Have you ever wondered how the world would end? Ever since the Earth survived the last predicted apocalypse in 2012 people have been wondering what’s next. This book is a collection of short stories from some new authors giving you a fictional glimpse of what the end of the world will look like. Everything from a Red Giant Sun on its way to engulf the Earth to global warming, these stories will blow you away, literally.
Here’s a couple excerpts to wet your apocalyptic appetite:
Dried Out, Shannon Pelky
Day 1:
I found this notebook today. I shouldn’t have taken it, but they would have trashed it anyway. It was never used, so I just felt bad for it. I know what it’s like to feel useless, so in a snap decision I shoved it into my pack when I was alone. I don’t know what to do with it now, and so far this is all I’ve got, but I’m sure I will figure something out.
Day 2:
I’ve thought about it and I’ve decided to use this to tell my story. It’s not long, and it not very interesting, but it’s not for anyone else. It’s for me. I’m lonely, and I’ve been lonely for a long time. We don’t talk about that here. Life’s a blessing, so if you complain you’re ungrateful. I just need to talk to somebody, or something in this case, that won’t judge for what I say or use it against me.
I’m dying, but so is everyone else. The Sun is expanding just as Scientists predicted billions of years ago. They’ve explained that the Sun is turning into a Red Giant, which has raised the temperature throughout Earth to at least 110°F everyday with high humidity. The water has been slowly drying out over time, so our leaders had to ration it out before the all of the natural water was gone. Now every drop is artificial. Almost everything in our lives is artificially grown simply to allow us to survive. They reserve a certain amount of water for humans, another portion for animals, and the rest goes to plants. They’re just prolonging our lives. We would have all died off if people would just let nature take its course, but as human we refuse to give up. So somehow I was born into a family of survivors, and that why I’m here today.
Day 3:
I hate my job, so it makes it difficult to get up in the morning. I clear out houses, which I try to hide from people but I see the looks neighbors give me, and I can tell they know. They’ve all got too much pride, or morals as they say, to deal with dead bodies. They call us “zombies”, because we’re dead in their eyes. People just ignore us, and let us do the work they don’t want to think about. The bodies are not often in best shapes at death, and they don’t always die of natural causes. I’m used to it now so it takes a lot more to phase me. The one thing that really disturbs them more then anything is what we do with the bodies. I won’t go into detail but we don’t waste anything that we find. We either sell what we find for water and food tokens, or keep it for our own survival. Some say that what we do is savage, but we don’t go hungry or thirsty. We survive. I think it takes guts to fight for survival and I respect anyone who tries. Some give up a lot easier then others, but it keeps us in business so I guess I can’t complain. I’d like know what would happen if we weren’t around. I don’t know who would take over. I wonder what would happen if people could just raid houses with no code or order. Now that’s what I see when I picture something savage, and it’s not a pretty side of what mankind is capable of.
Where will you be?, Colin Marklowitz
Thanking Cheryl and wishing her a good morning as well, I went into my office, stack of notes in hand and looked around. The place was meticulous as usual, the bookshelves along the east wall dusted and neat. The framed degrees and awards all hung straight and the glass spotless. The window that overlooked the park was clean and free of streaks or smudges and the stack of papers that Cheryl had promised sat on my desk like a mountain waiting to be climbed. Setting down my things, I settled in at my desk, turning on the computer while starting to take a look at the notes I had been handed. As I leaned back, flipping through the notes, I felt more than heard an earth shattering roar, ripping through the depths of the earth up into the core of my being, a feeling and sound that I cannot even describe adequately, as my body was seemingly a lightning rod for all the power the earth could muster as gravity temporarily inversed itself.
I flew straight out of my chair, and if not for the high ceilings in my office would have surely died on impact with the ceiling. It felt like I was floating, like an astronaut in zero gravity, just hanging out in my office as all my possessions floated around me. What felt like hours turned out to be merely seconds, as I came crashing back down, my desk and chair and books and computer and papers and bookshelves and pictures crashing down all around me, turning my once pristine office into a scrap heap.
I struggled to get to my feet, amazed that I was still conscious. Stumbling out of my office, the rest of the floor was in considerable shambles. Bodies lay everywhere, printers and computers in considerable damage all over the place. Paper was still floating down around the carnage, like a grotesque snowfall covering the wreckage underneath. No one was moving and everything was hauntingly silent. As I surveyed the scene, fear washed over me and every hair on my body was standing at attention.
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