The Last Flower on Earth

The World Ended in One Hour

Humanity began frantically planning for the worst-case scenario, the diagrams said that it could cause planetary extinction in under an hour.

All Imerian forces on Earth have disappeared, leaving only death and destruction in their wake, humanity sighed collectively assuming we had won in some strange way.

But the looming dread of something much worse was approaching.

News about the S.C.S.S had gotten viral, as photographs had proven it was real.

Bunkers were being sprung up all around for the doomsday situations. The local authorities made bunkers that could withstand such a weapon, everybody who was important got first dibs at survival.

My mother and I packed everything we needed, everything important to us, like a family photo, which was the last memories of my dad and my older brother I had, who are both no longer with us.

Mom slipped it into her bag.

We drove to the closest bunker, but people were already making a sardine can look loosely packed as they tried to push down the barricade.

Floodlights shone down on the mass as the officials started calling names of the people they deemed important, those who could be useful in the greater survival of humanity. I had a gut feeling that we weren't going to be called.

Families screamed and shouted as names that weren't their own echoed through Public Announcement systems. The shouts as my mother joined in, people shouting "What about the children!"

The barricade got pushed down and low-strength tear gas was thrown over the crowd. Mom took off her scarf and wrapped it around my face, she said one last thing to me.

I remember it as clear as day.

"Survive Connor! Survive!" She collapsed to the ground coughing as the gas entered her lungs, the enforcers ran out as the wind carried the gas off. They saw me still standing with the scarf allowing me to breathe a little easier. They pull me over the collapsed barricade where people are bleeding on the ground as the rubber bullets crack through the air toward those still standing.

Sirens began wailing as the sky turns black as night.

It was real.

The largest centrepiece, which was aimed very far from me, was beginning to form an orb of light. People screamed at the sight, but I broke the enforcer's grips and began running to the bunker.

The voices grew silent as everything shook, the S.C.S.S was altering gravity during its charge. Buildings began cracking under the changing pressure.

Strangers out front of the bunker were shouting for me.

The smaller, outer satellites grew lights as well, like a symmetrical night sky. Those smaller lights moved slowly towards the center.

Everything was silent as all the lights joined together and began slowly descending from the heavens like a timer, ticking down to the end of days.

People who still had the strength to began running behind me, the guards opened fire with nonlethal rounds. Many collapsed in pain, tears being the only thing I could smell as those on the ground recognize that they had just died, and their bodies didn't know it yet.

The light disappeared beyond the horizon.

As I was pulled onto the lift the world seemed to freeze as a black abyss began consuming everything in the distance, endlessly expanding out.

People began crawling and screaming for us to save them, but I stayed silent as we slowly lowered.

I turn to see the darkness growing closer, it burns everything it touches as the trees it encroaches on turn into ash. I can only imagine how all those people are going to be. We couldn't save them, if we did then food would be a problem, and we'd all die.

And I only had one goal anyways.

The solid steel roof closes us off from the surface, but it doesn't block the noise of all those above us screaming. It shakes for a couple of seconds, and then, only the sound of the lift can be heard. It is completely silent.