Chapter 2
Rich
Carson closed and locked the front door of his home, his roommate Brain had
stormed off to his room after the argument and Karen was lying in bed still crying
under the sheets because of the stress of the heated exchange between Rich and
Brian. Rich knew that she hated the
anger that keep rearing its ugly head in the house. All the anger weather they wanted to admit it
or not was due to the money problems they now faced since she was diagnosed
with a severe case of crohn’s disease.
They could not get any help from the assistance office and her
medication was over $700 a bottle. Rich
knew she blamed herself for their financial woes, but Rich could never and
would never blame her for something that was so far out of their control.
He
loved Karen and felt her frustration and fear over her health problems. As rich entered the kitchen he instinctively
reached for the kitchen light then realized they had no electricity. It had been shut off last week due to
nonpayment. Rich could also not be mad
at Brian. Brian had been there many
times when Rich and Karen had really needed him and he planned to make things
right between him and his best friend in the morning, but for right now all he
wanted to do was lock up and slip beneath the cool sheets and hold Karen. She had been so unhappy since the
diagnosis. She had almost died do to malnutrition
and anemia because of the ferocity of the disease that had almost destroyed her
intestines before it had finally been diagnosed by a specialist in the
field. Even with the medication that was
putting the two of them in the poorhouse Karen still had many problems with the
disease. She could barely eat and spent
a lot of time in the bathroom evacuating her diseased bowels.
Rich
just wanted things to get better, for Karen to get better, but he knew deep
down that could never happen. He had to
quit his job so he could take care of her which had become a full time effort to
keep her out of the hospital; they were living on savings in hopes that they
could get Karen SSI to help pay for her large medical bills. There were so many foods that she could not
eat just keeping her fed had become a war between him and the grocery mart
pricing. Rich felt as though the world
had him against a wall and there was no escape, what was worse Karen felt the
entire thing was her fault and it filled Rich with grief that he could not find
something to bring her out of that depression.
He opened
the fridge which now had a melting bag of ice as its only cooling system and
pulled out an off brand soda. As he
opened it the generic taste was only good to remind him of their present
financial situation. He took a few sips
and poured the rest down the sink. Rich
looked through the window over the sink at the bright full moon. For a moment he took notice of the object
directly below the moon but mistook it for a low flying plane as he was too
tired from the argument to really look at it.
As Rich
finally lay down beside his wife he felt safe from the world and as he drifted
off to sleep he was spared the thoughts that plagued him during the day. In this bed he was safe. With his wife he was happy.
A great
loud noise brought all the occupants of the small house at the end of the block
out of their slumber and to full attention in time for another successive round
of loud bangs and rumblings that shook the house to the very foundation. The first thought through their heads was an
earthquake and they all almost ran into each other groping in the dark for the
bathroom. Then all the sudden the house
lurched again and they all thought it would come down before they realized they
could all now see each other. It was as
if the sky had lit up all the sudden and daylight now spilled in through the
windows. But this light was orange and
red. It flickered with the all too recognizable familiarity of fire. When things finally quieted down for a moment
the three occupants of the small house at the end of the block looked at each
other and the fear was evident in all their eyes. Without a word to one another they rushed to
the window thinking there had been a huge car or plane crash outside their
home.
They
were all unprepared for the sight they would see as they slowly drew back the
curtains and revealed the scene before them.
It took them a moment to take it all in.
Even as it was displayed before them the horror of what they saw took a
few more minutes to sink in.
Rich
was already turning the knob to the door with Brian in close pursuit before
Karen could even say anything to stop the pair they had disappeared. Karen turned back to the window horrified as
the two men rushed to the front lawn trying to see if there were any survivors
to the horror that had been introduced to the tranquil little suburban
neighborhood. Karen was in shock, there
were no longer any houses outside, the homes were just smoldering piles of
rubble and burning wood. Grotesquely
burned bodies littered the scene splayed out in different degrees of undress.
Plumes of smoke rippled through the devastated neighborhood hanging close to
the ground. It was as if the hand of god
had come and smite the quiet with fire.
Karen knew Rich and Brian all too well and no
matter the danger to themselves they would rush to the aid of anyone they
could, but the two men just stood on the front lawn amidst the smoke and ash
permeating the air staring at the sky.
It was a few minutes before Karen gained the courage to finally move
from the window to the door. She looked
bewildered at the two men on the front lawn staring at the sky. Then she looked
up and what she saw knocked her to her knees.
There in the sky now three times the size of the moon there looked to be
a huge planet and it was getting bigger.
Karen
rushed to her husband’s side terrified to be even a few feet from him. They all joined their gaze staring at the new
decoration to the night sky. The smoke
was low enough to the ground for a clear view of the moon or planet that had now
wandered into the interstellar path of our own planet. It was almost ten
minutes in the choking smoke before any of them could speak. Karen broke the silence first.
“What
is that?” She said tightly gripping
Rich’s hand.
“I
don’t know but it’s getting bigger.” Rich said
“Will
it hit us?” Karen said pressing her body
against Rich for comfort.
“I
don’t know.” He said putting his arms
around his wife to comfort her.
Brain
had remained silent through the brief conversation and after a few minutes of
silence he spoke. “I’ve heard about this but it was all just conspiracy
theories. That is the planet Nibiru or better known as Planet X. With something like that in the sky this
whole planet is going to go to hell very quickly, that is probably what did all
this.”
“Why
weren’t we blown up to?” Rich said
staring at the heavenly body.
“It
must have messed with the power in houses and caused a buildup, it would be
like a chain reaction through the whole neighborhood but since our power was
out and were are decently separated from the rest of the other houses we didn’t
get hit.”
“Lucky
break I guess.” Said Rich and Karen in
unison to Brian’s theory.
Karen
looked at the two men who could easily pass for brothers, normally so strong
they looked like lost children searching for their mom in the mall. “What do we do now?” She said renewing her hold on her husband’s
hand.
Brain
turned to Karen and looked at her for a moment.
Karen could see a quick sign of sorrow cross his face before he
answered. “Survive.”
Oh dear
reader the irony is so sweet, like a finely aged wine. I myself find it incredible that there is
some truth to the old bible saying “The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth.”
All
across the globe the proximity of the arrival of the dwarf planet Nibiru had
triggered massive electromagnetic feedback in power grids and homes instantly
turning millions of houses into bombs.
The entire globe rocked with the gravitational pull between the two
planets and power was cut instantly worldwide. The temperature would then drop
worldwide. The tectonic plates began to
shift and the oceans swelled with the new satellite that would eventually catch
itself in orbit around planet earth. We
could say the planet was very lucky that Nibiru had not collided with the moon
hastening the demise of earth, but as a devil’s advocate would state. “It would have been better for the planet to
die quickly for now it is doomed to deteriorate slowly causing unknown
suffering among the surviving masses.
In the
following days scientists would surmise that the planet would only be caught in
orbit around the earth for a period of seven years then Nibiru would slingshot
out of orbit and continue out of the solar system, but during the period in the
center of this event the earth would undergo traumatic and devastating changes
that would most likely bring the human civilization to the brink of
extinction. The gravitational forces
would continue to increase and the clashing of the two electromagnetic shields
of the planets would make the use or creation of electronic devices impossible.
Many
conspiracy theorists began to circulate newsletters that this was the end days
and they would turn from bloggers with the loss of their electronic devices to
old world doom Sayers spreading yet more fear and chaos to the crippled
Earth. Many religious leaders would gain
mass numbers of followers preaching that this event was the tribulation and
would be followed by the return of Christ while alien enthusiasts were convinced
that the fabled Annunaki of the Sumerians would return to re-enslave mankind.
My dear
reader it is a continuing irony to state that 90% of the survivors of this
upheaval were the poor and downtrodden that we as a society have ignored. At the crucial hour all our technology had
turned on us killing us without mercy.
Lucky were those without power and without modern technology. The unlucky were consigned to being burned,
electrocuted and blown apart by the very technology they created to protect
them and make their lives easier.
The survivors
of the apocalypse were then divided overnight into two categories. The Clean and the Static. The static were masses of people and animals
that were adversely affected by the clashing electromagnetic fields. They had become like feral beasts attacking
anything on sight. In the first days of
the apocalypse hundreds of thousands were attacked and killed by these
creatures. The new world was bleak and
mankind was slowly dying in a new hell.
