The beginning of the end
War. Famine. Greed. The very things that change people. Sometimes for the best, sometimes not.
I'll never forget that day. 19th September, 2085. I awoke, screaming at the terrors that haunted my dreams as a 6 year old. I remember rising out of bed and standing at my door. I pressed my thumb to the keypad beside the door and it slowly opened. I remembering clambering down the stairs, one step at a time.
I could hear the TeCom blasting the nationwide news channel, NWNS. The quality of the sound was terrible. The signal must have been knocked, was my original thought. I could hear my parents talking in low voices. Mum was crying.
I remember bursting through the electronic door to find my parents in a huddle on the floor, watching NWNS on the TeCom. My eyes fell on the TeCom and I figured out exactly what was happening.
We'd been told to prepare for this day for years. The day were the World's Governor's decide which city to wipe off the global map. This wasn't unusual, just unexpected. It usually happened every few years, but we'd been led to believe it would be paused due to WW3 having just ended. This day was the Governor's way of dealing with over population. With 10 billion (and counting) people on the planet, there was no way for the world to expand. This was the only option. You never found out which city would be gone until exactly three and a half minutes before. That was the worst part.
As my chestnut eyes took in the 1 minute countdown, I crumpled to the floor beside my parents, red hot rivers flowing down my cheeks. My mum tried to smile and stroked my chestnut hair.
"It's okay, baby." She told me "We're gonna be okay."
My dad wrapped his arms around me and planted a kiss on my forehead.
"We love you, baby." He said.
"I love you too." I told them.
The 10 second alarm sounded and flooded our room with red. We all held onto each other as we heard the planes fly over head. My parents plastered on a brave face and mum mouthed:
"Always." Just as the first bomb struck home.
I was thrown into oblivion and became unaware of my surroundings as I drifted in and out of consciousness. Once I'd awoken from the dark slumber I had originally succumbed to, I knew something wasn't right. For a start, I saw no "Pearly gates" that I'd been promised, only ruins and shells of former buildings.
I pulled myself free from a large concrete slab and caught my finger on the rough, sharp edge. I brought my finger to my mouth only to stop when I noticed something odd. My blood was purple.
Scrambling to my feet, I limped to what should have been our font door.
"Mum!" I called into the silence "Dad!"
I got no response. I screamed and shouted until my throat was raw and full of pain. I collapsed to my bruised knees with a whimper and sobbed into my hands. I cried so hard, I didn't hear them coming.
Men and women in black suits approached me and lifted me off my feet and onto a stretcher. Medical personnel swarmed around me, and one lifted my hand.
"What are you doing?" I managed to rasp.
I felt a sharp prick on the tip of my index finger and drew back in pain. Before I could speak another word, a plastic mask was placed over my mouth, filled with a gas I couldn't name. My eyes felt heavy, I needed to sleep. Just before I slipped out of consciousnesses I heard one thing that played on my mind for months.
"We got one! She's a changed..."
