The police cars blaring by, the sound of loud music coming from the apartment above me, and the sweet smell of donuts from the nearby café; this is the beginning of my day, and in this case, my story.
I am Ajax, but you can call me A.J. Today is April 13, and this is just an ordinary day, at least, to me it is. It started just like any other, my junky alarm clock waking me and the whole entire building up with me. I hit the snooze button to no prevail, as my clock fell off of my bedside milk carton. If you haven't figured it out by now, I am not very wealthy. I say me and not my family because I live by myself here, in this cheap apartment. I am an only child, and my parents...well, I don't know my parents. I never have. They are gone, and honestly, I am doing just fine on my own. I bought this apartment with my own money that I received form Child Support, and I don't use much money because I can walk everywhere I need to. Anyway, let's get back to my average morning.
After I threw it on the ground a few times, my crappy alarm clock finally shut up. Now wide awake, I walked across the carpeted floor to my closet. I blindly thrusted my hand into my clothing rack and pulled out a random outfit of two shirts. "Dang it," I exclaimed, "That is the second time this week!" I dug around a little more until I finally pulled out a pair of pants that kind of matched my shirt. Too lazy to try again, I let out a disappointed "Humph" and walked to the kitchen. My stomach was angrily growling for a decent breakfast of toast and eggs, but yet again, my laziness overpowered me and I poured myself a bowl of generic brand cereal. As I shoveled the squares of wheat into my mouth, I thought about my life and what I might become. Just kidding, I'm not that mature, I am only 14. I thought about the café below me and how I would much rather be eating those delicious donuts than this soggy cereal. Their tantalizing aroma wafted through my open window and drifted around, tickling my nose and my mind with their mouth-watering scent.
To get my mind off of the donuts, I closed the open window that was letting in the smell. After I finished my bland cereal, I headed to the bathroom. I looked into my cracked mirror and saw a majorly distorted image of myself. Even via the fractured screen, it was easy to tell that my hair was a complete disaster. I fished my comb out of my cluttered drawers, and with it tamed the beast called my hair. While I was brushing my teeth, I began predicting how this day would go. I forecasted a normal day, but in reality, this day would turn out anything but. You see, this day would go down in history. For this day is the day that The Cloudburst began.
I walked out of my apartment, ready for the day to begin, and headed to work. My job is simple: hang flyers in stores and on posts. I work for an ad company, but they don't trust me with any real work because I am so young. Since I don't have a car, I began my two mile long trek to the headquarters of ADventures, my employers. It felt just like a normal day, with blue skies and the sun out shining. The sun seemed especially bright, and I paused for a moment to soak up its delightful UV rays. Soon, however, the sun became more and more a bother, as it was making this trip hot and sweaty.
I was grateful that there were not many other people out on the streets with me. Come to think of it, the streets were really bare today; almost no one was out and about.
"That is really unusual, especially for a big city like this one." I thought to myself. "People should be all over, considering the time of day it is. I know I'm not the only one who walks to work and school in the mornings." I shrugged it off as a holiday or an anniversary of something. I kept on walking, but now a little less confidently.
Right when I was about to reach my workplace, I got extremely nervous. I was strolling into the center of the city, where most of the stores are. The doors were locked, the lights were off, and there was no one to be found in any of the stores I passed. I was absolutely positive that there was no gigantic major holiday that would allow all of these stores to close this unexpectedly. I became very worried and stressed. "Did something happen? Did someone important die? I wouldn't know, because I don't have a TV set. They cost too much money for something I would only use for an hour a week.
I was too far to turn back to my apartment; I was within a block of my destination. I reached the headquarters, drenched in sweat. My racing mind had distracted me from the sweltering heat.
"Maybe there was an extreme heat warning for today and no one wanted to risk getting heatstroke." I tried to reassure myself. "Now that I stop and think about it, it is really freaking hot! It's like the sun moved a couple miles closer to Earth, and our planet just sat there and took it."
Since I was given the keys to the building, I pushed the key in the lock and turned. I heard the click of the unlocked door and swung it open. Then, I reached to pull out the key, and it snapped.
"Shoot! My boss is going to kill me! There is only one key left, and it belongs to him!" After these initial thoughts raced through my head, I stopped to wonder why the key had broken. I had a flashback to 8th grade science class, when I learned that something moving from extreme cold to extreme heat would weaken, or even break. It sure didn't feel like extreme cold out here to me, but then I touched the lock.
"Gaaaahhhhh!!!" I screamed out loud without a thought, as the metal lock felt hotter than a sauna on steroids, multiplied by a million, and placed in the fiery pits of Hell for an eternity and a half.
"That is definitely hot enough to snap that key into a billion pieces." I was in utter shock as to how hot that lock was. The skin on my finger was already starting to blister and peel.
To get relief from the still-increasing heat, I stepped inside ADventures. To my surprise, the air conditioning was off, meaning that I was the first one here. Without the air conditioning to cool me, it was as hot if not hotter than it was outside. Since I was the only one here, I decided it would be fine if I took off my tie and my outer layer jacket I wear to work.
This provided some relief from the heat, but it still was sweltering inside and outside. I rushed over to the air conditioning unit and flipped the switch that turns it on. I thought that after this turned on, I would be alright, and figure out a plan from there. To my sadness, that would not be the case, as the air coming from the vent was hot.
This made the room temperature much hotter, and it was starting to feel like a desert in here. Of course, I quickly turned the air off, but it didn't seem to do much. It was still very hot, and I was sweating more and more.
The sweating in turn made me thirsty, and that is when I realized the biggest problem I was facing: thirst. All the water in the office from the cooler, the sinks, and even the toilet was steaming hot and undrinkable. I had to find another way to get water soon, or else I was in big trouble.
After thinking about this issue and its possible solutions for a solid minute, I became even thirstier and realized the only solution was for me to go back to my apartment, and ask someone in my complex if I could come inside.
I headed outside confident and collected, but that all went down the drain in less than a second. As I opened the door, a wave of heat the size of Mt. Everest slammed into my face like a train going downhill with a broken brake. I was not ready for that heat, to say the least.
My mind stopped, the heat had overpowered it. My life flashed before my eyes. As I fell into a nearby puddle, my field of vision went black.
I woke up on a couch, in someone's living room. For a second I thought my experience was a dream, and I had a really bad dream. That was proven wrong when a mysterious girl came to the side of the couch and said, "Oh. You woke up. I found you out on the streets on my way to the library. You fainted due to heatstroke, and it looked pretty severe. I'm Delilah, by the way. Not that you asked. Anyway, my dad should be home from work soon, so..."
"Where am I?" I interrupted. "You are in my apartment, across from ADventures. You were out on the street 20 feet away from the front door of my complex. I dragged you inside my apartment, barely outlasting the heat. Oh and by the way, WHAT WERE YOU DOING OUT THERE!!!!"
"What do you mean?"
"You know, the small problem of concentrated beams of UV radiation getting blasted down from the sky."
"I didn't hear anything about that"
"Are you kidding me, it was on every one of the news stations, and all of the non-news ones too. Do you live under a rock, or are you just dumb?"
"I don't have a television."
"Do you have a radio?"
"No."
"Then how do you expect to know about things that happen in the world, like a deadly atmosphere rupture?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Okay, you really are clueless. So, some American-hating scientists were working on a new bioweapon, one that could spread across whole oceans and is deadly to humans. They tried it out on rats, and it killed them, so they released it at us across the ocean. They told all of their citizens to go inside, but some didn't, and were fine. The toxin did not kill humans. It is useless towards us. It is not completely useless, however, as it did a great job of annihilating the ozone layer. The wind helped carry it around to randomly arranged hotspots created by an abundance of the chemical. These hotspots intensified and left giant holes in the ozone layer. All of the sunlight that would have been slowed and stopped is now free to go at full force, blasting the people and the landscape with in essence, randomly placed giant lasers. The news is calling it the Cloudburst, and everyone is really scared and unknowing of what might occur. Now do you understand?"
"Yes, I think I do."
"Good, now let us think of a plan of action."
My main concern was getting cold water, but when I suggested that idea, it was quickly shot down.
"No! What is the problem with warm water? You like soup and coffee warm, right? We should find a source of cold air, or else we might pass out from heatstroke. If we do, no one will be there to rescue us and we will probably die." She protested.
After giving in to her request that was actually an order, we proceeded to go from apartment to apartment, asking if they had anything cold. Most of the times that we knocked on doors, the same thing happened: We would hear footsteps; see an eye peering through the eyehole, followed by more steps, and the door never actually opening.
However, one time, and old woman opened her door, let us in, and served us cookies. We noticed that she did not have a television. Delilah asked her if she knew anything about the sun or the ozone layer that happened recently. She responded with a no, and then offered us more cookies. I turned down her offer, and then left her quaint apartment with many thanks. In the end, we never told her that the Cloudburst had happened; we decided that she was doing fine, and we didn't want to worry her.
She was an old-fashioned kind of woman, and because of that, she didn't have much of an air conditioner, and the small vent that she had was shooting out hot air. After Delilah's plan failed, we headed back to her apartment.
On our way back up the stairs, we suddenly started to shake. I yelled, "Earthquake!!!", and dropped to the ground. After a few seconds, Delilah did the same.
Things on shelves started to fall, and the floor looked very unstable. We couldn't go outside, because of the heat, but we couldn't stay inside, because we would be crushed by the falling building. Before I could think of a solution, Delilah stood up and started sprinting away from the exit. I figured that she knew more about this apartment complex than me, and I followed her into what seemed to be a closet.
Once the door slammed behind us, Delilah started climbing up a ladder onto what I assumed was the roof. I followed her once again, but this time slower, as the trembling had intensified, and I couldn't hold on to the rungs very tightly.
By the time we reached the roof, the building was more or less in a heap on the ground, just a pile of bricks. I looked out at the city line below me, and to my surprise, saw many other buildings like ours, just in a pile of building materials on the ground.
Surprisingly, the buildings weren't the most alarming things in my field of view. The ground looked much scarier. The asphalt roads were slowly melting, along with the concrete sidewalks. The little amount of grass and trees were all on fire. The scenery looked like it was hit by a giant laser. Well, actually, it was hit by a giant laser.
After my brain got past the initial shock of all of this, it stopped for a moment to care about the heat. Immediately after I noticed the heat, I wished I didn't. It had to be at least 200 degrees Fahrenheit, although I wouldn't know, because I have never felt that hot before.
I saw Delilah stand up and jump over the edge of the building. On her way down, she grew wings and started flying away. I stood in shock, and then shook my head to make sure this was reality.
When I started seeing straight again, Delilah was standing there normally. She could tell by my surprised face that I had a hallucination. She told me to lie on the floor, as heat rises and it would be cooler towards the ground.
Immediately, it did not make much of a difference, but after a while, I felt my body temperature slowly lowering. I waited until my head was clearer and less melty, and then stood up again.
The surrounding landscape started to look less like a city and more like a wasteland, with no one outside, and all of the buildings collapsed or collapsing. I think at this point, my brain still hadn't fully registered what had happened.
I was thinking differently, like it was all a dream that I would wake up from shortly. However, the heat and everything else disagreed with me. My world was melting in front of me, and all I had left was this girl, who I just met a few minutes ago.
¨
After we both refocused and took in the world, we slowly descended the pile of rubble we were standing on. Sadly, no one was there with us. From what we could tell, we were the only survivors. This disaster had already claimed over 100 lives, if everyone in the complex we had come from had died. This disaster had claimed hundreds of lives, and it had only been in effect for a few hours.
Now that we knew we weren't getting any new accomplices on our journey, we sat down and came up with a plan.
"Now what?" I asked Delilah.
"I don't know." She responded, "Although my dad works an early shift and is supposed to be home in a few minutes. I want to wait for him, although I don't think he will leave his work, considering the Cloudburst and all."
"I say we leave. If we stay here for much longer, we might pass out. Besides, if we are in a hotspot, we will definitely find someplace colder." I responded.
"Fine."
She gave in to my request, and we set off on our journey. It happened to be about 8 in the morning, so it wasn't as hot as it was going to be today. Delilah said that we should wait until at least 10 P.M., so it wouldn't be so hot. I thought that we would never make it that long without food, water, or shelter.
She demanded and argued for a while until I finally gave in and used her idea.
Now that we had a plan, all we had to do was execute it. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done. We found ourselves a large gap between the big blocks of rubble left of her apartment. After she finished lecturing me about how her idea was so much better than mine, and how this will turn out perfectly, she promptly fell asleep.
I was alone in this wasteland of a world, with no one to talk to or interact with. After a while, I too closed my eyes and slowly travelled to the welcoming region of deep and silent sleep.
I woke up what felt like an eternity later, to the sound of earth turning over and rocks sliding and melting. I had never known this sound before, and never would I have imagined hearing it.
The rocks on the bottom of the pile were slowly melting, taking the higher rocks lower and lower, until gravity caught up with them and they fell. For my whole life, I had never been a light sleeper. This day changed that. The sound was quiet but disturbing, like a whistling wind in the middle of a summer day.
I sprung up from my sleeping rock, and jumped off of the pile. My first reflex was to run away screaming, but then I realized that Delilah was still sleeping. My morals were killing me, I had to save her, but I might die trying.
I figured that she is the only reason I'm still alive, so I dove at the rocks to try and save her life. I scooped her up in my arms, and sprang away with all of my strength. My arm scraped against one of the rocks on my way out, and I came out bleeding.
I landed on my back very ungracefully, and slid across the half-melted concrete, with Delilah safely in my arms. She was much lighter than I had thought. In the moment, it was like she weighed nothing at all. She leaped out of my arms immediately, and ran away very startled.
After she stopped running, she walked back to me and asked what happened. I told her what happened, and then started to feel hotter and hotter. There was nothing I could do about the surroundings fading in front of me, and I fell into a world of darkness for the second time today. This time however, was different. Instead of waking up later, my mind started to fog.
Swirls and stars crowded my field of view, and I didn't want it to stop.
"This world is much better than where I came from." I thought to myself.
My perfect world was interrupted with Delilah's stern voice.
"Get up, get up, get up!!!"
I rocketed up from my laid down state, and snapped myself out of my vision. Just a look at her let me know exactly what she was feeling. I needed to keep myself together for the rest of the day, or else she would lose it.
"We can't stay here. We need to leave. We need to find out if we are in a hotspot, or if we are in the cold area." I said.
"But my dad..." She said nervously, "He will be home soon."
"There is no other option." I responded solemnly.
She didn't respond, and I knew why.
Then we left, on our journey out of here. Delilah stood up, shook herself off, and started to talk.
"We should go down Central Street; that is the fastest way out of the city."
I agreed, and we set off.
I was absolutely drenched in sweat at this point, and needed water immediately. We stopped at a closed down gas station, pried open the melting door, and snagged a case of generic brand water, which was way too hot to drink.
Even though no one in their right mind would drink this water, I chugged the whole bottle involuntarily, and my throat started to burn when I finished it. While we were there, I figured it wouldn't hurt to grab a backpack to fill with water bottles and other survival supplies.
After we finished stockpiling, I put Delilah in charge of carrying our supplies, as I had already passed out twice. She reluctantly agreed, and now we were finally ready to leave this place.
We casually strolled out of the building, and headed down Central Street to our way out of here. I never had really fully appreciated the size of this city until now, when I was walking down it. On our way there, we saw a group of rioters. They were breaking windows and doors, to get free merchandise from the shops. It was clear that they were overexerting themselves, and I saw a few of them on the ground to prove it.
