… I got my sword from my dream I guess.  I just woke up and had it on me.”
“That’s a lie,” she said closing her eyes.  “That’s a lie… That’s a lie… That’s a LIE!!!”
“What?  No.  I’m telling the truth!  I promise you!”
“But you had that exact same sword.”
“In the dream?” 
She nodded.
“Viviane, do you see this bead?”  I pulled it out of my pocket and showed it to her.
“Yeah.  It’s a golden bead.  What’s so special about it?”
“I got it from another dream.”
“Prove it,” she sniffed.
I took my bead, took out my sword, prayed that this would work, and put the bead on the end of the sword hilt.  The sword immediately started to glow black.
“Do you think this could come from anywhere, but a dream?  Or perhaps it’s not a dream at all…” I looked down at my legs and sure enough they were burnt.  "Viviane… something’s going on here.  This isn’t right.”
“DUH!!!” she yelled at me.
“No need to be a jerk. I don’t think these are dreams.  Look at my legs.”
She looked and saw the burns.  She gasped and backed away.
“What happened?!”
“The dream.  I tripped you over after faking my being tired.  You burned me because you were on fire.”  As I said that I noticed how stupid it sounded.
“Oh… My… God.”  She slumped over and fainted.
I barely had time to catch her.  When I did my legs were driven crazy with agony and buckled right as I caught her.  I let her land on me when we fell.  I couldn’t move.  My legs were useless and an unconscious Viviane pinned me down.
I pushed her off of me and laid her down on what seemed was a comfortable position.  I then crawled into the bed and stayed there thinking about what just happened.
Why was everything going wrong?  What was up with these dreams?  Why would whatever happen to me in the dream world happen to me in reality?  What was it with Viviane being the skeletal figure?  What was going on?!  I didn’t understand anything.  I just sat and thought. 
After what seemed to be a whole day of thinking, Viviane got up and started moping around.  I just watched her.  I couldn’t do anything except watch.  My legs were useless.  I could only move by crawling.
She walked over to the fridge and took out some cheese.  She stuffed it in her mouth and closed the fridge.  I closed my eyes and laid back.  I heard the television turn on a few seconds later.  After a little while I heard screaming.  I looked up and saw that War of the Worlds was playing.
“Viviane,” I whispered.
“Viviane,” I spoke a little louder.  Viviane jumped up and turned around.
“Startled to see me alive?”
“No.  I didn’t even know you were here.  I thought you went outside.”
“Are you crazy?  Why would I go outside?”
“The clouds are past.”
I got up and got on the floor to start crawling to the door.
“Michael.  Stop.  We need to dress those burns,” she said wincing at my pain.
I started crawling towards the bed and sat myself up on top of it.  Viviane went into the bathroom with a bowl from the kitchen and came back out with some water.  She laid my legs down and soaked them with water by taking a rag and wringing it out above the burns.  My legs immediately felt better.  After they felt sufficient enough Viviane took some bandage from the medical kit and wrapped it around my legs on the burns.
“There.  Done.  Try walking.”
I got up and winced once.  After that the pain was bearable.  I started walking around the basement until my legs felt normal and not gelatin like.
“Thanks Viviane.”
“Don’t mention it,” she said in a cute girl way.
I started walking up the stairs and Viviane followed.  I opened the door just a crack to check the outside.  It was clear blue outside and barely a cloud in the sky.  All of this was complemented by the destruction on the ground.  This confused me because usually when asteroids hit the Earth’s atmospheric temperature rises to levels in which blue doesn’t show.  Even though, I went back inside and started packing right away.  I took the medical kit, the remains of the food kit, and a backpack for each of us.  I stuffed the medical kit in my backpack along with a compass.
“So what’s the plan?” she asked me.
“We are going to stay one more night, then we are going to leave and find the source of that Asteroid.”
“Whatever.”
“I love the enthusiasm,” I say sarcastically.
“Do you really expect me to be enthusiastic about going to a death zone?”
“Not really. But you could be a little optimistic.”
“How?” she questioned.
“I don't know...”
I decided that I'd pack my food in the morning. I walked over and sat on the couch. Viviane took a seat next to me. I looked at her and she looked at me. I suddenly felt myself blush. Even through the dirt and ash on her I could see beauty. I shook my head and looked down even more embarrassed.
“What's wrong?” she asked completely clueless.
I thought she had a clue though so I just stayed silent.
“So do you think we are the only ones alive here in America?” she asked
“Nope,” I said still looking down. “There is bound to be people alive even after the huge gas cloud.”
“How?”
“Same situation as us, or maybe a bit better if they were a huge political figure like the president.”
“That makes sense,” she replied thoughtfully.
She looked back at me and we stared at each other for a little bit.
“I need to take a shower...” It was a complete fail after staring at a girl, but I remembered that I hadn't showered in days.
“Me too,” she replied blushing.
“Would you like to shower first?” I asked in the most gentleman tone I could.
“Yes please,” she caught on and did a little curtsy at me.
I sat back down on the couch as Viviane went in the bathroom and took a shower. After a couple minutes I heard the water stop. Soon after the door opened and I turned around. I was greeted by the sight of Viviane wrapped in a towel. I turned back around as quick as I could.
“Want some clean clothes I guess?” I asked completely embarrassed.
“That would be great,” I could tell she was embarrassed too.
I pointed to the door that led into the closet.
“Thanks,” she whispered as I heard her hurry into the closet.
I quickly got up and walked into the bathroom. I stripped down out of all my clothes, and got into the shower. I turned on the shower to immediately get hit in the face by freezing water. I jumped up and quickly turned the handle to hot. After I got the temperature just right I had a nice long shower. I got out once I was done and I looked in the mirror. I was steaming.
“Hey. Your hot,” I made a little joke. I heard some laughter outside so I quickly wrapped a towel around me and opened the door. Viviane fell backwards, but I caught her in time.
“Way to stay right up close to the door,” I said smoothly.
“I... I...” she stuttered.
I walked into the closet, shut the door, and turned on the light.
I was greeted by a vast amount of clothes. It was a guy's nightmare. I just pulled something off of each rack. After all of it I ended up putting on a white under shirt, a blue and white button up, some khaki shorts, some socks, and some undies. I also saw some new Nike Shox so I took those to replace my old battered Adidas. I took a watch from a dresser. Gold and crystal were very present all over the watch. According to the watch it was 6:30 p.m. I took the towel and walked out of the closet to find Viviane waiting for me on the couch. I threw the towel in the bathroom and walked up to Viviane. She stared me down for a minute.
“You look...” she trailed off
“No I don't.”
“Yes you do.”
She kept staring. So I stared back.
“You look better,” I said after a second.
“No I don't. “
“Yes you do.”
She blushed and I sat down next to her. She was wearing a blue t-shirt, tight jeans, blue sneakers, and some black ankle socks. She also had a bracelet on her left wrist that I hadn't noticed before. It had black and blue stripes going all around it, and it had yellow letters that said, “Persevere.”
“Where did you get that bracelet?” I asked as I looked it over.
“I made it during my freshman year of college,” she said as she looked at it. “I use it as a sort of reminder when things get tough to just keep going.”
“That's nice.”
“Thanks.”
We sat for a minute just thinking in the silence.
“How about a movie for our last night in this shelter?” I asked.
“That sounds great. How about a romance?”
“Um... alright then.” I got up and looked through the rack of movies to find nothing even close to the genre but those weird Twilight movies. The people that lived here must have had daughters.
I reluctantly held up the first Twilight movie. Viviane clapped her hands together and said, “Yes! I love that movie!” I even more reluctantly took the disc out and put it in the DVD player. I pressed play and it went to the title screen. I pressed play again and it started. I threw the case down and took my seat next to Viviane.
The next couple minutes went very close to the storybook line as Viviane scooted closer to me the more the movie progressed until she was almost on top of me. I got a little bit uncomfortable so I shifted away a bit but she followed. I just decided to pay attention to the movie.
At the moment Edward was telling Bella to say it. To say what he really was. I ran my head through all the things she could have said like gay, a homosexual, a fatty, a mermaid for crying out loud! But no... Edward ended up being a vampire and Bella was stupid enough to fall for him... an old freak that had lived for longer than he should have.
After that scene I looked over at Viviane who was looking at me.
“What are you doing?” I asked a bit surprised.
“Seeing if you have vampire qualities.”
“That's just weird.”
“Not really,” she said while looking me over. “You are strong, good looking...”
“No I'm not.”
“Yes you are so stop interrupting. You also are a little pale.”
“That's because we've been in a basement for about a week.”
“Still... you look like a vampire.”
I got up and walked over to the bed. I got in the bed and shut my eyes.
After a minute I heard the TV turn off and the light switch flip. A quick look at my watch told me it was 7:30. I was planning on getting up early anyway so I decided to go ahead and sleep.
“Goodnight Michael,” I heard in a sort of sad tone.
“Goodnight Viviane.” I replied back in a whisper.
I started to breathe heavier. Tomorrow we would start on our journey. Our journey to find this asteroid that had impacted the Western Hemisphere. Was this the beginning of the Post-Apocalyptic era? I started to throw thoughts around in my mind until I finally drifted into my first night of good dreams.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 29.06.2010

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To all of the people who helped me through writting this, I extend a large thank you.