Doomsday Diary

It was 2090, no one had seen a living animal in over 3 years, and for good reason, and Adina Rushton was buried under the rubble. She was confused at first, then shot up searching for the locket given to her by her grandmother. Terrified by the thought of losing it amongst the rubble. She uncovered herself from the boulder sitting on top of her. There were cuts all over her legs. She squinted around, trying to see where she was, and if the locket was buried with her. It was, and she opened it to see her grandma. She smiled slightly, wiped her tears, and got up.

She saw an old sign that said, “232 Seventh Street,” immediately she knew where the lake was and how long it would take for her to get there, she ran East, toward Clinton Boulevard.

Eventually she got tired and decided to take a nap. She propped up a branch on a tree and put some leaves over it. As she woke up she checked her watch, it had run out of batteries. She took a moment to get up, then, after making sure the locket was still with her, she put it in her pocket, as to not be recognized, and headed East once more.

After a while, she saw an old public restroom, it was hard to distinguish what it was, being covered in so much graffiti. She was about to pass it when she had the thought to get some water for the road. The fluorescent lights flickered on as she squinted. As she walked in the room she saw her reflection and got frightened, thinking it was another person. Then she remembered she dyed her hair from a natural red to a deep brown.

She had almost made it to the lake when she saw someone following her. She kept glancing back making sure they didn’t get too close. The figure yelled in a raspy voice, “Hey! Hey! Kid, get back here!” She was about to start running when she saw a familiar streak of red fall out of the hood the figure was wearing.

She tried to figure out if the figure was her aunt or her grandma. She decided the hair was too short to be either, and ran toward the figure with open arms. “Mom,” she shouted while hugging the figure.

“I- I thought you were dead!”

“That old hag, getting me? No way, kiddo.”

“And what about cancer, you can’t get a proper hospital or treatment these days”

“Cancer’s catching up on me, but not quite yet. And, hey, kiddo, I’m real sorry about leaving you, you know I had to.”

“Don’t dare worry about me, mom.”

“So where you going anyway?”

“Finishing your work, the lake is just East of here.”

“I’ll come with you, it’s my work in the first place.”

As they headed East they found a run-down store, at the sight of possible food their stomachs growled, so they went in, not knowing the danger they had just avoided.

There wasn’t much to eat in the store, but they did find a box of off-brand cheerios and began eating. After an hour or so of eating and catching up, they headed towards the lake once more. Just in time for the danger to head to the store, just missing them.

They walked by what seemed to be a mini roller coaster. Adina said, “Why not mom, you’ve got to enjoy the little things.” So they went once, twice, and by the time they were done, it was sunset. They decided to do shifts of who was sleeping, and was standing guard. First it was Adina, nothing unusual happened on her shift, however she did get scared by a squirrel. Then it was her mom, she got startled by the squirrel as well, relaxed again, then shot up, waking Adina and starting toward the lake again.

They finally made it to the lake, as they walked on the bridge Adina’s heart stopped. Then she realized she put the locket in her bag, and smiled. “Ready,” she asked her mom.

“Ready,” her mom confirmed.

Adina put the locket with her grandmother’s picture into the diary she held and kept hidden, then threw them into the burning lake, just as England’s empire burnt to the ground, and a new queen, her grandmother arose, soon to cut all personal ties and kill all wrongdoers. The two girls looked at each other, looked down at the fire, and smiled, not a happy smile, a mischievous smirk. And when the diary touched the first flame, the world as they knew it disappeared.