By: Megan Finsel
18 Long Meadow Rd.
12:35pm Monday, 2014
I was terrified to die, but the day I did I was surprisingly calm. It was an average day; I took the kettle off the stove, called my mother, lit a cigarette. But I was putting the wash on the line when I saw it coming toward us from high in the sky.
My cell phone rang. I answered.
“Do you see it?” My husband demanded in a panic.
I nodded, although he couldn’t see. “Yeah.”
“This is it, Vikki, this is it.”
I swallowed. Yeah.
“Where are you?”
“I’m in the backyard.”
It was hurtling through the mid-summer clouds; a bird, a rocket, a nightmare.
“Vikki?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
He was at the office; he wouldn’t make it home in time. This was goodbye. I exhaled a cloud of smoke and, briefly, the sky was hidden from me.
“I love you too.”
Those were my last words.
#
16 Long Meadow Rd.
12:36pm Monday, 2014
It’s finally happening, he thought, grabbing cans off the pantry shelves and dumping them into a laundry basket. “Lizzie, get my gun. Philip, grab as many blankets as you can.”
The TV on the counter was shouting the newsreel. The four-year-old came down the hallway, dragging a teddy bear. He quickly picked her up and hugged her tight. “Come on everyone, into the bunker.”
“Is this another drill, Dad?” Philip asked from behind an armload of blankets.
“No, this is real.”
They ran outside, across the backyard to the bunker. They called me crazy for building this. Now look whose laughing, he thought, ushering his family inside. Maybe it wasn’t zombies like he predicted, but at least his efforts weren’t a complete waste.
He glanced at the sky and saw it burning the clouds, coming right for them. He shut the door and bolted it securely.
#
14 Long Meadow Rd.
12:37pm Monday, 2014
“Don’t leave me!”
“I have to get out there…”
“There’s nothing you can do, Arthur please stay with me!”
His fingers slipped through hers as he ran for the door. She lunged to catch his arm but he was too fast. Flinging the door open, she stumbled out into the hazy light. The sky was on fire, the air crackled, the cul-de-sac was rippling in heat waves.
He stopped in the yard and turned to look back at her.
“Arthur!”
It was upon them.
#
12 Long Meadow Rd.
12:38pm Monday, 2014
He burst through the front door, his tie crooked and his shirt rumpled. He’d left work in a hurry. She met him in the foyer and flung her arms around his neck.
“Hurry, downstairs. Into the basement.” he said. She followed without a word, clinging to him. The cat ran by between their legs; he scooped it up, tucking it under his arm.
They rushed downstairs as the rumbling got louder and it got closer and they could hear the china rattling in the cabinet. This is it, he thought, this is what we’ve all been waiting for… They hadn’t gotten down the stairs when the world exploded around them.
She screamed and hugged him tight.
The cat hid between them.
He buried his face in his wife’s shoulder and shut his eyes.
But there was no other place he would rather die.
#
10 Long Meadow Rd.
12:39pm Monday, 2014
She sat in her rocking chair watching through the bedroom window as the clouds caught on fire. The ceiling cracked and the walls shuddered. She knew it was all over the news and people were panicking.
Would anything be left? She thought about her neighbors; Vikki and her husband, the single father and his three little kids, Arthur and his wife, and the newlywed couple who just moved in next door. So young, they are all so young.
She felt ready to die, but their lives had barely begun. She had lived her life, but they had so much more to come. Such a pity, she thought, such a shame.
There was a bright flash of light. She closed her eyes. The Earth convulsed as it struck, the world went dark………………..… and that was how it ended.
Bio: I’m a Special Education major with a love for books. Writing is my passion; it is how I connect with the world and share my thoughts and emotions. To get to know me more you need to read my stories because I put a piece of my heart into each one. My goal is to inspire at least one person through my work; then I know I’ve done my job.